initial commit of ebook 8605HEADmain

15 files changed, 88966 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/8605-8.txt b/8605-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..25d3fa6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/8605-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,14655 @@
+Project Gutenberg's Unitarianism in America, by George Willis Cooke
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Unitarianism in America
+
+Author: George Willis Cooke
+
+Posting Date: April 5, 2014 [EBook #8605]
+Release Date: August, 2005
+First Posted: July 28, 2003
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNITARIANISM IN AMERICA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Starner, Christopher Lund, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+UNITARIANISM IN AMERICA
+A History of its Origin and Development
+
+
+BY
+
+
+GEORGE WILLIS COOKE
+
+MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, AMERICAN ASSOCIATION
+FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, AMERICAN ACADEMY OF
+POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCE, ETC.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The aim I have had in view in writing this book has been to give a history
+of the origin of Unitarianism in the United States, how it has organized
+itself, and what it has accomplished. It seemed desirable to deal more
+fully than has been done hitherto with the obscure beginnings of the
+Unitarian movement in New England; but limits of space have made it
+impossible to treat this phase of the subject in other than a cursory
+manner. It deserves an exhaustive treatment, which will amply repay the
+necessary labor to this end. The theological controversies that led to the
+separation of the Unitarians from the older Congregational body have been
+only briefly alluded to, the design of my work not requiring an ampler
+treatment. It was not thought best to cover the ground so ably traversed by
+Rev. George E. Ellis, in his Half-century of the Unitarian Controversy;
+Rev. Joseph Henry Allen, in his Our Liberal Movement in Theology; Rev.
+William Channing Gannett, in his Memoir of Dr. Ezra Stiles Gannett; and by
+Rev. John White Chadwick, in his Old and New Unitarian Beliefs. The attempt
+here made has been to supplement these works, and to treat of the practical
+side of Unitarianism,--its organizations, charities, philanthropies, and
+reforms.
+
+With the theological problems involved in the history of Unitarianism this
+volume deals only so far as they have affected its general development. I
+have endeavored to treat of them fairly and without prejudice, to state the
+position of each side to the various controversies in the words of those
+who have accepted its point of view, and to judge of them as phases of a
+larger religious growth. I have not thought it wise to attempt anything
+approaching an exhaustive treatment of the controversies produced by the
+transcendental movement and by "the Western issue." If they are to be dealt
+with in the true spirit of the historical method, it must be at a period
+more remote from these discussions than that of one who participated in
+them, however slightly. I have endeavored to treat of all phases of
+Unitarianism without reference to local interests and without sectional
+preferences. If my book does not indicate such regard to what is national
+rather than to what is provincial, as some of my readers may desire, it is
+due to inability to secure information that would have given a broader
+character to my treatment of the subject.
+
+The present work may appear to some of its readers to have been written in
+a sectarian spirit, with a purpose to magnify the excellences of
+Unitarianism, and to ignore its limitations. Such has not been the purpose
+I have kept before me; but, rather, my aim has been to present the facts
+candidly and justly, and to treat of them from the standpoint of a student
+of the religious evolution of mankind. Unitarianism in this country
+presents an attempt to bring religion into harmony with philosophy and
+science, and to reconcile Christianity with the modern spirit. Its effort
+in this direction is one that deserves careful consideration, especially in
+view of the unity and harmony it has developed in the body of believers who
+accept its teachings. The Unitarian body is a small one, but it has a
+history of great significance with reference to the future development of
+Christianity.
+
+The names of those who accept Unitarianism have not been given in this book
+in any boastful spirit. A faith that is often spoken against may justify
+itself by what it has accomplished, and its best fruits are the men and
+women who have lived in the spirit of its teachings. In presenting the
+names of those who are not in any way identified with Unitarian churches,
+the purpose has been to suggest the wide and inclusive character of the
+Unitarian movement, and to indicate that it is not represented merely by a
+body of churches, but that it is an individual way of looking at the facts
+of life and its problems.
+
+In writing the following pages, I have had constantly in mind those who
+have not been educated as Unitarians, and who have come into this
+inheritance through struggle and search. Not having been to the manner born
+myself, I have sought to provide such persons with the kind of information
+that would have been helpful to me in my endeavors to know the Unitarian
+life and temper. Something of what appears in these pages is due to this
+desire to help those who wish to know concretely what Unitarianism is, and
+what it has said and done to justify its existence. This will account for
+the manner of treatment and for some of the topics selected.
+
+When this work was begun, the design was that it should form a part of the
+exhibit of Unitarianism in this country presented at the seventy-fifth
+anniversary of the formation of the American Unitarian Association. The
+time required for a careful verification of facts made it impossible to
+have the book ready at that date. The delay in its publication has not
+freed the work from all errors and defects, but it has given the
+opportunity for a more adequate treatment of many phases of the subject.
+Much of the work required in its preparation does not show itself in the
+following pages; but it has involved an extended examination of manuscript
+journals and records, as well as printed reports of societies, newspapers,
+magazines, pamphlets, and books. Many of the subjects dealt with, not
+having been touched upon in any previous historical work, have demanded a
+first-hand study of records, often difficult to find access to, and even
+more difficult to summarize in an interesting and adequate manner.
+
+I wish here to warmly thank all those persons, many in number and too
+numerous to give all their names, who have generously aided me with their
+letters and manuscripts, and by the loan of books, magazines, pamphlets,
+and newspapers. Without their aid the book would have been much less
+adequate in its treatment of many subjects than it is at present. Though I
+am responsible for the book as it presents itself to the reader, much of
+its value is due to those who have thus labored with me in its preparation.
+In manuscript and in proof-sheet it has been read by several persons, who
+have kindly aided in securing accuracy to names, dates, and historic facts.
+
+G.W.C.
+
+BOSTON, October 1, 1902.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+I. INTRODUCTION.--ENGLISH SOURCES OF AMERICAN UNITARIANISM
+  Renaissance
+  Reformation
+  Toleration
+  Arminianism
+  English Rationalists
+
+II. THE LIBERAL SIDE OF PURITANISM
+  The Church of Authority and the Church of Freedom
+  Seventeenth-century Liberals
+  Growth of Liberty in Church Methods
+  A Puritan Rationalist
+  Harvard College
+
+III. THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY IN THE CHURCHES
+  Arminianism
+  The Growth of Arminianism
+  Robert Breck
+  Books Read by Liberal Men
+  The Great Awakening
+  Cardinal Beliefs of the Liberals
+  Publications defining the Liberal Beliefs
+  Phases of Religious Progress
+
+IV. THE SILENT ADVANCE OF LIBERALISM
+  Subordinate Nature of Christ
+  Some of the Liberal Leaders
+  The First Unitarian
+  A Pronounced Universalist
+  Other Men of Mark
+  The Second Period of Revivals
+  King's Chapel becomes Unitarian
+  Other Unitarian Movements
+  Growth of Toleration
+
+V. THE PERIOD OF CONTROVERSY
+  The Monthly Anthology
+  Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity
+  General Repository
+  The Christian Disciple
+  Dr. Morse and American Unitarianism
+  Evangelical Missionary Society
+  The Berry Street Conference
+  The Publishing Fund Society
+  Harvard Divinity School
+  The Unitarian Miscellany
+  The Christian Register
+  Results of the Division in Congregationalism
+  Final Separation of State and Church
+
+VI. THE AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION
+  Initial Meetings
+  Work of the First Year
+  Work of the First Quarter of a Century
+  Publication of Tracts and Books
+  Domestic Missions
+
+VII. THE PERIOD OF RADICALISM
+  Depression in Denominational Activities
+  Publications
+  A Firm of Publishers
+  The Brooks Fund
+  Missionary Efforts
+  The Western Unitarian Conference
+  The Autumnal Conventions
+  Influence of the Civil War
+  The Sanitary Commission
+  Results of Fifteen years
+
+VIII. THE DENOMINATIONAL AWAKENING
+  The New York Convention of 1865
+  New Life in the Unitarian Association
+  The New Theological Position
+  Organization of the Free Religious Association
+  Unsuccessful Attempts at Reconciliation
+  The Year Book Controversy
+  Missionary Activities
+  College Town Missions
+  Theatre Preaching
+  Organization of Local Conferences
+  Fellowship and Fraternity
+  Results of the Denominational Awakening
+
+IX. GROWTH OF DENOMINATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS
+  "The Western Issue"
+  Fellowship with Universalists
+  Officers of the American Unitarian Association
+  The American Unitarian Association as a Representative Boy
+  The Church Building Loan Fund
+  The Unitarian Building in Boston
+  Growth of the Devotional Spirit
+  The Seventy-fifth Anniversary
+
+X. THE MINISTRY AT LARGE
+  Association of Young Men
+  Preaching to the Poor
+  Tuckerman as Minister to the Poor
+  Tuckerman's Methods
+  Organization of Charities
+  Benevolent Fraternity of Churches
+  Other Ministers at Large
+  Ministry at Large in Other Cities
+
+XI. ORGANIZED SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK
+  Boston Sunday School Society
+  Unitarian Sunday School Society
+  Western Unitarian Sunday School Society
+  Unity Clubs
+  The Ladies' Commission on Sunday-school Books
+
+XII. THE WOMEN'S ALLIANCE AND ITS PREDECESSORS
+  Women's Western Unitarian Conference
+  Women's Auxiliary Conference
+  The National Alliance
+  Cheerful Letter and Post-office Missions
+  Associate Alliances
+  Alliance Methods
+
+XIII. MISSIONS TO INDIA AND JAPAN
+  Society respecting the State of Religion in India
+  Dall's Work in India
+  Recent Work in India
+  The Beginnings in Japan
+
+XIV. THE MEADVILLE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL
+  The Beginnings in Meadville
+  The Growth of the School
+
+XV. UNITARIAN PHILANTHROPIES
+  Unitarian Charities
+  Education of the Blind
+  Care of the Insane
+  Child-saving Missions
+  Care of the Poor
+  Humane Treatment of Animals
+  Young Men's Christian Unions
+  Educational Work in the South
+  Educational Work for the Indians
+
+XVI. UNITARIANS AND REFORMS
+  Peace Movement
+  Temperance Reform
+  Anti-slavery
+  The Enfranchisement of Women
+  Civil Service Reform
+
+XVII. UNITARIAN MEN AND WOMEN
+  Eminent Statesmen
+  Some Representative Unitarians
+  Judges and Legislators
+  Boston Unitarianism
+
+XVIII. UNITARIANS AND EDUCATION
+  Pioneers of the Higher Criticism
+  The Catholic Influence of Harvard University
+  The Work of Horace Mann
+  Elizabeth Peabody and the Kindergarten
+  Work of Unitarian Women for Education
+  Popular Education and Public Libraries
+  Mayo's Southern Ministry of Education
+
+XIX. UNITARIANISM AND LITERATURE
+  Influence of Unitarian Environment
+  Literary Tendencies
+  Literary Tastes of Unitarian Ministers
+  Unitarians as Historians
+  Scientific Unitarians
+  Unitarian Essayists
+  Unitarian Novelists
+  Unitarian Artists and Poets
+
+XX. THE FUTURE OF UNITARIANISM
+
+APPENDIX.
+  A. Formation of the Local Conferences
+  B. Unitarian Newspapers and Magazines
+
+
+
+
+UNITARIANISM IN AMERICA.
+
+A HISTORY OF ITS ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.--ENGLISH SOURCES OF AMERICAN UNITARIANISM.
+
+The sources of American Unitarianism are to be found in the spirit of
+individualism developed by the Renaissance, the tendency to free inquiry
+that manifested itself in the Protestant Reformation, and the general
+movement of the English churches of the seventeenth century toward
+toleration and rationalism. The individualism of modern thought and life
+first found distinct expression in the Renaissance; and it was essentially
+a new creation, and not a revival. Hitherto the tribe, the city, the
+nation, the guild, or the church, had been the source of authority, the
+centre of power, and the giver of life. Although Greece showed a desire for
+freedom of thought, and a tendency to recognize the worth of the individual
+and his capacity as a discoverer and transmitter of truth, it did not set
+the individual mind free from bondage to the social and political power of
+the city. Socrates and Plato saw somewhat of the real worth of the
+individual, but the great mass of the people were never emancipated from
+the old tribal authority as inherited by the city-state; and not one of the
+great dramatists had conceived of the significance of a genuine
+individualism.[1]
+
+[Sidenote: Renaissance.]
+
+The Renaissance advanced to a new conception of the worth and the capacity
+of the individual mind, and for the first time in history recognized the
+full social meaning of personality in man. It sanctioned and authenticated
+the right of the individual to think for himself, and it developed clearly
+the idea that he may become the transmitter of valid revelations of
+spiritual truth. That God may speak through individual intuition and
+reason, and that this inward revelation may be of the highest authority and
+worth, was a conception first brought to distinct acceptance by the
+Renaissance.
+
+A marked tendency of the Reformation which it received from the Renaissance
+was its acceptance of the free spirit of individualism. The Roman Church
+had taught that all valid religious truth comes to mankind through its own
+corporate existence, but the Reformers insisted that truth is the result of
+individual insight and investigation. The Reformation magnified the worth
+of personality, and made it the central force in all human effort.[2] To
+gain a positive personal life, one of free initiative power, that may in
+itself become creative, and capable of bringing truth and life to larger
+issues, was the chief motive of the Protestant leaders in their work of
+reformation. The result was that, wherever genuine Protestantism appeared,
+it manifested itself by its attitude of free inquiry, its tendency to
+emphasize individual life and thought, and its break with the traditions of
+the past, whether in literature or in religion. The Reformation did not,
+however, bring the principle of individuality to full maturity; and it
+retained many of the old institutional methods, as well as a large degree
+of their social motive. The Reformed churches were often as autocratic as
+the Catholic Church had been, and as little inclined to approve of
+individual departures from their creeds and disciplines; but the motive of
+individualism they had adopted in theory, and could not wholly depart from
+in practice. Their merit was that they had recognized and made a place for
+the principle of individuality; and it proved to be a developing social
+power, however much they might ignore or try to suppress it.
+
+[Sidenote: Reformation.]
+
+In its earliest phases Protestantism magnified the importance of reason in
+religious investigations, although it used an imperfect method in so doing.
+All doctrines were subjected more or less faithfully to this test, every
+rite was criticised and reinterpreted, and the Bible itself was handled in
+the freest manner. The individualism of the movement showed itself in
+Luther's doctrine of justification by faith, and his confidence in the
+validity of personal insight into spiritual realities. Most of all this
+tendency manifested itself in the assertion of the right of every believer
+to read the Bible for himself, and to interpret it according to his own
+needs. The vigorous assertion of the right to the free interpretation of
+the Word of God, and to personal insight into spiritual truth, led their
+followers much farther than the first reformers had anticipated.
+Individualism showed itself in an endless diversity of personal opinions,
+and in the creation of many little groups of believers, who were drawn
+together by an interest in individual leaders or by a common acceptance of
+hair-splitting interpretations of religious truths.[3]
+
+The Protestant Church inculcated the law of individual fidelity to God, and
+declared that the highest obligation is that of personal faith and purity.
+What separated the Catholic and the Protestant was not merely a question of
+socialism as against individualism,[4] but it was also a problem of outward
+or inward law, of environment or intuition as the source of wholesome
+teaching, of ritualism or belief as the higher form of religious
+expression. The Protestants held that belief is better than ritual, faith
+than sacraments, inward authority than external force. They insisted that
+the individual has a right to think his own thoughts and to pray his own
+prayer, and that the revelation of the Supreme Good Will is to all who
+inwardly bear God's image and to every one whose will is a centre of new
+creative force in the world of conduct. They affirmed that the individual
+is of more worth than the social organism, the soul than the church, the
+motive than the conduct, the search for truth than the truth attained.
+
+These tendencies of Protestantism found expression in the rationalism that
+appeared in England at the time of the Commonwealth, and especially at the
+Restoration. All the men of broader temper proclaimed the use of reason in
+the discussion of theological problems. In their opinion the Bible was to
+be interpreted as other books are, while with regard to doctrines there
+must be compromise and latitude. We find such a theologian as Chillingworth
+recognizing "the free right of the individual reason to interpret the
+Bible."[5] To such men as Milton, Jeremy Taylor, and Locke the free spirit
+was essential, even though they had not become rationalists in the modern
+philosophical sense. They were slow to discard tradition, and they desired
+to establish the validity of the Bible; but they would not accept any
+authority until it had borne the test of as thorough an investigation as
+they could give it. The methods of rationalism were not yet understood, but
+the rational spirit had been accepted with a clear apprehension of its
+significance.
+
+[Sidenote: Toleration.]
+
+Toleration had two classes of advocates in the seventeenth century,--on the
+one hand, the minor and persecuted sects, and, on the other, such of the
+great leaders of religious opinion as Milton and Locke. The first clear
+assertion of the modern idea of toleration was made by the Anabaptists of
+Holland, who in 1611 put into their Confession of Faith this declaration of
+the freedom of religion from all state regulation: "The magistrate is not
+to meddle with religion, or matters of conscience, nor compel men to this
+or that form of religion, because Christ is King, and Lawgiver of the
+church and conscience." When the Baptists appeared in England, they
+advocated this principle as the one which ought to control in the relations
+of church and state. In 1614 there was published in London a little tract,
+written by one Leonard Busher, a poor laborer, and a member of the Baptist
+church that had recently been organized there. The writer addressed the
+King and Parliament with a statement of his conviction "that by fire and
+sword to constrain princes and peoples to receive that one true religion of
+the Gospel is wholly against the mind and merciful law of Christ."[6] He
+went on to say that no king or bishop is able to command faith, that it is
+monstrous for Christians to vex and destroy each other on account of
+religious differences. The leading Protestant bodies, especially the
+established churches, still held to the corporate idea of the nature of
+religious institutions; and, although they had rejected the domination of
+the Roman Church, they accepted the control of the state as essential to
+the purity of the church. This half-way retention of the corporate spirit
+made it impossible for any of the leading churches to give recognition to
+the full meaning of the Protestant idea of the worth of the individual
+soul, and its right to communicate directly with God. It remained for the
+persecuted Baptists and Independents, too feeble and despised to aspire to
+state influence, to work out the Protestant principle to its full
+expression in the spirit of toleration, to declare for liberty of
+conscience, the voluntary maintenance of worship, and the separation of
+church and state.
+
+After the Restoration, and again after the enthronement of William and
+Mary, it became a serious practical problem to establish satisfactory
+relations between the various sects. All who were not sectarian fanatics
+saw that some kind of compromise was desirable, and the more liberal wished
+to include all but the most extreme phases of belief within the national
+church. When that national church was finally established on the lines
+which it has since retained, and numerous bodies of dissenters found
+themselves compelled to remain outside, toleration became more and more
+essential, in order that the nation might live at peace with itself. From
+generation to generation the dissenters were able to secure for themselves
+a larger recognition, disabilities were removed as men of all sects saw
+that restrictions were useless, and toleration became the established law
+in the relations of the various religious bodies to each other.
+
+[Sidenote: Arminianism.]
+
+The conditions which led to toleration also developed a liberal
+interpretation of the relations of the church to the people, a broader
+explanation of doctrines, and a rational insight into the problems of the
+religious life. One phase of this more comprehensive religious spirit was
+shown in Arminianism, which was nothing more than an assertion of
+individualism in the sphere of man's relations to God. Calvinism maintained
+that man cannot act freely for himself, that he is strictly under the
+sovereignty of the Divine Will. The democratic tendency in Holland, where
+Arminianism had its origin, expressed itself in the declaration that every
+man is free to accept or to reject religious truth, that the will is
+individual and self-assertive, and that the conscience is not bound.
+Arminius and his coworkers accepted what the early Protestant movement had
+regarded as essential, that religion should be always obedient to the
+rational spirit, that nature should be the test in regard to all which
+affects human conduct, and that the critical spirit ought to be applied to
+dogma and Bible. Arminius reasserted this freedom of the human spirit, and
+vindicated the right of the individual mind to seek God and his truth
+wherever they may be found.
+
+As Protestantism became firmly established in England, and the nation
+accepted its mental and moral attitude without reserve, what is known as
+Arminianism came to be more and more prevalent. This was not a body of
+doctrines, and it was in no sense a sectarian movement: it was rather a
+mental temper of openness and freedom. In a word, Arminianism became a
+method of religious inquiry that appealed to reason, nature, and the needs
+of man. It put new emphasis on the intellectual side of religion, and it
+developed as a moral protest against the harsher features of Calvinism. It
+gave to human feelings the right to express themselves as elements in the
+problem of man's relations to God, and vindicated for God the right to be
+deemed as sympathetic and loving as the men who worship him.
+
+While the Arminians accepted the Bible as an authoritative standard as
+fully as did the Calvinists, they were more critical in its study: they
+applied literary and historical standards in its interpretation, and they
+submitted it to the vindication of reason. They sought to escape from the
+tyranny of the Bible, and yet to make it a living force in the world of
+conduct and character. They not only declared anew the right of private
+judgment, but they wished to make the Bible the source of inward spiritual
+illumination,--not a standard and a test, but an awakener of the divine
+life in the soul. They sought for what is really essential in religious
+truth, limited the number of dogmas that may be regarded as requisite to
+the Christian life, and took the position that only what is of prime
+importance is to be required of the believer. The result was that
+Arminianism became a positive aid to the growth of toleration in England;
+for it became what was called latitudinarian,--that is, broad in temper,
+inclusive in spirit, and desirous of bringing all the nation within the
+limits of one harmonizing and noble-minded church.
+
+[Sidenote: English Rationalists.]
+
+It was in such tendencies as these, as they were developed in Holland and
+England, that American Unitarianism had its origin. To show how true this
+is, it may be desirable to speak of a few of the men whose books were most
+frequently read in New England during the eighteenth century. The prose
+writings of Milton exerted great influence in favor of toleration and in
+vindication of reason. Without doubt he became in his later years a
+believer in free will and the subordinate nature of Christ, and he was true
+to the Protestant ideal of an open Bible and a free spirit in man. Known as
+a Puritan, his pleas for toleration must have been read with confidence by
+his coreligionists of New England; while his rational temper could not have
+failed to have its effect.
+
+His vindication of the Bible as the religion of Protestants must have
+commended Chillingworth to the liberal minds in New England; and there is
+evidence that he was read with acceptance, although he was of the
+established church. Chillingworth was of the noblest type of the
+latitudinarians in the Church of England during the first half of the
+seventeenth century; for he was generously tolerant, his mind was broad and
+liberal, and he knew the true value of a really comprehensive and inclusive
+church, which he earnestly desired should be established in England. He
+wished to have the creed reduced to the most limited proportions by giving
+emphasis to what is fundamental, and by the extrusion of all else. It was
+his desire to maintain what is essential that caused him to say: "I am
+fully assured that God does not, and therefore that man ought not, to
+require any more of any man than this--to believe the Scripture to be God's
+word, to endeavor to find the true sense of it, and to live according to
+it."[7]
+
+He would therefore leave every man free to interpret the Bible for himself,
+and he would make no dogmatic test to deprive any man of this right. The
+chief fact in the Bible being Christ, he insisted that Christianity is
+loyalty to his spirit. "To believe only in Christ" is his definition of
+Christianity, and he would add nothing to this standard. He would put no
+church or creed or council between the individual soul and God; and he
+would direct every believer to the Bible as the free and open way of the
+soul's access to divine truth. He found that the religion of Protestants
+consisted in the rational use of that book, and not in the teachings of the
+Reformers or in the confessions they devised. It is the great merit of
+Chillingworth that he vindicated the spirit of toleration in a broad and
+noble manner, that he was without sectarian prejudice or narrowness in his
+desire for an inclusive church, and that he spoke and wrote in a truly
+rational temper. He applied reason to all religious problems, and he
+regarded it as the final judge and arbiter. Religious freedom received from
+him the fullest recognition, and no one has more clearly indicated the
+scope and purpose of toleration.
+
+Another English religious leader, much read in New England, was Archbishop
+Tillotson. It has been said of him that "for the first time since the
+Reformation the voice of reason was now clearly heard in the high places of
+the church."[8] He was an Arminian in his sympathies, and held that the way
+of salvation is open to all who choose to accept its opportunities. He
+expressed himself as being as certain that the doctrine of eternal decrees
+is not of God as he was sure that God is good and just. His ground for this
+opinion was that it is repugnant to the convictions of justice and goodness
+natural to men. He maintained that we shall be justified before God by
+means of the reformation that is wrought in our own lives. We have an
+intuition of what is right, and a natural capacity for living justly and
+righteously. Experience and reason he made concomitant spiritual forces
+with the Bible, and he held that revelation is but a republication of the
+truths of natural religion. Tillotson was truly a broad churchman, who was
+desirous of making the national church as comprehensive as possible; and he
+was one who practised as well as preached toleration.
+
+Not less liberal was Jeremy Taylor, who was numbered among the dissenters.
+In the introduction to his Liberty of Prophesying he said, "So long as men
+have such variety of principles, such several constitutions, educations,
+tempers, and distempers, hopes, interests, and weaknesses, degrees of light
+and degrees of understanding, it was impossible all should be of one mind."
+Taylor justly said that in heaven there is room for all faiths. His Liberty
+of Prophesying, Chillingworth's Religion of Protestants, and Milton's
+Liberty of Unlicensed Printing are the great expressions of the spirit of
+toleration in the seventeenth century. Each was broad, comprehensive, and
+noble in its plea for religious freedom. It has been said of Taylor that
+"he sets a higher value on a good life than on an orthodox creed. He
+estimates every doctrine by its capacity to do men good."[9]
+
+Another advocate of toleration was John Locke, whose chief influence was as
+a rationalist in philosophy and religion. While accepting Christianity with
+simple confidence, he subjected it to the careful scrutiny of reason. His
+philosophy awakened the rationalistic spirit in all who accepted it, so
+that many of his disciples went much farther than he did himself. While
+accepting revelation, he maintained that natural knowledge is more certain
+in its character. He taught that the conclusions of reason are more
+important than anything given men in the name of revelation. He did not
+himself widely depart from the orthodoxy of his day, though he did not
+accept the doctrine of the Trinity in the most approved form.
+
+One of the rationalistic followers of Locke was Samuel Clarke, who
+attempted to apply the scientific methods of Newton to the interpretation
+of Christianity. He tried to establish faith in God on a purely scientific
+basis. He declared that goodness does not exist because God commands it,
+but that he commands it because it is good. He interpreted the doctrine of
+the Trinity in a rationalistic manner, holding to its form, but rejecting
+its substance.
+
+These men were widely read in New England during the eighteenth century. In
+England they were accounted orthodox, and they held high positions either
+in the national church or in the leading dissenting bodies. They were not
+sectarian or bigoted, they wished to give religion a basis in common sense
+and ethical integrity, and they approved of a Christianity that is
+practical and leads to noble living.
+
+When we consider what were the relations of the colonies to England during
+the first half of the eighteenth century, and that the New England churches
+were constantly influenced by the religious attitude of the
+mother-country,[10] it is plain enough that toleration and rationalism were
+in large measure received from England. In the same school was learned the
+lesson of a return to the simplicity of Christ, of making him and his life
+the standard of Christian fellowship. The great leaders in England taught
+positively that loyalty to Christ is the only essential test of Christian
+duty; and it is not in the least surprising the same idea should have found
+noble advocacy in New England. That a good life and character are the true
+indications of the possession of a saving faith was a thought too often
+uttered in England not to find advocacy in the colonies.
+
+In this way Unitarianism had its origin, in the teachings of men who were
+counted orthodox in England, but who favored submitting all theological
+problems to the test of reason. It was not a sectarian movement in its
+origin or at any time during the eighteenth century; but it was an effort
+to make religion practical, to give it a basis in reality, and to establish
+it as acceptable to the sound judgment and common sense of all men. It was
+an application to the interpretation of theological problems of that
+individualistic spirit which was at the very source of Protestantism. If
+the individual ought to interpret the Bible for himself, so ought he to
+accept his own explanation of the dogmas of the church. In so doing, he
+necessarily becomes a rationalist, which may lead him far from the
+traditions of the past. If he thinks for himself, there is an end to
+uniformity of faith--a conclusion which such men as Chillingworth and
+Jeremy Taylor were willing to accept; and, therefore, they desired an
+all-inclusive church, in order that freedom and unity of faith might be
+both maintained.
+
+In its beginning the liberal movement in New England was not concerned with
+the Trinity. It was a demand for simplicity, rationality, and toleration.
+When it had proceeded far on its way, it was led to a consideration of the
+problem of the Trinity, because it did not find that doctrine distinctly
+taught in the New Testament. Accepting implicitly the words of Christ, it
+found him declaring positively his own subordination to the Father, and
+preferred his teaching to that of the creeds. To the early liberals this
+was simply a question of the nature of Christ, and did not lessen for them
+their implicit faith in his revelation or their recognition of the beauty
+and glory of his divine character.
+
+[1] Paul Lafargue, The Evolution of Property from Savagery to
+    Civilization, 18, 19. "If the savage is incapable of conceiving the
+    idea of individual possession of objects not incorporated with his
+    person, it is because he has no conception of his individuality as
+    distinct from the consanguine group in which he lives.... Savages, even
+    though individually completer beings, seeing that they are
+    self-sufficing, than are civilized persons, are so thoroughly
+    identified with their hordes and clans that their individuality does
+    not make itself felt either in the family or in property. The clan was
+    all in all: the clan was the family; it was the clan that was the owner
+    of property." Also W.M. Sloan, The French Revolution and Religious
+    Reform, 38. "In the Greek and Roman world the individual, body, mind,
+    and soul, had no place in reference to the state. It was only as a
+    member of family, gens, curia, phratry, or deme, and tribe, that the
+    ancient city-state knew the men and women which composed it. The same
+    was true of knowledge: every sensation, perception, and judgment fell
+    into the category of some abstraction, and, instead of concrete things,
+    men knew nothing but generalized ideals."
+
+[2] Francesco S. Nitti, Catholic Socialism, 74, 85, 86. "If we consider
+    the teachings of the Gospel, the communistic origins of the church, the
+    socialistic tendencies of the early fathers, the traditions of the
+    Canon Law, we cannot wonder that at the present day Socialism should
+    count no small number of its adherents among Catholic writers.... The
+    Reformation was the triumph of Individualism. Catholicism, instead, is
+    communistic by its origin and traditions.... The Catholic Church, with
+    her powerful organization, dating back over many centuries, has
+    accustomed Catholic peoples to passive obedience, to a passive
+    renunciation of the greater part of individualistic tendencies."
+
+[3] See David Masson, Life of John Milton, III. 136; John Tulloch, Rational
+    Theology and Christian Philosophy in England, II. 9; John Hunt,
+    Religious Thought in England, I. 234.
+
+[4] The word socialism is not used here with any understanding that the
+    Catholic Church accepts the social theories implied by that name. It is
+    used to indicate that the Roman Church maintains that revelation is to
+    the church itself, and that it is now the visible representative of
+    Christ. The Protestant maintains that revelation is made through an
+    individual, and not to a church. See Otto Gierke, Political Theories of
+    the Middle Age, translated by F.W. Maitland, 10, 22. "In all centuries
+    of the Middle Age Christendom is set before us a single, universal
+    community, founded and governed by God himself. Mankind is one mystical
+    body; it is one single and internally connected people or fold; it is
+    an all-embracing corporation, which constitutes that Universal Realm,
+    spiritual, and temporal, which may be called the Universal Church, or,
+    with equal propriety, the Commonwealth of the Human Race.... Mediaeval
+    thought proceeded from the idea of a single whole. Therefore an organic
+    construction of human society was as familiar to it as a mechanical and
+    atomistic construction was originally alien. Under the influence of
+    biblical allegories and the models set by Greek and Roman writers, the
+    comparison of mankind at large and every smaller group to an animate
+    body was universally adopted and pressed. Mankind in its totality was
+    conceived as an Organism."
+
+[5] Tulloch, Rational Theology in England, I. 339.
+
+[6] David Masson, Life of Milton, III. 102.
+
+[7] The Religion of Protestants, II. 411.
+
+[8] John Hunt, Religious Thought in England, II. 99.
+
+[9] John Hunt, Religious Thought in England, I. 340.
+
+[10] John Hunt, Religious Thought in England, I. 340.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+
+THE LIBERAL SIDE OF PURITANISM.
+
+Unitarianism was brought to America with the Pilgrims and the Puritans. Its
+origins are not to be found in the religious indifference and torpidity of
+the eighteenth century, but in the individualism and the rational temper of
+the men who settled Plymouth, Salem, and Boston. Its development is
+coextensive with the origin and growth of Congregationalism, even with that
+of Protestantism itself. So long as New England has been in existence, so
+long, at least, Unitarianism, in its motives and in its spirit, has been at
+work in the name of toleration, liberty, and free inquiry.
+
+The many and wide divergences of opinion which were an essential result of
+the spirit and methods of Protestantism were shown from the first by the
+Pilgrims and Puritans. In Massachusetts, stringent laws were adopted in
+order to secure uniformity of belief and practice; but it was never
+achieved, except in name. Antinomianism early presented itself in Boston,
+and it was quickly followed by the incursions of the Baptists and Friends.
+Hooker did not find himself in sympathy with the Massachusetts leaders, and
+led a considerable company to Connecticut from Cambridge, Watertown, and
+Dorchester. Sir Henry Vane could not always agree with those who guided the
+religion and the politics of Boston; Roger Williams had another ideal of
+church and state than that which had come to the Puritans; and Sir Richard
+Saltonstall would not submit himself to the aristocratic methods of the
+Boston preachers.
+
+These are but a few of the many indications of the individualistic spirit
+that marked the first years of the Puritan colonies. It was a part of the
+Protestant inheritance, and was inherent in the very nature of
+Protestantism itself. Although the Puritans had only in part, and with
+faltering steps, come to the acceptance of the individualistic and rational
+spirit in religion, yet they were on the way to it, however long they might
+be hindered by an autocratic temper. In fact, the Puritans throughout the
+seventeenth century in New England were trying at one and the same time to
+use reason and yet to cling to authority, to accept the Protestant ideal
+and yet to employ the Catholic methods in state and church. In being
+Protestants, they were committed to the central motive of individualism;
+but they never consistently turned away from that conception of the church
+which is autocratic and authoritative.
+
+[Sidenote: The Church of Authority and the Church of Freedom.]
+
+Looked at from the modern sociological point of view, there are two types
+of church, the one socialistic or institutional and the other
+individualistic, the one making the corporate power of the church the
+source of spiritual life, the other making the personal insight of the
+individual man the fountain of religious truth. Such a church as that of
+Rome may be properly called socialistic because of its corporate nature,
+because it maintains that revelation is to, and by means of, an
+institution, an organic religious body.[1]
+
+Catholicism, whether of Rome, Greece, or England, makes the church as a
+great religious corporation the organ of religious expression. Such a
+corporation is the source of authority, the test of truth, the creator of
+spiritual ideals. On the other hand, such a church as the Protestant may be
+called individualistic because it makes the individual the channel of
+revelation. It emphasizes personality as of supreme worth, and it makes
+religious institutions of little value in comparison.
+
+Practically, the difference between the socialistic and the individualistic
+church is as wide as it is theoretically. In all Catholic churches the
+child is born into the church, with the right to full acceptance into it by
+methods of tuition and ritual, whatever his individual qualities or
+capacities. In all distinctly Protestant churches, membership must be
+sought by individual preference or supernatural process.[2] The way to it
+is through individual profession of its creed or inward miraculous
+transformation of character by the profoundest of personal experiences. In
+all socialistic or Catholic churches--whether heathen, ethnic, or
+Christian--young people are admitted to membership after a definite period
+of training and an initiation by means of an impressive ritual. In all
+Protestant churches, initiation takes place as the result of personal
+experiences and mature convictions, and is therefore usually deferred until
+adult life has been reached.
+
+When we bring out thus distinctly the ideals and methods of the two
+churches, we are able to understand that the Puritans were theoretically
+Protestants, but that they practically used the methods of the Catholics.
+This will be seen more clearly when we take the individualistic tendencies
+of the Puritans into distinct recognition, and place them in contrast with
+their socialistic practices. The Puritan churches were thoroughly
+individualistic in their admission of members, none being accepted into
+full membership but those who had been converted by means of a personal
+experience. In theory every male church member was a priest and king,
+authorized to interpret spiritual truth and to exercise political
+authority. Therefore, in 1631 the General Court of Massachusetts (being the
+legislative body) established the rule that only church members should
+exercise the right of suffrage. This law was continued on the statute books
+until 1664, and was accepted in practice until 1691.
+
+Because the individual Christian was accounted a priest, however humble in
+learning or social position, he had the right to join with others in
+ordaining and setting apart to the ministry of God the man who was to lead
+the church as its teacher or pastor, though this practice was abandoned as
+the state-church idea developed, as it did in New England by a process of
+reaction. Every man could read the Bible for himself, and give it such
+meaning as his own conscience and reason dictated. By virtue of his
+Christian experience he had the personal right to find in it his own creed
+and the law of his own conduct. It was not only his right to do this, but
+it was also his duty. Revivalism was therefore the distinct outgrowth of
+Puritanism, the expression of its individualistic spirit. It was the human
+means of bringing the individual soul within reach of the supernatural
+power of God, and of facilitating that choice of the Holy Spirit by which
+one was selected for this change rather than another. The means were
+social, it is true; but the end reached was absolutely individual, as an
+experience and as a result attained. What confirmation was to the Catholic,
+that was conversion to the Puritan.
+
+The Puritans in New England, however, inherited the older socialism to so
+large an extent that they proceeded to establish what was a state church in
+method, if not in theory. Though they began with the idea that the churches
+were to be supported by voluntary contributions (and always continued that
+method in Boston), yet in a few years they resorted to taxation for their
+maintenance, and enacted stringent laws compelling attendance upon them by
+every resident of a town, whatever his beliefs or his personal interests.
+They forbade the utterance of opinions not approved by the authorities, and
+made use of fines, imprisonment, and death in support of arbitrary laws
+enacted for this purpose. These methods were the same as those used by the
+older socialistic and state churches to compel acceptance of their
+teachings and practices. They were based on the idea of the corporate
+nature of the church, and its right to control the individual in the name
+of the social whole.
+
+The harshness of the Puritan methods was the result of this attempt to
+maintain a new idea in harmony with an old practice. The Baptists were
+consistently individualists in rejecting infant baptism, accepting
+conversion as essential to church membership, maintaining freedom of
+conscience, and practising toleration as a fundamental social law. The
+Puritans inconsistently combined conversion and infant baptism,--the
+Protestant right of private judgment with the Catholic methods of the state
+church,--a democratic theory of popular suffrage with a most aristocratic
+limitation of that suffrage to church members. As late as 1674 only 2,527
+men in all had been admitted to the exercise of the franchise in
+Massachusetts. One-sixth or one-eighth of the men were voters, the rest
+were disfranchised. The church and the state were controlled by this small
+minority in a community that was theoretically democratic, both in religion
+and politics.
+
+It is not surprising that there began to be mutterings against such
+restrictions. It shows the strength of character in the Puritan communities
+of Massachusetts and New Haven that a large majority of the men submitted
+as long as they did to conditions thoroughly undemocratic. As a political
+measure, when the grumblings became so loud as to be no longer ignored,
+what is called the half-way covenant was adopted, by means of which a
+semi-membership in the churches could be secured, that gave the right of
+suffrage, but permitted no action within the church itself.[3] Many
+writers on this period fail to understand the significance of the half-way
+covenant; for they attribute to that legislation the disintegrating results
+that followed. They forget that these half-members were not admitted to any
+part in church affairs; and they refuse to see that the methods employed by
+the Puritans were, because of their exclusiveness, of necessity
+demoralizing. In fact, the half-way covenant was a result of the
+disintegration that had already taken place as the issue of an attempted
+compromise between the institutional and the individualistic theories of
+church government.
+
+[Sidenote: Seventeenth-century Liberals.]
+
+By arbitrary methods the Puritans succeeded in controlling church and state
+until 1688, when the interference of the English authorities compelled them
+to practise toleration and to widen the suffrage. The words of Sir Richard
+Saltonstall to John Cotton and John Wilson show clearly that these methods
+were not accepted by all, and even Saltonstall returned to England to
+escape the restrictions he condemned. "It doth not a little grieve my
+spirit to hear what sad things are daily reported of your tyranny and
+persecutions in New England," he wrote, "as that you fine, whip, and
+imprison men for their consciences. First you compel such to come into your
+assemblies as you know will not join with you in your worship, and when
+they show their dislike thereof or witness against it, then you stir up
+your magistrates to punish them for such (as you conceive) their public
+affronts. Truly, friends, this your practice of compelling any in matters
+of worship to do that whereof they are not persuaded is to make them sin,
+and many are made hypocrites thereby, conforming in their outward man for
+fear of punishment. We pray for you and wish you prosperity in every way,
+hoped that the Lord would have given you so much light and love there, that
+you might have been eyes to God's people here, and not to practise those
+courses in wilderness which you went so far to prevent. These rigid ways
+have laid you very low in the hearts of the saints."[4]
+
+Another man who withdrew to England from the narrow spirit of the Puritans
+was William Pynchon, of Springfield, one of the best trained and ablest of
+the early settlers of Massachusetts. In 1650 he published a book on the
+Meritorious Price of our Redemption, in which he denied that Christ was
+subject to the wrath of God or suffered torments in hell for the redemption
+of men or paid the penalty for all human sins; but such teachings were too
+liberal and modern for the leaders in church and state.[5] What is now
+orthodox, that Christ's sacrifice was voluntary, was then heretical and
+forbidden.
+
+If during the first half-century of New England no liberalism found
+definite utterance, it was because of its repression. It was in the air,
+even then, and it would have found expression, had there been opportunity
+or invitation. There were other men than Williams, Saltonstall, Pynchon,
+and Henry Vane, who believed in toleration, liberty of conscience, and a
+rational interpretation of religion. In a limited way such men were Henry
+Dunster and Charles Chauncy, the first two presidents of Harvard College,
+who both rejected infant baptism because it was not consistent with a
+converted church membership. It was a small thing to protest against, and
+to suffer for as Dunster suffered; but the principle was great for which he
+contended, the principle of individual conviction in religion.
+
+The better spirit of the Puritans appears in such a saying as that of Sir
+Henry Vane, the second governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, that "all
+magistrates are to fear or forbear intermeddling with giving rule or
+imposing their own beliefs in religious matters."[6] To a similar purport
+was the saying of Thomas Hooker, the founder of Connecticut, that "the
+foundation of authority is laid in the free consent of the people."[7] In
+the writings of John Robinson, the Pilgrim leader, a like greatness of
+purpose and thought appears, as where he says that "the meanest man's
+reason, specially in matter of faith and obedience to God, is to be
+preferred before all authority of all men."[8] Robinson was a very strict
+Calvinist in doctrine; but he was tolerant in large degree, and thoroughly
+convinced of the worth of liberty of conscience. His liberality comes out
+in such words as these: "The custom of the church is but the custom of men;
+the sentence of the fathers but the opinions of men; the determinations of
+councils but the judgments of men."[9] How strong a believer in individual
+reason he was appears in this statement: "God, who hath made two great
+lights for the bodily eye, hath also made two lights for the eye of the
+mind; the one the Scriptures for her supernatural light, and the other
+reason for her natural light. And, indeed, only these two are a man's own,
+and so is not the authority of other men. The Scriptures are as well mine
+as any other man's, and so is reason as far as I can attain to it."[10]
+When he says that "the credit commending a testimony to others cannot be
+greater than is the authority in itself of him that gives it nor his
+authority greater than his person,"[11] he puts an end to all arbitrary
+authority of priest and church.
+
+It will be seen from these quotations that the spirit of liberality existed
+even in the very beginnings of New England, and in the convictions of the
+men who were its chief prophets and leaders. It was hidden away for a time,
+it may be, though it never ceased to find utterance in some form. The
+breadth of the underlying spirit finds expression in the compacts by which
+local churches united their members. The liberality was incipient, a
+promise of the future rather than a realization in the present.
+
+The earliest churches of New England were not organized with a creed, but
+with a covenant. Occasionally there was a confession of faith or a creedal
+statement; but it was regarded as quite unnecessary because it was implied
+in the general acceptance of the Calvinistic doctrines, and the use of the
+Cambridge platform or other similar document. The covenant of a church
+could not be a statement of beliefs, because it was a vow between Christ
+and his church, and a pledge of the individual members of the church with
+relation to each other. The creed was implied, but it was not expressed;
+and, although all the churches were Calvinist at first, the nature of the
+covenant was such that, when men grew liberal, there was no written creedal
+test by which they could be held to the old beliefs. When Calvinism was
+outgrown, it could be slowly and silently discarded, both by individual
+members of a church and by the church itself, because it was not explicitly
+contained in the covenant. The creed was rejected, but the covenant was
+retained.
+
+As soon as authority was withdrawn from the Puritan leaders by the English
+crown, the spirit of liberty began to show itself in many directions. In a
+sermon preached in 1691, Samuel Willard, the minister of the Old South
+Church in Boston, and afterwards president of Harvard College, gave
+utterance to what was stirring in many minds at that time. He said that God
+"hath nowhere by any general indulgence given away this liberty of his to
+any other authority in the world to have dominion over the consciences of
+men or to give rules of worship, but hath, on the other hand, strongly
+prohibited it and severely threatened any that shall presume to do it." He
+earnestly asserted that no authority is to be accepted but that of the
+Bible, and that is to be free for each person's individual interpretation.
+"Hath there not," Willard questions, "been too much of a pinning our faith
+on the credit or practice of others, attended on with a woful neglect to
+know what is the mind of Christ?" Here was a spirit that not many years
+later was showing itself in the liberal movement that grew into
+Unitarianism. The effort to free the consciences of men, and to bring all
+appeals to the Bible and to Christ, was what gave significance to the
+liberal movement of the next century.
+
+[Sidenote: Growth of Liberty in Church Methods.]
+
+There also began a movement to bring church and state into harmonious
+relations with each other, and to overcome the inconsistency of being
+individualist and socialist at the same moment. The theory of conversion
+being retained, it was proposed to make the ordinances of religion free to
+all, in order that they might bring about the supernatural change that was
+desired. This is the real significance of the position taken by Solomon
+Stoddard, of Northampton, who taught that the Lord's Supper is a converting
+ordinance, and who in practice did not ask for a supernatural regeneration
+as preparatory to a limited church membership, though he regarded this as
+essential to full admission. The half-way covenant had been adopted before
+Mr. Stoddard became the pastor of the church; but soon after his settlement
+this limited form of admission was more clearly defined, and he admitted
+persons into what he described as a "state of education."[12] This "large
+congregationalism," as it was called, was in time accepted as meaning that
+those who have faith enough to justify the baptism of their children have
+enough to admit them to full communion in the church. Mr. Stoddard appealed
+to the English practice in his defence of the broader principle which he
+adopted. He also vindicated his position by reference to the practices of
+the leading Protestant countries in Europe. His methods, as outlined and
+interpreted in his Appeal to the Learned,[13] were based more or less
+explicitly on the corporate idea of the church.
+
+Although Stoddard was a strict Calvinist, there can be no doubt that his
+method of open communion slowly led to theological modifications. Not only
+did it have a tendency to bring the state and church into closer relations
+with each other, by making the membership in the two more nearly the same,
+but it led the way to the acceptance of the doctrine of moral ability, and
+therefore to a modification of Calvinism. If it was a practical rather than
+a theological reason that caused Stoddard to adopt open communion, it
+almost inevitably led to Arminianism, because it implied, as he presented
+its conditions, that man is able of his own free will to accept the terms
+of salvation which Calvinism had confined to the operation of the
+sovereignty of God alone.
+
+Another way in which the spirit of the time was showing itself may be seen
+in the fact that the parish, towards the end of the seventeenth century, on
+more than one occasion refused to the church the selection of the minister;
+and church and parish met together for that purpose. This was the case in
+the first church of Salem in 1672, and at Dedham in 1685. So long as church
+members only were given the right of suffrage, the selection of the
+minister was wholly in their hands. As soon as the suffrage was extended,
+there was a movement to include all tax-payers amongst those who could
+exercise this choice. In 1666 such a proposition was discussed in
+Connecticut, and not long after it became the law. In 1692 the
+Massachusetts laws gave the church the right to select the minister, but
+permitted the parish to concur in or to reject such choice. During the next
+century there was a growing tendency to enlarge the privileges of the
+parish, and to make that the controlling factor in calling the minister and
+in all that pertained to the outward life of the church and congregation.
+The result will be seen more and more in the influence of the parish in the
+selection of liberal men for the pulpit.
+
+A notable instance of the more liberal tendencies is seen in the formation
+of the Brattle Street Church of Boston in 1699. Although this church
+accepted the Westminster Confession of Faith and adopted the practices
+common to the New England churches at this period, it insisted upon the
+reading of the Bible without comment as a part of the church service. The
+relation of religious experiences as preparatory to admission to the church
+was discarded, all were admitted to communion who were approved by the
+pastor, and women were permitted to take part in voting on all church
+questions. These and other innovations occasioned much discussion; and a
+controversy ensued between the pastor Benjamin Colman and Increase
+Mather.[14] The Salem pastors, Rev. John Higginson and Rev. Nicholas Noyes,
+addressed a letter to the Brattle Street congregation, in which they
+criticised the church because it did not consult with other churches in its
+formation, because it did not make a public profession of repentance on
+behalf of its members, because baptism was administered on less stringent
+terms than was customary and too lax admission was given to the sacraments,
+and because the admission of females to full church activity had a direct
+tendency "to subvert the order and liberty of the churches." Though the
+Brattle Street Church was for a time severely criticised, it soon came into
+intimate relations with the other churches of Boston, and it ceased to
+appear as in any way peculiar. That it was organized on a broader basis of
+membership indicates very clearly that the old methods were not
+satisfactory to all the people.[15]
+
+[Sidenote: A Puritan Rationalist.]
+
+The influence of similar ideas is seen in the books of John Wise, of
+Ipswich, whose Churches' Quarrel Espoused was published in 1710, and his
+Vindication of the Government of the New England Churches in 1717. His
+first book was in answer to the proposition of a number of the ministers of
+Boston to bring the churches under the control of associations. By this
+remonstrance the plan was defeated, and the independence of the local
+church fully established. In republishing his book, he added the
+Vindication, in order to give his ideas a more systematic expression. The
+Vindication is the most thoroughly modern book published in America during
+the eighteenth century. It has a literary directness and power remarkable
+for the time. Wise gives no quotations indicating that he had read the
+great liberal writers of England, but he was familiar with Plato and
+Cicero.
+
+In his first book he speaks of "the natural freedom of human beings,"[16]
+and says that "right reason is a ray of divine wisdom enstamped upon human
+nature."[17] Again, he says that "right reason, that great oracle in human
+affairs, is the soul of man so formed and endowed by creation with a
+certain sagacity or acumen whereby man's intellect is enabled to take up
+the true idea or perception of things agreeable with and according to their
+natures."[18] In such utterances as these Wise was putting himself into the
+company of the most liberal minds of England in his day, though he may not
+have read one of them. The considerations that were influencing Milton,
+Chillingworth, and Jeremy Taylor, in favor of toleration and a broad
+inclusiveness of spirit, evidently were having their effect upon this New
+England pastor.
+
+It is not to be assumed that John Wise was a rationalist in the modern
+sense; but he gave to the use of reason a significance that is surprising
+and refreshing, coming from the time and circumstances of his writing. In
+his Vindication we find him accepting reason and revelation as of equal
+validity. He appeals to the "dictates of right reason"[19] and the "common
+reason of mankind"[20] with quite as much confidence as to the Bible. He
+says that all questions of government, religious as well as political, are
+to be brought to "the assizes of man's own intellectual powers, reason, and
+conscience."[21] He assumes that God has created man capable of obeying his
+will and living in conformity with his law; for he says that, "if God did
+not highly estimate man as a creature exalted by his reason, liberty, and
+nobleness of nature, he would not caress him as he does in order to his
+submission."[22]
+
+Wise says that the characteristic of man which is of greatest importance is
+that he is "most properly the subject of the law of nature."[23] He uses
+this expression frequently and in a thoroughly modern sense.
+
+The second great characteristic of man, according to Wise, "is an original
+liberty enstamped upon his rational nature."[24] He indicates that he is
+not inclined to discuss the merely theological problem of man's relations
+to God, but, considered physically, man is at the head of creation, "and as
+such is a creature of a very noble character." [24] All the lower world is
+subject to his command, "and his liberty under the conduct of right reason
+is equal with his trust." [24] "He that intrudes upon this liberty violates
+the law of nature." [24] The effect of such liberty is not to lead man into
+license, but to make him the rational master of his own conduct. Every man
+is therefore at liberty "to judge for himself what shall be most for his
+behoof, happiness, and well-being."[25]
+
+The third great characteristic of man is found in "an equality amongst
+men," [25] which is to be respected and vindicated by governments that are
+just and humane. "By a natural right," he says, "all men are born free;
+and, nature having set all men upon a level and made them equals, no
+servitude or subjection can be conceived without inequality."[26] Again he
+says that it is "a fundamental principle relating to government that, under
+God, all power is originally in the people."[27] This is true of the church
+as well as of the state, and Wise says the Reformation was a cheat and a
+schism and a notorious rebellion if the people are not the source of power
+in the church.
+
+Two other ideas presented by this leader show his modernness and his
+originality. He says that "the happiness of the people is the object of all
+government,"[28] and that the state should seek to promote "the peculiar
+good and benefit of the whole, and every particular member, fairly and
+sincerely."[29] "The end of all good government," he assures his readers,
+"is to cultivate humanity, and promote the happiness of all, and the good
+of every man in all his rights, his life, liberty, estate, and honor,
+without injury or abuse done to any." [29] That government will seek the
+good of all is likely to be the case, because man has it as a fundamental
+law of his nature that he "maintain a sociableness with others."[30] "From
+the principles of sociableness it follows as a fundamental law of nature
+that man is not so wedded to his own interest but that he can make the
+common good the mark of his aim, and hence he becomes capacitated to enter
+into a civil state by the law of nature."[31] This attraction of man to his
+kind enables him to yield so much of his freedom as is necessary to make
+the state an efficient social power, "in which covenant is included that
+submission and union of wills by which a state may be conceived to be but
+one person."[32] This thoroughly modern idea of the social body, as being
+analogous in its nature to the individual man, is nobly expressed by Wise,
+who says that "a civil state is a compound moral person, whose will is the
+will of all, to the end it may use and apply the strength and riches of
+private persons toward maintaining the common peace, security, and
+well-being of all, which may be conceived as though the whole state was now
+become but one man."[33]
+
+It is not surprising that the writings of John Wise had no immediate effect
+upon the theological thinking of the time, but they must have had their
+influence. Just before the opening of the Revolution they were republished
+because of their vindication of the spirit of human liberty and democracy.
+What Wise wrote to promote was congregational independence, and this may
+have been the reason why his theological attitude was never called in
+question. It is true enough that he questioned none of the Calvinistic
+doctrines in his books; but his political views were certain to disturb the
+old beliefs, and to give incentives to free discussion in religion.
+
+[Sidenote: Harvard College.]
+
+The centre of the liberalizing tendencies of the last years of the
+seventeenth century was Harvard College. That institution was organized on
+a basis as broad as that of the early church covenants, with no creed or
+doctrinal requirements. The original seal bore the motto Veritas; but, as
+the state-church idea grew, this motto was succeeded by In Christi gloriam,
+and then by Christo et Ecclesiae, though neither of these later mottoes was
+authoritatively adopted. The early charters were thoroughly liberal in
+spirit and intent, so much so as to be fully in harmony with the present
+attitude of the university.[34] Under the Puritanic development, however,
+this liberality was discarded, only to be restored in 1691, when William
+and Mary gave to Massachusetts a new and broader charter. From that time a
+new life entered into the college, that put it uncompromisingly on the
+liberal side a century later. Even under the rule of Increase Mather,
+seconded by the influence of his son Cotton, a broader spirit declared
+itself in the culture imparted and in the method of free inquiry.[35]
+
+Samuel Willard, the successor to Increase Mather in the presidency, was of
+the liberal party in his breadth of mind and in his sound judgment. He was
+followed in 1708 by John Leverett, one of the founders of the Brattle
+Street Church, a man in whom the liberal spirit became a controlling motive
+in his management of the college.[36] It is not strange that the men who
+had been shut out from the suffrage and from active participation in the
+management of the churches, should now come forward to claim their rights,
+and to make their influence felt in college, church, and state. It was the
+distinct beginning of the liberal movement in New England, the time from
+which Unitarianism really took its origin.
+
+[1] Kuno Francke, Social Forces in German Literature, 105. "No mediaeval
+    man ever thought of himself as a perfectly independent being founded
+    only on himself, or without a most direct and definite relation to
+    some larger organism, be it empire, church, city, or guild. No
+    mediaeval man ever doubted that the institutions within which he lived
+    were divinely established ordinances, far superior and quite
+    inaccessible to his own individual reason and judgment. No mediaeval
+    man would ever have admitted that he conceived nature to be other than
+    the creation of an extramundane God, destined to glorify its creator
+    and to please the eye of man. It was reserved for the eighteenth
+    century to draw the last consequences of individualism; to see in man,
+    in each individual man, an independent and complete entity; to derive
+    the origin of state, church, and society from the spontaneous action
+    of these independent individuals; and to consider nature as a system
+    of forces sufficient unto themselves. When we speak of individualism
+    in the declining centuries of the Middle Ages, we mean by it that
+    these centuries initiated the movement which the eighteenth century
+    brought to a climax."
+
+[2] Williston Walker, the Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism, 246.
+    "From the first the fathers of New England insisted that the children
+    of church members were themselves members, and as such were justly
+    entitled to those church privileges which were adapted to their state
+    of Christian development, of which the chief were baptism and the
+    watchful discipline of the church. They did not enter the church by
+    baptism; they were entitled to baptism because they were already
+    members of the church. Here then was an inconsistency in the
+    application of the Congregational theory of the constitution of a
+    church. While affirming that a proper church consisted only of those
+    possessed of personal Christian character, the fathers admitted to
+    membership, in some degree at least, those who had no claim but
+    Christian parentage." That is, in theory they were Protestants, but in
+    practice they were Catholics.
+
+[3] The ecclesiastical historians say that the half-way covenant had no
+    effect on suffrage. Dexter, Congregationalism as Seen in its
+    Literature, 468, says: "I am aware of no proof that half-way covenant
+    members of the church by that relation did acquire any further
+    privileges in the state." Williston Walker, New Englander, cclxiii.,
+    93, February, 1892, takes ground that "added political privilege was
+    no consequence of the dispute." On the other hand, the secular
+    historians as strongly assert that the suffrage was widened. John
+    Fiske, Beginnings of New England, 250, says the half-way covenant
+    "entitled to the exercise of political rights those who were
+    unqualified for participation in the Lord's Supper." Alexander
+    Johnston, Connecticut, 227, says "it really gave every baptized person
+    voice in church government." J.A. Doyle, The Puritan Colonies, II.,
+    98, asserts that "it broke down the hard barrier which fenced in
+    political privileges." The true explanation is given by George H.
+    Haynes, Representation and Suffrage in Massachusetts, 1620-1691, 54,
+    published in Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and
+    Political Science, Vol. XII., Nos. VIII. and IX. Haynes says that the
+    half-way covenant, as first formulated in 1657, "virtually recognized
+    a partial church-membership in persons who had made no formal
+    profession and subscribed to no creed. In 1662 the same opinion was
+    reaffirmed by the clergy, and the General Court ordered the result of
+    the Synod to be printed and 'commended the same unto the consideration
+    of all the churches and people of this jurisdiction.' Here ended
+    legislative action on the matter. This was no statutory change of the
+    basis of the franchise; but, as individual churches gradually adopted
+    more liberal conditions of admission and were therein sanctioned by
+    the General Court, it resulted that the operation of the religious
+    test became less odious and the suffrage was not a little broadened."
+
+[4] Henry Bond, Early Settlers of Watertown, II. 916; Convers Francis,
+    Historical Sketch of Watertown, 135.
+
+[5] Mason A. Green, History of Springfield, 113; E.H. Byington, The
+    Puritan in England and New England, 185.
+
+[6] A Healing Question.
+
+[7] Alexander Johnston, Connecticut: A Study of a Commonwealth-Democracy,
+    72, Hooker's sermon preparatory to forming a government.
+
+[8] The Works of John Robinson, American edition of 1851, I., 53.
+
+[9] Ibid., 47.
+
+[10] Ibid., 54.
+
+[11] Ibid., 56.
+
+[12] J.R. Trumbull, History of Northampton, I. 213.
+
+[13] An Appeal to the Learned, being a vindication of the right of visible
+     saints to the Lord's Supper, though they be destitute of a saving work
+     of God's Spirit in their hearts, Boston, 1709. See also his Doctrine
+     of Instituted Churches, Boston, 1700.
+
+[14] Dwight, Life of Edwards, 300.
+
+[15] S.K. Lothrop, History of Brattle Street Church, 7-40; E. Turrell, Life
+    of Benjamin Colman, D.D., 96, 125, 178, 180.
+
+[16] The Churches' Quarrel Espoused, edition of 1860, 140.
+
+[17] Ibid., 143.
+
+[18] Ibid., 145
+
+[19] The Churches' Quarrel Espoused, edition of 1860, 32.
+
+[20] Ibid., 58.
+
+[21] Ibid., 72.
+
+[22] Ibid., 65.
+
+[23] Ibid., 30.
+
+[24] Ibid., 33.
+
+[25] The Churches' Quarrel Espoused, edition of 1860, 34.
+
+[26] Ibid., 37.
+
+[27] Ibid., 64.
+
+[28] Ibid., 54.
+
+[29] Ibid., 55.
+
+[30] Ibid., 32.
+
+[31] The Churches' Quarrel Espoused, edition of 1860, 32.
+
+[32] Ibid., 39.
+
+[33] Ibid., 40.
+
+[34] Josiah Quincy, History of Harvard University, i. 44-54.
+
+[35] Ibid., 65, 200.
+
+[36] Josiah Quincy, in the seventh chapter of his History, gives a detailed
+     account of this movement. It is also dealt with by Brooks Adams in his
+     chapter on the founding of the Brattle Street Church, in his
+     Emancipation of Massachusetts, though he gives it a somewhat
+     exaggerated and biassed importance. Most of the facts appear in
+     Lothrop's History of the Brattle Street Church.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+
+THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY IN THE CHURCHES.
+
+From the moment when the Puritan control of the church and state in New
+England was so far weakened as to permit of free intellectual and religious
+activity the democratic spirit began to manifest itself. The old régime had
+so fixed itself upon the people that the progress was slow, but none the
+less it was steady and sure. So far as the new spirit influenced doctrines,
+it was called Arminianism, the technical theological name for democracy in
+religion at this time.
+
+[Sidenote: Arminianism.]
+
+Arminianism is a dead issue at the present day, for the Calvinists have
+accepted all that it taught when the name first came into vogue. Every kind
+of reaction from Calvinism in the New England of the first half of the
+eighteenth century took this designation, however; and to the Calvinists it
+was a word of disapproval and contempt. Toleration, free inquiry, the use
+of reason, democratic methods in church and state, were all named by this
+condemning word. Vices, social depravities, love of freedom and the world,
+assertion of personal independence, had the same designation. It is now
+difficult to understand how bitter was the feeling thus produced, how keen
+the hurt that was given the men who tried to defend themselves and their
+beliefs from this odium.
+
+What the word "Arminian" legitimately meant, then, is what we now mean by
+liberalism. Primarily theological and doctrinal, it meant much more than
+the rejection of the doctrine of decrees and the autocratic sovereignty of
+God or the acceptance of the freedom of the will and the spiritual capacity
+of man. First of all, it was faith in man; and then it was the assertion of
+human liberty and equality. In a theological sense it did not have so wide
+a purport, but in a practical and popular sense it grew into these
+meanings.
+
+In order fully to comprehend what Arminianism was in the eighteenth
+century, the student must remember that it was the theological expression
+of the democratic spirit, as Calvinism was of the autocratic. The doctrine
+of the sovereignty of God is but the intellectual reflection of kingship
+and the belief that the king can do no evil. The doctrine of decrees, as
+taught by the Calvinist, was the spiritual side of the assertion of the
+divine right of kings. On the other hand, when the people claim the right
+to rule, they modify their theology into Arminianism. From an age of the
+absolute rule of the king comes the doctrine of human depravity; and with
+the establishment of democracy appears the doctrine of man's moral
+capacity.
+
+[Sidenote: The Growth of Arminianism.]
+
+As early as 1730 Arminianism had come to have an influence sufficient to
+secure its condemnation and to awaken the fears of the stricter Calvinists.
+Jonathan Edwards said of the year 1734 that "about this time began the
+great noise that was in this part of the country about Arminianism."[1] At
+Northampton the leader of the opposition to Jonathan Edwards was an open
+Arminian, a grandson of Solomon Stoddard, and a cousin of Edwards. He was a
+young man of talent and education, and well read in theology. In a letter
+written in 1750, Edwards said, "There seems to be the utmost danger that
+the younger generation will be carried away with Arminianism as with a
+flood." In another letter of the same year he said that "Arminianism and
+Pelagianism[2] have made a strange progress within a few years."[3] In
+his farewell sermon, Edwards spoke of the prevalence of Arminianism when he
+settled in Northampton, and of its rapid increase in the succeeding years.
+He said that Arminian views were creeping into almost all parts of the
+land, and that they were making a progress unknown before.[4] In a letter
+of 1752 Edwards said that the principles of John Taylor, of Norwich, one of
+the early English Unitarians, were gaining many converts in the colonies.
+Taylor's works were made use of by Solomon Williams in his reply to Edwards
+on the qualifications necessary to communion.[5]
+
+It was owing to the rapid growth of Arminianism that Edwards undertook his
+work on free will. In the preface to that work he said that "the term
+Calvinistic is, in these days, among most, a term of greater reproach than
+the term Arminian." That Edwards exaggerated the extent of this defection
+from Calvinism is probable, and yet it is very plain that it was this more
+liberal attitude of the Northampton church which caused his dismissal. What
+Stoddard had taught and practised was as yet powerful there, and Edwards's
+opposition to his grandfather's teachings undoubtedly led to the failure of
+his local work.
+
+[Sidenote: Robert Breck.]
+
+The council which dismissed Edwards from Northampton decided against him by
+a majority of one; and that one vote may have been cast by Robert Breck, of
+Springfield. If this were the case, there was something of poetic justice
+in it; for only a few years earlier Edwards had used his influence against
+the settlement of Breck because the latter was an Arminian. In 1734 a
+fierce church quarrel took place in Springfield, that involved many of the
+ministers of Massachusetts and Connecticut, invoked the aid of the county
+court, and was finally settled by the legislature of Massachusetts, when
+Mr. Breck was ordained.[6] He was charged with denying the authenticity of
+parts of the Bible, with discarding the necessity of Christ's satisfaction
+to divine justice for sin, with maintaining that the heathen who live up to
+the light of nature would be saved, and that the contrary doctrine was
+harsh. Breck refused to admit that he held these opinions, as thus stated;
+but he was regarded by many as an Arminian and a heretic. It was said of him
+that he would read any book, orthodox or otherwise, that would clear up a
+subject. That he departed to any considerable extent from the generally
+accepted faith of the time there is no evidence, but he was probably what
+was often called "a moderate Calvinist." He did not favor the methods of
+Whitefield, and he thoroughly distrusted the revival introduced by him.
+Soon after Breck's settlement the Springfield church followed the Brattle
+Street Church of Boston in discarding the relation of religious experiences
+as preliminary to admission to the church. It voted that it "did not look
+upon the making a relation to be a necessary term of communion."[7] At the
+very time that Edwards was preaching of the awful fate of sinners in the
+hands of an angry God, Breck was teaching that God is good and loving, and
+that his salvation is freely open to all who may wish for it. It has been
+truly said of these two men that "one had the heart and the other the
+intellect of theology." With all his logic and power of thought and
+marvellous spiritual insight, Edwards failed at Northampton because of
+conditions beyond the control of his strenuous will. Robert Breck gained
+year by year in his personal influence in Springfield, his cheerful and
+progressive teaching made a deep impression on the community, and before he
+died he saw a great change for the better in the people for whom he
+diligently labored. Perhaps we could not have a plainer indication of the
+change that was going on than is found in the experiences of these two
+men.[8]
+
+When Whitefield visited Harvard College in 1740, he was received in a most
+friendly manner; yet he afterwards criticised the teaching there on the
+ground that it was not sufficiently devout and earnest, and that the pupils
+were not examined as to their religious experiences.[9] These charges were
+denied by the president and tutors, and he was not again welcomed to the
+college.
+
+That there was a substantial basis for some of Whitefield's criticisms of
+Harvard there can be no doubt. In 1737, when Edward Holyoke was proposed as
+a candidate for the presidency, he met with a strong opposition from the
+strict Calvinists. After the opposition had spent itself, he was elected
+unanimously; and this act was received with marked approval by the General
+Court, from which body his maintenance was obtained. President Quincy says
+of President Holyoke that his religious principles coincided with the
+mildness and catholicity which characterized the government of the college.
+This evidently refers to the growing liberality of the college, and its
+unwillingness to lend its aid to extreme theological opinions. That
+moderateness of temper and that attitude of toleration which characterized
+the leading men in England had shown themselves at Cambridge, and with a
+strength that could not be overcome. "In Boston and its vicinity and along
+the seaboard of Massachusetts, clergymen of great talent and religious
+zeal," says President Quincy, "openly avowed doctrines which were variously
+denounced by the Calvinistic party as Arminianism, Arianism, Pelagianism,
+Socinianism, and Deism. The most eminent of these clergymen were alumni of
+Harvard, active friends and advocates of the institution, and in habits of
+intimacy and professional intercourse with its government. Their religious
+views, indeed, received no public countenance from the college; but
+circumstances gave color for reports, which were assiduously circulated
+throughout New England, that the influences of the institution were not
+unfavorable to the extension of such doctrines."[10]
+
+At the commencement of 1737 candidates for degrees proposed to prove that
+the doctrine of the Trinity was not contained in the Old Testament, that
+creation did not exist from eternity, and that religion is not mysterious
+in its nature. Much alarm was caused to the conservative party by the
+negative form given these questions, which, it was said, "had the plain
+face of Arianism." This criticism the faculty tried to quiet, but their
+sympathies were evidently on the side of the graduates.[11] In 1738, when a
+professor of mathematics was chosen, it was proposed to examine him as to
+"his principles of religion"; but, after a long debate, this proposition
+was rejected. After these and other efforts to control the religious
+position of the college the strict Calvinists for the time withdrew their
+efforts and concentrated them upon Yale College, in which institution the
+faculty were now required for the first time to accept the Assembly's
+Catechism and Confession of Faith.
+
+When the legislature of Connecticut, during the great awakening, passed a
+law prohibiting ministers from preaching as itinerants, several of the
+members of the Senior Class subscribed the money necessary for the
+publication of an edition of Locke's essay On Toleration. When this was
+known to the faculty, they forbade the publication; and all the students
+apologized but one, who learned a few days before commencement that his
+name was to be dropped from the roll of graduates. He went to the faculty
+with the statement that he was of age, that he possessed ample means, and
+that he would carry his case to a hearing before the crown in England. In a
+few days he was quietly informed that he would be permitted to graduate.
+This is but a straw, and yet it shows clearly enough the direction of the
+current at this time. A demand for toleration was made because it was felt
+that there was a need for it.
+
+[Sidenote: Books Read by Liberal Men.]
+
+The names of no less than thirty-three ministers have been given who,
+during the period from 1730 to 1750, did not teach the Calvinistic
+doctrines in their fulness, and who had adopted more or less distinctly
+some form of Arminianism or Arianism. These men were among the best known,
+most successful, and most scholarly men in Eastern Massachusetts, though
+they were not wholly confined to that neighborhood. We find here and there
+some hint of the books these men read; and in that way we not only
+ascertain the cause of their departure from Calvinism, but we also obtain
+some clew to the nature of their opinions. Among the charges brought by
+Whitefield against Harvard in 1740 was that "Tillotson and Clarke are read
+instead of Shepard and Stoddard, and such like evangelical writers."[12]
+Dr. Wigglesworth, the divinity professor at Harvard, said that Tillotson
+had not been taken out of the college library in nine years, and Clarke not
+in two; and he gave a long list of evangelical writers who were frequently
+read. In spite of this disclaimer, however, it is evident that the methods
+of the rationalistic writers were coming into vogue at Harvard, and that
+even Dr. Wigglesworth did not teach theology in the manner of the author of
+the Day of Doom.
+
+Writing in 1759, Dr. Joseph Bellamy, one of the chief followers and
+expositors of the teachings of Jonathan Edwards, said that the teachings of
+the liberal men in England had crossed the Atlantic; "and too many in our
+churches, and even among our ministers, have fallen in with them. Books
+containing them have been imported; and the demand for them has been so
+great as to encourage new impressions of some of them. Others have been
+written on the same principles in this country, and even the doctrine of
+the Trinity has been publicly treated in such a manner as all who believe
+that doctrine must judge not only heretical, but highly blasphemous."[13]
+
+It is said of Charles Chauncy, of the First Church in Boston, that his
+favorite authors were Tillotson and Baxter.[14] Far more suggestive is the
+account we have of the books read by Jonathan Mayhew of the West Church in
+Boston, the first open antagonist of Calvinism in New England. Soon after
+1740 he was reading the works of the great Protestant theologians of the
+seventeenth century, including Milton, Chillingworth, and Tillotson; and
+the eighteenth-century works of Locke, Samuel Clarke, Taylor, Wollaston,
+and Whiston. He also probably read Cudworth, Butler, Hutcheson, Leland, and
+other authors of a like character, some of them deists. Not one of these
+writers was a Calvinist for they found the basis of religion either in
+idealism or in rationalism.
+
+The biographer of Mayhew says it "is evident from some of his discourses
+that he was a great admirer of Samuel Clarke, whose voluminous works were
+in his day much read by the liberal clergy." Clarke's Boyle lectures,
+delivered in 1704-5, showed that natural and revealed religion were
+essentially one, that moral action in man is free, and that Christianity is
+the religion of reason and nature. At a later period he defended the two
+propositions, that "no article of Christian faith delivered in the holy
+Scriptures is disagreeable to right reason," and that "without liberty of
+human actions there can be no real religion or morality." Even if one such
+man as Jonathan Mayhew read Clarke's work in the Harvard Library, it
+justified the alarm felt by Whitefield lest the students should be led away
+from their Calvinist faith.[15]
+
+[Sidenote: The Great Awakening.]
+
+It was "the great awakening" that showed how marked had been the growth of
+liberal opinions throughout New England in the forty years preceding.
+Silently, a great change had gone on, with little open expression of
+dissent from Calvinism, and without a knowledge on the part of most of the
+liberal men that they had in any way departed from the faith of the
+fathers. It was only with the coming of Whitefield and the revival that
+this change came to have recognition, and that even the slightest
+separation into parties took place.
+
+The revival was an attempt to reintroduce the stricter Calvinism of the
+earlier time, with its doctrines of justification by faith alone,
+supernatural regeneration, and predestination made known to the believer by
+the Holy Ghost. The liberal party objected to the revival because it was
+opposed to the good old customs of the Congregational churches of New
+England. The itinerant methods of the revivalists, the shriekings,
+faintings, and appeals to fear and terror, were condemned as not in harmony
+with the established methods of the churches. In his book against the
+revivalists, Dr. Chauncy said that "now is the time when we are
+particularly called to stand for the good old way, and bear testimony
+against everything that may tend to cast a blemish on true primitive
+Christianity."[16]
+
+When the great awakening came to an end, the liberal party was far stronger
+than before, partly because the members of it had come to know each other
+and to feel their own power, partly because men had been led to declare
+themselves who had never before perceived their own position, and partly
+because the agitation had set men to thinking, and to making such scrutiny
+of their beliefs as they had never made before. The testimonies of Harvard
+College and various associations of ministers against the methods of the
+revivalists were signed by sixty-three men, while those in favor of the
+revival were signed by one hundred and ten. These numbers represent the
+comparative strength of the two parties. It must be said, however, that the
+leading men in nearly every part of New England were among those opposing
+the revival methods, while in Eastern Massachusetts at least two-thirds of
+the ministers were of the liberal party.[17]
+
+The strong feeling caused by the revival soon subsided, and no division
+between the Calvinist and the Arminian parties took place. The progressive
+tendencies went quietly on, step by step the old beliefs were discarded;
+but it was by individuals, and not in any form as a sectarian movement. The
+relations of the church to the state at this time would have made such a
+result impossible.
+
+[Sidenote: Cardinal Beliefs of the Liberals.]
+
+Looking over the whole field of the theological advance from 1725 to 1760,
+we find that three conclusions had been arrived at by the men of the
+liberal movement. The first of these was that what they stood for as a body
+was a recovery and restoration of primitive Christianity in its simplicity
+and power. It was said of Dr. Mayhew by his biographer that he "was a great
+advocate of primitive Christianity, and zealously contended for the faith
+once delivered to the saints."
+
+The second opinion, to which they gave frequent utterance, was that the
+Bible is a divine revelation, the true source of all religious teaching,
+and the one sufficient creed for all men. In his sermon against the
+enthusiasm of the revivalists, Chauncy said that a true test of all
+religious excitement, and of every kind of new teachings, was to be found
+in their "regard to the Bible, and its acknowledgment that the things
+therein contained are the commandments of God." "Keep close to the
+Scripture," was his admonition to his congregation, "and admit of nothing
+for an impression of the spirit but what agrees with that unerring rule.
+Fix it in your minds as a truth you will invariably abide by, that the
+Bible is the grand test by which everything in religion is to be tried."
+
+The third position of the men of the liberal movement was that Christ is
+the only means of salvation, and they yielded to him unquestioning loyalty
+and faith. Turning away from the creeds of men, as they did in so far as
+they could see their way, they concentrated their convictions upon Christ,
+and found in him the spiritual and vital centre of all faith that lives
+with true power to help men. Mayhew held that God could not have forgiven
+men their sins without the atonement of Christ, for his life and his gospel
+are the means of the great reconciliation by which man and God are brought
+into harmony with each other.
+
+[Sidenote: Publications defining the Liberal Beliefs.]
+
+In three publications may be seen what the Arminians had to teach that was
+opposed to Calvinism. In 1744 appeared in Boston a book of two hundred and
+eight pages by Rev. Experience Mayhew, one of a devoted family of
+missionaries to the Indians of Martha's Vineyard. He called his book "Grace
+Defended, in a Modest Plea for an important Truth: namely, that the offer
+of Salvation made to sinners comprises in it an offer of the Grace given in
+Regeneration." Mr. Mayhew claimed that he was a Calvinist, yet he rejected
+the teaching that every act of the unregenerate person is equal in the
+sight of God to the worst sin, and claimed that even the sinner can live so
+well and so justly as to favor his being accepted of God. Mayhew maintained
+that Christ died for all men, not for the elect only.[18] He claimed that
+"God cannot be truly said to offer salvation to sinners without offering to
+them whatsoever is necessary on his part, in order to their salvation."[19]
+Mayhew was usually credited with being an Arminian; for he positively
+rejected the doctrine of election, and he defended the principle of human
+freedom in the most affirmative manner.
+
+In 1749 Lemuel Briant (or Bryant), the minister in that part of Braintree
+which became the town of Quincy, published a sermon which he entitled The
+Absurdity and Blasphemy of Depreciating Moral Virtue. It condemned reliance
+on Christ's merits without effort to live his life, and showed that it is
+the duty of the Christian to live righteously. Briant said that to hold any
+other view was hurtful and blasphemous. He claimed that "the great rule the
+Scriptures lay down for men to go by in passing judgment on their spiritual
+state is the sincere, upright, steady, and universal practice of virtue."
+"To preach up chiefly what Christ himself laid the stress upon (and whether
+this was not moral virtue let every one judge from his discourses) must
+certainly, in the opinion of all sober men, be called truly and properly,
+and in the best sense, preaching of Christ."
+
+A pamphlet of thirty pages appeared in 1757, written by Samuel Webster, the
+minister of Salisbury, with the title "A Winter Evening's Conversation upon
+the doctrine of Original Sin, wherein the notion of our having sinned in
+Adam, and being on that account only liable to eternal Damnation, is proved
+to be Unscriptural." It is in the form of a dialogue between a minister and
+three of his parishioners, and gives, as few other writings of the
+eighteenth century do, a clear and explicit statement of the author's
+opinions in a readable and interesting form. That all have sinned in Adam
+the minister pronounces "a very shocking doctrine." "What! make them first
+to open their eyes in torment, and all this for a sin which certainly they
+had no hand in,--a sin which, if it comes upon them at all, certainly is
+without any fault or blame on their parts, for they had no hand in
+receiving it!" That Adam is our federal head, and that we sinned because he
+sinned, he calls "a mere castle in the air." "Sin and guilt are personal
+things as much as knowledge. I can as easily conceive of one man's
+knowledge being imputed to another as of his sins being so. No imputation
+in either case can make the thing to be mine which is not mine any more
+than one person may be another person." He declares that this doctrine of
+imputation causes infidelity. "It naturally leads men into every
+dishonorable thought of God which gives a great and general blow to
+religion." It impeaches the holiness of God, "for it supposes him to make
+millions sinners by his decree of imputation, who would otherwise have been
+innocent." That it was his decree alone "that made all Adam's posterity
+sinners is the very essence of this doctrine." "And so Christians are
+guilty of holding what even heathen would blush at." That God "should
+pronounce a sentence by which myriads of infants, as blameless as helpless,
+were consigned over to blackness of darkness to be tormented with fire and
+brimstone forever, is not consistent with infinite goodness." "How
+dreadfully is God dishonored by such monstrous representations as these!"
+Such a being cannot be loved by us, for every heart rebels against it. "All
+descriptions of the Divine Being which represent him in an unamiable light
+do the greatest hurt to religion that can be, as they strike at love, which
+is the fulfilling of the law. I am persuaded that many of those who think
+they believe this doctrine do not really believe it, or else they do not
+consider how it represents their heavenly Father." The pamphlet concludes
+with the acceptance of this broader teaching by the parishioners, but it
+was the cause of controversy in pulpits and by means of pamphlets. Bellamy
+denied the teachings of Webster, and Chauncy defended them. So bold a
+pamphlet as this showed how men had come to reason without compromise about
+the old doctrines, and gave evidence that the growing spirit of humanity
+would no longer accept what was harsh and cruel.
+
+[Sidenote: Phases of Religious Progress.]
+
+The New England churches were thus not standing still as regards doctrines,
+moral conduct, the methods of worship, or the relations they held to the
+state; but step by step they were moving away from the methods and the
+ideas of the fathers. The "lining out" of hymns was slowly abandoned, and
+singing by note took its place. The agitation that followed this attempt at
+reform was great and wide-spread. The introduction of an organized and
+trained choir was also in the nature of a genuine reform. When the liberal
+Thomas Brattle offered an organ to the new church in Brattle Street, it was
+voted "that they do not think it proper to use the same in the public
+worship of God." The instrument was, however, accepted by King's Chapel;
+and an organist was secured from London. It was not until 1770 that the
+church in Providence procured an organ, the first used in a Congregational
+church in New England.
+
+When Dr. Jonathan Mayhew died, in 1766, Dr. Chauncy prayed at his funeral;
+and this was said to have been the first prayer ever made at a funeral in
+Boston, so strong was the Puritan dislike of the customs of the Catholic
+Church.[20] In this way, as well as in others, the new liberalism broke
+down the old customs, and introduced those with which we are familiar.
+Perhaps the most marked tendency of this kind was the introduction of the
+reading of the Bible into the services of the churches as a part of the
+order of worship. This innovation was distinctly due to the liberal men and
+the high esteem in which they held the Scriptures as a means of giving
+sobriety and reasonableness to their religion. The First Church in Boston,
+in May, 1730, voted that the reading of the Scriptures, instead of the old
+Puritan way of expounding them, be thereafter discretionary with the
+ministers of that church, but "that the mind of the church is that larger
+portions should be publicly read than has been used."[21] As we have seen,
+the Brattle Street Church had already led in this reform, having adopted
+this practice in 1699. This custom of reading the Bible as a part of the
+service of worship came slowly into general acceptance, for there was a
+strong feeling against it. When a Bible was presented to the parish in
+Mendon, in 1767, a serious commotion resulted because of the strong feeling
+against the Church of England then prevalent; and the donor gave it to the
+minister until such time as the church might wish to use it. It was as late
+as 1785 that a copy of the Bible was given to the First Church in Dedham,
+with the request that the reading of it should be made a part of the
+exercises of the Lord's day; and the parish instructed the minister to read
+such portions of it as he thought "most desirable" and of "such length as
+the several seasons of the year and other circumstances" might render
+proper. In the West Church of Medway it was not until 1806 that this
+practice was established, and two of the Salem churches began it the same
+year. The reading of the Bible at ordination services did not become
+customary until an even later date.[22]
+
+Such are some of the practical innovations which accompanied the doctrinal
+development that was taking place. Liberality in one direction brought
+toleration and progress in others. Some of these changes were due to the
+fact that the prejudices against the Catholic Church and the Church of
+England had, in a measure, disappeared, because there was nothing to keep
+them alive. Others were due to the intellectual influences that came into
+the colonies from England. Still others resulted from the shifting
+relations of church and state, and were the effect of attempts to adjust
+those relations more satisfactorily.
+
+[1] Narrative of Surprising Conversions, edition of 1808, 13.
+
+[2] Denial of original sin, from Pelagius, an ascetic preacher of the
+    fifth century.
+
+[3] Dwight, Life of Edwards, 307, 336, 410, 413.
+
+[4] Ibid., 649.
+
+[5] Ibid., 495.
+
+[6] Green, History of Springfield.
+
+[7] Ibid., 255.
+
+[8] E.H. Byington, The Puritan in England and New England, devotes a
+    chapter to the controversy over Breck's settlement; but he does not
+    treat of the theological problems involved.
+
+[9] Whitefield's Seventh Journal, 28.
+
+[10] History of Harvard University, 52.
+
+[11] History of Harvard University, 23, 26.
+
+[12] Whitefield's Journal, seventh part, 28.
+
+[13] Historical Magazine, new series, IX. 227, April, 1871.
+
+[14] W.B. Sprague, Annals of the Unitarian Pulpit, II.
+
+[15] Levi L. Paine, A Critical History of the Evolution of Trinitarianism,
+     99. "Samuel Clarke and others took the ground that God is unipersonal,
+     and hence that the Son is a distinct personal being, distinguishing
+     God the Father as the absolute Deity from the Son whom they regarded
+     as God in a relative or secondary sense, being derived from the
+     Father, and having his beginning from Him."
+
+[16] Seasonable Thoughts, 337.
+
+[17] Alden Bradford, in his Memoir of the Life and Writings of Rev.
+     Jonathan Mayhew, D.D., gives a list of "the clergymen who openly
+     opposed or did not teach and advocate the Calvinistic doctrines" at
+     the time of Mayhew's ordination, in 1747. These were: Dr. Appleton,
+     Cambridge; Dr. Gay, Hingham; Dr. Chauncy, Boston; William Rand,
+     Kingston; Nathaniel Eelles, Scituate; Edward Barnard, Haverhill;
+     Samuel Cooke, West Cambridge (now Arlington); Jeremiah Fogg,
+     Kensington, N.H.; Dr. A. Eliot, Boston; Dr. Samuel Webster, Salisbury;
+     Lemuel Briant, Braintree; Dr. Stevens, Kittery, Me.; Dr. Tucker,
+     Newbury; Timothy Harrington, Lancaster; Dr. Gad Hitchcock, Pembroke;
+     Josiah Smith, Pembroke; William Smith, Weymouth; Dr. Daniel Shute,
+     Hingham; Dr. Samuel Cooper, Boston; Dr. Mayhew, Boston; Abraham
+     Williams, Sandwich; Anthony Wibird, Braintree (now Quincy); Dr.
+     Cushing, Waltham; Professor Wigglesworth, Harvard College; Dr. Symmes,
+     Andover; Dr. John Willard, Connecticut; Amos Adams, Roxbury; Dr.
+     Barnes, Scituate; Charles Turner, Duxbury; Dr. Dana Wallingford,
+     Conn.; Ebenezer Thayer, Hampton, N.H.; Dr. Fiske, Brookfield; Dr.
+     Samuel West, Dartmouth (now New Bedford); Dr. Hemenway, Wells. Among
+     those who took part in the ordination of Jonathan Mayhew, and
+     therefore presumably of the same theological opinions, were Hancock,
+     Lexington; Cotton, Newton; Cooke, Sudbury; Prescott, Danvers (now
+     Salem). To these may be added, says Bradford, though of a somewhat
+     later date: Dr. Coffin, Buxton; Drs. Howard, West, Lathrop, and
+     Belknap, Boston; Dr. Henry Cummings, Billerica; Dr. Deane, Portland;
+     Thomas Cary, Newburyport; Dr. Fobes, Raynham; Timothy Hilliard,
+     Cambridge; Thomas Haven, Reading; Dr. Willard, Beverly. Dr. Ezra
+     Ripley added the names of Hedge, of Warwick, and Foster, of Stafford.
+     This makes fifty-two in all, but probably as many more could be added
+     by careful search.
+
+[18] Grace Defended, 43.
+
+[19] Ibid., 60.
+
+[20] Alice Morse Earle, Customs and Fashions in Old New England, 364, 367.
+     See H.M. Dexter, Congregationalism as seen in its Literature, 458.
+
+[21] A.B. Ellis, History of the First Church in Boston, 199.
+
+[22] New England Magazine, February, 1899. A.H. Coolidge on Scripture
+     Reading in the Worship of the New England Churches.
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+
+THE SILENT ADVANCE OF LIBERALISM.
+
+The progressive tendencies went silently on; and step by step the old
+beliefs were discarded, but always by individuals and churches, and not by
+associations or general official action. Even before the middle of the
+eighteenth century there was not only a questioning of the doctrine of
+divine decrees, the conception that God elects some to bliss and some to
+perdition in accordance with his own arbitrary will, but there was also
+developing a tendency to reject the tritheism[1] which in New England took
+the place of a philosophical conception of the Trinity, such as had been
+held by the great thinkers of the Christian ages. In part this doubt about
+the Trinity was the result of a more thoughtful study of the Bible, where
+the doctrine taught by the leading theologians of the old school in New
+England does not appear; and in part it was the result of the reading of
+the works of the English divines of the more liberal school. Something of
+this tendency was also due to the spirit of free inquiry, and the rational
+interpretation of religion, that were beginning to make themselves felt
+amongst those not wholly committed to the old ways of thinking.
+
+It was characteristic of those who questioned the doctrine of the Trinity,
+as then taught, that they insisted on stating their beliefs in the language
+of the New Testament, especially in that of Jesus himself. They found him
+teaching his own dependence on his Father, claiming for himself only an
+inferior and subordinate position. Believing in his pre-existence, his
+supernatural character and mission, they held that he was the creator of
+the world or that creation took place by means of the spirit that was in
+him, and that every honor should be paid him except that of worshipping him
+as the Supreme Being. As in the ancient family the son was always
+subordinate to his father, so the Son of God presented in the New Testament
+is less exalted than his Father. This conception of Christ is technically
+called Arianism, from the Alexandrian presbyter of the fourth century who
+first brought it into prominence.
+
+[Sidenote: Subordinate Nature of Christ.]
+
+The Arian heresy did not necessarily follow the Arminian, but much the same
+causes led to its appearance. Many of the leading men in England had become
+Arians, including Milton, Locke, Taylor, Clarke, Watts, and others; and the
+reading of their books in New England led to an inquiry into the
+truthfulness of the doctrine of the Trinity. As early as 1720 the preachers
+of convention and election sermons were insisting upon a recognition of
+Christ in the old way, showing that they were suspicious of heresy.[2]
+Most of the Arians retained the other doctrines in which they had been
+educated, even putting a stronger emphasis upon them than before. Rarely
+was the subordinate nature of Christ made in any way prominent in
+preaching. It was held so strictly subsidiary to the cardinal doctrines of
+incarnation and atonement that only the most intelligent and watchful could
+detect any difference between those who were Arians and those who were
+strict Trinitarians. Now and then a man of more pronounced convictions and
+utterance was shunned by his ministerial neighbors, but this rarely
+occurred and had little practical effect. So long as a preacher gave
+satisfaction to his own congregation, and had behind him the voters and the
+tax-list of his town, his heresies were passed by with only comment and
+gossip.
+
+We find here and there definite indications of the doctrinal changes that
+were taking place, as in the republication of Emlyn's Humble Inquiry into
+the Scripture Account of Jesus Christ, which appeared in Boston in 1756.
+Thomas Emlyn, the first English preacher who called himself a Unitarian,
+published his Humble Inquiry in 1702; and in 1705 he established a
+Unitarian congregation in London. This distinctively Unitarian book made an
+able defence of the doctrine of the subordinate nature of Christ. More
+significant than the republication of the book itself was the preface
+written for it by a Boston layman, addressed to the ministers of the town,
+in which he said that he found its teaching "to be the true, plain,
+unadulterated doctrine of the Gospel." He also intimated that "many of his
+brethren of the laity in the town and country were in sympathy with him and
+sincerely desirous of knowing the truth." "In New Hampshire Province,"
+wrote Dr. Joseph Bellamy, in 1760, "this party have actually, three years
+ago, got things so ripe that they have ventured to new model our Shorter
+Catechism, to alter or entirely leave out the doctrine of the Trinity, of
+the decrees, of our first parents being created holy, of original sin,
+Christ satisfying divine justice, effectual calling, justification,
+etc."[3]
+
+[Sidenote: Some of the Liberal Leaders.]
+
+The farther advance in the liberal movement may be most easily traced in
+the lives and teachings of three or four men. Rev Ebenezer Gay, who was
+settled in Hingham in 1717, was the first man in New England to arrive at a
+clear statement of opinions quite outside of and distinct from Calvinism.
+Writing of the years from 1750 to 1755, John Adams said that at that time
+Lemuel Briant, of Braintree, Jonathan Mayhew, of the West Church in Boston,
+Daniel Shute, of Hingham, John Brown, of Cohasset, and perhaps equal to
+all, if not above all, Ebenezer Gay, of Hingham, were Unitarians.[4] The
+rapid sale of Emlyn's book would prove the truthfulness of this statement.
+It was not by any sudden process that these men had come to what may be
+called Unitarianism, though, more properly, Arianism; and not as a mere
+result of a reaction from Calvinism. A new time had come, and with it new
+hopes and thoughts. The burdening sense of the spiritual world that
+belonged to the men of the seventeenth century did not belong to those of
+the eighteenth. Men had come to see that God must manifest himself in
+reason, common sense, nature, and the facts of life.
+
+In the life and teachings of such a man as Ebenezer Gay we catch a new
+insight into the spirit that was active in New England throughout the
+eighteenth century for the realization of a larger faith. He was a man of a
+strong, original, vigorous nature, a born leader of men, and one who
+impressed his own character upon those with whom he came into contact. He
+opposed the revival, and he made the men of his own association think with
+him in their opposition to it. Years before the revival, however, he was a
+liberal in theology, and had found his way into Arminianism. With the
+spirit of free inquiry he was in fullest sympathy. He was strongly opposed
+to creeds and to all written articles of faith. He condemned in the most
+forcible terms the young man who, on the occasion of his ordination,
+"engages to preach according to a rule of faith, creed, or confession which
+is merely of human prescription or imposition." In his convention sermon of
+1746 he denounced those who "insist upon the offensive peculiarities of the
+party they espoused rather than upon the more mighty things in which we are
+all agreed." It has been said of him that, after the middle of the century,
+"his discourses will be searched in vain for any discussions of
+controversial theology, any advocacy of the peculiar doctrines regarded as
+orthodox, or the expression of any opinions at variance with those of his
+successor, Dr. Ware."[5]
+
+The sermon on Natural Religion as distinguished from Revealed, which Dr.
+Gay delivered as the Dudleian lecture at Harvard, in 1759, showed the
+reasonable and progressive spirit of his preaching. He claimed that there
+is no antagonism between natural and revealed religion, and that, while
+revealed religion is an addition to the natural, it is not built on the
+ruins, but on the everlasting foundations of it. Revelation can teach
+nothing contrary to natural religion or to the dictates of reason. "No
+doctrine or scheme of religion," he said, "should be advanced or received
+as Scriptural and divine which is plainly and absolutely inconsistent with
+the perfections of God, and the possibility of things. Absurdities and
+contradictions, are not to be obtruded upon our faith. No pretence of
+revelation can be sufficient for the admission of them. The manifest
+absurdity of any doctrine is a stronger argument that it is not of God than
+any other evidence can be that it is."
+
+Jonathan Mayhew, the son of Experience Mayhew, of Martha's Vineyard, was
+settled over the West Church of Boston in 1747. He was even then known as a
+heretic, who had read the most liberal books of the English philosophers
+and theologians, and who had boldly accepted their opinions as his own. On
+the occasion of his ordination not one of the Boston ministers was present,
+although a number of them were well known for their liberal opinions. The
+ordination was postponed, and later several men of remoter parishes joined
+in inducting this young independent into his pulpit. No Boston minister
+would exchange pulpits with him, and he was not invited to join the
+ministerial association. He was shunned by the ministers, and he was
+dreaded by the orthodox; but he was gladly heard by a large congregation,
+which grew in numbers and intelligence as the years went on. He had among
+his hearers many of the leading men of the town, and to him gathered those
+who were most thoughtful and progressive. Boston has never had in any of
+its pulpits a man of nobler, broader, more humane qualities, or one with a
+mind more completely committed to seeking and knowing the truth, or with a
+more unflinching purpose to speak his own mind without fear or favor. His
+influence was soon powerfully felt in the town, and his name came to stand
+for liberty in politics as well as in religion. His sermons were rapidly
+printed and distributed widely. They were read in every part of New England
+with great eagerness; they were reprinted in England, and brought him a
+large correspondence from those who admired and approved of his teaching.
+Though he died in 1766, at the age of forty-six, his work and his influence
+did not die with him.
+
+The cardinal thought of Jonathan Mayhew with reference to religion was that
+of free inquiry. Diligent and free examination of all questions, he felt,
+was necessary to any acquisition of the truth. He believed in liberty and
+toleration everywhere, and this made him accept in the fullest sense the
+doctrine of the freedom of the will. In man he found a self-determining
+power, the source of his moral and intellectual freedom. He said that we
+are more certain of the fact that we are free than we are of the truth of
+Christianity. This belief led him to the rejection of the Calvinistic
+doctrine of inability, and to a strong faith in the moral and spiritual
+possibilities of human nature. He described Christianity as "a practical
+science, the art of living piously and virtuously."[6] He had quite freed
+his mind from bondage to creeds when he said that, "how much soever any man
+may be mistaken in opinion concerning the terms of salvation, yet if he is
+practically in the right there is no doubt but he will be accepted of
+God."[7] He held that no speculative error, however great, is sufficient
+to exclude a good and upright man from the kingdom of heaven, who lives
+according to the genuine spirit of the gospel. To him the principle of
+grace was always a principle of goodness and holiness; and he held that
+grace can never be operative as a saving power without obedience to that
+righteousness and love which Christ taught as essential.[8] He declared
+that "the doctrine that men may obtain salvation without ceasing to do evil
+and learning to do well, without yielding a sincere obedience to the laws
+of Christianity, is not so properly called a doctrine of grace as it is a
+doctrine of devils."[9] He said, again, that we cannot be justified by a
+faith that is without obedience; for it is obedience and good works that
+give to faith all its life, efficacy, and perfection.[10]
+
+[Sidenote: The First Unitarian.]
+
+Dr. Mayhew accepted without equivocation the right of private judgment in
+religion, and he practised it judicially and with wise insight. He
+unhesitatingly applied the rational method to all theological problems, and
+to him reason was the final court of appeal for everything connected with
+religion. His love of freedom was enthusiastic and persistent, and he was
+zealously committed to the principle of individuality. He believed in the
+essential goodness of human nature, and in the doctrine of the Divine
+Unity. He was the first outspoken Unitarian in New England, not merely
+because he rejected the doctrine of the Trinity, but because he accepted
+all the cardinal principles developed by that movement since his day. He
+was a rationalist, an individualist, a defender of personal freedom, and
+tested religious practices by the standard of common sense. His sermons
+were plain, direct, vigorous, and modern. A truly religious man, Mayhew
+taught a practical and humanitarian religion, genuinely ethical, and
+faithful in inculcating the motive of civic duty.
+
+Dr. Mayhew's words may be quoted in regard to some of the religious beliefs
+commonly accepted in his day. "The doctrine of a total ignorance and
+incapacity to judge of moral and religious truths brought upon mankind by
+the disobedience of our first parents," he wrote, "is without
+foundation."[11] "I hope it appears," he says, "that the love of God and of
+our neighbor, that sincere piety of heart, and a righteous, holy and
+charitable life, are the weightier matters of the gospel, as well as of the
+law."[12] "Although Christianity cannot," he asserts, "with any propriety
+or justice be said to be the same with natural religion, or merely a
+republication of the laws of nature, yet the principal, the most important
+and fundamental duties required by Christianity are, nevertheless, the same
+which were enjoined under the legal dispensation of Moses, and the same
+which are dictated by the light of nature."[13] His great love of
+intellectual and spiritual freedom finds utterance in such a statement as
+this: "Nor has any order or body of men authority to enjoin any particular
+article of faith, nor the use of any modes of worship not expressly pointed
+out in the Scriptures; nor has the enjoining of such articles a tendency to
+preserve the peace and harmony of the church, but directly the
+contrary."[14] Such sentences as the following are frequent on Mayhew's
+pages, and they show clearly the trend of his mind: "Free examination,
+weighing arguments for and against with care and impartiality, is the way
+to find truth." "True religion flourishes the more, the more people
+exercise their right of private judgment."[15] "There is nothing more
+foolish and superstitious than a veneration for ancient creeds and
+doctrines as such, and nothing is more unworthy a reasonable creature than
+to value principles by their age, as some men do their wines."[16]
+
+Mayhew insisted upon the strict unity of God, "who is without rival or
+competitor." "The dominion and sovereignty of the universe is necessarily
+one and in one, the only living and true God, who delegates such measures
+of power and authority to other beings as seemeth good in his sight." He
+declared that the not preserving of such unity and supremacy of God on the
+part of Christians "has long been just matter of reproach to them"; and he
+said the authority of Christ is always "exercised in subordination to God's
+will."[17] His position was that "the faith of Christians does not
+terminate in Christ as the ultimate object of it, but it is extended
+through him to the one God."[18] The very idea of a mediator implies
+subordination as essential to it.[19] His biographer says he did not accept
+the notion of vicarious suffering, and, that he was an Arian in his views
+of the nature of Christ. "He was the first clergyman in New England who
+expressly and openly opposed the scholastic doctrine of the Trinity.
+Several others declined pressing the Athanasian Creed, and believed
+strictly in the unity of God. They also probably found it difficult to
+explain their views on the subject, and the great danger of losing their
+good name served to prevent their speaking out. But Dr. Mayhew did not
+conceal or disguise his sentiments on this point any more than on others,
+such as the peculiar tenets of Calvinism. He explicitly and boldly declared
+the doctrine irrational, unscriptural, and directly contradictory."[20] He
+taught the strict unity of God as early as 1753, "in the most unequivocal
+and plain manner, in his sermons of that year."[21] What most excited
+comment and objection was that, in a foot-note to the volume of his sermons
+published in 1755, Mayhew said that a Catholic Council had elevated the
+Virgin Mary to the position of a fourth person in the Godhead, and added,
+by way of comment: "Neither Papists nor Protestants should imagine that
+they will be understood by others if they do not understand themselves. Nor
+should they think that nonsense and contradictions can ever be too sacred
+to be ridiculous." The ridicule here was not directed against the doctrine
+of the Trinity, as has been maintained, but the foolish defences of it made
+by men who accepted its "mysteries" as too wonderful for reason to deal
+with in a serious manner. This boldness of comment on the part of Mayhew
+was in harmony with his strong disapproval of creed-making in all its
+forms. He condemned creeds because they set up "human tests of orthodoxy
+instead of the infallible word of God, and make other terms of Christian
+communion than those explicitly pointed out by the Gospel."[22]
+
+Dr. Mayhew was succeeded in the West Church by Rev. Simeon Howard in 1767,
+who, though he was received in a more friendly spirit by the ministers of
+the town, was not less radical in his theology than his predecessor. Dr.
+Howard was both an Arminian and an Arian, and he was "a believer neither in
+the Trinity, nor in the divine predestination of total depravity, and
+necessary ruin to any human soul."[23] He was of a gentle and conciliatory
+temper, but his preaching was quite as thorough-going in its intellectual
+earnestness as was Dr. Mayhew's.
+
+[Sidenote: A Pronounced Universalist.]
+
+Another preacher on the liberal side was Dr. Charles Chauncy of the First
+Church in Boston, whose ministry lasted from 1727 to 1787. He was the most
+vigorous of the opponents of the great awakening, both in his pulpit and
+through the press. He wrote a book on certain French fanatics, with the
+purpose of showing what would be the natural results of the excesses of the
+revival; he preached a powerful sermon on enthusiasm, to indicate the
+dangers of religious excitement, when not controlled by common sense and
+reason; and he travelled throughout New England to gain all the information
+possible about the revival, its methods and results, and published his
+Seasonable Thoughts on the State of Religion in New England in 1743. He had
+been influenced by the reading of Taylor, Tillotson, Clarke, and the other
+latitudinarian and rationalistic writers of England; and he found the
+revival in its excesses repugnant to his every thought of what was true and
+devout in religion.
+
+Dr. Chauncy was not an eloquent preacher; but he was clear, earnest, and
+honest. Many of his sermons were published, and his books numbered nearly a
+dozen. As early as 1739 he preached a sermon in favor of religious
+toleration. At a later period he said, "It is with me past all doubt that
+the religion of Jesus will never be restored to its primitive purity,
+simplicity, and glory, until religious establishments are so brought down
+as to be no more."[24] It was this conviction which made him oppose in his
+pulpit and in two or three books the effort that was made just before the
+Revolution to establish the English Church as the state form of religion in
+the colonies. He said, in 1767, that the American people would hazard
+everything dear to them--their estates, their lives--rather than suffer
+their necks to be put under the yoke of bondage to any foreign power in
+state or church.[25]
+
+In his early life Dr. Chauncy was an Arminian, but slowly he grew to the
+acceptance of distinctly Unitarian and Universalist doctrines. Near the end
+of his life he Published four or five books in which he advanced very
+liberal opinions. One of these, published in Boston in 1784, was on The
+Benevolence of the Deity fairly and impartially Considered. This book
+followed the same method and purpose as Butler's Analogy, and aimed to show
+that God has manifested his goodness in creation and in the life of man. He
+said that our moral self-determination, or free will, is our one great gift
+from God. He discussed the moral problems of life in order to prove the
+benevolence of God, maintaining that the goodness we see in him is of the
+same nature with goodness in ourselves. The year following he published a
+book on the Scriptural account of the Fall and its Consequences, in which
+he rejected the doctrine of total depravity, and interpreted the new birth
+as a result of education rather than of supernatural change. Thus he
+brought to full statement the logical result of the half-way covenant and
+the teachings of Solomon Stoddard, as well as of the connection of church
+and state in New England. He saw that the method of education is the only
+one that can justly be followed in the preparation of the young for
+admission to a church that is sustained in any direct way by the state.
+
+Dr. Chauncy's great work as a preacher and author[26] was brought to its
+close by his books in favor of universal salvation. In 1783-84 he published
+in Boston two anonymous pamphlets advocating the salvation of all men, and
+these pamphlets made no little stir. In 1784 he published in London a work
+which he called The Mystery hid from Ages and Generations, made manifest by
+the Gospel Revelation; or, The Salvation of All Men the Grand Thing aimed
+at in the Scheme of God: By One who wishes well to the whole Human Race. In
+this book Dr. Chauncy made an elaborate study of the New Testament, in
+order to prove that salvation is to be universal. Christ died for all,
+therefore all will be saved; because all have sinned in Adam, therefore all
+will be made alive in Christ. He looked to a future probation, to a long
+period after death, when the opportunity of salvation will be open to all.
+He maintained that the misery threatened against the wicked in Scripture is
+that of this intermediate state between the earthly life and the time when
+God shall be all in all. He held that sin will be punished hereafter in
+proportion to depravity, and that none will be saved until they come into
+willing harmony with Christ, who will finally be able to win all men to
+himself, otherwise the power of God will be set at naught and his good will
+towards men frustrated of its purpose. In the future state of discipline,
+punishment will be inflicted with salutary effect, and thus the moral
+recovery of mankind will be accomplished.
+
+[Sidenote: Other Men of Mark.]
+
+Another leader was Dr. Samuel West, of Dartmouth, now New Bedford, where he
+was settled in 1760, and where he preached for more than forty years.[27]
+He rejected the doctrines of fore-ordination, election, total depravity,
+and the Trinity. In preaching the election sermon of 1776, he took the
+ground of an undisguised rationalism. "A revelation," he said, "pretending
+to be from God, that contradicts any part of natural laws ought immediately
+to be rejected as imposture; for the deity cannot make a law contrary to
+the law of nature without acting contrary to himself,--a thing in the
+strictest sense impossible, for that which implies contradiction is not an
+object of Divine Power." The cardinal idea of West's; position, as of that
+of most of the liberal men of his time, was stated by him in one sentence,
+when he said, "To preach Christ is to preach the whole system of divinity,
+as it consists of both natural and revealed religion."[28]
+
+In 1751 Rev. Thomas Barnard, of Newbury, was dismissed from his parish
+because he was regarded as unconverted by the revivalistic portion of his
+congregation; and in 1755 he was settled over the First Church in Salem. He
+was an Arminian, and at the same time an Arian of the school of Samuel
+Clarke. His son Thomas was settled over the North Church of Salem in 1773,
+which church was organized especially for him by his admirers in the First
+Church. He followed in the theological opinions of his father, but probably
+became somewhat more pronounced in his Arian views, so that, after his
+death, Dr. Channing called him a Unitarian. It is not surprising that the
+younger Barnard should have been liberal in his opinions and spirit, when
+we find his theological instructor, Rev. Samuel Williams, at his
+ordination, saying to him in the sermon preached on that occasion, "Be of
+no sect or party but that of good men, and to all such (whatever their
+differences among themselves) let your heart be opened." On another similar
+occasion Mr. Williams said that it had always been his advice to examine
+with caution and modesty, "but with the greatest freedom all religious
+matters."[29] It was said of the younger Barnard that he believed "the
+final salvation of no man depended upon the belief or disbelief of those
+speculative opinions about which men, equally learned and pious, differ."
+When it was said to him by one of his parishioners, "Dr. Barnard, I never
+heard you preach a sermon upon the Trinity," the reply was, "And you never
+will."[30]
+
+In 1779 Rev. John Prince was settled over the First Church in Salem, as the
+colleague of the elder Barnard. He was an Arian, but in no combative or
+dogmatic manner. He was a student, a lover of science, and an advanced
+thinker and investigator for his time. In 1787 he invited the Universalist,
+Rev. John Murray, into his pulpit, then an act of the greatest
+liberality.[31] Another lover of science, Rev. William Bentley, was settled
+over the East Church of Salem, as colleague to Rev. James Diman, in 1782.
+The senior pastor was a strict Calvinist, but the parish called as his
+colleague this young man of pronounced liberal views in theology. As early
+as 1784 Mr. Bentley was interested in the teachings of the English
+Unitarian, William Hazlitt,[32] who at that time visited New England. And
+in 1786 he was reading Joseph Priestley's book against the Trinity with
+approval. He soon after commended Dr. Priestley's short tracts as giving a
+good statement of the simple doctrines of Christianity.[33] He insisted
+upon free inquiry in religion from the beginning of his ministry, and not
+long after he began preaching he became substantially a Unitarian.[34] In
+1789 he maintained that "the full conviction of a future moral retribution"
+is "the great point of Christian faith."[35] It has been claimed that Mr.
+Bentley was the first minister in New England to take distinctly the
+Unitarian position, and there are good reasons for this understanding of
+his doctrinal attitude.[36] Dr. Bentley corresponded with scholars in
+Europe, as he also did with Arab chiefs in their own tongue. He knew of the
+religions of India, and he seems to have given them appreciative
+recognition. The shipmasters and foreign merchants of Salem, as they came
+in contact with the Oriental races and religions, discarded their dogmatic
+Christianity; and these men, almost without exception, were connected with
+the churches that became Unitarian. It may be accepted as a very
+interesting fact that "the two potent influences shaping the ancient
+Puritanism of Salem into Unitarianism were foreign commerce and contact
+with the Oriental religions."[37]
+
+The formation of a second parish in Worcester, in 1785, was a significant
+step in the progress of liberal opinion. This was the first time when a
+town, outside of Boston, was divided into two parishes of the
+Congregational order on doctrinal grounds. On the death of the minister of
+the first parish several candidates were heard, and among them Rev. Aaron
+Bancroft, who was a pronounced Arminian and Arian. The majority preferred a
+Calvinist; but the more intelligent minority insisted upon the settlement
+of Mr. Bancroft,--a result they finally accomplished by the organization of
+a new parish. It was a severe struggle by which this result was brought
+about, every effort being made to defeat it; and for many years Mr.
+Bancroft was almost completely isolated in his religious opinions.[38]
+
+[Sidenote: The Second Period of Revivals.]
+
+It must not be understood that there was any marked separation in the
+churches as yet on doctrinal grounds. Calvinism was mildly taught, and
+ministers of all shades of opinion exchanged pulpits freely with each
+other. They met in ministerial associations, and in various duties of
+ordinations, councils, and other ecclesiastical gatherings. The preaching
+was practical, not doctrinal; and controverted subjects were for the most
+part not touched upon in the pulpits. About 1780, however, began a revival
+of Calvinism on the part of Drs. Bellamy, Emmons, Hopkins, and others; and
+especially did it take a strenuous form in the works of Samuel Hopkins. The
+New Divinity, as it was sometimes called, taught that unconditional
+submission to God is the duty of every human being, that we should be
+willing to be damned for the glory of God, and that the attitude of God
+towards men is one of unbounded benevolence. This newer Calvinism was full
+of incentives to missionary enterprise, and was zealous for the making of
+converts. Under the impulse of its greater enthusiasm there began, about
+1790, a series of revivals which continued to the middle of the nineteenth
+century. This was the second great period of revivalism in New England. It
+was far better organized than the first one, while its methods were more
+systematic and under better guidance; and the results were great in the
+building of churches, in establishing missionary outposts, and in awakening
+an active religious life amongst the people. It aroused much opposition to
+the liberals, and it made the orthodox party more aggressive. Just as the
+great awakening developed opposition to the liberals of that day, and
+served to bring into view the two tendencies in the Congregational
+churches, so this new revival period accentuated the divergencies between
+those who believed in the deity of Christ and those who believed in his
+subordinate nature, and led to the first assuming of positions on both
+sides. There can be little doubt that it put a check upon the friendly
+spirit that had existed in the churches, and that it began a division which
+ultimately resulted in their separation into two denominations.[39]
+
+Such details of individual and local opinion as have here been given are
+all the more necessary because there was at this time no consensus of
+belief on the part of the more liberal men. Each man thought for himself,
+but he was very reluctant to depart from the old ways in ritual and
+doctrine; and if the ministers consulted with each other, and gave each
+other confidential assistance, there was certainly nothing in the way of
+public conference or of party assimilation and encouragement. A visitor to
+Boston in 1791 wrote of the ministers there that "they are so diverse in
+their sentiments that they cannot agree on any point in theology. Some are
+Calvinists, some Universalists, some Arminians, and one, at least, is a
+Socinian."[40] Another visitor, this time in 1801, found the range of
+opinions much wider. In all the ministers of Boston he found only one rigid
+Trinitarian; one was a follower of Edwards, several were Arminians, two
+were Socinians, one a Universalist, and one a Unitarian.[41] This writer
+says it was not difficult to find out what men did not believe, but there
+was as yet no public line of demarcation among the clergy. There being no
+outward pressure to bring men into uniformity, no institution or body of
+men with authority to require assent to a standard of orthodoxy, little
+attention was given to merely doctrinal interests. The position taken was
+that presented by Rev. John Tucker of Newbury, in the convention sermon of
+1768, when he said that no one has any right whatever to legislate in
+behalf of Christ, who alone has authority to fix the terms of the Gospel.
+He said that, as all believers and teachers of Christianity are "perfectly
+upon a level with one another, none of them can have any authority even to
+interpret the laws of this kingdom for others, so as to require their
+assent to such interpretation." He also declared that as "every Christian
+has and must have a right to judge for himself of the true sense and
+meaning of all gospel truths, no doctrines, therefore, no laws, no
+religious rites, no terms of acceptance with God or of admission to
+Christian privileges not found in the gospel, are to be looked upon by him
+as any part of this divine system, nor to be received and submitted to as
+the doctrines and laws of Christ."[42] Of Rev. John Prince, the minister
+of the First Church in Salem during the last years of the century, it was
+said that he never "preached distinctly upon any of the points of
+controversy which, in his day, agitated the New England churches."[43] The
+minister of Roxbury, Rev. Eliphalet Porter, said of the Calvinistic
+beliefs, that there was not one of them he considered "essential to the
+Christian faith or character."[44]
+
+[Sidenote: King's Chapel becomes Unitarian.]
+
+These quotations will indicate the liberty of spirit that existed in the
+New England churches of the later years of the eighteenth century,
+especially in the neighborhood of Boston, and along the seacoast; and also
+the diversity of opinion on doctrinal subjects among the ministers. It is
+impossible here to follow minutely the stages of doctrinal evolution, but a
+few dates and incidents will serve to indicate the several steps that were
+taken. The first of these was the settlement of Rev. James Freeman over
+King's Chapel in 1782, and his ordination by the congregation in 1787, the
+liturgy having been revised two years earlier to conform to the liberal
+opinions of the minister and people. These changes were brought about
+largely through the influence of Rev. William Hazlitt, the father of the
+essayist and critic of the same name, who had been settled over several of
+the smaller Unitarian churches in Great Britain. In the spring of 1783 he
+visited the United States, and spent several months in Philadelphia. He
+gave a course of lectures on the Evidences of Christianity in the college
+there, which were largely attended. He preached for several weeks in a
+country parish in Maryland, he had invitations to settle in Charleston and
+Pittsburg, and he had an opportunity to become the president of a college
+by subscribing to the doctrinal tests required, which he would not do; for
+"he would sooner die in a ditch than submit to human authority in matters
+of faith."[45] In June, 1784, he preached in the Brattle Street Church of
+Boston, and he anticipated becoming its minister; but his pronounced
+doctrinal position seems to have made that impossible. He also preached in
+Hingham, and some of the people there desired his settlement; but the aged
+Dr. Gay would not resign. It would appear that he preached for Dr. Chauncy,
+for Mr. Barnes in Salem, and also in several pulpits on Cape Cod. He gave
+in Boston his course of lectures on the Evidences of Christianity, and it
+was received with much favor by large audiences. The winter of 1784-85 was
+spent by Mr. Hazlitt in Hallowell, Me., in which place was a small group of
+wealthy English Unitarians, led by Samuel Vaughan, by whom Mr. Hazlitt had
+been entertained in Philadelphia. Mr. Hazlitt returned to Boston in the
+spring of 1785, and had some hope of settling in Roxbury. In the autumn,
+however, finding no definite promise of employment, he returned to England.
+He afterward corresponded with Dr. Howard, of the West Church in Boston,
+and with Dr. Lathrop, of West Springfield. The volumes of sermons he
+published in 1786 and 1790 were sold in this country, and one or two of
+them republished.
+
+It would appear that Mr. Hazlitt's positive Unitarianism made it impossible
+for him to settle over any church in Boston or its neighborhood. In 1784 he
+assisted Dr. Freeman in revising the Prayer Book, the form of prayer used
+by Dr. Lindsey[46] in the Essex Street Chapel in London being adapted to
+the new conditions at King's Chapel. He also republished in Philadelphia
+and Boston many of Dr. Priestley's Unitarian tracts, while writing much
+himself for publication.[47] In his correspondence with Theophilus
+Lindsey, Dr. Freeman wrote of Mr. Hazlitt as a pious, zealous, and
+intelligent minister, to whose instructions and conversation he was
+particularly indebted.[48] "Before Mr. Hazlitt came to Boston", Dr.
+Freeman wrote, "the Trinitarian doxology was almost universally used. That
+honest, good man prevailed upon several respectable ministers to omit it.
+Since his departure the number of those who repeat only Scriptural
+doxologies has greatly increased, so that there are now many churches in
+which the worship is strictly Unitarian."[49]
+
+Beginning with the year 1786, several of the liberal men in Boston were in
+correspondence with the leading Unitarian ministers in London, and their
+letters were afterward published by Thomas Belsham in his Life of
+Theophilus Lindsey. From this work we learn that Dr. Lindsey presented his
+own theological works and those of Dr. Priestley to Harvard College, and
+that they were read with great avidity by the students.[50] One of the
+Boston correspondents, writing in 1783, names James Bowdoin, governor of
+Massachusetts in 1785 and 1786, General Benjamin Lincoln, and General Henry
+Knox as among the liberal men. He said: "There are many others besides, in
+our legislature, of similar sentiments. While so many of our great men are
+thus on the side of truth and free inquiry, they will necessarily influence
+many of the common people."[51] He also said that people were less
+frightened at the Socinian name than formerly, and that this form of
+Christianity was beginning to have some public advocates. The only minister
+who preached in favor of it was Mr. Bentley, of Salem, who was described as
+"a young man of a bold, independent mind, of strong, natural powers, and of
+more skill in the learned languages than any person of his years in the
+state." Mr. Bentley's congregation was spoken of as uncommonly liberal, not
+alarmed at any improvements, and pleased with his introduction into the
+pulpit of various modern translations of the Scriptures, especially of the
+prophecies.[52]
+
+[Sidenote: Other Unitarian Movements.]
+
+In March, 1792, a Unitarian congregation was formed in Portland under the
+leadership of Thomas Oxnard, who had been an Episcopalian. Having been
+supplied with the works of Priestley and Lindsey through the generosity of
+Dr. Freeman, he became a Unitarian; and his personal intercourse with Dr.
+Freeman gave strength to his changed convictions. A number of persons of
+property and respectability of character joined him in accepting his new
+faith. In writing to his friend in November, 1788, Mr. Oxnard said: "I
+cannot express to you the avidity with which these Unitarian publications
+are sought after. Our friends here are clearly convinced that the Unitarian
+doctrine will soon become the prevailing opinion in this country. Three
+years ago I did not know a single Unitarian in this part of the country
+besides myself; and now, entirely from the various publications you have
+furnished, a decent society might be collected in this and the neighboring
+towns."[53] In 1792 an attempt was made to introduce a revised liturgy
+into the Episcopal church of Portland; and, when this was resisted, a
+majority of the congregation seceded and formed a Unitarian society, with
+Mr. Oxnard as the minister. This society was continued for a few years, and
+then ceased to exist. The members joined the first Congregational church,
+which in 1809, became Unitarian.[54] Also in 1792 was organized a
+Unitarian congregation in Saco, under the auspices of Hon. Samuel Thatcher,
+a member of Congress and a Massachusetts judge.[55] Mr. Thatcher had been
+an unbeliever, but through the reading of Priestley's works he became a
+sincere and rational Christian. He met with much opposition from his
+neighbors, and an effort was made to prevent his re-election to Congress;
+but it did not succeed. The Saco congregation was at first connected with
+that at Portland, and it seems to have ceased its existence at the same
+time.[56]
+
+In 1794 Dr. Freeman wrote that Unitarianism was making considerable
+progress in the southern counties of Massachusetts. In Barnstable he
+reported "a very large body of Unitarians."[57] Writing in May, 1796, he
+states that Unitarianism is on the increase in Maine, that it is making a
+considerable increase in the southern part of Massachusetts, and that a few
+seeds have been sown in Vermont. He thinks it may be losing ground in some
+places, but that it is growing in others. "I consider it," he writes, "as
+one of the most happy effects which have resulted from my feeble exertions
+in the Unitarian cause, that they have introduced me to the knowledge and
+friendship of some of the most valuable characters of the present age, men
+of enlightened heads and benevolent hearts. Though it is a standing article
+of most of our social libraries, that nothing of a controversial character
+should be purchased, yet any book which is presented is freely accepted. I
+have found means, therefore, of introducing into them some of the Unitarian
+Tracts with which you have kindly furnished me. There are few persons who
+have not read them with avidity; and when read they cannot fail to make an
+impression upon the minds of many. From these and other causes the
+Unitarian doctrine appears to be still upon the increase. I am acquainted
+with a number of ministers, particularly in the southern part of this
+state, who avow and publicly preach this sentiment. There are others more
+cautious, who content themselves with leading their hearers by a course of
+rational but prudent sermons gradually and insensibly to embrace it. Though
+this latter mode is not what I entirely approve, yet it produces good
+effects. For the people are thus kept out of the reach of false opinions,
+and are prepared for the impressions which will be made on them by more
+bold and ardent successors, who will probably be raised up when these timid
+characters are removed off the stage. The clergy are generally the first
+who begin to speculate; but the people soon follow, where they are so much
+accustomed to read and enquire."[58]
+
+In 1793 was published Jeremy Belknap's biography of Samuel Watts, who was
+an Arian, or, at least, held to the subordinate nature of Christ. This book
+had a very considerable influence in directing attention to the doctrine of
+the Trinity, and in inducing inquiring men to study the subject critically
+for themselves. In 1797 Dr. Belknap became the minister of the Federal
+Street Church in Boston, and his preaching was from that time distinctly
+Unitarian. Dr. Joseph Priestley removed to Philadelphia in 1794, and he was
+at first listened to by large congregations. His humanitarian
+theology--that is, his denial of divinity as well as deity to
+Christ--probably had the effect of limiting the interest in his teachings.
+However, a small congregation was established in Philadelphia in 1796,
+formed mostly of English Unitarians. A congregation was gathered at
+Northumberland in 1794, to which place Priestley removed in that year.
+
+In the year 1800 a division took place in the church at Plymouth, owing to
+the growth there of liberal sentiments. These began to manifest themselves
+as early as 1742, as a reaction from the intense revivalism of that
+Period.[59] Rev. Chandler Bobbins, who was strictly Calvinistic in his
+theology, was the minister from 1760 until his death in 1799. In 1794 a
+considerable number of persons in the parish discussed the desirability of
+organizing another church, in order to secure more liberal preaching. It
+was recognized that Mr. Robbins was an old man, that he was very much
+beloved, and that in a few years the opportunity desired would be presented
+without needless agitation; and the effort was therefore deferred. In
+November, 1799, at a meeting held for the election of a new pastor,
+twenty-three members of the church were in favor of Rev. James Kendall, the
+only candidate, while fifteen were in opposition. When the parish voted,
+two hundred and fifty-three favored Mr. Kendall, and fifteen were opposed.
+In September, 1800, the conservative minority, numbering eighteen males and
+thirty-five females, withdrew; and two years later they organized the
+society now called the Church of the Pilgrimage. The settlement of Mr.
+Kendall, a pronounced Arminian,[60] was an instance of the almost complete
+abandonment of Calvinism on the part of a congregation, in opposition to
+the preaching from the pulpit. In spite of the strict confession of faith
+which Dr. Robbins had persuaded the church to adopt, the parish outgrew the
+old teachings. Mr. Kendall, with the approval of his church, soon grew into
+a Unitarian; and it was fitting that the church of the Mayflower, the
+church of Robinson and Brewster, should lead the way in this advance.
+
+As yet there was no controversy, except in a quiet way. Occasionally sharp
+criticism was uttered, especially in convention and election sermons; but
+there was no thought of separation or exclusion. The liberal men showed a
+tendency to magnify the work of charity; and they were, in a limited
+degree, zealous in every kind of philanthropic effort. More distinctly,
+however, they showed their position in their enthusiasm for the Bible and
+in their summing up of Christianity in loyalty to Christ. Towards all
+creeds and dogmas they were indifferent and silent, except as they
+occasionally spoke plainly out to condemn them. They believed in and
+preached toleration, and their whole movement stood more distinctly for
+comprehensiveness and latitudinarianism than for aught else. They were not
+greatly concerned about theological problems; but they thoroughly believed
+in a broad, generous, sympathetic, and practical Christianity, that would
+exemplify the teachings of Christ, and that would lead men to a pure and
+noble moral life.
+
+[Sidenote: Growth of Toleration.]
+
+That toleration was not as yet fully accepted in Massachusetts is seen in
+the fact that the proposed Constitution of 1778 was defeated because it
+provided for freedom of worship on the part of all Protestant
+denominations. The dominant religious body was not yet ready to put itself
+on a level with the other sects. In the Constitutional Convention of 1779
+the more liberal men worked with the Baptists to secure a separation of
+state and church. Such men as Drs. Chauncy, Mayhew, West, and Shute were
+desirous of the broadest toleration; and they did what they could to secure
+it. As early as 1768, Dr. Chauncy spoke in plainest terms in opposition to
+the state support of religion. "We are in principle," he wrote, "against
+all civil establishments in religion. It does not appear to us that God has
+entrusted, the state with a right to make religious establishments. But let
+it be heedfully minded we claim no right to desire the interposition of the
+state to establish the mode of worship, government or discipline, we
+apprehend is most agreeable to the mind of Christ. We desire no other
+liberty than to be left unrestrained in the exercise of our principles, in
+so far as we are good members of society.... The plain truth is, by the
+gospel charter, all professed Christians are vested with precisely the same
+rights; nor has our denomination any more a right to the interposition of
+the civil magistrate in their favor than any other; and whenever this
+difference takes place, it is beside the rule of Scripture, and the genuine
+dictates, of uncorrupted reason."[61] All persons throughout the state, of
+whatever religious connection, who had become emancipated from the Puritan
+spirit, supported him in this opinion. They were in the minority as yet,
+and they were not organized. Therefore, their efforts were unsuccessful.
+
+Another testing of public sentiment on this subject was had in the
+Massachusetts convention which, in 1788, ratified the Constitution of the
+United States. The sixth article, which provides that "no religious tests
+shall ever be required as a qualification to any office," was the occasion
+of a prolonged debate and much opposition. Hon. Theophilus Parsons took the
+liberal side, and declared that "the only evidence we can have of the
+sincerity and excellency of a man's religion is a good life," precisely the
+position of the liberal men. By several members it was urged, however, that
+this article was a departure from the principles of our forefathers, who
+came here for the preservation of their religion, and that it would admit
+deists and atheists into the general government.
+
+In these efforts to secure religious toleration as a fundamental law of the
+state and nation the Baptist denomination took an active and a leading
+part. Not less faithful to this cause were the liberal men among the
+Congregationalists, while the opposition came almost wholly from the
+Calvinistic and orthodox churches. Such leaders on the liberal side as Dr.
+David Shute of the South Parish in Hingham, Rev. Thomas Thatcher of the
+West Parish in Dedham, and Dr. Samuel West of New Bedford, were loyally
+devoted in the convention to the support of the toleration act of the
+Constitution. In the membership of the convention there were seventeen
+ministers, and fourteen of them voted for the Constitution. The opinions of
+the fourteen were expressed by Rev. Phillips Payson, the minister of
+Chelsea, who held that a religious test would be a great blemish on the
+Constitution. He also said that God is the God of the conscience, and for
+human tribunals to encroach upon the consciences of men is impious.[62] As
+the Constitution was ratified by only a small majority of the convention,
+and as at the opening of its sessions the opposition seemed almost
+overwhelming, the position taken by the more liberal ministers was a sure
+indication of growing liberality. The great majority of the people,
+however, were still strongly in favor of the old religious tests and
+restrictions, as was fully indicated by subsequent events. The Revolution
+operated as a liberalizing influence, because of the breaking of old
+customs and the discussion of the principles of liberty attendant upon the
+adoption of the state and national constitutions. The growth of democratic
+sentiment made a strong opposition to the churches and their privileges,
+and it caused a diminution of reverence for the authority of the clergy.
+The twenty years following the Revolution showed a notable growth in
+liberal opinions.
+
+Universalism presented itself as a new form of Calvinism, its advocates
+claiming that God decreed that all should be saved, and that his will would
+be triumphant. In many parts of the country the doctrine of universal
+salvation began to be heard during the last two decades of the eighteenth
+century, and the growth of interest in it was rapid from the beginning of
+the nineteenth. This movement began in the Baptist churches, but it soon
+appeared in others. At first it was undefined, a protest against the harsh
+teaching of future punishment. It was a part of the humanitarian awakening
+of the time, the new faith in man, the recognition that love is diviner
+than wrath. Many persons found escape from creeds that were hateful to them
+into this new and more hopeful interpretation of religion. Persons of every
+shade of protest, and "infidelity," and free thinking, found their way into
+this new body; and great was the condemnation and hatred with which it was
+received on the part of the other sects. In time this movement clarified
+itself, and it has had a positive influence for piety and for nobler views
+of God and the future.
+
+Of much the same nature was the movement within the fellowship of the
+Friends led by Thomas Hicks. It was Unitarian and reformatory, influenced
+by the growing democracy and zeal for humanity the age was everywhere
+manifesting.
+
+In the border states between north and south began, during the last decade
+of the eighteenth century, a movement in favor of discarding all creeds and
+confessions. It favored a return to the Bible itself as the great
+Protestant book, and as the one revealed word of God. Without learning or
+culture, these persons sought to make their faith in Christ more real by an
+evangelical obedience to his teachings. Some of them called themselves
+Disciples, holding that to follow Christ is quite enough. Others said that
+no other name than Christian is required. They were Biblical in their
+theology, and unsectarian in their attitude towards the forms and rituals
+of the church. In time these scattered groups of earnest seekers for a
+better Christian way, from Maine to Georgia, came to know each other and to
+organize for the common good.
+
+With the rapid growth of Methodism the Arminian view of man was widely
+adopted. The Baptists received into their fellowship in all parts of New
+England, at least, many who were not deeply in sympathy with their strict
+rules, but who found with them a means of protesting against the harsher
+methods of the "standing order" of Congregationalists. Their demand for
+toleration and liberty of conscience began to receive recognition after the
+Revolution, and their influence was a powerful one in bringing about the
+separation of state and church. Those who were dissatisfied with a church
+that taxed all the people, and that was upheld by state authority, found
+with the Baptists a means of making their protest heard and felt.
+
+In all directions the democratic spirit was being manifested, and
+conditions which had been upheld by the restrictive authority of England
+had to give way. The people were now speaking, and not the ministers only.
+It was an age of individualism, and of the reassertion of the tendency that
+had characterized New England from the first, but that had been held in
+check by autocratic power. There was no outbreak, no rapid change, no
+iconoclastic overturning of old institutions and customs, but the people
+were coming to their own, thinking for themselves. In reality, the people
+were conservative, especially in New England; and they moved slowly, there
+was little infidelity, and steadily were the old ideals maintained. Yet the
+individualism would assert itself. Men held the old creeds in distinctly
+personal ways, and the churches grew into more and more of independency.
+
+The theological development of the eighteenth century took two directions:
+that of rationalism and a demand for free inquiry, as represented by
+Jonathan Mayhew and William Bentley; and that of a philanthropic protest
+against the harsh features of Calvinism, as represented by Charles Chauncy
+and the Universalists. The demand that all theological problems should be
+submitted to reason for vindication or readjustment was not widely urged;
+but a few men recognized the worth of this claim, and applied this method
+without hesitation. A larger number followed them with hesitating steps,
+but with a growing confidence in reason as God's method for man's finding
+and maintaining the truth. The other tendency grew out of a benevolent
+desire to justify the ways of God to man, and was the expression of a
+deepening faith that the Divine Being deals with his children in a fatherly
+manner. That God is generous and loving was the faith of Dr. Chauncy, as it
+was of the Universalists and of the more liberal party among the
+Calvinists. Their philanthropic feelings toward their fellow-men seemed to
+them representative of God's ways of dealing with his creatures.
+
+[1] Levi L. Paine, A Critical History of the Evolution of Trinitarianism,
+    105. "Nathaniel Emmons held tenaciously to three real persons. He said,
+    'It is as easy to conceive of God existing in three persons as in one
+    person.' This language shows that Emmons employed the term 'person' in
+    the strict literal sense. The three are absolutely equal, this
+    involving the metaphysical assumption that in the Trinity being and
+    person are not coincident. Emmons is the first theologian who asserts
+    that, though we cannot conceive that three persons should be one
+    person, we may conceive that three persons may be one Being, 'if we
+    only suppose that being may signify something different from person in
+    respect to Deity.'"
+
+[2] E.H. Gillett, History and Literature of the Unitarian Controversy.
+    Historical Magazine, April 1871; second series, IX. 222.
+
+[3] Letter to Scripturista by Paulinus, 18.
+
+[4] William S. Pattee, A History of Old Braintree and Quincy, 222. When a
+    copy of Dr. Jedediah Morse's little book on American Unitarianism was
+    sent to John Adams, he acknowledged its receipt in the following
+    letter:--
+
+      QUINCY, May 15, 1815.
+
+      _Dear Doctor_,--I thank you for your favor of the 10th, and the
+      pamphlet enclosed, entitled American Unitarianism. I have turned
+      over its leaves, and found nothing that was not familiarly known to
+      me. In the preface Unitarianism is represented as only thirty years
+      old in New England. I can testify as a witness to its old age.
+      Sixty-five years ago my own minister, the Rev. Lemuel Briant; Dr.
+      Jonathan Mayhew, of the West Church in Boston; the Rev. Mr. Shute,
+      of Hingham; the Rev. John Brown, of Cohasset; and perhaps equal to
+      all, if not above all, the, Rev. Mr. Gay, of Hingham, were
+      Unitarians. Among the laity how many could I name, lawyers,
+      physicians, tradesmen, farmers! But at present I will name only
+      one, Richard Cranch, a man who had studied divinity, and Jewish and
+      Christian antiquities, more than any clergyman now existing in New
+      England.
+
+      JOHN ADAMS.
+
+    Also see C.F. Adams, Three Episodes of Massachusetts History, 643; and
+    J.H. Allen, An Historical Sketch of the Unitarian Movement since the
+    Reformation, 175.
+
+[5] History of Hingham, I., Part II., 24, Memoir of Ebenezer Gay, by
+    Solomon Lincoln.
+
+[6] Sermons, 1755, 83.
+
+[7] Ibid., 103.
+
+[8] Ibid., 119.
+
+[9] Ibid., 125.
+
+[10] Ibid., 245.
+
+[11] Sermons, 1755, 50.
+
+[12] Ibid., 82.
+
+[13] Sermons, 1755, 83.
+
+[14] Ibid., 65.
+
+[15] Ibid., 62.
+
+[16] Ibid., 63.
+
+[17] Ibid, 268, 269.
+
+[18] Sermons, 1755, 275, 276.
+
+[19] A. Bradford, Memoir of the Life and Writings of Rev. Jonathan Mayhew,
+     D.D., 36.
+
+[20] Ibid., 464.
+
+[21] Letter from his daughter, quoted by Bartol, The West Church and its
+     Ministers, 129.
+
+[22] Sermons, 293
+
+[23] C.A. Bartol, The West Church and its Ministers.
+
+[24] Reply to Dr. Chandler, quoted in Sprague's Annals of the Unitarian
+     Pulpit, 9.
+
+[25] Remarks upon a Sermon of the Bishop of Landaff, quoted by Sprague.
+
+[26] Chauncy's many published sermons and volumes are carefully enumerated
+     by Paul Leicester Ford in his Bibliotheca Chaunciana, a List of the
+     Writings of Charles Chauncy. He gives the titles of sixty-one books
+     and pamphlets published by Chauncy, and of eighty-eight about him or
+     in reply to him.
+
+[27] Sprague's Annals, 49; W.J. Potter, History of the First Congregational
+     Society, New Bedford.
+
+[28] Sprague's Annals. 42.
+
+[29] George Batchelor, Social Equilibrium, 263, 264.
+
+[30] Ibid., 265.
+
+[31] Sprague's Annals, 131.
+
+[32] Father of the essayist of the same name.
+
+[33] Joseph Priestley, 1733-1804, was one of the ablest of English
+     Unitarians. Educated in non-conformist schools, in 1755 he became a
+     Presbyterian minister. In 1761 he became a tutor in a non-conformist
+     academy, and in 1767 he was settled over a congregation in Leeds. He
+     was the librarian of Lord Shelburne from 1774 until he was settled in
+     Birmingham as minister, in 1780. In 1791 a mob destroyed his house,
+     his manuscripts, and his scientific apparatus, because of his liberal
+     political views. After three years as a preacher in Hackney, he
+     removed to the United States in 1794, and settled at Northumberland
+     in Pennsylvania, where the remainder of his life was spent. He
+     published one hundred and thirty distinct works, of which those best
+     remembered are his Institutes of Natural and Revealed Religion, A
+     History of the Corruptions of Christianity, and A General History of
+     the Christian Church to the Fall of the Western Empire. He was the
+     discoverer of oxygen, and holds a high place in the history of
+     science. He was a materialist, but believed in immortality; and he
+     believed that Christ was a man in his nature.
+
+[34] C.S. Osgood and H.M. Batchelder, Historical Sketch of Salem, 86. "He
+     took strong Arminian grounds; and under his lead the church became
+     practically Unitarian in 1785, and was one of the first churches in
+     America to adopt that faith."
+
+[35] George Batchelor, Social Equilibrium, 270.
+
+[36] Ibid., 267.
+
+[37] Ibid., 283.
+
+[38] E. Smalley, The Worcester Pulpit, 226, 232.
+
+[39] See the Unitarian Advocate and Religious Miscellany, January, 1831,
+     new series, III. 27, for Aaron Bancroft's recollections of this
+     period. In the same volume was published Ezra Ripley's reminiscences,
+     contained in the March, April, and May numbers. They are both of much
+     importance for the history of this period. Also the third volume of
+     first series, June, 1829, gives an important letter from Francis
+     Parkman concerning Unitarianism in Boston in 1812.
+
+[40] Life of Ashbel Green, President of Princeton College, 236.
+
+[41] Life of Archibald Alexander, 252.
+
+[42] Convention Sermon, 12, 13.
+
+[43] Sprague, Annals of Unitarian Pulpit, 131.
+
+[44] Ibid., 159.
+
+[45] This is the statement of his daughter.
+
+[46] Theophilus Lindsey, 1723-1808, was a curate in London, then the tutor
+     of the Duke of Northumberland, and afterward a rector in Yorkshire
+     and Dorsetshire. In 1763 he was settled at Catterick, in Yorkshire,
+     where his study of the Bible led him to doubt the truth of the
+     doctrine of the Trinity. In 1771 he joined with others in a petition
+     to Parliament asking that clergymen might not be required to
+     subscribe to the thirty-nine articles. When it was rejected a second
+     time he resigned, went to London, and opened in a room in Essex
+     Street, April 1774, the first permanent Unitarian meeting in England.
+     A chapel was built for him in 1778, and he preached there until 1793.
+     He published, in 1783, An Historical View of the State of the
+     Unitarian Doctrine and Worship from the Reformation to our own Times,
+     two volumes of sermons, and other works. In 1774 he published a
+     revised Prayer Book according to the plan suggested by Dr. Samuel
+     Clarke, which was used in the Essex Street Chapel.
+
+[47] Four Generations of a Literary Family: The Hazlitts in England,
+     Ireland, and America, 23, 26, 30, 40, 43, 50; Lamb and Hazlitt:
+     Further Letters and Records, 11-15.
+
+[48] Monthly Repository, III., 305. Mr. Hazlitt "arrived at Boston May 15,
+     1784; and, having a letter to Mr. Eliot, who received him with great
+     kindness, he was introduced on that very day to the Boston
+     Association of Ministers. The venerable Chauncy, at whose house it
+     happened to be held, entered into a familiar conversation with him,
+     and showed him every possible respect as he learned that he had been
+     acquainted with Dr. Price. Without knowing at the time anything of
+     the occasion which led to it, ordination happened to be the general
+     subject of discussion. After the different gentlemen had severally
+     delivered their opinions, the stranger was requested to declare his
+     sentiments, who unhesitatingly replied that the people or the
+     congregation who chose any man to be their minister were his proper
+     ordainers. Mr. Freeman, upon hearing this, jumped from his seat in a
+     kind of transport, saying, 'I wish you could prove that, Sir,' The
+     gentleman answered that 'few things could admit of an easier proof.'
+     And from that moment a thorough intimacy commenced between him and
+     Mr. Freeman. Soon after, the Boston prints being under no
+     _imprimatur_, he published several letters in supporting the cause of
+     Mr. Freeman. At the solicitation of Mr. Freeman he also published a
+     Scriptural Confutation of the Thirty-nine Articles. Notice being
+     circulated that this publication would appear on a particular day, the
+     printer, apprised of this circumstance, threw off a hundred papers
+     beyond his usual number, and had not one paper remaining upon his
+     hands at noon. This publication in its consequences converted Mr.
+     Freeman's congregation into a Unitarian church, which, as Mr. Freeman
+     acknowledged, could never have been done without the labors of this
+     gentleman."
+
+[49] American Unitarianism, from Belsham's Life of Lindsey, 12,
+     _note_.
+
+[50] American Unitarianism, 16.
+
+[51] American Unitarianism, note.
+
+[52] Ibid., 20.
+
+[53] American Unitarianism, 17.
+
+[54] "Oxnard was a merchant, born in Boston in 1740, but settled in
+     Portland, where he married the daughter of General Preble, in 1787.
+     He was a loyalist, and fled from the country at the outbreak of the
+     war. He returned to Portland in 1787. A few years later, 1792, the
+     Episcopal church being destitute of a minister, he was engaged as lay
+     reader, with the intention of taking orders. His Unitarianism put a
+     sudden end to his Episcopacy, but not to his preaching. He gathered a
+     small congregation in the school-house, and preached sometimes
+     sermons of his own, but more often of other men. He died in 1799."
+     John C. Perkins, How the First Parish became Unitarian,--historical
+     sermon preached in Portland.
+
+[55] American Unitarianism, 18.
+
+[56] Ibid., 17, 20.
+
+[57] American Unitarianism, 24.
+
+[58] American Unitarianism, 22.
+
+[59] Church Records, in MS., II. 7.
+
+[60] Rev. Thomas Robbins, Diary for October 13, 1799, I. 97, heard Mr.
+     Kendall, and said: "He appears to be an Arminian in full. I fear he
+     will lead many souls astray." See John Cuckson, A Brief History of
+     the First Church in Plymouth, eighth chapter.
+
+[61] Chauncy against Chandler, 152.
+
+[62] These particulars are taken from the Debates and Proceedings in the
+     Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts held in the year
+     1788, and which finally ratified the Constitution of the United
+     States, Boston, 1856.
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+
+THE PERIOD OF CONTROVERSY.
+
+In the spring of 1805 Rev. Henry Ware, who had been for nearly twenty years
+pastor of the first church in the town of Hingham, was inaugurated as the
+Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard College. The place had been made
+vacant by the death of Professor David Tappan, who was a moderate
+Calvinist; that is, one who recognized the sovereignty of God, but allowed
+to man a limited opportunity for personal effort in the process of
+salvation. It was assumed by the conservative party that a Calvinist would
+be appointed, because the founder of this important professorship, it was
+claimed, was of that way of thinking, and so conditioned his gift as to
+require that no one but a Calvinist should hold the position. This was
+strenuously denied by the liberals, who maintained that Hollis was not only
+liberal and catholic in his own theology, but that he made no such
+restrictions as were claimed.[1] When the nomination of Mr. Ware was
+presented to the overseers, it was strongly opposed; but he was elected by
+a considerable majority. A pamphlet soon appeared in opposition to him, and
+this was the beginning of a controversy that lasted for a quarter of a
+century.[2]
+
+This war of pamphlets was made more furious by Rev. John Sherman's One God
+in One Person Only, and Rev. Hosea Ballou's Treatise on the Atonement, both
+of which appeared in 1805. Mr. Sherman's book was described in The Monthly
+Anthology as "one of the first acts of direct hostility against the
+orthodox committed on these western shores."[3] The little book by Hosea
+Ballou had small influence on the current of religious thinking outside the
+Universalist body, to which he belonged, and probably did not at all enter
+into the controversy between the orthodox and the liberal
+Congregationalists. It was, however, the first positive statement of the
+doctrine of the atonement in a rational form, not as expiatory, but as
+reconciling man to the loving authority of God. Within a decade it brought
+the leading Universalists to the Unitarian position.[4] These works were
+followed, in 1810, by Rev. Noah Worcester's Bible News of the Father, Son,
+and Holy Ghost, which presented clearly and forcibly an Arian view of the
+Trinity, or the subordination of Christ to God. These definitions of their
+position on the part of the liberals were met by the publication of The
+Panoplist, which was begun by Dr. Jedidiah Morse, of Charlestown, Mass., in
+1805. This magazine interpreted the orthodox positions, and devoted itself
+zealously to the defence of the old ideas, as understood by its editors. It
+was not vehemently aggressive, but was largely devoted to general religious
+interests, and to the promotion of a higher spirit of devotion. It was
+followed by The Spirit of the Pilgrims, which was more combative, and in
+some degree intolerant. In the year 1808 the Andover Theological School was
+founded, the result of a reconciliation between the Hopkinsians and the
+Calvinists of the old type, affording an opportunity for theological
+training on the part of those who could not accept the liberal attitude of
+Harvard.
+
+Most of the liberal men of this time refused to bring their beliefs to the
+test of exact definition. It was their opinion that no theological
+statement can have high value in relation to Christian attainments. Under
+these conditions were trained the men who became the leaders in the early
+Unitarian movement. William Ellery Channing, who was settled over the
+Federal Street Church in June, 1803, was distinctly evangelical, and of a
+profound and earnest piety. Slowly he grew to accept the liberal attitude,
+as the result of his love of freedom, his lofty spirituality of nature, and
+his tolerant and generous cast of mind. He gave spiritual and intellectual
+direction to the new movement, guided its philanthropic efforts, and
+brought to noble issue its spiritual philosophy. Early in the year 1804,
+Joseph Stevens Buckminster was settled over the Brattle Street Church; and,
+though he preached but a little over six years before a blighting disease
+took him away, yet he left behind a tradition of great pulpit gifts and a
+wonderfully attractive personality. Another to die in early manhood was
+Samuel Cooper Thacher, who was settled at the New South in 1811, and who
+was long remembered for his scholarship and his zeal in the work which he
+had undertaken. Charles Lowell went to the West Church in 1806, and he
+nobly sustained the traditions for liberality and spiritual freedom that
+had gathered about that place of worship. In 1814 appeared Edward Everett,
+at the age of twenty (which had been that of Buckminster when he entered
+the pulpit), as the minister of the Brattle Street Church, to charm with
+his eloquence, learning, grace, and power. Francis Parkman began his career
+at the New North in 1812,--"a man of various information, a kind spirit,
+singular benevolence, polished yet simple manners, fine literary
+taste."[5] A few years later John Gorham Palfrey became the minister of
+the Brattle Street Church, and James Walker was settled over the Harvard
+Church in Charlestown. Among the laymen in the churches to which these men
+preached were many persons of distinction. The liberal fellowship,
+therefore, was of the highest social and intellectual standing. The piety
+of the churches was serious, if not profound; and the religion presented
+was simple, sincere, intellectual, and earnestly spiritual.
+
+[Sidenote: The Monthly Anthology.]
+
+The practical and tolerant aims of the liberals were shown by the manner in
+which they began to give expression publicly to their position. In The
+Monthly Anthology they first found voice, although that publication was
+started without the slightest controversial purpose. Begun by a young man
+as a monthly literary journal in 1803, when he found it would not support
+him, he abandoned it;[6] and the publishers asked Rev. William Emerson,
+the minister of the First Church in Boston, to take charge of it. He
+consented to do so, and gathered about him a company of friends to aid him
+in its management. Their meetings finally grew into The Anthology Club,
+which continued the publication through ten volumes. Among the members were
+William Emerson, Samuel Cooper Thacher, Joseph S. Buckminster, and Joseph
+Tuckerman, pastors of churches in Boston and vicinity of the liberal
+school. There was also John S.J. Gardiner, the rector of Trinity Church,
+who was the president of the club throughout the whole period of its
+existence, and one of the most frequent contributors to the periodical. The
+members were not drawn together by any sectarian spirit, but by a common
+aim of doing something for literature, and for the advancement of culture.
+The Monthly Anthology was the first distinctly literary journal published
+in this country. It had an important influence in developing the
+intellectual tastes of New England, and of giving initiative to its
+literary capacities. The spirit of The Monthly Anthology was broad and
+catholic. Naturally, therefore, in its pages the liberals made their first
+protest against party aims and methods. In a few instances theological
+problems were discussed, the extreme Trinitarian doctrines were criticised,
+and the liberal attitude was defended.
+
+[Sidenote: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity.]
+
+In the year 1806 Rev. William Emerson began the publication of The
+Christian Monitor, in his capacity as the secretary of the Society for
+promoting Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity, a society then newly
+founded by residents of Boston and its vicinity for the purpose of
+publishing enlightened and practical tracts and books. This series of small
+books, each containing one hundred and fifty or two hundred pages, and
+issued quarterly, was begun for the purpose of publishing devotional works
+of a practical and liberal type. The first number contained prayers and
+devotional exercises for personal or family use, and there followed Bishop
+Newcombe's Life and Character of Christ, a condensed reproduction of Law's
+Serious Call, Bishop Hall's Contemplations, Erskine's Letters to the
+Bereaved, and two or three volumes of sermons on religious duties and the
+education of children.
+
+Besides The Christian Monitor this society issued a series of Religious
+Tracts which had a considerable circulation. Then it undertook the
+publication of books for children, and for family reading. In aiming to
+publish works of pure morality and practical piety, its methods were
+thoroughly catholic and liberal; for it was unsectarian, and yet earnestly
+Christian. The spirit and methods of this society were thoroughly
+characteristic of the time when it was organized, and of the men who gave
+it life and purpose. Not dogma, but piety, was what they desired. In the
+truest sense they were unsectarian Christians, zealous for good works and a
+devout life.[7]
+
+[Sidenote: General Repository.]
+
+The Monthly Anthology and The Christian Monitor represented the mild and
+undogmatic attitude of the liberals, their shrinking from all controversy,
+and their desire to devote their labors wholly to the promotion of a
+tolerant and catholic Christianity. The beginning of the controversial
+spirit on the liberal side found expression in The General Repository and
+Review, which was begun in Cambridge by Rev. Andrews Norton, in April,
+1812. In the first number of this quarterly review the editor said that the
+discussion of the doctrine of the Trinity "in our own country has hitherto
+been chiefly confined to private circles," and cited the books of John
+Sherman and Noah Worcester as the only exceptions. The review opened,
+however, with a defence of liberal Christianity which was aggressive and
+outspoken. In later issues an energetic statement was made of the liberal
+position, the controversial articles were able and explicit, and in a
+manner hitherto quite unknown on the part of what the editor called
+"catholic Christians." One of the numbers contained a long and interesting
+survey of the religious interests of the country, and summed up in an
+admirable manner the prospects for the liberal churches. After the
+publication of the sixth number, Mr. Norton withdrew from the work to
+become the librarian of Harvard College; and it was continued through two
+more issues by "a society of gentlemen." To this journal Mr. Norton was by
+far the largest contributor; but other writers were Edward Everett, and his
+brother, Alexander H. Everett, Joseph S. Buckminster, John T. Kirkland,
+Sidney Willard, George Ticknor, Washington Allston, John Lowell, Noah
+Worcester, and James Freeman, most of them connected with Harvard College
+or with the liberal churches in Boston. It is evident, however, that the
+liberal public was not yet ready for so aggressive and out-spoken a
+journal.
+
+[Sidenote: The Christian Disciple.]
+
+What was desired was something milder, less aggressive, of a distinctly
+religious and conciliatory character. To this end Drs. Channing, Charles
+Lowell, and Tuckerman, and Rev. S.C. Thatcher, with whom was afterwards
+associated Rev. Francis Parkman, planned a monthly magazine that should be
+liberal in its character, but not sectarian or dogmatic. They invited Rev.
+Noah Worcester, whose Bible News had cost him his pulpit, to remove from
+New Hampshire to Boston to become its editor. Although Mr. Worcester's
+beliefs affiliated him with the Hopkinsians in everything except his
+attitude in regard to the inferiority of Christ to God, yet he was
+compelled to withdraw from his old connections, and to find new fields of
+activity. He began The Christian Disciple as a religious and family
+magazine, the first number being issued in May, 1813. It was not designed
+for theological discussion or distinctly for the defence of the liberal
+position. Its tone was conciliatory and moderate, while it zealously
+defended religious liberty and charity. Its aim was practical and
+humanitarian, to help men live the Christian life, as individuals, and in
+their social relations. When it touched upon controverted questions, it was
+in an expository manner, with the purpose of instructing its readers, and
+of leading them to a higher appreciation of true religion. As his
+biographer well said of Noah Worcester, he made this work "distinguished
+for its unqualified devotedness to the individual rights of opinion, and
+the sacred duty of a liberal regard to them in other men."[8]
+
+Dr. Worcester was not so much a theologian as a philanthropist; and, if he
+was drawn into controversy, it was accidentally, and much to his surprise
+and disappointment. It was not for the sake of defending his own positions
+that he replied to his critics, but in the name of truth, and from an
+exacting sense of duty. His gentle, loving, and sympathetic nature unfitted
+him for intellectual contentions; and he much preferred to devote himself
+to philanthropies and reforms. In the briefest way The Christian Disciple
+reported the doings of the liberal churches and men, but it gave much space
+to all kinds of organizations of a humanitarian character. It advocated the
+temperance reform with earnestness, and this at a time when there were few
+other voices speaking in its behalf. It devoted many pages to the
+condemnation of slavery, and to the approval of all efforts to secure its
+mitigation or its abolition. It gave large attention to the evils of war, a
+subject which more and more absorbed the interest of the editor. It
+condemned duelling in the most emphatic terms, as it did all forms of
+aggressiveness and inhumanity. In spirit Dr. Worcester was as much a
+non-resistant as Tolstoď, and for much the same reasons. More extended
+reports of Bible societies were given than of any other kind of
+organization, and these societies especially enlisted the interest of Dr.
+Worcester and his associates.
+
+With the end of 1818 Dr. Worcester withdrew from the editorship of The
+Christian Disciple, to devote himself to the cause of peace, the interests
+of Christian amity and goodwill, and the exposition of his own theological
+convictions. The management of the magazine came into the hands of its
+original proprietors, who continued its publication.
+
+Under the new management the circulation of the magazine increased. At
+first the younger Henry Ware became the editor, and he carried the work
+through the six volumes published before it took a new name. It became more
+distinctly theological in its purpose, and it undertook the task of
+presenting and defending the views of the liberals. In 1824 The Christian
+Disciple passed into the hands of Rev. John Gorham Palfrey, and he changed
+its name to The Christian Examiner without changing its general character.
+At the end of two years Mr. Francis Jenks became the editor, but in 1831 it
+came under the control of Rev. James Walker and Rev. Francis W.P.
+Greenwood. Gradually it became the organ of the higher intellectual life of
+the Unitarians, and gave expression to their interest in literature,
+general culture, and the philanthropies, as well as theological knowledge.
+The sub-title of Theological Review, which it bore during the first five
+volumes, indicated its preference for subjects of speculative religious
+interest; but during the half-century of its best influence it was the
+General Review or the Religious Miscellany, showing that it was theological
+only in the broadest spirit.
+
+[Sidenote: Dr. Morse and American Unitarianism.]
+
+Reluctant as the liberal men were, to take a denominational position, and
+to commit themselves to the interests of a party in religion, or even to
+withdraw themselves in any way from the churches with which they had been
+connected, they were compelled to do so by the force of conditions they
+could not control. One of the first distinct lines of separation was caused
+by the refusal of the more conservative men to exchange pulpits with their
+liberal neighbors. This tendency first began to show itself about the year
+1810; and it received a decided impetus from the attitude taken by Rev.
+John Codman, who in 1808 became the minister of the Second Church in
+Dorchester. He refused to exchange with several of the liberal ministers of
+the Boston Association, although he was an intimate friend of Dr. Channing,
+who had directed his theological training, and also preached his ordination
+sermon. The more liberal members of his parish attempted to compel him to
+exchange with the Boston ministers without regard to theological beliefs;
+and a long contention followed, with the result that the more liberal part
+of his congregation withdrew in 1813, and formed the Third Religious
+Society in Dorchester.[9] The withdrawal of ministerial courtesies of
+this kind gradually increased, especially after the controversies that
+began in 1815, though it was not until many years later that exchanges
+between the two parties ceased.
+
+In 1815 Dr. Jedidiah Morse, the editor of The Panoplist, and the author of
+various school books in geography and history, published in a little book
+of about one hundred pages, which bore the title of American Unitarianism,
+a chapter from Thomas Belsham's[10] biography of Theophilus Lindsey, in
+which Dr. Lindsey's American correspondents, including prominent ministers
+in Boston and other parts of New England, had declared their Unitarianism.
+Morse also published an article in The Panoplist, setting forth that these
+ministers had not the courage of their convictions, that, while they were
+Unitarians, they had withheld their opinions from open utterance. His
+object was to force them to declare themselves, and either to retract their
+heresies or else to state them and to withdraw from the churches with which
+they had been connected. In a letter addressed to Rev. Samuel C. Thacher,
+Dr. Channing gave to the public a reply to these charges of insincerity and
+want of open-mindedness. He said that, while many of the ministers and
+members of their congregations were Unitarians, they did not accept Dr.
+Belsham's type of Unitarianism, which made Christ a man. He declared that
+no open declaration of Unitarianism had been made, because they were not in
+love with the sectarian spirit, and because they were quite unwilling to
+indulge in any form of proselyting. "Accustomed as we are," he wrote, "to
+see genuine piety in all classes of Christians, in Trinitarians and
+Unitarians, in Calvinists and Arminians, in Episcopalians, Methodists,
+Baptists, and Congregationalists, and delighting in this character wherever
+it appears, we are little anxious to bring men over to our peculiar
+opinions."[11]
+
+The publication of Dr. Morse's book, however, gave new emphasis to the
+spirit of separation which was soon to compel the formation of a new
+denomination. It was followed four years later by Dr. Channing's Baltimore
+sermon and by other positive declarations of theological opinion.[12] From
+that time the controversy raged fiercely, and any possibility of
+reconciliation was removed. Before this time those who were not orthodox
+had called themselves Catholic, Christians or Liberal Christians to
+designate their attitude of toleration and liberality. The orthodox had
+called them Unitarians; and especially was this attempted by Dr. Morse in
+the introduction to his American Unitarianism, in order to fasten upon them
+the objectionable name given to the English liberals. It was assumed that
+the American liberals must agree with the English in their materialism and
+in their conception of Christ as a man. Dr. Channing repudiated this
+assumption, and declared it unjust and untrue; but he accepted the word
+Unitarian and gave it a meaning of his own. Channing defined the word to
+mean only anti-Trinitarianism; and he accepted it because it seemed to him
+presumptuous to use the word liberal as applied to a party, whereas it may
+be applicable to men of all opinions.
+
+[Sidenote: Evangelical Missionary Society.]
+
+Of more interest than these contentions in behalf of theological opinions
+is the way in which the liberal party brought itself to the task of
+manifesting its own purposes. Its first organizations were tentative and
+inclusive, without theological purpose or bias. No distinct lines were
+drawn, and to them belonged orthodox and liberal alike. Their sole
+distinguishing attitude was a catholicity of temper that permitted the free
+activity of the liberals. One of the first organizations of this kind was
+the Evangelical Missionary Society, which was formed by several of the
+ministers resident in Worcester and Middlesex Counties. The first meeting
+was held in Lancaster, November 4, 1807, when a constitution was adopted
+and the society elected officers. "The great object of this Society," said
+the constitution, "is to furnish the means of Christian knowledge and moral
+improvement to those inhabitants of our own country who are destitute or
+poorly provided." The growth of the country, even in New England (for the
+operations of the society were confined to that region), developed many
+communities in which the population was scattered, and without adequate
+means of education and religion. To aid these communities in securing good
+teachers and ministers was the purpose of the society. It refused to send
+forth itinerants, but carefully selected such towns as gave promise of
+permanent growth, and sent to them ministers instructed to organize
+churches and to promote the building of meeting-houses. In this way it was
+the means of establishing a number of churches in Maine, New Hampshire, and
+Massachusetts. It also sent a number of teachers into new settlements in
+Maine, who were successful in training many of their pupils for teaching in
+the public schools. In several instances minister and teacher were combined
+in one person, but the work was none the less effective.
+
+In 1816 this society was incorporated, its membership was broadened to
+include the state, and active aid and financial support were given it by
+the churches in Boston and Salem. It was not sectarian, though, after its
+incorporation, its membership was more largely recruited from liberals. In
+time it became distinctly Unitarian in its character, and such it has
+remained to the present day. Very slowly, however, did it permit itself to
+lose any of its marks of catholicity and inclusiveness. In the end its
+membership was confined to Unitarians because no one else wished to share
+in its unsectarian purposes. At the present time this society does a quiet
+and helpful work in the way of aiding churches that have ceased to be
+self-supporting because of the shifting conditions of population, and in
+affording friendly assistance to ministers in times of distress or when old
+age has come upon them.
+
+[Sidenote: The Berry Street Conference.]
+
+The first meeting of the liberal ministers for organization was held in the
+vestry of the Federal Street Church[13] on the evening of May 30, 1820,
+which immediately preceded election day, the time when anniversary meetings
+were usually held. The ministers of the state then gathered in Boston to
+hear the election sermon, and for such counselling of each other as their
+congregational methods made desirable. At this meeting Dr. Channing gave an
+address stating the objects that had brought those present together, and
+the desirability of their drawing near each other as liberal men for mutual
+aid and support. "It was thought by some of us," he said, "that the
+ministers of this commonwealth who are known to agree in what are called
+liberal and catholic views of Christianity needed a bond of union, a means
+of intercourse, and an opportunity of conference not as yet enjoyed. It was
+thought that by meeting to join their prayers and counsels, to report the
+state and prospects of religion in different parts of the commonwealth, to
+communicate the methods of advancing it which have been found most
+successful, to give warning of dangers not generally apprehended, to seek
+advice in difficulties, and to take a broad survey of our ecclesiastical
+affairs and of the wants of our churches, much light, strength, comfort,
+animation, zeal, would be spread through our body. The individuals who
+originated this plan were agreed that, whilst the meeting should be
+confined to those who harmonize generally in opinion, it should be
+considered as having for its object, not simply the advancement of their
+peculiar views, but the general diffusion of practical religion and of the
+spirit of Christianity."
+
+As this address indicates in every word of it the liberal men were
+sensitively anxious to put no fetters on each other; and their reluctance
+to circumscribe their own personal freedom was extreme. This was the cause
+that had thus far prevented any effectual organization, and it now withheld
+the members from any but the most tentative methods. Having escaped from
+the bondage of sect, they were suspicious of everything that in any manner
+gave indication of denominational restrictions.
+
+[Sidenote: The Publishing Fund Society.]
+
+In May, 1821, a year later than the foundation of the Berry Street
+Conference, several gentlemen in Boston, "desirous of promoting the
+circulation of works adapted to improve the public mind in religion and
+morality," met and established a Publishing Fund. The publishing committee
+then appointed consisted of Dr. Joseph Tuckerman, Dr. John Gorham Palfrey,
+and Mr. George Ticknor. The Publishing Fund Society refused to print
+doctrinal tracts or those devoted in any way to sectarian interests. The
+members of the society made declaration that their publications had nothing
+to do with any of the isms in religion. Their great object was the increase
+of practical goodness, the improvement of men in all that truly exalts and
+ennobles them or that qualifies them for usefulness and happiness. Most of
+their tracts were in the form of stories of a didactic character, in which
+the writers assumed the broad principles of Christian theology and ethics
+which are common to all the followers of Christ, without meddling with
+sectarian prejudice or party views. In such statements as these the
+promoters of this work indicated their methods, their aim being to furnish
+good reading to youth, and to those in scattered communities who could not
+have access to books that were instructive. Besides the tracts of this kind
+the society also published a series for adults, which were of a more
+strictly devotional character, and yet did not omit to provide
+entertainment and instruction.[14] This society continued its work for
+many years, and it issued a considerable number of tracts and books that
+well served the purpose for which they were designed.
+
+[Sidenote: Harvard Divinity School.]
+
+One important result of the theological discussions of the time was the
+organization of the Divinity School in connection with Harvard College. The
+eighteenth-century method of preparation for the ministerial office was to
+study with some settled pastor, who directed the reading of the student,
+gave him practical acquaintance with the labors of a pastor, and initiated
+him into the profession by securing for him the "approbation" of the
+ministerial association with which he was connected. Another method was for
+the student to continue his residence in Cambridge, and follow his
+theological studies under the guidance of the president and the Hollis
+professor, making use of the library of the college. When Rev. Henry Ware
+was inducted into the Hollis professorship, it was seen that some more
+systematic method of theological study was desirable. He gradually enlarged
+the scope of his activities, and in 1811 he began a systematic courser of
+instruction for the resident students in theology. Ware "was one of those
+genuine lovers of reform and progress," as John Gorham Palfrey said, "who
+are always ready for any innovation for the better; who, in the pursuit of
+what is truly good and useful, are not only content to move on with the
+age, but desirous to move on before it."[15] This effort of his to improve
+the methods of theological study proved to be the germ of the existing
+Divinity School.
+
+The Hollis professorship of divinity was founded by Thomas Hollis, of
+London, in 1721. Samuel Dexter, of Boston, established a lectureship of
+Biblical criticism in 1811. Both the professorship and the lectureship were
+designed for the undergraduates, and not primarily for students in
+theology. In 1815, however, it became apparent to some of the liberals that
+a school wholly devoted to the preparation of young men for the ministry
+was needed.
+
+Those who subscribed to the $30,000 secured for this purpose were in 1816
+formed into the Society for the Promotion of Theological Education in
+Harvard University. This society rendered efficient aid to the school for
+several years. At a meeting held at the Boston Athenaeum, July 17, 1816,
+Rev. John T. Kirkland became its president, Rev. Francis Parkman, recording
+secretary, Rev. Charles Lowell, corresponding secretary, and Jonathan
+Phillips, treasurer. The society was supported by annual subscriptions,
+life subscriptions, and donations. The school began its work in 1816, with
+Rev. Andrews Norton as the Dexter lecturer on Biblical criticism, Rev. J.T.
+Kirkland as instructor in systematic theology, Rev. Edward Everett in the
+criticism of the Septaugint, Professor Sidney Willard in Hebrew, and
+Professor Levi Frisbie in ethics. In 1819 Mr. Norton was advanced to a
+professorship, and thereafter devoted his whole time to the school; and
+during that year the school was divided into three classes. In 1824 the
+Society for the Promotion of Theological Education took the general
+direction of the school, arranging the course of study and otherwise
+assuming a supervision, which continued until 1831, when the school
+received a place as one of the departments of the University. In 1826 a
+building was erected for the school by the society, which has borne the
+name of Divinity Hall. In 1828 a professorship of pulpit eloquence and
+pastoral care was established by the society, and in 1830 the younger Henry
+Ware entered upon its duties.[16] He was succeeded in 1842 by Rev. Convers
+Francis. In 1830 Rev. John Gorham Palfrey became the professor of Biblical
+literature, and soon after the instructor in Hebrew. Rev. George Rapall
+Noyes, in 1840, took the Hancock professorship of Hebrew and the Dexter
+lectureship in Biblical criticism.
+
+Though organized and conducted by the Unitarians, the Divinity School was
+from the first unsectarian in its purpose and methods; for the Society for
+the Promotion of Theological Education, on its organization, put into its
+constitution this fundamental law: "It being understood that every
+encouragement be given to the serious, impartial and unbiassed
+investigation of Christian truth, and that no assent to the peculiarities
+of any denomination, be required either of the students or professors or
+instructors."
+
+[Sidenote: The Unitarian Miscellany.]
+
+The first outspoken periodical on the liberal side that aimed at being
+distinctly denominational was published in Baltimore. Dr. Freeman preached
+in that city in 1816, with the result that during the following year a
+church was organized there. It was there in 1819, on the occasion of the
+ordination of Rev. Jared Sparks as the first minister of this church, that
+Dr. Channing gave utterance to the first great declaration of the Unitarian
+position, in a sermon that has never been surpassed in this country as an
+intellectual interpretation of the highest spiritual problems.
+
+In January, 1821, Rev. Jared Sparks began the publication in Baltimore of
+The Unitarian Miscellany and Christian Monitor; and for three years he was
+its editor. For another three years it was conducted by his successor in
+the Baltimore pulpit, Rev. Francis W.P. Greenwood, who continued it until
+he became the minister of King's Chapel, when it ceased to exist. During
+the six years of its publication this magazine was ably edited. It was
+controversial in a liberal spirit, it was positively denominational, and it
+had a large and widely extended circulation. It reported all prominent
+Unitarian events, and those of a liberal tendency in all religious bodies.
+Attacks on Unitarianism were repelled, and the Unitarian position was
+explained and vindicated. Mr. Sparks was as aggressive as Andrews Norton
+had been, and was by no means willing to keep to the quiet and reticent
+manner of the Unitarians of Boston. When he was attacked, he replied with
+energy and skill; and he carried the war into the enemies' camp. His
+magazine was far more positive than anything the liberals had hitherto put
+forth, and its methods were viewed with something of suspicion in the
+conservative circles of Massachusetts. He published a series of letters on
+the Episcopal Church in The Unitarian Miscellany, which he enlarged and put
+into a book.[17] Another series of letters was on the comparative moral
+tendencies of Trinitarian and Unitarian doctrines, and these grew into a
+volume.[18] Both were in reply to attacks made upon him, and both were
+regarded with suspicion and doubt by the men about Cambridge; but, in time,
+they came to see that his method was sincere, learned, and honest.
+
+In The Unitarian Miscellany, as in all their utterances of this time, the
+Unitarians manifested much anxiety to maintain their position as the true
+expounders of primitive Christianity. They did not covet a place outside
+the larger fellowship of the Christian faith. A favorite method of
+vindicating their right to Christian recognition was by the publication of
+the works of liberal orthodox writers of previous generations. Such an
+attempt was made by Jared Sparks in his Collection of Essays and Tracts in
+Theology, with Biographical and Critical Notices, issued in Boston from
+1823 to 1826. In the general preface to these six volumes, Mr. Sparks said
+that "the only undeviating rule of selection will be that every article
+chosen shall be marked with rational and liberal views of Christianity, and
+suited to inform the mind or improve the temper and practice," and that the
+series was "designed to promote the cause of sacred learning, of truth and
+charity, of religious freedom and rational piety." In the first volume were
+included Turretin's essay on the fundamentals of religious truth, a number
+of short essays by Firmin Abauzit, Francis Blackburne's discussion of the
+value of confessions of faith, and several essays by Bishop Hoadley. That
+these writings have now no significance, even to intelligent readers, does
+not detract from the value of their publication; for they had a living
+meaning and power. Other writers, drawn upon in the succeeding volumes were
+Isaac Newton, Jeremy Taylor, John Locke, Isaac Watts, William Penn, and
+Mrs. Barbauld. The catholicity of the editor was shown in the wide range of
+his authors, whose doctrinal connections covered the whole field of
+Christian theology.
+
+In the publication of The Unitarian Miscellany, Mr. Sparks had the business
+aid of the Baltimore Unitarian Book Society, formed November 19, 1820,
+which was organized to carry on this work, and to disseminate other liberal
+books and tracts. This society distributed Bibles, "and such other books as
+contain rational and consistent views of Christian doctrines, and are
+calculated to promote a correct faith, sincere piety, and a holy practice."
+In the year 1821 was formed the Unitarian Library and Tract Society of New
+York; and similar societies were started in Philadelphia and Charleston
+soon after, as well as in other cities. Some of these societies published
+books, tracts, and periodicals, all of them distributed Unitarian
+publications, and libraries were formed of liberal works. The most
+successful of these societies, which soon numbered a score or two, was that
+in Baltimore. This society extended its missionary operations with the
+printed page widely, sending tracts into every part of the country, the
+demand for them having become very large. Its periodical had an extended
+circulation, its cheapness, its popular character, and its outspoken
+attitude on doctrinal questions serving to make it the most successful of
+the liberal publications of the time.[19]
+
+[Sidenote: The Christian Register.]
+
+On April 20, 1821, was issued the first number of The Christian Register,
+the regular weekly publication of which began with August 24 of that year.
+Its four pages contained four columns each, but the third of these pages
+was given to secular news and advertisements. The first page was devoted to
+general religious subjects, the second discussed those topics which were of
+special interest to Unitarians, while the fourth was given to literary
+miscellanies. Almost nothing of church news was reported, and only in a
+limited way was the paper denominational. It was a general religious
+newspaper of a kind that was acceptable to the liberals, and it defended
+and interpreted their cause when occasion demanded. The paper was started
+wholly as an individual enterprise by its publisher, Rev. David Reed, who
+acted for about five years as its editor. He had the encouragement of the
+leading Unitarians of Boston and its vicinity; and, when such men as
+Channing, Ware, and Norton wished to speak for the Unitarians, its columns
+were open to them. Among the other early contributors were Kirkland, Story,
+Edward Everett, Walker, Dewey, Furness, Palfrey, Gannett, Noah Worcester,
+Greenwood, Bancroft, Sparks, Alexander Young, Freeman, Burnap, Pierpont,
+Noyes, Lowell, Frothingham, and Pierce.
+
+In his prospectus the publisher spoke of the growth of the spirit of free
+religious inquiry in the country; and he said that in all classes of the
+community there was an eagerness to understand theological questions, and
+to arrive at and practice the genuine principles of Christianity. His ideal
+was a periodical that should present the same doctrines and temper as The
+Christian Disciple, but that would be of a more popular character. "The
+great object of The Christian Register," he said to his readers, "will be
+to inculcate the principles of a rational faith, and to promote the
+practice of genuine piety. To accomplish this purpose it will aim to excite
+a spirit of free and independent religious inquiry, and to assist in
+ascertaining and bringing into use the true principles of interpreting the
+Scriptures."
+
+For a number of years The Christian Register conformed to "the mild and
+amiable spirit" in which it began its career, rarely being aroused to an
+aggressive attitude, and seldom undertaking to speak for Unitarianism as a
+distinct form of Christianity. When the liberals were fiercely attacked, it
+spoke out, as, for instance, at the time when the Unitarians were charged
+with stealing churches from the orthodox.[20] Otherwise it was mild and
+placid enough, given to expressing its friendly interest in every kind of
+reform, from the education of women to the emancipation of slaves,
+thoroughly humanitarian in its attitude, not doctrinal or controversial,
+but faithfully catholic and tolerant. It was a well-conducted periodical,
+represented a wide range of interests, and was admirably suited to
+interpret the temper and spirit of a rational religion. It is now the
+oldest weekly religious newspaper published in this country. As the leading
+Unitarian periodical, it is still conducted with notable enterprise and
+ability.
+
+Another periodical also deserves mention in this connection, and that is
+the North American Review, which was begun by William Tudor, one of the
+members of The Anthology Club, in May, 1815. While it was not religious in
+its character, it was from the first, and for more than sixty years, edited
+by Unitarians; and its contributors were very largely from that religious
+body. The same tendencies and conditions that led the liberals to establish
+The Monthly Anthology, The Christian Disciple, and The Christian Examiner,
+gave demand amongst them for a distinctly literary and critical journal.
+They had gained that form of liberated and catholic culture which made such
+works possible, and to a large extent they afforded the public necessary to
+their support. Mr. Tudor was succeeded as the editor of the review by
+Professor Edward T. Channing, and then followed in succession Edward
+Everett, Jared Sparks, Alexander H. Everett, John Gorham Palfrey, Francis
+Bowen, and Andrew P. Peabody, all Unitarians. Among the early Unitarian
+contributors were Nathan Hale, Joseph Story, Nathaniel Bowditch, W.H.
+Prescott, William Cullen Bryant, and Theophilus Parsons. For many years few
+of the regular contributors were from any other religious body, not because
+the editors put restrictions upon others, but because those who were
+interested in general literary, historical, and scientific subjects
+belonged almost exclusively to the churches of this faith.
+
+[Sidenote: Results of the Division in Congregationalism.]
+
+The controversy which began in 1805 continued for about twenty years. The
+pamphlets and books it brought forth are almost forgotten, and they would
+have little interest at the present time. They gradually widened the breach
+between the orthodox and the liberal Congregationalists. It would be
+difficult to name a decisive date for their actual separation. The
+organization of the societies, and the establishment of the periodicals
+already mentioned, were successive steps to that result. The most important
+event was undoubtedly the formation of the American Unitarian Association,
+in 1825; but even that important movement on the part of the Unitarians did
+not bring about a final separation. Individual churches and ministers
+continued to treat each other with the same courtesy and hospitality as
+before.
+
+That the breach was inevitable seems to be the verdict of history; and yet
+it is not difficult to see to-day how it might have been avoided. The
+Unitarians were dealt with in such a manner that they could not continue
+the old connection without great discomfort and loss of self-respect. They
+were forced to organize for self-protection, and yet they did so
+reluctantly and with much misgiving. They would have preferred to remain as
+members of the united Congregational body, but the theological temper of
+the time made this impossible. It would not be just to say that there was
+actual persecution, but there could not be unity where there was not
+community of thought and faith.
+
+When the division in the Congregational churches came, one hundred and
+twenty-five churches allied themselves with the Unitarians,--one hundred in
+Massachusetts, a score in other parts of New England, and a half-dozen west
+of the Hudson River. These churches numbered among them, however, many of
+the oldest and the strongest, including about twenty of the first
+twenty-five organized in Massachusetts, and among them Plymouth (organized
+in Scrooby), Salem, Dorchester, Boston, Watertown, Roxbury, Hingham,
+Concord, and Quincy. The ten Congregational churches in Boston, with the
+exception of the Old South, allied themselves with the Unitarians. Other
+first churches to take this action were those of Portsmouth, Kennebunk, and
+Portland.
+
+Outside New England a beginning was made almost as soon as the Unitarian
+name came into recognition. At Charleston, S.C., the Congregational church,
+which had been very liberal, was divided in 1816 as the result of the
+preaching of Rev. Anthony Forster. He was led to read the works of Dr.
+Priestley, and became a Unitarian in consequence. Owing to ill-health, he
+was soon obliged to resign; and Rev. Samuel Gilman was installed in 1819.
+Rev. Robert Little, an English Unitarian, took up his residence in
+Washington in 1819, and began to preach there; and a church was organized
+in 1821. While chaplain of the House of Representatives, in 1821-22, Jared
+Sparks preached to this society fortnightly, and in the House Chamber on
+the alternate Sunday. When he went to Charleston, in 1819, to assist in the
+installation of Mr. Gilman, he preached to a very large congregation in the
+state-house in Raleigh; and the next year he spoke to large congregations
+in Virginia.[21] More than a decade earlier there were individual
+Unitarians in Kentucky.[22] On his journey to the ordination of Jared
+Sparks, Dr. Channing preached in a New York parlor; and on his return he
+occupied the lecture-hall of the Medical School. The result was the First
+Congregational Church (All Souls'), organized in 1819, which was followed
+by the Church of the Messiah in 1825. In fact, many of the more intelligent
+and thoughtful persons everywhere were inclined to accept a liberal
+interpretation of Christianity.
+
+Although the Congregational body was divided into two distinct
+denominations, there were three organizations, formed prior to that event,
+which have remained intact to this day. In these societies Orthodox and
+Unitarian continue to unite as Congregationalists, and the sectarian lines
+are not recognized. The first of these organizations is the Massachusetts
+Congregational Charitable Society, which was formed early in the eighteenth
+century for the purpose of securing "support to the widows and children of
+deceased congregational ministers." The second is the Massachusetts
+Convention of Congregational Ministers, also formed early in the eighteenth
+century, although its records begin only with the year 1748. It was formed
+for consultation, advice, and counsel, to aid orphans and widows of
+ministers, and to secure the general promotion of the interests of
+religion. The convention sermon has been one of the recognized institutions
+of Massachusetts, and since the beginning of the Unitarian controversy it
+has been preached alternately by ministers of the two denominations. The
+Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians and Others in North
+America was formed in 1787. The members, officers, and missionaries of this
+society have been of both denominations; and the work accomplished has been
+carried on in a spirit of amity and good-will. These societies indicate
+that co-operation may be secured without theological unity, and it is
+possible that they may become the basis in the future of a closer sympathy
+and fellowship between the severed Congregational churches.
+
+[Sidenote: Final Separation of State and Church.]
+
+From the beginning the liberal movement had been more or less intimately
+associated with that for the promotion of religious freedom and the
+separation of state and church. Many of the states withdrew religion from
+state control on the adoption of the Federal Constitution. In New England
+this was done in the first years of the century. Connecticut came to this
+result after an exciting agitation in 1818. Massachusetts was more
+tenacious of the old ways; but in 1811 its legislative body passed a
+"religious freedom act," that secured individuals from taxation for the
+support of churches with which they were not connected. The constitutional
+convention of 1820 proposed a bill of rights that aimed to secure religious
+freedom, but it was defeated by large majorities. It was only when church
+property was given by the courts to the parish in preference to the church,
+and when the "standing order" churches had been repeatedly foiled in their
+efforts to retain the old prerogatives, that a majority could be secured
+for religious freedom. In November, 1833, the legislature submitted to the
+people a revision of the bill of rights, which provided for the separation
+of state and church, and the voluntary support of churches. A majority was
+secured for this amendment, and it became the law in 1834. Massachusetts
+was the last of all the states to arrive at this result, and a far greater
+effort was required to bring it about than elsewhere. The support of the
+churches was now purely voluntary, the state no longer lending its aid to
+tax person and property for their maintenance.
+
+Thus it came about that Massachusetts adopted the principle and method of
+Roger Williams after two centuries. For the first time she came to the full
+recognition of her own democratic ideals, and to the practical acceptance
+of the individualism for which she had contended from the beginning. She
+had fought stubbornly and zealously for the faith she prized above all
+other things, but by the logic of events and the greatness of the principle
+of liberty she was conquered. The minister and the meeting-house were by
+her so dearly loved that she could not endure the thought of having them
+shorn of any of their power and influence; but for the sake of their true
+life she at last found it wise and just to leave all the people free to
+worship God in their own way, without coercion and without restraint.
+
+Although the liberal ministers and churches led the way in securing
+religious freedom, yet they were socially and intellectually conservative.
+Radical changes they would not accept, and they moved away from the old
+beliefs with great caution. The charge that they were timid was undoubtedly
+true, though there is no evidence that they attempted to conceal their real
+beliefs. Evangelical enthusiasm was not congenial to them, and they
+rejected fanaticism in every form. They had a deep, serious, and spiritual
+faith, that was intellectual without being rationalistic, marked by strong
+common sense, and vigorous with moral integrity. They permitted a wide
+latitude of opinion, and yet they were thoroughly Christian in their
+convictions. Most of them saw in the miracles of the New Testament the only
+positive evidence of the truth of Christianity, which was to them an
+external and supernatural revelation. They were quite willing to follow
+Andrews Norton, however, who was the chief defender of the miraculous, in
+his free criticism of the Old Testament and the birth-stories in the
+Gospels.
+
+The liberal ministers fostered an intellectual and literary expression of
+religion, and yet their chief characteristic was their spirituality. They
+aimed at ethical insight and moral integrity in their influence upon men
+and women, and at cultivating purity of life and an inward probity. In
+large degree they developed the spirit of philanthropy and a fine regard
+for the rights and the welfare of others. They were not sectarian or
+zealous for bringing others to the acceptance of their own beliefs; but
+they were generous in behalf of all public interests, faithful to all civic
+duties, and known for their private generosity and faithful Christian
+living. Under the leadership of Dr. Channing the Catholic Christians, as
+they preferred to call themselves, cultivated a spirituality that was
+devout without being ritualistic, sincere without being fanatical. The
+churches around them, to a large degree, kept zealously to the externals of
+religion, and accepted physical evidences of the truthfulness of
+Christianity; but Channing sought for what is deeper and more permanent.
+His preference of rationality to the testimony of miracles, spiritual
+insight to external evidences, devoutness of life to the rites of the
+church, characterized him as a great religious leader, and developed for
+the Catholic Christians a new type of Christianity. Whatever Channing's
+limitations as a thinker and a reformer, he was a man of prophetic insight
+and lofty spiritual vision. In other ages he would have been canonized as a
+saint or called the beatific doctor; but in Boston he was a heretic and a
+reformer, who sought to lead men into a faith that is ethical, sincere, and
+humanitarian. He prized Christianity for what it is in itself, for its
+inwardness, its fidelity to human nature, and its ethical integrity. His
+mind was always open to truth, he was always young for liberty, and his
+soul dwelt in the serene atmosphere of a pure and lofty faith.
+
+[1] Josiah Quincy, History of Harvard University, I. 230, Chapter XII;
+    Christian Examiner, VII. 64; XXX. 70.
+
+[2] Jedidiah Morse, True Reasons on which the Election of a Hollis
+    Professor of Divinity in Harvard College were opposed at the Board of
+    Overseers.
+
+[3] III. 251, March, 1806.
+
+[4] Richard Eddy, Universalism in America, II. 87; Oscar F. Safford,
+    Hosea Ballou: A Marvellous Life Story, 71.
+
+[5] O.B. Frothingham, Boston Unitarianism, 161.
+
+[6] Josiah Quincy, History of the Boston Athenaeum, 1. "In the year 1803
+    Phineas Adams, a graduate of Harvard College, of the class of 1801,
+    commenced in Boston, under the name of _Sylvanus Per-se_, a periodical
+    work entitled The Monthly Anthology or Magazine of Polite Literature.
+    He conducted it for six months, but not finding its proceeds sufficient
+    for his support, he abandoned the undertaking. Mr. Adams, the son of a
+    farmer in Lexington, manifested in early boyhood a passion for elegant
+    learning. He adopted literature as a profession; but, after the failure
+    of his attempt as editor of The Anthology, he taught school in
+    different places, till, in 1811, he entered the Navy as chaplain and
+    teacher of mathematics. Here he became distinguished for mathematical
+    science in its relation to nautical affairs. In 1812 he accompanied
+    Commodore Porter in his eventful cruise in the Pacific, of which the
+    published journal bears honorable testimony to Mr. Adams's zeal for
+    promoting geographical and mathematical knowledge. He again joined
+    Porter in the expedition for the suppression of piracy in the West
+    Indies, and he died on that station in 1823, much respected in the
+    service."
+
+[7] In October, 1888, this society gave up its organization, and the sum
+    of $1,265.10 was given to the American Unitarian Association for the
+    establishment of a publishing fund.
+
+[8] Unitarian Biography, I. 40, Memoir by Henry Ware, Jr.
+
+[9] William Allen, Memoir of John Codman, 81.
+
+[10] Thomas Belsham, 1750-1829, was a dissenting English preacher and
+     teacher. In 1789 he became a Unitarian, and was settled in
+     Birmingham. From 1805 to his death he preached to the Essex Street
+     congregation in London. He wrote a popular work on the Evidences of
+     Christianity, and he translated the Epistles of St. Paul. He was a
+     vigorous and able writer.
+
+[11] Memoir of W.E. Channing, by W.H. Channing, I. 380.
+
+[12] Among the controversial works printed in Boston at this time was
+     Yates's Vindication of Unitarianism, an English book, which was
+     republished in 1816.
+
+[13] The entrance to the vestry of Federal Street Church was on Berry
+     Street, hence the name given the conference.
+
+[14] Christian Examiner, I. 248.
+
+[15] American Unitarian Biography, Life of Henry Ware, I. 241.
+
+[16] James Walker, Christian Examiner, X. 129; John G. Palfrey, Christian
+     Examiner, XI. 84; The Divinity School of Harvard University: Its
+     History, Courses of Study, Aims and Advantages.
+
+[17] Letters on the Ministry, Ritual, and Doctrines of the Protestant
+     Episcopal Church, addressed to Rev. William E. Wyatt, D.D., in Reply
+     to a Sermon, Baltimore, 1820.
+
+[18] Comparative Moral Tendency of Trinitarian and Unitarian Doctrines,
+     addressed to Rev. Samuel Miller, Boston, 1823.
+
+[19] H.B. Adams, Life and Writings of Jared Sparks, I. 175.
+
+[20] Dr. George E. Ellis, in Unitarianism: Its origin and History, 147.
+     The most prominent instance was that of the First Church in Dedham,
+     and this was decided by legal proceedings. "The question recognized
+     by the court was simply this: whether the claimants had been lawfully
+     appointed deacons of the First Church; that is, whether the body
+     which had appointed them was by law the First Church. The decision of
+     the court was as follows: 'When the majority of the members of a
+     Congregational church separate from the majority of the parish, the
+     members who remain, although a minority, constitute the church in
+     such parish, and retain the rights and property belonging thereto.'
+     This legal decision would have been regarded as a momentous one had
+     it applied only to the single case then in hearing. But it was the
+     establishment of a precedent which would dispose of all cases then to
+     be expected to present themselves in the troubles of the time between
+     parishes and the churches gathered within them. The full purport of
+     this decision was that the law did not recognize a church
+     independently of its connection with the parish in which it was
+     gathered, from which it might sever itself and carry property with
+     it." It was in accordance with the practice in New England for at
+     least a century preceding the decision in the Dedham case, and the
+     decision was rendered as the result of this practice.
+
+[21] H.B. Adams, Life and Writings of Jared Sparks, gives a most
+     interesting account in his earlier chapters of the origin of
+     Unitarianism, especially of its beginnings in Baltimore and other
+     places outside New England.
+
+[22] James Garrard, governor of Kentucky from 1796 to 1802, was a
+     Unitarian. Harry Toulmin, president of Transylvania Seminary and
+     secretary of the state of Kentucky, was also a Unitarian.
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+
+THE AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION.
+
+The time had come for the liberals to organize in a more distinctive form,
+in order that they might secure permanently the results they had already
+attained. The demand for organization, however, came almost wholly from the
+younger men, those who had grown up under the influence of the freer life
+of the liberal churches or who had been trained in the independent spirit
+of the Divinity School at Harvard. The older men, for the most part, were
+bound by the traditions of "the standing order":[1] they could not bring
+themselves to desire new conditions and new methods.
+
+The spirit of the older and leading laymen and ministers is admirably
+illustrated in Rev. O.B. Frothingham's account of his father in his book
+entitled Boston Unitarianism. They were interested in many, public-spirited
+enterprises, and the social circle in which they moved was cultivated and
+refined; but they were provincial, and little inclined to look beyond the
+limits of their own immediate interests. Dr. Nathaniel L. Frothingham,
+minister of the First Church in Boston, one of the earliest American
+students of German literature and philosophy, and a man of rational insight
+and progressive thinking, may be regarded as a representative of the best
+type of Boston minister in the first half of the nineteenth century. In a
+sermon preached in 1835, on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of
+his settlement, Dr. Frothingham said that he had never before used the word
+"Unitarian", in his pulpit, though his church had been for thirty years
+counted as Unitarian. "We have," he said, "made more account of the
+religious sentiment than of theological opinions." In this attitude he was
+in harmony with the leading men of his day.[2]
+
+Channing, for instance, was opposed to every phase of religious
+organization that put bonds upon men; and he would accept nothing in the
+form of a creed. He severely condemned "the guilt of a sectarian spirit,"
+and said that "to bestow our affections on those who are ranged under the
+same human leader, or who belong to the same church with ourselves, and to
+withhold it from others who possess equal if not superior virtue, because
+they bear a different name, is to prefer a party to the church of
+Christ."[3] In 1831 he described Unitarianism as being "characterized by
+nothing more than by the spirit of freedom and individuality. It has no
+established creed or symbol," he wrote. "Its friends think each for
+himself, and differ much from each other."[4] Later he wrote to a friend:
+"I distrust sectarian influence more and more. I am more detached from a
+denomination, and strive to feel more my connection with the Universal
+Church, with all good and holy men. I am little of a Unitarian, and stand
+aloof from all but those who strive and pray for clearer light, who look
+for a purer and more effectual manifestation of Christian truth."[5]
+
+Many of the Unitarians were in fullest sympathy with Channing as to the
+fundamental law of spiritual freedom and as to the evils of sectarianism. A
+considerable number of them were in agreement with him as to the course
+pursued by the Unitarian movement. Having escaped from one sect, they were
+not ready to commit themselves to the control of another. Therefore they
+withheld themselves from all definitely organized phases of Unitarianism,
+and would give no active support to those who sought to bring the liberals
+together for purposes of protection and forward movement. Under these
+circumstances it was difficult to secure concert of action or to make
+successful any definite missionary enterprise, however little of
+sectarianism it might manifest. Even to the present time Unitarianism has
+shown this independence on the part of local churches and this freedom on
+the part of individuals. Because of this attitude, unity of action has been
+difficult, and denominational loyalty never strong or assured.
+
+However, a different spirit animated the younger men, who persisted in
+their effort to secure an organization that would represent distinctively
+the Unitarian thought and sentiment. The movement towards organization had
+its origin and impulse in a group of young ministers who had been trained
+at the Harvard Divinity School under Professor Andrews Norton. While Norton
+was conservative in theology and opposed to sectarian measures, his
+teaching was radical, progressive, and stimulating. His students accepted
+his spirit of intellectual progress, and often advanced beyond his more
+conservative teachings. In the years between 1817 and 1824 James Walker,
+John G. Palfrey, Jared Sparks, Alexander Young, John Pierpont, Ezra S.
+Gannett, Samuel Barrett, Thomas R. Sullivan, Samuel J. May, Calvin Lincoln,
+and Edward B. Hall were students in the Divinity School; and all of these
+men were leaders in the movement to organize a Unitarian Association.
+Pierpont gave the name to the new organization, distinctly defining it as
+Unitarian. Gannett, Palfrey, and Hall served it as presidents; Gannett,
+Lincoln, and Young, as secretaries. Walker, Palfrey, and Barrett gave it
+faithful service as directors, and Lincoln as its active missionary agent.
+A number of young laymen in Boston and elsewhere, mostly graduates of
+Harvard College, were also interested in the formation of the new
+organization. Among them were Charles G. Loring, Robert Rantoul, Samuel A.
+Eliot, Leverett Salstonstall, George B. Emerson, and Alden Bradford. All
+these young men were afterwards prominent in the affairs of the city or
+state, and they were faithful to the interests of the Unitarian churches
+with which they were connected.
+
+[Sidenote: Initial Meetings.]
+
+The first proposition to form a Unitarian organization for missionary
+purposes was made in a meeting of the Anonymous Association, a club to
+which belonged thirty or forty of the leading men of Boston. They were all
+connected with Unitarian churches, and were actively interested in
+promoting the growth of a liberal form of Christianity. It appears from the
+journal of David Reed, for many years the editor and publisher of The
+Christian Register, that the members of this association were in the habit
+of meeting at each other's houses during the year 1824 for the purpose of
+discussing important subjects connected with religion, morals, and
+politics. At a meeting held at the house of Hon. Josiah Quincy in the
+autumn of that year, attention was called to certain articles that had been
+published in The Christian Register, and the importance was suggested of
+promoting the growth of liberal Christianity through the distribution of
+the printed word. A resolution was submitted, inquiring if measures could
+not be taken for uniting the efforts of liberal-minded persons to give
+greater efficiency to the attempt to extend a knowledge of Unitarian
+principles by means of the public press; and a committee was appointed to
+consider and report on the expediency of forming an organization for this
+purpose. This committee consisted of Rev. Henry Ware, the younger, Alden
+Bradford, and Richard Sullivan. Henry Ware was the beloved and devoted
+minister of the Second Church in Boston. His colleagues were older men,
+both graduates of Harvard College and prominent in the social and business
+life of Boston. The purpose which these men had in mind was well defined by
+Dr. Gannett, writing twenty years after the event: "We found ourselves," he
+said, "under the painful necessity of contributing our assistance to the
+propagation of tenets which we accounted false or of forming an association
+through which we might address the great truths of religion to our
+fellow-men without the adulteration of erroneous dogmas. To take one of
+these courses, or to do nothing in the way of Christian beneficence, was
+the only alternative permitted to us. The name which we adopted has a
+sectarian sound; but it was chosen to avoid equivocation on the one hand
+and misapprehension on the other."[6] The committee, under date of
+December 29, 1824, sent out a circular inviting a meeting of all
+interested, "in order to confer together on the expediency of appointing an
+annual meeting for the purpose of union, sympathy, and co-operation in the
+cause of Christian truth and Christian charity." In this circular will be
+found the origin of the clause in the present constitution of the Unitarian
+Association defining its purposes.
+
+In response to this call a meeting was held in the vestry of the Federal
+Street Church on January 27, 1825. Dr. Channing opened the meeting with
+prayer. Richard Sullivan was chosen moderator, and James Walker secretary.
+There were present all those who have been hitherto named in connection
+with this movement, together with many others of the leading laymen and
+ministers of the liberal churches in New England.[7] The record of the
+meeting made by Rev. James Walker is preserved in the first volume of the
+correspondence of the Unitarian Association; and it enables us, in
+connection with the more confidential reminiscences of David Reed, to give
+a fairly complete record of, what was said and done. Henry Ware, the
+younger, in behalf of the committee, presented a statement of the objects
+proposed by those desirous of organizing a national Unitarian society; and
+he offered a resolution declaring it "desirable and expedient that
+provision should be made for future meetings of Unitarians and liberal
+Christians generally." The adoption of this resolution was moved by Stephen
+Higginson; and the discussion was opened by Dr. Aaron Bancroft, the learned
+and honored minister of the Second Church in Worcester. He was fearful that
+sufficient care might not be taken as to the manner of instituting the
+proposed organization, and he doubted its expediency. He was of the opinion
+that Unitarianism was to be propagated slowly and silently, for it had
+succeeded in his own parish because it had not been openly advocated. He
+did not wish to oppose the design generally, but he was convinced that it
+would do more harm than good.
+
+Dr. Bancroft was followed by Professor Andrews Norton, the greatly
+respected teacher of most of the younger ministers, who defended the
+proposed organization, and said that its purpose was not to make
+proselytes. Then Dr. Charming arose, and gave to the proposition of the
+committee a guarded approval. He thought the object of the convention, as
+he wished to call it, should be to "spread our views of religion, not our
+mere opinions, for our religion is essentially practical." The friendly
+attitude of Channing gave added emphasis to the disapproval of the
+prominent laymen who spoke after him. Judge Charles Jackson, an eminent
+justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, thought there was danger in
+the proposed plan, that it was not becoming to liberal Christians, that it,
+was inconsistent with their principles, and that it would not be beneficial
+to the community. He was ready to give his aid, to any specific work, but
+he thought that everything could be accomplished that was necessary,
+without a general-association of any kind. The same opinion was expressed
+by George Bond, a leading merchant of Boston, who was afraid that
+Unitarianism would become popular, and that, when it had gamed a majority
+of the people of the country to its side, it would become as intolerant as
+the other sects. For this reason he believed the measure inexpedient, and
+moved an adjournment of the meeting.
+
+Three of the most widely known and respected of the older ministers also
+spoke in opposition to the proposition to form an association of liberal
+Christians. These men were typical pastors and preachers, whose parishes
+were limited only by the town in which they lived, and who preached the
+gospel without sectarian prejudice or doctrinal qualifications. Dr. John
+Pierce, of Brookline, thought the measure of the committee "very
+dangerous," and likely to do much harm in many of the parishes by arousing
+the sectarian spirit. He spoke three times in the course of the meeting,
+opposing with his accustomed vehemence all attempt at organization. Dr.
+Abiel Abbot, of Beverly, thought that presenting a distinct object for
+opposition would arrest the progress of Unitarianism, for in his
+neighborhood liberal Christianity owed everything to slow and silent
+progress. Dr. John Allyn, of Duxbury, one of the most original and learned
+ministers of his time in New England, was opposed to the use of any
+sectarian name, especially that of Unitarian or Liberal. He was willing to
+join in a general convention, and he desired to have a meeting of delegates
+from all sects. He expressed the opinion of several leading men who were
+present at this meeting, who favored an unsectarian organization, that
+should include all men of liberal opinions, of whatever name or
+denominational connection.
+
+Those who were in favor of a Unitarian Association did not remain silent,
+and they spoke with clearness and vigor in approval of the proposition of
+the committee. Alden Bradford, who became the Secretary of State in
+Massachusetts, and wrote several valuable biographical and historical
+works, thought that Unitarians were too timid and did not wisely defend
+their position. He was followed by Andrews Norton in a vigorous declaration
+of the importance of the association, in the course of which he pointed out
+how inadequately Unitarians had protected and fostered the institutions
+under their care, and declared that closer union was necessary. Jared
+Sparks also earnestly favored the project, and said that what was proposed
+was not a plan of proselyting. It was his opinion that Unitarians ought to
+come forward in support of their views of truth, and that an association
+was necessary in order to promote sympathy among them throughout the
+country. Colonel Joseph May, who had been for thirty years a warden of
+King's Chapel, and a man held in high esteem in Boston, referred to the
+work already accomplished by the zeal and effort of the few Unitarians who
+had worked together to promote liberal interests. The most incisive word
+spoken, however, came from John Pierpont, who was just coming into his fame
+as an orator and a leader in reforms. "We have," he declared, "and we must
+have, the name Unitarian. It is not for us to shrink from it. Organization
+is necessary in order to maintain it, and organization there must be. The
+general interests of Unitarians will be promoted by using the name, and
+organizing in harmony with it."
+
+In the long discussion at this meeting it appears that, of the ministers,
+Channing, Norton, Bancroft, Ware, Pierpont, Sparks, Edes, Nichols, Parker,
+Thayer, Willard, and Harding were in favor of organization; Pierce, Allyn,
+Abbot, Freeman, and Bigelow, against it. Of the laymen, Charles Jackson and
+George Bond were vigorously in opposition; and Judge Story, Judge White,
+Judge Howe, of Northampton, Alden Bradford, Leverett Salstonstall, Stephen
+Higginson, and Joseph May spoke in favor. The result of the meeting was the
+appointment of a committee, consisting of Sullivan, Bradford, Ware,
+Channing, Palfrey, Walker, Pierpont, and Higginson, which was empowered to
+call together a larger meeting at some time during the session of the
+General Court. But this committee seems never to have acted. At the end of
+his report of this preliminary meeting James Walker wrote: "The meeting
+proposed was never called. As there appeared to be so much difference of
+opinion as to the expediency and nature of the measure proposed, it was
+thought best to let it subside in silence."
+
+The zeal of those favorable to organization, however, did not abate; and
+the discussion went on throughout the winter. On May 25, 1825, at the
+meeting of the Berry Street Conference of Ministers, Henry Ware, the
+younger, who had been chairman of the first committee, renewed the effort,
+and presented the following statement as a declaration of the purposes of
+the proposed organization:--
+
+  It is proposed to form a new association, to be called The American
+  Unitarian Society. The chief and ultimate object will be the promotion
+  of pure and undefiled religion by disseminating the knowledge of it
+  where adequate means of religious instruction are not enjoyed. A
+  secondary good which will follow from it is the union of all Unitarian
+  Christians in this country, so that they would become mutually
+  acquainted, and the concentration of their efforts would increase their
+  efficiency. The society will embrace all Unitarian Christians in the
+  United States. Its operations would extend themselves through the whole
+  country. These operations would chiefly consist in the publication and
+  distribution of tracts, and the support of missionaries.
+
+It was announced that in the afternoon a meeting would be held for the
+further consideration of the subject. This meeting was held at four
+o'clock, and Dr. Henry Ware acted as moderator. The opponents of
+organization probably absented themselves, for action was promptly taken,
+and it was "_Voted_, that it is expedient to form a new society to be
+called the American Unitarian Association." All who were present expressed
+themselves as in favor of this action. Rev. James Walker, Mr. Lewis Tappan,
+and Rev. Ezra S. Gannett were appointed a committee to draft a form of
+organization. On the next morning, Thursday, May 26, 1825, this committee
+reported to a meeting, of which Dr. Nathaniel Thayer, of Lancaster, was
+moderator; and, with one or two amendments, the constitution prepared by
+the committee was adopted. This constitution, with slight modifications, is
+still in force. The object of the Association was declared to be "to
+diffuse the knowledge and promote the interests of pure Christianity." A
+committee to nominate officers selected Dr. Channing for president; Joseph
+Story, of Salem, Joseph Lyman, of Northampton, Stephen Longfellow, of
+Portland, Charles H. Atherton, of Amherst, N.H., Henry Wheaton, of New
+York, James Taylor, of Philadelphia, Henry Payson, of Baltimore, William
+Cranch, of Alexandria, Martin L. Hurlbut, of Charleston, as
+vice-presidents; Ezra S. Gannett, of Boston, for secretary; Lewis Tappan,
+of Boston, for treasurer; and Andrews Norton, Jared Sparks, and James
+Walker, for executive committee.
+
+When Mr. Gannett wrote to his colleague, Dr. Channing, to notify him of his
+election as president, there came a letter declining the proffered office.
+"I was a little disappointed," Channing wrote, "at learning that the
+Unitarian Association is to commence operations immediately. I conversed
+with Mr. Norton on the subject before leaving Boston, and found him so
+indisposed to engage in it that I imagined that it would be let alone for
+the present. The office which in your kindness you have assigned to me I
+must beg to decline. As you have made a beginning, I truly rejoice in your
+success." Norton and Sparks also declined to serve as directors, ill-health
+and previous engagements being assigned by them for their inability to act
+with the other officers elected. The executive committee proceeded to fill
+these vacancies by the election of Dr. Aaron Bancroft, of Worcester, as
+president, and of the younger Henry Ware and Samuel Barrett to the
+executive committee; and the board of directors thus constituted
+administered the Association during its first year.
+
+In the selection of Dr. Bancroft as the head of the new association a wise
+choice was made, for he had the executive and organizing ability that was
+eminently desirable at this juncture. He was an able preacher, and one of
+the strongest thinkers in the Unitarian body. His biography of Washington
+had made him widely known; and his volume of controversial sermons,
+published in 1822, had received the enthusiastic praise of John Adams and
+Thomas Jefferson. When he was settled, he was almost an outcast in
+Worcester County because of his liberalism; but such were the strength of
+his character and the power of his thought that gradually he secured a wide
+hearing, and became the most popular preacher in Central Massachusetts.
+After fifty years of his ministry he could count twenty-one vigorous
+Unitarian societies about him, all of which had profited by his
+influence.[8] Although he was seventy years of age at the time he
+accepted the presidency of the Unitarian Association, he was in the full
+enjoyment of his powers; and he filled the office for ten years, giving it
+and the cause which the Association represented the impetus and weight of
+his sound judgment and deserved reputation.
+
+The executive work of the Association fell to the charge of the secretary,
+Ezra S. Gannett, who had been one of the most enthusiastic advocates of the
+new organization. Gannett was but twenty-four years old, and had been but
+one year in the active ministry, as the colleague of Dr. Channing. He had
+youth, zeal, and executive force. Writing of him after his death, Dr.
+Bellows said: "He had rare administrative qualities and a statesmanlike
+mind. He would have been a leader anywhere. He had the ambition, the
+faculties, and the impulsive temperament of an actor in affairs. He had the
+fervor, the concentration of will, the passionate enthusiasm of conviction,
+the love of martyrdom, which make men great in action."[9] Throughout his
+life Gannett labored assiduously for the Association, serving it in every
+capacity refusing no drudgery, travelling over the country in its
+interests, and giving himself, heart and soul, to the cause it represented.
+The Unitarian cause never had a more devoted friend or one who made greater
+sacrifices in its behalf. To him more than to any other man it owes its
+organized life and its missionary serviceableness.
+
+Lewis Tappan, the treasurer, was a successful young business man. His term
+of service was brief; for two years after the organization of the
+Association he removed to New York, where he had an honorable career as one
+of the founders of the Journal of Commerce, and as the head of the first
+mercantile agency established in the country. He was later one of the
+anti-slavery leaders in New York, and an active and earnest member of
+Plymouth Church in Brooklyn.[10]
+
+The executive committee was composed of the three devoted young ministers
+who had been foremost in organizing the Association. Barrett was thirty,
+Ware and Walker were thirty-one years of age; and all three had been in
+Harvard College and the Divinity School together. Samuel Barrett had just
+been chosen minister of the newly formed Twelfth Congregational Church of
+Boston, which he served throughout his life. He was identified with all
+good causes in Eastern Massachusetts, a founder of the Benevolent
+Fraternity, and an overseer of Harvard College. Henry Ware, the younger,
+was, at the time of his election, the minister of the Second Church in
+Boston. Five years later he became professor in the Harvard Divinity
+School, and his memory is still cherished as the teacher and exemplar of a
+generation of Unitarian ministers. James Walker was, in 1825, the minister
+of the Harvard Church in Charlestown, and already gave evidence of the
+sanity and catholicity of mind, the practical organizing power, the wide
+philosophic culture, and the dignity of character which afterward
+distinguished him as professor in Harvard College, and as its president.
+
+Thus the organization started on its way, as the result of the determined
+purpose of a small company of the younger ministers and laymen. It took a
+name that separated it from all other religious organizations in this
+country, so far as its members then knew. The Unitarian name had been first
+definitely used in this country in 1815, to describe the liberal or
+Catholic Christians. They at first scornfully rejected it, but many of them
+had finally come to rejoice in its declaration of the simple unity of God.
+As a matter of history, it may be said that the word "Unitarian" was used
+in this doctrinal sense only; and it had none of the implications since
+given it by philosophy and science. Those who used it meant thereby to say
+that they accepted the doctrine of the absolute unity of God, and that the
+position of Christ was a subordinate though a very exalted one. No one can
+read their statements with historic apprehension, and arrive at any other
+conclusion. Yet these persons had no wish to cut themselves off from
+historic Christianity; rather was it their intent to restore it to its
+primitive purity.
+
+[Sidenote: Work of the First Year.]
+
+If others were disinclined to action, the executive committee of the
+Unitarian Association was determined that something should be done. At
+their first, meeting, held in the secretary's study four days after their
+election, there were present Norton, Walker, Tappan, and Gannett. They
+commissioned Rev. Warren Burton to act as their agent in visiting
+neighboring towns to solicit funds, and a week later they voted to employ
+him as a general agent. The committee held six meetings during June; and at
+one of these an address was adopted, defining the purposes and methods of
+the Association. "They wish it to be understood," was their statement,
+"that its efforts will be directed to the promotion of true religion
+throughout our country; intending by this, not exclusively those views
+which distinguish the friends of this Association from other disciples of
+Christ; but those views in connection with the great doctrines and
+principles in which all Christians coincide, and which constitute the
+substance of our religion. We wish to diffuse the knowledge and influence
+of the gospel of our Lord and Saviour. Great good is anticipated from the
+co-operation of persons entertaining similar views, who are now strangers
+to each other's religious sentiments. Interest will be awakened, confidence
+inspired, efficiency produced by the concentration of labors. The spirit of
+inquiry will be fostered, and individuals at a distance will know where to
+apply for information and encouragement. Respectability and strength will
+be given to the class among us whom our fellow Christians have excluded
+from the control of their religious charities, and whom, by their exclusive
+treatment, they have compelled in some measure to act as a party." The
+objects of the Association were stated to be the collection of information
+about Unitarianism in various parts of the country; the securing of union,
+sympathy, and co-operation among liberal Christians; the publishing and
+distribution of books inculcating correct views of religion; the employment
+of missionaries, and the adoption of other measures that might promote the
+general purposes held in view.
+
+At the end of the year the Association held its first anniversary meeting
+in Pantheon Hall, on the evening of June 30, 1826, when addresses were made
+by Hon. Joseph Story, Hon. Leverett Salstonstall, Rev. Ichabod Nichols, and
+Rev. Henry Coleman. The executive committee presented its report, which
+gave a detailed account of the operations during the year. They gave
+special attention to their discovery of "a body of Christians in the
+Western states who have for years been Unitarians, have encountered
+persecution on account of their faith, and have lived in ignorance of
+others east of the mountains who maintained many similar views of Christian
+doctrine." With this group of churches, which would consent to no other
+name than that of Christian, a correspondence had been opened; and, to
+secure a larger acquaintance with them, Rev. Moses G. Thomas[11] had
+visited several of the Western states. His tour carried him through
+Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and as far as St. Louis.
+His account of his journey was published in connection with the second
+report of the Association, and is full of interest. He did not preach, but
+he carefully investigated the religious prospects of the states he
+journeyed through; and he sought the acquaintance of the Christian churches
+and ministers. He gave an enthusiastic account of his travels, and reported
+that the west was a promising field for the planting of Unitarian churches.
+He recommended Northumberland, Harrisburg, Pittsburg, Steubenville,
+Marietta, Paris, Lexington, Louisville, St. Louis, St. Charles,
+Indianapolis, and Cincinnati as promising places for the labors of
+Unitarian missionaries,--places "which will properly appreciate their
+talents and render them doubly useful in their day and generation."
+
+During the first year of its existence the Unitarian Association endeavored
+to unite with itself, or to secure the co-operation of, the Society for the
+Promotion of Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity, the Evangelical
+Missionary Society, and the Publishing Fund Society; but these
+organizations were unwilling to come into close affiliation with it. The
+Evangelical Missionary Society has continued its separate existence to the
+present time, but the others were absorbed by the Unitarian Association
+after many years. This is one indication of how difficult it was to secure
+an active co-operation among Unitarians, and to bring them all into one
+vigorous working body. In concluding their first report, the officers of
+the Association alluded to the difficulties with which they had met the
+reluctance of the liberal churches to come into close affiliation with each
+other. "They have strenuously opposed the opinion," they said of the
+leaders of the Association, "that the object of the founders was to build
+up a party, to organize an opposition, to perpetuate pride and bigotry. Had
+they believed that such was its purpose or such would be its effect, they
+would have withdrawn themselves from any connection with so hateful a
+thing. They thought otherwise, and experience has proved they did not judge
+wrongly."
+
+[Sidenote: Work of the First Quarter of a Century.]
+
+Having thus organized itself and begun its work, the Association went
+quietly on its way. At no time during the first quarter of a century of its
+existence did it secure annual contributions from one-half the churches
+calling themselves Unitarian, and it did well when even one-third of them
+contributed to its treasury during any one year. The churches of Boston,
+for the most part, held aloof from it, and gave it only a feeble support,
+if any at all. They had so long accepted the spirit of congregational
+exclusiveness, had so great a dread of interference on the part of
+ecclesiastical organizations, and so keenly suspected every attempt at
+co-operation on the part of the churches as likely to lead to restrictions
+upon congregational independence, that it was nearly impossible to secure
+their aid for any kind of common work. Very slowly the contributions
+increased to the sum of $5,000 a year, and only once in the first quarter
+of a century did the total receipts of a year reach $15,000. With so small
+a treasury no great work could be undertaken; but the money given was
+husbanded to the utmost, and the salaries paid to clerks and the general
+secretary were kept to the lowest possible limit.
+
+Dr. Bancroft was succeeded in the presidency of the Association, in 1836,
+by Dr. Channing, who nominally held the position for one year; but at the
+next annual meeting he declined to have his name presented as a
+candidate.[12] The office was then filled by Dr. Ichabod Nichols, of
+Portland, who served from 1837 to 1844. He was the minister of the First
+Church in Portland from 1809 to 1855, and then retired to Cambridge, where
+he wrote his Natural Theology and his Hours with the Evangelists. Joseph
+Story, the great jurist, who had been vice-president of the Association
+from 1826 to 1836, was elected president in 1844, and served for one year.
+He was followed by Dr. Orville Dewey, who was president from 1845 to 1847.
+He had been settled in New Bedford, and over the Church of the Messiah in
+New York; and subsequently he had short pastorates in Albany, in
+Washington, and over the New South Church in Boston. His lectures and his
+sermons have made him widely known. In intellectual and emotional power he
+was one of the greatest preachers the country has produced. Dr. Gannett
+served as the president from 1847 to 1851, being succeeded by Dr. Samuel K.
+Lothop, who continued to hold the office until 1856. Dr. Lothrop was first
+settled in Dover, N.H., but became the minister of the Brattle Street
+Church, Boston, in 1834, retaining that position until 1876.
+
+The office of secretary was held by Rev. Ezra S, Gannett until 1831. He was
+succeeded in that year by Rev. Alexander Young, who held the position for
+two years. Dr. Young was the minister of the New South Church from 1825
+until his death, in 1854. His Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers, and other
+works, have given him a reputation as a historian. In 1829 the office of
+foreign secretary was created; and it was held by the younger Henry Ware
+from 1830 to 1834, when it ceased to exist. Rev. Samuel Barnett was
+secretary in 1833 and 1834, and recording secretary until 1837. In 1834 the
+office of general secretary was established, in order to secure the
+services of an active missionary. Rev. Jason Whitman, who held this
+position for one year, had been the minister in Saco; and he was afterward
+settled in Portland and Lexington. Rev. Charles Briggs became the general
+secretary in 1835, and continued in office until the end of 1847. He had
+been settled in Lexington, but did not hold a pastorate subsequent to his
+connection with the Association. In the mean time Rev. Samuel K. Lothrop
+was the assistant or recording secretary from 1837 to 1847. In 1847 Rev.
+William G. Eliot was elected the general secretary; but he did not serve,
+owing to the claims of his parish in St. Louis. Rev. Frederick West
+Holland, who had been settled in Rochester, was made the general secretary
+in January, 1848; and he held the position until the annual meeting of
+1860. Subsequently he was settled in East Cambridge, Neponset, North
+Cambridge, Rochester, and Newburg.
+
+It was Charles Briggs who first gave definite purpose to the missionary
+work of the Association. The annual report of 1850 said of him that he "had
+led the institution forward to high ground as a missionary body, by
+unfailing patience prevailed over every discouragement, by inexhaustible
+hope surmounted serious obstacles, by the most persuasive gentleness
+conciliated opposition, and done perhaps as much as could be asked of sound
+judgment, knowledge of mankind, and devotion to the cause, with the
+drawback of a slender and failing frame." In 1845 Rev. George G. Channing
+entered upon a service as the travelling agent of the Association, which he
+continued for two years. His duties required him to take an active interest
+in missionary enterprises, revive drooping churches, secure information as
+to the founding of new churches, and to add to the income of the
+Association. He was a brother of Dr. Channing, held one or two pastorates,
+and was the founder and editor of The Christian World, which he published
+in Boston as a weekly Unitarian paper from January, 1843, to the end of
+1848.
+
+At a meeting of the Unitarian Association held on June 3, 1847, the final
+steps were taken that secured its incorporation under the laws of
+Massachusetts. In the revised constitution the fifteen vice-presidents were
+reduced to two, and the president and vice-presidents were made members of
+the executive committee, and so brought into intimate connection with the
+work of the Association. The directors and other officers were made an
+executive committee, by which all affairs of moment must be considered; and
+it was required to hold stated monthly meetings. These changes were
+conducive to an enlarged interest in the work of the Association, and also
+to the more thorough consideration of its activities on the part of a
+considerable body of judicious and experienced officers. They were made in
+recognition of the increasing missionary labors of the Association, and
+enabled it thenceforth to hold and to manage legally the moneys that came
+under its control.
+
+[Sidenote: Publication of Tracts and Books.]
+
+One of the first subjects to which the Association gave attention was the
+publication of tracts, six of which were issued during the first year. In
+connection with their publication a series of depositaries was established
+for their sale. David Reed of The Christian Register became the general
+agent, while there were ten county depositaries in Massachusetts, four in
+New Hampshire, three in Maine, and one each in Connecticut, New York City,
+Philadelphia, Charleston, and Washington.[13] For a number of years the
+tracts were devoted to doctrinal subjects. Several of Channing's ablest
+sermons and addresses were first printed in this form. Among the other
+contributors to the first series were the three Wares, Orville Dewey,
+Joseph Tuckerman, James Walker, George Ripley, Samuel J. May, John G.
+Palfrey, Ezra S. Gannett, Samuel Gilman, George R. Noyes, William G. Eliot,
+Andrew P. Peabody, F.A. Farley, James Freeman Clarke, S.G. Bulfinch, George
+Putnam, Joseph Allen, Frederic H. Hedge, Edward B. Hall, George E. Ellis,
+Thomas B. Fox, Charles T. Brooks, J.H. Morison, Henry W. Bellows, William
+H. Furness, John Cordner, Chandler Robbins, Augustus Woodbury, and William
+R. Alger. Ten or twelve tracts were issued yearly, those of the year having
+a consecutive page numbering, so that, in fact, they appeared in the form
+of a monthly periodical, each tract bearing the date of its publication,
+and being sent regularly to all subscribers to the Association. In all,
+three hundred tracts appeared in this form in the first series, making
+twenty-six volumes.
+
+For nearly half a century none of the tracts of the Association were
+published for free distribution. They were issued at prices ranging from
+two to ten cents each, according to the size, some of them having not more
+than ten or twelve pages, while others had more than a hundred. So long as
+there was an eagerness for theological reading, and an earnest intellectual
+interest in the questions which divided the several religious bodies of the
+country from each other, it was not difficult to sell editions of from
+3,000 to 10,000 copies of all the tracts published by the Association. From
+the first, however, there were many calls for tracts for free distribution.
+To meet this demand, there was formed in Boston, by a number of young men
+during the year 1827, The Unitarian Book and Pamphlet Society, for "the
+gratuitous distribution of Unitarian publications of an approved
+character." It undertook especially to distribute "such publications as
+shall be issued by the American Unitarian Association or recommended by
+it." This society also circulated tracts printed by The Christian Register
+and The Christian World, the call for such publications having led the
+publishers of these periodicals to give their aid in meeting the demand for
+pamphlets on theological problems and on practical religious duties. The
+society also distributed Bibles to the poor of the city and in more distant
+country places, furnishing them to missionaries and others who would
+undertake work of this kind. In the same manner they gave away large
+numbers of books, their list for 1836 including Scougal's Life of God in
+the Soul of Man, Ware's Formation of the Christian Character, and works by
+Worcester, Channing Whitman, and Greenwood. The call for aid was
+considerable from the western and southern states; and books were sent to
+Havana, New Brunswick, and the Sandwich Islands. In the winter of 1840-41
+this society was reorganized, an urgent appeal was made to the churches for
+an increase of funds, and during the next few years its work was large and
+important.
+
+In the year 1848 was begun a special effort for the circulation of
+Unitarian books, on the part of The Book and Pamphlet Society, The Society
+for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity, as well as by the
+Unitarian Association. In that year the second of these organizations sent
+out circulars to 263 colleges and theological schools, offering to give
+Unitarian books, to those desiring to receive them; and to 59 of these
+institutions assortments of books worth from two dollars to one hundred
+dollars were forwarded. The first request came from the Catholic College at
+Worcester, and the last from the Wisconsin University at Madison. At the
+same time the Association was pressing the sale and free distribution of
+the Works and the Memoir of Dr. Charming, as well as various books by
+Peabody, Livermore, Bartol, and others.
+
+The Association began to make use of colporters about the year 1847. The
+next year it had two young ministers engaged in this work, and by 1850 this
+kind of missionary labor had increased to considerable proportions.
+Especially in the West was much use made of the colporter, and in this way
+in many of the states the works of Channing were sold in large numbers. By
+these agents, tracts were given away with a free hand, and books were given
+to ministers and those who especially needed them. The Western ministers,
+almost without exception, served as colporters, selling books and
+distributing them as important helps to their missionary labors. In many
+communities zealous laymen took part in this kind of service, and the
+several depositaries of books and tracts were used as centres from which
+colporters and others could draw their supplies. As early as 1835 a general
+depositary had been established in Cincinnati, and in 1849 one was opened
+in Chicago.
+
+The Association could not have undertaken any work that would have brought
+in a larger or more immediate return in the way of religious education and
+spiritual growth than this of the publication of tracts and books. Previous
+to 1850 a doctrinal sermon was rarely preached in a Unitarian church, and
+the tracts were the most important means of giving to the members of
+established churches a knowledge of Unitarian theology. By the same means
+many other persons were made acquainted with the Unitarian beliefs, and the
+result was to be seen in the formation of churches where tracts and books
+had been largely distributed.[14]
+
+[Sidenote: Domestic Missions.]
+
+The work of domestic missions from the first largely claimed the attention
+of the Association, and it was one the chief objects in its formation.
+During the summer of 1826 the members of the Harvard Divinity School were
+sent throughout New England to gather information, and to preach where
+opportunity offered. The special object was to make ministers and
+congregations acquainted with the purposes of the Association. It was found
+that there was much opposition to it, and that in many parishes there
+existed no desire to have its mission extended.
+
+Persons of all shades of belief were connected with many of the liberal
+parishes, some of the churches not having as yet ceased their relations
+with the towns in which they were located; and the ministers were not
+willing to have theological questions brought to the attention of their
+congregations. "The great objection everywhere seems to be," reported one
+of the young men, who had travelled through many of the towns of central
+Massachusetts, "that the clergymen do not like to awaken party spirit.
+People will go on quietly performing all external duties of religion
+without asking themselves if they are listening to the doctrine of the
+Trinity or not; but the moment you wish to act, they call up all their old
+prejudices, and take a very firm stand. This necessarily creates division
+and dissension, and renders the situation of the minister very
+uncomfortable."[15] The ministers did not preach on theological subjects;
+and, while they were liberal themselves, they had not instructed their
+parishioners in such a manner that they followed in the same path of
+thinking which their leaders had travelled.
+
+It was evident, therefore, that there was work enough in New England for
+the Association to accomplish, and such as would fully tax its
+resources.[16] It had turned its eyes toward the West and South, however;
+and it was not willing to leave these fields unoccupied. In 1836 the
+general secretary, Charles Briggs, spent eight months in these regions; and
+he found everywhere large opportunities for the spread of Unitarianism.
+Promising openings were found at Erie, Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit,
+Marietta, Tremont, Jacksonville, Memphis, and Nashville, in which villages
+or cities churches were soon after formed. It was reported at this time
+that there was hardly a town in the West where there were not Unitarians,
+or in which it was not possible by the right kind of effort to establish a
+Unitarian church.
+
+As a result of the interest awakened by the tour of the general secretary,
+fourteen missionaries were put into the field in 1837. In 1838 twenty-three
+missionaries visited eleven states, including New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
+Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky Alabama, and Georgia.[17] They were
+men of experience in parish labors, but they did not go out to the new
+country to remain there permanently. They attracted large congregations,
+however, formed several societies which promised to be permanent,
+administered the ordinances, established Sunday-schools, and did much to
+strengthen the churches. In 1839 seven preachers were sent into the west,
+and at the next anniversary there was an urgent call made by the
+Association for funds with which to establish a permanent missionary agent
+in the field. Something more was needed than a few Massachusetts ministers
+preaching from town to town with no purpose of locating with any of the
+churches they helped to organize. Ministers for the new churches were
+urgently demanded, but few men from New England were willing to remove to
+the west; and, though recruits came from the orthodox churches, this source
+of supply was not sufficient.
+
+The repeated calls made for larger resources with which to carry on the
+work of domestic missions resulted in meetings held in Boston during the
+year 1841, at which pledges were made to a fund of $10,000 yearly for five
+years, to be used for missionary purposes. This sum was secured in 1843 and
+the next four years, so that larger aid was given to missionary activities
+and to the building of churches. At the annual meeting of 1849 special
+attention was given to the subject of domestic missions, and plans were
+devised for largely extending all the activities in this direction. Much
+interest was taken in the western work during the following years, and
+slowly new churches came into existence. In 1849 Rev. Edward P. Bond was
+sent to San Francisco, where a number of New England people had held lay
+services and formed a church, and in a few years a strong society had grown
+up in that city. Mr. Bond also went to the Sandwich Islands; but he was not
+able to open a mission there, owing to ill-health. In the South the work
+languished, largely owing to the growth of anti-slavery sentiment in the
+North, with which Unitarians were generally in sympathy.
+
+From 1830 to 1850 the Unitarians were confronted by the greatest
+opportunity which has ever opened to them for missionary activities. The
+vast region of the middle west was in a formative state, the people were
+everywhere receptive to liberal influences, other churches had not been
+firmly established, and there was urgent demand for leadership of a
+progressive and rational kind. Here has come to be the controlling centre
+of American life,--in politics, education, and social power. A few of the
+leaders saw the opportunity, but the churches were not ready to respond to
+their appeals.
+
+The work accomplished by the Association during the first twenty-five or
+thirty years of its existence, the period reviewed in this chapter, was
+small, compared with the opportunity and with the wishes of those who most
+had at heart the interests for the promotion of which it was established.
+Yet there was wanting in no year encouragement for its friends or something
+accomplished that cheered them to larger efforts. In 1850, at the
+twenty-fifth anniversary, historical addresses were delivered by Samuel
+Osgood, John G. Palfrey, Henry W. Bellows, Edward E. Hale, and Lant
+Carpenter; and a hopeful review of the labors of the Association was
+presented by the executive committee. First of all its efforts had been
+directed to securing religious liberty. Then came its philanthropic
+enterprises, and finally its missionary labors. During the quarter of a
+century one hundred churches that were weak and struggling, owing to their
+situation in towns of decreasing population or in cities not congenial to
+their teachings, had been aided. More than fifty vigorous churches had been
+planted in the west and south, nearly all of them helped in some way by the
+Association. There was a renewed call for strong men to enter the
+missionary field, and it was uttered more urgently at this time than ever
+before. Special pride was expressed in the high quality of the religious
+writings produced by Unitarians, and in the nobleness the men and women who
+had been connected with denominational activities.[18]
+
+[1] An eighteenth-century term for the Congregational churches, which
+     were the legally established churches throughout New England, an
+     supported by the towns.
+
+[2] Boston Unitarianism, 67.
+
+[3] Memoir of Dr. Channing, one-volume edition, 215.
+
+[4] Ibid., 432.
+
+[5] Ibid., 427.
+
+[6] Memoir of Ezra Stiles Gannett, by W.C. Gannett, 103.
+
+[7] The records give the following names: Drs. Freeman, Channing, Lowell,
+     Tuckerman, Bancroft, Pierce, and Allyn; Rev. Messrs. Henry Ware,
+     Francis Parkman, J.G. Palfrey, Jared Sparks, Samuel Ripley, A.
+     Bigelow, A. Abbot, C. Francis, L. Capen, J. Pierpont, James Walker,
+     Mr. Harding, and Mr. Edes; and the following laymen,--Richard
+     Sullivan, Stephen Higginson, B. Gould, H.J. Oliver, S. Dorr, Colonel
+     Joseph May, C.G. Loring, George Bond, Samuel A. Eliot, G.B. Emerson,
+     C.P. Phelps, Lewis Tappan, David Reed, Mr. Storer, J. Rucker, N.
+     Mitchell, Robert Rantoul, Alden Bradford, Mr. Dwight, Mr. Mackintosh,
+     General Walker, Mr. Strong, Dr. John Ware, and Professor Andrews
+     Norton.
+
+[8] John Brazer, The Christian Examiner, xx. 240; Alonzo Hill, American
+     Unitarian Biography, i. 171.
+
+[9] The Liberal Christian, March 3, 1875.
+
+[10] Although Lewis Tappan took a zealous interest in the formation of the
+     Unitarian Association, as he did in all Unitarian activities of the
+     time, in the autumn of 1827 he withdrew from the Unitarian
+     fellowship, and joined the orthodox Congregationalist. In a letter
+     addressed to a Unitarian minister he explained his reasons for so
+     doing. This letter circulated for some time in manuscript, and in
+     1828 was printed in a pamphlet with the title, Letter from a
+     Gentleman in Boston to a Unitarian Clergyman of that City. Want of
+     Piety among Unitarians, failure to sustain missionary enterprises,
+     and the absence of a rigid business integrity he assigned as reasons
+     for his withdrawal. This pamphlet excited much discussion, pro and
+     con; and it was answered in a caustic review by J.P. Blanchard.
+
+[11] Moses George Thomas was a graduate of Brown and of the Harvard
+     Divinity School, was settled in Dover, N.H., from 1829 to 1845,
+     Broadway Church in South Boston from 1845 to 1848, New Bedford 1848
+     to 1854, and was subsequently minister at large in the same city.
+
+[12] In writing to Charles Briggs from Newport, under date of July 30
+     1836, Dr. Channing wrote, "In the pressure of subjects, when I saw
+     you, I forgot to say to you, that I cannot accept the office with
+     which the Unitarian Association honored me." That is the whole of
+     what he wrote on the subject. No one else was elected to the office
+     for year. It is evident, therefore, that his name should occupy the
+     place of president.
+
+[13] The depositaries in Massachusetts were at Salem, Concord, Hingham,
+     Plymouth, Yarmouth, Cambridge, Worcester, Northampton, Springfield,
+     and Greenfield; in New Hampshire, at Concord, Portsmouth, Keene, and
+     Amherst; in Maine, at Hallowell, Brunswick, and Eastport; and, in
+     Connecticut, at Brooklyn. In 1828 the number had increased to
+     twenty-five in Massachusetts, six in Maine, seven in New Hampshire,
+     one in Rhode Island, four in New York, two in Pennsylvania, and two
+     in Maryland. At the first annual meeting of the Unitarian Association
+     a system of auxiliaries was recommended, which was inaugurated the
+     next year. It was proposed to organize an auxiliary to the
+     Association in every parish, and also in each county. These societies
+     came rapidly into existence, were of much help to the Association in
+     raising money and in distributing its tracts, and energetic efforts
+     were made on the part of the officers of the Association to extend
+     their number and influence. They continued in existence for about
+     twenty years, and gradually disappeared. They numbered about one
+     hundred and fifty when most prosperous.
+
+[14] During the first twenty-five years of the Association, 272 tracts of
+     the first series were issued, and also 29 miscellaneous tracts and 37
+     reports. The number of copies published was estimated as 1,764,000,
+     making an average of 70,000 each year. Of these tracts, 103 were
+     practical, and 93 doctrinal; and, of the doctrinal, one-half were on
+     the Divine Unity, one-sixth on the Atonement, ten on Regeneration,
+     five on the Ordinances, four on Human Nature, three on Retribution,
+     and two on the Holy Spirit. In the Monthly Journal, May, 1860, Vol.
+     I. pp. 230-240, were given the titles and authors.
+
+[15] From a letter of Samuel K. Lothrop, afterward minister of the Brattle
+     Street Church.
+
+[16] The following letter is of interest, not only because of the name of
+     the writer, but because it gives a very good idea of the work done by
+     the first missionaries of the Association. It is dated at
+     Northampton, Mass., October 9, 1827. "My dear Sir,--I designed when I
+     left you to send some earlier notice of my doings than this; but as
+     it has not been in my power to say much, I have said nothing. Mr.
+     Hall is preparing an account of his own missions, but thinks it not
+     worth while to send it to you till it is completed. The first Sabbath
+     after my arrival I preached here. The second, for the convenience of
+     the Greenfield people, an exchange was made, and I went to Deerfield,
+     and Dr. Willard went to Colrain. There were some unfavorable
+     circumstances which operated to diminish the audience, but they were
+     glad to see and hear him. The fourth Sabbath (which followed the
+     meeting of the Franklin Association) I preached at Greenfield, and
+     Mr. Bailey went to Colrain. I enclose his journal. The fifth Sabbath
+     at Deerfield, and Dr. Willard at Adams in Berkshire. I have not seen
+     him since his return. I have told the Franklin Association I would
+     remain here till November, and in consequence have been thus put to
+     and fro, but expect to preach the three coming Sundays in
+     Northampton. I have offered my services to preach lectures in the
+     week, but circumstances have made it inexpedient in towns where it
+     was proposed. The clergymen are very glad to see me, having feared
+     that the mission was indefinitely postponed. They find the better
+     sort of people in most of the towns inquisitive and favorably
+     disposed to views of liberal Christianity. It is a singular fact, of
+     which I hear frequent mention made, that in elections Unitarians are
+     almost universally preferred when the suffrage is by ballot, and
+     rejected when given by hand ballot. In Franklin county it is thought
+     there is a majority of Unitarians. I have been much disappointed in
+     being obliged to lead a vagrant life, as you know I came hither with
+     different expectations, and hoped for leisure and retirement for
+     study, which I needed much. But it would not do for a missionary to
+     be stiff necked, and so I have been a shuttle. I have promised to go
+     to New Bedford the first three Sundays of November. With great
+     regard, your servant, R. Waldo Emerson." From this letter it will be
+     seen that Emerson supplied the pulpits at Northampton and Greenfield
+     in order that the ministers in those towns might preach elsewhere.
+
+[17] Fourteenth Annual Report, 14. "They were the following: Rev. George
+     Ripley, Boston; Rev. A.B. Muzzey, Cambridgeport; Rev. Samuel Barrett,
+     Boston; Rev. Mr. Green, East Cambridge; Rev. Calvin Lincoln,
+     Fitchburg; Rev. E.B. Willson, Westford; Dr. James Kendall, Plymouth;
+     Rev. George W. Hosmer, Buffalo; Rev. Warren Burton, Dr. Thompson,
+     Salem; Rev. J.P.B. Storer, Syracuse; Rev. Charles Babbidge,
+     Pepperell; Rev. John M. Myrick, Walpole; Rev. J.D. Swett, Boston;
+     Rev. A.D. Jones, Brighton; Rev. Henry Emmons, Meadville; Rev. J.F.
+     Clarke, Louisville; Rev. F.D. Huntington, Rev. B.F. Barrett, Rev.
+     G.F. Simmons, Rev. C. Nightingale, Mr. Wilson, of the Divinity
+     School; and Mr. C.P. Cranch. Among the places where they preached
+     are Houlton Me.; Syracuse, Lockport, Lewiston, Pekin, and Vernon,
+     N.Y.; Philadelphia and Erie, Pa.; Marietta, Zanesville, Cleveland,
+     and Toledo, Ohio; Detroit, Mich.; Owensburg, Ky.; Chicago, Peoria,
+     Tremont, Jacksonville, Hillsboro, and several other places in
+     Illinois."
+
+[18] For a most interesting account of the growth of the denomination, see
+     The Christian Examiner for May, 1854, lvi. 397, article by John
+     Parkman.
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+
+THE PERIOD OF RADICALISM.
+
+Before the controversy with the Orthodox had come to its end, a somewhat
+similar conflict of opinions arose within the Unitarian ranks. The same
+influences that had led the Unitarians away from the Orthodox were now
+causing the more radical Unitarians to advance beyond their more
+conservative neighbors. English philosophy had given direction to the
+Unitarian movement in America; and now German philosophy was helping to
+develop what has been designated as transcendentalism, which largely found
+expression within the Unitarian body. Beginning with 1835, the more liberal
+Unitarians were increasingly active. Hedge's[1] Club held its meetings,
+The Dial was published, Brook Farm lived its brief day of a reformed
+humanity, Parker began his preaching in Boston, Emerson was lecturing and
+publishing, and the more radical younger Unitarian preachers were bravely
+speaking for a religion natural to man and authenticated by the inner
+witness of the truth.
+
+The agitation thus started went on its way with many varying
+manifestations, and with a growing incisiveness of statement and
+earnestness of feeling. The new teachings gained the interest and the faith
+of the young in increasing numbers. In pulpits and on the platform, in
+newspapers and magazines, in essays and addresses, this new teaching was
+uttered for the world's hearing. The breeze thus created seems to have
+grown into a gale, but The Christian Register and The Christian Examiner
+gave almost no indication that it had blown their way. In the official
+actions and in the publications of the Unitarian Association there was no
+word indicating that the discussion had come to its knowledge. All at once,
+however, in 1853, it came into the greatest prominence, as the result of
+action taken by the Unitarian Association; and, thenceforth, for a quarter
+of a century it was never absent as a disturbing element in the
+intellectual and religious life of the Unitarian body.
+
+The early Unitarians were believers in the supernatural and in the miracles
+of the New Testament. They accepted without question the ideas on this
+subject that had been entertained by all Protestants from the days of
+Luther and Calvin. When Theodore Parker and the transcendentalists began to
+question the miraculous foundations of Christianity, many Unitarians were
+quite unprepared to accept their theories. They believed that the miracles
+of the New Testament afford the only evidence for the truthfulness of
+Christianity. This issue was distinctly stated in the twenty-eighth annual
+report of the Unitarian Association for 1853, wherein an attempt was made
+to defend the Unitarian body against the charge of infidelity and
+rationalism made by the Orthodox. The teachings of the transcendentalists
+and radicals had been attributed to all Unitarians, and the leaders of the
+Association felt that it was time to define explicitly the position they
+occupied. Therefore they said, in the report of that year:--"We desire, in
+a denominational capacity, to assert our profound belief in the Divine
+origin, the Divine authority, the Divine sanctions, of the religion of
+Jesus Christ. This is the basis of our associated action. We desire openly
+to declare our belief as a denomination, so far as it can be officially
+represented by the American Unitarian Association, that God, moved by his
+own love, did raise up Jesus to aid in our redemption from sin, did by him
+pour a fresh flood of purifying life through the withered veins of humanity
+and along the corrupted channels of the world, and is, by his religion,
+forever sweeping the nations with regenerating gales from heaven, and
+visiting the hearts of men with celestial solicitations. We receive the
+teachings of Christ, separated from all foreign admixtures and later
+accretions, as infallible truth from God."[2] At the same meeting a
+resolution was adopted, "without a dissenting voice," which declared that
+"the Divine authority of the Gospel, as founded on a special and miraculous
+interposition of God, is the basis of the action of the Association."[3]
+
+As these statements indicate, the majority of Unitarians were very
+conservative at this time in their theological position and methods. They
+were nearly as hesitating and reticent in their beliefs as Unitarians as
+they had been while connected with the older Congregational body. The
+reason for this was the same in the later as in the earlier period, that a
+predominant social conservatism held them aloof from all that was
+intellectually aggressive and theologically rationalistic. They had
+outgrown Tritheism, as it had been taught for generations in New England;
+they had refused to accept the fatalism that had been taught in the name of
+Calvin, and they had rejected the ecclesiastical tyrannies that had been
+imposed on men by the New England theology. But they had advanced only a
+little way in accepting modern thought as a basis of faith, and in seeking
+a rational interpretation of the relations of God and man. Their belief in
+a superhuman Christ was theoretically weaker, but practically stronger,
+than that of the churches from which they had withdrawn; while the grounds
+of that belief were in the one instance the same as in the other.
+
+[Sidenote: Depression in Denominational Activities.]
+
+The activities of the Unitarian Association were largely interfered with by
+these differences of opinion. The more conservative churches were unwilling
+to contribute to its treasury because it did not exclude the radicals from
+all connection with it. The radicals, on, the other hand, withheld their
+gifts because, while they were not excommunicated, they were regarded with
+suspicion by many of the churches, and did not have the fullest recognition
+from the Association.
+
+This controversy was emphasized by that arising from the reform movements
+of the day, especially the agitation against slavery. Almost without
+exception the radicals belonged to the anti-slavery party, while the
+conservative churches were generally opposed to this agitation. As a
+result, anti-slavery efforts became a serious cause of discord in the
+Unitarian churches, and helped to cripple the resources of the Association.
+When, as the climax of all, the civil war came on, the Association was
+brought to a condition of almost desperate poverty. Not more than twoscore
+churches contributed to its treasury, and it was obliged, to curtail its
+expenses in every direction.[4]
+
+Up to the year 1865 the Unitarians had not been efficiently organized; and
+they had developed very imperfectly what has been called denominational
+consciousness, or the capacity for co-operative efforts. The Unitarian
+Association was not a representative body, and it depended wholly upon
+individuals for its membership. Not more than one-fourth or, at the
+largest, one-third of the Unitarian churches were represented in its
+support and in its activities. There were: Unitarian churches, and there
+was a Unitarian movement; but such a thing as a Unitarian denomination, in
+any clearly defined meaning of the words, did not exist. This fact was
+explained by James Freeman Clarke in 1863, when he said that "the
+traditions of the Unitarian body are conservative and timid."[5] How this
+attitude affected the Unitarian Association was pointedly stated by Mr.
+Clarke, after several years of experience as its secretary. "The Unitarian
+churches in Boston," he wrote, "see no reason for diffusing their faith.
+They treat it as a luxury to be kept for themselves, as they keep Boston
+Common. The Boston churches, with the exception of a few noble and generous
+examples, have not done a great deal for Unitarian missions. I have heard,
+it said that they do not wish to make Unitarianism too common. The church
+in Brattle street contains wealthy and generous persons who have given
+largely to humane objects and to all public purposes; but we believe that,
+even while their pastor was president of the Unitarian Association, they
+never gave a dollar to that Association for its missionary objects. The
+society in King's Chapel was the first in the United States which professed
+Unitarianism. It is so wealthy that it might give ten or twenty thousand
+dollars a year to missionary objects without feeling it. It has always been
+very liberal to its ministers, to all philanthropic and benevolent objects,
+and its members have probably given away millions of dollars for public and
+social uses; but it never gives anything to diffuse Unitarianism."[6]
+
+Dr. Samuel K. Lothrop continued as the president of the Unitarian
+Association until the annual meeting of 1858, when Dr. Edward Brooks Hall
+was elected to that position for one year. After short pastorates in
+Northampton and Cincinnati, Dr. Hall had been settled over the First Church
+in Providence in 1832, which position he held until his death in 1866. At
+the annual meeting of 1859 Dr. Frederic H. Hedge was elected president, and
+he was twice re-elected. His interest in the Association was active, and he
+often spoke at the public meetings. One of the ablest thinkers and
+theologians that has appeared among Unitarians in this country, he always
+rightly estimated the practical activities of organized religious
+movements. He was succeeded in 1862 by Dr. Rufus P. Stebbins, who held the
+office for three years. After a settlement in Leominster, Dr. Stebbins was
+the first president of the Meadville Theological School from 1844 to 1856.
+Then followed a pastorate in Woburn, after which he went to Ithaca and
+opened a mission for the students of Cornell University, which grew into
+the Unitarian church in that town. From 1877 he was pastor at Newton Centre
+until his death in 1885.
+
+The secretary of the Association from 1850 to 1853 was Rev. Calvin Lincoln,
+who had been settled in Fitchburg for thirty-one years, and who was the
+minister of the First Church in Hingham from 1855 until his death in 1881.
+He was succeeded in 1853 by Rev. Henry A. Miles, who continued in office
+until 1859. Dr. Miles was settled in Hallowell and Lowell before serving
+the Association, and in Longwood and Hingham (Third Parish) afterward. His
+little book on The Birth of Jesus has gained him recognition as a
+theologian of ability and a critic of independent judgment. For three years
+Rev. James Freeman Clarke was the secretary; and in 1861 he was succeeded
+by George W. Fox, who served in that capacity until the annual meeting of
+1865. Mr. Fox wrote the annual reports from 1862 to 1864, and efficiently
+performed all the duties of the secretary which could devolve upon a
+layman, with the exception of editing The Monthly Journal, a task which was
+continued by James Freeman Clarke.[7]
+
+[Sidenote: Publications.]
+
+In spite of its restricted income during this troubled period, the
+Association was able, owing to its invested funds,[8] to increase its
+publishing operations to a considerable extent. The number of tracts
+published, however, was much smaller; and their monthly issue was
+discontinued in order to publish The Quarterly Journal of the American
+Unitarian Association, the first number of which appeared in October, 1853.
+During the first year each number contained ninety-six pages, which were
+increased to one hundred and ninety-two in 1854, but reduced to one hundred
+and thirty the following year. In 1860 this publication became The Monthly
+Journal; and it was continued until December, 1869, each number containing
+forty-eight pages. The Journal was sent to all subscribers to the funds of
+the Association, to life members, to all churches contributing to its
+funds, as well as to regular subscribers. Its circulation in 1855 was
+7,000, and it increased to 15,000 before it was discontinued. It was used
+largely, however, for free distribution as a missionary document.
+
+The Journal served an important purpose during the seventeen years of its
+publication, as a means of bringing the Association into touch with its
+constituency and of making the people acquainted with its work. It
+published the records of the meetings of the executive committee as well as
+of the annual meeting, it gave numerous extracts from the correspondence of
+the secretary, it contained the news of the churches, and all the
+denominational activities were kept constantly before its readers. In its
+pages were frequently published biographies of prominent Unitarians,
+notable addresses were printed, sermons appeared frequently, and able
+theological articles. During the editorship of James Freeman Clarke it
+contained the successive chapters of his Orthodoxy: Its Truths and Errors.
+It also printed one or more chapters of Alger's History of the Doctrine of
+the Future Life. The secretary of the Association was its editor, and he
+made it at once a theological tract and a denominational newspaper.
+
+The increase in demand for Unitarian tracts and books had been so large
+that early in 1854 the executive committee of the Association decided that
+a special effort should be made to meet it. They called a meeting in
+Freeman Place Chapel on the afternoon of February 1, which was largely
+attended. An address was given by Dr. Lothrop, the president, who said that
+Channing's works had reached a sale of 100,000 copies, and Ware's Formation
+of Christian Character 12,000, that there was an urgent call for liberal
+works that would meet the spiritual needs of the age. A large number of
+prominent ministers and laymen addressed the meeting, and expressed
+themselves as thoroughly sympathy with its objects. A committee was
+appointed to consider the proposition made by Dr. George E. Ellis, that a
+fund of $50,000 be raised for the publication of books. This committee
+reported a month later through its chairman, George B. Emerson, in favor of
+the project; and it was voted that the money should be raised. It was
+easier to pass this vote, however, than to secure the money from the
+churches; for in 1859, after five years of effort, the sum collected was
+only $28,163.33.
+
+The money secured, however, was immediately utilized in the publication of
+a number of books. Three series of works were undertaken, the first of
+these being The Theological Library, in which were published Selections
+from the Works of Dr. Channing; Wilson's Unitarian Principles Confirmed by
+Trinitarian Testimonies; a one-volume edition of Norton's Statement of
+Reasons for not Believing the Doctrines of Trinitarians concerning the
+Nature of God and the Person of Christ, with a memoir of the author by Dr.
+William Newell; a volume of Theological Essays selected from the writings
+of Jowett, Tholuck, Guizot, Roland Williams, and others, and edited by
+George R. Noyes; and Martineau's Studies of Christianity, a series of
+miscellaneous papers, edited by William R. Alger. The Devotional Library,
+the second of the three series, included The Altar at Home, a series of
+prayers, collects, and litanies for family devotions, written by a large
+number of the leading Unitarian ministers, and edited by Dr. Miles, the
+secretary of the Association; Clarke's Christian Doctrine of Prayer; Thomas
+T. Stone's The Rod and the Staff, a transcendentalist presentation of
+Christianity as a spiritual life; The Harp and the Cross, a selection of
+religious poetry, edited by Stephen G. Bulfinch; Sears's Athanasia, or
+Foregleams of Immortality; and Seven Stormy Sundays, a volume of original
+sermons by well-known ministers, with devotional services, edited by Miss
+Lucretia P. Hale. A Biblical Library was also planned, to include a popular
+commentary on the New Testament, a Bible Dictionary, and other works of a
+like character; but John H. Morison's Disquisitions and Notes on the Gospel
+of Matthew was the only volume published.
+
+[Sidenote: A Firm of Publishers.]
+
+In May, 1859, a young business man of Boston, James P. Walker, established
+the firm of Walker, Wise & Co., for the publication of Unitarian books. In
+1863 Horace B. Fuller joined the firm, and it became Walker, Fuller & Co.
+This firm took charge of all the publishing interests of the Association,
+and the head of the house was ambitious of bringing out all the liberal
+books issued in this country. Among the works published were: The New
+Discussion of the Trinity, a series of articles and sermons by Hedge,
+Clarke, Sears, Dewey, and Starr King; Lamson's Church of the First Three
+Centuries; Farley's Unitarianism Defined; Recent Inquiries in Theology,
+essays by Jowett, Mark Pattison, Baden Powell, and other English Broad
+Churchmen, edited by Dr. F.H. Hedge; Alien's Hebrew Men and Times; Dall's
+Woman's Right to Labor; Muzzey's Christ in the Will, the Heart, and the
+Life; Ichabod Nichols's Sermons; Martineau's Common Prayer for Christian
+Worship; Cobbe's Religious Demands of the Age; Ware's Silent Pastor;
+Frothingham's Stories from the Patriarchs; Clarke's Hour which Cometh and
+Now Is; Parker's Prayers; a second series The Altar at Home; Hedge's Reason
+in Religion; Life of Horace Mann by his wife, as well as certain novels,
+historical works, and books for the young. The demand for liberal books was
+not large enough, however, even with the aid of the Association, to make
+such a business successful; and in the autumn of 1866 the publishing firm
+of Walker, Fuller & Co. failed. In part the business was carried on for a
+time by Horace B. Fuller.
+
+[Sidenote: The Brooks Fund.]
+
+An important work in the distribution of books was inaugurated in 1859 in
+connection with the Meadville Theological School, by means of the Fund for
+Liberal Christianity established at that time by Joshua Brooks of New York.
+He appointed as trustee of the fund Professor Frederick Huidekoper, who
+gave his services gratuitously to its care, and to the direction of the
+distribution of books for which it provided. The sum given to this purpose
+was $20,000, which was increased by favorable investments to $23,000. The
+original purpose was to aid in any way that seemed desirable the cause of
+liberal Christianity, and a part of the income was devoted to helping
+struggling societies. In time the whole income, with the approval of the
+donor, was centred upon the distribution of books to settled ministers,
+irrespective of denomination. In 1877 the whole number of books that had
+been distributed was 40,000. At the present time about $1,000 yearly are
+devoted to this work, the recipients being graduates of the Meadville
+Theological School, and the ministers of any denomination who may ask for
+them, provided they are settled west of the Hudson River. The demands upon
+the funds have increased so rapidly that it has become necessary to reduce
+the amount of each gift.
+
+[Sidenote: Missionary Efforts.]
+
+The missionary activities of the Association did not actually cease even in
+these dark days. In May, 1855, Rev. Ephraim Nute was sent to Kansas, which
+was then the battle-ground between the pro-slavery and the anti-slavery
+forces of the nation. He established himself at Lawrence, and was the first
+settled pastor in the state. With the aid of the Association a church was
+built at Lawrence in 1859, which was the first in the state to receive
+dedication and to be used as a permanent house of worship. Mr. Nute went
+through all the trying scenes preceding the opening of the civil war, and
+did his part in maintaining the cause of liberty. He was succeeded by Rev.
+John S. Brown in 1859, who labored in this difficult field for several
+years.
+
+A church was organized in San Francisco in 1849, without the aid of a
+minister; and there was gathered a large and prosperous congregation. In
+1850 Rev. Charles A. Farley took up the work; and he was succeeded by Rev.
+Joseph Harrington, Rev. Frederick T. Gray, and Rev. Rufus P. Cutler. Thomas
+Starr King preached his first sermon in the church April 28, 1860; and he
+spoke to crowded congregations until his death, March 4, 1864. On January
+10, 1864, a new church was dedicated, in the morning to the worship of God,
+and in the afternoon to the service of man.
+
+Among those who carried forward the Unitarian cause in the middle west was
+Rev. Nahor A. Staples, a brilliant preacher and a zealous worker, who was
+settled in Milwaukee at the end of 1856, and who made his influence widely
+felt around him. In 1859 Rev. Robert Collyer began his work in Chicago as a
+city Missionary; and the next year Unity Church was organized, with him as
+the pastor. In 1859 Rev. Charles G. Ames began his connection with the
+Unitarians at Minneapolis, and he subsequently labored at Bloomington.
+After a short pastorate in Albany he began general missionary labors on the
+Pacific coast. A characteristic type of the western Unitarian was Rev.
+Ichabod Codding, who preached at Bloomington, Keokuk, and Baraboo, but who
+had no formal settlement. He was a breezy, radical, and ardent preacher,
+bold in statement and picturesque in style, a zealous advocate of freedom
+for the slave, and warmly devoted to other reforms. He was fitted admirably
+for the pioneer preaching to which he largely devoted himself; and his
+strong, vigorous, and aggressive ideas were acceptable to those who heard
+him.
+
+[Sidenote: The Western Unitarian Conference.]
+
+There was organized in the church at Cincinnati, May 7, 1852, the Annual
+Conference of Western Unitarian Churches. At this meeting delegates were
+present from the churches in Buffalo, Meadville, Pittsburg, Wheeling,
+Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, Cannelton, Quincy, Geneva, Chicago, and
+Detroit. Much enthusiasm was expressed in anticipation of this meeting,
+many letters were written, approving of the proposed organization, and
+large expectations were manifested as to its promised work. In harmony with
+these large and generous anticipations of the influence of the conference
+was its statement of purposes, as presented in its constitution. It was
+organized for "the promotion of the Christian spirit in the several
+churches which compose it, and the increase of vital, practical religion;
+the diffusion of Gospel truth and the accomplishment of such works of
+Christian benevolence as may be agreed upon; the support of domestic or
+home missionaries, the publication of tracts, the distribution of religious
+books, the promotion of theological education, and extending aid to such
+societies as may need it."
+
+When the conference organized, Rev. William G. Eliot was elected the
+president, Mr. Charles Harlow and Rev. A.A. Livermore the recording and
+corresponding secretaries. During the year $994.22 were raised for
+missionary purposes, and three missionaries--Boyer, Conant, and
+Bradley--were kept in the field, mainly in Illinois and Michigan. The
+reports of these men, given at the second meeting of the conference, held
+in St. Louis, were full of enthusiasm and courage. At this meeting the
+constituency numbered nineteen churches, located in eleven states. Several
+struggling societies had been aided, assistance given to young men
+preparing for the ministry, and many tracts and books had been distributed.
+A book depositary was opened in Cincinnati, and it was proposed to
+establish one in every large city in the west. The call was for a much
+larger number of preachers, it being rightly maintained that only the
+living man can reach the people in such a region. "The Unitarian minister
+is _per se_ a bookseller and colporter also, and he can thus preach to
+multitudes who never hear his voice."
+
+The early anticipations of a rapid advance of Unitarianism in the west were
+not realized, partly owing to the want of ministers of energy and the
+necessary staying qualities, and partly to the fact that tradition is
+always far more powerful with the masses of men and women than reason.
+Before the organization of the conference new churches appeared at
+infrequent intervals, though, if those that have ceased to exist were
+counted, they would not be so remote from each other in time.[9] From the
+first there was in the west a distinctive attitude of freedom, which was
+the result in large, measure of its fluctuating conditions, and the absence
+of fixed habits and traditions. In 1853 the missionaries of the conference
+were instructed that "in spirit and in aim the Conference would be
+Christian, not sectarian, and it does not, therefore, require of them
+subscription to any human creed, the wearing of any distinctive name, or
+the doing of any merely sectarian work. All that it requires is, that they
+should be Christians and do Christian work, that they should believe on the
+Lord Jesus Christ as one who spake with authority and whose religion is the
+divinely appointed means for the regeneration of man individually and
+collectively, and that they should labor earnestly, intelligently,
+affectionately, and perseveringly to enthrone this religion in the hearts
+and make it, effective over the lives of men." Such a statement as this,
+indeed, was quite as conservative as anything put forth by Unitarians in
+New England; but behind it was an attitude of free inquiry that gave to
+western Unitarianism distinctive characteristics.
+
+In 1854 a committee reported on the doctrinal basis of the conference, in
+the form of a little book of sixty-five pages, bearing the title of
+Unitarian Views of Christ.[10] It was widely circulated, and served an
+excellent missionary purpose. When the conference accepted the report, in
+which it was declared that Jesus is the Son of God and the miracles of the
+New Testament facts on which the gospel is based, a resolution was
+unanimously passed, asserting that "we have no right to adopt any statement
+of belief as authoritative or as a declaration of the Unitarian faith,
+other than the New Testament." In 1858 it was the opinion of the conference
+that "all who wish to take upon themselves the Christian name should be so
+recognized." The next year the conservatives and radicals came face to
+face, the one party asking for the old faith according to Channing, while
+one or more of the other party asserted their disbelief in the miracles and
+in the resurrection of Christ. In 1860 the conference declared itself
+willing to "welcome as fellow laborers all who are seeking to learn and to
+do the will of the Father and work righteousness, and recommend that in all
+places, with or without preaching, they organize for religious worship and
+culture--the work of faith and the labor of love."
+
+The meeting at Quincy in 1860 was one of great interest and enthusiasm. The
+missionary spirit rose high; and it was proposed to put into the field an
+aggressive worker, and to give him the necessary financial support. To this
+end a missionary association was organized, with Rev. Robert Collyer as the
+president, and Artemas Carter, a successful business man of Chicago, as the
+treasurer. Before the result desired could be realized, the war gave a very
+different direction to all the interests of the western churches. Of the
+twenty-nine ministers in the west at this time, sixteen went into the
+army,--twelve as chaplains, two as officers, and two as privates,--while
+several others devoted themselves to hospital work for longer or shorter
+periods. Rev. Augustus H. Conant, Rev. Leonard Whitney, Rev. Frederick R.
+Newell, and Rev. L.B. Mason answered with their lives to their country's
+call.
+
+The period immediately following the close of the civil war was one of
+generous giving and of great activity on the part of the western churches.
+From 1864 to 1866 the field was occupied by twenty-one new laborers,
+several new societies were organized, four old ones were resuscitated,
+seven new churches were built, and fifteen missionary stations were opened.
+The churches during these two years contributed $5,000 to missionary
+purposes and $13,000 to Antioch College. The degree of success met with in
+the efforts of the Western Conference depended in large degree upon the
+interest and activity of the western churches themselves. When they devoted
+themselves earnestly to missionary work, they contributed to it with a fair
+degree of liberality, and that work prospered. When the conference was
+asked to withdraw from the direction of that work by Rev. Charles Lowe, in
+order to secure greater unity of missionary effort by bringing all work of
+this kind under the direction of the Association, the contributions of the
+churches diminished, and the missionary activities in the west languished.
+However valuable the aid of the Unitarian Association,--and there can be no
+question that it was of the greatest importance,--local interest and
+co-operation were also essential to permanent success. Local activity and
+general oversight were alike necessary.
+
+[Sidenote: The Autumnal Conventions.]
+
+For more than twenty years Autumnal Conventions, as they were called, were
+held in the larger cities, beginning at Worcester in 1842. These meetings
+originated in the Worcester Association of Ministers at a meeting held July
+11, 1842, when the association considered the "desirableness of a meeting
+of Unitarians in the autumn for the purpose of awakening mutual sympathy
+and considering the wants of the Unitarian body."[11]
+
+At the invitation thereafter issued by the Worcester Association of
+ministers a convention was held in the church of the Second Congregational
+Parish in Worcester, October 18-20, 1842. On the first evening a sermon was
+preached by Dr. Ezra S. Gannett, and a committee of business was
+subsequently chosen. The next morning the convention organized, with Dr.
+Francis Parkman as president and Rev. Cazneau Palfrey as secretary. A
+series of resolutions were discussed,[12] and on the second evening a
+sermon was preached by Dr. A.P. Peabody. No essays were read, and nothing
+but the sermons were prepared beforehand. The Christian Register closed its
+report by saying that it could "give but a faint impression of the feeling
+which pervaded the meeting. The discussions were characterized by great
+earnestness and seriousness, and were conducted, at the same time, with
+entire freedom and with candor and liberality toward the differences of
+opinion which, amidst a general unanimity upon great principles, were
+occasionally elicited respecting details and methods. The expectations of
+those who called the convention were abundantly realized."
+
+The second of the Autumnal Conventions was held in Providence, October 2-4,
+1843. On the first evening the theme of the sermon preached by Dr. Dewey
+was the spiritual ministry of Dr. Channing, and it produced a great and
+deep impression. The resolutions discussed related to the duty, on the part
+of Unitarians, of making an explicit statement of their convictions, and an
+earnest application of them to life, and the need on the part of the
+denomination for a more united and vigorous action as a religious body. At
+the third meeting held in Albany, a statement was made by Dr. Dewey that
+exactly defined these gatherings, in their methods and purposes, when he
+said: "This and other conventions like it that are held in our body, I am
+inclined to think, have never been held before in the world. There is
+nothing like them to be found in the records of ecclesiastical history. We
+meet as distinct churches, on the pure democratic basis, which we believe
+to be the true basis of the church of Christ. We meet, without any
+formalities--to institute, or correct no canons--without the slightest
+system whatever. We come to meditate, to assist each other in experience,
+by unfolding our own experience, by declaring our convictions."
+
+The subjects introduced at these meetings were practical, such as commanded
+the interest of both ministers and laymen of the churches. The method
+adopted allowed a free interchange of opinions, and the participation of
+all in the discussions. So great was the interest awakened that these
+meetings were largely attended, and they were to a considerable degree
+helpful in bringing the churches into vital relations with each other.[13]
+
+At the session held in Brooklyn in 1862, great interest was manifested in
+the vespers, then a novelty, that were arranged by Samuel Longfellow. This
+meeting was marked by its glowing patriotism, that rose to a white heat. A
+sermon of great power was preached by Dr. Bellows, interpreting the duty of
+the hour and the destiny of America. The resolutions and the discussions
+were almost wholly along the lines of patriotic duty and devotion suggested
+by the sermon. At the last of the Autumnal Conventions, held in
+Springfield, Mass., October 13-15, 1863, the sermons were preached by Rev.
+Edward Everett Hale and Rev. Octavius B. Frothingham, while the essays were
+by Professor Charles Eliot Norton and Rev. James Freeman Clarke.
+
+The Autumnal Conventions came to an end, probably in part because the civil
+war was more and more absorbing the energies of the people both in and out
+of the churches, and partly because the desire for a more efficient
+organization had begun to make itself felt. In the spring of 1865 was held
+the meeting in New York that resulted in the organization of the National
+Conference, the legitimate successor to the Autumnal Conventions.
+
+[Sidenote: Influence of the Civil War.]
+
+During the period of the civil war, Unitarian activities were largely
+turned in new directions. Unitarians bore their full share in the councils
+of the nation, in the halls of legislation, on the fields of battle, in the
+care of the sick and wounded, and in the final efforts that brought about
+emancipation and peace. At least fifty Unitarian ministers entered the army
+as chaplains, privates, officers, and members of the Sanitary
+Commission.[14]
+
+The Unitarian Association also directed its attention to such work as it
+could accomplish in behalf of the soldiers in the field and in hospitals.
+Books were distributed, tracts published, and hymn-books prepared to meet
+their needs. Rev. John F.W. Ware developed a special gift for writing army
+tracts, of which he wrote about a dozen, which were published by the
+Association. As the war went on, the Association largely increased its
+activities in the army; and, when the end came, it had as many as seventy
+workers in the field, distributing its publications, aiding the Sanitary
+Commission, or acting as nurses and voluntary chaplains in the hospitals.
+The end of the war served rather to increase than to contract its labors,
+aid being largely needed for several months in returning the soldiers to
+their homes and in caring for those who were left in hospitals.
+
+Early in the summer of 1863 Rev. William G. Scandlin was sent to the Army
+of the Potomac as the agent of the Association. Taken prisoner in July, he
+spent several months in Libby prison, where he was kindly treated and
+exercised a beneficent influence. He was followed in this work by Rev.
+William M. Mellen, who established a library of 3,000 volumes at the
+convalescent camp, Alexandria, and also distributed a large amount of
+reading matter in the army. Rev. Charles Lowe served for several months as
+chaplain in the camp of drafted men on Long Island, his salary being paid
+by the Association. In November, 1864, he made a tour of inspection, as the
+agent of the Association, to the hospitals of Philadelphia, Baltimore
+Annapolis, Washington, Alexandria, Fortress Monroe, City Point, and the
+Army of the Potomac, in order to arrange for the proper distribution of
+reading matter and for such other hospital service as could be rendered.
+More than 3,000 volumes of the publications of the Association were
+distributed to the soldiers and in the hospitals, largely by Rev. J.G.
+Forman, of St. Louis, and Rev. John H. Heywood, of Louisville. Among those
+who acted as agents of the Association in furnishing reading to the army
+and hospitals were Rev. Calvin Stebbins, Rev. Frederick W. Holland, Rev.
+Benjamin H. Bailey, Rev. Artemas B. Muzzey, Rev. Newton M. Mann, and Mr.
+Henry G. Denny. Rev. Samuel Abbot Smith worked zealously at Norfolk at the
+hospitals and in preaching to the soldiers, until disease and death brought
+his labors to a close. What this kind of work was, and what it
+accomplished, was described by Louisa Alcott in her Hospital Sketches, and
+by William Howell Reed in his Hospital Life in the Army of the Potomac.
+
+[Sidenote: The Sanitary Commission.]
+
+The Sanitary Commission has been described by its historian as "one of the
+most shining monuments of our civilization," and as an expression of
+organized sympathy that "must always and everywhere call forth the homage
+and admiration of mankind." The organizer and leader of this great
+philanthropic movement for relieving human suffering was Dr. Henry W.
+Bellows, the minister of All Souls' Church in New York, the first Unitarian
+church organized in that city. The Commission was first suggested by Dr.
+Bellows, and he was its efficient leader from the first to the last. He was
+unanimously selected as its president, when the government had been
+persuaded, largely through his influence, to establish it as an addition to
+its medical and hospital service. The historian of the Commission has
+justly said that he "possessed many remarkable qualifications for so
+responsible, a position. Perhaps no man in the country exerted a wider or
+more powerful influence over those who were earnestly seeking the best
+means of defending our threatened nationality, and certainly never was a
+moral power of this kind founded upon juster and truer grounds. This
+influence was not confined to his home, the city of New York, although
+there it was incontestably very great, but it extended over many other
+portions of the country, and particularly throughout New England, where
+circumstances had made his name and his reputation for zeal and ability
+familiar to those most likely to aid in the furtherance of the new scheme.
+This power was due, partly of course to the very eminent position which he
+occupied as a clergyman, partly to the persistent efforts and enlightened
+zeal with which he advocated all wise measures of social reform, perhaps to
+his widely extended reputation as an orator, but primarily, and above all,
+to the rare combination of wide comprehensive views of great questions of
+public policy with extraordinary practical sagacity, which enabled him so
+to organize popular intelligence and sympathy that the best practical
+results were attained while the life-giving principle was preserved. He had
+the credit of not being what so many of his profession are, an idéologue;
+he had the clearest perception of what could and what could not be done,
+and he never hesitated to regard actual experience as the best practical
+test of the value of his plans and theories. These qualities, so precious
+and so exceptional in their nature, appeared conspicuously in the efforts
+made by him to secure the appointment of the Commission by the Government,
+and it will be found that every page of its history bears the strong
+impress of his peculiar and characteristic views."[15]
+
+These words of Charles J. Stillé, a member of the Sanitary Commission and
+its authorized historian, afterward the provost of the University of
+Pennsylvania, indicate the remarkable qualities of leadership possessed by
+Dr. Bellows. These were undoubtedly added to and made more impressive by
+his oratorical genius, that was of a very high order. Dr. Hedge spoke of
+the miraculous power of speech possessed by Dr. Bellows, when he was at his
+best, as being "incomparably better than anything he could have possibly
+compassed by careful preparation or conscious effort," and of "those
+exalted moments when he was fully possessed by his demon."[16] He was
+inexhaustible in his efforts for the success of the Commission, in
+directing the work of committees and branches, in appealing to the
+indifferent, and in giving enthusiasm to all the forces under his
+direction.
+
+Of the nine original members of the Sanitary Commission, four were
+Unitarians,--Dr. Bellows, Dr. Samuel G. Howe, Dr. Jeffries Wyman, and
+Professor Wolcott Gibbs. In the number of those added later was Rev. John
+H. Heywood, for many years the minister of the Unitarian church in
+Louisville, who rendered efficient service in the western department. In
+the convalescents' camp at Alexandria "a wonderful woman," Miss Amy
+Bradley, had charge of the efficient labors of the Commission, "where for
+two and a half years she and her assistants rendered incalculable service,
+in distributing clothing among the needy, procuring dainties for the sick,
+accompanying discharged soldiers to Washington and assisting them in
+procuring their papers and pay, furnishing paper and postage, and writing
+letters for the sick, forwarding money home by drafts that cost nothing to
+the soldier, answering letters of inquiry to hospital directors, securing
+certificates of arrears of pay and getting erroneous charges of desertion
+removed (the Commission saved several innocent soldiers from being shot as
+condemned deserters), distributing reading matter, telegraphing the friends
+of very ill soldiers, furnishing meals for feeble soldiers in barracks who
+could not eat the regulation food. Miss Bradley assisted 2,000 men to
+secure arrears of pay amounting to $200,000. Prisoners of war, while in
+prison and when released by general exchange, were largely and promptly
+relieved and comforted by this department."[17] Another effective worker
+was Frederick N. Knapp, who had been for several years a Unitarian
+minister, and who was the leading spirit in the special relief service of
+the Commission, "and organized and controlled it with masterly zeal,
+humanity, and success."[18] The work of Mr. Knapp was of great importance;
+for he was the confidential secretary of Dr. Bellows, and gave his whole
+time to the service of the Commission. He was a methodical worker, an
+efficient organizer, and supplied those qualities of persistent industry
+and grasp of details in which Dr. Bellows was deficient. Without his
+untiring energy and skilful directing power the Commission would have been
+less effective than it was in fact. Dr. Bellows also described William G.
+Scandlin as "one of the most earnest and effective of the Sanitary
+Commission agents."
+
+In the autumn of 1862 the Commission was greatly crippled in its work
+because it could not obtain the money with which to carry on its extensive
+operations, and it was saved from failure by the generosity of California,
+and the other Pacific states and territories. The remoteness of these
+states at that time made it impossible for them to contribute their
+proportion of men, "and they indulged their patriotism and gave relief to
+their pent-up sympathies with the national cause by pouring out their money
+like water."[19] The first contribution was received by the Sanitary
+Commission on September 19, 1862, and was $100,000: a fortnight later the
+same sum was again sent; and similar contributions followed at short
+intervals. These sums enabled the Commission to accomplish its splendid
+work, and to meet the urgent needs of those trying days. How the Pacific
+coast was able to contribute so largely to this work may be explained in
+the words of Dr. Bellows, who fully understood the situation, and the vast
+importance of the help afforded: "The most gifted and inspiring of the
+patriots who rallied California and the Pacific coast to the flag of the
+Union was undoubtedly Thomas Starr King, minister of the first Unitarian
+church in San Francisco. Born in New York, but reared in Massachusetts, he
+had earned an almost national reputation for eloquence and wit, humanity
+and nobleness of soul, in the lecture-rooms and pulpits of the north and
+west, when at the age of thirty-five, he yielded to the religious claims of
+the Pacific coast and transferred himself to California. There in four
+years he had built up as public speaker from the pulpit and platform a
+prodigious popularity. His temperament sympathetic, mercurial, and
+electric; his disposition hearty, genial, and sweet; his mind versatile,
+quick, and sparkling; his tact exquisite, and infallible; with a voice as
+clear as a bell and loud and cheering as a trumpet, his nature and
+accomplishments perfectly adapted to the people, and place, and the time.
+His religious profession disarmed many of his political enemies, his
+political orthodoxy quieted many of his religious opponents. Generous,
+charitable, disinterested, his full heart and open hand captivated the
+California people, while his sparkling wit, melodious cadences, and
+rhetorical abundance perfectly satisfied their taste for intensity and
+novelty and a touch of extravagance. It has been said by high authority
+that Mr. King saved California to the Union. California was too loyal at
+heart to make the boast reasonable; but it is not too much to say that Mr.
+King did more than any man, by his prompt, outspoken, uncalculating
+loyalty, to make California know what her own feelings really were. He did
+all that any man could have done to lead public sentiment that was
+unconsciously ready to follow where earnest loyalty and patriotism should
+guide the way."[20]
+
+Not less important in its own degree was the work done in St. Louis by Dr.
+William G. Eliot, minister since 1834 of the Unitarian church in that city.
+He became the leader in all efforts for aiding the soldiers, and was most
+active in forming and directing the Western Sanitary Commission, that
+worked harmoniously with the national organization, but independently. A
+large hospital was established and maintained, a home for refugees was
+secured, and a large camp for "contraband" negroes was established, chiefly
+under the direction of Dr. Eliot, and largely maintained by his church. He
+was a potent force in keeping St. Louis and the northern portions of
+Missouri loyal to the Union. The secretary of the Western Sanitary
+Commission, J.G. Forman, a Unitarian minister for many years, was most
+faithful and efficient in this work; and he subsequently became its
+historian. In the Freedman's Hospital at St. Louis labored with zeal and
+success Rev. Frederick R. Newall; and he was also superintendent of the
+Freedman's Bureau in that city, his life being sacrificed to these devoted
+labors.
+
+[Sidenote: Results of Fifteen Years.]
+
+The work done by the Unitarian Association during the civil war and under
+the conditions it produced was not a large one, but it absorbed a
+considerable part of its energies for about five years. In all it printed
+over 3,000 copies of three books for the soldiers,[21] distributed 750,000
+tracts which it had prepared for them,[22] sent to the soldiers 5,000
+copies weekly of The Christian Register and The Christian Inquirer, 1,500
+copies of the Monthly Journal, 1,000 of The Monthly Religious Magazine, and
+1,000 of the Sunday-school Gazette. During the last year or two of the war
+its tracts went out at the rate of 50,000 monthly. The tracts and the
+periodicals therefore numbered a monthly distribution of about 75,000
+copies. The seventy volunteer agents who brought these publications to the
+hands of the soldiers, together with the army chaplains, agents of the
+Sanitary Commission, and the many nurses in the hospitals, made a
+considerable force of Unitarian missionaries developed by the exigencies of
+the war, and the attempts to meliorate its hard conditions.
+
+The period of fifteen years, from 1850 to 1865, which has been under
+consideration in this chapter, was one of the greatest trial and
+discouragement to the Association. Its funds reached their lowest ebb, a
+missionary secretary could not be maintained, a layman performed the
+necessary office duties, and no considerable aggressive work along
+missionary lines was undertaken. Writing in a most hopeful spirit of the
+situation, in November, 1863, the editor of The Christian Register showed
+that in 1848 the number of Unitarian churches was 201, while in 1863 it was
+205, an increase of four only in fifteen years. During this period fifty
+parishes had gained pastors, but fifty had lost them. Several strong
+parishes, he said, had come into existence, and two in large places had
+died. Most of those that had been closed were in small country towns.
+Nevertheless, with truth it could be said of these fifteen years of
+discouragement and failure that every one of them was a seed-time for the
+harvest that was soon to be reaped.
+
+[1] Usually known as the Transcendental Club, sometimes as The Symposium.
+    It was started in 1836 by Emerson, Ripley, and Hedge, and met at the
+    houses of the members to discuss philosophical and literary subjects.
+    It was called Hedge's Club because it met when Rev. F.H. Hedge came
+    to Boston from Bangor, where he was settled in 1835. It also included
+    Clarke, Francis, Alcott, Dwight, W.H. Channing, Bartol, Very,
+    Margaret Fuller, and Elizabeth P. Peabody.
+
+[2] Twenty-eighth Report of the American Unitarian Association, 22.
+
+[3] Ibid., 30. For other statements made at this time see pp. 22 and 26
+    of this report; Quarterly Journal, L 44, 228, 243, 275, 333; and O.B.
+    Frothingham's Transcendentalism in New England, 123. John Gorham
+    Palfrey said (Twenty-eighth Report, 31) that "the evidence of
+    Christianity is identical with the evidence of the miraculous
+    character of Jesus," and that "his miraculous powers were the highest
+    evidence that he came from God." Parker replied to this report of the
+    Association in his Friendly Letter to the Executive Committee. Of
+    this report John W. Chadwick has said that it is "the most curious,
+    not to say amusing, document in our denominational archives." See The
+    Organization of our Liberty, Christian Register, July 19, 1900.
+
+[4] In 1854 the receipts from all sources for the year preceding, except
+    from sales of books and interest on investments, was $4,267.32. For
+    the next two years there was a rapid gain, the sum reported in 1856
+    being $11,615.90; but there was a slight decrease the next year, and
+    the financial panic of 1857 brought the donations down to $4,602.38,
+    the amount reported at the annual meeting of 1858. Then there was a
+    steady gain until the civil war began, after which the contributions
+    were small, the general donations being only $3,056.03 in 1863, which
+    sum was brought up to $5,547.73 by contributions for special
+    purposes, more than one-third of the whole being for the Army Fund.
+
+[5] The Christian Register, October 17, 1863.
+
+[6] The Monthly Journal, I. 350.
+
+[7] Mr. Fox entered the employ of the Association in 1855 as a clerk, and
+    then he became the assistant of the secretary by the appointment of
+    the directors. From 1864 to the present time he has served as the
+    assistant secretary. His services have been invaluable to the
+    Association in many ways, because of his diligence, fidelity,
+    unfailing devotion to its interests, and loyalty to the Unitarian
+    cause.
+
+[8] The beginning of a general fund seems to have been made in 1835, and
+    was secured by special subscriptions for the purpose of paying the
+    salary of a general secretary or missionary agent. The treasurer
+    reported in 1836 that during the previous year $2,408.37 had been
+    collected for this purpose.
+
+[9] Of the churches now in existence the first in Chicago was organized
+    in 1836, that at Quincy in 1840, Milwaukee and Geneva in 1842,
+    Detroit in 1850. After the conference began its work, they appear
+    more frequently, Keokuk coming into existence in 1853, Marietta in
+    1855, Lawrence in 1856, Unity of Chicago, Kalamazoo, and Buda in
+    1858, Bloomington in 1859. Then comes a blank during the war period,
+    and a more rapid growth after it, especially when the National
+    Conference had given impetus to missionary activities. Janesville was
+    organized in 1864; Ann Arbor, Kenosha, and Baraboo, in 1865; Tremont,
+    in 1866; Cleveland and Mattoon, in 1867; Unity of St. Louis, Kansas
+    City, St. Joseph, Shelbyville, Davenport, Geneseo, Third of Chicago,
+    and Sheffield, in 1868; Omaha, in 1869.
+
+[10] Written by William G. Eliot, of St. Louis.
+
+[11] Joseph Allen, The Worcester Association and its Antecedents, 268.
+
+[12] Through the business committee the following resolutions were
+     submitted for the consideration of the convention, and they were
+     taken up in order:--
+
+       _Resolved_, That we acknowledge with profound gratitude the success
+       which has attended our labors in the cause of religious freedom,
+       virtue, and piety, and are encouraged to persevere with renewed zeal
+       and energy.
+
+       _Resolved_, That in the character and life of Rev. William E.
+       Channing, just removed from us, we acknowledge one of the richest
+       gifts of God, in intellectual endowments, pure aspiration, moral
+       courage, and disinterested devotion to the cause of truth, freedom,
+       and humanity, and that in view of this, we feel out increased
+       obligation to Christian fidelity and heavenward progress.
+
+       _Resolved_, That viewing with anxiety prevailing fanaticism and
+       growing disregard of public trusts and private relations, we should
+       earnestly labor for a higher religious principle, and especially
+       urge the paramount claims of moral duty.
+
+[13] The places and dates of the Autumnal Conventions were as follows:
+     Worcester, 1842; Provence, 1843; Albany, 1844; New York, 1845;
+     Philadelphia, 1846; Salem, 1847; New Bedford, 1848; Portland, 1849;
+     Springfield, 1850; Portsmouth, 1851; Baltimore, 1852; Worcester,
+     1853; Montreal, 1854; Providence, 1855; Bangor, 1856; Syracuse, 1857;
+     Salem, 1858; Lowell, 1859; New Bedford, 1860; Boston, 1861; Brooklyn,
+     1862; Springfield, 1863.
+
+[14] The first regiments from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Kansas, had
+     as their chaplains Warren H. Cudworth, Augustus Woodbury, and Ephraim
+     Nute. Charles Babbidge was the chaplain of the sixth Massachusetts
+     regiment, that which was fired upon in Baltimore. The first artillery
+     company from Massachusetts had as its chaplain Stephen Barker. Others
+     who served as army chaplains were John Pierpont, Edmund B. Willson,
+     Francis C. Williams, Arthur B. Fuller, Sylvan S. Hunting, Charles T.
+     Canfield, Edward H. Hall, George H. Hepworth, Joseph F. Lovering,
+     Edwin M. Wheelock, George W. Bartlett, John C. Kimball, Augustus M.
+     Haskell, Charles A. Humphreys, Milton J. Miller, George A. Ball,
+     William G. Scandlin, E.B. Fairchild, Samuel W. McDaniel, Frederick R.
+     Newell, George W. Woodward, Stephen H. Camp, William D. Haley,
+     Leonard Whitney, Gilbert Cummings, Nahor A. Staples, Carlton A.
+     Staples, Martin M. Willis, John F. Moors, L.B. Mason, Robert Hassall,
+     Liberty Billings, Daniel Foster, J.G. Forman, and Augustus H. Conant.
+     Robert Collyer was chaplain-at-large in the Army of the Potomac.
+     Charles J. Bowen, William J. Potter, Charles Noyes, James Richardson,
+     and William H. Channing served as hospital chaplains.
+
+     Among the ministers who served as officers were: Hasbrouck Davis, who
+     became a general; William B. Greene, colonel; Gerald Fitzgerald, who
+     enlisted as a private, rose to the rank of first lieutenant, and was
+     elected chaplain of his regiment; Edward I. Galvin, lieutenant, also
+     elected chaplain; James K. Hosmer, who served through the war, at
+     first as a private and then as a corporal, writing his experiences
+     into The Color Guard and The Thinking Bayonet; George W. Shaw and
+     Alvin Allen, privates. Thomas D. Howard and James H. Fowler were
+     chaplains in colored regiments. After service as a chaplain of a Hew
+     Hampshire regiment, Edwin M. Wheelock became a lieutenant in a
+     colored regiment, as did Charles B. Webster. Thomas W. Higginson was
+     colonel of a colored regiment, and in another Henry Stone was
+     lieutenant colonel. It is doubtful if this list is complete, though
+     an effort has been made to have it as nearly so as possible. Those
+     who served in the army, and became ministers after leaving it, have
+     not been included. So far as known, only ordained ministers are
+     named.
+
+[15] History of the United States Sanitary Commission, being the General
+     Report of its Work during the War of the Rebellion.
+
+[16] J.H. Allen, Our Liberal Movement in Theology, 210.
+
+[17] Henry W. Bellows, article on the Sanitary Commission, in Johnson's
+     Cyclopedia, revised edition.
+
+[18] Ibid.
+
+[19] Henry W. Bellows, article on the Sanitary Commission, in Johnson's
+     Cyclopedia, revised edition.
+
+[20] History of the Sanitary Commission.
+
+[21] Thoughts selected from Channing's Works, Ware's The Silent Pastor,
+     and Eliot's Discipline of Sorrow. The Association also issued one
+     number of the Monthly Journal as an Army Companion, which contained
+     fifty hymns of a patriotic and religions character, with appropriate
+     tunes, selections from the Bible, directions for preserving health in
+     the army, and selections from addresses on the injustice of the
+     rebellion and the spirit in which it should be put down.
+
+[22] Twenty tracts were published. The first was written by Dr. George
+     Putnam; and was on The Man and the Soldier. The second was The
+     Soldier of the Good Cause, by Prof. C.E. Norton. Others were A Letter
+     to a Sick Soldier, by Rev. Robert Collyer; An Enemy within the Lines,
+     by Rev. S.H. Winkley. Rev. John F.W. Ware wrote fourteen of these
+     tracts, the following being some of the subjects: The Home to the
+     Camp, The Home to the Hospital, Wounded and in the Hands of the
+     Enemy, Traitors in Camp, A Change of Base, On Picket, The Rebel, The
+     Recruit, A Few Words with the Convalescent, Mustered Out, A Few Words
+     with the Rank and File at Parting.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+
+THE DENOMINATIONAL AWAKENING.
+
+The war had an inspiring influence upon Unitarians, awakening them to a
+consciousness of their strength, and drawing them together to work for
+common purposes as nothing else had ever done. From the beginning they saw
+in the effort to save the Union, and in the spirit of liberty that animated
+the nation, an expression of their own principles. Whatever its effect upon
+other religious bodies, the war gave to Unitarians new faith, courage, and
+enthusiasm. For the first time they became conscious of their opportunity,
+and united in a determined purpose to meet its demands with fidelity to
+their convictions and loyalty to the call of humanity.[1]
+
+No Autumnal Convention having been held in 1864, owing to the failure of
+the committee appointed for that purpose to make the necessary
+arrangements, a special meeting of the Unitarian Association was held in
+the Hollis Street Church, Boston, December 6-7, at the call of the
+executive committee, "to awaken interest in the work of the Association by
+laying before the churches the condition of our funds and the demand for
+our labor." The attendance was large, and the tone of the meeting was
+hopeful and enthusiastic. After Dr. Stebbins, the president, had stated the
+purpose of the meeting, Dr. Bellows urged the importance of a more
+effective organization of the Unitarian body. His success with the Sanitary
+Commission had evidently prepared his mind for a like work on the part of
+Unitarians, and for a strong faith in the value of organized effort in
+behalf of liberal religion. His capacity as leader during the war had
+prepared men to accept it in other fields of effort, and Unitarians were
+ready to use it in their behalf. The hopefulness that existed, in view of
+the success of the Union cause, and the enthusiastic interest in the
+methods of moral and spiritual reform that was manifested because of the
+triumph of the spirit of freedom in the nation, led many to think that like
+efforts in behalf of liberal Christianity would result in like successes.
+
+On the afternoon of the second day (a meeting in the evening of the first
+day only having been held) James P. Walker, the publisher, gave a résumé of
+the activities of the Association during the forty years of its existence,
+and said that its receipts had been on the average only $8,038.88 yearly.
+He showed that much had been done with this small sum, and that the results
+were much larger than the amount of money invested would indicate. He
+pointed out the fact that the demands upon the Association were rapidly
+increasing, and far more rapidly than the contributions. There was an
+urgent need for larger giving, he said, and for a more loyal support of the
+missionary arm of the denomination. He offered a series of resolutions
+calling for the raising of $25,000 during the year. Rev. Edward Everett
+Hale said that $100,000 ought to be given to the proposed object, and urged
+that more missionaries should be sent into the field. Thereupon Mr. Henry
+P. Kidder arose, and said: "It is often easier to do a great thing than a
+small one. I move that this meeting undertake to raise $100,000 for the
+service of the next year." Dr. Bellows then called the attention of the
+conference to the importance of considering the manner of securing this
+large sum and of devising methods to insure success. He proposed "that a
+committee of ten persons, three ministers and seven laymen, should be
+appointed to call a convention, to consist of the pastor and two delegates
+from each church or parish in the Unitarian denomination, to meet in the
+city of New York, to consider the interests of our cause and to institute
+measures for its good." The two resolutions were unanimously adopted,
+pledging the denomination to raise $100,000, and to the holding of a
+delegate convention in New York. The president appointed, as members of the
+committee of arrangements for the convention, Rev. Henry W. Bellows,
+Messrs. A.A. Low, U.A. Murdock, Henry P. Kidder, Atherton Blight, Enoch
+Pratt, and Artemas Carter, Rev. Edward E. Hale, and Rev. Charles H.
+Brigham.
+
+The convention in New York was not waited for in order to make an effort to
+secure the $100,000 it was proposed to raise; and early in January the
+president of the Association, Dr. Rufus P. Stebbins, was authorized to
+devote his whole time to securing that sum. A circular was sent to the
+churches saying that such a sum "was needed, and should and could be
+raised." "The hour has come," said the executive committee in their appeal
+to the churches, "which the fathers longed to see, but were denied the
+sight,--of taking our true position among other branches of the church of
+our Lord Jesus Christ in the spread and establishment of the Gospel."
+
+The response to this call was prompt and enthusiastic beyond any precedent.
+The war had made money plentiful, and it came easily to those who were
+successful. Great fortunes had been rapidly gathered; and the country had
+never known an equal prosperity, even though the burden of the war had not
+yet been removed. In February the president of the Association was able to
+announce that $28,871.47 had been subscribed by twelve churches. By the end
+of March the pledges had reached $63,862.63; and when the convention met in
+New York, April 5, 1865, the contributions then pledged were only a few
+thousand dollars short of the sum desired. By the end of May the sum
+reported was $111,676.74, which was increased by several hundred dollars
+more.
+
+[Sidenote: The New York Convention of 1865.]
+
+It was when this success was certain that the convention met in New York.
+The victory of the Union cause was then assured, and the utmost enthusiasm
+prevailed. Some of the final and most important scenes of the great
+national struggle were enacted while the convention was in session. Courage
+and hope ran high under these circumstances; and the convention was not
+only enthusiastically loyal to the nation, but equally so to its own
+denominational interests. For the first time in the history of the
+Unitarian body in this country the churches were directly represented at a
+general gathering. The number of churches represented was two hundred and
+two, and they sent three hundred and eighty-five delegates. Many other
+persons attended, however; and throughout all the sittings of the
+convention the audience was a large one. Many women were present, though
+not as delegates, the men only having official recognition in this
+gathering. It is evident from the records, the newspaper reports, and the
+memories of those present, that the interest in this meeting was very
+large, and that the attendance was quite beyond what was anticipated by any
+one concerned in planning it. The call to all the churches, and the giving
+them an equality of representation in the convention, was doubtless one of
+the causes of its success. As a result, an able body of laymen appeared in
+the convention, who were accustomed to business methods and familiar with
+legislative procedure, and who carried through the work of the convention
+with deliberation and skill.
+
+On the first evening of the convention a sermon was preached by Dr. James
+Freeman Clarke that was a noble and generous introduction to its
+deliberations. He called for the exercise of the spirit of inclusiveness, a
+broad and tolerant catholicity, and union on the basis of the work to be
+done. On the morning of April 5, 1865, at eleven o'clock, the convention
+met for the transaction of business in All Souls' Church, of which Henry
+Whitney Bellows was the minister. Hon. John A. Andrew, then the governor of
+Massachusetts, was elected to preside over the convention; and among the
+vice-presidents were William Cullen Bryant, Rev. John Gorham Palfrey, Hon.
+Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, Rev. Orville Dewey, and Rev. Ezra Stiles Gannett,
+while Rev. Edward Everett Hale was made the secretary. In Governor Andrew
+the convention had as its presiding officer a man of a broad and generous
+spirit, who was insistent that the main purpose of the meeting should be
+kept always steadily in view, and yet that all the members and all the
+varying opinions should have just recognition. In a large degree the
+success of the convention was due to his catholicity and to his skill in
+reconciling opposing interests.
+
+The time of the convention was devoted almost wholly to legislating for the
+denomination and to planning for its future work. On the morning of the
+second day the subject of organization came up for consideration, and the
+committee selected for that purpose presented a constitution providing for
+a National Conference that should meet annually, and that should be
+constituted of the minister and two lay delegates from each church,
+together with three delegates each from the American Unitarian Association,
+the Western Conference, and such other bodies as might be invited to
+participate in its deliberations. This Conference was to be only
+recommendatory in its character, adopting "the existing organizations of
+the Unitarian body as the instruments of its power." The name of the new
+organization was the subject of some discussion, James Freeman Clarke
+wishing to make the Conference one of Independent and Unitarian churches,
+while another delegate desired to substitute "free Christian" for
+Unitarian. The desire strongly manifested by a considerable number to make
+the Conference include in its membership all liberal churches of whatever
+name not acceptable to the majority of the delegates, voted with a decided
+emphasis to organize strictly on the Unitarian basis.
+
+As soon as the convention was organized, expression was given to the demand
+for a doctrinal basis for its deliberations. Though several attempts were
+made to bring about the acceptance of a creed, these met with complete
+failure. In the preamble to the constitution, however, it was asserted that
+the delegates were "disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ," while the first
+article declared that the conference was organized to promote "the cause of
+Christian faith and work." It was quite evident that a large majority of
+the delegates regarded the convention as Christian in its purposes and
+distinctly Unitarian in its denominational mission. A minority desired a
+platform that should have no theological implications, and that should
+permit the co-operation of every kind of liberal church. The use of the
+phrase Lord Jesus Christ was strongly opposed by the more radical section
+of the convention, but the members of it were not organized or ready to
+give utterance to their protest in an effective manner.
+
+The convention gave its approval to the efforts of the Unitarian
+Association to secure the sum of $100,000, and urged the churches, that had
+not already done so, to contribute. It also advised the securing of a like
+sum as an endowment for Antioch College, and commended to men of wealth the
+needs of the Harvard and Meadville Theological Schools. The council of the
+Conference was asked to give its attention to the necessity and duty of
+creating an organ for the denomination, to be called The Liberal Christian.
+A resolution looking to union with the Universalist body was presented, and
+one was passed declaring "that there should be recognition, fellowship, and
+co-operation between all those various elements in our population that are
+prepared to meet on the basis of Christianity." James Freeman Clarke,
+Samuel J. May, and Robert Collyer were constituted a committee of
+correspondence, to promote acquaintance, fraternity, and unity between
+Unitarians and all of like liberal faith.[2]
+
+A resolution offered by William Cullen Bryant expressive of thanksgiving
+because of the near approach of peace, and for the opening made by the
+extinction of slavery for the diffusion of Christianity in its true spirit
+as a religion of love, mercy, and universal liberty, was unanimously
+adopted by a rising vote.
+
+The convention was a remarkable success in the number who attended its
+sessions, the character of the men who participated in its deliberations,
+and the skill with which the unsectarian sect had been organized for
+effective co-operation and work. Its influence was immediately felt
+throughout the denomination and upon all its activities. The change in
+attitude was very great, and the depressed and discouraged tone of many
+Unitarian utterances for a number of years preceding and following 1860
+gave way to one of enthusiasm and courage.[3]
+
+[Sidenote: New Life in the Unitarian Association.]
+
+The annual meeting of the Unitarian Association, that soon followed, felt
+the new stir of life, and the awakening to a larger consciousness of power.
+The chief attention was directed to meeting the new opportunities that had
+been presented, and to preparing for the larger work required. Dr. Rufus P.
+Stebbins, who had been for three years the president, and who had been
+actively instrumental in securing the large accession to the contributions
+of the year, was elected secretary, with the intent that he should devote
+himself to pushing forward the missionary enterprises of the Association.
+He refused to serve, and accepted the position only until his successor
+could be secured. In a few weeks, the executive committee elected Rev.
+Charles Lowe to this office, and he immediately entered upon its duties. He
+proved to be eminently fitted for the place by his enthusiastic interest in
+the work to be accomplished, and by his skill as an organizer. His
+catholicity of mind enabled him to conciliate, as far as this was possible,
+the conservative and radical elements in the denomination, and to unite
+them into an effective working body. Educated at Harvard College and
+Divinity School, Lowe spent two years as a tutor in the college, and then
+was settled successively over parishes in New Bedford, Salem, and
+Somerville. His experience and skill as an army agent of the Association
+suggested his fitness for the larger sphere of labor into which he was now
+inducted. For six most difficult and trying years he successfully conducted
+the affairs of the Association.
+
+For the first time in the history of the Association its income was such as
+to enable it to plan its work on a large scale, and in some degree
+commensurate with its opportunities. During the year and a half preceding
+the first of June, 1866, there was contributed to the Association about
+$175,000, to Antioch College $103,000, to the Boston Fraternity of Churches
+$22,920, to the Children's Mission $42,000, to the Freedman's Aid Societies
+$30,000, to the Sunday School Society $2,500, to The Christian Register
+$15,000, and to the Western Conference $6,000, making a total of about
+$400,000 given by the denomination to these religious, educational, and
+philanthropic purposes; and this financial success was truly indicative of
+the new interest in its work that had come to the Unitarian body.
+
+[Sidenote: The New Theological Position.]
+
+Although the New York convention voted that $100,000 ought to be raised in
+1866, because the needs of the denomination demanded it, yet only $60,000
+were secured. The reaction that followed the close of the war had set in,
+the financial prosperity of the country had begun to lessen, and the
+enthusiasm that had made the first great effort of the denomination so
+eminently successful did not continue. A chief cause for the waning
+interest in the denomination itself was the agitation, in regard to the
+theological position of the Unitarian body that began almost immediately
+after the New York convention.
+
+The older Unitarians held to the Bible and the teachings of Jesus as the
+great sources of spiritual truth as strongly as did the orthodox, and they
+differed from them only as to the purport of the message conveyed. This may
+be seen in a creed offered to the New York convention, by a prominent
+layman,[4] almost immediately after it was opened on the first morning.
+In this proposed creed it was asserted that Unitarians believe "in one
+Lord, Jesus Christ; the Son of God and his specially appointed messenger,
+and representative to our race; gifted with supernatural power, approved of
+God by miracles and signs and wonders which God did by him, and thus by
+divine authority commanding the devout and reverential faith of all who
+claim the Christian name." Although this creed was not adopted by the
+convention, it expressed the belief of a majority of Unitarians. To the
+same purport was the word spoken by Dr. Bellows, when he said: "Unitarians
+of the school to which I belong accept Jesus Christ with all their hearts
+as the Sent of God, the divinely inspired Son of the Father, who by his
+miraculously proven office and his sinless life and character was fitted to
+be, and was made revealer of the universal and permanent religion of the
+human race."[5] These quotations indicate that the more conservative
+Unitarians had not changed their position since 1853, when they made
+official statement of their acceptance of Christianity as authenticated by
+miracles and the supernatural. In fact, they held essentially to the
+attitude taken when they left the older Congregational body.
+
+On the other hand, the transcendentalists and the radical Unitarians
+proposed a new theory of the nature of religious truth, and insisted that
+the spiritual message of Christianity is inward, and not outward, directly
+to the soul of man, and not through the mediation of a person or a book.
+Almost from the first Channing had been moving towards this newer
+conception of the nature and method of religion. He did not wholly abandon
+the miraculous, but it grew to have less significance for him with each
+year. The Unitarian conception of religion as natural to man, which was
+maintained strenuously from the time of Jonathan Mayhew, made it probable,
+if not certain, that a merely external system of religion would be
+ultimately outgrown. In his lecture on self-denial Channing stated this
+position in the clearest terms. "If," he said, "after a deliberate and
+impartial use of our best faculties, a professed revelation seems to us
+plainly to disagree with itself or to clash with great principles which we
+cannot question, we ought not to hesitate to withhold from it our belief. I
+am surer that my rational nature is from God, than that any book is an
+expression of his will. This light in my own breast is his primary
+revelation, and all subsequent ones must accord with it, and are in fact
+intended to blend with and brighten it."[6]
+
+Channing was not alone in accepting Christianity as a spiritual principle
+that is natural and universal. As early as 1826 Alvan Lamson had defended
+the proposition that miracles are merely local in their nature, and that
+attention should be chiefly given to the tendency, spirit, and object of
+Christianity. He claimed that it bore on the face of it the marks of its
+heavenly origin, and that, when these are fully accepted, no other form of
+evidence is required.[7] In 1834 James Walker, in writing on The
+Philosophy of Man's Spiritual Nature in regard to the Foundations of Faith,
+had taken what was essentially the transcendentalist view of the origin and
+nature of religion. He contended for the "religion in the soul" that is
+authenticated "by the revelations of consciousness."[8] In 1836 Convers
+Francis, in, describing the religion of Christ as a purely internal
+principle, maintained the "quiet, spirit-searching character of
+Christianity," as "a kingdom wholly within the soul of man."[9]
+
+When Convers Francis became a professor in the Harvard Divinity School, in
+1842, the spiritual philosophy had recognition there; and he had a
+considerable influence upon the young men who came under his guidance.
+Though of the older way of thinking, George R. Noyes, who became a
+professor in the school in 1840, was always on the side of liberty of
+interpretation and expression. For the next two decades the Divinity School
+sent out a succession of such men as John Weiss, Octavius B. Frothingham,
+Samuel Longfellow, William J. Potter, and Francis E. Abbot, who were joined
+by William Henry Channing, Samuel Johnson, David A. Wasson, and others, who
+did not study there. These men gave a new meaning to Unitarianism, took it
+away from miracles to nature, discarded its evidences to rely on intuition,
+rejected its supernatural deity for an immanent God who speaks through all
+life his divine word.
+
+During the interval between the New York convention and the first session
+of the National Conference, which was held in Syracuse, October 10-11,
+1866, the questions which separated the conservatives and radicals were
+freely debated in the periodicals of the denomination, and also in sermons
+and pamphlets. The radicals organized for securing a revision of the
+constitution; and on the morning of the first day Francis E. Abbot, then
+the minister at Dover, N.H., offered a new preamble and first article as
+substitutes for those adopted in New York, in which he stated that "the
+object of Christianity is the universal diffusion of love, righteousness,
+and truth," that "perfect freedom of thought, which is at once the right
+and duty of every human being, always leads to diversity of opinion, and is
+therefore hindered by common creeds or statements of faith," and that
+therefore the churches assembled in the conference, "disregarding all
+sectarian or theological differences, and offering a cordial fellowship to
+all who will join them in Christian work, unite themselves in a common
+body, to be known as The National Conference of Unitarian and Independent
+Churches."
+
+At the afternoon session Mr. Abbot's amendment was rejected; but on the
+motion of James Freeman Clarke the name was changed to The National
+Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches. A resolution stating
+that the expression "Other Christian Churches was not meant to exclude
+religious societies which have no distinctive church organization, and are
+not nominally Christian, if they desire to co-operate with the Conference
+in what it regards as Christian work," was laid on the table.
+
+[Sidenote: Organization of the Free Religious Association.]
+
+The result of the refusal at Syracuse to revise the constitution of the
+National Conference was that the radical men on the railroad train
+returning to Boston held a consultation, and resolved to organize an
+association that would secure them the liberty they desired. After
+correspondence and much planning a meeting was held in Boston, at the house
+of Rev. Cyrus A. Bartol, on February 5, 1867, to consider what should be
+done. After a thorough discussion of the subject the Free Religious
+Association was planned; and the organization was perfected at a meeting
+held in Horticultural Hall, Boston, May 30, 1867. Some of those who took
+part in this movement thought that all religion had been outgrown, but the
+majority believed that it is essential and eternal. What they sought was to
+remove its local and national elements, and to get rid of its merely
+sectarian and traditional features.
+
+At the first meeting the speakers were O.B. Frothingham, Henry Blanchard,
+Lucretia Mott, Robert Dale Owen, John Weiss, Oliver Johnson, Francis E.
+Abbot, David A. Wasson, T.W. Higginson, and R.W. Emerson; and discussion
+was participated in by A.B. Alcott, E.C. Towne, Frank B. Sanborn, Hannah E.
+Stevenson, Ednah D. Cheney, Charles C. Burleigh, and Caroline H. Dall. Of
+these persons, one-half had been Unitarian ministers, and about one-third
+of them were still settled over Unitarian parishes. Mr. Frothingham was
+elected president of the new organization, and Rev. William J. Potter
+secretary. The purposes of the Association were "to promote the interests
+of pure religion, to encourage the scientific study of theology and to
+increase fellowship in the spirit." In 1872 the constitution was revised by
+changing the subject of study from theology to man's religious nature and
+history, and by the addition of the statement that "nothing in the name or
+constitution of the Association shall ever be construed as limiting
+membership by any test of speculative opinion or belief,--or as defining
+the position of the Association, collectively considered, with reference to
+any such opinion or belief,--or as interfering in any other way with that
+absolute freedom of thought and expression which is the natural right of
+every rational being."
+
+The original purpose of the Free Religious Association, as defined in its
+constitution and in the addresses delivered before it, was the recognition
+of the universality of religion, and the representation of all phases of
+religious opinion in its membership and on its platform. The circumstances
+of its organization, however, in some measure took it away from this
+broader position, and made it the organ of the radical Unitarian opinion.
+Those Unitarians who did not find in the American Unitarian Association and
+the National Conference such fellowship as they desired became active in
+the Free Religious organization.
+
+The cause of Free Religion was ably presented in the pages of The Radical,
+a monthly journal edited by Sidney H. Morse, and published in Boston, and
+The Index, edited by Francis E. Abbot, at first in Toledo and then in
+Boston. It also found expression at the Sunday afternoon meetings held in
+Horticultural Hall, Boston, for several winters, beginning in 1868-69; in
+the conventions held in several of the leading cities of the northern
+states; at the gatherings of the Chestnut Street Club; and in the annual
+meetings of the Free Religious Association held in Boston during
+anniversary week. Little effort was made to organize churches, and only two
+or three came into existence distinctly on the basis of Free Religion. In
+connection with The Index, Francis E. Abbot organized the Liberal League to
+promote the interests of Free Religion, with about four hundred local
+branches; but this organization proved ineffective, and soon ceased its
+existence.
+
+The withdrawal of the radicals into the Free Religious Association did not
+quiet the agitation in the Unitarian ranks, partly because some of the most
+active workers in that Association continued to occupy Unitarian pulpits,
+and partly because a considerable radical element did not withdraw in any
+manner. The conferences had an unfailing subject for exciting discussion,
+and the Unitarian body was at this time in a chronic condition of
+agitation. As in the days of the controversy about the Trinity, the more
+conservative ministers would not exchange pulpits with the more radical.
+
+[Sidenote: Unsuccessful Attempts at Reconciliation.]
+
+At the second session of the National Conference, held in New York City,
+October 7-9, 1868, another attempt was made to bring about a reconciliation
+between the two wings of the denomination. In an attitude of generous good
+will and with a noble desire for inclusiveness and peace, James Freeman
+Clarke proposed an addition to the constitution of the Conference, in which
+it was declared "that we heartily welcome to that fellowship all who desire
+to work with us in advancing the kingdom of God." Such a broad invitation
+was not acceptable to the majority; and, after an extended debate, this
+amendment was withdrawn, and the following, offered by Edward Everett Hale,
+and essentially the same as that presented by Mr. Clarke, with the
+exception of the phrase just quoted, was adopted:--
+
+  To secure the largest unity of the spirit and the widest practical
+  co-operation, it is hereby understood that all the declarations of this
+  conference, including the preamble and constitution, are expressions
+  only of its majority, and dependent wholly for their effect upon the
+  consent they command on their own merits from the churches here
+  represented or belonging within the circle of our fellowship.
+
+The annual meeting of the Unitarian Association in 1870 was largely
+occupied with the vexing problem of the basis of fellowship; and the
+secretary, Charles Lowe, read a conciliatory and explanatory address. He
+said that the wide differences of theological opinion existing in the
+denomination were "an inevitable consequence of the great principle on
+which Unitarianism rests. That principle is that Christian faith and
+Christian union can coexist with individual liberty."[10] Rev. George H.
+Hepworth, then the minister of the Church of the Messiah in New York, asked
+for an authoritative statement of the Unitarian position, urging this
+demand with great insistence; and he presented a resolution calling for a
+committee of five to prepare "a statement of faith, which shall, as nearly
+as may be, represent the religious opinions of the Unitarian denomination."
+
+While Dr. Bellows had been the leader in securing the adoption of the
+Christian basis for the National Conference, and the insertion into the
+preamble of its constitution of the expression of faith in the Lordship of
+Jesus Christ, he was strongly opposed to any attempt to impose a creed upon
+the denomination, however attenuated it might be. He has been often charged
+with inconsistency, and it is difficult to reconcile his position in 1870
+with that held in 1865. What he attempted to secure, however, was the
+utmost of liberty possible within the limits of Christianity; and, when he
+had committed the Unitarian body to the Christian position, he desired
+nothing more, believing that a creed would be inconsistent with the liberty
+enjoyed by all Unitarians. Without doubt his address at this meeting, in
+opposition to Mr. Hepworth's proposal, made it impossible to secure a vote
+in favor of a creed. "We want to represent a body," he said, "that presents
+itself to the forming hand of the Almighty Spirit of God in a fluid,
+plastic form. We cannot keep our denomination in that state, and yet give
+it the character of being cast into a positive mould. You must either
+abandon that great work you have done, as the only body in Christendom that
+occupies the position of absolute and perfect liberty, with some measure of
+Christian faith, or you must continue to occupy that position and thank God
+for it without hankering after some immediate victories that are so strong
+a temptation to many in our denomination." When the resolution in favor of
+a creed was brought to a vote, it was "defeated by a very large majority."
+By this act the Unitarian body again asserted its Christian position, but
+refused to define or to limit its Christianity.
+
+Notwithstanding the refusal of the Unitarian Association to adopt a creed,
+the attempt to secure one was renewed in the National Conference with as
+much energy as if this were not already a lost cause. At the session held
+in New York, October, 1870, the subject came up for extended consideration,
+several amendments to the constitution were proposed, and, after a
+prolonged discussion, that offered by George H. Hepworth was adopted:--
+
+  Reaffirming our allegiance to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and desiring
+  to secure the largest unity of the spirit and the widest practical
+  co-operation, we invite to our fellowship all who wish to be followers
+  of Christ.
+
+[Sidenote: The Year Book Controversy.]
+
+One result of this controversy was that in 1873 it having come to the
+attention of Rev. O.B. Frothingham, the president of the Free Religious
+Association, that his name was in the list of Unitarian ministers published
+in the Year Book of the Unitarian Association, he expressed surprise that
+it should have been continued there, and asked for its removal. The same
+action was taken by Francis E. Abbot, the editor of The Index, and others
+of the radicals. This action was in part the result of the attitude taken
+by Rev. Thomas J. Mumford, editor of The Christian Register, who in 1872
+insisted that the word "Religious" had no proper place in the name of the
+Free Religious Association, and who invited those Unitarians "who have
+ceased to accept Jesus as pre-eminently their spiritual leader and teacher"
+to withdraw from the Unitarian body.
+
+In November, 1873, Mr. George W. Fox, the assistant secretary of the
+Unitarian Association and the editor of its Year Book, wrote to several of
+the radicals, calling their attention to the action of Mr. Frothingham in
+requesting the removal of his name, and asked if their names remained in
+that publication "with their knowledge and consent." In a subsequent letter
+to William J. Potter, the minister of the Unitarian church in New Bedford
+and the secretary of the Free Religious Association, he explained that "the
+Year Book lists of societies and ministers are simply a directory, prepared
+by the Association for the accommodation of the denomination, and that the
+Association does not undertake to decide the question as to what are or are
+not Unitarian societies or ministers, but merely puts into print facts, in
+the making of which it assumes no responsibility and has no agency."
+
+Mr. Potter expressed his purpose not to ask for the removal of his name,
+but wrote that he did not call himself a Unitarian Christian or by any
+denominational name. The officers of the Association thereupon instructed
+the editor of the Year Book to remove Mr. Potter's name from the list of
+Unitarian ministers published therein. The reason for this action was
+stated in a letter from the editor to Mr. Potter, announcing that his name
+had been removed. The letter said, "While there might be no desire to
+define Christianity in the case of those who claim that they are in any
+sense of the term entitled to be called Christians, for those persons who,
+like yourself, disavow the name, there seems to be no need of raising any
+question as to how broad a range of opinion the name may properly be
+stretched to cover."[11]
+
+There followed a vigorous discussion of the action of the Association in
+dropping Mr. Potter's name, it being recognized that no more thoroughly
+religious man was to be found in the denomination, and that none more truly
+exemplified the Christian spirit, whatever might be his wish as to the use
+of the Christian name. At the sixth session of the National Conference,
+held at Saratoga in September, 1874, the Essex Conference protested against
+the erasure of the name of a church in long and regular fellowship with the
+Unitarian Association from its Year Book; and a resolution offered by Dr.
+Bellows, indorsing the action of the officers of the National Conference in
+inviting the New Bedford church to send delegates, was passed without
+dissent. At the session of the Western Conference held in Chicago during
+1875, resolutions were passed protesting against the removing of the name
+of any person from the accredited list of Unitarian ministers until he
+requested it, had left the denomination, joined some other sect, or been
+adjudged guilty of immorality. As a result of this discussion and of the
+broad sympathies and inclusive spirit of the conference, the following
+platform, in the shape of a resolution, was adopted:--
+
+  That the Western Unitarian Conference conditions its fellowship on no
+  dogmatic tests, but welcomes all thereto who desire to work with it in
+  advancing the kingdom of God.
+
+The attitude of the Unitarian Association and the National Conference--that
+is, of a large majority of Unitarians at this time--may be accurately
+defined in the words of Charles Lowe, who said: "I admit that we make a
+belief in Christianity a test of fellowship. No stretch of liberality will
+make me wish to deny that a belief in Jesus Christ is the absolutely
+essential qualification. But I will oppose, as a test, any definition of
+Christianity, any words about Christ, for Christ himself, as the principles
+of our fellowship and union."[12] These words exactly define what was
+sought for, which was liberty within the limits of Christianity. The
+primary insistence was upon discipleship to Jesus Christ, but it was
+maintained that loyalty to Christ is compatible with the largest degree of
+personal liberty.
+
+Fundamentally, this controversy was a continuation of that which had
+agitated New England from the beginning, that had divided those opposed to
+"the great awakening" of the middle of the eighteenth century from those
+who favored it, that led the Unitarians away from the Orthodox, and that
+now divided radical and conservative Unitarians. The advance was always
+towards a more pronounced assertion of individualism, and a more positive
+rejection of tradition, organization, and external authority. Indeed, it
+was towards this end that Unitarianism had directed its energies from the
+beginning; and the force of this tendency could not be overcome because
+some called for a creed, and more had come to see the need of an efficient
+organization for practical purposes.
+
+What the radicals desired was freedom, and the broadest assertion of
+individuality. It was maintained by Francis E. Abbot that "the spiritual
+ideal of Free Religion is to develop the individuality of the soul in the
+highest, fullest, and most independent manner possible."[13] The other
+distinctive principle of the radicals was that religion is universal, that
+all religions are essentially, the same, and that Christianity is simply
+one of the phases of universal religion. David A. Wasson defined religion
+as "the consciousness of universal relation,"[14] and as "the sense of
+unity with the infinite whole," adding that "morals, reason, freedom, are
+bound up with it."[15] This means, in simple statement, that religion is
+natural to man, and that it needs no authentication by miracle or
+supernatural manifestation. It means that all religions are essentially the
+same in their origin, and that none can claim the special favor of God in
+their manner of presentation to the world. According to this conception of
+religion, as was stated by. William J. Potter, Christianity is
+"provisional, preparatory, educational, containing, alongside of the most
+valuable truth, much that is only human error and bigotry and superstitious
+imagination."[16] "The spiritual ideal of Christianity," said Francis E.
+Abbot, "is the suppression of self and perfect imitation of Jesus the
+Christ. The spiritual ideal of Free Religion is the development of self,
+and the harmonious education of all its powers to the highest possible
+degree."[17]
+
+Through all this controversy what was sought for was a method of
+reconciling fellowship with individuality of opinion, of establishing a
+church in which freedom of faith for the individual shall have full
+recognition. In a word, the Unitarian body had a conviction that tradition
+is compatible with intuition, institutions with personal freedom, and
+co-operation with individual initiative. The problems involved were too
+large for an immediate solution; and what Unitarians accepted was an ideal,
+and not a fact fully realized in their denominational life. The doctrinal
+phases of the controversy have always been subsidiary to this larger
+search, this desire to give to the individual all the liberty that is
+compatible with his co-operation with others. The result of it has been to
+teach the Unitarian body, in the words of Francis E. Abbot at Syracuse, in
+1866, that "the only reconciliation of the duties of collective Christian
+activity and individual freedom of thought lies in an efficient
+organization for practical Christian work, based rather on unity of spirit
+than on uniformity of belief."[18]
+
+[Sidenote: Missionary Activities.]
+
+During this period of controversy, from 1865 to 1880, the Unitarian
+Association had at its head several able men, who were actively interested
+in its work. The president for 1865-66 was Rev. John G. Palfrey; and he was
+succeeded, in 1867, by Hon. Thomas D. Eliot, of New Bedford, who was in
+both houses of the Massachusetts legislature, and then for a number of
+years in the lower house of Congress. From 1870 to 1872 the president was
+Mr. Henry Chapin, of Worcester, an able lawyer and judge, loyally devoted
+to the Sunday-school work of his city and county. He was succeeded by Hon.
+John Wells, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, who was
+deeply interested in the church with which he was connected. In 1876 Mr.
+Henry P. Kidder was elected to this office,--a position he held for ten
+years. He was prominent in the banking interests of Boston, gave much
+attention to the charities of the city, and was an efficient worker in the
+South Congregational Church.
+
+Rev. Charles Lowe, the secretary from 1865 to 1871, wisely directed the
+activities of the Association through the early period of the great
+awakening of the denomination, and kept it from going to pieces on the
+Scylla and Charybdis of creed and radicalism. He was followed at a most
+critical and difficult time by Rev. Rush R. Shippen, who continued to hold
+the office until 1881. The reaction succeeding the great prosperity that
+followed the close of the civil war brought great burdens of debt to many
+individuals, and to cities, states, and the nation. These troubles
+distracted attention from spiritual interests, and joined with various
+other calamities in making this a trying time for churches and religious
+organizations.
+
+The discussions as to the theological position of the denomination
+naturally resulted in more or less of disorganization, and made it
+impossible to secure the unity of effort which is essential to any positive
+missionary growth. In spite of these drawbacks, however, denominational
+interests slowly advanced. During this period the Unitarian Association
+began to receive a considerable increase of its funds from legacies,--a
+result of its enlarged activities, and of the new interest awakened by the
+formation of the National Conference.
+
+A few facts may be mentioned to illustrate the never-failing generosity of
+Unitarian givers when specific needs are presented. In October, 1871,
+occurred the great fire in Chicago and the burning of Unity Church in that
+city, which was aided with $60,000 in rebuilding; while the Third Church
+and All Souls' were helped liberally in passing through this crisis. The
+following year the Boston fire crippled sadly the resources of the
+Association, and instead of the $150,000 asked for only $42,000 were
+received. Yet in 1876 the church in Washington was built, and $30,000 were
+contributed to that purpose by the denomination. In 1879; the denomination
+gave $56,000 to free the Church of the Messiah in New York from debt.
+During this period $100,000 were contributed to the Young Men's Christian
+Union in Boston, $90,000 to the Harvard Divinity School, $20,000 to the
+Prospect Hill School at Greenfield, and $30,000 towards the Channing
+Memorial Church in Newport.
+
+During these trying times the administration of Unitarian affairs in the
+west was in judicious hands, In 1865 Rev. Charles G. Ames began those
+missionary efforts on the Pacific coast that have led on to the
+establishment of a considerable number of churches in that section of the
+country. In central Illinois the devoted labors of Jasper L. Douthit from
+1868 to the present time have produced wide-reaching results in behalf of a
+genuine religion, temperance, good government, and education. In 1868 Rev.
+Carlton A. Staples was made the missionary agent of the Association in the
+west, with headquarters in Chicago, where a book-room was established. He
+was succeeded in 1872 by Rev. Sylvan S. Hunting, who was a tireless worker
+in the western field for many years. In 1874 Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones became
+the missionary of the Wisconsin Conference, and the next year of the
+Western Conference. For ten years Mr. Jones labored in this position with
+enthusiasm for the Unitarian cause in the west.
+
+[Sidenote: College Town Missions.]
+
+In the spring of 1865 the attention of the Unitarian Association was
+directed to the growing University of Michigan; and Rev. Charles H.
+Brigham, then the minister of the church in Taunton, was invited to proceed
+to Ann Arbor, and see what might be accomplished there. Meetings were held
+in the court-house, but in 1866 an old Methodist church was purchased by
+the Association and adapted to the uses of the new society. The
+congregation numbered at first about eighty persons, but gradually
+increased, especially from the attendance of university students. Mr.
+Brigham was asked by the students who listened to him to form a Bible class
+for their instruction, and this increased in numbers until it included from
+two hundred to three hundred persons. On Sunday evenings he delivered
+lectures wherein his wide and varied learning was made subservient to high
+ideals and to a noble interpretation of Christianity. He led many young men
+and women into the liberal faith, and he exercised through them a wide
+influence throughout the west. His gifts as a lecturer were also made
+available at the Meadville Theological School, with which institution he
+was connected for ten years.[19]
+
+The success of Mr. Brigham led to the founding of other college town
+churches, that at Ithaca, the seat of Cornell University, being established
+in 1866. In 1878 such a mission was begun at Madison for the students of
+the University of Wisconsin, and another at Iowa City for the University of
+Iowa. In more recent years college missions have been started at Lawrence,
+Kan.; Lincoln, Neb.; Minneapolis, Minn.; Berkeley, Cal.; Colorado Springs;
+and Amherst, Mass. This has proved to be one of the most effective ways of
+extending Unitarianism as a modern interpretation of Christianity.
+
+[Sidenote: Theatre Preaching.]
+
+Another interest developed by the awakening of 1865 was the popularization
+of Unitarianism by the use of theatres. In January, 1866, was begun in the
+Cooper Institute, New York, a Sunday evening course of lectures by Clarke,
+Bellows, Osgood, Frothingham, Putnam, Chadwick, and Joseph May, which was
+largely attended. Some of the most important doctrinal subjects were
+discussed. A few weeks later a similar course was undertaken in Washington
+with like success. In March, 1867, the Suffolk Conference undertook such a
+series of lectures in the Boston Theatre, which was crowded to its utmost
+capacity. Then followed courses of sermons or lectures in Lawrence, New
+Bedford, Salem, Springfield, Providence, Chicago, and San Francisco, as
+well as in other places. The council of the National Conference, in 1868,
+commended this as an important work that should be encouraged. Rev. Adams
+Ayer was made an agent of the Association to organize such meetings, and
+their success was remarkable for several years. In 1869 Rev. Charles Lowe
+spoke of "that wonderful feature of our recent experience," and urged that
+these meetings should be so organized as to lead to definite results.
+
+An earnest effort was made to organize the theatre congregations into
+unsectarian societies. It was proposed to form Christian unions that should
+work for Christian improvement and usefulness. The first result of this
+effort was the reorganization of the Boston Young Men's Christian Union in
+the spring of 1868. A similar institution was formed in Providence, to
+promote worship, education, hospitality and benevolence. Unions were also
+formed in, Salem, Lowell, Cambridge, New Bedford, New York, and elsewhere.
+
+[Sidenote: Organization of Local Conferences.]
+
+In the autumn of 1865, in order to facilitate the collection of money for
+the Unitarian Association, a number of local conferences were held in
+Massachusetts. The first of these met at Somerville, November 14, and was
+primarily a meeting of the Cambridge Association of Ministers, including
+all the lay delegates to the New York convention from the churches which
+that association represented. The result of this meeting was an increase of
+contributions to the Unitarian Association, and the determination to
+organize permanently to facilitate that work. Dr. E.E. Hale has stated that
+the initial suggestion of these meetings came from a conversation between
+Dr. Bellows and Dr. E.H. Sears, in which the latter said "that a very
+important element in any effort which should reveal the Unitarian church to
+itself would be some plan by which neighboring churches would be brought
+together more familiarly."[20]
+
+The local conferences had distinct antecedents, however, by which their
+character was doubtless in some degree determined. The early county and
+other local auxiliaries to the Unitarian Association begun in 1826 and
+continued for at least twenty years, which were general throughout New
+England, afforded a precedent; but a more immediate initiative had been
+taken in New Hampshire, where the New Hampshire Unitarian Association had
+been organized at Manchester, February 25, 1863. It does not appear that
+this organization was in any way a revival of the former society of the
+same name in that state, which was organized at Concord in 1832, and which
+was very active for a brief period. A Unitarian Church Association of Maine
+was organized at Portland, September 21, 1852, largely under the influence
+of Rev. Sylvester Judd, of Augusta; but it had only a brief existence. The
+Maine Conference of Unitarian Churches was organized at Farmington, July 8,
+1863.[21] These organizations antedated the movement for the formation of
+local conferences on the part of the National Conference; and they
+doubtless gave motive and impetus to that effort.
+
+On November 30, 1865, a meeting similar to that at Somerville was held by
+the Franklin Evangelical Association[22] at Springfield, and with similar
+results. Other meetings were held at Lowell, Dedham, Quincy, Salem,
+Taunton, Worcester, and Boston. The attendance at all these meetings was
+large, they developed an enthusiastic interest, and pledges were promptly
+made looking to larger contributions to the Unitarian Association.
+
+At the Syracuse meeting of the National Conference, in 1866, Dr. Bellows
+reported for the council in favor of local organizations, auxiliary to the
+national body. "No great national convention of any kind succeeds," it was
+declared, "which is not the concurrence of many local conventions, each of
+which has duties of detail and special spheres of influence upon whose
+co-operation the final and grand success of the whole depends." A series of
+resolutions, calling for the formation of local conferences, "to meet at
+fixed periods, at convenient points, for the organization of missionary
+work," was presented by Dr. E.E. Hale. In order to carry into effect the
+intent of these resolutions, Charles Lowe devised a plan of organization,
+which declared that the object of the local conference "shall be to promote
+the religious life and mutual sympathy of the churches which unite in it,
+and to enable them to co-operate in missionary work, and in raising funds
+for various Christian purposes." The work of organizing such local
+missionary bodies was taken up at once, and proceeded rapidly. The first
+one was organized at Sheboygan, Wis., October 24, 1866; and nearly all the
+churches were brought within the limits of such conferences during the next
+two years.[23]
+
+In the local conferences, as in the National Conference, two purposes
+contended for expression that were not compatible with each other as
+practical incentives to action. The one looked to the uniting of all
+liberal individuals and denominations in a general organization, and the
+other aimed at the promotion of distinctly Unitarian interests. In the
+National Conference the denominational purpose controlled in shaping its
+permanent policy; but the other intent found expression in the addition of
+"Other Christian Churches" to the name, though in only the most limited way
+did such churches connect themselves with the Conference.[24] The local
+conferences made like provision for those not wishing to call themselves
+distinctly Unitarian. Such desire for co-operation, however, was in a large
+degree ineffective because of the fact that the primary aim in the calling
+into existence of such conferences was an increase in the funds of the
+Unitarian Association.
+
+[Sidenote: Fellowship and Fraternity.]
+
+Under the leadership of the National Conference the Unitarian body
+underwent material changes in its internal organization and in its
+relations to other denominations. Not only did it bring the churches to act
+together in the local conferences and in its own sessions, but it taught
+then to co-operate for the protection of their pulpits against adventurers
+and immoral men. Before it was organized, the excessive spirit of
+independency in the churches would permit of no exercise of control as to
+their selection of ministers to fill their pulpits. At the fourth session
+of the National Conference, held in New York in October, 1870, the council,
+through Dr. Bellows, suggested that the local conferences refuse to
+acknowledge as ministers men of proven vices and immoralities. To carry out
+the spirit of this suggestion, Dr. Hale presented a resolution, which was
+adopted, asking the local conferences to appoint committees of fellowship
+to examine and to act upon candidates for the ministry. In October, 1870,
+the New York and Hudson River Conference created such a committee "to
+examine the testimonials of such as desire to become members of the
+conference and enter the Unitarian ministry."
+
+The seventh session of the National Conference, held at Saratoga in 1876,
+provided for the appointment of a committee of fellowship, and the list of
+names of those appointed to its membership appears in the printed report;
+but there is no record that the committee ever organized. In 1878 the
+council reported at considerable length on the desirableness of
+establishing such a committee; and, again, a committee of fellowship was
+appointed "to take into immediate consideration the subject of the
+introduction into the Unitarian ministry of those persons who seek an
+entrance into that ministry from other churches." This committee consisted
+of twelve persons, three each for the eastern, middle, western, and Pacific
+states.
+
+At the session of 1880 the council of the Conference stated that it had
+created a substitute for the old ecclesiastical council, that was called
+together from the neighboring ministers and churches whenever a minister
+was to be inducted into office. That method was costly and had dropped into
+desuetude; but the new method of a committee of fellowship saved true
+Congregational methods and freed the churches from unworthy men. At this
+session the committee reported that it had adopted a uniform plan of
+action; but a resolution was passed recommending that each local conference
+establish its own committee of fellowship. Having once been instituted,
+however, the committee of the National Conference came slowly to be
+recognized as the fit means of introducing ministers into the Unitarian
+fellowship. Its authority has proven beneficent, and in no sense
+autocratic. It has shown that churches may co-operate in this way without
+intruding upon each others' rights, and that such a safeguarding of the
+pulpits of the denomination is essential to their dignity and morality. In
+1896 the Minnesota Conference went one step further, and provided for a
+committee of fellowship with power to exclude for "conduct unbecoming a
+minister."
+
+[Sidenote: Results of the Denominational Awakening.]
+
+The most marked feature in the history of Unitarianism in this country
+during the period from 1865 to 1880 was the organization of the National
+Conference as the legislative body of the denomination, and the adjustment
+to it of the American Unitarian Association as its executive instrument.
+Attendant upon this organizing movement was the termination of the
+theological discussion that had begun twenty years earlier between the
+conservatives and radicals, the supernaturalists and the idealists, or
+transcendentalists. In 1865 the large majority of Unitarians were
+conservatives and supernaturalists, but in 1880 a marked change in belief
+had come about, that had apparently given the victory to the more moderate
+of the radicals. The majority of Unitarians would no longer assert that
+miracles are necessary to faith in Christ and the acceptance of his
+teachings as worthy of credence.
+
+The change that came about during these years was largely due to the
+leadership of Henry W. Bellows. What he did was to keep actively alive in
+the Unitarian body its recognition of its Christian heritage, while at the
+same time he boldly refused assent to its being committed to any definite
+creed. He insisted upon the right of Unitarians to the Christian name, and
+to all that Christianity means as a vital spiritual force; but at the same
+time he refused to accept any limits for the Christian tradition and
+heritage, and left them free for growth. Sometimes apparently reactionary
+and conservative, he was at other times boldly radical and progressive. The
+cause of this seeming inconsistency was to be found in those gifts of
+imagination and emotion that made him a great preacher; but the
+inconsistency was more apparent than real, for in his leadership he
+manifested a wisdom and a capacity for directing the efforts of others that
+has never been surpassed in the history of religion and philanthropy in
+this country. He was both conservative and radical, supernaturalist and
+transcendentalist, a believer in miracles with a confident trust in the
+functions of reason. He saw both before and after, knew the worth of the
+past, and recognized that all the roots of our religious life are found
+therein, and yet courageously faced the future and its power to transform
+our faith by the aid of philosophy and science. Consequently, his
+sympathies were large, generous, and inclusive. Sometimes autocratic in
+word and action, his motives were catholic, and his intentions broad and
+appreciative. He gave direction to the newer Unitarianism in its efforts to
+organize and perpetuate itself. Had it been more flexible to his organizing
+skill, it would have grown more rapidly; but, with all its individualism
+and dislike of proselyting, it has more than doubled in strength since
+1865. He showed the Unitarian body that freedom is consistent with
+organized effort, and that personal liberty is no more essential than
+co-ordinated action. He may be justly described as the real organizer of
+the Unitarian body in this country.
+
+[1] Henry W. Bellows, in Monthly Journal, iv. 336: "These two years of
+    war have witnessed a more rapid progress in liberal opinions than the
+    whole previous century. The public mind has opened itself as it has
+    never been open before." In vi. 3, he said: "There are great and
+    striking changes going on. Men are breaking away from old opinions,
+    and there is a great work for us to do." This was said in December,
+    1864. William G. Eliot, Monthly Journal, iv. 349: "The war has proved
+    that our Unitarian faith works well in time of trial. No other church
+    has been so uniformly and thoroughly loyal, and no other church has
+    done more for the sick and dying." Many other similar words could be
+    quoted.
+
+[2] James Freeman Clarke reported for this committee at the Syracuse
+    session of 1866, and stated that its members had conferred with
+    Christians, Universalists, Methodists, Congregationalists, and
+    others. The committee made several suggestions as to what could be
+    done to promote general fellowship, and recommended that the title of
+    the National Conference be so changed as to permit persons of other
+    religions bodies to find a place within it, if they so desired. The
+    committee was reappointed; and at the third session of the Conference
+    it reported that it had visited the annual gatherings of the
+    Universalists, Methodists, and Free Religionists, and had been
+    cordially welcomed. They were received into the pulpits of different
+    denominations, they found everywhere a cordial spirit of fellowship
+    and a breaking down of sectarian barriers. At this session the
+    Conference expressed its desire "to cultivate the most friendly
+    relations with, and to encourage fraternal intercourse between, the
+    various liberal Christian bodies in this country." A committee of
+    three was appointed "to represent our fraternal sentiments and to
+    consider all questions which relate to mutual intercourse and
+    co-operation."
+
+    This committee reported through Edward E. Hale that it had been well
+    received at two Methodist conferences and at several state
+    conventions of the Universalists. Especially had it been welcomed by
+    the African Methodist Church, which was the beginning of cordial
+    relations between the two bodies for several years. The committee
+    reported, however, that "there are but few regularly organized bodies
+    in this country which, in their formal action, express much desire
+    for intercourse or co-operation with us as an organized branch of the
+    church." A resolution offered by the committee, expressing the desire
+    of the National Conference "to cultivate the most friendly relations
+    with all Christian churches and to encourage fraternal intercourse
+    between them," was adopted. The members of the committee appointed in
+    1870 attended the session of the American Board of Foreign Missions
+    in 1871; and they were received with courtesy, Athanase Coquerel
+    addressing the board as their representative. The committee reported
+    that "in every direction, from clergymen and laymen of different
+    Protestant churches, we have received informal expressions of what we
+    believe to be a very general desire that there might be a more formal
+    and public expression of the fellowship which undoubtedly really
+    exists between the different Protestant communions."
+
+    At the session of the National Conference held in 1874 the council
+    suggested the propriety of preparing a register of the free or
+    liberal churches of the world, and it enumerated the various bodies
+    that might be properly included; but no action was taken on this
+    recommendation. At this session an amendment to the by-laws, offered
+    by Dr. Hale, was adopted, providing for a fellowship committee with
+    other churches. This committee was not appointed, and the amendment
+    was not printed in its proper place in the report. Apparently, the
+    interest in efforts of this kind had exhausted itself, partly because
+    any active co-operation with the more conservative churches was
+    impossible, and partly because the growth of denominational feeling
+    directed the energies of the National Conference into other channels.
+
+[3] The sessions of the National Conference have been held as follows: 1,
+    New York, April 5-6, 1865; 2, Syracuse, October 10-11, 1866; 3, New
+    York, October 7-9, 1868; 4, New York, October 19-21, 1870; 5. Boston,
+    October 22-25, 1872; 6, Saratoga, September 15-18, 1874; 7, Saratoga,
+    September 12-15, 1876; 8, Saratoga, September 17-20, 1878; 9,
+    Saratoga, September 21-24, 1880; 10, Saratoga, September 18-22, 1882;
+    11, Saratoga, September 22-26, 1884; 12, Saratoga, September 20-24,
+    1886; 13, Philadelphia, October 28-31, 1889; 14, Saratoga, September
+    21-25, 1891; 15, Saratoga, September 24-27, 1894; 16, Washington,
+    October 21-24, 1895; 17, Saratoga, September 20-23, 1897; 18,
+    Washington, October 16-19 1899; 19, Saratoga, September 23, 1901. A
+    meeting was held in Chicago, in 1893, in connection with the
+    Parliament of Religions. The presidents of the National Conference
+    have been Hon. John A. Andrew, who served in 1866; Hon. Thomas D.
+    Eliot, whose term of service lasted to 1869; Judge Ebenezer R. Hoar,
+    from 1869 to 1878, and again from 1882 to 1884; Hon. John D. Long,
+    from 1878 to 1882; Judge Samuel F. Miller, 1884 to 1891; Mr. George
+    William Curtis, 1891 to 1894; and Hon. George F. Hoar, 1894 to 1901.
+    Hon. Carroll D. Wright was elected to the office in 1901. The
+    secretaries have been Rev. Edward Everett Hale, Rev. George
+    Batchelor, Rev. Russell N. Bellows, Rev. William H. Lyon, and Rev.
+    Daniel W. Morehouse. The first chairman of the council was Rev. Henry
+    W. Bellows, D.D., who served to 1872, and again from 1876 to 1878;
+    Professor Charles Carroll Everett, D.D., from 1874 to 1876; Rev.
+    Edward Everett Hale, D.D., from 1880 to 1882, and from 1891 to 1894;
+    Rev. James De Normandie, D.D., from 1884 to 1889; Rev. Brooke
+    Herford, D.D., from 1889 to 1891; Rev. George Batchelor, from 1894 to
+    1895; Rev. Minot J. Savage, D.D., from 1895 to 1899; and Rev. Howard
+    N. Brown, from the later year to 1901, when Rev. Thomas R. Slicer was
+    elected.
+
+[4] A.A. Low, a member of the first Unitarian congregation in Brooklyn,
+    N.Y.
+
+[5] Lecture delivered in Cooper Institute, New York, on Unitarian Views
+    of Christ, published in The Christian Examiner, November, 1866, xxxi,
+    310.
+
+[6] Works, iv. 110.
+
+[7] The Christian Examiner, March-April, 1826, iii. 136.
+
+[8] First Series of Tracts of A.U.A. No. 87.
+
+[9] First Series of A.U.A. Tracts, No. 105, April, 1836.
+
+[10] Forty-fifth Annual Report of the American Unitarian Association, 11,
+     14.
+
+[11] This correspondence was published in full in The Christian Register
+     for December 13 and 20, 1873, Mr. Potter's letter protesting against
+     the action of the Association being printed on the later date.
+
+[12] Memoir of Charles Lowe, 454, 458.
+
+[13] Freedom and Fellowship in Religion, 261.
+
+[14] Freedom and Fellowship in Religion, 24.
+
+[15] Ibid., 42.
+
+[16] Ibid., 216.
+
+[17] Fifty Affirmations, 47.
+
+[18] Report of the Second Meeting of the National Conference, 20.
+
+[19] Memoir of Charles H. Brigham, with Sermons and Lectures.
+
+[20] Christian Register. March 15, 1900, lxxxix. 300; Twenty-fifth
+     Anniversary of the Worcester Conference, 7, address by Dr. Hale. See
+     Memoir of Charles Lowe, 372.
+
+[21] Church Exchange, May, 1899, vi. 59.
+
+[22] This association of ministers was organized August 17, 1819, and was
+     orthodox, but found itself Unitarian when the denominational change
+     took place.
+
+[23] See Appendix for a complete list of the local conferences and the
+     dates of their organization.
+
+[24] In a small number of instances such churches did join the Conference,
+     but the number was too small to be in any degree significant.
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+
+GROWTH OF DENOMINATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS.
+
+The period from 1880 to the present time is marked by a growing
+denominational unity. Gradually Unitarians have come to the acceptance of
+their fellowship as a religious body, and to a recognition of their
+distinct mission. The controversy between the conservatives and the
+radicals was transferred to the west in 1886, and continued to have at its
+basis the problem of the relation of the individual to religious
+institutions and traditions. The conservative party maintained that
+Unitarians are Christians, and gave recognition to that continuity of human
+development by which every generation is connected with and draws its life
+from those which precede it, and is consciously dependent upon them. On the
+other hand, the radical party was not willing to accept traditions and
+institutions as having a binding authority over individuals. Some of them
+were reluctant to call themselves Christians, not because they rejected the
+more important of the Christian beliefs, but because they were not willing
+to bind any individual by the action of his fellows. It was their claim
+that religion best serves its own ends when it is free to act upon the
+individual without compulsion of any kind from others, and that its
+attractions should be without any bias of external authority.
+
+[Sidenote: "The Western Issue."]
+
+At the meeting of the Western Conference held in Cleveland in 1882,
+arrangements were made looking to its incorporation, and its object was
+defined to be "the transaction of business pertaining to the general
+interests of the societies connected with the Conference, and the promotion
+of rational religion." It was voted that the motto on the conference seal
+should be "Freedom, Fellowship, and Character in Religion," which was the
+same as that of the Free Religious Association, with the addition of the
+word "character." These results were reached after much discussion, and by
+the way of compromise. The issues thus raised were brought forward again at
+St. Louis, in 1885, when Rev. J.T. Sunderland, the secretary and missionary
+of the conference, deplored the growing spirit of agnosticism and
+scepticism in the Unitarian churches of the west. His report caused a
+division of opinion in the conference; and in the controversy that ensued
+the conservatives were represented by The Unitarian, edited by Rev. Brooke
+Herford and Rev. J.T. Sunderland, and the radicals by Unity, edited by Rev.
+J.Ll. Jones and Rev. W.C. Gannett.
+
+At the Western Conference meeting of 1886, held in Cincinnati, the
+controversy found full expression. The session was preceded a few days
+before by the publication of a pamphlet on The Western Issue from the pen
+of Mr. Sunderland, in which he contended for the theistic and Christian
+character of the conference. A resolution offered by Rev. Oscar Clute,
+"that the primary object of this Conference is to diffuse the knowledge and
+promote the interests of pure Christianity," was rejected by a considerable
+majority. Another, offered by Mr. Sunderland--"that, while rejecting all
+creeds and creed limitations, the Conference hereby expresses its purpose
+as a body to be the promotion of a religion of love to God and love to
+man"--was also rejected. That presented by William C. Gannett was carried
+by a majority of thirty-four to ten, and declared that
+
+  the Western Unitarian Conference conditions its fellowship on no
+  dogmatic tests, but welcomes all who wish to join it to establish
+  truth, righteousness, and love in the world.
+
+The result was a pronounced division between the two parties within the
+conference; and a considerable number of churches, including some of the
+oldest and strongest, withdrew from co-operation in the work of the
+Conference. At the session of 1887, held in All Souls' Church, Chicago, an
+effort was made to bring about a reconciliation; but this was not
+completely secured.[1] A resolution was carried, however, by a majority
+of fifty-nine to three, reaffirming Mr. Gannett's, declaration adopted at
+Cincinnati, but also accepting a statement in regard to fellowship and
+doctrines, which was called The Things Most Commonly Believed To-day among
+Us, and read as follows:--
+
+  In all matters of church government we are strict Congregationalists.
+  We have no creed in the usual sense; that is, articles of doctrinal
+  belief which bind our churches and fix the conditions of our
+  fellowship. Character has always been to us the supreme matter. We have
+  doctrinal beliefs, and for the most part hold such beliefs in common;
+  but above all doctrines we emphasize the principles of freedom,
+  fellowship, and character in religion. These principles make our
+  all-sufficient test of fellowship. All names that divide religion are
+  to us of little consequence compared with religion itself. Whoever
+  loves truth and loves the good is, in a broad sense, of our religious
+  fellowship; whoever loves the one or lives the other better than
+  ourselves is our teacher, whatever church or age he may belong to. So
+  our church is wide, our teachers many, and our holy writings large.
+
+  With a few exceptions we may be called Christian Theists: Theists as
+  worshipping the One-in-All, and naming that One, God our Father;
+  Christian, because revering Jesus as the highest of the historic
+  prophets of religion; these names, as names, receiving more stress in
+  our older than in our younger churches. The general faith is hinted
+  well in words which several of our churches have adopted for their
+  covenant: "In the freedom of the truth, and in the spirit of Jesus
+  Christ, we unite for the worship of God and the service of man." It is
+  hinted in such words as these: "Unitarianism is a religion of love to
+  God and love to man." "It is that free and progressive development of
+  historic Christianity which aspires to be synonymous with universal
+  ethics and universal religion." But because we have no creed which we
+  impose as test of fellowship, specific statements of belief abound
+  among us, always somewhat differing, always largely agreeing. One such
+  we offer here:--
+
+    We believe that to love the Good and live the Good is the supreme
+    thing in religion. We hold reason and conscience to be final
+    authorities in matters of religious belief. We honor the Bible and
+    all inspiring scriptures, old and new. We revere Jesus and all holy
+    souls that have taught men truth and righteousness and love, as
+    prophets of religion. We believe in the growing nobility of man. We
+    trust the unfolding universe as beautiful, beneficent, unchanging
+    Order; to know this order is truth; to obey it is right and liberty
+    and stronger life. We believe that good and evil inevitably carry
+    their own recompense, no good things being failure, and no evil
+    things success; that heaven and hell are states of being; that no
+    evil can befall the good man in either life or death; that all
+    things work together for the victory of Good. We believe that we
+    ought to join hands and work to make the good things better and the
+    worst good, counting nothing good for self that is not good for
+    all. We believe that this self-forgetting, loyal life awakes in man
+    the sense of union, here and now, with things eternal--the sense of
+    deathlessness; and this is to us an earnest of the life to come. We
+    worship One-in-All,--that Life whence suns and stars derive their
+    orbits and the soul of man its Ought,--that Light which lighteth
+    every man that cometh into the world, giving us power to become the
+    sons of God,--that Love with whom our souls commune. This One we
+    name the Eternal God, our Father.
+
+This action not satisfying the remonstrants, the controversy went on with
+considerable vigor for three or four years. Both parties to it were
+characteristically Unitarian in their attitude and in their demands. Both
+sought the truth with an attempt at unbiassed judgment; and neither wished
+to disfellowship the other, or to put any restrictions upon its expression
+of its opinions. Much heat was engendered by the controversy, but light was
+desire by both parties with sincere purpose. The conflict was finally
+brought to an end by the action of the National Conference at its session
+of 1894, held at Saratoga, though this result had been practically reached
+in 1892. A committee on the revision of the constitution had been appointed
+by the council of the session of 1891; and this committee reported the
+following preamble, which was unanimously adopted as a substitute for the
+preamble of 1865 and 1868:--
+
+  The Conference of Unitarian and other Christian Churches was formed in
+  the year 1865, with the purpose of strengthening the churches and
+  societies which should unite in it for more and better work for the
+  kingdom of God. These churches accept the religion of Jesus, holding,
+  in accordance with his teaching, that practical religion is summed up
+  in love to God and love to man. The Conference recognizes the fact that
+  its constituency is Congregational in tradition and polity. Therefore,
+  it declares that nothing in this constitution is to be construed as an
+  authoritative test; and we cordially invite to our working fellowship
+  any who, while differing from us in belief, are in general sympathy
+  with our spirit and our practical aims.
+
+This preamble to the new constitution proved to be so far acceptable to
+both parties in the Western Conference, as well as to their sympathizers
+elsewhere, that harmony was restored throughout the denomination. While the
+Unitarian body thus retained its use of the Christian name and its
+insistence upon loyalty to the teachings of Jesus, yet it put aside every
+form of dogmatic test and of creedal statement. Its fellowship was made
+very broad in its character, and all were invited to join it who so
+desired.
+
+[Sidenote: Fellowship with Universalists.]
+
+At the annual meeting of the Unitarian Association in 1899 resolutions were
+passed looking to joint action between Unitarians and Universalists with
+reference to furthering their common interests. A committee was appointed
+to confer with a similar committee of the Universalist General Convention
+for the purpose of considering "plans of closer co-operation, devise ways
+and means for more efficient usefulness." In October this proposal was
+accepted by the General Convention, and a committee appointed. At the
+annual meeting of the Unitarian Association in 1900 the report of the
+joint committee was presented, in which it was declared that "closer
+co-operation is desirable and practicable"; but the committee expressed the
+wish to go on record "as not desiring nor expecting to disturb in any way
+the separate organic autonomy of the two denominations. We seek
+co-operation, not consolidation, unity, non union." The committee
+recommended that it be given authority to consider the cases in which the
+two denominations are jointly interested, such as opportunities of
+instituting churches or missions in new fields, the circulation of tracts
+and books, the holding of joint meetings of ministers and churches, or
+other efforts to promote intellectual agreements and deep faiths of the
+heart, and to recommend the appropriate action to the proper organizations.
+At the next sessions of the Unitarian Association and of the Universalist
+General Convention these recommendations were accepted, and permanent
+members of the joint committee were appointed. This committee has entered
+upon its duties, and important results may be anticipated in the promotion
+of harmony and co-operation.
+
+[Sidenote: Officers of the American Unitarian Association.]
+
+Mr. Henry P. Kidder continued as the president of the Unitarian Association
+until the annual meeting of 1886. He was then succeeded by Hon. George D.
+Robinson, who held the office for only one year. He had been in both houses
+of the Massachusetts legislature, in the national House from 1877 to 1883,
+and was governor of Massachusetts from 1884 to 1886. His successor was Hon.
+George S. Hale, from 1887 to 1895, who was a distinguished lawyer, and was
+greatly interested in charities and reforms. Hon. John D. Long was the
+president from 1895 to 1897. He had been in the lower house of the
+Massachusetts legislature, was lieutenant governor in 1879, governor in
+1880-82, in the national House from 1883 to 1889, and from 1897 to 1902 was
+Secretary of the Navy. Hon. Carroll D. Wright held the office from 1897 to
+1900. He was in the Massachusetts Senate in 1871 and 1872, was chief of the
+Massachusetts bureau of statistics from 1873 to 1888, superintendent of the
+United States census in 1880, has been commissioner of the national Bureau
+of Labor since 1885, and in 1902 became president of Clark College at
+Worcester. At the annual meeting of 1900 it was thought best to make a
+change in the nature of the presidency, in order that the head of the
+Association might become its chief executive officer. In that way it was
+sought to add dignity and efficiency to the position of the executive
+officer, as well as to meet the greatly increased work of the Association
+by this addition to its salaried force. The secretary, Rev. Samuel A.
+Eliot, was elected to the presidency.
+
+In 1881 Rev. Grindall Reynolds became the secretary of the Association. He
+had previously held pastorates in Jamaica Plain and Concord. He had rare
+executive abilities, was gifted with sound common sense and a judicial
+temper; and he had a most efficient business capacity. Under his leadership
+the growth of the Unitarian denomination was more rapid than it had been at
+any earlier period; and this was largely due to his zeal, energy, and
+wisdom.
+
+In December, 1894, Rev. George Batchelor became the secretary, and he
+continued in office until November, 1897, when he became the editor of The
+Christian Register. He had previously held pastorates in Salem, Chicago,
+and Lowell. He was succeeded, January 1, 1898, by Rev. Samuel A. Eliot, who
+had been settled over churches in Denver and Brooklyn, and who became the
+president of the Association in 1900. Rev. Charles E. St. John, who had
+been settled in Northampton and Pittsburg, became the secretary at the
+annual meeting of 1900.
+
+[Sidenote: The American Unitarian Association as a Representative Body.]
+
+In the report of the council of the National Conference at the session of
+1880, Dr. Bellows pointed out the fact that the American Unitarian
+Association was "not a union of churches, but an association of individuals
+belonging to Unitarian churches, who became members of it and entitled to
+vote by signing its constitution and the annual payment of one dollar. This
+Association never had, and has not now, any explicit relation to our
+churches as churches, but only to such individuals as choose to become
+voluntary subscribers to its funds, and members by signing its
+constitution, and to such churches as choose to employ its services."
+
+This statement led to the appointment of a committee "to consider how the
+National Conference and the American Unitarian Association can more
+effectually co-operate without sacrifice of the advantages belonging to
+either." The committee reported in 1882 in favor of so changing the charter
+of the Association that a church might become a member. At the annual
+meeting of the Association in 1884, after a prolonged discussion, its
+by-laws were so amended that, while the life membership was retained, the
+sum creating it was raised from $30 to $50; and churches were given
+representation on the condition of regular yearly contributions to its
+treasury, two of such contributions being necessary to establish a church
+in this right. Since that time the delegates from churches have
+considerably outnumbered the life members voting at the annual meetings.
+This has practically given the churches the controlling voice in the
+activities of the Association.
+
+The giving a representative character to the Association had the effect of
+increasing the contributions made to its support by the churches. Under the
+leadership of Dr. Bellows, at the National Conference in 1884, there began
+a movement looking to the establishment of a conference in every state and
+the employment of a missionary by every such conference. This plan has not
+yet been fully carried out; but in 1885 and the following years missionary
+superintendents were appointed by the Association for five general sections
+of the country, and, with some variations, this, system has continued in
+operation to the present time.[2]
+
+[Sidenote: The Church Building Loan Fund.]
+
+The work of building churches was greatly facilitated by the establishment,
+in 1884, of a Church Building Loan Fund. The proposition to create such a
+fund was first brought forward by the finance committee at a meeting of the
+directors of the Unitarian Association on February 11, 1884. At the March
+meeting a committee was appointed to mature plans; and at the meeting of
+the National Conference in September, held at Saratoga, a resolution was
+passed asking the Association to set apart $25,000 for this purpose, and
+pledging the Conference to add $20,000 to this sum. At the November meeting
+of the directors of the Association the organization of the fund was
+completed, a board of trustees was created, and the sum of $43,000 was
+reported as secured. The fund was steadily increased by contributions from
+the churches and by gifts and legacies until in 1900 it amounted to
+$142,820.92. Up to May, 1900, an aggregate sum of $294,310 had been
+disbursed, in one hundred loans to ninety societies, chiefly to aid in the
+erection of new church edifices.[3]
+
+[Sidenote: The Unitarian Building in Boston.]
+
+For several years after the organization of the American Unitarian
+Association the records give no indication of the place of meeting of the
+directors. During the latter part of 1825, and in 1826, David Reed was the
+general agent of the Association; and his place of business was at 81
+Washington Street. It is probable that the directors met at the study of
+the secretary or at the place of business of the agent. In December, 1826,
+the firm of Bowles & Dearborn, booksellers, became the agents, their store
+being first at 72 and then at 50 Washington Street. Here all Unitarian
+publications were kept on sale, the name of "general repositary" being
+given to their stock of books, tracts, periodicals, and other publications
+of a liberal character. In 1829 the agent was Leonard C. Bowles, evidently
+a continuation of Bowles & Dearborn.
+
+In 1830 the depositary was removed to 135 Washington Street, and was under
+the management of the firm of Gray & Bowen, who were paid $144.44 for their
+services. In 1831 the place of business of this firm was 141 Washington
+Street; and the sum it received from the Association was $200, which was
+the next year increased to $300. Leonard C. Bowles, located at 147
+Washington Street, again became the agent in 1836. In 1837 James Munroe &
+Co. appear as the publishers of the annual report, but they are not
+mentioned as agents or as having charge of the repositary. The sum of $150
+was paid in that year for the rent of a room for the general secretary,
+Rev. Charles Briggs; and the location of the room is probably indicated by
+the record that in 1838 Munroe & Co. were paid $133.34 for rent of room and
+clerk hire, their store being at 134 Washington Street. Here the
+headquarters of the Association were at last established, for they
+continued in this place until 1846. In 1839 the rental paid was $300, and
+for the six succeeding years it was $200. Surely, these were the days of
+small things; but here the Association carried on such activities as it had
+in hand, and the Unitarian ministers met for conversation and consultation.
+
+In 1846 Crosby, Nichols & Co. became the agents of the Association, first
+at 118 and then at 111 Washington Street. This firm brought out several
+Unitarian books, and issued The Christian Examiner and other Unitarian
+periodicals. For a number of years they were intimately associated with
+Unitarian interests, and the theological and literary traditions of the
+time connect them with many of the leading men and movements of Boston. In
+the rear of their store the Association had its office, its meeting-place
+for the directors and other officers, as well as for the Monday gatherings
+of ministers.
+
+After these many wanderings from the rear of one bookstore to another the
+Association at last secured an abode of its own. On March 9, 1854, rooms
+for the use of the Association were opened at 21 Bromfield Street. On this
+occasion a small company came together, and listened to an address by Dr.
+Samuel K. Lothrop, the president of the Association. Another change was
+made in October, 1859, when Walker, Wise & Co. undertook the book-selling,
+and publishing work of the Association at 21 Bromfield Street.
+
+In the year 1865 there came to the Association an opportunity for securing
+a building of its own. The sum of $16,000 was paid for a house at 26
+Chauncy Street, which was occupied in the spring of 1866. The enlarged
+activities of the Association at this time here found the housing they
+needed. Affiliated organizations also found a home in this building,
+especially the Sunday School Society, the Christian Register Association,
+and The Monthly Religious Magazine.
+
+The theatre meetings, begun in Boston in 1866, having suggested the need of
+a larger denominational building, The Monthly Journal of November, 1867,
+proposed the erection of a building with a spacious hall for these great
+popular meetings, smaller rooms for social gatherings, offices for the
+Association and other affiliated societies, and an attractive bookstore.
+"In short, we would have it comprise all that might properly belong to a
+denominational headquarters or home. We would have it in a convenient and
+conspicuous situation, and every way worthy of our position." This dream of
+Mr. Lowe's he brought forward again in his annual report of 1870, when he
+said: "The building now occupied by the Association has become wholly
+inadequate to its uses; and steps were taken more than a year ago by its
+friends in Boston towards providing more suitable accommodations, and at
+the same time providing in connection with it for such other uses as might
+make the building to be erected worthy to be the headquarters of the
+denomination in the city which gave it birth." Mr. Shippen called attention
+to the needs of the Association in his report of 1872, saying that the
+project of a large hall had been abandoned, but that there was urgent
+demand for a building suited to the business and social needs of the
+denomination in Boston.
+
+The great fire of November, 1872, brought this project to a sudden
+termination. The Chauncy Street building was for many hours in danger of
+being burned, out it was finally saved. Its market value was much increased
+by the fire, however; and in February, 1873, it was sold for $37,000.
+Purchase was soon made, at a cost of $30,000, of the estate at 7 Tremont
+Place, belonging to Hon. Albert Fearing, who had been active in the work of
+the Association and prominent in the Unitarian circles of Boston. This
+building, entered by the Association in May, 1873, was somewhat larger than
+its predecessor and in some respects better suited to the needs of the
+Association; yet the secretary, at the annual meeting held in the same
+month, called for the more convenient building, which should serve "as a
+worthy centre in this city for the various charitable and missionary
+activities of our faith."[4]
+
+In his report of 1880 Mr. Shippen again presented his demand for a suitable
+home for the Association and its kindred organizations. This appeal was
+renewed in the following year by Mr. Reynolds, who urged "the need of a
+denominational house in Boston, which should be commodious, accessible,
+easily found, and where all our charities and all our works should find a
+home." "Very fitting it is," he added, "that such a house should be named
+after him who, by his personal influence in life and by the power of his
+written word after his death, has been the mightiest single force for the
+diffusion of rational Christianity."
+
+In January, 1882, the Unitarian Club of Boston was organized; and it soon
+after took up the task of erecting the desired building. The initiative was
+taken at a meeting of the club held December 13, 1882, when Mr. Henry P.
+Kidder offered to head a subscription for this purpose with the sum of
+$10,000. The proposal was received with much enthusiasm, and a committee
+was appointed, consisting of Henry P. Kidder, Charles Faulkner, Charles W.
+Eliot, William Endicott, Jr., Francis H. Brown, M.D., Dr. John Cordner,
+Arthur T. Lyman, Henry Grew, Thomas Gaffield, and Rev. Grindall Reynolds,
+to whom authority was given to raise funds, purchase a lot, and erect a
+building. It was arranged by this committee that the Association should
+contribute $50,000 from the sale of its Tremont Place building, and that
+the club should raise $150,000. Subscriptions were opened February 9, 1883;
+and in November over $154,000 had been secured. A suitable lot was
+purchased at the corner of Beacon and Bowdoin Streets, and the erection of
+the building was begun in 1884. A prolonged labor strike delayed the
+completion of the building, so that the service of its dedication, which
+had been arranged for the evening of May 25, 1886, was held in Tremont
+Temple. The presiding officer on that occasion was George William Curtis;
+and addresses were made by Drs. Frederic H. Hedge, Andrew P. Peabody, and
+Horatio Stebbins. In July the building was occupied by the Association.
+"The denominational house is but brick and stone," said Mr. Reynolds in his
+report of 1886; "but it is brick and stone which testify to the new hope,
+vigor, life, which have been coming in these later years into our body, and
+without which it could not have been reared. It is brick and stone which
+are the pledges of a noble future, which stimulate to good work, and
+furnish the means of doing it."[5]
+
+[Sidenote: Growth of the Devotional Spirit.]
+
+The last twenty years of the nineteenth century saw an increased use of the
+simpler Christian rites in Unitarian churches. In that time a distinct
+advance was made in the acceptableness of the communion service, and
+probably in the number of those willing to join in its observance. The
+abandonment of its mystical features and its interpretation as a simple
+memorial service, that would help to cherish loved ones gone hence, and the
+saintly and heroic of all ages, as well as the one great leader of the
+Christian body, has given it for Unitarians a new spiritual effectiveness.
+The same causes have led to the adoption of the rite of confirmation in a
+considerable number of churches. Gradually the idea has grown that what
+Rev. Sylvester Judd called "the birthright church" is the true one, and
+that it is desirable that all children should be religiously trained, and
+admitted to the church at the age of adolescence. Mr. Judd gave noble
+utterance to this conception of a church in a series of sermons published
+after his death,[6] as well as in a sermon prepared for the Thursday
+lecture in Boston.[7] The same idea was elaborated by Rev. Cyrus A.
+Bartol in his Church and Congregation: A Plea for their Unity,[8] wherein
+he contended for the union of church and parish, the opening of the
+communion to all as a rite accepted by the whole congregation, and not by a
+few church members, and the education of children as constituent members of
+the church from birth.
+
+It was not until much later, however, that the rite of confirmation came
+into use,[9] largely because of the interpretations of the purposes and
+methods of Christian nurture presented by Bushnell, Bartol, and Judd. This
+rite could have meaning only as the expression of social responsibility on
+the part of parents and church alike, that true religion is not merely a
+question of individual opinion, but that there is high worth in those
+spiritual forces that are carried forward from generation to generation,
+and must descend from parent to child if they have effective power. In a
+word, the use of the confirmation rite is an abandonment of extreme
+individualism, and is an acceptance of the socialistic conception of
+spiritual development.[10] This is distinctly a return to the conception
+of a church maintained by Solomon Stoddard at the beginning of the
+eighteenth century, and to that broader Congregationalism he desired to see
+established throughout New England. It was also theoretically that of the
+Puritan founders of New England, who maintained that all children Of church
+members were also members of the church, but who inconsistently insisted
+upon a supernatural conversion in order to full membership. It is even more
+positively an acceptance of the theory of Christian nurture held by the
+Catholic and the Episcopal churches. That theory is based on the social
+conception of the church, that it is an organic body, and that every child
+is born into it and is to be trained as a member by nature and by right.
+
+There has also been a marked change in the forms of Sunday worship,
+especially in the general adoption of responsive readings or more elaborate
+rituals. The tendency has been away from the bare and unattractive service
+of the Puritan churches, which was the acme of individualism in worship,
+towards the more social conception that brings the whole congregation to
+join in the act and in the spirit of devotion. This social conception of
+worship had its first distinct expression in a Unitarian church when James
+Freeman Clarke organized the Church of the Disciples, in 1843.[11] His
+example was a potent force in introducing into many churches a richer and
+more expressive form of worship. Another influence was that of Samuel
+Longfellow, who became the minister of the Second Unitarian Church in
+Brooklyn, in 1853. He soon after introduced vesper services in place of the
+second sermon in the afternoon, making them largely devotional in their
+character. "His own taste and deep feeling were largely a condition of the
+full success of the vespers," says his biographer, "which were seldom
+elsewhere so impressive or seemed so genuine as a devotional act. They
+needed, for their perfect effect, the influence of a leader with whom
+worship was an habitual mental attitude, and who, combined with the
+instinct of religion the art of a poet and of a musician."[12] The form of
+service thus initiated was adopted in many other churches, and slowly had
+its influence in giving greater beauty and spiritual expressiveness to
+worship in Unitarian churches.
+
+About 1885 the tendency to adopt a more social and a more aesthetic form of
+worship came to assert itself more distinctly. To its furtherance Rev.
+Howard N. Brown gave, perhaps, greater emphasis than any other person; but
+there were others who took an active part in the movement. The old
+Congregational demand for simplicity, however, was very great; and there
+was strong feeling against anything like ritualism. The use of some kind of
+liturgy became quite general in the face of this objection, and a
+considerable number of books of a semi-ritual character were published. The
+most elaborate work of this nature was compiled by a committee appointed by
+the Unitarian Association, and published by it in 1891. What is to be
+recognized in this tendency is not the more general use of liturgies,
+however simple or however elaborate, but the growth in Unitarian churches
+of the worshipping spirit. With the development of a rational theology
+there has been a corresponding evolution of a simple but earnest attitude
+of devotion.
+
+The devotional spirit of Unitarians, however, has found its most emphatic
+and beautiful expression in religious hymns and poems. The older Unitarian
+piety found voice in the hymns of the younger Henry Ware, Norton, Pierpont,
+Frothingham, Peabody, Lunt, Bryant, and many others. It was rational and
+yet Christian, simple in sentiment and yet it found in the New Testament
+traditions its themes and its symbolisms. Then followed the older
+transcendentalists, who sought in the inward life and the soul's oneness
+with God the chief motives to spiritual expression. The hymns and the
+religious poems of Furness, Hedge, Longfellow, Johnson, Clarke, Very,
+Brooks, and Miss Scudder,[13] have an interior and spiritual quality
+seldom found in devotional poetry. They are not the mere utterances of
+conventional sentiments or the repetition of ecclesiastical symbolisms, but
+the voicing of deep inward experiences that reveal and interpret the true
+life of the soul. Of the same character are the hymns and religious poems
+of Gannett, Hosmer, and Chadwick, who have but accentuated the tendencies
+of their predecessors. It is the more radical theology that has voiced
+itself in the religious songs of these men, but with a mystical or
+spiritual insight that fits them to the needs of all devout, worshippers.
+It is these genuinely poetical interpretations of the spiritual life that
+most often claim utterance in song on the part of Unitarian congregations.
+A body of worshippers that can produce such a hymnology must possess a
+large measure of genuine piety and devotion.
+
+[Sidenote: The Seventy-fifth Anniversary.]
+
+Many of the tendencies of the Unitarian movement found utterance on the
+occasion of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the American Unitarian
+Association. The meetings were held in Tremont Temple, May 22, 1900; and
+the attendance was large and enthusiastic, many persons coming from distant
+parts of the country. This meeting brought into full expression the
+denominational consciousness, and showed the harmony that had been secured
+as the result of the controversies of many years. As never before, it was
+realized that the Unitarian body has a distinct mission, that it has
+organic and vital power, and that its individual members are united by a
+common faith for the promotion of the interests of a rational and
+humanitarian religion.
+
+This was also a notable occasion because it brought together
+representatives from nearly all the countries in which Unitarianism exists
+in an organized form, thus clearly indicating that it is a cosmopolitan
+movement, and not one of merely local significance. At the morning session
+addresses were made by the representatives from Hungary, Great Britain,
+Germany, Belgium, India, and Japan. In the afternoon addresses were
+delivered by the missionaries of the Association. Other meetings of much
+interest were held during the week, that were of value as interpretations
+of the past of Unitarianism in this country.
+
+During this anniversary week, on May 26, 1900, upon the suggestion of Rev.
+S.A. Eliot, there was organized The International Council of Unitarian and
+Other Liberal Religious Thinkers and Workers, its object being "to open
+communication with those in all lands who are striving to unite pure
+religion and perfect liberty, and to increase fellowship and co-operation
+among them." Professor J. Estlin Carpenter, of Oxford, England, was
+selected as the president, and Rev. Charles W. Wendte, who shortly after
+became the minister of the Parker Memorial in Boston, was made the
+secretary. The executive committee included representatives from the United
+States, Great Britain, Japan, Hungary, Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, and
+Switzerland. The first annual meeting was held in London, May 30 and 31,
+1901, with delegates present from the above-named countries, as well as
+from Holland, Norway, India, Denmark, Australia, and Canada.[14]
+
+The anniversary exercises, as well as the organization of the International
+Council, gave concrete emphasis to the growing interest in Unitarian ideas
+and principles in many parts of the world. They gave the sense of a large
+fellowship, and kindled new enthusiasm. As interpreted by these meetings,
+the Unitarian name has largely ceased to be one of merely theological
+signification, and has come to mean "an endeavor to unite for common and
+unselfish endeavors all believers in pure religion and perfect
+liberty."[15]
+
+[1] The Unitarian, June, 1887, II. 156. For historical accounts of this
+    controversy see Mrs. S.C.Ll. Jones's Western Unitarian Conference:
+    Its Work and its Mission, Unity Mission Tract, No. 38; W.C. Gannett's
+    The Flowering of Christianity, Lesson XII., Part IV.; and The
+    Unitarian, II. and III. A Western Unitarian Association was organized
+    in Chicago, June 21, 1886. Some of the older and leading churches
+    were connected with it, including those at Meadville, Ann Arbor,
+    Louisville, Shelbyville, Church of the Messiah and Unity in Chicago,
+    Church of the Messiah in St. Louis, Keokuk, and others. Hon. George
+    W. McCrary was elected the president, and Mrs. Jonathan Slade the
+    recording secretary. In October, 1887, Rev. George Batchelor became
+    the Western agent of the American Unitarian Association. He was
+    succeeded the next year by Rev. George W. Cutter. In September, 1890,
+    Rev. T.B. Forbush was made the Western superintendent of the American
+    Unitarian Association, with headquarters in Chicago; and he held this
+    position until 1896. During the period covered by these dates Rev.
+    J.R. Effinger was the general missionary of the Western Unitarian
+    Conference, and he was succeeded by Rev. F.L. Hosmer and Rev. A.W.
+    Gould. In 1896 the Western churches were reunited in the Western
+    Conference, and its secretary has been the superintendent of the
+    American Unitarian Association. As defining the position of the
+    American Unitarian Association during this period of controversy, it
+    may be recalled that in June, 1886, the directors adopted a
+    resolution, in which they said they "would regard it as a subversion
+    of the purpose for which its funds have been contributed, as well as
+    of the principles cherished by its officers, to give assistance to
+    any church or organization which does not rest emphatically on the
+    Christian basis."
+
+[2] New England, Middle States and Canada, Western States, Southern
+    States, and Pacific Coast.
+
+[3] These loans are made without interest under established conditions,
+    one of which is that they must be repaid in ten annual instalments.
+
+[4] Annual Report of 1873, 7.
+
+[5] The building seemed to be ample, when it was first occupied, for any
+    growth that was likely to be made for many years to come. At the
+    present time, only sixteen years later, it is crowded; and an
+    extension is urgently demanded. It does not now afford room for the
+    work required, and much of that work is done at a considerable
+    disadvantage because of the want of room. The promise for the
+    immediate future is that much more room will be required in order to
+    facilitate the growing work of the Association.
+
+[6] The Church: in a Series of Sermons, Boston, 1857.
+
+[7] The Birthright Church: A Discourse, printed for the Association of
+    the Unitarian Church of Maine, Augusta, 1854. Mr. Judd's conception
+    of the church as a social organism was shown in the name given to the
+    organization formed under his leadership in 1852, called The
+    Association of the Unitarian Church in Maine. In the preamble to the
+    constitution he wrote: "We, the Unitarian Christians of Maine,
+    ourselves, and our posterity are a Church.... We are a church, not of
+    creeds, but of the Bible; not of sect, but of humanity; seeking not
+    uniformity of dogma, but communion in the religious life. We embrace
+    in our fellowship all who will be in fellowship with us." In defining
+    a local church, he says: "These Christians, with their families,
+    uniting for religious worship, instruction, growth, and culture,
+    having the ordinances and a pastor, constitute a parochial church."
+
+[8] Boston, 1858.
+
+[9] Probably Dr. William G. Eliot, of St. Louis, was the first Unitarian
+    minister to make a systematic use of this rite. He prepared a brief
+    manual for use in his church, the preface to which bears date of
+    December 6, 1868. Seth C. Beach, while minister in Dedham, printed a
+    paper on the subject in the Unitarian Review, January, 1886. He held
+    a confirmation service in the Dedham church, April 25, 1886. At a
+    meeting of the Western Sunday School Society, held in Cincinnati, May
+    12, 1889, Rev. John C. Learned, read a paper on The Sacrament of
+    Confirmation.
+
+[10] The views of Bartol and Judd are appropriate to a state church,
+     wherein they first found expression; and their motive is always
+     distinctly social.
+
+[11] Life of J.F. Clarke, by E.E. Hale, 145
+
+[12] Memoir of Samuel Longfellow, by Joseph May, 193.
+
+[13] Miss Scudder's best hymns were all written while she was a Unitarian.
+     Unitarian hymnology has been nobly treated by Dr. Alfred P. Putnam,
+     in his Singers and Songs of the Liberal Faith, Boston, 1875. It is
+     understood that he is preparing a second volume. The tendency to a
+     deeper recognition of the spirit of worship has found fitting
+     expression in The Spiritual Life: Studies of Devotion and Worship,
+     George H. Ellis, 1898.
+
+[14] The addresses and papers of this meeting were published under the
+     title of Liberal Religious Thought at the Beginning of the Twentieth
+     Century, London, 1901. They give the most complete account yet
+     published of the various liberal movements in many parts of the
+     world, and the book is one of great interest and value.
+
+[15] From the first circular of the International Council.
+
+
+
+
+X.
+
+
+THE MINISTRY AT LARGE.
+
+One of the most important of the philanthropies undertaken by the early
+Unitarians was the ministry to the poor and unchurched in Boston, usually
+known as the ministry at large. It began in 1822, came under the direction
+of the American Unitarian Association and the shaping hand of Dr. Joseph
+Tuckerman in 1826, and was taken in charge by the Benevolent Fraternity of
+Churches in 1834. It was not begun by Tuckerman, though its origin is
+usually attributed to him. Even before 1822 attempts had been made to
+establish missions amongst the poor by the evangelical denominations; but
+their work was not thoroughly organized, and it had reached no efficient
+results when Tuckerman entered upon his labors. The work of Tuckerman was
+to take up what had been tentatively begun by others, give it a definite
+purpose and method, and so to inform it with his own genius for charity
+that it became a great philanthropy in its intent and in its methods.
+
+[Sidenote: Association of Young Men.]
+
+When the Hancock Grammar School-house in the north end of Boston was being
+erected, a young man, in passing it on a September evening, said to a
+companion, "Why cannot we have a Sunday-school here?" The proposition was
+received with favor, and the two discussed plans while they continued their
+walk. They met frequently to mature their methods of procedure, and they
+invited others to join them in the undertaking. On the evening of October
+2, 1822, these two young men--Frederick T. Gray and Benjamin H. Greene--met
+with Moses Grant, William P. Rice, and others, to give more careful
+consideration to their purpose of forming a society for mutual religious
+improvement.[1]
+
+These young men met with little encouragement, and for some time there was
+small prospect of their succeeding in their undertaking. They continued to
+meet weekly, however; and on November 27 they formed The Association of
+Young Men for their own Mutual Improvement and for the Religious
+Instruction of the Poor. In 1824 the name was changed to The Association
+for Religious Improvement. The members met at each other's houses weekly,
+for the purpose of considering topics which related to their own personal
+improvement or to the wants of the community, always keeping in view the
+fact that their own religious growth must lie at the foundation of any
+great good which could be done by them for society. By degrees their number
+increased; and during the six years following, as appears from the records,
+the subjects to which their meetings were successively devoted were the
+desirableness of employing a missionary and building a mission-house, the
+condition and wants of vagrant children, the diffusion of Christianity in
+India, the importance of issuing tracts and other religions publications,
+the means and best method of improving our state prisons, the utility of
+forming a Unitarian Association, the best means to be adopted to abolish
+intemperance, the character of theatrical entertainments, the want of
+infant schools, and the best methods which could be taken to aid in the
+promotion of peace. All of these subjects were then comparatively new, and
+they were but just beginning to attract attention. Their importance was by
+no means generally understood, and least of all was the place which they
+were soon to occupy in public estimation anticipated.[2] The Association
+was discontinued in December, 1835.
+
+[Sidenote: Preaching to the Poor.]
+
+One of the first enterprises entered upon by this society was the securing
+of preaching for the poor and those connected with no religious
+organization. In this effort they had the co-operation of the younger Henry
+Ware, then the minister of the Second Church, and of John G. Palfrey, then
+the minister of the Brattle Street Church. In November, 1822, Henry Ware
+began these meetings; and four series of them were held throughout the
+winter, in Charter Street, in Hatters' or Creek Square, in Pitts Court, and
+in Spring Street. The Charter Street meetings were at first held in a room
+of a primary school, and then in a small chapel that had been built by a
+benevolent man for teaching and preaching purposes. In this place Mr. Ware
+was assisted by Dr. Jenks of the Christian denomination, and the chapel was
+afterwards occupied by the latter as a minister at large. The meetings in
+Pitts Court were also held in a school-room. Those in Hatters' Square
+occupied a room in a large tenement house and "here the accommodations, and
+probably the audience, were of a humbler character than elsewhere."[3]
+
+[Sidenote: Tuckerman as Minister to the Poor.]
+
+Early in the year 1826 Dr. Joseph Tuckerman expressed his willingness to
+devote himself to this ministry; and the American Unitarian Association was
+appealed to, that the necessary financial support might be secured. Dr.
+Tuckerman had been for twenty-five years the parish minister in Chelsea,
+but his health was such that he had been obliged to relinquish that
+position. On September 4 the sum of $600 was appropriated to the support of
+Dr. Tuckerman for one year as a missionary among the poor in Boston; and
+Ware, Barrett, and Gannett were made a committee to ascertain what amount
+of money could be raised for this purpose. It was thought wise not to use
+the regular funds of the Association for so special and local an object.
+The women of the Boston churches were therefore appealed to in behalf of
+this cause; and during the first year contributions were received from
+those connected with the congregations of the Brattle Street, Federal
+Street, West, New South, New North, Twelfth, and Chauncey Place Churches,
+amounting to $712. These contributions by the women of the churches were
+continued until the Benevolent Fraternity was organized.
+
+Tuckerman entered upon his work November 5, 1826. On the evening of that
+day he met with the Association for, Religious Improvement, and discussed
+with its members the work to be undertaken. He began at once the visiting
+of the poor and the study of their condition in the several parts of the
+city, though confining himself largely to the north end. In making his
+first quarterly report to the Unitarian Association, February 5, 1827, he
+said that he had taken fifty families into his pastoral charge. He had
+given special attention to the children, had arranged that those should be
+sent to school who had not previously attended, and provided them with
+shoes and clothes where these were necessary. He had also aided the sick,
+provided necessaries for those who were helpless and deserving, secured
+work for those out of employment, and given religious consolation and
+correction where these were required.
+
+After Dr. Tuckerman had entered upon his work of visiting the poor, the
+Young Men's Association arranged to have him resume the discontinued
+evening meetings. They accordingly secured the use of a room up two flights
+of stairs, in what was known as the "Circular Building," at the corner of
+Merrimac and Portland Streets. In this rude place, that had been used as a
+paint-shop, services were begun on Sunday evening, December 3, 1826.
+Tuckerman recorded in his diary that he had "a large and very attentive
+audience";[4] and on the same evening he met at the house of Dr. Channing
+"a large circle of ladies and gentlemen, who formed a society to help him
+visit."[5] As soon as services were begun in the Circular Building, it
+was proposed to form a Sunday-school; and on a very cold December day seven
+teachers and three children met to inaugurate it. They hovered about the
+little stove, by means of which the room was warmed, and began their work.
+The school grew rapidly, soon filled the room, and was given the name of
+the Howard School. Very soon, also, this room became too small to
+accommodate the attendants at the preaching services. In recognition of
+this need the Friend Street Free Chapel was erected, and opened for use on
+November 1, 1828.
+
+[Sidenote: Tuckerman's Methods.]
+
+During the first year of his ministry Dr. Tuckerman reported quarterly to
+the American Unitarian Association, and then semi-annually. In all there
+were printed four of the quarterly reports and fifteen of the others. It
+was not his custom in these reports to confine himself to an account of his
+work, which usually received only a brief statement at the end; but he
+discussed important topics relating to the condition of the poor and their
+needs. His third quarterly report was devoted to a consideration of the
+remedies to be used for confirmed intemperance. Others of the topics upon
+which he reported were the condition of the poor in cities, the duties of a
+minister at large (a title invented by him, which he preferred to that of
+city or domestic missionary), the effects of poverty on the moral life of
+the poor, the means of relieving pauperism, the causes of poverty and the
+social remedies, the several classes amongst the poor and the best means of
+reaching each of them, the means to be employed for the recovery of those
+sunk in pauperism, poor laws and outdoor relief. Among the subjects he
+discussed incidentally, and sometimes at considerable length, were the duty
+of providing seats for the poor in the churches at a small rental, the
+employment of children, education as a means of saving children from
+growing up to a life of vagrancy and pauperism, the wages of the poor and
+how they can be increased.[6] He was especially interested in the
+rescuing of children from ignorance and vice, and he strongly advocated the
+establishment of schools for the instruction of dull children and those
+whose education had been neglected. Through his efforts the Broad Street
+Infant School was established, in order to reach the younger children of
+the poor. In 1829 he made a careful study of the religious condition of the
+poor; and he found that out of a population of 55,000, which the city then
+contained, there were 4,200 families, or about 18,000 persons, who were not
+connected with any of the churches or who did not attend them with any
+degree of regularity. This gave him an opportunity to urge upon the public
+more strongly than before the importance of procuring free chapels, and a
+sufficient number of ministers to care for this large unchurched
+population. One or two ministers had labored amongst the poor before he
+began his work, and three or four had entered upon the same line of effort
+since he had done so; but these workers were too few in number to meet the
+large demands made upon them.
+
+In carrying on his work, Dr. Tuckerman sought out all who were in need of
+his services, without distinction of nationality, color, creed, social
+position, or moral condition. If he gave the preference to any, it was
+those who were the most wretched and debased. "It is the first object of
+the ministry at large, never to be lost sight of," he wrote, "and to which
+no other is to be preferred, as far as shall be possible to extend its
+offices to the poor and the poorest, to the low and the lowest, to the most
+friendless and most uncared for, the most miserable."[7] He recognized
+the individuality of the poorest and the most vicious: he sought to foster
+it, and to make it the basis of moral reform and social recovery.
+
+[Sidenote: Organization of Charities.]
+
+The influence of Tuckerman's work was soon felt outside the city in which
+it was carried on. The people of the state came to take an interest in it,
+and to feel that its principles should be applied throughout the
+commonwealth. Therefore, a commission was appointed by the lower house of
+the state legislature, February 29, 1832, to inquire into the condition of
+the poor in all parts of the state, and to make such report as might be the
+basis of needed legislation. Dr. Tuckerman was made a member of this
+commission. The work of investigation largely fell upon him, as well as the
+writing of the report. His suggestions were accepted, and the results were
+beneficent. In the mean time the work of visiting the poor was carried on
+by a young man, Charles F. Barnard, then a student in the Divinity School,
+who entered upon his duties in April. In October he was joined by Frederick
+T. Gray, the founder of the Association for Religious Improvement and of
+the first Sunday-schools for the poor. These workers were ordained in the
+Federal Street Church on the evening of November 5, 1834, after having
+thoroughly tested their capacities for the task they had assumed.
+
+Dr. Tuckerman set forth all the principles which have since been described
+under the name of "scientific charity," and he put them all into practice.
+In the spring of 1832 he organized a company of visitors to the poor, the
+members of which were to act as friends and advisers of those who were
+needy. In October, 1833, he brought about a union of the ministers at large
+of all denominations for purposes of consultation and mutual helpfulness.
+This union resulted in a meeting held in February, 1834, at which those
+interested in the proper care of the poor took counsel together as to the
+best methods to be followed. At a later meeting in March, it was decided to
+secure the aid of all the charitable societies in the city with a view to
+their co-operation and the prevention of the duplication of relief. There
+was accordingly organized the Association of Delegates from the Benevolent
+Societies of Boston, the objects of which were "to adopt measures for the
+most effectual prevention of fraud and deception in the applicants for
+charity; to obtain accurate and thorough information with regard to the
+situation, character, and wants of the poor; and generally to interchange
+knowledge, experience, and advice upon all the important subjects connected
+with the duties and responsibilities of Benevolent Societies." The
+principle upon which this organization acted was that "the public good
+requires that the character and circumstances of the poor should be
+thoroughly investigated and known by those who administer our public
+charities, in order that all the relief which a pure and enlarged
+benevolence dictates may be freely bestowed, and that almsgiving may not
+encourage extravagance or vice, nor injuriously affect the claims of
+society at large upon the personal exertions and moral character of its
+members." The first annual report of this Association, which appeared in
+October, 1835, was written by Dr. Tuckerman, and was one of the best he
+produced. He laid down certain rules he had accepted as the results of his
+experience: that beggary was to be broken up; that all misapplications of
+charity should be reported to the board of visitors; that those asking for
+alms should be relieved only at their homes and after investigation; that
+industry, forethought, economy, and self-denial were to be fostered in
+order to prevent pauperism, and that no help should be given where it led
+to dependence and reliance upon charity. Registration, investigation,
+prevention of duplication of alms, and the fostering of self-help were the
+methods brought to bear by Dr. Tuckerman in the organization of this
+Association.[8]
+
+[Sidenote: Benevolent Fraternity of Churches.]
+
+In the spring of 1834 the part of the ministry at large in Boston supported
+by Unitarians consisted of Dr. Tuckerman's work in visiting and ministering
+to the poor in their own homes, two chapels, in which Barnard and Gray
+preached and conducted their Sunday-schools, and the office of the Visitors
+to the Poor. In order more effectually to organize the support of this
+work, the Benevolent Fraternity of Churches was then suggested. The Second,
+Brattle Street, New South, New North, King's Chapel, Federal Street, Hollis
+Street, Twelfth, and Purchase Street Churches entered upon the work; and
+there was organized in each a society for the purpose of aiding the
+ministry at large. Each of these societies was privileged to send five
+delegates to a central body that should undertake the support and direction
+of that ministry. At a meeting held April 27, 1834, an organization of such
+delegates was effected. It was distinctly stated that "it was not the wish
+to add another to the eleemosynary institutions of the city to which the
+poor might resort either for the supply of the comforts or for the relief
+of necessities which belong to their bodily condition"; but the object of
+the Fraternity was described as being "the improvement of the moral state
+of the poor and irreligious of this city by the support of the ministry at
+large, and by other means."[9]
+
+[Sidenote: Other Ministers at Large.]
+
+Dr. Tuckerman continued his work of visiting the poor, so far as his health
+permitted, until his death, which occurred April 20, 1840. His assistants
+and successors continued the work of visitation outside of their own
+congregations. In August, 1844, Rev. Warren Burton was assigned to this
+special form of ministry, and to that of a systematic investigation of the
+condition of the poor. He gave much attention to the needs of children, and
+made inquiry as to intemperance, licentiousness, and other forms of social
+degeneration. He was a diligent and successful worker until his ministry
+came to an end in October, 1848. For about a year, in 1847, Rev. William
+Ware also devoted himself to the house-to-house ministry; but failing
+health compelled his withdrawal. In April, 1845, Rev. Andrew Bigelow took
+charge of the Pitts Street Chapel for a few months; and then for thirty-two
+years, until his death, in April, 1877, he continued to visit the poor.
+With the assistance of his wife, he went about to the homes of the people,
+administering to their physical needs, acting as their friend and adviser,
+and giving them such moral instruction and spiritual consolation as was
+possible.
+
+For about one year, beginning in March, 1856, Rev. A. Rumpff visited German
+families in behalf of the Fraternity. He was succeeded in 1857 by Rev. A.
+Übelacker, who continued the work for two or three years. From 1860 to 1864
+Professor J.B. Torricelli carried on a ministry amongst the Italians,
+Spaniards, Greeks, and other natives of southern Europe resident in Boston.
+After the death of Dr. Bigelow this personal ministry was discontinued,
+owing to the increase in the number of other agencies for doing this kind
+of work.
+
+[Sidenote: Ministry at Large in Other Cities.]
+
+The work of the ministry at large was not confined to Boston. The original
+vote of the Unitarian Association establishing it was that it should be
+aided in New York as well. In December, 1836, Rev. William Henry Channing
+entered on such a ministry in New York; and it was continued there for some
+years. It was also established in Charlestown, Roxbury, Cambridge, Salem,
+Portsmouth, Portland, Lowell, New Bedford, Providence, Worcester, and
+elsewhere in New England. With the aid of the Unitarian Association it was
+undertaken in Baltimore, Cincinnati, Louisville, and St. Louis. In 1845
+Rev. Lemuel Capen was carrying on the ministry in Baltimore, Rev. W.H.
+Farmer in Louisville, and Rev. Mordecai de Lange in St. Louis. The ministry
+at large was begun in Cincinnati in 1830, and was in charge for a short
+time of Christopher P. Cranch, who was succeeded by Rev. James H. Perkins,
+a most efficient worker, who soon became the popular minister of the
+Unitarian church in that city. It was established in St. Louis in 1840, and
+a day school for colored children was opened in 1841. A mission-house was
+built, and Rev. Charles H.A. Dall was put in charge. In 1841 the Mission
+Free School was founded, and now has a matron, nursery, kindergarten,
+Sunday-school, with lectures and entertainments. Dall was succeeded by
+Mordecai de Lange, Corlis B. Ward, Carlton A. Staples, and Thomas L. Eliot.
+The City Mission, as it was called, grew so large that in 1860 no one
+denomination could carry it on; and it became the St. Louis Provident
+Association, which has done an extensive and important work.[10]
+
+In July, 1850, was formed the Association of Ministers at Large in New
+England, of which Rev. Charles F. Barnard was for many years the president,
+and Rev. Horatio Wood, of Lowell, the secretary. It met quarterly, or
+oftener, essays were read on subjects connected with the work of
+ministering to the poor, and the special phases of that work were
+discussed. In the spring of 1841 Rev. Charles F. Barnard began the
+publication of the Journal of the Ministry at Large as a sixteen-page
+octavo monthly, which was continued until 1860, part of the time as The
+Record; but during the later years it was issued irregularly.
+
+In 1838 Dr. Tuckerman published The Principles and Results of the Ministry
+at Large in Boston, which embodied an account of his work for twelve years,
+and the conclusions at which he had arrived. It did much to give direction
+and purpose to the ministry, and to extend its influence. It can be read
+with interest and profit at the present time; for it contains all the
+principles since put into practice in many forms of charitable activity.
+Dr. Andrew P. Peabody truly said of Tuckerman's enterprise in behalf of the
+poor that it "was the earliest organized effort in that direction. Its
+success and its permanent establishment as an institution were due to its
+founder's strenuous perseverance, his self-sacrifice, his apostolic fervor
+of spirit, and the power of his influence."[11] Joseph Story spoke of the
+ministry at large as being one of "extraordinary success." "I deem it," he
+wrote, "one of the most glorious triumphs of Christian charity over the
+cold and reluctant doubts of popular opinion." The labors of Dr. Tuckerman
+"initiated a new sphere of Protestant charity," as his nephew well
+said.[12] "This has been the most characteristic, the best organized, and
+by far the most successful co-operative work that the Unitarian body has
+ever attempted by way of church action," was the testimony of Dr. Joseph
+Henry Allen.[13]
+
+[1] The record of the first meeting states the objects for which the
+    young men met, as follows: "Feeling impressed with the importance of
+    giving religious instruction to the youths of that class of our poor
+    who are destitute of any regard for their future well-being, and who,
+    from being under the care of vicious parents, have no attention paid
+    to their moral conduct; and also wishing to become acquainted with
+    those persons of the different religious societies who profess to be
+    followers of the same Master, they agreed to associate themselves.
+    Having great reason to believe that God will bless their humble
+    efforts for the spread of pure religion and virtue, and looking to
+    Him for guidance, the meeting was organized."
+
+[2] Ephraim Peabody, Christian Examiner, January, 1853, LIV. 93.
+
+[3] John Ware, Life of Henry Ware, Jr., 132-135.
+
+[4] The secretary of the Association for Religious Improvement made this
+    record of the meeting: "December 3, 1826. The Lectures under the
+    conduct of the Association commenced this evening at 6-1/2 o'clock at
+    Smith's circular building, corner of Merrimack and Portland Streets,
+    which was very fully attended by those for whom it was intended. The
+    services were of the first order. Rev. Dr. Tuckerman officiated."
+
+[5] Eber R. Butler, Lend a Hand, V. 693, October, 1890.
+
+[6] The substance of these reports has been reproduced in a book edited
+    by E.E. Hale in 1874, Joseph Tuckerman on the Elevation of the Poor.
+
+[7] The Principles and Results of the Ministry at Large in Boston, 61.
+
+[8] Ministry at Large in Boston, 124.
+
+[9] The following is a list of the churches now maintained by the
+    Benevolent Fraternity of Churches, with the date when each was
+    formed, or when it came under Unitarian management: Bulfinch Place
+    Church, successor to Wend Street Chapel (1828); Pitts Street Chapel
+    (1836), 1870. North End Union (begun in 1837); Hanover Street Chapel
+    (1854); Parmenter Street Chapel (1884), 1892. Morgan Chapel, 1884.
+    Channing Church, Dorchester, successor to Washington Village Chapel,
+    1854. The Suffolk Street Chapel (1837), succeeded by the New South
+    Free Church (1867), continues its life in the Parker Memorial, 1889.
+    The Warren Street Chapel (1832), now known as the Barnard Memorial
+    Church, continues its work, but is not under the direction of the
+    Benevolent Fraternity. In 1901 the churches constituting the
+    Benevolent Fraternity were the First Church, Second Church, Arlington
+    Street Church, South Congregational Church, King's Chapel, Church of
+    the Disciples; First Parish, Dorchester; First Parish, Brighton;
+    Hawes Church South Boston; First Parish, West Roxbury; First
+    Congregational Society, Jamaica Plain.
+
+[10] In 1830 the British and Foreign Unitarian Association began to
+     consider the value of this ministry, and in 1832 the first mission
+     was opened in London. In 1835 was formed the London Domestic Mission
+     Society for the purpose of carrying on the work in that city. In 1833
+     a similar movement was made in Manchester, and in 1835 was organized
+     the Liverpool Domestic Mission Society. The visit of Dr. Tuckerman to
+     England in 1834 gave large interest to this movement. He then met
+     Mary Carpenter, and she was led by him to begin her great work of
+     charity. It was during the next year that she entered upon the work
+     in Bristol that made her name widely known. In 1847 there were two
+     ministers at large in London, two in Birmingham, and one each in
+     Liverpool, Bristol, Leeds, Manchester, Halifax, and Leicester. The
+     writings of Dr. Tuckerman were translated into French by the Baron de
+     Gerando, a leading philanthropist and statesman of that day, who
+     praised them highly, and introduced their methods into Paris and
+     elsewhere. Of Tuckerman's book on the ministry at large M. de Gerando
+     said that it throws "invaluable light upon the condition and wants of
+     the indigent and the influence which an enlightened charity can
+     exert." He also said of Tuckerman that "he knew the difference
+     between pauperism and poverty," thus recognizing one of those
+     cardinal distinctions made by the philanthropist in his efforts to
+     aid the poor to self-help and independence.
+
+[11] Memorial History of Boston, III. 477.
+
+[12] Sprague's Annals of the Unitarian Pulpit, 345, the words quoted being
+     from the pen of Henry T. Tuckerman, the well-known essayist.
+
+[13] Our Liberal Movement in Theology, 59.
+
+
+
+
+XI.
+
+
+ORGANIZED SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK.
+
+The first Sunday-schools organized in this country distinctly for purposes
+of religious training were by persons connected with Unitarian churches.
+Several schools had been opened previously, but they were not continued or
+were organized in the interests of secular instruction. In the summer of
+1809 Miss Hannah Hill, then twenty-five years of age, and Miss Joanna B.
+Prince, then twenty, both teachers of private schools for small children,
+and connected with the First Parish in Beverly, Mass., of which Dr. Abiel
+Abbot was the pastor, opened a school in one room of a dwelling-house for
+the religious training of the children who did not receive such teaching at
+home. In the spring of 1810 the same young women reopened their school in a
+larger room, using the Bible as their only book of instruction. Sessions
+were held in the morning before church, and in the afternoon following the
+close of the services.[1]
+
+The first season about thirty children attended, but the interest grew; and
+in 1813 the school occupied the Dane Street chapel, and became a union or
+town school. Jealousies resulted, and a school was soon established by each
+church in the town. In 1822 the First Parish received the original school
+under its sole care, and it was removed to the meeting-house.
+
+A Sunday-school was begun in Concord in the summer of 1810, under the
+leadership of Miss Sarah Ripley, daughter of Dr. Ezra Ripley, the minister
+of the town. On Sunday afternoons she taught a number of children in her
+father's house, since known as the "Old Manse." About five years later a
+school was opened at the centre of the town, near the church, by three
+young women. In 1818 a Sunday-school was begun in connection with the
+church itself, which absorbed the others, or of which they formed the
+nucleus.[2]
+
+A teacher of a charity school supported by the West Church in Boston was
+the first person to open a Sunday-school in that city. In October, 1812,
+the teacher of this school, Miss Lydia K. Adams, then a member of the West
+Parish, according to the statement of Dr. Charles Lowell, minister of the
+church at the time, "having learned on a visit to Beverly that some young
+ladies of the town were in the practice of giving religious instruction to
+poor children on the Sabbath, consulted her minister as to the expediency
+of giving like instruction to the children of her school, and to those who
+had been members of it, on the same day. The project was decidedly
+approved, and immediately carried into effect." In December of the same
+year, Miss Adams was compelled by ill-health to leave her school; and
+ladies of the West Church took charge of it, and in turn instructed the
+children, both on the week-days and the Sabbath, till a suitable permanent
+teacher could be obtained. On this event they relinquished the immediate
+care of the week-day school, but continued the instruction of the
+Sunday-school, till it was transferred to the church, and was enlarged by
+the addition of "children of a different description," in 1822.[3]
+Sunday-schools were also begun in Cambridgeport, in 1814; Wilton, N.H., in
+1816; and Portsmouth, in 1818. The latter school had the enthusiastic
+support of Nathaniel A. Haven, a young lawyer and rising politician, who
+devoted himself with great zeal and success to such instruction of the
+young.[4]
+
+The Association of Young Men for Mutual Improvement and for the Religious
+Instruction of the Poor began the work of forming Sunday-schools for the
+children of the poor in Boston during the year 1823. A school was begun in
+the Hancock School-house, then recently built for grammar-school
+purposes.[5] Soon after they opened a school in Merrimac Street, called
+the Howard Sunday-school, in connection with the work of Dr. Tuckerman; and
+in 1826 the Franklin Sunday-school was begun by the same persons and for
+the same purposes. In connection with these schools was formed the Sunday
+School Benevolent Society, composed of charitable women, who provided such
+children as were needy with suitable clothing.
+
+In 1825 a parish Sunday-school was organized in connection with the Twelfth
+Congregational Church, of which Rev. Samuel Barrett was the minister. It
+was reorganized in 1827, with the object of giving "a religious education
+apart from all sectarian views, as systematically as it is given to the
+same children in other branches of learning."[6] In July, 1828, The
+Christian Register spoke of "the rapid and extensive establishment of
+Sunday-schools by individuals attached to Unitarian societies," and said
+that in the course of two or three years "large and respectable
+Sunday-schools have been established by Unitarians in various parts of the
+city. Several of these are parish schools, under the immediate guidance of
+the pastors. Others are more general in their plan, receiving children from
+all quarters."
+
+[Sidenote: Boston Sunday School Society.]
+
+At a meeting of the teachers of the Franklin Sunday-school held December
+16, 1826, it was proposed that there be organized an association of all the
+teachers connected with Unitarian parishes in Boston and the vicinity. On
+February 27, 1827, a meeting was held in the Berry Street vestry for this
+purpose; and on April 18 a constitution was adopted for the Boston Sunday
+School Society. The schools joining in this organization were the Hancock,
+Franklin, and Howard, and those connected with the West, Federal Street,
+Hollis Street, and Twelfth Congregational Churches. Dr. Joseph Tuckerman
+was elected president; Moses Grant, vice-president; Dr. J.F. Flagg,
+corresponding secretary; and Rev. Frederick T. Gray, recording secretary.
+The first annual meeting was held November 28, 1827; and the above-named
+officers were re-elected. On December 12 a public meeting was held in the
+Federal Street Church, which was well filled. Reports of the work of the
+schools, including that at Cambridgeport, were read; and addresses were
+made.
+
+The objects of the Sunday School Society were the helping of teachers, the
+extending of the interests of the schools, and the publishing of books. It
+was difficult to procure suitable books for use in Sunday-schools and for
+their libraries, and the prices were very high. In the autumn of 1828
+arrangements were made for the publishing of books, the American Unitarian
+Association co-operating therein by providing a capital of $300 for this
+purpose, the profits going to the Sunday School Society, and the money
+borrowed being returned without interest. This connection was abandoned in
+1831 because it was found that the Unitarian name on the title-page of the
+books hindered their sale. In April, 1828, was issued the first number of
+the Christian Teacher's Manual, a small monthly, of which Mrs. Eliza Lee
+Follen was the editor, intended for the use of families and Sunday-schools.
+According to the preface the subjects chiefly considered were the best
+methods of addressing the minds of children, suggestions to teachers,
+explanations of Scripture, religious instruction from natural objects,
+histories taken from real life, stories and hymns adapted to children, and
+accounts of Sunday-schools.
+
+The Manual was continued for two years; and it was followed by The
+Scriptural Interpreter, edited by Rev. Ezra S. Gannett. The editor of the
+Interpreter preferred to publish it under his own name, because he did "not
+wish it to be considered the organ or the representative of a denomination
+of Christians." "It will have one object," he said, "to furnish the means
+of acquaintance with the true sense and value of Scripture, and
+particularly of the New Testament; but whatever will promote this object
+will come within the scope the publication." It was issued bi-monthly, and
+was continued for five years. It was wholly devoted to the exposition of
+the Bible, a systematic series of translations and interpretations of the
+Gospels forming a distinct feature of its pages. A considerable part of it
+was prepared by the editor, who drew freely upon expository works. Among
+the contributors were William H. Furness, Orville Dewey, Alexander Young,
+Edward B. Hall, James Walker, Henry Ware, Jr., and J.P. Dabney. In 1836,
+Dr. Gannett's health having failed, the magazine was edited by Theodore
+Parker, George E. Ellis, and William Silsbee, then students in the Harvard
+Divinity School.
+
+One important feature of the work of the Sunday School Society was the
+extension of the cause it represented. In December, 1829, reports were
+presented at the annual meeting from nearly fifty schools; and it was
+thought desirable that they should be brought into closer relations with
+the society. Accordingly, Frederick T. Gray, the secretary, visited many of
+these schools. The next year, as a result, a considerable number of those
+outside the city connected themselves with the society; and the lists of
+vice-presidents and directors were enlarged to include them in its
+operations. Afterwards this work was carried on by a committee of the
+society, the members of which visited the schools, giving addresses, and in
+other ways helping to give strength and purpose to the work in which they
+were engaged. Schools were visited in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts,
+Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and other states. To give
+better opportunity for the attendance of delegates from schools outside the
+city, the yearly meeting was changed from December to anniversary week in
+May.
+
+The society published a considerable number of tracts, which were
+distributed gratuitously by the agents and in other ways. It also issued
+lesson-books, as well as books for the juvenile libraries which were
+forming at this time in all the churches. To meet this demand, the younger
+Henry Ware began editing, in 1833, the Sunday-school Library for Young
+Persons, in which were included his own Life of the Saviour, Mrs. John
+Farrar's Life of Howard, Rev. Stephen G. Bulfinch's Holy Land, and Rev.
+Thomas B. Fox's Sketch of the Reformation. The next year Mr. Ware began a
+series of books which he called Scenes and Characters illustrating
+Christian Truth. Another method used by the society was the giving of
+expository lectures.
+
+The society at first held quarterly meetings; but the interest grew, and
+the meetings became monthly. Great enthusiasm was felt at this time in
+regard to the work of these schools, and many persons of prominence praised
+them and took part in their management. "The institution of Sunday-schools
+constitutes one of the most remarkable features of the present age," wrote
+Dr. Joseph Allen, in 1830. "It has already done much to supply the
+deficiencies of domestic education, and, if wisely conducted, is destined,
+we trust, to become at no distant day one of the most efficient instruments
+in forming the characters of the young."[7] Writing in 1838, the younger
+Henry Ware said that "the Sunday-school has become one of the established
+institutions of religion in connection with the church, and the character
+of religion is henceforth to depend, in no small degree, on the wisdom with
+which it shall be administered."[8]
+
+In 1834 was organized the Worcester Sunday School Society. It had its
+origin as far back as November 17, 1817, when a committee of the Worcester
+Association of Ministers was appointed to report on the subject of
+Sunday-schools. A meeting was held in Lancaster, October 9, 1834, when an
+organization was perfected. The succeeding meetings were largely attended,
+and much interest was awakened.[9] In 1842 a similar society was
+organized in Middlesex County; and at about the same time one came into
+existence in Cheshire County, New Hampshire. Soon after societies were
+organized in the counties of Norfolk, Plymouth (North), Middlesex (West),
+Worcester, and in Portland and its neighborhood.
+
+In April, 1831, the directors of the Boston Sunday School Society discussed
+the feasibility of starting a weekly paper for the use of the schools. In
+July, 1836, Rev. Bernard Whitman began the publication of The Sunday School
+Teacher and Children's Friend. In January, 1837, The Young Christian was
+begun, and was published weekly at the office of The Christian Register, by
+David Reed. These papers were continued only for a few years. From 1845 to
+1857 Mrs. Eliza Lee Follen edited a monthly magazine for children, called
+The Children's Friend. The first number of the Sunday School Gazette was
+published in Worcester, August 7, 1849, under the direction of the
+Worcester Sunday School Society. It was established at the suggestion of
+Rev. Edward Everett Hale, then a minister in that city, in connection with
+Rev. Edmund B. Willson, then settled in Grafton. The editor was Rev.
+Francis Le Baron, the minister at large in Worcester, though Mr. Hale was a
+frequent contributor. When the National Sunday School Society was
+organized, the Sunday School Gazette was transferred to, its charge; but
+the publication of this paper was continued in Worcester until 1860.[10]
+
+[Sidenote: Unitarian Sunday School Society.]
+
+As time went on, and the work of the Sunday-schools enlarged, it was felt
+that it was necessary there should be one general organization which should
+bring together all Unitarian schools into a compact working force. To meet
+this growing need, a convention of the county societies and of local
+schools was held in Worcester, October 4, 1854, at which time the Sunday
+School Society was organized as a general denominational body. Hon. Albert
+Fearing, of Boston, was made the president, and Rev. Frederick T. Gray the
+secretary. The society provided itself with a desk in the rooms of the
+Unitarian Association, and provision was made for the collection and sale
+of all the helps demanded by the schools.
+
+From 1855 until 1865 the society was sadly crippled by the lack of funds.
+The hard times preceding the Civil War, and the absorption of public
+interest in that great national event, made it difficult for the society to
+continue its work with any degree of success. For some years little was
+done but to hold the annual meeting in the autumn and that in anniversary
+week, and to continue the publication of the Sunday School Gazette. For a
+number of years, however, Teachers' Institutes were held; and these were
+continued at irregular intervals until about 1875. The Sunday School
+Teachers' Institute was organized in 1852, and continued in existence for
+ten years.
+
+After the death of Rev. Frederick T. Gray in 1855, he was succeeded in the
+position of secretary of the Sunday School Society by Rev. Stephen G.
+Bulfinch. In 1856 Rev. Warren H. Cudworth became the secretary, and the
+editor of the Gazette; and he held these positions until May, 1861, when he
+became the chaplain of the first Massachusetts regiment taking part in the
+Civil War. In the October following, Mr. Joseph H. Allen, a Boston
+merchant, afterwards the editor of The Schoolmate, became the secretary and
+editor. He continued to edit the Gazette until November, 1865; but Mr. M.T.
+Rice was made secretary in 1863. At the end of 1865, when the society was
+in a condition of almost complete collapse, Rev. Thomas J. Mumford became
+the secretary, and the editor of the Gazette for one year. He restored
+confidence in the society, and made the paper a success. During the war the
+paper was published monthly for the sake of economy; but with the first of
+January, 1866, it was restored to its former semi-monthly issue.
+
+The new life that came to the denomination in 1865 had its influence upon
+the Sunday School Society. In the autumn of 1866, when the Unitarian
+Association had secured a large increase of funds, it was proposed that the
+Sunday School Society should unite with it, and that the larger
+organization should have the direction of all denominational activities,
+especially those of publishing. The more zealous friends of the society did
+not approve of such consolidation, and succeeded in reanimating its work by
+appointing as its secretary Mr. James P. Walker, who had been the head of
+the publishing firm of Walker, Wise & Co., a young man of earnest purpose,
+a successful Sunday-school teacher and superintendent, and an enthusiastic
+believer in the mission of Unitarianism. Mr. Walker devoted his whole time
+to the interests of the society, and an energetic effort was made to revive
+and extend its work. He proved to be the man for the position, largely
+increasing the bookselling and publishing activities, visiting schools and
+conferences, and awakening much enthusiasm in regard to the interests of
+Sunday-schools. He wore himself out in this work, however, and died in
+March, 1868, greatly lamented throughout the denomination.[11]
+
+After the death of Mr. Walker, consolidation with the Association was again
+urged; but Rev. Leonard J. Livermore was in June elected the secretary. At
+the annual meeting it was resolved to raise $5,000 for the work of the
+society, and the next year it was proposed to make the annual contribution
+$10,000. The name was changed to the Unitarian Sunday School Society at the
+annual meeting of 1868, held in Worcester. In 1871 Mr. John Kneeland became
+the secretary; and with the beginning of 1872 the Gazette was changed to
+The Dayspring, which was issued monthly. In the autumn of that year the
+society began the publication of monthly lessons, and there was issued with
+them a Teachers' Guide for the lessons of the year. With the beginning of
+1877 the Guide was discontinued, and the lesson papers enlarged. In
+November, 1875, Rev. George F. Piper became the secretary,--a position he
+held until May 1, 1883. During his administration about three hundred
+lessons were prepared by him, and these had a circulation of about nine
+thousand copies. The transition condition of the denomination made it
+difficult to carry on the work of the society at this time, for it was
+impossible to please both conservatives and radicals with any lessons that
+might be prepared. One superintendent warned his school against the
+heretical tendencies of lessons which, from the other point of view, a
+minister condemned as being fit for orthodox schools, but not for
+Unitarians. In the same mail came a letter from a minister saying the
+lessons were too elementary, and from another saying they were much too
+advanced. In the latter part of Mr. Piper's term service was begun an
+important work of preparing manuals thoroughly modern in their spirit and
+methods.[12]
+
+In May, 1883, Rev. Henry G. Spaulding became the secretary; and the work of
+publishing modern manuals was largely extended.[13] At the suggestion and
+with the co-operation of the secretary there was organized, November 12,
+1883, the Unitarian Sunday School Union of Boston, having for its object
+"to develop the best methods of Sunday-school work." At about the same time
+a lending library of reference books was established in connection with the
+work of the society. In the autumn of 1883 the society began to hold in
+Channing Hall weekly lectures for teachers. In 1885 The Dayspring was
+enlarged and became Every Other Sunday, being much improved in its literary
+contents as well as in its illustrations. The same year the society was
+incorporated, and the number of directors was increased to include
+representatives from all sections of the country; while all Sunday-schools
+contributing to the society's treasury were given a delegate representation
+in its membership. Mr. Spaulding continued his connection with the society
+until January 1, 1892.
+
+Rev. Edward A. Horton, who had for several years taken an active part in
+the work of the society, assumed charge February 1, 1892. Mr. Horton was
+made the president, it being deemed wise to have the head of the society
+its executive officer. During his administration there has been a steady
+growth in Sunday-school interest, which has demanded a rapid increase in
+the number and variety of publications. The book department has been taxed
+to the utmost to meet the demand. A new book of Song and Service, compiled
+by Mr. Horton, has reached a sale of nearly 25,000 copies. A simple
+statement of "Our Faith" has had a circulation of 40,000 copies, and in a
+form suitable for the walls of Sunday-school rooms it has been in
+considerable demand.[14] A series of lessons, covering a period of seven
+years, upon the three-grade, one-topic plan, has been largely used in the
+schools. Besides the twenty manuals published in this course of lessons,
+forty other text-books have been published, making a total of sixty in all,
+from 1892 to 1902.[15] There have also been many additions to
+Sunday-school helps by way of special services for festival days, free
+tracts, and statements of belief. The Channing Hall talks to Sunday-school
+teachers have been made to bear upon these courses of lessons. Every Other
+Sunday has been improved, and its circulation extended. The number of
+donating churches and schools has been steadily increased, the number in
+1901 being 255, the largest by far yet reached. At the annual meeting of
+the society and at local conferences representative speakers have presented
+the newest methods of Sunday-school work. Sunday-school unions have been
+formed in various parts of the country, and churches are awakened to a new
+interest in the work of religious instruction. "Home and School
+Conferences" have been held with a view to bringing parents and teachers
+into closer sympathy and co-operation.
+
+[Sidenote: Western Unitarian Sunday School Society.]
+
+In the west the first movement towards Sunday-school activities began in
+1871 with the publication of a four-page lesson-sheet at Janesville, Wis.,
+by Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones. This was continued for two or three years.
+Through the interest of Mr. Jones in Sunday-school work a meeting for
+organization was called in the fourth church, Chicago, October 14, 1873,
+when the Western Unitarian Sunday School Society was organized, with Rev.
+Milton J. Miller as president and Mr. Jones as secretary. At the meeting
+the next year in St. Louis a committee was appointed to prepare a song-book
+for the schools, which resulted in the production of The Sunny Side, edited
+by Rev. Charles W. Wendte. The next step was to establish headquarters in
+Chicago, where all kinds of material could be furnished to the schools,
+with the necessary advice and encouragement. Through successive years the
+effort of the society was to systematize the work of Unitarian
+Sunday-schools, to put into them the best literature, the best song and
+service books, the best lesson papers, and other tools,--in short, to
+secure better and more definite teaching, such as is in accord with the
+best scholarship and thought of the age.[16]
+
+In 1882 the society became incorporated, and its work from this time
+enlarged in all directions. To develop these results more fully, an
+Institute was held in the Third Church, Chicago, in November, 1887, at
+which five sessions were given to Sunday-school work, and two to Unity Club
+interests. In the course of several years of encouraging success, the
+Institute developed into a Summer Assembly of two or more weeks'
+continuance at Hillside, Helena Valley, Wis., which still continues its
+yearly sessions. In May, 1902, The Western Sunday School Society was
+consolidated with the national organization; and the plates and stock which
+it possessed were handed over to the Unitarian Sunday School Society. A
+western headquarters is maintained in Chicago, where all the publications
+of the two societies are kept on sale.
+
+[Sidenote: Unity Clubs.]
+
+As adjuncts to the Sunday-school, and to continue its work for adults and
+in other spheres of ethical training, the Unity Club came into existence
+about the year 1873, beginning with the work of Rev. Jenkin Ll. Jones at
+Janesville. In the course of the next ten years nearly every Unitarian
+church in the west organized such a club, and the movement to some degree
+extended to other parts of the country. In 1887 there was organized in
+Boston the National Bureau of Unity Clubs. These clubs devoted themselves
+to literary, sociological, and religious courses of study; and they
+furnished centres for the social activities of the churches. About the year
+1878 began a movement to organize societies of young people for the
+cultivation of the spirit of worship and religious development. This
+resulted in 1889 in the organization of the National Guild Alliance; and in
+1890 this organization joined with the Bureau of Unity Clubs and the
+Unitarian Temperance Society in supporting an agency in the Unitarian
+Building, Boston, with the aid of the Unitarian Association. The Young
+People's Religious Union was organized in Boston, May 28, 1896; and in
+large degree, it took the place of the Bureau and the Alliance, uniting the
+two in a more efficient effort to interest the young people of the
+churches.[17]
+
+[Sidenote: The Ladies' Commission on Sunday-school Books.]
+
+In the autumn of 1865, Rev. Charles Lowe, then the secretary of the
+Unitarian Association, invited a number of women to meet him for the
+purpose of conference on the subject of Sunday-school libraries. At his
+suggestion they organized themselves on October 12 as The Ladies'
+Commission on Sunday-school Books, with the object of preparing a catalogue
+of books read and approved by competent persons. At the first meeting ten
+persons were present, but the number was soon enlarged to thirty; and it
+was still farther increased by the addition of corresponding members in
+cities too remote for personal attendance. Among those taking part in the
+work of the commission at first were Miss Lucretia P. Hale, Miss Anna C.
+Lowell, Mrs. Edwin P. Whipple, Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney, Mrs. A.D.T. Whitney,
+Mrs. S. Bennett, Mrs. Caroline H. Dall, Mrs. E.E. Hale, Mrs. E.P. Tileston,
+and Miss Hannah E. Stevenson.
+
+The commission not only aimed to select books for Sunday-school libraries,
+but also those for the home reading of young persons and for the use of
+teachers. It undertook also the procuring of the publication of suitable
+juvenile books. The first catalogue was issued in October, 1866, and
+contained a list of two hundred books, selected from twelve hundred
+examined. In the spring of 1867 a catalogue of five hundred and
+seventy-three books was printed, as the result of the reading of nineteen
+hundred volumes.
+
+In the beginning of its work the commission did not confine its activities
+to the selecting of juvenile books; for the Sunday School Hymn and Tune
+Book, published in 1869, was largely due to its efforts. Under the
+administration of Mr. James P. Walker the Sunday School Society undertook
+to procure the publication of a number of books of fiction suitable for
+Sunday-school libraries, and offered prizes to this end. The commission
+gave its encouragement to this effort, read the manuscripts, and aided in
+determining to whom the prizes should be given. The result was the
+publication of a half-dozen volumes by the Sunday School Society and the
+Unitarian Association. The society also aided to some extent in meeting the
+expenses of the commission, though these were usually met by the
+Association.
+
+For many years the books approved by the commission were grouped under
+three heads: books especially recommended for Unitarian Sunday-school
+libraries; those highly recommended for their religious tone, but somewhat
+impaired for this purpose by the use of phrases and the adoption of a
+spirit not in accord with the Unitarian faith; and those profitable and
+valuable, but not adapted to the purposes of a Sunday-school library. Every
+book recommended was read and approved by at least five persons, discussed
+in committee of the whole, and accepted by a two-thirds vote of all the
+members. Books about which there was much diversity of opinion were read by
+a larger number of persons. This classification proved rather cumbersome,
+and it was often found difficult to decide into which list a book should be
+placed; and the result was that about 1890 the simpler plan was adopted of
+putting all titles in their alphabetical order, with explanatory notes for
+each book. In 1882 the list of books for teachers was discontinued as being
+no longer necessary.
+
+Annual lists of books have been published by the commission since 1866;
+and, in addition, several catalogues have been issued, containing all the
+books approved during a period of five years. In the early days of the
+commission, supplementary lists for children and young persons were issued,
+containing books of a more secular character than were thought suitable for
+Sunday-school libraries. Gradually, it has extended its work to include the
+needs of all juvenile libraries; and these books are now incorporated into
+the one annual catalogue. In thirty-four years the commission has examined
+10,957 books, and has approved 3,076, or about one-third.[18]
+
+[1] Sunday School Times, September 15, 1860.
+
+[2] Asa Bullard, Fifty Years with the Sabbath Schools, 37.
+
+[3] C.A. Bartol, The West Church and its Ministers, Appendix.
+
+[4] See the Remains of Nathaniel Appleton Haven, with a Memoir of his
+    life, by George Ticknor.
+
+[5] The Hancock Sunday-school assembled at eight in the morning and at
+    one in the afternoon, Moses Grant being the first superintendent.
+
+[6] At the school of the Twelfth Congregational Society, Carpenter's
+    Catechism was used for the small children. This was followed by the
+    Worcester Catechism, compiled in 1822 by the ministers of the
+    Worcester Association of Ministers, Dr. Joseph Allen being the real
+    author. The Geneva Catechism in its three successive parts, followed
+    in order. In the Bible class, use was made of Hannah Adams's Letters
+    on the Gospels, under the immediate charge of the Pastor. A hymn-book
+    issued by the Publishing Fund Society was in use by the whole school.
+
+[7] Christian Examiner, March, 1830, VIII. 49.
+
+[8] Ibid., May, 1838, XXIV. 182.
+
+[9] Joseph Allen, History of the Worcester Association, 261-264.
+
+[10] In 1852 was published a graded series of eight manuals of Christian
+     instruction for Sunday-schools and families,--a result of the
+     activities of the Sunday School Society. The titles and authors of
+     these books were Early Religious Lessons; Palestine and the Hebrew
+     People, Stephen G. Bulfinch; Lessons on the Old Testament, Rev.
+     Ephraim Peabody; The Life of Christ, Rev. John H. Morison; The Books
+     and Characters of the New Testament, Rev. Rufus Ellis; Lessons upon
+     Religious Duties and Christian Morals, Rev. George W. Briggs;
+     Doctrines of Scripture, Rev. Frederic D. Huntington; Scenes from
+     Christian History, Rev. Edward E. Hale. Two other books connected
+     with the early history of Unitarian Sunday-schools properly demand
+     notice here. In 1847 was published The History of Sunday Schools and
+     of Religious Education from the Earliest Times, by Lewis G. Pray, who
+     was treasurer of the Boston Sunday School Society from 1834 to 1853,
+     and chairman of its board of agents from 1841 to 1848. He was one of
+     the first workers in the establishing of Sunday-schools in Boston,
+     and he zealously interested himself in this cause so long as he
+     lived. He compiled the first book of hymns used in Unitarian schools,
+     and also the first book of devotional exercises. For twenty years he
+     was superintendent of the school connected with the Twelfth
+     Congregational Society, holding that place from its organization in
+     1827. In one of the concluding chapters of his book Mr. Pray gave an
+     account of the early history of Unitarian Sunday-schools in Boston
+     and its neighborhood. In 1852 was published a series of addresses
+     which had been given by Rev. Frederick T. Gray at Sunday-school
+     anniversaries and on other similar occasions. The volume contains
+     most interesting information in regard to the origin of
+     Sunday-schools in Boston, and the beginnings of the Sunday School
+     Society, as well as the work of Dr. Tuckerman and his assistants in
+     the ministry, at large.
+
+[11] Memoir of James P. Walker, with Selections from his Writings, by
+     Thomas B. Fox. American Unitarian Association, 1869.
+
+[12] The first of these was Rev. Edward H. Hall's First Lessons on the
+     Bible, which appeared in 1882; and it was soon followed by Professor
+     C.H. Toy's History of the Religion of Israel.
+
+[13] Among these were Religions before Christianity, by Professor Charles
+     Carroll Everett, D.D., 1883; Manual of Unitarian Belief, by Rev.
+     James Freeman Clarke, D.D., 1884; Lessons on the Life of St. Paul, by
+     Rev. Edward H. Hall, 1885; Early Hebrew Stories, by Rev. Charles F.
+     Dole, 1886; Hebrew Prophets and Kings, by Rev. Henry G. Spaulding,
+     1887; The Later Heroes of Israel, by Mr. Spaulding, 1888; Lessons on
+     the Gospel of Luke, by Mr. Spaulding and Rev. W.W. Fenn, 1889; A
+     Story of the Sects, by Rev. William H. Lyon, in 1891. In 1890
+     appeared the Unitarian Catechism of Rev. Minot J. Savage, though not
+     published by the Sunday School Society. These books attracted wide
+     attention, were largely used in Unitarian schools, and were adopted
+     into those of other sects to some extent. In 1886 the president of
+     the American Social Science Association publicly urged the use of the
+     ethical manuals of the society by all Sunday-schools. Several of
+     these books were republished in London, and Dr. Toy's manual was
+     translated into Dutch. The society also published a new Service Book
+     and Hymnal, which went into immediate use in a large number of
+     schools, and did much for the enrichment of the devotional exercises
+     and the promotion of an advanced standard of both words and music in
+     the hymns.
+
+[14] The Fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood of Man, the leadership of
+     Jesus, salvation by character, the progress of mankind onward and
+     upward forever.
+
+[15] Among the publications under Mr. Horton's administration, which may
+     justly be called significant, are: Beacon Lights of Christian
+     History, in three grades; Noble Lives and Noble Deeds, Dole's
+     Catechism of Liberal Faith, Mott's History of Unitarianism,
+     Pulsford's various manuals on the Bible, Mrs. Jaynes's Illustrated
+     Primary Leaflets, Miss Mulliken's Kindergarten Lessons, Story of
+     Israel and Great Thoughts of Israel, in three grades, Fenn's Acts of
+     the Apostles, Chadwick's Questions on the Old Testament Books in
+     their Right Order, Mrs. Kate Gannett Wells's forty Illustrated
+     Primary Lessons, and Walkley's Helps for Teachers. Mr. Horton, during
+     this ten years, has written fourteen manuals on various subjects.
+     Co-extensive with the large increase of text-books has been the
+     enrichment of lessons by pictorial aids. Excellent half-tone pictures
+     have been prepared from the best subjects.
+
+[16] Among the publications of the Western Unitarian Sunday School Society
+     have been Unity Services and Songs, edited by Rev. James Vila Blake,
+     and published in 1878; a service book called The Way of Life, by Rev.
+     Frederick L. Hosmer, issued in 1877; and Unity Festivals, services
+     for special holidays, 1884. Of the lesson-books published by the
+     society, those that have been most successful have been Corner-stones
+     of Character, by Mrs. Kate Gannett Wells; A Chosen Nation, or the
+     Growth of the Hebrew Religion, by Rev. William C. Gannett; and The
+     More Wonderful Genesis, by Rev. Henry M. Simmons. In 1890 the society
+     entered upon the publication of a six-year course of studies, which
+     included Beginnings according to Legend and according to the Truer
+     Story, by Rev. Allen W. Gould; The Flowering of the Hebrew Religion,
+     by Rev. W.W. Fenn; In the Home, by Rev. W.C. Gannett; Mother Nature's
+     Children, by Rev. A.W. Gould; and The Flowering of Christianity, the
+     Liberal Christian Movement toward Universal Religion, by Rev. W.C.
+     Gannett.
+
+[17] The objects of The Young People's Religious Union are: (a) to foster
+     the religious life; (b) to bring the young into closer relations with
+     one another; and (c) to spread rational views of religion, and to put
+     into practice such principles of life and duty as tend to uplift
+     mankind. The cardinal principles of the Union are truth, worship, and
+     service. Any young people's society may become a member of the Union
+     by affirming in writing its sympathy with the general objects of the
+     Union, adopting its cardinal principles, making a contribution to its
+     treasury, and sending the secretary a list of its officers. The
+     annual meeting is held in May at such day and place as the executive
+     board may appoint. Special union meetings are held as often as
+     several societies may arrange. The Union has its headquarters at Room
+     11, in the Unitarian Building, Boston, in charge of the secretary,
+     whose office hours are from 9 A.M. to 1 P.M. daily. Organization
+     hints, hymnals, leaflets, helps for the national topics, and other
+     suggestive materials are supplied. The national officers furnish
+     speakers for initial meetings, visit unions, and help in other ways.
+     The Union maintains a department in The Christian Register, under the
+     charge of the secretary, for notes, notices, helps on the topics, and
+     all matters of interest to the unions, and also publishes a monthly
+     bulletin in connection with the National Alliance of Unitarian Women.
+
+[18] In the thirty-five years which comprise the life of the commission a
+     gradual but marked change has been in operation. Sunday-school
+     libraries are being used less and less, and town libraries have
+     become much more numerous and better patronized by both old and
+     young. In the spring of 1896 the question arose in the commission
+     whether, with the decline of the Sunday-school library, the need
+     which called it into being had not ceased to exist; and, in order to
+     secure information as to the advisability of continuing its work,
+     cards were sent to 305 ministers of the denomination and to 507
+     public libraries, mostly in New England, asking if the lists of the
+     commission were found useful, and whether it was desired that the
+     sending of them should be continued. From Unitarian ministers 209
+     replies were received, one-half using the lists frequently and the
+     other half occasionally or for the selection of special books. From
+     the town libraries cordial replies were received in 220 instances,
+     most of them warmly approving of the lists, which had been found very
+     useful. The result of this investigation was to bring the commission
+     more directly into touch with the various libraries, and to give it a
+     better understanding of their needs.
+
+
+
+
+XII.
+
+
+THE WOMEN'S ALLIANCE AND ITS PREDECESSORS.
+
+The Unitarian body has been remarkable for the women of intellectual power
+and philanthropic achievement who have adorned its fellowship. In
+proportion to their numbers, they have done much for the improvement and
+uplifting of society. In the early Unitarian period, however, the special
+work of women was for the most part confined to the Sunday-school and the
+sewing circle. Whatever the name by which it was known, whether as the
+Dorcas Society, the Benevolent Society, or the Ladies' Aid, the sewing
+circle did a work that was in harmony with the needs of the time, and did
+it well. It helped the church with which it was connected in many quiet
+ways, and gave much aid to the poor and suffering members of the community.
+Nor did it limit its activities to purely local interests; for many a
+church was helped by it and the early missionary societies received its
+contributions gladly.
+
+Before the organization of the Benevolent Fraternity of Churches, the women
+of Boston raised the money necessary for the support of the ministry at
+large in that city. One of the earliest societies organized for general
+service, was the Tuckerman Sewing Circle, formed in 1827. Its purpose was
+to assist Dr. Tuckerman in his work for the poor of the city by providing
+clothing and otherwise aiding the needy. The work of this circle is still
+going on in connection, with the Bulfinch Place Church; and every year it
+raises a large sum of money for the charitable work of the ministry at
+large.
+
+The civil war helped women to recognize the need of organization and
+co-operation, on their part. In working for the soldiers, not only in their
+homes and churches, but in connection with the Sanitary Commission, and
+later in seeking to aid the freedmen, they learned their own power and the
+value of combination with others. In Massachusetts the work of the Sanitary
+Commission was largely carried on by Unitarians. In describing this work,
+Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney has indicated what was done by Unitarian women.
+"During the late war," she wrote, "a woman's branch of the Sanitary
+Commission was organized in New England. Mary Dwight (Parkman) was its
+first president; but Abby Williams May soon took her place, which she held
+till the close of the war. With unwearied zeal Miss May presided over its
+councils, organized its action, and encouraged others to work. She went
+down to the hospitals and camps, to judge of their needs with her own eyes,
+and travelled from town to town in New England, arousing the women to new
+effort. These might be seen, young and old, rich and poor, bearing bundles
+of blue flannel through the streets, and unaccustomed fingers knitting the
+coarse yarn, while the heart throbbed with anxiety for the dear ones gone
+to the war. A noble band of nurses volunteered their services, and the
+strife was as to which should go soonest and do the hardest work. Hannah E.
+Stevenson, Helen Stetson, and many another name became as dear to the
+soldiers as that of mother or sister. A committee was formed to supply the
+colored soldiers with such help as other soldiers received from their
+relations; and, when one of the noblest of Boston's sons passed through her
+streets at their head, his mother 'thanked God for the privilege of seeing
+that day.' The same spirit went into the work of educating the freedmen.
+Young men and women, the noblest and best, went forth together to that work
+of danger and toil."[1]
+
+[Sidenote: Women's Western Unitarian Conference.]
+
+It was such experiences as these that encouraged Unitarian women to enter
+upon other philanthropic and educational labors when the civil war had come
+to an end. Leaders had been trained during this period who were capable of
+guiding such movements to a successful issue. The example of the women of
+the evangelical churches in organizing their home and foreign missionary
+associations also undoubtedly influenced, to a greater or lesser degree,
+the women of the liberal churches. After the organization of the National
+Conference, Unitarian women began to realize, as never before, the need of
+co-operation in behalf of the cause they had at heart.[2] It was in the
+central west, however, that the first effort was made to organize women in
+the interest of denominational activities. In 1877, at the meeting of the
+Western Unitarian Conference held in Toledo, it was voted that the women
+connected with that body be requested to organize immediately for the
+purpose of co-operating in the general work of the conference. At this
+meeting two women, Mrs. E.P. Allis of Milwaukee and Mrs. Mary P. Wells
+Smith of Cincinnati, were placed on the board of directors.
+
+At the next annual meeting of the Western Conference, held in Chicago, the
+committee on organization, consisting of thirteen women, reported the
+readiness of the women to give their aid to the conference work, saying in
+their report "that we signify not only our willingness, but our earnest
+desire to share henceforth with our brothers in the labors and
+responsibilities of this Association, and that we pledge ourselves to an
+active and hearty support of those cherished convictions which constitute
+our liberal faith." In response to their request, the conference selected
+an assistant secretary to have charge of everything relating to the work of
+women. They also recommended that the women of the several churches
+connected with the conference should organize for "the study and
+dissemination of the principles of free thought and liberal religious
+culture, and the practical assistance of all worthy schemes and enterprises
+intended for the spread and upholding of these principles." In 1881, at St.
+Louis, there was organized the Women's Western Unitarian Conference, with
+Mrs. Eliza Sunderland as president and Miss F.L. Roberts as secretary.
+During the seventeen years of its existence this conference raised much
+money for denominational work, developed many earnest workers, and
+accomplished much in behalf of the principles for which it stood. It aided
+in the support of several missionaries, organized the Post-office Mission
+and made it effective, and encouraged a number of women to enter the
+ministry.
+
+[Sidenote: Women's Auxiliary Conference.]
+
+At the National Conference session of 1878, held at Saratoga, where much
+enthusiasm had been awakened, it was suggested that the women, who had been
+hitherto listeners only, should take an active part in, denominational
+work. At a gathering in the parlor of the United States Hotel, called by
+Mrs. Charles G. Ames, Mrs. Fielder Israel, Mrs. J.P. Lesley, and one or two
+others, a plan of action was adopted that led, in 1880, to the formation of
+the Women's Auxiliary Conference. The aim of this organization was to
+quicken the religious life of the churches, to stimulate local charitable
+and missionary undertakings, and to raise money for missionary enterprises;
+but its work was to be done in connection with the National Conference, and
+not as an independent organization. The purpose was stated in a circular
+sent to the churches immediately after the organization was effected.
+"Hitherto," it was said, "women have not been specially represented upon
+the board of the National Conference, and have not fully recognized how
+helpful they might be in its various undertakings or how much they
+themselves might gain from a closer relation with it. But the time has now
+come when our service is called for in the broad field, and also when we
+feel the need of being at work there; for our faith in the great truths of
+religion is no less vital than that of our brethren; and since the service
+we can render, being different from theirs, is needed to supplement it, and
+because it is peculiarly women's service, we must do it, or it will be left
+undone. It is one of the glories of such a work as ours that there is need
+and room in it for the best effort of every individual; indeed, without the
+faithful service of all it must be incomplete."
+
+In 1890, after ten years of active existence, the conference had about
+eighty branches, with a membership of between 3,000 and 4,000 women. Much
+of the success of the conference was due to its president, Abby W. May.
+Miss May was well known as a philanthropist and educator, and had occupied
+many prominent positions before she assumed the presidency of the
+auxiliary; but this was her first active work in connection with the
+denomination.
+
+[Sidenote: The National Alliance.]
+
+Admirable as were the aims, and excellent as was the work of this
+organization, it was auxiliary to the National Conference, and had no
+independent life. After the first enthusiasm was past, it failed to gain
+ground rapidly, the membership remaining nearly stationary during the last
+few years of its existence. As time went on, therefore, it became evident
+that a more complete organization was needed in order to arouse enthusiasm
+and to secure the loyalty of the women of all parts of the country. The New
+York League of Unitarian Women, including those of New York, Brooklyn, and
+New Jersey, organized in 1887, showed the advantages of a closer union and
+a more definite purpose; and the desire to bring into one body all the
+various local organizations hastened the change. It was seen that, in the
+multiplication of organizations, there was danger of wasting the energies
+used, and that one efficient body was greatly to be desired.
+
+In May, 1888, a committee was formed for the purpose of drafting a
+constitution for a new association, "to which all existing organizations
+might subscribe." The constitution provided by this committee was adopted
+October 24, 1890, and the new organization took the name of the National
+Alliance of Unitarian and Other Liberal Christian Women. The object
+proposed was "to quicken the life of our Unitarian churches, and to bring
+the women of the denomination into closer acquaintance, co-operation, and
+fellowship." In 1891 there were ninety branches, with about 5,000 members.
+While the membership, doubled under the impulse of the new organization,
+the increase in the amount of money raised was fivefold.
+
+The admirable results secured by the Women's Alliance, which has finally
+drawn all the sectional organizations into co-operation with itself, are in
+no small measure due to the energy and the organizing skill of the women
+who have been at the head of its activities. Mrs. Judith W. Andrews, of
+Boston, was the president during the first year of its existence. From 1891
+to 1901 the president was Mrs. B. Ward Dix, of Brooklyn, who was succeeded
+by Miss Emma C. Low, of the same city. Mrs. Emily A. Fifield, of Boston,
+has been the recording secretary; Mrs. Mary B. Davis, of New York, the
+corresponding secretary; and Miss Flora L. Close, of Boston, the treasurer
+from the first.
+
+[Sidenote: Cheerful Letter and Post-office Missions.]
+
+In 1891 the executive board appointed a committee to organize a Cheerful
+Letter Exchange, of which Miss Lilian Freeman Clarke was made the chairman.
+One of its chief purposes is to cheer the lonely and discouraged, invalids
+and others, by interchange of letters and by gifts of books and
+periodicals. To young persons in remote places it affords facilities for
+securing a better education, with the aid of correspondence classes. By
+means of a little monthly magazine, The Cheerful Letter, religious teaching
+is brought to many persons, who in this find a substitute for church
+attendance where that is not possible. Through the same channel, as well as
+by correspondence, these workers help young mothers in the right training
+of their children. Libraries have been started in communities destitute of
+books, and struggling libraries have been aided with gifts. Forty
+travelling libraries are kept in circulation.
+
+Although much had been done to circulate Unitarian tracts and the other
+publications of the American Unitarian Association, by means of
+colporteurs, by the aid of the post-office, as well as by direct gift of
+friend to friend, it remained for Miss Sallie Ellis, of Cincinnati, in
+1881, to systematize this kind of missionary effort, and to make it one of
+the most valuable of all agents for the dissemination of liberal religious
+ideas. Miss Ellis was aided by the Cincinnati branch of the Women's
+Auxiliary, but she was from the first the heart and soul of this mission.
+"If there had been no Miss Ellis," says one who knew her work intimately,
+"there would have been no Post-office Mission. Many helped about it in
+various ways, but she was the mission."
+
+Miss Ellis was a frail little woman, hopelessly deaf and suffering from an
+incurable disease. Notwithstanding her physical limitations, she longed to
+be of service to the faith she cherished; and the missionary spirit burned
+strong within her. "I want," she said often, "to do something for
+Unitarianism before I die"; but the usual avenues of opportunity seemed
+firmly closed to her. At last, in the winter of 1877-78, Rev. Charles W.
+Wendte, then her pastor, anxious to find something for her to do, proposed
+that she should send the Association's tracts and copies of the Pamphlet
+Mission to persons in the west who were interested in the liberal faith.
+She took up this work gladly, and during that winter distributed 1,846
+tracts and 211 copies of the Pamphlet Mission in twenty-six States.
+
+A tract table in the vestibule of the church was started by Miss Ellis; and
+she not only distributed sermons freely in this way, but she also sold
+Unitarian books. It was in 1881 that she was made the secretary of the
+newly organized Women's Auxiliary in Cincinnati, and that her work really
+began systematically. At the suggestion of Mrs. Mary P. Wells Smith,
+advertisements were inserted in the daily papers, and offers made to send
+Unitarian publications, when requested. Many doubted the advisability of
+such an enterprise, but the letters received soon indicated that an
+important method of mission work had been discovered. Rev. William C.
+Gannett christened this work the Post-office Mission, and that name it has
+since retained.
+
+Only four and one-half years were permitted to Miss Ellis in which to
+accomplish her work,--a work dear to her heart, and one for which her many
+losses and sufferings had prepared her. During this period she wrote 2,500
+letters, sent out 22,000 tracts and papers, sold 286 books, and loaned 258.
+The real value of such work cannot be rightly estimated in figures. Through
+her influence, several young men entered the ministry who are to-day doing
+effective work. She saved several persons from doubt and despair, gave
+strength to the weak, and comfort to those who mourned. At her death, in
+1885, the letters received from many of her correspondents showed how
+strong and deep had been her influence.[3]
+
+The movement initiated by Miss Ellis grew rapidly, and has become one of
+the most valuable of all agents for the dissemination of liberal religious
+ideas. In the year 1900 the number of correspondents was about 5,000, and
+the number of tracts, sermons, periodicals, and books distributed was about
+200,000. The extent of this mission is also seen in the fact that in that
+year about 8,000 letters were written by the workers, and about 6,000 were
+received.
+
+By means of the Post-office Mission the literature of the denomination, the
+tracts of the Unitarian Association, copies of The Christian Register, and
+other periodicals have been scattered all over the world. Thousands of
+sermons are distributed also from tables in church vestibules. Several
+branches publish and exchange sermons, and a loan library has been
+established to supplement this work.[4]
+
+From the distribution of tracts and sermons has grown the formation of
+"Sunday Circles" and "Groups" of Unitarians, carefully planned circuit
+preaching, the employment of missionaries, and the building of chapels or
+small churches. Two of these are already built; and the Alliance has
+insured the support of their ministers for five years, and two others are
+in the process of erection.
+
+[Sidenote: Associate Alliances.]
+
+The women on the Pacific coast have been compelled in a large measure to
+organize their own work and to adopt their own methods, the distance being
+too great for immediate co-operation with the other organizations. In this
+work they have not only displayed energy and perseverance, but, says one
+who knows intimately of their efforts, "they have shown executive ability
+and power as organizers that have furnished an example to many
+non-sectarian organizations of women, and have made the Unitarian women
+conspicuous in all charitable and social activities."
+
+The oldest society of Unitarian women on the Pacific coast was connected
+with the First Church in San Francisco. In 1873 it was reorganized as the
+Society for Christian Work. Its work has been mainly social and
+philanthropic, contributing reading matter to penal institutions, money for
+the care of the poor of the city, and aiding every new Unitarian church in
+the State. The Channing Auxiliary combines the activities of the churches
+in the vicinity of San Francisco with those in the city. Its objects are
+"moral and religious culture, practical literary work, and co-operation
+with the denominational and missionary agencies of the Unitarian faith."
+From 1890 to 1899 this society spent over $6,000 in aid of denominational
+enterprises, and it appropriates annually a large sum for Post-office
+Mission work. While these two organizations represent San Francisco and its
+neighborhood, the women up and down the coast have also been earnest
+workers. In 1890 they felt the need of a closer bond of union, and
+organized the Women's Unitarian Conference of the Pacific Coast. In 1894
+this conference became a branch of the National Alliance, and has
+co-operated cordially with it since that time.
+
+The New York League of Unitarian Women has been active in forming Alliance
+branches and new churches, as well as in affording aid to Meadville
+students. The Chicago Associate Alliance, the Southern Associate Alliance,
+and the Connecticut Valley Associate Alliance were organized in 1890. The
+Worcester League of Unitarian Women began its existence in 1889, and was
+reorganized in connection with the National Alliance in 1892.
+
+[Sidenote: Alliance Methods.]
+
+In thus coming into closer relations with each other and forming a national
+organization, each local branch continues free in its own action, chooses
+its own methods of carrying on its work, but keeps close knowledge of what
+the Alliance as a whole is doing, that all interference with others and
+overlapping of assistance may be avoided, and the greatest mutual benefit
+may be secured. This method gives the utmost independence to the branches,
+while preserving the element of personal interest in all financial
+disbursements, and creates a strong bond of sympathy between those who give
+and those who receive.
+
+The first duty of each branch is to strengthen the church to which its
+members belong; and the value of such an organized group of women, meeting
+to exchange ideas and experiences on the most vital topics of human
+interest, has been everywhere recognized. Each branch is expected to engage
+in some form of religious study, not only for the improvement of the
+members themselves, but to enable them to gain, and to give others, a
+comprehensive knowledge of Unitarian beliefs. A study class committee
+provides programmes for the use of the branches, arranges for the lending
+and exchange of papers, and assists those who do not have access to books
+of reference or are remote from the centres of Unitarian thought and
+activity.
+
+With this preparation the Alliance undertakes the higher service of joining
+in the missionary activities of the denomination, supplementing as far as
+possible the work of the American Unitarian Association. This includes
+sending missionaries into new fields, aiding small and struggling churches,
+helping to found new ones, supporting ministers at important points, and
+and distributing religious literature among those who need light on
+religious problems.
+
+[1] Memorial History of Boston, IV. 353.
+
+[2] See later chapters for account of admission of women to National
+    Conference, Unitarian Association, the ministry, Boston school board,
+    and various other lines of activity.
+
+[3] Mary P.W. Smith, Miss Ellis's Mission.
+
+[4] This library is in the Unitarian Building, 25 Beacon Street, Boston.
+
+
+
+
+XIII.
+
+
+MISSIONS TO INDIA AND JAPAN.
+
+Foreign missions have never commanded a general interest on the part of
+Unitarians. Their dislike of the proselyting spirit, their intense love of
+liberty for others as well as for themselves, and the absence of sectarian
+feeling have combined to make them, as a body, indifferent to the
+propagation of their faith in other countries. They have done something,
+however, to express their sympathy with those of kindred faith in foreign
+lands.
+
+In 1829 the younger Henry Ware visited England and Ireland as the foreign
+secretary of the Unitarian Association; and at the annual meeting of 1831
+he reported the results of his inquiries.[1] This was the beginning of
+many interchanges of good fellowship with the Unitarians of Great Britain,
+and also with those of Hungary, Transylvania, France, Germany, and other
+European countries. During the first decade or two of the existence of the
+Unitarian Association much interest was taken in the liberal movements in
+Geneva; and the third annual report gave account of what was being done in
+that city and in Calcutta, as well as in Transylvania and Great Britain.
+Some years later, aid was promised to the Unitarians of Hungary in a time
+of persecution; but they were dispossessed of their schools before help
+reached them. In 1868 the Association founded Channing and Priestley
+professorships in the theological school at Kolozsvár, and Mrs. Anna
+Richmond furnished money for a permanent professorship in the same
+institution. Soon after the renewed activity of 1865 an unsuccessful
+attempt was made to establish an American Unitarian church in Paris; and
+aid was given to the founding of an English liberal church in that city.
+These are indications of the many interchanges of fellowship and
+helpfulness between the Unitarians of this country and those of Europe.
+
+[Sidenote: Society respecting the State of Religion in India.]
+
+As early as 1824 began a movement to aid the native Unitarians of India,
+partly the result of a lively interest in Rammohun Roy and the
+republication in this country of his writings. On June 7, 1822, The
+Christian Register gave an account of the adoption of Unitarianism by that
+remarkable Hindoo leader; and it often recurred to the subject in later
+years. In February of the next year it described the formation of a
+Unitarian society in Calcutta, and the conversion to Unitarianism of a
+Baptist missionary, Rev. William Adam, as a result of his attempt to
+convert Rammohun Roy. There followed frequent reports of this movement, and
+after a few months a letter from Mr. Adam was published. Even before this
+there had appeared accounts of William Roberts, of Madras, a native Tamil,
+who had been educated in England, and had there become a Unitarian. On his
+return to his own country he had established small congregations in the
+suburbs of Madras.
+
+In 1823 a letter from Rev. William Adam was received in Boston, addressed
+to Dr. Channing. It was put into the hands of the younger Henry Ware, who
+wrote to Mr. Adam and Rammohun Roy, propounding to them a number of
+questions in regard to the religious situation in India. In 1824 were
+published in a volume the letter of Ware and the series of questions sent
+by him to India, together with the replies of Rammohun Roy and William
+Adam.[2] This book was one of much interest, and furnished the first
+systematic account that had been given to the public of the reformatory
+religious interest awakened at that time in India. In February, 1825, was
+organized the Society for obtaining Information respecting the State of
+Religion in India, "with a view to obtain and diffuse information and to
+devise and recommend means for the promotion of Christianity in that part
+of the world." The younger Henry Ware was made the president, and Dr.
+Tuckerman the secretary. Already a fund had been collected to aid the
+British Indian Unitarian Association of Calcutta in its missionary efforts,
+especially in building a church and maintaining a minister.
+
+During the year 1825 there was published at the office of The Christian
+Register a pamphlet of sixty-three pages, written by a member of the
+Information Society, being An Appeal to Liberal Christians for the Cause of
+Christianity in India. In 1826 Dr. Tuckerman addressed A Letter on the
+Principles of the Missionary Enterprise to the executive committee of the
+Unitarian Association, in which he gave a noble exposition of the work of
+foreign missions, especially with reference to the Indian field. This
+letter and other writings of Tuckerman served to arouse much interest. The
+Appeal urged what many Unitarians had large faith in,--the promulgation of
+"just and rational views of our religion" "upon enlarged and liberal
+principles, from which we may hope for the speedy establishment and the
+wider extension there of the uncorrupted truth as it is in Jesus."
+
+In 1826 the sum of $7,000 was secured for this work; and in the spring of
+1827 a pledge was made to send yearly to Calcutta the sum of $600 for ten
+years. These pledges were in connection with like efforts made by the
+British and Foreign Unitarian Association. In 1839 Mr. Adam visited the
+United States, and spoke at the annual meeting of the Unitarian
+Association. Following this, he was for a few years professor of Oriental
+literature in Harvard University.
+
+[Sidenote: Dall's Work in India.]
+
+In 1853 Rev. Charles T. Brooks, who was for many years the minister of the
+church in Newport, visited India in search of health; and he was
+commissioned by the Unitarian Association to make inquiries as to the
+prospects for missionary labors in that country. In Madras he met William
+Roberts, the younger son of the former Unitarian preacher there and visited
+the several missions carried on by him. In Calcutta he found Unitarians,
+but the work of Mr. Adam had left almost no results. The report of Mr.
+Brooks was such that an effort was at once made to secure a missionary for
+India.[3] In 1855 Rev. Charles H.A. Dall undertook this mission. He had
+been a minister at large in St. Louis, Baltimore, and Portsmouth, and
+settled over parishes in Needham and Toronto. Mr. Ball was given the widest
+liberty of action in conducting his mission, as his instructions indicate:
+"There you are to enter upon the work of a missionary; and whether by
+preaching, in English or through an interpreter, or by school-teaching or
+by writing for the press, or by visiting from house to house, or by
+translating tracts, or by circulation of books, you are instructed, what we
+know your heart will prompt you to do, to give yourself to a life of
+usefulness as a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ."
+
+On his arrival at Calcutta, Mr. Ball was in a prostrate condition, and had
+to be carried ashore. After a time he rallied and began his work. He
+gathered a small congregation about him, then began teaching; and his work
+grew until he had four large and flourishing schools under his charge. In
+these he gave special attention, to moral and religious training, and to
+the industrial arts. In his school work he had the efficient aid of Miss
+Chamberlain, and after her death of Mrs. Helen Tompkins. One of the native
+teachers, Dwarkanath Singha, was of great service in securing the interest
+of the natives, being at the head, for many years, of all the schools under
+Mr. Dall's control. Mr. Dall founded the Calcutta School of Industrial Art,
+the Useful Arts' School, Hindoo Girls' School, as well as a school for the
+waifs of the streets. In these schools were 8,000 pupils, mostly Hindoos,
+who were taught a practical religion,--the simple principles of the gospel.
+In education Mr. Dall accomplished large results, not only by his schools,
+but by talking and lecturing on the subject. His influence was especially
+felt in the education of girls and in industrial training, in both of which
+directions he was a pioneer. Only one of his schools is now in existence,
+simply because the government took up the work he began, and gave it a
+larger support than was possible on the part of any individual or any
+society.
+
+Mr. Dall wrote extensively for the leading journals of India, and in that
+way he reached a larger number of persons throughout the country. This
+brought him a large correspondence, and he frequently journeyed far to
+visit individuals and congregations thus brought to his knowledge. For many
+years he was one of the leading men of Calcutta. Few great public meetings
+of any reformatory or educational kind were held without his having a
+prominent part in them. He published great numbers of tracts and
+lectures,[4] and translated the works of the leading Unitarians of
+America and Great Britain into Hindostanee, Bengali, Tamil, Sanscrit, and
+other native languages. His zeal in circulating liberal writings was great,
+and met with a large reward. He distributed hundreds of copies of the
+complete Works of Dr. Channing, and these brought many persons to the
+acceptance of Unitarianism. When Rev. Jabez T. Sunderland was in India, in
+1895-96, he found many traces of these volumes, even in remote parts of the
+country. When he was in Madras, a very intelligent Hindoo walked one
+hundred and fifty miles to procure of him a copy of Channing's biography to
+replace a copy received from Mr. Dall, which, had been reread and loaned
+until it was almost worn out.
+
+A considerable part of Mr. Ball's influence was in connection with the
+Brahmo-Somaj, in directing its religious, educational, and reformatory
+work. He did not make many nominal Unitarians; but he had a very large
+influence in shaping the life of India by his personal influence and by the
+weight of his religious character. Everywhere he was greatly beloved. He
+earned considerable sums as a reporter and author in aid of his mission,
+and he lived in a most abstemious manner in order to devote as much money
+as possible to his work.[5] In this devoted service he continued until
+his death, which took place July 18, 1886.
+
+[Sidenote: Recent Work in India.]
+
+Since the death of Mr. Dall the aid given to India by American Unitarians
+has been through the natives themselves. The work of Pundita, Ramabai has
+received considerable assistance, as has also that of Mozoomdar. Early in
+the year 1888, Rev. Brooke Herford, then minister of the Arlington Street
+Church in Boston, received from India a letter addressed "To the chief
+pastor of the Unitarian congregation at Boston." It proved to be from a
+young lawyer or pleader in Banda, North-west Provinces, named Akbar Masih.
+His father was an educated Mohammedan, who in early life had been converted
+to Calvinistic Christianity, and had become a missionary. At the Calcutta
+University the son had outgrown the faith he had been taught; and a volume
+of Channing's Works, put in circulation by Mr. Dall, had given him the
+mental and spiritual teaching he desired. Tracts and books were sent him,
+and a correspondence followed. He read with great delight what he received,
+and in a year or two he desired to become a missionary. Mr. Herford sent
+him money, and he was employed to spend one-third of his time in the
+missionary service of Unitarianism. When Mr. Herford removed to London, the
+support of Akbar Masih was arranged for in England; and he has done a large
+work in preaching, lecturing, holding conferences, and publishing tracts
+and books.
+
+Nearly in the same week in which Mr. Herford received his first letter from
+Akbar Masih, Mr. Sunderland, in Ann Arbor, received one from Hajam Kissor
+Singh, Jowai, Khasi Hills, Assam. He was a young man employed by the
+government as a surveyor, was well educated, but belonged to one of the
+primitive tribes that retain their aboriginal religion and customs to a
+large extent. He had been taught orthodox Christianity, however; but it was
+not satisfactory to him. A Brahmo friend loaned him a copy of Channing, and
+furnished him with Mr. Dall's address. In the bundle of tracts sent him by
+Mr. Dall was a copy of The Unitarian, which led him to write to its editor,
+Mr. Sunderland. A correspondence followed, and the sending of many tracts
+and books. Mr. Singh began to talk of his new views to others, who gathered
+in his room on Sunday afternoons for religious inquiry and worship. Soon
+there was a call for similar meetings in another village, and Mr. Singh
+began to serve as a lay-preacher. A church was organized in Jowai, and then
+a day school was opened. Tracts and books being necessary in order to carry
+on the work successfully, Mr. Sunderland raised the necessary money,
+printed them in Khasi at Ann Arbor, and forwarded them to Assam, thus
+greatly facilitating the labors of Mr. Singh and his assistants. Also,
+through the help of American Unitarians, Mr. Singh was able to secure the
+aid of two paid helpers. When Mr. Sunderland visited the Khasi Hills, in
+1895, as the agent of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association, he
+helped to ordain a regular pastor; and he found church buildings in five
+villages, day-schools in four, and religious circles meeting in eight or
+nine others. This mission is now being supported by the English Unitarians.
+
+[Sidenote: The Beginnings in Japan.]
+
+After the death of Mr. Dall it was not found desirable to continue his
+educational work, and the missionary activities in India naturally came
+under the jurisdiction of the British Unitarian Association. At the same
+time, Japan offered an inviting field for missionary effort, and one not
+hitherto occupied by Unitarians. In 1884 a movement began in that country,
+looking to the introduction of a rational Christianity, the leader being
+Yukichi Fukuzawa, a prominent statesman, head of the Keiogijiku University
+and editor of the leading newspaper. In 1886 Fumio Yano, after a visit to
+England, took up the same mission, and urged the adoption of Christianity
+as a moral force in the life of the nation. The latter interpreted
+Unitarianism as being the form of Christianity needed in Japan, and
+strongly urged its acceptance. Other prominent men joined with these two in
+commending a rational Christianity to their countrymen. Not long afterwards
+the American Unitarian Association was asked to establish a mission in that
+country. In 1887 Rev. Arthur M. Knapp was sent to Japan to investigate the
+situation, and in the spring of 1889 he returned to report the results of
+his inquiries. He had; been welcomed; by the leading men, such as the
+Marquis Tokujawa and Kentaro Kaneko, who opened to him many avenues of
+influence. He had written for the most important newspapers, had come into
+personal contact with the leading men of all parties, had lectured; on many
+occasions to highly educated audiences, and had opened a wide-reaching
+correspondence.
+
+On his return to Japan, in 1889, Mr. Knapp was prepared to begin systematic
+work in behalf of rational Christianity. It was not his purpose, however,
+to seek to establish Unitarianism there as the basis of a new Japanese
+sect, but to diffuse it as a leaven for the moral and spiritual elevation
+of the people of Japan. "The errand of Unitarianism in Japan," said Mr.
+Knapp to the Japanese, "is based upon the familiar idea of the sympathy of
+religions. With the conviction that we are the messengers of distinctive
+and valuable truths which have not yet been emphasized, and that, in
+return, there is much in your faith and life which to our harm we have not
+emphasized, receive us not as theological propagandists, but as messengers
+of the new gospel of human brotherhood in the religion of man."
+
+With Mr. Knapp were associated Rev. Clay MacCauley as colleague, and also
+Garrett Droppers, John H. Wigmore, and William Shields Liscomb, who were to
+become, professors in the Keiogijiku, a leading university, situated in
+Tokio, and to give such aid as they could to the Unitarian mission. With
+these men was soon associated Rev. H.W. Hawkes, a young English minister,
+who gave his services to this important work. There also accompanied the
+American party Mr. Saichiro Kanda, who had become a Unitarian while
+residing in San Francisco, and had attended the Meadville Theological
+School. In the winter of 1890-91, Mr. Knapp returned to the United States,
+and a little later Mr. Hawkes went back to England. In 1891 Rev. William I.
+Lawrance joined the mission force; and he continued with it until 1894,
+when a severe illness compelled his resignation. Professor Wigmore returned
+to America in 1892 to accept a chair in the North-western University;
+Professor Liscomb came home in 1893, dying soon after his return; while
+Professor Droppers remained until the winter of 1898, when he became the
+president of the University of South Dakota. In the beginning of 1900, Mr.
+MacCauley, after having had direction of the mission for nine years,
+returned to America; and it was left in control of the Japanese Unitarian
+Association, the American Association continuing to give it generous
+financial aid and counsel.
+
+As already indicated, the purpose of the mission has not been Unitarian
+propagandism as such. It has been that of religious enlightenment, the
+bringing to the Japanese, in a catholic and humanitarian spirit, of the
+body of religious truths and convictions known as Unitarianism, and then
+permitting them to organize themselves after the manner of their own
+national life. No churches were organized by the representatives of the
+American Unitarian Association. Those that have come into existence have
+been wholly at the initiative of the natives. Early in 1894 was erected, in
+Tokio, Yuiitsukwan, or Unity Hall, with money furnished largely from the
+United States. This building serves as the headquarters for Unitarian work,
+including lectures and social and religious meetings. In 1896 was organized
+the Japanese Unitarian Association for the work of diffusing Unitarian
+principles throughout the country. The mission is organized into the three
+departments of church extension, publication, and education. Of this
+Association, Jitsunen Saji, formerly a prominent Buddhist lecturer and a
+member at present of the city council of Tokyo, is the superintendent. The
+secretary has been Saichiro Kanda, who has faithfully given his time to
+this work since he returned to Japan with the mission party, in 1889. The
+broad purposes of the Japanese Unitarian Association have been clearly
+defined in its constitution: "We desire to act in accordance with God's
+will, which we perceive by our inborn reason. We strive to follow the
+guidance of noble religion, exact science and philosophy, and to discover
+their truth. We believe it to be a natural law of the human mind to
+investigate freely all phenomena of the universe. We aim to maintain the
+peace of the world, and to promote the happiness of mankind. We endeavor to
+assert our rights, and to fulfil our duties as Japanese citizens; and to
+increase the prosperity of the country by all honorable means."
+
+Early in 1891 was begun the publication in Japanese of a magazine called at
+first The Unitarian, but afterwards Religion. The paid circulation was
+about 1,000 copies, but it was largely used as a tract for free
+distribution. In 1897 this magazine was merged into a popular religious
+monthly called Rikugo-Zasshi or Cosmos, which has a large circulation. It
+is published at the headquarters of the Japanese Unitarian Association, and
+is the organ of the liberalizing work carried on by that institution. The
+Association has translated thirty or forty American and English
+tracts,--some have been added by native writers; and these were distributed
+to the number of 100,000 in 1900. A number of important liberal books,
+including Bixby's Crisis in Morals, Clarke's Steps in Belief, and Fiske's
+Idea of God, have been translated into Japanese, and obtain a ready sale.
+An extensive work of education, is carried on through the press, nearly all
+the leading journals having been freely open to the Unitarians since the
+beginning of the mission.
+
+The direct work of education has been the most important of all the phases
+of the mission's activities. A library of several thousand volumes,
+representing all phases of modern thought, has been collected in Unity
+Hall; and it is of great value to the teaching carried on there. Lectures
+are given every Sunday in Unity Hall, and listened to by large audiences.
+Much has been done in various parts of Tokyo, as well as elsewhere, to
+reach the student class, and educated persons in all classes of society;
+and many persons have thus been brought to an acceptance of Unitarianism.
+In 1890 were begun systematic courses of lectures, with a view to giving
+educated Japanese inquirers a thorough knowledge of modern religious ideas;
+and these grew into the Senshin Gakuin, or School of Advanced Learning, a
+theological school with seven professors, and an annual attendance of
+thirty or forty students, nearly all of whom have been graduates of
+colleges and universities. Unhappily, the failure of financial support
+compelled the abandonment of this school in 1898. The chief educational
+work, however, has been done in the colleges and universities, through the
+general diffusion of liberal religious principles, and by the free spirit
+of inquiry characteristic of all educated Japanese.
+
+The success of the Japanese mission is chiefly due to Rev. Clay MacCauley,
+who gave it the wise direction and the organizing skill necessary to its
+permanent growth. It is a noble monument to his devotion, and to his
+untiring efforts for its advancement. His little book on Christianity in
+History is very popular, both in its English and Japanese versions; and
+thousands of copies are annually distributed.
+
+The results of the Japanese mission are especially evident in a general
+liberalizing of religious thought throughout the country in both the
+Buddhist and Christian communions, and in the wide-spread approval shown
+towards its methods and principles among the upper and student classes. Its
+chief gain, however, consists of the scholarly and influential men who have
+accepted the Unitarian faith, and given it their zealous support. Among
+these men are the late Hajime Onishi, president of the College of
+Literature in the new Imperial University at Kyoto; Nobuta Kishimoto,
+professor of ethics in the Imperial Normal School; Tomoyoshi Murai,
+professor of English in the Foreign Languages School of Japan; Iso Abe,
+professor in the Doshisha University; Kinza Hirai, professor in the
+Imperial Normal School; Yoshiwo Ogasawara, who is leading an extensive work
+of social and moral reform in Wakayama; Saburo Shimada, proprietor of the
+Mainichi, one of the largest daily newspapers of the empire; and Zennosuki
+Toyosaki, professor in the Kokumin Eigakukwai, and associate editor of the
+Rikugo Zasshi.[6] These men are educating the Japanese people to know
+Christianity in its rational forms; and their influence is being rapidly
+extended throughout the country. In their hands the future of liberal
+religion in Japan is safe; and what they do for their own people is more
+certain of permanent results than anything that can be accomplished by
+foreigners. The real significance of the Japanese Unitarian mission is that
+it has inaugurated a new era in religious propagandism; that it has been
+for the followers of the religions traditional to Japan, as well as for
+those of the Christian missions, eminently a means for presenting them with
+the world's most advanced thought in religion, and that it has been a
+stimulus to a purer faith and a larger fellowship.
+
+[1] First Report of the Executive Committee of the American Unitarian
+    Association, 16. "The thoughts of the committee have been turned to
+    their brethren in other lands. A correspondence has been opened with
+    Unitarians in England, and the coincidence is worthy of notice, that
+    the British and Foreign Unitarian Association, and the American
+    Unitarian Association were organized on the same day, for the same
+    objects, and without the least previous concert. Our good wishes have
+    been reciprocated by the directors of the British Society. Letters
+    received from gentlemen who have recently visited England speak of
+    the interest which our brethren in that country feel for us, and of
+    their desire to strengthen the bonds of union. A constant
+    communication will be preserved between the two Associations and your
+    committee believe it will have a beneficial effect, by making us
+    better acquainted with one another, by introducing the publications
+    of each country into the other, by the influence which we shall
+    mutually exert, and by the strength which will be given to our
+    separate, or it may be, to our united efforts for the spread of the
+    glorious gospel of our Lord and Saviour."
+
+[2] Correspondence relative to the Prospects of Christianity and the
+    Means of Promoting its Reception in India. Cambridge: Billiard &
+    Metcalfe. 1824. 138 pp.
+
+[3] Christian Examiner, LXIII 36, India's Appeal to Christian Unitarians,
+    by Rev. C.T. Brooks.
+
+[4] Some Gospel Principles, in Ten Lectures, by C.H.A. Dall, Calcutta,
+    1856. Also see The Mission to India instituted by the American
+    Unitarian Association. Boston: Office of the Quarterly Journal.
+    1857.
+
+[5] See Out Indian Mission and Our First Missionary, by Rev. John H.
+    Heywood, Boston, 1887.
+
+[6] The Unitarian Movement in Japan: Sketches of the Lives and Religious
+    Work of Ten Representative Japanese. Tokyo, 1900.
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+
+THE MEADVILLE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL.
+
+In a few years after the movement began for the organization of churches
+west of the Hudson River, the needs of theological instruction for
+residents of that region were being discussed. In 1827 the younger Henry
+Ware was interested in a plan of uniting Unitarians and "the Christian
+connection" in the establishment of a theological school, to be located in
+the eastern part of the state of New York. In July of that year he wrote to
+a friend: "We have had; no little talk here within a few days respecting a
+new theological school. Many of us think favorably of the plan, and are
+disposed to patronize it, if feasible, but are a little fearful that it is
+not. Others start strong objections to it _in toto_. Something must be done
+to gain us an increase of ministers."[1] This proposition came from the
+Christians, and their plan was to locate the school on the Hudson.
+
+Although this project came to nothing for the time being, it was revived a
+decade later. When the Unitarian Association had entered upon its active
+missionary efforts west of the Alleghanies, the new impulse to
+denominational life manifested itself in a wide-spread desire for an
+increase in the number of workers available for the western field. The
+establishment of a liberal theological school in that region was felt to be
+almost a necessity, if the opportunities everywhere opening there for the
+dissemination of a purer faith were not to be neglected. Plans were
+therefore formed about 1836 for the founding of a theological school at
+Buffalo under the direction of Rev. George W. Hosmer, then the minister in
+that city; but, business becoming greatly depressed the following year, the
+project was abandoned. In 1840 the importance of such a school was again
+causing the western workers to plan for its establishment, this time in
+Cincinnati or Louisville; but this expectation also failed of realization.
+Then Rev. William G. Eliot, of St. Louis, undertook to provide a
+theological education for such young men as might apply to him. But the
+response to his offer was so slight as to indicate that there was little
+demand for such instruction.
+
+[Sidenote: The Beginnings in Meadville.]
+
+The demand for a school had steadily grown since the year 1827, and the fit
+occasion only was awaited for its establishment. It was found at Meadville,
+Penn., in the autumn of 1844. In order to understand why it should have
+been founded in this country village instead of one of the growing and
+prosperous cities of the west, it is necessary to give a brief account of
+the origin and growth of the Meadville church. The first Unitarian church
+organized west of the Alleghanies was that in Meadville, and it had its
+origin in the religious experiences of one man. The founder of this church,
+Harm Jan Huidekoper, was born in the district of Drenthe, Holland, at the
+village of Hogeveen, in 1776. At the age of twenty he came to the United
+States; and in 1804 he became the agent of the Holland Land Company in the
+north-western counties of Pennsylvania, and established himself at
+Meadville, then a small village. He was successful in his land operations,
+and was largely influential in the development of that part of the state.
+When his children were of an age to need religious instruction, he began to
+study the Bible with a view to deciding what he could conscientiously teach
+them. He had become a member of the Reformed Church in his native land, and
+he had attended the Presbyterian church in Meadville; but he now desired to
+form convictions based on his own inquiries. "When I had become a father,"
+he wrote, "and saw the time approaching when I should have to give
+religious instruction to my children, I felt it to be my duty to give this
+subject a thorough examination. I accordingly commenced studying the
+Scriptures, as being the only safe rule of the Christian's faith; and the
+result was, that I soon acquired clear, and definite views as to the
+leading doctrines of the Christian religion. But the good I derived from
+these studies has not been confined to giving me clear ideas as to the
+Christian doctrines. They created in me a strong and constantly increasing
+interest in religion itself, not as mere theory, but as a practical rule of
+life."[2] As the result of this study, he arrived at the conclusion that
+the Bible does not teach the doctrines of the Trinity, the total depravity
+of man, and the vicarious atonement of Christ. Solely from the careful
+reading of the Bible with reference to each of the leading doctrines he had
+been taught, he became a Unitarian.
+
+With the zeal of a new convert Mr. Huidekoper began to talk about his new
+faith, and he brought it to the attention of others with the enthusiasm of
+a propagandist. In conversation, by means of the distribution of tracts,
+and with the aid of the press he extended the liberal faith. He could not
+send his children to the church he had attended, and he therefore secured
+tutors for them from Harvard College who were preparing for the ministry;
+and in October, 1825, one of these tutors began holding Unitarian services
+in Meadville.[3] In May, 1829, a church was organized, and a goodly
+number of thoughtful men and women connected themselves with it. But this
+movement met with persistent opposition, and a vigorous controversy was
+carried on in the local papers and by means of pamphlets. This was
+increased when, in 1830, Ephraim Peabody, afterwards settled in Cincinnati,
+New Bedford, and at King's Chapel in Boston, became the minister, and
+entered upon an active effort for the extension of Unitarianism. With the
+first of January, 1831, he began the publication of the Unitarian Essayist,
+a small monthly pamphlet, in which the leading theological questions were
+discussed. In a few months Mr. Peabody went to Cincinnati; and the Essayist
+was continued by Mr. Huidekoper, who wrote with vigor and directness on the
+subjects he had carefully studied.
+
+In 1831 the church for the first time secured an ordained minister, and
+three years later one who gave his whole time to its service.[4] A church
+building was erected in 1836, and the prosperity of the congregation was
+thereby much increased. In 1843 a minister of the Christian connection,
+Rev. E.G. Holland, became the pastor for a brief period. At this time
+Frederic Huidekoper, a son of the founder of the Unitarian church in
+Meadville, had returned from his studies in the Harvard Divinity School and
+in Europe, and was ordained in Meadville, October 12, 1843. It was his
+purpose to become a Unitarian evangelist in the region about Meadville, but
+his attention was soon directed by Rev. George W. Hosmer to the importance
+of furnishing theological instruction to young men preparing for the
+Unitarian ministry. He was encouraged in this undertaking by Mr. Holland,
+who pointed out to him the large patronage that might be expected from the
+Christian body. It was at first intended that Mr. Huidekoper should give
+the principal instruction, and that he should be assisted by the pastor of
+the Independent Congregational Church (Unitarian) and by Mr. Hosmer, who
+was to come from Buffalo for a few weeks each year, exchanging pulpits with
+the Meadville minister. When the opening of the school was fixed for the
+autumn of 1844, the prospective number of applicants was so large as to
+necessitate a modification of the proposed plan; and it was deemed wise to
+secure a competent person to preside over the school and to become the
+minister of the church. Through the active co-operation of the American
+Unitarian Association, Rev. Rufus P. Stebbins, then settled at Leominster,
+Mass., was secured for this double service.
+
+The students present at the opening of the school on the first day of
+October, 1844, were but five; but this number was increased to nine during
+the year. The next year the number was twenty-three, nine of them from New
+England. For several years the Christian connection furnished a
+considerable proportion of the students, and took a lively interest in the
+establishment and growth of the school, although contributing little or
+nothing to its pecuniary support. It was also represented on the board of
+instruction by a non-resident lecturer. At this time the Christian body had
+no theological school of its own, and many of its members even looked with
+disfavor upon all ministerial education. What brought them into some degree
+of sympathy with Unitarians of that day was their rejection of binding
+creeds and their acceptance of Christian character as the only test of
+Christian fellowship, together with their recognition of the Bible,
+interpreted by every man for himself, as the authoritative standard of
+religious truth. The churches of this denomination in the northern states
+were also pronounced in their rejection of the doctrines of the Trinity and
+predestination. Unitarians themselves have not been more strenuous in the
+defence of the principle of religious liberty than were the leaders among
+the Christians of the last generation. The two bodies also joined in the
+management of Antioch College, in southern Ohio; and when Horace Mann
+became its president in 1852, he was made a minister of the Christian
+connection, in order that he might work more effectually in the promotion
+of its interests.
+
+The Meadville school began its work in a simple way, with few instructors
+and a limited course of study. Mr. Stebbins taught the Old Testament,
+Hebrew, Biblical antiquities, natural and revealed religion, mental and
+moral philosophy, systematic theology, and pulpit eloquence. Mr. Huidekoper
+gave instruction in the New Testament, hermeneutics, ecclesiastical
+history, Latin, Greek, and German. Mr. Hosmer lectured on pastoral care for
+a brief period during each year. A building for the school was provided by
+the generosity of the elder Huidekoper; and the expenses of board,
+instruction, rent, fuel, etc., were reduced to $30 per annum. Many of the
+students had received little education, and they needed a preliminary
+training in the most primary studies. Nevertheless, the school at once
+justified its establishment, and sent out many capable men, even from among
+those who came to it with the least preparation.
+
+Dr. Stebbins was president of the school for ten years. During his term of
+service the school was incorporated by the legislature of Pennsylvania in
+the spring of 1846. The charter was carefully drawn with a view to securing
+freedom in its administration. No denominational name appeared in the act
+of incorporation, and the original board of trustees included Christians as
+well as Unitarians. Dr. Stebbins was an admirable man to whom to intrust
+the organization of the school, for he was a born teacher and a masterful
+administrator. He was prompt, decisive, a great worker, a powerful
+preacher, an inspirer of others, and his students warmly admired and
+praised him.
+
+[Sidenote: The Growth of the School.]
+
+The next president of the school was Oliver Stearns, who held the office
+from 1856 to 1863. He was a student, a true and just thinker, of great
+moral earnestness, fine discrimination, and with a gift for academic
+organization. He was a man of a strong and deep personality, and his
+spiritual influence was profound. He had been settled at Northampton and
+over the third parish in Hingham before entering upon his work at
+Meadville. In 1863 he went to the Harvard Divinity School as the professor
+of pulpit eloquence and pastoral care until 1869, when he became the
+professor of theology; and from 1870 to 1878 he was the dean of the school.
+He was a preacher who "held and deserved a reputation among the foremost,"
+for his preaching was "pre-eminently spiritual." "In his relations to the
+divinity schools that enjoyed his services, it is impossible to
+over-estimate the extent, accuracy, and thoroughness of his scholarship,
+and his unwearying devotion to his work."[5]
+
+During Dr. Stearns' administration the small building originally occupied
+by the school was outgrown; and Divinity Hall was built on land east of the
+town, donated by Professor Frederic Huidekoper, and first occupied in 1861.
+In 1857 began a movement to elevate, the standard of admission to the
+school, in order that its work might be of a more advanced character. To
+meet the needs of those not able to accept this higher standard, a
+preparatory department was established in 1858, which was continued until
+1867.
+
+Rev. Abiel A. Livermore became the president of the school in 1863, and he
+remained in that position until 1890. He had been settled in Keene,
+Cincinnati, and Yonkers before going to Meadville. He was a Christian of
+the finest type, a true gentleman, and a noble friend. Under his direction
+the school grew in all directions, the course of study being largely
+enriched by the addition of new departments. In 1863 church polity and
+administration, including a study of the sects of Christendom, was made a
+special department. In 1868 the school opened its doors to women, and it
+has received about thirty women for a longer or shorter term of study. In
+1872 the academic degree of Bachelor of Divinity was offered for the first
+time to those completing the full course. In 1879 the philosophy of
+religion, and also the comparative study of religions, received the
+recognition they deserve. The same year ecclesiastical jurisprudence became
+a special department. In 1882 Rev. E.E. Hale lectured on charities, and
+from that time this subject has been systematically treated in connection
+with philanthropies. A movement was begun in 1889 to endow a professorship
+in memory of Dr. James Freeman Clarke, which was successful. These
+successive steps indicate the progress made under the faithful
+administration of Dr. Livermore. He became widely known to Unitarians by
+his commentaries on the books of the New Testament, as well as by his other
+writings, including volumes of sermons and lectures.
+
+In 1890 George L. Cary, who had been for many years the professor of New
+Testament literature, became the president of the school, a position he
+held for ten years. Under his leadership the school has largely advanced
+its standard of scholarship, outgrown studies have been discarded, while
+new ones have been added. New professorships and lectureships have been
+established, and the endowment of the school has been greatly increased.
+Huidekoper Hall, for the use of the library, was erected in 1890, and other
+important improvements have been added to the equipment of the school. In
+1892 the Adin Ballou lectureship of practical Christian sociology was
+established, and in 1895 the Hackley professorship of sociology and ethics.
+
+From the time of its establishment the Huidekoper family have been devoted
+friends and benefactors of the Theological School.[6] Frederic Huidekoper
+occupied the chair of New Testament literature from 1844 to 1855, and from
+1863 to 1877 that of ecclesiastical history. His services were given wholly
+without remuneration, and his benefactions to the school were numerous. He
+also added largely to the Brookes Fund for the distribution of Unitarian
+books. His historical writings made him widely known to scholars, and added
+to the reputation of the school. His Belief of the First Three Centuries
+concerning Christ's Mission to the Underworld appeared in 1853; Judaism at
+Rome, 1876; and Indirect Testimony of History to the Genuineness of the
+Gospels, 1879. He also republished at his own expense many valuable works
+that were out of print.
+
+Among the other professors have been Rev. Nathanial S. Folsom, who was in
+charge of the department of Biblical literature from 1848 to 1861. Of the
+regular lecturers have been Rev. Charles H. Brigham, Rev. Amory D. Mayo,
+and Dr. Thomas Hill. There has been an intimate relation between the
+Meadville church and the Theological School, and several of the pastors
+have been instructors and lecturers in the Theological School, including
+Rev. J.C. Zachos, Rev. James T. Bixby, and Rev. James M. Whiton. The
+Christian denomination has been represented among the lecturers by Rev.
+David Millard and Rev. Austin Craig.
+
+The whole number of graduates of the Meadville Theological School up to
+April, 1902, has been 267; and eighty other students have entered the
+ministry. At the present time 156 of its students are on the roll of
+Unitarian ministers. Thirty-two of its students served in the civil war,
+twenty per cent of its graduates previous to the close of the war being
+engaged in it as privates, chaplains, or in some other capacity. The
+endowment of the school has steadily increased until it now is somewhat
+more than $600,000.
+
+[1] Memoir of Henry Ware, Jr. 202.
+
+[2] J.F. Clarke, Christian Examiner, September, 1854, LVII. 310. "Mr.
+    Huidekoper had the satisfaction, in the later years of his life, of
+    seeing a respectable society worshipping in the tasteful building
+    which he loved and of witnessing the prosperity of the theological
+    school in which he was so much interested. We have never known any
+    one who seemed to live so habitually in the presence of God. The form
+    which his piety mostly took was that of gratitude and reliance. His
+    trust in the Divine goodness was like that of a child in its mother.
+    His cheerful views, of this life and of the other, his simple tastes,
+    his enjoyment of nature, his happiness in society, his love for
+    children, his pleasure in doing good, his tender affection for those
+    nearest to him,--these threw a warm light around his last days and
+    gave his home the aspect of a perpetual Sabbath. A well-balanced
+    activity of faculties contributed still more to his usefulness and
+    happiness. He was always a student, occupying every vacant hour with
+    a book, and so had attained a surprising knowledge of biography and
+    history." Mr. Huidekoper died in Meadville, May 22, 1854.
+
+[3] John M. Merrick, afterwards settled in Hardwick and Walpole, Mass.,
+    who was in Mr. Huidekoper's family from October, 1825, to October,
+    1827. He was succeeded by Andrew P. Peabody, who did not preach. In
+    1828-30 Washington Gilbert, who had settlements in Harvard, Lincoln,
+    and West Newton, was the tutor and preacher.
+
+[4] Rev. George Nichols, July, 1831, to July, 1832; Rev. Alanson Brigham,
+    who died in Meadville, August 24, 1833; Rev. John Quincy Day,
+    October, 1834, to September, 1837.
+
+[5] A.P. Peabody, Harvard Reminiscences, 165, 166
+
+[6] The first treasurer of the school was Edgar Huidekoper, who was
+    succeeded by Professor F. Huidekoper, and he in turn by Edgar
+    Huidekoper, the son of the first treasurer. Among the other generous
+    friends and benefactors of the school have been Alfred Huidekoper,
+    Miss Elizabeth Huidekoper, and Mrs. Henry P. Kidder.
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+
+
+UNITARIAN PHILANTHROPIES.
+
+The liberal movement in religion was characterized in its early period by
+its humanitarianism. As theology grew less important for it, there was an
+increase in its philanthropy. With the waning of the sectarian spirit there
+was a growth in desire for practical reforms. The awakened interest in man
+and enlarged faith in his spiritual capacities showed itself in efforts to
+improve his social condition. No one expressed this tendency more perfectly
+than Dr. Channing, though he was a spiritual teacher rather than a reformer
+or philanthropist.
+
+Any statement concerning the charities in connection with which Channing
+was active will give the most inadequate idea of his actual influence in
+this direction. He was greatly interested in promoting the circulation of
+the Bible, in aiding the cause of temperance, and in bringing freedom to
+the slave. His biographer says that his thoughts were continually becoming
+concentrated more and more upon the terrible problem of pauperism, "and he
+saw more clearly each year that what the times demanded was that the axe
+should be laid at the very root of ignorance, temptation and strife by
+substituting for the present unjust and unequal distribution of the
+privileges of life some system of cordial, respectful brotherly
+co-operation."[1] His interest in education was most comprehensive, and
+he sought its advancement in all directions with the confident faith that
+it would help to uplift all classes and make them more truly human.[2]
+
+[Sidenote: Unitarian Charities.]
+
+The liberals of New England, in the early years of the nineteenth century,
+were not mere theorizers in regard to human helpfulness and the application
+of Christianity to life; for they endeavored to realize the spirit of
+charity and service. Largely under their leadership the Massachusetts Bible
+Society was organized in 1809. A more distinctly charitable undertaking was
+the Fragment Society, organized in 1812 to help the poor by the
+distribution of garments, the lending of bedding to the sick and clothes to
+children in charity schools, as well as the providing of such children with
+shoes. This society also undertook to provide Bibles for the poor who had
+none. Under the leadership of Rev. Joseph Tuckerman, then settled in
+Chelsea, there was organized, May 11, 1812, the Boston Society for the
+Religious and Moral Improvement of Seamen, "to distribute tracts of a
+religious and moral kind for the use of seamen, and to establish a regular
+divine service on board of our merchant vessels." In 1813 the Massachusetts
+Society for the Suppression of Intemperance, in 1815 the Massachusetts
+Peace Society, and at about the same time the Society for the Employment of
+the Poor came into existence.
+
+Of the early Unitarians Rev. Octavius B. Frothingham justly said: "They all
+had a genuine desire to render the earthly lot of mankind tolerable. It is
+not too much to say that they started every one of our best secular
+charities. The town of Boston had a poor-house, and nothing more until the
+Unitarians initiated humane institutions for the helpless, the blind, the
+insane. The Massachusetts General Hospital (1811), the McLean Asylum for
+the Insane (1818), the Perkins Blind Asylum (1832), the Female Orphan
+Asylum (1800), were of their devising."[3] What this work meant was well
+stated by Dr. Andrew P. Peabody, when he said there was "probably no city
+in the world where there had been more ample provision for the poor than in
+Boston, whether by private alms-giving, benevolent organizations, or public
+institutions."[4] Nor was this altruistic spirit manifested alone in
+Boston, for Mr. Frothingham quotes the saying of a lady to Dr. E.E. Hale:
+"A Unitarian church to you merely means one more name on your calendar. To
+the people in this town it means better books, better music, better
+sewerage, better health, better life, less drunkenness, more purity, and
+better government."[5] The Unitarian conception of the relations of
+altruism and religion was pertinently stated by Dr. J.T. Kirkland,
+president of Harvard College during the early years of the nineteenth
+century, when he said that "we have as much piety as charity, and no
+more."[6] One who knew intimately of the work of the ministry at large
+has truly said of the labors of Dr. Tuckerman: "From the beginning he had
+the moral and pecuniary support of the leaders of life in Boston; her first
+merchants and her statesmen were watching these experiments with a curious
+interest, and although he was often so radical as to startle the most
+conservative notions of men engaged in trade, or learned in the
+old-fashioned science of government, there was that in the persistence of
+his life and the accuracy of his method which engaged their support."[7]
+
+Another instance of Unitarian philanthropy is to be found in the support
+given to Rev. Edward T. Taylor, usually known as "Father Taylor," in his
+work for sailors. When he went to Boston in 1829 to begin his mission, the
+first person he visited was Dr. Channing, and the second Ralph Waldo
+Emerson, then a settled pastor in the city. Both of these men made generous
+contributions to his mission, and aided him in securing the attention of
+wealthy contributors.[8] In fact, his Bethel was almost wholly supported
+by Unitarians. For thirty years Mr. Albert Fearing was the president of the
+Boston Port Society, organized for the support of Taylor's Seamen's Bethel.
+The corresponding secretary was Mr. Henry Parker. Among other Unitarian
+supporters of this work was Hon. John A. Andrew.[9]
+
+We have no right to assume that the Unitarians alone were philanthropic,
+but they had the wealth and the social position to make their efforts in
+this direction thoroughly effective.[10] That the results were beneficent
+may be understood from the testimony of Mrs. Horace Mann. "The liberal
+sects of Boston," she wrote to a friend, "quite carried the day at that
+time in works of benevolence and Christian charity. They took care of the
+needy without regard to sectarianism. Such women as Helen Loring and
+Elizabeth Howard, (Mrs. Cyrus A. Bartol), Dorothea Dix, Mary Pritchard
+(Mrs. Henry Ware), and many others less known to the world, but equally
+devoted to the work, with many youthful coadjutors, took care of the poor
+wonderfully."[11] After spending several weeks in Boston in 1842, and
+giving careful attention to the charities and philanthropies of the city,
+Charles Dickens wrote: "I sincerely believe that the public institutions
+and charities of this capital of Massachusetts are as nearly perfect as the
+most considerate wisdom, benevolence, humanity, can make them. I never in
+my life was more affected by the contemplation of happiness, under
+circumstances of privation and bereavement, than in my visits to these
+establishments."[12]
+
+[Sidenote: Education of the Blind.]
+
+The pioneer in the work of educating the blind and the deaf was Dr. Samuel
+G. Howe, who had been one of those who in 1824 went to Greece to aid in the
+establishment of Greek independence. On his return, in 1832, he became
+acquainted with European methods of teaching the blind; and in that year he
+opened the Massachusetts School and Asylum for the Blind, "the pioneer of
+such establishments in America, and the most illustrious of its class in
+the world."[13] In his father's house in Pleasant Street, Dr. Howe began
+his school with a few pupils, prepared books for them, and then set about
+raising money to secure larger facilities. Colonel Thomas H. Perkins, of
+Boston, gave his house in Pearl Street, valued at $50,000, on condition
+that a like sum should be contributed for the maintenance of the school. In
+six weeks the desired sum was secured, and the school was, afterwards known
+as the Perkins Institution for the Blind. Dr. Howe addressed seventeen
+state legislatures on the education of the blind, with the result of
+establishing schools similar to his own. His arduous task, however, was
+that of providing the blind with books; and he used his great inventive
+skill in perfecting the necessary methods. He succeeded in making it
+comparatively easy to print books for the blind, and therefore made it
+possible to have a library of such works.
+
+In the autumn of 1837 Dr. Howe discovered Laura Bridgman, who had only the
+one sense of touch remaining in a normal condition; and his remarkable
+success, in her education made him famous. In connection with her and other
+pupils he began the process of teaching the deaf to use articulate speech,
+and all who have followed him in this work have but extended and perfected
+his methods. While teaching the blind and deaf, Dr. Howe found those who
+were idiotic; and he began to study this class of persons about 1840, and
+to devise methods for their education. As a member of the Massachusetts
+legislature in 1846, he secured the appointment of a commission to
+investigate the condition of the idiotic; and for this commission he wrote
+the report. In 1847, the state having made an appropriation for the
+teaching of idiotic, children, ten of them were taught at the Blind Asylum,
+under the care of Dr. Howe. In 1851 a separate school was provided for such
+children.
+
+Dr. Howe was called "the Massachusetts philanthropist," but his
+philanthropy was universal in its humanitarian aims. He gave large and
+faithful attention, in 1845 and later, to prisons and prisoners; he was a
+zealous friend of the slave and the freedman; and in 1864 he devoted
+arduous service to the reform of the state charities of Massachusetts. His
+biographer justly says of his spirit of universal philanthropy: "He joined
+in the movement in Boston which abolished imprisonment for debt; he was an
+early and active member of the Boston Prison Discipline Society, which once
+did much service; and for years, when interest in prison reform was at a
+low ebb in Massachusetts, the one forlorn relict of that once powerful
+organization, a Prisoner's Aid Society, used to hold its meetings in Dr.
+Howe's spacious chamber in Bromfield Street. He took an early interest in
+the care of the insane, with which his friends Horace Mann, Dr. Edward
+Jarvis, and Dorothea Dix were greatly occupied; and in later years he
+introduced some most useful methods of caring for the insane in
+Massachusetts. He favored the temperance reform, and wrote much as a
+physician on the harm done to individuals and to the human stock by the use
+of alcoholic liquors. He stood with Father Taylor of the Seamen's Bethel in
+Boston for the salvation of the sailors and their protection from cruel
+punishments, and he was one of those who almost abolished the flogging of
+children in schools. During his whole career as a reformer of public
+schools in New England, Horace Mann had no friend more intimate or helpful
+than Dr. Howe, nor one whose support was more indispensable to Mann
+himself."[14]
+
+Dr. Howe was an attendant upon the preaching of Theodore Parker, and was
+his intimate friend. In after years he was a member of the congregation of
+James Freeman Clarke at the Church of the Disciples. "After our return to
+America," says Mrs. Howe of the year 1844, "my husband went often to the
+Melodeon, where Parker preached until he took possession of the Music Hall.
+The interest which my husband showed in these services led me in time to
+attend them, and I remember as among the great opportunities of my life the
+years in which I listened to Theodore Parker."[15]
+
+[Sidenote: Care of the Insane.]
+
+Another among the many persons who came under the influence of Dr. Channing
+was Dorothea Dix, who, as a teacher of his children, lived for many months
+in his family and enjoyed his intimate friendship. Her biographer says:
+"She had drunk in with passionate faith Dr. Channing's fervid insistence on
+the presence in human nature, even under its most degraded types, of germs,
+at least, of endless spiritual development. But it was the characteristic
+of her own mind that it tended not to protracted speculation, but to
+immediate, embodied action."[16] Her work for the insane was the
+expression of the deep faith in humanity she had been taught by Channing.
+
+When she entered upon her humanitarian efforts, but few hospitals for the
+insane existed in the country. A notable exception was the McLean Asylum at
+Somerville, which had been built as the result of that same philanthropic
+spirit that had led the Unitarians to establish the many charities already
+mentioned in these pages. In March, 1841, Miss Dix visited the House of
+Correction in East Cambridge; and for the wretched condition of the
+inmates, she at once set to work to provide remedies. Then she visited the
+jails and alms-houses in many parts of the state, and presented a memorial
+to the legislature recounting what she had found and asking for reforms.
+She was met by bitter opposition; but such persons as Samuel G. Howe, Dr.
+Channing, Horace Mann, and John G. Palfrey came to her aid. The bill
+providing for relief to the insane came into the hands of a committee of
+which Dr. Howe was the chairman, and he energetically pushed it forward to
+enactment. Thus Miss Dix began her crusade against an enormous evil.
+
+In 1845 Miss Dix reported that in three years she had travelled ten
+thousand miles, visited eighteen state penitentiaries, three hundred jails
+and houses of correction, and five hundred almshouses and other
+institutions, secured the establishment or enlargement of six hospitals for
+the insane, several county poorhouses, and several jails on a reformed
+plan. She visited every state east of the Rocky Mountains, and also the
+British Provinces, to secure legislation in behalf of the insane. She
+secured the erection of hospitals or other reformatory action in Rhode
+Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee,
+Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina, Nova Scotia, and
+Newfoundland. Her labors also secured the establishment of a hospital for
+the insane of the army and navy, near Washington. All this was the work of
+nine years.
+
+In 1853 Miss Dix gave her attention to providing an adequate life-saving
+equipment for Sable Island, one of we most dangerous places to seamen on
+the Atlantic coast; and this became the means of saving many lives. In 1854
+she went to England for needed rest; but almost at once she took up her
+humanitarian work, this time in Scotland, where she secured a commission of
+inquiry, which in 1857 resulted in reformatory legislation on the part of
+Parliament. In 1855 she visited the island of Jersey, and secured great
+improvements in the care of the insane. Later in that year she visited
+Switzerland for rest, but in a few weeks was studying the charities of
+Paris and then those of Italy. In Rome she had two interviews with the
+pope, and the erection of a new hospital for the insane on modern
+principles resulted. Speaking only English, and without letters of
+introduction, she visited the insane hospitals and the prisons of Greece,
+Turkey, Austria, Sclavonia, Russia, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark,
+Holland, and Belgium. "Day by day she patiently explored the asylums,
+prisons, and poor-houses of every place in which she set her foot, glad to
+her heart's core when she found anything to commend and learn a lesson
+from, and patiently striving, where she struck the traces of ignorance,
+neglect, or wrong, to right the evil by direct appeal to the highest
+authorities."
+
+On her return home, in September, 1856, she was met by many urgent appeals
+for help in enlarging hospitals and erecting new ones; and she devoted her
+time until the outbreak of the civil war in work for the insane in the
+southern and middle north-western states. As soon as the troops were
+ordered to Washington, she went there and offered her services as a nurse,
+and was at once appointed superintendent of women nurses for the whole
+army. She carried through the tasks of this office with energy and
+devotion. In 1866 she secured the erection of a monument to the fallen
+soldiers in the National Cemetery, at Hampton.
+
+Then she returned at once to her work in asylums, poorhouses, and prisons,
+continuing this task until past her seventy-fifth year. "Her frequent
+visits to our institutions of the insane now, and her searching
+criticisms," wrote a leading alienist, "constitute of themselves a better
+lunacy commission than would be likely to be appointed in many of our
+states."[17] The last five years of her life were spent as a guest in the
+New Jersey State Asylum at Trenton, it being fit that one of the thirty-two
+hospitals she had been the means of erecting should afford her a home for
+her declining years.
+
+Miss Dix was called by many "our Lady," "our Patron Saint"; and well she
+deserved these expressions of reverence. President Fillmore said in a
+letter to her, "Wealth and power never reared such monuments to selfish
+pride as you have reared to the love of mankind." She had the unreserved
+consecration to the needs of the poor and suffering that caused her to
+write: "If I am cold, they are cold; if I am weary, they are distressed; if
+I am alone, they are abandoned."[18] Her biographer justly compares her
+with the greatest of the saints, and says, "Precisely the same
+characteristics marked her, the same absolute religious consecration, the
+same heroic readiness to trample under foot the pains of illness,
+loneliness, and opposition, the same intellectual grasp of what a great
+reformatory work demanded."[19] Truly was it said of her that she was "the
+most useful and distinguished woman America has produced."[20]
+
+[Sidenote: Child-saving Missions.]
+
+As was justly said by Professor Francis G. Peabody, "the Boston Children's
+Mission was the direct fruit of the ministry of Dr. Tuckerman, and
+antedates all other conspicuous undertakings of the same nature. The first
+president of the Children's Mission, John E. Williams, a Unitarian layman,
+moved later to New York, and became the first treasurer of the newly
+created Children's Aid Society of that city, formed in 1853. Thus the work
+of the Children's Mission and the kindred service of the Warren Street
+Chapel, under the leadership of Charles Barnard, must be reckoned as the
+most immediate, if not the only American antecedent, of the great modern
+works of child-saving charity."[21]
+
+The Children's Mission to the Children of the Destitute grew out of the
+work of the Howard Sunday-school, then connected with the Pitts Street
+Chapel. When several men connected with that school were discussing the
+fact that a great number of vagrant children were dealt with by the police,
+Fanny S. Merrill said to her father, Mr. George Merrill, "Father, can't we
+children do something to help those poor little ones?" This question
+suggested a new field of work; and a meeting was held on April 27, 1849,
+under the auspices of Rev. Robert C. Waterston, to consider this
+proposition. On May 9 the society was organized "to create a special
+mission to the poor, ignorant, neglected children of this city; to gather
+them into day and Sunday schools; to procure places and employment for
+them; and generally to adopt and pursue such measures as would be most
+likely to save or rescue them from vice, ignorance and degradation." In the
+beginning this mission was supported by the Unitarian Sunday-schools in
+Boston, but gradually the number of schools contributing to its maintenance
+was enlarged until it included nearly all of those connected with Unitarian
+churches in New England.
+
+As soon as the mission was organized, Rev. Joseph E. Barry was made the
+missionary; and he opened a Sunday-school in Utica Street. Beginning in
+1853, one or more women were employed to aid him in his work. In May, 1857,
+Rev. Edmund Squire began work as a missionary in Washington Village; but
+this mission was soon given into the hands of the Benevolent Fraternity. In
+June, 1858, Mr. B.H. Greene was engaged to visit the jail and lockup in aid
+of the young persons found there. In 1859 work was undertaken in East
+Boston, and also in South Boston. From this time onward from three to five
+persons were constantly employed as missionaries, in visiting throughout
+the city, persuading children to attend day-schools, sewing-schools, and
+Sunday-schools, securing employment for those old enough to labor, and in
+placing children in country homes. In April, 1857, Mr. Barry took a party
+of forty-eight children to Illinois; and five other parties followed to
+that state and to Michigan and Ohio. Since 1860 homes have been found in
+New England for all children sent outside the city.
+
+In November, 1858, a hall in Eliot Street was secured for the religious
+services of the mission, which included boys' classes, Sunday-school, and
+various organizations of a moral and intellectual character. In 1859 a
+house was rented in Camden Street especially for the care of the boys who
+came under the charge of the mission. In March, 1867, was completed the
+house on Tremont Street in which the work of the mission has, since been
+carried on. An additional building for very young children was provided in
+October, 1890. For years Mr. Barry continued his work as the missionary of
+this noble ministry to the children of the poor. Since 1877 Mr. William
+Crosby has been the efficient superintendent, having served for eighteen
+years previously as the treasurer. The mission has cared for more than five
+thousand children.
+
+[Sidenote: Care of the Poor.]
+
+It has been indicated already that much attention was given to the care of
+the poor and to the prevention of pauperism. It is safe to assume that
+every Unitarian minister was a worker in this direction. It is well to
+notice the efforts of one man, because his work led to the scientific
+methods of charitable relief which are employed in Boston at the present
+time. When Rev. Ephraim Peabody became the minister of King's Chapel, in
+1846, he turned his attention to the education of the poor and to the
+prevention of pauperism. In connection with Rev. Frederick T. Gray he
+opened a school for those adults whose education had been neglected.
+Especial attention was given to the elementary instruction of emigrant
+women. Many children and adults accepted the opportunity thus afforded, and
+a large school was maintained for several years.
+
+With the aid of Mr. Francis E. Parker another important work was undertaken
+by Mr. Peabody. Although Dr. Tuckerman had labored to prevent duplication
+of charitable gifts and to organize the philanthropies of Boston in an
+effective manner, with the increase of population the evils he strove to
+prevent had grown into large proportions. In order to prevent overlapping,
+imposition, and failure to provide for many who were really needy, but not
+eager to push their own claims, Mr. Peabody organized the Boston Provident
+Association in 1851. This society divided the city into small districts,
+and put each under the supervision of a person who was to examine every
+case that came before the society within the territory assigned him. The
+first president of this society was Hon. Samuel A. Eliot, who was a mayor
+of the city, a representative in the lower house of Congress, and an
+organizer of many philanthropies. This society was eminently successful in
+its operations, and did a great amount of good. Its friendly visits to the
+poor and its judicious methods of procuring the co-operation of many
+charity workers prepared the way for the introduction, in 1879, of the
+Associated Charities of Boston, which extended and effectively organized
+the work begun by Mr. Peabody.[22] Numerous other organizations might be
+mentioned that have been initiated by Unitarians or largely supported by
+them.[23]
+
+[Sidenote: Humane Treatment of Animals.]
+
+The work for the humane treatment of animals was begun, and has been
+largely carried on, by Unitarians. The founder of the American Society for
+the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was Henry Bergh, who was a member of
+All Souls' Church in New York, under the ministry of Dr. Bellows. In 1865
+he began his work in behalf of kindness to animals in New York City, and
+the society he organized was incorporated April 10, 1866. It was soon
+engaged in an extensive work. In 1873 Mr. Bergh proceeded to organize
+branch humane societies; and, as the result of his work, most of the states
+have legislated for the humane care of animals.
+
+A similar work of a Unitarian is that of Mr. George T. Angell in Boston,
+who in 1868 founded, and has since been the president of, the Massachusetts
+Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. In 1889 he became the
+president of the American Humane Education Society, a position he continues
+to hold. He is the editor of Our Dumb Animals, and has in many ways been
+active in the work of the great charity with which he has been connected.
+
+[Sidenote: Young Men's Christian Unions.]
+
+The initiative in the establishment of Christian unions for young men in
+cities, on a wholly unsectarian basis, was taken by a Unitarian. Mr. Caleb
+Davis Bradlee, a Harvard undergraduate, who was afterward a Boston pastor
+for many years, gathered together in the parlor of his father's house a
+company of young men, and proposed to them the formation of a society for
+mutual improvement. This was on September 17, 1851; and the organization
+then formed was called the Biblical Literature Society. Those who belonged
+to the society during the winter of 1851-52 were so much benefited by it
+that they decided to enlarge their plans and to extend their influence to a
+greater number. At the suggestion of Rev. Charles Brooks, minister of the
+Unitarian church in South Hingham, the name was changed to the Boston Young
+Men's Christian Union, the first meeting under the new form of organization
+being held March 15, 1852. On October 11 of the same year the society was
+incorporated, many of the leading men of the city having already given it
+their encouragement and support.[24]
+
+[Sidenote: Educational Work in the South.]
+
+After the close of the civil war there was a large demand for help in the
+South, especially amongst the negroes. Most of the aid given by Unitarians
+was through other than denominational channels; but something was done by
+the Unitarian Association as well as by other Unitarian organizations. Miss
+Amy Bradley, who had been a very successful worker for the Sanitary
+Commission, opened a school for the whites in Wilmington, N.C. Her work
+extended to all the schools of the city, and was eminently successful. She
+became the city and then the county superintendent of schools. She was
+supported by the Unitarian Association and the Soldiers' Memorial Society.
+Among the Unitarians who at that time engaged in the work of educating the
+negroes were Rev. Henry F. Edes in Georgia, Rev. James Thurston in North
+Carolina, Miss M. Louisa Shaw in Florida, Miss Bottume on Ladies' Island,
+and Miss Sally Holley and Miss Caroline F. Putnam in Virginia.
+
+In 1868 the Unitarian Association entered upon a systematic effort to aid
+the negroes through co-operation with the African Methodist Episcopal
+Church. The sum of $4,000 was in that year devoted to this work; and it was
+largely spent in educational efforts, especially in aid of college and
+theological students. Wilberforce University had the benefit of lectures
+from Dr. George W. Hosmer, president of Antioch College, and of Edward
+Orton, James K. Hosmer, and other professors in that institution. Libraries
+of about fifty volumes of carefully selected books, including elementary
+works of science, history, biography, and a few theological works, were
+given to ministers of that church who applied for them. This connection
+continued for several years, and was of much importance in the advancement
+of the South.
+
+With the first of January, 1886, the Unitarian Association established a
+bureau of information in regard to southern education, of which General
+J.B.F. Marshall, who had been for many years the treasurer of the Hampton
+Institute, was made the superintendent. This bureau, during its existence
+of three years, investigated the claims of various schools, and recommended
+those most deserving of aid.
+
+In 1891 Miss Mabel W. Dillingham and Miss Charlotte R. Thorn, who had been
+teachers for several years in the Hampton Institute, opened a school for
+negroes in Calhoun, Ala. Miss Dillingham died in 1894; and she was
+succeeded by her brother, Rev. Pitt Dillingham, as the principal of the
+school. The Calhoun School has been supported mostly by Unitarians, and it
+has been successful in doing a practical and important work.
+
+During the first eight years of the Tuskegee Institute it received $5,000
+annually from Unitarians, and in more recent years $10,000 annually. This
+has been given by individuals, churches, and other organizations, but in no
+sense as a denominational work. Concerning the aid given to the Hampton
+Institute this statement has been made by the principal: "The Unitarian
+denomination has had a very important part in the work of Hampton. Our
+first treasurer was General J.F.B. Marshall, a Unitarian who made it
+possible for General Armstrong first to gain access to Boston and secure
+friends there, many of whom have been lifelong contributors to this work.
+General Marshall came to Hampton in 1872, and for some twelve years took a
+most important part in building up this institution. He trained young men
+for the treasurer's office, who still hold important positions in the
+school, and others who have been sent to various institutions. The home of
+General and Mrs. Marshall here was of incalculable help in many ways,
+brightening and cheering the lives of our teachers and students. Unitarians
+have always had a prominent part in the support of Hampton. Mrs. Mary
+Hemenway was the largest donor to the Institute during her lifetime. She
+gave $10,000 for the purchase of our Hemenway Farm, and helped General
+Armstrong in many ways."[25]
+
+[Sidenote: Educational Work for the Indians.]
+
+At three different periods the Unitarian Association has undertaken
+educational work amongst the Indians. The first of these proved abortive,
+but is of much interest. James Tanner,[26] a half-breed Chippeway or
+Ojibway from Minnesota, appeared before the board of the Association,
+February 12, 1855, in behalf of his people. He had been a Baptist
+missionary to the Ojibways, but had found that he could accomplish little
+while the Indians continued their roving life and their wars with the
+Sioux. He therefore wished to have his people adopt a settled agricultural
+life. The Baptist Home Missionary Society, with which he was laboring,
+would not accede to his plans in this respect, and desired that he should
+confine himself to the preaching of the gospel. Unable to do this on
+account of his liberal views, he went to Boston with the hope that he might
+secure aid from the Baptists there. He was soon told that he was a
+Unitarian, and he sought a knowledge of those of that faith. He was thus
+led to apply to the Unitarian Association for help, which was granted. He
+secured an outfit of agricultural and other implements, and returned to his
+people in the spring of 1855. In December of that year Mr. Tanner attended
+a meeting of the board of the Association, accompanied by six Ojibway
+chiefs. On this unique occasion the calumet was smoked by all present, and
+addresses were made by the Indians. In April, 1856, the board reluctantly
+abandoned this enterprise, because the money for the yearly expenditure of
+$4,000, which it required, could not be secured.[27]
+
+In 1871 President Grant inaugurated the policy of educating the Indians
+under the direction of the several religious denominations of the country.
+To the Unitarians were assigned the Utes of Colorado. The reservation at
+White River was placed in charge of Mr. J.S. Littlefield, and that at Los
+Pinos of Rev. J. Nelson Trask. Several other persons took up this work,
+including Rev. Henry F. Bond and his wife. In 1885 the Utes were removed to
+a reservation in Utah. In the spring of 1886 Mr. Bond returned to them for
+the purpose of establishing a boarding-school amongst them; but, not
+getting sufficient encouragement, he went to Montana, where in the autumn
+he opened the Montana Industrial School, with eighteen pupils from the
+Crows in attendance. Buildings were erected, farm work begun, carpenter and
+blacksmith shops put in operation, all at a cost of $20,000. The school was
+located on the Big Horn River, thirty miles from Fort Custer.
+
+It was the object of the Montana Industrial School to remove the Indian
+children from their nomadic conditions and to give them a practical
+education, with so much of instruction in books as would be of real help to
+them. The boys were taught farm work and the use of tools, while the girls
+were trained in sewing, cooking, and other useful employments. At the same
+time there was constant training in cleanliness, good manners, and right
+living. The school was fairly successful; and the results would doubtless
+have been important, could the experiment have gone on for a longer period.
+In 1891 Mr. Bond withdrew from the school on account of his age, and it was
+placed in charge of Rev. A.A. Spencer. With the 1st of July, 1895, however,
+the care of the school was assumed by the national government.
+
+Extended as this chapter has become, it has failed to give anything like an
+exhaustive statement of the philanthropies of Unitarians. Their charitable
+activities have been constant and in many directions. This may be seen in
+the wide-reaching philanthropic interests of Dr. Edward Everett Hale, whose
+Lend-a-hand Clubs, King's Daughters societies, and kindred movements
+admirably illustrate the practical side of Unitarianism, its broad
+humanitarian spirit, its philanthropic and reformatory purpose, and its
+high ideal of Christian fidelity and service.
+
+[1] Memoir, III. 17; one-volume edition, 465.
+
+[2] Memoir, III. 61, 62; one-volume edition, 487, 488.
+
+[3] Boston Unitarianism, 127.
+
+[4] Harvard Graduates, 155.
+
+[5] Boston Unitarianism, 253.
+
+[6] Elizabeth P. Peabody, Reminiscences of Dr. W.E. Channing, 290.
+
+[7] Eber R. Butler, Lend a Hand, October, 1890, V. 681.
+
+[8] Elizabeth P. Peabody, Reminiscences of W.E. Channing, 273.
+
+[9] Gilbert Haven, Anecdotes of Rev. Edward T. Taylor, 114.
+
+[10] Ibid., 119.
+
+[11] Gilbert Haven, Anecdotes of Rev. Edward T. Taylor, 330.
+
+[12] American Notes, chap. iii.
+
+[13] Frank B. Sanborn, Biography of Dr. S.G. Howe, Philanthropist, 110.
+
+[14] Frank B. Sanborn, Biography of Dr. S.G. Howe, Philanthropist, 170.
+
+[15] Reminiscences, 161.
+
+[16] Francis Tiffany, Life of Dorothea Lynde Dix, 58.
+
+[17] Francis Tiffany, Life of Dorothea Lynde Dix, 355.
+
+[18] Ibid., 327.
+
+[19] Ibid., 290.
+
+[20] Ibid., 375.
+
+[21] Report of the National Conference, 1895, 205.
+
+[22] Sermons of Ephraim Peabody, introductory Memoir, xxv; Memorial
+     History of Boston, IV. 662, George S. Hale on the Charities of
+     Boston; A.P. Peabody, Harvard Graduates, 155.
+
+[23] Besides the Fragment Society, the Children's Mission, and the Boston
+     Provident Society, already mentioned and still vigorously at work,
+     several other societies are wholly supported by Unitarians. Of these
+     may be named the Howard Benevolent Society in the City of Boston,
+     organized in 1812, incorporated in 1818; Young Men's Benevolent
+     Society, organized in 1827, incorporated in 1852; Industrial Aid
+     Society for the Prevention of Pauperism, organized in 1835,
+     incorporated in 1884.
+
+[24] Alfred Manchester, Life of Caleb Davis Bradlee, 8; First Anniversary,
+     address before the Boston Young Men's Christian Union by Rev. F.D.
+     Huntington, Appendix.
+
+[25] Personal letter from Mr. H.B. Frissell.
+
+[26] Edwin James, A Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John
+     Tanner during Thirty Tears' Residence among the Indians of North
+     America. (John Tanner was the father of James.)
+
+[27] Quarterly Journal, II. 326, 344; III. 64, 257, 449, 625.
+
+
+
+
+XVI.
+
+
+UNITARIANS AND REFORMS.
+
+The belief of Unitarians in the innate goodness of man and in his progress
+towards a higher moral life, together with their desire to make religion
+practical in its character and to have it deal with the actual facts of
+human life, has made it obligatory that they should give the encouragement
+of their support to whatever promised to further the cause of justice,
+liberty, and purity. Their attitude towards reforms, however, has been
+qualified by their love of individual freedom. They have had a dread of
+ecclesiastical restriction and of any attempt to coerce opinions or to
+establish a despotism over individual convictions. And yet, with all this
+insistence upon personal liberty, no body of men and women has ever been
+more devoted to the furthering of practical reforms than those connected
+with Unitarian churches. No one, for instance, was ever more zealous for
+individual freedom than Theodore Parker; but he was essentially a reformer.
+He was a persistent advocate of peace, temperance, education, the rights of
+women, the rights of the slave, the abolition of capital punishment, reform
+in prison discipline, and the application of humanitarian principles to the
+conduct of life.
+
+[Sidenote: Peace Movement.]
+
+"It may be doubted whether any man who ever lived contributed more to
+spread just sentiments on the subject of war and to hasten the era of
+universal peace," said Dr. Channing of Noah Worcester, who has been often
+called "the Apostle of Peace." It was the second contest with Great Britain
+that led Dr. Worcester to consider the nature and effects of war. In
+August, 1812, on the day appointed for a national fast, he preached a
+sermon in which he maintained that the war then beginning was without
+sufficient justification, and that war is always an evil. In 1814 he
+further studied the subject, with the result that he wrote a little book
+which he called A Solemn Review of the Custom of War.[1]
+
+The Solemn Review was widely circulated, it was translated into many
+languages, it made a deep and lasting impression, and it had a world-wide
+influence in preparing the minds of men for the acceptance of peace
+principles. The remedy for war it proposed was an international court of
+arbitration.[2] Through the efforts of Dr. Worcester the Massachusetts
+Peace Society was organized December 28, 1815, one of the first societies
+of the kind in the world.[3] William Phillips was made the president, and
+Dr. Noah Worcester the corresponding secretary, with Dr. Henry Ware, Dr.
+Channing, and Rev. Francis Parkman among his councillors. On the executive
+committee with Dr. Worcester in 1819 were Rev. Ezra Ripley and Rev. John
+Pierce. Other Unitarian members and workers were James Freeman, Nathaniel
+L. Frothingham, Charles Lowell, Samuel C. Thacher, J.T. Kirkland, and
+Joseph Tuckerman; and, of laymen, Moses Grant, Josiah Quincy, and Colonel
+Joseph May. In 1819 Dr. Worcester began the publication of The Friends of
+Peace, a small quarterly magazine, a large part of the contents of which he
+wrote himself. After the first number, having obtained the assistance of
+several wealthy Friends, he relinquished the copyright; and the numbers
+were republished in several parts of the country, thus obtaining a wide
+circulation. He devoted himself almost wholly to this publication and the
+advocacy of the cause of peace until 1829, when he relinquished its
+editorship. "This must be looked upon as a very remarkable work," wrote
+Henry Ware, the younger. "To his wakeful mind everything that occurred and
+everything that he read offered him materials; he appeared to see nothing
+which had not a bearing on this one topic; and his book becomes a boundless
+repository of curious, entertaining, striking extracts from writers of all
+sorts and the history of all times, displaying the criminality and folly of
+war, and the beauty and efficacy of the principles of peace."[4]
+
+In his efforts hi behalf of peace, Dr. Worcester had the support of Dr.
+Channing's "respectful sympathy and active co-operation."[5] According to
+Dr. John Pierce, Channing was the life and soul of the Massachusetts Peace
+Society. "For years," says his biographer, "he devoted himself to the work
+of extending its influence with unwavering zeal, as many of his papers of
+that period attest."[6] From his pulpit Dr. Channing frequently expressed
+his faith in the principles of peace, and he strongly advocated those
+Christian convictions and that spirit of good will which would make war
+impossible if they were applied to the conduct of nations.
+
+Not less devoted to the cause of peace was Dr. Ezra S. Gannett, of whom his
+son says: "He thought that reason, religion, the whole spirit as well as
+the letter of the gospel, united in forbidding war. Probably, he was
+non-resistant up to, rather than in, the absolutely last extremity;
+although he writes that an English book which Dr. Channing lent him as the
+best he knew upon the subject, 'has made me a thorough peace man!'"[7]
+"Let the fact of brotherhood be fairly grasped," wrote Dr. Frederic H.
+Hedge, "and war becomes impossible."[8] "The tremendous extent and
+pertinacity of the habit of human slaughter in battle," wrote Dr. William
+R. Alger, "its shocking criminality, and its incredible foolishness, when
+regarded from an advanced religious position, are three facts calculated to
+appall every thoughtful man and startle him into amazement." "It is vain,"
+he said, "to undertake to impart a competent conception of the crimes and
+miseries belonging to war. Their appalling character and magnitude stun the
+imagination and pass off like the burden of a frightful dream."[9]
+
+Worcester's Solemn Review convinced Rev. Samuel J. May "that the precepts,
+spirit, and example of Jesus gave no warrant to the violent, bloody
+resistance of evil; that wrong could be effectually overcome by right,
+hatred by love, violence by gentleness, evil of any kind by its opposite
+good. I preached this," he said, "as one of the cardinal doctrines of the
+gospel, and endeavored especially to show the wickedness and folly of the
+custom of war."[10] In 1826 he organized a county peace society, the first
+in the country; and his first publication was in advocacy of this
+reform.[11]
+
+Of the men connected with political life, Charles Sumner was the most
+devoted and influential friend of the peace cause. As early as March, 1839,
+he wrote to a friend, "I hold all wars, as unjust and, unchristian." His
+address on The True Grandeur of Nations, given before the mayor and other
+officials of Boston, July 4, 1845, was one of the noblest and most
+effective utterances on the subject. Though a considerable part of the
+audience was in military array, Sumner showed the evils of war in
+uncompromising terms, denouncing it as cruel and unnecessary, while with
+true eloquence, great learning, and deep conviction he made his plea for
+peace. "The effect was immediate and striking," wrote George W. Curtis.
+"There were great indignation and warm protest on the one hand, and upon
+the other sincere congratulation and high compliment. Sumner's view of the
+absolute wrong and iniquity of war was somewhat modified subsequently; but
+the great purpose of a peaceful solution of international disputes he never
+relinquished."[12] He said in this oration that "in our age there can be
+no peace that is not honorable; there can be no war that is not
+dishonorable." This statement was severely criticised, but it indicates his
+uncompromising acceptance of peace principles.[13] He added these
+pertinent sentences: "The true honor of a nation is to be found only in
+deeds of justice and in the happiness of its people, all of which are
+inconsistent with war. In the clear eye of Christian judgment vain are its
+victories, infamous are its spoils."[14] He further declared that "war is
+utterly and irreconcilably inconsistent with true greatness."[15] These
+views he continued to hold throughout his life, though in a more
+conciliatory spirit; and on several occasions he presented them before the
+Peace Society and elsewhere. When in the Senate he was a leader of the
+cause of arbitration, and exerted his large influence in securing its
+adoption by the United States as a means of preventing war with foreign
+countries. As late as July, 1873, he wrote to one of his friends: "I long
+to witness the harmony of nations, which I am sure is near. When an evil so
+great is recognized and discussed, the remedy must be near at hand."[16]
+
+The work done by Julia Ward Howe for the cause of peace is eminently worthy
+of recognition. One chapter of her Reminiscences is devoted to her "Peace
+Crusade" of 1870. The cruel and unnecessary character of the
+Franco-Prussian war led her to write an appeal to mothers to use their
+influence in behalf of peace. "The august dignity of motherhood and its
+terrible responsibilities now appeared to me in a new aspect," she writes,
+"and I could think of no better way of expressing my sense of these than of
+sending forth an appeal to womanhood throughout the world, which I then and
+there composed."[17] She printed and distributed her appeal, had it
+translated into French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Swedish, and then
+spent many months in corresponding with leading women in various countries.
+She invited these women to a Women's Peace Congress to be held in London.
+After holding two successful meetings in New York, she began her crusade in
+England, holding meetings in many places, and also attending a Peace
+Congress in Paris. She hired a hall in London, and held Sunday meetings to
+promote the reform she had deeply at heart. The Women's Congress was a
+success, and after two years of earnest effort Mrs. Howe had the
+satisfaction of knowing that she had done something to promote peace on
+earth and good will among men.
+
+[Sidenote: Temperance Reform.]
+
+Unitarians have been active in the cause of temperance, but again as
+individuals rather than as a denomination. The emphasis they have put on
+the importance of individual opinion and personal liberty has made them
+often reluctant to join societies that sought to promote this reform by
+restrictive and coercive measures. As a body, therefore, they have shown a
+greater inclination to the use of moral suasion than legislative power.
+
+From Dr. Channing this reform had the most earnest approval. "The
+temperance reform which is going on among us," he wrote, "deserves all
+praise, and I see not what is to hinder its complete success. I believe the
+movements now made will succeed, because they are in harmony with and are
+seconded by the general spirit and progress of the age. Every advance in
+knowledge, in refined manners, in domestic enjoyments, in habits of
+foresight and economy, in regular industry, in the comforts of life, in
+civilization, good morals and religion, is an aid to the cause of
+temperance; and believing as we do that these are making progress, may we
+not hope that drunkenness will be driven from society?"[18] He regarded
+the subject from a broader point of view than many, and urged that a sound
+physical education for all youth, as well as larger opportunities for
+intellectual improvement on the part of workingmen, would do much to
+prevent intemperance.[19] He maintained that to give men "strength within
+to withstand the temptations of intemperance" is incalculably more
+important than to remove merely outward temptations. Better education,
+innocent amusements, a wider spirit of sympathy and brotherhood,
+discouragement of the use and sale of ardent spirits, were among the means
+he recommended for suppressing this evil.[20]
+
+The Massachusetts Society for the Suppression of Intemperance was organized
+at the State House in Boston on February 5, 1813, "to discountenance and
+suppress the too free use of ardent spirits, and to encourage and promote
+temperance and general morality." This was one of the first temperance
+societies organized in the country, and its chief promoters were
+Unitarians. Dr. John C. Collins, who published the records of the society,
+said of the year 1827, when he became a member, that "Channing, Gannett,
+and others were the most active men at that time in the temperance
+cause."[21] Dr. Abiel Abbot was the first corresponding secretary of the
+society, and on the council were Drs. Kirkland, Lothrop, Worcester, and
+Pierce. Among the other Unitarian ministers who were active in the society
+were Charles Lowell, the younger Henry Ware, John Pierpont, and John G.
+Palfrey. Among the laymen were Moses Grant, Nathan Dane, Dr. John Ware,
+Stephen Fairbanks, Dr. J.F. Flagg, William Sullivan, Amos Lawrence, Samuel
+Dexter, and Isaac Parker.[22] Auxiliary societies were organized in Salem,
+Beverly, and other towns; and these gave to the temperance cause the
+activities of such Unitarians as Theophilus Parsons, Robert Rantoul, and
+Samuel Hoar.[23]
+
+Of the more recent interest of Unitarians in questions of temperance reform
+there may be mentioned the thorough study made by the United States
+Commissioner of Labor, and printed in 1898 under the title of Economic
+Aspects of the Liquor Problem.[24] This investigation was ordered by
+Congress as the result of a petition sent to that body by the Unitarian
+Temperance Society. Probably few petitions have ever been sent to Congress
+that contained so many prominent names of leading statesmen, presidents of
+colleges and universities, bishops, clergymen, well-known literary men, and
+other persons of influence. The Unitarian Temperance Society was organized
+September 23, 1886, in connection with the meeting of the National
+Conference at Saratoga. Its purpose is "to work for the cause of temperance
+in whatever ways may seem to it wise and right; to study the social
+problems of poverty, crime, and disease, in their relation to the use of
+intoxicating drinks, and to diffuse whatever knowledge may be gained; to
+discuss methods of temperance reform; to devise and, so far as possible, to
+execute plans for practical reform; to exert by its meetings and by its
+membership such influence for good as by the grace of God it may possess."
+It has held annual meetings in Boston, and other meetings in connection
+with the National Conference; it has published a number of important
+tracts, temperance text-books, and temperance services for Sunday-schools;
+and it has exerted a considerable influence on the denomination in shaping
+public opinion in regard to this reform. The presidents of the society have
+been Rev. Christopher R. Eliot, Rev. George H. Hosmer, and Rev. Charles F.
+Dole.
+
+The subject of temperance reform has been before the National Conference on
+several occasions and in various forms. At the session of 1882 a resolution
+offered by Miss Mary Grew was adopted:--
+
+  That the unutterable evils continually wrought by intemperance, the
+  easy descent from moderate to immoderate drinking, and the moral wrecks
+  strewn along that downward path, call upon Christians and patriots to
+  practise and advocate abstinence from the use of all intoxicating
+  liquors as a beverage.
+
+In 1891 a series of resolutions recommended by the Unitarian Temperance
+Society were adopted as expressing the convictions of the Conference:--
+
+  First, that the liquor saloon, as it exists to-day in the United
+  States, is the nation's chief school of crime, chief college of
+  corruption in politics, chief source of poverty and ruined homes, chief
+  menace to our country's future, is the standing enemy of society, and,
+  as such, deserves the condemnation of all good men.
+
+  Second, that, whatever be the best mode of dealing with the saloon by
+  law, law can avail little until those who condemn the saloon consent to
+  totally abstain themselves from the use of alcoholic drink for
+  pleasure.
+
+  Third, that we affectionately and urgently call on every minister and
+  all laymen and women in our denomination--our old, our young, our rich,
+  our poor, our leaders, and our humblest--to take this stand of total
+  abstinence, remembering those that are in bonds as bound with them, and
+  throw the solid influence of our church against the influence of the
+  saloon.
+
+[Sidenote: Anti-slavery.]
+
+In proportion to its numbers no religious body in the country did so much
+to promote the anti-slavery reform as the Unitarian. No Unitarian defended
+slavery from the pulpit or by means of the press, and no one was its
+apologist.[25] Many, however, did not approve of the methods of the
+abolitionists, and some strongly opposed the extreme measures of a part of
+that body of reformers. The desire of Unitarians to be just, rational, and
+open-minded, exposed many of them to the criticism of being neither for nor
+against slavery. But it is certain that they were not indifferent to its
+evils nor recreant to their humanitarian principles.
+
+The period of the anti-slavery agitation was truly one that tried the souls
+of men; and those who were equally conscientious, desirous of serving the
+cause of justice and humanity, and solicitous for the welfare of the slave,
+widely differed from one another as to what was the wise method of action.
+Among those severely condemned by the anti-slavery party were several
+Unitarian ministers of great force of character and of a genuinely
+humanitarian spirit. Three of them may be selected as representative.
+
+Dr. Orville Dewey had seen something of slavery, and was strongly opposed
+to it. He thought the system hateful in itself and productive of nearly
+unmingled evil, and yet he was not in favor of immediate emancipation. His
+frequent indictments of slavery in his sermons and lectures were severe in
+the extreme; but his demand for wise and patient counsel, and for a
+rational method of gradual emancipation, subjected him to severe
+condemnation. "And nothing else brings out the nobleness of Dr. Dewey into
+such bold relief as the fact," says Rev. John W. Chadwick, "that the
+immeasurable torrent of abuse that greeted his expressed opinion did not in
+any least degree avail to make him one of the pro-slavery faction. He
+differed from the most earnest of the anti-slavery men only as to the best
+method of getting rid of the curse of human bondage."[26]
+
+As early as 1830 Dr. E.S. Gannett said that "the greatest evil under which
+our nation labors is the existence of slavery. It is the only vicious part
+of our body politic, but this is a deep and disgusting sore. It must be
+treated with the utmost judgment and skill." The violence of the
+abolitionists he did not approve, however; for his respect for law and
+constituted authority was so great that he was not ready for radical
+measures. He abhorred slavery, but he was not willing to condemn the
+slaveholder. He was therefore regarded by the abolitionists as more hostile
+to them than any other Unitarian minister. His attitude as a peace man, his
+strong regard for justice and fair dealing, as well as his earnest faith in
+the gentle influence of the gospel, forbade his accepting the strenuous
+methods of the abolitionists. He would not, however, permit anti-slavery
+ministers to be silenced in Unitarian meetings. When he saw something of
+slavery, in 1833, he expressed his convictions in regard to it in these
+forcible words: "It is the attempt to degrade a human being into something
+less than a man,--not the confinement, unjust as this is, nor the blows,
+cruel as these are,--but the denial of his equal share in the rights,
+prerogatives, and responsibilities of a human being, which brands the
+institution of slavery with its peculiar and ineffaceable odiousness."[27]
+
+Another minister who came under the condemnation of the abolitionists was
+Rev. John H. Morison, and yet he preached sermons against slavery that met
+with the vigorous disapproval of his congregation. "We all agree," he wrote
+in 1844, "in the sad conviction that slavery in its political influence,
+more than all other subjects, threatens to upturn the foundation of our
+government; that in its moral and religious bearings it is a grievous wrong
+to master and slave; and that, as it is in violation of the fundamental
+principles of Christian duty, it must, if continued beyond the absolute
+necessity of the case, be attended with consequences the most disastrous."
+Again, when Daniel Webster made his 7th of March speech in 1850, Dr.
+Morison, then the editor of The Christian Register, took the earliest
+possible opportunity to express himself as strongly as he could against it.
+"We at the North," he wrote, "believe that slavery is morally wrong." He
+said that the government, in its attempt to defend slavery as against the
+moral convictions of a large number of the people, was doing the country a
+great harm.[28]
+
+The position of these men and of others who thought and acted with them can
+best be understood by recognizing the fact that they were opposed to
+sectarian methods in promoting reforms as in advancing the interests of
+religion. It is probable that in these heated times neither party did full
+justice to the spirit and purposes of the other. Even so gentle and
+charitable a man as Rev. Samuel J. May speaks of the "discreditable
+pro-slavery conduct of the Unitarian denomination." "The Unitarians as a
+body," he says again, "dealt with the question of slavery in anything but
+an impartial, courageous, and Christian way. Continually in their public
+meetings the question was staved off and driven out because of technical,
+formal, verbal difficulties which were of no real importance, and ought not
+to have caused a moment's hesitation. Avowing among their distinctive
+doctrines the fatherly character of God and the brotherhood of man, we had
+a right to expect from the Unitarians a steadfast and unqualified protest
+against so unjust, tyrannical, and cruel a system as that of American
+slavery. And considering their position as a body, not entangled with any
+pro-slavery alliances, not hampered with any ecclesiastical organization,
+it does seem to me that they were pre-eminently guilty in reference to the
+enslavement of the millions in our land with its attendant wrongs,
+cruelties, horrors. They refused to speak as a body, and censured,
+condemned, execrated their members who did speak faithfully for the
+down-trodden, and who co-operated with him whom a merciful Providence sent
+as the prophet of the reform."[29]
+
+The testimony of Rev. O.B. Frothingham is fully as condemnatory of
+Unitarian timidity and conservatism, even of the moral cowardice betrayed
+by many of the leaders. He says the Unitarians, as such, "were indifferent
+or lukewarm; the leading classes were opposed to the agitation. Dr.
+Channing was almost alone in lending countenance to the reform, though his
+hesitation between the dictates of natural feeling and Christian charity
+towards the masters hampered his action, and rendered him obnoxious to both
+parties,--the radicals finding fault with him for not going further, the
+conservatives blaming him because he went so far."[30] Mr. Frothingham
+finds, however, that the transcendentalists were quite "universally
+abolitionists, their faith in the natural powers of man making them zealous
+promoters of the cause of the slave." He insists that as a class "the
+Unitarians were not ardent disciples of any moral cause, and took pride in
+being reasoners, believers in education and in general social influence, in
+the progress of knowledge and the uplifting of humanity by means of ideas,"
+but that they permitted these qualities to cool their ardor for reform and
+to mitigate their love of humanity.[31]
+
+The biographers of William Lloyd Garrison are never tired of condemning Dr.
+Channing for what they call his timidity, his shunning any personal contact
+with the great abolitionist, his failure to grapple boldly with the evils
+of slavery, and his half-hearted espousal of the cause of abolition. The
+Unitarians generally are by these writers regarded in the same manner.[32]
+
+Most of the accounts mentioned were written by those who took part in the
+agitation against slavery, in condemnation of those who had not kept step
+with their abolition pace or in apology for those whose words and conduct
+were thought to need defence. The time has come, perhaps, when it is
+possible to consider, the attitude of individuals and the denomination
+without a partisan wish to condemn or to defend. In this spirit the
+statement of Samuel J. May is to be accepted as true and just, when he
+says: "We Unitarians have given to the anti-slavery cause more preachers,
+writers, lecturers, agents, poets, than any other denomination in
+proportion to our numbers, if not without any comparison."[33]
+
+Among those who listened to William Lloyd Garrison when in October, 1830,
+he first presented in Boston his views in favor of immediate emancipation,
+were Samuel J. May, Samuel E. Sewall, and A.B. Alcott; and these men at
+once became his disciples and friends.[34] When Garrison organized the New
+England Anti-slavery Society in December, 1832, he was actively supported
+by Samuel E. Sewall, David Lee Child, and Ellis Gray Loring. It was to the
+financial support of Sewall and Loring, though they did not at first accept
+his doctrine of immediate emancipation, that Garrison owed his ability to
+begin The Liberator, and to sustain it in its earliest years.[35] For many
+years, Edmund Quincy was connected with The Liberator, serving as its
+editor when Garrison was ill, absent on lecturing tours, or journeying in
+Europe. The Massachusetts Anti-slavery Society, which in 1835 succeeded the
+New England Society, had during many years Francis Jackson as its
+president, Edmund Quincy as its corresponding secretary, and Robert F.
+Walcutt as its recording secretary, all Unitarians.
+
+In 1834 was formed the Cambridge Anti-slavery Society, under the leadership
+of the younger Henry Ware; and the membership was largely Unitarian,
+including the names of Dr. Henry Ware, Sidney Willard, Charles Follen,
+William H. Charming, Artemus B. Muzzey, Barzillai Frost, Charles T. Brooks,
+and Frederic H. Hedge. The purposes of the society were stated in its
+constitution:--
+
+  We believe that the emancipation of all who are in bondage is the
+  requisition, not less of sound policy, than of justice and humanity;
+  and that it is the duty of those with whom the power lies at once to
+  remove the sanction of the law from the principle that man can be the
+  property of man,--a principle inconsistent with our free institutions,
+  subversive of the purposes for which man was made, and utterly at
+  variance with the plainest dictates of reason and Christianity.
+
+In 1843 Samuel May visited England, and at Unitarian meetings described the
+obstacles in the way of the abolition of slavery, and spoke of the apathy
+of American Unitarians. He advised the sending a letter of fraternal
+counsel to the Unitarian ministers of the United States "in behalf of the
+unhappy slave." Such a letter was prepared, and signed by eighty-five
+ministers. It was published in the Unitarian papers in this country, a
+meeting was held to consider it, and a reply sent to England signed by one
+hundred and thirty ministers. Mr. May was severely condemned for his part
+in causing such a letter to be sent, and the reply was rather in the nature
+of a protest than a friendly acceptance of the advice given.
+
+A year later, however, this letter was again the subject of earnest
+discussion. In anniversary week, 1845, a meeting of Unitarian ministers was
+held to "discuss their duties in relation to American slavery." The call
+for this meeting was signed by James Thompson, Joseph Allen, Caleb Stetson,
+Samuel Ripley, Converse Francis, William Ware, Samuel J. May, Artemus B.
+Muzzey, Oliver Stearns, James W. Thompson, Alonzo Hill, Andrew P. Peabody,
+Henry A. Miles, Frederic H. Hedge, James F. Clarke, George W. Briggs,
+Samuel May, Barzillai Frost, Nathaniel Hall, David Fosdick, and John Weiss.
+At the third session, by a vote of forty-seven to seven, it was declared
+"that we consider slavery to be utterly opposed to the principles and
+spirit of Christianity, and that, as ministers of the gospel, we feel it
+our duty to protest against it, in the name of Christ, and to do all we may
+to create a public opinion to secure the overthrow of the institution." It
+was also decided to appoint a committee to draw up, secure signatures to,
+and publish "a protest against the institution of American slavery, as
+unchristian and inhuman." Though some of those who spoke at these meetings
+condemned the abolitionists, yet all of them expressed in the strongest
+terms their opposition to slavery.
+
+The committee selected to prepare this protest consisted of Caleb Stetson,
+James F. Clarke, John Parkman, Stephen G. Bulfinch, A.P. Peabody, John
+Pierpont, Samuel J. May, Oliver Stearns, George W. Briggs, William P.
+Tilden, and William H. Channing. The protest was written by James Freeman
+Clarke and was accepted essentially as it came from his hands. It was
+signed by one hundred and seventy-three ministers,[36] the whole number of
+Unitarian ministers at that time being two hundred and sixty-seven. Some of
+the most prominent ministers were conspicuous by the absence of their names
+from this protest. It must be understood, however, that those who did not
+sign it were as much opposed to slavery as those who did. "This protest,"
+said the editor of The Christian Register, in presenting it to the
+public,[37] "is written with great clearness of expression and moderation
+of spirit. It exhibits unequivocally and distinctly the sentiments of the
+numerous and most enlightened body of clergy whose names are attached to
+it, as well as many other ministers of the denomination who may be
+disinclined to act conjointly, or do not feel called upon to act at all in
+any prescribed way, on the subject." It was not a desire to defend slavery
+that kept these ministers from signing the protest, but their excessive
+individualism, and their unwillingness to commit the denomination to
+opinions all might not accept. A few paragraphs from the protest will
+indicate its spirit and purpose:--
+
+"Especially do we feel that the denomination which takes for its motto
+Liberty, Holiness and Love should be foremost in opposing this system. More
+than others we have contended for three great principles,--individual
+liberty, perfect righteousness, and human brotherhood. All of these are
+grossly violated by the system of slavery. We contend for mental freedom;
+shall we not denounce the system which fetters both mind and body? We have
+declared righteousness to be the essence of Christianity; shall we not
+oppose the system which is the sum of all wrong? We claim for all men the
+right of brotherhood before a universal Father; ought we not to testify
+against that which tramples so many of our brethren under foot?"
+
+"We, therefore, ministers of the gospel of truth and love, in the name of
+God the universal Father, in the name of Christ the Redeemer, in the name
+of humanity and human brotherhood, do solemnly protest against the system
+of slavery as unchristian, and inhuman," "because it is a violation of
+right, being the sum of all unrighteousness which man can do to man,"
+"violates the law of love," "degrades man, the image of God, into a thing,"
+"necessarily tends to pollute the soul of the slave," "to defile the soul
+of the master," "restricts education, keeps the Bible from the slave, makes
+life insecure, deprives female innocence of protection, sanctions adultery,
+tears children from parents and husbands from wives, violates the divine
+institutions of families, and by hard and hopeless toil makes existence a
+burden," "eats out the heart of nations and tends every year more and more
+to sear the popular conscience and impair the virtue of the people."
+
+"We implore all Christians and Christian preachers to unite in unceasing
+prayer to God for aid against this system, to leave no opportunity of
+speaking the truth and spreading the light on this subject, in faith that
+the truth is strong enough to break every yoke." "And we do hereby pledge
+ourselves, before God and our brethren, never to be weary of laboring in
+the cause of human rights and freedom until slavery be abolished and every
+slave made free."
+
+Although many ministers and laymen took the position that the question of
+slavery was not one that should receive attention in the meetings of the
+Unitarian Association or other religious organizations, that these should
+be kept strictly to their own special purposes, it was not possible to
+exclude the one great exciting topic of the age. How persistently it
+intruded itself is clearly indicated in words used by Dr. Bellows at the
+annual meeting of the Association, in 1856. "Year after year this horrid
+image of slavery come in here," he said, "and obtruded itself upon our
+concerns. It has prevented our giving attention to any other subject; we
+could not keep it out of our minds; and why is that awful crime against
+humanity still known in the world, still supported and active in this age
+of Christendom, but because it is in alliance with certain views of
+theology with which we are at war?"[38] At the same meeting strong
+resolutions of sympathy with the free settlers of Kansas, and with Charles
+Sumner because "the barbarity of the slave power had attempted to silence
+him by brutal outrage," were unanimously adopted.[39]
+
+In 1857 the subject of slavery came before the Western Conference in its
+session at Alton. The most uncompromising anti-slavery resolutions were
+presented at the opening of the meeting, and everything else was put aside
+for their consideration, a day and a half being devoted to them. The
+opinion of the majority was, in the words of one of the speakers, that
+slavery is a crime that "denies millions marital and parental rights,
+requires ignorance as a condition, encourages licentiousness and cruelty,
+scars a country all over with incidents that appall and outrage the human
+world." Dr. W.G. Eliot, of St. Louis, and others, thought it not expedient
+to press the subject to an issue, though he regarded slavery in much the
+same way as did the other members of the conference. When the conference
+finally took issue with slavery, he and his delegates withdrew from its
+membership. His assistant, Rev. Carlton A. Staples, and Rev. John H.
+Heywood, of Louisville, went with the majority. A committee appointed to
+formulate a statement the conference could accept said that it had no right
+to interfere with the freedom of action of individual churches; but it
+recommended them to do all they could in opposition to slavery, and said
+that the conference was of one mind in the conviction "that slavery is an
+evil doomed by God to pass away." This report was accepted by the
+conference with only one opposing vote.[40] When the year 1860 had
+arrived, Unitarians were practically unanimous in their condemnation of
+slavery.
+
+When the names of individual Unitarians who took an active part in the
+anti-slavery movement are given, it is at once seen how important was the
+influence of the denomination. Early in the century Rev. Noah Worcester
+uttered his word of protest against slavery. Rev. Charles Follen joined the
+Massachusetts Anti-slavery Society in the second year of its existence, and
+no nobler champion of liberty ever lived. If Dr. Channing was slow in
+applying his Christian ideal of liberty to slavery, there can be no
+question that his influence was powerful on the right side, and all the
+more so because of his gentle and ethical interpretation of individual and
+national duty. His various publications on the subject, his identification
+of himself with the abolitionists by joining their ranks in the
+Massachusetts State House in 1836, his speech in Faneuil Hall in protest
+against the killing of Lovejoy in Alton during the same year, exerted a
+great influence in behalf of abolition throughout the North. It is only
+necessary to mention John Pierpont, Theodore Parker, William H. Furness,
+William H. Channing, William Goodell, Theodore D. Weld, Ichabod Codding,
+Caleb Stetson, and M.D. Conway in order to recognize their uncompromising
+fidelity to the cause of freedom. Only less devoted were such men as
+Charles Lowell, Nahor A. Staples, Sylvester Judd, Nathaniel Hall, Thomas T.
+Stone, O.B. Frothingham, Abiel A. Livermore, Samuel Johnson, Samuel
+Longfellow, Thomas J. Mumford, and many others.
+
+Samuel J. May and his cousin, Samuel May, were both employed by the
+Massachusetts Anti-slavery Society. From 1847 until 1865 the latter was the
+general agent of that organization; and his assistant was another Unitarian
+minister, Robert F. Walcutt. James Freeman Clarke, though settled at
+Louisville from 1833 to 1840, was opposed to slavery; and in the pages of
+The Western Messenger, of which he was publisher and editor, he took every
+occasion to press home the claims of emancipation. John G. Palfrey
+emancipated the slaves that came into his possession from his father's
+estate, insisting on receiving them for that purpose, though the
+opportunity was given him to accept other property in their stead. In
+accordance with this action was his attitude toward slavery in the pulpit
+and on the platform, as well as when he was a member of the lower house of
+Congress.
+
+Of Unitarian laymen who were loyal to the ideal of freedom, the list may
+properly open with the name of Josiah Quincy, afterwards mayor of Boston
+and president of Harvard College, who began as early as 1804 his opposition
+to slavery, and carried it faithfully into his work as a member of the
+national House of Representatives soon after. The fidelity of John Quincy
+Adams to freedom during many years is known to every one, and his service
+in the national House has given him a foremost place in the company of the
+anti-slavery leaders. Not less loyal was the service of Charles Sumner,
+Horace Mann, John P. Hale, George W. Julian, John A. Andrew, Samuel G.
+Howe, Henry I. Bowditch, William I. Bowditch, Thomas W. Higginson, George
+F. Hoar, Ebenezer R. Hoar, George S. Boutwell, and Henry B. Anthony. Of the
+poets the anti-slavery reform had the support of Longfellow, Lowell,
+Bryant, and Emerson. The Unitarian women were also zealous for freedom. The
+loyalty of Lydia Maria Child is well known, as are the sacrifices she made
+in publishing her early anti-slavery books. Lucretia Mott, of the Unitarian
+branch of the Friends, was a devoted supporter of the anti-slavery cause.
+Mrs. Maria W. Chapman was one of the most faithful supporters of Garrison,
+doing more than any one else to give financial aid to the anti-slavery
+reform movement in its earlier years. With these women deserve to be
+mentioned Eliza Lee Follen, Angelina Grimké Weld, Lucy Stone, and many
+more.
+
+A considerable group of persons who had been trained in evangelical
+churches became essentially Unitarians as a result of the anti-slavery
+agitation. Of these may be mentioned William Lloyd Garrison, Gerrit Smith,
+Beriah Green, Joshua R. Giddings, Myron Holley, Theodore D. Weld, and
+Francis W. Bird. Of the first four of these men, George W. Julian has said:
+"They were theologically reconstructed through their unselfish devotion to
+humanity and the recreancy of the churches to which they had been attached.
+They were less orthodox, but more Christian. Their faith in the fatherhood
+of God and the brotherhood of man became a living principle, and compelled
+to reject all dogmas which stood in its way."[41]
+
+[Sidenote: The Enfranchisement of Women.]
+
+It is not surprising that the first great advocate of "the rights of women"
+in this country should have been the Unitarian, Margaret Fuller. She did no
+more than apply what she had been taught in religion to problems of
+personal duty, professional activity, and political obligations. With her
+freedom of faith and liberty of thought meant also freedom to devote her
+life to such tasks as she could best perform for the good of others. It was
+inevitable that other Unitarian women should follow her example, and that
+many women, trained in other faiths, having come to accept the doctrine of
+universal political rights, should seek in Unitarianism the religion
+consonant with their individuality of purpose and their sense of human
+freedom.
+
+Among the leaders of the movement for the enfranchisement of women have
+been such Unitarians as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy
+Stone, Julia Ward Howe, Mary A. Livermore, Maria Weston Chapman, Caroline
+H. Dall, and Louisa M. Alcott. The first pronounced woman suffrage paper in
+the country was The Una, begun at Providence in 1853, with Mrs. Caroline H.
+Dall as the assistant editor. Among other Unitarian contributors were
+William H. Charming, Elizabeth P. Peabody, Thomas W. Higginson, Ednah D.
+Cheney, Amory D. Mayo, Elizabeth Oakes Smith, Lucy Stone, and Mrs. E.C.
+Stanton. The next important paper was The Revolution, begun at New York in
+1868, with Susan B. Anthony as publisher and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and
+Parker Pillsbury as editors. Then came The Woman's Journal, begun at Boston
+in 1870, with Mary A. Livermore, Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, T.W.
+Higginson, and Henry B. Blackwell, all Unitarians, as the editors.
+
+The first national woman's suffrage meeting was held in Worcester, October
+28 and 24, 1850; and among those who took part in it by letter or personal
+presence were Emerson, Alcott, Higginson, Pillsbury, Samuel J. May, William
+H. Channing, William H. Burleigh, Elizabeth C. Stanton, Catherine M.
+Sedgwick, Caroline Kirkland, and Lucy Stone. In April, 1853, when the
+Constitution of Massachusetts was to receive revision, a petition was
+presented, asking that suffrage should be granted to women. Of twenty-seven
+persons signing it, more than half were Unitarians, including Abby May
+Alcott, Lucy Stone, T.W. Higginson, Anna Q.T. Parsons, Theodore Parker,
+William I. Bowditch, Samuel E. Sewall, Ellis Gray Loring, Charles K.
+Whipple, and Thomas T. Stone. Among other Unitarians who have taken an
+active part in promoting this cause have been Lucretia Mott, Mary Grew,
+Caroline M. Severance, Celia C. Burleigh, Angelina Grimké Weld, and Maria
+Giddings Julian. Of men there have been Dr. William F. Channing, James F.
+Clarke, George F. Hoar, George W. Curtis, John S. Dwight, John T. Sargent,
+Samuel Johnson, Samuel Longfellow, Octavius B. Frothingham, Adin Ballou,
+George W. Julian, Frank B. Sanborn, and James T. Fields.
+
+Unitarians have been amongst the first to recognize women in education,
+literature, the professions, and in the management of church and
+denominational interests. At the convention held in New York in 1865, which
+organized the National Conference, no women appeared as delegates; and the
+same was true at the second session, held at Syracuse in 1866. At that
+session Rev. Thomas J. Mumford moved "that our churches shall be left to
+their own wishes and discretion with reference to the sex of the delegates
+chosen to represent them in the conference"; and this resolution was
+adopted. At the third meeting, held at New York in 1868, thirty-seven women
+appeared as delegates, including Julia Ward Howe and Caroline H. Dall. The
+lay delegates to the session held at Washington in 1899 numbered four
+hundred and two; and, of these, two hundred and twenty seven were women.
+
+At the annual meeting of the Unitarian Association in 1870, Rev. John T.
+Sargent brought forward the subject of the representation of women on its
+board of directors. Dr. James F. Clarke made a motion looking to that
+result, which was largely discussed, much opposition being manifested. It
+was urged by many that women were unfit to serve in a position demanding so
+much business capacity, that they would displace capable men, and that it
+was improper for them to assume so public a duty. Charles Lowe, James F.
+Clarke, John T. Sargent, and others strongly championed the proposition,
+with the result that Miss Lucretia Crocker was elected a member of the
+board.[42]
+
+The first woman ordained to the Unitarian ministry was Mrs. Celia C.
+Burleigh, who was settled over the parish in Brooklyn, Conn., October 5,
+1871. The sermon was preached by Rev. John W. Chadwick, and the address to
+the people was given by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe. A letter was read from Henry
+Ward Beecher, in which he said to Mrs. Burleigh: "I do cordially believe
+that you ought to preach. I think you had a _call_ in your very nature."
+Mrs. Burleigh continued at Brooklyn for less than three years, ill-health
+compelling her to resign.
+
+The second woman to enter the Unitarian ministry was Miss Mary H. Graves,
+who was ordained at Mansfield, Mass., December 14, 1871. She was subjected
+to a thorough examination; and the committee reported "that her words have
+commanded our thorough respect by their freedom and clearness, and won our
+full sympathy and approval by their earnest, discreet, and beautiful
+spirit." Mrs. Eliza Tupper Wilkes was ordained by the Universalists at
+Rochester, Minn., May 2, 1871, though she had preached for two or three
+years previously; and she subsequently identified herself with the
+Unitarians. Mrs. Antoinette Brown Blackwell was ordained in Central New
+York, in 1853, by the Orthodox Congregationalists; but somewhat later she
+became a Unitarian.
+
+The first woman to receive ordination who has continued without
+interruption her ministerial duties was Miss Mary A. Safford, ordained in
+1880. She has held every official position in connection with the Iowa
+Unitarian Association, and she has also been an officer of the Western
+Conference and a director of the American Unitarian Association.
+
+Several women have also frequently appeared in Unitarian pulpits who have
+not received ordination or devoted themselves to the ministry as a
+profession. Among these are Mrs. Caroline H. Dall, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe,
+and Mrs. Mary A. Livermore. In 1875 Mrs. Howe was active in organizing the
+Women's Ministerial Conference, which met in the Church of the Disciples,
+and brought together women ministers of several denominations. Of this
+conference Mrs. Howe was for many years the president.
+
+In most Unitarian churches there is no longer any question as to the right
+of women to take any place they are individually fitted to occupy. On
+denominational committees and boards, women sit with entire success, their
+fitness for the duties required being called in question by no one. In
+those conferences where women have for a number of years been actively
+engaged in the work of the ministry they are received on a basis of perfect
+equality with men, and the sex question no longer presents itself in regard
+to official positions or any other ministerial duty.
+
+[Sidenote: Civil Service Reform.]
+
+The first advocate of the reform of the civil service was Charles Sumner,
+who as early as December, 1847, anticipated its methods in a series of
+articles contributed to a newspaper.[43] He was the first to bring this
+reform before Congress, which he did April 30, 1864, when he introduced a
+bill to provide a system of competitive examinations for admission to and
+promotion in the civil service, which made merit and fitness the conditions
+of employment by the government, and provided against removal without
+cause. This bill was drawn by Sumner without consultation with any other
+person, but the time had not yet arrived when it could be successfully
+advocated.
+
+The next person to advocate the reform of the civil service in Congress was
+Thomas A. Jenckes, of Rhode Island, who in 1867 brought the merit system
+forward in the form of a report from the joint committee on retrenchment,
+which reported on the condition of the civil service, and accompanied its
+report with a bill "to regulate the civil service and to promote its
+efficiency." The next year Mr. Jenckes made a second report, but it was not
+until 1871 that action on the subject was secured.[44] George W. Curtis
+says that at first he "pressed it upon an utterly listless Congress, and
+his proposition was regarded as the harmless hobby of an amiable man, from
+which a little knowledge of practical politics would soon dismount
+him."[45] Most members of Congress thought the reform a mere vagary, and
+that it was brought forward at a most inopportune time.[46] Mr. Jenckes
+was the pioneer of the reform, according to Curtis, who says that he
+"powerfully and vigorously and alone opened the debate in Congress."[47]
+He drew the amendment to the appropriation bill in 1871 that became the
+law, and under which the first civil service commission was appointed. "By
+his experience, thorough knowledge, fertility of resource and suggestion
+and great legal ability, he continued to serve with as much efficiency as
+modesty the cause to which he was devoted."[48]
+
+One of the first persons to give attention to this subject was Dorman B.
+Eaton, an active member of All Souls' Church in New York, who was for
+several years chairman of the committee on political reform of the Union
+League Club of New York. In 1866, and again in 1870 and 1875, he travelled
+in Europe to secure information in regard to methods of civil service. The
+results of these investigations were presented in his work on Civil Service
+in Great Britain, a report made at the request of President Hayes. In 1873
+he was appointed a member of the Civil Service Commission by President
+Grant; in 1883 he was the chairman of the committee appointed by President
+Arthur; and in 1885 he was reappointed by President Cleveland. The bill of
+January, 1883, which firmly established civil service by act of Congress,
+was drawn by him. He was a devoted worker for good government in all its
+phases; and the results of his studies of the subject may be found in his
+books on The Independent Movement in New York and The Government of
+Municipalities. He was described by George William Curtis as "one of the
+most conspicuous, intelligent, and earnest friends of reform."[49]
+
+The most conspicuous advocate of the merit system was Mr. George William
+Curtis, another New York Unitarian, who was the chairman of the Civil
+Service Commission of 1871. In 1880 he became the president of the New York
+Civil Service Reform Association, a position he held until his death. The
+National Civil Service Reform League was organized at Newport in August,
+1881; and he was the president from that time as long as he lived. His
+annual addresses before the league show his devoted interest in its aims,
+as well as his eloquence, intellectual power, and political integrity.[50]
+In an address before the Unitarian National Conference, in 1878, Mr. Curtis
+gave a noble exposition and vindication of the reform which he labored
+zealously for twelve years to advance.[51]
+
+It has been justly said of Mr. Curtis that "far above the pleasures of life
+he placed its duties; and no man could have set himself more sternly to the
+serious work of citizenship. The national struggle over slavery, and the
+re-establishment of the Union on permanent foundations enlisted his whole
+nature. In the same spirit, he devoted his later years to the overthrow of
+the spoils system. He did this under no delusion as to the magnitude of the
+undertaking. Probably no one else comprehended it so well. He had studied
+the problem profoundly, and had solved every difficulty, and could answer
+every cavil to his own satisfaction." There can be no question that "his
+name imparted a strength to the movement no other would have given." Nor
+can there be much question that "among public men there was none who so won
+the confidence of sincere and earnest men and women by his own personality.
+The powers of such a character, with all his gifts and accomplishments, was
+what Mr. Curtis brought to the civil service reform."[52]
+
+[1] American Unitarian Biography, edited by William Ware; Memoir of
+    Worcester, by Henry Ware, Jr., I. 45, 46.
+
+[2] Solemn Review, edition of 1836 by American Peace Society, 7.
+
+[3] It had been preceded by societies in Ohio and New York, results of
+    the influence of the Solemn Review.
+
+[4] Unitarian Biography, I. 49.
+
+[5] Memoir, II. 284; one-volume edition, 111.
+
+[6] Ibid., III. 111; one-volume edition, 284.
+
+[7] Memoir, 139.
+
+[8] Christian Examiner, May, 1850, XLVIII. 378.
+
+[9] Ibid., November, 1861, LXXI. 313.
+
+[10] Life, 83.
+
+[11] Ibid., 115.
+
+[12] Cyclopedia of American Biography, V. 746.
+
+[13] Memoir, II. 348.
+
+[14] Memoir.
+
+[15] Ibid., 351.
+
+[16] Ibid., IV. 572.
+
+[17] Reminiscences, 328.
+
+[18] Memoir, III. 36; one-volume edition, 477.
+
+[19] Memoir, III. 31; one-volume edition, 474, 475.
+
+[20] Works, II. 301.
+
+[21] When will the Day come? and other tracts of the Massachusetts
+     Temperance Society, 135.
+
+[22] Of the twenty-seven annual addresses given before this society from
+     1814 to 1840, at least sixteen were by Unitarians; and among these
+     were John T. Kirkland, Abiel Abbot, William E. Channing, Edward
+     Everett, the younger Henry Ware, Gamaliel Bradford, Charles Sprague,
+     James Walker, Alexander H. Everett, William Sullivan, and Samuel K.
+     Lothrop. The first four presidents of this society--Samuel Dexter,
+     Nathan Dane, Isaac Parker, and Stephen Fairbanks--were Unitarians. Of
+     the same faith were also a large proportion of the vice-presidents
+     and other officers. Many of the tracts published by the society were
+     written by Unitarians.
+
+[23] Unitarians of every calling have been the advocates of temperance.
+     Among those who have been loyal to it in word and action may be named
+     John Adams, Jeremy Belknap, Jonathan Phillips, Charles Lowell, Ezra
+     S. Gannett, John Pierpont, Samuel J. May, Amos Lawrence, Horace Mann,
+     William H. and George S. Burleigh, Governor Pitman, William G. Eliot,
+     Rufus P. Stebbins, and William B. Spooner. "Many of the leading men
+     and women who were eminent as lawyers, judges, legislators, scholars,
+     also prominent in the business walks of life, and in social position,
+     gave this cause the force of their example, and the inspiration of
+     their minds. By their contributions of money, by their personal
+     efforts, by their public speeches and writings, and by their practice
+     of total abstinence, they rendered very valuable service."
+
+[24] Twelfth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, 1897.
+
+[25] Theodore Clapp, of New Orleans, may be an exception, though he is
+     claimed by the Universalists. See S.J. May's Recollections of the
+     Anti-slavery Conflict, 335.
+
+[26] Autobiography and Letters, 117, 127, 129. The criticism of Dr. Dewey
+     may be found in S.J. May's Recollections, 367.
+
+[27] Memoir, 139, 284, 296. See S.J. May, Recollections, 341, 367, for an
+     anti-slavery indictment of Dr. Gannett.
+
+[28] Memoir, chapter on Slavery.
+
+[29] Recollections of the Anti-slavery Conflict, chapter on the
+     Unitarians, 335.
+
+[30] See Lydia Maria Child's account of conversations with Channing on
+     this subject, in her Letters from New York.
+
+[31] Recollections and Impressions, 47, 183.
+
+[32] The Story of his Life as Told by his Children.
+
+[33] Recollections, 335.
+
+[34] S.J. May, Recollections, 19; Life of A.B. Alcott, 220; Life of
+     Garrison, I. 212.
+
+[35] Life of Garrison, I. 223.
+
+[36] The more prominent names are herewith given as they were printed in
+     The Christian Register: Joseph Allen, J.H. Allen, S.G. Bulfinch, C.F.
+     Barnard, Charles Briggs, W.G. Babcock, C.T. Brooks, Warren Burton,
+     C.H. Brigham, Edgar Buckingham, William H. Channing, James F. Clarke,
+     S.B. Cruft, A.H. Conant, C.H.A. Dall, R. Ellis, Converse Francis,
+     James Flint, William H. Furness, N.S. Folsom, Frederick A. Farley,
+     Frederick T. Gray, Henry Giles, F.D. Huntington, E.B. Hall, N. Hall,
+     F.H. Hedge, F. Hinckley, G.W. Hosmer, F.W. Holland, Thomas Hill,
+     Sylvester Judd, James Kendall, William H. Knapp, A.A. Livermore, S.J.
+     May, Samuel May, M.I. Mott, A.B. Muzzey, J.F. Moors, Henry A. Miles,
+     William Newell, J. Osgood, S. Osgood, Andrew P. Peabody, John
+     Parkman, John Pierpont, Theodore Parker, Cyrus Pierce, J.H. Perkins,
+     Cazneau Palfey, O.W.B. Peabody, Samuel Ripley, Chandler Robbins,
+     Caleb Stetson, Oliver Stearns, Rufus P. Stebbins, Edmund Q. Sewall,
+     Charles Sewall, John T. Sargent, George F. Simmons, William Silsbee,
+     William P. Tilden, J.W. Thompson, John Weiss, Robert T. Waterston,
+     William Ware, J.F.W. Ware, E.B. Willson, Frederick A. Whitney, Jason
+     Whitman.
+
+[37] Printed in The Christian Register, October 4, 1845.
+
+[38] Quarterly Journal, III. 567.
+
+[39] Ibid., 572.
+
+[40] Unity, Sept. 4, 1886, Mrs. S.C.Ll. Jones, Historic Unitarianism in
+     the West.
+
+[41] Life of Joshua R. Giddings, 399.
+
+[42] Memoir of Charles Lowe, 486. In 1901 four of the eighteen directors
+     of the American Unitarian Association were women.
+
+[43] Life, III. 149.
+
+[44] Life of Charles Sumner, IV. 191; Works, VII. 452.
+
+[45] G.W. Curtis, Orations and Addresses, II. 30.
+
+[46] Ibid., 173.
+
+[47] Ibid., 180.
+
+[48] Ibid., 223.
+
+[49] G.W. Curtis, Orations and Addresses, II. 458.
+
+[50] See Curtis's Orations and Addresses, II.; also, his Reports as civil
+     service commissioner, and various addresses before the Social Science
+     Association.
+
+[51] Edward Cary, Life of Curtis, American Men of Letters, 294.
+
+[52] George William Curtis and Civil Service Reform, by Sherman S. Rogers,
+     in Atlantic Monthly, January, 1893, LXXI. 15.
+
+
+
+
+XVII.
+
+
+UNITARIAN MEN AND WOMEN.
+
+Many of the most influential Americans have been in practical accord with
+Unitarianism, while not actually connected with Unitarian churches. They
+have accepted its principles of individual freedom, the rational
+interpretation of religion, and the necessity of bringing religious beliefs
+into harmony with modern science and philosophy. Among these may be
+properly included such men as Benjamin Franklin, John Marshall, Gerrit
+Smith, John G. Whittier, William Lloyd Garrison, Andrew D. White, and
+Abraham Lincoln. Whittier was a Friend, and White an Episcopalian; but the
+religion of both is acceptable to all Unitarians. Marshall was undoubtedly
+a Unitarian in his intellectual convictions, and he sometimes attended the
+Unitarian church in Washington; but his church affiliations were with the
+Episcopalians. John C. Calhoun was all his life a member of an Episcopal
+church and a communicant in it; but he frequently attended the Unitarian
+church in Washington, and intellectually he discarded the doctrines taught
+in the creeds of his church.
+
+Lincoln belonged to no church, and had no interest in the forms and
+disputes that constitute so large a part of outward religion; but he was
+one of those men whose great deeds rest on a basis of simple but
+profoundest religious conviction. The most explicit statement he ever made
+of his faith was in these words: "I have never united myself to any church,
+because I have found difficulty in giving my assent, without mental
+reservation, to the long, complicated statements of Christian doctrine
+which characterize their articles of belief and confessions of faith. When
+any church will inscribe over its altar, as its sole qualification of
+membership, the Saviour's condensed statement of both law and gospel, 'Thou
+shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and
+with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself,' that church will I join
+with all my heart and all my soul."[1] This declaration brings Lincoln
+into fullest harmony with the position of the Unitarian churches.
+
+[Sidenote: Eminent Statesmen.]
+
+The intellectual tendencies of the eighteenth century led many of the
+leading Americans to discard the Puritan habit of mind and the religious
+beliefs it had cherished. An intellectual revolt caused the rejection of
+many of the Protestant doctrines, and a political revolt in the direction
+of democracy led to the acceptance of religious principles not in harmony
+with those of the past. Many Americans shared in these protests who did not
+openly break with the older faiths. Washington was of this class; for,
+while he remained outwardly a churchman, he had little intellectual or
+practical sympathy with the stricter beliefs. Franklin was thoroughly of
+the Deistic faith of the thinkers of England and France in his time. These
+tendencies had their effect upon such men as John Adams, Timothy Pickering,
+Joseph Story, and Theophilus Parsons, as well as upon Thomas Jefferson and
+William Cranch. They showed themselves with especial prominence in the case
+of Jefferson, who always remained outwardly faithful to the state religion
+of Virginia, in which he had been educated, attended the Episcopal church
+in the neighborhood of his home, sometimes joining in its communion, but
+who was, nevertheless, intellectually a pronounced Unitarian.
+
+With Jefferson his Unitarianism was a part of his democracy, for he was
+consistent enough to make his religion and his politics agree with each
+other. As he would have kings no longer rule over men, but give political
+power into the hands of the people, so in religion he would put aside all
+theologians and priests, and permit the people to worship in their own way.
+It was for this reason that he rejoiced in the emancipating work of
+Channing, of which he wrote in 1822, "I rejoice that in this blessed
+country of free inquiry and belief, which has surrendered its creeds and
+conscience neither to kings nor priests, the genuine doctrine of only one
+God is reviving; and I trust there is not a young man now living who will
+not die a Unitarian."[2] Jefferson's revolt against authority was tersely
+expressed in his declaration: "Had there never been a commentator, there
+never would have been an infidel."[3] This was in harmony with his
+saying, that "the doctrines of Jesus are simple and tend all to the
+happiness of man."[4] It also fully agrees with the claims of the early
+Unitarians with regard to the teachings of Jesus. "No one sees with greater
+pleasure than myself," he wrote, "the progress of reason in its advance
+toward rational Christianity. When we shall have done away with the
+incomprehensible jargon of the Trinitarian arithmetic, that three are one,
+and one are three; when we shall have knocked down the artificial
+scaffolding reared to mask from view the simple structure of Jesus; when,
+in short, we shall have unlearned everything taught since his day, and got
+back to the pure and simple doctrines he inculcated--we shall then be truly
+and worthily his disciples; and my opinion is that, if nothing had ever
+been added to what flowed purely from his lips, the whole world would at
+this day have been Christian."[5]
+
+However mistaken Jefferson may have been in the historical opinions thus
+expressed, we cannot question the sincerity of his beliefs or fail to
+recognize that he had the keenest interest in whatever gave indication of
+the growth of a rational spirit in religion. These opinions he shared with
+many of the leading men of his time; but he was more outspoken in their
+utterance, as he was more consistent in holding them. That Washington,
+though remaining an Episcopalian, was in fullest accord with Jefferson in
+his principles of toleration and religious freedom, is apparent from one of
+his letters. "I am not less ardent in my wish," he wrote, "that you may
+succeed in your toleration in religious matters. Being no bigot myself to
+any mode of worship, I am disposed to indulge the professors of
+Christianity in the church with that road to heaven which to them shall
+seem the most direct, easiest, and least liable to exception."[6]
+Intellectually, Franklin was a Deist of essentially the same beliefs with
+Jefferson, as may be seen in his statement of faith: "I believe in one God,
+the creator of the universe; that he governs it by his providence; that he
+ought to be worshipped; that the most acceptable service we render to him
+is doing good to his other children; that the soul of man is immortal, and
+will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in
+this. These I take to be the fundamental points in all sound religion. As
+to Jesus of Nazareth, I think his system of morals and his religion, as he
+left them to us, the best the world ever saw, or is likely to see; but I
+apprehend it has received various corrupting changes, and I have some
+doubts of his divinity; though it is a question I do not dogmatize upon,
+having never studied it."[7] Franklin was a member of a Unitarian church
+in London.
+
+[Sidenote: Some Representative Unitarians.]
+
+The church in Washington, not having been popular or of fine appointments,
+has been a test of the Unitarian faith of those frequenting the capital
+city. It has included in its congregation, from time to time, such men as
+John Adams, John Quincy Adams,[8] John Marshall, Joseph Story, Samuel F.
+Miller, Millard Fillmore, William Cranch, George Bancroft, Nathan K. Hall,
+James Moore Wayne, and Senators Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, William S.
+Archer, Henry B. Anthony, William B. Allison, Timothy O. Howe, Edward
+Everett, Justin S. Morrill, Charles Sumner, William E. Chandler, George F.
+Hoar, and John P. Hale. William Winston Seaton and Joseph Gales, once
+prominent in Washington as editors and publishers of The National
+Intelligencer, were both Unitarians.
+
+In New York the Unitarian churches have had among their attendants and
+members such persons as William Cullen Bryant, Catherine M. Sedgwick, Henry
+D. Sedgwick, Henry Wheaton, Peter Cooper, George William Curtis, George
+Ticknor Curtis, Moses H. Grinnell, Dorman B. Eaton, and Joseph H. Choate.
+The churches in Salem have had connected with them such men as John Prince,
+Nathaniel Bowditch, Benjamin Peirce, Timothy Pickering, John Pickering,
+Leverett Saltonstall, Joseph Story,[9] Jones Very, William H. Prescott,
+and Nathaniel Hawthorne.[10]
+
+[Sidenote: Judges and Legislators.]
+
+During the early Unitarian period "the judges on the bench" included such
+men as Theophilus Parsons, Isaac Parker, and Lemuel Shaw, all of whom held
+the office of chief justice in Massachusetts. Other lawyers, jurists, and
+statesmen were Fisher Ames, political orator and statesman; Nathan Dane,
+who drew the ordinance for the north-western territory; Samuel Dexter,
+senator, and secretary of the treasury under John Adams; Christopher Gore,
+senator, and governor of Massachusetts; and Benjamin R. Curtis, of the
+United States Supreme Court. Other chief justices of the Supreme Court of
+Massachusetts have been George T. Bigelow, John Wells, Pliny Myrick,
+Walbridge A. Field, Charles Allen; and of associates in that court have
+been Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, Benjamin F. Thomas, Seth Ames, Samuel S.
+Wilde, Levi Lincoln, and John Lowell. Among the governors of Massachusetts
+have been Levi Lincoln, Edward Everett, John Davis, John H. Clifford, John
+A. Andrew, George S. Boutwell, John D. Long, Thomas Talbot, George D.
+Robinson, J.Q.A. Brackett, Oliver Ames, Frederic T. Greenhalge, and Roger
+Wolcott. The first mayors of Boston, John Phillips, Josiah Quincy,[11] and
+Harrison Gray Otis, were Unitarians. Then, after an interval of one year,
+followed Samuel A. Eliot and Jonathan Chapman.
+
+It has often been assumed that Unitarianism attracts only intellectual
+persons; but it also appeals to practical business men, legislators, and
+the leaders of political life. In Maine have been Vice-President Hannibal
+Hamlin, Governor Edward Kent, and Chief Justice John Appleton. In New
+Hampshire it has appealed to such men as Chief Justices Cushing, Henry A.
+Bellows, Jeremiah Smith, and, Charles Doe, as well as to Governors Onslow
+Stearns, Charles H. Bell, Benjamin F. Prescott, and Ichabod Goodwin; in
+Rhode Island, Governors Lippitt and Seth Paddelford, Chief Justices Samuel
+Ames and Samuel Eddy, General Ambrose E. Burnside, and William B. Weeden,
+historian and economist. Alphonso Taft and George Hoadly, both governors of
+Ohio, were Unitarians, as were Austin Blair, John T. Bagley, Charles S.
+May, and Henry H. Crapo, governors of Michigan. Among the prominent
+Unitarians of Iowa have been Senator William B. Allison and General George
+W. McCrary. In California may be named Leland Stanford, Horace Davis, Chief
+Justice W.H. Beatty, and Oscar L. Shafter of the Supreme Court.
+
+[Sidenote: Boston Unitarianism.]
+
+What Unitarianism has been in the lives of its men and women may be most
+conspicuously seen in Boston and the region about it, for there throughout
+the first half of the nineteenth century Unitarianism was the dominant form
+of Christianity. Of the period from 1826 to 1832, when Dr. Lyman Beecher
+was settled in Boston, Mrs. Stowe has given this testimony: "All the
+literary men of Massachusetts were Unitarians. All the trustees and
+professors of Harvard College were Unitarians. All the élite of wealth and
+fashion crowded Unitarian churches. The judges on the bench were Unitarian,
+giving decisions by which the peculiar features of church organization, so
+carefully ordained by the Pilgrim fathers, had been nullified."[12] Of the
+same period Dr. Beecher wrote, "All offices were in the hands of
+Unitarians."[13]
+
+These statements were literally true, except in so far as they implied that
+Unitarians used high positions in order to overthrow the old institutions
+of Massachusetts and substitute those of their own devising. The calmer
+judgment of the present day would not accept this conclusion, and it has no
+historic foundation. The religious development of Boston brought its
+churches into the acceptance of a tolerant, rational, and practical form of
+Christianity, that was not dogmatic or sectarian. It took the Unitarian
+name, but only in the sense of rejecting the harsher interpretations of the
+doctrine of the Trinity and of election. The members of the Unitarian
+churches during this period were devout in an unostentatious manner, pious
+after a simple fashion, loyal Christians without excess of zeal, lovers of
+liberty, but in a conservative spirit. This simple form of piety enabled
+the men who accepted it to govern the state in a most faithful manner. They
+managed its affairs justly, wisely, and in the true intent of economy.
+Sometimes it was complained that they held a much larger number of offices
+than was their proportion according to population; but to this John G.
+Palfrey replied that the people of the state had confidence in them, and
+elected them because nobody else governed so well.
+
+With the aid of the biography of James Sullivan, judge, legislator,
+attorney-general, and diplomatist,[14] we may study the constituency of a
+single church in Boston, the Brattle Street Church. We find there James
+Bowdoin and John Hancock, rival candidates for the position of governor of
+the state in 1785. The same rivalry occurred twenty years later between
+James Sullivan and Caleb Strong, both of the number of its communicants. On
+the parish committee of this church at one time were Hancock, Bowdoin, and
+Sullivan, who became governors of the state, and Judges Wendell and John
+Lowell.[15] Some years later there were included in the congregation such
+men as Daniel Webster, Harrison Gray Otis, Abbott Lawrence, and Amos
+Lawrence, who was one of the deacons for many years.
+
+Of the distinguished business men of Boston may be named John Amory Lowell,
+John C. Amory, Jonathan Phillips (the confidential friend and supporter of
+Dr. Channing), Thomas Wigglesworth, J. Huntington Wolcott, Augustus
+Hemenway, Stephen C. Phillips, and Thomas Tileston. Francis Cabot Lowell
+was largely concerned in building up the manufacturing interests of
+Massachusetts, especially the cotton industry; and the city of Lowell took
+his name in recognition of the importance of his leadership in this
+direction. For similar reasons the city of Lawrence was named after Abbott
+Lawrence, minister of the United States to Great Britain, who was one of
+the leading merchants of Boston in the China trade, and was also largely
+concerned in the development of cotton manufacturing. With these business
+and manufacturing interests Amos Lawrence was also connected. Nathan
+Appleton[16] was associated with Francis C. Lowell in the establishment of
+the great manufacturing interests that have been a large source of the
+wealth of Massachusetts. Thomas H. Perkins, from whom was named the Perkins
+Institute for the Blind, was also concerned in the China trade and in the
+first development of railroads. Robert Gould Shaw was another leading
+merchant, who left a large sum of money for the benefit of the children of
+mariners. John Murray Forbes was a builder of railroads, notably active in
+the financial support of the national government during the civil war, and
+a generous friend of noble men and interests.[17] Nathaniel Thayer was a
+manager of railroads, erected Thayer Hall at Harvard College, and bore the
+expenses of Agassiz's expedition to South America.
+
+A Boston man by birth and training, who knew the defects as well as the
+merits of the class of men and women who have been named, has given
+generous testimony to the high qualities of mind and heart possessed by
+these Unitarians. In writing of his maternal grandfather, Octavius Brooks
+Frothingham has said: "Peter C. Brooks was an admirable example of the
+Unitarian laymen of that period, industrious, honest, faithful in all
+relations of life, charitable, public-spirited, intelligent, sagacious,
+mingling the prudence of the man of affairs with the faith of the
+Christian.... As one recalls the leading persons in Brattle Street, Federal
+Street, Chauncy Place, King's Chapel, the New North, the New South,--men
+like Adams, Eliot, Perkins, Bumstead, Lawrence, Sullivan, Jackson, Judge
+Shaw, Daniel Webster, Jacob Bigelow, T.B. Wales, Dr. Bowditch,--forms of
+dignity and of worth rise before the mind. Better men there are not. More
+honorable men, according to the standard of the time, there are not likely
+to be.... He joined the church and was a consistent church member. He was
+not effusive, demonstrative, or loud-voiced. His name did not stand high on
+church lists or among the patrons of the faith. His was the calm, rational,
+sober belief of the thoughtful, educated, honorable men of his day,--men
+like Lemuel Shaw, Joseph Story, Daniel A. White,--intellectual, noble
+people, with worthy aims, a lofty sense of duty, a strong conviction of the
+essential truths of revealed Christianity; sincere believers in the gospel,
+of enduring principle, of pure, consistent, blameless life and conduct.
+Speculative theology he cared little or nothing about. He was no disputant,
+no doubter, no casuist; of the heights of mysticism, of the depths of
+infidelity, he knew nothing. He was conservative, of course, from
+temperament rather than from inquiry. He took the literal, prose view of
+Calvinism, and rejected doctrines which did not commend themselves to his
+common sense. In a word, he was a Unitarian of the old school.... The
+Unitarian laity in general, both men and women, had a genuine desire to
+render the earthly lot of mankind more tolerable. It is not too much to say
+that they started every one of our best secular charities. They were
+exceedingly liberal in their gifts to Harvard College, and to other
+colleges as well--for they were not at all sectarian, as their large
+subscriptions to the Roman Catholic cathedral proved. Whatever tended to
+exalt humanity, in their view, was encouraged. They were as noble a set of
+men and women as ever lived."[18]
+
+This estimate of the Unitarians of Boston during the first half of the
+nineteenth century is eminently just and accurate. To a large extent these
+men and their associates in the Unitarian churches gave to the city its
+worth and its character; and they built up the industries, the commerce,
+the educational and philanthropic interests, and the progressive
+legislation of Massachusetts. They were men of integrity and sincerity, who
+were generous, faithful, and just. They accepted the religion of the
+spirit, and they gave it expression in daily conduct and character.
+
+[1] F.B. Carpenter, Six Months in the White House, 190.
+
+[2] James Parton, Life of Thomas Jefferson, 711.
+
+[3] Charles W. Upham, Life of Timothy Pickering, IV. 327.
+
+[4] P.L. Ford's edition Jefferson's Works, X.220.
+
+[5] Life of Pickering, IV. 326.
+
+[6] P.L. Ford, The True George Washington, 81.
+
+[7] P.L. Ford, The Many-sided Franklin, 174. See Diary of Ezra Stiles,
+    III. 387.
+
+[8] John Quincy Adams, in reply to a question about the church in
+    Washington, said: "I go there to church, although I am not decided in
+    my mind as to all the controverted doctrines of religion." Years
+    later he said to a preacher in the Unitarian church at Quincy: "I
+    agree entirely with the ground you took in your discourse. You did
+    not speak of any particular class of doctrines that were everlasting,
+    but of the great, fundamental principles in which all Christians
+    agree; and these, I think, are what will be permanent." See A.B.
+    Muzzey, Reminiscences and Memorials of the Men of the Revolution and
+    their Families, 53.
+
+[9] William W. Story, Life and Letters of Joseph Story, 57, 93. Joseph
+    Story grew away from Calvinism in early manhood, and accepted a
+    humanitarian view of the nature of Christ. "No man was ever more free
+    from a spirit of bigotry and proselytism," says his biographer. "He
+    gladly allowed every one freedom of belief and claimed only that it
+    should be a genuine conviction and not a mere theologic opinion,
+    considering the true faith of every man to be the necessary exponent
+    of his nature, and honoring a religious life more than a formal
+    creed. He admitted within the pale of salvation Mohammedan and
+    Christian, Catholic and infidel. He believed that whatever is sincere
+    and honest is recognized by God--that as the views of any sect are
+    but human opinion, susceptible of error on every side, it behooves
+    all men to be on their guard against arrogance of belief--and that in
+    the sight of God it is not the truth or falsehood of our views, but
+    the spirit in which we believe which alone is of vital consequence.
+    His moral sense was not satisfied with a theory of religion founded
+    upon the depravity of man and recognizing an austere and vengeful
+    God, nor could he give his metaphysical assent to the doctrine of the
+    Trinity. In the doctrines of liberal Christianity he found the
+    resolution of his doubts, and from the moment he embraced the
+    Unitarian faith he became a warm and unhesitating believer."
+
+[10] For an interesting picture of New England Unitarianism see
+     Recollections of my Mother (Mrs. Anne Jean Lyman), by Mrs. J.P.
+     Lesley. Mrs. Lyman's home was in Northampton, Mass. The Reminiscences
+     of Caroline C. Briggs describe life in the same town and under
+     similar conditions. Also Memoir of Mary L. Ware, Memorial of Joseph
+     and Lucy Clark Allen by their Children, and Life of Dr. Samuel
+     Willard.
+
+[11] Edmund Quincy, Life of Josiah Quincy, 532. In a speech to the
+     overseers of Harvard University in 1845, Josiah Quincy said: "I never
+     did and never will call myself a Unitarian; because the name has the
+     aspect, and is loaded by the world with the imputation of
+     sectarianism." His biographer says: "He regarded differences as of
+     slight importance, especially as to matters beyond the grasp of the
+     human intellect. His catholicity of spirit fraternized with all who
+     profess to call themselves Christians, and who prove their title to
+     the name by their lives." It was precisely this catholicity of spirit
+     that was the most characteristic feature of early American
+     Unitarianism, and not the rejection of the doctrine of the Trinity.
+     However, Josiah Quincy was undoubtedly a Unitarian, both in what he
+     rejected and in what he affirmed, as may be seen from these words
+     recorded in his diary in 1854: "From the doctrines with which
+     metaphysical divines have chosen to obscure the word of God,--such as
+     predestination, election, reprobation, etc.,--I turn with loathing to
+     the refreshing assurance which, to my mind, contains the substance of
+     revealed religion,--in every nation he who feareth God, and worketh
+     righteousness, is accepted of him."
+
+[12] Autobiography, Correspondence, etc., of Lyman Beecher, II. 109.
+
+[13] Ibid., 144.
+
+[14] Thomas C. Amory. Life of James Sullivan.
+
+[15] John Lowell, a son of Judge John Lowell, and a brother of Dr. Charles
+     Lowell of the West Church, was the author of an effective
+     controversial pamphlet entitled Are you a Christian or a Calvinist?
+     Or do you prefer the Authority of Christ to that of the Genevan
+     Reformer? Both the Form and Spirit of these Questions being suggested
+     by the Late Review of American Unitarianism in The Panoplist, and by
+     the Rev. Mr. Worcester's Letter to Mr. Channing. By a Layman. Boston,
+     1815.
+
+[16] Nathan Appleton's interest in theology may be seen in his book
+     entitled The Doctrine of Original Sin and the Trinity, discussed in a
+     Correspondence between a Clergyman of the Episcopal Church, in
+     England, and a Layman of Boston, United States, published in Boston
+     in 1859. "I was brought up," he said in one of these letters, "in the
+     strictest form of Calvinistic Congregationalism; but since arriving
+     at an age capable of examining the subject, and after a careful study
+     of it, I have renounced what appear to me unworthy views of the
+     Deity, for a system which appears to me more worthy of him, and less
+     abhorrent to human reason." "I can say," he wrote in another letter,
+     "that the Unitarian party embraces the most intelligent and
+     high-minded portion of the community. It is my opinion that the views
+     of the Unitarians are the best and only security against the spirit
+     of infidelity which is prevailing so extensively amongst the most
+     highly educated and intelligent men in Europe." See Memoir of Nathan
+     Appleton, by Robert C. Winthrop.
+
+[17] John Murray Forbes: Letters and Recollections, edited by his
+     daughter, Sarah Forbes Hughes.
+
+[18] Boston Unitarianism, 93, 94, 101, 127.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII.
+
+
+UNITARIANS AND EDUCATION.
+
+The interest of Unitarians in education has always been very great, but it
+has not been in the direction of building and fostering sectarian
+institutions. As a body, Unitarians have not only been opposed to
+denominational colleges, but they have been leaders in promoting
+unsectarian education. Freedom of academic teaching and the scientific
+study of theology may be found where Unitarianism has no existence, and yet
+it is significant that in this country such mental liberty should have
+first found expression under Unitarian auspices. From the first, American
+Unitarianism has been unsectarian and liberty-loving, taking an attitude of
+toleration, free investigation, and loyalty to truth. That it has always
+been faithful to its ideal cannot be maintained, and yet its history shows
+that the open-mindedness and the spirit of freedom have never been wholly
+ignored.
+
+[Sidenote: Pioneers of the Higher Criticism.]
+
+The attitude of the early Unitarians towards the Bible, their trust in it
+as the revealed word of God and the source of divine authority in all
+matters of faith, and their confidence that a return to its simple
+principles would liberate men from superstition and bigotry, naturally made
+them the first to welcome the higher criticism of the Bible in this
+country. Such men as Noah Worcester and his successors brought to the Bible
+new and common-sense interpretations, and began the work of pointing out
+the defects in the common version. The Unitarians were not hampered by the
+theory of the verbal infallibility of the Bible; and they were therefore
+prepared to advance the critical work of the scholars, as it came to them
+from England and Germany, as was no other religious body in this country.
+
+Joseph, S. Buckminster was an enthusiastic student of the Bible, securing
+when in Europe all the apparatus of the more advanced criticism that could
+then be procured; and after his return to Boston he gave his attention to
+bringing out the New Testament in the most scholarly form that was then
+possible. In 1808, in connection with William Wells, and under the
+patronage of Harvard College, he republished Griesbach's Greek Testament,
+with a selection of the most important various readings. He also formed a
+plan of publishing in this country all the best modern English versions of
+the Hebrew prophets, with introductions and notes; but he did not find the
+necessary support for this project. In The Monthly Anthology and in The
+General Repository he "first discussed subjects of Biblical criticism in a
+spirit of philosophical and painstaking learning, and took the critical
+study of the Scriptures from the old basis on which it had rested during
+the Arminian discussions and placed it on the solid foundation of the text
+of the New Testament as settled by Wetstein and Griesbach, and elucidated
+by the labors of Michaelis, Marsh, Rosenmüller, and by the safe and wise
+learning of Grotius, Le Clerc, and Simon." "It has," wrote George Ticknor,
+"in our opinion, hardly been permitted to any other man to render so
+considerable a service as this to Christianity in the western world."[1]
+In 1811 Mr. Buckminster was made the first lecturer in Biblical criticism
+at Harvard, on, the foundation established by the gift of Samuel Dexter;
+and he entered with great interest and enthusiasm upon the work of
+preparing for the duties of this office. We are assured that "this
+appointment was universally thought to be an honor most justly due to his
+pre-eminent attainments in this science";[2] but his death the next year
+brought these plans to an untimely end.
+
+To some extent the critical work of Buckminster was continued by Edward
+Everett, his successor in the Brattle Street Church. Mr. Everett's
+successor in that pulpit, Rev. John G. Palfrey, became the professor of
+sacred literature in the Harvard Divinity School in 1831, and was the dean
+of that institution. In his lectures on the Jewish Scriptures and
+Antiquities, published in four volumes, from 1833 to 1852, he gave the most
+advanced criticism of the time. A more important work was done by Professor
+Andrews Norton, who was as radical in his labors as a Biblical critic as he
+was conservative in his theology. For the time when they were published,
+his Statement of Reasons, the first edition of which appeared in 1819,
+Historical Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels, 1837-44,
+Translation of the Gospels, with Notes, 1855, Internal Evidences of the
+Genuineness of the Gospels, 1855, have not been surpassed by any other work
+done in this country. As a scholar, he was careful, thorough, honest, and
+uncompromising in his search for the truth. In an extended note added to
+the second volume of his work on the Genuineness of the Gospels he
+investigated the origin of the Pentateuch and the validity of its
+historical statements. He showed that the work could not have bee its man
+written by Moses, that it was a compilation from prior accounts, and that
+its marvels were not to be accepted as authentic history.[3] In dealing
+with the New Testament, Professor Norton discarded the first two chapters
+of Matthew, regarding them as later additions. Frothingham speaks of Norton
+as "an accomplished and elegant scholar," and says that his interpretations
+of the Bible were by Unitarians "tacitly received as final." "He was the
+great authority, as bold, fearless, truthful, as he was exact and
+careful."[4] Although these words of praise intimate that Unitarians were
+too ready to accept the conclusions of Professor Norton as needing no
+emendation, yet his work was searching in its character and thoroughly
+sincere in its methods. Considering the general attitude of scholarship in
+his day, it was bold and uncompromising, as well as accurate and just.
+
+Another scholar was George Rapall Noyes, who was a country pastor in
+Brookfield and Petersham from 1827 to 1840, and devoted his leisure to
+Biblical studies. He became the professor of Hebrew and, lecturer on
+Biblical Literature in the Harvard Divinity School in 1840. His
+translations, with notes, of the poetical books of the Old Testament,
+beginning with Job in 1827, were of great importance as aids, to the
+interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures. His translation of the New
+Testament, which appeared after his death, in 1868, gave the best results
+of critical studies in homely prose, and with painstaking fidelity to the
+original. That Noyes was in advance of the criticism of his time may be
+indicated by the fact that, when he published his conclusions in regard to
+the Messianic prophecies in 1834,[5] he was threatened with an indictment
+for blasphemy by the attorney-general of Massachusetts. Better judgment
+prevailed against this attempt to coerce opinion, but that such an
+indictment was seriously considered shows how little genuine criticism
+there was then in existence. What are now the commonplaces of scholarship
+were then regarded as destructive and blasphemous. Noyes said that the
+truth of the Christian religion does not in any sense depend upon the
+literal fulfilment of any predictions in the Old Testament by Jesus as a
+person.[6] He said that the apostles partook of the errors and prejudices
+of their age,[7] that the commonly received doctrine of the inspiration
+of the whole Bible is a millstone about the neck of Christianity,[8] and
+that the Bible contains much that cannot be regarded as revelation.[9]
+Even as early as 1835 these opinions were generally accepted by Unitarians;
+and they were not thought to impair the true worth of the spiritual
+revelation contained in the Bible, and especially not the divine nature of
+the teachings of Christ. It was very important, as Dr. Joseph Henry Allen
+has said, in speaking of Norton and Noyes, that "these decisive first steps
+were taken by deliberate, conscientious, conservative scholars,--the best
+and soberest scholars we had to show."[10]
+
+The work of Ezra Abbot especially deserves notice here, because of "the
+variety and extent of his learning, the retentiveness and accuracy of his
+memory, the penetration and fairness of his judgment."[11] For fourteen
+years previous to his death, in 1884, he was the professor of New Testament
+criticism and interpretation in the Harvard Divinity School. He also
+rendered important service as a member of the American committee on the
+revision of the New Testament. His essay on The Authorship of the Fourth
+Gospel was one of the ablest statements of the conservative view of the
+origin of that writing. The volume of his Critical Essays, collected after
+his death, shows the ripe fruits of his "punctilious and vigilant
+scholarship." He was a zealous Unitarian, and did much to show that the New
+Testament is in harmony with that faith. In 1843 Rev. Theodore Parker
+published his translation of De Wette's Introduction to the New Testament,
+with learned notes. The extreme views of Baur and Zeller were interpreted
+by Rev. O.B. Frothingham in his The Cradle of the Christ, 1872.
+
+Various attempts were also made by those who were not professional scholars
+to bring the Bible into harmony with modern religious ideas. One of the
+most notable of these was that of Dr. William Henry Furness, pastor of the
+church in Philadelphia from 1825 to 1875. His Remarks on the Four Gospels
+appeared in 1835, and was followed by Jesus and his Biographers, 1838,
+Thoughts on the Life and Character of Jesus of Nazareth, 1859, and The Veil
+Partly Lifted and Jesus Becoming Visible, 1864, as well as several other
+works. His attempt was to give a rational interpretation of the life of
+Jesus that should largely eliminate the miraculous and yet preserve the
+spiritual. These works have little critical value, and yet they have much
+of charm and suggestiveness as religious expositions of the Gospels. Of
+somewhat the same nature was Dr. Edmund H. Sears's The Fourth Gospel: The
+Heart of Christ, 1872, a work of deep spiritual insight.
+
+[Sidenote: The Catholic Influence of Harvard University.]
+
+The catholic and inclusive spirit manifested by the Unitarians in their
+Biblical studies is worthy of notice, however, much more than any definite
+results of scholarship produced by them. In the cultivation of the broader
+academic fields which their control of Harvard University brought within
+their reach this attitude is especially conspicuous. At no time since it
+came under their administration has it been used for sectarian purposes, to
+make proselytes or to compel acceptance of their theology. During the first
+half of the nineteenth century, Harvard was in some degree distinctly
+Unitarian; but since 1870 it has been wholly non-sectarian. When the
+Divinity School was organized, it was provided in its constitution that no
+denominational requirements should be exacted of professors or students;
+yet the school was essentially Unitarian until 1878. In that year the
+president, Charles W. Eliot, asked of Unitarians the sum of $130,000 as an
+endowment for the school; but he insisted that it should be henceforth
+wholly unsectarian, and this demand was received with approval and
+enthusiasm by Unitarians themselves.
+
+In 1879 President Eliot said at a meeting held in the First Church in
+Boston for the purpose of appealing to Unitarians in behalf of the school:
+"The Harvard Divinity School is not distinctly Unitarian either by its
+constitution or by the intention of its founders. The doctrines of the
+unsectarian sect, called in this century Unitarians, are indeed entitled to
+respectful consideration in the school so long as it exists, simply because
+the school was founded, and for two generations, at least, has been
+supported, by Unitarians. But the government of the University cannot
+undertake to appoint none but Unitarian teachers, or to grant any peculiar
+favors to Unitarian students. They cannot, because the founders of the
+school, themselves Unitarians, imposed upon the University the following
+fundamental rule for its administration: that every encouragement shall be
+given to the serious, impartial, and unbiassed investigation of Christian
+truth, and that no assent to the peculiarities of any denomination of
+Christians shall be required either of the instructors or students."[12]
+Dr. Charles Carroll Everett, dean of the school from 1878 to 1900, has said
+that "in some respects it differs from every other theological seminary in
+the country." "No pains are taken to learn the denominational relations of
+students even when they are applicants for aid." "No oversight is exercised
+over the instruction of any teacher. No teacher is responsible for any
+other or to any other."[13]
+
+In 1886 compulsory attendance upon prayers was abolished at Harvard
+University. Religious services are regularly held every week-day morning,
+on Thursday afternoons, and on Sunday evenings, being conducted by the
+Plummer professor of Christian morals, with the co-operation of five other
+preachers, who, as well as the Plummer professor, are selected irrespective
+of denominational affiliations. In this and other ways the university has
+made itself thoroughly unsectarian. Its attitude is that of scientific
+investigation, open-mindedness towards all phases of truth, and freedom of
+teaching. Theology is thus placed on the same basis with other branches of
+knowledge, and religion is made independent of merely dogmatic
+considerations.
+
+This undenominational temper at Harvard University has been developed
+largely under Unitarian auspices. Its presidents for nearly a century have
+been Unitarians, namely: John T. Kirkland, 1810-28; Josiah Quincy, 1829-45;
+Edward Everett, 1846-49; Jared Sparks, 1849-53; James Walker, 1853-60;
+Cornelius C. Felton, 1860-62; Thomas Hill, 1862-68; and Charles W. Eliot
+since 1869. Kirkland, Everett, Sparks, Walker, and Hill were Unitarian
+ministers; but under their administration the university was as little
+sectarian as at any other time.
+
+When the new era of university growth began in 1865, with the founding of
+Cornell University, the influence of Harvard was widely felt in the
+development of great unsectarian educational institutions. Although Ezra
+Cornell was educated as a Friend, he was expelled from that body, and
+connected himself with no other religious sect. He was essentially a
+Unitarian, often attending the preaching of Dr. Rufus P. Stebbins. The
+university which took his name was inspired with the Harvard ideal, and,
+while recognizing religion as one of the great essential phases of human
+thought and life, gave and continues to give equal opportunity to all
+sects.
+
+Another instance of the same spirit is Washington University, which began
+under Unitarian auspices, but soon developed into an entirely
+undenominational institution. Members of the Unitarian church in St. Louis
+secured a charter for a seminary, which in 1853 was organized as the
+Washington Institute. In 1857 it was reorganized as Washington University,
+and the charter declared, "No instruction, either sectarian in religion or
+party in politics, shall be allowed in any department of said university,
+and no sectarian or party test shall be allowed in the selection of
+professors, teachers, or other officers of said university or in the
+admission of scholars thereof, or for any purpose whatever." Sectarian
+prejudice, however, regarded the university as essentially Unitarian; and
+for the first twenty years of its existence three-fourths of the gifts and
+endowments came from persons of that religious body.
+
+Although Dr. William G. Eliot knew nothing of the original movement for
+forming a seminary under liberal auspices, he gave the institution his
+unstinted support and encouragement. He was the president of the board of
+management from the first, and in 1871 he became the chancellor. At his
+death, in 1887, the university included Smith Academy, Mary Institute, and
+a manual training school, these being large preparatory schools; the
+college proper, school of engineering, Henry Shaw school of botany, St.
+Louis school of fine arts, law school, medical school, and dental college.
+It then had sixteen hundred students and one hundred and sixty instructors.
+The endowments have since been largely increased, the number of students
+has increased to two thousand, and important new buildings have been added.
+Dr. Eliot gave the university its direction and its unsectarian methods,
+and it has attained its present position because of his devoted labors. The
+Leland Stanford Jr. University in California, and Clark University in
+Massachusetts, both founded by Unitarians, further illustrate the Harvard
+spirit in education.
+
+[Sidenote: The Work of Horace Mann.]
+
+Horace Mann was an earnest and devoted Unitarian, the intimate friend of
+Channing and Parker, to both of whom he was largely indebted for his
+intellectual and spiritual ideals. He was inspired by their ideas of reform
+and progress, and to their personal sympathy he owed much. It is now
+universally conceded that to him we are indebted for the diffusion of the
+common-school idea throughout the country, that he developed and brought to
+full expression the conception of universal education. In full sympathy
+with him in this work were such men as Dr. Channing, Edward Everett,
+Theodore Parker, Josiah Quincy, Samuel J. May, and the younger Robert
+Rantoul; but he made the common school popular, and put it forward as a
+national institution. When Mann became the secretary of the Massachusetts
+Board of Education on its creation, in 1837, the theory that all children
+should be educated by the state, if not otherwise provided for, was by no
+means generally accepted; nor was it an accepted theory that such education
+should be strictly unsectarian.[14] Mann fought the battle for these two
+ideas, and virtually established them for the whole nation. On the first
+board one-half the members were Unitarians,--Horace Mann, the younger
+Robert Rantoul, Jared Sparks, and Edmund Dwight. Some of the staunchest and
+most devoted and most liberal friends of Mann were of other denominations;
+but the work for common schools was thoroughly in harmony with Unitarian
+principles. Edmund Dwight was largely instrumental in securing the
+establishment of a Board of Education in Massachusetts, and he brought
+about the election of Horace Mann to fill the position of its secretary. He
+was a leading merchant in Boston, and his house was a centre for meetings
+and consultations relating to educational interests. He contributed freely
+for the purpose of enlarging and improving the state system of common
+schools, his donations amounting to not less than $35,000.[15]
+
+The first person to clearly advocate the establishment of schools for the
+training of teachers was Rev. Charles Brooks, minister of the Second
+Unitarian Church in Hingham from 1821 to 1839, afterwards professor of
+natural history in the University of the City of New York, and a reformer
+and author of some reputation in his day. In 1834 he began to write and
+lecture in behalf of common schools, and especially in the interest of
+normal schools.[16] He spoke throughout the state in behalf of training
+schools, with which he had become acquainted in Prussia; he went before the
+legislature on this subject; and he carried his labors into other
+states.[17]
+
+Horace Mann took up the idea of professional schools for teachers and made
+it effective. Edmund Dwight gave $10,000 to the state for this purpose, and
+schools were established in 1838. When the first of these normal schools
+opened in Lexington, July 3, 1839, its principal was Rev. Cyrus Peirce, who
+had been the minister of the Unitarian church in North Reading from 1819 to
+1829, and then had been a teacher in North Andover and Nantucket. "Had it
+not been for Cyrus Peirce," wrote Henry Barnard, "I consider the cause of
+Normal Schools would have failed or have been postponed for an indefinite
+period."[18] Dr. William T. Harris has said that "all Normal School work
+in this country follows substantially one tradition, and this traces back
+to the course laid down by Cyrus Peirce."[19] In the Lexington school
+Peirce was succeeded by Samuel J. May, who had been settled over Unitarian
+churches in Brooklyn and Scituate.[20]
+
+The work done by Horace Mann for education includes his labors as president
+of Antioch College from 1852 to 1859. He maintained that the chief end of
+education is the development of character; and he sought to make the
+college an altruistic community, in which teachers and students should
+labor together for the best good of all. He put into practice the
+nonsectarian principle, made the college coeducational, and developed the
+spirit of individual freedom as one of cardinal importance in education.
+"The ideas for which he stood," has written one who has carefully studied
+his work in all its phases, "spread abroad among the people of the Ohio
+valley, and showed themselves in various state institutions, normal
+schools, and high schools that were planted in the central west.
+Altogether, apart from Mr. Mann's visible work in Antioch College may be
+found agencies which he set at work, whose influence only eternity can
+measure. It was a great thing to the new west that a high standard of
+scholarship should be placed before her sons and daughters, and that a few
+hundred of them should be sent out into every corner of the state, and
+ultimately to the farthest boundaries of the nation, with a sound
+scholarship and a love for truth there and then wholly new. His reputation
+for scholarship and zeal gave his opinions greater weight than those of
+almost any other man in the country. As a result the most radical
+educational ideas were received from him with respect; and he carried
+forward the work of giving a practical embodiment to co-education,
+non-sectarianism, and the requirements of practical and efficient moral
+character, as perhaps no other educator could have done. His influence
+among people, and the aspirations which he kindled in thousands of minds by
+public addresses and personal contact, did for the people of the Ohio
+valley a work, the extent and value of which can never be measured."[21]
+
+[Sidenote: Elizabeth Peabody and the Kindergarten.]
+
+Horace Mann was largely influenced by Dr. Channing throughout his career as
+an educational reformer,[22] as was his wife and her sister, Elizabeth P.
+Peabody. It was to Channing that Miss Peabody owed her interest in the work
+of education; and his teachings brought her naturally into association with
+Bronson Alcott, and made her the leader in introducing the kindergarten
+into this country. She was influenced by the kindergarten method, at an
+early date, and she gave years of devoted labor to its extension. In
+connection with her sister, Mrs. Horace Mann, she wrote Culture in Infancy,
+1863, Guide to the Kindergarten, 1877, and Letters to Kindergartners, 1886.
+As a result of her enthusiastic efforts, kindergartens were opened in
+Boston in 1864; and it was in 1871 that she organized the American Froebel
+Union, which became the kindergarten department of the National Educational
+Association in 1885. The Kindergarten Messenger was begun by her in 1873,
+and was continued under her editorship until 1877, when it was merged in
+The New Education.
+
+Miss Peabody's Kindergarten Guide has been described as one of the most
+important original contributions made to the literature of the subject in
+this country. Her name is most intimately associated with the educational
+progress of the country because of her enthusiasm for the right training of
+children and her spiritual insight as a teacher.
+
+[Sidenote: Work of Unitarian Women for Education.]
+
+Much has been done by Unitarian women to advance the cause of education.
+The conversations of Margaret Fuller, held in Boston from 1839 to 1844,
+were an important influence in awakening women to larger intellectual
+interests; and many of those who attended them were afterwards active in
+promoting the educational enterprises of the city. In 1873 Miss Abby
+Williams May, Mrs. Ann Adeline Badger, Miss Lucretia Crocker, and Miss
+Lucia M. Peabody were elected members of the school committee of Boston,
+but did not serve, as their right to act in that capacity was questioned.
+Thereupon the legislature took action, making women eligible to the office.
+The next year Misses May, Crocker, and Peabody, with Mrs. Kate Gannett
+Wells, Mrs. Mary Safford Blake, and Miss Lucretia Hale, were elected, and
+served. In 1875 Misses Crocker, Hale, May, and Peabody were re-elected; and
+in 1876 Miss Crocker was elected one of the supervisors of the public
+schools of Boston. It is significant that the first women to hold these
+positions were Unitarians. It is also worthy of note that Miss Sarah
+Freeman Clarke, sister of James Freeman Clarke, was the first landscape
+painter of her sex in the country; and that Mrs. Cornelia W. Walter was the
+first woman to edit a large daily newspaper, she having become the editor
+and manager of the Boston Transcript at an early date.
+
+In 1873 was organized by Miss Anna E. Ticknor, daughter of Professor George
+Ticknor, the historian, the Society to encourage Studies at Home. During
+the twenty-four years of its existence it conducted by correspondence the
+reading and studies of over 7,000 women in all parts of the country, and
+did an important work in enlarging the sphere of women, preparing them for
+the work of teachers and for social and intellectual service in many
+directions. The society was discontinued in 1897, because, largely through
+its influence, many other agencies had come in to do the same work; but the
+large lending library, which had been an important feature of the
+activities of the society, was continued under the management of the Anna
+Ticknor Library Association until 1902. The memorial volume, published in
+1897, shows how important had been the work of the Society to encourage
+Studies at Home, and how many women, who were otherwise deprived of
+intellectual opportunities, were encouraged, helped, and inspired by it. It
+was said of Miss Ticknor, by Samuel Eliot, the president of the society
+throughout the whole period of its existence: "While appreciative of the
+restrictions which she wished to remove, she was desirous to gratify, if
+possible, the aspirations of the large number of women throughout the
+country who would fain obtain an education, and who had little, if any,
+hope of obtaining it. She was very highly educated herself, and thought
+more and more of her responsibility to share her advantages with others not
+possessing them. In addition to these moral and intellectual
+qualifications, she possessed an executive ability brought into constant
+prominence by her work as secretary of the society. She was a teacher, an
+inspirer, a comforter, and, in the best sense, a friend of many and many a
+lonely and baffled life."[23]
+
+The service of Mrs. Mary Hemenway to education also deserves recognition.
+Possessed of large wealth, she devoted it to advancing important
+educational and intellectual interests. She established the Normal School
+of Swedish Gymnastics in Boston, and provided for its maintenance until it
+was adopted by the city as a part of its educational system. With her
+financial support the Hemenway South-western Archaeological Expedition was
+carried on by Frank H. Cushing and J.W. Fewkes. It was largely because of
+her efforts that the Montana Industrial School was established, and
+maintained for about ten years. Her chief work, however, was in the
+promotion of the study of American history on the part of young persons.
+When the Old South Meeting-house was threatened with destruction, she
+contributed $100,000 towards its preservation; and by her energy and
+perseverance it was devoted to the interests of historical study. The Old
+South Lectures for Young People were organized in 1883, soon after was
+begun the publication of the Old South Leaflets, a series of historical
+prizes was provided for, the Old South Historical Society was organized,
+and historical pilgrimages were established. All this work was placed in
+charge of Mr. Edwin D. Mead; and the New England Magazine, of which he was
+the editor, gave interpretation to these various educational efforts.
+
+Mrs. Hemenway devoted her life to such works as these. It is impossible to
+enumerate here all her noble undertakings; but they were many. "Mrs.
+Hemenway was a woman whose interests and sympathies were as broad as the
+world," says Edwin D. Mead, "but she was a great patriot; and she was
+pre-eminently that. She had a reverent pride in our position of leadership
+in the history and movement of modern democracy; and she had a consuming
+zeal to keep the nation strong and worthy of its best traditions, and to
+kindle this zeal among the young people of the nation. With all her great
+enthusiasms, she was an amazingly practical and definite woman. She wasted
+no time nor strength in vague generalities, either of speech or action.
+Others might long for the time when the kingdom of God should cover the
+earth as the waters cover the sea, and she longed for it; but, while others
+longed, she devoted herself to doing what she could to bring that corner of
+God's world in which she was set into conformity with the laws of God,--and
+this by every means in her power, by teaching poor girls how to make better
+clothes and cook better dinners and make better homes, by teaching people
+to value health and respect and train their bodies and love better music
+and better pictures and be interested in more important things. Others
+might long for the parliament of man and the federation of the world, and
+so did she; but while others longed, she devoted herself to doing what she
+could to make this nation, for which she was particularly responsible,
+fitter for the federation when it comes. The good state for which she
+worked was a good Massachusetts; and her chief interest, while others
+talked municipal reform, was to make a better Boston."[24]
+
+[Sidenote: Popular Education and Public Libraries.]
+
+The interest of Unitarians in popular education and the general diffusion
+of knowledge may be further indicated by a few illustrations. One of these
+is the Lowell Institute in Boston, founded by John Lowell, son of Francis
+Cabot Lowell, and cousin of James Russell Lowell. He was a Boston merchant,
+became an extensive traveller, and died in Bombay, in 1836, at the age of
+thirty-four. In his will he left one-half his fortune for the promotion of
+popular education through lectures, and in other ways. John Amory Lowell
+became the trustee of this fund, nearly $250,000; and in December, 1839,
+the Lowell Institute began its work with a lecture by Edward Everett, which
+gave a biographical account of John Lowell, and a statement of the purposes
+of the Institute. Since that time the Lowell Institute has given to the
+people of Boston, free of charge, from fifty to one hundred lectures each
+winter. The topics treated have taken a wide range, and the lecturers have
+included many of the ablest men in this and other countries. The work of
+the Lowell Institute has also included free lectures for advanced students
+given in connection with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, science
+lectures to the teachers of Boston, and a free drawing school.
+
+In 1846 Louis Agassiz came to this country to lecture before the Lowell
+Institute. The result was that he became permanently connected with Harvard
+University, and transferred his scientific work to this country. This was
+accomplished by means of the gift of Abbott Lawrence, who founded the
+Lawrence Scientific School in 1847. Although the Lowell Institute was
+founded by a Unitarian, and although it has always been largely managed by
+Unitarians, it has been wholly unsectarian in its work. Many of its
+lecturers have been of that body, but only because they were men of science
+or of literary attainments.
+
+In 1854 Peter Cooper founded the Cooper Union in New York for the
+Advancement of Science and Art, to promote "instruction in branches of
+knowledge by which men and women earn their daily bread; in laws of health
+and improvement of the sanitary conditions of families as well as
+individuals; in social and political science, whereby communities and
+nations advance in virtue, wealth, and power; and finally in matters which
+affect the eye, the ear, and the imagination, and furnish a basis for
+recreation to the working classes." He erected a large building, and
+established therein the Cooper Institute, with its reading-room, library,
+lectures, schools, and other facilities for bringing the means of education
+within reach of those who could not otherwise obtain them.
+
+Peter Cooper was an earnest Unitarian in his opinions, attending the church
+of Dr. Bellows; but he was wholly without sectarian bias. In a letter
+addressed to the delegates to the Evangelical Alliance, at its session held
+in New York in 1873, he expressed the catholicity and the humanitarian
+spirit of his religion. "I look to see the day," he wrote, "when the
+teachers of Christianity will rise above all the cramping power and
+influence of conflicting creeds and systems of human device, when they will
+beseech mankind by all the mercies of God to be reconciled to the
+government of love, the only government that can ever bring the kingdom of
+heaven into the hearts of mankind either here or hereafter."
+
+About 1825 there was opened in Dublin, N.H., under the auspices of Rev.
+Levi W. Leonard, minister of the Unitarian church in that village, the
+first library in the country that was free to all the inhabitants of a town
+or city. In the adjoining town of Peterboro, in 1833, under the leadership
+of Rev. Abiel Abbot, also the Unitarian minister, a library was established
+by vote of the town. This library was maintained by the town itself, being
+the first in the country supported from the tax rates of a municipality. In
+the work of these Unitarian ministers may be found the beginnings of the
+present interest in the establishment and growth of free public libraries.
+
+In the founding and endowment of libraries, Unitarians have taken an active
+part. What they have done in this direction may be illustrated by the gift
+of Enoch Pratt of one and a quarter million dollars to the public library
+in Baltimore. Concerning the time when Jared Sparks was the minister of the
+Unitarian church in Baltimore, Professor Herbert B. Adams has said: "Some
+of the most generous and public-spirited people of Baltimore were connected
+with the first independent church. Afterwards, men who were to be most
+helpful in the upbuilding of Baltimore's greatest institutions--the Peabody
+Institute, the Pratt Library, and the Johns Hopkins University--were
+associated with the Unitarian society."[25]
+
+Professor Barrett Wendell speaks of George Ticknor as "the chief founder of
+the chief public library in the United States."[26] Ticknor undoubtedly
+did more than anybody else to make the Boston Public Library the great
+institution it has become, not only in giving it his own collection of
+books, but also in its inception and in its organization. The best working
+library in the country, that of the Boston Athenaeum, also owes a very
+large debt to the early Unitarians, with whom it originated, and by whom it
+was largely maintained in its early days.
+
+[Sidenote: Mayo's Southern Ministry of Education.]
+
+One of the most important contributions to the work of education has been
+that of Rev. Amory D. Mayo, known as the "Ministry of Education in the
+South." After settlements over churches in Gloucester, Cleveland, Albany,
+Cincinnati, and Springfield, Mr. Mayo began his southern work in 1880. He
+had an extensive preparation for his southern labors, having served on the
+school boards of Cincinnati and Springfield for fifteen years, lectured
+extensively on educational subjects, and been a frequent contributor to
+educational periodicals. He has written a History of Common Schools, which
+is published by the national Bureau of Education, prepared several of the
+Circulars of Information of that bureau, and printed a great number of
+educational pamphlets and addresses.
+
+"One of the most helpful agencies in the work of free and universal
+education in the South, for the last twenty years," says Dr. J.L.M. Curry
+in a personal letter, "has been the ministry of A.D. Mayo. His intelligent
+zeal, his instructive addresses, his tireless energy, have made him a
+potent factor in this great work; and any history of what the Unitarian
+denomination has done would be very imperfect which did not make proper and
+grateful recognition of his valuable services."
+
+[1] Christian Examiner, XLVII. 186; Mrs. E.B. Lee, Memoirs of the
+    Buckminsters, 325.
+
+[2] Memoir of Buckminster, introductory to his Sermons, published in
+    1814, xxxii.
+
+[3] The Pentateuch and its Relation to the Jewish and Christian
+    Dispensation. By Andrews Norton. Edited by John James Tayler, London,
+    1863. This was the Note, with introduction.
+
+[4] Boston Unitarianism, 244.
+
+[5] Hengstenberg's Christology, Christian Examiner, July, 1834, XVI. 321.
+
+[6] Ibid., 327.
+
+[7] Ibid., 356.
+
+[8] Ibid., 357.
+
+[9] Ibid., 358.
+
+[10] Our Liberal Movement in Theology, 68.
+
+[11] The Authorship of the Fourth Gospel and Other Critical Essays
+     selected from the published papers of Ezra Abbot, edited, with
+     preface, by Professor J.H. Thayer.
+
+[12] The Divinity School of Harvard University: Its History, Courses of
+     Study, Aims, and Advantages, published by the University, 9.
+
+[13] The Divinity School as it is, Harvard Graduates' Magazine, June,
+     1897.
+
+[14] B.A. Hinsdale, Horace Mann and the Common School Revival in the
+     United States, 127.
+
+[15] B.A. Hinsdale, Horace Mann and the Common School Revival in the
+     United States, 148.
+
+[16] Henry Barnard, Normal Schools, 125.
+
+[17] B.A. Hinsdale, Horace Mann, 147.
+
+[18] Quoted by J.P. Gordy, Rise and Growth of the Normal School Idea in
+     the United States, Circular of Information of the Bureau of
+     Education, 1891, 49.
+
+[19] Ibid., 43.
+
+[20] S.J. May, Memoir of Cyrus Peirce, Barnard's American Journal of
+     Education, December, 1857.
+
+[21] G.A. Hubbell, Horace Mann in Ohio: A Study of the Application of his
+     Public School Ideals to College Administration, No. IV. of Vol. VII.,
+     Columbia University Contributions to Philosophy, Psychology, and
+     Education, 50.
+
+[22] Mary Mann, Life of Horace Mann, 44; Henry Barnard, Normal Schools,
+     93.
+
+[23] Memorial Volume, 2.
+
+[24] Edwin D. Mead, The Old South Work, 1900; also Memorial Sermon, by
+     Charles G. Ames, 17.
+
+[25] Life and Writings of Jared Sparks, I. 141.
+
+[26] A Literary History of America, 266.
+
+
+
+
+XIX.
+
+
+UNITARIANISM AND LITERATURE.
+
+The history of American literature is intimately connected with the history
+of Unitarianism in this country. The influences that caused the growth of
+Unitarianism were those, to a large extent, that produced American
+literature. It was not merely Harvard College that had this effect, as has
+been often asserted; for the other colleges did not become the centres of
+literary activity. It was more distinctly the freedom, the breadth of
+intellectual interest, and the sympathy with what was human and natural
+developed by the Unitarian movement that were favorable to the growth of
+literature. Yet from the beginning of the eighteenth century Harvard
+fostered the spirit of inquiry, and helped to set the mind free from the
+theological and classical predispositions that had checked its natural
+growth. A taste for literature was encouraged, theology took on a broad and
+humanitarian character, and there was a growing appreciation of art and
+poetry. Harvard College helped to bring men into contact with European
+thought, and thus opened to them fresh and stimulating sources of
+intellectual interest.
+
+During the last quarter of the eighteenth century and the first half of the
+nineteenth New England was largely devoted to commercial enterprises.
+Every coast town of any size from Newport to Belfast was concerned with
+ship-building and with trade to foreign ports. Such towns as Boston and
+Salem traded with China, India, and many other parts of the world. Not only
+was wealth largely increased by this commercial activity, but the influence
+upon life and thought was very great. The mind was emancipated, and
+religion grew more liberal and humane, as the result of this contact with
+foreign lands. Along the whole coast, within the limits named, there was an
+abandonment of Puritanism and a growth into a genial and humanitarian
+interpretation of Christianity. In New York City somewhat the same results
+were produced, at least on social and intellectual life, though with less
+immediate effect upon religion. It was in these regions, in which
+commercial contact with the great outside world set the mind free and
+awakened the imagination, that American literature was born.
+
+[Sidenote: Influence of Unitarian Environment.]
+
+The influence of Unitarian culture and literary tastes is shown by the
+considerable number of literary men who were the sons of Unitarian
+ministers. Ralph Waldo Emerson was the son of William Emerson, the minister
+of the First Church in Boston at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
+George Bancroft was the son of Aaron Bancroft, the first Unitarian minister
+in Worcester, and the first president of the American Unitarian
+Association. To Charles Lowell, of the West Church in Boston, were born
+James Russell Lowell and Robert T.S. Lowell. The father of Francis Parkman
+was of the same name, and was for many years the minister of the New North
+Church in Boston. Richard Hildreth was the son of Hosea Hildreth, Unitarian
+minister in Gloucester. Octavius Brooks Frothingham was the son of
+Nathaniel L. Frothingham, minister of the First Church in Boston. Joseph
+Allen, father of Joseph Henry Allen and William Francis Allen, was the
+minister in Northboro for many years. Of literary workers now living
+William Everett is the son of Edward Everett, Charles Eliot Norton of
+Andrews Norton, and William Wells Newell of William Newell, minister of the
+First Church in Cambridge for many years.
+
+This influence is shown in the large number of literary men who studied at
+the Harvard Divinity School and began their career as Unitarian ministers.
+It may be partly accounted for by the fact that at the beginning of the
+nineteenth century literature offered but a precarious opportunity to men
+of talent and genius. The respect then accorded to ministers, the wide
+influence they were able to exert, and the many intellectual opportunities
+offered by the profession, naturally attracted many young men. During the
+first part of the nineteenth century no other profession was so attractive,
+and enthusiasm for it was large amongst the students of Harvard College. As
+literary openings began to present themselves, many of these men found
+other occupations, partly because their tastes were intellectual rather
+than theological, and partly because the radical ferment made the pulpit no
+longer acceptable. Such a man as Edward Everett would never have entered
+the pulpit, had it not been socially and intellectually most attractive at
+the time when he began his career. In the instance of Samuel A. Eliot, who
+took the full course in the Divinity School, but did not preach, being
+afterward mayor of Boston and member of Congress the influences at work
+were probably much the same.
+
+George Bancroft is another instance of a graduate of the Divinity School
+who did not enter the pulpit, but, beginning his career as a teacher,
+devoted his life to literature and diplomacy. With such men as Christopher
+P. Cranch, artist and poet; George P. Bradford, teacher, thinker, and
+friend of literary men; H.G.O. Blake, editor of Thoreau's Journals; J.L.
+Sibley, librarian; John Albee, poet and essayist; and William Cushing,
+bibliographer, the cause operating was probably the same,--the discovery
+that the chosen profession was not acceptable or that some other was
+preferable. Another group of men, including John G. Palfrey, Jared Sparks,
+William Ware, Horatio Alger, James K. Hosmer, Edward Rowland Sill and
+William Wells Newell, who occupied Unitarian pulpits for brief periods,
+were drawn into literary occupations as more congenial to their tastes. The
+same influence doubtless served to withdraw Emerson, George Ripley, John S.
+Dwight, Thomas W. Higginson, Moncure D. Conway, and Francis E. Abbot, from
+the pulpit; but with these men there was also a break with traditional
+Christianity.
+
+[Sidenote: Literary Tendencies.]
+
+The early Unitarian movement in New England was literary and religious
+rather than theological. The men who have been most influential in
+determining the course of Unitarian development, such as Charming, Dewey,
+Parker, and Hedge, not to include Emerson, who has been a greater
+affirmative leader than either of the others, were first of all preachers,
+and their published works were originally given to the world from the
+pulpit. They made no effort to produce a Unitarian system of theology; and
+it would have been quite in opposition to the genius of the movement, had
+they entered upon such a task.
+
+With the advent of the Unitarian movement, for the first time in the
+history of the American pulpit did the sermon become a literary product.
+Channing and his coworkers, especially Buckminster and Everett, departed
+widely from the pulpit traditions of New England, ceased to quote texts,
+abandoned theological exposition, refrained from the exhortatory method,
+and addressed men and women in literary language about the actual interests
+of daily life. Their preaching was not metaphysical, and it was not
+declamatory. The illustrations used were human rather than Biblical, a
+preference was given to what was intellectual rather than to what was
+emotional, and the effect was instruction rather than conversion. It
+resulted in faithful living, good citizenship, fidelity to duty, love of
+the neighbor, and an earnest helpfulness toward the poor and unfortunate.
+
+[Sidenote: Literary Tastes of Unitarian Ministers.]
+
+In studying any considerable list of Unitarian ministers, and taking note
+of their personal tastes and their avocations, it will be seen that a large
+number of them were lovers of literature, and ardently devoted much of
+their time to literary pursuits. Not only was there a decidedly literary
+flavor about their preaching, but they were frequent contributors to The
+Christian Examiner and The North American Review; and they wrote poems,
+novels, books of travel, essays, and histories. They were conspicuous in
+historical and scientific societies, in promoting scientific
+investigations, in advancing archaeological researches, in every kind of
+learned inquiry. Their intellectual interests were so catholic and so
+vigorous that they were not contented with parish and pulpit, and in some
+cases it would seem that the avocation was as important as the vocation
+itself.
+
+Dr. Channing would be named as the man who has done most to give direction
+to the currents of Unitarian thought on theological problems, but he was
+also conspicuously a philanthropist and reformer. He was less a theologian,
+in the technical sense, than one who taught men to live in the spirit. His
+spiritual insight, humanitarian sympathies, and imaginative fellowship with
+all forms of human experience gave his writings a literary charm and power
+of a high order. He was a great religious teacher and inspirer, a preacher
+of unsurpassed gifts of spiritual interpretation, and a prophet of the
+truer religious life.
+
+The Unitarian leaders who were influenced by the transcendental movement,
+of which the most prominent were Parker, Hedge, Clarke, and C.C. Everett,
+interpreted theology in the broadest spirit. Parker was essentially a
+preacher and reformer. It was the one conspicuous aim of his life to
+liberate religion from the intellectual thraldom of the past, and to bring
+it into the open air of the world, where it might be informed of daily
+experience and gain for itself a rightful opportunity. He was therefore
+literary, imaginative, ethical, practical. He wrote for The Dial, and
+established The Massachusetts Review, he was one of the most widely heard
+of popular lecturers, and he was a leader in the most radical of the
+reforms prominent in his day. Parker made all wisdom subservient to his
+religion, treated a wide range of subjects in his pulpit, and brought
+religion into immediate contact with human life.
+
+Frederic H. Hedge did more than any other man to give Unitarianism a
+consistent philosophy and theology. His Reason in Religion and Ways of the
+Spirit have had a profound influence in shaping the thought of the
+denomination, and have led all American Unitarians to accept his view of
+the universality of incarnation and the consubstantiality of man and God.
+He was wise as an interpreter, and by no means wanting in originality, a
+brilliant essayist, a philosophical historian, and a student of high
+themes. His Prose Writers of Germany, Hours with the German Classics,
+Primeval World of Hebrew Tradition, and Atheism in Philosophy show the
+range of his interests and his ability as a thinker.
+
+James Freeman Clarke may be selected as a typical Unitarian minister, who
+wrote poetry, was more than once an editor, often appeared on the lecture
+platform, was a frequent contributor to the leading periodicals, wrote
+several works of biography and history, gave himself zealously to the
+advocacy of the noblest reforms, and produced many volumes of sermons that
+have in an unusual degree the merit of directness, literary grace,
+suggestiveness, and spiritual warmth and insight. His theological writings
+have been widely read by Unitarians and those not of that fellowship. His
+Self-culture has been largely circulated as a manual of practical ethics.
+His Ten Great Religions and its companion volume opened the way in this
+country for the recognition of the comparative study of religious
+developments. Not content with so wide a range of studies, he wrote Thomas
+Didymus, an historical romance concerned with New Testament characters, How
+to find the Stars, and Exotics, a volume of poetical translation. He was a
+maker of many books, and all of them were well made. His theology was all
+the more humane, and his preaching was all the more effective, because he
+was interested in many subjects and had a real mastery of them.
+
+Charles Carroll Everett was a philosophical thinker and theologian, and the
+younger generation of Unitarian ministers has been largely influenced by
+him. His theological work was done in the lecture-room, but it was of
+first-rate importance. He was a profound thinker, a vigorous writer, and an
+inspiring teacher. He was an able theologian, philosophical in thought, but
+deeply spiritual in insight. His work on The Science of Thought shows the
+depth and vigor of his thinking; but his volumes on The Gospel of Paul,
+Religions before Christianity, Poetry, Comedy, and Duty, suggest the
+breadth of his inquiries and the richness of his philosophical
+investigations. In his position as the dean of the Harvard Divinity School
+he accomplished his best work, and there his great ability as theologian
+and philosophical thinker made itself amply manifest.
+
+Another group of men largely influenced by the transcendental movement
+included David A. Wasson, John Weiss, Samuel Johnson, Samuel Longfellow,
+Cyrus A. Bartol, Octavius K Frothingham, and William J. Potter. Here we see
+the literary tendency showing itself distinctly and to much advantage. The
+first four of these men wrote exquisite hymns and spiritual lyrics, and all
+of them were contributors to periodical literature or writers of books.
+Weiss was a literary critic of no mean merit in his lectures on Greek and
+Shakespearean subjects; and his volumes on American Religion and Immortal
+Life were purely literary in their method. However deficient were Johnson's
+books on the religions of India, China, and Persia, from the point, of view
+of the science of religion, they have not yet been surpassed as
+interpretations of the inner spirit of Oriental religions. Bartol was a
+master of an incisive literary method in the pulpit, that gives to his
+Radical Problems, The Rising Faith, and Principles and Portraits a
+scintillating power all their own, with epigram and flash of wit on every
+page. Frothingham published many a volume of sermons; but his biographies
+of Parker, Gerrit Smith, Wasson, Johnson, Ripley, Channing, and his volume
+on the History of Transcendentalism in New England, as well as his Boston
+Unitarianism, and Recollections and Impressions, indicate that his literary
+interests were quite as active as his theological.
+
+The literary tastes of Unitarian ministers are indicated by the large
+number of them who have written poetry that passes beyond the limits of
+mediocrity. The names of John Pierpont, Andrews Norton, Samuel Gilman,
+Nathaniel L. Frothingham, the younger Henry Ware, W.B.O. Peabody, William
+Henry Furness, William Newell, William Parsons Lunt, Frederic H. Hedge,
+James F. Clarke, Theodore Parker, Chandler Robbins, Edmund H. Sears,
+Charles T. Brooks, Robert C. Waterston, Thomas Hill, and others, have been
+lovingly commemorated in Alfred P. Putnam's Singers and Songs of the
+Liberal Faith. Hymns of nearly all these men are in common use in many
+congregations, and some of their work has found a place in every hymnal.
+
+No one can read the sermons of Thomas Starr King without feeling their
+literary grace and finish of style, as well as their intellectual vigor.
+His lectures marked his literary interest, which shows itself in his
+Christianity and Humanity and his Substance and Show. Especially does it
+appear in his delightful book on The White Hills, their Legends, Landscape,
+and Poetry. In his day, Henry Giles was widely known as a lecturer; and his
+numerous volumes of literary interpretation and criticism, especially his
+Human Life in Shakespeare, were read with appreciation. In his District
+School as it was, and My Religious Experience at my Native Home, Warren
+Burton described in simple but effective prose a kind of life that has long
+since passed away. His educational lectures and books helped on the cause
+of public school education, a subject in which he was greatly interested.
+
+Unitarian ministers have also made many contributions to local and general
+history. The history of King's Chapel by Francis W.P. Greenwood may be
+mentioned as a specimen of the former kind of work; but Greenwood also
+published several volumes of sermons, as well as biographical and literary
+volumes. A History of the Second Church in Boston, with Lives of Increase
+and Cotton Mather, was published by Chandler Robbins. The theological
+history of Unitarianism was ably discussed by George E. Ellis in A
+Half-century of the Unitarian Controversy. He devoted much attention to the
+history of New England, gave many lectures and addresses on subjects
+connected therewith, published biographies of Anne Hutchinson, William
+Penn, Count Rumford, Jared Sparks, and Charles W. Upham. His volumes on The
+Red Man and the White Man in North America, The Puritan Theocracy, and
+others, show his historical ability and his large grasp of his subjects.
+Joseph Henry Allen published an Historical Sketch of the Unitarian Movement
+since the Reformation, in the American Church History series. In Our
+Liberal Movement in Theology, and its Sequel, he critically and
+appreciatively treated of the history of Unitarianism in New England, and
+of the men who were most important in its development. His taste for
+historical studies appeared in his Christian History in its Three Great
+Periods, a work of admirable critical judgment, sobriety of statement, and
+concise presentation of the essential facts.
+
+Alvan Lamson produced a book of critical value in The Church of the First
+Three Centuries, which treats of the origin of the Trinitarian beliefs
+during that period. A work of a similar character was done by Frederic
+Huidekoper, in whose books were included the results of many years of
+minute research, and of critical investigation into the origins of
+Christianity.
+
+Books of a widely different nature were written by Artemas B. Muzzey in his
+Personal Recollection of the Men in the Battle of Lexington, and
+Reminiscences of Men of the Revolution and their Families. He published
+several volumes of sermons, as well as a number of educational works.
+Somewhat of a theologian and an ardent student and expounder of philosophy,
+William R. Alger has made himself widely known by his books on The Genius
+of Solitude, Friendships of Women, and The School of Life. His fine
+literary judgments, his artistic appreciations, and his richness of
+sentiment and imagination show themselves in these attractive volumes. He
+has also published a Life of Edwin Forrest, with a Critical History of the
+Dramatic Art. His Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life is a
+work of ripe scholarship and great literary merit, and is everywhere
+recognized as an authority.
+
+[Sidenote: Unitarians as Historians.]
+
+In the chapter on historians, in his American Literature, Professor Charles
+F. Richardson enumerates seventeen writers, twelve of whom were Unitarians.
+It was in Cambridge and Boston, amongst the graduates of Harvard College,
+that American historical writing began, and that it attained its greatest
+successes. The same causes that had given the Unitarians pre-eminence in
+other directions made them especially so in this, where wide learning and
+sound criticism were of importance. Wealth, leisure, intellectual
+emancipation, sympathetic interest in all that is human, combined with
+scholarship and plodding industry, gave the historians an unusual equipment
+for their tasks.
+
+It may be justly said that historical writing in this country began with
+Jeremy Belknap, the predecessor of Dr. Channing in the Federal Street
+Church. When settled in Dover, he wrote his History of New Hampshire; and
+after his removal to Boston he produced a biography of Watts and two
+volumes of American Biographies. He first voiced the historical interest
+that was awakened by the establishment of national independence, and the
+desire to know of the past of the American people. His chief service to
+historical studies, however, was in the formation of the Massachusetts
+Historical Society.
+
+Hannah Adams was not only a Unitarian, but the first woman in this country
+to enter upon a literary career. Her View of Religious Opinions, first
+issued in 1784, afterwards changed to a Dictionary of Religions, was the
+earliest work attempting to give an account of all the religions of the
+world. It was followed by her History of New England, and by her History of
+the Jews. She also took part in the religious controversies of the day, her
+contest with Dr. Jedediah Morse being one of the minor phases of the
+struggle between the Unitarians and the Orthodox Congregationalists; and
+her Evidences of Christianity, as well as her letters on the Gospels, were
+written from the Unitarian point of view. Her books had no literary value,
+but in their time they helped to foster the growing interest in American
+subjects.
+
+Alexander Young, minister of the New South Church in Boston, rendered
+valuable service to historical investigations by his Chronicles of the
+Pilgrim Fathers of the Colony of Plymouth and his Chronicles of the First
+Planters of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, works that were scholarly,
+accurate, and judicious. Perhaps his most important service was the editing
+of the Library of Old English Prose Writers, in nine volumes, which
+appeared from 1831 to 1834, and included such works as Sidney's Defence of
+Poesie and Sir Thomas Browne's Urn Burial. Of his historical works, O.B.
+Frothingham has justly said that "they showed extensive and accurate
+knowledge, extraordinary zeal in research, singular impartiality of
+judgment, great activity of mind, a strong inclination towards ethical as
+distinguished from speculative subjects, a passionate love of books and
+elegant letters."[1]
+
+Of the greater historians, Bancroft, Prescott, Motley, Hildreth, Sparks,
+Palfrey, Ticknor, Parkman, Higginson, Parton, and Fiske were Unitarians.
+Three of these men were sons of Unitarian ministers, and four of them
+prepared for that profession or entered upon its duties. It is not
+desirable that any attempt should be made here to estimate their historical
+labors, for their position and their achievements are well known.
+
+It would be interesting to give an account of the Unitarian connections and
+sympathies of these writers, but the materials are not at hand in the case
+of most of them. One or two illustrations will suffice for them all,
+indicating their religious tastes and preferences. In 1829 Prescott made a
+careful examination of the evidences for belief in Christianity, and his
+biographer says that "the conclusions at which he arrived were, that the
+narratives of the Gospels were authentic; and that, even if Christianity
+were not a divine revelation, no system of morals was so likely to fit him
+for happiness here and hereafter. But he did not find in the Gospels or in
+any part of the New Testament the doctrines commonly accounted orthodox,
+and he deliberately recorded his rejection of them." At a later time he
+stated his creed in these words: "To do well and act justly, to fear and to
+love God, and to love our neighbor as ourselves--in these is the essence of
+religion. To do this is the safest, our only safe course. For what we can
+believe we are not responsible, supposing we examine candidly and
+patiently. For what we do we shall indeed be accountable. The doctrines of
+the Saviour unfold the whole code of morals by which our conduct should be
+regulated."[2] Prescott was a regular attendant at the First Church in
+Boston.
+
+In his biography of George Ticknor, George S. Hilliard says that "the
+strong religious impressions which Mr. Ticknor received in early years
+deepened as his character matured into personal convictions, the confirmed
+and ruling principles of his life. He had been brought up in the doctrines
+of Calvinistic orthodoxy, but later serious reflection led him to reject
+those doctrines; and soon after his return from Europe he joined Dr.
+Channing's church, of which he continued through life a faithful member. He
+was a sincere Liberal Christian, and his convictions were firm, but they
+were held without bigotry, and he never allowed them to interfere with
+kindliness and courtesy." It may be added that Ticknor was an active member
+of the church with which he was connected, that in 1822 he took charge of a
+class of boys in the Sunday-school, which he kept for eight years. In 1839
+and the next year he gave a course of instruction in the history and
+contents of the Bible to a class of young girls, for which he prepared
+himself carefully.[3]
+
+The influence exerted by the historians in teaching love of country and a
+true patriotism may be accounted as very large. That men thoroughly
+grounded in principles of religious liberty, in high ideals of justice and
+humanity, in the broadest spirit of toleration and freedom of opinion,
+should have written our histories, is of no small importance in the
+formation of American character. That they have made many Unitarians we
+cannot suppose, but that their influence has been large in the development
+of a true spirit of nationality we have a right to think. They have
+indicated concretely the effects of bigotry and intolerance, and they have
+not failed to point out the defects in the practices of the Puritans. In so
+far as they have had to deal with religious subjects, they have taught the
+true Unitarian idea of liberty of conscience and freedom of opinion. They
+have wisely helped to make it possible for many religions to live kindly
+side by side, and to give every creed the right of utterance. These ideals
+had been developed before our historians began to write, but these men have
+helped to make them the inheritance of the whole nation. All the more
+effective has been their teaching that it has grown out of the events of
+our history, and has not been the voice of a merely personal opinion. But
+we owe much to them that they have seen the true meaning of our history,
+and that they have uttered it with clearness of interpretation and with
+vigorous moral emphasis.
+
+[Sidenote: Scientific Unitarians.]
+
+A considerable number of the leading men of science have been Unitarians.
+Notable among the mathematicians were Nathaniel Bowditch, Benjamin Peirce,
+and Thomas Hill, who was president of Antioch College and of Harvard
+University. Among the astronomers have been Benjamin Gould, Maria Mitchell,
+Asaph Hall, and Edward C. Picketing. Of Maria Mitchell it was said that she
+"was entirely ignorant of the peculiar phrases and customs of rigid
+sectarians." Her biographer says she "never joined any church, but for
+years before she left Nantucket she attended the Unitarian church, and her
+sympathies, as long as she lived, were with that denomination, especially
+with the more liberally inclined portion."[4] James Jackson, the first
+physician of the Massachusetts General Hospital, should be named in this
+connection. Joseph Lovering, the physicist, and Jeffries Wyman, the
+comparative anatomist, are also to be included. And here belongs Louis
+Agassiz, who has had more influence than any other man in developing an
+interest in science among the people generally. He gave to scientific
+investigations the largest importance for scientific men themselves. At the
+same time he was a religious man and a theist. "In religion," says his
+biographer, "Agassiz very liberal and tolerant, and respected the views and
+convictions of every one. In his youth and early manhood, Agassiz was
+undoubtedly a materialist, or, more exactly, a sceptic; but in time, and
+little by little, his studies led him to belief in a divine Creative Power.
+He was more in sympathy with Unitarianism than with any other Christian
+denomination."[5]
+
+[Sidenote: Unitarian Essayists.]
+
+A considerable number of essayists, lecturers, and general writers have
+been Unitarians. Among these have been Edwin P. Whipple, George Ripley,
+Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney, John S. Dwight, Professor Charles Eliot Norton, Henry
+T. Tuckerman, James T. Fields, and Professor Francis J. Child. These
+writers represent several phases of Unitarian opinion, but they belong to
+this fellowship by birthright or intellectual sympathies. In the same
+company may be placed Henry D. Thoreau and John Burroughs, not because they
+had any direct connection with Unitarianism, but because the religious
+convictions they expressed are such as most Unitarians accept.
+
+To the Unitarian fellowship belong Margaret Fuller, Lydia Maria Child,
+Caroline M. Kirkland, Grace Greenwood (Mrs. Lippincott), and Julia Ward
+Howe. All the early associations of Margaret Fuller were with Unitarians;
+and her brother, Arthur Fuller, became a Unitarian minister. In her maturer
+life she was with the transcendentalists, finding in Rev. W.H. Channing and
+Emerson her spiritual teachers. Writing of her debt to Emerson, she said,
+"His influence has been more beneficial to me than that of any American;
+and from him I first learned what is meant by an inward life."[6] She was
+a pronounced individualist, an intense lover of spiritual liberty, a friend
+of those who live in the spirit. This may be seen in what she called her
+credo, a sentence or two from which will indicate her type of thought. "I
+will not loathe sects, persuasions, systems," she writes, "though I cannot
+abide in them one moment; for I see that by most men they are still
+needed." "Ages may not produce one worthy to loose the shoes of the Prophet
+of Nazareth; yet there will surely be another manifestation of this word
+which was in the beginning. The very greatness of this manifestation
+demands a greater. We have had a Messiah to teach and reconcile. Let us now
+have a man to live out all the symbolical forms of human life, with the
+calm beauty of a Greek god, with the deep consciousness of Moses, with the
+holy love and purity of Jesus."[7]
+
+[Sidenote: Unitarian Novelists.]
+
+Among the novelists have been several who were Unitarian ministers,
+including Sylvester Judd, William Ware, Thomas W. Higginson, and Edward
+Everett Hale. Judd's Margaret was of the very essence of transcendentalism,
+besides being an excellent interpretation of some of the phases of New
+England character. Ware's historical novels were popular in their day, and
+are now worth going back to by modern readers, and especially by those who
+do not insist upon having their romances hot from the press. Catherine M.
+Sedgwick is another novelist worth returning to by modern readers, and
+especially by those who would know of New England life in the early part of
+the nineteenth century. She became an ardent Unitarian, and her biography
+gives interesting glimpses of the early struggles of that faith in York
+City. Other Unitarian women novelists were Lydia Maria Child, Grace
+Greenwood, Helen Hunt Jackson, Louisa M. Alcott, and Harriet Prescott
+Spofford.
+
+In naming John T. Trowbridge, Bayard Taylor, Bret Harte, William D.
+Howells, and Nathaniel Hawthorne as Unitarians, no merely sectarian aim is
+in view. In the common use of the word, Hawthorne was not a religious man;
+for he rarely attended church, and he had no interest in ecclesiastical
+formalities. No man who has written in this country, however, was more
+deeply influenced than he by those spiritual ideas and traditions which may
+be properly called Unitarian. The same may be said of Howells, who is not a
+Unitarian in any denominational sense; but his religious interests and
+convictions bring him into sympathy with the movement represented by
+Unitarianism.
+
+It may be said of the most popular novels of Edward Everett Hale, such as
+Ten Times One Is Ten, In His Name, His Level Best, that they are the best
+possible interpretations of the Unitarian spirit; for it is not merely a
+certain conception of God that characterizes Unitarianism, nor yet a
+particular theological attitude. It is the wish to make religion real,
+practical, altruistic.
+
+[Sidenote: Unitarian Artists and Poets.]
+
+Unitarianism has been as friendly to poetry and the other arts as it has
+been to philosophy and science. In its early days it fostered the artistic
+careers of Washington Allston, the painter, and Charles Bulfinch, the
+architect. It has also nurtured the sculptors, William Wetmore Story, who
+was also poet and essayist; Harriet Hosmer, whose career shows what a woman
+can accomplish in opening new opportunities for her sex; Larkin G. Mead and
+Daniel C. French. To these must be added the actors Fanny Kemble and
+Charlotte Cushman.
+
+It is as one of the earliest of our poets that Charles Sprague is to be
+mentioned, and one or two of his poems are deservedly remembered. Jones
+Very was one of the best of the transcendental poets, and a few of his
+religious poems have not been surpassed. The younger William Ellery
+Channing and Edward R. Sill belong to the same school, and deservedly keep
+their places with those who admire what is choice in thought and individual
+in artistic workmanship. As a biographer of O.B. Frothingham and as a
+member of his congregation, it may be proper to add here the name of Edmund
+C. Stedman.
+
+Among our greater poets, Bryant, Longfellow, Emerson, Holmes, Lowell,
+Stoddard, and Bayard Taylor were Unitarians. As being essentially of the
+same way of thinking and believing, Whittier and Whitman might also be so
+classed. Though Whittier was a Friend by education and by conviction, he
+was of the liberal school that places religion above sect and interprets
+dogmas in the light of human needs and affections. If he had been born and
+bred a Unitarian, he could not have more sympathetically interpreted the
+Unitarian faith than he has in his poems. Whitman had in him the heart of
+transcendentalism, and he was informed of its inmost spirit. To the more
+radical Unitarians his pleas for liberty, his intense individualism, and
+his idealistic conceptions of nature and man would be acceptable, and, it
+may be, enthusiastically approved.
+
+William Cullen Bryant early became a Unitarian; and he listened to the
+preaching of Follen, Dewey, Osgood, and Bellows. "A devoted lover of
+religious liberty," Bellows said of him, "he was an equal lover of religion
+itself--not in any precise, dogmatic form, but in its righteousness,
+reverence, and charity. He was not a dogmatist, but preferred practical
+piety and working virtue to all modes of faith."[8] It would be difficult
+to give a better definition of Unitarianism itself; and it was the large
+humanity of it, and its generous outlook upon the lives of individuals and
+nations, that made of Bryant a faithful Unitarian.
+
+Henry W. Longfellow was educated as a Unitarian, his father having been one
+of the first vice-presidents of the Unitarian Association,--a position he
+held for many years. Stephen Longfellow was an intimate friend of Dr.
+Channing in his college years, and he followed the advance of his classmate
+in the growth of his liberal faith. "It was in the doctrine and the spirit
+of the early Unitarianism that Henry Longfellow was nurtured at church and
+at home," says his brother. "And there is no reason to suppose that he ever
+found these insufficient, or that he ever essentially departed from them.
+Of his genuine religious feeling his writings, give ample testimony. His
+nature was at heart devout; his ideas of life, of death, and of what lies
+beyond, were essentially cheerful, hopeful, optimistic. He did not care to
+talk much on theological points; but he believed in the supremacy of good
+in the world and in the universe."[9]
+
+Although Oliver Wendell Holmes was educated in the older forms of religious
+beliefs, he became one of the most devoted of Unitarians. His rejection of
+Calvinism is marked by his intense aversion to it, shown upon many a page
+of his prose and poetry. No other prominent Unitarian was so aggressive
+against the doctrines of the older time. He was a regular attendant at
+King's Chapel upon the preaching of Dr. F.W.P. Greenwood, Dr. Ephraim
+Peabody, and Rev. H.W. Foote; but, when he was in Pittsfield, for a number
+of years he went to the Episcopal church, and at Beverly Farms in his later
+years, during the summer, he attended a Baptist church. He was, therefore,
+a conservative Unitarian, but with a generous recognition of the good in
+other religious bodies. At the Unitarian Festival of 1859 Dr. Holmes was
+the presiding officer, and in his address he gave a statement of the
+Unitarian faith that clearly defines his own religious position:--
+
+  We believe in vital religion, or the religion of life, as contrasted
+  with that of trust in hierarchies, establishments, and traditional
+  formulae, settled by the votes of wavering majorities in old councils
+  and convocations. We believe in evangelical religion, or the religion
+  of glad tidings, in distinction from the schemes that make our planet
+  the ante-chamber of the mansions of eternal woe to the vast majority of
+  all the men, women, and children that have lived and suffered upon its
+  surface. We believe that every age must judge the Scriptures by its own
+  light; and we mean, by God's grace, to exercise that privilege, without
+  asking permission of pope or bishop, or any other human tribunal. We
+  believe that sin is the much-abused step-daughter of ignorance, and
+  this not only from our own observation, but on the authority of him
+  whose last prayer on earth was that the perpetrators of the greatest
+  crime on record might be forgiven, for they knew not what they were
+  doing. We believe, beyond all other beliefs, in the fatherly relation
+  of the Deity to all his creatures; and, wherever there is a conflict of
+  Scriptural or theological doctrines, we hold this to be the article of
+  faith that stands supreme above all others. And, lastly, we know that,
+  whether we agree precisely in these or any other articles of belief, we
+  can meet in Christian charity and fellowship, in that we all agree in
+  the love of our race, and the worship of a common Father, as taught us
+  by the Master whom we profess to follow.[10]
+
+Educated as a Unitarian, James Russell Lowell felt none of the animosity
+toward Calvinism that was characteristic of Holmes; but his poetry
+everywhere indicates the liberality and nobleness of his religious
+convictions. That he was not sectarian, that he felt no active interest in
+dogmatic theology as such, is only saying that he was a genuine Unitarian.
+Writing in 1838, Lowell said, "I am an infidel to the Christianity of
+to-day."[11] In a letter to Longfellow written in 1845, he made a more
+explicit statement of his attitude: "Christ has declared war against the
+Christianity of the world, and it must down. There is no help for it. The
+church, that great bulwark of our practical paganism, must be reformed from
+foundation to weathercock."[12] These passages indicate his
+dissatisfaction with an external religion and with dogmatic theology. On
+the other hand, his letters and his poems prove that he was strongly
+grounded in the faith of the spirit. In that faith he lived and died; and,
+if in later years he gave recognition to some of the higher claims of the
+older types of Christianity, it was a generous concession to their rational
+qualities and their practical results, and in no degree an acceptance of
+their teachings. The definite form of Lowell's faith he expressed when he
+wrote, "I will never enter a church from which a prayer goes up for the
+prosperous only, or for the unfortunate among the oppressors, and not for
+the oppressed and fallen; as if God had ordained our pride of caste and our
+distinctions of color, and as if Christ had forgotten those that are in
+bonds."[13]
+
+Emerson left the pulpit, and he withdrew from outward conformity to the
+church; but that there came a time when he no longer felt an interest in
+religion or that he even ceased to be a Christian, after his own manner of
+interpretation, there is no reason to assume. His radicalism was in the
+direction of a deeper and truer religion, a religion of the spirit. He
+rejected the faith that is founded on the letter, on historical evidences,
+that is a body without a soul. He was not the less a Unitarian because he
+ceased to be one outwardly, for he carried forward the Unitarian principles
+to their legitimate conclusion. The newer Unitarianism owes to him more
+than to any other man, and of him more than of any other man the older
+Unitarianism can boast that he was its product.
+
+Such a survey as this indicates how great has been the influence of
+Unitarianism upon American literature. There can be no question that it has
+been one of the greatest formative forces in its development. "Almost
+everybody," says Professor Barrett Wendell, "who attained literary
+distinction in New England during the nineteenth century was either a
+Unitarian or closely associated with Unitarian influences,"[14] More even
+than that may be said, for it is the Unitarian writers who have most truly
+interpreted American institutions and American ideals.
+
+[1] Boston Unitarianism, 168.
+
+[2] George Ticknor, Life of William Hickling Prescott, 91, 164.
+
+[3] George S. Hillard, Life, Letters, and Journals of George Ticknor,
+    327.
+
+[4] Phoebe Mitchell Kendall, Life, Letters, and Journals of Maria
+    Mitchell, 239.
+
+[5] Jules Marcou, Life of Agassiz, II. 220.
+
+[6] Memoirs, I. 194.
+
+[7] Memoirs, II. 91.
+
+[8] John Bigelow, Life of Bryant, 274, 285.
+
+[9] Samuel Longfellow, Life of H.W. Longfellow, I. 14
+
+[10] Quarterly Journal, VI. 359, July, 1859.
+
+[11] Biography of James Russell Lowell, by H.E. Scudder, I. 63.
+
+[12] Ibid., 169.
+
+[13] Biography of James Russell Lowell, by H.E. Scudder, I. 144, quoted
+     from Conversations on Some of the Old Poets.
+
+[14] A Literary History of America, 289.
+
+
+
+
+XX.
+
+
+THE FUTURE OF UNITARIANISM.
+
+The early Unitarians in this country did not desire to form a new sect.
+They wished to remain Congregationalists, and to continue unbroken the
+fellowship that had existed from the beginning of New England. When they
+were compelled to separate from the older churches, they refrained from
+organizing a strictly defined religious body, and have called theirs a
+"movement." The words "denomination" and "sect" have been repellent to
+them; and they have attempted, not only to avoid their use, but to escape
+from that which they represent. They have wished to establish a broad, free
+fellowship, that would draw together all liberal thinkers and movements
+into one wide and inclusive religious body.
+
+The Unitarian body accepted in theory from the first the principles of
+liberty, reason, and free inquiry. These were fully established, however,
+only as the result of discussion, agitation, and much friction. Theodore
+Parker was subjected to severe criticism, Emerson was regarded with
+distrust, and the Free Religious Association was organized as a protest and
+for the sake of a freer fellowship. In fact, however, Parker was never
+disfellowshipped; and from the first many Unitarians regarded Emerson as
+the teacher of a higher type of spiritual religion. Through this period of
+controversy, when there was much of bitter feeling engendered, no one was
+expelled from the Unitarian body for opinion's sake. All stayed in who did
+not choose to go out, there being no trials for, heresy. The result of this
+method has been that the Unitarian body is now one of the most united and
+harmonious in Christendom. The free spirit has abundantly justified itself.
+When it was found that every one could think for himself, express freely
+his own beliefs, and live in accordance with his own convictions,
+controversy came to an end. When heresy was no longer sought for, heresy
+ceased to have an existence. The result has not been discord and distrust,
+but peace, harmony, and a more perfect fellowship.
+
+In the Unitarian body from the first there has been a free spirit of
+inquiry. Criticism has had a free course. The Bible has been subjected to
+the most searching investigation, as have all the foundations of religion.
+As a result, no religious body shows, a more rational interest in the Bible
+or a more confident trust in its great spiritual teachings.
+
+The early Unitarians anticipated that Unitarianism would soon become the
+popular form of religion accepted in this country. Thomas Jefferson thought
+that all young men of his time would die Unitarians. Others were afraid
+that Unitarianism would become sectarian in its methods as soon as it
+became popular, which they anticipated would occur in a brief period.[1]
+The cause of the slow growth of Unitarianism is to be found in the fact
+that it has been too modern in its spirit, too removed from the currents of
+popular belief, to find ready acceptance on the part of those who are
+largely influenced by traditional beliefs. The religion of the great
+majority of persons is determined by tradition or social heredity, by what
+they are taught in childhood or hear commonly repeated around them. Only
+persons who are naturally independent and self-reliant can overcome the
+difficulties in the way of embracing a form of religion which carries them
+outside of the established tradition. For these reasons it is not
+surprising that as yet there has not been a rapid growth of organized
+Unitarianism. In fact, Unitarianism has made little progress outside of New
+England, and those regions to which New England traditions have been
+carried by those who migrated westward.
+
+The early promise for the growth of Unitarianism in the south, from 1825 to
+1840, failed because there was no background of tradition for its
+encouragement and support. Individuals could think their way into the
+Unitarian faith, but their influence proved ineffective when all around
+them the old tradition prevailed as stubborn conviction. Even the influence
+of a literature pervaded with Unitarianism proved ineffective in securing
+any rapid spread of the new faith, except as it has found its way into the
+common Christian tradition by a process of spiritual infiltration. The
+result has been that Unitarianism has grown slowly, because it has been
+obliged to create new traditions, to form a new habit of thought, and to
+make free inquiry a common motive and purpose.
+
+In a word, Unitarianism has been a heresy; and therefore there has been no
+open door for it. Most heretical sects have been narrow in spirit, bigoted
+in temper, and intensely sectarian in method. Their isolation from the
+great currents of the world's life acts on them intellectually and
+spiritually as the process of in-and-in breeding does upon animals: it
+intensifies their peculiarities and defects. A process of atrophy or
+degeneration takes place; and they grow from generation to generation more
+isolated, sectarian, and peculiar. Unitarianism has escaped this tendency
+because it has accepted the modern spirit and because to a large degree its
+adherents have been educated and progressive persons. Its principles of
+liberty, reason, and free inquiry, have brought its followers into touch
+with those forces that are making most rapidly for the development of
+mankind. Unitarians have been conspicuously capable of individual
+initiative; and yet their culture has been large enough to give them a
+conservative loyalty to the past and to the profounder and more spiritual
+phases of the Christian tradition. While strongly individualistic and
+heretical they have been sturdily faithful to Christianity, seeking to
+revive its earlier and more simple life.
+
+A chief value of Unitarianism in the past has been that it has pioneered
+the way for the development of the modern spirit within the limits of
+Christianity. The churches from which it came out have followed it far on
+the way it has travelled. Its most liberal advocates of the first
+generation were more conservative than many of the leaders are to-day in
+the older churches. Its period of criticism, controversy, and agitation is
+being reproduced in many another religious body of the present time. The
+debates about miracles, the theory of the supernatural, the authenticity of
+Scripture, the nature of Christ, and other problems that are now agitating
+most of the progressive Protestant denominations, are almost precisely
+those that exercised Unitarians years ago. The only final solution of these
+problems, that will give peace and harmony, is that of free inquiry and
+rational interpretation, which Unitarians have finally accepted. If other
+religious bodies would profit by this experience and by the Unitarian
+method for the solution of these problems, it would be greatly to their
+advantage.
+
+The Unitarian churches have been few in number, and they have suffered from
+isolation and provincialism. These defects of the earlier period have now
+in part passed away, new traditions have been created, a cosmopolitan
+spirit has been developed, and Unitarianism has become a world movement.
+This was conspicuously indicated at the seventy-fifth anniversary of the
+organization of the American Unitarian Association, and in the formation of
+The International Council of Unitarian and Other Liberal Religious Thinkers
+and Workers. It was then shown that Unitarianism has found expression in
+many parts of the world, that it answers to an intellectual and spiritual
+need of the time, and that it is capable of interpreting the religious
+convictions of persons belonging to many phases of human development and
+culture. A broader, more philosophical, and humaner tradition is being
+formed, that will in time become a wide-reaching influence for the
+development of a religious life that will be at once more scientific and
+more spiritual in its nature than anything the past has produced.
+
+The promise of Unitarianism for the future does not consist in its becoming
+a sect and in its striving for the development of merely denominational
+interests, but in its cultivation of the deeper spiritual life and in its
+cosmopolitan sympathy with all phases of religious growth. Its mission is
+one with philanthropy, charity, and altruism. Its attitude should be that
+of free inquiry, loyalty to the spirit of philosophy and science, and
+fidelity to the largest results of human progress. It should always
+represent justice, righteousness, and personal integrity. That promise is
+not to be found in the rapid multiplication of its churches or in its
+devotion to propagandist aims, but in its loyalty to the free spirit and in
+its exemplification of the worth and beauty of the religion of humanity. As
+a sect, it will fail; but as a movement towards a larger faith, a purer
+life, and a more inclusive fellowship, the future is on its side.
+
+While recognizing the Unitarian as a great pioneer movement in religion, it
+should be seen that its strong individualism has been a cause of its slow
+growth. Until recently the Unitarian body has been less an organic phase of
+the religious life of the time than a group of isolated churches held
+together only by the spontaneous bonds of fellowship and good will. Such a
+body can have little effective force in any effort at missionary
+propagandism or in making its spirit dominant in the religious life of the
+country. As heredity and variation are but two phases of organic growth, so
+are tradition and individual initiative but two phases of social progress.
+In both processes--organic growth and social progress--the primary force is
+the conservative one, that maintains what the past has secured. If
+individualism is necessary to healthy growth, associative action is
+essential to any growth whatever of the social body. In so far as
+individual perfection can be attained, it cannot be by seeking it as an end
+in itself: it can be reached only by means of that which conduces to
+general social progress.
+
+It may be questioned whether there is any large future for Unitarianism
+unless all excessive individualism is modified and controlled. Such
+individualism is in opposition to the altruistic and associative spirit of
+the present time. Liberty is not an end in itself, but its value is to be
+found in the opportunity it gives for a natural and fitting association of
+individuals with each other. Freedom of religious inquiry is but an
+instrument for securing spiritual growth, not merely for the individual,
+but for all mankind. So long as liberty of thought and spiritual freedom
+remain the means of individual gratification, they are ineffective as
+spiritual forces. They must be given a wider heritage in the life of
+mankind before they can accomplish their legitimate results in securing for
+men freedom from the external bonds of traditionalism. Even reason is but
+an instrument for securing truth, and not truth itself.
+
+Rightly understood, authority in the church is but the principle of social
+action, respect for what mankind has gained of spiritual power through its
+centuries of development. Authority is therefore as necessary as freedom,
+and the two must be reconciled in order that progress may take place. When
+so understood and so limited, authority becomes essential to all growth in
+freedom and individuality. What above all else is needed in religion is
+social action on the part of freedom-loving men and women, who, in the
+strength of their individuality, co-operate for the attainment, not of
+their own personal good, but the advancement of mankind. This is what
+Unitarianism has striven for, and what it has gained in some measure. It
+has sought to make philanthropy the test of piety, and to make liberty a
+means of social fidelity.
+
+Free inquiry cannot mean liberty to think as one pleases, but only to think
+the truth, and to recognize with submissive spirit the absolute conditions
+and the limitations of the truth. Though religion is life and not a creed,
+it none the less compels the individual to loyalty of social action; and
+that means nothing more and nothing less than faithfulness to what will
+make for the common good, and not primarily what will minister to one's own
+personal development, intellectually and spiritually.
+
+The future of Unitarianism will depend on its ability further to reconcile,
+individualism with associative action, the spirit of free inquiry with the
+larger human tradition. Its advantage cannot be found in the abandonment of
+Christianity, which has been the source and sustaining power of its life,
+but in the development of the Christian tradition by the processes of
+modern thought. The real promise of Unitarianism is in identifying itself
+with the altruistic spirit of the age, and in becoming the spiritual
+interpreter of the social aspirations of mankind. In order to this result
+it must not only withdraw from its extreme individualism, but bring its
+liberty into organic relations with its spirit of social fidelity. It will
+then welcome the fact that freedom and authority are identical in their
+deeper meanings. It will discover that service is more important than
+culture, and that culture is of value to the end that service may become
+more effective. Then it will cheerfully recognize the truth that the social
+obligation is as important as the individual right, and that the two make
+the rounded whole of human action.
+
+[1] See pp. 131, 328.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+
+
+
+A. FORMATION OF THE LOCAL CONFERENCES.
+
+
+The local conferences came into existence in the following order: Wisconsin
+and Minnesota Quarterly Conference, organized at Sheboygan, Wis., October
+24, 1866; New York Central Conference of Liberal Christians, Rochester,
+November 21, 1866; Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches of
+the Middle and Southern States, Wilmington, Del., November 22, 1866;
+Norfolk Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches, Dedham,
+Mass., November 28, 1866; New York and Hudson River Local Conference, New
+York, December 6, 1866; Essex Conference of Liberal Christian Churches,
+Salem, Mass., December 11, 1866; Lake Erie Conference of Unitarian and
+Other Christian Societies, Meadville, Penn., December 11, 1866; Worcester
+County Conference of Congregational (Unitarian) and Other Christian
+Societies, Worcester, Mass., December 12, 1866; South Middlesex Conference
+of Congregational Unitarian and Other Christian Societies, Cambridgeport,
+Mass., December 12, 1866; Suffolk Conference of Unitarian and Other
+Christian Churches, Boston, December 17, 1866; North Middlesex Conference
+of Unitarian Congregational and Other Christian Churches, Littleton, Mass.,
+December 18, 1866.
+
+The Champlain Liberal Christian Conference, Montpelier, Vt., January 9,
+1867; the Connecticut Valley Conference of Congregational Unitarian and
+Other Christian Churches, Greenfield, Mass., January 16, 1867; the Plymouth
+and Bay Conference, Hingham, Mass., February 5, 1867; the Ohio Valley
+Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches, Louisville, Ky.,
+February 22, 1867; the Channing Conference, Providence, R.I., April 17,
+1867; Liberal Christian Conference of Western Maine, Brunswick, Me.,
+October 22, 1867.
+
+The Local Conference of Liberal Christians of the Missouri Valley, Weston,
+Mo., March 18, 1868; the Chicago Conference of Unitarian Churches, Chicago,
+December 2, 1868; Western Illinois and Iowa Conference of Unitarian and
+Other Christian Churches, Sheffield, Ill., January 28, 1869; Cape Cod
+Conference of Unitarian Congregational and Other Liberal Christian
+Churches, Barnstable, Mass., November 30, 1870; Conference of Liberal
+Christians of the Missouri Valley, Kansas City, Mo., May 3, 1871; Michigan
+Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches, Jackson, October 21,
+1875; the Fraternity of Illinois Liberal Christian Societies, Bloomington,
+November 11, 1875; Iowa Association of Unitarian and Other Independent
+Churches, Burlington, June 1, 1877; Indiana Conference of Unitarian and
+Independent Religious Societies, Hobart, October 1, 1878; Ohio State
+Conference of Unitarian and Other Liberal Societies, Cincinnati, May, 1879.
+
+Kansas Unitarian Conference, December 2, 1880; Nebraska Unitarian
+Association, Omaha, November 9, 1882; the Southern Conference of Unitarian
+and Other Christian Churches, Atlanta, Ga., April 24, 1884; the New York
+Conference of Unitarian Churches superseded the New York and Hudson River
+Conference at a session held in New York, April 29, 1885; Pacific Unitarian
+Conference, San Francisco, November 2, 1885; the Illinois Conference of
+Unitarian and Other Independent Societies superseded the Illinois
+Fraternity in 1885; Minnesota Unitarian Conference, St. Paul, November 17,
+1887; Hancock Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches, Bar
+Harbor, Me., August 8, 1889; Missouri Valley Unitarian Conference
+superseded the Kansas Unitarian Conference, December 2, 1889.
+
+Rocky Mountain Conference of Unitarian and Other Liberal Christian
+Churches, Denver, Col., May 17, 1890; the Unitarian Conference of the
+Middle States and Canada, Brooklyn, N.Y., November 19, 1890, superseded New
+York State Conference; Central States Conference of Unitarian Churches,
+Cincinnati, December 9, 1891, superseded the Ohio State Conference; Pacific
+Northwest Conference of Unitarian, Liberal Christian, and Independent
+Churches, Puyallup, Wash., August 1, 1892; Southern California Conference
+of Unitarian and Other Liberal Christian Churches, Santa Ana, October 1892.
+
+Four of the early conferences, the New York Central, Champlain, Western
+Maine, and Missouri Valley, were not distinctly Unitarian. These were union
+organizations, in which Universalists, and perhaps other denominations,
+were associated with Unitarians. The New York Central Conference refused to
+send delegates to the National Conference on account of its union
+character. In other conferences, such as the Connecticut Valley and the
+Norfolk, Universalists took part in their organization, and were for a
+number of years connected with them.
+
+Most of the conferences organized from 1875 to 1885 were within state
+limits; but those organized subsequently to 1885 were more distinctly
+district conferences, and included several states. Several of the
+conferences have been reorganized in order to bring them into harmony with
+the prevailing theory of state or district limits at the time when such
+action took place. A few of the conferences had only a name to live, and
+they soon passed out of existence.
+
+In the local, as in the National Conference, two purposes contended for
+expression, the one looking to the uniting of all liberal denominations in
+one general organization, and the other to the promotion of distinctly
+Unitarian interests. In the National Conference the denominational purpose
+controlled the aims kept most clearly in view; but the other purpose found
+expression in the addition of "Other Christian Churches" to the name,
+though only in the most limited way did such churches connect themselves
+with the conference. The local conferences made like provision for those
+not wishing to call themselves distinctly Unitarian. Such desire for
+co-operation, however, was in a large degree rendered ineffective by the
+fact that the primary aim had in view in the creation of the local
+conferences was the increase of the funds of the American Unitarian
+Association.
+
+
+
+
+B. UNITARIAN NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES.
+
+
+There was a very considerable activity from 1825 to 1850 in the publication
+of Unitarian periodicals, and probably the energies of the denomination
+found a larger expression in that direction than in any other.
+
+In January, 1827, was begun in Boston The Liberal Preacher, a monthly
+publication of sermons by living ministers, conducted by the Cheshire
+Association of Ministers, with Rev. Thomas R. Sullivan, of Keene, N.H., as
+the editor. It was continued for eight or ten years, and with considerable
+success.
+
+With November, 1827, Rev. William Ware began the publication in New York
+City of The Unitarian, a quarterly magazine, of which the last number
+appeared February 15, 1828.
+
+The Unitarian Monitor was begun at Dover, N.H., October 1, 1831, and was
+continued until October 10, 1833. It was a fortnightly of four three-column
+pages, and was well conducted. It was under the editorial management of
+Rev. Samuel K. Lothrop, then the minister in Dover.
+
+The Unitarian Christian, edited by Rev. Stephen G. Bulfinch, was published
+quarterly in Augusta, Ga., for a year or two.
+
+In 1823 Rev. Samuel J. May published The Liberal Christian at Brooklyn,
+Conn., as a fortnightly county paper of eight small quarto pages. He
+followed it by The Christian Monitor and Common People's Adviser, which was
+begun in April, 1832, its object being "to promote the free discussion of
+all subjects connected with happiness and holiness."
+
+The Unitarian, conducted by Rev. Bernard Whitman, then settled in Waltham,
+Mass., was published in Cambridge and Boston during the year 1834, and came
+to its end because of the death of Whitman in the last month of the year.
+It was a monthly magazine of a distinctly missionary character.
+
+Of a more permanent character was The Unitarian Advocate, the first number
+of which was issued in Boston, January, 1828. It was a small 12mo of sixty
+pages, monthly, the editor being Rev. Edmund Q. Sewall. He continued in
+that capacity to the end of 1829, when it was "conducted by an association
+of gentlemen." The purpose was to make a popular magazine at a moderate
+price. It came to an end in December, 1832.
+
+With January 1, 1835, was issued in Boston the first number of The Boston
+Observer and Religious Intelligencer, a weekly of eight three-column pages,
+edited by Rev. George Ripley. It was continued for only six months, when it
+was joined to The Christian Register, which took its name as a sub-title
+for a time. Its motto, "Liberty, Holiness, Love," was also borrowed by that
+paper.
+
+The Western Messenger was begun in Cincinnati, June, 1835, with Rev.
+Ephraim Peabody as the editor. It was a monthly of ninety-six pages, and
+was ably edited. Owing to the illness of Mr. Peabody, it was removed to
+Louisville after the ninth number; and Rev. James Freeman Clarke became the
+editor, with Rev. W.H. Channing and Rev. J.H. Perkins as assistants for a
+time. It was published by the Western Unitarian Association, and was
+discontinued with the number for May, 1841. Among the contributors were
+Emerson, Margaret Fuller, William Henry Channing, Christopher P. Cranch,
+William G. Eliot, who aided in giving it a high literary character. For a
+number of years the American Unitarian Association made an annual
+appropriation to aid in its publication.
+
+The Monthly Miscellany of Religion and Letters was begun in Boston with
+April, 1839. It was a 12mo of forty-eight pages, monthly. The editor was
+Rev. Ezra S. Gannett, by whom it was "designed to furnish religious reading
+for the people, treat Unitarian opinions in their practical bearings, and
+show their power to produce holiness of life; and by weight of contents to
+come between The Christian Register and The Christian Examiner." It was
+continued until the end of 1843, when it was absorbed by the latter
+periodical.
+
+With the first of January, 1844, was begun The Monthly Religious Magazine,
+to meet the needs of those who found The Christian Examiner too scholarly.
+The first editor, was Rev. Frederic D. Huntington, who was succeeded by
+Rev. Edmund H. Sears, Rev. James W. Thompson, Rev. Rufus Ellis, and Rev.
+John H. Morison. The last issue was that of February, 1874.
+
+A large weekly was begun in Boston, January 7, 1843, called The Christian
+World, of which Rev. George G. Channing was the publisher and managing
+editor. He was assisted by Rev. James Freeman Clarke and Hon. John A.
+Andrew, afterward Governor of Massachusetts, as editors or editorial
+contributors. The special aims of the paper were "to awaken a deeper
+religious interest in all the great philanthropic and benevolent
+enterprises of the day." It was continued until December 30, 1848. George
+G. Channing was a brother of Dr. Channing, and was settled over two or
+three parishes. The paper was ably conducted, and while Unitarian was not
+distinctly denominational.
+
+The Christian Inquirer was started in New York, October 17, 1846, and was a
+weekly of four six-column pages. It was managed by the New York Unitarian
+Association; and it was largely under the control of Rev. Henry W. Bellows,
+who in 1850 was assisted by Rev. Samuel Osgood, Rev. James F. Clarke, and
+Rev. Frederic H. Hedge.
+
+In 1846 was begun the publication of the Unitarian Annual Register in
+Boston by Crosby & Nichols, with Rev. Abiel A. Livermore, then settled in
+Keene, N.H., as the editor. In 1851 the work came under the control of the
+American Unitarian Association, and as the Year Book of the denomination it
+was edited by the secretary or his assistant. From 1860 to 1869 the Year
+Book was issued as a part of the December number of The Monthly Journal of
+the American Unitarian Association.
+
+The Bible Christian was begun in 1847 at Toronto by Rev. John Cordner, the
+minister there, and was continued as a semi-monthly for a brief period.
+
+The Unitarian and Foreign Religious Miscellany was published in Boston
+during 1847, with Rev. George E. Ellis as the editor. It was a monthly
+magazine devoted to the explanation and defence of Unitarian Christianity;
+and its contents were mostly selected from the English Unitarian
+periodicals, especially The Prospective Review, The Monthly Reformer, Bible
+Christian, The Unitarian, and The Inquirer.
+
+During this period The Christian Examiner had its largest influence upon
+the denomination, and came to an end. Its scholarship and its liberality
+made it of interest to only a limited constituency, and the publisher was
+compelled to discontinue it at the end of 1869 from lack of adequate
+support. It was edited from the beginning by the ablest men. Rev. James
+Walker and Rev. Francis W.P. Greenwood became the editors in 1831, Rev.
+William Ware taking the place of Dr. Walker in 1837. From 1844 to 1849 Rev.
+Ezra S. Gannett and Rev. Alvan Lamson were the editors, and they were
+succeeded by Rev. George Putnam and Rev. George E. Ellis. In July, 1857,
+Rev. Frederic H. Hedge and Rev. Edward E. Hale became the editors, and
+continued until 1861. Then the editorship was assumed by Rev. Thomas B.
+Fox, who was for several years its owner and publisher; and he was assisted
+as editor by Rev. Joseph H. Allen. The magazine was purchased by Mr. James
+Miller in 1865, who removed it to New York. Dr. Henry W. Bellows became the
+editor, and Mr. Allen continued as assistant, until it was discontinued
+with the December number, 1869.
+
+One of the purposes which found expression after the awakening of 1865 was
+the establishment of a large popular weekly religious journal that should
+reach all classes of liberals throughout the country. The Christian
+Inquirer was changed into The Liberal Christian with the number for
+December 22, 1866; and under this name it appeared in a larger and more
+vigorous form. Dr. Bellows was the editor, and contributors were sought
+from all classes of Liberal Christians. The effort made to establish an able
+undenominational journal, of a broad and progressive but distinctly liberal
+type, was energetic; but the time was not ready for it. With December 2,
+1876, the paper became The Inquirer, which was continued to the close of
+1877.
+
+There was also planned in 1865 a monthly journal that should be everywhere
+acceptable in the homes of liberals of every kind. In January, 1870,
+appeared the Old and New, a large monthly magazine, combining popular and
+scholarly features. The editors were Dr. Edward E. Hale and Mr. Frederic B.
+Perkins. In its pages were first published Dr. Hale's Ten Times Ten, and
+also many of the chapters of Dr. James Martineau's Seat of Authority in
+Religion. It was discontinued with the number for December, 1875.
+
+The Monthly Religious Magazine was discontinued with the February issue of
+1874; and the next month appeared The Unitarian Review and Religious
+Magazine, edited by Rev. Charles Lowe. When Lowe died, in June, 1874, he
+was succeeded by Rev. Henry H. Barber and Rev. James De Normandie. In 1880
+Dr. J.H. Allen became the editor,--a position he held until the magazine
+was discontinued, in December, 1891.
+
+In March, 1878, was begun in Chicago the publication of The Pamphlet
+Mission, a semi-monthly issue of sermons for missionary circulation, with a
+dozen pages of news added in a supplement. In September the name was
+changed to Unity; and this publication grew into a small fortnightly
+journal, representing the interests of the Western Unitarian Conference. A
+few years later it became a weekly; and it has continued as the
+representative of the more radical Unitarian opinions, though in 1894 it
+became the special organ of The Liberal Congress. The chief editorial
+management has been in the hands of Rev. Jenkin Ll. Jones.
+
+The Unitarian was begun in Chicago by Rev. Brooke Herford and Rev. Jabez T.
+Sunderland with January, 1886, as the organ of the more conservative
+members of the Western Conference. In June, 1887, this monthly magazine was
+removed to Ann Arbor, Mr. Sunderland becoming the managing editor; and in
+1890 the office of publication was removed to Boston, and Rev. Frederic B.
+Mott became the assistant editor. In 1897 the magazine was merged into The
+Christian Register.
+
+In 1880 The Rising Faith was published at Manchester, N.H., as a monthly,
+and continued for two or three years.
+
+In August, 1891, The Guidon appeared in San Francisco; and in November,
+1893, it became The Pacific Unitarian, a monthly representing the interests
+of the Unitarian churches on the Pacific coast. Mr. Charles A. Murdock has
+been the editor.
+
+The Southern Unitarian was begun at Atlanta, Ga., January, 1893; and it was
+published for five years as a monthly by the Southern Conference.
+
+In December, 1891, was begun at Davenport, Ia., with Rev. Arthur M. Judy as
+editor, a monthly parish paper, called Old and New. Other parishes joined
+in its publication, and in 1895 it became the organ of the Iowa Unitarian
+Association. In 1896 it was published in Chicago, with Rev. A.W. Gould as
+the editor, in behalf of the interests of the Western Conference. In
+September, 1898, its publication was resumed in Davenport by Mr. Judy; and
+a year later it became again the organ of the Iowa Association.
+
+The New World, a Quarterly Review of Religion, Ethics, and Theology, was
+begun in Boston, March, 1892, and was discontinued with the December number
+for 1900. Its editors were Dr. C.C. Everett, Dr. C.H. Toy, Dr. Orello Cone,
+with Rev. N.P. Gilman as managing editor.
+
+The Church Exchange began in June, 1893, and was published as a monthly at
+Portland, in the interest of the Maine Conference of Unitarian Churches,
+with Rev. John C. Perkins as editor. In 1896-97 it was published at
+Farmington, and in 1897-99 Mr. H.P. White was the editor. Since 1899 it has
+been published in Portland, with Mr. Perkins as editor.
+
+The above list of periodicals is not complete. More detailed information is
+desirable, and that the list may be made, full and accurate to date.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+_The foot-notes and appendix have been included in the index with
+the text._
+
+Abbot, Abiel (Beverly), 131, 133, 262, 350, 351.
+Abbot, Abiel (Peterboro), 409.
+Abbot, Ezra, 393, 394.
+Abbot, Francis Ellingwood, 200-204, 207, 210, 211, 213, 415.
+Abolitionists, 353.
+Adam, 51, 63.
+Adam, William, 296-298.
+Adams, Hannah, 265, 423.
+Adams, Herbert W., 114, 409.
+Adams, John, 58, 136, 351. 377, 380, 382.
+Adams, John Quincy, 366, 380.
+Adams, Phineas, 95.
+African Methodist Episcopal Church, 338, 339.
+Agassiz, Louis, 408, 427, 428.
+Albee, John, 415.
+Alcott, Amos Bronson, 155, 202, 358, 369.
+Alcott, Louisa M., 178, 368, 430.
+Alger, William Rounseville, 146, 163, 164, 346, 422.
+Allen, Joseph, 146, 264, 268, 360, 361, 414.
+Allen, Joseph Henry, 165, 261, 361, 393, 414, 421, 450, 451.
+Allison, William B., 380, 383.
+Allston, Washington, 98, 430.
+Allyn, John, 131, 133.
+American literature, 412, 413, 415, 416, 435.
+"American Unitarianism," 79, 82, 101-104.
+Ames, Charles Gordon, 168, 214.
+Ames, Fisher, 382.
+Ames, Oliver, 382.
+Amory, John C., 385.
+Andover Theological School, 93.
+Andrew, John Albion, 191, 192, 196, 324, 367, 382, 449.
+Angell, George T., 336.
+Animals, humane treatment of, 335, 336.
+Anonymous Association, 127.
+Anthology Club, 96.
+Anthology, Monthly, 93, 95, 390.
+Anthony, Henry B., 367, 380.
+Anthony, Susan B., 368.
+Antinomianism, 16.
+Antioch College, 172, 193, 197, 401, 402.
+Anti-slavery, 100, 159, 343, 353-367.
+Appleton, Nathan, 386.
+Arianism, 42, 43, 44, 56, 59, 65, 66, 70, 83.
+Arminianism, 8, 9, 11, 28, 37-39, 42, 44, 48, 50, 59, 66, 67, 70, 75,
+      84, 89.
+Arminius, 8.
+Artists, 430.
+Association of Benevolent Societies, 255.
+Association of Young Men, 248-251, 264.
+Autumnal Conventions, 173-176, 187.
+Auxiliaries of American Unitarian Association, 146.
+Ayer, Adams, 216.
+
+Ballou, Hosea, 93.
+Baltimore, 111-113.
+Bancroft, Aaron, 73, 74, 114, 130, 132, 135, 136, 142, 413.
+Bancroft, George, 380, 413, 414, 424.
+Baptists, 6, 7, 21, 87, 88.
+Barnard, Charles F., 254, 256, 260, 332, 337, 361.
+Barnard, Thomas, 70.
+Barrett, Samuel, 127, 135, 137, 144, 264.
+Barry, Joseph, 333.
+Bartol, Cyrus Augustus, 148, 155, 202, 240, 241, 419.
+Batchelor, George, 196, 226, 232.
+Beecher, Henry Ward, 370.
+Beecher, Lyman, 384.
+Belknap, Jeremy, 83, 351, 423.
+Bellamy, Joseph, 44, 52, 57, 73.
+Bellows, Henry Whitney, 136, 146, 154, 175, 178-182, 187-189, 191, 196,
+      198, 205, 206, 215, 217, 218, 220, 222, 223, 232, 233, 335, 363, 409,
+      431, 449, 450.
+Belsham, Thomas, 79, 102, 103.
+Benevolent Fraternity of Churches, 197, 256, 257, 282.
+Bentley, William, 71, 80, 90.
+Bergh, Henry, 335.
+Berry Street Conference, 106, 107, 133.
+Bible, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 14, 20, 25, 27, 32, 40, 45, 48, 50, 53, 55, 60, 64,
+      85, 86, 122, 156, 157, 171, 198, 199, 321, 389, 395, 437.
+Bible Societies, 100, 147, 322.
+Bigelow, Andrew, 258.
+Birthright church, 240, 241.
+Bixby, James T., 307, 320.
+Blackwell, Antoinette Brown, 371.
+Blackwell, Henry B., 368.
+Blake, H.G.O., 415.
+Bond, Edward P., 153.
+Bond, George, 131, 133.
+Bond, Henry F., 341, 342.
+Book distribution, 148, 163, 166, 169, 338.
+Boston, 16, 20, 61, 75, 77, 118, 141, 160, 213, 383-388, 413.
+Boston Observer, The, 448.
+Boston Provident Association, 334, 335.
+Boutwell, George S., 367, 382.
+Bowditch, Henry I., 367.
+Bowditch, Nathaniel, 117, 381, 427.
+Bowditch, William I., 367.
+Bowdoin, James, 80, 385.
+Bowles & Dearborn, 235.
+Bowles, Leonard C., 235.
+Brackett, J.Q.A., 382.
+Bradford, Alden, 47, 65, 127, 128, 132, 133.
+Bradford, George P., 415.
+Bradlee, Caleb D., 336.
+Bradley, Amy, 181, 338.
+Brattle Street Church, 29, 35, 40, 52, 53, 77, 94, 143, 160, 385, 387.
+Breck, Robert, 40.
+Briant, Lemuel, 50, 58.
+Bridgman, Laura, 326.
+Briggs, Charles, 144, 151, 235, 361.
+Briggs, George W., 270, 360, 361.
+Brigham, Charles H., 189, 214, 215, 319, 361.
+British and Foreign Unitarian Association, 295, 298, 303.
+Brooks, Charles, 336, 400.
+Brooks, Charles T., 146, 244, 298, 359, 420.
+Brooks Fund, 166.
+Brown, Howard N., 196, 243.
+Bryant, William Cullen, 117, 191, 195, 243, 381, 431, 432.
+Buckminster, J.S., 94, 98, 390, 391, 416.
+Bulfinch, Charles, 430.
+Bulfinch, Stephen G., 146, 165, 268, 270, 271, 361, 447.
+Burleigh, Celia C., 369, 370.
+Burleigh, William H., 369.
+Burnap, George W., 114.
+Burnside, Ambrose E., 383.
+Burroughs, John, 428.
+Burton, Warren, 139, 257, 361, 421.
+Bushnell, Horace, 241.
+
+Calcutta, 296, 297, 299, 300.
+Calhoun, John C., 376, 380.
+Calvinism, 9, 26, 28, 34, 37, 39, 44, 45, 46, 48, 62, 73, 75, 76, 84,
+      87, 92.
+Carpenter, Lant, 154.
+Carpenter, Mary, 259.
+Cary, George L., 318.
+"Catholic Christians," 104, 106, 123.
+Catholicism, 3, 5, 18, 53.
+Chadwick, John White, 157, 216, 244, 275, 354, 370.
+Chaney, George L., 337.
+Channing, George G., 144, 449.
+Channing, William Ellery, 70, 94, 99, 102, 103, 106, 114, 119, 123, 125,
+      129, 130, 135, 142, 146, 148, 163, 164, 173, 174, 184, 199, 321, 324,
+      328, 343-345, 349, 350, 365, 399, 402, 415, 432.
+Channing, William Ellery, poet, 431.
+Channing, William Henry, 155, 176, 200, 258, 359, 361, 365, 368, 369, 420,
+      428, 448.
+Chapin, Henry, 212.
+Chapman, Maria W., 367, 368.
+Charity work, 35, 252, 254-256, 322-325, 328.
+Charleston, S.C., 118.
+Chauncy, Charles, second president Harvard College, 24.
+Chauncy, Charles, minister First Church in Boston, 45, 46, 48, 52, 53,
+      66-69, 77, 85, 90.
+Cheerful Letter Exchange, 288.
+Cheney, Ednah D., 202, 279, 283, 368, 428.
+Chicago, 167, 213.
+Child, David Lee, 359.
+Child, Lydia Maria, 367, 428, 430.
+Children's Mission, 197, 331-334.
+Chillingworth, William, 5, 10, 12, 14, 31, 45.
+Choate, Joseph H., 381.
+Christ, 6, 11, 14, 15, 24, 27, 40, 49, 50, 56, 62, 64, 67, 69, 70, 74, 75,
+      83, 85, 86, 99, 138, 139, 157, 170, 171, 193, 198, 200, 206, 207,
+      209, 210, 227, 378, 393, 429, 434.
+Christian connection, 89, 140, 194, 314, 315, 316.
+Christian Examiner, The, 101, 156, 236, 416, 449, 450.
+Christian Inquirer, The, 449, 450.
+Christian Monitor, The, 96.
+Christian Register, The, 114-116, 127, 145, 147, 156, 173, 185, 207, 232,
+      264, 296, 356, 448.
+Christian Union, Boston, Young Men's, 214, 216, 336, 337.
+Christian Unions, 216, 337.
+Christian World, The, 145, 147, 449.
+Christianity, 11-13, 45, 62, 63, 75, 85, 86, 123, 138, 156, 200, 201, 206,
+      209-211, 222, 227, 241, 362.
+Christians, 6, 9, 14, 51, 64, 170, 206, 209, 222, 224, 227.
+Church, 5, 7, 10, 12, 14, 17, 20, 52, 106, 115.
+Church and state, 7, 17, 20, 21, 23, 27-29, 52, 68, 85-87, 120-123.
+Church Building Loan Fund, 234.
+Church membership, 18-20, 27, 241, 242.
+Church of the Disciples, 242, 327.
+Civil service reform, 372-375.
+Civil war, 171, 175-184, 187, 283.
+Clark University, 399.
+Clarke, James Freeman, 146, 155, 160, 161, 163, 164, 165, 175, 191, 192,
+      194, 201, 204, 215, 242, 244, 273, 307, 312, 318, 327, 360, 361, 366,
+      369, 370, 417, 418, 420, 448, 449.
+Clarke, Samuel, 13, 44-46, 56, 67, 70.
+Clarke, Sarah Freeman, 404.
+Clifford, John H., 382.
+Codding, Ichabod, 168, 365.
+Codman, John, 102.
+College town missions, 214, 215.
+Collyer, Robert, 167, 171, 185, 194.
+Colporters, 148, 169.
+Commerce, 72.
+Committee on fellowship, 220, 221.
+Conant, Augustus H., 169, 172, 176, 361.
+Conference, Berry Street, 106, 107, 133.
+Confirmation, 241, 242.
+Congregational independence, 34, 126.
+Congregationalism, 74, 87, 89, 93, 117, 119, 194, 199, 241, 436.
+Contributions to American Unitarian Association, 142, 153, 159, 162, 164,
+      188, 190, 193, 197, 213, 234.
+Convention, Autumnal, 173-176, 187.
+Conversion, 18, 20, 21, 24, 27.
+Conway, Moncure D., 365, 415.
+Cooper Institute, 215, 408.
+Cooper, Peter, 381, 408, 409.
+Cordner, John, 146, 238.
+Cornell University, 215.
+Corporate idea of church, 5, 7, 17-19, 20.
+Country Week, 337.
+Covenants, Church, 26.
+Cranch, Christopher, P., 415, 448.
+Cranch, William, 377, 380.
+Creeds, 26, 49, 62, 64, 66, 85, 206.
+Crocker, Lucretia, 370, 403, 404.
+Crosby, Nichols & Co., 236.
+Crosby, William, 334.
+Cudworth, Warren H., 271.
+Curtis, Benjamin R., 382.
+Curtis, George Ticknor, 381.
+Curtis, George William, 196, 239, 347, 369, 373-375, 381.
+Cutter, George W., 226.
+
+Dall, Caroline Healey, 165, 202, 279, 368, 370, 371.
+Dall, Charles, H.A., 259, 299-302, 361.
+Dane, Nathan, 350, 351, 382.
+Davis, John, 382.
+Dedham, 29, 54, 87, 115, 218.
+Deism, 42.
+Democratic tendencies, 8, 33, 34, 37, 90, 121, 174.
+Depositaries, 146, 149, 169.
+Depravity of man, 51, 63, 66, 68, 69.
+Devotional library, 164.
+Dewey, Orville, 114, 143, 146, 165, 174, 191, 267, 354, 415, 431.
+Dexter, Henry M., 22.
+Dexter, Samuel, 351, 382.
+Dickens, Charles, 324.
+Dillingham, Pitt, 339.
+Disciple, The Christian, 99-101.
+Dix, Dorothea, 324, 327, 328-331.
+Dole, Charles F., 274, 352.
+Douthit, Jasper L., 214.
+Doyle, J.A., 22.
+Dunster, Henry, 24.
+Dwight, Edmund, 399, 400.
+Dwight, John S., 155, 369, 415, 428.
+
+Eaton, Dorman B., 373, 381.
+Education, 253, 323, 325, 337-342, 343, 384, 389, 395-408, 410, 411.
+Education in south, 338-340, 410, 411.
+Education of Indians, 340-342.
+Edwards, Jonathan, 38-41, 44.
+Effinger, J.R., 226.
+Eliot, Charles W., 238, 305, 395, 397.
+Eliot, Rev. Samuel A., 232, 245.
+Eliot, Samuel A., 127, 335, 383, 414.
+Eliot, Thomas D., 196, 212.
+Eliot, William G., 144, 146, 169, 184, 311, 351, 364, 398, 448.
+Ellis, George E., 146, 164, 267, 421, 450.
+Ellis, Rufus, 270, 361, 448.
+Ellis, Sallie, 289, 290.
+Emerson, George B., 127, 164.
+Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 151, 155, 202, 324, 369, 413, 415, 416, 428, 431,
+      435, 436, 448.
+Emerson, William, 95, 96, 413.
+Emlyn, Thomas, 57, 58.
+Emmons, Nathaniel, 55.
+Equality, 33, 38.
+Evangelical Missionary Society, 104, 105, 141.
+Everett, Charles Carroll, 196, 275, 396, 417-419, 452.
+Everett, Edward, 94, 98, 109, 114, 351, 380, 382, 391, 397, 399, 407,
+      414, 416.
+Everett, William, 414.
+Exchange of pulpits, 101.
+
+Farley, Frederic A., 146, 165, 361.
+Fearing, Albert, 238, 324.
+Federal (now Arlington) Street Church, 83, 94, 106, 129, 250, 256,
+      257, 301.
+Fellowship, Unitarian, 205, 209, 211, 219-221, 436, 437.
+Fellowship with other religious bodies, 192-195, 296.
+Felton, Cornelius C., 397.
+Fields, James T., 369, 428.
+Fillmore, Millard, 331, 380.
+First Church of Boston, 53, 66.
+Fiske, John, 22, 307, 424.
+Flagg, J.F., 265, 350.
+Flower Mission, 337.
+Follen, Charles, 359, 431.
+Follen, Eliza Lee, 266, 367.
+Folsom, Nathaniel, 319, 361.
+Forbes, John Murray, 386.
+Forbush, T.B., 226.
+Forman, J.G., 176, 178, 184.
+Forster, Anthony, 118.
+Fox, George W., 161, 162, 207-209.
+Fox, Thomas B., 146, 268, 450.
+Francis, Convers, 110, 155, 200, 360, 361.
+Francke, Kuno, 17.
+Franklin, Benjamin, 376, 377, 379.
+Fraternity of Churches, Benevolent, 197, 256, 257, 282.
+Freedman's Bureau, 184, 197.
+Freedom of Thought, 1, 3, 5, 8, 32, 37, 59, 61-64, 70, 71, 80, 115, 125,
+      205, 210, 212, 389.
+Freeman, James, 76, 78, 80, 82, 98, 111, 114, 344.
+Free Religion, 203, 210, 211.
+Free Religious Association, 194, 202-204, 207, 225, 436.
+French, Daniel C., 430.
+Friend of Peace, 345.
+Friends, 88.
+Frothingham, Nathaniel L., 114, 124, 344, 413, 420.
+Frothingham, Octavius B., 124, 165, 175, 200, 202, 207, 216, 322, 323, 366,
+      369, 387, 392, 394, 413, 420, 424, 431.
+Fuller, Margaret, 155, 368, 428, 429, 448.
+Furness, William Henry, 114, 146, 244, 267, 361, 365, 394, 420.
+
+Galvin, Edward I., 176, 337.
+Gannett, Ezra Stiles, 114, 127, 128, 134-137, 139, 143, 146, 172, 191, 266,
+      346, 350-351, 354, 355, 450.
+Gannett, William C., 225-227, 241, 277, 290.
+Garrison, William Lloyd, 353, 359, 367, 377.
+Gay, Ebenezer, 58-60, 77.
+General Repositary, The, 97, 390.
+Giddings, Joshua R., 367.
+Gierke, Otto, 4.
+Giles, Henry, 361, 420.
+Gilman, Samuel, 119, 146, 420.
+God, 2, 4, 7, 9, 11, 13, 38, 41, 51, 53, 59, 60, 64, 68, 70, 73, 90, 157,
+      198, 227, 228.
+Goodell, William, 365.
+Gore, Christopher, 382.
+Gould, Allen W., 226, 277, 452.
+Gould, Benjamin, 427.
+Grant, Moses, 248, 264, 265, 344, 350.
+Graves, Mary H., 371.
+Gray, Frederic T., 167, 248, 254, 256, 265, 267, 270, 271, 334, 361.
+Great Awakening, 46, 66, 210.
+Greene, Benjamin H., 248, 333.
+Greenhalge, Frederic T., 382.
+Greenwood, Francis W.P., 101, 111, 114, 148, 421, 433, 450.
+Greenwood, Grace (Mrs. Lippincott), 428, 430.
+
+Hale, Edward Everett, 154, 175, 189, 191, 194, 195, 196, 205, 217, 218,
+      269, 270, 318, 323, 342, 429, 430, 450.
+Hale, George S., 231.
+Hale, John P., 367, 380.
+Hale, Lucretia P., 165, 279, 404.
+Half-way Covenant, 22, 27, 28, 68.
+Hall, Asaph, 427.
+Hall, Edward Brooks, 127, 146, 160, 267, 361.
+Hall, Nathaniel, 361, 366.
+Hall, Nathaniel, the younger, 387.
+Hamlin, Hannibal, 383.
+Hampton Institute, 339, 340.
+Hancock, John, 385.
+Hancock Sunday-school, 247, 264, 265.
+Harte, Bret, 430.
+Harvard College, 35, 41, 44, 47, 92, 98, 384, 388, 390, 395-397, 412.
+Harvard Divinity School, 108-110, 124, 193, 214, 391, 392, 394, 395, 396,
+      414, 415.
+Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 381, 430.
+Haynes, George H., 29.
+Hazlitt, Rev. William, 71, 77-79.
+Hedge, Frederic H., 146, 155, 161, 165, 180, 239, 244, 346, 359, 360, 361,
+      415, 417, 420, 449, 450.
+Hemenway, Augustus, 385.
+Hemenway, Mary, 405-407.
+Hepworth, George H., 176, 205.
+Herford, Brooke, 196, 225, 452.
+Heywood, John H., 178, 180, 364.
+Higginson, Stephen, 130, 133.
+Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 177, 202, 367, 368, 369, 415, 424, 429.
+Higher criticism, 389-395.
+Hildreth, Richard, 413, 424.
+Hill, Thomas, 320, 361, 397, 420, 427.
+Historians, 422-427.
+Hoar, Ebenezer Rockwood, 191, 196, 367, 382.
+Hoar, George Frisbie, 196, 367, 369, 380.
+Holland, Frederick West, 144, 178, 361.
+Hollis Professorship, 92, 108, 109.
+Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 431-433.
+Hooker, Thomas, 16, 25.
+Hopkins, Samuel, 73.
+Horton, Edward A., 275.
+Hosmer, Frederick L., 226, 244, 277.
+Hosmer, George W., 311, 314, 316, 338, 361.
+Hosmer, Harriet, 430.
+Hosmer, James Kendall, 176, 338, 415.
+Howard, Simeon, 66, 78.
+Howard Sunday-school, 252, 265, 332.
+Howe, Julia Ward, 328, 348, 349, 368, 370, 371, 428.
+Howe, Samuel G., 180, 325-329, 367.
+Howells, William D., 430.
+Huidekoper, Frederic, 317, 319, 422.
+Huidekoper, Harm Jan, 311-314.
+Hunt, John, 11, 13.
+Hunting, Sylvan S., 176, 214.
+Huntington, Frederic D., 270, 361, 448.
+Hymns of Unitarians, 244, 420.
+
+Idealism, 45.
+Independents, 7.
+Index, The, 203, 207.
+India, 72, 248, 296, 303.
+Individualism, 1-4, 8, 17, 18, 27, 63, 90, 125, 205, 210, 211, 224, 343,
+      349, 428, 441-443.
+Insane, care of, 328-331.
+International Council, 245, 440.
+Intuition, 2, 4, 12.
+
+Jackson, Charles, 130, 387.
+Jackson, Helen Hunt, 430.
+Jackson, James, 427.
+Japan, 303-309.
+Japanese Unitarian Association, 306-309.
+Jefferson, Thomas, 136, 378-380, 437.
+Jenckes, Thomas A., 372.
+Johnson, Samuel, 201, 244, 366, 369, 419, 420.
+Jones, Jenkin Lloyd, 214, 225, 276, 278, 451.
+Judd, Sylvester, 217, 240, 241, 361, 366, 429.
+Julian, George W., 367, 369.
+
+Kanda, Saichiro, 305, 306.
+Kendall, James, 84.
+Kentucky, 119.
+Khasi Hills, 302, 303.
+Kidder, Henry P., 189, 212, 231, 238.
+Kindergarten, 492, 493.
+King's Chapel, 52, 76, 160, 313, 387, 421.
+King, Starr, 165, 167, 182, 183, 420.
+Kirkland, Caroline, 369, 428.
+Kirkland, John T., 98, 109, 114, 323, 344, 350, 351, 397.
+Knapp, Arthur M., 304.
+Knapp, Frederick N., 181.
+Kneeland, John, 273.
+
+Ladies' Commission on Sunday-school Books, 279-281.
+Lafargue, Paul, 2.
+Lamson, Alvan, 165, 200, 422, 450.
+Latitudinarianism, 9, 10.
+Lawrence, Abbott, 385, 386.
+Lawrence, Amos, 351, 385, 386.
+Leland Stanford, Jr., University, 399.
+Leonard, Levi W., 409.
+Liberal Christian, The, 193.
+Liberal Preacher, The, 447.
+Liberalism, 24, 26, 29, 32, 34, 37, 46, 49-52, 54, 57, 59, 61, 70, 72, 75,
+      85, 87, 88, 94, 104, 106, 111, 122.
+Liberator, The, 359.
+Liberty, 206, 342, 343, 349.
+Libraries, 289, 409, 410.
+Lincoln, Abraham, 376, 377.
+Lincoln, Calvin, 127, 161.
+Lincoln, Levi, 382.
+Lindsey, Theophilus, 78, 102.
+Little, Robert, 119.
+Liturgy, 242, 343.
+Livermore, Abiel Abbot, 148, 169, 317, 318, 361, 366.
+Livermore, Leonard J., 272.
+Livermore, Mary A., 368, 371.
+Local Conferences, 216-219, 445, 446.
+Locke, John, 5, 6, 12, 43, 56.
+Long, John D., 231, 382.
+Longfellow, Henry W., 431, 432.
+Longfellow, Samuel, 175, 200, 242, 244, 366, 369, 419.
+Longfellow, Stephen, 134, 432.
+Lord's Supper, 27, 240.
+Loring, Charles G., 127.
+Loring, Ellis Gray, 359, 369.
+Lothrop, Samuel K., 143, 144, 160, 163, 236, 350, 447.
+Lovering, Joseph, 427.
+Low, A.A., 189.
+Lowe, Charles, 172, 177, 196, 197, 205, 209, 212, 216, 218, 237, 279,
+      370, 451.
+Lowell, Charles, 94, 99, 109, 114, 263, 344, 350, 351, 366, 413.
+Lowell, Francis Cabot, 385, 386.
+Lowell Institute, 407, 408.
+Lowell, James Russell, 413, 431, 434, 435.
+Lowell, John, 382, 385.
+Lowell, John Amory, 385, 407.
+Lunt, William Parsons, 420.
+
+MacCauley, Clay, 304, 305.
+McCrary, George W., 326, 383.
+Maine Conference of Unitarian Churches, 218.
+Mann, Horace. 166, 327, 329, 351, 399-402.
+Mann, Mrs. Horace, 324, 403.
+Marshall, John, 376, 380.
+Marshall, J.B.F., 339, 340.
+Martineau, James, 165, 450..
+Mason, L.B., 112, 176.
+Massachusetts Congregational Charitable Society, 119.
+Massachusetts Convention of Congregational Ministers, 120.
+May, Abby Williams, 283, 403, 404.
+May, Col. Joseph, 132, 133, 344.
+May, Rev. Joseph, 216.
+May, Samuel, 359-361, 366.
+May, Samuel J., 127, 146, 194, 346, 351, 356, 358, 360, 361, 366, 369, 399,
+      401, 447.
+Mayhew, Experience, 49, 60.
+Mayhew, Jonathan, 45, 47, 48, 53, 58, 60-66, 85, 90, 199.
+Mayo, Amory D., 320, 368, 410, 411.
+Mead, Edwin D., 406.
+Mead, Larkin G., 430.
+Meadville Theological School, 161, 193, 215, 310-320.
+Methodism, 89, 194.
+Miles, Henry A., 161, 164, 360, 361.
+Miller, Samuel F., 196, 380.
+Milton, John, 5, 6, 10, 12, 31, 45, 56.
+Ministry at Large, 247-261.
+Miracles, 156, 157, 198, 200, 211.
+Missions, domestic, 104, 140, 144, 149-153, 167, 171, 172, 212-214, 218.
+Mitchell, Maria, 427.
+Montana Industrial School, 341, 342, 405.
+Monthly Journal of American Unitarian Association, 162, 184, 237.
+Monthly Miscellany, The, 448.
+Monthly Religious Magazine, 448.
+Morehouse, Daniel W., 196.
+Morison, John H., 165, 270, 355, 356, 448.
+Morrill, Justin S., 380.
+Morse, Jedediah, 93, 102, 423.
+Motley, John Lothrop, 424.
+Mott, Lucretia, 202, 369.
+Mumford, Thomas J., 207, 271, 366, 369.
+Munroe, James, & Co., 235.
+Muzzey, Artemas M., 165, 178, 359, 360, 361, 422.
+
+National Conference: origin, 190-195;
+  Syracuse session, 201;
+  change in constitution, 204;
+  Hepworth's amendment, 207;
+  protests against dropping names from Year Book, 209;
+  formation of local conferences, 218-221;
+  revision of constitution, in 1892, 229;
+  adjustment of Conference and Association, 233;
+  temperance resolutions, 352;
+  women represented, 369;
+  organ proposed, 446.
+New Divinity, 73.
+New Hampshire Unitarian Association, 217.
+New York, 119, 213, 381, 429.
+New York Convention, 190-195.
+Newell, Frederick R., 172, 176, 184.
+Newell, William, 361, 414, 420.
+Newell, William Wells, 414, 415.
+Nichols, Ichabod, 140, 142, 165.
+Nitti, F.S., 3.
+North American Review, 116, 416.
+Northampton, 27, 38, 41, 381.
+Norton, Andrews, 98, 109-111, 114, 122, 126, 130, 132, 135, 139, 164, 243,
+      391, 392, 414, 420.
+Norton, Charles, Eliot, 175, 185, 414, 428.
+Novelists, 429, 430.
+Noyes, George Rapall, 110, 114, 146, 164, 200, 392, 393.
+Nute, Ephraim, 167, 176.
+
+Old and New, 450.
+Old South historical work, 405-407.
+Oriental religions, 72.
+Orton, Edward, 338.
+Osgood, Samuel, 154, 215, 361, 431, 449.
+"Other Christian Churches," 201, 219, 446.
+Otis, Harrison Gray, 382, 385.
+Oxnard, Thomas, 80.
+
+Palfrey, Cazneau, 173, 361.
+Palfrey, John G., 95, 101, 109, 110, 114, 117, 126, 127, 146, 154, 157,
+      191, 212, 249, 329, 350, 366, 385, 391, 415, 424.
+Panoplist, The, 93, 102.
+Parish, 29, 115.
+Parker, Isaac, 351, 382.
+Parker, Theodore, 155-157, 165, 267, 327, 328, 343, 361, 365, 369, 394,
+      399, 415, 417, 420, 436.
+Parkman, Francis, historian, 413.
+Parkman, John, 154, 361.
+Parkman, Rev. Francis, 74, 95, 99, 109, 173, 344, 413, 424.
+Parsons, Theophilus, 86, 117, 351, 377, 382.
+Parton, James, 424.
+Peabody, Andrew P., 117, 146, 148, 173, 239, 260, 313, 323, 360, 361.
+Peabody, Elizabeth P., 155, 368, 402, 403.
+Peabody, Ephraim, 270, 313, 334, 335, 433, 448.
+Peabody, Francis G., 331.
+Peabody, W.B.O., 361, 420.
+Peace movement, 343-349.
+Peace societies, 322, 344.
+Peirce, Benjamin, 427.
+Perkins Institute for the Blind, 323, 325, 326.
+Perkins, Thomas H., 325, 386, 387.
+Phillips, Jonathan, 109, 351, 385.
+Phillips, Stephen C., 385.
+Pickering, Edward C., 427.
+Pickering, John, 381.
+Pickering, Timothy, 377, 381.
+Pierce, Cyrus, 361, 400, 401.
+Pierce, John, 114, 131, 133, 344, 350.
+Pierpont, John, 114, 127, 132, 176, 243, 350, 351, 361, 365, 420.
+Pillsbury, Parker, 368, 369.
+Piper, George F., 273.
+Pitts Street Chapel, 257, 258, 332.
+Plymouth, 16, 83, 118.
+Poets, 431-435.
+Poor, care of, 250, 255, 321, 322, 334, 335.
+Porter, Eliphalet, 76.
+Portland, 80, 118.
+Post-office Mission, 289, 290.
+Potter, William J., 170, 200, 203, 208, 209, 211.
+Pratt, Enoch, 189, 409, 410.
+Pray, Lewis G., 270.
+Prescott, William Hickling, 117, 381, 424, 425.
+Priestley, Joseph, 71, 78, 80, 81, 83, 118.
+Primitive Christianity, 48, 67, 112, 122.
+Prince, John, 71, 76, 381.
+Prison reform, 327, 328, 329, 343.
+Protestantism, 1, 3, 4, 7, 14, 17, 18, 156.
+Publishing Fund Society, 107, 108, 141.
+Publishing interests, 113, 128, 145, 162, 164, 165, 184.
+Puritanism, 10, 19, 20, 21, 37, 53.
+Puritans, 19, 22.
+Putnam, Alfred P., 216, 420.
+Putnam, George, 146, 185, 450.
+Pynchon, William, 23, 24.
+
+Quarterly Journal of American Unitarian Association, 162.
+Quincy, Edmund, 359.
+Quincy, Josiah, 35, 42, 128, 344, 366, 382, 397, 399.
+
+Radical, The, 203.
+Radicalism, 155, 156, 158, 199, 203, 204, 210, 222.
+Rammohun Roy, 296.
+Rantoul, Robert, 127, 351, 399.
+Rationalism, 5, 6, 12, 31, 44, 45, 55, 62, 69, 90, 156.
+Reason, 2, 3, 9-11, 13, 31, 37, 90.
+Reed, David, 114, 127, 129, 145, 234, 269.
+Reforms, 343, 356.
+Revelation, 12, 13, 20, 46, 66, 69, 73, 88.
+Reynolds, Grindall, 232, 238, 239.
+Ripley, Ezra, 74, 263, 344.
+Ripley, George, 146, 415, 420, 428, 448.
+Ripley, Samuel. 360, 361.
+Robbins, Chandler, 83, 361, 420.
+Roberts, William, 297, 298.
+Robinson, George D., 382.
+Robinson, John, 25, 84.
+Roman Catholic Church, 2, 3, 17.
+
+Saco, 81.
+Safford, Mary A., 371.
+St. Louis, 141, 184, 225, 259, 398.
+Salem, 16, 29, 54, 70, 76, 80, 118, 218, 381, 413.
+Saltonstall, Leverett, 127, 133, 140, 381.
+Saltonstall, Sir Richard, 16, 23.
+San Francisco, 153, 167, 182.
+Sanborn, Frank B., 202, 369.
+Sanitary Commission, 176, 178-184, 188, 338.
+Sargent, John T., 361, 369, 370.
+Savage, Minot J., 196, 274.
+Scandlin, William G., 176, 177, 182.
+Scientists, 427, 428.
+Scudder, Eliza, 244.
+Sears, Edmund H., 165, 217, 395, 420, 448.
+Sectarianism, 125, 131, 149, 150, 201, 266, 356, 436.
+Sedgwick, Catherine M., 369, 381, 429.
+Sewall, Edmund Q., 361.
+Sewall, Samuel E., 358, 359, 369.
+Shaw, Lemuel, 382, 387.
+Shaw, Robert Gould, 386.
+Sherman, John, 92, 98.
+Shippen, Rush R., 213, 237, 238.
+Shute, Daniel, 58, 85, 87.
+Sill, Edward Rowland, 415, 431.
+Sin, original, 50.
+Singh, Hajom Kissor, 302, 303.
+Sloan, W.M., 2.
+Smith, Gerrit, 367, 376, 420.
+Smith, Mary P. Wells, 285, 290.
+Socialism in the church, 3, 4, 17, 20, 27, 33.
+Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity, 96,
+      141, 148.
+Society for Promoting Theological Education, 109, 110.
+Society for Propagating the Gospel, 120.
+Society to Encourage Home Studies, 404, 405.
+Socinianism, 42, 75, 80.
+Solemn Review of Custom of War, 344, 346.
+Sparks, Jared, 111, 114, 117, 119, 126, 132, 135, 397, 399, 415, 421, 424.
+Spaulding, Henry G., 274.
+Spirit of the Pilgrims, The, 93.
+Spofford Harriet Prescott, 430.
+Sprague, Charles, 351, 431.
+Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 368.
+Staples, Carlton A., 176, 214, 259, 364.
+Staples, Nahor A., 167, 176, 366.
+Stearns, Oliver, 317, 360, 361.
+Stebbins, Horatio, 239.
+Stebbins, Rufus, P., 161, 188, 189, 196, 315, 316, 351, 361, 397.
+Stedman, Edmund C., 431.
+Stetson, Caleb, 360, 361, 365.
+Stevenson, Hannah E., 202, 279.
+Stoddard, Richard Henry, 431.
+Stoddard, Solomon, 27, 39, 44, 68, 241.
+Stone, Lucy, 367-369.
+Stone, Thomas T., 164, 366, 369.
+Story, Joseph, 114, 117, 133, 134, 140, 143, 260, 377, 380, 381, 387.
+Story, William Wetmore, 430.
+Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 384.
+Strong, Caleb, 385.
+Sullivan, James, 385.
+Sullivan, Richard, 128, 129.
+Sullivan, Thomas E., 127, 447.
+Sumner, Charles, 347, 348, 364, 367, 372, 380.
+Sunday-school papers, 266, 269-271, 273, 274.
+Sunday-schools, 247, 254, 262-281;
+  origin of, 262;
+  Boston society, 265;
+  growth of, 267;
+  first publications, 268;
+  local societies, 269;
+  paper, 269;
+  national society, 270;
+  awakening interest, 272;
+  George F. Piper as secretary, 273;
+  Henry G. Spaulding, 274;
+  Edward A. Horton, 275;
+  western society, 276;
+  unity clubs, 278;
+  Religious Union, 278;
+  Ladies' Commission, 279, 332.
+Sunderland, Jabez T., 225, 301-303, 451.
+
+Talbot, Thomas, 382.
+Tappan, Lewis, 134, 137, 139.
+Taylor, Bayard, 430, 431.
+Taylor, Edward T., "Father Taylor," 324, 327.
+Taylor, Jeremy, 5, 12, 14, 31, 66.
+Taylor, John, of Norwich, 39.
+Temperance reform, 100, 322, 327, 349-353.
+Thacher, Samuel C., 94, 96, 99, 103, 344.
+Thayer, Nathaniel, 134.
+Theatre preaching, 215, 216.
+Theological library, 164.
+Thomas, Moses G., 140.
+Thompson, James W., 360, 361, 448.
+Thoreau, Henry D., 415, 428.
+Ticknor, Anna E., 404, 405.
+Ticknor, George, 98, 390, 410, 424, 525, 526.
+Tilden, William P., 361.
+Tileston, Thomas, 385.
+Tillotson, John, 11, 44, 45, 67.
+Toleration, 6, 7, 9, 11, 13, 21, 37, 43, 61, 67, 85, 89, 103, 107, 121.
+Toy, Crawford H., 274, 452.
+Tracts, 145-147, 163, 248, 300, 307.
+Tracts, distribution of, 147, 163, 184, 290.
+Transcendentalism, 155, 199, 200, 222, 417, 431.
+Trinity, 13, 14, 42, 45, 55, 58, 63, 65, 66, 69, 71, 79, 83.
+Trowbridge, John T., 430.
+Tucker, John, 75.
+Tuckerman, Henry T., 261, 428.
+Tuckerman, Joseph, 96, 99, 146, 247, 250-257, 260, 264, 265, 270, 282, 297,
+      298, 322, 323, 331, 334, 344.
+Tudor, William, 116.
+Tullock, John, 5.
+Tuskegee Institute, 339.
+
+Unitarian Advocate, 447.
+Unitarian Association, American, 117;
+  discussion in anonymous association, 129;
+  meeting at house of Josiah Quincy, 128;
+  Gannett's statement of purpose, 128;
+  printed report of committee, 128;
+  meeting in Federal Street Church, 129;
+  discussion as to advisability of organizing, 129;
+  announcement at Berry Street Conference, 133;
+  organization, 134;
+  officers, 135;
+  name selected, 138;
+  work of first year, 139;
+  first annual meeting, 140;
+  missionary tour of Moses G. Thomas, 140;
+  effort to absorb other societies, 141;
+  report of directors, 141;
+  attitude of churches, 142;
+  receipts, 142;
+  presidents, 142;
+  secretaries, 143;
+  missionary agents, 144;
+  incorporation, 145;
+  tracts, 145;
+  depositaries, 146;
+  Book and Pamphlet Society, 147;
+  distribution of books, 148;
+  colporters, 148;
+  missionary work in New England, 149;
+  work in South and West, 151;
+  tour of secretary, 152;
+  contributions for domestic missions, 153;
+  work of first quarter-century, 154;
+  influence of radicalism, 155;
+  indifference of churches, 160;
+  officers, 160;
+  Quarterly and Monthly Journal, 162;
+  tracts and books, 163;
+  theological library, 164;
+  devotional library, 164;
+  publishing firm, 165;
+  missionary activities, 167;
+  Association and Western Conference, 172;
+  work during civil war, 177;
+  results of fifteen years, 184;
+  meeting to consider interests of Association, 187;
+  vote to raise $100,000, 189;
+  success, 190;
+  convention in New; York, 190;
+  organization of National Conference, 192;
+  work planned, 193;
+  new life in Association, 196;
+  contributions, 197;
+  new theological position, 197;
+  organization of Free Religious Association, 202;
+  attempts at reconciliation, 204;
+  demand for creed, 205;
+  Year Book controversy, 207;
+  attitude of Unitarians, 209;
+  missionary work, 212;
+  Charles Lowe as secretary, 212;
+  fires in Chicago and Boston, 213;
+  work in west, 214;
+  college town missions, 214;
+  theatre preaching, 215;
+  organization of local conferences, 217;
+  fellowship and fraternity, 219;
+  results of denominational awakening, 221;
+  western issue, 225;
+  constitution of 1892, 229;
+  fellowship with Universalists, 230;
+  officers, 231;
+  adoption of representation, 232;
+  co-operation of Association and National Conference, 233;
+  building loan fund, 234;
+  Unitarian building, 237;
+  seventy-fifth anniversary, 244;
+  ministry at large, 247;
+  aid to Sunday School Society, 266;
+  fellowship with foreign Unitarians, 295;
+  relations with British Association, 295;
+  Dall in India, 299;
+  work in Japan, 303;
+  educational work in South, 338, 410;
+  educational work for Indians, 340;
+  attitude towards slavery, 363;
+  formation of International Council, 440.
+Unitarian Association, British and Foreign, 295, 298, 303.
+Unitarian beliefs, 157, 158, 168, 170, 171, 193, 201, 203, 205-207, 209,
+      211, 212, 225-227, 229, 362, 376, 378, 381, 382, 409, 425, 429, 431,
+      433, 434.
+Unitarian Book and Pamphlet Society, 147, 148.
+Unitarian Church Association of Maine, 217, 240.
+Unitarian hymnology, 244, 420.
+Unitarian Miscellany, The, 111-114.
+Unitarian Monitor, The, 447.
+Unitarian name, 103, 104, 123, 125, 138, 192, 266.
+Unitarian Review, 451.
+Unitarian Temperance Society, 278, 351, 352.
+Unitarian, The (1834), 447.
+Unitarian, The (1886), 225, 451.
+Unitarianism, American, 9, 14, 16, 36, 57-59, 63, 67, 72, 78, 79, 82, 102,
+      104, 111, 115, 118, 122, 124-126, 128, 132, 138, 149, 169, 185,
+      222-224, 378, 379, 384, 387, 389, 436-443.
+Unity, 225, 451.
+Unity clubs, 277-278.
+Unity of God, 63, 65.
+Universalism, 67-69, 71, 75, 88, 90, 93, 193, 194, 230.
+Universality of religion, 203, 210.
+
+Vane, Sir Henry, 16, 24.
+Very, Jones, 155, 244, 381, 431.
+
+Walcutt, Robert F., 359, 366.
+Walker, James, 95 101, 114, 126, 127, 129, 133-135, 138, 139, 146, 200,
+      267, 351, 397, 450.
+Walker, James P., 165, 188, 236, 272, 280.
+Walker, Williston, 18, 22.
+Walter, Cornelia W., 404.
+War, 343, 346-348.
+Ware, Dr. Henry, 60, 92, 108, 135, 146.
+Ware, Henry, the younger, 100, 110, 114, 128, 129, 132, 133, 135, 138, 143,
+      145, 148, 163, 184, 243, 249, 267, 268, 295, 297, 310, 344, 345, 350,
+      351, 359, 420.
+Ware, Dr. John, 350.
+Ware, John F. W, 177, 185, 361.
+Ware, William, 287, 360, 361, 415, 429, 447, 450.
+Warren Street Chapel, 257, 332, 337.
+Washington, 119, 213, 376, 380.
+Washington, George, 377, 379.
+Washington University, 397, 398.
+Wasson, David A., 201, 202, 211, 419, 420.
+Waterston, Robert C., 332, 361.
+Webster, Daniel, 356, 380, 385, 387.
+Webster, Samuel, 50.
+Weeden, William B., 383.
+Weiss, John, 200, 202, 360, 361, 419.
+Weld, Angelina Grimké, 367, 369.
+Weld, Theodore D., 365, 367.
+Wells, John, 212, 382.
+Wendell, Barrett, 410, 435.
+Wendte, Charles W., 246, 276, 289, 337.
+West, Samuel, 69, 85, 87.
+West, Unitarianism in the, 151-153, 224.
+Western Conference, 168-172, 197, 209, 214, 224-229, 284, 285, 364.
+"Western issue," 225-228.
+Western Messenger, The, 366, 448.
+Western ministers, 149, 152.
+Western Unitarian Association, 226.
+Wheaton, Henry, 134, 381.
+Whipple, Edwin P., 428.
+White, Andrew D., 376.
+Whitefield, George, 41, 44, 46.
+Whitman, Bernard, 269, 447.
+Whitman, Jason, 144, 148, 361.
+Whitman, Walter, 431.
+Whitney, Leonard, 172, 176.
+Whittier, John G., 376, 431.
+Wigglesworth, Dr., 44.
+Wigglesworth, Thomas, 385.
+Wilkes, Eliza Tupper, 371.
+Willard, Samuel, 26, 35.
+Williams, John E., 332.
+Williams, Roger, 16, 24, 121.
+Willson, Edmund B., 176, 269, 361.
+Winkley, Samuel H., 185.
+Wise, John, 30-34.
+Wolcott, J.H., 385.
+Wolcott, Roger, 382.
+Women, 30, 191, 250, 282-294, 343, 348, 349, 368-372, 402-407, 428, 429.
+Women's Alliance, 287-294.
+Women's Auxiliary, 286.
+Women's Western Unitarian Conference, 284, 285.
+Woodbury, Augustus, 146.
+Worcester, 73, 173, 218.
+Worcester Association of Ministers, 173, 269.
+Worcester, Noah, 93, 98-100, 114, 148, 344, 345, 350, 365, 389.
+Wright, Carroll D., 196, 231.
+Wyman, Jeffries, 180, 427.
+
+Yale College, 43.
+Year Book of American Unitarian Association, 207, 449.
+Young, Alexander, 114, 127, 143, 267, 424.
+Young People's Religious Union, 278.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Unitarianism in America, by George Willis Cooke
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNITARIANISM IN AMERICA ***
+
+***** This file should be named 8605-8.txt or 8605-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/8/6/0/8605/
+
+Produced by David Starner, Christopher Lund, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
+  www.gutenberg.org/license.
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at 809
+North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887.  Email
+contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the
+Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:  www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For forty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/8605-8.zip b/8605-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c2b5583
--- /dev/null
+++ b/8605-8.zip
diff --git a/8605-h.zip b/8605-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a17f930
--- /dev/null
+++ b/8605-h.zip
diff --git a/8605-h/8605-h.htm b/8605-h/8605-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d36ca17
--- /dev/null
+++ b/8605-h/8605-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,15203 @@
+<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
+<html>
+<head>
+  <title>Unitarianism In America</title>
+  <style type="text/css">
+    hr { background : black; height : 3px }
+    h1, h2, h4 { text-align : center }
+    h3 { font-size : 110% }
+  </style>
+  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
+</head>
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's Unitarianism in America, by George Willis Cooke
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Unitarianism in America
+
+Author: George Willis Cooke
+
+Posting Date: April 5, 2014 [EBook #8605]
+Release Date: August, 2005
+First Posted: July 28, 2003
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNITARIANISM IN AMERICA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Starner, Christopher Lund, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+<h1>UNITARIANISM IN AMERICA</h1>
+<h2>A History of its Origin and Development</h2>
+
+
+<h4>BY</h4>
+
+
+<h2>GEORGE WILLIS COOKE</h2>
+
+<h4>MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, AMERICAN ASSOCIATION
+FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, AMERICAN ACADEMY OF
+POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCE, ETC.</h4>
+
+
+<hr width="50%" size="3" >
+
+<h2>PREFACE.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The aim I have had in view in writing this book has been to give a history
+of the origin of Unitarianism in the United States, how it has organized
+itself, and what it has accomplished. It seemed desirable to deal more
+fully than has been done hitherto with the obscure beginnings of the
+Unitarian movement in New England; but limits of space have made it
+impossible to treat this phase of the subject in other than a cursory
+manner. It deserves an exhaustive treatment, which will amply repay the
+necessary labor to this end. The theological controversies that led to the
+separation of the Unitarians from the older Congregational body have been
+only briefly alluded to, the design of my work not requiring an ampler
+treatment. It was not thought best to cover the ground so ably traversed by
+Rev. George E. Ellis, in his Half-century of the Unitarian Controversy;
+Rev. Joseph Henry Allen, in his Our Liberal Movement in Theology; Rev.
+William Channing Gannett, in his Memoir of Dr. Ezra Stiles Gannett; and by
+Rev. John White Chadwick, in his Old and New Unitarian Beliefs. The attempt
+here made has been to supplement these works, and to treat of the practical
+side of Unitarianism,--its organizations, charities, philanthropies, and
+reforms.</p>
+
+<p>With the theological problems involved in the history of Unitarianism this
+volume deals only so far as they have affected its general development. I
+have endeavored to treat of them fairly and without prejudice, to state the
+position of each side to the various controversies in the words of those
+who have accepted its point of view, and to judge of them as phases of a
+larger religious growth. I have not thought it wise to attempt anything
+approaching an exhaustive treatment of the controversies produced by the
+transcendental movement and by "the Western issue." If they are to be dealt
+with in the true spirit of the historical method, it must be at a period
+more remote from these discussions than that of one who participated in
+them, however slightly. I have endeavored to treat of all phases of
+Unitarianism without reference to local interests and without sectional
+preferences. If my book does not indicate such regard to what is national
+rather than to what is provincial, as some of my readers may desire, it is
+due to inability to secure information that would have given a broader
+character to my treatment of the subject.</p>
+
+<p>The present work may appear to some of its readers to have been written in
+a sectarian spirit, with a purpose to magnify the excellences of
+Unitarianism, and to ignore its limitations. Such has not been the purpose
+I have kept before me; but, rather, my aim has been to present the facts
+candidly and justly, and to treat of them from the standpoint of a student
+of the religious evolution of mankind. Unitarianism in this country
+presents an attempt to bring religion into harmony with philosophy and
+science, and to reconcile Christianity with the modern spirit. Its effort
+in this direction is one that deserves careful consideration, especially in
+view of the unity and harmony it has developed in the body of believers who
+accept its teachings. The Unitarian body is a small one, but it has a
+history of great significance with reference to the future development of
+Christianity.</p>
+
+<p>The names of those who accept Unitarianism have not been given in this book
+in any boastful spirit. A faith that is often spoken against may justify
+itself by what it has accomplished, and its best fruits are the men and
+women who have lived in the spirit of its teachings. In presenting the
+names of those who are not in any way identified with Unitarian churches,
+the purpose has been to suggest the wide and inclusive character of the
+Unitarian movement, and to indicate that it is not represented merely by a
+body of churches, but that it is an individual way of looking at the facts
+of life and its problems.</p>
+
+<p>In writing the following pages, I have had constantly in mind those who
+have not been educated as Unitarians, and who have come into this
+inheritance through struggle and search. Not having been to the manner born
+myself, I have sought to provide such persons with the kind of information
+that would have been helpful to me in my endeavors to know the Unitarian
+life and temper. Something of what appears in these pages is due to this
+desire to help those who wish to know concretely what Unitarianism is, and
+what it has said and done to justify its existence. This will account for
+the manner of treatment and for some of the topics selected.</p>
+
+<p>When this work was begun, the design was that it should form a part of the
+exhibit of Unitarianism in this country presented at the seventy-fifth
+anniversary of the formation of the American Unitarian Association. The
+time required for a careful verification of facts made it impossible to
+have the book ready at that date. The delay in its publication has not
+freed the work from all errors and defects, but it has given the
+opportunity for a more adequate treatment of many phases of the subject.
+Much of the work required in its preparation does not show itself in the
+following pages; but it has involved an extended examination of manuscript
+journals and records, as well as printed reports of societies, newspapers,
+magazines, pamphlets, and books. Many of the subjects dealt with, not
+having been touched upon in any previous historical work, have demanded a
+first-hand study of records, often difficult to find access to, and even
+more difficult to summarize in an interesting and adequate manner.</p>
+
+<p>I wish here to warmly thank all those persons, many in number and too
+numerous to give all their names, who have generously aided me with their
+letters and manuscripts, and by the loan of books, magazines, pamphlets,
+and newspapers. Without their aid the book would have been much less
+adequate in its treatment of many subjects than it is at present. Though I
+am responsible for the book as it presents itself to the reader, much of
+its value is due to those who have thus labored with me in its preparation.
+In manuscript and in proof-sheet it has been read by several persons, who
+have kindly aided in securing accuracy to names, dates, and historic facts.</p>
+
+<p>G.W.C.</p>
+
+<p>BOSTON, October 1, 1902.</p>
+
+
+<hr width="50%" size="3" >
+
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+
+<p><b>I. <a href="#ch1">INTRODUCTION.--ENGLISH SOURCES OF AMERICAN UNITARIANISM</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn1">Renaissance</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn2">Reformation</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn3">Toleration</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn4">Arminianism</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn5">English Rationalists</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>II. <a href="#ch2">THE LIBERAL SIDE OF PURITANISM</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn6">The Church of Authority and the Church of Freedom</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn7">Seventeenth-century Liberals</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn8">Growth of Liberty in Church Methods</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn9">A Puritan Rationalist</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn10">Harvard College</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>III. <a href="#ch3">THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY IN THE CHURCHES</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn11">Arminianism</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn12">The Growth of Arminianism</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn13">Robert Breck</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn14">Books Read by Liberal Men</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn15">The Great Awakening</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn16">Cardinal Beliefs of the Liberals</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn17">Publications defining the Liberal Beliefs</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn18">Phases of Religious Progress</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>IV. <a href="#ch4">THE SILENT ADVANCE OF LIBERALISM</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn19">Subordinate Nature of Christ</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn20">Some of the Liberal Leaders</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn21">The First Unitarian</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn22">A Pronounced Universalist</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn23">Other Men of Mark</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn24">The Second Period of Revivals</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn25">King's Chapel becomes Unitarian</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn26">Other Unitarian Movements</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn27">Growth of Toleration</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>V. <a href="#ch5">THE PERIOD OF CONTROVERSY</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn28">The Monthly Anthology</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn29">Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn30">General Repository</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn31">The Christian Disciple</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn32">Dr. Morse and American Unitarianism</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn33">Evangelical Missionary Society</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn34">The Berry Street Conference</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn35">The Publishing Fund Society</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn36">Harvard Divinity School</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn37">The Unitarian Miscellany</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn38">The Christian Register</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn39">Results of the Division in Congregationalism</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn40">Final Separation of State and Church</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>VI. <a href="#ch6">THE AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn41">Initial Meetings</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn42">Work of the First Year</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn43">Work of the First Quarter of a Century</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn44">Publication of Tracts and Books</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn45">Domestic Missions</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>VII. <a href="#ch7">THE PERIOD OF RADICALISM</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn46">Depression in Denominational Activities</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn47">Publications</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn48">A Firm of Publishers</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn49">The Brooks Fund</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn50">Missionary Efforts</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn51">The Western Unitarian Conference</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn52">The Autumnal Conventions</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn53">Influence of the Civil War</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn54">The Sanitary Commission</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn55">Results of Fifteen years</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>VIII. <a href="#ch8">THE DENOMINATIONAL AWAKENING</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn56">The New York Convention of 1865</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn57">New Life in the Unitarian Association</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn58">The New Theological Position</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn59">Organization of the Free Religious Association</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn60">Unsuccessful Attempts at Reconciliation</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn61">The Year Book Controversy</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn62">Missionary Activities</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn63">College Town Missions</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn64">Theatre Preaching</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn65">Organization of Local Conferences</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn66">Fellowship and Fraternity</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn67">Results of the Denominational Awakening</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>IX. <a href="#ch9">GROWTH OF DENOMINATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn68">"The Western Issue"</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn69">Fellowship with Universalists</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn70">Officers of the American Unitarian Association</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn71">The American Unitarian Association as a Representative Boy</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn72">The Church Building Loan Fund</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn73">The Unitarian Building in Boston</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn74">Growth of the Devotional Spirit</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn75">The Seventy-fifth Anniversary</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>X. <a href="#ch10">THE MINISTRY AT LARGE</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn76">Association of Young Men</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn77">Preaching to the Poor</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn78">Tuckerman as Minister to the Poor</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn79">Tuckerman's Methods</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn80">Organization of Charities</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn81">Benevolent Fraternity of Churches</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn82">Other Ministers at Large</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn83">Ministry at Large in Other Cities</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>XI. <a href="#ch11">ORGANIZED SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn84">Boston Sunday School Society</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn85">Unitarian Sunday School Society</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn86">Western Unitarian Sunday School Society</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn87">Unity Clubs</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn88">The Ladies' Commission on Sunday-school Books</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>XII. <a href="#ch12">THE WOMEN'S ALLIANCE AND ITS PREDECESSORS</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn89">Women's Western Unitarian Conference</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn90">Women's Auxiliary Conference</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn91">The National Alliance</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn92">Cheerful Letter and Post-office Missions</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn93">Associate Alliances</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn94">Alliance Methods</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>XIII. <a href="#ch13">MISSIONS TO INDIA AND JAPAN</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn95">Society respecting the State of Religion in India</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn96">Dall's Work in India</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn97">Recent Work in India</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn98">The Beginnings in Japan</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>XIV. <a href="#ch14">THE MEADVILLE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn99">The Beginnings in Meadville</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn100">The Growth of the School</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>XV. <a href="#ch15">UNITARIAN PHILANTHROPIES</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn101">Unitarian Charities</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn102">Education of the Blind</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn103">Care of the Insane</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn104">Child-saving Missions</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn105">Care of the Poor</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn106">Humane Treatment of Animals</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn107">Young Men's Christian Unions</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn108">Educational Work in the South</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn109">Educational Work for the Indians</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>XVI. <a href="#ch16">UNITARIANS AND REFORMS</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn110">Peace Movement</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn111">Temperance Reform</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn112">Anti-slavery</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn113">The Enfranchisement of Women</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn114">Civil Service Reform</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>XVII. <a href="#ch17">UNITARIAN MEN AND WOMEN</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn115">Eminent Statesmen</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn116">Some Representative Unitarians</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn117">Judges and Legislators</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn118">Boston Unitarianism</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>XVIII. <a href="#ch18">UNITARIANS AND EDUCATION</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn119">Pioneers of the Higher Criticism</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn120">The Catholic Influence of Harvard University</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn121">The Work of Horace Mann</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn122">Elizabeth Peabody and the Kindergarten</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn123">Work of Unitarian Women for Education</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn124">Popular Education and Public Libraries</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn125">Mayo's Southern Ministry of Education</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>XIX. <a href="#ch19">UNITARIANISM AND LITERATURE</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn126">Influence of Unitarian Environment</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn127">Literary Tendencies</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn128">Literary Tastes of Unitarian Ministers</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn129">Unitarians as Historians</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn130">Scientific Unitarians</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn131">Unitarian Essayists</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn132">Unitarian Novelists</a><br >
+  <a href="#sn133">Unitarian Artists and Poets</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>XX. <a href="#ch20">THE FUTURE OF UNITARIANISM</a></b></p>
+
+<p><b>APPENDIX.</b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  A. <a href="#chaa">Formation of the Local Conferences</a><br >
+  B. <a href="#chab">Unitarian Newspapers and Magazines</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<hr width="50%" size="3" >
+
+
+<a name="pg1"></a>
+<h2>UNITARIANISM IN AMERICA.<br >
+
+A HISTORY OF ITS ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT.</h2>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><br ><a name="ch1"></a>I.<br >
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.--ENGLISH SOURCES OF AMERICAN UNITARIANISM.</h2>
+
+<p>The sources of American Unitarianism are to be found in the spirit of
+individualism developed by the Renaissance, the tendency to free inquiry
+that manifested itself in the Protestant Reformation, and the general
+movement of the English churches of the seventeenth century toward
+toleration and rationalism. The individualism of modern thought and life
+first found distinct expression in the Renaissance; and it was essentially
+a new creation, and not a revival. Hitherto the tribe, the city, the
+nation, the guild, or the church, had been the source of authority, the
+centre of power, and the giver of life. Although Greece showed a desire for
+freedom of thought, and a tendency to recognize the worth of the individual
+and his capacity as a discoverer and transmitter of truth, it did not set
+the individual mind free from bondage to the social and political power of
+the city. Socrates and Plato saw somewhat of the real worth of the
+individual, but the great mass of the people were never emancipated from
+<a name="pg2"></a>
+the old tribal authority as inherited by the city-state; and not one of the
+great dramatists had conceived of the significance of a genuine
+individualism.[<a href="#fn_1_1">1</a><a name="fr_1_1"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn1"></a>Renaissance.</h3>
+
+<p>The Renaissance advanced to a new conception of the worth and the capacity
+of the individual mind, and for the first time in history recognized the
+full social meaning of personality in man. It sanctioned and authenticated
+the right of the individual to think for himself, and it developed clearly
+the idea that he may become the transmitter of valid revelations of
+spiritual truth. That God may speak through individual intuition and
+reason, and that this inward revelation may be of the highest authority and
+worth, was a conception first brought to distinct acceptance by the
+Renaissance.</p>
+
+<p>A marked tendency of the Reformation which it received from the Renaissance
+was its acceptance of the free spirit of individualism. The Roman Church
+had taught that all valid religious truth comes to mankind through its own
+corporate existence, but the Reformers insisted that truth is the result of
+individual insight and investigation. The Reformation magnified the worth
+<a name="pg3"></a>
+of personality, and made it the central force in all human effort.[<a href="#fn_1_2">2</a><a name="fr_1_2"></a>] To
+gain a positive personal life, one of free initiative power, that may in
+itself become creative, and capable of bringing truth and life to larger
+issues, was the chief motive of the Protestant leaders in their work of
+reformation. The result was that, wherever genuine Protestantism appeared,
+it manifested itself by its attitude of free inquiry, its tendency to
+emphasize individual life and thought, and its break with the traditions of
+the past, whether in literature or in religion. The Reformation did not,
+however, bring the principle of individuality to full maturity; and it
+retained many of the old institutional methods, as well as a large degree
+of their social motive. The Reformed churches were often as autocratic as
+the Catholic Church had been, and as little inclined to approve of
+individual departures from their creeds and disciplines; but the motive of
+individualism they had adopted in theory, and could not wholly depart from
+in practice. Their merit was that they had recognized and made a place for
+the principle of individuality; and it proved to be a developing social
+power, however much they might ignore or try to suppress it.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn2"></a>Reformation.</h3>
+
+<p>In its earliest phases Protestantism magnified the importance of reason in
+religious investigations, although it used an imperfect method in so doing.
+<a name="pg4"></a>
+All doctrines were subjected more or less faithfully to this test, every
+rite was criticised and reinterpreted, and the Bible itself was handled in
+the freest manner. The individualism of the movement showed itself in
+Luther's doctrine of justification by faith, and his confidence in the
+validity of personal insight into spiritual realities. Most of all this
+tendency manifested itself in the assertion of the right of every believer
+to read the Bible for himself, and to interpret it according to his own
+needs. The vigorous assertion of the right to the free interpretation of
+the Word of God, and to personal insight into spiritual truth, led their
+followers much farther than the first reformers had anticipated.
+Individualism showed itself in an endless diversity of personal opinions,
+and in the creation of many little groups of believers, who were drawn
+together by an interest in individual leaders or by a common acceptance of
+hair-splitting interpretations of religious truths.[<a href="#fn_1_3">3</a><a name="fr_1_3"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The Protestant Church inculcated the law of individual fidelity to God, and
+declared that the highest obligation is that of personal faith and purity.
+What separated the Catholic and the Protestant was not merely a question of
+socialism as against individualism,[<a href="#fn_1_4">4</a><a name="fr_1_4"></a>] but it was also a problem of outward
+<a name="pg5"></a>
+or inward law, of environment or intuition as the source of wholesome
+teaching, of ritualism or belief as the higher form of religious
+expression. The Protestants held that belief is better than ritual, faith
+than sacraments, inward authority than external force. They insisted that
+the individual has a right to think his own thoughts and to pray his own
+prayer, and that the revelation of the Supreme Good Will is to all who
+inwardly bear God's image and to every one whose will is a centre of new
+creative force in the world of conduct. They affirmed that the individual
+is of more worth than the social organism, the soul than the church, the
+motive than the conduct, the search for truth than the truth attained.</p>
+
+<p>These tendencies of Protestantism found expression in the rationalism that
+appeared in England at the time of the Commonwealth, and especially at the
+Restoration. All the men of broader temper proclaimed the use of reason in
+the discussion of theological problems. In their opinion the Bible was to
+be interpreted as other books are, while with regard to doctrines there
+must be compromise and latitude. We find such a theologian as Chillingworth
+recognizing "the free right of the individual reason to interpret the
+Bible."[<a href="#fn_1_5">5</a><a name="fr_1_5"></a>] To such men as Milton, Jeremy Taylor, and Locke the free spirit
+was essential, even though they had not become rationalists in the modern
+<a name="pg6"></a>
+philosophical sense. They were slow to discard tradition, and they desired
+to establish the validity of the Bible; but they would not accept any
+authority until it had borne the test of as thorough an investigation as
+they could give it. The methods of rationalism were not yet understood, but
+the rational spirit had been accepted with a clear apprehension of its
+significance.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn3"></a>Toleration.</h3>
+
+<p>Toleration had two classes of advocates in the seventeenth century,--on the
+one hand, the minor and persecuted sects, and, on the other, such of the
+great leaders of religious opinion as Milton and Locke. The first clear
+assertion of the modern idea of toleration was made by the Anabaptists of
+Holland, who in 1611 put into their Confession of Faith this declaration of
+the freedom of religion from all state regulation: "The magistrate is not
+to meddle with religion, or matters of conscience, nor compel men to this
+or that form of religion, because Christ is King, and Lawgiver of the
+church and conscience." When the Baptists appeared in England, they
+advocated this principle as the one which ought to control in the relations
+of church and state. In 1614 there was published in London a little tract,
+written by one Leonard Busher, a poor laborer, and a member of the Baptist
+church that had recently been organized there. The writer addressed the
+King and Parliament with a statement of his conviction "that by fire and
+sword to constrain princes and peoples to receive that one true religion of
+the Gospel is wholly against the mind and merciful law of Christ."[<a href="#fn_1_6">6</a><a name="fr_1_6"></a>] He
+went on to say that no king or bishop is able to command faith, that it is
+monstrous for Christians to vex and destroy each other on account of
+<a name="pg7"></a>
+religious differences. The leading Protestant bodies, especially the
+established churches, still held to the corporate idea of the nature of
+religious institutions; and, although they had rejected the domination of
+the Roman Church, they accepted the control of the state as essential to
+the purity of the church. This half-way retention of the corporate spirit
+made it impossible for any of the leading churches to give recognition to
+the full meaning of the Protestant idea of the worth of the individual
+soul, and its right to communicate directly with God. It remained for the
+persecuted Baptists and Independents, too feeble and despised to aspire to
+state influence, to work out the Protestant principle to its full
+expression in the spirit of toleration, to declare for liberty of
+conscience, the voluntary maintenance of worship, and the separation of
+church and state.</p>
+
+<p>After the Restoration, and again after the enthronement of William and
+Mary, it became a serious practical problem to establish satisfactory
+relations between the various sects. All who were not sectarian fanatics
+saw that some kind of compromise was desirable, and the more liberal wished
+to include all but the most extreme phases of belief within the national
+church. When that national church was finally established on the lines
+which it has since retained, and numerous bodies of dissenters found
+themselves compelled to remain outside, toleration became more and more
+essential, in order that the nation might live at peace with itself. From
+generation to generation the dissenters were able to secure for themselves
+a larger recognition, disabilities were removed as men of all sects saw
+that restrictions were useless, and toleration became the established law
+in the relations of the various religious bodies to each other.</p>
+
+<a name="pg8"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn4"></a>Arminianism.</h3>
+
+<p>The conditions which led to toleration also developed a liberal
+interpretation of the relations of the church to the people, a broader
+explanation of doctrines, and a rational insight into the problems of the
+religious life. One phase of this more comprehensive religious spirit was
+shown in Arminianism, which was nothing more than an assertion of
+individualism in the sphere of man's relations to God. Calvinism maintained
+that man cannot act freely for himself, that he is strictly under the
+sovereignty of the Divine Will. The democratic tendency in Holland, where
+Arminianism had its origin, expressed itself in the declaration that every
+man is free to accept or to reject religious truth, that the will is
+individual and self-assertive, and that the conscience is not bound.
+Arminius and his coworkers accepted what the early Protestant movement had
+regarded as essential, that religion should be always obedient to the
+rational spirit, that nature should be the test in regard to all which
+affects human conduct, and that the critical spirit ought to be applied to
+dogma and Bible. Arminius reasserted this freedom of the human spirit, and
+vindicated the right of the individual mind to seek God and his truth
+wherever they may be found.</p>
+
+<p>As Protestantism became firmly established in England, and the nation
+accepted its mental and moral attitude without reserve, what is known as
+Arminianism came to be more and more prevalent. This was not a body of
+doctrines, and it was in no sense a sectarian movement: it was rather a
+mental temper of openness and freedom. In a word, Arminianism became a
+method of religious inquiry that appealed to reason, nature, and the needs
+<a name="pg9"></a>
+of man. It put new emphasis on the intellectual side of religion, and it
+developed as a moral protest against the harsher features of Calvinism. It
+gave to human feelings the right to express themselves as elements in the
+problem of man's relations to God, and vindicated for God the right to be
+deemed as sympathetic and loving as the men who worship him.</p>
+
+<p>While the Arminians accepted the Bible as an authoritative standard as
+fully as did the Calvinists, they were more critical in its study: they
+applied literary and historical standards in its interpretation, and they
+submitted it to the vindication of reason. They sought to escape from the
+tyranny of the Bible, and yet to make it a living force in the world of
+conduct and character. They not only declared anew the right of private
+judgment, but they wished to make the Bible the source of inward spiritual
+illumination,--not a standard and a test, but an awakener of the divine
+life in the soul. They sought for what is really essential in religious
+truth, limited the number of dogmas that may be regarded as requisite to
+the Christian life, and took the position that only what is of prime
+importance is to be required of the believer. The result was that
+Arminianism became a positive aid to the growth of toleration in England;
+for it became what was called latitudinarian,--that is, broad in temper,
+inclusive in spirit, and desirous of bringing all the nation within the
+limits of one harmonizing and noble-minded church.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn5"></a>English Rationalists.</h3>
+
+<p>It was in such tendencies as these, as they were developed in Holland and
+England, that American Unitarianism had its origin. To show how true this
+is, it may be desirable to speak of a few of the men whose books were most
+<a name="pg10"></a>
+frequently read in New England during the eighteenth century. The prose
+writings of Milton exerted great influence in favor of toleration and in
+vindication of reason. Without doubt he became in his later years a
+believer in free will and the subordinate nature of Christ, and he was true
+to the Protestant ideal of an open Bible and a free spirit in man. Known as
+a Puritan, his pleas for toleration must have been read with confidence by
+his coreligionists of New England; while his rational temper could not have
+failed to have its effect.</p>
+
+<p>His vindication of the Bible as the religion of Protestants must have
+commended Chillingworth to the liberal minds in New England; and there is
+evidence that he was read with acceptance, although he was of the
+established church. Chillingworth was of the noblest type of the
+latitudinarians in the Church of England during the first half of the
+seventeenth century; for he was generously tolerant, his mind was broad and
+liberal, and he knew the true value of a really comprehensive and inclusive
+church, which he earnestly desired should be established in England. He
+wished to have the creed reduced to the most limited proportions by giving
+emphasis to what is fundamental, and by the extrusion of all else. It was
+his desire to maintain what is essential that caused him to say: "I am
+fully assured that God does not, and therefore that man ought not, to
+require any more of any man than this--to believe the Scripture to be God's
+word, to endeavor to find the true sense of it, and to live according to
+it."[<a href="#fn_1_7">7</a><a name="fr_1_7"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>He would therefore leave every man free to interpret the Bible for himself,
+and he would make no dogmatic test to deprive any man of this right. The
+<a name="pg11"></a>
+chief fact in the Bible being Christ, he insisted that Christianity is
+loyalty to his spirit. "To believe only in Christ" is his definition of
+Christianity, and he would add nothing to this standard. He would put no
+church or creed or council between the individual soul and God; and he
+would direct every believer to the Bible as the free and open way of the
+soul's access to divine truth. He found that the religion of Protestants
+consisted in the rational use of that book, and not in the teachings of the
+Reformers or in the confessions they devised. It is the great merit of
+Chillingworth that he vindicated the spirit of toleration in a broad and
+noble manner, that he was without sectarian prejudice or narrowness in his
+desire for an inclusive church, and that he spoke and wrote in a truly
+rational temper. He applied reason to all religious problems, and he
+regarded it as the final judge and arbiter. Religious freedom received from
+him the fullest recognition, and no one has more clearly indicated the
+scope and purpose of toleration.</p>
+
+<p>Another English religious leader, much read in New England, was Archbishop
+Tillotson. It has been said of him that "for the first time since the
+Reformation the voice of reason was now clearly heard in the high places of
+the church."[<a href="#fn_1_8">8</a><a name="fr_1_8"></a>] He was an Arminian in his sympathies, and held that the way
+of salvation is open to all who choose to accept its opportunities. He
+expressed himself as being as certain that the doctrine of eternal decrees
+is not of God as he was sure that God is good and just. His ground for this
+opinion was that it is repugnant to the convictions of justice and goodness
+<a name="pg12"></a>
+natural to men. He maintained that we shall be justified before God by
+means of the reformation that is wrought in our own lives. We have an
+intuition of what is right, and a natural capacity for living justly and
+righteously. Experience and reason he made concomitant spiritual forces
+with the Bible, and he held that revelation is but a republication of the
+truths of natural religion. Tillotson was truly a broad churchman, who was
+desirous of making the national church as comprehensive as possible; and he
+was one who practised as well as preached toleration.</p>
+
+<p>Not less liberal was Jeremy Taylor, who was numbered among the dissenters.
+In the introduction to his Liberty of Prophesying he said, "So long as men
+have such variety of principles, such several constitutions, educations,
+tempers, and distempers, hopes, interests, and weaknesses, degrees of light
+and degrees of understanding, it was impossible all should be of one mind."
+Taylor justly said that in heaven there is room for all faiths. His Liberty
+of Prophesying, Chillingworth's Religion of Protestants, and Milton's
+Liberty of Unlicensed Printing are the great expressions of the spirit of
+toleration in the seventeenth century. Each was broad, comprehensive, and
+noble in its plea for religious freedom. It has been said of Taylor that
+"he sets a higher value on a good life than on an orthodox creed. He
+estimates every doctrine by its capacity to do men good."[<a href="#fn_1_9">9</a><a name="fr_1_9"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Another advocate of toleration was John Locke, whose chief influence was as
+a rationalist in philosophy and religion. While accepting Christianity with
+simple confidence, he subjected it to the careful scrutiny of reason. His
+<a name="pg13"></a>
+philosophy awakened the rationalistic spirit in all who accepted it, so
+that many of his disciples went much farther than he did himself. While
+accepting revelation, he maintained that natural knowledge is more certain
+in its character. He taught that the conclusions of reason are more
+important than anything given men in the name of revelation. He did not
+himself widely depart from the orthodoxy of his day, though he did not
+accept the doctrine of the Trinity in the most approved form.</p>
+
+<p>One of the rationalistic followers of Locke was Samuel Clarke, who
+attempted to apply the scientific methods of Newton to the interpretation
+of Christianity. He tried to establish faith in God on a purely scientific
+basis. He declared that goodness does not exist because God commands it,
+but that he commands it because it is good. He interpreted the doctrine of
+the Trinity in a rationalistic manner, holding to its form, but rejecting
+its substance.</p>
+
+<p>These men were widely read in New England during the eighteenth century. In
+England they were accounted orthodox, and they held high positions either
+in the national church or in the leading dissenting bodies. They were not
+sectarian or bigoted, they wished to give religion a basis in common sense
+and ethical integrity, and they approved of a Christianity that is
+practical and leads to noble living.</p>
+
+<p>When we consider what were the relations of the colonies to England during
+the first half of the eighteenth century, and that the New England churches
+were constantly influenced by the religious attitude of the
+mother-country,[<a href="#fn_1_10">10</a><a name="fr_1_10"></a>] it is plain enough that toleration and rationalism were
+<a name="pg14"></a>
+in large measure received from England. In the same school was learned the
+lesson of a return to the simplicity of Christ, of making him and his life
+the standard of Christian fellowship. The great leaders in England taught
+positively that loyalty to Christ is the only essential test of Christian
+duty; and it is not in the least surprising the same idea should have found
+noble advocacy in New England. That a good life and character are the true
+indications of the possession of a saving faith was a thought too often
+uttered in England not to find advocacy in the colonies.</p>
+
+<p>In this way Unitarianism had its origin, in the teachings of men who were
+counted orthodox in England, but who favored submitting all theological
+problems to the test of reason. It was not a sectarian movement in its
+origin or at any time during the eighteenth century; but it was an effort
+to make religion practical, to give it a basis in reality, and to establish
+it as acceptable to the sound judgment and common sense of all men. It was
+an application to the interpretation of theological problems of that
+individualistic spirit which was at the very source of Protestantism. If
+the individual ought to interpret the Bible for himself, so ought he to
+accept his own explanation of the dogmas of the church. In so doing, he
+necessarily becomes a rationalist, which may lead him far from the
+traditions of the past. If he thinks for himself, there is an end to
+uniformity of faith--a conclusion which such men as Chillingworth and
+Jeremy Taylor were willing to accept; and, therefore, they desired an
+all-inclusive church, in order that freedom and unity of faith might be
+both maintained.</p>
+
+<p>In its beginning the liberal movement in New England was not concerned with
+the Trinity. It was a demand for simplicity, rationality, and toleration.
+<a name="pg15"></a>
+When it had proceeded far on its way, it was led to a consideration of the
+problem of the Trinity, because it did not find that doctrine distinctly
+taught in the New Testament. Accepting implicitly the words of Christ, it
+found him declaring positively his own subordination to the Father, and
+preferred his teaching to that of the creeds. To the early liberals this
+was simply a question of the nature of Christ, and did not lessen for them
+their implicit faith in his revelation or their recognition of the beauty
+and glory of his divine character.</p>
+
+<p><br >[<a href="#fr_1_1">1</a><a name="fn_1_1"></a>] Paul Lafargue, The Evolution of Property from Savagery to
+    Civilization, 18, 19. "If the savage is incapable of conceiving the
+    idea of individual possession of objects not incorporated with his
+    person, it is because he has no conception of his individuality as
+    distinct from the consanguine group in which he lives.... Savages, even
+    though individually completer beings, seeing that they are
+    self-sufficing, than are civilized persons, are so thoroughly
+    identified with their hordes and clans that their individuality does
+    not make itself felt either in the family or in property. The clan was
+    all in all: the clan was the family; it was the clan that was the owner
+    of property." Also W.M. Sloan, The French Revolution and Religious
+    Reform, 38. "In the Greek and Roman world the individual, body, mind,
+    and soul, had no place in reference to the state. It was only as a
+    member of family, gens, curia, phratry, or deme, and tribe, that the
+    ancient city-state knew the men and women which composed it. The same
+    was true of knowledge: every sensation, perception, and judgment fell
+    into the category of some abstraction, and, instead of concrete things,
+    men knew nothing but generalized ideals."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_1_2">2</a><a name="fn_1_2"></a>] Francesco S. Nitti, Catholic Socialism, 74, 85, 86. "If we consider
+    the teachings of the Gospel, the communistic origins of the church, the
+    socialistic tendencies of the early fathers, the traditions of the
+    Canon Law, we cannot wonder that at the present day Socialism should
+    count no small number of its adherents among Catholic writers.... The
+    Reformation was the triumph of Individualism. Catholicism, instead, is
+    communistic by its origin and traditions.... The Catholic Church, with
+    her powerful organization, dating back over many centuries, has
+    accustomed Catholic peoples to passive obedience, to a passive
+    renunciation of the greater part of individualistic tendencies."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_1_3">3</a><a name="fn_1_3"></a>] See David Masson, Life of John Milton, III. 136; John Tulloch, Rational
+<a name="pg16"></a>
+    Theology and Christian Philosophy in England, II. 9; John Hunt,
+    Religious Thought in England, I. 234.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_1_4">4</a><a name="fn_1_4"></a>] The word socialism is not used here with any understanding that the
+    Catholic Church accepts the social theories implied by that name. It is
+    used to indicate that the Roman Church maintains that revelation is to
+    the church itself, and that it is now the visible representative of
+    Christ. The Protestant maintains that revelation is made through an
+    individual, and not to a church. See Otto Gierke, Political Theories of
+    the Middle Age, translated by F.W. Maitland, 10, 22. "In all centuries
+    of the Middle Age Christendom is set before us a single, universal
+    community, founded and governed by God himself. Mankind is one mystical
+    body; it is one single and internally connected people or fold; it is
+    an all-embracing corporation, which constitutes that Universal Realm,
+    spiritual, and temporal, which may be called the Universal Church, or,
+    with equal propriety, the Commonwealth of the Human Race.... Mediaeval
+    thought proceeded from the idea of a single whole. Therefore an organic
+    construction of human society was as familiar to it as a mechanical and
+    atomistic construction was originally alien. Under the influence of
+    biblical allegories and the models set by Greek and Roman writers, the
+    comparison of mankind at large and every smaller group to an animate
+    body was universally adopted and pressed. Mankind in its totality was
+    conceived as an Organism."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_1_5">5</a><a name="fn_1_5"></a>] Tulloch, Rational Theology in England, I. 339.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_1_6">6</a><a name="fn_1_6"></a>] David Masson, Life of Milton, III. 102.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_1_7">7</a><a name="fn_1_7"></a>] The Religion of Protestants, II. 411.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_1_8">8</a><a name="fn_1_8"></a>] John Hunt, Religious Thought in England, II. 99.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_1_9">9</a><a name="fn_1_9"></a>] John Hunt, Religious Thought in England, I. 340.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_1_10">10</a><a name="fn_1_10"></a>] John Hunt, Religious Thought in England, I. 340.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><br ><a name="ch2">II.</a><br >
+
+
+THE LIBERAL SIDE OF PURITANISM.</h2>
+
+<p>Unitarianism was brought to America with the Pilgrims and the Puritans. Its
+origins are not to be found in the religious indifference and torpidity of
+the eighteenth century, but in the individualism and the rational temper of
+the men who settled Plymouth, Salem, and Boston. Its development is
+coextensive with the origin and growth of Congregationalism, even with that
+of Protestantism itself. So long as New England has been in existence, so
+long, at least, Unitarianism, in its motives and in its spirit, has been at
+work in the name of toleration, liberty, and free inquiry.</p>
+
+<p>The many and wide divergences of opinion which were an essential result of
+the spirit and methods of Protestantism were shown from the first by the
+Pilgrims and Puritans. In Massachusetts, stringent laws were adopted in
+order to secure uniformity of belief and practice; but it was never
+achieved, except in name. Antinomianism early presented itself in Boston,
+and it was quickly followed by the incursions of the Baptists and Friends.
+Hooker did not find himself in sympathy with the Massachusetts leaders, and
+led a considerable company to Connecticut from Cambridge, Watertown, and
+Dorchester. Sir Henry Vane could not always agree with those who guided the
+religion and the politics of Boston; Roger Williams had another ideal of
+church and state than that which had come to the Puritans; and Sir Richard
+<a name="pg17"></a>
+Saltonstall would not submit himself to the aristocratic methods of the
+Boston preachers.</p>
+
+<p>These are but a few of the many indications of the individualistic spirit
+that marked the first years of the Puritan colonies. It was a part of the
+Protestant inheritance, and was inherent in the very nature of
+Protestantism itself. Although the Puritans had only in part, and with
+faltering steps, come to the acceptance of the individualistic and rational
+spirit in religion, yet they were on the way to it, however long they might
+be hindered by an autocratic temper. In fact, the Puritans throughout the
+seventeenth century in New England were trying at one and the same time to
+use reason and yet to cling to authority, to accept the Protestant ideal
+and yet to employ the Catholic methods in state and church. In being
+Protestants, they were committed to the central motive of individualism;
+but they never consistently turned away from that conception of the church
+which is autocratic and authoritative.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn6"></a>The Church of Authority and the Church of Freedom.</h3>
+
+<p>Looked at from the modern sociological point of view, there are two types
+of church, the one socialistic or institutional and the other
+individualistic, the one making the corporate power of the church the
+source of spiritual life, the other making the personal insight of the
+individual man the fountain of religious truth. Such a church as that of
+Rome may be properly called socialistic because of its corporate nature,
+because it maintains that revelation is to, and by means of, an
+institution, an organic religious body.[<a href="#fn_2_1">1</a><a name="fr_2_1"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg18"></a>
+<p>Catholicism, whether of Rome, Greece, or England, makes the church as a
+great religious corporation the organ of religious expression. Such a
+corporation is the source of authority, the test of truth, the creator of
+spiritual ideals. On the other hand, such a church as the Protestant may be
+called individualistic because it makes the individual the channel of
+revelation. It emphasizes personality as of supreme worth, and it makes
+religious institutions of little value in comparison.</p>
+
+<p>Practically, the difference between the socialistic and the individualistic
+church is as wide as it is theoretically. In all Catholic churches the
+child is born into the church, with the right to full acceptance into it by
+methods of tuition and ritual, whatever his individual qualities or
+capacities. In all distinctly Protestant churches, membership must be
+sought by individual preference or supernatural process.[<a href="#fn_2_2">2</a><a name="fr_2_2"></a>] The way to it
+<a name="pg19"></a>
+is through individual profession of its creed or inward miraculous
+transformation of character by the profoundest of personal experiences. In
+all socialistic or Catholic churches--whether heathen, ethnic, or
+Christian--young people are admitted to membership after a definite period
+of training and an initiation by means of an impressive ritual. In all
+Protestant churches, initiation takes place as the result of personal
+experiences and mature convictions, and is therefore usually deferred until
+adult life has been reached.</p>
+
+<p>When we bring out thus distinctly the ideals and methods of the two
+churches, we are able to understand that the Puritans were theoretically
+Protestants, but that they practically used the methods of the Catholics.
+This will be seen more clearly when we take the individualistic tendencies
+of the Puritans into distinct recognition, and place them in contrast with
+their socialistic practices. The Puritan churches were thoroughly
+individualistic in their admission of members, none being accepted into
+full membership but those who had been converted by means of a personal
+experience. In theory every male church member was a priest and king,
+authorized to interpret spiritual truth and to exercise political
+authority. Therefore, in 1631 the General Court of Massachusetts (being the
+legislative body) established the rule that only church members should
+exercise the right of suffrage. This law was continued on the statute books
+until 1664, and was accepted in practice until 1691.</p>
+
+<a name="pg20"></a>
+<p>Because the individual Christian was accounted a priest, however humble in
+learning or social position, he had the right to join with others in
+ordaining and setting apart to the ministry of God the man who was to lead
+the church as its teacher or pastor, though this practice was abandoned as
+the state-church idea developed, as it did in New England by a process of
+reaction. Every man could read the Bible for himself, and give it such
+meaning as his own conscience and reason dictated. By virtue of his
+Christian experience he had the personal right to find in it his own creed
+and the law of his own conduct. It was not only his right to do this, but
+it was also his duty. Revivalism was therefore the distinct outgrowth of
+Puritanism, the expression of its individualistic spirit. It was the human
+means of bringing the individual soul within reach of the supernatural
+power of God, and of facilitating that choice of the Holy Spirit by which
+one was selected for this change rather than another. The means were
+social, it is true; but the end reached was absolutely individual, as an
+experience and as a result attained. What confirmation was to the Catholic,
+that was conversion to the Puritan.</p>
+
+<p>The Puritans in New England, however, inherited the older socialism to so
+large an extent that they proceeded to establish what was a state church in
+method, if not in theory. Though they began with the idea that the churches
+were to be supported by voluntary contributions (and always continued that
+method in Boston), yet in a few years they resorted to taxation for their
+maintenance, and enacted stringent laws compelling attendance upon them by
+every resident of a town, whatever his beliefs or his personal interests.
+<a name="pg21"></a>
+They forbade the utterance of opinions not approved by the authorities, and
+made use of fines, imprisonment, and death in support of arbitrary laws
+enacted for this purpose. These methods were the same as those used by the
+older socialistic and state churches to compel acceptance of their
+teachings and practices. They were based on the idea of the corporate
+nature of the church, and its right to control the individual in the name
+of the social whole.</p>
+
+<p>The harshness of the Puritan methods was the result of this attempt to
+maintain a new idea in harmony with an old practice. The Baptists were
+consistently individualists in rejecting infant baptism, accepting
+conversion as essential to church membership, maintaining freedom of
+conscience, and practising toleration as a fundamental social law. The
+Puritans inconsistently combined conversion and infant baptism,--the
+Protestant right of private judgment with the Catholic methods of the state
+church,--a democratic theory of popular suffrage with a most aristocratic
+limitation of that suffrage to church members. As late as 1674 only 2,527
+men in all had been admitted to the exercise of the franchise in
+Massachusetts. One-sixth or one-eighth of the men were voters, the rest
+were disfranchised. The church and the state were controlled by this small
+minority in a community that was theoretically democratic, both in religion
+and politics.</p>
+
+<p>It is not surprising that there began to be mutterings against such
+restrictions. It shows the strength of character in the Puritan communities
+of Massachusetts and New Haven that a large majority of the men submitted
+as long as they did to conditions thoroughly undemocratic. As a political
+measure, when the grumblings became so loud as to be no longer ignored,
+<a name="pg22"></a>
+what is called the half-way covenant was adopted, by means of which a
+semi-membership in the churches could be secured, that gave the right of
+suffrage, but permitted no action within the church itself.[<a href="#fn_2_3">3</a><a name="fr_2_3"></a>] Many
+writers on this period fail to understand the significance of the half-way
+covenant; for they attribute to that legislation the disintegrating results
+that followed. They forget that these half-members were not admitted to any
+part in church affairs; and they refuse to see that the methods employed by
+the Puritans were, because of their exclusiveness, of necessity
+demoralizing. In fact, the half-way covenant was a result of the
+disintegration that had already taken place as the issue of an attempted
+compromise between the institutional and the individualistic theories of
+church government.</p>
+
+<a name="pg23"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn7"></a>Seventeenth-century Liberals.</h3>
+
+<p>By arbitrary methods the Puritans succeeded in controlling church and state
+until 1688, when the interference of the English authorities compelled them
+to practise toleration and to widen the suffrage. The words of Sir Richard
+Saltonstall to John Cotton and John Wilson show clearly that these methods
+were not accepted by all, and even Saltonstall returned to England to
+escape the restrictions he condemned. "It doth not a little grieve my
+spirit to hear what sad things are daily reported of your tyranny and
+persecutions in New England," he wrote, "as that you fine, whip, and
+imprison men for their consciences. First you compel such to come into your
+assemblies as you know will not join with you in your worship, and when
+they show their dislike thereof or witness against it, then you stir up
+your magistrates to punish them for such (as you conceive) their public
+affronts. Truly, friends, this your practice of compelling any in matters
+of worship to do that whereof they are not persuaded is to make them sin,
+and many are made hypocrites thereby, conforming in their outward man for
+fear of punishment. We pray for you and wish you prosperity in every way,
+hoped that the Lord would have given you so much light and love there, that
+you might have been eyes to God's people here, and not to practise those
+courses in wilderness which you went so far to prevent. These rigid ways
+have laid you very low in the hearts of the saints."[<a href="#fn_2_4">4</a><a name="fr_2_4"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Another man who withdrew to England from the narrow spirit of the Puritans
+<a name="pg24"></a>
+was William Pynchon, of Springfield, one of the best trained and ablest of
+the early settlers of Massachusetts. In 1650 he published a book on the
+Meritorious Price of our Redemption, in which he denied that Christ was
+subject to the wrath of God or suffered torments in hell for the redemption
+of men or paid the penalty for all human sins; but such teachings were too
+liberal and modern for the leaders in church and state.[<a href="#fn_2_5">5</a><a name="fr_2_5"></a>] What is now
+orthodox, that Christ's sacrifice was voluntary, was then heretical and
+forbidden.</p>
+
+<p>If during the first half-century of New England no liberalism found
+definite utterance, it was because of its repression. It was in the air,
+even then, and it would have found expression, had there been opportunity
+or invitation. There were other men than Williams, Saltonstall, Pynchon,
+and Henry Vane, who believed in toleration, liberty of conscience, and a
+rational interpretation of religion. In a limited way such men were Henry
+Dunster and Charles Chauncy, the first two presidents of Harvard College,
+who both rejected infant baptism because it was not consistent with a
+converted church membership. It was a small thing to protest against, and
+to suffer for as Dunster suffered; but the principle was great for which he
+contended, the principle of individual conviction in religion.</p>
+
+<p>The better spirit of the Puritans appears in such a saying as that of Sir
+Henry Vane, the second governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, that "all
+magistrates are to fear or forbear intermeddling with giving rule or
+<a name="pg25"></a>
+imposing their own beliefs in religious matters."[<a href="#fn_2_6">6</a><a name="fr_2_6"></a>] To a similar purport
+was the saying of Thomas Hooker, the founder of Connecticut, that "the
+foundation of authority is laid in the free consent of the people."[<a href="#fn_2_7">7</a><a name="fr_2_7"></a>] In
+the writings of John Robinson, the Pilgrim leader, a like greatness of
+purpose and thought appears, as where he says that "the meanest man's
+reason, specially in matter of faith and obedience to God, is to be
+preferred before all authority of all men."[<a href="#fn_2_8">8</a><a name="fr_2_8"></a>] Robinson was a very strict
+Calvinist in doctrine; but he was tolerant in large degree, and thoroughly
+convinced of the worth of liberty of conscience. His liberality comes out
+in such words as these: "The custom of the church is but the custom of men;
+the sentence of the fathers but the opinions of men; the determinations of
+councils but the judgments of men."[<a href="#fn_2_9">9</a><a name="fr_2_9"></a>] How strong a believer in individual
+reason he was appears in this statement: "God, who hath made two great
+lights for the bodily eye, hath also made two lights for the eye of the
+mind; the one the Scriptures for her supernatural light, and the other
+reason for her natural light. And, indeed, only these two are a man's own,
+and so is not the authority of other men. The Scriptures are as well mine
+as any other man's, and so is reason as far as I can attain to it."[<a href="#fn_2_10">10</a><a name="fr_2_10"></a>]
+When he says that "the credit commending a testimony to others cannot be
+greater than is the authority in itself of him that gives it nor his
+authority greater than his person,"[<a href="#fn_2_11">11</a><a name="fr_2_11"></a>] he puts an end to all arbitrary
+authority of priest and church.</p>
+
+<a name="pg26"></a>
+<p>It will be seen from these quotations that the spirit of liberality existed
+even in the very beginnings of New England, and in the convictions of the
+men who were its chief prophets and leaders. It was hidden away for a time,
+it may be, though it never ceased to find utterance in some form. The
+breadth of the underlying spirit finds expression in the compacts by which
+local churches united their members. The liberality was incipient, a
+promise of the future rather than a realization in the present.</p>
+
+<p>The earliest churches of New England were not organized with a creed, but
+with a covenant. Occasionally there was a confession of faith or a creedal
+statement; but it was regarded as quite unnecessary because it was implied
+in the general acceptance of the Calvinistic doctrines, and the use of the
+Cambridge platform or other similar document. The covenant of a church
+could not be a statement of beliefs, because it was a vow between Christ
+and his church, and a pledge of the individual members of the church with
+relation to each other. The creed was implied, but it was not expressed;
+and, although all the churches were Calvinist at first, the nature of the
+covenant was such that, when men grew liberal, there was no written creedal
+test by which they could be held to the old beliefs. When Calvinism was
+outgrown, it could be slowly and silently discarded, both by individual
+members of a church and by the church itself, because it was not explicitly
+contained in the covenant. The creed was rejected, but the covenant was
+retained.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as authority was withdrawn from the Puritan leaders by the English
+crown, the spirit of liberty began to show itself in many directions. In a
+<a name="pg27"></a>
+sermon preached in 1691, Samuel Willard, the minister of the Old South
+Church in Boston, and afterwards president of Harvard College, gave
+utterance to what was stirring in many minds at that time. He said that God
+"hath nowhere by any general indulgence given away this liberty of his to
+any other authority in the world to have dominion over the consciences of
+men or to give rules of worship, but hath, on the other hand, strongly
+prohibited it and severely threatened any that shall presume to do it." He
+earnestly asserted that no authority is to be accepted but that of the
+Bible, and that is to be free for each person's individual interpretation.
+"Hath there not," Willard questions, "been too much of a pinning our faith
+on the credit or practice of others, attended on with a woful neglect to
+know what is the mind of Christ?" Here was a spirit that not many years
+later was showing itself in the liberal movement that grew into
+Unitarianism. The effort to free the consciences of men, and to bring all
+appeals to the Bible and to Christ, was what gave significance to the
+liberal movement of the next century.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn8"></a>Growth of Liberty in Church Methods.</h3>
+
+<p>There also began a movement to bring church and state into harmonious
+relations with each other, and to overcome the inconsistency of being
+individualist and socialist at the same moment. The theory of conversion
+being retained, it was proposed to make the ordinances of religion free to
+all, in order that they might bring about the supernatural change that was
+desired. This is the real significance of the position taken by Solomon
+Stoddard, of Northampton, who taught that the Lord's Supper is a converting
+ordinance, and who in practice did not ask for a supernatural regeneration
+<a name="pg28"></a>
+as preparatory to a limited church membership, though he regarded this as
+essential to full admission. The half-way covenant had been adopted before
+Mr. Stoddard became the pastor of the church; but soon after his settlement
+this limited form of admission was more clearly defined, and he admitted
+persons into what he described as a "state of education."[<a href="#fn_2_12">12</a><a name="fr_2_12"></a>] This "large
+congregationalism," as it was called, was in time accepted as meaning that
+those who have faith enough to justify the baptism of their children have
+enough to admit them to full communion in the church. Mr. Stoddard appealed
+to the English practice in his defence of the broader principle which he
+adopted. He also vindicated his position by reference to the practices of
+the leading Protestant countries in Europe. His methods, as outlined and
+interpreted in his Appeal to the Learned,[<a href="#fn_2_13">13</a><a name="fr_2_13"></a>] were based more or less
+explicitly on the corporate idea of the church.</p>
+
+<p>Although Stoddard was a strict Calvinist, there can be no doubt that his
+method of open communion slowly led to theological modifications. Not only
+did it have a tendency to bring the state and church into closer relations
+with each other, by making the membership in the two more nearly the same,
+but it led the way to the acceptance of the doctrine of moral ability, and
+therefore to a modification of Calvinism. If it was a practical rather than
+a theological reason that caused Stoddard to adopt open communion, it
+almost inevitably led to Arminianism, because it implied, as he presented
+<a name="pg29"></a>
+its conditions, that man is able of his own free will to accept the terms
+of salvation which Calvinism had confined to the operation of the
+sovereignty of God alone.</p>
+
+<p>Another way in which the spirit of the time was showing itself may be seen
+in the fact that the parish, towards the end of the seventeenth century, on
+more than one occasion refused to the church the selection of the minister;
+and church and parish met together for that purpose. This was the case in
+the first church of Salem in 1672, and at Dedham in 1685. So long as church
+members only were given the right of suffrage, the selection of the
+minister was wholly in their hands. As soon as the suffrage was extended,
+there was a movement to include all tax-payers amongst those who could
+exercise this choice. In 1666 such a proposition was discussed in
+Connecticut, and not long after it became the law. In 1692 the
+Massachusetts laws gave the church the right to select the minister, but
+permitted the parish to concur in or to reject such choice. During the next
+century there was a growing tendency to enlarge the privileges of the
+parish, and to make that the controlling factor in calling the minister and
+in all that pertained to the outward life of the church and congregation.
+The result will be seen more and more in the influence of the parish in the
+selection of liberal men for the pulpit.</p>
+
+<p>A notable instance of the more liberal tendencies is seen in the formation
+of the Brattle Street Church of Boston in 1699. Although this church
+accepted the Westminster Confession of Faith and adopted the practices
+common to the New England churches at this period, it insisted upon the
+reading of the Bible without comment as a part of the church service. The
+<a name="pg30"></a>
+relation of religious experiences as preparatory to admission to the church
+was discarded, all were admitted to communion who were approved by the
+pastor, and women were permitted to take part in voting on all church
+questions. These and other innovations occasioned much discussion; and a
+controversy ensued between the pastor Benjamin Colman and Increase
+Mather.[<a href="#fn_2_14">14</a><a name="fr_2_14"></a>] The Salem pastors, Rev. John Higginson and Rev. Nicholas Noyes,
+addressed a letter to the Brattle Street congregation, in which they
+criticised the church because it did not consult with other churches in its
+formation, because it did not make a public profession of repentance on
+behalf of its members, because baptism was administered on less stringent
+terms than was customary and too lax admission was given to the sacraments,
+and because the admission of females to full church activity had a direct
+tendency "to subvert the order and liberty of the churches." Though the
+Brattle Street Church was for a time severely criticised, it soon came into
+intimate relations with the other churches of Boston, and it ceased to
+appear as in any way peculiar. That it was organized on a broader basis of
+membership indicates very clearly that the old methods were not
+satisfactory to all the people.[<a href="#fn_2_15">15</a><a name="fr_2_15"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn9"></a>A Puritan Rationalist.</h3>
+
+<p>The influence of similar ideas is seen in the books of John Wise, of
+Ipswich, whose Churches' Quarrel Espoused was published in 1710, and his
+Vindication of the Government of the New England Churches in 1717. His
+<a name="pg31"></a>
+first book was in answer to the proposition of a number of the ministers of
+Boston to bring the churches under the control of associations. By this
+remonstrance the plan was defeated, and the independence of the local
+church fully established. In republishing his book, he added the
+Vindication, in order to give his ideas a more systematic expression. The
+Vindication is the most thoroughly modern book published in America during
+the eighteenth century. It has a literary directness and power remarkable
+for the time. Wise gives no quotations indicating that he had read the
+great liberal writers of England, but he was familiar with Plato and
+Cicero.</p>
+
+<p>In his first book he speaks of "the natural freedom of human beings,"[<a href="#fn_2_16">16</a><a name="fr_2_16"></a>]
+and says that "right reason is a ray of divine wisdom enstamped upon human
+nature."[<a href="#fn_2_17">17</a><a name="fr_2_17"></a>] Again, he says that "right reason, that great oracle in human
+affairs, is the soul of man so formed and endowed by creation with a
+certain sagacity or acumen whereby man's intellect is enabled to take up
+the true idea or perception of things agreeable with and according to their
+natures."[<a href="#fn_2_18">18</a><a name="fr_2_18"></a>] In such utterances as these Wise was putting himself into the
+company of the most liberal minds of England in his day, though he may not
+have read one of them. The considerations that were influencing Milton,
+Chillingworth, and Jeremy Taylor, in favor of toleration and a broad
+inclusiveness of spirit, evidently were having their effect upon this New
+England pastor.</p>
+
+<p>It is not to be assumed that John Wise was a rationalist in the modern
+sense; but he gave to the use of reason a significance that is surprising
+<a name="pg32"></a>
+and refreshing, coming from the time and circumstances of his writing. In
+his Vindication we find him accepting reason and revelation as of equal
+validity. He appeals to the "dictates of right reason"[<a href="#fn_2_19">19</a><a name="fr_2_19"></a>] and the "common
+reason of mankind"[<a href="#fn_2_20">20</a><a name="fr_2_20"></a>] with quite as much confidence as to the Bible. He
+says that all questions of government, religious as well as political, are
+to be brought to "the assizes of man's own intellectual powers, reason, and
+conscience."[<a href="#fn_2_21">21</a><a name="fr_2_21"></a>] He assumes that God has created man capable of obeying his
+will and living in conformity with his law; for he says that, "if God did
+not highly estimate man as a creature exalted by his reason, liberty, and
+nobleness of nature, he would not caress him as he does in order to his
+submission."[<a href="#fn_2_22">22</a><a name="fr_2_22"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Wise says that the characteristic of man which is of greatest importance is
+that he is "most properly the subject of the law of nature."[<a href="#fn_2_23">23</a><a name="fr_2_23"></a>] He uses
+this expression frequently and in a thoroughly modern sense.</p>
+
+<p>The second great characteristic of man, according to Wise, "is an original
+liberty enstamped upon his rational nature."[<a href="#fn_2_24">24</a><a name="fr_2_24"></a>] He indicates that he is
+not inclined to discuss the merely theological problem of man's relations
+to God, but, considered physically, man is at the head of creation, "and as
+such is a creature of a very noble character."[<a href="#fn_2_24">24</a>] All the lower world is
+subject to his command, "and his liberty under the conduct of right reason
+is equal with his trust."[<a href="#fn_2_24">24</a>] "He that intrudes upon this liberty violates
+the law of nature."[<a href="#fn_2_24">24</a>] The effect of such liberty is not to lead man into
+<a name="pg33"></a>
+license, but to make him the rational master of his own conduct. Every man
+is therefore at liberty "to judge for himself what shall be most for his
+behoof, happiness, and well-being."[<a href="#fn_2_25">25</a><a name="fr_2_25"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The third great characteristic of man is found in "an equality amongst
+men,"[<a href="#fn_2_25">25</a>]} which is to be respected and vindicated by governments that are
+just and humane. "By a natural right," he says, "all men are born free;
+and, nature having set all men upon a level and made them equals, no
+servitude or subjection can be conceived without inequality."[<a href="#fn_2_26">26</a><a name="fr_2_26"></a>] Again he
+says that it is "a fundamental principle relating to government that, under
+God, all power is originally in the people."[<a href="#fn_2_27">27</a><a name="fr_2_27"></a>] This is true of the church
+as well as of the state, and Wise says the Reformation was a cheat and a
+schism and a notorious rebellion if the people are not the source of power
+in the church.</p>
+
+<p>Two other ideas presented by this leader show his modernness and his
+originality. He says that "the happiness of the people is the object of all
+government,"[<a href="#fn_2_28">28</a><a name="fr_2_28"></a>] and that the state should seek to promote "the peculiar
+good and benefit of the whole, and every particular member, fairly and
+sincerely."[<a href="#fn_2_29">29</a><a name="fr_2_29"></a>] "The end of all good government," he assures his readers,
+"is to cultivate humanity, and promote the happiness of all, and the good
+of every man in all his rights, his life, liberty, estate, and honor,
+without injury or abuse done to any."[<a href="#fn_2_29">29</a>] That government will seek the
+good of all is likely to be the case, because man has it as a fundamental
+law of his nature that he "maintain a sociableness with others."[<a href="#fn_2_30">30</a><a name="fr_2_30"></a>] "From
+the principles of sociableness it follows as a fundamental law of nature
+<a name="pg34"></a>
+that man is not so wedded to his own interest but that he can make the
+common good the mark of his aim, and hence he becomes capacitated to enter
+into a civil state by the law of nature."[<a href="#fn_2_31">31</a><a name="fr_2_31"></a>] This attraction of man to his
+kind enables him to yield so much of his freedom as is necessary to make
+the state an efficient social power, "in which covenant is included that
+submission and union of wills by which a state may be conceived to be but
+one person."[<a href="#fn_2_32">32</a><a name="fr_2_32"></a>] This thoroughly modern idea of the social body, as being
+analogous in its nature to the individual man, is nobly expressed by Wise,
+who says that "a civil state is a compound moral person, whose will is the
+will of all, to the end it may use and apply the strength and riches of
+private persons toward maintaining the common peace, security, and
+well-being of all, which may be conceived as though the whole state was now
+become but one man."[<a href="#fn_2_33">33</a><a name="fr_2_33"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>It is not surprising that the writings of John Wise had no immediate effect
+upon the theological thinking of the time, but they must have had their
+influence. Just before the opening of the Revolution they were republished
+because of their vindication of the spirit of human liberty and democracy.
+What Wise wrote to promote was congregational independence, and this may
+have been the reason why his theological attitude was never called in
+question. It is true enough that he questioned none of the Calvinistic
+doctrines in his books; but his political views were certain to disturb the
+old beliefs, and to give incentives to free discussion in religion.</p>
+
+<a name="pg35"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn10"></a>Harvard College.</h3>
+
+<p>The centre of the liberalizing tendencies of the last years of the
+seventeenth century was Harvard College. That institution was organized on
+a basis as broad as that of the early church covenants, with no creed or
+doctrinal requirements. The original seal bore the motto Veritas; but, as
+the state-church idea grew, this motto was succeeded by In Christi gloriam,
+and then by Christo et Ecclesiae, though neither of these later mottoes was
+authoritatively adopted. The early charters were thoroughly liberal in
+spirit and intent, so much so as to be fully in harmony with the present
+attitude of the university.[<a href="#fn_2_34">34</a><a name="fr_2_34"></a>] Under the Puritanic development, however,
+this liberality was discarded, only to be restored in 1691, when William
+and Mary gave to Massachusetts a new and broader charter. From that time a
+new life entered into the college, that put it uncompromisingly on the
+liberal side a century later. Even under the rule of Increase Mather,
+seconded by the influence of his son Cotton, a broader spirit declared
+itself in the culture imparted and in the method of free inquiry.[<a href="#fn_2_35">35</a><a name="fr_2_35"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Samuel Willard, the successor to Increase Mather in the presidency, was of
+the liberal party in his breadth of mind and in his sound judgment. He was
+followed in 1708 by John Leverett, one of the founders of the Brattle
+Street Church, a man in whom the liberal spirit became a controlling motive
+in his management of the college.[<a href="#fn_2_36">36</a><a name="fr_2_36"></a>] It is not strange that the men who
+<a name="pg36"></a>
+had been shut out from the suffrage and from active participation in the
+management of the churches, should now come forward to claim their rights,
+and to make their influence felt in college, church, and state. It was the
+distinct beginning of the liberal movement in New England, the time from
+which Unitarianism really took its origin.</p>
+
+<p><br >[<a href="#fr_2_1">1</a><a name="fn_2_1"></a>] Kuno Francke, Social Forces in German Literature, 105. "No mediaeval
+    man ever thought of himself as a perfectly independent being founded
+    only on himself, or without a most direct and definite relation to
+    some larger organism, be it empire, church, city, or guild. No
+    mediaeval man ever doubted that the institutions within which he lived
+    were divinely established ordinances, far superior and quite
+    inaccessible to his own individual reason and judgment. No mediaeval
+    man would ever have admitted that he conceived nature to be other than
+    the creation of an extramundane God, destined to glorify its creator
+    and to please the eye of man. It was reserved for the eighteenth
+    century to draw the last consequences of individualism; to see in man,
+    in each individual man, an independent and complete entity; to derive
+    the origin of state, church, and society from the spontaneous action
+    of these independent individuals; and to consider nature as a system
+    of forces sufficient unto themselves. When we speak of individualism
+    in the declining centuries of the Middle Ages, we mean by it that
+    these centuries initiated the movement which the eighteenth century
+    brought to a climax."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_2">2</a><a name="fn_2_2"></a>] Williston Walker, the Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism, 246.
+    "From the first the fathers of New England insisted that the children
+    of church members were themselves members, and as such were justly
+    entitled to those church privileges which were adapted to their state
+    of Christian development, of which the chief were baptism and the
+    watchful discipline of the church. They did not enter the church by
+    baptism; they were entitled to baptism because they were already
+    members of the church. Here then was an inconsistency in the
+    application of the Congregational theory of the constitution of a
+    church. While affirming that a proper church consisted only of those
+    possessed of personal Christian character, the fathers admitted to
+    membership, in some degree at least, those who had no claim but
+    Christian parentage." That is, in theory they were Protestants, but in
+    practice they were Catholics.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_3">3</a><a name="fn_2_3"></a>] The ecclesiastical historians say that the half-way covenant had no
+    effect on suffrage. Dexter, Congregationalism as Seen in its
+    Literature, 468, says: "I am aware of no proof that half-way covenant
+    members of the church by that relation did acquire any further
+    privileges in the state." Williston Walker, New Englander, cclxiii.,
+    93, February, 1892, takes ground that "added political privilege was
+    no consequence of the dispute." On the other hand, the secular
+    historians as strongly assert that the suffrage was widened. John
+    Fiske, Beginnings of New England, 250, says the half-way covenant
+    "entitled to the exercise of political rights those who were
+    unqualified for participation in the Lord's Supper." Alexander
+    Johnston, Connecticut, 227, says "it really gave every baptized person
+    voice in church government." J.A. Doyle, The Puritan Colonies, II.,
+    98, asserts that "it broke down the hard barrier which fenced in
+    political privileges." The true explanation is given by George H.
+    Haynes, Representation and Suffrage in Massachusetts, 1620-1691, 54,
+    published in Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and
+<a name="pg37"></a>
+    Political Science, Vol. XII., Nos. VIII. and IX. Haynes says that the
+    half-way covenant, as first formulated in 1657, "virtually recognized
+    a partial church-membership in persons who had made no formal
+    profession and subscribed to no creed. In 1662 the same opinion was
+    reaffirmed by the clergy, and the General Court ordered the result of
+    the Synod to be printed and 'commended the same unto the consideration
+    of all the churches and people of this jurisdiction.' Here ended
+    legislative action on the matter. This was no statutory change of the
+    basis of the franchise; but, as individual churches gradually adopted
+    more liberal conditions of admission and were therein sanctioned by
+    the General Court, it resulted that the operation of the religious
+    test became less odious and the suffrage was not a little broadened."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_4">4</a><a name="fn_2_4"></a>] Henry Bond, Early Settlers of Watertown, II. 916; Convers Francis,
+    Historical Sketch of Watertown, 135.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_5">5</a><a name="fn_2_5"></a>] Mason A. Green, History of Springfield, 113; E.H. Byington, The
+    Puritan in England and New England, 185.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_6">6</a><a name="fn_2_6"></a>] A Healing Question.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_7">7</a><a name="fn_2_7"></a>] Alexander Johnston, Connecticut: A Study of a Commonwealth-Democracy,
+    72, Hooker's sermon preparatory to forming a government.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_8">8</a><a name="fn_2_8"></a>] The Works of John Robinson, American edition of 1851, I., 53.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_9">9</a><a name="fn_2_9"></a>] Ibid., 47.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_10">10</a><a name="fn_2_10"></a>] Ibid., 54.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_11">11</a><a name="fn_2_11"></a>] Ibid., 56.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_12">12</a><a name="fn_2_12"></a>] J.R. Trumbull, History of Northampton, I. 213.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_13">13</a><a name="fn_2_13"></a>] An Appeal to the Learned, being a vindication of the right of visible
+     saints to the Lord's Supper, though they be destitute of a saving work
+     of God's Spirit in their hearts, Boston, 1709. See also his Doctrine
+     of Instituted Churches, Boston, 1700.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_14">14</a><a name="fn_2_14"></a>] Dwight, Life of Edwards, 300.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_15">15</a><a name="fn_2_15"></a>] S.K. Lothrop, History of Brattle Street Church, 7-40; E. Turrell, Life
+    of Benjamin Colman, D.D., 96, 125, 178, 180.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_16">16</a><a name="fn_2_16"></a>] The Churches' Quarrel Espoused, edition of 1860, 140.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_17">17</a><a name="fn_2_17"></a>] Ibid., 143.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_18">18</a><a name="fn_2_18"></a>] Ibid., 145</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_19">19</a><a name="fn_2_19"></a>] The Churches' Quarrel Espoused, edition of 1860, 32.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_20">20</a><a name="fn_2_20"></a>] Ibid., 58.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_21">21</a><a name="fn_2_21"></a>] Ibid., 72.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_22">22</a><a name="fn_2_22"></a>] Ibid., 65.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_23">23</a><a name="fn_2_23"></a>] Ibid., 30.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_24">24</a><a name="fn_2_24"></a>] Ibid., 33.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_25">25</a><a name="fn_2_25"></a>] The Churches' Quarrel Espoused, edition of 1860, 34.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_26">26</a><a name="fn_2_26"></a>] Ibid., 37.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_27">27</a><a name="fn_2_27"></a>] Ibid., 64.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_28">28</a><a name="fn_2_28"></a>] Ibid., 54.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_29">29</a><a name="fn_2_29"></a>] Ibid., 55.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_30">30</a><a name="fn_2_30"></a>] Ibid., 32.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_31">31</a><a name="fn_2_31"></a>] The Churches' Quarrel Espoused, edition of 1860, 32.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_32">32</a><a name="fn_2_32"></a>] Ibid., 39.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_33">33</a><a name="fn_2_33"></a>] Ibid., 40.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_34">34</a><a name="fn_2_34"></a>] Josiah Quincy, History of Harvard University, i. 44-54.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_35">35</a><a name="fn_2_35"></a>] Ibid., 65, 200.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_36">36</a><a name="fn_2_36"></a>] Josiah Quincy, in the seventh chapter of his History, gives a detailed
+     account of this movement. It is also dealt with by Brooks Adams in his
+     chapter on the founding of the Brattle Street Church, in his
+     Emancipation of Massachusetts, though he gives it a somewhat
+     exaggerated and biassed importance. Most of the facts appear in
+     Lothrop's History of the Brattle Street Church.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><br ><a name="ch3"></a>III.<br >
+
+
+THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY IN THE CHURCHES.</h2>
+
+<p>From the moment when the Puritan control of the church and state in New
+England was so far weakened as to permit of free intellectual and religious
+activity the democratic spirit began to manifest itself. The old régime had
+so fixed itself upon the people that the progress was slow, but none the
+less it was steady and sure. So far as the new spirit influenced doctrines,
+it was called Arminianism, the technical theological name for democracy in
+religion at this time.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn11"></a>Arminianism.</h3>
+
+<p>Arminianism is a dead issue at the present day, for the Calvinists have
+accepted all that it taught when the name first came into vogue. Every kind
+of reaction from Calvinism in the New England of the first half of the
+eighteenth century took this designation, however; and to the Calvinists it
+was a word of disapproval and contempt. Toleration, free inquiry, the use
+of reason, democratic methods in church and state, were all named by this
+condemning word. Vices, social depravities, love of freedom and the world,
+assertion of personal independence, had the same designation. It is now
+difficult to understand how bitter was the feeling thus produced, how keen
+the hurt that was given the men who tried to defend themselves and their
+beliefs from this odium.</p>
+
+<p>What the word "Arminian" legitimately meant, then, is what we now mean by
+<a name="pg38"></a>
+liberalism. Primarily theological and doctrinal, it meant much more than
+the rejection of the doctrine of decrees and the autocratic sovereignty of
+God or the acceptance of the freedom of the will and the spiritual capacity
+of man. First of all, it was faith in man; and then it was the assertion of
+human liberty and equality. In a theological sense it did not have so wide
+a purport, but in a practical and popular sense it grew into these
+meanings.</p>
+
+<p>In order fully to comprehend what Arminianism was in the eighteenth
+century, the student must remember that it was the theological expression
+of the democratic spirit, as Calvinism was of the autocratic. The doctrine
+of the sovereignty of God is but the intellectual reflection of kingship
+and the belief that the king can do no evil. The doctrine of decrees, as
+taught by the Calvinist, was the spiritual side of the assertion of the
+divine right of kings. On the other hand, when the people claim the right
+to rule, they modify their theology into Arminianism. From an age of the
+absolute rule of the king comes the doctrine of human depravity; and with
+the establishment of democracy appears the doctrine of man's moral
+capacity.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn12"></a>The Growth of Arminianism.</h3>
+
+<p>As early as 1730 Arminianism had come to have an influence sufficient to
+secure its condemnation and to awaken the fears of the stricter Calvinists.
+Jonathan Edwards said of the year 1734 that "about this time began the
+great noise that was in this part of the country about Arminianism."[<a href="#fn_3_1">1</a><a name="fr_3_1"></a>] At
+Northampton the leader of the opposition to Jonathan Edwards was an open
+Arminian, a grandson of Solomon Stoddard, and a cousin of Edwards. He was a
+<a name="pg39"></a>
+young man of talent and education, and well read in theology. In a letter
+written in 1750, Edwards said, "There seems to be the utmost danger that
+the younger generation will be carried away with Arminianism as with a
+flood." In another letter of the same year he said that "Arminianism and
+Pelagianism[<a href="#fn_3_2">2</a><a name="fr_3_2"></a>] have made a strange progress within a few years."[3] In
+his farewell sermon, Edwards spoke of the prevalence of Arminianism when he
+settled in Northampton, and of its rapid increase in the succeeding years.
+He said that Arminian views were creeping into almost all parts of the
+land, and that they were making a progress unknown before.[<a href="#fn_3_4">4</a><a name="fr_3_4"></a>] In a letter
+of 1752 Edwards said that the principles of John Taylor, of Norwich, one of
+the early English Unitarians, were gaining many converts in the colonies.
+Taylor's works were made use of by Solomon Williams in his reply to Edwards
+on the qualifications necessary to communion.[<a href="#fn_3_5">5</a><a name="fr_3_5"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>It was owing to the rapid growth of Arminianism that Edwards undertook his
+work on free will. In the preface to that work he said that "the term
+Calvinistic is, in these days, among most, a term of greater reproach than
+the term Arminian." That Edwards exaggerated the extent of this defection
+from Calvinism is probable, and yet it is very plain that it was this more
+liberal attitude of the Northampton church which caused his dismissal. What
+Stoddard had taught and practised was as yet powerful there, and Edwards's
+opposition to his grandfather's teachings undoubtedly led to the failure of
+his local work.</p>
+
+<a name="pg40"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn13"></a>Robert Breck.</h3>
+
+<p>The council which dismissed Edwards from Northampton decided against him by
+a majority of one; and that one vote may have been cast by Robert Breck, of
+Springfield. If this were the case, there was something of poetic justice
+in it; for only a few years earlier Edwards had used his influence against
+the settlement of Breck because the latter was an Arminian. In 1734 a
+fierce church quarrel took place in Springfield, that involved many of the
+ministers of Massachusetts and Connecticut, invoked the aid of the county
+court, and was finally settled by the legislature of Massachusetts, when
+Mr. Breck was ordained.[<a href="#fn_3_6">6</a><a name="fr_3_6"></a>] He was charged with denying the authenticity of
+parts of the Bible, with discarding the necessity of Christ's satisfaction
+to divine justice for sin, with maintaining that the heathen who live up to
+the light of nature would be saved, and that the contrary doctrine was
+harsh. Breck refused to admit that he held these opinions, as thus stated;
+but he was regarded by many as an Arminian and a heretic. It was said of him
+that he would read any book, orthodox or otherwise, that would clear up a
+subject. That he departed to any considerable extent from the generally
+accepted faith of the time there is no evidence, but he was probably what
+was often called "a moderate Calvinist." He did not favor the methods of
+Whitefield, and he thoroughly distrusted the revival introduced by him.
+Soon after Breck's settlement the Springfield church followed the Brattle
+Street Church of Boston in discarding the relation of religious experiences
+as preliminary to admission to the church. It voted that it "did not look
+upon the making a relation to be a necessary term of communion."[<a href="#fn_3_7">7</a><a name="fr_3_7"></a>] At the
+<a name="pg41"></a>
+very time that Edwards was preaching of the awful fate of sinners in the
+hands of an angry God, Breck was teaching that God is good and loving, and
+that his salvation is freely open to all who may wish for it. It has been
+truly said of these two men that "one had the heart and the other the
+intellect of theology." With all his logic and power of thought and
+marvellous spiritual insight, Edwards failed at Northampton because of
+conditions beyond the control of his strenuous will. Robert Breck gained
+year by year in his personal influence in Springfield, his cheerful and
+progressive teaching made a deep impression on the community, and before he
+died he saw a great change for the better in the people for whom he
+diligently labored. Perhaps we could not have a plainer indication of the
+change that was going on than is found in the experiences of these two
+men.[<a href="#fn_3_8">8</a><a name="fr_3_8"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>When Whitefield visited Harvard College in 1740, he was received in a most
+friendly manner; yet he afterwards criticised the teaching there on the
+ground that it was not sufficiently devout and earnest, and that the pupils
+were not examined as to their religious experiences.[<a href="#fn_3_9">9</a><a name="fr_3_9"></a>] These charges were
+denied by the president and tutors, and he was not again welcomed to the
+college.</p>
+
+<p>That there was a substantial basis for some of Whitefield's criticisms of
+Harvard there can be no doubt. In 1737, when Edward Holyoke was proposed as
+<a name="pg42"></a>
+a candidate for the presidency, he met with a strong opposition from the
+strict Calvinists. After the opposition had spent itself, he was elected
+unanimously; and this act was received with marked approval by the General
+Court, from which body his maintenance was obtained. President Quincy says
+of President Holyoke that his religious principles coincided with the
+mildness and catholicity which characterized the government of the college.
+This evidently refers to the growing liberality of the college, and its
+unwillingness to lend its aid to extreme theological opinions. That
+moderateness of temper and that attitude of toleration which characterized
+the leading men in England had shown themselves at Cambridge, and with a
+strength that could not be overcome. "In Boston and its vicinity and along
+the seaboard of Massachusetts, clergymen of great talent and religious
+zeal," says President Quincy, "openly avowed doctrines which were variously
+denounced by the Calvinistic party as Arminianism, Arianism, Pelagianism,
+Socinianism, and Deism. The most eminent of these clergymen were alumni of
+Harvard, active friends and advocates of the institution, and in habits of
+intimacy and professional intercourse with its government. Their religious
+views, indeed, received no public countenance from the college; but
+circumstances gave color for reports, which were assiduously circulated
+throughout New England, that the influences of the institution were not
+unfavorable to the extension of such doctrines."[<a href="#fn_3_10">10</a><a name="fr_3_10"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>At the commencement of 1737 candidates for degrees proposed to prove that
+the doctrine of the Trinity was not contained in the Old Testament, that
+<a name="pg43"></a>
+creation did not exist from eternity, and that religion is not mysterious
+in its nature. Much alarm was caused to the conservative party by the
+negative form given these questions, which, it was said, "had the plain
+face of Arianism." This criticism the faculty tried to quiet, but their
+sympathies were evidently on the side of the graduates.[<a href="#fn_3_11">11</a><a name="fr_3_11"></a>] In 1738, when a
+professor of mathematics was chosen, it was proposed to examine him as to
+"his principles of religion"; but, after a long debate, this proposition
+was rejected. After these and other efforts to control the religious
+position of the college the strict Calvinists for the time withdrew their
+efforts and concentrated them upon Yale College, in which institution the
+faculty were now required for the first time to accept the Assembly's
+Catechism and Confession of Faith.</p>
+
+<p>When the legislature of Connecticut, during the great awakening, passed a
+law prohibiting ministers from preaching as itinerants, several of the
+members of the Senior Class subscribed the money necessary for the
+publication of an edition of Locke's essay On Toleration. When this was
+known to the faculty, they forbade the publication; and all the students
+apologized but one, who learned a few days before commencement that his
+name was to be dropped from the roll of graduates. He went to the faculty
+with the statement that he was of age, that he possessed ample means, and
+that he would carry his case to a hearing before the crown in England. In a
+few days he was quietly informed that he would be permitted to graduate.
+This is but a straw, and yet it shows clearly enough the direction of the
+current at this time. A demand for toleration was made because it was felt
+that there was a need for it.</p>
+
+<a name="pg44"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn14"></a>Books Read by Liberal Men.</h3>
+
+<p>The names of no less than thirty-three ministers have been given who,
+during the period from 1730 to 1750, did not teach the Calvinistic
+doctrines in their fulness, and who had adopted more or less distinctly
+some form of Arminianism or Arianism. These men were among the best known,
+most successful, and most scholarly men in Eastern Massachusetts, though
+they were not wholly confined to that neighborhood. We find here and there
+some hint of the books these men read; and in that way we not only
+ascertain the cause of their departure from Calvinism, but we also obtain
+some clew to the nature of their opinions. Among the charges brought by
+Whitefield against Harvard in 1740 was that "Tillotson and Clarke are read
+instead of Shepard and Stoddard, and such like evangelical writers."[<a href="#fn_3_12">12</a><a name="fr_3_12"></a>]
+Dr. Wigglesworth, the divinity professor at Harvard, said that Tillotson
+had not been taken out of the college library in nine years, and Clarke not
+in two; and he gave a long list of evangelical writers who were frequently
+read. In spite of this disclaimer, however, it is evident that the methods
+of the rationalistic writers were coming into vogue at Harvard, and that
+even Dr. Wigglesworth did not teach theology in the manner of the author of
+the Day of Doom.</p>
+
+<p>Writing in 1759, Dr. Joseph Bellamy, one of the chief followers and
+expositors of the teachings of Jonathan Edwards, said that the teachings of
+the liberal men in England had crossed the Atlantic; "and too many in our
+churches, and even among our ministers, have fallen in with them. Books
+containing them have been imported; and the demand for them has been so
+<a name="pg45"></a>
+great as to encourage new impressions of some of them. Others have been
+written on the same principles in this country, and even the doctrine of
+the Trinity has been publicly treated in such a manner as all who believe
+that doctrine must judge not only heretical, but highly blasphemous."[<a href="#fn_3_13">13</a><a name="fr_3_13"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>It is said of Charles Chauncy, of the First Church in Boston, that his
+favorite authors were Tillotson and Baxter.[<a href="#fn_3_14">14</a><a name="fr_3_14"></a>] Far more suggestive is the
+account we have of the books read by Jonathan Mayhew of the West Church in
+Boston, the first open antagonist of Calvinism in New England. Soon after
+1740 he was reading the works of the great Protestant theologians of the
+seventeenth century, including Milton, Chillingworth, and Tillotson; and
+the eighteenth-century works of Locke, Samuel Clarke, Taylor, Wollaston,
+and Whiston. He also probably read Cudworth, Butler, Hutcheson, Leland, and
+other authors of a like character, some of them deists. Not one of these
+writers was a Calvinist for they found the basis of religion either in
+idealism or in rationalism.</p>
+
+<p>The biographer of Mayhew says it "is evident from some of his discourses
+that he was a great admirer of Samuel Clarke, whose voluminous works were
+in his day much read by the liberal clergy." Clarke's Boyle lectures,
+delivered in 1704-5, showed that natural and revealed religion were
+essentially one, that moral action in man is free, and that Christianity is
+the religion of reason and nature. At a later period he defended the two
+propositions, that "no article of Christian faith delivered in the holy
+<a name="pg46"></a>
+Scriptures is disagreeable to right reason," and that "without liberty of
+human actions there can be no real religion or morality." Even if one such
+man as Jonathan Mayhew read Clarke's work in the Harvard Library, it
+justified the alarm felt by Whitefield lest the students should be led away
+from their Calvinist faith.[<a href="#fn_3_15">15</a><a name="fr_3_15"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn15"></a>The Great Awakening.</h3>
+
+<p>It was "the great awakening" that showed how marked had been the growth of
+liberal opinions throughout New England in the forty years preceding.
+Silently, a great change had gone on, with little open expression of
+dissent from Calvinism, and without a knowledge on the part of most of the
+liberal men that they had in any way departed from the faith of the
+fathers. It was only with the coming of Whitefield and the revival that
+this change came to have recognition, and that even the slightest
+separation into parties took place.</p>
+
+<p>The revival was an attempt to reintroduce the stricter Calvinism of the
+earlier time, with its doctrines of justification by faith alone,
+supernatural regeneration, and predestination made known to the believer by
+the Holy Ghost. The liberal party objected to the revival because it was
+opposed to the good old customs of the Congregational churches of New
+England. The itinerant methods of the revivalists, the shriekings,
+faintings, and appeals to fear and terror, were condemned as not in harmony
+with the established methods of the churches. In his book against the
+revivalists, Dr. Chauncy said that "now is the time when we are
+particularly called to stand for the good old way, and bear testimony
+<a name="pg47"></a>
+against everything that may tend to cast a blemish on true primitive
+Christianity."[<a href="#fn_3_16">16</a><a name="fr_3_16"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>When the great awakening came to an end, the liberal party was far stronger
+than before, partly because the members of it had come to know each other
+and to feel their own power, partly because men had been led to declare
+themselves who had never before perceived their own position, and partly
+because the agitation had set men to thinking, and to making such scrutiny
+of their beliefs as they had never made before. The testimonies of Harvard
+College and various associations of ministers against the methods of the
+revivalists were signed by sixty-three men, while those in favor of the
+revival were signed by one hundred and ten. These numbers represent the
+comparative strength of the two parties. It must be said, however, that the
+leading men in nearly every part of New England were among those opposing
+the revival methods, while in Eastern Massachusetts at least two-thirds of
+the ministers were of the liberal party.[<a href="#fn_3_17">17</a><a name="fr_3_17"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg48"></a>
+<p>The strong feeling caused by the revival soon subsided, and no division
+between the Calvinist and the Arminian parties took place. The progressive
+tendencies went quietly on, step by step the old beliefs were discarded;
+but it was by individuals, and not in any form as a sectarian movement. The
+relations of the church to the state at this time would have made such a
+result impossible.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn16"></a>Cardinal Beliefs of the Liberals.</h3>
+
+<p>Looking over the whole field of the theological advance from 1725 to 1760,
+we find that three conclusions had been arrived at by the men of the
+liberal movement. The first of these was that what they stood for as a body
+was a recovery and restoration of primitive Christianity in its simplicity
+and power. It was said of Dr. Mayhew by his biographer that he "was a great
+advocate of primitive Christianity, and zealously contended for the faith
+once delivered to the saints."</p>
+
+<p>The second opinion, to which they gave frequent utterance, was that the
+Bible is a divine revelation, the true source of all religious teaching,
+and the one sufficient creed for all men. In his sermon against the
+enthusiasm of the revivalists, Chauncy said that a true test of all
+religious excitement, and of every kind of new teachings, was to be found
+<a name="pg49"></a>
+in their "regard to the Bible, and its acknowledgment that the things
+therein contained are the commandments of God." "Keep close to the
+Scripture," was his admonition to his congregation, "and admit of nothing
+for an impression of the spirit but what agrees with that unerring rule.
+Fix it in your minds as a truth you will invariably abide by, that the
+Bible is the grand test by which everything in religion is to be tried."</p>
+
+<p>The third position of the men of the liberal movement was that Christ is
+the only means of salvation, and they yielded to him unquestioning loyalty
+and faith. Turning away from the creeds of men, as they did in so far as
+they could see their way, they concentrated their convictions upon Christ,
+and found in him the spiritual and vital centre of all faith that lives
+with true power to help men. Mayhew held that God could not have forgiven
+men their sins without the atonement of Christ, for his life and his gospel
+are the means of the great reconciliation by which man and God are brought
+into harmony with each other.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn17"></a>Publications defining the Liberal Beliefs.</h3>
+
+<p>In three publications may be seen what the Arminians had to teach that was
+opposed to Calvinism. In 1744 appeared in Boston a book of two hundred and
+eight pages by Rev. Experience Mayhew, one of a devoted family of
+missionaries to the Indians of Martha's Vineyard. He called his book "Grace
+Defended, in a Modest Plea for an important Truth: namely, that the offer
+of Salvation made to sinners comprises in it an offer of the Grace given in
+Regeneration." Mr. Mayhew claimed that he was a Calvinist, yet he rejected
+the teaching that every act of the unregenerate person is equal in the
+<a name="pg50"></a>
+sight of God to the worst sin, and claimed that even the sinner can live so
+well and so justly as to favor his being accepted of God. Mayhew maintained
+that Christ died for all men, not for the elect only.[<a href="#fn_3_18">18</a><a name="fr_3_18"></a>] He claimed that
+"God cannot be truly said to offer salvation to sinners without offering to
+them whatsoever is necessary on his part, in order to their salvation."[<a href="#fn_3_19">19</a><a name="fr_3_19"></a>]
+Mayhew was usually credited with being an Arminian; for he positively
+rejected the doctrine of election, and he defended the principle of human
+freedom in the most affirmative manner.</p>
+
+<p>In 1749 Lemuel Briant (or Bryant), the minister in that part of Braintree
+which became the town of Quincy, published a sermon which he entitled The
+Absurdity and Blasphemy of Depreciating Moral Virtue. It condemned reliance
+on Christ's merits without effort to live his life, and showed that it is
+the duty of the Christian to live righteously. Briant said that to hold any
+other view was hurtful and blasphemous. He claimed that "the great rule the
+Scriptures lay down for men to go by in passing judgment on their spiritual
+state is the sincere, upright, steady, and universal practice of virtue."
+"To preach up chiefly what Christ himself laid the stress upon (and whether
+this was not moral virtue let every one judge from his discourses) must
+certainly, in the opinion of all sober men, be called truly and properly,
+and in the best sense, preaching of Christ."</p>
+
+<p>A pamphlet of thirty pages appeared in 1757, written by Samuel Webster, the
+minister of Salisbury, with the title "A Winter Evening's Conversation upon
+the doctrine of Original Sin, wherein the notion of our having sinned in
+Adam, and being on that account only liable to eternal Damnation, is proved
+<a name="pg51"></a>
+to be Unscriptural." It is in the form of a dialogue between a minister and
+three of his parishioners, and gives, as few other writings of the
+eighteenth century do, a clear and explicit statement of the author's
+opinions in a readable and interesting form. That all have sinned in Adam
+the minister pronounces "a very shocking doctrine." "What! make them first
+to open their eyes in torment, and all this for a sin which certainly they
+had no hand in,--a sin which, if it comes upon them at all, certainly is
+without any fault or blame on their parts, for they had no hand in
+receiving it!" That Adam is our federal head, and that we sinned because he
+sinned, he calls "a mere castle in the air." "Sin and guilt are personal
+things as much as knowledge. I can as easily conceive of one man's
+knowledge being imputed to another as of his sins being so. No imputation
+in either case can make the thing to be mine which is not mine any more
+than one person may be another person." He declares that this doctrine of
+imputation causes infidelity. "It naturally leads men into every
+dishonorable thought of God which gives a great and general blow to
+religion." It impeaches the holiness of God, "for it supposes him to make
+millions sinners by his decree of imputation, who would otherwise have been
+innocent." That it was his decree alone "that made all Adam's posterity
+sinners is the very essence of this doctrine." "And so Christians are
+guilty of holding what even heathen would blush at." That God "should
+pronounce a sentence by which myriads of infants, as blameless as helpless,
+were consigned over to blackness of darkness to be tormented with fire and
+brimstone forever, is not consistent with infinite goodness." "How
+<a name="pg52"></a>
+dreadfully is God dishonored by such monstrous representations as these!"
+Such a being cannot be loved by us, for every heart rebels against it. "All
+descriptions of the Divine Being which represent him in an unamiable light
+do the greatest hurt to religion that can be, as they strike at love, which
+is the fulfilling of the law. I am persuaded that many of those who think
+they believe this doctrine do not really believe it, or else they do not
+consider how it represents their heavenly Father." The pamphlet concludes
+with the acceptance of this broader teaching by the parishioners, but it
+was the cause of controversy in pulpits and by means of pamphlets. Bellamy
+denied the teachings of Webster, and Chauncy defended them. So bold a
+pamphlet as this showed how men had come to reason without compromise about
+the old doctrines, and gave evidence that the growing spirit of humanity
+would no longer accept what was harsh and cruel.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn18"></a>Phases of Religious Progress.</h3>
+
+<p>The New England churches were thus not standing still as regards doctrines,
+moral conduct, the methods of worship, or the relations they held to the
+state; but step by step they were moving away from the methods and the
+ideas of the fathers. The "lining out" of hymns was slowly abandoned, and
+singing by note took its place. The agitation that followed this attempt at
+reform was great and wide-spread. The introduction of an organized and
+trained choir was also in the nature of a genuine reform. When the liberal
+Thomas Brattle offered an organ to the new church in Brattle Street, it was
+voted "that they do not think it proper to use the same in the public
+worship of God." The instrument was, however, accepted by King's Chapel;
+and an organist was secured from London. It was not until 1770 that the
+<a name="pg53"></a>
+church in Providence procured an organ, the first used in a Congregational
+church in New England.</p>
+
+<p>When Dr. Jonathan Mayhew died, in 1766, Dr. Chauncy prayed at his funeral;
+and this was said to have been the first prayer ever made at a funeral in
+Boston, so strong was the Puritan dislike of the customs of the Catholic
+Church.[<a href="#fn_3_20">20</a><a name="fr_3_20"></a>] In this way, as well as in others, the new liberalism broke
+down the old customs, and introduced those with which we are familiar.
+Perhaps the most marked tendency of this kind was the introduction of the
+reading of the Bible into the services of the churches as a part of the
+order of worship. This innovation was distinctly due to the liberal men and
+the high esteem in which they held the Scriptures as a means of giving
+sobriety and reasonableness to their religion. The First Church in Boston,
+in May, 1730, voted that the reading of the Scriptures, instead of the old
+Puritan way of expounding them, be thereafter discretionary with the
+ministers of that church, but "that the mind of the church is that larger
+portions should be publicly read than has been used."[<a href="#fn_3_21">21</a><a name="fr_3_21"></a>] As we have seen,
+the Brattle Street Church had already led in this reform, having adopted
+this practice in 1699. This custom of reading the Bible as a part of the
+service of worship came slowly into general acceptance, for there was a
+strong feeling against it. When a Bible was presented to the parish in
+Mendon, in 1767, a serious commotion resulted because of the strong feeling
+against the Church of England then prevalent; and the donor gave it to the
+<a name="pg54"></a>
+minister until such time as the church might wish to use it. It was as late
+as 1785 that a copy of the Bible was given to the First Church in Dedham,
+with the request that the reading of it should be made a part of the
+exercises of the Lord's day; and the parish instructed the minister to read
+such portions of it as he thought "most desirable" and of "such length as
+the several seasons of the year and other circumstances" might render
+proper. In the West Church of Medway it was not until 1806 that this
+practice was established, and two of the Salem churches began it the same
+year. The reading of the Bible at ordination services did not become
+customary until an even later date.[<a href="#fn_3_22">22</a><a name="fr_3_22"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Such are some of the practical innovations which accompanied the doctrinal
+development that was taking place. Liberality in one direction brought
+toleration and progress in others. Some of these changes were due to the
+fact that the prejudices against the Catholic Church and the Church of
+England had, in a measure, disappeared, because there was nothing to keep
+them alive. Others were due to the intellectual influences that came into
+the colonies from England. Still others resulted from the shifting
+relations of church and state, and were the effect of attempts to adjust
+those relations more satisfactorily.</p>
+
+<p><br >[<a href="#fr_3_1">1</a><a name="fn_3_1"></a>] Narrative of Surprising Conversions, edition of 1808, 13.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_2">2</a><a name="fn_3_2"></a>] Denial of original sin, from Pelagius, an ascetic preacher of the
+    fifth century.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_3">3</a><a name="fn_3_3"></a>] Dwight, Life of Edwards, 307, 336, 410, 413.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_4">4</a><a name="fn_3_4"></a>] Ibid., 649.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_5">5</a><a name="fn_3_5"></a>] Ibid., 495.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_6">6</a><a name="fn_3_6"></a>] Green, History of Springfield.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_7">7</a><a name="fn_3_7"></a>] Ibid., 255.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_8">8</a><a name="fn_3_8"></a>] E.H. Byington, The Puritan in England and New England, devotes a
+    chapter to the controversy over Breck's settlement; but he does not
+    treat of the theological problems involved.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_9">9</a><a name="fn_3_9"></a>] Whitefield's Seventh Journal, 28.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_10">10</a><a name="fn_3_10"></a>] History of Harvard University, 52.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_11">11</a><a name="fn_3_11"></a>] History of Harvard University, 23, 26.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_12">12</a><a name="fn_3_12"></a>] Whitefield's Journal, seventh part, 28.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_13">13</a><a name="fn_3_13"></a>] Historical Magazine, new series, IX. 227, April, 1871.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_14">14</a><a name="fn_3_14"></a>] W.B. Sprague, Annals of the Unitarian Pulpit, II.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_15">15</a><a name="fn_3_15"></a>] Levi L. Paine, A Critical History of the Evolution of Trinitarianism,
+     99. "Samuel Clarke and others took the ground that God is unipersonal,
+     and hence that the Son is a distinct personal being, distinguishing
+     God the Father as the absolute Deity from the Son whom they regarded
+     as God in a relative or secondary sense, being derived from the
+     Father, and having his beginning from Him."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_16">16</a><a name="fn_3_16"></a>] Seasonable Thoughts, 337.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_17">17</a><a name="fn_3_17"></a>] Alden Bradford, in his Memoir of the Life and Writings of Rev.
+     Jonathan Mayhew, D.D., gives a list of "the clergymen who openly
+     opposed or did not teach and advocate the Calvinistic doctrines" at
+     the time of Mayhew's ordination, in 1747. These were: Dr. Appleton,
+     Cambridge; Dr. Gay, Hingham; Dr. Chauncy, Boston; William Rand,
+     Kingston; Nathaniel Eelles, Scituate; Edward Barnard, Haverhill;
+     Samuel Cooke, West Cambridge (now Arlington); Jeremiah Fogg,
+     Kensington, N.H.; Dr. A. Eliot, Boston; Dr. Samuel Webster, Salisbury;
+     Lemuel Briant, Braintree; Dr. Stevens, Kittery, Me.; Dr. Tucker,
+     Newbury; Timothy Harrington, Lancaster; Dr. Gad Hitchcock, Pembroke;
+     Josiah Smith, Pembroke; William Smith, Weymouth; Dr. Daniel Shute,
+     Hingham; Dr. Samuel Cooper, Boston; Dr. Mayhew, Boston; Abraham
+     Williams, Sandwich; Anthony Wibird, Braintree (now Quincy); Dr.
+     Cushing, Waltham; Professor Wigglesworth, Harvard College; Dr. Symmes,
+     Andover; Dr. John Willard, Connecticut; Amos Adams, Roxbury; Dr.
+     Barnes, Scituate; Charles Turner, Duxbury; Dr. Dana Wallingford,
+     Conn.; Ebenezer Thayer, Hampton, N.H.; Dr. Fiske, Brookfield; Dr.
+     Samuel West, Dartmouth (now New Bedford); Dr. Hemenway, Wells. Among
+     those who took part in the ordination of Jonathan Mayhew, and
+     therefore presumably of the same theological opinions, were Hancock,
+     Lexington; Cotton, Newton; Cooke, Sudbury; Prescott, Danvers (now
+     Salem). To these may be added, says Bradford, though of a somewhat
+     later date: Dr. Coffin, Buxton; Drs. Howard, West, Lathrop, and
+     Belknap, Boston; Dr. Henry Cummings, Billerica; Dr. Deane, Portland;
+     Thomas Cary, Newburyport; Dr. Fobes, Raynham; Timothy Hilliard,
+     Cambridge; Thomas Haven, Reading; Dr. Willard, Beverly. Dr. Ezra
+     Ripley added the names of Hedge, of Warwick, and Foster, of Stafford.
+     This makes fifty-two in all, but probably as many more could be added
+     by careful search.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_18">18</a><a name="fn_3_18"></a>] Grace Defended, 43.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_19">19</a><a name="fn_3_19"></a>] Ibid., 60.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_20">20</a><a name="fn_3_20"></a>] Alice Morse Earle, Customs and Fashions in Old New England, 364, 367.
+     See H.M. Dexter, Congregationalism as seen in its Literature, 458.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_21">21</a><a name="fn_3_21"></a>] A.B. Ellis, History of the First Church in Boston, 199.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_22">22</a><a name="fn_3_22"></a>] New England Magazine, February, 1899. A.H. Coolidge on Scripture
+     Reading in the Worship of the New England Churches.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<a name="pg55"></a>
+<h2><br ><a name="ch4"></a>IV.<br >
+
+
+THE SILENT ADVANCE OF LIBERALISM.</h2>
+
+<p>The progressive tendencies went silently on; and step by step the old
+beliefs were discarded, but always by individuals and churches, and not by
+associations or general official action. Even before the middle of the
+eighteenth century there was not only a questioning of the doctrine of
+divine decrees, the conception that God elects some to bliss and some to
+perdition in accordance with his own arbitrary will, but there was also
+developing a tendency to reject the tritheism[<a href="#fn_4_1">1</a><a name="fr_4_1"></a>] which in New England took
+the place of a philosophical conception of the Trinity, such as had been
+held by the great thinkers of the Christian ages. In part this doubt about
+the Trinity was the result of a more thoughtful study of the Bible, where
+the doctrine taught by the leading theologians of the old school in New
+England does not appear; and in part it was the result of the reading of
+the works of the English divines of the more liberal school. Something of
+this tendency was also due to the spirit of free inquiry, and the rational
+<a name="pg56"></a>
+interpretation of religion, that were beginning to make themselves felt
+amongst those not wholly committed to the old ways of thinking.</p>
+
+<p>It was characteristic of those who questioned the doctrine of the Trinity,
+as then taught, that they insisted on stating their beliefs in the language
+of the New Testament, especially in that of Jesus himself. They found him
+teaching his own dependence on his Father, claiming for himself only an
+inferior and subordinate position. Believing in his pre-existence, his
+supernatural character and mission, they held that he was the creator of
+the world or that creation took place by means of the spirit that was in
+him, and that every honor should be paid him except that of worshipping him
+as the Supreme Being. As in the ancient family the son was always
+subordinate to his father, so the Son of God presented in the New Testament
+is less exalted than his Father. This conception of Christ is technically
+called Arianism, from the Alexandrian presbyter of the fourth century who
+first brought it into prominence.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn19"></a>Subordinate Nature of Christ.</h3>
+
+<p>The Arian heresy did not necessarily follow the Arminian, but much the same
+causes led to its appearance. Many of the leading men in England had become
+Arians, including Milton, Locke, Taylor, Clarke, Watts, and others; and the
+reading of their books in New England led to an inquiry into the
+truthfulness of the doctrine of the Trinity. As early as 1720 the preachers
+of convention and election sermons were insisting upon a recognition of
+Christ in the old way, showing that they were suspicious of heresy.[<a href="#fn_4_2">2</a><a name="fr_4_2"></a>]
+Most of the Arians retained the other doctrines in which they had been
+<a name="pg57"></a>
+educated, even putting a stronger emphasis upon them than before. Rarely
+was the subordinate nature of Christ made in any way prominent in
+preaching. It was held so strictly subsidiary to the cardinal doctrines of
+incarnation and atonement that only the most intelligent and watchful could
+detect any difference between those who were Arians and those who were
+strict Trinitarians. Now and then a man of more pronounced convictions and
+utterance was shunned by his ministerial neighbors, but this rarely
+occurred and had little practical effect. So long as a preacher gave
+satisfaction to his own congregation, and had behind him the voters and the
+tax-list of his town, his heresies were passed by with only comment and
+gossip.</p>
+
+<p>We find here and there definite indications of the doctrinal changes that
+were taking place, as in the republication of Emlyn's Humble Inquiry into
+the Scripture Account of Jesus Christ, which appeared in Boston in 1756.
+Thomas Emlyn, the first English preacher who called himself a Unitarian,
+published his Humble Inquiry in 1702; and in 1705 he established a
+Unitarian congregation in London. This distinctively Unitarian book made an
+able defence of the doctrine of the subordinate nature of Christ. More
+significant than the republication of the book itself was the preface
+written for it by a Boston layman, addressed to the ministers of the town,
+in which he said that he found its teaching "to be the true, plain,
+unadulterated doctrine of the Gospel." He also intimated that "many of his
+brethren of the laity in the town and country were in sympathy with him and
+sincerely desirous of knowing the truth." "In New Hampshire Province,"
+wrote Dr. Joseph Bellamy, in 1760, "this party have actually, three years
+<a name="pg58"></a>
+ago, got things so ripe that they have ventured to new model our Shorter
+Catechism, to alter or entirely leave out the doctrine of the Trinity, of
+the decrees, of our first parents being created holy, of original sin,
+Christ satisfying divine justice, effectual calling, justification,
+etc."[<a href="#fn_4_3">3</a><a name="fr_4_3"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn20"></a>Some of the Liberal Leaders.</h3>
+
+<p>The farther advance in the liberal movement may be most easily traced in
+the lives and teachings of three or four men. Rev Ebenezer Gay, who was
+settled in Hingham in 1717, was the first man in New England to arrive at a
+clear statement of opinions quite outside of and distinct from Calvinism.
+Writing of the years from 1750 to 1755, John Adams said that at that time
+Lemuel Briant, of Braintree, Jonathan Mayhew, of the West Church in Boston,
+Daniel Shute, of Hingham, John Brown, of Cohasset, and perhaps equal to
+all, if not above all, Ebenezer Gay, of Hingham, were Unitarians.[<a href="#fn_4_4">4</a><a name="fr_4_4"></a>] The
+rapid sale of Emlyn's book would prove the truthfulness of this statement.
+<a name="pg59"></a>
+It was not by any sudden process that these men had come to what may be
+called Unitarianism, though, more properly, Arianism; and not as a mere
+result of a reaction from Calvinism. A new time had come, and with it new
+hopes and thoughts. The burdening sense of the spiritual world that
+belonged to the men of the seventeenth century did not belong to those of
+the eighteenth. Men had come to see that God must manifest himself in
+reason, common sense, nature, and the facts of life.</p>
+
+<p>In the life and teachings of such a man as Ebenezer Gay we catch a new
+insight into the spirit that was active in New England throughout the
+eighteenth century for the realization of a larger faith. He was a man of a
+strong, original, vigorous nature, a born leader of men, and one who
+impressed his own character upon those with whom he came into contact. He
+opposed the revival, and he made the men of his own association think with
+him in their opposition to it. Years before the revival, however, he was a
+liberal in theology, and had found his way into Arminianism. With the
+spirit of free inquiry he was in fullest sympathy. He was strongly opposed
+to creeds and to all written articles of faith. He condemned in the most
+forcible terms the young man who, on the occasion of his ordination,
+"engages to preach according to a rule of faith, creed, or confession which
+is merely of human prescription or imposition." In his convention sermon of
+1746 he denounced those who "insist upon the offensive peculiarities of the
+party they espoused rather than upon the more mighty things in which we are
+all agreed." It has been said of him that, after the middle of the century,
+"his discourses will be searched in vain for any discussions of
+<a name="pg60"></a>
+controversial theology, any advocacy of the peculiar doctrines regarded as
+orthodox, or the expression of any opinions at variance with those of his
+successor, Dr. Ware."[<a href="#fn_4_5">5</a><a name="fr_4_5"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The sermon on Natural Religion as distinguished from Revealed, which Dr.
+Gay delivered as the Dudleian lecture at Harvard, in 1759, showed the
+reasonable and progressive spirit of his preaching. He claimed that there
+is no antagonism between natural and revealed religion, and that, while
+revealed religion is an addition to the natural, it is not built on the
+ruins, but on the everlasting foundations of it. Revelation can teach
+nothing contrary to natural religion or to the dictates of reason. "No
+doctrine or scheme of religion," he said, "should be advanced or received
+as Scriptural and divine which is plainly and absolutely inconsistent with
+the perfections of God, and the possibility of things. Absurdities and
+contradictions, are not to be obtruded upon our faith. No pretence of
+revelation can be sufficient for the admission of them. The manifest
+absurdity of any doctrine is a stronger argument that it is not of God than
+any other evidence can be that it is."</p>
+
+<p>Jonathan Mayhew, the son of Experience Mayhew, of Martha's Vineyard, was
+settled over the West Church of Boston in 1747. He was even then known as a
+heretic, who had read the most liberal books of the English philosophers
+and theologians, and who had boldly accepted their opinions as his own. On
+the occasion of his ordination not one of the Boston ministers was present,
+although a number of them were well known for their liberal opinions. The
+<a name="pg61"></a>
+ordination was postponed, and later several men of remoter parishes joined
+in inducting this young independent into his pulpit. No Boston minister
+would exchange pulpits with him, and he was not invited to join the
+ministerial association. He was shunned by the ministers, and he was
+dreaded by the orthodox; but he was gladly heard by a large congregation,
+which grew in numbers and intelligence as the years went on. He had among
+his hearers many of the leading men of the town, and to him gathered those
+who were most thoughtful and progressive. Boston has never had in any of
+its pulpits a man of nobler, broader, more humane qualities, or one with a
+mind more completely committed to seeking and knowing the truth, or with a
+more unflinching purpose to speak his own mind without fear or favor. His
+influence was soon powerfully felt in the town, and his name came to stand
+for liberty in politics as well as in religion. His sermons were rapidly
+printed and distributed widely. They were read in every part of New England
+with great eagerness; they were reprinted in England, and brought him a
+large correspondence from those who admired and approved of his teaching.
+Though he died in 1766, at the age of forty-six, his work and his influence
+did not die with him.</p>
+
+<p>The cardinal thought of Jonathan Mayhew with reference to religion was that
+of free inquiry. Diligent and free examination of all questions, he felt,
+was necessary to any acquisition of the truth. He believed in liberty and
+toleration everywhere, and this made him accept in the fullest sense the
+doctrine of the freedom of the will. In man he found a self-determining
+<a name="pg62"></a>
+power, the source of his moral and intellectual freedom. He said that we
+are more certain of the fact that we are free than we are of the truth of
+Christianity. This belief led him to the rejection of the Calvinistic
+doctrine of inability, and to a strong faith in the moral and spiritual
+possibilities of human nature. He described Christianity as "a practical
+science, the art of living piously and virtuously."[<a href="#fn_4_6">6</a><a name="fr_4_6"></a>] He had quite freed
+his mind from bondage to creeds when he said that, "how much soever any man
+may be mistaken in opinion concerning the terms of salvation, yet if he is
+practically in the right there is no doubt but he will be accepted of
+God."[<a href="#fn_4_7">7</a><a name="fr_4_7"></a>] He held that no speculative error, however great, is sufficient
+to exclude a good and upright man from the kingdom of heaven, who lives
+according to the genuine spirit of the gospel. To him the principle of
+grace was always a principle of goodness and holiness; and he held that
+grace can never be operative as a saving power without obedience to that
+righteousness and love which Christ taught as essential.[<a href="#fn_4_8">8</a><a name="fr_4_8"></a>] He declared
+that "the doctrine that men may obtain salvation without ceasing to do evil
+and learning to do well, without yielding a sincere obedience to the laws
+of Christianity, is not so properly called a doctrine of grace as it is a
+doctrine of devils."[<a href="#fn_4_9">9</a><a name="fr_4_9"></a>] He said, again, that we cannot be justified by a
+faith that is without obedience; for it is obedience and good works that
+give to faith all its life, efficacy, and perfection.[<a href="#fn_4_10">10</a><a name="fr_4_10"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn21"></a>The First Unitarian.</h3>
+
+<p>Dr. Mayhew accepted without equivocation the right of private judgment in
+religion, and he practised it judicially and with wise insight. He
+<a name="pg63"></a>
+unhesitatingly applied the rational method to all theological problems, and
+to him reason was the final court of appeal for everything connected with
+religion. His love of freedom was enthusiastic and persistent, and he was
+zealously committed to the principle of individuality. He believed in the
+essential goodness of human nature, and in the doctrine of the Divine
+Unity. He was the first outspoken Unitarian in New England, not merely
+because he rejected the doctrine of the Trinity, but because he accepted
+all the cardinal principles developed by that movement since his day. He
+was a rationalist, an individualist, a defender of personal freedom, and
+tested religious practices by the standard of common sense. His sermons
+were plain, direct, vigorous, and modern. A truly religious man, Mayhew
+taught a practical and humanitarian religion, genuinely ethical, and
+faithful in inculcating the motive of civic duty.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Mayhew's words may be quoted in regard to some of the religious beliefs
+commonly accepted in his day. "The doctrine of a total ignorance and
+incapacity to judge of moral and religious truths brought upon mankind by
+the disobedience of our first parents," he wrote, "is without
+foundation."[<a href="#fn_4_11">11</a><a name="fr_4_11"></a>] "I hope it appears," he says, "that the love of God and of
+our neighbor, that sincere piety of heart, and a righteous, holy and
+charitable life, are the weightier matters of the gospel, as well as of the
+law."[<a href="#fn_4_12">12</a><a name="fr_4_12"></a>] "Although Christianity cannot," he asserts, "with any propriety
+or justice be said to be the same with natural religion, or merely a
+republication of the laws of nature, yet the principal, the most important
+and fundamental duties required by Christianity are, nevertheless, the same
+<a name="pg64"></a>
+which were enjoined under the legal dispensation of Moses, and the same
+which are dictated by the light of nature."[<a href="#fn_4_13">13</a><a name="fr_4_13"></a>] His great love of
+intellectual and spiritual freedom finds utterance in such a statement as
+this: "Nor has any order or body of men authority to enjoin any particular
+article of faith, nor the use of any modes of worship not expressly pointed
+out in the Scriptures; nor has the enjoining of such articles a tendency to
+preserve the peace and harmony of the church, but directly the
+contrary."[<a href="#fn_4_14">14</a><a name="fr_4_14"></a>] Such sentences as the following are frequent on Mayhew's
+pages, and they show clearly the trend of his mind: "Free examination,
+weighing arguments for and against with care and impartiality, is the way
+to find truth." "True religion flourishes the more, the more people
+exercise their right of private judgment."[<a href="#fn_4_15">15</a><a name="fr_4_15"></a>] "There is nothing more
+foolish and superstitious than a veneration for ancient creeds and
+doctrines as such, and nothing is more unworthy a reasonable creature than
+to value principles by their age, as some men do their wines."[<a href="#fn_4_16">16</a><a name="fr_4_16"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Mayhew insisted upon the strict unity of God, "who is without rival or
+competitor." "The dominion and sovereignty of the universe is necessarily
+one and in one, the only living and true God, who delegates such measures
+of power and authority to other beings as seemeth good in his sight." He
+declared that the not preserving of such unity and supremacy of God on the
+part of Christians "has long been just matter of reproach to them"; and he
+said the authority of Christ is always "exercised in subordination to God's
+will."[<a href="#fn_4_17">17</a><a name="fr_4_17"></a>] His position was that "the faith of Christians does not
+<a name="pg65"></a>
+terminate in Christ as the ultimate object of it, but it is extended
+through him to the one God."[<a href="#fn_4_18">18</a><a name="fr_4_18"></a>] The very idea of a mediator implies
+subordination as essential to it.[<a href="#fn_4_19">19</a><a name="fr_4_19"></a>] His biographer says he did not accept
+the notion of vicarious suffering, and, that he was an Arian in his views
+of the nature of Christ. "He was the first clergyman in New England who
+expressly and openly opposed the scholastic doctrine of the Trinity.
+Several others declined pressing the Athanasian Creed, and believed
+strictly in the unity of God. They also probably found it difficult to
+explain their views on the subject, and the great danger of losing their
+good name served to prevent their speaking out. But Dr. Mayhew did not
+conceal or disguise his sentiments on this point any more than on others,
+such as the peculiar tenets of Calvinism. He explicitly and boldly declared
+the doctrine irrational, unscriptural, and directly contradictory."[<a href="#fn_4_20">20</a><a name="fr_4_20"></a>] He
+taught the strict unity of God as early as 1753, "in the most unequivocal
+and plain manner, in his sermons of that year."[<a href="#fn_4_21">21</a><a name="fr_4_21"></a>] What most excited
+comment and objection was that, in a foot-note to the volume of his sermons
+published in 1755, Mayhew said that a Catholic Council had elevated the
+Virgin Mary to the position of a fourth person in the Godhead, and added,
+by way of comment: "Neither Papists nor Protestants should imagine that
+they will be understood by others if they do not understand themselves. Nor
+should they think that nonsense and contradictions can ever be too sacred
+<a name="pg66"></a>
+to be ridiculous." The ridicule here was not directed against the doctrine
+of the Trinity, as has been maintained, but the foolish defences of it made
+by men who accepted its "mysteries" as too wonderful for reason to deal
+with in a serious manner. This boldness of comment on the part of Mayhew
+was in harmony with his strong disapproval of creed-making in all its
+forms. He condemned creeds because they set up "human tests of orthodoxy
+instead of the infallible word of God, and make other terms of Christian
+communion than those explicitly pointed out by the Gospel."[<a href="#fn_4_22">22</a><a name="fr_4_22"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Mayhew was succeeded in the West Church by Rev. Simeon Howard in 1767,
+who, though he was received in a more friendly spirit by the ministers of
+the town, was not less radical in his theology than his predecessor. Dr.
+Howard was both an Arminian and an Arian, and he was "a believer neither in
+the Trinity, nor in the divine predestination of total depravity, and
+necessary ruin to any human soul."[<a href="#fn_4_23">23</a><a name="fr_4_23"></a>] He was of a gentle and conciliatory
+temper, but his preaching was quite as thorough-going in its intellectual
+earnestness as was Dr. Mayhew's.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn22"></a>A Pronounced Universalist.</h3>
+
+<p>Another preacher on the liberal side was Dr. Charles Chauncy of the First
+Church in Boston, whose ministry lasted from 1727 to 1787. He was the most
+vigorous of the opponents of the great awakening, both in his pulpit and
+through the press. He wrote a book on certain French fanatics, with the
+purpose of showing what would be the natural results of the excesses of the
+revival; he preached a powerful sermon on enthusiasm, to indicate the
+<a name="pg67"></a>
+dangers of religious excitement, when not controlled by common sense and
+reason; and he travelled throughout New England to gain all the information
+possible about the revival, its methods and results, and published his
+Seasonable Thoughts on the State of Religion in New England in 1743. He had
+been influenced by the reading of Taylor, Tillotson, Clarke, and the other
+latitudinarian and rationalistic writers of England; and he found the
+revival in its excesses repugnant to his every thought of what was true and
+devout in religion.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Chauncy was not an eloquent preacher; but he was clear, earnest, and
+honest. Many of his sermons were published, and his books numbered nearly a
+dozen. As early as 1739 he preached a sermon in favor of religious
+toleration. At a later period he said, "It is with me past all doubt that
+the religion of Jesus will never be restored to its primitive purity,
+simplicity, and glory, until religious establishments are so brought down
+as to be no more."[<a href="#fn_4_24">24</a><a name="fr_4_24"></a>] It was this conviction which made him oppose in his
+pulpit and in two or three books the effort that was made just before the
+Revolution to establish the English Church as the state form of religion in
+the colonies. He said, in 1767, that the American people would hazard
+everything dear to them--their estates, their lives--rather than suffer
+their necks to be put under the yoke of bondage to any foreign power in
+state or church.[<a href="#fn_4_25">25</a><a name="fr_4_25"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>In his early life Dr. Chauncy was an Arminian, but slowly he grew to the
+acceptance of distinctly Unitarian and Universalist doctrines. Near the end
+of his life he Published four or five books in which he advanced very
+<a name="pg68"></a>
+liberal opinions. One of these, published in Boston in 1784, was on The
+Benevolence of the Deity fairly and impartially Considered. This book
+followed the same method and purpose as Butler's Analogy, and aimed to show
+that God has manifested his goodness in creation and in the life of man. He
+said that our moral self-determination, or free will, is our one great gift
+from God. He discussed the moral problems of life in order to prove the
+benevolence of God, maintaining that the goodness we see in him is of the
+same nature with goodness in ourselves. The year following he published a
+book on the Scriptural account of the Fall and its Consequences, in which
+he rejected the doctrine of total depravity, and interpreted the new birth
+as a result of education rather than of supernatural change. Thus he
+brought to full statement the logical result of the half-way covenant and
+the teachings of Solomon Stoddard, as well as of the connection of church
+and state in New England. He saw that the method of education is the only
+one that can justly be followed in the preparation of the young for
+admission to a church that is sustained in any direct way by the state.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Chauncy's great work as a preacher and author[<a href="#fn_4_26">26</a><a name="fr_4_26"></a>] was brought to its
+close by his books in favor of universal salvation. In 1783-84 he published
+in Boston two anonymous pamphlets advocating the salvation of all men, and
+these pamphlets made no little stir. In 1784 he published in London a work
+<a name="pg69"></a>
+which he called The Mystery hid from Ages and Generations, made manifest by
+the Gospel Revelation; or, The Salvation of All Men the Grand Thing aimed
+at in the Scheme of God: By One who wishes well to the whole Human Race. In
+this book Dr. Chauncy made an elaborate study of the New Testament, in
+order to prove that salvation is to be universal. Christ died for all,
+therefore all will be saved; because all have sinned in Adam, therefore all
+will be made alive in Christ. He looked to a future probation, to a long
+period after death, when the opportunity of salvation will be open to all.
+He maintained that the misery threatened against the wicked in Scripture is
+that of this intermediate state between the earthly life and the time when
+God shall be all in all. He held that sin will be punished hereafter in
+proportion to depravity, and that none will be saved until they come into
+willing harmony with Christ, who will finally be able to win all men to
+himself, otherwise the power of God will be set at naught and his good will
+towards men frustrated of its purpose. In the future state of discipline,
+punishment will be inflicted with salutary effect, and thus the moral
+recovery of mankind will be accomplished.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn23"></a>Other Men of Mark.</h3>
+
+<p>Another leader was Dr. Samuel West, of Dartmouth, now New Bedford, where he
+was settled in 1760, and where he preached for more than forty years.[<a href="#fn_4_27">27</a><a name="fr_4_27"></a>]
+He rejected the doctrines of fore-ordination, election, total depravity,
+and the Trinity. In preaching the election sermon of 1776, he took the
+ground of an undisguised rationalism. "A revelation," he said, "pretending
+to be from God, that contradicts any part of natural laws ought immediately
+<a name="pg70"></a>
+to be rejected as imposture; for the deity cannot make a law contrary to
+the law of nature without acting contrary to himself,--a thing in the
+strictest sense impossible, for that which implies contradiction is not an
+object of Divine Power." The cardinal idea of West's; position, as of that
+of most of the liberal men of his time, was stated by him in one sentence,
+when he said, "To preach Christ is to preach the whole system of divinity,
+as it consists of both natural and revealed religion."[<a href="#fn_4_28">28</a><a name="fr_4_28"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>In 1751 Rev. Thomas Barnard, of Newbury, was dismissed from his parish
+because he was regarded as unconverted by the revivalistic portion of his
+congregation; and in 1755 he was settled over the First Church in Salem. He
+was an Arminian, and at the same time an Arian of the school of Samuel
+Clarke. His son Thomas was settled over the North Church of Salem in 1773,
+which church was organized especially for him by his admirers in the First
+Church. He followed in the theological opinions of his father, but probably
+became somewhat more pronounced in his Arian views, so that, after his
+death, Dr. Channing called him a Unitarian. It is not surprising that the
+younger Barnard should have been liberal in his opinions and spirit, when
+we find his theological instructor, Rev. Samuel Williams, at his
+ordination, saying to him in the sermon preached on that occasion, "Be of
+no sect or party but that of good men, and to all such (whatever their
+differences among themselves) let your heart be opened." On another similar
+occasion Mr. Williams said that it had always been his advice to examine
+<a name="pg71"></a>
+with caution and modesty, "but with the greatest freedom all religious
+matters."[<a href="#fn_4_29">29</a><a name="fr_4_29"></a>] It was said of the younger Barnard that he believed "the
+final salvation of no man depended upon the belief or disbelief of those
+speculative opinions about which men, equally learned and pious, differ."
+When it was said to him by one of his parishioners, "Dr. Barnard, I never
+heard you preach a sermon upon the Trinity," the reply was, "And you never
+will."[<a href="#fn_4_30">30</a><a name="fr_4_30"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>In 1779 Rev. John Prince was settled over the First Church in Salem, as the
+colleague of the elder Barnard. He was an Arian, but in no combative or
+dogmatic manner. He was a student, a lover of science, and an advanced
+thinker and investigator for his time. In 1787 he invited the Universalist,
+Rev. John Murray, into his pulpit, then an act of the greatest
+liberality.[<a href="#fn_4_31">31</a><a name="fr_4_31"></a>] Another lover of science, Rev. William Bentley, was settled
+over the East Church of Salem, as colleague to Rev. James Diman, in 1782.
+The senior pastor was a strict Calvinist, but the parish called as his
+colleague this young man of pronounced liberal views in theology. As early
+as 1784 Mr. Bentley was interested in the teachings of the English
+Unitarian, William Hazlitt,[<a href="#fn_4_32">32</a><a name="fr_4_32"></a>] who at that time visited New England. And
+in 1786 he was reading Joseph Priestley's book against the Trinity with
+approval. He soon after commended Dr. Priestley's short tracts as giving a
+good statement of the simple doctrines of Christianity.[<a href="#fn_4_33">33</a><a name="fr_4_33"></a>] He insisted
+<a name="pg72"></a>
+upon free inquiry in religion from the beginning of his ministry, and not
+long after he began preaching he became substantially a Unitarian.[<a href="#fn_4_34">34</a><a name="fr_4_34"></a>] In
+1789 he maintained that "the full conviction of a future moral retribution"
+is "the great point of Christian faith."[<a href="#fn_4_35">35</a><a name="fr_4_35"></a>] It has been claimed that Mr.
+Bentley was the first minister in New England to take distinctly the
+Unitarian position, and there are good reasons for this understanding of
+his doctrinal attitude.[<a href="#fn_4_36">36</a><a name="fr_4_36"></a>] Dr. Bentley corresponded with scholars in
+Europe, as he also did with Arab chiefs in their own tongue. He knew of the
+religions of India, and he seems to have given them appreciative
+recognition. The shipmasters and foreign merchants of Salem, as they came
+in contact with the Oriental races and religions, discarded their dogmatic
+Christianity; and these men, almost without exception, were connected with
+the churches that became Unitarian. It may be accepted as a very
+interesting fact that "the two potent influences shaping the ancient
+Puritanism of Salem into Unitarianism were foreign commerce and contact
+with the Oriental religions."[<a href="#fn_4_37">37</a><a name="fr_4_37"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg73"></a>
+<p>The formation of a second parish in Worcester, in 1785, was a significant
+step in the progress of liberal opinion. This was the first time when a
+town, outside of Boston, was divided into two parishes of the
+Congregational order on doctrinal grounds. On the death of the minister of
+the first parish several candidates were heard, and among them Rev. Aaron
+Bancroft, who was a pronounced Arminian and Arian. The majority preferred a
+Calvinist; but the more intelligent minority insisted upon the settlement
+of Mr. Bancroft,--a result they finally accomplished by the organization of
+a new parish. It was a severe struggle by which this result was brought
+about, every effort being made to defeat it; and for many years Mr.
+Bancroft was almost completely isolated in his religious opinions.[<a href="#fn_4_38">38</a><a name="fr_4_38"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn24"></a>The Second Period of Revivals.</h3>
+
+<p>It must not be understood that there was any marked separation in the
+churches as yet on doctrinal grounds. Calvinism was mildly taught, and
+ministers of all shades of opinion exchanged pulpits freely with each
+other. They met in ministerial associations, and in various duties of
+ordinations, councils, and other ecclesiastical gatherings. The preaching
+was practical, not doctrinal; and controverted subjects were for the most
+part not touched upon in the pulpits. About 1780, however, began a revival
+of Calvinism on the part of Drs. Bellamy, Emmons, Hopkins, and others; and
+especially did it take a strenuous form in the works of Samuel Hopkins. The
+New Divinity, as it was sometimes called, taught that unconditional
+submission to God is the duty of every human being, that we should be
+<a name="pg74"></a>
+willing to be damned for the glory of God, and that the attitude of God
+towards men is one of unbounded benevolence. This newer Calvinism was full
+of incentives to missionary enterprise, and was zealous for the making of
+converts. Under the impulse of its greater enthusiasm there began, about
+1790, a series of revivals which continued to the middle of the nineteenth
+century. This was the second great period of revivalism in New England. It
+was far better organized than the first one, while its methods were more
+systematic and under better guidance; and the results were great in the
+building of churches, in establishing missionary outposts, and in awakening
+an active religious life amongst the people. It aroused much opposition to
+the liberals, and it made the orthodox party more aggressive. Just as the
+great awakening developed opposition to the liberals of that day, and
+served to bring into view the two tendencies in the Congregational
+churches, so this new revival period accentuated the divergencies between
+those who believed in the deity of Christ and those who believed in his
+subordinate nature, and led to the first assuming of positions on both
+sides. There can be little doubt that it put a check upon the friendly
+spirit that had existed in the churches, and that it began a division which
+ultimately resulted in their separation into two denominations.[<a href="#fn_4_39">39</a><a name="fr_4_39"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Such details of individual and local opinion as have here been given are
+all the more necessary because there was at this time no consensus of
+<a name="pg75"></a>
+belief on the part of the more liberal men. Each man thought for himself,
+but he was very reluctant to depart from the old ways in ritual and
+doctrine; and if the ministers consulted with each other, and gave each
+other confidential assistance, there was certainly nothing in the way of
+public conference or of party assimilation and encouragement. A visitor to
+Boston in 1791 wrote of the ministers there that "they are so diverse in
+their sentiments that they cannot agree on any point in theology. Some are
+Calvinists, some Universalists, some Arminians, and one, at least, is a
+Socinian."[<a href="#fn_4_40">40</a><a name="fr_4_40"></a>] Another visitor, this time in 1801, found the range of
+opinions much wider. In all the ministers of Boston he found only one rigid
+Trinitarian; one was a follower of Edwards, several were Arminians, two
+were Socinians, one a Universalist, and one a Unitarian.[<a href="#fn_4_41">41</a><a name="fr_4_41"></a>] This writer
+says it was not difficult to find out what men did not believe, but there
+was as yet no public line of demarcation among the clergy. There being no
+outward pressure to bring men into uniformity, no institution or body of
+men with authority to require assent to a standard of orthodoxy, little
+attention was given to merely doctrinal interests. The position taken was
+that presented by Rev. John Tucker of Newbury, in the convention sermon of
+1768, when he said that no one has any right whatever to legislate in
+behalf of Christ, who alone has authority to fix the terms of the Gospel.
+He said that, as all believers and teachers of Christianity are "perfectly
+upon a level with one another, none of them can have any authority even to
+interpret the laws of this kingdom for others, so as to require their
+<a name="pg76"></a>
+assent to such interpretation." He also declared that as "every Christian
+has and must have a right to judge for himself of the true sense and
+meaning of all gospel truths, no doctrines, therefore, no laws, no
+religious rites, no terms of acceptance with God or of admission to
+Christian privileges not found in the gospel, are to be looked upon by him
+as any part of this divine system, nor to be received and submitted to as
+the doctrines and laws of Christ."[<a href="#fn_4_42">42</a><a name="fr_4_42"></a>] Of Rev. John Prince, the minister
+of the First Church in Salem during the last years of the century, it was
+said that he never "preached distinctly upon any of the points of
+controversy which, in his day, agitated the New England churches."[<a href="#fn_4_43">43</a><a name="fr_4_43"></a>] The
+minister of Roxbury, Rev. Eliphalet Porter, said of the Calvinistic
+beliefs, that there was not one of them he considered "essential to the
+Christian faith or character."[<a href="#fn_4_44">44</a><a name="fr_4_44"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn25"></a>King's Chapel becomes Unitarian.</h3>
+
+<p>These quotations will indicate the liberty of spirit that existed in the
+New England churches of the later years of the eighteenth century,
+especially in the neighborhood of Boston, and along the seacoast; and also
+the diversity of opinion on doctrinal subjects among the ministers. It is
+impossible here to follow minutely the stages of doctrinal evolution, but a
+few dates and incidents will serve to indicate the several steps that were
+taken. The first of these was the settlement of Rev. James Freeman over
+King's Chapel in 1782, and his ordination by the congregation in 1787, the
+liturgy having been revised two years earlier to conform to the liberal
+opinions of the minister and people. These changes were brought about
+<a name="pg77"></a>
+largely through the influence of Rev. William Hazlitt, the father of the
+essayist and critic of the same name, who had been settled over several of
+the smaller Unitarian churches in Great Britain. In the spring of 1783 he
+visited the United States, and spent several months in Philadelphia. He
+gave a course of lectures on the Evidences of Christianity in the college
+there, which were largely attended. He preached for several weeks in a
+country parish in Maryland, he had invitations to settle in Charleston and
+Pittsburg, and he had an opportunity to become the president of a college
+by subscribing to the doctrinal tests required, which he would not do; for
+"he would sooner die in a ditch than submit to human authority in matters
+of faith."[<a href="#fn_4_45">45</a><a name="fr_4_45"></a>] In June, 1784, he preached in the Brattle Street Church of
+Boston, and he anticipated becoming its minister; but his pronounced
+doctrinal position seems to have made that impossible. He also preached in
+Hingham, and some of the people there desired his settlement; but the aged
+Dr. Gay would not resign. It would appear that he preached for Dr. Chauncy,
+for Mr. Barnes in Salem, and also in several pulpits on Cape Cod. He gave in
+Boston his course of lectures on the Evidences of Christianity, and it was
+received with much favor by large audiences. The winter of 1784-85 was
+spent by Mr. Hazlitt in Hallowell, Me., in which place was a small group of
+wealthy English Unitarians, led by Samuel Vaughan, by whom Mr. Hazlitt had
+been entertained in Philadelphia. Mr. Hazlitt returned to Boston in the
+spring of 1785, and had some hope of settling in Roxbury. In the autumn,
+however, finding no definite promise of employment, he returned to England.
+<a name="pg78"></a>
+He afterward corresponded with Dr. Howard, of the West Church in Boston,
+and with Dr. Lathrop, of West Springfield. The volumes of sermons he
+published in 1786 and 1790 were sold in this country, and one or two of
+them republished.</p>
+
+<p>It would appear that Mr. Hazlitt's positive Unitarianism made it impossible
+for him to settle over any church in Boston or its neighborhood. In 1784 he
+assisted Dr. Freeman in revising the Prayer Book, the form of prayer used
+by Dr. Lindsey[<a href="#fn_4_46">46</a><a name="fr_4_46"></a>] in the Essex Street Chapel in London being adapted to
+the new conditions at King's Chapel. He also republished in Philadelphia
+and Boston many of Dr. Priestley's Unitarian tracts, while writing much
+himself for publication.[<a href="#fn_4_47">47</a><a name="fr_4_47"></a>] In his correspondence with Theophilus
+Lindsey, Dr. Freeman wrote of Mr. Hazlitt as a pious, zealous, and
+intelligent minister, to whose instructions and conversation he was
+<a name="pg79"></a>
+particularly indebted.[<a href="#fn_4_48">48</a><a name="fr_4_48"></a>] "Before Mr. Hazlitt came to Boston", Dr.
+Freeman wrote, "the Trinitarian doxology was almost universally used. That
+honest, good man prevailed upon several respectable ministers to omit it.
+Since his departure the number of those who repeat only Scriptural
+doxologies has greatly increased, so that there are now many churches in
+which the worship is strictly Unitarian."[<a href="#fn_4_49">49</a><a name="fr_4_49"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Beginning with the year 1786, several of the liberal men in Boston were in
+correspondence with the leading Unitarian ministers in London, and their
+letters were afterward published by Thomas Belsham in his Life of
+Theophilus Lindsey. From this work we learn that Dr. Lindsey presented his
+own theological works and those of Dr. Priestley to Harvard College, and
+that they were read with great avidity by the students.[<a href="#fn_4_50">50</a><a name="fr_4_50"></a>] One of the
+<a name="pg80"></a>
+Boston correspondents, writing in 1783, names James Bowdoin, governor of
+Massachusetts in 1785 and 1786, General Benjamin Lincoln, and General Henry
+Knox as among the liberal men. He said: "There are many others besides, in
+our legislature, of similar sentiments. While so many of our great men are
+thus on the side of truth and free inquiry, they will necessarily influence
+many of the common people."[<a href="#fn_4_51">51</a><a name="fr_4_51"></a>] He also said that people were less
+frightened at the Socinian name than formerly, and that this form of
+Christianity was beginning to have some public advocates. The only minister
+who preached in favor of it was Mr. Bentley, of Salem, who was described as
+"a young man of a bold, independent mind, of strong, natural powers, and of
+more skill in the learned languages than any person of his years in the
+state." Mr. Bentley's congregation was spoken of as uncommonly liberal, not
+alarmed at any improvements, and pleased with his introduction into the
+pulpit of various modern translations of the Scriptures, especially of the
+prophecies.[<a href="#fn_4_52">52</a><a name="fr_4_52"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn26"></a>Other Unitarian Movements.</h3>
+
+<p>In March, 1792, a Unitarian congregation was formed in Portland under the
+leadership of Thomas Oxnard, who had been an Episcopalian. Having been
+supplied with the works of Priestley and Lindsey through the generosity of
+Dr. Freeman, he became a Unitarian; and his personal intercourse with Dr.
+Freeman gave strength to his changed convictions. A number of persons of
+property and respectability of character joined him in accepting his new
+faith. In writing to his friend in November, 1788, Mr. Oxnard said: "I
+<a name="pg81"></a>
+cannot express to you the avidity with which these Unitarian publications
+are sought after. Our friends here are clearly convinced that the Unitarian
+doctrine will soon become the prevailing opinion in this country. Three
+years ago I did not know a single Unitarian in this part of the country
+besides myself; and now, entirely from the various publications you have
+furnished, a decent society might be collected in this and the neighboring
+towns."[<a href="#fn_4_53">53</a><a name="fr_4_53"></a>] In 1792 an attempt was made to introduce a revised liturgy
+into the Episcopal church of Portland; and, when this was resisted, a
+majority of the congregation seceded and formed a Unitarian society, with
+Mr. Oxnard as the minister. This society was continued for a few years, and
+then ceased to exist. The members joined the first Congregational church,
+which in 1809, became Unitarian.[<a href="#fn_4_54">54</a><a name="fr_4_54"></a>] Also in 1792 was organized a
+Unitarian congregation in Saco, under the auspices of Hon. Samuel Thatcher,
+a member of Congress and a Massachusetts judge.[<a href="#fn_4_55">55</a><a name="fr_4_55"></a>] Mr. Thatcher had been
+an unbeliever, but through the reading of Priestley's works he became a
+sincere and rational Christian. He met with much opposition from his
+neighbors, and an effort was made to prevent his re-election to Congress;
+but it did not succeed. The Saco congregation was at first connected with
+that at Portland, and it seems to have ceased its existence at the same
+time.[<a href="#fn_4_56">56</a><a name="fr_4_56"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg82"></a>
+<p>In 1794 Dr. Freeman wrote that Unitarianism was making considerable
+progress in the southern counties of Massachusetts. In Barnstable he
+reported "a very large body of Unitarians."[<a href="#fn_4_57">57</a><a name="fr_4_57"></a>] Writing in May, 1796, he
+states that Unitarianism is on the increase in Maine, that it is making a
+considerable increase in the southern part of Massachusetts, and that a few
+seeds have been sown in Vermont. He thinks it may be losing ground in some
+places, but that it is growing in others. "I consider it," he writes, "as
+one of the most happy effects which have resulted from my feeble exertions
+in the Unitarian cause, that they have introduced me to the knowledge and
+friendship of some of the most valuable characters of the present age, men
+of enlightened heads and benevolent hearts. Though it is a standing article
+of most of our social libraries, that nothing of a controversial character
+should be purchased, yet any book which is presented is freely accepted. I
+have found means, therefore, of introducing into them some of the Unitarian
+Tracts with which you have kindly furnished me. There are few persons who
+have not read them with avidity; and when read they cannot fail to make an
+impression upon the minds of many. From these and other causes the
+Unitarian doctrine appears to be still upon the increase. I am acquainted
+with a number of ministers, particularly in the southern part of this
+state, who avow and publicly preach this sentiment. There are others more
+cautious, who content themselves with leading their hearers by a course of
+rational but prudent sermons gradually and insensibly to embrace it. Though
+this latter mode is not what I entirely approve, yet it produces good
+<a name="pg83"></a>
+effects. For the people are thus kept out of the reach of false opinions,
+and are prepared for the impressions which will be made on them by more
+bold and ardent successors, who will probably be raised up when these timid
+characters are removed off the stage. The clergy are generally the first
+who begin to speculate; but the people soon follow, where they are so much
+accustomed to read and enquire."[<a href="#fn_4_58">58</a><a name="fr_4_58"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>In 1793 was published Jeremy Belknap's biography of Samuel Watts, who was
+an Arian, or, at least, held to the subordinate nature of Christ. This book
+had a very considerable influence in directing attention to the doctrine of
+the Trinity, and in inducing inquiring men to study the subject critically
+for themselves. In 1797 Dr. Belknap became the minister of the Federal
+Street Church in Boston, and his preaching was from that time distinctly
+Unitarian. Dr. Joseph Priestley removed to Philadelphia in 1794, and he was
+at first listened to by large congregations. His humanitarian
+theology--that is, his denial of divinity as well as deity to
+Christ--probably had the effect of limiting the interest in his teachings.
+However, a small congregation was established in Philadelphia in 1796,
+formed mostly of English Unitarians. A congregation was gathered at
+Northumberland in 1794, to which place Priestley removed in that year.</p>
+
+<p>In the year 1800 a division took place in the church at Plymouth, owing to
+the growth there of liberal sentiments. These began to manifest themselves
+as early as 1742, as a reaction from the intense revivalism of that
+<a name="pg84"></a>
+Period.[<a href="#fn_4_59">59</a><a name="fr_4_59"></a>] Rev. Chandler Bobbins, who was strictly Calvinistic in his
+theology, was the minister from 1760 until his death in 1799. In 1794 a
+considerable number of persons in the parish discussed the desirability of
+organizing another church, in order to secure more liberal preaching. It
+was recognized that Mr. Robbins was an old man, that he was very much
+beloved, and that in a few years the opportunity desired would be presented
+without needless agitation; and the effort was therefore deferred. In
+November, 1799, at a meeting held for the election of a new pastor,
+twenty-three members of the church were in favor of Rev. James Kendall, the
+only candidate, while fifteen were in opposition. When the parish voted,
+two hundred and fifty-three favored Mr. Kendall, and fifteen were opposed.
+In September, 1800, the conservative minority, numbering eighteen males and
+thirty-five females, withdrew; and two years later they organized the
+society now called the Church of the Pilgrimage. The settlement of Mr.
+Kendall, a pronounced Arminian,[<a href="#fn_4_60">60</a><a name="fr_4_60"></a>] was an instance of the almost complete
+abandonment of Calvinism on the part of a congregation, in opposition to
+the preaching from the pulpit. In spite of the strict confession of faith
+which Dr. Robbins had persuaded the church to adopt, the parish outgrew the
+old teachings. Mr. Kendall, with the approval of his church, soon grew into
+a Unitarian; and it was fitting that the church of the Mayflower, the
+church of Robinson and Brewster, should lead the way in this advance.</p>
+
+<p>As yet there was no controversy, except in a quiet way. Occasionally sharp
+<a name="pg85"></a>
+criticism was uttered, especially in convention and election sermons; but
+there was no thought of separation or exclusion. The liberal men showed a
+tendency to magnify the work of charity; and they were, in a limited
+degree, zealous in every kind of philanthropic effort. More distinctly,
+however, they showed their position in their enthusiasm for the Bible and
+in their summing up of Christianity in loyalty to Christ. Towards all
+creeds and dogmas they were indifferent and silent, except as they
+occasionally spoke plainly out to condemn them. They believed in and
+preached toleration, and their whole movement stood more distinctly for
+comprehensiveness and latitudinarianism than for aught else. They were not
+greatly concerned about theological problems; but they thoroughly believed
+in a broad, generous, sympathetic, and practical Christianity, that would
+exemplify the teachings of Christ, and that would lead men to a pure and
+noble moral life.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn27"></a>Growth of Toleration.</h3>
+
+<p>That toleration was not as yet fully accepted in Massachusetts is seen in
+the fact that the proposed Constitution of 1778 was defeated because it
+provided for freedom of worship on the part of all Protestant
+denominations. The dominant religious body was not yet ready to put itself
+on a level with the other sects. In the Constitutional Convention of 1779
+the more liberal men worked with the Baptists to secure a separation of
+state and church. Such men as Drs. Chauncy, Mayhew, West, and Shute were
+desirous of the broadest toleration; and they did what they could to secure
+it. As early as 1768, Dr. Chauncy spoke in plainest terms in opposition to
+the state support of religion. "We are in principle," he wrote, "against
+<a name="pg86"></a>
+all civil establishments in religion. It does not appear to us that God has
+entrusted, the state with a right to make religious establishments. But let
+it be heedfully minded we claim no right to desire the interposition of the
+state to establish the mode of worship, government or discipline, we
+apprehend is most agreeable to the mind of Christ. We desire no other
+liberty than to be left unrestrained in the exercise of our principles, in
+so far as we are good members of society.... The plain truth is, by the
+gospel charter, all professed Christians are vested with precisely the same
+rights; nor has our denomination any more a right to the interposition of
+the civil magistrate in their favor than any other; and whenever this
+difference takes place, it is beside the rule of Scripture, and the genuine
+dictates, of uncorrupted reason."[<a href="#fn_4_61">61</a><a name="fr_4_61"></a>] All persons throughout the state, of
+whatever religious connection, who had become emancipated from the Puritan
+spirit, supported him in this opinion. They were in the minority as yet,
+and they were not organized. Therefore, their efforts were unsuccessful.</p>
+
+<p>Another testing of public sentiment on this subject was had in the
+Massachusetts convention which, in 1788, ratified the Constitution of the
+United States. The sixth article, which provides that "no religious tests
+shall ever be required as a qualification to any office," was the occasion
+of a prolonged debate and much opposition. Hon. Theophilus Parsons took the
+liberal side, and declared that "the only evidence we can have of the
+sincerity and excellency of a man's religion is a good life," precisely the
+position of the liberal men. By several members it was urged, however, that
+<a name="pg87"></a>
+this article was a departure from the principles of our forefathers, who
+came here for the preservation of their religion, and that it would admit
+deists and atheists into the general government.</p>
+
+<p>In these efforts to secure religious toleration as a fundamental law of the
+state and nation the Baptist denomination took an active and a leading
+part. Not less faithful to this cause were the liberal men among the
+Congregationalists, while the opposition came almost wholly from the
+Calvinistic and orthodox churches. Such leaders on the liberal side as Dr.
+David Shute of the South Parish in Hingham, Rev. Thomas Thatcher of the
+West Parish in Dedham, and Dr. Samuel West of New Bedford, were loyally
+devoted in the convention to the support of the toleration act of the
+Constitution. In the membership of the convention there were seventeen
+ministers, and fourteen of them voted for the Constitution. The opinions of
+the fourteen were expressed by Rev. Phillips Payson, the minister of
+Chelsea, who held that a religious test would be a great blemish on the
+Constitution. He also said that God is the God of the conscience, and for
+human tribunals to encroach upon the consciences of men is impious.[<a href="#fn_4_62">62</a><a name="fr_4_62"></a>] As
+the Constitution was ratified by only a small majority of the convention,
+and as at the opening of its sessions the opposition seemed almost
+overwhelming, the position taken by the more liberal ministers was a sure
+indication of growing liberality. The great majority of the people,
+however, were still strongly in favor of the old religious tests and
+<a name="pg88"></a>
+restrictions, as was fully indicated by subsequent events. The Revolution
+operated as a liberalizing influence, because of the breaking of old
+customs and the discussion of the principles of liberty attendant upon the
+adoption of the state and national constitutions. The growth of democratic
+sentiment made a strong opposition to the churches and their privileges,
+and it caused a diminution of reverence for the authority of the clergy.
+The twenty years following the Revolution showed a notable growth in
+liberal opinions.</p>
+
+<p>Universalism presented itself as a new form of Calvinism, its advocates
+claiming that God decreed that all should be saved, and that his will would
+be triumphant. In many parts of the country the doctrine of universal
+salvation began to be heard during the last two decades of the eighteenth
+century, and the growth of interest in it was rapid from the beginning of
+the nineteenth. This movement began in the Baptist churches, but it soon
+appeared in others. At first it was undefined, a protest against the harsh
+teaching of future punishment. It was a part of the humanitarian awakening
+of the time, the new faith in man, the recognition that love is diviner
+than wrath. Many persons found escape from creeds that were hateful to them
+into this new and more hopeful interpretation of religion. Persons of every
+shade of protest, and "infidelity," and free thinking, found their way into
+this new body; and great was the condemnation and hatred with which it was
+received on the part of the other sects. In time this movement clarified
+itself, and it has had a positive influence for piety and for nobler views
+of God and the future.</p>
+
+<p>Of much the same nature was the movement within the fellowship of the
+<a name="pg89"></a>
+Friends led by Thomas Hicks. It was Unitarian and reformatory, influenced
+by the growing democracy and zeal for humanity the age was everywhere
+manifesting.</p>
+
+<p>In the border states between north and south began, during the last decade
+of the eighteenth century, a movement in favor of discarding all creeds and
+confessions. It favored a return to the Bible itself as the great
+Protestant book, and as the one revealed word of God. Without learning or
+culture, these persons sought to make their faith in Christ more real by an
+evangelical obedience to his teachings. Some of them called themselves
+Disciples, holding that to follow Christ is quite enough. Others said that
+no other name than Christian is required. They were Biblical in their
+theology, and unsectarian in their attitude towards the forms and rituals
+of the church. In time these scattered groups of earnest seekers for a
+better Christian way, from Maine to Georgia, came to know each other and to
+organize for the common good.</p>
+
+<p>With the rapid growth of Methodism the Arminian view of man was widely
+adopted. The Baptists received into their fellowship in all parts of New
+England, at least, many who were not deeply in sympathy with their strict
+rules, but who found with them a means of protesting against the harsher
+methods of the "standing order" of Congregationalists. Their demand for
+toleration and liberty of conscience began to receive recognition after the
+Revolution, and their influence was a powerful one in bringing about the
+separation of state and church. Those who were dissatisfied with a church
+that taxed all the people, and that was upheld by state authority, found
+with the Baptists a means of making their protest heard and felt.</p>
+
+<a name="pg90"></a>
+<p>In all directions the democratic spirit was being manifested, and
+conditions which had been upheld by the restrictive authority of England
+had to give way. The people were now speaking, and not the ministers only.
+It was an age of individualism, and of the reassertion of the tendency that
+had characterized New England from the first, but that had been held in
+check by autocratic power. There was no outbreak, no rapid change, no
+iconoclastic overturning of old institutions and customs, but the people
+were coming to their own, thinking for themselves. In reality, the people
+were conservative, especially in New England; and they moved slowly, there
+was little infidelity, and steadily were the old ideals maintained. Yet the
+individualism would assert itself. Men held the old creeds in distinctly
+personal ways, and the churches grew into more and more of independency.</p>
+
+<p>The theological development of the eighteenth century took two directions:
+that of rationalism and a demand for free inquiry, as represented by
+Jonathan Mayhew and William Bentley; and that of a philanthropic protest
+against the harsh features of Calvinism, as represented by Charles Chauncy
+and the Universalists. The demand that all theological problems should be
+submitted to reason for vindication or readjustment was not widely urged;
+but a few men recognized the worth of this claim, and applied this method
+without hesitation. A larger number followed them with hesitating steps,
+but with a growing confidence in reason as God's method for man's finding
+and maintaining the truth. The other tendency grew out of a benevolent
+desire to justify the ways of God to man, and was the expression of a
+<a name="pg91"></a>
+deepening faith that the Divine Being deals with his children in a fatherly
+manner. That God is generous and loving was the faith of Dr. Chauncy, as it
+was of the Universalists and of the more liberal party among the
+Calvinists. Their philanthropic feelings toward their fellow-men seemed to
+them representative of God's ways of dealing with his creatures.</p>
+
+<p><br >[<a href="#fr_4_1">1</a><a name="fn_4_1"></a>] Levi L. Paine, A Critical History of the Evolution of Trinitarianism,
+    105. "Nathaniel Emmons held tenaciously to three real persons. He said,
+    'It is as easy to conceive of God existing in three persons as in one
+    person.' This language shows that Emmons employed the term 'person' in
+    the strict literal sense. The three are absolutely equal, this
+    involving the metaphysical assumption that in the Trinity being and
+    person are not coincident. Emmons is the first theologian who asserts
+    that, though we cannot conceive that three persons should be one
+    person, we may conceive that three persons may be one Being, 'if we
+    only suppose that being may signify something different from person in
+    respect to Deity.'"</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_2">2</a><a name="fn_4_2"></a>] E.H. Gillett, History and Literature of the Unitarian Controversy.
+    Historical Magazine, April 1871; second series, IX. 222.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_3">3</a><a name="fn_4_3"></a>] Letter to Scripturista by Paulinus, 18.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_4">4</a><a name="fn_4_4"></a>] William S. Pattee, A History of Old Braintree and Quincy, 222. When a
+    copy of Dr. Jedediah Morse's little book on American Unitarianism was
+    sent to John Adams, he acknowledged its receipt in the following
+    letter:--</p>
+
+<p>      QUINCY, May 15, 1815.</p>
+
+<p>      <i>Dear Doctor</i>,--I thank you for your favor of the 10th, and the
+      pamphlet enclosed, entitled American Unitarianism. I have turned
+      over its leaves, and found nothing that was not familiarly known to
+      me. In the preface Unitarianism is represented as only thirty years
+      old in New England. I can testify as a witness to its old age.
+      Sixty-five years ago my own minister, the Rev. Lemuel Briant; Dr.
+      Jonathan Mayhew, of the West Church in Boston; the Rev. Mr. Shute,
+      of Hingham; the Rev. John Brown, of Cohasset; and perhaps equal to
+      all, if not above all, the, Rev. Mr. Gay, of Hingham, were
+      Unitarians. Among the laity how many could I name, lawyers,
+      physicians, tradesmen, farmers! But at present I will name only
+      one, Richard Cranch, a man who had studied divinity, and Jewish and
+      Christian antiquities, more than any clergyman now existing in New
+      England.</p>
+
+<p>      JOHN ADAMS.</p>
+
+<p>    Also see C.F. Adams, Three Episodes of Massachusetts History, 643; and
+    J.H. Allen, An Historical Sketch of the Unitarian Movement since the
+    Reformation, 175.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_5">5</a><a name="fn_4_5"></a>] History of Hingham, I., Part II., 24, Memoir of Ebenezer Gay, by
+    Solomon Lincoln.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_6">6</a><a name="fn_4_6"></a>] Sermons, 1755, 83.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_7">7</a><a name="fn_4_7"></a>] Ibid., 103.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_8">8</a><a name="fn_4_8"></a>] Ibid., 119.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_9">9</a><a name="fn_4_9"></a>] Ibid., 125.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_10">10</a><a name="fn_4_10"></a>] Ibid., 245.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_11">11</a><a name="fn_4_11"></a>] Sermons, 1755, 50.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_12">12</a><a name="fn_4_12"></a>] Ibid., 82.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_13">13</a><a name="fn_4_13"></a>] Sermons, 1755, 83.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_14">14</a><a name="fn_4_14"></a>] Ibid., 65.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_15">15</a><a name="fn_4_15"></a>] Ibid., 62.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_16">16</a><a name="fn_4_16"></a>] Ibid., 63.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_17">17</a><a name="fn_4_17"></a>] Ibid, 268, 269.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_18">18</a><a name="fn_4_18"></a>] Sermons, 1755, 275, 276.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_19">19</a><a name="fn_4_19"></a>] A. Bradford, Memoir of the Life and Writings of Rev. Jonathan Mayhew,
+     D.D., 36.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_20">20</a><a name="fn_4_20"></a>] Ibid., 464.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_21">21</a><a name="fn_4_21"></a>] Letter from his daughter, quoted by Bartol, The West Church and its
+     Ministers, 129.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_22">22</a><a name="fn_4_22"></a>] Sermons, 293</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_23">23</a><a name="fn_4_23"></a>] C.A. Bartol, The West Church and its Ministers.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_24">24</a><a name="fn_4_24"></a>] Reply to Dr. Chandler, quoted in Sprague's Annals of the Unitarian
+     Pulpit, 9.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_25">25</a><a name="fn_4_25"></a>] Remarks upon a Sermon of the Bishop of Landaff, quoted by Sprague.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_26">26</a><a name="fn_4_26"></a>] Chauncy's many published sermons and volumes are carefully enumerated
+     by Paul Leicester Ford in his Bibliotheca Chaunciana, a List of the
+     Writings of Charles Chauncy. He gives the titles of sixty-one books
+     and pamphlets published by Chauncy, and of eighty-eight about him or
+     in reply to him.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_27">27</a><a name="fn_4_27"></a>] Sprague's Annals, 49; W.J. Potter, History of the First Congregational
+     Society, New Bedford.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_28">28</a><a name="fn_4_28"></a>] Sprague's Annals. 42.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_29">29</a><a name="fn_4_29"></a>] George Batchelor, Social Equilibrium, 263, 264.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_30">30</a><a name="fn_4_30"></a>] Ibid., 265.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_31">31</a><a name="fn_4_31"></a>] Sprague's Annals, 131.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_32">32</a><a name="fn_4_32"></a>] Father of the essayist of the same name.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_33">33</a><a name="fn_4_33"></a>] Joseph Priestley, 1733-1804, was one of the ablest of English
+     Unitarians. Educated in non-conformist schools, in 1755 he became a
+     Presbyterian minister. In 1761 he became a tutor in a non-conformist
+     academy, and in 1767 he was settled over a congregation in Leeds. He
+     was the librarian of Lord Shelburne from 1774 until he was settled in
+     Birmingham as minister, in 1780. In 1791 a mob destroyed his house,
+     his manuscripts, and his scientific apparatus, because of his liberal
+     political views. After three years as a preacher in Hackney, he
+     removed to the United States in 1794, and settled at Northumberland
+     in Pennsylvania, where the remainder of his life was spent. He
+     published one hundred and thirty distinct works, of which those best
+     remembered are his Institutes of Natural and Revealed Religion, A
+     History of the Corruptions of Christianity, and A General History of
+     the Christian Church to the Fall of the Western Empire. He was the
+     discoverer of oxygen, and holds a high place in the history of
+     science. He was a materialist, but believed in immortality; and he
+     believed that Christ was a man in his nature.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_34">34</a><a name="fn_4_34"></a>] C.S. Osgood and H.M. Batchelder, Historical Sketch of Salem, 86. "He
+     took strong Arminian grounds; and under his lead the church became
+     practically Unitarian in 1785, and was one of the first churches in
+     America to adopt that faith."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_35">35</a><a name="fn_4_35"></a>] George Batchelor, Social Equilibrium, 270.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_36">36</a><a name="fn_4_36"></a>] Ibid., 267.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_37">37</a><a name="fn_4_37"></a>] Ibid., 283.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_38">38</a><a name="fn_4_38"></a>] E. Smalley, The Worcester Pulpit, 226, 232.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_39">39</a><a name="fn_4_39"></a>] See the Unitarian Advocate and Religious Miscellany, January, 1831,
+     new series, III. 27, for Aaron Bancroft's recollections of this
+     period. In the same volume was published Ezra Ripley's reminiscences,
+     contained in the March, April, and May numbers. They are both of much
+     importance for the history of this period. Also the third volume of
+     first series, June, 1829, gives an important letter from Francis
+     Parkman concerning Unitarianism in Boston in 1812.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_40">40</a><a name="fn_4_40"></a>] Life of Ashbel Green, President of Princeton College, 236.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_41">41</a><a name="fn_4_41"></a>] Life of Archibald Alexander, 252.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_42">42</a><a name="fn_4_42"></a>] Convention Sermon, 12, 13.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_43">43</a><a name="fn_4_43"></a>] Sprague, Annals of Unitarian Pulpit, 131.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_44">44</a><a name="fn_4_44"></a>] Ibid., 159.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_45">45</a><a name="fn_4_45"></a>] This is the statement of his daughter.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_46">46</a><a name="fn_4_46"></a>] Theophilus Lindsey, 1723-1808, was a curate in London, then the tutor
+     of the Duke of Northumberland, and afterward a rector in Yorkshire
+     and Dorsetshire. In 1763 he was settled at Catterick, in Yorkshire,
+     where his study of the Bible led him to doubt the truth of the
+     doctrine of the Trinity. In 1771 he joined with others in a petition
+     to Parliament asking that clergymen might not be required to
+     subscribe to the thirty-nine articles. When it was rejected a second
+     time he resigned, went to London, and opened in a room in Essex
+     Street, April 1774, the first permanent Unitarian meeting in England.
+     A chapel was built for him in 1778, and he preached there until 1793.
+<a name="pg92"></a>
+     He published, in 1783, An Historical View of the State of the
+     Unitarian Doctrine and Worship from the Reformation to our own Times,
+     two volumes of sermons, and other works. In 1774 he published a
+     revised Prayer Book according to the plan suggested by Dr. Samuel
+     Clarke, which was used in the Essex Street Chapel.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_47">47</a><a name="fn_4_47"></a>] Four Generations of a Literary Family: The Hazlitts in England,
+     Ireland, and America, 23, 26, 30, 40, 43, 50; Lamb and Hazlitt:
+     Further Letters and Records, 11-15.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_48">48</a><a name="fn_4_48"></a>] Monthly Repository, III., 305. Mr. Hazlitt "arrived at Boston May 15,
+     1784; and, having a letter to Mr. Eliot, who received him with great
+     kindness, he was introduced on that very day to the Boston
+     Association of Ministers. The venerable Chauncy, at whose house it
+     happened to be held, entered into a familiar conversation with him,
+     and showed him every possible respect as he learned that he had been
+     acquainted with Dr. Price. Without knowing at the time anything of
+     the occasion which led to it, ordination happened to be the general
+     subject of discussion. After the different gentlemen had severally
+     delivered their opinions, the stranger was requested to declare his
+     sentiments, who unhesitatingly replied that the people or the
+     congregation who chose any man to be their minister were his proper
+     ordainers. Mr. Freeman, upon hearing this, jumped from his seat in a
+     kind of transport, saying, 'I wish you could prove that, Sir,' The
+     gentleman answered that 'few things could admit of an easier proof.'
+     And from that moment a thorough intimacy commenced between him and
+     Mr. Freeman. Soon after, the Boston prints being under no
+     <i>imprimatur</i>, he published several letters in supporting the cause of
+     Mr. Freeman. At the solicitation of Mr. Freeman he also published a
+     Scriptural Confutation of the Thirty-nine Articles. Notice being
+     circulated that this publication would appear on a particular day, the
+     printer, apprised of this circumstance, threw off a hundred papers
+     beyond his usual number, and had not one paper remaining upon his
+     hands at noon. This publication in its consequences converted Mr.
+     Freeman's congregation into a Unitarian church, which, as Mr. Freeman
+     acknowledged, could never have been done without the labors of this
+     gentleman."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_49">49</a><a name="fn_4_49"></a>] American Unitarianism, from Belsham's Life of Lindsey, 12,
+     <i>note</i>.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_50">50</a><a name="fn_4_50"></a>] American Unitarianism, 16.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_51">51</a><a name="fn_4_51"></a>] American Unitarianism, note.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_52">52</a><a name="fn_4_52"></a>] Ibid., 20.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_53">53</a><a name="fn_4_53"></a>] American Unitarianism, 17.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_54">54</a><a name="fn_4_54"></a>] "Oxnard was a merchant, born in Boston in 1740, but settled in
+     Portland, where he married the daughter of General Preble, in 1787.
+     He was a loyalist, and fled from the country at the outbreak of the
+     war. He returned to Portland in 1787. A few years later, 1792, the
+     Episcopal church being destitute of a minister, he was engaged as lay
+     reader, with the intention of taking orders. His Unitarianism put a
+     sudden end to his Episcopacy, but not to his preaching. He gathered a
+     small congregation in the school-house, and preached sometimes
+     sermons of his own, but more often of other men. He died in 1799."
+     John C. Perkins, How the First Parish became Unitarian,--historical
+     sermon preached in Portland.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_55">55</a><a name="fn_4_55"></a>] American Unitarianism, 18.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_56">56</a><a name="fn_4_56"></a>] Ibid., 17, 20.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_57">57</a><a name="fn_4_57"></a>] American Unitarianism, 24.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_58">58</a><a name="fn_4_58"></a>] American Unitarianism, 22.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_59">59</a><a name="fn_4_59"></a>] Church Records, in MS., II. 7.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_60">60</a><a name="fn_4_60"></a>] Rev. Thomas Robbins, Diary for October 13, 1799, I. 97, heard Mr.
+     Kendall, and said: "He appears to be an Arminian in full. I fear he
+     will lead many souls astray." See John Cuckson, A Brief History of
+     the First Church in Plymouth, eighth chapter.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_61">61</a><a name="fn_4_61"></a>] Chauncy against Chandler, 152.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_62">62</a><a name="fn_4_62"></a>] These particulars are taken from the Debates and Proceedings in the
+     Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts held in the year
+     1788, and which finally ratified the Constitution of the United
+     States, Boston, 1856.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><br ><a name="ch5"></a>V.<br >
+
+
+THE PERIOD OF CONTROVERSY.</h2>
+
+<p>In the spring of 1805 Rev. Henry Ware, who had been for nearly twenty years
+pastor of the first church in the town of Hingham, was inaugurated as the
+Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard College. The place had been made
+vacant by the death of Professor David Tappan, who was a moderate
+Calvinist; that is, one who recognized the sovereignty of God, but allowed
+to man a limited opportunity for personal effort in the process of
+salvation. It was assumed by the conservative party that a Calvinist would
+be appointed, because the founder of this important professorship, it was
+claimed, was of that way of thinking, and so conditioned his gift as to
+require that no one but a Calvinist should hold the position. This was
+strenuously denied by the liberals, who maintained that Hollis was not only
+liberal and catholic in his own theology, but that he made no such
+restrictions as were claimed.[<a href="#fn_5_1">1</a><a name="fr_5_1"></a>] When the nomination of Mr. Ware was
+presented to the overseers, it was strongly opposed; but he was elected by
+a considerable majority. A pamphlet soon appeared in opposition to him, and
+this was the beginning of a controversy that lasted for a quarter of a
+century.[<a href="#fn_5_2">2</a><a name="fr_5_2"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>This war of pamphlets was made more furious by Rev. John Sherman's One God
+<a name="pg93"></a>
+in One Person Only, and Rev. Hosea Ballou's Treatise on the Atonement, both
+of which appeared in 1805. Mr. Sherman's book was described in The Monthly
+Anthology as "one of the first acts of direct hostility against the
+orthodox committed on these western shores."[<a href="#fn_5_3">3</a><a name="fr_5_3"></a>] The little book by Hosea
+Ballou had small influence on the current of religious thinking outside the
+Universalist body, to which he belonged, and probably did not at all enter
+into the controversy between the orthodox and the liberal
+Congregationalists. It was, however, the first positive statement of the
+doctrine of the atonement in a rational form, not as expiatory, but as
+reconciling man to the loving authority of God. Within a decade it brought
+the leading Universalists to the Unitarian position.[<a href="#fn_5_4">4</a><a name="fr_5_4"></a>] These works were
+followed, in 1810, by Rev. Noah Worcester's Bible News of the Father, Son,
+and Holy Ghost, which presented clearly and forcibly an Arian view of the
+Trinity, or the subordination of Christ to God. These definitions of their
+position on the part of the liberals were met by the publication of The
+Panoplist, which was begun by Dr. Jedidiah Morse, of Charlestown, Mass., in
+1805. This magazine interpreted the orthodox positions, and devoted itself
+zealously to the defence of the old ideas, as understood by its editors. It
+was not vehemently aggressive, but was largely devoted to general religious
+interests, and to the promotion of a higher spirit of devotion. It was
+followed by The Spirit of the Pilgrims, which was more combative, and in
+some degree intolerant. In the year 1808 the Andover Theological School was
+<a name="pg94"></a>
+founded, the result of a reconciliation between the Hopkinsians and the
+Calvinists of the old type, affording an opportunity for theological
+training on the part of those who could not accept the liberal attitude of
+Harvard.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the liberal men of this time refused to bring their beliefs to the
+test of exact definition. It was their opinion that no theological
+statement can have high value in relation to Christian attainments. Under
+these conditions were trained the men who became the leaders in the early
+Unitarian movement. William Ellery Channing, who was settled over the
+Federal Street Church in June, 1803, was distinctly evangelical, and of a
+profound and earnest piety. Slowly he grew to accept the liberal attitude,
+as the result of his love of freedom, his lofty spirituality of nature, and
+his tolerant and generous cast of mind. He gave spiritual and intellectual
+direction to the new movement, guided its philanthropic efforts, and
+brought to noble issue its spiritual philosophy. Early in the year 1804,
+Joseph Stevens Buckminster was settled over the Brattle Street Church; and,
+though he preached but a little over six years before a blighting disease
+took him away, yet he left behind a tradition of great pulpit gifts and a
+wonderfully attractive personality. Another to die in early manhood was
+Samuel Cooper Thacher, who was settled at the New South in 1811, and who
+was long remembered for his scholarship and his zeal in the work which he
+had undertaken. Charles Lowell went to the West Church in 1806, and he
+nobly sustained the traditions for liberality and spiritual freedom that
+had gathered about that place of worship. In 1814 appeared Edward Everett,
+at the age of twenty (which had been that of Buckminster when he entered
+the pulpit), as the minister of the Brattle Street Church, to charm with
+<a name="pg95"></a>
+his eloquence, learning, grace, and power. Francis Parkman began his career
+at the New North in 1812,--"a man of various information, a kind spirit,
+singular benevolence, polished yet simple manners, fine literary
+taste."[<a href="#fn_5_5">5</a><a name="fr_5_5"></a>] A few years later John Gorham Palfrey became the minister of
+the Brattle Street Church, and James Walker was settled over the Harvard
+Church in Charlestown. Among the laymen in the churches to which these men
+preached were many persons of distinction. The liberal fellowship,
+therefore, was of the highest social and intellectual standing. The piety
+of the churches was serious, if not profound; and the religion presented
+was simple, sincere, intellectual, and earnestly spiritual.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn28"></a>The Monthly Anthology.</h3>
+
+<p>The practical and tolerant aims of the liberals were shown by the manner in
+which they began to give expression publicly to their position. In The
+Monthly Anthology they first found voice, although that publication was
+started without the slightest controversial purpose. Begun by a young man
+as a monthly literary journal in 1803, when he found it would not support
+him, he abandoned it;[<a href="#fn_5_6">6</a><a name="fr_5_6"></a>] and the publishers asked Rev. William Emerson,
+<a name="pg96"></a>
+the minister of the First Church in Boston, to take charge of it. He
+consented to do so, and gathered about him a company of friends to aid him
+in its management. Their meetings finally grew into The Anthology Club,
+which continued the publication through ten volumes. Among the members were
+William Emerson, Samuel Cooper Thacher, Joseph S. Buckminster, and Joseph
+Tuckerman, pastors of churches in Boston and vicinity of the liberal
+school. There was also John S.J. Gardiner, the rector of Trinity Church,
+who was the president of the club throughout the whole period of its
+existence, and one of the most frequent contributors to the periodical. The
+members were not drawn together by any sectarian spirit, but by a common
+aim of doing something for literature, and for the advancement of culture.
+The Monthly Anthology was the first distinctly literary journal published
+in this country. It had an important influence in developing the
+intellectual tastes of New England, and of giving initiative to its
+literary capacities. The spirit of The Monthly Anthology was broad and
+catholic. Naturally, therefore, in its pages the liberals made their first
+protest against party aims and methods. In a few instances theological
+problems were discussed, the extreme Trinitarian doctrines were criticised,
+and the liberal attitude was defended.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn29"></a>Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity.</h3>
+
+<p>In the year 1806 Rev. William Emerson began the publication of The
+Christian Monitor, in his capacity as the secretary of the Society for
+promoting Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity, a society then newly
+<a name="pg97"></a>
+founded by residents of Boston and its vicinity for the purpose of
+publishing enlightened and practical tracts and books. This series of small
+books, each containing one hundred and fifty or two hundred pages, and
+issued quarterly, was begun for the purpose of publishing devotional works
+of a practical and liberal type. The first number contained prayers and
+devotional exercises for personal or family use, and there followed Bishop
+Newcombe's Life and Character of Christ, a condensed reproduction of Law's
+Serious Call, Bishop Hall's Contemplations, Erskine's Letters to the
+Bereaved, and two or three volumes of sermons on religious duties and the
+education of children.</p>
+
+<p>Besides The Christian Monitor this society issued a series of Religious
+Tracts which had a considerable circulation. Then it undertook the
+publication of books for children, and for family reading. In aiming to
+publish works of pure morality and practical piety, its methods were
+thoroughly catholic and liberal; for it was unsectarian, and yet earnestly
+Christian. The spirit and methods of this society were thoroughly
+characteristic of the time when it was organized, and of the men who gave
+it life and purpose. Not dogma, but piety, was what they desired. In the
+truest sense they were unsectarian Christians, zealous for good works and a
+devout life.[<a href="#fn_5_7">7</a><a name="fr_5_7"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn30"></a>General Repository.</h3>
+
+<p>The Monthly Anthology and The Christian Monitor represented the mild and
+undogmatic attitude of the liberals, their shrinking from all controversy,
+and their desire to devote their labors wholly to the promotion of a
+<a name="pg98"></a>
+tolerant and catholic Christianity. The beginning of the controversial
+spirit on the liberal side found expression in The General Repository and
+Review, which was begun in Cambridge by Rev. Andrews Norton, in April,
+1812. In the first number of this quarterly review the editor said that the
+discussion of the doctrine of the Trinity "in our own country has hitherto
+been chiefly confined to private circles," and cited the books of John
+Sherman and Noah Worcester as the only exceptions. The review opened,
+however, with a defence of liberal Christianity which was aggressive and
+outspoken. In later issues an energetic statement was made of the liberal
+position, the controversial articles were able and explicit, and in a
+manner hitherto quite unknown on the part of what the editor called
+"catholic Christians." One of the numbers contained a long and interesting
+survey of the religious interests of the country, and summed up in an
+admirable manner the prospects for the liberal churches. After the
+publication of the sixth number, Mr. Norton withdrew from the work to
+become the librarian of Harvard College; and it was continued through two
+more issues by "a society of gentlemen." To this journal Mr. Norton was by
+far the largest contributor; but other writers were Edward Everett, and his
+brother, Alexander H. Everett, Joseph S. Buckminster, John T. Kirkland,
+Sidney Willard, George Ticknor, Washington Allston, John Lowell, Noah
+Worcester, and James Freeman, most of them connected with Harvard College
+or with the liberal churches in Boston. It is evident, however, that the
+liberal public was not yet ready for so aggressive and out-spoken a
+journal.</p>
+
+<a name="pg99"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn31"></a>The Christian Disciple.</h3>
+
+<p>What was desired was something milder, less aggressive, of a distinctly
+religious and conciliatory character. To this end Drs. Channing, Charles
+Lowell, and Tuckerman, and Rev. S.C. Thatcher, with whom was afterwards
+associated Rev. Francis Parkman, planned a monthly magazine that should be
+liberal in its character, but not sectarian or dogmatic. They invited Rev.
+Noah Worcester, whose Bible News had cost him his pulpit, to remove from
+New Hampshire to Boston to become its editor. Although Mr. Worcester's
+beliefs affiliated him with the Hopkinsians in everything except his
+attitude in regard to the inferiority of Christ to God, yet he was
+compelled to withdraw from his old connections, and to find new fields of
+activity. He began The Christian Disciple as a religious and family
+magazine, the first number being issued in May, 1813. It was not designed
+for theological discussion or distinctly for the defence of the liberal
+position. Its tone was conciliatory and moderate, while it zealously
+defended religious liberty and charity. Its aim was practical and
+humanitarian, to help men live the Christian life, as individuals, and in
+their social relations. When it touched upon controverted questions, it was
+in an expository manner, with the purpose of instructing its readers, and
+of leading them to a higher appreciation of true religion. As his
+biographer well said of Noah Worcester, he made this work "distinguished
+for its unqualified devotedness to the individual rights of opinion, and
+the sacred duty of a liberal regard to them in other men."[<a href="#fn_5_8">8</a><a name="fr_5_8"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Worcester was not so much a theologian as a philanthropist; and, if he
+<a name="pg100"></a>
+was drawn into controversy, it was accidentally, and much to his surprise
+and disappointment. It was not for the sake of defending his own positions
+that he replied to his critics, but in the name of truth, and from an
+exacting sense of duty. His gentle, loving, and sympathetic nature unfitted
+him for intellectual contentions; and he much preferred to devote himself
+to philanthropies and reforms. In the briefest way The Christian Disciple
+reported the doings of the liberal churches and men, but it gave much space
+to all kinds of organizations of a humanitarian character. It advocated the
+temperance reform with earnestness, and this at a time when there were few
+other voices speaking in its behalf. It devoted many pages to the
+condemnation of slavery, and to the approval of all efforts to secure its
+mitigation or its abolition. It gave large attention to the evils of war, a
+subject which more and more absorbed the interest of the editor. It
+condemned duelling in the most emphatic terms, as it did all forms of
+aggressiveness and inhumanity. In spirit Dr. Worcester was as much a
+non-resistant as Tolstoď, and for much the same reasons. More extended
+reports of Bible societies were given than of any other kind of
+organization, and these societies especially enlisted the interest of Dr.
+Worcester and his associates.</p>
+
+<p>With the end of 1818 Dr. Worcester withdrew from the editorship of The
+Christian Disciple, to devote himself to the cause of peace, the interests
+of Christian amity and goodwill, and the exposition of his own theological
+convictions. The management of the magazine came into the hands of its
+original proprietors, who continued its publication.</p>
+
+<p>Under the new management the circulation of the magazine increased. At
+<a name="pg101"></a>
+first the younger Henry Ware became the editor, and he carried the work
+through the six volumes published before it took a new name. It became more
+distinctly theological in its purpose, and it undertook the task of
+presenting and defending the views of the liberals. In 1824 The Christian
+Disciple passed into the hands of Rev. John Gorham Palfrey, and he changed
+its name to The Christian Examiner without changing its general character.
+At the end of two years Mr. Francis Jenks became the editor, but in 1831 it
+came under the control of Rev. James Walker and Rev. Francis W.P.
+Greenwood. Gradually it became the organ of the higher intellectual life of
+the Unitarians, and gave expression to their interest in literature,
+general culture, and the philanthropies, as well as theological knowledge.
+The sub-title of Theological Review, which it bore during the first five
+volumes, indicated its preference for subjects of speculative religious
+interest; but during the half-century of its best influence it was the
+General Review or the Religious Miscellany, showing that it was theological
+only in the broadest spirit.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn32"></a>Dr. Morse and American Unitarianism.</h3>
+
+<p>Reluctant as the liberal men were, to take a denominational position, and
+to commit themselves to the interests of a party in religion, or even to
+withdraw themselves in any way from the churches with which they had been
+connected, they were compelled to do so by the force of conditions they
+could not control. One of the first distinct lines of separation was caused
+by the refusal of the more conservative men to exchange pulpits with their
+liberal neighbors. This tendency first began to show itself about the year
+<a name="pg102"></a>
+1810; and it received a decided impetus from the attitude taken by Rev.
+John Codman, who in 1808 became the minister of the Second Church in
+Dorchester. He refused to exchange with several of the liberal ministers of
+the Boston Association, although he was an intimate friend of Dr. Channing,
+who had directed his theological training, and also preached his ordination
+sermon. The more liberal members of his parish attempted to compel him to
+exchange with the Boston ministers without regard to theological beliefs;
+and a long contention followed, with the result that the more liberal part
+of his congregation withdrew in 1813, and formed the Third Religious
+Society in Dorchester.[<a href="#fn_5_9">9</a><a name="fr_5_9"></a>] The withdrawal of ministerial courtesies of
+this kind gradually increased, especially after the controversies that
+began in 1815, though it was not until many years later that exchanges
+between the two parties ceased.</p>
+
+<p>In 1815 Dr. Jedidiah Morse, the editor of The Panoplist, and the author of
+various school books in geography and history, published in a little book
+of about one hundred pages, which bore the title of American Unitarianism,
+a chapter from Thomas Belsham's[<a href="#fn_5_10">10</a><a name="fr_5_10"></a>] biography of Theophilus Lindsey, in
+which Dr. Lindsey's American correspondents, including prominent ministers
+in Boston and other parts of New England, had declared their Unitarianism.
+Morse also published an article in The Panoplist, setting forth that these
+ministers had not the courage of their convictions, that, while they were
+<a name="pg103"></a>
+Unitarians, they had withheld their opinions from open utterance. His
+object was to force them to declare themselves, and either to retract their
+heresies or else to state them and to withdraw from the churches with which
+they had been connected. In a letter addressed to Rev. Samuel C. Thacher,
+Dr. Channing gave to the public a reply to these charges of insincerity and
+want of open-mindedness. He said that, while many of the ministers and
+members of their congregations were Unitarians, they did not accept Dr.
+Belsham's type of Unitarianism, which made Christ a man. He declared that
+no open declaration of Unitarianism had been made, because they were not in
+love with the sectarian spirit, and because they were quite unwilling to
+indulge in any form of proselyting. "Accustomed as we are," he wrote, "to
+see genuine piety in all classes of Christians, in Trinitarians and
+Unitarians, in Calvinists and Arminians, in Episcopalians, Methodists,
+Baptists, and Congregationalists, and delighting in this character wherever
+it appears, we are little anxious to bring men over to our peculiar
+opinions."[<a href="#fn_5_11">11</a><a name="fr_5_11"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The publication of Dr. Morse's book, however, gave new emphasis to the
+spirit of separation which was soon to compel the formation of a new
+denomination. It was followed four years later by Dr. Channing's Baltimore
+sermon and by other positive declarations of theological opinion.[<a href="#fn_5_12">12</a><a name="fr_5_12"></a>] From
+that time the controversy raged fiercely, and any possibility of
+reconciliation was removed. Before this time those who were not orthodox
+<a name="pg104"></a>
+had called themselves Catholic, Christians or Liberal Christians to
+designate their attitude of toleration and liberality. The orthodox had
+called them Unitarians; and especially was this attempted by Dr. Morse in
+the introduction to his American Unitarianism, in order to fasten upon them
+the objectionable name given to the English liberals. It was assumed that
+the American liberals must agree with the English in their materialism and
+in their conception of Christ as a man. Dr. Channing repudiated this
+assumption, and declared it unjust and untrue; but he accepted the word
+Unitarian and gave it a meaning of his own. Channing defined the word to
+mean only anti-Trinitarianism; and he accepted it because it seemed to him
+presumptuous to use the word liberal as applied to a party, whereas it may
+be applicable to men of all opinions.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn33"></a>Evangelical Missionary Society.</h3>
+
+<p>Of more interest than these contentions in behalf of theological opinions
+is the way in which the liberal party brought itself to the task of
+manifesting its own purposes. Its first organizations were tentative and
+inclusive, without theological purpose or bias. No distinct lines were
+drawn, and to them belonged orthodox and liberal alike. Their sole
+distinguishing attitude was a catholicity of temper that permitted the free
+activity of the liberals. One of the first organizations of this kind was
+the Evangelical Missionary Society, which was formed by several of the
+ministers resident in Worcester and Middlesex Counties. The first meeting
+was held in Lancaster, November 4, 1807, when a constitution was adopted
+and the society elected officers. "The great object of this Society," said
+the constitution, "is to furnish the means of Christian knowledge and moral
+<a name="pg105"></a>
+improvement to those inhabitants of our own country who are destitute or
+poorly provided." The growth of the country, even in New England (for the
+operations of the society were confined to that region), developed many
+communities in which the population was scattered, and without adequate
+means of education and religion. To aid these communities in securing good
+teachers and ministers was the purpose of the society. It refused to send
+forth itinerants, but carefully selected such towns as gave promise of
+permanent growth, and sent to them ministers instructed to organize
+churches and to promote the building of meeting-houses. In this way it was
+the means of establishing a number of churches in Maine, New Hampshire, and
+Massachusetts. It also sent a number of teachers into new settlements in
+Maine, who were successful in training many of their pupils for teaching in
+the public schools. In several instances minister and teacher were combined
+in one person, but the work was none the less effective.</p>
+
+<p>In 1816 this society was incorporated, its membership was broadened to
+include the state, and active aid and financial support were given it by
+the churches in Boston and Salem. It was not sectarian, though, after its
+incorporation, its membership was more largely recruited from liberals. In
+time it became distinctly Unitarian in its character, and such it has
+remained to the present day. Very slowly, however, did it permit itself to
+lose any of its marks of catholicity and inclusiveness. In the end its
+membership was confined to Unitarians because no one else wished to share
+in its unsectarian purposes. At the present time this society does a quiet
+and helpful work in the way of aiding churches that have ceased to be
+<a name="pg106"></a>
+self-supporting because of the shifting conditions of population, and in
+affording friendly assistance to ministers in times of distress or when old
+age has come upon them.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn34"></a>The Berry Street Conference.</h3>
+
+<p>The first meeting of the liberal ministers for organization was held in the
+vestry of the Federal Street Church[<a href="#fn_5_13">13</a><a name="fr_5_13"></a>] on the evening of May 30, 1820,
+which immediately preceded election day, the time when anniversary meetings
+were usually held. The ministers of the state then gathered in Boston to
+hear the election sermon, and for such counselling of each other as their
+congregational methods made desirable. At this meeting Dr. Channing gave an
+address stating the objects that had brought those present together, and
+the desirability of their drawing near each other as liberal men for mutual
+aid and support. "It was thought by some of us," he said, "that the
+ministers of this commonwealth who are known to agree in what are called
+liberal and catholic views of Christianity needed a bond of union, a means
+of intercourse, and an opportunity of conference not as yet enjoyed. It was
+thought that by meeting to join their prayers and counsels, to report the
+state and prospects of religion in different parts of the commonwealth, to
+communicate the methods of advancing it which have been found most
+successful, to give warning of dangers not generally apprehended, to seek
+advice in difficulties, and to take a broad survey of our ecclesiastical
+affairs and of the wants of our churches, much light, strength, comfort,
+animation, zeal, would be spread through our body. The individuals who
+<a name="pg107"></a>
+originated this plan were agreed that, whilst the meeting should be
+confined to those who harmonize generally in opinion, it should be
+considered as having for its object, not simply the advancement of their
+peculiar views, but the general diffusion of practical religion and of the
+spirit of Christianity."</p>
+
+<p>As this address indicates in every word of it the liberal men were
+sensitively anxious to put no fetters on each other; and their reluctance
+to circumscribe their own personal freedom was extreme. This was the cause
+that had thus far prevented any effectual organization, and it now withheld
+the members from any but the most tentative methods. Having escaped from
+the bondage of sect, they were suspicious of everything that in any manner
+gave indication of denominational restrictions.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn35"></a>The Publishing Fund Society.</h3>
+
+<p>In May, 1821, a year later than the foundation of the Berry Street
+Conference, several gentlemen in Boston, "desirous of promoting the
+circulation of works adapted to improve the public mind in religion and
+morality," met and established a Publishing Fund. The publishing committee
+then appointed consisted of Dr. Joseph Tuckerman, Dr. John Gorham Palfrey,
+and Mr. George Ticknor. The Publishing Fund Society refused to print
+doctrinal tracts or those devoted in any way to sectarian interests. The
+members of the society made declaration that their publications had nothing
+to do with any of the isms in religion. Their great object was the increase
+of practical goodness, the improvement of men in all that truly exalts and
+ennobles them or that qualifies them for usefulness and happiness. Most of
+their tracts were in the form of stories of a didactic character, in which
+<a name="pg108"></a>
+the writers assumed the broad principles of Christian theology and ethics
+which are common to all the followers of Christ, without meddling with
+sectarian prejudice or party views. In such statements as these the
+promoters of this work indicated their methods, their aim being to furnish
+good reading to youth, and to those in scattered communities who could not
+have access to books that were instructive. Besides the tracts of this kind
+the society also published a series for adults, which were of a more
+strictly devotional character, and yet did not omit to provide
+entertainment and instruction.[<a href="#fn_5_14">14</a><a name="fr_5_14"></a>] This society continued its work for
+many years, and it issued a considerable number of tracts and books that
+well served the purpose for which they were designed.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn36"></a>Harvard Divinity School.</h3>
+
+<p>One important result of the theological discussions of the time was the
+organization of the Divinity School in connection with Harvard College. The
+eighteenth-century method of preparation for the ministerial office was to
+study with some settled pastor, who directed the reading of the student,
+gave him practical acquaintance with the labors of a pastor, and initiated
+him into the profession by securing for him the "approbation" of the
+ministerial association with which he was connected. Another method was for
+the student to continue his residence in Cambridge, and follow his
+theological studies under the guidance of the president and the Hollis
+professor, making use of the library of the college. When Rev. Henry Ware
+was inducted into the Hollis professorship, it was seen that some more
+systematic method of theological study was desirable. He gradually enlarged
+the scope of his activities, and in 1811 he began a systematic courser of
+<a name="pg109"></a>
+instruction for the resident students in theology. Ware "was one of those
+genuine lovers of reform and progress," as John Gorham Palfrey said, "who
+are always ready for any innovation for the better; who, in the pursuit of
+what is truly good and useful, are not only content to move on with the
+age, but desirous to move on before it."[<a href="#fn_5_15">15</a><a name="fr_5_15"></a>] This effort of his to improve
+the methods of theological study proved to be the germ of the existing
+Divinity School.</p>
+
+<p>The Hollis professorship of divinity was founded by Thomas Hollis, of
+London, in 1721. Samuel Dexter, of Boston, established a lectureship of
+Biblical criticism in 1811. Both the professorship and the lectureship were
+designed for the undergraduates, and not primarily for students in
+theology. In 1815, however, it became apparent to some of the liberals that
+a school wholly devoted to the preparation of young men for the ministry
+was needed.</p>
+
+<p>Those who subscribed to the $30,000 secured for this purpose were in 1816
+formed into the Society for the Promotion of Theological Education in
+Harvard University. This society rendered efficient aid to the school for
+several years. At a meeting held at the Boston Athenaeum, July 17, 1816,
+Rev. John T. Kirkland became its president, Rev. Francis Parkman, recording
+secretary, Rev. Charles Lowell, corresponding secretary, and Jonathan
+Phillips, treasurer. The society was supported by annual subscriptions,
+life subscriptions, and donations. The school began its work in 1816, with
+Rev. Andrews Norton as the Dexter lecturer on Biblical criticism, Rev. J.T.
+Kirkland as instructor in systematic theology, Rev. Edward Everett in the
+<a name="pg110"></a>
+criticism of the Septaugint, Professor Sidney Willard in Hebrew, and
+Professor Levi Frisbie in ethics. In 1819 Mr. Norton was advanced to a
+professorship, and thereafter devoted his whole time to the school; and
+during that year the school was divided into three classes. In 1824 the
+Society for the Promotion of Theological Education took the general
+direction of the school, arranging the course of study and otherwise
+assuming a supervision, which continued until 1831, when the school
+received a place as one of the departments of the University. In 1826 a
+building was erected for the school by the society, which has borne the
+name of Divinity Hall. In 1828 a professorship of pulpit eloquence and
+pastoral care was established by the society, and in 1830 the younger Henry
+Ware entered upon its duties.[<a href="#fn_5_16">16</a><a name="fr_5_16"></a>] He was succeeded in 1842 by Rev. Convers
+Francis. In 1830 Rev. John Gorham Palfrey became the professor of Biblical
+literature, and soon after the instructor in Hebrew. Rev. George Rapall
+Noyes, in 1840, took the Hancock professorship of Hebrew and the Dexter
+lectureship in Biblical criticism.</p>
+
+<p>Though organized and conducted by the Unitarians, the Divinity School was
+from the first unsectarian in its purpose and methods; for the Society for
+the Promotion of Theological Education, on its organization, put into its
+constitution this fundamental law: "It being understood that every
+encouragement be given to the serious, impartial and unbiassed
+investigation of Christian truth, and that no assent to the peculiarities
+of any denomination, be required either of the students or professors or
+instructors."</p>
+
+<a name="pg111"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn37"></a>The Unitarian Miscellany.</h3>
+
+<p>The first outspoken periodical on the liberal side that aimed at being
+distinctly denominational was published in Baltimore. Dr. Freeman preached
+in that city in 1816, with the result that during the following year a
+church was organized there. It was there in 1819, on the occasion of the
+ordination of Rev. Jared Sparks as the first minister of this church, that
+Dr. Channing gave utterance to the first great declaration of the Unitarian
+position, in a sermon that has never been surpassed in this country as an
+intellectual interpretation of the highest spiritual problems.</p>
+
+<p>In January, 1821, Rev. Jared Sparks began the publication in Baltimore of
+The Unitarian Miscellany and Christian Monitor; and for three years he was
+its editor. For another three years it was conducted by his successor in
+the Baltimore pulpit, Rev. Francis W.P. Greenwood, who continued it until
+he became the minister of King's Chapel, when it ceased to exist. During
+the six years of its publication this magazine was ably edited. It was
+controversial in a liberal spirit, it was positively denominational, and it
+had a large and widely extended circulation. It reported all prominent
+Unitarian events, and those of a liberal tendency in all religious bodies.
+Attacks on Unitarianism were repelled, and the Unitarian position was
+explained and vindicated. Mr. Sparks was as aggressive as Andrews Norton
+had been, and was by no means willing to keep to the quiet and reticent
+manner of the Unitarians of Boston. When he was attacked, he replied with
+energy and skill; and he carried the war into the enemies' camp. His
+magazine was far more positive than anything the liberals had hitherto put
+<a name="pg112"></a>
+forth, and its methods were viewed with something of suspicion in the
+conservative circles of Massachusetts. He published a series of letters on
+the Episcopal Church in The Unitarian Miscellany, which he enlarged and put
+into a book.[<a href="#fn_5_17">17</a><a name="fr_5_17"></a>] Another series of letters was on the comparative moral
+tendencies of Trinitarian and Unitarian doctrines, and these grew into a
+volume.[<a href="#fn_5_18">18</a><a name="fr_5_18"></a>] Both were in reply to attacks made upon him, and both were
+regarded with suspicion and doubt by the men about Cambridge; but, in time,
+they came to see that his method was sincere, learned, and honest.</p>
+
+<p>In The Unitarian Miscellany, as in all their utterances of this time, the
+Unitarians manifested much anxiety to maintain their position as the true
+expounders of primitive Christianity. They did not covet a place outside
+the larger fellowship of the Christian faith. A favorite method of
+vindicating their right to Christian recognition was by the publication of
+the works of liberal orthodox writers of previous generations. Such an
+attempt was made by Jared Sparks in his Collection of Essays and Tracts in
+Theology, with Biographical and Critical Notices, issued in Boston from
+1823 to 1826. In the general preface to these six volumes, Mr. Sparks said
+that "the only undeviating rule of selection will be that every article
+chosen shall be marked with rational and liberal views of Christianity, and
+suited to inform the mind or improve the temper and practice," and that the
+<a name="pg113"></a>
+series was "designed to promote the cause of sacred learning, of truth and
+charity, of religious freedom and rational piety." In the first volume were
+included Turretin's essay on the fundamentals of religious truth, a number
+of short essays by Firmin Abauzit, Francis Blackburne's discussion of the
+value of confessions of faith, and several essays by Bishop Hoadley. That
+these writings have now no significance, even to intelligent readers, does
+not detract from the value of their publication; for they had a living
+meaning and power. Other writers, drawn upon in the succeeding volumes were
+Isaac Newton, Jeremy Taylor, John Locke, Isaac Watts, William Penn, and
+Mrs. Barbauld. The catholicity of the editor was shown in the wide range of
+his authors, whose doctrinal connections covered the whole field of
+Christian theology.</p>
+
+<p>In the publication of The Unitarian Miscellany, Mr. Sparks had the business
+aid of the Baltimore Unitarian Book Society, formed November 19, 1820,
+which was organized to carry on this work, and to disseminate other liberal
+books and tracts. This society distributed Bibles, "and such other books as
+contain rational and consistent views of Christian doctrines, and are
+calculated to promote a correct faith, sincere piety, and a holy practice."
+In the year 1821 was formed the Unitarian Library and Tract Society of New
+York; and similar societies were started in Philadelphia and Charleston
+soon after, as well as in other cities. Some of these societies published
+books, tracts, and periodicals, all of them distributed Unitarian
+publications, and libraries were formed of liberal works. The most
+successful of these societies, which soon numbered a score or two, was that
+in Baltimore. This society extended its missionary operations with the
+<a name="pg114"></a>
+printed page widely, sending tracts into every part of the country, the
+demand for them having become very large. Its periodical had an extended
+circulation, its cheapness, its popular character, and its outspoken
+attitude on doctrinal questions serving to make it the most successful of
+the liberal publications of the time.[<a href="#fn_5_19">19</a><a name="fr_5_19"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn38"></a>The Christian Register.</h3>
+
+<p>On April 20, 1821, was issued the first number of The Christian Register,
+the regular weekly publication of which began with August 24 of that year.
+Its four pages contained four columns each, but the third of these pages
+was given to secular news and advertisements. The first page was devoted to
+general religious subjects, the second discussed those topics which were of
+special interest to Unitarians, while the fourth was given to literary
+miscellanies. Almost nothing of church news was reported, and only in a
+limited way was the paper denominational. It was a general religious
+newspaper of a kind that was acceptable to the liberals, and it defended
+and interpreted their cause when occasion demanded. The paper was started
+wholly as an individual enterprise by its publisher, Rev. David Reed, who
+acted for about five years as its editor. He had the encouragement of the
+leading Unitarians of Boston and its vicinity; and, when such men as
+Channing, Ware, and Norton wished to speak for the Unitarians, its columns
+were open to them. Among the other early contributors were Kirkland, Story,
+Edward Everett, Walker, Dewey, Furness, Palfrey, Gannett, Noah Worcester,
+Greenwood, Bancroft, Sparks, Alexander Young, Freeman, Burnap, Pierpont,
+Noyes, Lowell, Frothingham, and Pierce.</p>
+
+<a name="pg115"></a>
+<p>In his prospectus the publisher spoke of the growth of the spirit of free
+religious inquiry in the country; and he said that in all classes of the
+community there was an eagerness to understand theological questions, and
+to arrive at and practice the genuine principles of Christianity. His ideal
+was a periodical that should present the same doctrines and temper as The
+Christian Disciple, but that would be of a more popular character. "The
+great object of The Christian Register," he said to his readers, "will be
+to inculcate the principles of a rational faith, and to promote the
+practice of genuine piety. To accomplish this purpose it will aim to excite
+a spirit of free and independent religious inquiry, and to assist in
+ascertaining and bringing into use the true principles of interpreting the
+Scriptures."</p>
+
+<p>For a number of years The Christian Register conformed to "the mild and
+amiable spirit" in which it began its career, rarely being aroused to an
+aggressive attitude, and seldom undertaking to speak for Unitarianism as a
+distinct form of Christianity. When the liberals were fiercely attacked, it
+spoke out, as, for instance, at the time when the Unitarians were charged
+<a name="pg116"></a>
+with stealing churches from the orthodox.[<a href="#fn_5_20">20</a><a name="fr_5_20"></a>] Otherwise it was mild and
+placid enough, given to expressing its friendly interest in every kind of
+reform, from the education of women to the emancipation of slaves,
+thoroughly humanitarian in its attitude, not doctrinal or controversial,
+but faithfully catholic and tolerant. It was a well-conducted periodical,
+represented a wide range of interests, and was admirably suited to
+interpret the temper and spirit of a rational religion. It is now the
+oldest weekly religious newspaper published in this country. As the leading
+Unitarian periodical, it is still conducted with notable enterprise and
+ability.</p>
+
+<p>Another periodical also deserves mention in this connection, and that is
+the North American Review, which was begun by William Tudor, one of the
+members of The Anthology Club, in May, 1815. While it was not religious in
+its character, it was from the first, and for more than sixty years, edited
+by Unitarians; and its contributors were very largely from that religious
+body. The same tendencies and conditions that led the liberals to establish
+The Monthly Anthology, The Christian Disciple, and The Christian Examiner,
+gave demand amongst them for a distinctly literary and critical journal.
+They had gained that form of liberated and catholic culture which made such
+works possible, and to a large extent they afforded the public necessary to
+their support. Mr. Tudor was succeeded as the editor of the review by
+<a name="pg117"></a>
+Professor Edward T. Channing, and then followed in succession Edward
+Everett, Jared Sparks, Alexander H. Everett, John Gorham Palfrey, Francis
+Bowen, and Andrew P. Peabody, all Unitarians. Among the early Unitarian
+contributors were Nathan Hale, Joseph Story, Nathaniel Bowditch, W.H.
+Prescott, William Cullen Bryant, and Theophilus Parsons. For many years few
+of the regular contributors were from any other religious body, not because
+the editors put restrictions upon others, but because those who were
+interested in general literary, historical, and scientific subjects
+belonged almost exclusively to the churches of this faith.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn39"></a>Results of the Division in Congregationalism.</h3>
+
+<p>The controversy which began in 1805 continued for about twenty years. The
+pamphlets and books it brought forth are almost forgotten, and they would
+have little interest at the present time. They gradually widened the breach
+between the orthodox and the liberal Congregationalists. It would be
+difficult to name a decisive date for their actual separation. The
+organization of the societies, and the establishment of the periodicals
+already mentioned, were successive steps to that result. The most important
+event was undoubtedly the formation of the American Unitarian Association,
+in 1825; but even that important movement on the part of the Unitarians did
+not bring about a final separation. Individual churches and ministers
+continued to treat each other with the same courtesy and hospitality as
+before.</p>
+
+<p>That the breach was inevitable seems to be the verdict of history; and yet
+it is not difficult to see to-day how it might have been avoided. The
+<a name="pg118"></a>
+Unitarians were dealt with in such a manner that they could not continue
+the old connection without great discomfort and loss of self-respect. They
+were forced to organize for self-protection, and yet they did so
+reluctantly and with much misgiving. They would have preferred to remain as
+members of the united Congregational body, but the theological temper of
+the time made this impossible. It would not be just to say that there was
+actual persecution, but there could not be unity where there was not
+community of thought and faith.</p>
+
+<p>When the division in the Congregational churches came, one hundred and
+twenty-five churches allied themselves with the Unitarians,--one hundred in
+Massachusetts, a score in other parts of New England, and a half-dozen west
+of the Hudson River. These churches numbered among them, however, many of
+the oldest and the strongest, including about twenty of the first
+twenty-five organized in Massachusetts, and among them Plymouth (organized
+in Scrooby), Salem, Dorchester, Boston, Watertown, Roxbury, Hingham,
+Concord, and Quincy. The ten Congregational churches in Boston, with the
+exception of the Old South, allied themselves with the Unitarians. Other
+first churches to take this action were those of Portsmouth, Kennebunk, and
+Portland.</p>
+
+<p>Outside New England a beginning was made almost as soon as the Unitarian
+name came into recognition. At Charleston, S.C., the Congregational church,
+which had been very liberal, was divided in 1816 as the result of the
+preaching of Rev. Anthony Forster. He was led to read the works of Dr.
+Priestley, and became a Unitarian in consequence. Owing to ill-health, he
+<a name="pg119"></a>
+was soon obliged to resign; and Rev. Samuel Gilman was installed in 1819.
+Rev. Robert Little, an English Unitarian, took up his residence in
+Washington in 1819, and began to preach there; and a church was organized
+in 1821. While chaplain of the House of Representatives, in 1821-22, Jared
+Sparks preached to this society fortnightly, and in the House Chamber on
+the alternate Sunday. When he went to Charleston, in 1819, to assist in the
+installation of Mr. Gilman, he preached to a very large congregation in the
+state-house in Raleigh; and the next year he spoke to large congregations
+in Virginia.[<a href="#fn_5_21">21</a><a name="fr_5_21"></a>] More than a decade earlier there were individual
+Unitarians in Kentucky.[<a href="#fn_5_22">22</a><a name="fr_5_22"></a>] On his journey to the ordination of Jared
+Sparks, Dr. Channing preached in a New York parlor; and on his return he
+occupied the lecture-hall of the Medical School. The result was the First
+Congregational Church (All Souls'), organized in 1819, which was followed
+by the Church of the Messiah in 1825. In fact, many of the more intelligent
+and thoughtful persons everywhere were inclined to accept a liberal
+interpretation of Christianity.</p>
+
+<p>Although the Congregational body was divided into two distinct
+denominations, there were three organizations, formed prior to that event,
+which have remained intact to this day. In these societies Orthodox and
+Unitarian continue to unite as Congregationalists, and the sectarian lines
+are not recognized. The first of these organizations is the Massachusetts
+<a name="pg120"></a>
+Congregational Charitable Society, which was formed early in the eighteenth
+century for the purpose of securing "support to the widows and children of
+deceased congregational ministers." The second is the Massachusetts
+Convention of Congregational Ministers, also formed early in the eighteenth
+century, although its records begin only with the year 1748. It was formed
+for consultation, advice, and counsel, to aid orphans and widows of
+ministers, and to secure the general promotion of the interests of
+religion. The convention sermon has been one of the recognized institutions
+of Massachusetts, and since the beginning of the Unitarian controversy it
+has been preached alternately by ministers of the two denominations. The
+Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians and Others in North
+America was formed in 1787. The members, officers, and missionaries of this
+society have been of both denominations; and the work accomplished has been
+carried on in a spirit of amity and good-will. These societies indicate
+that co-operation may be secured without theological unity, and it is
+possible that they may become the basis in the future of a closer sympathy
+and fellowship between the severed Congregational churches.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn40"></a>Final Separation of State and Church.</h3>
+
+<p>From the beginning the liberal movement had been more or less intimately
+associated with that for the promotion of religious freedom and the
+separation of state and church. Many of the states withdrew religion from
+state control on the adoption of the Federal Constitution. In New England
+this was done in the first years of the century. Connecticut came to this
+<a name="pg121"></a>
+result after an exciting agitation in 1818. Massachusetts was more
+tenacious of the old ways; but in 1811 its legislative body passed a
+"religious freedom act," that secured individuals from taxation for the
+support of churches with which they were not connected. The constitutional
+convention of 1820 proposed a bill of rights that aimed to secure religious
+freedom, but it was defeated by large majorities. It was only when church
+property was given by the courts to the parish in preference to the church,
+and when the "standing order" churches had been repeatedly foiled in their
+efforts to retain the old prerogatives, that a majority could be secured
+for religious freedom. In November, 1833, the legislature submitted to the
+people a revision of the bill of rights, which provided for the separation
+of state and church, and the voluntary support of churches. A majority was
+secured for this amendment, and it became the law in 1834. Massachusetts
+was the last of all the states to arrive at this result, and a far greater
+effort was required to bring it about than elsewhere. The support of the
+churches was now purely voluntary, the state no longer lending its aid to
+tax person and property for their maintenance.</p>
+
+<p>Thus it came about that Massachusetts adopted the principle and method of
+Roger Williams after two centuries. For the first time she came to the full
+recognition of her own democratic ideals, and to the practical acceptance
+of the individualism for which she had contended from the beginning. She
+had fought stubbornly and zealously for the faith she prized above all
+other things, but by the logic of events and the greatness of the principle
+of liberty she was conquered. The minister and the meeting-house were by
+<a name="pg122"></a>
+her so dearly loved that she could not endure the thought of having them
+shorn of any of their power and influence; but for the sake of their true
+life she at last found it wise and just to leave all the people free to
+worship God in their own way, without coercion and without restraint.</p>
+
+<p>Although the liberal ministers and churches led the way in securing
+religious freedom, yet they were socially and intellectually conservative.
+Radical changes they would not accept, and they moved away from the old
+beliefs with great caution. The charge that they were timid was undoubtedly
+true, though there is no evidence that they attempted to conceal their real
+beliefs. Evangelical enthusiasm was not congenial to them, and they
+rejected fanaticism in every form. They had a deep, serious, and spiritual
+faith, that was intellectual without being rationalistic, marked by strong
+common sense, and vigorous with moral integrity. They permitted a wide
+latitude of opinion, and yet they were thoroughly Christian in their
+convictions. Most of them saw in the miracles of the New Testament the only
+positive evidence of the truth of Christianity, which was to them an
+external and supernatural revelation. They were quite willing to follow
+Andrews Norton, however, who was the chief defender of the miraculous, in
+his free criticism of the Old Testament and the birth-stories in the
+Gospels.</p>
+
+<p>The liberal ministers fostered an intellectual and literary expression of
+religion, and yet their chief characteristic was their spirituality. They
+aimed at ethical insight and moral integrity in their influence upon men
+and women, and at cultivating purity of life and an inward probity. In
+large degree they developed the spirit of philanthropy and a fine regard
+<a name="pg123"></a>
+for the rights and the welfare of others. They were not sectarian or
+zealous for bringing others to the acceptance of their own beliefs; but
+they were generous in behalf of all public interests, faithful to all civic
+duties, and known for their private generosity and faithful Christian
+living. Under the leadership of Dr. Channing the Catholic Christians, as
+they preferred to call themselves, cultivated a spirituality that was
+devout without being ritualistic, sincere without being fanatical. The
+churches around them, to a large degree, kept zealously to the externals of
+religion, and accepted physical evidences of the truthfulness of
+Christianity; but Channing sought for what is deeper and more permanent.
+His preference of rationality to the testimony of miracles, spiritual
+insight to external evidences, devoutness of life to the rites of the
+church, characterized him as a great religious leader, and developed for
+the Catholic Christians a new type of Christianity. Whatever Channing's
+limitations as a thinker and a reformer, he was a man of prophetic insight
+and lofty spiritual vision. In other ages he would have been canonized as a
+saint or called the beatific doctor; but in Boston he was a heretic and a
+reformer, who sought to lead men into a faith that is ethical, sincere, and
+humanitarian. He prized Christianity for what it is in itself, for its
+inwardness, its fidelity to human nature, and its ethical integrity. His
+mind was always open to truth, he was always young for liberty, and his
+soul dwelt in the serene atmosphere of a pure and lofty faith.</p>
+
+<p><br >[<a href="#fr_5_1">1</a><a name="fn_5_1"></a>] Josiah Quincy, History of Harvard University, I. 230, Chapter XII;
+<a name="pg124"></a>
+    Christian Examiner, VII. 64; XXX. 70.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_2">2</a><a name="fn_5_2"></a>] Jedidiah Morse, True Reasons on which the Election of a Hollis
+    Professor of Divinity in Harvard College were opposed at the Board of
+    Overseers.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_3">3</a><a name="fn_5_3"></a>] III. 251, March, 1806.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_4">4</a><a name="fn_5_4"></a>] Richard Eddy, Universalism in America, II. 87; Oscar F. Safford,
+    Hosea Ballou: A Marvellous Life Story, 71.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_5">5</a><a name="fn_5_5"></a>] O.B. Frothingham, Boston Unitarianism, 161.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_6">6</a><a name="fn_5_6"></a>] Josiah Quincy, History of the Boston Athenaeum, 1. "In the year 1803
+    Phineas Adams, a graduate of Harvard College, of the class of 1801,
+    commenced in Boston, under the name of <i>Sylvanus Per-se</i>, a periodical
+    work entitled The Monthly Anthology or Magazine of Polite Literature.
+    He conducted it for six months, but not finding its proceeds sufficient
+    for his support, he abandoned the undertaking. Mr. Adams, the son of a
+    farmer in Lexington, manifested in early boyhood a passion for elegant
+    learning. He adopted literature as a profession; but, after the failure
+    of his attempt as editor of The Anthology, he taught school in
+    different places, till, in 1811, he entered the Navy as chaplain and
+    teacher of mathematics. Here he became distinguished for mathematical
+    science in its relation to nautical affairs. In 1812 he accompanied
+    Commodore Porter in his eventful cruise in the Pacific, of which the
+    published journal bears honorable testimony to Mr. Adams's zeal for
+    promoting geographical and mathematical knowledge. He again joined
+    Porter in the expedition for the suppression of piracy in the West
+    Indies, and he died on that station in 1823, much respected in the
+    service."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_7">7</a><a name="fn_5_7"></a>] In October, 1888, this society gave up its organization, and the sum
+    of $1,265.10 was given to the American Unitarian Association for the
+    establishment of a publishing fund.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_8">8</a><a name="fn_5_8"></a>] Unitarian Biography, I. 40, Memoir by Henry Ware, Jr.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_9">9</a><a name="fn_5_9"></a>] William Allen, Memoir of John Codman, 81.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_10">10</a><a name="fn_5_10"></a>] Thomas Belsham, 1750-1829, was a dissenting English preacher and
+     teacher. In 1789 he became a Unitarian, and was settled in
+     Birmingham. From 1805 to his death he preached to the Essex Street
+     congregation in London. He wrote a popular work on the Evidences of
+     Christianity, and he translated the Epistles of St. Paul. He was a
+     vigorous and able writer.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_11">11</a><a name="fn_5_11"></a>] Memoir of W.E. Channing, by W.H. Channing, I. 380.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_12">12</a><a name="fn_5_12"></a>] Among the controversial works printed in Boston at this time was
+     Yates's Vindication of Unitarianism, an English book, which was
+     republished in 1816.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_13">13</a><a name="fn_5_13"></a>] The entrance to the vestry of Federal Street Church was on Berry
+     Street, hence the name given the conference.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_14">14</a><a name="fn_5_14"></a>] Christian Examiner, I. 248.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_15">15</a><a name="fn_5_15"></a>] American Unitarian Biography, Life of Henry Ware, I. 241.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_16">16</a><a name="fn_5_16"></a>] James Walker, Christian Examiner, X. 129; John G. Palfrey, Christian
+     Examiner, XI. 84; The Divinity School of Harvard University: Its
+     History, Courses of Study, Aims and Advantages.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_17">17</a><a name="fn_5_17"></a>] Letters on the Ministry, Ritual, and Doctrines of the Protestant
+     Episcopal Church, addressed to Rev. William E. Wyatt, D.D., in Reply
+     to a Sermon, Baltimore, 1820.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_18">18</a><a name="fn_5_18"></a>] Comparative Moral Tendency of Trinitarian and Unitarian Doctrines,
+     addressed to Rev. Samuel Miller, Boston, 1823.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_19">19</a><a name="fn_5_19"></a>] H.B. Adams, Life and Writings of Jared Sparks, I. 175.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_20">20</a><a name="fn_5_20"></a>] Dr. George E. Ellis, in Unitarianism: Its origin and History, 147.
+     The most prominent instance was that of the First Church in Dedham,
+     and this was decided by legal proceedings. "The question recognized
+     by the court was simply this: whether the claimants had been lawfully
+     appointed deacons of the First Church; that is, whether the body
+     which had appointed them was by law the First Church. The decision of
+     the court was as follows: 'When the majority of the members of a
+     Congregational church separate from the majority of the parish, the
+     members who remain, although a minority, constitute the church in
+     such parish, and retain the rights and property belonging thereto.'
+     This legal decision would have been regarded as a momentous one had
+     it applied only to the single case then in hearing. But it was the
+     establishment of a precedent which would dispose of all cases then to
+     be expected to present themselves in the troubles of the time between
+     parishes and the churches gathered within them. The full purport of
+     this decision was that the law did not recognize a church
+     independently of its connection with the parish in which it was
+     gathered, from which it might sever itself and carry property with
+     it." It was in accordance with the practice in New England for at
+     least a century preceding the decision in the Dedham case, and the
+     decision was rendered as the result of this practice.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_21">21</a><a name="fn_5_21"></a>] H.B. Adams, Life and Writings of Jared Sparks, gives a most
+     interesting account in his earlier chapters of the origin of
+     Unitarianism, especially of its beginnings in Baltimore and other
+     places outside New England.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_22">22</a><a name="fn_5_22"></a>] James Garrard, governor of Kentucky from 1796 to 1802, was a
+     Unitarian. Harry Toulmin, president of Transylvania Seminary and
+     secretary of the state of Kentucky, was also a Unitarian.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><br ><a name="ch6"></a>VI.<br >
+
+
+THE AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION.</h2>
+
+<p>The time had come for the liberals to organize in a more distinctive form,
+in order that they might secure permanently the results they had already
+attained. The demand for organization, however, came almost wholly from the
+younger men, those who had grown up under the influence of the freer life
+of the liberal churches or who had been trained in the independent spirit
+of the Divinity School at Harvard. The older men, for the most part, were
+bound by the traditions of "the standing order":[<a href="#fn_6_1">1</a><a name="fr_6_1"></a>] they could not bring
+themselves to desire new conditions and new methods.</p>
+
+<p>The spirit of the older and leading laymen and ministers is admirably
+illustrated in Rev. O.B. Frothingham's account of his father in his book
+entitled Boston Unitarianism. They were interested in many, public-spirited
+enterprises, and the social circle in which they moved was cultivated and
+refined; but they were provincial, and little inclined to look beyond the
+limits of their own immediate interests. Dr. Nathaniel L. Frothingham,
+minister of the First Church in Boston, one of the earliest American
+students of German literature and philosophy, and a man of rational insight
+and progressive thinking, may be regarded as a representative of the best
+<a name="pg125"></a>
+type of Boston minister in the first half of the nineteenth century. In a
+sermon preached in 1835, on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of
+his settlement, Dr. Frothingham said that he had never before used the word
+"Unitarian", in his pulpit, though his church had been for thirty years
+counted as Unitarian. "We have," he said, "made more account of the
+religious sentiment than of theological opinions." In this attitude he was
+in harmony with the leading men of his day.[<a href="#fn_6_2">2</a><a name="fr_6_2"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Channing, for instance, was opposed to every phase of religious
+organization that put bonds upon men; and he would accept nothing in the
+form of a creed. He severely condemned "the guilt of a sectarian spirit,"
+and said that "to bestow our affections on those who are ranged under the
+same human leader, or who belong to the same church with ourselves, and to
+withhold it from others who possess equal if not superior virtue, because
+they bear a different name, is to prefer a party to the church of
+Christ."[<a href="#fn_6_3">3</a><a name="fr_6_3"></a>] In 1831 he described Unitarianism as being "characterized by
+nothing more than by the spirit of freedom and individuality. It has no
+established creed or symbol," he wrote. "Its friends think each for
+himself, and differ much from each other."[<a href="#fn_6_4">4</a><a name="fr_6_4"></a>] Later he wrote to a friend:
+"I distrust sectarian influence more and more. I am more detached from a
+denomination, and strive to feel more my connection with the Universal
+Church, with all good and holy men. I am little of a Unitarian, and stand
+aloof from all but those who strive and pray for clearer light, who look
+for a purer and more effectual manifestation of Christian truth."[<a href="#fn_6_5">5</a><a name="fr_6_5"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg126"></a>
+<p>Many of the Unitarians were in fullest sympathy with Channing as to the
+fundamental law of spiritual freedom and as to the evils of sectarianism. A
+considerable number of them were in agreement with him as to the course
+pursued by the Unitarian movement. Having escaped from one sect, they were
+not ready to commit themselves to the control of another. Therefore they
+withheld themselves from all definitely organized phases of Unitarianism,
+and would give no active support to those who sought to bring the liberals
+together for purposes of protection and forward movement. Under these
+circumstances it was difficult to secure concert of action or to make
+successful any definite missionary enterprise, however little of
+sectarianism it might manifest. Even to the present time Unitarianism has
+shown this independence on the part of local churches and this freedom on
+the part of individuals. Because of this attitude, unity of action has been
+difficult, and denominational loyalty never strong or assured.</p>
+
+<p>However, a different spirit animated the younger men, who persisted in
+their effort to secure an organization that would represent distinctively
+the Unitarian thought and sentiment. The movement towards organization had
+its origin and impulse in a group of young ministers who had been trained
+at the Harvard Divinity School under Professor Andrews Norton. While Norton
+was conservative in theology and opposed to sectarian measures, his
+teaching was radical, progressive, and stimulating. His students accepted
+his spirit of intellectual progress, and often advanced beyond his more
+conservative teachings. In the years between 1817 and 1824 James Walker,
+<a name="pg127"></a>
+John G. Palfrey, Jared Sparks, Alexander Young, John Pierpont, Ezra S.
+Gannett, Samuel Barrett, Thomas R. Sullivan, Samuel J. May, Calvin Lincoln,
+and Edward B. Hall were students in the Divinity School; and all of these
+men were leaders in the movement to organize a Unitarian Association.
+Pierpont gave the name to the new organization, distinctly defining it as
+Unitarian. Gannett, Palfrey, and Hall served it as presidents; Gannett,
+Lincoln, and Young, as secretaries. Walker, Palfrey, and Barrett gave it
+faithful service as directors, and Lincoln as its active missionary agent.
+A number of young laymen in Boston and elsewhere, mostly graduates of
+Harvard College, were also interested in the formation of the new
+organization. Among them were Charles G. Loring, Robert Rantoul, Samuel A.
+Eliot, Leverett Salstonstall, George B. Emerson, and Alden Bradford. All
+these young men were afterwards prominent in the affairs of the city or
+state, and they were faithful to the interests of the Unitarian churches
+with which they were connected.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn41"></a>Initial Meetings.</h3>
+
+<p>The first proposition to form a Unitarian organization for missionary
+purposes was made in a meeting of the Anonymous Association, a club to
+which belonged thirty or forty of the leading men of Boston. They were all
+connected with Unitarian churches, and were actively interested in
+promoting the growth of a liberal form of Christianity. It appears from the
+journal of David Reed, for many years the editor and publisher of The
+Christian Register, that the members of this association were in the habit
+of meeting at each other's houses during the year 1824 for the purpose of
+discussing important subjects connected with religion, morals, and
+<a name="pg128"></a>
+politics. At a meeting held at the house of Hon. Josiah Quincy in the
+autumn of that year, attention was called to certain articles that had been
+published in The Christian Register, and the importance was suggested of
+promoting the growth of liberal Christianity through the distribution of
+the printed word. A resolution was submitted, inquiring if measures could
+not be taken for uniting the efforts of liberal-minded persons to give
+greater efficiency to the attempt to extend a knowledge of Unitarian
+principles by means of the public press; and a committee was appointed to
+consider and report on the expediency of forming an organization for this
+purpose. This committee consisted of Rev. Henry Ware, the younger, Alden
+Bradford, and Richard Sullivan. Henry Ware was the beloved and devoted
+minister of the Second Church in Boston. His colleagues were older men,
+both graduates of Harvard College and prominent in the social and business
+life of Boston. The purpose which these men had in mind was well defined by
+Dr. Gannett, writing twenty years after the event: "We found ourselves," he
+said, "under the painful necessity of contributing our assistance to the
+propagation of tenets which we accounted false or of forming an association
+through which we might address the great truths of religion to our
+fellow-men without the adulteration of erroneous dogmas. To take one of
+these courses, or to do nothing in the way of Christian beneficence, was
+the only alternative permitted to us. The name which we adopted has a
+sectarian sound; but it was chosen to avoid equivocation on the one hand
+and misapprehension on the other."[<a href="#fn_6_6">6</a><a name="fr_6_6"></a>] The committee, under date of
+December 29, 1824, sent out a circular inviting a meeting of all
+<a name="pg129"></a>
+interested, "in order to confer together on the expediency of appointing an
+annual meeting for the purpose of union, sympathy, and co-operation in the
+cause of Christian truth and Christian charity." In this circular will be
+found the origin of the clause in the present constitution of the Unitarian
+Association defining its purposes.</p>
+
+<p>In response to this call a meeting was held in the vestry of the Federal
+Street Church on January 27, 1825. Dr. Channing opened the meeting with
+prayer. Richard Sullivan was chosen moderator, and James Walker secretary.
+There were present all those who have been hitherto named in connection
+with this movement, together with many others of the leading laymen and
+ministers of the liberal churches in New England.[<a href="#fn_6_7">7</a><a name="fr_6_7"></a>] The record of the
+meeting made by Rev. James Walker is preserved in the first volume of the
+correspondence of the Unitarian Association; and it enables us, in
+connection with the more confidential reminiscences of David Reed, to give
+a fairly complete record of, what was said and done. Henry Ware, the
+younger, in behalf of the committee, presented a statement of the objects
+proposed by those desirous of organizing a national Unitarian society; and
+he offered a resolution declaring it "desirable and expedient that
+<a name="pg130"></a>
+provision should be made for future meetings of Unitarians and liberal
+Christians generally." The adoption of this resolution was moved by Stephen
+Higginson; and the discussion was opened by Dr. Aaron Bancroft, the learned
+and honored minister of the Second Church in Worcester. He was fearful that
+sufficient care might not be taken as to the manner of instituting the
+proposed organization, and he doubted its expediency. He was of the opinion
+that Unitarianism was to be propagated slowly and silently, for it had
+succeeded in his own parish because it had not been openly advocated. He
+did not wish to oppose the design generally, but he was convinced that it
+would do more harm than good.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Bancroft was followed by Professor Andrews Norton, the greatly
+respected teacher of most of the younger ministers, who defended the
+proposed organization, and said that its purpose was not to make
+proselytes. Then Dr. Charming arose, and gave to the proposition of the
+committee a guarded approval. He thought the object of the convention, as
+he wished to call it, should be to "spread our views of religion, not our
+mere opinions, for our religion is essentially practical." The friendly
+attitude of Channing gave added emphasis to the disapproval of the
+prominent laymen who spoke after him. Judge Charles Jackson, an eminent
+justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, thought there was danger in
+the proposed plan, that it was not becoming to liberal Christians, that it,
+was inconsistent with their principles, and that it would not be beneficial
+to the community. He was ready to give his aid, to any specific work, but
+he thought that everything could be accomplished that was necessary,
+<a name="pg131"></a>
+without a general-association of any kind. The same opinion was expressed
+by George Bond, a leading merchant of Boston, who was afraid that
+Unitarianism would become popular, and that, when it had gamed a majority
+of the people of the country to its side, it would become as intolerant as
+the other sects. For this reason he believed the measure inexpedient, and
+moved an adjournment of the meeting.</p>
+
+<p>Three of the most widely known and respected of the older ministers also
+spoke in opposition to the proposition to form an association of liberal
+Christians. These men were typical pastors and preachers, whose parishes
+were limited only by the town in which they lived, and who preached the
+gospel without sectarian prejudice or doctrinal qualifications. Dr. John
+Pierce, of Brookline, thought the measure of the committee "very
+dangerous," and likely to do much harm in many of the parishes by arousing
+the sectarian spirit. He spoke three times in the course of the meeting,
+opposing with his accustomed vehemence all attempt at organization. Dr.
+Abiel Abbot, of Beverly, thought that presenting a distinct object for
+opposition would arrest the progress of Unitarianism, for in his
+neighborhood liberal Christianity owed everything to slow and silent
+progress. Dr. John Allyn, of Duxbury, one of the most original and learned
+ministers of his time in New England, was opposed to the use of any
+sectarian name, especially that of Unitarian or Liberal. He was willing to
+join in a general convention, and he desired to have a meeting of delegates
+from all sects. He expressed the opinion of several leading men who were
+present at this meeting, who favored an unsectarian organization, that
+should include all men of liberal opinions, of whatever name or
+denominational connection.</p>
+
+<a name="pg132"></a>
+<p>Those who were in favor of a Unitarian Association did not remain silent,
+and they spoke with clearness and vigor in approval of the proposition of
+the committee. Alden Bradford, who became the Secretary of State in
+Massachusetts, and wrote several valuable biographical and historical
+works, thought that Unitarians were too timid and did not wisely defend
+their position. He was followed by Andrews Norton in a vigorous declaration
+of the importance of the association, in the course of which he pointed out
+how inadequately Unitarians had protected and fostered the institutions
+under their care, and declared that closer union was necessary. Jared
+Sparks also earnestly favored the project, and said that what was proposed
+was not a plan of proselyting. It was his opinion that Unitarians ought to
+come forward in support of their views of truth, and that an association
+was necessary in order to promote sympathy among them throughout the
+country. Colonel Joseph May, who had been for thirty years a warden of
+King's Chapel, and a man held in high esteem in Boston, referred to the
+work already accomplished by the zeal and effort of the few Unitarians who
+had worked together to promote liberal interests. The most incisive word
+spoken, however, came from John Pierpont, who was just coming into his fame
+as an orator and a leader in reforms. "We have," he declared, "and we must
+have, the name Unitarian. It is not for us to shrink from it. Organization
+is necessary in order to maintain it, and organization there must be. The
+general interests of Unitarians will be promoted by using the name, and
+organizing in harmony with it."</p>
+
+<p>In the long discussion at this meeting it appears that, of the ministers,
+<a name="pg133"></a>
+Channing, Norton, Bancroft, Ware, Pierpont, Sparks, Edes, Nichols, Parker,
+Thayer, Willard, and Harding were in favor of organization; Pierce, Allyn,
+Abbot, Freeman, and Bigelow, against it. Of the laymen, Charles Jackson and
+George Bond were vigorously in opposition; and Judge Story, Judge White,
+Judge Howe, of Northampton, Alden Bradford, Leverett Salstonstall, Stephen
+Higginson, and Joseph May spoke in favor. The result of the meeting was the
+appointment of a committee, consisting of Sullivan, Bradford, Ware,
+Channing, Palfrey, Walker, Pierpont, and Higginson, which was empowered to
+call together a larger meeting at some time during the session of the
+General Court. But this committee seems never to have acted. At the end of
+his report of this preliminary meeting James Walker wrote: "The meeting
+proposed was never called. As there appeared to be so much difference of
+opinion as to the expediency and nature of the measure proposed, it was
+thought best to let it subside in silence."</p>
+
+<p>The zeal of those favorable to organization, however, did not abate; and
+the discussion went on throughout the winter. On May 25, 1825, at the
+meeting of the Berry Street Conference of Ministers, Henry Ware, the
+younger, who had been chairman of the first committee, renewed the effort,
+and presented the following statement as a declaration of the purposes of
+the proposed organization:--</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>  It is proposed to form a new association, to be called The American
+  Unitarian Society. The chief and ultimate object will be the promotion
+  of pure and undefiled religion by disseminating the knowledge of it
+  where adequate means of religious instruction are not enjoyed. A
+  secondary good which will follow from it is the union of all Unitarian
+<a name="pg134"></a>
+  Christians in this country, so that they would become mutually
+  acquainted, and the concentration of their efforts would increase their
+  efficiency. The society will embrace all Unitarian Christians in the
+  United States. Its operations would extend themselves through the whole
+  country. These operations would chiefly consist in the publication and
+  distribution of tracts, and the support of missionaries.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>It was announced that in the afternoon a meeting would be held for the
+further consideration of the subject. This meeting was held at four
+o'clock, and Dr. Henry Ware acted as moderator. The opponents of
+organization probably absented themselves, for action was promptly taken,
+and it was "<i>Voted</i>, that it is expedient to form a new society to be
+called the American Unitarian Association." All who were present expressed
+themselves as in favor of this action. Rev. James Walker, Mr. Lewis Tappan,
+and Rev. Ezra S. Gannett were appointed a committee to draft a form of
+organization. On the next morning, Thursday, May 26, 1825, this committee
+reported to a meeting, of which Dr. Nathaniel Thayer, of Lancaster, was
+moderator; and, with one or two amendments, the constitution prepared by
+the committee was adopted. This constitution, with slight modifications, is
+still in force. The object of the Association was declared to be "to
+diffuse the knowledge and promote the interests of pure Christianity." A
+committee to nominate officers selected Dr. Channing for president; Joseph
+Story, of Salem, Joseph Lyman, of Northampton, Stephen Longfellow, of
+Portland, Charles H. Atherton, of Amherst, N.H., Henry Wheaton, of New
+York, James Taylor, of Philadelphia, Henry Payson, of Baltimore, William
+Cranch, of Alexandria, Martin L. Hurlbut, of Charleston, as
+<a name="pg135"></a>
+vice-presidents; Ezra S. Gannett, of Boston, for secretary; Lewis Tappan,
+of Boston, for treasurer; and Andrews Norton, Jared Sparks, and James
+Walker, for executive committee.</p>
+
+<p>When Mr. Gannett wrote to his colleague, Dr. Channing, to notify him of his
+election as president, there came a letter declining the proffered office.
+"I was a little disappointed," Channing wrote, "at learning that the
+Unitarian Association is to commence operations immediately. I conversed
+with Mr. Norton on the subject before leaving Boston, and found him so
+indisposed to engage in it that I imagined that it would be let alone for
+the present. The office which in your kindness you have assigned to me I
+must beg to decline. As you have made a beginning, I truly rejoice in your
+success." Norton and Sparks also declined to serve as directors, ill-health
+and previous engagements being assigned by them for their inability to act
+with the other officers elected. The executive committee proceeded to fill
+these vacancies by the election of Dr. Aaron Bancroft, of Worcester, as
+president, and of the younger Henry Ware and Samuel Barrett to the
+executive committee; and the board of directors thus constituted
+administered the Association during its first year.</p>
+
+<p>In the selection of Dr. Bancroft as the head of the new association a wise
+choice was made, for he had the executive and organizing ability that was
+eminently desirable at this juncture. He was an able preacher, and one of
+the strongest thinkers in the Unitarian body. His biography of Washington
+had made him widely known; and his volume of controversial sermons,
+<a name="pg136"></a>
+published in 1822, had received the enthusiastic praise of John Adams and
+Thomas Jefferson. When he was settled, he was almost an outcast in
+Worcester County because of his liberalism; but such were the strength of
+his character and the power of his thought that gradually he secured a wide
+hearing, and became the most popular preacher in Central Massachusetts.
+After fifty years of his ministry he could count twenty-one vigorous
+Unitarian societies about him, all of which had profited by his
+influence.[<a href="#fn_6_8">8</a><a name="fr_6_8"></a>] Although he was seventy years of age at the time he
+accepted the presidency of the Unitarian Association, he was in the full
+enjoyment of his powers; and he filled the office for ten years, giving it
+and the cause which the Association represented the impetus and weight of
+his sound judgment and deserved reputation.</p>
+
+<p>The executive work of the Association fell to the charge of the secretary,
+Ezra S. Gannett, who had been one of the most enthusiastic advocates of the
+new organization. Gannett was but twenty-four years old, and had been but
+one year in the active ministry, as the colleague of Dr. Channing. He had
+youth, zeal, and executive force. Writing of him after his death, Dr.
+Bellows said: "He had rare administrative qualities and a statesmanlike
+mind. He would have been a leader anywhere. He had the ambition, the
+faculties, and the impulsive temperament of an actor in affairs. He had the
+fervor, the concentration of will, the passionate enthusiasm of conviction,
+the love of martyrdom, which make men great in action."[<a href="#fn_6_9">9</a><a name="fr_6_9"></a>] Throughout his
+life Gannett labored assiduously for the Association, serving it in every
+<a name="pg137"></a>
+capacity refusing no drudgery, travelling over the country in its
+interests, and giving himself, heart and soul, to the cause it represented.
+The Unitarian cause never had a more devoted friend or one who made greater
+sacrifices in its behalf. To him more than to any other man it owes its
+organized life and its missionary serviceableness.</p>
+
+<p>Lewis Tappan, the treasurer, was a successful young business man. His term
+of service was brief; for two years after the organization of the
+Association he removed to New York, where he had an honorable career as one
+of the founders of the Journal of Commerce, and as the head of the first
+mercantile agency established in the country. He was later one of the
+anti-slavery leaders in New York, and an active and earnest member of
+Plymouth Church in Brooklyn.[<a href="#fn_6_10">10</a><a name="fr_6_10"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The executive committee was composed of the three devoted young ministers
+who had been foremost in organizing the Association. Barrett was thirty,
+Ware and Walker were thirty-one years of age; and all three had been in
+Harvard College and the Divinity School together. Samuel Barrett had just
+been chosen minister of the newly formed Twelfth Congregational Church of
+Boston, which he served throughout his life. He was identified with all
+good causes in Eastern Massachusetts, a founder of the Benevolent
+<a name="pg138"></a>
+Fraternity, and an overseer of Harvard College. Henry Ware, the younger,
+was, at the time of his election, the minister of the Second Church in
+Boston. Five years later he became professor in the Harvard Divinity
+School, and his memory is still cherished as the teacher and exemplar of a
+generation of Unitarian ministers. James Walker was, in 1825, the minister
+of the Harvard Church in Charlestown, and already gave evidence of the
+sanity and catholicity of mind, the practical organizing power, the wide
+philosophic culture, and the dignity of character which afterward
+distinguished him as professor in Harvard College, and as its president.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the organization started on its way, as the result of the determined
+purpose of a small company of the younger ministers and laymen. It took a
+name that separated it from all other religious organizations in this
+country, so far as its members then knew. The Unitarian name had been first
+definitely used in this country in 1815, to describe the liberal or
+Catholic Christians. They at first scornfully rejected it, but many of them
+had finally come to rejoice in its declaration of the simple unity of God.
+As a matter of history, it may be said that the word "Unitarian" was used
+in this doctrinal sense only; and it had none of the implications since
+given it by philosophy and science. Those who used it meant thereby to say
+that they accepted the doctrine of the absolute unity of God, and that the
+position of Christ was a subordinate though a very exalted one. No one can
+read their statements with historic apprehension, and arrive at any other
+conclusion. Yet these persons had no wish to cut themselves off from
+historic Christianity; rather was it their intent to restore it to its
+primitive purity.</p>
+
+<a name="pg139"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn42"></a>Work of the First Year.</h3>
+
+<p>If others were disinclined to action, the executive committee of the
+Unitarian Association was determined that something should be done. At
+their first, meeting, held in the secretary's study four days after their
+election, there were present Norton, Walker, Tappan, and Gannett. They
+commissioned Rev. Warren Burton to act as their agent in visiting
+neighboring towns to solicit funds, and a week later they voted to employ
+him as a general agent. The committee held six meetings during June; and at
+one of these an address was adopted, defining the purposes and methods of
+the Association. "They wish it to be understood," was their statement,
+"that its efforts will be directed to the promotion of true religion
+throughout our country; intending by this, not exclusively those views
+which distinguish the friends of this Association from other disciples of
+Christ; but those views in connection with the great doctrines and
+principles in which all Christians coincide, and which constitute the
+substance of our religion. We wish to diffuse the knowledge and influence
+of the gospel of our Lord and Saviour. Great good is anticipated from the
+co-operation of persons entertaining similar views, who are now strangers
+to each other's religious sentiments. Interest will be awakened, confidence
+inspired, efficiency produced by the concentration of labors. The spirit of
+inquiry will be fostered, and individuals at a distance will know where to
+apply for information and encouragement. Respectability and strength will
+be given to the class among us whom our fellow Christians have excluded
+from the control of their religious charities, and whom, by their exclusive
+<a name="pg140"></a>
+treatment, they have compelled in some measure to act as a party." The
+objects of the Association were stated to be the collection of information
+about Unitarianism in various parts of the country; the securing of union,
+sympathy, and co-operation among liberal Christians; the publishing and
+distribution of books inculcating correct views of religion; the employment
+of missionaries, and the adoption of other measures that might promote the
+general purposes held in view.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the year the Association held its first anniversary meeting
+in Pantheon Hall, on the evening of June 30, 1826, when addresses were made
+by Hon. Joseph Story, Hon. Leverett Salstonstall, Rev. Ichabod Nichols, and
+Rev. Henry Coleman. The executive committee presented its report, which
+gave a detailed account of the operations during the year. They gave
+special attention to their discovery of "a body of Christians in the
+Western states who have for years been Unitarians, have encountered
+persecution on account of their faith, and have lived in ignorance of
+others east of the mountains who maintained many similar views of Christian
+doctrine." With this group of churches, which would consent to no other
+name than that of Christian, a correspondence had been opened; and, to
+secure a larger acquaintance with them, Rev. Moses G. Thomas[<a href="#fn_6_11">11</a><a name="fr_6_11"></a>] had
+visited several of the Western states. His tour carried him through
+Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and as far as St. Louis.
+His account of his journey was published in connection with the second
+<a name="pg141"></a>
+report of the Association, and is full of interest. He did not preach, but
+he carefully investigated the religious prospects of the states he
+journeyed through; and he sought the acquaintance of the Christian churches
+and ministers. He gave an enthusiastic account of his travels, and reported
+that the west was a promising field for the planting of Unitarian churches.
+He recommended Northumberland, Harrisburg, Pittsburg, Steubenville,
+Marietta, Paris, Lexington, Louisville, St. Louis, St. Charles,
+Indianapolis, and Cincinnati as promising places for the labors of
+Unitarian missionaries,--places "which will properly appreciate their
+talents and render them doubly useful in their day and generation."</p>
+
+<p>During the first year of its existence the Unitarian Association endeavored
+to unite with itself, or to secure the co-operation of, the Society for the
+Promotion of Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity, the Evangelical
+Missionary Society, and the Publishing Fund Society; but these
+organizations were unwilling to come into close affiliation with it. The
+Evangelical Missionary Society has continued its separate existence to the
+present time, but the others were absorbed by the Unitarian Association
+after many years. This is one indication of how difficult it was to secure
+an active co-operation among Unitarians, and to bring them all into one
+vigorous working body. In concluding their first report, the officers of
+the Association alluded to the difficulties with which they had met the
+reluctance of the liberal churches to come into close affiliation with each
+other. "They have strenuously opposed the opinion," they said of the
+leaders of the Association, "that the object of the founders was to build
+up a party, to organize an opposition, to perpetuate pride and bigotry. Had
+<a name="pg142"></a>
+they believed that such was its purpose or such would be its effect, they
+would have withdrawn themselves from any connection with so hateful a
+thing. They thought otherwise, and experience has proved they did not judge
+wrongly."</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn43"></a>Work of the First Quarter of a Century.</h3>
+
+<p>Having thus organized itself and begun its work, the Association went
+quietly on its way. At no time during the first quarter of a century of its
+existence did it secure annual contributions from one-half the churches
+calling themselves Unitarian, and it did well when even one-third of them
+contributed to its treasury during any one year. The churches of Boston,
+for the most part, held aloof from it, and gave it only a feeble support,
+if any at all. They had so long accepted the spirit of congregational
+exclusiveness, had so great a dread of interference on the part of
+ecclesiastical organizations, and so keenly suspected every attempt at
+co-operation on the part of the churches as likely to lead to restrictions
+upon congregational independence, that it was nearly impossible to secure
+their aid for any kind of common work. Very slowly the contributions
+increased to the sum of $5,000 a year, and only once in the first quarter
+of a century did the total receipts of a year reach $15,000. With so small
+a treasury no great work could be undertaken; but the money given was
+husbanded to the utmost, and the salaries paid to clerks and the general
+secretary were kept to the lowest possible limit.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Bancroft was succeeded in the presidency of the Association, in 1836,
+by Dr. Channing, who nominally held the position for one year; but at the
+next annual meeting he declined to have his name presented as a
+<a name="pg143"></a>
+candidate.[<a href="#fn_6_12">12</a><a name="fr_6_12"></a>] The office was then filled by Dr. Ichabod Nichols, of
+Portland, who served from 1837 to 1844. He was the minister of the First
+Church in Portland from 1809 to 1855, and then retired to Cambridge, where
+he wrote his Natural Theology and his Hours with the Evangelists. Joseph
+Story, the great jurist, who had been vice-president of the Association
+from 1826 to 1836, was elected president in 1844, and served for one year.
+He was followed by Dr. Orville Dewey, who was president from 1845 to 1847.
+He had been settled in New Bedford, and over the Church of the Messiah in
+New York; and subsequently he had short pastorates in Albany, in
+Washington, and over the New South Church in Boston. His lectures and his
+sermons have made him widely known. In intellectual and emotional power he
+was one of the greatest preachers the country has produced. Dr. Gannett
+served as the president from 1847 to 1851, being succeeded by Dr. Samuel K.
+Lothop, who continued to hold the office until 1856. Dr. Lothrop was first
+settled in Dover, N.H., but became the minister of the Brattle Street
+Church, Boston, in 1834, retaining that position until 1876.</p>
+
+<p>The office of secretary was held by Rev. Ezra S, Gannett until 1831. He was
+succeeded in that year by Rev. Alexander Young, who held the position for
+two years. Dr. Young was the minister of the New South Church from 1825
+until his death, in 1854. His Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers, and other
+works, have given him a reputation as a historian. In 1829 the office of
+foreign secretary was created; and it was held by the younger Henry Ware
+<a name="pg144"></a>
+from 1830 to 1834, when it ceased to exist. Rev. Samuel Barnett was
+secretary in 1833 and 1834, and recording secretary until 1837. In 1834 the
+office of general secretary was established, in order to secure the
+services of an active missionary. Rev. Jason Whitman, who held this
+position for one year, had been the minister in Saco; and he was afterward
+settled in Portland and Lexington. Rev. Charles Briggs became the general
+secretary in 1835, and continued in office until the end of 1847. He had
+been settled in Lexington, but did not hold a pastorate subsequent to his
+connection with the Association. In the mean time Rev. Samuel K. Lothrop
+was the assistant or recording secretary from 1837 to 1847. In 1847 Rev.
+William G. Eliot was elected the general secretary; but he did not serve,
+owing to the claims of his parish in St. Louis. Rev. Frederick West
+Holland, who had been settled in Rochester, was made the general secretary
+in January, 1848; and he held the position until the annual meeting of
+1860. Subsequently he was settled in East Cambridge, Neponset, North
+Cambridge, Rochester, and Newburg.</p>
+
+<p>It was Charles Briggs who first gave definite purpose to the missionary
+work of the Association. The annual report of 1850 said of him that he "had
+led the institution forward to high ground as a missionary body, by
+unfailing patience prevailed over every discouragement, by inexhaustible
+hope surmounted serious obstacles, by the most persuasive gentleness
+conciliated opposition, and done perhaps as much as could be asked of sound
+judgment, knowledge of mankind, and devotion to the cause, with the
+drawback of a slender and failing frame." In 1845 Rev. George G. Channing
+<a name="pg145"></a>
+entered upon a service as the travelling agent of the Association, which he
+continued for two years. His duties required him to take an active interest
+in missionary enterprises, revive drooping churches, secure information as
+to the founding of new churches, and to add to the income of the
+Association. He was a brother of Dr. Channing, held one or two pastorates,
+and was the founder and editor of The Christian World, which he published
+in Boston as a weekly Unitarian paper from January, 1843, to the end of
+1848.</p>
+
+<p>At a meeting of the Unitarian Association held on June 3, 1847, the final
+steps were taken that secured its incorporation under the laws of
+Massachusetts. In the revised constitution the fifteen vice-presidents were
+reduced to two, and the president and vice-presidents were made members of
+the executive committee, and so brought into intimate connection with the
+work of the Association. The directors and other officers were made an
+executive committee, by which all affairs of moment must be considered; and
+it was required to hold stated monthly meetings. These changes were
+conducive to an enlarged interest in the work of the Association, and also
+to the more thorough consideration of its activities on the part of a
+considerable body of judicious and experienced officers. They were made in
+recognition of the increasing missionary labors of the Association, and
+enabled it thenceforth to hold and to manage legally the moneys that came
+under its control.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn44"></a>Publication of Tracts and Books.</h3>
+
+<p>One of the first subjects to which the Association gave attention was the
+publication of tracts, six of which were issued during the first year. In
+connection with their publication a series of depositaries was established
+<a name="pg146"></a>
+for their sale. David Reed of The Christian Register became the general
+agent, while there were ten county depositaries in Massachusetts, four in
+New Hampshire, three in Maine, and one each in Connecticut, New York City,
+Philadelphia, Charleston, and Washington.[<a href="#fn_6_13">13</a><a name="fr_6_13"></a>] For a number of years the
+tracts were devoted to doctrinal subjects. Several of Channing's ablest
+sermons and addresses were first printed in this form. Among the other
+contributors to the first series were the three Wares, Orville Dewey,
+Joseph Tuckerman, James Walker, George Ripley, Samuel J. May, John G.
+Palfrey, Ezra S. Gannett, Samuel Gilman, George R. Noyes, William G. Eliot,
+Andrew P. Peabody, F.A. Farley, James Freeman Clarke, S.G. Bulfinch, George
+Putnam, Joseph Allen, Frederic H. Hedge, Edward B. Hall, George E. Ellis,
+Thomas B. Fox, Charles T. Brooks, J.H. Morison, Henry W. Bellows, William
+H. Furness, John Cordner, Chandler Robbins, Augustus Woodbury, and William
+R. Alger. Ten or twelve tracts were issued yearly, those of the year having
+a consecutive page numbering, so that, in fact, they appeared in the form
+of a monthly periodical, each tract bearing the date of its publication,
+<a name="pg147"></a>
+and being sent regularly to all subscribers to the Association. In all,
+three hundred tracts appeared in this form in the first series, making
+twenty-six volumes.</p>
+
+<p>For nearly half a century none of the tracts of the Association were
+published for free distribution. They were issued at prices ranging from
+two to ten cents each, according to the size, some of them having not more
+than ten or twelve pages, while others had more than a hundred. So long as
+there was an eagerness for theological reading, and an earnest intellectual
+interest in the questions which divided the several religious bodies of the
+country from each other, it was not difficult to sell editions of from
+3,000 to 10,000 copies of all the tracts published by the Association. From
+the first, however, there were many calls for tracts for free distribution.
+To meet this demand, there was formed in Boston, by a number of young men
+during the year 1827, The Unitarian Book and Pamphlet Society, for "the
+gratuitous distribution of Unitarian publications of an approved
+character." It undertook especially to distribute "such publications as
+shall be issued by the American Unitarian Association or recommended by
+it." This society also circulated tracts printed by The Christian Register
+and The Christian World, the call for such publications having led the
+publishers of these periodicals to give their aid in meeting the demand for
+pamphlets on theological problems and on practical religious duties. The
+society also distributed Bibles to the poor of the city and in more distant
+country places, furnishing them to missionaries and others who would
+undertake work of this kind. In the same manner they gave away large
+<a name="pg148"></a>
+numbers of books, their list for 1836 including Scougal's Life of God in
+the Soul of Man, Ware's Formation of the Christian Character, and works by
+Worcester, Channing Whitman, and Greenwood. The call for aid was
+considerable from the western and southern states; and books were sent to
+Havana, New Brunswick, and the Sandwich Islands. In the winter of 1840-41
+this society was reorganized, an urgent appeal was made to the churches for
+an increase of funds, and during the next few years its work was large and
+important.</p>
+
+<p>In the year 1848 was begun a special effort for the circulation of
+Unitarian books, on the part of The Book and Pamphlet Society, The Society
+for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity, as well as by the
+Unitarian Association. In that year the second of these organizations sent
+out circulars to 263 colleges and theological schools, offering to give
+Unitarian books, to those desiring to receive them; and to 59 of these
+institutions assortments of books worth from two dollars to one hundred
+dollars were forwarded. The first request came from the Catholic College at
+Worcester, and the last from the Wisconsin University at Madison. At the
+same time the Association was pressing the sale and free distribution of
+the Works and the Memoir of Dr. Charming, as well as various books by
+Peabody, Livermore, Bartol, and others.</p>
+
+<p>The Association began to make use of colporters about the year 1847. The
+next year it had two young ministers engaged in this work, and by 1850 this
+kind of missionary labor had increased to considerable proportions.
+Especially in the West was much use made of the colporter, and in this way
+in many of the states the works of Channing were sold in large numbers. By
+<a name="pg149"></a>
+these agents, tracts were given away with a free hand, and books were given
+to ministers and those who especially needed them. The Western ministers,
+almost without exception, served as colporters, selling books and
+distributing them as important helps to their missionary labors. In many
+communities zealous laymen took part in this kind of service, and the
+several depositaries of books and tracts were used as centres from which
+colporters and others could draw their supplies. As early as 1835 a general
+depositary had been established in Cincinnati, and in 1849 one was opened
+in Chicago.</p>
+
+<p>The Association could not have undertaken any work that would have brought
+in a larger or more immediate return in the way of religious education and
+spiritual growth than this of the publication of tracts and books. Previous
+to 1850 a doctrinal sermon was rarely preached in a Unitarian church, and
+the tracts were the most important means of giving to the members of
+established churches a knowledge of Unitarian theology. By the same means
+many other persons were made acquainted with the Unitarian beliefs, and the
+result was to be seen in the formation of churches where tracts and books
+had been largely distributed.[<a href="#fn_6_14">14</a><a name="fr_6_14"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn45"></a>Domestic Missions.</h3>
+
+<p>The work of domestic missions from the first largely claimed the attention
+of the Association, and it was one the chief objects in its formation.
+During the summer of 1826 the members of the Harvard Divinity School were
+<a name="pg150"></a>
+sent throughout New England to gather information, and to preach where
+opportunity offered. The special object was to make ministers and
+congregations acquainted with the purposes of the Association. It was found
+that there was much opposition to it, and that in many parishes there
+existed no desire to have its mission extended.</p>
+
+<p>Persons of all shades of belief were connected with many of the liberal
+parishes, some of the churches not having as yet ceased their relations
+with the towns in which they were located; and the ministers were not
+willing to have theological questions brought to the attention of their
+congregations. "The great objection everywhere seems to be," reported one
+of the young men, who had travelled through many of the towns of central
+Massachusetts, "that the clergymen do not like to awaken party spirit.
+People will go on quietly performing all external duties of religion
+without asking themselves if they are listening to the doctrine of the
+Trinity or not; but the moment you wish to act, they call up all their old
+prejudices, and take a very firm stand. This necessarily creates division
+and dissension, and renders the situation of the minister very
+uncomfortable."[<a href="#fn_6_15">15</a><a name="fr_6_15"></a>] The ministers did not preach on theological subjects;
+and, while they were liberal themselves, they had not instructed their
+parishioners in such a manner that they followed in the same path of
+thinking which their leaders had travelled.</p>
+
+<p>It was evident, therefore, that there was work enough in New England for
+the Association to accomplish, and such as would fully tax its
+<a name="pg151"></a>
+resources.[<a href="#fn_6_16">16</a><a name="fr_6_16"></a>] It had turned its eyes toward the West and South, however;
+and it was not willing to leave these fields unoccupied. In 1836 the
+general secretary, Charles Briggs, spent eight months in these regions; and
+he found everywhere large opportunities for the spread of Unitarianism.
+Promising openings were found at Erie, Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit,
+Marietta, Tremont, Jacksonville, Memphis, and Nashville, in which villages
+or cities churches were soon after formed. It was reported at this time
+that there was hardly a town in the West where there were not Unitarians,
+<a name="pg152"></a>
+or in which it was not possible by the right kind of effort to establish a
+Unitarian church.</p>
+
+<p>As a result of the interest awakened by the tour of the general secretary,
+fourteen missionaries were put into the field in 1837. In 1838 twenty-three
+missionaries visited eleven states, including New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
+Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky Alabama, and Georgia.[<a href="#fn_6_17">17</a><a name="fr_6_17"></a>] They were
+men of experience in parish labors, but they did not go out to the new
+country to remain there permanently. They attracted large congregations,
+however, formed several societies which promised to be permanent,
+administered the ordinances, established Sunday-schools, and did much to
+strengthen the churches. In 1839 seven preachers were sent into the west,
+and at the next anniversary there was an urgent call made by the
+Association for funds with which to establish a permanent missionary agent
+in the field. Something more was needed than a few Massachusetts ministers
+preaching from town to town with no purpose of locating with any of the
+churches they helped to organize. Ministers for the new churches were
+urgently demanded, but few men from New England were willing to remove to
+<a name="pg153"></a>
+the west; and, though recruits came from the orthodox churches, this source
+of supply was not sufficient.</p>
+
+<p>The repeated calls made for larger resources with which to carry on the
+work of domestic missions resulted in meetings held in Boston during the
+year 1841, at which pledges were made to a fund of $10,000 yearly for five
+years, to be used for missionary purposes. This sum was secured in 1843 and
+the next four years, so that larger aid was given to missionary activities
+and to the building of churches. At the annual meeting of 1849 special
+attention was given to the subject of domestic missions, and plans were
+devised for largely extending all the activities in this direction. Much
+interest was taken in the western work during the following years, and
+slowly new churches came into existence. In 1849 Rev. Edward P. Bond was
+sent to San Francisco, where a number of New England people had held lay
+services and formed a church, and in a few years a strong society had grown
+up in that city. Mr. Bond also went to the Sandwich Islands; but he was not
+able to open a mission there, owing to ill-health. In the South the work
+languished, largely owing to the growth of anti-slavery sentiment in the
+North, with which Unitarians were generally in sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>From 1830 to 1850 the Unitarians were confronted by the greatest
+opportunity which has ever opened to them for missionary activities. The
+vast region of the middle west was in a formative state, the people were
+everywhere receptive to liberal influences, other churches had not been
+firmly established, and there was urgent demand for leadership of a
+progressive and rational kind. Here has come to be the controlling centre
+<a name="pg154"></a>
+of American life,--in politics, education, and social power. A few of the
+leaders saw the opportunity, but the churches were not ready to respond to
+their appeals.</p>
+
+<p>The work accomplished by the Association during the first twenty-five or
+thirty years of its existence, the period reviewed in this chapter, was
+small, compared with the opportunity and with the wishes of those who most
+had at heart the interests for the promotion of which it was established.
+Yet there was wanting in no year encouragement for its friends or something
+accomplished that cheered them to larger efforts. In 1850, at the
+twenty-fifth anniversary, historical addresses were delivered by Samuel
+Osgood, John G. Palfrey, Henry W. Bellows, Edward E. Hale, and Lant
+Carpenter; and a hopeful review of the labors of the Association was
+presented by the executive committee. First of all its efforts had been
+directed to securing religious liberty. Then came its philanthropic
+enterprises, and finally its missionary labors. During the quarter of a
+century one hundred churches that were weak and struggling, owing to their
+situation in towns of decreasing population or in cities not congenial to
+their teachings, had been aided. More than fifty vigorous churches had been
+planted in the west and south, nearly all of them helped in some way by the
+Association. There was a renewed call for strong men to enter the
+missionary field, and it was uttered more urgently at this time than ever
+before. Special pride was expressed in the high quality of the religious
+writings produced by Unitarians, and in the nobleness the men and women who
+had been connected with denominational activities.[<a href="#fn_6_18">18</a><a name="fr_6_18"></a>]</p>
+
+<p><br ><br >[<a href="#fr_6_1">1</a><a name="fn_6_1"></a>] An eighteenth-century term for the Congregational churches, which
+     were the legally established churches throughout New England, an
+     supported by the towns.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_6_2">2</a><a name="fn_6_2"></a>] Boston Unitarianism, 67.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_6_3">3</a><a name="fn_6_3"></a>] Memoir of Dr. Channing, one-volume edition, 215.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_6_4">4</a><a name="fn_6_4"></a>] Ibid., 432.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_6_5">5</a><a name="fn_6_5"></a>] Ibid., 427.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_6_6">6</a><a name="fn_6_6"></a>] Memoir of Ezra Stiles Gannett, by W.C. Gannett, 103.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_6_7">7</a><a name="fn_6_7"></a>] The records give the following names: Drs. Freeman, Channing, Lowell,
+     Tuckerman, Bancroft, Pierce, and Allyn; Rev. Messrs. Henry Ware,
+     Francis Parkman, J.G. Palfrey, Jared Sparks, Samuel Ripley, A.
+     Bigelow, A. Abbot, C. Francis, L. Capen, J. Pierpont, James Walker,
+     Mr. Harding, and Mr. Edes; and the following laymen,--Richard
+     Sullivan, Stephen Higginson, B. Gould, H.J. Oliver, S. Dorr, Colonel
+     Joseph May, C.G. Loring, George Bond, Samuel A. Eliot, G.B. Emerson,
+     C.P. Phelps, Lewis Tappan, David Reed, Mr. Storer, J. Rucker, N.
+     Mitchell, Robert Rantoul, Alden Bradford, Mr. Dwight, Mr. Mackintosh,
+     General Walker, Mr. Strong, Dr. John Ware, and Professor Andrews
+     Norton.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_6_8">8</a><a name="fn_6_8"></a>] John Brazer, The Christian Examiner, xx. 240; Alonzo Hill, American
+     Unitarian Biography, i. 171.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_6_9">9</a><a name="fn_6_9"></a>] The Liberal Christian, March 3, 1875.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_6_10">10</a><a name="fn_6_10"></a>] Although Lewis Tappan took a zealous interest in the formation of the
+     Unitarian Association, as he did in all Unitarian activities of the
+     time, in the autumn of 1827 he withdrew from the Unitarian
+     fellowship, and joined the orthodox Congregationalist. In a letter
+     addressed to a Unitarian minister he explained his reasons for so
+     doing. This letter circulated for some time in manuscript, and in
+     1828 was printed in a pamphlet with the title, Letter from a
+     Gentleman in Boston to a Unitarian Clergyman of that City. Want of
+     Piety among Unitarians, failure to sustain missionary enterprises,
+     and the absence of a rigid business integrity he assigned as reasons
+     for his withdrawal. This pamphlet excited much discussion, pro and
+     con; and it was answered in a caustic review by J.P. Blanchard.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_6_11">11</a><a name="fn_6_11"></a>] Moses George Thomas was a graduate of Brown and of the Harvard
+     Divinity School, was settled in Dover, N.H., from 1829 to 1845,
+     Broadway Church in South Boston from 1845 to 1848, New Bedford 1848
+     to 1854, and was subsequently minister at large in the same city.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_6_12">12</a><a name="fn_6_12"></a>] In writing to Charles Briggs from Newport, under date of July 30
+     1836, Dr. Channing wrote, "In the pressure of subjects, when I saw
+     you, I forgot to say to you, that I cannot accept the office with
+     which the Unitarian Association honored me." That is the whole of
+     what he wrote on the subject. No one else was elected to the office
+     for year. It is evident, therefore, that his name should occupy the
+     place of president.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_6_13">13</a><a name="fn_6_13"></a>] The depositaries in Massachusetts were at Salem, Concord, Hingham,
+     Plymouth, Yarmouth, Cambridge, Worcester, Northampton, Springfield,
+     and Greenfield; in New Hampshire, at Concord, Portsmouth, Keene, and
+     Amherst; in Maine, at Hallowell, Brunswick, and Eastport; and, in
+     Connecticut, at Brooklyn. In 1828 the number had increased to
+     twenty-five in Massachusetts, six in Maine, seven in New Hampshire,
+     one in Rhode Island, four in New York, two in Pennsylvania, and two
+     in Maryland. At the first annual meeting of the Unitarian Association
+     a system of auxiliaries was recommended, which was inaugurated the
+     next year. It was proposed to organize an auxiliary to the
+     Association in every parish, and also in each county. These societies
+     came rapidly into existence, were of much help to the Association in
+     raising money and in distributing its tracts, and energetic efforts
+     were made on the part of the officers of the Association to extend
+     their number and influence. They continued in existence for about
+     twenty years, and gradually disappeared. They numbered about one
+     hundred and fifty when most prosperous.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_6_14">14</a><a name="fn_6_14"></a>] During the first twenty-five years of the Association, 272 tracts of
+     the first series were issued, and also 29 miscellaneous tracts and 37
+     reports. The number of copies published was estimated as 1,764,000,
+     making an average of 70,000 each year. Of these tracts, 103 were
+     practical, and 93 doctrinal; and, of the doctrinal, one-half were on
+     the Divine Unity, one-sixth on the Atonement, ten on Regeneration,
+     five on the Ordinances, four on Human Nature, three on Retribution,
+     and two on the Holy Spirit. In the Monthly Journal, May, 1860, Vol.
+     I. pp. 230-240, were given the titles and authors.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_6_15">15</a><a name="fn_6_15"></a>] From a letter of Samuel K. Lothrop, afterward minister of the Brattle
+     Street Church.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_6_16">16</a><a name="fn_6_16"></a>] The following letter is of interest, not only because of the name of
+     the writer, but because it gives a very good idea of the work done by
+     the first missionaries of the Association. It is dated at
+     Northampton, Mass., October 9, 1827. "My dear Sir,--I designed when I
+     left you to send some earlier notice of my doings than this; but as
+     it has not been in my power to say much, I have said nothing. Mr.
+     Hall is preparing an account of his own missions, but thinks it not
+     worth while to send it to you till it is completed. The first Sabbath
+     after my arrival I preached here. The second, for the convenience of
+     the Greenfield people, an exchange was made, and I went to Deerfield,
+     and Dr. Willard went to Colrain. There were some unfavorable
+     circumstances which operated to diminish the audience, but they were
+     glad to see and hear him. The fourth Sabbath (which followed the
+     meeting of the Franklin Association) I preached at Greenfield, and
+     Mr. Bailey went to Colrain. I enclose his journal. The fifth Sabbath
+     at Deerfield, and Dr. Willard at Adams in Berkshire. I have not seen
+     him since his return. I have told the Franklin Association I would
+     remain here till November, and in consequence have been thus put to
+     and fro, but expect to preach the three coming Sundays in
+     Northampton. I have offered my services to preach lectures in the
+     week, but circumstances have made it inexpedient in towns where it
+     was proposed. The clergymen are very glad to see me, having feared
+     that the mission was indefinitely postponed. They find the better
+     sort of people in most of the towns inquisitive and favorably
+     disposed to views of liberal Christianity. It is a singular fact, of
+     which I hear frequent mention made, that in elections Unitarians are
+     almost universally preferred when the suffrage is by ballot, and
+     rejected when given by hand ballot. In Franklin county it is thought
+     there is a majority of Unitarians. I have been much disappointed in
+     being obliged to lead a vagrant life, as you know I came hither with
+     different expectations, and hoped for leisure and retirement for
+     study, which I needed much. But it would not do for a missionary to
+     be stiff necked, and so I have been a shuttle. I have promised to go
+     to New Bedford the first three Sundays of November. With great
+     regard, your servant, R. Waldo Emerson." From this letter it will be
+     seen that Emerson supplied the pulpits at Northampton and Greenfield
+     in order that the ministers in those towns might preach elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_6_17">17</a><a name="fn_6_17"></a>] Fourteenth Annual Report, 14. "They were the following: Rev. George
+     Ripley, Boston; Rev. A.B. Muzzey, Cambridgeport; Rev. Samuel Barrett,
+     Boston; Rev. Mr. Green, East Cambridge; Rev. Calvin Lincoln,
+     Fitchburg; Rev. E.B. Willson, Westford; Dr. James Kendall, Plymouth;
+     Rev. George W. Hosmer, Buffalo; Rev. Warren Burton, Dr. Thompson,
+     Salem; Rev. J.P.B. Storer, Syracuse; Rev. Charles Babbidge,
+     Pepperell; Rev. John M. Myrick, Walpole; Rev. J.D. Swett, Boston;
+     Rev. A.D. Jones, Brighton; Rev. Henry Emmons, Meadville; Rev. J.F.
+     Clarke, Louisville; Rev. F.D. Huntington, Rev. B.F. Barrett, Rev.
+     G.F. Simmons, Rev. C. Nightingale, Mr. Wilson, of the Divinity
+     School; and Mr. C.P. Cranch. Among the places where they preached
+     are Houlton Me.; Syracuse, Lockport, Lewiston, Pekin, and Vernon,
+     N.Y.; Philadelphia and Erie, Pa.; Marietta, Zanesville, Cleveland,
+     and Toledo, Ohio; Detroit, Mich.; Owensburg, Ky.; Chicago, Peoria,
+     Tremont, Jacksonville, Hillsboro, and several other places in
+     Illinois."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_6_18">18</a><a name="fn_6_18"></a>] For a most interesting account of the growth of the denomination, see
+     The Christian Examiner for May, 1854, lvi. 397, article by John
+     Parkman.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<a name="pg155"></a>
+<h2><br ><a name="ch7"></a>VII.<br >
+
+
+THE PERIOD OF RADICALISM.</h2>
+
+<p>Before the controversy with the Orthodox had come to its end, a somewhat
+similar conflict of opinions arose within the Unitarian ranks. The same
+influences that had led the Unitarians away from the Orthodox were now
+causing the more radical Unitarians to advance beyond their more
+conservative neighbors. English philosophy had given direction to the
+Unitarian movement in America; and now German philosophy was helping to
+develop what has been designated as transcendentalism, which largely found
+expression within the Unitarian body. Beginning with 1835, the more liberal
+Unitarians were increasingly active. Hedge's[<a href="#fn_7_1">1</a><a name="fr_7_1"></a>] Club held its meetings,
+The Dial was published, Brook Farm lived its brief day of a reformed
+humanity, Parker began his preaching in Boston, Emerson was lecturing and
+publishing, and the more radical younger Unitarian preachers were bravely
+speaking for a religion natural to man and authenticated by the inner
+witness of the truth.</p>
+
+<p>The agitation thus started went on its way with many varying
+<a name="pg156"></a>
+manifestations, and with a growing incisiveness of statement and
+earnestness of feeling. The new teachings gained the interest and the faith
+of the young in increasing numbers. In pulpits and on the platform, in
+newspapers and magazines, in essays and addresses, this new teaching was
+uttered for the world's hearing. The breeze thus created seems to have
+grown into a gale, but The Christian Register and The Christian Examiner
+gave almost no indication that it had blown their way. In the official
+actions and in the publications of the Unitarian Association there was no
+word indicating that the discussion had come to its knowledge. All at once,
+however, in 1853, it came into the greatest prominence, as the result of
+action taken by the Unitarian Association; and, thenceforth, for a quarter
+of a century it was never absent as a disturbing element in the
+intellectual and religious life of the Unitarian body.</p>
+
+<p>The early Unitarians were believers in the supernatural and in the miracles
+of the New Testament. They accepted without question the ideas on this
+subject that had been entertained by all Protestants from the days of
+Luther and Calvin. When Theodore Parker and the transcendentalists began to
+question the miraculous foundations of Christianity, many Unitarians were
+quite unprepared to accept their theories. They believed that the miracles
+of the New Testament afford the only evidence for the truthfulness of
+Christianity. This issue was distinctly stated in the twenty-eighth annual
+report of the Unitarian Association for 1853, wherein an attempt was made
+to defend the Unitarian body against the charge of infidelity and
+rationalism made by the Orthodox. The teachings of the transcendentalists
+<a name="pg157"></a>
+and radicals had been attributed to all Unitarians, and the leaders of the
+Association felt that it was time to define explicitly the position they
+occupied. Therefore they said, in the report of that year:--"We desire, in
+a denominational capacity, to assert our profound belief in the Divine
+origin, the Divine authority, the Divine sanctions, of the religion of
+Jesus Christ. This is the basis of our associated action. We desire openly
+to declare our belief as a denomination, so far as it can be officially
+represented by the American Unitarian Association, that God, moved by his
+own love, did raise up Jesus to aid in our redemption from sin, did by him
+pour a fresh flood of purifying life through the withered veins of humanity
+and along the corrupted channels of the world, and is, by his religion,
+forever sweeping the nations with regenerating gales from heaven, and
+visiting the hearts of men with celestial solicitations. We receive the
+teachings of Christ, separated from all foreign admixtures and later
+accretions, as infallible truth from God."[<a href="#fn_7_2">2</a><a name="fr_7_2"></a>] At the same meeting a
+resolution was adopted, "without a dissenting voice," which declared that
+"the Divine authority of the Gospel, as founded on a special and miraculous
+interposition of God, is the basis of the action of the Association."[<a href="#fn_7_3">3</a><a name="fr_7_3"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg158"></a>
+<p>As these statements indicate, the majority of Unitarians were very
+conservative at this time in their theological position and methods. They
+were nearly as hesitating and reticent in their beliefs as Unitarians as
+they had been while connected with the older Congregational body. The
+reason for this was the same in the later as in the earlier period, that a
+predominant social conservatism held them aloof from all that was
+intellectually aggressive and theologically rationalistic. They had
+outgrown Tritheism, as it had been taught for generations in New England;
+they had refused to accept the fatalism that had been taught in the name of
+Calvin, and they had rejected the ecclesiastical tyrannies that had been
+imposed on men by the New England theology. But they had advanced only a
+little way in accepting modern thought as a basis of faith, and in seeking
+a rational interpretation of the relations of God and man. Their belief in
+a superhuman Christ was theoretically weaker, but practically stronger,
+than that of the churches from which they had withdrawn; while the grounds
+of that belief were in the one instance the same as in the other.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn46"></a>Depression in Denominational Activities.</h3>
+
+<p>The activities of the Unitarian Association were largely interfered with by
+these differences of opinion. The more conservative churches were unwilling
+to contribute to its treasury because it did not exclude the radicals from
+all connection with it. The radicals, on, the other hand, withheld their
+gifts because, while they were not excommunicated, they were regarded with
+suspicion by many of the churches, and did not have the fullest recognition
+from the Association.</p>
+
+<a name="pg159"></a>
+<p>This controversy was emphasized by that arising from the reform movements
+of the day, especially the agitation against slavery. Almost without
+exception the radicals belonged to the anti-slavery party, while the
+conservative churches were generally opposed to this agitation. As a
+result, anti-slavery efforts became a serious cause of discord in the
+Unitarian churches, and helped to cripple the resources of the Association.
+When, as the climax of all, the civil war came on, the Association was
+brought to a condition of almost desperate poverty. Not more than twoscore
+churches contributed to its treasury, and it was obliged, to curtail its
+expenses in every direction.[<a href="#fn_7_4">4</a><a name="fr_7_4"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Up to the year 1865 the Unitarians had not been efficiently organized; and
+they had developed very imperfectly what has been called denominational
+consciousness, or the capacity for co-operative efforts. The Unitarian
+Association was not a representative body, and it depended wholly upon
+individuals for its membership. Not more than one-fourth or, at the
+largest, one-third of the Unitarian churches were represented in its
+support and in its activities. There were: Unitarian churches, and there
+was a Unitarian movement; but such a thing as a Unitarian denomination, in
+any clearly defined meaning of the words, did not exist. This fact was
+explained by James Freeman Clarke in 1863, when he said that "the
+<a name="pg160"></a>
+traditions of the Unitarian body are conservative and timid."[<a href="#fn_7_5">5</a><a name="fr_7_5"></a>] How this
+attitude affected the Unitarian Association was pointedly stated by Mr.
+Clarke, after several years of experience as its secretary. "The Unitarian
+churches in Boston," he wrote, "see no reason for diffusing their faith.
+They treat it as a luxury to be kept for themselves, as they keep Boston
+Common. The Boston churches, with the exception of a few noble and generous
+examples, have not done a great deal for Unitarian missions. I have heard,
+it said that they do not wish to make Unitarianism too common. The church
+in Brattle street contains wealthy and generous persons who have given
+largely to humane objects and to all public purposes; but we believe that,
+even while their pastor was president of the Unitarian Association, they
+never gave a dollar to that Association for its missionary objects. The
+society in King's Chapel was the first in the United States which professed
+Unitarianism. It is so wealthy that it might give ten or twenty thousand
+dollars a year to missionary objects without feeling it. It has always been
+very liberal to its ministers, to all philanthropic and benevolent objects,
+and its members have probably given away millions of dollars for public and
+social uses; but it never gives anything to diffuse Unitarianism."[<a href="#fn_7_6">6</a><a name="fr_7_6"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Samuel K. Lothrop continued as the president of the Unitarian
+Association until the annual meeting of 1858, when Dr. Edward Brooks Hall
+was elected to that position for one year. After short pastorates in
+Northampton and Cincinnati, Dr. Hall had been settled over the First Church
+<a name="pg161"></a>
+in Providence in 1832, which position he held until his death in 1866. At
+the annual meeting of 1859 Dr. Frederic H. Hedge was elected president, and
+he was twice re-elected. His interest in the Association was active, and he
+often spoke at the public meetings. One of the ablest thinkers and
+theologians that has appeared among Unitarians in this country, he always
+rightly estimated the practical activities of organized religious
+movements. He was succeeded in 1862 by Dr. Rufus P. Stebbins, who held the
+office for three years. After a settlement in Leominster, Dr. Stebbins was
+the first president of the Meadville Theological School from 1844 to 1856.
+Then followed a pastorate in Woburn, after which he went to Ithaca and
+opened a mission for the students of Cornell University, which grew into
+the Unitarian church in that town. From 1877 he was pastor at Newton Centre
+until his death in 1885.</p>
+
+<p>The secretary of the Association from 1850 to 1853 was Rev. Calvin Lincoln,
+who had been settled in Fitchburg for thirty-one years, and who was the
+minister of the First Church in Hingham from 1855 until his death in 1881.
+He was succeeded in 1853 by Rev. Henry A. Miles, who continued in office
+until 1859. Dr. Miles was settled in Hallowell and Lowell before serving
+the Association, and in Longwood and Hingham (Third Parish) afterward. His
+little book on The Birth of Jesus has gained him recognition as a
+theologian of ability and a critic of independent judgment. For three years
+Rev. James Freeman Clarke was the secretary; and in 1861 he was succeeded
+by George W. Fox, who served in that capacity until the annual meeting of
+1865. Mr. Fox wrote the annual reports from 1862 to 1864, and efficiently
+<a name="pg162"></a>
+performed all the duties of the secretary which could devolve upon a
+layman, with the exception of editing The Monthly Journal, a task which was
+continued by James Freeman Clarke.[<a href="#fn_7_7">7</a><a name="fr_7_7"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn47"></a>Publications.</h3>
+
+<p>In spite of its restricted income during this troubled period, the
+Association was able, owing to its invested funds,[<a href="#fn_7_8">8</a><a name="fr_7_8"></a>] to increase its
+publishing operations to a considerable extent. The number of tracts
+published, however, was much smaller; and their monthly issue was
+discontinued in order to publish The Quarterly Journal of the American
+Unitarian Association, the first number of which appeared in October, 1853.
+During the first year each number contained ninety-six pages, which were
+increased to one hundred and ninety-two in 1854, but reduced to one hundred
+and thirty the following year. In 1860 this publication became The Monthly
+Journal; and it was continued until December, 1869, each number containing
+forty-eight pages. The Journal was sent to all subscribers to the funds of
+the Association, to life members, to all churches contributing to its
+funds, as well as to regular subscribers. Its circulation in 1855 was
+7,000, and it increased to 15,000 before it was discontinued. It was used
+largely, however, for free distribution as a missionary document.</p>
+
+<a name="pg163"></a>
+<p>The Journal served an important purpose during the seventeen years of its
+publication, as a means of bringing the Association into touch with its
+constituency and of making the people acquainted with its work. It
+published the records of the meetings of the executive committee as well as
+of the annual meeting, it gave numerous extracts from the correspondence of
+the secretary, it contained the news of the churches, and all the
+denominational activities were kept constantly before its readers. In its
+pages were frequently published biographies of prominent Unitarians,
+notable addresses were printed, sermons appeared frequently, and able
+theological articles. During the editorship of James Freeman Clarke it
+contained the successive chapters of his Orthodoxy: Its Truths and Errors.
+It also printed one or more chapters of Alger's History of the Doctrine of
+the Future Life. The secretary of the Association was its editor, and he
+made it at once a theological tract and a denominational newspaper.</p>
+
+<p>The increase in demand for Unitarian tracts and books had been so large
+that early in 1854 the executive committee of the Association decided that
+a special effort should be made to meet it. They called a meeting in
+Freeman Place Chapel on the afternoon of February 1, which was largely
+attended. An address was given by Dr. Lothrop, the president, who said that
+Channing's works had reached a sale of 100,000 copies, and Ware's Formation
+of Christian Character 12,000, that there was an urgent call for liberal
+works that would meet the spiritual needs of the age. A large number of
+prominent ministers and laymen addressed the meeting, and expressed
+themselves as thoroughly sympathy with its objects. A committee was
+<a name="pg164"></a>
+appointed to consider the proposition made by Dr. George E. Ellis, that a
+fund of $50,000 be raised for the publication of books. This committee
+reported a month later through its chairman, George B. Emerson, in favor of
+the project; and it was voted that the money should be raised. It was
+easier to pass this vote, however, than to secure the money from the
+churches; for in 1859, after five years of effort, the sum collected was
+only $28,163.33.</p>
+
+<p>The money secured, however, was immediately utilized in the publication of
+a number of books. Three series of works were undertaken, the first of
+these being The Theological Library, in which were published Selections
+from the Works of Dr. Channing; Wilson's Unitarian Principles Confirmed by
+Trinitarian Testimonies; a one-volume edition of Norton's Statement of
+Reasons for not Believing the Doctrines of Trinitarians concerning the
+Nature of God and the Person of Christ, with a memoir of the author by Dr.
+William Newell; a volume of Theological Essays selected from the writings
+of Jowett, Tholuck, Guizot, Roland Williams, and others, and edited by
+George R. Noyes; and Martineau's Studies of Christianity, a series of
+miscellaneous papers, edited by William R. Alger. The Devotional Library,
+the second of the three series, included The Altar at Home, a series of
+prayers, collects, and litanies for family devotions, written by a large
+number of the leading Unitarian ministers, and edited by Dr. Miles, the
+secretary of the Association; Clarke's Christian Doctrine of Prayer; Thomas
+T. Stone's The Rod and the Staff, a transcendentalist presentation of
+Christianity as a spiritual life; The Harp and the Cross, a selection of
+<a name="pg165"></a>
+religious poetry, edited by Stephen G. Bulfinch; Sears's Athanasia, or
+Foregleams of Immortality; and Seven Stormy Sundays, a volume of original
+sermons by well-known ministers, with devotional services, edited by Miss
+Lucretia P. Hale. A Biblical Library was also planned, to include a popular
+commentary on the New Testament, a Bible Dictionary, and other works of a
+like character; but John H. Morison's Disquisitions and Notes on the Gospel
+of Matthew was the only volume published.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn48"></a>A Firm of Publishers.</h3>
+
+<p>In May, 1859, a young business man of Boston, James P. Walker, established
+the firm of Walker, Wise &amp; Co., for the publication of Unitarian books. In
+1863 Horace B. Fuller joined the firm, and it became Walker, Fuller &amp; Co.
+This firm took charge of all the publishing interests of the Association,
+and the head of the house was ambitious of bringing out all the liberal
+books issued in this country. Among the works published were: The New
+Discussion of the Trinity, a series of articles and sermons by Hedge,
+Clarke, Sears, Dewey, and Starr King; Lamson's Church of the First Three
+Centuries; Farley's Unitarianism Defined; Recent Inquiries in Theology,
+essays by Jowett, Mark Pattison, Baden Powell, and other English Broad
+Churchmen, edited by Dr. F.H. Hedge; Alien's Hebrew Men and Times; Dall's
+Woman's Right to Labor; Muzzey's Christ in the Will, the Heart, and the
+Life; Ichabod Nichols's Sermons; Martineau's Common Prayer for Christian
+Worship; Cobbe's Religious Demands of the Age; Ware's Silent Pastor;
+Frothingham's Stories from the Patriarchs; Clarke's Hour which Cometh and
+Now Is; Parker's Prayers; a second series The Altar at Home; Hedge's Reason
+<a name="pg166"></a>
+in Religion; Life of Horace Mann by his wife, as well as certain novels,
+historical works, and books for the young. The demand for liberal books was
+not large enough, however, even with the aid of the Association, to make
+such a business successful; and in the autumn of 1866 the publishing firm
+of Walker, Fuller &amp; Co. failed. In part the business was carried on for a
+time by Horace B. Fuller.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn49"></a>The Brooks Fund.</h3>
+
+<p>An important work in the distribution of books was inaugurated in 1859 in
+connection with the Meadville Theological School, by means of the Fund for
+Liberal Christianity established at that time by Joshua Brooks of New York.
+He appointed as trustee of the fund Professor Frederick Huidekoper, who
+gave his services gratuitously to its care, and to the direction of the
+distribution of books for which it provided. The sum given to this purpose
+was $20,000, which was increased by favorable investments to $23,000. The
+original purpose was to aid in any way that seemed desirable the cause of
+liberal Christianity, and a part of the income was devoted to helping
+struggling societies. In time the whole income, with the approval of the
+donor, was centred upon the distribution of books to settled ministers,
+irrespective of denomination. In 1877 the whole number of books that had
+been distributed was 40,000. At the present time about $1,000 yearly are
+devoted to this work, the recipients being graduates of the Meadville
+Theological School, and the ministers of any denomination who may ask for
+them, provided they are settled west of the Hudson River. The demands upon
+the funds have increased so rapidly that it has become necessary to reduce
+the amount of each gift.</p>
+
+<a name="pg167"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn50"></a>Missionary Efforts.</h3>
+
+<p>The missionary activities of the Association did not actually cease even in
+these dark days. In May, 1855, Rev. Ephraim Nute was sent to Kansas, which
+was then the battle-ground between the pro-slavery and the anti-slavery
+forces of the nation. He established himself at Lawrence, and was the first
+settled pastor in the state. With the aid of the Association a church was
+built at Lawrence in 1859, which was the first in the state to receive
+dedication and to be used as a permanent house of worship. Mr. Nute went
+through all the trying scenes preceding the opening of the civil war, and
+did his part in maintaining the cause of liberty. He was succeeded by Rev.
+John S. Brown in 1859, who labored in this difficult field for several
+years.</p>
+
+<p>A church was organized in San Francisco in 1849, without the aid of a
+minister; and there was gathered a large and prosperous congregation. In
+1850 Rev. Charles A. Farley took up the work; and he was succeeded by Rev.
+Joseph Harrington, Rev. Frederick T. Gray, and Rev. Rufus P. Cutler. Thomas
+Starr King preached his first sermon in the church April 28, 1860; and he
+spoke to crowded congregations until his death, March 4, 1864. On January
+10, 1864, a new church was dedicated, in the morning to the worship of God,
+and in the afternoon to the service of man.</p>
+
+<p>Among those who carried forward the Unitarian cause in the middle west was
+Rev. Nahor A. Staples, a brilliant preacher and a zealous worker, who was
+settled in Milwaukee at the end of 1856, and who made his influence widely
+felt around him. In 1859 Rev. Robert Collyer began his work in Chicago as a
+<a name="pg168"></a>
+city Missionary; and the next year Unity Church was organized, with him as
+the pastor. In 1859 Rev. Charles G. Ames began his connection with the
+Unitarians at Minneapolis, and he subsequently labored at Bloomington.
+After a short pastorate in Albany he began general missionary labors on the
+Pacific coast. A characteristic type of the western Unitarian was Rev.
+Ichabod Codding, who preached at Bloomington, Keokuk, and Baraboo, but who
+had no formal settlement. He was a breezy, radical, and ardent preacher,
+bold in statement and picturesque in style, a zealous advocate of freedom
+for the slave, and warmly devoted to other reforms. He was fitted admirably
+for the pioneer preaching to which he largely devoted himself; and his
+strong, vigorous, and aggressive ideas were acceptable to those who heard
+him.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn51"></a>The Western Unitarian Conference.</h3>
+
+<p>There was organized in the church at Cincinnati, May 7, 1852, the Annual
+Conference of Western Unitarian Churches. At this meeting delegates were
+present from the churches in Buffalo, Meadville, Pittsburg, Wheeling,
+Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, Cannelton, Quincy, Geneva, Chicago, and
+Detroit. Much enthusiasm was expressed in anticipation of this meeting,
+many letters were written, approving of the proposed organization, and
+large expectations were manifested as to its promised work. In harmony with
+these large and generous anticipations of the influence of the conference
+was its statement of purposes, as presented in its constitution. It was
+organized for "the promotion of the Christian spirit in the several
+churches which compose it, and the increase of vital, practical religion;
+the diffusion of Gospel truth and the accomplishment of such works of
+<a name="pg169"></a>
+Christian benevolence as may be agreed upon; the support of domestic or
+home missionaries, the publication of tracts, the distribution of religious
+books, the promotion of theological education, and extending aid to such
+societies as may need it."</p>
+
+<p>When the conference organized, Rev. William G. Eliot was elected the
+president, Mr. Charles Harlow and Rev. A.A. Livermore the recording and
+corresponding secretaries. During the year $994.22 were raised for
+missionary purposes, and three missionaries--Boyer, Conant, and
+Bradley--were kept in the field, mainly in Illinois and Michigan. The
+reports of these men, given at the second meeting of the conference, held
+in St. Louis, were full of enthusiasm and courage. At this meeting the
+constituency numbered nineteen churches, located in eleven states. Several
+struggling societies had been aided, assistance given to young men
+preparing for the ministry, and many tracts and books had been distributed.
+A book depositary was opened in Cincinnati, and it was proposed to
+establish one in every large city in the west. The call was for a much
+larger number of preachers, it being rightly maintained that only the
+living man can reach the people in such a region. "The Unitarian minister
+is <i>per se</i> a bookseller and colporter also, and he can thus preach to
+multitudes who never hear his voice."</p>
+
+<p>The early anticipations of a rapid advance of Unitarianism in the west were
+not realized, partly owing to the want of ministers of energy and the
+necessary staying qualities, and partly to the fact that tradition is
+always far more powerful with the masses of men and women than reason.
+Before the organization of the conference new churches appeared at
+infrequent intervals, though, if those that have ceased to exist were
+<a name="pg170"></a>
+counted, they would not be so remote from each other in time.[<a href="#fn_7_9">9</a><a name="fr_7_9"></a>] From the
+first there was in the west a distinctive attitude of freedom, which was
+the result in large, measure of its fluctuating conditions, and the absence
+of fixed habits and traditions. In 1853 the missionaries of the conference
+were instructed that "in spirit and in aim the Conference would be
+<a name="pg171"></a>
+Christian, not sectarian, and it does not, therefore, require of them
+subscription to any human creed, the wearing of any distinctive name, or
+the doing of any merely sectarian work. All that it requires is, that they
+should be Christians and do Christian work, that they should believe on the
+Lord Jesus Christ as one who spake with authority and whose religion is the
+divinely appointed means for the regeneration of man individually and
+collectively, and that they should labor earnestly, intelligently,
+affectionately, and perseveringly to enthrone this religion in the hearts
+and make it, effective over the lives of men." Such a statement as this,
+indeed, was quite as conservative as anything put forth by Unitarians in
+New England; but behind it was an attitude of free inquiry that gave to
+western Unitarianism distinctive characteristics.</p>
+
+<p>In 1854 a committee reported on the doctrinal basis of the conference, in
+the form of a little book of sixty-five pages, bearing the title of
+Unitarian Views of Christ.[<a href="#fn_7_10">10</a><a name="fr_7_10"></a>] It was widely circulated, and served an
+excellent missionary purpose. When the conference accepted the report, in
+which it was declared that Jesus is the Son of God and the miracles of the
+New Testament facts on which the gospel is based, a resolution was
+unanimously passed, asserting that "we have no right to adopt any statement
+of belief as authoritative or as a declaration of the Unitarian faith,
+other than the New Testament." In 1858 it was the opinion of the conference
+that "all who wish to take upon themselves the Christian name should be so
+recognized." The next year the conservatives and radicals came face to
+face, the one party asking for the old faith according to Channing, while
+one or more of the other party asserted their disbelief in the miracles and
+in the resurrection of Christ. In 1860 the conference declared itself
+willing to "welcome as fellow laborers all who are seeking to learn and to
+do the will of the Father and work righteousness, and recommend that in all
+places, with or without preaching, they organize for religious worship and
+culture--the work of faith and the labor of love."</p>
+
+<p>The meeting at Quincy in 1860 was one of great interest and enthusiasm. The
+missionary spirit rose high; and it was proposed to put into the field an
+aggressive worker, and to give him the necessary financial support. To this
+end a missionary association was organized, with Rev. Robert Collyer as the
+president, and Artemas Carter, a successful business man of Chicago, as the
+treasurer. Before the result desired could be realized, the war gave a very
+different direction to all the interests of the western churches. Of the
+<a name="pg172"></a>
+twenty-nine ministers in the west at this time, sixteen went into the
+army,--twelve as chaplains, two as officers, and two as privates,--while
+several others devoted themselves to hospital work for longer or shorter
+periods. Rev. Augustus H. Conant, Rev. Leonard Whitney, Rev. Frederick R.
+Newell, and Rev. L.B. Mason answered with their lives to their country's
+call.</p>
+
+<p>The period immediately following the close of the civil war was one of
+generous giving and of great activity on the part of the western churches.
+From 1864 to 1866 the field was occupied by twenty-one new laborers,
+several new societies were organized, four old ones were resuscitated,
+seven new churches were built, and fifteen missionary stations were opened.
+The churches during these two years contributed $5,000 to missionary
+purposes and $13,000 to Antioch College. The degree of success met with in
+the efforts of the Western Conference depended in large degree upon the
+interest and activity of the western churches themselves. When they devoted
+themselves earnestly to missionary work, they contributed to it with a fair
+degree of liberality, and that work prospered. When the conference was
+asked to withdraw from the direction of that work by Rev. Charles Lowe, in
+order to secure greater unity of missionary effort by bringing all work of
+this kind under the direction of the Association, the contributions of the
+churches diminished, and the missionary activities in the west languished.
+However valuable the aid of the Unitarian Association,--and there can be no
+question that it was of the greatest importance,--local interest and
+co-operation were also essential to permanent success. Local activity and
+general oversight were alike necessary.</p>
+
+<a name="pg173"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn52"></a>The Autumnal Conventions.</h3>
+
+<p>For more than twenty years Autumnal Conventions, as they were called, were
+held in the larger cities, beginning at Worcester in 1842. These meetings
+originated in the Worcester Association of Ministers at a meeting held July
+11, 1842, when the association considered the "desirableness of a meeting
+of Unitarians in the autumn for the purpose of awakening mutual sympathy
+and considering the wants of the Unitarian body."[<a href="#fn_7_11">11</a><a name="fr_7_11"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>At the invitation thereafter issued by the Worcester Association of
+ministers a convention was held in the church of the Second Congregational
+Parish in Worcester, October 18-20, 1842. On the first evening a sermon was
+preached by Dr. Ezra S. Gannett, and a committee of business was
+subsequently chosen. The next morning the convention organized, with Dr.
+Francis Parkman as president and Rev. Cazneau Palfrey as secretary. A
+series of resolutions were discussed,[<a href="#fn_7_12">12</a><a name="fr_7_12"></a>] and on the second evening a
+sermon was preached by Dr. A.P. Peabody. No essays were read, and nothing
+but the sermons were prepared beforehand. The Christian Register closed its
+<a name="pg174"></a>
+report by saying that it could "give but a faint impression of the feeling
+which pervaded the meeting. The discussions were characterized by great
+earnestness and seriousness, and were conducted, at the same time, with
+entire freedom and with candor and liberality toward the differences of
+opinion which, amidst a general unanimity upon great principles, were
+occasionally elicited respecting details and methods. The expectations of
+those who called the convention were abundantly realized."</p>
+
+<p>The second of the Autumnal Conventions was held in Providence, October 2-4,
+1843. On the first evening the theme of the sermon preached by Dr. Dewey
+was the spiritual ministry of Dr. Channing, and it produced a great and
+deep impression. The resolutions discussed related to the duty, on the part
+of Unitarians, of making an explicit statement of their convictions, and an
+earnest application of them to life, and the need on the part of the
+denomination for a more united and vigorous action as a religious body. At
+the third meeting held in Albany, a statement was made by Dr. Dewey that
+exactly defined these gatherings, in their methods and purposes, when he
+said: "This and other conventions like it that are held in our body, I am
+inclined to think, have never been held before in the world. There is
+nothing like them to be found in the records of ecclesiastical history. We
+meet as distinct churches, on the pure democratic basis, which we believe
+to be the true basis of the church of Christ. We meet, without any
+formalities--to institute, or correct no canons--without the slightest
+system whatever. We come to meditate, to assist each other in experience,
+by unfolding our own experience, by declaring our convictions."</p>
+
+<a name="pg175"></a>
+<p>The subjects introduced at these meetings were practical, such as commanded
+the interest of both ministers and laymen of the churches. The method
+adopted allowed a free interchange of opinions, and the participation of
+all in the discussions. So great was the interest awakened that these
+meetings were largely attended, and they were to a considerable degree
+helpful in bringing the churches into vital relations with each other.[<a href="#fn_7_13">13</a><a name="fr_7_13"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>At the session held in Brooklyn in 1862, great interest was manifested in
+the vespers, then a novelty, that were arranged by Samuel Longfellow. This
+meeting was marked by its glowing patriotism, that rose to a white heat. A
+sermon of great power was preached by Dr. Bellows, interpreting the duty of
+the hour and the destiny of America. The resolutions and the discussions
+were almost wholly along the lines of patriotic duty and devotion suggested
+by the sermon. At the last of the Autumnal Conventions, held in
+Springfield, Mass., October 13-15, 1863, the sermons were preached by Rev.
+Edward Everett Hale and Rev. Octavius B. Frothingham, while the essays were
+by Professor Charles Eliot Norton and Rev. James Freeman Clarke.</p>
+
+<p>The Autumnal Conventions came to an end, probably in part because the civil
+war was more and more absorbing the energies of the people both in and out
+<a name="pg176"></a>
+of the churches, and partly because the desire for a more efficient
+organization had begun to make itself felt. In the spring of 1865 was held
+the meeting in New York that resulted in the organization of the National
+Conference, the legitimate successor to the Autumnal Conventions.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn53"></a>Influence of the Civil War.</h3>
+
+<p>During the period of the civil war, Unitarian activities were largely
+turned in new directions. Unitarians bore their full share in the councils
+of the nation, in the halls of legislation, on the fields of battle, in the
+care of the sick and wounded, and in the final efforts that brought about
+emancipation and peace. At least fifty Unitarian ministers entered the army
+as chaplains, privates, officers, and members of the Sanitary
+Commission.[<a href="#fn_7_14">14</a><a name="fr_7_14"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg177"></a>
+<p>The Unitarian Association also directed its attention to such work as it
+could accomplish in behalf of the soldiers in the field and in hospitals.
+Books were distributed, tracts published, and hymn-books prepared to meet
+their needs. Rev. John F.W. Ware developed a special gift for writing army
+tracts, of which he wrote about a dozen, which were published by the
+Association. As the war went on, the Association largely increased its
+activities in the army; and, when the end came, it had as many as seventy
+workers in the field, distributing its publications, aiding the Sanitary
+Commission, or acting as nurses and voluntary chaplains in the hospitals.
+The end of the war served rather to increase than to contract its labors,
+aid being largely needed for several months in returning the soldiers to
+their homes and in caring for those who were left in hospitals.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the summer of 1863 Rev. William G. Scandlin was sent to the Army
+of the Potomac as the agent of the Association. Taken prisoner in July, he
+spent several months in Libby prison, where he was kindly treated and
+exercised a beneficent influence. He was followed in this work by Rev.
+William M. Mellen, who established a library of 3,000 volumes at the
+convalescent camp, Alexandria, and also distributed a large amount of
+reading matter in the army. Rev. Charles Lowe served for several months as
+<a name="pg178"></a>
+chaplain in the camp of drafted men on Long Island, his salary being paid
+by the Association. In November, 1864, he made a tour of inspection, as the
+agent of the Association, to the hospitals of Philadelphia, Baltimore
+Annapolis, Washington, Alexandria, Fortress Monroe, City Point, and the
+Army of the Potomac, in order to arrange for the proper distribution of
+reading matter and for such other hospital service as could be rendered.
+More than 3,000 volumes of the publications of the Association were
+distributed to the soldiers and in the hospitals, largely by Rev. J.G.
+Forman, of St. Louis, and Rev. John H. Heywood, of Louisville. Among those
+who acted as agents of the Association in furnishing reading to the army
+and hospitals were Rev. Calvin Stebbins, Rev. Frederick W. Holland, Rev.
+Benjamin H. Bailey, Rev. Artemas B. Muzzey, Rev. Newton M. Mann, and Mr.
+Henry G. Denny. Rev. Samuel Abbot Smith worked zealously at Norfolk at the
+hospitals and in preaching to the soldiers, until disease and death brought
+his labors to a close. What this kind of work was, and what it
+accomplished, was described by Louisa Alcott in her Hospital Sketches, and
+by William Howell Reed in his Hospital Life in the Army of the Potomac.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn54"></a>The Sanitary Commission.</h3>
+
+<p>The Sanitary Commission has been described by its historian as "one of the
+most shining monuments of our civilization," and as an expression of
+organized sympathy that "must always and everywhere call forth the homage
+and admiration of mankind." The organizer and leader of this great
+philanthropic movement for relieving human suffering was Dr. Henry W.
+Bellows, the minister of All Souls' Church in New York, the first Unitarian
+<a name="pg179"></a>
+church organized in that city. The Commission was first suggested by Dr.
+Bellows, and he was its efficient leader from the first to the last. He was
+unanimously selected as its president, when the government had been
+persuaded, largely through his influence, to establish it as an addition to
+its medical and hospital service. The historian of the Commission has
+justly said that he "possessed many remarkable qualifications for so
+responsible, a position. Perhaps no man in the country exerted a wider or
+more powerful influence over those who were earnestly seeking the best
+means of defending our threatened nationality, and certainly never was a
+moral power of this kind founded upon juster and truer grounds. This
+influence was not confined to his home, the city of New York, although
+there it was incontestably very great, but it extended over many other
+portions of the country, and particularly throughout New England, where
+circumstances had made his name and his reputation for zeal and ability
+familiar to those most likely to aid in the furtherance of the new scheme.
+This power was due, partly of course to the very eminent position which he
+occupied as a clergyman, partly to the persistent efforts and enlightened
+zeal with which he advocated all wise measures of social reform, perhaps to
+his widely extended reputation as an orator, but primarily, and above all,
+to the rare combination of wide comprehensive views of great questions of
+public policy with extraordinary practical sagacity, which enabled him so
+to organize popular intelligence and sympathy that the best practical
+results were attained while the life-giving principle was preserved. He had
+the credit of not being what so many of his profession are, an idéologue;
+<a name="pg180"></a>
+he had the clearest perception of what could and what could not be done,
+and he never hesitated to regard actual experience as the best practical
+test of the value of his plans and theories. These qualities, so precious
+and so exceptional in their nature, appeared conspicuously in the efforts
+made by him to secure the appointment of the Commission by the Government,
+and it will be found that every page of its history bears the strong
+impress of his peculiar and characteristic views."[<a href="#fn_7_15">15</a><a name="fr_7_15"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>These words of Charles J. Stillé, a member of the Sanitary Commission and
+its authorized historian, afterward the provost of the University of
+Pennsylvania, indicate the remarkable qualities of leadership possessed by
+Dr. Bellows. These were undoubtedly added to and made more impressive by
+his oratorical genius, that was of a very high order. Dr. Hedge spoke of
+the miraculous power of speech possessed by Dr. Bellows, when he was at his
+best, as being "incomparably better than anything he could have possibly
+compassed by careful preparation or conscious effort," and of "those
+exalted moments when he was fully possessed by his demon."[<a href="#fn_7_16">16</a><a name="fr_7_16"></a>] He was
+inexhaustible in his efforts for the success of the Commission, in
+directing the work of committees and branches, in appealing to the
+indifferent, and in giving enthusiasm to all the forces under his
+direction.</p>
+
+<p>Of the nine original members of the Sanitary Commission, four were
+Unitarians,--Dr. Bellows, Dr. Samuel G. Howe, Dr. Jeffries Wyman, and
+Professor Wolcott Gibbs. In the number of those added later was Rev. John
+H. Heywood, for many years the minister of the Unitarian church in
+<a name="pg181"></a>
+Louisville, who rendered efficient service in the western department. In
+the convalescents' camp at Alexandria "a wonderful woman," Miss Amy
+Bradley, had charge of the efficient labors of the Commission, "where for
+two and a half years she and her assistants rendered incalculable service,
+in distributing clothing among the needy, procuring dainties for the sick,
+accompanying discharged soldiers to Washington and assisting them in
+procuring their papers and pay, furnishing paper and postage, and writing
+letters for the sick, forwarding money home by drafts that cost nothing to
+the soldier, answering letters of inquiry to hospital directors, securing
+certificates of arrears of pay and getting erroneous charges of desertion
+removed (the Commission saved several innocent soldiers from being shot as
+condemned deserters), distributing reading matter, telegraphing the friends
+of very ill soldiers, furnishing meals for feeble soldiers in barracks who
+could not eat the regulation food. Miss Bradley assisted 2,000 men to
+secure arrears of pay amounting to $200,000. Prisoners of war, while in
+prison and when released by general exchange, were largely and promptly
+relieved and comforted by this department."[<a href="#fn_7_17">17</a><a name="fr_7_17"></a>] Another effective worker
+was Frederick N. Knapp, who had been for several years a Unitarian
+minister, and who was the leading spirit in the special relief service of
+the Commission, "and organized and controlled it with masterly zeal,
+humanity, and success."[<a href="#fn_7_18">18</a><a name="fr_7_18"></a>] The work of Mr. Knapp was of great importance;
+for he was the confidential secretary of Dr. Bellows, and gave his whole
+<a name="pg182"></a>
+time to the service of the Commission. He was a methodical worker, an
+efficient organizer, and supplied those qualities of persistent industry
+and grasp of details in which Dr. Bellows was deficient. Without his
+untiring energy and skilful directing power the Commission would have been
+less effective than it was in fact. Dr. Bellows also described William G.
+Scandlin as "one of the most earnest and effective of the Sanitary
+Commission agents."</p>
+
+<p>In the autumn of 1862 the Commission was greatly crippled in its work
+because it could not obtain the money with which to carry on its extensive
+operations, and it was saved from failure by the generosity of California,
+and the other Pacific states and territories. The remoteness of these
+states at that time made it impossible for them to contribute their
+proportion of men, "and they indulged their patriotism and gave relief to
+their pent-up sympathies with the national cause by pouring out their money
+like water."[<a href="#fn_7_19">19</a><a name="fr_7_19"></a>] The first contribution was received by the Sanitary
+Commission on September 19, 1862, and was $100,000: a fortnight later the
+same sum was again sent; and similar contributions followed at short
+intervals. These sums enabled the Commission to accomplish its splendid
+work, and to meet the urgent needs of those trying days. How the Pacific
+coast was able to contribute so largely to this work may be explained in
+the words of Dr. Bellows, who fully understood the situation, and the vast
+importance of the help afforded: "The most gifted and inspiring of the
+patriots who rallied California and the Pacific coast to the flag of the
+Union was undoubtedly Thomas Starr King, minister of the first Unitarian
+<a name="pg183"></a>
+church in San Francisco. Born in New York, but reared in Massachusetts, he
+had earned an almost national reputation for eloquence and wit, humanity
+and nobleness of soul, in the lecture-rooms and pulpits of the north and
+west, when at the age of thirty-five, he yielded to the religious claims of
+the Pacific coast and transferred himself to California. There in four
+years he had built up as public speaker from the pulpit and platform a
+prodigious popularity. His temperament sympathetic, mercurial, and
+electric; his disposition hearty, genial, and sweet; his mind versatile,
+quick, and sparkling; his tact exquisite, and infallible; with a voice as
+clear as a bell and loud and cheering as a trumpet, his nature and
+accomplishments perfectly adapted to the people, and place, and the time.
+His religious profession disarmed many of his political enemies, his
+political orthodoxy quieted many of his religious opponents. Generous,
+charitable, disinterested, his full heart and open hand captivated the
+California people, while his sparkling wit, melodious cadences, and
+rhetorical abundance perfectly satisfied their taste for intensity and
+novelty and a touch of extravagance. It has been said by high authority
+that Mr. King saved California to the Union. California was too loyal at
+heart to make the boast reasonable; but it is not too much to say that Mr.
+King did more than any man, by his prompt, outspoken, uncalculating
+loyalty, to make California know what her own feelings really were. He did
+all that any man could have done to lead public sentiment that was
+unconsciously ready to follow where earnest loyalty and patriotism should
+guide the way."[<a href="#fn_7_20">20</a><a name="fr_7_20"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg184"></a>
+<p>Not less important in its own degree was the work done in St. Louis by Dr.
+William G. Eliot, minister since 1834 of the Unitarian church in that city.
+He became the leader in all efforts for aiding the soldiers, and was most
+active in forming and directing the Western Sanitary Commission, that
+worked harmoniously with the national organization, but independently. A
+large hospital was established and maintained, a home for refugees was
+secured, and a large camp for "contraband" negroes was established, chiefly
+under the direction of Dr. Eliot, and largely maintained by his church. He
+was a potent force in keeping St. Louis and the northern portions of
+Missouri loyal to the Union. The secretary of the Western Sanitary
+Commission, J.G. Forman, a Unitarian minister for many years, was most
+faithful and efficient in this work; and he subsequently became its
+historian. In the Freedman's Hospital at St. Louis labored with zeal and
+success Rev. Frederick R. Newall; and he was also superintendent of the
+Freedman's Bureau in that city, his life being sacrificed to these devoted
+labors.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn55"></a>Results of Fifteen Years.</h3>
+
+<p>The work done by the Unitarian Association during the civil war and under
+the conditions it produced was not a large one, but it absorbed a
+considerable part of its energies for about five years. In all it printed
+over 3,000 copies of three books for the soldiers,[<a href="#fn_7_21">21</a><a name="fr_7_21"></a>] distributed 750,000
+<a name="pg185"></a>
+tracts which it had prepared for them,[<a href="#fn_7_22">22</a><a name="fr_7_22"></a>] sent to the soldiers 5,000
+copies weekly of The Christian Register and The Christian Inquirer, 1,500
+copies of the Monthly Journal, 1,000 of The Monthly Religious Magazine, and
+1,000 of the Sunday-school Gazette. During the last year or two of the war
+its tracts went out at the rate of 50,000 monthly. The tracts and the
+periodicals therefore numbered a monthly distribution of about 75,000
+copies. The seventy volunteer agents who brought these publications to the
+hands of the soldiers, together with the army chaplains, agents of the
+Sanitary Commission, and the many nurses in the hospitals, made a
+considerable force of Unitarian missionaries developed by the exigencies of
+the war, and the attempts to meliorate its hard conditions.</p>
+
+<p>The period of fifteen years, from 1850 to 1865, which has been under
+consideration in this chapter, was one of the greatest trial and
+discouragement to the Association. Its funds reached their lowest ebb, a
+missionary secretary could not be maintained, a layman performed the
+necessary office duties, and no considerable aggressive work along
+missionary lines was undertaken. Writing in a most hopeful spirit of the
+situation, in November, 1863, the editor of The Christian Register showed
+that in 1848 the number of Unitarian churches was 201, while in 1863 it was
+205, an increase of four only in fifteen years. During this period fifty
+<a name="pg186"></a>
+parishes had gained pastors, but fifty had lost them. Several strong
+parishes, he said, had come into existence, and two in large places had
+died. Most of those that had been closed were in small country towns.
+Nevertheless, with truth it could be said of these fifteen years of
+discouragement and failure that every one of them was a seed-time for the
+harvest that was soon to be reaped.</p>
+
+<p><br ><br >[<a href="#fr_7_1">1</a><a name="fn_7_1"></a>] Usually known as the Transcendental Club, sometimes as The Symposium.
+    It was started in 1836 by Emerson, Ripley, and Hedge, and met at the
+    houses of the members to discuss philosophical and literary subjects.
+    It was called Hedge's Club because it met when Rev. F.H. Hedge came
+    to Boston from Bangor, where he was settled in 1835. It also included
+    Clarke, Francis, Alcott, Dwight, W.H. Channing, Bartol, Very,
+    Margaret Fuller, and Elizabeth P. Peabody.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_2">2</a><a name="fn_7_2"></a>] Twenty-eighth Report of the American Unitarian Association, 22.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_3">3</a><a name="fn_7_3"></a>] Ibid., 30. For other statements made at this time see pp. 22 and 26
+    of this report; Quarterly Journal, L 44, 228, 243, 275, 333; and O.B.
+    Frothingham's Transcendentalism in New England, 123. John Gorham
+    Palfrey said (Twenty-eighth Report, 31) that "the evidence of
+    Christianity is identical with the evidence of the miraculous
+    character of Jesus," and that "his miraculous powers were the highest
+    evidence that he came from God." Parker replied to this report of the
+    Association in his Friendly Letter to the Executive Committee. Of
+    this report John W. Chadwick has said that it is "the most curious,
+    not to say amusing, document in our denominational archives." See The
+    Organization of our Liberty, Christian Register, July 19, 1900.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_4">4</a><a name="fn_7_4"></a>] In 1854 the receipts from all sources for the year preceding, except
+    from sales of books and interest on investments, was $4,267.32. For
+    the next two years there was a rapid gain, the sum reported in 1856
+    being $11,615.90; but there was a slight decrease the next year, and
+    the financial panic of 1857 brought the donations down to $4,602.38,
+    the amount reported at the annual meeting of 1858. Then there was a
+    steady gain until the civil war began, after which the contributions
+    were small, the general donations being only $3,056.03 in 1863, which
+    sum was brought up to $5,547.73 by contributions for special
+    purposes, more than one-third of the whole being for the Army Fund.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_5">5</a><a name="fn_7_5"></a>] The Christian Register, October 17, 1863.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_6">6</a><a name="fn_7_6"></a>] The Monthly Journal, I. 350.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_7">7</a><a name="fn_7_7"></a>] Mr. Fox entered the employ of the Association in 1855 as a clerk, and
+    then he became the assistant of the secretary by the appointment of
+    the directors. From 1864 to the present time he has served as the
+    assistant secretary. His services have been invaluable to the
+    Association in many ways, because of his diligence, fidelity,
+    unfailing devotion to its interests, and loyalty to the Unitarian
+    cause.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_8">8</a><a name="fn_7_8"></a>] The beginning of a general fund seems to have been made in 1835, and
+    was secured by special subscriptions for the purpose of paying the
+    salary of a general secretary or missionary agent. The treasurer
+    reported in 1836 that during the previous year $2,408.37 had been
+    collected for this purpose.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_9">9</a><a name="fn_7_9"></a>] Of the churches now in existence the first in Chicago was organized
+    in 1836, that at Quincy in 1840, Milwaukee and Geneva in 1842,
+    Detroit in 1850. After the conference began its work, they appear
+    more frequently, Keokuk coming into existence in 1853, Marietta in
+    1855, Lawrence in 1856, Unity of Chicago, Kalamazoo, and Buda in
+    1858, Bloomington in 1859. Then comes a blank during the war period,
+    and a more rapid growth after it, especially when the National
+    Conference had given impetus to missionary activities. Janesville was
+    organized in 1864; Ann Arbor, Kenosha, and Baraboo, in 1865; Tremont,
+    in 1866; Cleveland and Mattoon, in 1867; Unity of St. Louis, Kansas
+    City, St. Joseph, Shelbyville, Davenport, Geneseo, Third of Chicago,
+    and Sheffield, in 1868; Omaha, in 1869.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_10">10</a><a name="fn_7_10"></a>] Written by William G. Eliot, of St. Louis.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_11">11</a><a name="fn_7_11"></a>] Joseph Allen, The Worcester Association and its Antecedents, 268.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_12">12</a><a name="fn_7_12"></a>] Through the business committee the following resolutions were
+     submitted for the consideration of the convention, and they were
+     taken up in order:--</p>
+
+<p>       <i>Resolved</i>, That we acknowledge with profound gratitude the success
+       which has attended our labors in the cause of religious freedom,
+       virtue, and piety, and are encouraged to persevere with renewed zeal
+       and energy.</p>
+
+<p>       <i>Resolved</i>, That in the character and life of Rev. William E.
+       Channing, just removed from us, we acknowledge one of the richest
+       gifts of God, in intellectual endowments, pure aspiration, moral
+       courage, and disinterested devotion to the cause of truth, freedom,
+       and humanity, and that in view of this, we feel out increased
+       obligation to Christian fidelity and heavenward progress.</p>
+
+<p>       <i>Resolved</i>, That viewing with anxiety prevailing fanaticism and
+       growing disregard of public trusts and private relations, we should
+       earnestly labor for a higher religious principle, and especially
+       urge the paramount claims of moral duty.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_13">13</a><a name="fn_7_13"></a>] The places and dates of the Autumnal Conventions were as follows:
+     Worcester, 1842; Provence, 1843; Albany, 1844; New York, 1845;
+     Philadelphia, 1846; Salem, 1847; New Bedford, 1848; Portland, 1849;
+     Springfield, 1850; Portsmouth, 1851; Baltimore, 1852; Worcester,
+     1853; Montreal, 1854; Providence, 1855; Bangor, 1856; Syracuse, 1857;
+     Salem, 1858; Lowell, 1859; New Bedford, 1860; Boston, 1861; Brooklyn,
+     1862; Springfield, 1863.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_14">14</a><a name="fn_7_14"></a>] The first regiments from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Kansas, had
+     as their chaplains Warren H. Cudworth, Augustus Woodbury, and Ephraim
+     Nute. Charles Babbidge was the chaplain of the sixth Massachusetts
+     regiment, that which was fired upon in Baltimore. The first artillery
+     company from Massachusetts had as its chaplain Stephen Barker. Others
+     who served as army chaplains were John Pierpont, Edmund B. Willson,
+     Francis C. Williams, Arthur B. Fuller, Sylvan S. Hunting, Charles T.
+     Canfield, Edward H. Hall, George H. Hepworth, Joseph F. Lovering,
+     Edwin M. Wheelock, George W. Bartlett, John C. Kimball, Augustus M.
+     Haskell, Charles A. Humphreys, Milton J. Miller, George A. Ball,
+     William G. Scandlin, E.B. Fairchild, Samuel W. McDaniel, Frederick R.
+     Newell, George W. Woodward, Stephen H. Camp, William D. Haley,
+     Leonard Whitney, Gilbert Cummings, Nahor A. Staples, Carlton A.
+     Staples, Martin M. Willis, John F. Moors, L.B. Mason, Robert Hassall,
+     Liberty Billings, Daniel Foster, J.G. Forman, and Augustus H. Conant.
+     Robert Collyer was chaplain-at-large in the Army of the Potomac.
+     Charles J. Bowen, William J. Potter, Charles Noyes, James Richardson,
+     and William H. Channing served as hospital chaplains.</p>
+
+<p>     Among the ministers who served as officers were: Hasbrouck Davis, who
+     became a general; William B. Greene, colonel; Gerald Fitzgerald, who
+     enlisted as a private, rose to the rank of first lieutenant, and was
+     elected chaplain of his regiment; Edward I. Galvin, lieutenant, also
+     elected chaplain; James K. Hosmer, who served through the war, at
+     first as a private and then as a corporal, writing his experiences
+     into The Color Guard and The Thinking Bayonet; George W. Shaw and
+     Alvin Allen, privates. Thomas D. Howard and James H. Fowler were
+     chaplains in colored regiments. After service as a chaplain of a Hew
+     Hampshire regiment, Edwin M. Wheelock became a lieutenant in a
+     colored regiment, as did Charles B. Webster. Thomas W. Higginson was
+     colonel of a colored regiment, and in another Henry Stone was
+     lieutenant colonel. It is doubtful if this list is complete, though
+     an effort has been made to have it as nearly so as possible. Those
+     who served in the army, and became ministers after leaving it, have
+     not been included. So far as known, only ordained ministers are
+     named.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_15">15</a><a name="fn_7_15"></a>] History of the United States Sanitary Commission, being the General
+     Report of its Work during the War of the Rebellion.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_16">16</a><a name="fn_7_16"></a>] J.H. Allen, Our Liberal Movement in Theology, 210.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_17">17</a><a name="fn_7_17"></a>] Henry W. Bellows, article on the Sanitary Commission, in Johnson's
+     Cyclopedia, revised edition.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_18">18</a><a name="fn_7_18"></a>] Ibid.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_19">19</a><a name="fn_7_19"></a>] Henry W. Bellows, article on the Sanitary Commission, in Johnson's
+     Cyclopedia, revised edition.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_20">20</a><a name="fn_7_20"></a>] History of the Sanitary Commission.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_21">21</a><a name="fn_7_21"></a>] Thoughts selected from Channing's Works, Ware's The Silent Pastor,
+     and Eliot's Discipline of Sorrow. The Association also issued one
+     number of the Monthly Journal as an Army Companion, which contained
+     fifty hymns of a patriotic and religions character, with appropriate
+     tunes, selections from the Bible, directions for preserving health in
+     the army, and selections from addresses on the injustice of the
+     rebellion and the spirit in which it should be put down.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_22">22</a><a name="fn_7_22"></a>] Twenty tracts were published. The first was written by Dr. George
+     Putnam; and was on The Man and the Soldier. The second was The
+     Soldier of the Good Cause, by Prof. C.E. Norton. Others were A Letter
+     to a Sick Soldier, by Rev. Robert Collyer; An Enemy within the Lines,
+     by Rev. S.H. Winkley. Rev. John F.W. Ware wrote fourteen of these
+     tracts, the following being some of the subjects: The Home to the
+     Camp, The Home to the Hospital, Wounded and in the Hands of the
+     Enemy, Traitors in Camp, A Change of Base, On Picket, The Rebel, The
+     Recruit, A Few Words with the Convalescent, Mustered Out, A Few Words
+     with the Rank and File at Parting.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<a name="pg187"></a>
+<h2><br ><a name="ch8"></a>VIII.<br >
+
+
+THE DENOMINATIONAL AWAKENING.</h2>
+
+<p>The war had an inspiring influence upon Unitarians, awakening them to a
+consciousness of their strength, and drawing them together to work for
+common purposes as nothing else had ever done. From the beginning they saw
+in the effort to save the Union, and in the spirit of liberty that animated
+the nation, an expression of their own principles. Whatever its effect upon
+other religious bodies, the war gave to Unitarians new faith, courage, and
+enthusiasm. For the first time they became conscious of their opportunity,
+and united in a determined purpose to meet its demands with fidelity to
+their convictions and loyalty to the call of humanity.[<a href="#fn_8_1">1</a><a name="fr_8_1"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>No Autumnal Convention having been held in 1864, owing to the failure of
+the committee appointed for that purpose to make the necessary
+arrangements, a special meeting of the Unitarian Association was held in
+the Hollis Street Church, Boston, December 6-7, at the call of the
+executive committee, "to awaken interest in the work of the Association by
+<a name="pg188"></a>
+laying before the churches the condition of our funds and the demand for
+our labor." The attendance was large, and the tone of the meeting was
+hopeful and enthusiastic. After Dr. Stebbins, the president, had stated the
+purpose of the meeting, Dr. Bellows urged the importance of a more
+effective organization of the Unitarian body. His success with the Sanitary
+Commission had evidently prepared his mind for a like work on the part of
+Unitarians, and for a strong faith in the value of organized effort in
+behalf of liberal religion. His capacity as leader during the war had
+prepared men to accept it in other fields of effort, and Unitarians were
+ready to use it in their behalf. The hopefulness that existed, in view of
+the success of the Union cause, and the enthusiastic interest in the
+methods of moral and spiritual reform that was manifested because of the
+triumph of the spirit of freedom in the nation, led many to think that like
+efforts in behalf of liberal Christianity would result in like successes.</p>
+
+<p>On the afternoon of the second day (a meeting in the evening of the first
+day only having been held) James P. Walker, the publisher, gave a résumé of
+the activities of the Association during the forty years of its existence,
+and said that its receipts had been on the average only $8,038.88 yearly.
+He showed that much had been done with this small sum, and that the results
+were much larger than the amount of money invested would indicate. He
+pointed out the fact that the demands upon the Association were rapidly
+increasing, and far more rapidly than the contributions. There was an
+urgent need for larger giving, he said, and for a more loyal support of the
+missionary arm of the denomination. He offered a series of resolutions
+<a name="pg189"></a>
+calling for the raising of $25,000 during the year. Rev. Edward Everett
+Hale said that $100,000 ought to be given to the proposed object, and urged
+that more missionaries should be sent into the field. Thereupon Mr. Henry
+P. Kidder arose, and said: "It is often easier to do a great thing than a
+small one. I move that this meeting undertake to raise $100,000 for the
+service of the next year." Dr. Bellows then called the attention of the
+conference to the importance of considering the manner of securing this
+large sum and of devising methods to insure success. He proposed "that a
+committee of ten persons, three ministers and seven laymen, should be
+appointed to call a convention, to consist of the pastor and two delegates
+from each church or parish in the Unitarian denomination, to meet in the
+city of New York, to consider the interests of our cause and to institute
+measures for its good." The two resolutions were unanimously adopted,
+pledging the denomination to raise $100,000, and to the holding of a
+delegate convention in New York. The president appointed, as members of the
+committee of arrangements for the convention, Rev. Henry W. Bellows,
+Messrs. A.A. Low, U.A. Murdock, Henry P. Kidder, Atherton Blight, Enoch
+Pratt, and Artemas Carter, Rev. Edward E. Hale, and Rev. Charles H.
+Brigham.</p>
+
+<p>The convention in New York was not waited for in order to make an effort to
+secure the $100,000 it was proposed to raise; and early in January the
+president of the Association, Dr. Rufus P. Stebbins, was authorized to
+devote his whole time to securing that sum. A circular was sent to the
+churches saying that such a sum "was needed, and should and could be
+<a name="pg190"></a>
+raised." "The hour has come," said the executive committee in their appeal
+to the churches, "which the fathers longed to see, but were denied the
+sight,--of taking our true position among other branches of the church of
+our Lord Jesus Christ in the spread and establishment of the Gospel."</p>
+
+<p>The response to this call was prompt and enthusiastic beyond any precedent.
+The war had made money plentiful, and it came easily to those who were
+successful. Great fortunes had been rapidly gathered; and the country had
+never known an equal prosperity, even though the burden of the war had not
+yet been removed. In February the president of the Association was able to
+announce that $28,871.47 had been subscribed by twelve churches. By the end
+of March the pledges had reached $63,862.63; and when the convention met in
+New York, April 5, 1865, the contributions then pledged were only a few
+thousand dollars short of the sum desired. By the end of May the sum
+reported was $111,676.74, which was increased by several hundred dollars
+more.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn56"></a>The New York Convention of 1865.</h3>
+
+<p>It was when this success was certain that the convention met in New York.
+The victory of the Union cause was then assured, and the utmost enthusiasm
+prevailed. Some of the final and most important scenes of the great
+national struggle were enacted while the convention was in session. Courage
+and hope ran high under these circumstances; and the convention was not
+only enthusiastically loyal to the nation, but equally so to its own
+denominational interests. For the first time in the history of the
+Unitarian body in this country the churches were directly represented at a
+<a name="pg191"></a>
+general gathering. The number of churches represented was two hundred and
+two, and they sent three hundred and eighty-five delegates. Many other
+persons attended, however; and throughout all the sittings of the
+convention the audience was a large one. Many women were present, though
+not as delegates, the men only having official recognition in this
+gathering. It is evident from the records, the newspaper reports, and the
+memories of those present, that the interest in this meeting was very
+large, and that the attendance was quite beyond what was anticipated by any
+one concerned in planning it. The call to all the churches, and the giving
+them an equality of representation in the convention, was doubtless one of
+the causes of its success. As a result, an able body of laymen appeared in
+the convention, who were accustomed to business methods and familiar with
+legislative procedure, and who carried through the work of the convention
+with deliberation and skill.</p>
+
+<p>On the first evening of the convention a sermon was preached by Dr. James
+Freeman Clarke that was a noble and generous introduction to its
+deliberations. He called for the exercise of the spirit of inclusiveness, a
+broad and tolerant catholicity, and union on the basis of the work to be
+done. On the morning of April 5, 1865, at eleven o'clock, the convention
+met for the transaction of business in All Souls' Church, of which Henry
+Whitney Bellows was the minister. Hon. John A. Andrew, then the governor of
+Massachusetts, was elected to preside over the convention; and among the
+vice-presidents were William Cullen Bryant, Rev. John Gorham Palfrey, Hon.
+Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, Rev. Orville Dewey, and Rev. Ezra Stiles Gannett,
+<a name="pg192"></a>
+while Rev. Edward Everett Hale was made the secretary. In Governor Andrew
+the convention had as its presiding officer a man of a broad and generous
+spirit, who was insistent that the main purpose of the meeting should be
+kept always steadily in view, and yet that all the members and all the
+varying opinions should have just recognition. In a large degree the
+success of the convention was due to his catholicity and to his skill in
+reconciling opposing interests.</p>
+
+<p>The time of the convention was devoted almost wholly to legislating for the
+denomination and to planning for its future work. On the morning of the
+second day the subject of organization came up for consideration, and the
+committee selected for that purpose presented a constitution providing for
+a National Conference that should meet annually, and that should be
+constituted of the minister and two lay delegates from each church,
+together with three delegates each from the American Unitarian Association,
+the Western Conference, and such other bodies as might be invited to
+participate in its deliberations. This Conference was to be only
+recommendatory in its character, adopting "the existing organizations of
+the Unitarian body as the instruments of its power." The name of the new
+organization was the subject of some discussion, James Freeman Clarke
+wishing to make the Conference one of Independent and Unitarian churches,
+while another delegate desired to substitute "free Christian" for
+Unitarian. The desire strongly manifested by a considerable number to make
+the Conference include in its membership all liberal churches of whatever
+name not acceptable to the majority of the delegates, voted with a decided
+emphasis to organize strictly on the Unitarian basis.</p>
+
+<a name="pg193"></a>
+<p>As soon as the convention was organized, expression was given to the demand
+for a doctrinal basis for its deliberations. Though several attempts were
+made to bring about the acceptance of a creed, these met with complete
+failure. In the preamble to the constitution, however, it was asserted that
+the delegates were "disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ," while the first
+article declared that the conference was organized to promote "the cause of
+Christian faith and work." It was quite evident that a large majority of
+the delegates regarded the convention as Christian in its purposes and
+distinctly Unitarian in its denominational mission. A minority desired a
+platform that should have no theological implications, and that should
+permit the co-operation of every kind of liberal church. The use of the
+phrase Lord Jesus Christ was strongly opposed by the more radical section
+of the convention, but the members of it were not organized or ready to
+give utterance to their protest in an effective manner.</p>
+
+<p>The convention gave its approval to the efforts of the Unitarian
+Association to secure the sum of $100,000, and urged the churches, that had
+not already done so, to contribute. It also advised the securing of a like
+sum as an endowment for Antioch College, and commended to men of wealth the
+needs of the Harvard and Meadville Theological Schools. The council of the
+Conference was asked to give its attention to the necessity and duty of
+creating an organ for the denomination, to be called The Liberal Christian.
+A resolution looking to union with the Universalist body was presented, and
+one was passed declaring "that there should be recognition, fellowship, and
+<a name="pg194"></a>
+co-operation between all those various elements in our population that are
+prepared to meet on the basis of Christianity." James Freeman Clarke,
+Samuel J. May, and Robert Collyer were constituted a committee of
+correspondence, to promote acquaintance, fraternity, and unity between
+Unitarians and all of like liberal faith.[<a href="#fn_8_2">2</a><a name="fr_8_2"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg195"></a>
+<p>A resolution offered by William Cullen Bryant expressive of thanksgiving
+because of the near approach of peace, and for the opening made by the
+extinction of slavery for the diffusion of Christianity in its true spirit
+as a religion of love, mercy, and universal liberty, was unanimously
+adopted by a rising vote.</p>
+
+<p>The convention was a remarkable success in the number who attended its
+sessions, the character of the men who participated in its deliberations,
+and the skill with which the unsectarian sect had been organized for
+effective co-operation and work. Its influence was immediately felt
+throughout the denomination and upon all its activities. The change in
+attitude was very great, and the depressed and discouraged tone of many
+Unitarian utterances for a number of years preceding and following 1860
+gave way to one of enthusiasm and courage.[<a href="#fn_8_3">3</a><a name="fr_8_3"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg196"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn57"></a>New Life in the Unitarian Association.</h3>
+
+<p>The annual meeting of the Unitarian Association, that soon followed, felt
+the new stir of life, and the awakening to a larger consciousness of power.
+The chief attention was directed to meeting the new opportunities that had
+been presented, and to preparing for the larger work required. Dr. Rufus P.
+Stebbins, who had been for three years the president, and who had been
+actively instrumental in securing the large accession to the contributions
+of the year, was elected secretary, with the intent that he should devote
+himself to pushing forward the missionary enterprises of the Association.
+He refused to serve, and accepted the position only until his successor
+could be secured. In a few weeks, the executive committee elected Rev.
+Charles Lowe to this office, and he immediately entered upon its duties. He
+proved to be eminently fitted for the place by his enthusiastic interest in
+the work to be accomplished, and by his skill as an organizer. His
+catholicity of mind enabled him to conciliate, as far as this was possible,
+the conservative and radical elements in the denomination, and to unite
+<a name="pg197"></a>
+them into an effective working body. Educated at Harvard College and
+Divinity School, Lowe spent two years as a tutor in the college, and then
+was settled successively over parishes in New Bedford, Salem, and
+Somerville. His experience and skill as an army agent of the Association
+suggested his fitness for the larger sphere of labor into which he was now
+inducted. For six most difficult and trying years he successfully conducted
+the affairs of the Association.</p>
+
+<p>For the first time in the history of the Association its income was such as
+to enable it to plan its work on a large scale, and in some degree
+commensurate with its opportunities. During the year and a half preceding
+the first of June, 1866, there was contributed to the Association about
+$175,000, to Antioch College $103,000, to the Boston Fraternity of Churches
+$22,920, to the Children's Mission $42,000, to the Freedman's Aid Societies
+$30,000, to the Sunday School Society $2,500, to The Christian Register
+$15,000, and to the Western Conference $6,000, making a total of about
+$400,000 given by the denomination to these religious, educational, and
+philanthropic purposes; and this financial success was truly indicative of
+the new interest in its work that had come to the Unitarian body.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn58"></a>The New Theological Position.</h3>
+
+<p>Although the New York convention voted that $100,000 ought to be raised in
+1866, because the needs of the denomination demanded it, yet only $60,000
+were secured. The reaction that followed the close of the war had set in,
+the financial prosperity of the country had begun to lessen, and the
+enthusiasm that had made the first great effort of the denomination so
+eminently successful did not continue. A chief cause for the waning
+<a name="pg198"></a>
+interest in the denomination itself was the agitation, in regard to the
+theological position of the Unitarian body that began almost immediately
+after the New York convention.</p>
+
+<p>The older Unitarians held to the Bible and the teachings of Jesus as the
+great sources of spiritual truth as strongly as did the orthodox, and they
+differed from them only as to the purport of the message conveyed. This may
+be seen in a creed offered to the New York convention, by a prominent
+layman,[<a href="#fn_8_4">4</a><a name="fr_8_4"></a>] almost immediately after it was opened on the first morning.
+In this proposed creed it was asserted that Unitarians believe "in one
+Lord, Jesus Christ; the Son of God and his specially appointed messenger,
+and representative to our race; gifted with supernatural power, approved of
+God by miracles and signs and wonders which God did by him, and thus by
+divine authority commanding the devout and reverential faith of all who
+claim the Christian name." Although this creed was not adopted by the
+convention, it expressed the belief of a majority of Unitarians. To the
+same purport was the word spoken by Dr. Bellows, when he said: "Unitarians
+of the school to which I belong accept Jesus Christ with all their hearts
+as the Sent of God, the divinely inspired Son of the Father, who by his
+miraculously proven office and his sinless life and character was fitted to
+be, and was made revealer of the universal and permanent religion of the
+human race."[<a href="#fn_8_5">5</a><a name="fr_8_5"></a>] These quotations indicate that the more conservative
+<a name="pg199"></a>
+Unitarians had not changed their position since 1853, when they made
+official statement of their acceptance of Christianity as authenticated by
+miracles and the supernatural. In fact, they held essentially to the
+attitude taken when they left the older Congregational body.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, the transcendentalists and the radical Unitarians
+proposed a new theory of the nature of religious truth, and insisted that
+the spiritual message of Christianity is inward, and not outward, directly
+to the soul of man, and not through the mediation of a person or a book.
+Almost from the first Channing had been moving towards this newer
+conception of the nature and method of religion. He did not wholly abandon
+the miraculous, but it grew to have less significance for him with each
+year. The Unitarian conception of religion as natural to man, which was
+maintained strenuously from the time of Jonathan Mayhew, made it probable,
+if not certain, that a merely external system of religion would be
+ultimately outgrown. In his lecture on self-denial Channing stated this
+position in the clearest terms. "If," he said, "after a deliberate and
+impartial use of our best faculties, a professed revelation seems to us
+plainly to disagree with itself or to clash with great principles which we
+cannot question, we ought not to hesitate to withhold from it our belief. I
+am surer that my rational nature is from God, than that any book is an
+expression of his will. This light in my own breast is his primary
+revelation, and all subsequent ones must accord with it, and are in fact
+intended to blend with and brighten it."[<a href="#fn_8_6">6</a><a name="fr_8_6"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg200"></a>
+<p>Channing was not alone in accepting Christianity as a spiritual principle
+that is natural and universal. As early as 1826 Alvan Lamson had defended
+the proposition that miracles are merely local in their nature, and that
+attention should be chiefly given to the tendency, spirit, and object of
+Christianity. He claimed that it bore on the face of it the marks of its
+heavenly origin, and that, when these are fully accepted, no other form of
+evidence is required.[<a href="#fn_8_7">7</a><a name="fr_8_7"></a>] In 1834 James Walker, in writing on The
+Philosophy of Man's Spiritual Nature in regard to the Foundations of Faith,
+had taken what was essentially the transcendentalist view of the origin and
+nature of religion. He contended for the "religion in the soul" that is
+authenticated "by the revelations of consciousness."[<a href="#fn_8_8">8</a><a name="fr_8_8"></a>] In 1836 Convers
+Francis, in, describing the religion of Christ as a purely internal
+principle, maintained the "quiet, spirit-searching character of
+Christianity," as "a kingdom wholly within the soul of man."[<a href="#fn_8_9">9</a><a name="fr_8_9"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>When Convers Francis became a professor in the Harvard Divinity School, in
+1842, the spiritual philosophy had recognition there; and he had a
+considerable influence upon the young men who came under his guidance.
+Though of the older way of thinking, George R. Noyes, who became a
+professor in the school in 1840, was always on the side of liberty of
+interpretation and expression. For the next two decades the Divinity School
+sent out a succession of such men as John Weiss, Octavius B. Frothingham,
+Samuel Longfellow, William J. Potter, and Francis E. Abbot, who were joined
+<a name="pg201"></a>
+by William Henry Channing, Samuel Johnson, David A. Wasson, and others, who
+did not study there. These men gave a new meaning to Unitarianism, took it
+away from miracles to nature, discarded its evidences to rely on intuition,
+rejected its supernatural deity for an immanent God who speaks through all
+life his divine word.</p>
+
+<p>During the interval between the New York convention and the first session
+of the National Conference, which was held in Syracuse, October 10-11,
+1866, the questions which separated the conservatives and radicals were
+freely debated in the periodicals of the denomination, and also in sermons
+and pamphlets. The radicals organized for securing a revision of the
+constitution; and on the morning of the first day Francis E. Abbot, then
+the minister at Dover, N.H., offered a new preamble and first article as
+substitutes for those adopted in New York, in which he stated that "the
+object of Christianity is the universal diffusion of love, righteousness,
+and truth," that "perfect freedom of thought, which is at once the right
+and duty of every human being, always leads to diversity of opinion, and is
+therefore hindered by common creeds or statements of faith," and that
+therefore the churches assembled in the conference, "disregarding all
+sectarian or theological differences, and offering a cordial fellowship to
+all who will join them in Christian work, unite themselves in a common
+body, to be known as The National Conference of Unitarian and Independent
+Churches."</p>
+
+<p>At the afternoon session Mr. Abbot's amendment was rejected; but on the
+motion of James Freeman Clarke the name was changed to The National
+Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches. A resolution stating
+<a name="pg202"></a>
+that the expression "Other Christian Churches was not meant to exclude
+religious societies which have no distinctive church organization, and are
+not nominally Christian, if they desire to co-operate with the Conference
+in what it regards as Christian work," was laid on the table.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn59"></a>Organization of the Free Religious Association.</h3>
+
+<p>The result of the refusal at Syracuse to revise the constitution of the
+National Conference was that the radical men on the railroad train
+returning to Boston held a consultation, and resolved to organize an
+association that would secure them the liberty they desired. After
+correspondence and much planning a meeting was held in Boston, at the house
+of Rev. Cyrus A. Bartol, on February 5, 1867, to consider what should be
+done. After a thorough discussion of the subject the Free Religious
+Association was planned; and the organization was perfected at a meeting
+held in Horticultural Hall, Boston, May 30, 1867. Some of those who took
+part in this movement thought that all religion had been outgrown, but the
+majority believed that it is essential and eternal. What they sought was to
+remove its local and national elements, and to get rid of its merely
+sectarian and traditional features.</p>
+
+<p>At the first meeting the speakers were O.B. Frothingham, Henry Blanchard,
+Lucretia Mott, Robert Dale Owen, John Weiss, Oliver Johnson, Francis E.
+Abbot, David A. Wasson, T.W. Higginson, and R.W. Emerson; and discussion
+was participated in by A.B. Alcott, E.C. Towne, Frank B. Sanborn, Hannah E.
+Stevenson, Ednah D. Cheney, Charles C. Burleigh, and Caroline H. Dall. Of
+these persons, one-half had been Unitarian ministers, and about one-third
+of them were still settled over Unitarian parishes. Mr. Frothingham was
+<a name="pg203"></a>
+elected president of the new organization, and Rev. William J. Potter
+secretary. The purposes of the Association were "to promote the interests
+of pure religion, to encourage the scientific study of theology and to
+increase fellowship in the spirit." In 1872 the constitution was revised by
+changing the subject of study from theology to man's religious nature and
+history, and by the addition of the statement that "nothing in the name or
+constitution of the Association shall ever be construed as limiting
+membership by any test of speculative opinion or belief,--or as defining
+the position of the Association, collectively considered, with reference to
+any such opinion or belief,--or as interfering in any other way with that
+absolute freedom of thought and expression which is the natural right of
+every rational being."</p>
+
+<p>The original purpose of the Free Religious Association, as defined in its
+constitution and in the addresses delivered before it, was the recognition
+of the universality of religion, and the representation of all phases of
+religious opinion in its membership and on its platform. The circumstances
+of its organization, however, in some measure took it away from this
+broader position, and made it the organ of the radical Unitarian opinion.
+Those Unitarians who did not find in the American Unitarian Association and
+the National Conference such fellowship as they desired became active in
+the Free Religious organization.</p>
+
+<p>The cause of Free Religion was ably presented in the pages of The Radical,
+a monthly journal edited by Sidney H. Morse, and published in Boston, and
+The Index, edited by Francis E. Abbot, at first in Toledo and then in
+Boston. It also found expression at the Sunday afternoon meetings held in
+<a name="pg204"></a>
+Horticultural Hall, Boston, for several winters, beginning in 1868-69; in
+the conventions held in several of the leading cities of the northern
+states; at the gatherings of the Chestnut Street Club; and in the annual
+meetings of the Free Religious Association held in Boston during
+anniversary week. Little effort was made to organize churches, and only two
+or three came into existence distinctly on the basis of Free Religion. In
+connection with The Index, Francis E. Abbot organized the Liberal League to
+promote the interests of Free Religion, with about four hundred local
+branches; but this organization proved ineffective, and soon ceased its
+existence.</p>
+
+<p>The withdrawal of the radicals into the Free Religious Association did not
+quiet the agitation in the Unitarian ranks, partly because some of the most
+active workers in that Association continued to occupy Unitarian pulpits,
+and partly because a considerable radical element did not withdraw in any
+manner. The conferences had an unfailing subject for exciting discussion,
+and the Unitarian body was at this time in a chronic condition of
+agitation. As in the days of the controversy about the Trinity, the more
+conservative ministers would not exchange pulpits with the more radical.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn60"></a>Unsuccessful Attempts at Reconciliation.</h3>
+
+<p>At the second session of the National Conference, held in New York City,
+October 7-9, 1868, another attempt was made to bring about a reconciliation
+between the two wings of the denomination. In an attitude of generous good
+will and with a noble desire for inclusiveness and peace, James Freeman
+Clarke proposed an addition to the constitution of the Conference, in which
+it was declared "that we heartily welcome to that fellowship all who desire
+<a name="pg205"></a>
+to work with us in advancing the kingdom of God." Such a broad invitation
+was not acceptable to the majority; and, after an extended debate, this
+amendment was withdrawn, and the following, offered by Edward Everett Hale,
+and essentially the same as that presented by Mr. Clarke, with the
+exception of the phrase just quoted, was adopted:--</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>  To secure the largest unity of the spirit and the widest practical
+  co-operation, it is hereby understood that all the declarations of this
+  conference, including the preamble and constitution, are expressions
+  only of its majority, and dependent wholly for their effect upon the
+  consent they command on their own merits from the churches here
+  represented or belonging within the circle of our fellowship.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>The annual meeting of the Unitarian Association in 1870 was largely
+occupied with the vexing problem of the basis of fellowship; and the
+secretary, Charles Lowe, read a conciliatory and explanatory address. He
+said that the wide differences of theological opinion existing in the
+denomination were "an inevitable consequence of the great principle on
+which Unitarianism rests. That principle is that Christian faith and
+Christian union can coexist with individual liberty."[<a href="#fn_8_10">10</a><a name="fr_8_10"></a>] Rev. George H.
+Hepworth, then the minister of the Church of the Messiah in New York, asked
+for an authoritative statement of the Unitarian position, urging this
+demand with great insistence; and he presented a resolution calling for a
+committee of five to prepare "a statement of faith, which shall, as nearly
+as may be, represent the religious opinions of the Unitarian denomination."</p>
+
+<a name="pg206"></a>
+<p>While Dr. Bellows had been the leader in securing the adoption of the
+Christian basis for the National Conference, and the insertion into the
+preamble of its constitution of the expression of faith in the Lordship of
+Jesus Christ, he was strongly opposed to any attempt to impose a creed upon
+the denomination, however attenuated it might be. He has been often charged
+with inconsistency, and it is difficult to reconcile his position in 1870
+with that held in 1865. What he attempted to secure, however, was the
+utmost of liberty possible within the limits of Christianity; and, when he
+had committed the Unitarian body to the Christian position, he desired
+nothing more, believing that a creed would be inconsistent with the liberty
+enjoyed by all Unitarians. Without doubt his address at this meeting, in
+opposition to Mr. Hepworth's proposal, made it impossible to secure a vote
+in favor of a creed. "We want to represent a body," he said, "that presents
+itself to the forming hand of the Almighty Spirit of God in a fluid,
+plastic form. We cannot keep our denomination in that state, and yet give
+it the character of being cast into a positive mould. You must either
+abandon that great work you have done, as the only body in Christendom that
+occupies the position of absolute and perfect liberty, with some measure of
+Christian faith, or you must continue to occupy that position and thank God
+for it without hankering after some immediate victories that are so strong
+a temptation to many in our denomination." When the resolution in favor of
+a creed was brought to a vote, it was "defeated by a very large majority."
+By this act the Unitarian body again asserted its Christian position, but
+refused to define or to limit its Christianity.</p>
+
+<a name="pg207"></a>
+<p>Notwithstanding the refusal of the Unitarian Association to adopt a creed,
+the attempt to secure one was renewed in the National Conference with as
+much energy as if this were not already a lost cause. At the session held
+in New York, October, 1870, the subject came up for extended consideration,
+several amendments to the constitution were proposed, and, after a
+prolonged discussion, that offered by George H. Hepworth was adopted:--</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>  Reaffirming our allegiance to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and desiring
+  to secure the largest unity of the spirit and the widest practical
+  co-operation, we invite to our fellowship all who wish to be followers
+  of Christ.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<h3><a name="sn61"></a>The Year Book Controversy.</h3>
+
+<p>One result of this controversy was that in 1873 it having come to the
+attention of Rev. O.B. Frothingham, the president of the Free Religious
+Association, that his name was in the list of Unitarian ministers published
+in the Year Book of the Unitarian Association, he expressed surprise that
+it should have been continued there, and asked for its removal. The same
+action was taken by Francis E. Abbot, the editor of The Index, and others
+of the radicals. This action was in part the result of the attitude taken
+by Rev. Thomas J. Mumford, editor of The Christian Register, who in 1872
+insisted that the word "Religious" had no proper place in the name of the
+Free Religious Association, and who invited those Unitarians "who have
+ceased to accept Jesus as pre-eminently their spiritual leader and teacher"
+to withdraw from the Unitarian body.</p>
+
+<p>In November, 1873, Mr. George W. Fox, the assistant secretary of the
+Unitarian Association and the editor of its Year Book, wrote to several of
+<a name="pg208"></a>
+the radicals, calling their attention to the action of Mr. Frothingham in
+requesting the removal of his name, and asked if their names remained in
+that publication "with their knowledge and consent." In a subsequent letter
+to William J. Potter, the minister of the Unitarian church in New Bedford
+and the secretary of the Free Religious Association, he explained that "the
+Year Book lists of societies and ministers are simply a directory, prepared
+by the Association for the accommodation of the denomination, and that the
+Association does not undertake to decide the question as to what are or are
+not Unitarian societies or ministers, but merely puts into print facts, in
+the making of which it assumes no responsibility and has no agency."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Potter expressed his purpose not to ask for the removal of his name,
+but wrote that he did not call himself a Unitarian Christian or by any
+denominational name. The officers of the Association thereupon instructed
+the editor of the Year Book to remove Mr. Potter's name from the list of
+Unitarian ministers published therein. The reason for this action was
+stated in a letter from the editor to Mr. Potter, announcing that his name
+had been removed. The letter said, "While there might be no desire to
+define Christianity in the case of those who claim that they are in any
+sense of the term entitled to be called Christians, for those persons who,
+like yourself, disavow the name, there seems to be no need of raising any
+question as to how broad a range of opinion the name may properly be
+stretched to cover."[<a href="#fn_8_11">11</a><a name="fr_8_11"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg209"></a>
+<p>There followed a vigorous discussion of the action of the Association in
+dropping Mr. Potter's name, it being recognized that no more thoroughly
+religious man was to be found in the denomination, and that none more truly
+exemplified the Christian spirit, whatever might be his wish as to the use
+of the Christian name. At the sixth session of the National Conference,
+held at Saratoga in September, 1874, the Essex Conference protested against
+the erasure of the name of a church in long and regular fellowship with the
+Unitarian Association from its Year Book; and a resolution offered by Dr.
+Bellows, indorsing the action of the officers of the National Conference in
+inviting the New Bedford church to send delegates, was passed without
+dissent. At the session of the Western Conference held in Chicago during
+1875, resolutions were passed protesting against the removing of the name
+of any person from the accredited list of Unitarian ministers until he
+requested it, had left the denomination, joined some other sect, or been
+adjudged guilty of immorality. As a result of this discussion and of the
+broad sympathies and inclusive spirit of the conference, the following
+platform, in the shape of a resolution, was adopted:--</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>  That the Western Unitarian Conference conditions its fellowship on no
+  dogmatic tests, but welcomes all thereto who desire to work with it in
+  advancing the kingdom of God.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>The attitude of the Unitarian Association and the National Conference--that
+is, of a large majority of Unitarians at this time--may be accurately
+defined in the words of Charles Lowe, who said: "I admit that we make a
+belief in Christianity a test of fellowship. No stretch of liberality will
+make me wish to deny that a belief in Jesus Christ is the absolutely
+<a name="pg210"></a>
+essential qualification. But I will oppose, as a test, any definition of
+Christianity, any words about Christ, for Christ himself, as the principles
+of our fellowship and union."[<a href="#fn_8_12">12</a><a name="fr_8_12"></a>] These words exactly define what was
+sought for, which was liberty within the limits of Christianity. The
+primary insistence was upon discipleship to Jesus Christ, but it was
+maintained that loyalty to Christ is compatible with the largest degree of
+personal liberty.</p>
+
+<p>Fundamentally, this controversy was a continuation of that which had
+agitated New England from the beginning, that had divided those opposed to
+"the great awakening" of the middle of the eighteenth century from those
+who favored it, that led the Unitarians away from the Orthodox, and that
+now divided radical and conservative Unitarians. The advance was always
+towards a more pronounced assertion of individualism, and a more positive
+rejection of tradition, organization, and external authority. Indeed, it
+was towards this end that Unitarianism had directed its energies from the
+beginning; and the force of this tendency could not be overcome because
+some called for a creed, and more had come to see the need of an efficient
+organization for practical purposes.</p>
+
+<p>What the radicals desired was freedom, and the broadest assertion of
+individuality. It was maintained by Francis E. Abbot that "the spiritual
+ideal of Free Religion is to develop the individuality of the soul in the
+highest, fullest, and most independent manner possible."[<a href="#fn_8_13">13</a><a name="fr_8_13"></a>] The other
+distinctive principle of the radicals was that religion is universal, that
+all religions are essentially, the same, and that Christianity is simply
+<a name="pg211"></a>
+one of the phases of universal religion. David A. Wasson defined religion
+as "the consciousness of universal relation,"[<a href="#fn_8_14">14</a><a name="fr_8_14"></a>] and as "the sense of
+unity with the infinite whole," adding that "morals, reason, freedom, are
+bound up with it."[<a href="#fn_8_15">15</a><a name="fr_8_15"></a>] This means, in simple statement, that religion is
+natural to man, and that it needs no authentication by miracle or
+supernatural manifestation. It means that all religions are essentially the
+same in their origin, and that none can claim the special favor of God in
+their manner of presentation to the world. According to this conception of
+religion, as was stated by. William J. Potter, Christianity is
+"provisional, preparatory, educational, containing, alongside of the most
+valuable truth, much that is only human error and bigotry and superstitious
+imagination."[<a href="#fn_8_16">16</a><a name="fr_8_16"></a>] "The spiritual ideal of Christianity," said Francis E.
+Abbot, "is the suppression of self and perfect imitation of Jesus the
+Christ. The spiritual ideal of Free Religion is the development of self,
+and the harmonious education of all its powers to the highest possible
+degree."[<a href="#fn_8_17">17</a><a name="fr_8_17"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Through all this controversy what was sought for was a method of
+reconciling fellowship with individuality of opinion, of establishing a
+church in which freedom of faith for the individual shall have full
+recognition. In a word, the Unitarian body had a conviction that tradition
+is compatible with intuition, institutions with personal freedom, and
+co-operation with individual initiative. The problems involved were too
+large for an immediate solution; and what Unitarians accepted was an ideal,
+and not a fact fully realized in their denominational life. The doctrinal
+<a name="pg212"></a>
+phases of the controversy have always been subsidiary to this larger
+search, this desire to give to the individual all the liberty that is
+compatible with his co-operation with others. The result of it has been to
+teach the Unitarian body, in the words of Francis E. Abbot at Syracuse, in
+1866, that "the only reconciliation of the duties of collective Christian
+activity and individual freedom of thought lies in an efficient
+organization for practical Christian work, based rather on unity of spirit
+than on uniformity of belief."[<a href="#fn_8_18">18</a><a name="fr_8_18"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn62"></a>Missionary Activities.</h3>
+
+<p>During this period of controversy, from 1865 to 1880, the Unitarian
+Association had at its head several able men, who were actively interested
+in its work. The president for 1865-66 was Rev. John G. Palfrey; and he was
+succeeded, in 1867, by Hon. Thomas D. Eliot, of New Bedford, who was in
+both houses of the Massachusetts legislature, and then for a number of
+years in the lower house of Congress. From 1870 to 1872 the president was
+Mr. Henry Chapin, of Worcester, an able lawyer and judge, loyally devoted
+to the Sunday-school work of his city and county. He was succeeded by Hon.
+John Wells, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, who was
+deeply interested in the church with which he was connected. In 1876 Mr.
+Henry P. Kidder was elected to this office,--a position he held for ten
+years. He was prominent in the banking interests of Boston, gave much
+attention to the charities of the city, and was an efficient worker in the
+South Congregational Church.</p>
+
+<p>Rev. Charles Lowe, the secretary from 1865 to 1871, wisely directed the
+activities of the Association through the early period of the great
+<a name="pg213"></a>
+awakening of the denomination, and kept it from going to pieces on the
+Scylla and Charybdis of creed and radicalism. He was followed at a most
+critical and difficult time by Rev. Rush R. Shippen, who continued to hold
+the office until 1881. The reaction succeeding the great prosperity that
+followed the close of the civil war brought great burdens of debt to many
+individuals, and to cities, states, and the nation. These troubles
+distracted attention from spiritual interests, and joined with various
+other calamities in making this a trying time for churches and religious
+organizations.</p>
+
+<p>The discussions as to the theological position of the denomination
+naturally resulted in more or less of disorganization, and made it
+impossible to secure the unity of effort which is essential to any positive
+missionary growth. In spite of these drawbacks, however, denominational
+interests slowly advanced. During this period the Unitarian Association
+began to receive a considerable increase of its funds from legacies,--a
+result of its enlarged activities, and of the new interest awakened by the
+formation of the National Conference.</p>
+
+<p>A few facts may be mentioned to illustrate the never-failing generosity of
+Unitarian givers when specific needs are presented. In October, 1871,
+occurred the great fire in Chicago and the burning of Unity Church in that
+city, which was aided with $60,000 in rebuilding; while the Third Church
+and All Souls' were helped liberally in passing through this crisis. The
+following year the Boston fire crippled sadly the resources of the
+Association, and instead of the $150,000 asked for only $42,000 were
+received. Yet in 1876 the church in Washington was built, and $30,000 were
+<a name="pg214"></a>
+contributed to that purpose by the denomination. In 1879; the denomination
+gave $56,000 to free the Church of the Messiah in New York from debt.
+During this period $100,000 were contributed to the Young Men's Christian
+Union in Boston, $90,000 to the Harvard Divinity School, $20,000 to the
+Prospect Hill School at Greenfield, and $30,000 towards the Channing
+Memorial Church in Newport.</p>
+
+<p>During these trying times the administration of Unitarian affairs in the
+west was in judicious hands, In 1865 Rev. Charles G. Ames began those
+missionary efforts on the Pacific coast that have led on to the
+establishment of a considerable number of churches in that section of the
+country. In central Illinois the devoted labors of Jasper L. Douthit from
+1868 to the present time have produced wide-reaching results in behalf of a
+genuine religion, temperance, good government, and education. In 1868 Rev.
+Carlton A. Staples was made the missionary agent of the Association in the
+west, with headquarters in Chicago, where a book-room was established. He
+was succeeded in 1872 by Rev. Sylvan S. Hunting, who was a tireless worker
+in the western field for many years. In 1874 Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones became
+the missionary of the Wisconsin Conference, and the next year of the
+Western Conference. For ten years Mr. Jones labored in this position with
+enthusiasm for the Unitarian cause in the west.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn63"></a>College Town Missions.</h3>
+
+<p>In the spring of 1865 the attention of the Unitarian Association was
+directed to the growing University of Michigan; and Rev. Charles H.
+Brigham, then the minister of the church in Taunton, was invited to proceed
+to Ann Arbor, and see what might be accomplished there. Meetings were held
+<a name="pg215"></a>
+in the court-house, but in 1866 an old Methodist church was purchased by
+the Association and adapted to the uses of the new society. The
+congregation numbered at first about eighty persons, but gradually
+increased, especially from the attendance of university students. Mr.
+Brigham was asked by the students who listened to him to form a Bible class
+for their instruction, and this increased in numbers until it included from
+two hundred to three hundred persons. On Sunday evenings he delivered
+lectures wherein his wide and varied learning was made subservient to high
+ideals and to a noble interpretation of Christianity. He led many young men
+and women into the liberal faith, and he exercised through them a wide
+influence throughout the west. His gifts as a lecturer were also made
+available at the Meadville Theological School, with which institution he
+was connected for ten years.[<a href="#fn_8_19">19</a><a name="fr_8_19"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The success of Mr. Brigham led to the founding of other college town
+churches, that at Ithaca, the seat of Cornell University, being established
+in 1866. In 1878 such a mission was begun at Madison for the students of
+the University of Wisconsin, and another at Iowa City for the University of
+Iowa. In more recent years college missions have been started at Lawrence,
+Kan.; Lincoln, Neb.; Minneapolis, Minn.; Berkeley, Cal.; Colorado Springs;
+and Amherst, Mass. This has proved to be one of the most effective ways of
+extending Unitarianism as a modern interpretation of Christianity.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn64"></a>Theatre Preaching.</h3>
+
+<p>Another interest developed by the awakening of 1865 was the popularization
+of Unitarianism by the use of theatres. In January, 1866, was begun in the
+Cooper Institute, New York, a Sunday evening course of lectures by Clarke,
+<a name="pg216"></a>
+Bellows, Osgood, Frothingham, Putnam, Chadwick, and Joseph May, which was
+largely attended. Some of the most important doctrinal subjects were
+discussed. A few weeks later a similar course was undertaken in Washington
+with like success. In March, 1867, the Suffolk Conference undertook such a
+series of lectures in the Boston Theatre, which was crowded to its utmost
+capacity. Then followed courses of sermons or lectures in Lawrence, New
+Bedford, Salem, Springfield, Providence, Chicago, and San Francisco, as
+well as in other places. The council of the National Conference, in 1868,
+commended this as an important work that should be encouraged. Rev. Adams
+Ayer was made an agent of the Association to organize such meetings, and
+their success was remarkable for several years. In 1869 Rev. Charles Lowe
+spoke of "that wonderful feature of our recent experience," and urged that
+these meetings should be so organized as to lead to definite results.</p>
+
+<p>An earnest effort was made to organize the theatre congregations into
+unsectarian societies. It was proposed to form Christian unions that should
+work for Christian improvement and usefulness. The first result of this
+effort was the reorganization of the Boston Young Men's Christian Union in
+the spring of 1868. A similar institution was formed in Providence, to
+promote worship, education, hospitality and benevolence. Unions were also
+formed in, Salem, Lowell, Cambridge, New Bedford, New York, and elsewhere.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn65"></a>Organization of Local Conferences.</h3>
+
+<p>In the autumn of 1865, in order to facilitate the collection of money for
+the Unitarian Association, a number of local conferences were held in
+<a name="pg217"></a>
+Massachusetts. The first of these met at Somerville, November 14, and was
+primarily a meeting of the Cambridge Association of Ministers, including
+all the lay delegates to the New York convention from the churches which
+that association represented. The result of this meeting was an increase of
+contributions to the Unitarian Association, and the determination to
+organize permanently to facilitate that work. Dr. E.E. Hale has stated that
+the initial suggestion of these meetings came from a conversation between
+Dr. Bellows and Dr. E.H. Sears, in which the latter said "that a very
+important element in any effort which should reveal the Unitarian church to
+itself would be some plan by which neighboring churches would be brought
+together more familiarly."[<a href="#fn_8_20">20</a><a name="fr_8_20"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The local conferences had distinct antecedents, however, by which their
+character was doubtless in some degree determined. The early county and
+other local auxiliaries to the Unitarian Association begun in 1826 and
+continued for at least twenty years, which were general throughout New
+England, afforded a precedent; but a more immediate initiative had been
+taken in New Hampshire, where the New Hampshire Unitarian Association had
+been organized at Manchester, February 25, 1863. It does not appear that
+this organization was in any way a revival of the former society of the
+same name in that state, which was organized at Concord in 1832, and which
+was very active for a brief period. A Unitarian Church Association of Maine
+was organized at Portland, September 21, 1852, largely under the influence
+of Rev. Sylvester Judd, of Augusta; but it had only a brief existence. The
+<a name="pg218"></a>
+Maine Conference of Unitarian Churches was organized at Farmington, July 8,
+1863.[<a href="#fn_8_21">21</a><a name="fr_8_21"></a>] These organizations antedated the movement for the formation of
+local conferences on the part of the National Conference; and they
+doubtless gave motive and impetus to that effort.</p>
+
+<p>On November 30, 1865, a meeting similar to that at Somerville was held by
+the Franklin Evangelical Association[<a href="#fn_8_22">22</a><a name="fr_8_22"></a>] at Springfield, and with similar
+results. Other meetings were held at Lowell, Dedham, Quincy, Salem,
+Taunton, Worcester, and Boston. The attendance at all these meetings was
+large, they developed an enthusiastic interest, and pledges were promptly
+made looking to larger contributions to the Unitarian Association.</p>
+
+<p>At the Syracuse meeting of the National Conference, in 1866, Dr. Bellows
+reported for the council in favor of local organizations, auxiliary to the
+national body. "No great national convention of any kind succeeds," it was
+declared, "which is not the concurrence of many local conventions, each of
+which has duties of detail and special spheres of influence upon whose
+co-operation the final and grand success of the whole depends." A series of
+resolutions, calling for the formation of local conferences, "to meet at
+fixed periods, at convenient points, for the organization of missionary
+work," was presented by Dr. E.E. Hale. In order to carry into effect the
+intent of these resolutions, Charles Lowe devised a plan of organization,
+which declared that the object of the local conference "shall be to promote
+the religious life and mutual sympathy of the churches which unite in it,
+<a name="pg219"></a>
+and to enable them to co-operate in missionary work, and in raising funds
+for various Christian purposes." The work of organizing such local
+missionary bodies was taken up at once, and proceeded rapidly. The first
+one was organized at Sheboygan, Wis., October 24, 1866; and nearly all the
+churches were brought within the limits of such conferences during the next
+two years.[<a href="#fn_8_23">23</a><a name="fr_8_23"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>In the local conferences, as in the National Conference, two purposes
+contended for expression that were not compatible with each other as
+practical incentives to action. The one looked to the uniting of all
+liberal individuals and denominations in a general organization, and the
+other aimed at the promotion of distinctly Unitarian interests. In the
+National Conference the denominational purpose controlled in shaping its
+permanent policy; but the other intent found expression in the addition of
+"Other Christian Churches" to the name, though in only the most limited way
+did such churches connect themselves with the Conference.[<a href="#fn_8_24">24</a><a name="fr_8_24"></a>] The local
+conferences made like provision for those not wishing to call themselves
+distinctly Unitarian. Such desire for co-operation, however, was in a large
+degree ineffective because of the fact that the primary aim in the calling
+into existence of such conferences was an increase in the funds of the
+Unitarian Association.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn66"></a>Fellowship and Fraternity.</h3>
+
+<p>Under the leadership of the National Conference the Unitarian body
+underwent material changes in its internal organization and in its
+relations to other denominations. Not only did it bring the churches to act
+together in the local conferences and in its own sessions, but it taught
+<a name="pg220"></a>
+then to co-operate for the protection of their pulpits against adventurers
+and immoral men. Before it was organized, the excessive spirit of
+independency in the churches would permit of no exercise of control as to
+their selection of ministers to fill their pulpits. At the fourth session
+of the National Conference, held in New York in October, 1870, the council,
+through Dr. Bellows, suggested that the local conferences refuse to
+acknowledge as ministers men of proven vices and immoralities. To carry out
+the spirit of this suggestion, Dr. Hale presented a resolution, which was
+adopted, asking the local conferences to appoint committees of fellowship
+to examine and to act upon candidates for the ministry. In October, 1870,
+the New York and Hudson River Conference created such a committee "to
+examine the testimonials of such as desire to become members of the
+conference and enter the Unitarian ministry."</p>
+
+<p>The seventh session of the National Conference, held at Saratoga in 1876,
+provided for the appointment of a committee of fellowship, and the list of
+names of those appointed to its membership appears in the printed report;
+but there is no record that the committee ever organized. In 1878 the
+council reported at considerable length on the desirableness of
+establishing such a committee; and, again, a committee of fellowship was
+appointed "to take into immediate consideration the subject of the
+introduction into the Unitarian ministry of those persons who seek an
+entrance into that ministry from other churches." This committee consisted
+of twelve persons, three each for the eastern, middle, western, and Pacific
+states.</p>
+
+<a name="pg221"></a>
+<p>At the session of 1880 the council of the Conference stated that it had
+created a substitute for the old ecclesiastical council, that was called
+together from the neighboring ministers and churches whenever a minister
+was to be inducted into office. That method was costly and had dropped into
+desuetude; but the new method of a committee of fellowship saved true
+Congregational methods and freed the churches from unworthy men. At this
+session the committee reported that it had adopted a uniform plan of
+action; but a resolution was passed recommending that each local conference
+establish its own committee of fellowship. Having once been instituted,
+however, the committee of the National Conference came slowly to be
+recognized as the fit means of introducing ministers into the Unitarian
+fellowship. Its authority has proven beneficent, and in no sense
+autocratic. It has shown that churches may co-operate in this way without
+intruding upon each others' rights, and that such a safeguarding of the
+pulpits of the denomination is essential to their dignity and morality. In
+1896 the Minnesota Conference went one step further, and provided for a
+committee of fellowship with power to exclude for "conduct unbecoming a
+minister."</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn67"></a>Results of the Denominational Awakening.</h3>
+
+<p>The most marked feature in the history of Unitarianism in this country
+during the period from 1865 to 1880 was the organization of the National
+Conference as the legislative body of the denomination, and the adjustment
+to it of the American Unitarian Association as its executive instrument.
+Attendant upon this organizing movement was the termination of the
+theological discussion that had begun twenty years earlier between the
+<a name="pg222"></a>
+conservatives and radicals, the supernaturalists and the idealists, or
+transcendentalists. In 1865 the large majority of Unitarians were
+conservatives and supernaturalists, but in 1880 a marked change in belief
+had come about, that had apparently given the victory to the more moderate
+of the radicals. The majority of Unitarians would no longer assert that
+miracles are necessary to faith in Christ and the acceptance of his
+teachings as worthy of credence.</p>
+
+<p>The change that came about during these years was largely due to the
+leadership of Henry W. Bellows. What he did was to keep actively alive in
+the Unitarian body its recognition of its Christian heritage, while at the
+same time he boldly refused assent to its being committed to any definite
+creed. He insisted upon the right of Unitarians to the Christian name, and
+to all that Christianity means as a vital spiritual force; but at the same
+time he refused to accept any limits for the Christian tradition and
+heritage, and left them free for growth. Sometimes apparently reactionary
+and conservative, he was at other times boldly radical and progressive. The
+cause of this seeming inconsistency was to be found in those gifts of
+imagination and emotion that made him a great preacher; but the
+inconsistency was more apparent than real, for in his leadership he
+manifested a wisdom and a capacity for directing the efforts of others that
+has never been surpassed in the history of religion and philanthropy in
+this country. He was both conservative and radical, supernaturalist and
+transcendentalist, a believer in miracles with a confident trust in the
+functions of reason. He saw both before and after, knew the worth of the
+past, and recognized that all the roots of our religious life are found
+<a name="pg223"></a>
+therein, and yet courageously faced the future and its power to transform
+our faith by the aid of philosophy and science. Consequently, his
+sympathies were large, generous, and inclusive. Sometimes autocratic in
+word and action, his motives were catholic, and his intentions broad and
+appreciative. He gave direction to the newer Unitarianism in its efforts to
+organize and perpetuate itself. Had it been more flexible to his organizing
+skill, it would have grown more rapidly; but, with all its individualism
+and dislike of proselyting, it has more than doubled in strength since
+1865. He showed the Unitarian body that freedom is consistent with
+organized effort, and that personal liberty is no more essential than
+co-ordinated action. He may be justly described as the real organizer of
+the Unitarian body in this country.</p>
+
+<p><br ><br >[<a href="#fr_8_1">1</a><a name="fn_8_1"></a>] Henry W. Bellows, in Monthly Journal, iv. 336: "These two years of
+    war have witnessed a more rapid progress in liberal opinions than the
+    whole previous century. The public mind has opened itself as it has
+    never been open before." In vi. 3, he said: "There are great and
+    striking changes going on. Men are breaking away from old opinions,
+    and there is a great work for us to do." This was said in December,
+    1864. William G. Eliot, Monthly Journal, iv. 349: "The war has proved
+    that our Unitarian faith works well in time of trial. No other church
+    has been so uniformly and thoroughly loyal, and no other church has
+    done more for the sick and dying." Many other similar words could be
+    quoted.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_2">2</a><a name="fn_8_2"></a>] James Freeman Clarke reported for this committee at the Syracuse
+    session of 1866, and stated that its members had conferred with
+    Christians, Universalists, Methodists, Congregationalists, and
+    others. The committee made several suggestions as to what could be
+    done to promote general fellowship, and recommended that the title of
+    the National Conference be so changed as to permit persons of other
+    religions bodies to find a place within it, if they so desired. The
+    committee was reappointed; and at the third session of the Conference
+    it reported that it had visited the annual gatherings of the
+    Universalists, Methodists, and Free Religionists, and had been
+    cordially welcomed. They were received into the pulpits of different
+    denominations, they found everywhere a cordial spirit of fellowship
+    and a breaking down of sectarian barriers. At this session the
+    Conference expressed its desire "to cultivate the most friendly
+    relations with, and to encourage fraternal intercourse between, the
+    various liberal Christian bodies in this country." A committee of
+    three was appointed "to represent our fraternal sentiments and to
+    consider all questions which relate to mutual intercourse and
+    co-operation."</p>
+
+<p>    This committee reported through Edward E. Hale that it had been well
+    received at two Methodist conferences and at several state
+    conventions of the Universalists. Especially had it been welcomed by
+    the African Methodist Church, which was the beginning of cordial
+    relations between the two bodies for several years. The committee
+    reported, however, that "there are but few regularly organized bodies
+    in this country which, in their formal action, express much desire
+    for intercourse or co-operation with us as an organized branch of the
+    church." A resolution offered by the committee, expressing the desire
+    of the National Conference "to cultivate the most friendly relations
+    with all Christian churches and to encourage fraternal intercourse
+    between them," was adopted. The members of the committee appointed in
+    1870 attended the session of the American Board of Foreign Missions
+    in 1871; and they were received with courtesy, Athanase Coquerel
+    addressing the board as their representative. The committee reported
+    that "in every direction, from clergymen and laymen of different
+    Protestant churches, we have received informal expressions of what we
+    believe to be a very general desire that there might be a more formal
+    and public expression of the fellowship which undoubtedly really
+    exists between the different Protestant communions."</p>
+
+<p>    At the session of the National Conference held in 1874 the council
+    suggested the propriety of preparing a register of the free or
+    liberal churches of the world, and it enumerated the various bodies
+    that might be properly included; but no action was taken on this
+    recommendation. At this session an amendment to the by-laws, offered
+    by Dr. Hale, was adopted, providing for a fellowship committee with
+    other churches. This committee was not appointed, and the amendment
+    was not printed in its proper place in the report. Apparently, the
+    interest in efforts of this kind had exhausted itself, partly because
+    any active co-operation with the more conservative churches was
+    impossible, and partly because the growth of denominational feeling
+    directed the energies of the National Conference into other channels.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_3">3</a><a name="fn_8_3"></a>] The sessions of the National Conference have been held as follows: 1,
+    New York, April 5-6, 1865; 2, Syracuse, October 10-11, 1866; 3, New
+    York, October 7-9, 1868; 4, New York, October 19-21, 1870; 5. Boston,
+    October 22-25, 1872; 6, Saratoga, September 15-18, 1874; 7, Saratoga,
+    September 12-15, 1876; 8, Saratoga, September 17-20, 1878; 9,
+    Saratoga, September 21-24, 1880; 10, Saratoga, September 18-22, 1882;
+    11, Saratoga, September 22-26, 1884; 12, Saratoga, September 20-24,
+    1886; 13, Philadelphia, October 28-31, 1889; 14, Saratoga, September
+    21-25, 1891; 15, Saratoga, September 24-27, 1894; 16, Washington,
+    October 21-24, 1895; 17, Saratoga, September 20-23, 1897; 18,
+    Washington, October 16-19 1899; 19, Saratoga, September 23, 1901. A
+    meeting was held in Chicago, in 1893, in connection with the
+    Parliament of Religions. The presidents of the National Conference
+    have been Hon. John A. Andrew, who served in 1866; Hon. Thomas D.
+    Eliot, whose term of service lasted to 1869; Judge Ebenezer R. Hoar,
+    from 1869 to 1878, and again from 1882 to 1884; Hon. John D. Long,
+    from 1878 to 1882; Judge Samuel F. Miller, 1884 to 1891; Mr. George
+    William Curtis, 1891 to 1894; and Hon. George F. Hoar, 1894 to 1901.
+    Hon. Carroll D. Wright was elected to the office in 1901. The
+    secretaries have been Rev. Edward Everett Hale, Rev. George
+    Batchelor, Rev. Russell N. Bellows, Rev. William H. Lyon, and Rev.
+    Daniel W. Morehouse. The first chairman of the council was Rev. Henry
+    W. Bellows, D.D., who served to 1872, and again from 1876 to 1878;
+    Professor Charles Carroll Everett, D.D., from 1874 to 1876; Rev.
+    Edward Everett Hale, D.D., from 1880 to 1882, and from 1891 to 1894;
+    Rev. James De Normandie, D.D., from 1884 to 1889; Rev. Brooke
+    Herford, D.D., from 1889 to 1891; Rev. George Batchelor, from 1894 to
+    1895; Rev. Minot J. Savage, D.D., from 1895 to 1899; and Rev. Howard
+    N. Brown, from the later year to 1901, when Rev. Thomas R. Slicer was
+    elected.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_4">4</a><a name="fn_8_4"></a>] A.A. Low, a member of the first Unitarian congregation in Brooklyn,
+    N.Y.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_5">5</a><a name="fn_8_5"></a>] Lecture delivered in Cooper Institute, New York, on Unitarian Views
+    of Christ, published in The Christian Examiner, November, 1866, xxxi,
+    310.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_6">6</a><a name="fn_8_6"></a>] Works, iv. 110.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_7">7</a><a name="fn_8_7"></a>] The Christian Examiner, March-April, 1826, iii. 136.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_8">8</a><a name="fn_8_8"></a>] First Series of Tracts of A.U.A. No. 87.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_9">9</a><a name="fn_8_9"></a>] First Series of A.U.A. Tracts, No. 105, April, 1836.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_10">10</a><a name="fn_8_10"></a>] Forty-fifth Annual Report of the American Unitarian Association, 11,
+     14.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_11">11</a><a name="fn_8_11"></a>] This correspondence was published in full in The Christian Register
+     for December 13 and 20, 1873, Mr. Potter's letter protesting against
+     the action of the Association being printed on the later date.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_12">12</a><a name="fn_8_12"></a>] Memoir of Charles Lowe, 454, 458.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_13">13</a><a name="fn_8_13"></a>] Freedom and Fellowship in Religion, 261.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_14">14</a><a name="fn_8_14"></a>] Freedom and Fellowship in Religion, 24.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_15">15</a><a name="fn_8_15"></a>] Ibid., 42.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_16">16</a><a name="fn_8_16"></a>] Ibid., 216.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_17">17</a><a name="fn_8_17"></a>] Fifty Affirmations, 47.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_18">18</a><a name="fn_8_18"></a>] Report of the Second Meeting of the National Conference, 20.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_19">19</a><a name="fn_8_19"></a>] Memoir of Charles H. Brigham, with Sermons and Lectures.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_20">20</a><a name="fn_8_20"></a>] Christian Register. March 15, 1900, lxxxix. 300; Twenty-fifth
+     Anniversary of the Worcester Conference, 7, address by Dr. Hale. See
+     Memoir of Charles Lowe, 372.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_21">21</a><a name="fn_8_21"></a>] Church Exchange, May, 1899, vi. 59.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_22">22</a><a name="fn_8_22"></a>] This association of ministers was organized August 17, 1819, and was
+     orthodox, but found itself Unitarian when the denominational change
+     took place.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_23">23</a><a name="fn_8_23"></a>] See Appendix for a complete list of the local conferences and the
+     dates of their organization.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_24">24</a><a name="fn_8_24"></a>] In a small number of instances such churches did join the Conference,
+     but the number was too small to be in any degree significant.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<a name="pg224"></a>
+<h2><br ><a name="ch9"></a>IX.<br >
+
+
+GROWTH OF DENOMINATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS.</h2>
+
+<p>The period from 1880 to the present time is marked by a growing
+denominational unity. Gradually Unitarians have come to the acceptance of
+their fellowship as a religious body, and to a recognition of their
+distinct mission. The controversy between the conservatives and the
+radicals was transferred to the west in 1886, and continued to have at its
+basis the problem of the relation of the individual to religious
+institutions and traditions. The conservative party maintained that
+Unitarians are Christians, and gave recognition to that continuity of human
+development by which every generation is connected with and draws its life
+from those which precede it, and is consciously dependent upon them. On the
+other hand, the radical party was not willing to accept traditions and
+institutions as having a binding authority over individuals. Some of them
+were reluctant to call themselves Christians, not because they rejected the
+more important of the Christian beliefs, but because they were not willing
+to bind any individual by the action of his fellows. It was their claim
+that religion best serves its own ends when it is free to act upon the
+individual without compulsion of any kind from others, and that its
+attractions should be without any bias of external authority.</p>
+
+<a name="pg225"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn68"></a>"The Western Issue."</h3>
+
+<p>At the meeting of the Western Conference held in Cleveland in 1882,
+arrangements were made looking to its incorporation, and its object was
+defined to be "the transaction of business pertaining to the general
+interests of the societies connected with the Conference, and the promotion
+of rational religion." It was voted that the motto on the conference seal
+should be "Freedom, Fellowship, and Character in Religion," which was the
+same as that of the Free Religious Association, with the addition of the
+word "character." These results were reached after much discussion, and by
+the way of compromise. The issues thus raised were brought forward again at
+St. Louis, in 1885, when Rev. J.T. Sunderland, the secretary and missionary
+of the conference, deplored the growing spirit of agnosticism and
+scepticism in the Unitarian churches of the west. His report caused a
+division of opinion in the conference; and in the controversy that ensued
+the conservatives were represented by The Unitarian, edited by Rev. Brooke
+Herford and Rev. J.T. Sunderland, and the radicals by Unity, edited by Rev.
+J.Ll. Jones and Rev. W.C. Gannett.</p>
+
+<p>At the Western Conference meeting of 1886, held in Cincinnati, the
+controversy found full expression. The session was preceded a few days
+before by the publication of a pamphlet on The Western Issue from the pen
+of Mr. Sunderland, in which he contended for the theistic and Christian
+character of the conference. A resolution offered by Rev. Oscar Clute,
+"that the primary object of this Conference is to diffuse the knowledge and
+promote the interests of pure Christianity," was rejected by a considerable
+majority. Another, offered by Mr. Sunderland--"that, while rejecting all
+<a name="pg226"></a>
+creeds and creed limitations, the Conference hereby expresses its purpose
+as a body to be the promotion of a religion of love to God and love to
+man"--was also rejected. That presented by William C. Gannett was carried
+by a majority of thirty-four to ten, and declared that</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>  the Western Unitarian Conference conditions its fellowship on no
+  dogmatic tests, but welcomes all who wish to join it to establish
+  truth, righteousness, and love in the world.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>The result was a pronounced division between the two parties within the
+conference; and a considerable number of churches, including some of the
+oldest and strongest, withdrew from co-operation in the work of the
+Conference. At the session of 1887, held in All Souls' Church, Chicago, an
+effort was made to bring about a reconciliation; but this was not
+<a name="pg227"></a>
+completely secured.[<a href="#fn_9_1">1</a><a name="fr_9_1"></a>] A resolution was carried, however, by a majority
+of fifty-nine to three, reaffirming Mr. Gannett's, declaration adopted at
+Cincinnati, but also accepting a statement in regard to fellowship and
+doctrines, which was called The Things Most Commonly Believed To-day among
+Us, and read as follows:--</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>  In all matters of church government we are strict Congregationalists.
+  We have no creed in the usual sense; that is, articles of doctrinal
+  belief which bind our churches and fix the conditions of our
+  fellowship. Character has always been to us the supreme matter. We have
+  doctrinal beliefs, and for the most part hold such beliefs in common;
+  but above all doctrines we emphasize the principles of freedom,
+  fellowship, and character in religion. These principles make our
+  all-sufficient test of fellowship. All names that divide religion are
+  to us of little consequence compared with religion itself. Whoever
+  loves truth and loves the good is, in a broad sense, of our religious
+  fellowship; whoever loves the one or lives the other better than
+  ourselves is our teacher, whatever church or age he may belong to. So
+  our church is wide, our teachers many, and our holy writings large.</p>
+
+<p>  With a few exceptions we may be called Christian Theists: Theists as
+  worshipping the One-in-All, and naming that One, God our Father;
+  Christian, because revering Jesus as the highest of the historic
+  prophets of religion; these names, as names, receiving more stress in
+  our older than in our younger churches. The general faith is hinted
+  well in words which several of our churches have adopted for their
+  covenant: "In the freedom of the truth, and in the spirit of Jesus
+  Christ, we unite for the worship of God and the service of man." It is
+<a name="pg228"></a>
+  hinted in such words as these: "Unitarianism is a religion of love to
+  God and love to man." "It is that free and progressive development of
+  historic Christianity which aspires to be synonymous with universal
+  ethics and universal religion." But because we have no creed which we
+  impose as test of fellowship, specific statements of belief abound
+  among us, always somewhat differing, always largely agreeing. One such
+  we offer here:--</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>    We believe that to love the Good and live the Good is the supreme
+    thing in religion. We hold reason and conscience to be final
+    authorities in matters of religious belief. We honor the Bible and
+    all inspiring scriptures, old and new. We revere Jesus and all holy
+    souls that have taught men truth and righteousness and love, as
+    prophets of religion. We believe in the growing nobility of man. We
+    trust the unfolding universe as beautiful, beneficent, unchanging
+    Order; to know this order is truth; to obey it is right and liberty
+    and stronger life. We believe that good and evil inevitably carry
+    their own recompense, no good things being failure, and no evil
+    things success; that heaven and hell are states of being; that no
+    evil can befall the good man in either life or death; that all
+    things work together for the victory of Good. We believe that we
+    ought to join hands and work to make the good things better and the
+    worst good, counting nothing good for self that is not good for
+    all. We believe that this self-forgetting, loyal life awakes in man
+    the sense of union, here and now, with things eternal--the sense of
+    deathlessness; and this is to us an earnest of the life to come. We
+    worship One-in-All,--that Life whence suns and stars derive their
+    orbits and the soul of man its Ought,--that Light which lighteth
+    every man that cometh into the world, giving us power to become the
+    sons of God,--that Love with whom our souls commune. This One we
+    name the Eternal God, our Father.</p>
+</blockquote>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>This action not satisfying the remonstrants, the controversy went on with
+<a name="pg229"></a>
+considerable vigor for three or four years. Both parties to it were
+characteristically Unitarian in their attitude and in their demands. Both
+sought the truth with an attempt at unbiassed judgment; and neither wished
+to disfellowship the other, or to put any restrictions upon its expression
+of its opinions. Much heat was engendered by the controversy, but light was
+desire by both parties with sincere purpose. The conflict was finally
+brought to an end by the action of the National Conference at its session
+of 1894, held at Saratoga, though this result had been practically reached
+in 1892. A committee on the revision of the constitution had been appointed
+by the council of the session of 1891; and this committee reported the
+following preamble, which was unanimously adopted as a substitute for the
+preamble of 1865 and 1868:--</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>  The Conference of Unitarian and other Christian Churches was formed in
+  the year 1865, with the purpose of strengthening the churches and
+  societies which should unite in it for more and better work for the
+  kingdom of God. These churches accept the religion of Jesus, holding,
+  in accordance with his teaching, that practical religion is summed up
+  in love to God and love to man. The Conference recognizes the fact that
+  its constituency is Congregational in tradition and polity. Therefore,
+  it declares that nothing in this constitution is to be construed as an
+  authoritative test; and we cordially invite to our working fellowship
+  any who, while differing from us in belief, are in general sympathy
+  with our spirit and our practical aims.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>This preamble to the new constitution proved to be so far acceptable to
+both parties in the Western Conference, as well as to their sympathizers
+<a name="pg230"></a>
+elsewhere, that harmony was restored throughout the denomination. While the
+Unitarian body thus retained its use of the Christian name and its
+insistence upon loyalty to the teachings of Jesus, yet it put aside every
+form of dogmatic test and of creedal statement. Its fellowship was made
+very broad in its character, and all were invited to join it who so
+desired.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn69"></a>Fellowship with Universalists.</h3>
+
+<p>At the annual meeting of the Unitarian Association in 1899 resolutions were
+passed looking to joint action between Unitarians and Universalists with
+reference to furthering their common interests. A committee was appointed
+to confer with a similar committee of the Universalist General Convention
+for the purpose of considering "plans of closer co-operation, devise ways
+and means for more efficient usefulness." In October this proposal was
+accepted by the General Convention, and a committee appointed. At the
+annual meeting of the Unitarian Association in 1900 the report of the
+joint committee was presented, in which it was declared that "closer
+co-operation is desirable and practicable"; but the committee expressed the
+wish to go on record "as not desiring nor expecting to disturb in any way
+the separate organic autonomy of the two denominations. We seek
+co-operation, not consolidation, unity, non union." The committee
+recommended that it be given authority to consider the cases in which the
+two denominations are jointly interested, such as opportunities of
+instituting churches or missions in new fields, the circulation of tracts
+and books, the holding of joint meetings of ministers and churches, or
+other efforts to promote intellectual agreements and deep faiths of the
+heart, and to recommend the appropriate action to the proper organizations.
+<a name="pg231"></a>
+At the next sessions of the Unitarian Association and of the Universalist
+General Convention these recommendations were accepted, and permanent
+members of the joint committee were appointed. This committee has entered
+upon its duties, and important results may be anticipated in the promotion
+of harmony and co-operation.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn70"></a>Officers of the American Unitarian Association.</h3>
+
+<p>Mr. Henry P. Kidder continued as the president of the Unitarian Association
+until the annual meeting of 1886. He was then succeeded by Hon. George D.
+Robinson, who held the office for only one year. He had been in both houses
+of the Massachusetts legislature, in the national House from 1877 to 1883,
+and was governor of Massachusetts from 1884 to 1886. His successor was Hon.
+George S. Hale, from 1887 to 1895, who was a distinguished lawyer, and was
+greatly interested in charities and reforms. Hon. John D. Long was the
+president from 1895 to 1897. He had been in the lower house of the
+Massachusetts legislature, was lieutenant governor in 1879, governor in
+1880-82, in the national House from 1883 to 1889, and from 1897 to 1902 was
+Secretary of the Navy. Hon. Carroll D. Wright held the office from 1897 to
+1900. He was in the Massachusetts Senate in 1871 and 1872, was chief of the
+Massachusetts bureau of statistics from 1873 to 1888, superintendent of the
+United States census in 1880, has been commissioner of the national Bureau
+of Labor since 1885, and in 1902 became president of Clark College at
+Worcester. At the annual meeting of 1900 it was thought best to make a
+change in the nature of the presidency, in order that the head of the
+Association might become its chief executive officer. In that way it was
+<a name="pg232"></a>
+sought to add dignity and efficiency to the position of the executive
+officer, as well as to meet the greatly increased work of the Association
+by this addition to its salaried force. The secretary, Rev. Samuel A.
+Eliot, was elected to the presidency.</p>
+
+<p>In 1881 Rev. Grindall Reynolds became the secretary of the Association. He
+had previously held pastorates in Jamaica Plain and Concord. He had rare
+executive abilities, was gifted with sound common sense and a judicial
+temper; and he had a most efficient business capacity. Under his leadership
+the growth of the Unitarian denomination was more rapid than it had been at
+any earlier period; and this was largely due to his zeal, energy, and
+wisdom.</p>
+
+<p>In December, 1894, Rev. George Batchelor became the secretary, and he
+continued in office until November, 1897, when he became the editor of The
+Christian Register. He had previously held pastorates in Salem, Chicago,
+and Lowell. He was succeeded, January 1, 1898, by Rev. Samuel A. Eliot, who
+had been settled over churches in Denver and Brooklyn, and who became the
+president of the Association in 1900. Rev. Charles E. St. John, who had
+been settled in Northampton and Pittsburg, became the secretary at the
+annual meeting of 1900.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn71"></a>The American Unitarian Association as a Representative Body.</h3>
+
+<p>In the report of the council of the National Conference at the session of
+1880, Dr. Bellows pointed out the fact that the American Unitarian
+Association was "not a union of churches, but an association of individuals
+belonging to Unitarian churches, who became members of it and entitled to
+<a name="pg233"></a>
+vote by signing its constitution and the annual payment of one dollar. This
+Association never had, and has not now, any explicit relation to our
+churches as churches, but only to such individuals as choose to become
+voluntary subscribers to its funds, and members by signing its
+constitution, and to such churches as choose to employ its services."</p>
+
+<p>This statement led to the appointment of a committee "to consider how the
+National Conference and the American Unitarian Association can more
+effectually co-operate without sacrifice of the advantages belonging to
+either." The committee reported in 1882 in favor of so changing the charter
+of the Association that a church might become a member. At the annual
+meeting of the Association in 1884, after a prolonged discussion, its
+by-laws were so amended that, while the life membership was retained, the
+sum creating it was raised from $30 to $50; and churches were given
+representation on the condition of regular yearly contributions to its
+treasury, two of such contributions being necessary to establish a church
+in this right. Since that time the delegates from churches have
+considerably outnumbered the life members voting at the annual meetings.
+This has practically given the churches the controlling voice in the
+activities of the Association.</p>
+
+<p>The giving a representative character to the Association had the effect of
+increasing the contributions made to its support by the churches. Under the
+leadership of Dr. Bellows, at the National Conference in 1884, there began
+a movement looking to the establishment of a conference in every state and
+the employment of a missionary by every such conference. This plan has not
+yet been fully carried out; but in 1885 and the following years missionary
+<a name="pg234"></a>
+superintendents were appointed by the Association for five general sections
+of the country, and, with some variations, this, system has continued in
+operation to the present time.[<a href="#fn_9_2">2</a><a name="fr_9_2"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn72"></a>The Church Building Loan Fund.</h3>
+
+<p>The work of building churches was greatly facilitated by the establishment,
+in 1884, of a Church Building Loan Fund. The proposition to create such a
+fund was first brought forward by the finance committee at a meeting of the
+directors of the Unitarian Association on February 11, 1884. At the March
+meeting a committee was appointed to mature plans; and at the meeting of
+the National Conference in September, held at Saratoga, a resolution was
+passed asking the Association to set apart $25,000 for this purpose, and
+pledging the Conference to add $20,000 to this sum. At the November meeting
+of the directors of the Association the organization of the fund was
+completed, a board of trustees was created, and the sum of $43,000 was
+reported as secured. The fund was steadily increased by contributions from
+the churches and by gifts and legacies until in 1900 it amounted to
+$142,820.92. Up to May, 1900, an aggregate sum of $294,310 had been
+disbursed, in one hundred loans to ninety societies, chiefly to aid in the
+erection of new church edifices.[<a href="#fn_9_3">3</a><a name="fr_9_3"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn73"></a>The Unitarian Building in Boston.</h3>
+
+<p>For several years after the organization of the American Unitarian
+Association the records give no indication of the place of meeting of the
+directors. During the latter part of 1825, and in 1826, David Reed was the
+<a name="pg235"></a>
+general agent of the Association; and his place of business was at 81
+Washington Street. It is probable that the directors met at the study of
+the secretary or at the place of business of the agent. In December, 1826,
+the firm of Bowles &amp; Dearborn, booksellers, became the agents, their store
+being first at 72 and then at 50 Washington Street. Here all Unitarian
+publications were kept on sale, the name of "general repositary" being
+given to their stock of books, tracts, periodicals, and other publications
+of a liberal character. In 1829 the agent was Leonard C. Bowles, evidently
+a continuation of Bowles &amp; Dearborn.</p>
+
+<p>In 1830 the depositary was removed to 135 Washington Street, and was under
+the management of the firm of Gray &amp; Bowen, who were paid $144.44 for their
+services. In 1831 the place of business of this firm was 141 Washington
+Street; and the sum it received from the Association was $200, which was
+the next year increased to $300. Leonard C. Bowles, located at 147
+Washington Street, again became the agent in 1836. In 1837 James Munroe &amp;
+Co. appear as the publishers of the annual report, but they are not
+mentioned as agents or as having charge of the repositary. The sum of $150
+was paid in that year for the rent of a room for the general secretary,
+Rev. Charles Briggs; and the location of the room is probably indicated by
+the record that in 1838 Munroe &amp; Co. were paid $133.34 for rent of room and
+clerk hire, their store being at 134 Washington Street. Here the
+headquarters of the Association were at last established, for they
+continued in this place until 1846. In 1839 the rental paid was $300, and
+for the six succeeding years it was $200. Surely, these were the days of
+small things; but here the Association carried on such activities as it had
+<a name="pg236"></a>
+in hand, and the Unitarian ministers met for conversation and consultation.</p>
+
+<p>In 1846 Crosby, Nichols &amp; Co. became the agents of the Association, first
+at 118 and then at 111 Washington Street. This firm brought out several
+Unitarian books, and issued The Christian Examiner and other Unitarian
+periodicals. For a number of years they were intimately associated with
+Unitarian interests, and the theological and literary traditions of the
+time connect them with many of the leading men and movements of Boston. In
+the rear of their store the Association had its office, its meeting-place
+for the directors and other officers, as well as for the Monday gatherings
+of ministers.</p>
+
+<p>After these many wanderings from the rear of one bookstore to another the
+Association at last secured an abode of its own. On March 9, 1854, rooms
+for the use of the Association were opened at 21 Bromfield Street. On this
+occasion a small company came together, and listened to an address by Dr.
+Samuel K. Lothrop, the president of the Association. Another change was
+made in October, 1859, when Walker, Wise &amp; Co. undertook the book-selling,
+and publishing work of the Association at 21 Bromfield Street.</p>
+
+<p>In the year 1865 there came to the Association an opportunity for securing
+a building of its own. The sum of $16,000 was paid for a house at 26
+Chauncy Street, which was occupied in the spring of 1866. The enlarged
+activities of the Association at this time here found the housing they
+needed. Affiliated organizations also found a home in this building,
+especially the Sunday School Society, the Christian Register Association,
+and The Monthly Religious Magazine.</p>
+
+<a name="pg237"></a>
+<p>The theatre meetings, begun in Boston in 1866, having suggested the need of
+a larger denominational building, The Monthly Journal of November, 1867,
+proposed the erection of a building with a spacious hall for these great
+popular meetings, smaller rooms for social gatherings, offices for the
+Association and other affiliated societies, and an attractive bookstore.
+"In short, we would have it comprise all that might properly belong to a
+denominational headquarters or home. We would have it in a convenient and
+conspicuous situation, and every way worthy of our position." This dream of
+Mr. Lowe's he brought forward again in his annual report of 1870, when he
+said: "The building now occupied by the Association has become wholly
+inadequate to its uses; and steps were taken more than a year ago by its
+friends in Boston towards providing more suitable accommodations, and at
+the same time providing in connection with it for such other uses as might
+make the building to be erected worthy to be the headquarters of the
+denomination in the city which gave it birth." Mr. Shippen called attention
+to the needs of the Association in his report of 1872, saying that the
+project of a large hall had been abandoned, but that there was urgent
+demand for a building suited to the business and social needs of the
+denomination in Boston.</p>
+
+<p>The great fire of November, 1872, brought this project to a sudden
+termination. The Chauncy Street building was for many hours in danger of
+being burned, out it was finally saved. Its market value was much increased
+by the fire, however; and in February, 1873, it was sold for $37,000.
+Purchase was soon made, at a cost of $30,000, of the estate at 7 Tremont
+<a name="pg238"></a>
+Place, belonging to Hon. Albert Fearing, who had been active in the work of
+the Association and prominent in the Unitarian circles of Boston. This
+building, entered by the Association in May, 1873, was somewhat larger than
+its predecessor and in some respects better suited to the needs of the
+Association; yet the secretary, at the annual meeting held in the same
+month, called for the more convenient building, which should serve "as a
+worthy centre in this city for the various charitable and missionary
+activities of our faith."[<a href="#fn_9_4">4</a><a name="fr_9_4"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>In his report of 1880 Mr. Shippen again presented his demand for a suitable
+home for the Association and its kindred organizations. This appeal was
+renewed in the following year by Mr. Reynolds, who urged "the need of a
+denominational house in Boston, which should be commodious, accessible,
+easily found, and where all our charities and all our works should find a
+home." "Very fitting it is," he added, "that such a house should be named
+after him who, by his personal influence in life and by the power of his
+written word after his death, has been the mightiest single force for the
+diffusion of rational Christianity."</p>
+
+<p>In January, 1882, the Unitarian Club of Boston was organized; and it soon
+after took up the task of erecting the desired building. The initiative was
+taken at a meeting of the club held December 13, 1882, when Mr. Henry P.
+Kidder offered to head a subscription for this purpose with the sum of
+$10,000. The proposal was received with much enthusiasm, and a committee
+was appointed, consisting of Henry P. Kidder, Charles Faulkner, Charles W.
+Eliot, William Endicott, Jr., Francis H. Brown, M.D., Dr. John Cordner,
+<a name="pg239"></a>
+Arthur T. Lyman, Henry Grew, Thomas Gaffield, and Rev. Grindall Reynolds,
+to whom authority was given to raise funds, purchase a lot, and erect a
+building. It was arranged by this committee that the Association should
+contribute $50,000 from the sale of its Tremont Place building, and that
+the club should raise $150,000. Subscriptions were opened February 9, 1883;
+and in November over $154,000 had been secured. A suitable lot was
+purchased at the corner of Beacon and Bowdoin Streets, and the erection of
+the building was begun in 1884. A prolonged labor strike delayed the
+completion of the building, so that the service of its dedication, which
+had been arranged for the evening of May 25, 1886, was held in Tremont
+Temple. The presiding officer on that occasion was George William Curtis;
+and addresses were made by Drs. Frederic H. Hedge, Andrew P. Peabody, and
+Horatio Stebbins. In July the building was occupied by the Association.
+"The denominational house is but brick and stone," said Mr. Reynolds in his
+report of 1886; "but it is brick and stone which testify to the new hope,
+vigor, life, which have been coming in these later years into our body, and
+without which it could not have been reared. It is brick and stone which
+are the pledges of a noble future, which stimulate to good work, and
+furnish the means of doing it."[<a href="#fn_9_5">5</a><a name="fr_9_5"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg240"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn74"></a>Growth of the Devotional Spirit.</h3>
+
+<p>The last twenty years of the nineteenth century saw an increased use of the
+simpler Christian rites in Unitarian churches. In that time a distinct
+advance was made in the acceptableness of the communion service, and
+probably in the number of those willing to join in its observance. The
+abandonment of its mystical features and its interpretation as a simple
+memorial service, that would help to cherish loved ones gone hence, and the
+saintly and heroic of all ages, as well as the one great leader of the
+Christian body, has given it for Unitarians a new spiritual effectiveness.
+The same causes have led to the adoption of the rite of confirmation in a
+considerable number of churches. Gradually the idea has grown that what
+Rev. Sylvester Judd called "the birthright church" is the true one, and
+that it is desirable that all children should be religiously trained, and
+admitted to the church at the age of adolescence. Mr. Judd gave noble
+utterance to this conception of a church in a series of sermons published
+after his death,[<a href="#fn_9_6">6</a><a name="fr_9_6"></a>] as well as in a sermon prepared for the Thursday
+lecture in Boston.[<a href="#fn_9_7">7</a><a name="fr_9_7"></a>] The same idea was elaborated by Rev. Cyrus A.
+<a name="pg241"></a>
+Bartol in his Church and Congregation: A Plea for their Unity,[<a href="#fn_9_8">8</a><a name="fr_9_8"></a>] wherein
+he contended for the union of church and parish, the opening of the
+communion to all as a rite accepted by the whole congregation, and not by a
+few church members, and the education of children as constituent members of
+the church from birth.</p>
+
+<p>It was not until much later, however, that the rite of confirmation came
+into use,[<a href="#fn_9_9">9</a><a name="fr_9_9"></a>] largely because of the interpretations of the purposes and
+methods of Christian nurture presented by Bushnell, Bartol, and Judd. This
+rite could have meaning only as the expression of social responsibility on
+the part of parents and church alike, that true religion is not merely a
+question of individual opinion, but that there is high worth in those
+spiritual forces that are carried forward from generation to generation,
+and must descend from parent to child if they have effective power. In a
+word, the use of the confirmation rite is an abandonment of extreme
+individualism, and is an acceptance of the socialistic conception of
+spiritual development.[<a href="#fn_9_10">10</a><a name="fr_9_10"></a>] This is distinctly a return to the conception
+of a church maintained by Solomon Stoddard at the beginning of the
+eighteenth century, and to that broader Congregationalism he desired to see
+established throughout New England. It was also theoretically that of the
+<a name="pg242"></a>
+Puritan founders of New England, who maintained that all children Of church
+members were also members of the church, but who inconsistently insisted
+upon a supernatural conversion in order to full membership. It is even more
+positively an acceptance of the theory of Christian nurture held by the
+Catholic and the Episcopal churches. That theory is based on the social
+conception of the church, that it is an organic body, and that every child
+is born into it and is to be trained as a member by nature and by right.</p>
+
+<p>There has also been a marked change in the forms of Sunday worship,
+especially in the general adoption of responsive readings or more elaborate
+rituals. The tendency has been away from the bare and unattractive service
+of the Puritan churches, which was the acme of individualism in worship,
+towards the more social conception that brings the whole congregation to
+join in the act and in the spirit of devotion. This social conception of
+worship had its first distinct expression in a Unitarian church when James
+Freeman Clarke organized the Church of the Disciples, in 1843.[<a href="#fn_9_11">11</a><a name="fr_9_11"></a>] His
+example was a potent force in introducing into many churches a richer and
+more expressive form of worship. Another influence was that of Samuel
+Longfellow, who became the minister of the Second Unitarian Church in
+Brooklyn, in 1853. He soon after introduced vesper services in place of the
+second sermon in the afternoon, making them largely devotional in their
+character. "His own taste and deep feeling were largely a condition of the
+full success of the vespers," says his biographer, "which were seldom
+elsewhere so impressive or seemed so genuine as a devotional act. They
+<a name="pg243"></a>
+needed, for their perfect effect, the influence of a leader with whom
+worship was an habitual mental attitude, and who, combined with the
+instinct of religion the art of a poet and of a musician."[<a href="#fn_9_12">12</a><a name="fr_9_12"></a>] The form of
+service thus initiated was adopted in many other churches, and slowly had
+its influence in giving greater beauty and spiritual expressiveness to
+worship in Unitarian churches.</p>
+
+<p>About 1885 the tendency to adopt a more social and a more aesthetic form of
+worship came to assert itself more distinctly. To its furtherance Rev.
+Howard N. Brown gave, perhaps, greater emphasis than any other person; but
+there were others who took an active part in the movement. The old
+Congregational demand for simplicity, however, was very great; and there
+was strong feeling against anything like ritualism. The use of some kind of
+liturgy became quite general in the face of this objection, and a
+considerable number of books of a semi-ritual character were published. The
+most elaborate work of this nature was compiled by a committee appointed by
+the Unitarian Association, and published by it in 1891. What is to be
+recognized in this tendency is not the more general use of liturgies,
+however simple or however elaborate, but the growth in Unitarian churches
+of the worshipping spirit. With the development of a rational theology
+there has been a corresponding evolution of a simple but earnest attitude
+of devotion.</p>
+
+<p>The devotional spirit of Unitarians, however, has found its most emphatic
+and beautiful expression in religious hymns and poems. The older Unitarian
+piety found voice in the hymns of the younger Henry Ware, Norton, Pierpont,
+<a name="pg244"></a>
+Frothingham, Peabody, Lunt, Bryant, and many others. It was rational and
+yet Christian, simple in sentiment and yet it found in the New Testament
+traditions its themes and its symbolisms. Then followed the older
+transcendentalists, who sought in the inward life and the soul's oneness
+with God the chief motives to spiritual expression. The hymns and the
+religious poems of Furness, Hedge, Longfellow, Johnson, Clarke, Very,
+Brooks, and Miss Scudder,[<a href="#fn_9_13">13</a><a name="fr_9_13"></a>] have an interior and spiritual quality
+seldom found in devotional poetry. They are not the mere utterances of
+conventional sentiments or the repetition of ecclesiastical symbolisms, but
+the voicing of deep inward experiences that reveal and interpret the true
+life of the soul. Of the same character are the hymns and religious poems
+of Gannett, Hosmer, and Chadwick, who have but accentuated the tendencies
+of their predecessors. It is the more radical theology that has voiced
+itself in the religious songs of these men, but with a mystical or
+spiritual insight that fits them to the needs of all devout, worshippers.
+It is these genuinely poetical interpretations of the spiritual life that
+most often claim utterance in song on the part of Unitarian congregations.
+A body of worshippers that can produce such a hymnology must possess a
+large measure of genuine piety and devotion.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn75"></a>The Seventy-fifth Anniversary.</h3>
+
+<p>Many of the tendencies of the Unitarian movement found utterance on the
+occasion of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the American Unitarian
+Association. The meetings were held in Tremont Temple, May 22, 1900; and
+<a name="pg245"></a>
+the attendance was large and enthusiastic, many persons coming from distant
+parts of the country. This meeting brought into full expression the
+denominational consciousness, and showed the harmony that had been secured
+as the result of the controversies of many years. As never before, it was
+realized that the Unitarian body has a distinct mission, that it has
+organic and vital power, and that its individual members are united by a
+common faith for the promotion of the interests of a rational and
+humanitarian religion.</p>
+
+<p>This was also a notable occasion because it brought together
+representatives from nearly all the countries in which Unitarianism exists
+in an organized form, thus clearly indicating that it is a cosmopolitan
+movement, and not one of merely local significance. At the morning session
+addresses were made by the representatives from Hungary, Great Britain,
+Germany, Belgium, India, and Japan. In the afternoon addresses were
+delivered by the missionaries of the Association. Other meetings of much
+interest were held during the week, that were of value as interpretations
+of the past of Unitarianism in this country.</p>
+
+<p>During this anniversary week, on May 26, 1900, upon the suggestion of Rev.
+S.A. Eliot, there was organized The International Council of Unitarian and
+Other Liberal Religious Thinkers and Workers, its object being "to open
+communication with those in all lands who are striving to unite pure
+religion and perfect liberty, and to increase fellowship and co-operation
+among them." Professor J. Estlin Carpenter, of Oxford, England, was
+<a name="pg246"></a>
+selected as the president, and Rev. Charles W. Wendte, who shortly after
+became the minister of the Parker Memorial in Boston, was made the
+secretary. The executive committee included representatives from the United
+States, Great Britain, Japan, Hungary, Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, and
+Switzerland. The first annual meeting was held in London, May 30 and 31,
+1901, with delegates present from the above-named countries, as well as
+from Holland, Norway, India, Denmark, Australia, and Canada.[<a href="#fn_9_14">14</a><a name="fr_9_14"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The anniversary exercises, as well as the organization of the International
+Council, gave concrete emphasis to the growing interest in Unitarian ideas
+and principles in many parts of the world. They gave the sense of a large
+fellowship, and kindled new enthusiasm. As interpreted by these meetings,
+the Unitarian name has largely ceased to be one of merely theological
+signification, and has come to mean "an endeavor to unite for common and
+unselfish endeavors all believers in pure religion and perfect
+liberty."[<a href="#fn_9_15">15</a><a name="fr_9_15"></a>]</p>
+
+<p><br >[<a href="#fr_9_1">1</a><a name="fn_9_1"></a>] The Unitarian, June, 1887, II. 156. For historical accounts of this
+    controversy see Mrs. S.C.Ll. Jones's Western Unitarian Conference:
+    Its Work and its Mission, Unity Mission Tract, No. 38; W.C. Gannett's
+<a name="pg247"></a>
+    The Flowering of Christianity, Lesson XII., Part IV.; and The
+    Unitarian, II. and III. A Western Unitarian Association was organized
+    in Chicago, June 21, 1886. Some of the older and leading churches
+    were connected with it, including those at Meadville, Ann Arbor,
+    Louisville, Shelbyville, Church of the Messiah and Unity in Chicago,
+    Church of the Messiah in St. Louis, Keokuk, and others. Hon. George
+    W. McCrary was elected the president, and Mrs. Jonathan Slade the
+    recording secretary. In October, 1887, Rev. George Batchelor became
+    the Western agent of the American Unitarian Association. He was
+    succeeded the next year by Rev. George W. Cutter. In September, 1890,
+    Rev. T.B. Forbush was made the Western superintendent of the American
+    Unitarian Association, with headquarters in Chicago; and he held this
+    position until 1896. During the period covered by these dates Rev.
+    J.R. Effinger was the general missionary of the Western Unitarian
+    Conference, and he was succeeded by Rev. F.L. Hosmer and Rev. A.W.
+    Gould. In 1896 the Western churches were reunited in the Western
+    Conference, and its secretary has been the superintendent of the
+    American Unitarian Association. As defining the position of the
+    American Unitarian Association during this period of controversy, it
+    may be recalled that in June, 1886, the directors adopted a
+    resolution, in which they said they "would regard it as a subversion
+    of the purpose for which its funds have been contributed, as well as
+    of the principles cherished by its officers, to give assistance to
+    any church or organization which does not rest emphatically on the
+    Christian basis."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_9_2">2</a><a name="fn_9_2"></a>] New England, Middle States and Canada, Western States, Southern
+    States, and Pacific Coast.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_9_3">3</a><a name="fn_9_3"></a>] These loans are made without interest under established conditions,
+    one of which is that they must be repaid in ten annual instalments.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_9_4">4</a><a name="fn_9_4"></a>] Annual Report of 1873, 7.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_9_5">5</a><a name="fn_9_5"></a>] The building seemed to be ample, when it was first occupied, for any
+    growth that was likely to be made for many years to come. At the
+    present time, only sixteen years later, it is crowded; and an
+    extension is urgently demanded. It does not now afford room for the
+    work required, and much of that work is done at a considerable
+    disadvantage because of the want of room. The promise for the
+    immediate future is that much more room will be required in order to
+    facilitate the growing work of the Association.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_9_6">6</a><a name="fn_9_6"></a>] The Church: in a Series of Sermons, Boston, 1857.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_9_7">7</a><a name="fn_9_7"></a>] The Birthright Church: A Discourse, printed for the Association of
+    the Unitarian Church of Maine, Augusta, 1854. Mr. Judd's conception
+    of the church as a social organism was shown in the name given to the
+    organization formed under his leadership in 1852, called The
+    Association of the Unitarian Church in Maine. In the preamble to the
+    constitution he wrote: "We, the Unitarian Christians of Maine,
+    ourselves, and our posterity are a Church.... We are a church, not of
+    creeds, but of the Bible; not of sect, but of humanity; seeking not
+    uniformity of dogma, but communion in the religious life. We embrace
+    in our fellowship all who will be in fellowship with us." In defining
+    a local church, he says: "These Christians, with their families,
+    uniting for religious worship, instruction, growth, and culture,
+    having the ordinances and a pastor, constitute a parochial church."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_9_8">8</a><a name="fn_9_8"></a>] Boston, 1858.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_9_9">9</a><a name="fn_9_9"></a>] Probably Dr. William G. Eliot, of St. Louis, was the first Unitarian
+    minister to make a systematic use of this rite. He prepared a brief
+    manual for use in his church, the preface to which bears date of
+    December 6, 1868. Seth C. Beach, while minister in Dedham, printed a
+    paper on the subject in the Unitarian Review, January, 1886. He held
+    a confirmation service in the Dedham church, April 25, 1886. At a
+    meeting of the Western Sunday School Society, held in Cincinnati, May
+    12, 1889, Rev. John C. Learned, read a paper on The Sacrament of
+    Confirmation.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_9_10">10</a><a name="fn_9_10"></a>] The views of Bartol and Judd are appropriate to a state church,
+     wherein they first found expression; and their motive is always
+     distinctly social.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_9_11">11</a><a name="fn_9_11"></a>] Life of J.F. Clarke, by E.E. Hale, 145</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_9_12">12</a><a name="fn_9_12"></a>] Memoir of Samuel Longfellow, by Joseph May, 193.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_9_13">13</a><a name="fn_9_13"></a>] Miss Scudder's best hymns were all written while she was a Unitarian.
+     Unitarian hymnology has been nobly treated by Dr. Alfred P. Putnam,
+     in his Singers and Songs of the Liberal Faith, Boston, 1875. It is
+     understood that he is preparing a second volume. The tendency to a
+     deeper recognition of the spirit of worship has found fitting
+     expression in The Spiritual Life: Studies of Devotion and Worship,
+     George H. Ellis, 1898.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_9_14">14</a><a name="fn_9_14"></a>] The addresses and papers of this meeting were published under the
+     title of Liberal Religious Thought at the Beginning of the Twentieth
+     Century, London, 1901. They give the most complete account yet
+     published of the various liberal movements in many parts of the
+     world, and the book is one of great interest and value.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_9_15">15</a><a name="fn_9_15"></a>] From the first circular of the International Council.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><br ><a name="ch10"></a>X.<br >
+
+
+THE MINISTRY AT LARGE.</h2>
+
+<p>One of the most important of the philanthropies undertaken by the early
+Unitarians was the ministry to the poor and unchurched in Boston, usually
+known as the ministry at large. It began in 1822, came under the direction
+of the American Unitarian Association and the shaping hand of Dr. Joseph
+Tuckerman in 1826, and was taken in charge by the Benevolent Fraternity of
+Churches in 1834. It was not begun by Tuckerman, though its origin is
+usually attributed to him. Even before 1822 attempts had been made to
+establish missions amongst the poor by the evangelical denominations; but
+their work was not thoroughly organized, and it had reached no efficient
+results when Tuckerman entered upon his labors. The work of Tuckerman was
+to take up what had been tentatively begun by others, give it a definite
+purpose and method, and so to inform it with his own genius for charity
+that it became a great philanthropy in its intent and in its methods.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn76"></a>Association of Young Men.</h3>
+
+<p>When the Hancock Grammar School-house in the north end of Boston was being
+erected, a young man, in passing it on a September evening, said to a
+companion, "Why cannot we have a Sunday-school here?" The proposition was
+received with favor, and the two discussed plans while they continued their
+walk. They met frequently to mature their methods of procedure, and they
+<a name="pg248"></a>
+invited others to join them in the undertaking. On the evening of October
+2, 1822, these two young men--Frederick T. Gray and Benjamin H. Greene--met
+with Moses Grant, William P. Rice, and others, to give more careful
+consideration to their purpose of forming a society for mutual religious
+improvement.[<a href="#fn_10_1">1</a><a name="fr_10_1"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>These young men met with little encouragement, and for some time there was
+small prospect of their succeeding in their undertaking. They continued to
+meet weekly, however; and on November 27 they formed The Association of
+Young Men for their own Mutual Improvement and for the Religious
+Instruction of the Poor. In 1824 the name was changed to The Association
+for Religious Improvement. The members met at each other's houses weekly,
+for the purpose of considering topics which related to their own personal
+improvement or to the wants of the community, always keeping in view the
+fact that their own religious growth must lie at the foundation of any
+great good which could be done by them for society. By degrees their number
+increased; and during the six years following, as appears from the records,
+the subjects to which their meetings were successively devoted were the
+desirableness of employing a missionary and building a mission-house, the
+condition and wants of vagrant children, the diffusion of Christianity in
+<a name="pg249"></a>
+India, the importance of issuing tracts and other religions publications,
+the means and best method of improving our state prisons, the utility of
+forming a Unitarian Association, the best means to be adopted to abolish
+intemperance, the character of theatrical entertainments, the want of
+infant schools, and the best methods which could be taken to aid in the
+promotion of peace. All of these subjects were then comparatively new, and
+they were but just beginning to attract attention. Their importance was by
+no means generally understood, and least of all was the place which they
+were soon to occupy in public estimation anticipated.[<a href="#fn_10_2">2</a><a name="fr_10_2"></a>] The Association
+was discontinued in December, 1835.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn77"></a>Preaching to the Poor.</h3>
+
+<p>One of the first enterprises entered upon by this society was the securing
+of preaching for the poor and those connected with no religious
+organization. In this effort they had the co-operation of the younger Henry
+Ware, then the minister of the Second Church, and of John G. Palfrey, then
+the minister of the Brattle Street Church. In November, 1822, Henry Ware
+began these meetings; and four series of them were held throughout the
+winter, in Charter Street, in Hatters' or Creek Square, in Pitts Court, and
+in Spring Street. The Charter Street meetings were at first held in a room
+of a primary school, and then in a small chapel that had been built by a
+benevolent man for teaching and preaching purposes. In this place Mr. Ware
+was assisted by Dr. Jenks of the Christian denomination, and the chapel was
+afterwards occupied by the latter as a minister at large. The meetings in
+Pitts Court were also held in a school-room. Those in Hatters' Square
+occupied a room in a large tenement house and "here the accommodations, and
+<a name="pg250"></a>
+probably the audience, were of a humbler character than elsewhere."[<a href="#fn_10_3">3</a><a name="fr_10_3"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn78"></a>Tuckerman as Minister to the Poor.</h3>
+
+<p>Early in the year 1826 Dr. Joseph Tuckerman expressed his willingness to
+devote himself to this ministry; and the American Unitarian Association was
+appealed to, that the necessary financial support might be secured. Dr.
+Tuckerman had been for twenty-five years the parish minister in Chelsea,
+but his health was such that he had been obliged to relinquish that
+position. On September 4 the sum of $600 was appropriated to the support of
+Dr. Tuckerman for one year as a missionary among the poor in Boston; and
+Ware, Barrett, and Gannett were made a committee to ascertain what amount
+of money could be raised for this purpose. It was thought wise not to use
+the regular funds of the Association for so special and local an object.
+The women of the Boston churches were therefore appealed to in behalf of
+this cause; and during the first year contributions were received from
+those connected with the congregations of the Brattle Street, Federal
+Street, West, New South, New North, Twelfth, and Chauncey Place Churches,
+amounting to $712. These contributions by the women of the churches were
+continued until the Benevolent Fraternity was organized.</p>
+
+<p>Tuckerman entered upon his work November 5, 1826. On the evening of that
+day he met with the Association for, Religious Improvement, and discussed
+with its members the work to be undertaken. He began at once the visiting
+of the poor and the study of their condition in the several parts of the
+<a name="pg251"></a>
+city, though confining himself largely to the north end. In making his
+first quarterly report to the Unitarian Association, February 5, 1827, he
+said that he had taken fifty families into his pastoral charge. He had
+given special attention to the children, had arranged that those should be
+sent to school who had not previously attended, and provided them with
+shoes and clothes where these were necessary. He had also aided the sick,
+provided necessaries for those who were helpless and deserving, secured
+work for those out of employment, and given religious consolation and
+correction where these were required.</p>
+
+<p>After Dr. Tuckerman had entered upon his work of visiting the poor, the
+Young Men's Association arranged to have him resume the discontinued
+evening meetings. They accordingly secured the use of a room up two flights
+of stairs, in what was known as the "Circular Building," at the corner of
+Merrimac and Portland Streets. In this rude place, that had been used as a
+paint-shop, services were begun on Sunday evening, December 3, 1826.
+Tuckerman recorded in his diary that he had "a large and very attentive
+audience";[<a href="#fn_10_4">4</a><a name="fr_10_4"></a>] and on the same evening he met at the house of Dr. Channing
+"a large circle of ladies and gentlemen, who formed a society to help him
+visit."[<a href="#fn_10_5">5</a><a name="fr_10_5"></a>] As soon as services were begun in the Circular Building, it
+was proposed to form a Sunday-school; and on a very cold December day seven
+teachers and three children met to inaugurate it. They hovered about the
+<a name="pg252"></a>
+little stove, by means of which the room was warmed, and began their work.
+The school grew rapidly, soon filled the room, and was given the name of
+the Howard School. Very soon, also, this room became too small to
+accommodate the attendants at the preaching services. In recognition of
+this need the Friend Street Free Chapel was erected, and opened for use on
+November 1, 1828.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn79"></a>Tuckerman's Methods.</h3>
+
+<p>During the first year of his ministry Dr. Tuckerman reported quarterly to
+the American Unitarian Association, and then semi-annually. In all there
+were printed four of the quarterly reports and fifteen of the others. It
+was not his custom in these reports to confine himself to an account of his
+work, which usually received only a brief statement at the end; but he
+discussed important topics relating to the condition of the poor and their
+needs. His third quarterly report was devoted to a consideration of the
+remedies to be used for confirmed intemperance. Others of the topics upon
+which he reported were the condition of the poor in cities, the duties of a
+minister at large (a title invented by him, which he preferred to that of
+city or domestic missionary), the effects of poverty on the moral life of
+the poor, the means of relieving pauperism, the causes of poverty and the
+social remedies, the several classes amongst the poor and the best means of
+reaching each of them, the means to be employed for the recovery of those
+sunk in pauperism, poor laws and outdoor relief. Among the subjects he
+discussed incidentally, and sometimes at considerable length, were the duty
+of providing seats for the poor in the churches at a small rental, the
+employment of children, education as a means of saving children from
+<a name="pg253"></a>
+growing up to a life of vagrancy and pauperism, the wages of the poor and
+how they can be increased.[<a href="#fn_10_6">6</a><a name="fr_10_6"></a>] He was especially interested in the
+rescuing of children from ignorance and vice, and he strongly advocated the
+establishment of schools for the instruction of dull children and those
+whose education had been neglected. Through his efforts the Broad Street
+Infant School was established, in order to reach the younger children of
+the poor. In 1829 he made a careful study of the religious condition of the
+poor; and he found that out of a population of 55,000, which the city then
+contained, there were 4,200 families, or about 18,000 persons, who were not
+connected with any of the churches or who did not attend them with any
+degree of regularity. This gave him an opportunity to urge upon the public
+more strongly than before the importance of procuring free chapels, and a
+sufficient number of ministers to care for this large unchurched
+population. One or two ministers had labored amongst the poor before he
+began his work, and three or four had entered upon the same line of effort
+since he had done so; but these workers were too few in number to meet the
+large demands made upon them.</p>
+
+<p>In carrying on his work, Dr. Tuckerman sought out all who were in need of
+his services, without distinction of nationality, color, creed, social
+position, or moral condition. If he gave the preference to any, it was
+those who were the most wretched and debased. "It is the first object of
+the ministry at large, never to be lost sight of," he wrote, "and to which
+no other is to be preferred, as far as shall be possible to extend its
+<a name="pg254"></a>
+offices to the poor and the poorest, to the low and the lowest, to the most
+friendless and most uncared for, the most miserable."[<a href="#fn_10_7">7</a><a name="fr_10_7"></a>] He recognized
+the individuality of the poorest and the most vicious: he sought to foster
+it, and to make it the basis of moral reform and social recovery.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn80"></a>Organization of Charities.</h3>
+
+<p>The influence of Tuckerman's work was soon felt outside the city in which
+it was carried on. The people of the state came to take an interest in it,
+and to feel that its principles should be applied throughout the
+commonwealth. Therefore, a commission was appointed by the lower house of
+the state legislature, February 29, 1832, to inquire into the condition of
+the poor in all parts of the state, and to make such report as might be the
+basis of needed legislation. Dr. Tuckerman was made a member of this
+commission. The work of investigation largely fell upon him, as well as the
+writing of the report. His suggestions were accepted, and the results were
+beneficent. In the mean time the work of visiting the poor was carried on
+by a young man, Charles F. Barnard, then a student in the Divinity School,
+who entered upon his duties in April. In October he was joined by Frederick
+T. Gray, the founder of the Association for Religious Improvement and of
+the first Sunday-schools for the poor. These workers were ordained in the
+Federal Street Church on the evening of November 5, 1834, after having
+thoroughly tested their capacities for the task they had assumed.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Tuckerman set forth all the principles which have since been described
+under the name of "scientific charity," and he put them all into practice.
+<a name="pg255"></a>
+In the spring of 1832 he organized a company of visitors to the poor, the
+members of which were to act as friends and advisers of those who were
+needy. In October, 1833, he brought about a union of the ministers at large
+of all denominations for purposes of consultation and mutual helpfulness.
+This union resulted in a meeting held in February, 1834, at which those
+interested in the proper care of the poor took counsel together as to the
+best methods to be followed. At a later meeting in March, it was decided to
+secure the aid of all the charitable societies in the city with a view to
+their co-operation and the prevention of the duplication of relief. There
+was accordingly organized the Association of Delegates from the Benevolent
+Societies of Boston, the objects of which were "to adopt measures for the
+most effectual prevention of fraud and deception in the applicants for
+charity; to obtain accurate and thorough information with regard to the
+situation, character, and wants of the poor; and generally to interchange
+knowledge, experience, and advice upon all the important subjects connected
+with the duties and responsibilities of Benevolent Societies." The
+principle upon which this organization acted was that "the public good
+requires that the character and circumstances of the poor should be
+thoroughly investigated and known by those who administer our public
+charities, in order that all the relief which a pure and enlarged
+benevolence dictates may be freely bestowed, and that almsgiving may not
+encourage extravagance or vice, nor injuriously affect the claims of
+society at large upon the personal exertions and moral character of its
+members." The first annual report of this Association, which appeared in
+October, 1835, was written by Dr. Tuckerman, and was one of the best he
+<a name="pg256"></a>
+produced. He laid down certain rules he had accepted as the results of his
+experience: that beggary was to be broken up; that all misapplications of
+charity should be reported to the board of visitors; that those asking for
+alms should be relieved only at their homes and after investigation; that
+industry, forethought, economy, and self-denial were to be fostered in
+order to prevent pauperism, and that no help should be given where it led
+to dependence and reliance upon charity. Registration, investigation,
+prevention of duplication of alms, and the fostering of self-help were the
+methods brought to bear by Dr. Tuckerman in the organization of this
+Association.[<a href="#fn_10_8">8</a><a name="fr_10_8"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn81"></a>Benevolent Fraternity of Churches.</h3>
+
+<p>In the spring of 1834 the part of the ministry at large in Boston supported
+by Unitarians consisted of Dr. Tuckerman's work in visiting and ministering
+to the poor in their own homes, two chapels, in which Barnard and Gray
+preached and conducted their Sunday-schools, and the office of the Visitors
+to the Poor. In order more effectually to organize the support of this
+work, the Benevolent Fraternity of Churches was then suggested. The Second,
+Brattle Street, New South, New North, King's Chapel, Federal Street, Hollis
+Street, Twelfth, and Purchase Street Churches entered upon the work; and
+there was organized in each a society for the purpose of aiding the
+ministry at large. Each of these societies was privileged to send five
+delegates to a central body that should undertake the support and direction
+of that ministry. At a meeting held April 27, 1834, an organization of such
+delegates was effected. It was distinctly stated that "it was not the wish
+<a name="pg257"></a>
+to add another to the eleemosynary institutions of the city to which the
+poor might resort either for the supply of the comforts or for the relief
+of necessities which belong to their bodily condition"; but the object of
+the Fraternity was described as being "the improvement of the moral state
+of the poor and irreligious of this city by the support of the ministry at
+large, and by other means."[<a href="#fn_10_9">9</a><a name="fr_10_9"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn82"></a>Other Ministers at Large.</h3>
+
+<p>Dr. Tuckerman continued his work of visiting the poor, so far as his health
+permitted, until his death, which occurred April 20, 1840. His assistants
+and successors continued the work of visitation outside of their own
+congregations. In August, 1844, Rev. Warren Burton was assigned to this
+special form of ministry, and to that of a systematic investigation of the
+condition of the poor. He gave much attention to the needs of children, and
+made inquiry as to intemperance, licentiousness, and other forms of social
+degeneration. He was a diligent and successful worker until his ministry
+came to an end in October, 1848. For about a year, in 1847, Rev. William
+Ware also devoted himself to the house-to-house ministry; but failing
+<a name="pg258"></a>
+health compelled his withdrawal. In April, 1845, Rev. Andrew Bigelow took
+charge of the Pitts Street Chapel for a few months; and then for thirty-two
+years, until his death, in April, 1877, he continued to visit the poor.
+With the assistance of his wife, he went about to the homes of the people,
+administering to their physical needs, acting as their friend and adviser,
+and giving them such moral instruction and spiritual consolation as was
+possible.</p>
+
+<p>For about one year, beginning in March, 1856, Rev. A. Rumpff visited German
+families in behalf of the Fraternity. He was succeeded in 1857 by Rev. A.
+Übelacker, who continued the work for two or three years. From 1860 to 1864
+Professor J.B. Torricelli carried on a ministry amongst the Italians,
+Spaniards, Greeks, and other natives of southern Europe resident in Boston.
+After the death of Dr. Bigelow this personal ministry was discontinued,
+owing to the increase in the number of other agencies for doing this kind
+of work.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn83"></a>Ministry at Large in Other Cities.</h3>
+
+<p>The work of the ministry at large was not confined to Boston. The original
+vote of the Unitarian Association establishing it was that it should be
+aided in New York as well. In December, 1836, Rev. William Henry Channing
+entered on such a ministry in New York; and it was continued there for some
+years. It was also established in Charlestown, Roxbury, Cambridge, Salem,
+Portsmouth, Portland, Lowell, New Bedford, Providence, Worcester, and
+elsewhere in New England. With the aid of the Unitarian Association it was
+undertaken in Baltimore, Cincinnati, Louisville, and St. Louis. In 1845
+Rev. Lemuel Capen was carrying on the ministry in Baltimore, Rev. W.H.
+<a name="pg259"></a>
+Farmer in Louisville, and Rev. Mordecai de Lange in St. Louis. The ministry
+at large was begun in Cincinnati in 1830, and was in charge for a short
+time of Christopher P. Cranch, who was succeeded by Rev. James H. Perkins,
+a most efficient worker, who soon became the popular minister of the
+Unitarian church in that city. It was established in St. Louis in 1840, and
+a day school for colored children was opened in 1841. A mission-house was
+built, and Rev. Charles H.A. Dall was put in charge. In 1841 the Mission
+Free School was founded, and now has a matron, nursery, kindergarten,
+Sunday-school, with lectures and entertainments. Dall was succeeded by
+Mordecai de Lange, Corlis B. Ward, Carlton A. Staples, and Thomas L. Eliot.
+The City Mission, as it was called, grew so large that in 1860 no one
+denomination could carry it on; and it became the St. Louis Provident
+Association, which has done an extensive and important work.[<a href="#fn_10_10">10</a><a name="fr_10_10"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg260"></a>
+<p>In July, 1850, was formed the Association of Ministers at Large in New
+England, of which Rev. Charles F. Barnard was for many years the president,
+and Rev. Horatio Wood, of Lowell, the secretary. It met quarterly, or
+oftener, essays were read on subjects connected with the work of
+ministering to the poor, and the special phases of that work were
+discussed. In the spring of 1841 Rev. Charles F. Barnard began the
+publication of the Journal of the Ministry at Large as a sixteen-page
+octavo monthly, which was continued until 1860, part of the time as The
+Record; but during the later years it was issued irregularly.</p>
+
+<p>In 1838 Dr. Tuckerman published The Principles and Results of the Ministry
+at Large in Boston, which embodied an account of his work for twelve years,
+and the conclusions at which he had arrived. It did much to give direction
+and purpose to the ministry, and to extend its influence. It can be read
+with interest and profit at the present time; for it contains all the
+principles since put into practice in many forms of charitable activity.
+Dr. Andrew P. Peabody truly said of Tuckerman's enterprise in behalf of the
+poor that it "was the earliest organized effort in that direction. Its
+success and its permanent establishment as an institution were due to its
+founder's strenuous perseverance, his self-sacrifice, his apostolic fervor
+of spirit, and the power of his influence."[<a href="#fn_10_11">11</a><a name="fr_10_11"></a>] Joseph Story spoke of the
+ministry at large as being one of "extraordinary success." "I deem it," he
+wrote, "one of the most glorious triumphs of Christian charity over the
+cold and reluctant doubts of popular opinion." The labors of Dr. Tuckerman
+<a name="pg261"></a>
+"initiated a new sphere of Protestant charity," as his nephew well
+said.[<a href="#fn_10_12">12</a><a name="fr_10_12"></a>] "This has been the most characteristic, the best organized, and
+by far the most successful co-operative work that the Unitarian body has
+ever attempted by way of church action," was the testimony of Dr. Joseph
+Henry Allen.[<a href="#fn_10_13">13</a><a name="fr_10_13"></a>]</p>
+
+<p><br >[<a href="#fr_10_1">1</a><a name="fn_10_1"></a>] The record of the first meeting states the objects for which the
+    young men met, as follows: "Feeling impressed with the importance of
+    giving religious instruction to the youths of that class of our poor
+    who are destitute of any regard for their future well-being, and who,
+    from being under the care of vicious parents, have no attention paid
+    to their moral conduct; and also wishing to become acquainted with
+    those persons of the different religious societies who profess to be
+    followers of the same Master, they agreed to associate themselves.
+    Having great reason to believe that God will bless their humble
+    efforts for the spread of pure religion and virtue, and looking to
+    Him for guidance, the meeting was organized."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_10_2">2</a><a name="fn_10_2"></a>] Ephraim Peabody, Christian Examiner, January, 1853, LIV. 93.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_10_3">3</a><a name="fn_10_3"></a>] John Ware, Life of Henry Ware, Jr., 132-135.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_10_4">4</a><a name="fn_10_4"></a>] The secretary of the Association for Religious Improvement made this
+    record of the meeting: "December 3, 1826. The Lectures under the
+    conduct of the Association commenced this evening at 6-1/2 o'clock at
+    Smith's circular building, corner of Merrimack and Portland Streets,
+    which was very fully attended by those for whom it was intended. The
+    services were of the first order. Rev. Dr. Tuckerman officiated."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_10_5">5</a><a name="fn_10_5"></a>] Eber R. Butler, Lend a Hand, V. 693, October, 1890.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_10_6">6</a><a name="fn_10_6"></a>] The substance of these reports has been reproduced in a book edited
+    by E.E. Hale in 1874, Joseph Tuckerman on the Elevation of the Poor.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_10_7">7</a><a name="fn_10_7"></a>] The Principles and Results of the Ministry at Large in Boston, 61.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_10_8">8</a><a name="fn_10_8"></a>] Ministry at Large in Boston, 124.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_10_9">9</a><a name="fn_10_9"></a>] The following is a list of the churches now maintained by the
+    Benevolent Fraternity of Churches, with the date when each was
+    formed, or when it came under Unitarian management: Bulfinch Place
+    Church, successor to Wend Street Chapel (1828); Pitts Street Chapel
+    (1836), 1870. North End Union (begun in 1837); Hanover Street Chapel
+    (1854); Parmenter Street Chapel (1884), 1892. Morgan Chapel, 1884.
+    Channing Church, Dorchester, successor to Washington Village Chapel,
+    1854. The Suffolk Street Chapel (1837), succeeded by the New South
+    Free Church (1867), continues its life in the Parker Memorial, 1889.
+    The Warren Street Chapel (1832), now known as the Barnard Memorial
+    Church, continues its work, but is not under the direction of the
+    Benevolent Fraternity. In 1901 the churches constituting the
+    Benevolent Fraternity were the First Church, Second Church, Arlington
+    Street Church, South Congregational Church, King's Chapel, Church of
+    the Disciples; First Parish, Dorchester; First Parish, Brighton;
+    Hawes Church South Boston; First Parish, West Roxbury; First
+    Congregational Society, Jamaica Plain.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_10_10">10</a><a name="fn_10_10"></a>] In 1830 the British and Foreign Unitarian Association began to
+     consider the value of this ministry, and in 1832 the first mission
+     was opened in London. In 1835 was formed the London Domestic Mission
+     Society for the purpose of carrying on the work in that city. In 1833
+     a similar movement was made in Manchester, and in 1835 was organized
+     the Liverpool Domestic Mission Society. The visit of Dr. Tuckerman to
+     England in 1834 gave large interest to this movement. He then met
+     Mary Carpenter, and she was led by him to begin her great work of
+     charity. It was during the next year that she entered upon the work
+     in Bristol that made her name widely known. In 1847 there were two
+     ministers at large in London, two in Birmingham, and one each in
+     Liverpool, Bristol, Leeds, Manchester, Halifax, and Leicester. The
+     writings of Dr. Tuckerman were translated into French by the Baron de
+     Gerando, a leading philanthropist and statesman of that day, who
+     praised them highly, and introduced their methods into Paris and
+     elsewhere. Of Tuckerman's book on the ministry at large M. de Gerando
+     said that it throws "invaluable light upon the condition and wants of
+     the indigent and the influence which an enlightened charity can
+     exert." He also said of Tuckerman that "he knew the difference
+     between pauperism and poverty," thus recognizing one of those
+     cardinal distinctions made by the philanthropist in his efforts to
+     aid the poor to self-help and independence.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_10_11">11</a><a name="fn_10_11"></a>] Memorial History of Boston, III. 477.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_10_12">12</a><a name="fn_10_12"></a>] Sprague's Annals of the Unitarian Pulpit, 345, the words quoted being
+     from the pen of Henry T. Tuckerman, the well-known essayist.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_10_13">13</a><a name="fn_10_13"></a>] Our Liberal Movement in Theology, 59.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<a name="pg262"></a>
+<h2><br ><a name="ch11"></a>XI.<br >
+
+
+ORGANIZED SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK.</h2>
+
+<p>The first Sunday-schools organized in this country distinctly for purposes
+of religious training were by persons connected with Unitarian churches.
+Several schools had been opened previously, but they were not continued or
+were organized in the interests of secular instruction. In the summer of
+1809 Miss Hannah Hill, then twenty-five years of age, and Miss Joanna B.
+Prince, then twenty, both teachers of private schools for small children,
+and connected with the First Parish in Beverly, Mass., of which Dr. Abiel
+Abbot was the pastor, opened a school in one room of a dwelling-house for
+the religious training of the children who did not receive such teaching at
+home. In the spring of 1810 the same young women reopened their school in a
+larger room, using the Bible as their only book of instruction. Sessions
+were held in the morning before church, and in the afternoon following the
+close of the services.[<a href="#fn_11_1">1</a><a name="fr_11_1"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The first season about thirty children attended, but the interest grew; and
+in 1813 the school occupied the Dane Street chapel, and became a union or
+town school. Jealousies resulted, and a school was soon established by each
+church in the town. In 1822 the First Parish received the original school
+under its sole care, and it was removed to the meeting-house.</p>
+
+<p>A Sunday-school was begun in Concord in the summer of 1810, under the
+<a name="pg263"></a>
+leadership of Miss Sarah Ripley, daughter of Dr. Ezra Ripley, the minister
+of the town. On Sunday afternoons she taught a number of children in her
+father's house, since known as the "Old Manse." About five years later a
+school was opened at the centre of the town, near the church, by three
+young women. In 1818 a Sunday-school was begun in connection with the
+church itself, which absorbed the others, or of which they formed the
+nucleus.[<a href="#fn_11_2">2</a><a name="fr_11_2"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>A teacher of a charity school supported by the West Church in Boston was
+the first person to open a Sunday-school in that city. In October, 1812,
+the teacher of this school, Miss Lydia K. Adams, then a member of the West
+Parish, according to the statement of Dr. Charles Lowell, minister of the
+church at the time, "having learned on a visit to Beverly that some young
+ladies of the town were in the practice of giving religious instruction to
+poor children on the Sabbath, consulted her minister as to the expediency
+of giving like instruction to the children of her school, and to those who
+had been members of it, on the same day. The project was decidedly
+approved, and immediately carried into effect." In December of the same
+year, Miss Adams was compelled by ill-health to leave her school; and
+ladies of the West Church took charge of it, and in turn instructed the
+children, both on the week-days and the Sabbath, till a suitable permanent
+teacher could be obtained. On this event they relinquished the immediate
+care of the week-day school, but continued the instruction of the
+Sunday-school, till it was transferred to the church, and was enlarged by
+the addition of "children of a different description," in 1822.[<a href="#fn_11_3">3</a><a name="fr_11_3"></a>]
+<a name="pg264"></a>
+Sunday-schools were also begun in Cambridgeport, in 1814; Wilton, N.H., in
+1816; and Portsmouth, in 1818. The latter school had the enthusiastic
+support of Nathaniel A. Haven, a young lawyer and rising politician, who
+devoted himself with great zeal and success to such instruction of the
+young.[<a href="#fn_11_4">4</a><a name="fr_11_4"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The Association of Young Men for Mutual Improvement and for the Religious
+Instruction of the Poor began the work of forming Sunday-schools for the
+children of the poor in Boston during the year 1823. A school was begun in
+the Hancock School-house, then recently built for grammar-school
+purposes.[<a href="#fn_11_5">5</a><a name="fr_11_5"></a>] Soon after they opened a school in Merrimac Street, called
+the Howard Sunday-school, in connection with the work of Dr. Tuckerman; and
+in 1826 the Franklin Sunday-school was begun by the same persons and for
+the same purposes. In connection with these schools was formed the Sunday
+School Benevolent Society, composed of charitable women, who provided such
+children as were needy with suitable clothing.</p>
+
+<p>In 1825 a parish Sunday-school was organized in connection with the Twelfth
+Congregational Church, of which Rev. Samuel Barrett was the minister. It
+was reorganized in 1827, with the object of giving "a religious education
+apart from all sectarian views, as systematically as it is given to the
+same children in other branches of learning."[<a href="#fn_11_6">6</a><a name="fr_11_6"></a>] In July, 1828, The
+<a name="pg265"></a>
+Christian Register spoke of "the rapid and extensive establishment of
+Sunday-schools by individuals attached to Unitarian societies," and said
+that in the course of two or three years "large and respectable
+Sunday-schools have been established by Unitarians in various parts of the
+city. Several of these are parish schools, under the immediate guidance of
+the pastors. Others are more general in their plan, receiving children from
+all quarters."</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn84"></a>Boston Sunday School Society.</h3>
+
+<p>At a meeting of the teachers of the Franklin Sunday-school held December
+16, 1826, it was proposed that there be organized an association of all the
+teachers connected with Unitarian parishes in Boston and the vicinity. On
+February 27, 1827, a meeting was held in the Berry Street vestry for this
+purpose; and on April 18 a constitution was adopted for the Boston Sunday
+School Society. The schools joining in this organization were the Hancock,
+Franklin, and Howard, and those connected with the West, Federal Street,
+Hollis Street, and Twelfth Congregational Churches. Dr. Joseph Tuckerman
+was elected president; Moses Grant, vice-president; Dr. J.F. Flagg,
+corresponding secretary; and Rev. Frederick T. Gray, recording secretary.
+The first annual meeting was held November 28, 1827; and the above-named
+officers were re-elected. On December 12 a public meeting was held in the
+Federal Street Church, which was well filled. Reports of the work of the
+schools, including that at Cambridgeport, were read; and addresses were
+made.</p>
+
+<a name="pg266"></a>
+<p>The objects of the Sunday School Society were the helping of teachers, the
+extending of the interests of the schools, and the publishing of books. It
+was difficult to procure suitable books for use in Sunday-schools and for
+their libraries, and the prices were very high. In the autumn of 1828
+arrangements were made for the publishing of books, the American Unitarian
+Association co-operating therein by providing a capital of $300 for this
+purpose, the profits going to the Sunday School Society, and the money
+borrowed being returned without interest. This connection was abandoned in
+1831 because it was found that the Unitarian name on the title-page of the
+books hindered their sale. In April, 1828, was issued the first number of
+the Christian Teacher's Manual, a small monthly, of which Mrs. Eliza Lee
+Follen was the editor, intended for the use of families and Sunday-schools.
+According to the preface the subjects chiefly considered were the best
+methods of addressing the minds of children, suggestions to teachers,
+explanations of Scripture, religious instruction from natural objects,
+histories taken from real life, stories and hymns adapted to children, and
+accounts of Sunday-schools.</p>
+
+<p>The Manual was continued for two years; and it was followed by The
+Scriptural Interpreter, edited by Rev. Ezra S. Gannett. The editor of the
+Interpreter preferred to publish it under his own name, because he did "not
+wish it to be considered the organ or the representative of a denomination
+of Christians." "It will have one object," he said, "to furnish the means
+of acquaintance with the true sense and value of Scripture, and
+particularly of the New Testament; but whatever will promote this object
+will come within the scope the publication." It was issued bi-monthly, and
+<a name="pg267"></a>
+was continued for five years. It was wholly devoted to the exposition of
+the Bible, a systematic series of translations and interpretations of the
+Gospels forming a distinct feature of its pages. A considerable part of it
+was prepared by the editor, who drew freely upon expository works. Among
+the contributors were William H. Furness, Orville Dewey, Alexander Young,
+Edward B. Hall, James Walker, Henry Ware, Jr., and J.P. Dabney. In 1836,
+Dr. Gannett's health having failed, the magazine was edited by Theodore
+Parker, George E. Ellis, and William Silsbee, then students in the Harvard
+Divinity School.</p>
+
+<p>One important feature of the work of the Sunday School Society was the
+extension of the cause it represented. In December, 1829, reports were
+presented at the annual meeting from nearly fifty schools; and it was
+thought desirable that they should be brought into closer relations with
+the society. Accordingly, Frederick T. Gray, the secretary, visited many of
+these schools. The next year, as a result, a considerable number of those
+outside the city connected themselves with the society; and the lists of
+vice-presidents and directors were enlarged to include them in its
+operations. Afterwards this work was carried on by a committee of the
+society, the members of which visited the schools, giving addresses, and in
+other ways helping to give strength and purpose to the work in which they
+were engaged. Schools were visited in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts,
+Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and other states. To give
+better opportunity for the attendance of delegates from schools outside the
+city, the yearly meeting was changed from December to anniversary week in
+May.</p>
+
+<a name="pg268"></a>
+<p>The society published a considerable number of tracts, which were
+distributed gratuitously by the agents and in other ways. It also issued
+lesson-books, as well as books for the juvenile libraries which were
+forming at this time in all the churches. To meet this demand, the younger
+Henry Ware began editing, in 1833, the Sunday-school Library for Young
+Persons, in which were included his own Life of the Saviour, Mrs. John
+Farrar's Life of Howard, Rev. Stephen G. Bulfinch's Holy Land, and Rev.
+Thomas B. Fox's Sketch of the Reformation. The next year Mr. Ware began a
+series of books which he called Scenes and Characters illustrating
+Christian Truth. Another method used by the society was the giving of
+expository lectures.</p>
+
+<p>The society at first held quarterly meetings; but the interest grew, and
+the meetings became monthly. Great enthusiasm was felt at this time in
+regard to the work of these schools, and many persons of prominence praised
+them and took part in their management. "The institution of Sunday-schools
+constitutes one of the most remarkable features of the present age," wrote
+Dr. Joseph Allen, in 1830. "It has already done much to supply the
+deficiencies of domestic education, and, if wisely conducted, is destined,
+we trust, to become at no distant day one of the most efficient instruments
+in forming the characters of the young."[<a href="#fn_11_7">7</a><a name="fr_11_7"></a>] Writing in 1838, the younger
+Henry Ware said that "the Sunday-school has become one of the established
+institutions of religion in connection with the church, and the character
+of religion is henceforth to depend, in no small degree, on the wisdom with
+which it shall be administered."[<a href="#fn_11_8">8</a><a name="fr_11_8"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg269"></a>
+<p>In 1834 was organized the Worcester Sunday School Society. It had its
+origin as far back as November 17, 1817, when a committee of the Worcester
+Association of Ministers was appointed to report on the subject of
+Sunday-schools. A meeting was held in Lancaster, October 9, 1834, when an
+organization was perfected. The succeeding meetings were largely attended,
+and much interest was awakened.[<a href="#fn_11_9">9</a><a name="fr_11_9"></a>] In 1842 a similar society was
+organized in Middlesex County; and at about the same time one came into
+existence in Cheshire County, New Hampshire. Soon after societies were
+organized in the counties of Norfolk, Plymouth (North), Middlesex (West),
+Worcester, and in Portland and its neighborhood.</p>
+
+<p>In April, 1831, the directors of the Boston Sunday School Society discussed
+the feasibility of starting a weekly paper for the use of the schools. In
+July, 1836, Rev. Bernard Whitman began the publication of The Sunday School
+Teacher and Children's Friend. In January, 1837, The Young Christian was
+begun, and was published weekly at the office of The Christian Register, by
+David Reed. These papers were continued only for a few years. From 1845 to
+1857 Mrs. Eliza Lee Follen edited a monthly magazine for children, called
+The Children's Friend. The first number of the Sunday School Gazette was
+published in Worcester, August 7, 1849, under the direction of the
+Worcester Sunday School Society. It was established at the suggestion of
+Rev. Edward Everett Hale, then a minister in that city, in connection with
+Rev. Edmund B. Willson, then settled in Grafton. The editor was Rev.
+<a name="pg270"></a>
+Francis Le Baron, the minister at large in Worcester, though Mr. Hale was a
+frequent contributor. When the National Sunday School Society was
+organized, the Sunday School Gazette was transferred to, its charge; but
+the publication of this paper was continued in Worcester until 1860.[<a href="#fn_11_10">10</a><a name="fr_11_10"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn85"></a>Unitarian Sunday School Society.</h3>
+
+<p>As time went on, and the work of the Sunday-schools enlarged, it was felt
+that it was necessary there should be one general organization which should
+bring together all Unitarian schools into a compact working force. To meet
+this growing need, a convention of the county societies and of local
+schools was held in Worcester, October 4, 1854, at which time the Sunday
+<a name="pg271"></a>
+School Society was organized as a general denominational body. Hon. Albert
+Fearing, of Boston, was made the president, and Rev. Frederick T. Gray the
+secretary. The society provided itself with a desk in the rooms of the
+Unitarian Association, and provision was made for the collection and sale
+of all the helps demanded by the schools.</p>
+
+<p>From 1855 until 1865 the society was sadly crippled by the lack of funds.
+The hard times preceding the Civil War, and the absorption of public
+interest in that great national event, made it difficult for the society to
+continue its work with any degree of success. For some years little was
+done but to hold the annual meeting in the autumn and that in anniversary
+week, and to continue the publication of the Sunday School Gazette. For a
+number of years, however, Teachers' Institutes were held; and these were
+continued at irregular intervals until about 1875. The Sunday School
+Teachers' Institute was organized in 1852, and continued in existence for
+ten years.</p>
+
+<p>After the death of Rev. Frederick T. Gray in 1855, he was succeeded in the
+position of secretary of the Sunday School Society by Rev. Stephen G.
+Bulfinch. In 1856 Rev. Warren H. Cudworth became the secretary, and the
+editor of the Gazette; and he held these positions until May, 1861, when he
+became the chaplain of the first Massachusetts regiment taking part in the
+Civil War. In the October following, Mr. Joseph H. Allen, a Boston
+merchant, afterwards the editor of The Schoolmate, became the secretary and
+editor. He continued to edit the Gazette until November, 1865; but Mr. M.T.
+Rice was made secretary in 1863. At the end of 1865, when the society was
+in a condition of almost complete collapse, Rev. Thomas J. Mumford became
+<a name="pg272"></a>
+the secretary, and the editor of the Gazette for one year. He restored
+confidence in the society, and made the paper a success. During the war the
+paper was published monthly for the sake of economy; but with the first of
+January, 1866, it was restored to its former semi-monthly issue.</p>
+
+<p>The new life that came to the denomination in 1865 had its influence upon
+the Sunday School Society. In the autumn of 1866, when the Unitarian
+Association had secured a large increase of funds, it was proposed that the
+Sunday School Society should unite with it, and that the larger
+organization should have the direction of all denominational activities,
+especially those of publishing. The more zealous friends of the society did
+not approve of such consolidation, and succeeded in reanimating its work by
+appointing as its secretary Mr. James P. Walker, who had been the head of
+the publishing firm of Walker, Wise &amp; Co., a young man of earnest purpose,
+a successful Sunday-school teacher and superintendent, and an enthusiastic
+believer in the mission of Unitarianism. Mr. Walker devoted his whole time
+to the interests of the society, and an energetic effort was made to revive
+and extend its work. He proved to be the man for the position, largely
+increasing the bookselling and publishing activities, visiting schools and
+conferences, and awakening much enthusiasm in regard to the interests of
+Sunday-schools. He wore himself out in this work, however, and died in
+March, 1868, greatly lamented throughout the denomination.[<a href="#fn_11_11">11</a><a name="fr_11_11"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>After the death of Mr. Walker, consolidation with the Association was again
+urged; but Rev. Leonard J. Livermore was in June elected the secretary. At
+<a name="pg273"></a>
+the annual meeting it was resolved to raise $5,000 for the work of the
+society, and the next year it was proposed to make the annual contribution
+$10,000. The name was changed to the Unitarian Sunday School Society at the
+annual meeting of 1868, held in Worcester. In 1871 Mr. John Kneeland became
+the secretary; and with the beginning of 1872 the Gazette was changed to
+The Dayspring, which was issued monthly. In the autumn of that year the
+society began the publication of monthly lessons, and there was issued with
+them a Teachers' Guide for the lessons of the year. With the beginning of
+1877 the Guide was discontinued, and the lesson papers enlarged. In
+November, 1875, Rev. George F. Piper became the secretary,--a position he
+held until May 1, 1883. During his administration about three hundred
+lessons were prepared by him, and these had a circulation of about nine
+thousand copies. The transition condition of the denomination made it
+difficult to carry on the work of the society at this time, for it was
+impossible to please both conservatives and radicals with any lessons that
+might be prepared. One superintendent warned his school against the
+heretical tendencies of lessons which, from the other point of view, a
+minister condemned as being fit for orthodox schools, but not for
+Unitarians. In the same mail came a letter from a minister saying the
+lessons were too elementary, and from another saying they were much too
+advanced. In the latter part of Mr. Piper's term service was begun an
+important work of preparing manuals thoroughly modern in their spirit and
+methods.[<a href="#fn_11_12">12</a><a name="fr_11_12"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg274"></a>
+<p>In May, 1883, Rev. Henry G. Spaulding became the secretary; and the work of
+publishing modern manuals was largely extended.[<a href="#fn_11_13">13</a><a name="fr_11_13"></a>] At the suggestion and
+with the co-operation of the secretary there was organized, November 12,
+1883, the Unitarian Sunday School Union of Boston, having for its object
+"to develop the best methods of Sunday-school work." At about the same time
+a lending library of reference books was established in connection with the
+work of the society. In the autumn of 1883 the society began to hold in
+Channing Hall weekly lectures for teachers. In 1885 The Dayspring was
+enlarged and became Every Other Sunday, being much improved in its literary
+contents as well as in its illustrations. The same year the society was
+incorporated, and the number of directors was increased to include
+representatives from all sections of the country; while all Sunday-schools
+contributing to the society's treasury were given a delegate representation
+<a name="pg275"></a>
+in its membership. Mr. Spaulding continued his connection with the society
+until January 1, 1892.</p>
+
+<p>Rev. Edward A. Horton, who had for several years taken an active part in
+the work of the society, assumed charge February 1, 1892. Mr. Horton was
+made the president, it being deemed wise to have the head of the society
+its executive officer. During his administration there has been a steady
+growth in Sunday-school interest, which has demanded a rapid increase in
+the number and variety of publications. The book department has been taxed
+to the utmost to meet the demand. A new book of Song and Service, compiled
+by Mr. Horton, has reached a sale of nearly 25,000 copies. A simple
+statement of "Our Faith" has had a circulation of 40,000 copies, and in a
+form suitable for the walls of Sunday-school rooms it has been in
+considerable demand.[<a href="#fn_11_14">14</a><a name="fr_11_14"></a>] A series of lessons, covering a period of seven
+years, upon the three-grade, one-topic plan, has been largely used in the
+schools. Besides the twenty manuals published in this course of lessons,
+forty other text-books have been published, making a total of sixty in all,
+<a name="pg276"></a>
+from 1892 to 1902.[<a href="#fn_11_15">15</a><a name="fr_11_15"></a>] There have also been many additions to
+Sunday-school helps by way of special services for festival days, free
+tracts, and statements of belief. The Channing Hall talks to Sunday-school
+teachers have been made to bear upon these courses of lessons. Every Other
+Sunday has been improved, and its circulation extended. The number of
+donating churches and schools has been steadily increased, the number in
+1901 being 255, the largest by far yet reached. At the annual meeting of
+the society and at local conferences representative speakers have presented
+the newest methods of Sunday-school work. Sunday-school unions have been
+formed in various parts of the country, and churches are awakened to a new
+interest in the work of religious instruction. "Home and School
+Conferences" have been held with a view to bringing parents and teachers
+into closer sympathy and co-operation.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn86"></a>Western Unitarian Sunday School Society.</h3>
+
+<p>In the west the first movement towards Sunday-school activities began in
+1871 with the publication of a four-page lesson-sheet at Janesville, Wis.,
+by Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones. This was continued for two or three years.
+Through the interest of Mr. Jones in Sunday-school work a meeting for
+organization was called in the fourth church, Chicago, October 14, 1873,
+when the Western Unitarian Sunday School Society was organized, with Rev.
+Milton J. Miller as president and Mr. Jones as secretary. At the meeting
+the next year in St. Louis a committee was appointed to prepare a song-book
+for the schools, which resulted in the production of The Sunny Side, edited
+by Rev. Charles W. Wendte. The next step was to establish headquarters in
+Chicago, where all kinds of material could be furnished to the schools,
+<a name="pg277"></a>
+with the necessary advice and encouragement. Through successive years the
+effort of the society was to systematize the work of Unitarian
+Sunday-schools, to put into them the best literature, the best song and
+service books, the best lesson papers, and other tools,--in short, to
+secure better and more definite teaching, such as is in accord with the
+best scholarship and thought of the age.[<a href="#fn_11_16">16</a><a name="fr_11_16"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>In 1882 the society became incorporated, and its work from this time
+enlarged in all directions. To develop these results more fully, an
+Institute was held in the Third Church, Chicago, in November, 1887, at
+which five sessions were given to Sunday-school work, and two to Unity Club
+interests. In the course of several years of encouraging success, the
+Institute developed into a Summer Assembly of two or more weeks'
+continuance at Hillside, Helena Valley, Wis., which still continues its
+yearly sessions. In May, 1902, The Western Sunday School Society was
+consolidated with the national organization; and the plates and stock which
+it possessed were handed over to the Unitarian Sunday School Society. A
+<a name="pg278"></a>
+western headquarters is maintained in Chicago, where all the publications
+of the two societies are kept on sale.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn87"></a>Unity Clubs.</h3>
+
+<p>As adjuncts to the Sunday-school, and to continue its work for adults and
+in other spheres of ethical training, the Unity Club came into existence
+about the year 1873, beginning with the work of Rev. Jenkin Ll. Jones at
+Janesville. In the course of the next ten years nearly every Unitarian
+church in the west organized such a club, and the movement to some degree
+extended to other parts of the country. In 1887 there was organized in
+Boston the National Bureau of Unity Clubs. These clubs devoted themselves
+to literary, sociological, and religious courses of study; and they
+furnished centres for the social activities of the churches. About the year
+1878 began a movement to organize societies of young people for the
+cultivation of the spirit of worship and religious development. This
+resulted in 1889 in the organization of the National Guild Alliance; and in
+1890 this organization joined with the Bureau of Unity Clubs and the
+Unitarian Temperance Society in supporting an agency in the Unitarian
+Building, Boston, with the aid of the Unitarian Association. The Young
+People's Religious Union was organized in Boston, May 28, 1896; and in
+large degree, it took the place of the Bureau and the Alliance, uniting the
+two in a more efficient effort to interest the young people of the
+churches.[<a href="#fn_11_17">17</a><a name="fr_11_17"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg279"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn88"></a>The Ladies' Commission on Sunday-school Books.</h3>
+
+<p>In the autumn of 1865, Rev. Charles Lowe, then the secretary of the
+Unitarian Association, invited a number of women to meet him for the
+purpose of conference on the subject of Sunday-school libraries. At his
+suggestion they organized themselves on October 12 as The Ladies'
+Commission on Sunday-school Books, with the object of preparing a catalogue
+of books read and approved by competent persons. At the first meeting ten
+persons were present, but the number was soon enlarged to thirty; and it
+was still farther increased by the addition of corresponding members in
+cities too remote for personal attendance. Among those taking part in the
+work of the commission at first were Miss Lucretia P. Hale, Miss Anna C.
+Lowell, Mrs. Edwin P. Whipple, Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney, Mrs. A.D.T. Whitney,
+Mrs. S. Bennett, Mrs. Caroline H. Dall, Mrs. E.E. Hale, Mrs. E.P. Tileston,
+and Miss Hannah E. Stevenson.</p>
+
+<p>The commission not only aimed to select books for Sunday-school libraries,
+but also those for the home reading of young persons and for the use of
+teachers. It undertook also the procuring of the publication of suitable
+<a name="pg280"></a>
+juvenile books. The first catalogue was issued in October, 1866, and
+contained a list of two hundred books, selected from twelve hundred
+examined. In the spring of 1867 a catalogue of five hundred and
+seventy-three books was printed, as the result of the reading of nineteen
+hundred volumes.</p>
+
+<p>In the beginning of its work the commission did not confine its activities
+to the selecting of juvenile books; for the Sunday School Hymn and Tune
+Book, published in 1869, was largely due to its efforts. Under the
+administration of Mr. James P. Walker the Sunday School Society undertook
+to procure the publication of a number of books of fiction suitable for
+Sunday-school libraries, and offered prizes to this end. The commission
+gave its encouragement to this effort, read the manuscripts, and aided in
+determining to whom the prizes should be given. The result was the
+publication of a half-dozen volumes by the Sunday School Society and the
+Unitarian Association. The society also aided to some extent in meeting the
+expenses of the commission, though these were usually met by the
+Association.</p>
+
+<p>For many years the books approved by the commission were grouped under
+three heads: books especially recommended for Unitarian Sunday-school
+libraries; those highly recommended for their religious tone, but somewhat
+impaired for this purpose by the use of phrases and the adoption of a
+spirit not in accord with the Unitarian faith; and those profitable and
+valuable, but not adapted to the purposes of a Sunday-school library. Every
+book recommended was read and approved by at least five persons, discussed
+in committee of the whole, and accepted by a two-thirds vote of all the
+members. Books about which there was much diversity of opinion were read by
+<a name="pg281"></a>
+a larger number of persons. This classification proved rather cumbersome,
+and it was often found difficult to decide into which list a book should be
+placed; and the result was that about 1890 the simpler plan was adopted of
+putting all titles in their alphabetical order, with explanatory notes for
+each book. In 1882 the list of books for teachers was discontinued as being
+no longer necessary.</p>
+
+<p>Annual lists of books have been published by the commission since 1866;
+and, in addition, several catalogues have been issued, containing all the
+books approved during a period of five years. In the early days of the
+commission, supplementary lists for children and young persons were issued,
+containing books of a more secular character than were thought suitable for
+Sunday-school libraries. Gradually, it has extended its work to include the
+needs of all juvenile libraries; and these books are now incorporated into
+the one annual catalogue. In thirty-four years the commission has examined
+10,957 books, and has approved 3,076, or about one-third.[<a href="#fn_11_18">18</a><a name="fr_11_18"></a>]</p>
+
+<p><br >[<a href="#fr_11_1">1</a><a name="fn_11_1"></a>] Sunday School Times, September 15, 1860.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_11_2">2</a><a name="fn_11_2"></a>] Asa Bullard, Fifty Years with the Sabbath Schools, 37.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_11_3">3</a><a name="fn_11_3"></a>] C.A. Bartol, The West Church and its Ministers, Appendix.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_11_4">4</a><a name="fn_11_4"></a>] See the Remains of Nathaniel Appleton Haven, with a Memoir of his
+    life, by George Ticknor.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_11_5">5</a><a name="fn_11_5"></a>] The Hancock Sunday-school assembled at eight in the morning and at
+    one in the afternoon, Moses Grant being the first superintendent.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_11_6">6</a><a name="fn_11_6"></a>] At the school of the Twelfth Congregational Society, Carpenter's
+    Catechism was used for the small children. This was followed by the
+    Worcester Catechism, compiled in 1822 by the ministers of the
+    Worcester Association of Ministers, Dr. Joseph Allen being the real
+    author. The Geneva Catechism in its three successive parts, followed
+    in order. In the Bible class, use was made of Hannah Adams's Letters
+    on the Gospels, under the immediate charge of the Pastor. A hymn-book
+    issued by the Publishing Fund Society was in use by the whole school.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_11_7">7</a><a name="fn_11_7"></a>] Christian Examiner, March, 1830, VIII. 49.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_11_8">8</a><a name="fn_11_8"></a>] Ibid., May, 1838, XXIV. 182.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_11_9">9</a><a name="fn_11_9"></a>] Joseph Allen, History of the Worcester Association, 261-264.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_11_10">10</a><a name="fn_11_10"></a>] In 1852 was published a graded series of eight manuals of Christian
+     instruction for Sunday-schools and families,--a result of the
+     activities of the Sunday School Society. The titles and authors of
+     these books were Early Religious Lessons; Palestine and the Hebrew
+     People, Stephen G. Bulfinch; Lessons on the Old Testament, Rev.
+     Ephraim Peabody; The Life of Christ, Rev. John H. Morison; The Books
+     and Characters of the New Testament, Rev. Rufus Ellis; Lessons upon
+     Religious Duties and Christian Morals, Rev. George W. Briggs;
+     Doctrines of Scripture, Rev. Frederic D. Huntington; Scenes from
+     Christian History, Rev. Edward E. Hale. Two other books connected
+     with the early history of Unitarian Sunday-schools properly demand
+     notice here. In 1847 was published The History of Sunday Schools and
+     of Religious Education from the Earliest Times, by Lewis G. Pray, who
+     was treasurer of the Boston Sunday School Society from 1834 to 1853,
+     and chairman of its board of agents from 1841 to 1848. He was one of
+     the first workers in the establishing of Sunday-schools in Boston,
+     and he zealously interested himself in this cause so long as he
+     lived. He compiled the first book of hymns used in Unitarian schools,
+     and also the first book of devotional exercises. For twenty years he
+     was superintendent of the school connected with the Twelfth
+     Congregational Society, holding that place from its organization in
+     1827. In one of the concluding chapters of his book Mr. Pray gave an
+     account of the early history of Unitarian Sunday-schools in Boston
+     and its neighborhood. In 1852 was published a series of addresses
+     which had been given by Rev. Frederick T. Gray at Sunday-school
+     anniversaries and on other similar occasions. The volume contains
+     most interesting information in regard to the origin of
+     Sunday-schools in Boston, and the beginnings of the Sunday School
+     Society, as well as the work of Dr. Tuckerman and his assistants in
+     the ministry, at large.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_11_11">11</a><a name="fn_11_11"></a>] Memoir of James P. Walker, with Selections from his Writings, by
+     Thomas B. Fox. American Unitarian Association, 1869.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_11_12">12</a><a name="fn_11_12"></a>] The first of these was Rev. Edward H. Hall's First Lessons on the
+     Bible, which appeared in 1882; and it was soon followed by Professor
+     C.H. Toy's History of the Religion of Israel.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_11_13">13</a><a name="fn_11_13"></a>] Among these were Religions before Christianity, by Professor Charles
+     Carroll Everett, D.D., 1883; Manual of Unitarian Belief, by Rev.
+     James Freeman Clarke, D.D., 1884; Lessons on the Life of St. Paul, by
+     Rev. Edward H. Hall, 1885; Early Hebrew Stories, by Rev. Charles F.
+     Dole, 1886; Hebrew Prophets and Kings, by Rev. Henry G. Spaulding,
+     1887; The Later Heroes of Israel, by Mr. Spaulding, 1888; Lessons on
+     the Gospel of Luke, by Mr. Spaulding and Rev. W.W. Fenn, 1889; A
+     Story of the Sects, by Rev. William H. Lyon, in 1891. In 1890
+     appeared the Unitarian Catechism of Rev. Minot J. Savage, though not
+     published by the Sunday School Society. These books attracted wide
+     attention, were largely used in Unitarian schools, and were adopted
+     into those of other sects to some extent. In 1886 the president of
+     the American Social Science Association publicly urged the use of the
+     ethical manuals of the society by all Sunday-schools. Several of
+     these books were republished in London, and Dr. Toy's manual was
+     translated into Dutch. The society also published a new Service Book
+     and Hymnal, which went into immediate use in a large number of
+     schools, and did much for the enrichment of the devotional exercises
+     and the promotion of an advanced standard of both words and music in
+     the hymns.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_11_14">14</a><a name="fn_11_14"></a>] The Fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood of Man, the leadership of
+     Jesus, salvation by character, the progress of mankind onward and
+     upward forever.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_11_15">15</a><a name="fn_11_15"></a>] Among the publications under Mr. Horton's administration, which may
+     justly be called significant, are: Beacon Lights of Christian
+     History, in three grades; Noble Lives and Noble Deeds, Dole's
+     Catechism of Liberal Faith, Mott's History of Unitarianism,
+     Pulsford's various manuals on the Bible, Mrs. Jaynes's Illustrated
+     Primary Leaflets, Miss Mulliken's Kindergarten Lessons, Story of
+     Israel and Great Thoughts of Israel, in three grades, Fenn's Acts of
+     the Apostles, Chadwick's Questions on the Old Testament Books in
+     their Right Order, Mrs. Kate Gannett Wells's forty Illustrated
+     Primary Lessons, and Walkley's Helps for Teachers. Mr. Horton, during
+     this ten years, has written fourteen manuals on various subjects.
+     Co-extensive with the large increase of text-books has been the
+     enrichment of lessons by pictorial aids. Excellent half-tone pictures
+     have been prepared from the best subjects.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_11_16">16</a><a name="fn_11_16"></a>] Among the publications of the Western Unitarian Sunday School Society
+     have been Unity Services and Songs, edited by Rev. James Vila Blake,
+     and published in 1878; a service book called The Way of Life, by Rev.
+     Frederick L. Hosmer, issued in 1877; and Unity Festivals, services
+     for special holidays, 1884. Of the lesson-books published by the
+     society, those that have been most successful have been Corner-stones
+     of Character, by Mrs. Kate Gannett Wells; A Chosen Nation, or the
+     Growth of the Hebrew Religion, by Rev. William C. Gannett; and The
+     More Wonderful Genesis, by Rev. Henry M. Simmons. In 1890 the society
+     entered upon the publication of a six-year course of studies, which
+     included Beginnings according to Legend and according to the Truer
+     Story, by Rev. Allen W. Gould; The Flowering of the Hebrew Religion,
+     by Rev. W.W. Fenn; In the Home, by Rev. W.C. Gannett; Mother Nature's
+     Children, by Rev. A.W. Gould; and The Flowering of Christianity, the
+     Liberal Christian Movement toward Universal Religion, by Rev. W.C.
+     Gannett.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_11_17">17</a><a name="fn_11_17"></a>] The objects of The Young People's Religious Union are: (a) to foster
+     the religious life; (b) to bring the young into closer relations with
+     one another; and (c) to spread rational views of religion, and to put
+     into practice such principles of life and duty as tend to uplift
+     mankind. The cardinal principles of the Union are truth, worship, and
+     service. Any young people's society may become a member of the Union
+     by affirming in writing its sympathy with the general objects of the
+     Union, adopting its cardinal principles, making a contribution to its
+     treasury, and sending the secretary a list of its officers. The
+     annual meeting is held in May at such day and place as the executive
+     board may appoint. Special union meetings are held as often as
+     several societies may arrange. The Union has its headquarters at Room
+     11, in the Unitarian Building, Boston, in charge of the secretary,
+     whose office hours are from 9 A.M. to 1 P.M. daily. Organization
+     hints, hymnals, leaflets, helps for the national topics, and other
+     suggestive materials are supplied. The national officers furnish
+     speakers for initial meetings, visit unions, and help in other ways.
+     The Union maintains a department in The Christian Register, under the
+     charge of the secretary, for notes, notices, helps on the topics, and
+     all matters of interest to the unions, and also publishes a monthly
+     bulletin in connection with the National Alliance of Unitarian Women.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_11_18">18</a><a name="fn_11_18"></a>] In the thirty-five years which comprise the life of the commission a
+     gradual but marked change has been in operation. Sunday-school
+     libraries are being used less and less, and town libraries have
+     become much more numerous and better patronized by both old and
+     young. In the spring of 1896 the question arose in the commission
+     whether, with the decline of the Sunday-school library, the need
+     which called it into being had not ceased to exist; and, in order to
+     secure information as to the advisability of continuing its work,
+     cards were sent to 305 ministers of the denomination and to 507
+     public libraries, mostly in New England, asking if the lists of the
+     commission were found useful, and whether it was desired that the
+     sending of them should be continued. From Unitarian ministers 209
+     replies were received, one-half using the lists frequently and the
+     other half occasionally or for the selection of special books. From
+     the town libraries cordial replies were received in 220 instances,
+     most of them warmly approving of the lists, which had been found very
+     useful. The result of this investigation was to bring the commission
+     more directly into touch with the various libraries, and to give it a
+     better understanding of their needs.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<a name="pg282"></a>
+<h2><br ><a name="ch12"></a>XII.<br >
+
+
+THE WOMEN'S ALLIANCE AND ITS PREDECESSORS.</h2>
+
+<p>The Unitarian body has been remarkable for the women of intellectual power
+and philanthropic achievement who have adorned its fellowship. In
+proportion to their numbers, they have done much for the improvement and
+uplifting of society. In the early Unitarian period, however, the special
+work of women was for the most part confined to the Sunday-school and the
+sewing circle. Whatever the name by which it was known, whether as the
+Dorcas Society, the Benevolent Society, or the Ladies' Aid, the sewing
+circle did a work that was in harmony with the needs of the time, and did
+it well. It helped the church with which it was connected in many quiet
+ways, and gave much aid to the poor and suffering members of the community.
+Nor did it limit its activities to purely local interests; for many a
+church was helped by it and the early missionary societies received its
+contributions gladly.</p>
+
+<p>Before the organization of the Benevolent Fraternity of Churches, the women
+of Boston raised the money necessary for the support of the ministry at
+large in that city. One of the earliest societies organized for general
+service, was the Tuckerman Sewing Circle, formed in 1827. Its purpose was
+to assist Dr. Tuckerman in his work for the poor of the city by providing
+<a name="pg283"></a>
+clothing and otherwise aiding the needy. The work of this circle is still
+going on in connection, with the Bulfinch Place Church; and every year it
+raises a large sum of money for the charitable work of the ministry at
+large.</p>
+
+<p>The civil war helped women to recognize the need of organization and
+co-operation, on their part. In working for the soldiers, not only in their
+homes and churches, but in connection with the Sanitary Commission, and
+later in seeking to aid the freedmen, they learned their own power and the
+value of combination with others. In Massachusetts the work of the Sanitary
+Commission was largely carried on by Unitarians. In describing this work,
+Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney has indicated what was done by Unitarian women.
+"During the late war," she wrote, "a woman's branch of the Sanitary
+Commission was organized in New England. Mary Dwight (Parkman) was its
+first president; but Abby Williams May soon took her place, which she held
+till the close of the war. With unwearied zeal Miss May presided over its
+councils, organized its action, and encouraged others to work. She went
+down to the hospitals and camps, to judge of their needs with her own eyes,
+and travelled from town to town in New England, arousing the women to new
+effort. These might be seen, young and old, rich and poor, bearing bundles
+of blue flannel through the streets, and unaccustomed fingers knitting the
+coarse yarn, while the heart throbbed with anxiety for the dear ones gone
+to the war. A noble band of nurses volunteered their services, and the
+strife was as to which should go soonest and do the hardest work. Hannah E.
+<a name="pg284"></a>
+Stevenson, Helen Stetson, and many another name became as dear to the
+soldiers as that of mother or sister. A committee was formed to supply the
+colored soldiers with such help as other soldiers received from their
+relations; and, when one of the noblest of Boston's sons passed through her
+streets at their head, his mother 'thanked God for the privilege of seeing
+that day.' The same spirit went into the work of educating the freedmen.
+Young men and women, the noblest and best, went forth together to that work
+of danger and toil."[<a href="#fn_12_1">1</a><a name="fr_12_1"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn89"></a>Women's Western Unitarian Conference.</h3>
+
+<p>It was such experiences as these that encouraged Unitarian women to enter
+upon other philanthropic and educational labors when the civil war had come
+to an end. Leaders had been trained during this period who were capable of
+guiding such movements to a successful issue. The example of the women of
+the evangelical churches in organizing their home and foreign missionary
+associations also undoubtedly influenced, to a greater or lesser degree,
+the women of the liberal churches. After the organization of the National
+Conference, Unitarian women began to realize, as never before, the need of
+co-operation in behalf of the cause they had at heart.[<a href="#fn_12_2">2</a><a name="fr_12_2"></a>] It was in the
+central west, however, that the first effort was made to organize women in
+the interest of denominational activities. In 1877, at the meeting of the
+Western Unitarian Conference held in Toledo, it was voted that the women
+connected with that body be requested to organize immediately for the
+<a name="pg285"></a>
+purpose of co-operating in the general work of the conference. At this
+meeting two women, Mrs. E.P. Allis of Milwaukee and Mrs. Mary P. Wells
+Smith of Cincinnati, were placed on the board of directors.</p>
+
+<p>At the next annual meeting of the Western Conference, held in Chicago, the
+committee on organization, consisting of thirteen women, reported the
+readiness of the women to give their aid to the conference work, saying in
+their report "that we signify not only our willingness, but our earnest
+desire to share henceforth with our brothers in the labors and
+responsibilities of this Association, and that we pledge ourselves to an
+active and hearty support of those cherished convictions which constitute
+our liberal faith." In response to their request, the conference selected
+an assistant secretary to have charge of everything relating to the work of
+women. They also recommended that the women of the several churches
+connected with the conference should organize for "the study and
+dissemination of the principles of free thought and liberal religious
+culture, and the practical assistance of all worthy schemes and enterprises
+intended for the spread and upholding of these principles." In 1881, at St.
+Louis, there was organized the Women's Western Unitarian Conference, with
+Mrs. Eliza Sunderland as president and Miss F.L. Roberts as secretary.
+During the seventeen years of its existence this conference raised much
+money for denominational work, developed many earnest workers, and
+accomplished much in behalf of the principles for which it stood. It aided
+in the support of several missionaries, organized the Post-office Mission
+and made it effective, and encouraged a number of women to enter the
+ministry.</p>
+
+<a name="pg286"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn90"></a>Women's Auxiliary Conference.</h3>
+
+<p>At the National Conference session of 1878, held at Saratoga, where much
+enthusiasm had been awakened, it was suggested that the women, who had been
+hitherto listeners only, should take an active part in, denominational
+work. At a gathering in the parlor of the United States Hotel, called by
+Mrs. Charles G. Ames, Mrs. Fielder Israel, Mrs. J.P. Lesley, and one or two
+others, a plan of action was adopted that led, in 1880, to the formation of
+the Women's Auxiliary Conference. The aim of this organization was to
+quicken the religious life of the churches, to stimulate local charitable
+and missionary undertakings, and to raise money for missionary enterprises;
+but its work was to be done in connection with the National Conference, and
+not as an independent organization. The purpose was stated in a circular
+sent to the churches immediately after the organization was effected.
+"Hitherto," it was said, "women have not been specially represented upon
+the board of the National Conference, and have not fully recognized how
+helpful they might be in its various undertakings or how much they
+themselves might gain from a closer relation with it. But the time has now
+come when our service is called for in the broad field, and also when we
+feel the need of being at work there; for our faith in the great truths of
+religion is no less vital than that of our brethren; and since the service
+we can render, being different from theirs, is needed to supplement it, and
+because it is peculiarly women's service, we must do it, or it will be left
+undone. It is one of the glories of such a work as ours that there is need
+and room in it for the best effort of every individual; indeed, without the
+faithful service of all it must be incomplete."</p>
+
+<a name="pg287"></a>
+<p>In 1890, after ten years of active existence, the conference had about
+eighty branches, with a membership of between 3,000 and 4,000 women. Much
+of the success of the conference was due to its president, Abby W. May.
+Miss May was well known as a philanthropist and educator, and had occupied
+many prominent positions before she assumed the presidency of the
+auxiliary; but this was her first active work in connection with the
+denomination.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn91"></a>The National Alliance.</h3>
+
+<p>Admirable as were the aims, and excellent as was the work of this
+organization, it was auxiliary to the National Conference, and had no
+independent life. After the first enthusiasm was past, it failed to gain
+ground rapidly, the membership remaining nearly stationary during the last
+few years of its existence. As time went on, therefore, it became evident
+that a more complete organization was needed in order to arouse enthusiasm
+and to secure the loyalty of the women of all parts of the country. The New
+York League of Unitarian Women, including those of New York, Brooklyn, and
+New Jersey, organized in 1887, showed the advantages of a closer union and
+a more definite purpose; and the desire to bring into one body all the
+various local organizations hastened the change. It was seen that, in the
+multiplication of organizations, there was danger of wasting the energies
+used, and that one efficient body was greatly to be desired.</p>
+
+<p>In May, 1888, a committee was formed for the purpose of drafting a
+constitution for a new association, "to which all existing organizations
+might subscribe." The constitution provided by this committee was adopted
+<a name="pg288"></a>
+October 24, 1890, and the new organization took the name of the National
+Alliance of Unitarian and Other Liberal Christian Women. The object
+proposed was "to quicken the life of our Unitarian churches, and to bring
+the women of the denomination into closer acquaintance, co-operation, and
+fellowship." In 1891 there were ninety branches, with about 5,000 members.
+While the membership, doubled under the impulse of the new organization,
+the increase in the amount of money raised was fivefold.</p>
+
+<p>The admirable results secured by the Women's Alliance, which has finally
+drawn all the sectional organizations into co-operation with itself, are in
+no small measure due to the energy and the organizing skill of the women
+who have been at the head of its activities. Mrs. Judith W. Andrews, of
+Boston, was the president during the first year of its existence. From 1891
+to 1901 the president was Mrs. B. Ward Dix, of Brooklyn, who was succeeded
+by Miss Emma C. Low, of the same city. Mrs. Emily A. Fifield, of Boston,
+has been the recording secretary; Mrs. Mary B. Davis, of New York, the
+corresponding secretary; and Miss Flora L. Close, of Boston, the treasurer
+from the first.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn92"></a>Cheerful Letter and Post-office Missions.</h3>
+
+<p>In 1891 the executive board appointed a committee to organize a Cheerful
+Letter Exchange, of which Miss Lilian Freeman Clarke was made the chairman.
+One of its chief purposes is to cheer the lonely and discouraged, invalids
+and others, by interchange of letters and by gifts of books and
+periodicals. To young persons in remote places it affords facilities for
+securing a better education, with the aid of correspondence classes. By
+means of a little monthly magazine, The Cheerful Letter, religious teaching
+<a name="pg289"></a>
+is brought to many persons, who in this find a substitute for church
+attendance where that is not possible. Through the same channel, as well as
+by correspondence, these workers help young mothers in the right training
+of their children. Libraries have been started in communities destitute of
+books, and struggling libraries have been aided with gifts. Forty
+travelling libraries are kept in circulation.</p>
+
+<p>Although much had been done to circulate Unitarian tracts and the other
+publications of the American Unitarian Association, by means of
+colporteurs, by the aid of the post-office, as well as by direct gift of
+friend to friend, it remained for Miss Sallie Ellis, of Cincinnati, in
+1881, to systematize this kind of missionary effort, and to make it one of
+the most valuable of all agents for the dissemination of liberal religious
+ideas. Miss Ellis was aided by the Cincinnati branch of the Women's
+Auxiliary, but she was from the first the heart and soul of this mission.
+"If there had been no Miss Ellis," says one who knew her work intimately,
+"there would have been no Post-office Mission. Many helped about it in
+various ways, but she was the mission."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Ellis was a frail little woman, hopelessly deaf and suffering from an
+incurable disease. Notwithstanding her physical limitations, she longed to
+be of service to the faith she cherished; and the missionary spirit burned
+strong within her. "I want," she said often, "to do something for
+Unitarianism before I die"; but the usual avenues of opportunity seemed
+firmly closed to her. At last, in the winter of 1877-78, Rev. Charles W.
+Wendte, then her pastor, anxious to find something for her to do, proposed
+that she should send the Association's tracts and copies of the Pamphlet
+<a name="pg290"></a>
+Mission to persons in the west who were interested in the liberal faith.
+She took up this work gladly, and during that winter distributed 1,846
+tracts and 211 copies of the Pamphlet Mission in twenty-six States.</p>
+
+<p>A tract table in the vestibule of the church was started by Miss Ellis; and
+she not only distributed sermons freely in this way, but she also sold
+Unitarian books. It was in 1881 that she was made the secretary of the
+newly organized Women's Auxiliary in Cincinnati, and that her work really
+began systematically. At the suggestion of Mrs. Mary P. Wells Smith,
+advertisements were inserted in the daily papers, and offers made to send
+Unitarian publications, when requested. Many doubted the advisability of
+such an enterprise, but the letters received soon indicated that an
+important method of mission work had been discovered. Rev. William C.
+Gannett christened this work the Post-office Mission, and that name it has
+since retained.</p>
+
+<p>Only four and one-half years were permitted to Miss Ellis in which to
+accomplish her work,--a work dear to her heart, and one for which her many
+losses and sufferings had prepared her. During this period she wrote 2,500
+letters, sent out 22,000 tracts and papers, sold 286 books, and loaned 258.
+The real value of such work cannot be rightly estimated in figures. Through
+her influence, several young men entered the ministry who are to-day doing
+effective work. She saved several persons from doubt and despair, gave
+strength to the weak, and comfort to those who mourned. At her death, in
+1885, the letters received from many of her correspondents showed how
+strong and deep had been her influence.[<a href="#fn_12_3">3</a><a name="fr_12_3"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg291"></a>
+<p>The movement initiated by Miss Ellis grew rapidly, and has become one of
+the most valuable of all agents for the dissemination of liberal religious
+ideas. In the year 1900 the number of correspondents was about 5,000, and
+the number of tracts, sermons, periodicals, and books distributed was about
+200,000. The extent of this mission is also seen in the fact that in that
+year about 8,000 letters were written by the workers, and about 6,000 were
+received.</p>
+
+<p>By means of the Post-office Mission the literature of the denomination, the
+tracts of the Unitarian Association, copies of The Christian Register, and
+other periodicals have been scattered all over the world. Thousands of
+sermons are distributed also from tables in church vestibules. Several
+branches publish and exchange sermons, and a loan library has been
+established to supplement this work.[<a href="#fn_12_4">4</a><a name="fr_12_4"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>From the distribution of tracts and sermons has grown the formation of
+"Sunday Circles" and "Groups" of Unitarians, carefully planned circuit
+preaching, the employment of missionaries, and the building of chapels or
+small churches. Two of these are already built; and the Alliance has
+insured the support of their ministers for five years, and two others are
+in the process of erection.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn93"></a>Associate Alliances.</h3>
+
+<p>The women on the Pacific coast have been compelled in a large measure to
+organize their own work and to adopt their own methods, the distance being
+too great for immediate co-operation with the other organizations. In this
+work they have not only displayed energy and perseverance, but, says one
+<a name="pg292"></a>
+who knows intimately of their efforts, "they have shown executive ability
+and power as organizers that have furnished an example to many
+non-sectarian organizations of women, and have made the Unitarian women
+conspicuous in all charitable and social activities."</p>
+
+<p>The oldest society of Unitarian women on the Pacific coast was connected
+with the First Church in San Francisco. In 1873 it was reorganized as the
+Society for Christian Work. Its work has been mainly social and
+philanthropic, contributing reading matter to penal institutions, money for
+the care of the poor of the city, and aiding every new Unitarian church in
+the State. The Channing Auxiliary combines the activities of the churches
+in the vicinity of San Francisco with those in the city. Its objects are
+"moral and religious culture, practical literary work, and co-operation
+with the denominational and missionary agencies of the Unitarian faith."
+From 1890 to 1899 this society spent over $6,000 in aid of denominational
+enterprises, and it appropriates annually a large sum for Post-office
+Mission work. While these two organizations represent San Francisco and its
+neighborhood, the women up and down the coast have also been earnest
+workers. In 1890 they felt the need of a closer bond of union, and
+organized the Women's Unitarian Conference of the Pacific Coast. In 1894
+this conference became a branch of the National Alliance, and has
+co-operated cordially with it since that time.</p>
+
+<p>The New York League of Unitarian Women has been active in forming Alliance
+branches and new churches, as well as in affording aid to Meadville
+students. The Chicago Associate Alliance, the Southern Associate Alliance,
+<a name="pg293"></a>
+and the Connecticut Valley Associate Alliance were organized in 1890. The
+Worcester League of Unitarian Women began its existence in 1889, and was
+reorganized in connection with the National Alliance in 1892.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn94"></a>Alliance Methods.</h3>
+
+<p>In thus coming into closer relations with each other and forming a national
+organization, each local branch continues free in its own action, chooses
+its own methods of carrying on its work, but keeps close knowledge of what
+the Alliance as a whole is doing, that all interference with others and
+overlapping of assistance may be avoided, and the greatest mutual benefit
+may be secured. This method gives the utmost independence to the branches,
+while preserving the element of personal interest in all financial
+disbursements, and creates a strong bond of sympathy between those who give
+and those who receive.</p>
+
+<p>The first duty of each branch is to strengthen the church to which its
+members belong; and the value of such an organized group of women, meeting
+to exchange ideas and experiences on the most vital topics of human
+interest, has been everywhere recognized. Each branch is expected to engage
+in some form of religious study, not only for the improvement of the
+members themselves, but to enable them to gain, and to give others, a
+comprehensive knowledge of Unitarian beliefs. A study class committee
+provides programmes for the use of the branches, arranges for the lending
+and exchange of papers, and assists those who do not have access to books
+of reference or are remote from the centres of Unitarian thought and
+activity.</p>
+
+<p>With this preparation the Alliance undertakes the higher service of joining
+in the missionary activities of the denomination, supplementing as far as
+<a name="pg294"></a>
+possible the work of the American Unitarian Association. This includes
+sending missionaries into new fields, aiding small and struggling churches,
+helping to found new ones, supporting ministers at important points, and
+and distributing religious literature among those who need light on
+religious problems.</p>
+
+<p><br >[<a href="#fr_12_1">1</a><a name="fn_12_1"></a>] Memorial History of Boston, IV. 353.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_12_2">2</a><a name="fn_12_2"></a>] See later chapters for account of admission of women to National
+    Conference, Unitarian Association, the ministry, Boston school board,
+    and various other lines of activity.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_12_3">3</a><a name="fn_12_3"></a>] Mary P.W. Smith, Miss Ellis's Mission.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_12_4">4</a><a name="fn_12_4"></a>] This library is in the Unitarian Building, 25 Beacon Street, Boston.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<a name="pg295"></a>
+<h2><br ><a name="ch13"></a>XIII.<br >
+
+
+MISSIONS TO INDIA AND JAPAN.</h2>
+
+<p>Foreign missions have never commanded a general interest on the part of
+Unitarians. Their dislike of the proselyting spirit, their intense love of
+liberty for others as well as for themselves, and the absence of sectarian
+feeling have combined to make them, as a body, indifferent to the
+propagation of their faith in other countries. They have done something,
+however, to express their sympathy with those of kindred faith in foreign
+lands.</p>
+
+<p>In 1829 the younger Henry Ware visited England and Ireland as the foreign
+secretary of the Unitarian Association; and at the annual meeting of 1831
+he reported the results of his inquiries.[<a href="#fn_13_1">1</a><a name="fr_13_1"></a>] This was the beginning of
+<a name="pg296"></a>
+many interchanges of good fellowship with the Unitarians of Great Britain,
+and also with those of Hungary, Transylvania, France, Germany, and other
+European countries. During the first decade or two of the existence of the
+Unitarian Association much interest was taken in the liberal movements in
+Geneva; and the third annual report gave account of what was being done in
+that city and in Calcutta, as well as in Transylvania and Great Britain.
+Some years later, aid was promised to the Unitarians of Hungary in a time
+of persecution; but they were dispossessed of their schools before help
+reached them. In 1868 the Association founded Channing and Priestley
+professorships in the theological school at Kolozsvár, and Mrs. Anna
+Richmond furnished money for a permanent professorship in the same
+institution. Soon after the renewed activity of 1865 an unsuccessful
+attempt was made to establish an American Unitarian church in Paris; and
+aid was given to the founding of an English liberal church in that city.
+These are indications of the many interchanges of fellowship and
+helpfulness between the Unitarians of this country and those of Europe.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn95"></a>Society respecting the State of Religion in India.</h3>
+
+<p>As early as 1824 began a movement to aid the native Unitarians of India,
+partly the result of a lively interest in Rammohun Roy and the
+republication in this country of his writings. On June 7, 1822, The
+Christian Register gave an account of the adoption of Unitarianism by that
+remarkable Hindoo leader; and it often recurred to the subject in later
+years. In February of the next year it described the formation of a
+Unitarian society in Calcutta, and the conversion to Unitarianism of a
+Baptist missionary, Rev. William Adam, as a result of his attempt to
+<a name="pg297"></a>
+convert Rammohun Roy. There followed frequent reports of this movement, and
+after a few months a letter from Mr. Adam was published. Even before this
+there had appeared accounts of William Roberts, of Madras, a native Tamil,
+who had been educated in England, and had there become a Unitarian. On his
+return to his own country he had established small congregations in the
+suburbs of Madras.</p>
+
+<p>In 1823 a letter from Rev. William Adam was received in Boston, addressed
+to Dr. Channing. It was put into the hands of the younger Henry Ware, who
+wrote to Mr. Adam and Rammohun Roy, propounding to them a number of
+questions in regard to the religious situation in India. In 1824 were
+published in a volume the letter of Ware and the series of questions sent
+by him to India, together with the replies of Rammohun Roy and William
+Adam.[<a href="#fn_13_2">2</a><a name="fr_13_2"></a>] This book was one of much interest, and furnished the first
+systematic account that had been given to the public of the reformatory
+religious interest awakened at that time in India. In February, 1825, was
+organized the Society for obtaining Information respecting the State of
+Religion in India, "with a view to obtain and diffuse information and to
+devise and recommend means for the promotion of Christianity in that part
+of the world." The younger Henry Ware was made the president, and Dr.
+Tuckerman the secretary. Already a fund had been collected to aid the
+British Indian Unitarian Association of Calcutta in its missionary efforts,
+especially in building a church and maintaining a minister.</p>
+
+<a name="pg298"></a>
+<p>During the year 1825 there was published at the office of The Christian
+Register a pamphlet of sixty-three pages, written by a member of the
+Information Society, being An Appeal to Liberal Christians for the Cause of
+Christianity in India. In 1826 Dr. Tuckerman addressed A Letter on the
+Principles of the Missionary Enterprise to the executive committee of the
+Unitarian Association, in which he gave a noble exposition of the work of
+foreign missions, especially with reference to the Indian field. This
+letter and other writings of Tuckerman served to arouse much interest. The
+Appeal urged what many Unitarians had large faith in,--the promulgation of
+"just and rational views of our religion" "upon enlarged and liberal
+principles, from which we may hope for the speedy establishment and the
+wider extension there of the uncorrupted truth as it is in Jesus."</p>
+
+<p>In 1826 the sum of $7,000 was secured for this work; and in the spring of
+1827 a pledge was made to send yearly to Calcutta the sum of $600 for ten
+years. These pledges were in connection with like efforts made by the
+British and Foreign Unitarian Association. In 1839 Mr. Adam visited the
+United States, and spoke at the annual meeting of the Unitarian
+Association. Following this, he was for a few years professor of Oriental
+literature in Harvard University.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn96"></a>Dall's Work in India.</h3>
+
+<p>In 1853 Rev. Charles T. Brooks, who was for many years the minister of the
+church in Newport, visited India in search of health; and he was
+commissioned by the Unitarian Association to make inquiries as to the
+prospects for missionary labors in that country. In Madras he met William
+Roberts, the younger son of the former Unitarian preacher there and visited
+<a name="pg299"></a>
+the several missions carried on by him. In Calcutta he found Unitarians,
+but the work of Mr. Adam had left almost no results. The report of Mr.
+Brooks was such that an effort was at once made to secure a missionary for
+India.[<a href="#fn_13_3">3</a><a name="fr_13_3"></a>] In 1855 Rev. Charles H.A. Dall undertook this mission. He had
+been a minister at large in St. Louis, Baltimore, and Portsmouth, and
+settled over parishes in Needham and Toronto. Mr. Ball was given the widest
+liberty of action in conducting his mission, as his instructions indicate:
+"There you are to enter upon the work of a missionary; and whether by
+preaching, in English or through an interpreter, or by school-teaching or
+by writing for the press, or by visiting from house to house, or by
+translating tracts, or by circulation of books, you are instructed, what we
+know your heart will prompt you to do, to give yourself to a life of
+usefulness as a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ."</p>
+
+<p>On his arrival at Calcutta, Mr. Ball was in a prostrate condition, and had
+to be carried ashore. After a time he rallied and began his work. He
+gathered a small congregation about him, then began teaching; and his work
+grew until he had four large and flourishing schools under his charge. In
+these he gave special attention, to moral and religious training, and to
+the industrial arts. In his school work he had the efficient aid of Miss
+Chamberlain, and after her death of Mrs. Helen Tompkins. One of the native
+teachers, Dwarkanath Singha, was of great service in securing the interest
+of the natives, being at the head, for many years, of all the schools under
+Mr. Dall's control. Mr. Dall founded the Calcutta School of Industrial Art,
+<a name="pg300"></a>
+the Useful Arts' School, Hindoo Girls' School, as well as a school for the
+waifs of the streets. In these schools were 8,000 pupils, mostly Hindoos,
+who were taught a practical religion,--the simple principles of the gospel.
+In education Mr. Dall accomplished large results, not only by his schools,
+but by talking and lecturing on the subject. His influence was especially
+felt in the education of girls and in industrial training, in both of which
+directions he was a pioneer. Only one of his schools is now in existence,
+simply because the government took up the work he began, and gave it a
+larger support than was possible on the part of any individual or any
+society.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Dall wrote extensively for the leading journals of India, and in that
+way he reached a larger number of persons throughout the country. This
+brought him a large correspondence, and he frequently journeyed far to
+visit individuals and congregations thus brought to his knowledge. For many
+years he was one of the leading men of Calcutta. Few great public meetings
+of any reformatory or educational kind were held without his having a
+prominent part in them. He published great numbers of tracts and
+lectures,[<a href="#fn_13_4">4</a><a name="fr_13_4"></a>] and translated the works of the leading Unitarians of
+America and Great Britain into Hindostanee, Bengali, Tamil, Sanscrit, and
+other native languages. His zeal in circulating liberal writings was great,
+and met with a large reward. He distributed hundreds of copies of the
+complete Works of Dr. Channing, and these brought many persons to the
+<a name="pg301"></a>
+acceptance of Unitarianism. When Rev. Jabez T. Sunderland was in India, in
+1895-96, he found many traces of these volumes, even in remote parts of the
+country. When he was in Madras, a very intelligent Hindoo walked one
+hundred and fifty miles to procure of him a copy of Channing's biography to
+replace a copy received from Mr. Dall, which, had been reread and loaned
+until it was almost worn out.</p>
+
+<p>A considerable part of Mr. Ball's influence was in connection with the
+Brahmo-Somaj, in directing its religious, educational, and reformatory
+work. He did not make many nominal Unitarians; but he had a very large
+influence in shaping the life of India by his personal influence and by the
+weight of his religious character. Everywhere he was greatly beloved. He
+earned considerable sums as a reporter and author in aid of his mission,
+and he lived in a most abstemious manner in order to devote as much money
+as possible to his work.[<a href="#fn_13_5">5</a><a name="fr_13_5"></a>] In this devoted service he continued until
+his death, which took place July 18, 1886.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn97"></a>Recent Work in India.</h3>
+
+<p>Since the death of Mr. Dall the aid given to India by American Unitarians
+has been through the natives themselves. The work of Pundita, Ramabai has
+received considerable assistance, as has also that of Mozoomdar. Early in
+the year 1888, Rev. Brooke Herford, then minister of the Arlington Street
+Church in Boston, received from India a letter addressed "To the chief
+pastor of the Unitarian congregation at Boston." It proved to be from a
+young lawyer or pleader in Banda, North-west Provinces, named Akbar Masih.
+His father was an educated Mohammedan, who in early life had been converted
+<a name="pg302"></a>
+to Calvinistic Christianity, and had become a missionary. At the Calcutta
+University the son had outgrown the faith he had been taught; and a volume
+of Channing's Works, put in circulation by Mr. Dall, had given him the
+mental and spiritual teaching he desired. Tracts and books were sent him,
+and a correspondence followed. He read with great delight what he received,
+and in a year or two he desired to become a missionary. Mr. Herford sent
+him money, and he was employed to spend one-third of his time in the
+missionary service of Unitarianism. When Mr. Herford removed to London, the
+support of Akbar Masih was arranged for in England; and he has done a large
+work in preaching, lecturing, holding conferences, and publishing tracts
+and books.</p>
+
+<p>Nearly in the same week in which Mr. Herford received his first letter from
+Akbar Masih, Mr. Sunderland, in Ann Arbor, received one from Hajam Kissor
+Singh, Jowai, Khasi Hills, Assam. He was a young man employed by the
+government as a surveyor, was well educated, but belonged to one of the
+primitive tribes that retain their aboriginal religion and customs to a
+large extent. He had been taught orthodox Christianity, however; but it was
+not satisfactory to him. A Brahmo friend loaned him a copy of Channing, and
+furnished him with Mr. Dall's address. In the bundle of tracts sent him by
+Mr. Dall was a copy of The Unitarian, which led him to write to its editor,
+Mr. Sunderland. A correspondence followed, and the sending of many tracts
+and books. Mr. Singh began to talk of his new views to others, who gathered
+in his room on Sunday afternoons for religious inquiry and worship. Soon
+<a name="pg303"></a>
+there was a call for similar meetings in another village, and Mr. Singh
+began to serve as a lay-preacher. A church was organized in Jowai, and then
+a day school was opened. Tracts and books being necessary in order to carry
+on the work successfully, Mr. Sunderland raised the necessary money,
+printed them in Khasi at Ann Arbor, and forwarded them to Assam, thus
+greatly facilitating the labors of Mr. Singh and his assistants. Also,
+through the help of American Unitarians, Mr. Singh was able to secure the
+aid of two paid helpers. When Mr. Sunderland visited the Khasi Hills, in
+1895, as the agent of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association, he
+helped to ordain a regular pastor; and he found church buildings in five
+villages, day-schools in four, and religious circles meeting in eight or
+nine others. This mission is now being supported by the English Unitarians.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn98"></a>The Beginnings in Japan.</h3>
+
+<p>After the death of Mr. Dall it was not found desirable to continue his
+educational work, and the missionary activities in India naturally came
+under the jurisdiction of the British Unitarian Association. At the same
+time, Japan offered an inviting field for missionary effort, and one not
+hitherto occupied by Unitarians. In 1884 a movement began in that country,
+looking to the introduction of a rational Christianity, the leader being
+Yukichi Fukuzawa, a prominent statesman, head of the Keiogijiku University
+and editor of the leading newspaper. In 1886 Fumio Yano, after a visit to
+England, took up the same mission, and urged the adoption of Christianity
+as a moral force in the life of the nation. The latter interpreted
+Unitarianism as being the form of Christianity needed in Japan, and
+strongly urged its acceptance. Other prominent men joined with these two in
+<a name="pg304"></a>
+commending a rational Christianity to their countrymen. Not long afterwards
+the American Unitarian Association was asked to establish a mission in that
+country. In 1887 Rev. Arthur M. Knapp was sent to Japan to investigate the
+situation, and in the spring of 1889 he returned to report the results of
+his inquiries. He had; been welcomed; by the leading men, such as the
+Marquis Tokujawa and Kentaro Kaneko, who opened to him many avenues of
+influence. He had written for the most important newspapers, had come into
+personal contact with the leading men of all parties, had lectured; on many
+occasions to highly educated audiences, and had opened a wide-reaching
+correspondence.</p>
+
+<p>On his return to Japan, in 1889, Mr. Knapp was prepared to begin systematic
+work in behalf of rational Christianity. It was not his purpose, however,
+to seek to establish Unitarianism there as the basis of a new Japanese
+sect, but to diffuse it as a leaven for the moral and spiritual elevation
+of the people of Japan. "The errand of Unitarianism in Japan," said Mr.
+Knapp to the Japanese, "is based upon the familiar idea of the sympathy of
+religions. With the conviction that we are the messengers of distinctive
+and valuable truths which have not yet been emphasized, and that, in
+return, there is much in your faith and life which to our harm we have not
+emphasized, receive us not as theological propagandists, but as messengers
+of the new gospel of human brotherhood in the religion of man."</p>
+
+<p>With Mr. Knapp were associated Rev. Clay MacCauley as colleague, and also
+Garrett Droppers, John H. Wigmore, and William Shields Liscomb, who were to
+become, professors in the Keiogijiku, a leading university, situated in
+<a name="pg305"></a>
+Tokio, and to give such aid as they could to the Unitarian mission. With
+these men was soon associated Rev. H.W. Hawkes, a young English minister,
+who gave his services to this important work. There also accompanied the
+American party Mr. Saichiro Kanda, who had become a Unitarian while
+residing in San Francisco, and had attended the Meadville Theological
+School. In the winter of 1890-91, Mr. Knapp returned to the United States,
+and a little later Mr. Hawkes went back to England. In 1891 Rev. William I.
+Lawrance joined the mission force; and he continued with it until 1894,
+when a severe illness compelled his resignation. Professor Wigmore returned
+to America in 1892 to accept a chair in the North-western University;
+Professor Liscomb came home in 1893, dying soon after his return; while
+Professor Droppers remained until the winter of 1898, when he became the
+president of the University of South Dakota. In the beginning of 1900, Mr.
+MacCauley, after having had direction of the mission for nine years,
+returned to America; and it was left in control of the Japanese Unitarian
+Association, the American Association continuing to give it generous
+financial aid and counsel.</p>
+
+<p>As already indicated, the purpose of the mission has not been Unitarian
+propagandism as such. It has been that of religious enlightenment, the
+bringing to the Japanese, in a catholic and humanitarian spirit, of the
+body of religious truths and convictions known as Unitarianism, and then
+permitting them to organize themselves after the manner of their own
+national life. No churches were organized by the representatives of the
+American Unitarian Association. Those that have come into existence have
+been wholly at the initiative of the natives. Early in 1894 was erected, in
+<a name="pg306"></a>
+Tokio, Yuiitsukwan, or Unity Hall, with money furnished largely from the
+United States. This building serves as the headquarters for Unitarian work,
+including lectures and social and religious meetings. In 1896 was organized
+the Japanese Unitarian Association for the work of diffusing Unitarian
+principles throughout the country. The mission is organized into the three
+departments of church extension, publication, and education. Of this
+Association, Jitsunen Saji, formerly a prominent Buddhist lecturer and a
+member at present of the city council of Tokyo, is the superintendent. The
+secretary has been Saichiro Kanda, who has faithfully given his time to
+this work since he returned to Japan with the mission party, in 1889. The
+broad purposes of the Japanese Unitarian Association have been clearly
+defined in its constitution: "We desire to act in accordance with God's
+will, which we perceive by our inborn reason. We strive to follow the
+guidance of noble religion, exact science and philosophy, and to discover
+their truth. We believe it to be a natural law of the human mind to
+investigate freely all phenomena of the universe. We aim to maintain the
+peace of the world, and to promote the happiness of mankind. We endeavor to
+assert our rights, and to fulfil our duties as Japanese citizens; and to
+increase the prosperity of the country by all honorable means."</p>
+
+<p>Early in 1891 was begun the publication in Japanese of a magazine called at
+first The Unitarian, but afterwards Religion. The paid circulation was
+about 1,000 copies, but it was largely used as a tract for free
+distribution. In 1897 this magazine was merged into a popular religious
+monthly called Rikugo-Zasshi or Cosmos, which has a large circulation. It
+<a name="pg307"></a>
+is published at the headquarters of the Japanese Unitarian Association, and
+is the organ of the liberalizing work carried on by that institution. The
+Association has translated thirty or forty American and English
+tracts,--some have been added by native writers; and these were distributed
+to the number of 100,000 in 1900. A number of important liberal books,
+including Bixby's Crisis in Morals, Clarke's Steps in Belief, and Fiske's
+Idea of God, have been translated into Japanese, and obtain a ready sale.
+An extensive work of education, is carried on through the press, nearly all
+the leading journals having been freely open to the Unitarians since the
+beginning of the mission.</p>
+
+<p>The direct work of education has been the most important of all the phases
+of the mission's activities. A library of several thousand volumes,
+representing all phases of modern thought, has been collected in Unity
+Hall; and it is of great value to the teaching carried on there. Lectures
+are given every Sunday in Unity Hall, and listened to by large audiences.
+Much has been done in various parts of Tokyo, as well as elsewhere, to
+reach the student class, and educated persons in all classes of society;
+and many persons have thus been brought to an acceptance of Unitarianism.
+In 1890 were begun systematic courses of lectures, with a view to giving
+educated Japanese inquirers a thorough knowledge of modern religious ideas;
+and these grew into the Senshin Gakuin, or School of Advanced Learning, a
+theological school with seven professors, and an annual attendance of
+thirty or forty students, nearly all of whom have been graduates of
+colleges and universities. Unhappily, the failure of financial support
+compelled the abandonment of this school in 1898. The chief educational
+<a name="pg308"></a>
+work, however, has been done in the colleges and universities, through the
+general diffusion of liberal religious principles, and by the free spirit
+of inquiry characteristic of all educated Japanese.</p>
+
+<p>The success of the Japanese mission is chiefly due to Rev. Clay MacCauley,
+who gave it the wise direction and the organizing skill necessary to its
+permanent growth. It is a noble monument to his devotion, and to his
+untiring efforts for its advancement. His little book on Christianity in
+History is very popular, both in its English and Japanese versions; and
+thousands of copies are annually distributed.</p>
+
+<p>The results of the Japanese mission are especially evident in a general
+liberalizing of religious thought throughout the country in both the
+Buddhist and Christian communions, and in the wide-spread approval shown
+towards its methods and principles among the upper and student classes. Its
+chief gain, however, consists of the scholarly and influential men who have
+accepted the Unitarian faith, and given it their zealous support. Among
+these men are the late Hajime Onishi, president of the College of
+Literature in the new Imperial University at Kyoto; Nobuta Kishimoto,
+professor of ethics in the Imperial Normal School; Tomoyoshi Murai,
+professor of English in the Foreign Languages School of Japan; Iso Abe,
+professor in the Doshisha University; Kinza Hirai, professor in the
+Imperial Normal School; Yoshiwo Ogasawara, who is leading an extensive work
+of social and moral reform in Wakayama; Saburo Shimada, proprietor of the
+Mainichi, one of the largest daily newspapers of the empire; and Zennosuki
+Toyosaki, professor in the Kokumin Eigakukwai, and associate editor of the
+<a name="pg309"></a>
+Rikugo Zasshi.[<a href="#fn_13_6">6</a><a name="fr_13_6"></a>] These men are educating the Japanese people to know
+Christianity in its rational forms; and their influence is being rapidly
+extended throughout the country. In their hands the future of liberal
+religion in Japan is safe; and what they do for their own people is more
+certain of permanent results than anything that can be accomplished by
+foreigners. The real significance of the Japanese Unitarian mission is that
+it has inaugurated a new era in religious propagandism; that it has been
+for the followers of the religions traditional to Japan, as well as for
+those of the Christian missions, eminently a means for presenting them with
+the world's most advanced thought in religion, and that it has been a
+stimulus to a purer faith and a larger fellowship.</p>
+
+<p><br >[<a href="#fr_13_1">1</a><a name="fn_13_1"></a>] First Report of the Executive Committee of the American Unitarian
+    Association, 16. "The thoughts of the committee have been turned to
+    their brethren in other lands. A correspondence has been opened with
+    Unitarians in England, and the coincidence is worthy of notice, that
+    the British and Foreign Unitarian Association, and the American
+    Unitarian Association were organized on the same day, for the same
+    objects, and without the least previous concert. Our good wishes have
+    been reciprocated by the directors of the British Society. Letters
+    received from gentlemen who have recently visited England speak of
+    the interest which our brethren in that country feel for us, and of
+    their desire to strengthen the bonds of union. A constant
+    communication will be preserved between the two Associations and your
+    committee believe it will have a beneficial effect, by making us
+    better acquainted with one another, by introducing the publications
+    of each country into the other, by the influence which we shall
+    mutually exert, and by the strength which will be given to our
+    separate, or it may be, to our united efforts for the spread of the
+    glorious gospel of our Lord and Saviour."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_13_2">2</a><a name="fn_13_2"></a>] Correspondence relative to the Prospects of Christianity and the
+    Means of Promoting its Reception in India. Cambridge: Billiard &amp;
+    Metcalfe. 1824. 138 pp.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_13_3">3</a><a name="fn_13_3"></a>] Christian Examiner, LXIII 36, India's Appeal to Christian Unitarians,
+    by Rev. C.T. Brooks.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_13_4">4</a><a name="fn_13_4"></a>] Some Gospel Principles, in Ten Lectures, by C.H.A. Dall, Calcutta,
+    1856. Also see The Mission to India instituted by the American
+    Unitarian Association. Boston: Office of the Quarterly Journal.
+    1857.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_13_5">5</a><a name="fn_13_5"></a>] See Out Indian Mission and Our First Missionary, by Rev. John H.
+    Heywood, Boston, 1887.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_13_6">6</a><a name="fn_13_6"></a>] The Unitarian Movement in Japan: Sketches of the Lives and Religious
+    Work of Ten Representative Japanese. Tokyo, 1900.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<a name="pg310"></a>
+<h2><br ><a name="ch14"></a>XIV.<br >
+
+
+THE MEADVILLE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL.</h2>
+
+<p>In a few years after the movement began for the organization of churches
+west of the Hudson River, the needs of theological instruction for
+residents of that region were being discussed. In 1827 the younger Henry
+Ware was interested in a plan of uniting Unitarians and "the Christian
+connection" in the establishment of a theological school, to be located in
+the eastern part of the state of New York. In July of that year he wrote to
+a friend: "We have had; no little talk here within a few days respecting a
+new theological school. Many of us think favorably of the plan, and are
+disposed to patronize it, if feasible, but are a little fearful that it is
+not. Others start strong objections to it <i>in toto</i>. Something must be done
+to gain us an increase of ministers."[<a href="#fn_14_1">1</a><a name="fr_14_1"></a>] This proposition came from the
+Christians, and their plan was to locate the school on the Hudson.</p>
+
+<p>Although this project came to nothing for the time being, it was revived a
+decade later. When the Unitarian Association had entered upon its active
+missionary efforts west of the Alleghanies, the new impulse to
+denominational life manifested itself in a wide-spread desire for an
+increase in the number of workers available for the western field. The
+establishment of a liberal theological school in that region was felt to be
+<a name="pg311"></a>
+almost a necessity, if the opportunities everywhere opening there for the
+dissemination of a purer faith were not to be neglected. Plans were
+therefore formed about 1836 for the founding of a theological school at
+Buffalo under the direction of Rev. George W. Hosmer, then the minister in
+that city; but, business becoming greatly depressed the following year, the
+project was abandoned. In 1840 the importance of such a school was again
+causing the western workers to plan for its establishment, this time in
+Cincinnati or Louisville; but this expectation also failed of realization.
+Then Rev. William G. Eliot, of St. Louis, undertook to provide a
+theological education for such young men as might apply to him. But the
+response to his offer was so slight as to indicate that there was little
+demand for such instruction.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn99"></a>The Beginnings in Meadville.</h3>
+
+<p>The demand for a school had steadily grown since the year 1827, and the fit
+occasion only was awaited for its establishment. It was found at Meadville,
+Penn., in the autumn of 1844. In order to understand why it should have
+been founded in this country village instead of one of the growing and
+prosperous cities of the west, it is necessary to give a brief account of
+the origin and growth of the Meadville church. The first Unitarian church
+organized west of the Alleghanies was that in Meadville, and it had its
+origin in the religious experiences of one man. The founder of this church,
+Harm Jan Huidekoper, was born in the district of Drenthe, Holland, at the
+village of Hogeveen, in 1776. At the age of twenty he came to the United
+States; and in 1804 he became the agent of the Holland Land Company in the
+<a name="pg312"></a>
+north-western counties of Pennsylvania, and established himself at
+Meadville, then a small village. He was successful in his land operations,
+and was largely influential in the development of that part of the state.
+When his children were of an age to need religious instruction, he began to
+study the Bible with a view to deciding what he could conscientiously teach
+them. He had become a member of the Reformed Church in his native land, and
+he had attended the Presbyterian church in Meadville; but he now desired to
+form convictions based on his own inquiries. "When I had become a father,"
+he wrote, "and saw the time approaching when I should have to give
+religious instruction to my children, I felt it to be my duty to give this
+subject a thorough examination. I accordingly commenced studying the
+Scriptures, as being the only safe rule of the Christian's faith; and the
+result was, that I soon acquired clear, and definite views as to the
+leading doctrines of the Christian religion. But the good I derived from
+these studies has not been confined to giving me clear ideas as to the
+Christian doctrines. They created in me a strong and constantly increasing
+interest in religion itself, not as mere theory, but as a practical rule of
+<a name="pg313"></a>
+life."[<a href="#fn_14_2">2</a><a name="fr_14_2"></a>] As the result of this study, he arrived at the conclusion that
+the Bible does not teach the doctrines of the Trinity, the total depravity
+of man, and the vicarious atonement of Christ. Solely from the careful
+reading of the Bible with reference to each of the leading doctrines he had
+been taught, he became a Unitarian.</p>
+
+<p>With the zeal of a new convert Mr. Huidekoper began to talk about his new
+faith, and he brought it to the attention of others with the enthusiasm of
+a propagandist. In conversation, by means of the distribution of tracts,
+and with the aid of the press he extended the liberal faith. He could not
+send his children to the church he had attended, and he therefore secured
+tutors for them from Harvard College who were preparing for the ministry;
+and in October, 1825, one of these tutors began holding Unitarian services
+in Meadville.[<a href="#fn_14_3">3</a><a name="fr_14_3"></a>] In May, 1829, a church was organized, and a goodly
+number of thoughtful men and women connected themselves with it. But this
+movement met with persistent opposition, and a vigorous controversy was
+carried on in the local papers and by means of pamphlets. This was
+increased when, in 1830, Ephraim Peabody, afterwards settled in Cincinnati,
+New Bedford, and at King's Chapel in Boston, became the minister, and
+entered upon an active effort for the extension of Unitarianism. With the
+first of January, 1831, he began the publication of the Unitarian Essayist,
+<a name="pg314"></a>
+a small monthly pamphlet, in which the leading theological questions were
+discussed. In a few months Mr. Peabody went to Cincinnati; and the Essayist
+was continued by Mr. Huidekoper, who wrote with vigor and directness on the
+subjects he had carefully studied.</p>
+
+<p>In 1831 the church for the first time secured an ordained minister, and
+three years later one who gave his whole time to its service.[<a href="#fn_14_4">4</a><a name="fr_14_4"></a>] A church
+building was erected in 1836, and the prosperity of the congregation was
+thereby much increased. In 1843 a minister of the Christian connection,
+Rev. E.G. Holland, became the pastor for a brief period. At this time
+Frederic Huidekoper, a son of the founder of the Unitarian church in
+Meadville, had returned from his studies in the Harvard Divinity School and
+in Europe, and was ordained in Meadville, October 12, 1843. It was his
+purpose to become a Unitarian evangelist in the region about Meadville, but
+his attention was soon directed by Rev. George W. Hosmer to the importance
+of furnishing theological instruction to young men preparing for the
+Unitarian ministry. He was encouraged in this undertaking by Mr. Holland,
+who pointed out to him the large patronage that might be expected from the
+Christian body. It was at first intended that Mr. Huidekoper should give
+the principal instruction, and that he should be assisted by the pastor of
+the Independent Congregational Church (Unitarian) and by Mr. Hosmer, who
+was to come from Buffalo for a few weeks each year, exchanging pulpits with
+the Meadville minister. When the opening of the school was fixed for the
+autumn of 1844, the prospective number of applicants was so large as to
+<a name="pg315"></a>
+necessitate a modification of the proposed plan; and it was deemed wise to
+secure a competent person to preside over the school and to become the
+minister of the church. Through the active co-operation of the American
+Unitarian Association, Rev. Rufus P. Stebbins, then settled at Leominster,
+Mass., was secured for this double service.</p>
+
+<p>The students present at the opening of the school on the first day of
+October, 1844, were but five; but this number was increased to nine during
+the year. The next year the number was twenty-three, nine of them from New
+England. For several years the Christian connection furnished a
+considerable proportion of the students, and took a lively interest in the
+establishment and growth of the school, although contributing little or
+nothing to its pecuniary support. It was also represented on the board of
+instruction by a non-resident lecturer. At this time the Christian body had
+no theological school of its own, and many of its members even looked with
+disfavor upon all ministerial education. What brought them into some degree
+of sympathy with Unitarians of that day was their rejection of binding
+creeds and their acceptance of Christian character as the only test of
+Christian fellowship, together with their recognition of the Bible,
+interpreted by every man for himself, as the authoritative standard of
+religious truth. The churches of this denomination in the northern states
+were also pronounced in their rejection of the doctrines of the Trinity and
+predestination. Unitarians themselves have not been more strenuous in the
+defence of the principle of religious liberty than were the leaders among
+the Christians of the last generation. The two bodies also joined in the
+<a name="pg316"></a>
+management of Antioch College, in southern Ohio; and when Horace Mann
+became its president in 1852, he was made a minister of the Christian
+connection, in order that he might work more effectually in the promotion
+of its interests.</p>
+
+<p>The Meadville school began its work in a simple way, with few instructors
+and a limited course of study. Mr. Stebbins taught the Old Testament,
+Hebrew, Biblical antiquities, natural and revealed religion, mental and
+moral philosophy, systematic theology, and pulpit eloquence. Mr. Huidekoper
+gave instruction in the New Testament, hermeneutics, ecclesiastical
+history, Latin, Greek, and German. Mr. Hosmer lectured on pastoral care for
+a brief period during each year. A building for the school was provided by
+the generosity of the elder Huidekoper; and the expenses of board,
+instruction, rent, fuel, etc., were reduced to $30 per annum. Many of the
+students had received little education, and they needed a preliminary
+training in the most primary studies. Nevertheless, the school at once
+justified its establishment, and sent out many capable men, even from among
+those who came to it with the least preparation.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Stebbins was president of the school for ten years. During his term of
+service the school was incorporated by the legislature of Pennsylvania in
+the spring of 1846. The charter was carefully drawn with a view to securing
+freedom in its administration. No denominational name appeared in the act
+of incorporation, and the original board of trustees included Christians as
+well as Unitarians. Dr. Stebbins was an admirable man to whom to intrust
+the organization of the school, for he was a born teacher and a masterful
+administrator. He was prompt, decisive, a great worker, a powerful
+<a name="pg317"></a>
+preacher, an inspirer of others, and his students warmly admired and
+praised him.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn100"></a>The Growth of the School.</h3>
+
+<p>The next president of the school was Oliver Stearns, who held the office
+from 1856 to 1863. He was a student, a true and just thinker, of great
+moral earnestness, fine discrimination, and with a gift for academic
+organization. He was a man of a strong and deep personality, and his
+spiritual influence was profound. He had been settled at Northampton and
+over the third parish in Hingham before entering upon his work at
+Meadville. In 1863 he went to the Harvard Divinity School as the professor
+of pulpit eloquence and pastoral care until 1869, when he became the
+professor of theology; and from 1870 to 1878 he was the dean of the school.
+He was a preacher who "held and deserved a reputation among the foremost,"
+for his preaching was "pre-eminently spiritual." "In his relations to the
+divinity schools that enjoyed his services, it is impossible to
+over-estimate the extent, accuracy, and thoroughness of his scholarship,
+and his unwearying devotion to his work."[<a href="#fn_14_5">5</a><a name="fr_14_5"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>During Dr. Stearns' administration the small building originally occupied
+by the school was outgrown; and Divinity Hall was built on land east of the
+town, donated by Professor Frederic Huidekoper, and first occupied in 1861.
+In 1857 began a movement to elevate, the standard of admission to the
+school, in order that its work might be of a more advanced character. To
+meet the needs of those not able to accept this higher standard, a
+preparatory department was established in 1858, which was continued until
+1867.</p>
+
+<a name="pg318"></a>
+<p>Rev. Abiel A. Livermore became the president of the school in 1863, and he
+remained in that position until 1890. He had been settled in Keene,
+Cincinnati, and Yonkers before going to Meadville. He was a Christian of
+the finest type, a true gentleman, and a noble friend. Under his direction
+the school grew in all directions, the course of study being largely
+enriched by the addition of new departments. In 1863 church polity and
+administration, including a study of the sects of Christendom, was made a
+special department. In 1868 the school opened its doors to women, and it
+has received about thirty women for a longer or shorter term of study. In
+1872 the academic degree of Bachelor of Divinity was offered for the first
+time to those completing the full course. In 1879 the philosophy of
+religion, and also the comparative study of religions, received the
+recognition they deserve. The same year ecclesiastical jurisprudence became
+a special department. In 1882 Rev. E.E. Hale lectured on charities, and
+from that time this subject has been systematically treated in connection
+with philanthropies. A movement was begun in 1889 to endow a professorship
+in memory of Dr. James Freeman Clarke, which was successful. These
+successive steps indicate the progress made under the faithful
+administration of Dr. Livermore. He became widely known to Unitarians by
+his commentaries on the books of the New Testament, as well as by his other
+writings, including volumes of sermons and lectures.</p>
+
+<p>In 1890 George L. Cary, who had been for many years the professor of New
+Testament literature, became the president of the school, a position he
+held for ten years. Under his leadership the school has largely advanced
+its standard of scholarship, outgrown studies have been discarded, while
+<a name="pg319"></a>
+new ones have been added. New professorships and lectureships have been
+established, and the endowment of the school has been greatly increased.
+Huidekoper Hall, for the use of the library, was erected in 1890, and other
+important improvements have been added to the equipment of the school. In
+1892 the Adin Ballou lectureship of practical Christian sociology was
+established, and in 1895 the Hackley professorship of sociology and ethics.</p>
+
+<p>From the time of its establishment the Huidekoper family have been devoted
+friends and benefactors of the Theological School.[<a href="#fn_14_6">6</a><a name="fr_14_6"></a>] Frederic Huidekoper
+occupied the chair of New Testament literature from 1844 to 1855, and from
+1863 to 1877 that of ecclesiastical history. His services were given wholly
+without remuneration, and his benefactions to the school were numerous. He
+also added largely to the Brookes Fund for the distribution of Unitarian
+books. His historical writings made him widely known to scholars, and added
+to the reputation of the school. His Belief of the First Three Centuries
+concerning Christ's Mission to the Underworld appeared in 1853; Judaism at
+Rome, 1876; and Indirect Testimony of History to the Genuineness of the
+Gospels, 1879. He also republished at his own expense many valuable works
+that were out of print.</p>
+
+<p>Among the other professors have been Rev. Nathanial S. Folsom, who was in
+charge of the department of Biblical literature from 1848 to 1861. Of the
+<a name="pg320"></a>
+regular lecturers have been Rev. Charles H. Brigham, Rev. Amory D. Mayo,
+and Dr. Thomas Hill. There has been an intimate relation between the
+Meadville church and the Theological School, and several of the pastors
+have been instructors and lecturers in the Theological School, including
+Rev. J.C. Zachos, Rev. James T. Bixby, and Rev. James M. Whiton. The
+Christian denomination has been represented among the lecturers by Rev.
+David Millard and Rev. Austin Craig.</p>
+
+<p>The whole number of graduates of the Meadville Theological School up to
+April, 1902, has been 267; and eighty other students have entered the
+ministry. At the present time 156 of its students are on the roll of
+Unitarian ministers. Thirty-two of its students served in the civil war,
+twenty per cent of its graduates previous to the close of the war being
+engaged in it as privates, chaplains, or in some other capacity. The
+endowment of the school has steadily increased until it now is somewhat
+more than $600,000.</p>
+
+<p><br >[<a href="#fr_14_1">1</a><a name="fn_14_1"></a>] Memoir of Henry Ware, Jr. 202.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_14_2">2</a><a name="fn_14_2"></a>] J.F. Clarke, Christian Examiner, September, 1854, LVII. 310. "Mr.
+    Huidekoper had the satisfaction, in the later years of his life, of
+    seeing a respectable society worshipping in the tasteful building
+    which he loved and of witnessing the prosperity of the theological
+    school in which he was so much interested. We have never known any
+    one who seemed to live so habitually in the presence of God. The form
+    which his piety mostly took was that of gratitude and reliance. His
+    trust in the Divine goodness was like that of a child in its mother.
+    His cheerful views, of this life and of the other, his simple tastes,
+    his enjoyment of nature, his happiness in society, his love for
+    children, his pleasure in doing good, his tender affection for those
+    nearest to him,--these threw a warm light around his last days and
+    gave his home the aspect of a perpetual Sabbath. A well-balanced
+    activity of faculties contributed still more to his usefulness and
+    happiness. He was always a student, occupying every vacant hour with
+    a book, and so had attained a surprising knowledge of biography and
+    history." Mr. Huidekoper died in Meadville, May 22, 1854.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_14_3">3</a><a name="fn_14_3"></a>] John M. Merrick, afterwards settled in Hardwick and Walpole, Mass.,
+    who was in Mr. Huidekoper's family from October, 1825, to October,
+    1827. He was succeeded by Andrew P. Peabody, who did not preach. In
+    1828-30 Washington Gilbert, who had settlements in Harvard, Lincoln,
+    and West Newton, was the tutor and preacher.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_14_4">4</a><a name="fn_14_4"></a>] Rev. George Nichols, July, 1831, to July, 1832; Rev. Alanson Brigham,
+    who died in Meadville, August 24, 1833; Rev. John Quincy Day,
+    October, 1834, to September, 1837.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_14_5">5</a><a name="fn_14_5"></a>] A.P. Peabody, Harvard Reminiscences, 165, 166</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_14_6">6</a><a name="fn_14_6"></a>] The first treasurer of the school was Edgar Huidekoper, who was
+    succeeded by Professor F. Huidekoper, and he in turn by Edgar
+    Huidekoper, the son of the first treasurer. Among the other generous
+    friends and benefactors of the school have been Alfred Huidekoper,
+    Miss Elizabeth Huidekoper, and Mrs. Henry P. Kidder.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<a name="pg321"></a>
+<h2><br ><a name="ch15"></a>XV.<br >
+
+
+UNITARIAN PHILANTHROPIES.</h2>
+
+<p>The liberal movement in religion was characterized in its early period by
+its humanitarianism. As theology grew less important for it, there was an
+increase in its philanthropy. With the waning of the sectarian spirit there
+was a growth in desire for practical reforms. The awakened interest in man
+and enlarged faith in his spiritual capacities showed itself in efforts to
+improve his social condition. No one expressed this tendency more perfectly
+than Dr. Channing, though he was a spiritual teacher rather than a reformer
+or philanthropist.</p>
+
+<p>Any statement concerning the charities in connection with which Channing
+was active will give the most inadequate idea of his actual influence in
+this direction. He was greatly interested in promoting the circulation of
+the Bible, in aiding the cause of temperance, and in bringing freedom to
+the slave. His biographer says that his thoughts were continually becoming
+concentrated more and more upon the terrible problem of pauperism, "and he
+saw more clearly each year that what the times demanded was that the axe
+should be laid at the very root of ignorance, temptation and strife by
+substituting for the present unjust and unequal distribution of the
+privileges of life some system of cordial, respectful brotherly
+co-operation."[<a href="#fn_15_1">1</a><a name="fr_15_1"></a>] His interest in education was most comprehensive, and
+<a name="pg322"></a>
+he sought its advancement in all directions with the confident faith that
+it would help to uplift all classes and make them more truly human.[<a href="#fn_15_2">2</a><a name="fr_15_2"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn101"></a>Unitarian Charities.</h3>
+
+<p>The liberals of New England, in the early years of the nineteenth century,
+were not mere theorizers in regard to human helpfulness and the application
+of Christianity to life; for they endeavored to realize the spirit of
+charity and service. Largely under their leadership the Massachusetts Bible
+Society was organized in 1809. A more distinctly charitable undertaking was
+the Fragment Society, organized in 1812 to help the poor by the
+distribution of garments, the lending of bedding to the sick and clothes to
+children in charity schools, as well as the providing of such children with
+shoes. This society also undertook to provide Bibles for the poor who had
+none. Under the leadership of Rev. Joseph Tuckerman, then settled in
+Chelsea, there was organized, May 11, 1812, the Boston Society for the
+Religious and Moral Improvement of Seamen, "to distribute tracts of a
+religious and moral kind for the use of seamen, and to establish a regular
+divine service on board of our merchant vessels." In 1813 the Massachusetts
+Society for the Suppression of Intemperance, in 1815 the Massachusetts
+Peace Society, and at about the same time the Society for the Employment of
+the Poor came into existence.</p>
+
+<p>Of the early Unitarians Rev. Octavius B. Frothingham justly said: "They all
+had a genuine desire to render the earthly lot of mankind tolerable. It is
+not too much to say that they started every one of our best secular
+<a name="pg323"></a>
+charities. The town of Boston had a poor-house, and nothing more until the
+Unitarians initiated humane institutions for the helpless, the blind, the
+insane. The Massachusetts General Hospital (1811), the McLean Asylum for
+the Insane (1818), the Perkins Blind Asylum (1832), the Female Orphan
+Asylum (1800), were of their devising."[<a href="#fn_15_3">3</a><a name="fr_15_3"></a>] What this work meant was well
+stated by Dr. Andrew P. Peabody, when he said there was "probably no city
+in the world where there had been more ample provision for the poor than in
+Boston, whether by private alms-giving, benevolent organizations, or public
+institutions."[<a href="#fn_15_4">4</a><a name="fr_15_4"></a>] Nor was this altruistic spirit manifested alone in
+Boston, for Mr. Frothingham quotes the saying of a lady to Dr. E.E. Hale:
+"A Unitarian church to you merely means one more name on your calendar. To
+the people in this town it means better books, better music, better
+sewerage, better health, better life, less drunkenness, more purity, and
+better government."[<a href="#fn_15_5">5</a><a name="fr_15_5"></a>] The Unitarian conception of the relations of
+altruism and religion was pertinently stated by Dr. J.T. Kirkland,
+president of Harvard College during the early years of the nineteenth
+century, when he said that "we have as much piety as charity, and no
+more."[<a href="#fn_15_6">6</a><a name="fr_15_6"></a>] One who knew intimately of the work of the ministry at large
+has truly said of the labors of Dr. Tuckerman: "From the beginning he had
+the moral and pecuniary support of the leaders of life in Boston; her first
+merchants and her statesmen were watching these experiments with a curious
+interest, and although he was often so radical as to startle the most
+conservative notions of men engaged in trade, or learned in the
+<a name="pg324"></a>
+old-fashioned science of government, there was that in the persistence of
+his life and the accuracy of his method which engaged their support."[<a href="#fn_15_7">7</a><a name="fr_15_7"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Another instance of Unitarian philanthropy is to be found in the support
+given to Rev. Edward T. Taylor, usually known as "Father Taylor," in his
+work for sailors. When he went to Boston in 1829 to begin his mission, the
+first person he visited was Dr. Channing, and the second Ralph Waldo
+Emerson, then a settled pastor in the city. Both of these men made generous
+contributions to his mission, and aided him in securing the attention of
+wealthy contributors.[<a href="#fn_15_8">8</a><a name="fr_15_8"></a>] In fact, his Bethel was almost wholly supported
+by Unitarians. For thirty years Mr. Albert Fearing was the president of the
+Boston Port Society, organized for the support of Taylor's Seamen's Bethel.
+The corresponding secretary was Mr. Henry Parker. Among other Unitarian
+supporters of this work was Hon. John A. Andrew.[<a href="#fn_15_9">9</a><a name="fr_15_9"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>We have no right to assume that the Unitarians alone were philanthropic,
+but they had the wealth and the social position to make their efforts in
+this direction thoroughly effective.[<a href="#fn_15_10">10</a><a name="fr_15_10"></a>] That the results were beneficent
+may be understood from the testimony of Mrs. Horace Mann. "The liberal
+sects of Boston," she wrote to a friend, "quite carried the day at that
+time in works of benevolence and Christian charity. They took care of the
+needy without regard to sectarianism. Such women as Helen Loring and
+Elizabeth Howard, (Mrs. Cyrus A. Bartol), Dorothea Dix, Mary Pritchard
+<a name="pg325"></a>
+(Mrs. Henry Ware), and many others less known to the world, but equally
+devoted to the work, with many youthful coadjutors, took care of the poor
+wonderfully."[<a href="#fn_15_11">11</a><a name="fr_15_11"></a>] After spending several weeks in Boston in 1842, and
+giving careful attention to the charities and philanthropies of the city,
+Charles Dickens wrote: "I sincerely believe that the public institutions
+and charities of this capital of Massachusetts are as nearly perfect as the
+most considerate wisdom, benevolence, humanity, can make them. I never in
+my life was more affected by the contemplation of happiness, under
+circumstances of privation and bereavement, than in my visits to these
+establishments."[<a href="#fn_15_12">12</a><a name="fr_15_12"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn102"></a>Education of the Blind.</h3>
+
+<p>The pioneer in the work of educating the blind and the deaf was Dr. Samuel
+G. Howe, who had been one of those who in 1824 went to Greece to aid in the
+establishment of Greek independence. On his return, in 1832, he became
+acquainted with European methods of teaching the blind; and in that year he
+opened the Massachusetts School and Asylum for the Blind, "the pioneer of
+such establishments in America, and the most illustrious of its class in
+the world."[<a href="#fn_15_13">13</a><a name="fr_15_13"></a>] In his father's house in Pleasant Street, Dr. Howe began
+his school with a few pupils, prepared books for them, and then set about
+raising money to secure larger facilities. Colonel Thomas H. Perkins, of
+Boston, gave his house in Pearl Street, valued at $50,000, on condition
+that a like sum should be contributed for the maintenance of the school. In
+<a name="pg326"></a>
+six weeks the desired sum was secured, and the school was, afterwards known
+as the Perkins Institution for the Blind. Dr. Howe addressed seventeen
+state legislatures on the education of the blind, with the result of
+establishing schools similar to his own. His arduous task, however, was
+that of providing the blind with books; and he used his great inventive
+skill in perfecting the necessary methods. He succeeded in making it
+comparatively easy to print books for the blind, and therefore made it
+possible to have a library of such works.</p>
+
+<p>In the autumn of 1837 Dr. Howe discovered Laura Bridgman, who had only the
+one sense of touch remaining in a normal condition; and his remarkable
+success, in her education made him famous. In connection with her and other
+pupils he began the process of teaching the deaf to use articulate speech,
+and all who have followed him in this work have but extended and perfected
+his methods. While teaching the blind and deaf, Dr. Howe found those who
+were idiotic; and he began to study this class of persons about 1840, and
+to devise methods for their education. As a member of the Massachusetts
+legislature in 1846, he secured the appointment of a commission to
+investigate the condition of the idiotic; and for this commission he wrote
+the report. In 1847, the state having made an appropriation for the
+teaching of idiotic, children, ten of them were taught at the Blind Asylum,
+under the care of Dr. Howe. In 1851 a separate school was provided for such
+children.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Howe was called "the Massachusetts philanthropist," but his
+philanthropy was universal in its humanitarian aims. He gave large and
+<a name="pg327"></a>
+faithful attention, in 1845 and later, to prisons and prisoners; he was a
+zealous friend of the slave and the freedman; and in 1864 he devoted
+arduous service to the reform of the state charities of Massachusetts. His
+biographer justly says of his spirit of universal philanthropy: "He joined
+in the movement in Boston which abolished imprisonment for debt; he was an
+early and active member of the Boston Prison Discipline Society, which once
+did much service; and for years, when interest in prison reform was at a
+low ebb in Massachusetts, the one forlorn relict of that once powerful
+organization, a Prisoner's Aid Society, used to hold its meetings in Dr.
+Howe's spacious chamber in Bromfield Street. He took an early interest in
+the care of the insane, with which his friends Horace Mann, Dr. Edward
+Jarvis, and Dorothea Dix were greatly occupied; and in later years he
+introduced some most useful methods of caring for the insane in
+Massachusetts. He favored the temperance reform, and wrote much as a
+physician on the harm done to individuals and to the human stock by the use
+of alcoholic liquors. He stood with Father Taylor of the Seamen's Bethel in
+Boston for the salvation of the sailors and their protection from cruel
+punishments, and he was one of those who almost abolished the flogging of
+children in schools. During his whole career as a reformer of public
+schools in New England, Horace Mann had no friend more intimate or helpful
+than Dr. Howe, nor one whose support was more indispensable to Mann
+himself."[<a href="#fn_15_14">14</a><a name="fr_15_14"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Howe was an attendant upon the preaching of Theodore Parker, and was
+his intimate friend. In after years he was a member of the congregation of
+<a name="pg328"></a>
+James Freeman Clarke at the Church of the Disciples. "After our return to
+America," says Mrs. Howe of the year 1844, "my husband went often to the
+Melodeon, where Parker preached until he took possession of the Music Hall.
+The interest which my husband showed in these services led me in time to
+attend them, and I remember as among the great opportunities of my life the
+years in which I listened to Theodore Parker."[<a href="#fn_15_15">15</a><a name="fr_15_15"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn103"></a>Care of the Insane.</h3>
+
+<p>Another among the many persons who came under the influence of Dr. Channing
+was Dorothea Dix, who, as a teacher of his children, lived for many months
+in his family and enjoyed his intimate friendship. Her biographer says:
+"She had drunk in with passionate faith Dr. Channing's fervid insistence on
+the presence in human nature, even under its most degraded types, of germs,
+at least, of endless spiritual development. But it was the characteristic
+of her own mind that it tended not to protracted speculation, but to
+immediate, embodied action."[<a href="#fn_15_16">16</a><a name="fr_15_16"></a>] Her work for the insane was the
+expression of the deep faith in humanity she had been taught by Channing.</p>
+
+<p>When she entered upon her humanitarian efforts, but few hospitals for the
+insane existed in the country. A notable exception was the McLean Asylum at
+Somerville, which had been built as the result of that same philanthropic
+spirit that had led the Unitarians to establish the many charities already
+mentioned in these pages. In March, 1841, Miss Dix visited the House of
+Correction in East Cambridge; and for the wretched condition of the
+inmates, she at once set to work to provide remedies. Then she visited the
+<a name="pg329"></a>
+jails and alms-houses in many parts of the state, and presented a memorial
+to the legislature recounting what she had found and asking for reforms.
+She was met by bitter opposition; but such persons as Samuel G. Howe, Dr.
+Channing, Horace Mann, and John G. Palfrey came to her aid. The bill
+providing for relief to the insane came into the hands of a committee of
+which Dr. Howe was the chairman, and he energetically pushed it forward to
+enactment. Thus Miss Dix began her crusade against an enormous evil.</p>
+
+<p>In 1845 Miss Dix reported that in three years she had travelled ten
+thousand miles, visited eighteen state penitentiaries, three hundred jails
+and houses of correction, and five hundred almshouses and other
+institutions, secured the establishment or enlargement of six hospitals for
+the insane, several county poorhouses, and several jails on a reformed
+plan. She visited every state east of the Rocky Mountains, and also the
+British Provinces, to secure legislation in behalf of the insane. She
+secured the erection of hospitals or other reformatory action in Rhode
+Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee,
+Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina, Nova Scotia, and
+Newfoundland. Her labors also secured the establishment of a hospital for
+the insane of the army and navy, near Washington. All this was the work of
+nine years.</p>
+
+<p>In 1853 Miss Dix gave her attention to providing an adequate life-saving
+equipment for Sable Island, one of we most dangerous places to seamen on
+the Atlantic coast; and this became the means of saving many lives. In 1854
+she went to England for needed rest; but almost at once she took up her
+humanitarian work, this time in Scotland, where she secured a commission of
+<a name="pg330"></a>
+inquiry, which in 1857 resulted in reformatory legislation on the part of
+Parliament. In 1855 she visited the island of Jersey, and secured great
+improvements in the care of the insane. Later in that year she visited
+Switzerland for rest, but in a few weeks was studying the charities of
+Paris and then those of Italy. In Rome she had two interviews with the
+pope, and the erection of a new hospital for the insane on modern
+principles resulted. Speaking only English, and without letters of
+introduction, she visited the insane hospitals and the prisons of Greece,
+Turkey, Austria, Sclavonia, Russia, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark,
+Holland, and Belgium. "Day by day she patiently explored the asylums,
+prisons, and poor-houses of every place in which she set her foot, glad to
+her heart's core when she found anything to commend and learn a lesson
+from, and patiently striving, where she struck the traces of ignorance,
+neglect, or wrong, to right the evil by direct appeal to the highest
+authorities."</p>
+
+<p>On her return home, in September, 1856, she was met by many urgent appeals
+for help in enlarging hospitals and erecting new ones; and she devoted her
+time until the outbreak of the civil war in work for the insane in the
+southern and middle north-western states. As soon as the troops were
+ordered to Washington, she went there and offered her services as a nurse,
+and was at once appointed superintendent of women nurses for the whole
+army. She carried through the tasks of this office with energy and
+devotion. In 1866 she secured the erection of a monument to the fallen
+soldiers in the National Cemetery, at Hampton.</p>
+
+<p>Then she returned at once to her work in asylums, poorhouses, and prisons,
+<a name="pg331"></a>
+continuing this task until past her seventy-fifth year. "Her frequent
+visits to our institutions of the insane now, and her searching
+criticisms," wrote a leading alienist, "constitute of themselves a better
+lunacy commission than would be likely to be appointed in many of our
+states."[<a href="#fn_15_17">17</a><a name="fr_15_17"></a>] The last five years of her life were spent as a guest in the
+New Jersey State Asylum at Trenton, it being fit that one of the thirty-two
+hospitals she had been the means of erecting should afford her a home for
+her declining years.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Dix was called by many "our Lady," "our Patron Saint"; and well she
+deserved these expressions of reverence. President Fillmore said in a
+letter to her, "Wealth and power never reared such monuments to selfish
+pride as you have reared to the love of mankind." She had the unreserved
+consecration to the needs of the poor and suffering that caused her to
+write: "If I am cold, they are cold; if I am weary, they are distressed; if
+I am alone, they are abandoned."[<a href="#fn_15_18">18</a><a name="fr_15_18"></a>] Her biographer justly compares her
+with the greatest of the saints, and says, "Precisely the same
+characteristics marked her, the same absolute religious consecration, the
+same heroic readiness to trample under foot the pains of illness,
+loneliness, and opposition, the same intellectual grasp of what a great
+reformatory work demanded."[<a href="#fn_15_19">19</a><a name="fr_15_19"></a>] Truly was it said of her that she was "the
+most useful and distinguished woman America has produced."[<a href="#fn_15_20">20</a><a name="fr_15_20"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn104"></a>Child-saving Missions.</h3>
+
+<p>As was justly said by Professor Francis G. Peabody, "the Boston Children's
+Mission was the direct fruit of the ministry of Dr. Tuckerman, and
+antedates all other conspicuous undertakings of the same nature. The first
+<a name="pg332"></a>
+president of the Children's Mission, John E. Williams, a Unitarian layman,
+moved later to New York, and became the first treasurer of the newly
+created Children's Aid Society of that city, formed in 1853. Thus the work
+of the Children's Mission and the kindred service of the Warren Street
+Chapel, under the leadership of Charles Barnard, must be reckoned as the
+most immediate, if not the only American antecedent, of the great modern
+works of child-saving charity."[<a href="#fn_15_21">21</a><a name="fr_15_21"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The Children's Mission to the Children of the Destitute grew out of the
+work of the Howard Sunday-school, then connected with the Pitts Street
+Chapel. When several men connected with that school were discussing the
+fact that a great number of vagrant children were dealt with by the police,
+Fanny S. Merrill said to her father, Mr. George Merrill, "Father, can't we
+children do something to help those poor little ones?" This question
+suggested a new field of work; and a meeting was held on April 27, 1849,
+under the auspices of Rev. Robert C. Waterston, to consider this
+proposition. On May 9 the society was organized "to create a special
+mission to the poor, ignorant, neglected children of this city; to gather
+them into day and Sunday schools; to procure places and employment for
+them; and generally to adopt and pursue such measures as would be most
+likely to save or rescue them from vice, ignorance and degradation." In the
+beginning this mission was supported by the Unitarian Sunday-schools in
+Boston, but gradually the number of schools contributing to its maintenance
+was enlarged until it included nearly all of those connected with Unitarian
+churches in New England.</p>
+
+<a name="pg333"></a>
+<p>As soon as the mission was organized, Rev. Joseph E. Barry was made the
+missionary; and he opened a Sunday-school in Utica Street. Beginning in
+1853, one or more women were employed to aid him in his work. In May, 1857,
+Rev. Edmund Squire began work as a missionary in Washington Village; but
+this mission was soon given into the hands of the Benevolent Fraternity. In
+June, 1858, Mr. B.H. Greene was engaged to visit the jail and lockup in aid
+of the young persons found there. In 1859 work was undertaken in East
+Boston, and also in South Boston. From this time onward from three to five
+persons were constantly employed as missionaries, in visiting throughout
+the city, persuading children to attend day-schools, sewing-schools, and
+Sunday-schools, securing employment for those old enough to labor, and in
+placing children in country homes. In April, 1857, Mr. Barry took a party
+of forty-eight children to Illinois; and five other parties followed to
+that state and to Michigan and Ohio. Since 1860 homes have been found in
+New England for all children sent outside the city.</p>
+
+<p>In November, 1858, a hall in Eliot Street was secured for the religious
+services of the mission, which included boys' classes, Sunday-school, and
+various organizations of a moral and intellectual character. In 1859 a
+house was rented in Camden Street especially for the care of the boys who
+came under the charge of the mission. In March, 1867, was completed the
+house on Tremont Street in which the work of the mission has, since been
+carried on. An additional building for very young children was provided in
+October, 1890. For years Mr. Barry continued his work as the missionary of
+<a name="pg334"></a>
+this noble ministry to the children of the poor. Since 1877 Mr. William
+Crosby has been the efficient superintendent, having served for eighteen
+years previously as the treasurer. The mission has cared for more than five
+thousand children.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn105"></a>Care of the Poor.</h3>
+
+<p>It has been indicated already that much attention was given to the care of
+the poor and to the prevention of pauperism. It is safe to assume that
+every Unitarian minister was a worker in this direction. It is well to
+notice the efforts of one man, because his work led to the scientific
+methods of charitable relief which are employed in Boston at the present
+time. When Rev. Ephraim Peabody became the minister of King's Chapel, in
+1846, he turned his attention to the education of the poor and to the
+prevention of pauperism. In connection with Rev. Frederick T. Gray he
+opened a school for those adults whose education had been neglected.
+Especial attention was given to the elementary instruction of emigrant
+women. Many children and adults accepted the opportunity thus afforded, and
+a large school was maintained for several years.</p>
+
+<p>With the aid of Mr. Francis E. Parker another important work was undertaken
+by Mr. Peabody. Although Dr. Tuckerman had labored to prevent duplication
+of charitable gifts and to organize the philanthropies of Boston in an
+effective manner, with the increase of population the evils he strove to
+prevent had grown into large proportions. In order to prevent overlapping,
+imposition, and failure to provide for many who were really needy, but not
+eager to push their own claims, Mr. Peabody organized the Boston Provident
+Association in 1851. This society divided the city into small districts,
+and put each under the supervision of a person who was to examine every
+<a name="pg335"></a>
+case that came before the society within the territory assigned him. The
+first president of this society was Hon. Samuel A. Eliot, who was a mayor
+of the city, a representative in the lower house of Congress, and an
+organizer of many philanthropies. This society was eminently successful in
+its operations, and did a great amount of good. Its friendly visits to the
+poor and its judicious methods of procuring the co-operation of many
+charity workers prepared the way for the introduction, in 1879, of the
+Associated Charities of Boston, which extended and effectively organized
+the work begun by Mr. Peabody.[<a href="#fn_15_22">22</a><a name="fr_15_22"></a>] Numerous other organizations might be
+mentioned that have been initiated by Unitarians or largely supported by
+them.[<a href="#fn_15_23">23</a><a name="fr_15_23"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn106"></a>Humane Treatment of Animals.</h3>
+
+<p>The work for the humane treatment of animals was begun, and has been
+largely carried on, by Unitarians. The founder of the American Society for
+the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was Henry Bergh, who was a member of
+All Souls' Church in New York, under the ministry of Dr. Bellows. In 1865
+he began his work in behalf of kindness to animals in New York City, and
+the society he organized was incorporated April 10, 1866. It was soon
+engaged in an extensive work. In 1873 Mr. Bergh proceeded to organize
+branch humane societies; and, as the result of his work, most of the states
+have legislated for the humane care of animals.</p>
+
+<a name="pg336"></a>
+<p>A similar work of a Unitarian is that of Mr. George T. Angell in Boston,
+who in 1868 founded, and has since been the president of, the Massachusetts
+Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. In 1889 he became the
+president of the American Humane Education Society, a position he continues
+to hold. He is the editor of Our Dumb Animals, and has in many ways been
+active in the work of the great charity with which he has been connected.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn107"></a>Young Men's Christian Unions.</h3>
+
+<p>The initiative in the establishment of Christian unions for young men in
+cities, on a wholly unsectarian basis, was taken by a Unitarian. Mr. Caleb
+Davis Bradlee, a Harvard undergraduate, who was afterward a Boston pastor
+for many years, gathered together in the parlor of his father's house a
+company of young men, and proposed to them the formation of a society for
+mutual improvement. This was on September 17, 1851; and the organization
+then formed was called the Biblical Literature Society. Those who belonged
+to the society during the winter of 1851-52 were so much benefited by it
+that they decided to enlarge their plans and to extend their influence to a
+greater number. At the suggestion of Rev. Charles Brooks, minister of the
+Unitarian church in South Hingham, the name was changed to the Boston Young
+Men's Christian Union, the first meeting under the new form of organization
+being held March 15, 1852. On October 11 of the same year the society was
+incorporated, many of the leading men of the city having already given it
+their encouragement and support.[<a href="#fn_15_24">24</a><a name="fr_15_24"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg338"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn108"></a>Educational Work in the South.</h3>
+
+<p>After the close of the civil war there was a large demand for help in the
+South, especially amongst the negroes. Most of the aid given by Unitarians
+was through other than denominational channels; but something was done by
+the Unitarian Association as well as by other Unitarian organizations. Miss
+Amy Bradley, who had been a very successful worker for the Sanitary
+Commission, opened a school for the whites in Wilmington, N.C. Her work
+extended to all the schools of the city, and was eminently successful. She
+became the city and then the county superintendent of schools. She was
+supported by the Unitarian Association and the Soldiers' Memorial Society.
+Among the Unitarians who at that time engaged in the work of educating the
+negroes were Rev. Henry F. Edes in Georgia, Rev. James Thurston in North
+Carolina, Miss M. Louisa Shaw in Florida, Miss Bottume on Ladies' Island,
+and Miss Sally Holley and Miss Caroline F. Putnam in Virginia.</p>
+
+<p>In 1868 the Unitarian Association entered upon a systematic effort to aid
+the negroes through co-operation with the African Methodist Episcopal
+Church. The sum of $4,000 was in that year devoted to this work; and it was
+largely spent in educational efforts, especially in aid of college and
+theological students. Wilberforce University had the benefit of lectures
+from Dr. George W. Hosmer, president of Antioch College, and of Edward
+Orton, James K. Hosmer, and other professors in that institution. Libraries
+of about fifty volumes of carefully selected books, including elementary
+works of science, history, biography, and a few theological works, were
+<a name="pg339"></a>
+given to ministers of that church who applied for them. This connection
+continued for several years, and was of much importance in the advancement
+of the South.</p>
+
+<p>With the first of January, 1886, the Unitarian Association established a
+bureau of information in regard to southern education, of which General
+J.B.F. Marshall, who had been for many years the treasurer of the Hampton
+Institute, was made the superintendent. This bureau, during its existence
+of three years, investigated the claims of various schools, and recommended
+those most deserving of aid.</p>
+
+<p>In 1891 Miss Mabel W. Dillingham and Miss Charlotte R. Thorn, who had been
+teachers for several years in the Hampton Institute, opened a school for
+negroes in Calhoun, Ala. Miss Dillingham died in 1894; and she was
+succeeded by her brother, Rev. Pitt Dillingham, as the principal of the
+school. The Calhoun School has been supported mostly by Unitarians, and it
+has been successful in doing a practical and important work.</p>
+
+<p>During the first eight years of the Tuskegee Institute it received $5,000
+annually from Unitarians, and in more recent years $10,000 annually. This
+has been given by individuals, churches, and other organizations, but in no
+sense as a denominational work. Concerning the aid given to the Hampton
+Institute this statement has been made by the principal: "The Unitarian
+denomination has had a very important part in the work of Hampton. Our
+first treasurer was General J.F.B. Marshall, a Unitarian who made it
+possible for General Armstrong first to gain access to Boston and secure
+friends there, many of whom have been lifelong contributors to this work.
+<a name="pg340"></a>
+General Marshall came to Hampton in 1872, and for some twelve years took a
+most important part in building up this institution. He trained young men
+for the treasurer's office, who still hold important positions in the
+school, and others who have been sent to various institutions. The home of
+General and Mrs. Marshall here was of incalculable help in many ways,
+brightening and cheering the lives of our teachers and students. Unitarians
+have always had a prominent part in the support of Hampton. Mrs. Mary
+Hemenway was the largest donor to the Institute during her lifetime. She
+gave $10,000 for the purchase of our Hemenway Farm, and helped General
+Armstrong in many ways."[<a href="#fn_15_25">25</a><a name="fr_15_25"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn109"></a>Educational Work for the Indians.</h3>
+
+<p>At three different periods the Unitarian Association has undertaken
+educational work amongst the Indians. The first of these proved abortive,
+but is of much interest. James Tanner,[<a href="#fn_15_26">26</a><a name="fr_15_26"></a>] a half-breed Chippeway or
+Ojibway from Minnesota, appeared before the board of the Association,
+February 12, 1855, in behalf of his people. He had been a Baptist
+missionary to the Ojibways, but had found that he could accomplish little
+while the Indians continued their roving life and their wars with the
+Sioux. He therefore wished to have his people adopt a settled agricultural
+life. The Baptist Home Missionary Society, with which he was laboring,
+would not accede to his plans in this respect, and desired that he should
+confine himself to the preaching of the gospel. Unable to do this on
+account of his liberal views, he went to Boston with the hope that he might
+<a name="pg341"></a>
+secure aid from the Baptists there. He was soon told that he was a
+Unitarian, and he sought a knowledge of those of that faith. He was thus
+led to apply to the Unitarian Association for help, which was granted. He
+secured an outfit of agricultural and other implements, and returned to his
+people in the spring of 1855. In December of that year Mr. Tanner attended
+a meeting of the board of the Association, accompanied by six Ojibway
+chiefs. On this unique occasion the calumet was smoked by all present, and
+addresses were made by the Indians. In April, 1856, the board reluctantly
+abandoned this enterprise, because the money for the yearly expenditure of
+$4,000, which it required, could not be secured.[<a href="#fn_15_27">27</a><a name="fr_15_27"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>In 1871 President Grant inaugurated the policy of educating the Indians
+under the direction of the several religious denominations of the country.
+To the Unitarians were assigned the Utes of Colorado. The reservation at
+White River was placed in charge of Mr. J.S. Littlefield, and that at Los
+Pinos of Rev. J. Nelson Trask. Several other persons took up this work,
+including Rev. Henry F. Bond and his wife. In 1885 the Utes were removed to
+a reservation in Utah. In the spring of 1886 Mr. Bond returned to them for
+the purpose of establishing a boarding-school amongst them; but, not
+getting sufficient encouragement, he went to Montana, where in the autumn
+he opened the Montana Industrial School, with eighteen pupils from the
+Crows in attendance. Buildings were erected, farm work begun, carpenter and
+blacksmith shops put in operation, all at a cost of $20,000. The school was
+located on the Big Horn River, thirty miles from Fort Custer.</p>
+
+<a name="pg342"></a>
+<p>It was the object of the Montana Industrial School to remove the Indian
+children from their nomadic conditions and to give them a practical
+education, with so much of instruction in books as would be of real help to
+them. The boys were taught farm work and the use of tools, while the girls
+were trained in sewing, cooking, and other useful employments. At the same
+time there was constant training in cleanliness, good manners, and right
+living. The school was fairly successful; and the results would doubtless
+have been important, could the experiment have gone on for a longer period.
+In 1891 Mr. Bond withdrew from the school on account of his age, and it was
+placed in charge of Rev. A.A. Spencer. With the 1st of July, 1895, however,
+the care of the school was assumed by the national government.</p>
+
+<p>Extended as this chapter has become, it has failed to give anything like an
+exhaustive statement of the philanthropies of Unitarians. Their charitable
+activities have been constant and in many directions. This may be seen in
+the wide-reaching philanthropic interests of Dr. Edward Everett Hale, whose
+Lend-a-hand Clubs, King's Daughters societies, and kindred movements
+admirably illustrate the practical side of Unitarianism, its broad
+humanitarian spirit, its philanthropic and reformatory purpose, and its
+high ideal of Christian fidelity and service.</p>
+
+<p><br >[<a href="#fr_15_1">1</a><a name="fn_15_1"></a>] Memoir, III. 17; one-volume edition, 465.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_2">2</a><a name="fn_15_2"></a>] Memoir, III. 61, 62; one-volume edition, 487, 488.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_3">3</a><a name="fn_15_3"></a>] Boston Unitarianism, 127.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_4">4</a><a name="fn_15_4"></a>] Harvard Graduates, 155.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_5">5</a><a name="fn_15_5"></a>] Boston Unitarianism, 253.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_6">6</a><a name="fn_15_6"></a>] Elizabeth P. Peabody, Reminiscences of Dr. W.E. Channing, 290.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_7">7</a><a name="fn_15_7"></a>] Eber R. Butler, Lend a Hand, October, 1890, V. 681.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_8">8</a><a name="fn_15_8"></a>] Elizabeth P. Peabody, Reminiscences of W.E. Channing, 273.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_9">9</a><a name="fn_15_9"></a>] Gilbert Haven, Anecdotes of Rev. Edward T. Taylor, 114.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_10">10</a><a name="fn_15_10"></a>] Ibid., 119.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_11">11</a><a name="fn_15_11"></a>] Gilbert Haven, Anecdotes of Rev. Edward T. Taylor, 330.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_12">12</a><a name="fn_15_12"></a>] American Notes, chap. iii.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_13">13</a><a name="fn_15_13"></a>] Frank B. Sanborn, Biography of Dr. S.G. Howe, Philanthropist, 110.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_14">14</a><a name="fn_15_14"></a>] Frank B. Sanborn, Biography of Dr. S.G. Howe, Philanthropist, 170.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_15">15</a><a name="fn_15_15"></a>] Reminiscences, 161.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_16">16</a><a name="fn_15_16"></a>] Francis Tiffany, Life of Dorothea Lynde Dix, 58.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_17">17</a><a name="fn_15_17"></a>] Francis Tiffany, Life of Dorothea Lynde Dix, 355.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_18">18</a><a name="fn_15_18"></a>] Ibid., 327.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_19">19</a><a name="fn_15_19"></a>] Ibid., 290.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_20">20</a><a name="fn_15_20"></a>] Ibid., 375.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_21">21</a><a name="fn_15_21"></a>] Report of the National Conference, 1895, 205.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_22">22</a><a name="fn_15_22"></a>] Sermons of Ephraim Peabody, introductory Memoir, xxv; Memorial
+     History of Boston, IV. 662, George S. Hale on the Charities of
+     Boston; A.P. Peabody, Harvard Graduates, 155.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_23">23</a><a name="fn_15_23"></a>] Besides the Fragment Society, the Children's Mission, and the Boston
+     Provident Society, already mentioned and still vigorously at work,
+     several other societies are wholly supported by Unitarians. Of these
+     may be named the Howard Benevolent Society in the City of Boston,
+     organized in 1812, incorporated in 1818; Young Men's Benevolent
+     Society, organized in 1827, incorporated in 1852; Industrial Aid
+     Society for the Prevention of Pauperism, organized in 1835,
+     incorporated in 1884.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_24">24</a><a name="fn_15_24"></a>] Alfred Manchester, Life of Caleb Davis Bradlee, 8; First Anniversary,
+     address before the Boston Young Men's Christian Union by Rev. F.D.
+     Huntington, Appendix.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_25">25</a><a name="fn_15_25"></a>] Personal letter from Mr. H.B. Frissell.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_26">26</a><a name="fn_15_26"></a>] Edwin James, A Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John
+     Tanner during Thirty Tears' Residence among the Indians of North
+     America. (John Tanner was the father of James.)</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_27">27</a><a name="fn_15_27"></a>] Quarterly Journal, II. 326, 344; III. 64, 257, 449, 625.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<a name="pg343"></a>
+<h2><br ><a name="ch16"></a>XVI.<br >
+
+
+UNITARIANS AND REFORMS.</h2>
+
+<p>The belief of Unitarians in the innate goodness of man and in his progress
+towards a higher moral life, together with their desire to make religion
+practical in its character and to have it deal with the actual facts of
+human life, has made it obligatory that they should give the encouragement
+of their support to whatever promised to further the cause of justice,
+liberty, and purity. Their attitude towards reforms, however, has been
+qualified by their love of individual freedom. They have had a dread of
+ecclesiastical restriction and of any attempt to coerce opinions or to
+establish a despotism over individual convictions. And yet, with all this
+insistence upon personal liberty, no body of men and women has ever been
+more devoted to the furthering of practical reforms than those connected
+with Unitarian churches. No one, for instance, was ever more zealous for
+individual freedom than Theodore Parker; but he was essentially a reformer.
+He was a persistent advocate of peace, temperance, education, the rights of
+women, the rights of the slave, the abolition of capital punishment, reform
+in prison discipline, and the application of humanitarian principles to the
+conduct of life.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn110"></a>Peace Movement.</h3>
+
+<p>"It may be doubted whether any man who ever lived contributed more to
+spread just sentiments on the subject of war and to hasten the era of
+<a name="pg344"></a>
+universal peace," said Dr. Channing of Noah Worcester, who has been often
+called "the Apostle of Peace." It was the second contest with Great Britain
+that led Dr. Worcester to consider the nature and effects of war. In
+August, 1812, on the day appointed for a national fast, he preached a
+sermon in which he maintained that the war then beginning was without
+sufficient justification, and that war is always an evil. In 1814 he
+further studied the subject, with the result that he wrote a little book
+which he called A Solemn Review of the Custom of War.[<a href="#fn_16_1">1</a><a name="fr_16_1"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The Solemn Review was widely circulated, it was translated into many
+languages, it made a deep and lasting impression, and it had a world-wide
+influence in preparing the minds of men for the acceptance of peace
+principles. The remedy for war it proposed was an international court of
+arbitration.[<a href="#fn_16_2">2</a><a name="fr_16_2"></a>] Through the efforts of Dr. Worcester the Massachusetts
+Peace Society was organized December 28, 1815, one of the first societies
+of the kind in the world.[<a href="#fn_16_3">3</a><a name="fr_16_3"></a>] William Phillips was made the president, and
+Dr. Noah Worcester the corresponding secretary, with Dr. Henry Ware, Dr.
+Channing, and Rev. Francis Parkman among his councillors. On the executive
+committee with Dr. Worcester in 1819 were Rev. Ezra Ripley and Rev. John
+Pierce. Other Unitarian members and workers were James Freeman, Nathaniel
+L. Frothingham, Charles Lowell, Samuel C. Thacher, J.T. Kirkland, and
+Joseph Tuckerman; and, of laymen, Moses Grant, Josiah Quincy, and Colonel
+<a name="pg345"></a>
+Joseph May. In 1819 Dr. Worcester began the publication of The Friends of
+Peace, a small quarterly magazine, a large part of the contents of which he
+wrote himself. After the first number, having obtained the assistance of
+several wealthy Friends, he relinquished the copyright; and the numbers
+were republished in several parts of the country, thus obtaining a wide
+circulation. He devoted himself almost wholly to this publication and the
+advocacy of the cause of peace until 1829, when he relinquished its
+editorship. "This must be looked upon as a very remarkable work," wrote
+Henry Ware, the younger. "To his wakeful mind everything that occurred and
+everything that he read offered him materials; he appeared to see nothing
+which had not a bearing on this one topic; and his book becomes a boundless
+repository of curious, entertaining, striking extracts from writers of all
+sorts and the history of all times, displaying the criminality and folly of
+war, and the beauty and efficacy of the principles of peace."[<a href="#fn_16_4">4</a><a name="fr_16_4"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>In his efforts hi behalf of peace, Dr. Worcester had the support of Dr.
+Channing's "respectful sympathy and active co-operation."[<a href="#fn_16_5">5</a><a name="fr_16_5"></a>] According to
+Dr. John Pierce, Channing was the life and soul of the Massachusetts Peace
+Society. "For years," says his biographer, "he devoted himself to the work
+of extending its influence with unwavering zeal, as many of his papers of
+that period attest."[<a href="#fn_16_6">6</a><a name="fr_16_6"></a>] From his pulpit Dr. Channing frequently expressed
+his faith in the principles of peace, and he strongly advocated those
+<a name="pg346"></a>
+Christian convictions and that spirit of good will which would make war
+impossible if they were applied to the conduct of nations.</p>
+
+<p>Not less devoted to the cause of peace was Dr. Ezra S. Gannett, of whom his
+son says: "He thought that reason, religion, the whole spirit as well as
+the letter of the gospel, united in forbidding war. Probably, he was
+non-resistant up to, rather than in, the absolutely last extremity;
+although he writes that an English book which Dr. Channing lent him as the
+best he knew upon the subject, 'has made me a thorough peace man!'"[<a href="#fn_16_7">7</a><a name="fr_16_7"></a>]
+"Let the fact of brotherhood be fairly grasped," wrote Dr. Frederic H.
+Hedge, "and war becomes impossible."[<a href="#fn_16_8">8</a><a name="fr_16_8"></a>] "The tremendous extent and
+pertinacity of the habit of human slaughter in battle," wrote Dr. William
+R. Alger, "its shocking criminality, and its incredible foolishness, when
+regarded from an advanced religious position, are three facts calculated to
+appall every thoughtful man and startle him into amazement." "It is vain,"
+he said, "to undertake to impart a competent conception of the crimes and
+miseries belonging to war. Their appalling character and magnitude stun the
+imagination and pass off like the burden of a frightful dream."[<a href="#fn_16_9">9</a><a name="fr_16_9"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Worcester's Solemn Review convinced Rev. Samuel J. May "that the precepts,
+spirit, and example of Jesus gave no warrant to the violent, bloody
+resistance of evil; that wrong could be effectually overcome by right,
+hatred by love, violence by gentleness, evil of any kind by its opposite
+good. I preached this," he said, "as one of the cardinal doctrines of the
+gospel, and endeavored especially to show the wickedness and folly of the
+<a name="pg347"></a>
+custom of war."[<a href="#fn_16_10">10</a><a name="fr_16_10"></a>] In 1826 he organized a county peace society, the first
+in the country; and his first publication was in advocacy of this
+reform.[<a href="#fn_16_11">11</a><a name="fr_16_11"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Of the men connected with political life, Charles Sumner was the most
+devoted and influential friend of the peace cause. As early as March, 1839,
+he wrote to a friend, "I hold all wars, as unjust and, unchristian." His
+address on The True Grandeur of Nations, given before the mayor and other
+officials of Boston, July 4, 1845, was one of the noblest and most
+effective utterances on the subject. Though a considerable part of the
+audience was in military array, Sumner showed the evils of war in
+uncompromising terms, denouncing it as cruel and unnecessary, while with
+true eloquence, great learning, and deep conviction he made his plea for
+peace. "The effect was immediate and striking," wrote George W. Curtis.
+"There were great indignation and warm protest on the one hand, and upon
+the other sincere congratulation and high compliment. Sumner's view of the
+absolute wrong and iniquity of war was somewhat modified subsequently; but
+the great purpose of a peaceful solution of international disputes he never
+relinquished."[<a href="#fn_16_12">12</a><a name="fr_16_12"></a>] He said in this oration that "in our age there can be
+no peace that is not honorable; there can be no war that is not
+dishonorable." This statement was severely criticised, but it indicates his
+uncompromising acceptance of peace principles.[<a href="#fn_16_13">13</a><a name="fr_16_13"></a>] He added these
+pertinent sentences: "The true honor of a nation is to be found only in
+deeds of justice and in the happiness of its people, all of which are
+<a name="pg348"></a>
+inconsistent with war. In the clear eye of Christian judgment vain are its
+victories, infamous are its spoils."[<a href="#fn_16_14">14</a><a name="fr_16_14"></a>] He further declared that "war is
+utterly and irreconcilably inconsistent with true greatness."[<a href="#fn_16_15">15</a><a name="fr_16_15"></a>] These
+views he continued to hold throughout his life, though in a more
+conciliatory spirit; and on several occasions he presented them before the
+Peace Society and elsewhere. When in the Senate he was a leader of the
+cause of arbitration, and exerted his large influence in securing its
+adoption by the United States as a means of preventing war with foreign
+countries. As late as July, 1873, he wrote to one of his friends: "I long
+to witness the harmony of nations, which I am sure is near. When an evil so
+great is recognized and discussed, the remedy must be near at hand."[<a href="#fn_16_16">16</a><a name="fr_16_16"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The work done by Julia Ward Howe for the cause of peace is eminently worthy
+of recognition. One chapter of her Reminiscences is devoted to her "Peace
+Crusade" of 1870. The cruel and unnecessary character of the
+Franco-Prussian war led her to write an appeal to mothers to use their
+influence in behalf of peace. "The august dignity of motherhood and its
+terrible responsibilities now appeared to me in a new aspect," she writes,
+"and I could think of no better way of expressing my sense of these than of
+sending forth an appeal to womanhood throughout the world, which I then and
+there composed."[<a href="#fn_16_17">17</a><a name="fr_16_17"></a>] She printed and distributed her appeal, had it
+translated into French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Swedish, and then
+spent many months in corresponding with leading women in various countries.
+She invited these women to a Women's Peace Congress to be held in London.
+<a name="pg349"></a>
+After holding two successful meetings in New York, she began her crusade in
+England, holding meetings in many places, and also attending a Peace
+Congress in Paris. She hired a hall in London, and held Sunday meetings to
+promote the reform she had deeply at heart. The Women's Congress was a
+success, and after two years of earnest effort Mrs. Howe had the
+satisfaction of knowing that she had done something to promote peace on
+earth and good will among men.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn111"></a>Temperance Reform.</h3>
+
+<p>Unitarians have been active in the cause of temperance, but again as
+individuals rather than as a denomination. The emphasis they have put on
+the importance of individual opinion and personal liberty has made them
+often reluctant to join societies that sought to promote this reform by
+restrictive and coercive measures. As a body, therefore, they have shown a
+greater inclination to the use of moral suasion than legislative power.</p>
+
+<p>From Dr. Channing this reform had the most earnest approval. "The
+temperance reform which is going on among us," he wrote, "deserves all
+praise, and I see not what is to hinder its complete success. I believe the
+movements now made will succeed, because they are in harmony with and are
+seconded by the general spirit and progress of the age. Every advance in
+knowledge, in refined manners, in domestic enjoyments, in habits of
+foresight and economy, in regular industry, in the comforts of life, in
+civilization, good morals and religion, is an aid to the cause of
+temperance; and believing as we do that these are making progress, may we
+not hope that drunkenness will be driven from society?"[<a href="#fn_16_18">18</a><a name="fr_16_18"></a>] He regarded
+<a name="pg350"></a>
+the subject from a broader point of view than many, and urged that a sound
+physical education for all youth, as well as larger opportunities for
+intellectual improvement on the part of workingmen, would do much to
+prevent intemperance.[<a href="#fn_16_19">19</a><a name="fr_16_19"></a>] He maintained that to give men "strength within
+to withstand the temptations of intemperance" is incalculably more
+important than to remove merely outward temptations. Better education,
+innocent amusements, a wider spirit of sympathy and brotherhood,
+discouragement of the use and sale of ardent spirits, were among the means
+he recommended for suppressing this evil.[<a href="#fn_16_20">20</a><a name="fr_16_20"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The Massachusetts Society for the Suppression of Intemperance was organized
+at the State House in Boston on February 5, 1813, "to discountenance and
+suppress the too free use of ardent spirits, and to encourage and promote
+temperance and general morality." This was one of the first temperance
+societies organized in the country, and its chief promoters were
+Unitarians. Dr. John C. Collins, who published the records of the society,
+said of the year 1827, when he became a member, that "Channing, Gannett,
+and others were the most active men at that time in the temperance
+cause."[<a href="#fn_16_21">21</a><a name="fr_16_21"></a>] Dr. Abiel Abbot was the first corresponding secretary of the
+society, and on the council were Drs. Kirkland, Lothrop, Worcester, and
+Pierce. Among the other Unitarian ministers who were active in the society
+were Charles Lowell, the younger Henry Ware, John Pierpont, and John G.
+Palfrey. Among the laymen were Moses Grant, Nathan Dane, Dr. John Ware,
+<a name="pg351"></a>
+Stephen Fairbanks, Dr. J.F. Flagg, William Sullivan, Amos Lawrence, Samuel
+Dexter, and Isaac Parker.[<a href="#fn_16_22">22</a><a name="fr_16_22"></a>] Auxiliary societies were organized in Salem,
+Beverly, and other towns; and these gave to the temperance cause the
+activities of such Unitarians as Theophilus Parsons, Robert Rantoul, and
+Samuel Hoar.[<a href="#fn_16_23">23</a><a name="fr_16_23"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Of the more recent interest of Unitarians in questions of temperance reform
+there may be mentioned the thorough study made by the United States
+Commissioner of Labor, and printed in 1898 under the title of Economic
+Aspects of the Liquor Problem.[<a href="#fn_16_24">24</a><a name="fr_16_24"></a>] This investigation was ordered by
+Congress as the result of a petition sent to that body by the Unitarian
+Temperance Society. Probably few petitions have ever been sent to Congress
+that contained so many prominent names of leading statesmen, presidents of
+colleges and universities, bishops, clergymen, well-known literary men, and
+<a name="pg352"></a>
+other persons of influence. The Unitarian Temperance Society was organized
+September 23, 1886, in connection with the meeting of the National
+Conference at Saratoga. Its purpose is "to work for the cause of temperance
+in whatever ways may seem to it wise and right; to study the social
+problems of poverty, crime, and disease, in their relation to the use of
+intoxicating drinks, and to diffuse whatever knowledge may be gained; to
+discuss methods of temperance reform; to devise and, so far as possible, to
+execute plans for practical reform; to exert by its meetings and by its
+membership such influence for good as by the grace of God it may possess."
+It has held annual meetings in Boston, and other meetings in connection
+with the National Conference; it has published a number of important
+tracts, temperance text-books, and temperance services for Sunday-schools;
+and it has exerted a considerable influence on the denomination in shaping
+public opinion in regard to this reform. The presidents of the society have
+been Rev. Christopher R. Eliot, Rev. George H. Hosmer, and Rev. Charles F.
+Dole.</p>
+
+<p>The subject of temperance reform has been before the National Conference on
+several occasions and in various forms. At the session of 1882 a resolution
+offered by Miss Mary Grew was adopted:--</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>  That the unutterable evils continually wrought by intemperance, the
+  easy descent from moderate to immoderate drinking, and the moral wrecks
+  strewn along that downward path, call upon Christians and patriots to
+  practise and advocate abstinence from the use of all intoxicating
+  liquors as a beverage.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>In 1891 a series of resolutions recommended by the Unitarian Temperance
+Society were adopted as expressing the convictions of the Conference:--</p>
+
+<a name="pg353"></a>
+<blockquote>
+<p>  First, that the liquor saloon, as it exists to-day in the United
+  States, is the nation's chief school of crime, chief college of
+  corruption in politics, chief source of poverty and ruined homes, chief
+  menace to our country's future, is the standing enemy of society, and,
+  as such, deserves the condemnation of all good men.</p>
+
+<p>  Second, that, whatever be the best mode of dealing with the saloon by
+  law, law can avail little until those who condemn the saloon consent to
+  totally abstain themselves from the use of alcoholic drink for
+  pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>  Third, that we affectionately and urgently call on every minister and
+  all laymen and women in our denomination--our old, our young, our rich,
+  our poor, our leaders, and our humblest--to take this stand of total
+  abstinence, remembering those that are in bonds as bound with them, and
+  throw the solid influence of our church against the influence of the
+  saloon.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<h3><a name="sn112"></a>Anti-slavery.</h3>
+
+<p>In proportion to its numbers no religious body in the country did so much
+to promote the anti-slavery reform as the Unitarian. No Unitarian defended
+slavery from the pulpit or by means of the press, and no one was its
+apologist.[<a href="#fn_16_25">25</a><a name="fr_16_25"></a>] Many, however, did not approve of the methods of the
+abolitionists, and some strongly opposed the extreme measures of a part of
+that body of reformers. The desire of Unitarians to be just, rational, and
+open-minded, exposed many of them to the criticism of being neither for nor
+against slavery. But it is certain that they were not indifferent to its
+evils nor recreant to their humanitarian principles.</p>
+
+<p>The period of the anti-slavery agitation was truly one that tried the souls
+<a name="pg354"></a>
+of men; and those who were equally conscientious, desirous of serving the
+cause of justice and humanity, and solicitous for the welfare of the slave,
+widely differed from one another as to what was the wise method of action.
+Among those severely condemned by the anti-slavery party were several
+Unitarian ministers of great force of character and of a genuinely
+humanitarian spirit. Three of them may be selected as representative.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Orville Dewey had seen something of slavery, and was strongly opposed
+to it. He thought the system hateful in itself and productive of nearly
+unmingled evil, and yet he was not in favor of immediate emancipation. His
+frequent indictments of slavery in his sermons and lectures were severe in
+the extreme; but his demand for wise and patient counsel, and for a
+rational method of gradual emancipation, subjected him to severe
+condemnation. "And nothing else brings out the nobleness of Dr. Dewey into
+such bold relief as the fact," says Rev. John W. Chadwick, "that the
+immeasurable torrent of abuse that greeted his expressed opinion did not in
+any least degree avail to make him one of the pro-slavery faction. He
+differed from the most earnest of the anti-slavery men only as to the best
+method of getting rid of the curse of human bondage."[<a href="#fn_16_26">26</a><a name="fr_16_26"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>As early as 1830 Dr. E.S. Gannett said that "the greatest evil under which
+our nation labors is the existence of slavery. It is the only vicious part
+of our body politic, but this is a deep and disgusting sore. It must be
+treated with the utmost judgment and skill." The violence of the
+<a name="pg355"></a>
+abolitionists he did not approve, however; for his respect for law and
+constituted authority was so great that he was not ready for radical
+measures. He abhorred slavery, but he was not willing to condemn the
+slaveholder. He was therefore regarded by the abolitionists as more hostile
+to them than any other Unitarian minister. His attitude as a peace man, his
+strong regard for justice and fair dealing, as well as his earnest faith in
+the gentle influence of the gospel, forbade his accepting the strenuous
+methods of the abolitionists. He would not, however, permit anti-slavery
+ministers to be silenced in Unitarian meetings. When he saw something of
+slavery, in 1833, he expressed his convictions in regard to it in these
+forcible words: "It is the attempt to degrade a human being into something
+less than a man,--not the confinement, unjust as this is, nor the blows,
+cruel as these are,--but the denial of his equal share in the rights,
+prerogatives, and responsibilities of a human being, which brands the
+institution of slavery with its peculiar and ineffaceable odiousness."[<a href="#fn_16_27">27</a><a name="fr_16_27"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Another minister who came under the condemnation of the abolitionists was
+Rev. John H. Morison, and yet he preached sermons against slavery that met
+with the vigorous disapproval of his congregation. "We all agree," he wrote
+in 1844, "in the sad conviction that slavery in its political influence,
+more than all other subjects, threatens to upturn the foundation of our
+government; that in its moral and religious bearings it is a grievous wrong
+to master and slave; and that, as it is in violation of the fundamental
+<a name="pg356"></a>
+principles of Christian duty, it must, if continued beyond the absolute
+necessity of the case, be attended with consequences the most disastrous."
+Again, when Daniel Webster made his 7th of March speech in 1850, Dr.
+Morison, then the editor of The Christian Register, took the earliest
+possible opportunity to express himself as strongly as he could against it.
+"We at the North," he wrote, "believe that slavery is morally wrong." He
+said that the government, in its attempt to defend slavery as against the
+moral convictions of a large number of the people, was doing the country a
+great harm.[<a href="#fn_16_28">28</a><a name="fr_16_28"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The position of these men and of others who thought and acted with them can
+best be understood by recognizing the fact that they were opposed to
+sectarian methods in promoting reforms as in advancing the interests of
+religion. It is probable that in these heated times neither party did full
+justice to the spirit and purposes of the other. Even so gentle and
+charitable a man as Rev. Samuel J. May speaks of the "discreditable
+pro-slavery conduct of the Unitarian denomination." "The Unitarians as a
+body," he says again, "dealt with the question of slavery in anything but
+an impartial, courageous, and Christian way. Continually in their public
+meetings the question was staved off and driven out because of technical,
+formal, verbal difficulties which were of no real importance, and ought not
+to have caused a moment's hesitation. Avowing among their distinctive
+doctrines the fatherly character of God and the brotherhood of man, we had
+a right to expect from the Unitarians a steadfast and unqualified protest
+against so unjust, tyrannical, and cruel a system as that of American
+<a name="pg357"></a>
+slavery. And considering their position as a body, not entangled with any
+pro-slavery alliances, not hampered with any ecclesiastical organization,
+it does seem to me that they were pre-eminently guilty in reference to the
+enslavement of the millions in our land with its attendant wrongs,
+cruelties, horrors. They refused to speak as a body, and censured,
+condemned, execrated their members who did speak faithfully for the
+down-trodden, and who co-operated with him whom a merciful Providence sent
+as the prophet of the reform."[<a href="#fn_16_29">29</a><a name="fr_16_29"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The testimony of Rev. O.B. Frothingham is fully as condemnatory of
+Unitarian timidity and conservatism, even of the moral cowardice betrayed
+by many of the leaders. He says the Unitarians, as such, "were indifferent
+or lukewarm; the leading classes were opposed to the agitation. Dr.
+Channing was almost alone in lending countenance to the reform, though his
+hesitation between the dictates of natural feeling and Christian charity
+towards the masters hampered his action, and rendered him obnoxious to both
+parties,--the radicals finding fault with him for not going further, the
+conservatives blaming him because he went so far."[<a href="#fn_16_30">30</a><a name="fr_16_30"></a>] Mr. Frothingham
+finds, however, that the transcendentalists were quite "universally
+abolitionists, their faith in the natural powers of man making them zealous
+promoters of the cause of the slave." He insists that as a class "the
+Unitarians were not ardent disciples of any moral cause, and took pride in
+being reasoners, believers in education and in general social influence, in
+the progress of knowledge and the uplifting of humanity by means of ideas,"
+<a name="pg358"></a>
+but that they permitted these qualities to cool their ardor for reform and
+to mitigate their love of humanity.[<a href="#fn_16_31">31</a><a name="fr_16_31"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The biographers of William Lloyd Garrison are never tired of condemning Dr.
+Channing for what they call his timidity, his shunning any personal contact
+with the great abolitionist, his failure to grapple boldly with the evils
+of slavery, and his half-hearted espousal of the cause of abolition. The
+Unitarians generally are by these writers regarded in the same manner.[<a href="#fn_16_32">32</a><a name="fr_16_32"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Most of the accounts mentioned were written by those who took part in the
+agitation against slavery, in condemnation of those who had not kept step
+with their abolition pace or in apology for those whose words and conduct
+were thought to need defence. The time has come, perhaps, when it is
+possible to consider, the attitude of individuals and the denomination
+without a partisan wish to condemn or to defend. In this spirit the
+statement of Samuel J. May is to be accepted as true and just, when he
+says: "We Unitarians have given to the anti-slavery cause more preachers,
+writers, lecturers, agents, poets, than any other denomination in
+proportion to our numbers, if not without any comparison."[<a href="#fn_16_33">33</a><a name="fr_16_33"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Among those who listened to William Lloyd Garrison when in October, 1830,
+he first presented in Boston his views in favor of immediate emancipation,
+were Samuel J. May, Samuel E. Sewall, and A.B. Alcott; and these men at
+once became his disciples and friends.[<a href="#fn_16_34">34</a><a name="fr_16_34"></a>] When Garrison organized the New
+<a name="pg359"></a>
+England Anti-slavery Society in December, 1832, he was actively supported
+by Samuel E. Sewall, David Lee Child, and Ellis Gray Loring. It was to the
+financial support of Sewall and Loring, though they did not at first accept
+his doctrine of immediate emancipation, that Garrison owed his ability to
+begin The Liberator, and to sustain it in its earliest years.[<a href="#fn_16_35">35</a><a name="fr_16_35"></a>] For many
+years, Edmund Quincy was connected with The Liberator, serving as its
+editor when Garrison was ill, absent on lecturing tours, or journeying in
+Europe. The Massachusetts Anti-slavery Society, which in 1835 succeeded the
+New England Society, had during many years Francis Jackson as its
+president, Edmund Quincy as its corresponding secretary, and Robert F.
+Walcutt as its recording secretary, all Unitarians.</p>
+
+<p>In 1834 was formed the Cambridge Anti-slavery Society, under the leadership
+of the younger Henry Ware; and the membership was largely Unitarian,
+including the names of Dr. Henry Ware, Sidney Willard, Charles Follen,
+William H. Charming, Artemus B. Muzzey, Barzillai Frost, Charles T. Brooks,
+and Frederic H. Hedge. The purposes of the society were stated in its
+constitution:--</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>  We believe that the emancipation of all who are in bondage is the
+  requisition, not less of sound policy, than of justice and humanity;
+  and that it is the duty of those with whom the power lies at once to
+  remove the sanction of the law from the principle that man can be the
+  property of man,--a principle inconsistent with our free institutions,
+  subversive of the purposes for which man was made, and utterly at
+  variance with the plainest dictates of reason and Christianity.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<a name="pg360"></a>
+<p>In 1843 Samuel May visited England, and at Unitarian meetings described the
+obstacles in the way of the abolition of slavery, and spoke of the apathy
+of American Unitarians. He advised the sending a letter of fraternal
+counsel to the Unitarian ministers of the United States "in behalf of the
+unhappy slave." Such a letter was prepared, and signed by eighty-five
+ministers. It was published in the Unitarian papers in this country, a
+meeting was held to consider it, and a reply sent to England signed by one
+hundred and thirty ministers. Mr. May was severely condemned for his part
+in causing such a letter to be sent, and the reply was rather in the nature
+of a protest than a friendly acceptance of the advice given.</p>
+
+<p>A year later, however, this letter was again the subject of earnest
+discussion. In anniversary week, 1845, a meeting of Unitarian ministers was
+held to "discuss their duties in relation to American slavery." The call
+for this meeting was signed by James Thompson, Joseph Allen, Caleb Stetson,
+Samuel Ripley, Converse Francis, William Ware, Samuel J. May, Artemus B.
+Muzzey, Oliver Stearns, James W. Thompson, Alonzo Hill, Andrew P. Peabody,
+Henry A. Miles, Frederic H. Hedge, James F. Clarke, George W. Briggs,
+Samuel May, Barzillai Frost, Nathaniel Hall, David Fosdick, and John Weiss.
+At the third session, by a vote of forty-seven to seven, it was declared
+"that we consider slavery to be utterly opposed to the principles and
+spirit of Christianity, and that, as ministers of the gospel, we feel it
+our duty to protest against it, in the name of Christ, and to do all we may
+to create a public opinion to secure the overthrow of the institution." It
+was also decided to appoint a committee to draw up, secure signatures to,
+<a name="pg361"></a>
+and publish "a protest against the institution of American slavery, as
+unchristian and inhuman." Though some of those who spoke at these meetings
+condemned the abolitionists, yet all of them expressed in the strongest
+terms their opposition to slavery.</p>
+
+<p>The committee selected to prepare this protest consisted of Caleb Stetson,
+James F. Clarke, John Parkman, Stephen G. Bulfinch, A.P. Peabody, John
+Pierpont, Samuel J. May, Oliver Stearns, George W. Briggs, William P.
+Tilden, and William H. Channing. The protest was written by James Freeman
+Clarke and was accepted essentially as it came from his hands. It was
+signed by one hundred and seventy-three ministers,[<a href="#fn_16_36">36</a><a name="fr_16_36"></a>] the whole number of
+Unitarian ministers at that time being two hundred and sixty-seven. Some of
+the most prominent ministers were conspicuous by the absence of their names
+from this protest. It must be understood, however, that those who did not
+sign it were as much opposed to slavery as those who did. "This protest,"
+<a name="pg362"></a>
+said the editor of The Christian Register, in presenting it to the
+public,[<a href="#fn_16_37">37</a><a name="fr_16_37"></a>] "is written with great clearness of expression and moderation
+of spirit. It exhibits unequivocally and distinctly the sentiments of the
+numerous and most enlightened body of clergy whose names are attached to
+it, as well as many other ministers of the denomination who may be
+disinclined to act conjointly, or do not feel called upon to act at all in
+any prescribed way, on the subject." It was not a desire to defend slavery
+that kept these ministers from signing the protest, but their excessive
+individualism, and their unwillingness to commit the denomination to
+opinions all might not accept. A few paragraphs from the protest will
+indicate its spirit and purpose:--</p>
+
+<p>"Especially do we feel that the denomination which takes for its motto
+Liberty, Holiness and Love should be foremost in opposing this system. More
+than others we have contended for three great principles,--individual
+liberty, perfect righteousness, and human brotherhood. All of these are
+grossly violated by the system of slavery. We contend for mental freedom;
+shall we not denounce the system which fetters both mind and body? We have
+declared righteousness to be the essence of Christianity; shall we not
+oppose the system which is the sum of all wrong? We claim for all men the
+right of brotherhood before a universal Father; ought we not to testify
+against that which tramples so many of our brethren under foot?"</p>
+
+<p>"We, therefore, ministers of the gospel of truth and love, in the name of
+God the universal Father, in the name of Christ the Redeemer, in the name
+of humanity and human brotherhood, do solemnly protest against the system
+<a name="pg363"></a>
+of slavery as unchristian, and inhuman," "because it is a violation of
+right, being the sum of all unrighteousness which man can do to man,"
+"violates the law of love," "degrades man, the image of God, into a thing,"
+"necessarily tends to pollute the soul of the slave," "to defile the soul
+of the master," "restricts education, keeps the Bible from the slave, makes
+life insecure, deprives female innocence of protection, sanctions adultery,
+tears children from parents and husbands from wives, violates the divine
+institutions of families, and by hard and hopeless toil makes existence a
+burden," "eats out the heart of nations and tends every year more and more
+to sear the popular conscience and impair the virtue of the people."</p>
+
+<p>"We implore all Christians and Christian preachers to unite in unceasing
+prayer to God for aid against this system, to leave no opportunity of
+speaking the truth and spreading the light on this subject, in faith that
+the truth is strong enough to break every yoke." "And we do hereby pledge
+ourselves, before God and our brethren, never to be weary of laboring in
+the cause of human rights and freedom until slavery be abolished and every
+slave made free."</p>
+
+<p>Although many ministers and laymen took the position that the question of
+slavery was not one that should receive attention in the meetings of the
+Unitarian Association or other religious organizations, that these should
+be kept strictly to their own special purposes, it was not possible to
+exclude the one great exciting topic of the age. How persistently it
+intruded itself is clearly indicated in words used by Dr. Bellows at the
+annual meeting of the Association, in 1856. "Year after year this horrid
+image of slavery come in here," he said, "and obtruded itself upon our
+<a name="pg364"></a>
+concerns. It has prevented our giving attention to any other subject; we
+could not keep it out of our minds; and why is that awful crime against
+humanity still known in the world, still supported and active in this age
+of Christendom, but because it is in alliance with certain views of
+theology with which we are at war?"[<a href="#fn_16_38">38</a><a name="fr_16_38"></a>] At the same meeting strong
+resolutions of sympathy with the free settlers of Kansas, and with Charles
+Sumner because "the barbarity of the slave power had attempted to silence
+him by brutal outrage," were unanimously adopted.[<a href="#fn_16_39">39</a><a name="fr_16_39"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>In 1857 the subject of slavery came before the Western Conference in its
+session at Alton. The most uncompromising anti-slavery resolutions were
+presented at the opening of the meeting, and everything else was put aside
+for their consideration, a day and a half being devoted to them. The
+opinion of the majority was, in the words of one of the speakers, that
+slavery is a crime that "denies millions marital and parental rights,
+requires ignorance as a condition, encourages licentiousness and cruelty,
+scars a country all over with incidents that appall and outrage the human
+world." Dr. W.G. Eliot, of St. Louis, and others, thought it not expedient
+to press the subject to an issue, though he regarded slavery in much the
+same way as did the other members of the conference. When the conference
+finally took issue with slavery, he and his delegates withdrew from its
+membership. His assistant, Rev. Carlton A. Staples, and Rev. John H.
+Heywood, of Louisville, went with the majority. A committee appointed to
+formulate a statement the conference could accept said that it had no right
+to interfere with the freedom of action of individual churches; but it
+<a name="pg365"></a>
+recommended them to do all they could in opposition to slavery, and said
+that the conference was of one mind in the conviction "that slavery is an
+evil doomed by God to pass away." This report was accepted by the
+conference with only one opposing vote.[<a href="#fn_16_40">40</a><a name="fr_16_40"></a>] When the year 1860 had
+arrived, Unitarians were practically unanimous in their condemnation of
+slavery.</p>
+
+<p>When the names of individual Unitarians who took an active part in the
+anti-slavery movement are given, it is at once seen how important was the
+influence of the denomination. Early in the century Rev. Noah Worcester
+uttered his word of protest against slavery. Rev. Charles Follen joined the
+Massachusetts Anti-slavery Society in the second year of its existence, and
+no nobler champion of liberty ever lived. If Dr. Channing was slow in
+applying his Christian ideal of liberty to slavery, there can be no
+question that his influence was powerful on the right side, and all the
+more so because of his gentle and ethical interpretation of individual and
+national duty. His various publications on the subject, his identification
+of himself with the abolitionists by joining their ranks in the
+Massachusetts State House in 1836, his speech in Faneuil Hall in protest
+against the killing of Lovejoy in Alton during the same year, exerted a
+great influence in behalf of abolition throughout the North. It is only
+necessary to mention John Pierpont, Theodore Parker, William H. Furness,
+William H. Channing, William Goodell, Theodore D. Weld, Ichabod Codding,
+Caleb Stetson, and M.D. Conway in order to recognize their uncompromising
+<a name="pg366"></a>
+fidelity to the cause of freedom. Only less devoted were such men as
+Charles Lowell, Nahor A. Staples, Sylvester Judd, Nathaniel Hall, Thomas T.
+Stone, O.B. Frothingham, Abiel A. Livermore, Samuel Johnson, Samuel
+Longfellow, Thomas J. Mumford, and many others.</p>
+
+<p>Samuel J. May and his cousin, Samuel May, were both employed by the
+Massachusetts Anti-slavery Society. From 1847 until 1865 the latter was the
+general agent of that organization; and his assistant was another Unitarian
+minister, Robert F. Walcutt. James Freeman Clarke, though settled at
+Louisville from 1833 to 1840, was opposed to slavery; and in the pages of
+The Western Messenger, of which he was publisher and editor, he took every
+occasion to press home the claims of emancipation. John G. Palfrey
+emancipated the slaves that came into his possession from his father's
+estate, insisting on receiving them for that purpose, though the
+opportunity was given him to accept other property in their stead. In
+accordance with this action was his attitude toward slavery in the pulpit
+and on the platform, as well as when he was a member of the lower house of
+Congress.</p>
+
+<p>Of Unitarian laymen who were loyal to the ideal of freedom, the list may
+properly open with the name of Josiah Quincy, afterwards mayor of Boston
+and president of Harvard College, who began as early as 1804 his opposition
+to slavery, and carried it faithfully into his work as a member of the
+national House of Representatives soon after. The fidelity of John Quincy
+Adams to freedom during many years is known to every one, and his service
+in the national House has given him a foremost place in the company of the
+<a name="pg367"></a>
+anti-slavery leaders. Not less loyal was the service of Charles Sumner,
+Horace Mann, John P. Hale, George W. Julian, John A. Andrew, Samuel G.
+Howe, Henry I. Bowditch, William I. Bowditch, Thomas W. Higginson, George
+F. Hoar, Ebenezer R. Hoar, George S. Boutwell, and Henry B. Anthony. Of the
+poets the anti-slavery reform had the support of Longfellow, Lowell,
+Bryant, and Emerson. The Unitarian women were also zealous for freedom. The
+loyalty of Lydia Maria Child is well known, as are the sacrifices she made
+in publishing her early anti-slavery books. Lucretia Mott, of the Unitarian
+branch of the Friends, was a devoted supporter of the anti-slavery cause.
+Mrs. Maria W. Chapman was one of the most faithful supporters of Garrison,
+doing more than any one else to give financial aid to the anti-slavery
+reform movement in its earlier years. With these women deserve to be
+mentioned Eliza Lee Follen, Angelina Grimké Weld, Lucy Stone, and many
+more.</p>
+
+<p>A considerable group of persons who had been trained in evangelical
+churches became essentially Unitarians as a result of the anti-slavery
+agitation. Of these may be mentioned William Lloyd Garrison, Gerrit Smith,
+Beriah Green, Joshua R. Giddings, Myron Holley, Theodore D. Weld, and
+Francis W. Bird. Of the first four of these men, George W. Julian has said:
+"They were theologically reconstructed through their unselfish devotion to
+humanity and the recreancy of the churches to which they had been attached.
+They were less orthodox, but more Christian. Their faith in the fatherhood
+of God and the brotherhood of man became a living principle, and compelled
+to reject all dogmas which stood in its way."[<a href="#fn_16_41">41</a><a name="fr_16_41"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg368"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn113"></a>The Enfranchisement of Women.</h3>
+
+<p>It is not surprising that the first great advocate of "the rights of women"
+in this country should have been the Unitarian, Margaret Fuller. She did no
+more than apply what she had been taught in religion to problems of
+personal duty, professional activity, and political obligations. With her
+freedom of faith and liberty of thought meant also freedom to devote her
+life to such tasks as she could best perform for the good of others. It was
+inevitable that other Unitarian women should follow her example, and that
+many women, trained in other faiths, having come to accept the doctrine of
+universal political rights, should seek in Unitarianism the religion
+consonant with their individuality of purpose and their sense of human
+freedom.</p>
+
+<p>Among the leaders of the movement for the enfranchisement of women have
+been such Unitarians as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy
+Stone, Julia Ward Howe, Mary A. Livermore, Maria Weston Chapman, Caroline
+H. Dall, and Louisa M. Alcott. The first pronounced woman suffrage paper in
+the country was The Una, begun at Providence in 1853, with Mrs. Caroline H.
+Dall as the assistant editor. Among other Unitarian contributors were
+William H. Charming, Elizabeth P. Peabody, Thomas W. Higginson, Ednah D.
+Cheney, Amory D. Mayo, Elizabeth Oakes Smith, Lucy Stone, and Mrs. E.C.
+Stanton. The next important paper was The Revolution, begun at New York in
+1868, with Susan B. Anthony as publisher and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and
+Parker Pillsbury as editors. Then came The Woman's Journal, begun at Boston
+in 1870, with Mary A. Livermore, Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, T.W.
+Higginson, and Henry B. Blackwell, all Unitarians, as the editors.</p>
+
+<a name="pg369"></a>
+<p>The first national woman's suffrage meeting was held in Worcester, October
+28 and 24, 1850; and among those who took part in it by letter or personal
+presence were Emerson, Alcott, Higginson, Pillsbury, Samuel J. May, William
+H. Channing, William H. Burleigh, Elizabeth C. Stanton, Catherine M.
+Sedgwick, Caroline Kirkland, and Lucy Stone. In April, 1853, when the
+Constitution of Massachusetts was to receive revision, a petition was
+presented, asking that suffrage should be granted to women. Of twenty-seven
+persons signing it, more than half were Unitarians, including Abby May
+Alcott, Lucy Stone, T.W. Higginson, Anna Q.T. Parsons, Theodore Parker,
+William I. Bowditch, Samuel E. Sewall, Ellis Gray Loring, Charles K.
+Whipple, and Thomas T. Stone. Among other Unitarians who have taken an
+active part in promoting this cause have been Lucretia Mott, Mary Grew,
+Caroline M. Severance, Celia C. Burleigh, Angelina Grimké Weld, and Maria
+Giddings Julian. Of men there have been Dr. William F. Channing, James F.
+Clarke, George F. Hoar, George W. Curtis, John S. Dwight, John T. Sargent,
+Samuel Johnson, Samuel Longfellow, Octavius B. Frothingham, Adin Ballou,
+George W. Julian, Frank B. Sanborn, and James T. Fields.</p>
+
+<p>Unitarians have been amongst the first to recognize women in education,
+literature, the professions, and in the management of church and
+denominational interests. At the convention held in New York in 1865, which
+organized the National Conference, no women appeared as delegates; and the
+same was true at the second session, held at Syracuse in 1866. At that
+session Rev. Thomas J. Mumford moved "that our churches shall be left to
+<a name="pg370"></a>
+their own wishes and discretion with reference to the sex of the delegates
+chosen to represent them in the conference"; and this resolution was
+adopted. At the third meeting, held at New York in 1868, thirty-seven women
+appeared as delegates, including Julia Ward Howe and Caroline H. Dall. The
+lay delegates to the session held at Washington in 1899 numbered four
+hundred and two; and, of these, two hundred and twenty seven were women.</p>
+
+<p>At the annual meeting of the Unitarian Association in 1870, Rev. John T.
+Sargent brought forward the subject of the representation of women on its
+board of directors. Dr. James F. Clarke made a motion looking to that
+result, which was largely discussed, much opposition being manifested. It
+was urged by many that women were unfit to serve in a position demanding so
+much business capacity, that they would displace capable men, and that it
+was improper for them to assume so public a duty. Charles Lowe, James F.
+Clarke, John T. Sargent, and others strongly championed the proposition,
+with the result that Miss Lucretia Crocker was elected a member of the
+board.[<a href="#fn_16_42">42</a><a name="fr_16_42"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The first woman ordained to the Unitarian ministry was Mrs. Celia C.
+Burleigh, who was settled over the parish in Brooklyn, Conn., October 5,
+1871. The sermon was preached by Rev. John W. Chadwick, and the address to
+the people was given by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe. A letter was read from Henry
+Ward Beecher, in which he said to Mrs. Burleigh: "I do cordially believe
+that you ought to preach. I think you had a <i>call</i> in your very nature."
+Mrs. Burleigh continued at Brooklyn for less than three years, ill-health
+compelling her to resign.</p>
+
+<a name="pg371"></a>
+<p>The second woman to enter the Unitarian ministry was Miss Mary H. Graves,
+who was ordained at Mansfield, Mass., December 14, 1871. She was subjected
+to a thorough examination; and the committee reported "that her words have
+commanded our thorough respect by their freedom and clearness, and won our
+full sympathy and approval by their earnest, discreet, and beautiful
+spirit." Mrs. Eliza Tupper Wilkes was ordained by the Universalists at
+Rochester, Minn., May 2, 1871, though she had preached for two or three
+years previously; and she subsequently identified herself with the
+Unitarians. Mrs. Antoinette Brown Blackwell was ordained in Central New
+York, in 1853, by the Orthodox Congregationalists; but somewhat later she
+became a Unitarian.</p>
+
+<p>The first woman to receive ordination who has continued without
+interruption her ministerial duties was Miss Mary A. Safford, ordained in
+1880. She has held every official position in connection with the Iowa
+Unitarian Association, and she has also been an officer of the Western
+Conference and a director of the American Unitarian Association.</p>
+
+<p>Several women have also frequently appeared in Unitarian pulpits who have
+not received ordination or devoted themselves to the ministry as a
+profession. Among these are Mrs. Caroline H. Dall, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe,
+and Mrs. Mary A. Livermore. In 1875 Mrs. Howe was active in organizing the
+Women's Ministerial Conference, which met in the Church of the Disciples,
+and brought together women ministers of several denominations. Of this
+conference Mrs. Howe was for many years the president.</p>
+
+<a name="pg372"></a>
+<p>In most Unitarian churches there is no longer any question as to the right
+of women to take any place they are individually fitted to occupy. On
+denominational committees and boards, women sit with entire success, their
+fitness for the duties required being called in question by no one. In
+those conferences where women have for a number of years been actively
+engaged in the work of the ministry they are received on a basis of perfect
+equality with men, and the sex question no longer presents itself in regard
+to official positions or any other ministerial duty.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn114"></a>Civil Service Reform.</h3>
+
+<p>The first advocate of the reform of the civil service was Charles Sumner,
+who as early as December, 1847, anticipated its methods in a series of
+articles contributed to a newspaper.[<a href="#fn_16_43">43</a><a name="fr_16_43"></a>] He was the first to bring this
+reform before Congress, which he did April 30, 1864, when he introduced a
+bill to provide a system of competitive examinations for admission to and
+promotion in the civil service, which made merit and fitness the conditions
+of employment by the government, and provided against removal without
+cause. This bill was drawn by Sumner without consultation with any other
+person, but the time had not yet arrived when it could be successfully
+advocated.</p>
+
+<p>The next person to advocate the reform of the civil service in Congress was
+Thomas A. Jenckes, of Rhode Island, who in 1867 brought the merit system
+forward in the form of a report from the joint committee on retrenchment,
+which reported on the condition of the civil service, and accompanied its
+report with a bill "to regulate the civil service and to promote its
+<a name="pg373"></a>
+efficiency." The next year Mr. Jenckes made a second report, but it was not
+until 1871 that action on the subject was secured.[<a href="#fn_16_44">44</a><a name="fr_16_44"></a>] George W. Curtis
+says that at first he "pressed it upon an utterly listless Congress, and
+his proposition was regarded as the harmless hobby of an amiable man, from
+which a little knowledge of practical politics would soon dismount
+him."[<a href="#fn_16_45">45</a><a name="fr_16_45"></a>] Most members of Congress thought the reform a mere vagary, and
+that it was brought forward at a most inopportune time.[<a href="#fn_16_46">46</a><a name="fr_16_46"></a>] Mr. Jenckes
+was the pioneer of the reform, according to Curtis, who says that he
+"powerfully and vigorously and alone opened the debate in Congress."[<a href="#fn_16_47">47</a><a name="fr_16_47"></a>]
+He drew the amendment to the appropriation bill in 1871 that became the
+law, and under which the first civil service commission was appointed. "By
+his experience, thorough knowledge, fertility of resource and suggestion
+and great legal ability, he continued to serve with as much efficiency as
+modesty the cause to which he was devoted."[<a href="#fn_16_48">48</a><a name="fr_16_48"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>One of the first persons to give attention to this subject was Dorman B.
+Eaton, an active member of All Souls' Church in New York, who was for
+several years chairman of the committee on political reform of the Union
+League Club of New York. In 1866, and again in 1870 and 1875, he travelled
+in Europe to secure information in regard to methods of civil service. The
+results of these investigations were presented in his work on Civil Service
+in Great Britain, a report made at the request of President Hayes. In 1873
+he was appointed a member of the Civil Service Commission by President
+<a name="pg374"></a>
+Grant; in 1883 he was the chairman of the committee appointed by President
+Arthur; and in 1885 he was reappointed by President Cleveland. The bill of
+January, 1883, which firmly established civil service by act of Congress,
+was drawn by him. He was a devoted worker for good government in all its
+phases; and the results of his studies of the subject may be found in his
+books on The Independent Movement in New York and The Government of
+Municipalities. He was described by George William Curtis as "one of the
+most conspicuous, intelligent, and earnest friends of reform."[<a href="#fn_16_49">49</a><a name="fr_16_49"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The most conspicuous advocate of the merit system was Mr. George William
+Curtis, another New York Unitarian, who was the chairman of the Civil
+Service Commission of 1871. In 1880 he became the president of the New York
+Civil Service Reform Association, a position he held until his death. The
+National Civil Service Reform League was organized at Newport in August,
+1881; and he was the president from that time as long as he lived. His
+annual addresses before the league show his devoted interest in its aims,
+as well as his eloquence, intellectual power, and political integrity.[<a href="#fn_16_50">50</a><a name="fr_16_50"></a>]
+In an address before the Unitarian National Conference, in 1878, Mr. Curtis
+gave a noble exposition and vindication of the reform which he labored
+zealously for twelve years to advance.[<a href="#fn_16_51">51</a><a name="fr_16_51"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>It has been justly said of Mr. Curtis that "far above the pleasures of life
+he placed its duties; and no man could have set himself more sternly to the
+<a name="pg375"></a>
+serious work of citizenship. The national struggle over slavery, and the
+re-establishment of the Union on permanent foundations enlisted his whole
+nature. In the same spirit, he devoted his later years to the overthrow of
+the spoils system. He did this under no delusion as to the magnitude of the
+undertaking. Probably no one else comprehended it so well. He had studied
+the problem profoundly, and had solved every difficulty, and could answer
+every cavil to his own satisfaction." There can be no question that "his
+name imparted a strength to the movement no other would have given." Nor
+can there be much question that "among public men there was none who so won
+the confidence of sincere and earnest men and women by his own personality.
+The powers of such a character, with all his gifts and accomplishments, was
+what Mr. Curtis brought to the civil service reform."[<a href="#fn_16_52">52</a><a name="fr_16_52"></a>]</p>
+
+<p><br >[<a href="#fr_16_1">1</a><a name="fn_16_1"></a>] American Unitarian Biography, edited by William Ware; Memoir of
+    Worcester, by Henry Ware, Jr., I. 45, 46.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_2">2</a><a name="fn_16_2"></a>] Solemn Review, edition of 1836 by American Peace Society, 7.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_3">3</a><a name="fn_16_3"></a>] It had been preceded by societies in Ohio and New York, results of
+    the influence of the Solemn Review.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_4">4</a><a name="fn_16_4"></a>] Unitarian Biography, I. 49.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_5">5</a><a name="fn_16_5"></a>] Memoir, II. 284; one-volume edition, 111.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_6">6</a><a name="fn_16_6"></a>] Ibid., III. 111; one-volume edition, 284.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_7">7</a><a name="fn_16_7"></a>] Memoir, 139.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_8">8</a><a name="fn_16_8"></a>] Christian Examiner, May, 1850, XLVIII. 378.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_9">9</a><a name="fn_16_9"></a>] Ibid., November, 1861, LXXI. 313.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_10">10</a><a name="fn_16_10"></a>] Life, 83.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_11">11</a><a name="fn_16_11"></a>] Ibid., 115.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_12">12</a><a name="fn_16_12"></a>] Cyclopedia of American Biography, V. 746.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_13">13</a><a name="fn_16_13"></a>] Memoir, II. 348.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_14">14</a><a name="fn_16_14"></a>] Memoir.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_15">15</a><a name="fn_16_15"></a>] Ibid., 351.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_16">16</a><a name="fn_16_16"></a>] Ibid., IV. 572.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_17">17</a><a name="fn_16_17"></a>] Reminiscences, 328.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_18">18</a><a name="fn_16_18"></a>] Memoir, III. 36; one-volume edition, 477.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_19">19</a><a name="fn_16_19"></a>] Memoir, III. 31; one-volume edition, 474, 475.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_20">20</a><a name="fn_16_20"></a>] Works, II. 301.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_21">21</a><a name="fn_16_21"></a>] When will the Day come? and other tracts of the Massachusetts
+     Temperance Society, 135.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_22">22</a><a name="fn_16_22"></a>] Of the twenty-seven annual addresses given before this society from
+     1814 to 1840, at least sixteen were by Unitarians; and among these
+     were John T. Kirkland, Abiel Abbot, William E. Channing, Edward
+     Everett, the younger Henry Ware, Gamaliel Bradford, Charles Sprague,
+     James Walker, Alexander H. Everett, William Sullivan, and Samuel K.
+     Lothrop. The first four presidents of this society--Samuel Dexter,
+     Nathan Dane, Isaac Parker, and Stephen Fairbanks--were Unitarians. Of
+     the same faith were also a large proportion of the vice-presidents
+     and other officers. Many of the tracts published by the society were
+     written by Unitarians.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_23">23</a><a name="fn_16_23"></a>] Unitarians of every calling have been the advocates of temperance.
+     Among those who have been loyal to it in word and action may be named
+     John Adams, Jeremy Belknap, Jonathan Phillips, Charles Lowell, Ezra
+     S. Gannett, John Pierpont, Samuel J. May, Amos Lawrence, Horace Mann,
+     William H. and George S. Burleigh, Governor Pitman, William G. Eliot,
+     Rufus P. Stebbins, and William B. Spooner. "Many of the leading men
+     and women who were eminent as lawyers, judges, legislators, scholars,
+     also prominent in the business walks of life, and in social position,
+     gave this cause the force of their example, and the inspiration of
+     their minds. By their contributions of money, by their personal
+     efforts, by their public speeches and writings, and by their practice
+     of total abstinence, they rendered very valuable service."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_24">24</a><a name="fn_16_24"></a>] Twelfth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, 1897.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_25">25</a><a name="fn_16_25"></a>] Theodore Clapp, of New Orleans, may be an exception, though he is
+     claimed by the Universalists. See S.J. May's Recollections of the
+     Anti-slavery Conflict, 335.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_26">26</a><a name="fn_16_26"></a>] Autobiography and Letters, 117, 127, 129. The criticism of Dr. Dewey
+     may be found in S.J. May's Recollections, 367.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_27">27</a><a name="fn_16_27"></a>] Memoir, 139, 284, 296. See S.J. May, Recollections, 341, 367, for an
+     anti-slavery indictment of Dr. Gannett.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_28">28</a><a name="fn_16_28"></a>] Memoir, chapter on Slavery.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_29">29</a><a name="fn_16_29"></a>] Recollections of the Anti-slavery Conflict, chapter on the
+     Unitarians, 335.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_30">30</a><a name="fn_16_30"></a>] See Lydia Maria Child's account of conversations with Channing on
+     this subject, in her Letters from New York.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_31">31</a><a name="fn_16_31"></a>] Recollections and Impressions, 47, 183.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_32">32</a><a name="fn_16_32"></a>] The Story of his Life as Told by his Children.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_33">33</a><a name="fn_16_33"></a>] Recollections, 335.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_34">34</a><a name="fn_16_34"></a>] S.J. May, Recollections, 19; Life of A.B. Alcott, 220; Life of
+     Garrison, I. 212.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_35">35</a><a name="fn_16_35"></a>] Life of Garrison, I. 223.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_36">36</a><a name="fn_16_36"></a>] The more prominent names are herewith given as they were printed in
+     The Christian Register: Joseph Allen, J.H. Allen, S.G. Bulfinch, C.F.
+     Barnard, Charles Briggs, W.G. Babcock, C.T. Brooks, Warren Burton,
+     C.H. Brigham, Edgar Buckingham, William H. Channing, James F. Clarke,
+     S.B. Cruft, A.H. Conant, C.H.A. Dall, R. Ellis, Converse Francis,
+     James Flint, William H. Furness, N.S. Folsom, Frederick A. Farley,
+     Frederick T. Gray, Henry Giles, F.D. Huntington, E.B. Hall, N. Hall,
+     F.H. Hedge, F. Hinckley, G.W. Hosmer, F.W. Holland, Thomas Hill,
+     Sylvester Judd, James Kendall, William H. Knapp, A.A. Livermore, S.J.
+     May, Samuel May, M.I. Mott, A.B. Muzzey, J.F. Moors, Henry A. Miles,
+     William Newell, J. Osgood, S. Osgood, Andrew P. Peabody, John
+     Parkman, John Pierpont, Theodore Parker, Cyrus Pierce, J.H. Perkins,
+     Cazneau Palfey, O.W.B. Peabody, Samuel Ripley, Chandler Robbins,
+     Caleb Stetson, Oliver Stearns, Rufus P. Stebbins, Edmund Q. Sewall,
+     Charles Sewall, John T. Sargent, George F. Simmons, William Silsbee,
+     William P. Tilden, J.W. Thompson, John Weiss, Robert T. Waterston,
+     William Ware, J.F.W. Ware, E.B. Willson, Frederick A. Whitney, Jason
+     Whitman.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_37">37</a><a name="fn_16_37"></a>] Printed in The Christian Register, October 4, 1845.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_38">38</a><a name="fn_16_38"></a>] Quarterly Journal, III. 567.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_39">39</a><a name="fn_16_39"></a>] Ibid., 572.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_40">40</a><a name="fn_16_40"></a>] Unity, Sept. 4, 1886, Mrs. S.C.Ll. Jones, Historic Unitarianism in
+     the West.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_41">41</a><a name="fn_16_41"></a>] Life of Joshua R. Giddings, 399.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_42">42</a><a name="fn_16_42"></a>] Memoir of Charles Lowe, 486. In 1901 four of the eighteen directors
+     of the American Unitarian Association were women.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_43">43</a><a name="fn_16_43"></a>] Life, III. 149.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_44">44</a><a name="fn_16_44"></a>] Life of Charles Sumner, IV. 191; Works, VII. 452.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_45">45</a><a name="fn_16_45"></a>] G.W. Curtis, Orations and Addresses, II. 30.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_46">46</a><a name="fn_16_46"></a>] Ibid., 173.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_47">47</a><a name="fn_16_47"></a>] Ibid., 180.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_48">48</a><a name="fn_16_48"></a>] Ibid., 223.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_49">49</a><a name="fn_16_49"></a>] G.W. Curtis, Orations and Addresses, II. 458.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_50">50</a><a name="fn_16_50"></a>] See Curtis's Orations and Addresses, II.; also, his Reports as civil
+     service commissioner, and various addresses before the Social Science
+     Association.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_51">51</a><a name="fn_16_51"></a>] Edward Cary, Life of Curtis, American Men of Letters, 294.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_52">52</a><a name="fn_16_52"></a>] George William Curtis and Civil Service Reform, by Sherman S. Rogers,
+     in Atlantic Monthly, January, 1893, LXXI. 15.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<a name="pg376"></a>
+<h2><br ><a name="ch17"></a>XVII.<br >
+
+
+UNITARIAN MEN AND WOMEN.</h2>
+
+<p>Many of the most influential Americans have been in practical accord with
+Unitarianism, while not actually connected with Unitarian churches. They
+have accepted its principles of individual freedom, the rational
+interpretation of religion, and the necessity of bringing religious beliefs
+into harmony with modern science and philosophy. Among these may be
+properly included such men as Benjamin Franklin, John Marshall, Gerrit
+Smith, John G. Whittier, William Lloyd Garrison, Andrew D. White, and
+Abraham Lincoln. Whittier was a Friend, and White an Episcopalian; but the
+religion of both is acceptable to all Unitarians. Marshall was undoubtedly
+a Unitarian in his intellectual convictions, and he sometimes attended the
+Unitarian church in Washington; but his church affiliations were with the
+Episcopalians. John C. Calhoun was all his life a member of an Episcopal
+church and a communicant in it; but he frequently attended the Unitarian
+church in Washington, and intellectually he discarded the doctrines taught
+in the creeds of his church.</p>
+
+<p>Lincoln belonged to no church, and had no interest in the forms and
+disputes that constitute so large a part of outward religion; but he was
+one of those men whose great deeds rest on a basis of simple but
+profoundest religious conviction. The most explicit statement he ever made
+of his faith was in these words: "I have never united myself to any church,
+<a name="pg377"></a>
+because I have found difficulty in giving my assent, without mental
+reservation, to the long, complicated statements of Christian doctrine
+which characterize their articles of belief and confessions of faith. When
+any church will inscribe over its altar, as its sole qualification of
+membership, the Saviour's condensed statement of both law and gospel, 'Thou
+shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and
+with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself,' that church will I join
+with all my heart and all my soul."[<a href="#fn_17_1">1</a><a name="fr_17_1"></a>] This declaration brings Lincoln
+into fullest harmony with the position of the Unitarian churches.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn115"></a>Eminent Statesmen.</h3>
+
+<p>The intellectual tendencies of the eighteenth century led many of the
+leading Americans to discard the Puritan habit of mind and the religious
+beliefs it had cherished. An intellectual revolt caused the rejection of
+many of the Protestant doctrines, and a political revolt in the direction
+of democracy led to the acceptance of religious principles not in harmony
+with those of the past. Many Americans shared in these protests who did not
+openly break with the older faiths. Washington was of this class; for,
+while he remained outwardly a churchman, he had little intellectual or
+practical sympathy with the stricter beliefs. Franklin was thoroughly of
+the Deistic faith of the thinkers of England and France in his time. These
+tendencies had their effect upon such men as John Adams, Timothy Pickering,
+Joseph Story, and Theophilus Parsons, as well as upon Thomas Jefferson and
+William Cranch. They showed themselves with especial prominence in the case
+of Jefferson, who always remained outwardly faithful to the state religion
+<a name="pg378"></a>
+of Virginia, in which he had been educated, attended the Episcopal church
+in the neighborhood of his home, sometimes joining in its communion, but
+who was, nevertheless, intellectually a pronounced Unitarian.</p>
+
+<p>With Jefferson his Unitarianism was a part of his democracy, for he was
+consistent enough to make his religion and his politics agree with each
+other. As he would have kings no longer rule over men, but give political
+power into the hands of the people, so in religion he would put aside all
+theologians and priests, and permit the people to worship in their own way.
+It was for this reason that he rejoiced in the emancipating work of
+Channing, of which he wrote in 1822, "I rejoice that in this blessed
+country of free inquiry and belief, which has surrendered its creeds and
+conscience neither to kings nor priests, the genuine doctrine of only one
+God is reviving; and I trust there is not a young man now living who will
+not die a Unitarian."[<a href="#fn_17_2">2</a><a name="fr_17_2"></a>] Jefferson's revolt against authority was tersely
+expressed in his declaration: "Had there never been a commentator, there
+never would have been an infidel."[<a href="#fn_17_3">3</a><a name="fr_17_3"></a>] This was in harmony with his
+saying, that "the doctrines of Jesus are simple and tend all to the
+happiness of man."[<a href="#fn_17_4">4</a><a name="fr_17_4"></a>] It also fully agrees with the claims of the early
+Unitarians with regard to the teachings of Jesus. "No one sees with greater
+pleasure than myself," he wrote, "the progress of reason in its advance
+toward rational Christianity. When we shall have done away with the
+incomprehensible jargon of the Trinitarian arithmetic, that three are one,
+<a name="pg379"></a>
+and one are three; when we shall have knocked down the artificial
+scaffolding reared to mask from view the simple structure of Jesus; when,
+in short, we shall have unlearned everything taught since his day, and got
+back to the pure and simple doctrines he inculcated--we shall then be truly
+and worthily his disciples; and my opinion is that, if nothing had ever
+been added to what flowed purely from his lips, the whole world would at
+this day have been Christian."[<a href="#fn_17_5">5</a><a name="fr_17_5"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>However mistaken Jefferson may have been in the historical opinions thus
+expressed, we cannot question the sincerity of his beliefs or fail to
+recognize that he had the keenest interest in whatever gave indication of
+the growth of a rational spirit in religion. These opinions he shared with
+many of the leading men of his time; but he was more outspoken in their
+utterance, as he was more consistent in holding them. That Washington,
+though remaining an Episcopalian, was in fullest accord with Jefferson in
+his principles of toleration and religious freedom, is apparent from one of
+his letters. "I am not less ardent in my wish," he wrote, "that you may
+succeed in your toleration in religious matters. Being no bigot myself to
+any mode of worship, I am disposed to indulge the professors of
+Christianity in the church with that road to heaven which to them shall
+seem the most direct, easiest, and least liable to exception."[<a href="#fn_17_6">6</a><a name="fr_17_6"></a>]
+Intellectually, Franklin was a Deist of essentially the same beliefs with
+Jefferson, as may be seen in his statement of faith: "I believe in one God,
+the creator of the universe; that he governs it by his providence; that he
+ought to be worshipped; that the most acceptable service we render to him
+<a name="pg380"></a>
+is doing good to his other children; that the soul of man is immortal, and
+will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in
+this. These I take to be the fundamental points in all sound religion. As
+to Jesus of Nazareth, I think his system of morals and his religion, as he
+left them to us, the best the world ever saw, or is likely to see; but I
+apprehend it has received various corrupting changes, and I have some
+doubts of his divinity; though it is a question I do not dogmatize upon,
+having never studied it."[<a href="#fn_17_7">7</a><a name="fr_17_7"></a>] Franklin was a member of a Unitarian church
+in London.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn116"></a>Some Representative Unitarians.</h3>
+
+<p>The church in Washington, not having been popular or of fine appointments,
+has been a test of the Unitarian faith of those frequenting the capital
+city. It has included in its congregation, from time to time, such men as
+John Adams, John Quincy Adams,[<a href="#fn_17_8">8</a><a name="fr_17_8"></a>] John Marshall, Joseph Story, Samuel F.
+Miller, Millard Fillmore, William Cranch, George Bancroft, Nathan K. Hall,
+James Moore Wayne, and Senators Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, William S.
+Archer, Henry B. Anthony, William B. Allison, Timothy O. Howe, Edward
+Everett, Justin S. Morrill, Charles Sumner, William E. Chandler, George F.
+<a name="pg381"></a>
+Hoar, and John P. Hale. William Winston Seaton and Joseph Gales, once
+prominent in Washington as editors and publishers of The National
+Intelligencer, were both Unitarians.</p>
+
+<p>In New York the Unitarian churches have had among their attendants and
+members such persons as William Cullen Bryant, Catherine M. Sedgwick, Henry
+D. Sedgwick, Henry Wheaton, Peter Cooper, George William Curtis, George
+Ticknor Curtis, Moses H. Grinnell, Dorman B. Eaton, and Joseph H. Choate.
+The churches in Salem have had connected with them such men as John Prince,
+Nathaniel Bowditch, Benjamin Peirce, Timothy Pickering, John Pickering,
+Leverett Saltonstall, Joseph Story,[<a href="#fn_17_9">9</a><a name="fr_17_9"></a>] Jones Very, William H. Prescott,
+and Nathaniel Hawthorne.[<a href="#fn_17_10">10</a><a name="fr_17_10"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg382"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn117"></a>Judges and Legislators.</h3>
+
+<p>During the early Unitarian period "the judges on the bench" included such
+men as Theophilus Parsons, Isaac Parker, and Lemuel Shaw, all of whom held
+the office of chief justice in Massachusetts. Other lawyers, jurists, and
+statesmen were Fisher Ames, political orator and statesman; Nathan Dane,
+who drew the ordinance for the north-western territory; Samuel Dexter,
+senator, and secretary of the treasury under John Adams; Christopher Gore,
+senator, and governor of Massachusetts; and Benjamin R. Curtis, of the
+United States Supreme Court. Other chief justices of the Supreme Court of
+Massachusetts have been George T. Bigelow, John Wells, Pliny Myrick,
+Walbridge A. Field, Charles Allen; and of associates in that court have
+been Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, Benjamin F. Thomas, Seth Ames, Samuel S.
+Wilde, Levi Lincoln, and John Lowell. Among the governors of Massachusetts
+have been Levi Lincoln, Edward Everett, John Davis, John H. Clifford, John
+A. Andrew, George S. Boutwell, John D. Long, Thomas Talbot, George D.
+Robinson, J.Q.A. Brackett, Oliver Ames, Frederic T. Greenhalge, and Roger
+Wolcott. The first mayors of Boston, John Phillips, Josiah Quincy,[<a href="#fn_17_11">11</a><a name="fr_17_11"></a>] and
+<a name="pg383"></a>
+Harrison Gray Otis, were Unitarians. Then, after an interval of one year,
+followed Samuel A. Eliot and Jonathan Chapman.</p>
+
+<p>It has often been assumed that Unitarianism attracts only intellectual
+persons; but it also appeals to practical business men, legislators, and
+the leaders of political life. In Maine have been Vice-President Hannibal
+Hamlin, Governor Edward Kent, and Chief Justice John Appleton. In New
+Hampshire it has appealed to such men as Chief Justices Cushing, Henry A.
+Bellows, Jeremiah Smith, and, Charles Doe, as well as to Governors Onslow
+Stearns, Charles H. Bell, Benjamin F. Prescott, and Ichabod Goodwin; in
+Rhode Island, Governors Lippitt and Seth Paddelford, Chief Justices Samuel
+Ames and Samuel Eddy, General Ambrose E. Burnside, and William B. Weeden,
+historian and economist. Alphonso Taft and George Hoadly, both governors of
+Ohio, were Unitarians, as were Austin Blair, John T. Bagley, Charles S.
+May, and Henry H. Crapo, governors of Michigan. Among the prominent
+Unitarians of Iowa have been Senator William B. Allison and General George
+W. McCrary. In California may be named Leland Stanford, Horace Davis, Chief
+Justice W.H. Beatty, and Oscar L. Shafter of the Supreme Court.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn118"></a>Boston Unitarianism.</h3>
+
+<p>What Unitarianism has been in the lives of its men and women may be most
+conspicuously seen in Boston and the region about it, for there throughout
+the first half of the nineteenth century Unitarianism was the dominant form
+<a name="pg384"></a>
+of Christianity. Of the period from 1826 to 1832, when Dr. Lyman Beecher
+was settled in Boston, Mrs. Stowe has given this testimony: "All the
+literary men of Massachusetts were Unitarians. All the trustees and
+professors of Harvard College were Unitarians. All the élite of wealth and
+fashion crowded Unitarian churches. The judges on the bench were Unitarian,
+giving decisions by which the peculiar features of church organization, so
+carefully ordained by the Pilgrim fathers, had been nullified."[<a href="#fn_17_12">12</a><a name="fr_17_12"></a>] Of the
+same period Dr. Beecher wrote, "All offices were in the hands of
+Unitarians."[<a href="#fn_17_13">13</a><a name="fr_17_13"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>These statements were literally true, except in so far as they implied that
+Unitarians used high positions in order to overthrow the old institutions
+of Massachusetts and substitute those of their own devising. The calmer
+judgment of the present day would not accept this conclusion, and it has no
+historic foundation. The religious development of Boston brought its
+churches into the acceptance of a tolerant, rational, and practical form of
+Christianity, that was not dogmatic or sectarian. It took the Unitarian
+name, but only in the sense of rejecting the harsher interpretations of the
+doctrine of the Trinity and of election. The members of the Unitarian
+churches during this period were devout in an unostentatious manner, pious
+after a simple fashion, loyal Christians without excess of zeal, lovers of
+liberty, but in a conservative spirit. This simple form of piety enabled
+the men who accepted it to govern the state in a most faithful manner. They
+managed its affairs justly, wisely, and in the true intent of economy.
+<a name="pg385"></a>
+Sometimes it was complained that they held a much larger number of offices
+than was their proportion according to population; but to this John G.
+Palfrey replied that the people of the state had confidence in them, and
+elected them because nobody else governed so well.</p>
+
+<p>With the aid of the biography of James Sullivan, judge, legislator,
+attorney-general, and diplomatist,[<a href="#fn_17_14">14</a><a name="fr_17_14"></a>] we may study the constituency of a
+single church in Boston, the Brattle Street Church. We find there James
+Bowdoin and John Hancock, rival candidates for the position of governor of
+the state in 1785. The same rivalry occurred twenty years later between
+James Sullivan and Caleb Strong, both of the number of its communicants. On
+the parish committee of this church at one time were Hancock, Bowdoin, and
+Sullivan, who became governors of the state, and Judges Wendell and John
+Lowell.[<a href="#fn_17_15">15</a><a name="fr_17_15"></a>] Some years later there were included in the congregation such
+men as Daniel Webster, Harrison Gray Otis, Abbott Lawrence, and Amos
+Lawrence, who was one of the deacons for many years.</p>
+
+<p>Of the distinguished business men of Boston may be named John Amory Lowell,
+John C. Amory, Jonathan Phillips (the confidential friend and supporter of
+Dr. Channing), Thomas Wigglesworth, J. Huntington Wolcott, Augustus
+Hemenway, Stephen C. Phillips, and Thomas Tileston. Francis Cabot Lowell
+was largely concerned in building up the manufacturing interests of
+<a name="pg386"></a>
+Massachusetts, especially the cotton industry; and the city of Lowell took
+his name in recognition of the importance of his leadership in this
+direction. For similar reasons the city of Lawrence was named after Abbott
+Lawrence, minister of the United States to Great Britain, who was one of
+the leading merchants of Boston in the China trade, and was also largely
+concerned in the development of cotton manufacturing. With these business
+and manufacturing interests Amos Lawrence was also connected. Nathan
+Appleton[<a href="#fn_17_16">16</a><a name="fr_17_16"></a>] was associated with Francis C. Lowell in the establishment of
+the great manufacturing interests that have been a large source of the
+wealth of Massachusetts. Thomas H. Perkins, from whom was named the Perkins
+Institute for the Blind, was also concerned in the China trade and in the
+first development of railroads. Robert Gould Shaw was another leading
+merchant, who left a large sum of money for the benefit of the children of
+mariners. John Murray Forbes was a builder of railroads, notably active in
+the financial support of the national government during the civil war, and
+<a name="pg387"></a>
+a generous friend of noble men and interests.[<a href="#fn_17_17">17</a><a name="fr_17_17"></a>] Nathaniel Thayer was a
+manager of railroads, erected Thayer Hall at Harvard College, and bore the
+expenses of Agassiz's expedition to South America.</p>
+
+<p>A Boston man by birth and training, who knew the defects as well as the
+merits of the class of men and women who have been named, has given
+generous testimony to the high qualities of mind and heart possessed by
+these Unitarians. In writing of his maternal grandfather, Octavius Brooks
+Frothingham has said: "Peter C. Brooks was an admirable example of the
+Unitarian laymen of that period, industrious, honest, faithful in all
+relations of life, charitable, public-spirited, intelligent, sagacious,
+mingling the prudence of the man of affairs with the faith of the
+Christian.... As one recalls the leading persons in Brattle Street, Federal
+Street, Chauncy Place, King's Chapel, the New North, the New South,--men
+like Adams, Eliot, Perkins, Bumstead, Lawrence, Sullivan, Jackson, Judge
+Shaw, Daniel Webster, Jacob Bigelow, T.B. Wales, Dr. Bowditch,--forms of
+dignity and of worth rise before the mind. Better men there are not. More
+honorable men, according to the standard of the time, there are not likely
+to be.... He joined the church and was a consistent church member. He was
+not effusive, demonstrative, or loud-voiced. His name did not stand high on
+church lists or among the patrons of the faith. His was the calm, rational,
+sober belief of the thoughtful, educated, honorable men of his day,--men
+like Lemuel Shaw, Joseph Story, Daniel A. White,--intellectual, noble
+people, with worthy aims, a lofty sense of duty, a strong conviction of the
+essential truths of revealed Christianity; sincere believers in the gospel,
+<a name="pg388"></a>
+of enduring principle, of pure, consistent, blameless life and conduct.
+Speculative theology he cared little or nothing about. He was no disputant,
+no doubter, no casuist; of the heights of mysticism, of the depths of
+infidelity, he knew nothing. He was conservative, of course, from
+temperament rather than from inquiry. He took the literal, prose view of
+Calvinism, and rejected doctrines which did not commend themselves to his
+common sense. In a word, he was a Unitarian of the old school.... The
+Unitarian laity in general, both men and women, had a genuine desire to
+render the earthly lot of mankind more tolerable. It is not too much to say
+that they started every one of our best secular charities. They were
+exceedingly liberal in their gifts to Harvard College, and to other
+colleges as well--for they were not at all sectarian, as their large
+subscriptions to the Roman Catholic cathedral proved. Whatever tended to
+exalt humanity, in their view, was encouraged. They were as noble a set of
+men and women as ever lived."[<a href="#fn_17_18">18</a><a name="fr_17_18"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>This estimate of the Unitarians of Boston during the first half of the
+nineteenth century is eminently just and accurate. To a large extent these
+men and their associates in the Unitarian churches gave to the city its
+worth and its character; and they built up the industries, the commerce,
+the educational and philanthropic interests, and the progressive
+legislation of Massachusetts. They were men of integrity and sincerity, who
+were generous, faithful, and just. They accepted the religion of the
+spirit, and they gave it expression in daily conduct and character.</p>
+
+<p><br >[<a href="#fr_17_1">1</a><a name="fn_17_1"></a>] F.B. Carpenter, Six Months in the White House, 190.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_17_2">2</a><a name="fn_17_2"></a>] James Parton, Life of Thomas Jefferson, 711.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_17_3">3</a><a name="fn_17_3"></a>] Charles W. Upham, Life of Timothy Pickering, IV. 327.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_17_4">4</a><a name="fn_17_4"></a>] P.L. Ford's edition Jefferson's Works, X.220.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_17_5">5</a><a name="fn_17_5"></a>] Life of Pickering, IV. 326.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_17_6">6</a><a name="fn_17_6"></a>] P.L. Ford, The True George Washington, 81.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_17_7">7</a><a name="fn_17_7"></a>] P.L. Ford, The Many-sided Franklin, 174. See Diary of Ezra Stiles,
+    III. 387.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_17_8">8</a><a name="fn_17_8"></a>] John Quincy Adams, in reply to a question about the church in
+    Washington, said: "I go there to church, although I am not decided in
+    my mind as to all the controverted doctrines of religion." Years
+    later he said to a preacher in the Unitarian church at Quincy: "I
+    agree entirely with the ground you took in your discourse. You did
+    not speak of any particular class of doctrines that were everlasting,
+    but of the great, fundamental principles in which all Christians
+    agree; and these, I think, are what will be permanent." See A.B.
+    Muzzey, Reminiscences and Memorials of the Men of the Revolution and
+    their Families, 53.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_17_9">9</a><a name="fn_17_9"></a>] William W. Story, Life and Letters of Joseph Story, 57, 93. Joseph
+    Story grew away from Calvinism in early manhood, and accepted a
+    humanitarian view of the nature of Christ. "No man was ever more free
+    from a spirit of bigotry and proselytism," says his biographer. "He
+    gladly allowed every one freedom of belief and claimed only that it
+    should be a genuine conviction and not a mere theologic opinion,
+    considering the true faith of every man to be the necessary exponent
+    of his nature, and honoring a religious life more than a formal
+    creed. He admitted within the pale of salvation Mohammedan and
+    Christian, Catholic and infidel. He believed that whatever is sincere
+    and honest is recognized by God--that as the views of any sect are
+    but human opinion, susceptible of error on every side, it behooves
+    all men to be on their guard against arrogance of belief--and that in
+    the sight of God it is not the truth or falsehood of our views, but
+    the spirit in which we believe which alone is of vital consequence.
+    His moral sense was not satisfied with a theory of religion founded
+    upon the depravity of man and recognizing an austere and vengeful
+    God, nor could he give his metaphysical assent to the doctrine of the
+    Trinity. In the doctrines of liberal Christianity he found the
+    resolution of his doubts, and from the moment he embraced the
+    Unitarian faith he became a warm and unhesitating believer."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_17_10">10</a><a name="fn_17_10"></a>] For an interesting picture of New England Unitarianism see
+     Recollections of my Mother (Mrs. Anne Jean Lyman), by Mrs. J.P.
+     Lesley. Mrs. Lyman's home was in Northampton, Mass. The Reminiscences
+     of Caroline C. Briggs describe life in the same town and under
+     similar conditions. Also Memoir of Mary L. Ware, Memorial of Joseph
+     and Lucy Clark Allen by their Children, and Life of Dr. Samuel
+     Willard.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_17_11">11</a><a name="fn_17_11"></a>] Edmund Quincy, Life of Josiah Quincy, 532. In a speech to the
+     overseers of Harvard University in 1845, Josiah Quincy said: "I never
+     did and never will call myself a Unitarian; because the name has the
+     aspect, and is loaded by the world with the imputation of
+     sectarianism." His biographer says: "He regarded differences as of
+     slight importance, especially as to matters beyond the grasp of the
+     human intellect. His catholicity of spirit fraternized with all who
+     profess to call themselves Christians, and who prove their title to
+     the name by their lives." It was precisely this catholicity of spirit
+     that was the most characteristic feature of early American
+     Unitarianism, and not the rejection of the doctrine of the Trinity.
+     However, Josiah Quincy was undoubtedly a Unitarian, both in what he
+     rejected and in what he affirmed, as may be seen from these words
+     recorded in his diary in 1854: "From the doctrines with which
+     metaphysical divines have chosen to obscure the word of God,--such as
+     predestination, election, reprobation, etc.,--I turn with loathing to
+     the refreshing assurance which, to my mind, contains the substance of
+     revealed religion,--in every nation he who feareth God, and worketh
+     righteousness, is accepted of him."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_17_12">12</a><a name="fn_17_12"></a>] Autobiography, Correspondence, etc., of Lyman Beecher, II. 109.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_17_13">13</a><a name="fn_17_13"></a>] Ibid., 144.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_17_14">14</a><a name="fn_17_14"></a>] Thomas C. Amory. Life of James Sullivan.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_17_15">15</a><a name="fn_17_15"></a>] John Lowell, a son of Judge John Lowell, and a brother of Dr. Charles
+     Lowell of the West Church, was the author of an effective
+     controversial pamphlet entitled Are you a Christian or a Calvinist?
+     Or do you prefer the Authority of Christ to that of the Genevan
+     Reformer? Both the Form and Spirit of these Questions being suggested
+     by the Late Review of American Unitarianism in The Panoplist, and by
+     the Rev. Mr. Worcester's Letter to Mr. Channing. By a Layman. Boston,
+     1815.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_17_16">16</a><a name="fn_17_16"></a>] Nathan Appleton's interest in theology may be seen in his book
+     entitled The Doctrine of Original Sin and the Trinity, discussed in a
+     Correspondence between a Clergyman of the Episcopal Church, in
+     England, and a Layman of Boston, United States, published in Boston
+     in 1859. "I was brought up," he said in one of these letters, "in the
+     strictest form of Calvinistic Congregationalism; but since arriving
+     at an age capable of examining the subject, and after a careful study
+     of it, I have renounced what appear to me unworthy views of the
+     Deity, for a system which appears to me more worthy of him, and less
+     abhorrent to human reason." "I can say," he wrote in another letter,
+     "that the Unitarian party embraces the most intelligent and
+     high-minded portion of the community. It is my opinion that the views
+     of the Unitarians are the best and only security against the spirit
+     of infidelity which is prevailing so extensively amongst the most
+     highly educated and intelligent men in Europe." See Memoir of Nathan
+     Appleton, by Robert C. Winthrop.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_17_17">17</a><a name="fn_17_17"></a>] John Murray Forbes: Letters and Recollections, edited by his
+     daughter, Sarah Forbes Hughes.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_17_18">18</a><a name="fn_17_18"></a>] Boston Unitarianism, 93, 94, 101, 127.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<a name="pg389"></a>
+<h2><br ><a name="ch18"></a>XVIII.<br >
+
+
+UNITARIANS AND EDUCATION.</h2>
+
+<p>The interest of Unitarians in education has always been very great, but it
+has not been in the direction of building and fostering sectarian
+institutions. As a body, Unitarians have not only been opposed to
+denominational colleges, but they have been leaders in promoting
+unsectarian education. Freedom of academic teaching and the scientific
+study of theology may be found where Unitarianism has no existence, and yet
+it is significant that in this country such mental liberty should have
+first found expression under Unitarian auspices. From the first, American
+Unitarianism has been unsectarian and liberty-loving, taking an attitude of
+toleration, free investigation, and loyalty to truth. That it has always
+been faithful to its ideal cannot be maintained, and yet its history shows
+that the open-mindedness and the spirit of freedom have never been wholly
+ignored.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn119"></a>Pioneers of the Higher Criticism.</h3>
+
+<p>The attitude of the early Unitarians towards the Bible, their trust in it
+as the revealed word of God and the source of divine authority in all
+matters of faith, and their confidence that a return to its simple
+principles would liberate men from superstition and bigotry, naturally made
+them the first to welcome the higher criticism of the Bible in this
+country. Such men as Noah Worcester and his successors brought to the Bible
+<a name="pg390"></a>
+new and common-sense interpretations, and began the work of pointing out
+the defects in the common version. The Unitarians were not hampered by the
+theory of the verbal infallibility of the Bible; and they were therefore
+prepared to advance the critical work of the scholars, as it came to them
+from England and Germany, as was no other religious body in this country.</p>
+
+<p>Joseph, S. Buckminster was an enthusiastic student of the Bible, securing
+when in Europe all the apparatus of the more advanced criticism that could
+then be procured; and after his return to Boston he gave his attention to
+bringing out the New Testament in the most scholarly form that was then
+possible. In 1808, in connection with William Wells, and under the
+patronage of Harvard College, he republished Griesbach's Greek Testament,
+with a selection of the most important various readings. He also formed a
+plan of publishing in this country all the best modern English versions of
+the Hebrew prophets, with introductions and notes; but he did not find the
+necessary support for this project. In The Monthly Anthology and in The
+General Repository he "first discussed subjects of Biblical criticism in a
+spirit of philosophical and painstaking learning, and took the critical
+study of the Scriptures from the old basis on which it had rested during
+the Arminian discussions and placed it on the solid foundation of the text
+of the New Testament as settled by Wetstein and Griesbach, and elucidated
+by the labors of Michaelis, Marsh, Rosenmüller, and by the safe and wise
+learning of Grotius, Le Clerc, and Simon." "It has," wrote George Ticknor,
+"in our opinion, hardly been permitted to any other man to render so
+considerable a service as this to Christianity in the western world."[<a href="#fn_18_1">1</a><a name="fr_18_1"></a>]
+<a name="pg391"></a>
+In 1811 Mr. Buckminster was made the first lecturer in Biblical criticism
+at Harvard, on, the foundation established by the gift of Samuel Dexter;
+and he entered with great interest and enthusiasm upon the work of
+preparing for the duties of this office. We are assured that "this
+appointment was universally thought to be an honor most justly due to his
+pre-eminent attainments in this science";[<a href="#fn_18_2">2</a><a name="fr_18_2"></a>] but his death the next year
+brought these plans to an untimely end.</p>
+
+<p>To some extent the critical work of Buckminster was continued by Edward
+Everett, his successor in the Brattle Street Church. Mr. Everett's
+successor in that pulpit, Rev. John G. Palfrey, became the professor of
+sacred literature in the Harvard Divinity School in 1831, and was the dean
+of that institution. In his lectures on the Jewish Scriptures and
+Antiquities, published in four volumes, from 1833 to 1852, he gave the most
+advanced criticism of the time. A more important work was done by Professor
+Andrews Norton, who was as radical in his labors as a Biblical critic as he
+was conservative in his theology. For the time when they were published,
+his Statement of Reasons, the first edition of which appeared in 1819,
+Historical Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels, 1837-44,
+Translation of the Gospels, with Notes, 1855, Internal Evidences of the
+Genuineness of the Gospels, 1855, have not been surpassed by any other work
+done in this country. As a scholar, he was careful, thorough, honest, and
+uncompromising in his search for the truth. In an extended note added to
+the second volume of his work on the Genuineness of the Gospels he
+<a name="pg392"></a>
+investigated the origin of the Pentateuch and the validity of its
+historical statements. He showed that the work could not have bee its man
+written by Moses, that it was a compilation from prior accounts, and that
+its marvels were not to be accepted as authentic history.[<a href="#fn_18_3">3</a><a name="fr_18_3"></a>] In dealing
+with the New Testament, Professor Norton discarded the first two chapters
+of Matthew, regarding them as later additions. Frothingham speaks of Norton
+as "an accomplished and elegant scholar," and says that his interpretations
+of the Bible were by Unitarians "tacitly received as final." "He was the
+great authority, as bold, fearless, truthful, as he was exact and
+careful."[<a href="#fn_18_4">4</a><a name="fr_18_4"></a>] Although these words of praise intimate that Unitarians were
+too ready to accept the conclusions of Professor Norton as needing no
+emendation, yet his work was searching in its character and thoroughly
+sincere in its methods. Considering the general attitude of scholarship in
+his day, it was bold and uncompromising, as well as accurate and just.</p>
+
+<p>Another scholar was George Rapall Noyes, who was a country pastor in
+Brookfield and Petersham from 1827 to 1840, and devoted his leisure to
+Biblical studies. He became the professor of Hebrew and, lecturer on
+Biblical Literature in the Harvard Divinity School in 1840. His
+translations, with notes, of the poetical books of the Old Testament,
+beginning with Job in 1827, were of great importance as aids, to the
+interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures. His translation of the New
+Testament, which appeared after his death, in 1868, gave the best results
+of critical studies in homely prose, and with painstaking fidelity to the
+<a name="pg393"></a>
+original. That Noyes was in advance of the criticism of his time may be
+indicated by the fact that, when he published his conclusions in regard to
+the Messianic prophecies in 1834,[<a href="#fn_18_5">5</a><a name="fr_18_5"></a>] he was threatened with an indictment
+for blasphemy by the attorney-general of Massachusetts. Better judgment
+prevailed against this attempt to coerce opinion, but that such an
+indictment was seriously considered shows how little genuine criticism
+there was then in existence. What are now the commonplaces of scholarship
+were then regarded as destructive and blasphemous. Noyes said that the
+truth of the Christian religion does not in any sense depend upon the
+literal fulfilment of any predictions in the Old Testament by Jesus as a
+person.[<a href="#fn_18_6">6</a><a name="fr_18_6"></a>] He said that the apostles partook of the errors and prejudices
+of their age,[<a href="#fn_18_7">7</a><a name="fr_18_7"></a>] that the commonly received doctrine of the inspiration
+of the whole Bible is a millstone about the neck of Christianity,[<a href="#fn_18_8">8</a><a name="fr_18_8"></a>] and
+that the Bible contains much that cannot be regarded as revelation.[<a href="#fn_18_9">9</a><a name="fr_18_9"></a>]
+Even as early as 1835 these opinions were generally accepted by Unitarians;
+and they were not thought to impair the true worth of the spiritual
+revelation contained in the Bible, and especially not the divine nature of
+the teachings of Christ. It was very important, as Dr. Joseph Henry Allen
+has said, in speaking of Norton and Noyes, that "these decisive first steps
+were taken by deliberate, conscientious, conservative scholars,--the best
+and soberest scholars we had to show."[<a href="#fn_18_10">10</a><a name="fr_18_10"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The work of Ezra Abbot especially deserves notice here, because of "the
+variety and extent of his learning, the retentiveness and accuracy of his
+<a name="pg394"></a>
+memory, the penetration and fairness of his judgment."[<a href="#fn_18_11">11</a><a name="fr_18_11"></a>] For fourteen
+years previous to his death, in 1884, he was the professor of New Testament
+criticism and interpretation in the Harvard Divinity School. He also
+rendered important service as a member of the American committee on the
+revision of the New Testament. His essay on The Authorship of the Fourth
+Gospel was one of the ablest statements of the conservative view of the
+origin of that writing. The volume of his Critical Essays, collected after
+his death, shows the ripe fruits of his "punctilious and vigilant
+scholarship." He was a zealous Unitarian, and did much to show that the New
+Testament is in harmony with that faith. In 1843 Rev. Theodore Parker
+published his translation of De Wette's Introduction to the New Testament,
+with learned notes. The extreme views of Baur and Zeller were interpreted
+by Rev. O.B. Frothingham in his The Cradle of the Christ, 1872.</p>
+
+<p>Various attempts were also made by those who were not professional scholars
+to bring the Bible into harmony with modern religious ideas. One of the
+most notable of these was that of Dr. William Henry Furness, pastor of the
+church in Philadelphia from 1825 to 1875. His Remarks on the Four Gospels
+appeared in 1835, and was followed by Jesus and his Biographers, 1838,
+Thoughts on the Life and Character of Jesus of Nazareth, 1859, and The Veil
+Partly Lifted and Jesus Becoming Visible, 1864, as well as several other
+works. His attempt was to give a rational interpretation of the life of
+<a name="pg395"></a>
+Jesus that should largely eliminate the miraculous and yet preserve the
+spiritual. These works have little critical value, and yet they have much
+of charm and suggestiveness as religious expositions of the Gospels. Of
+somewhat the same nature was Dr. Edmund H. Sears's The Fourth Gospel: The
+Heart of Christ, 1872, a work of deep spiritual insight.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn120"></a>The Catholic Influence of Harvard University.</h3>
+
+<p>The catholic and inclusive spirit manifested by the Unitarians in their
+Biblical studies is worthy of notice, however, much more than any definite
+results of scholarship produced by them. In the cultivation of the broader
+academic fields which their control of Harvard University brought within
+their reach this attitude is especially conspicuous. At no time since it
+came under their administration has it been used for sectarian purposes, to
+make proselytes or to compel acceptance of their theology. During the first
+half of the nineteenth century, Harvard was in some degree distinctly
+Unitarian; but since 1870 it has been wholly non-sectarian. When the
+Divinity School was organized, it was provided in its constitution that no
+denominational requirements should be exacted of professors or students;
+yet the school was essentially Unitarian until 1878. In that year the
+president, Charles W. Eliot, asked of Unitarians the sum of $130,000 as an
+endowment for the school; but he insisted that it should be henceforth
+wholly unsectarian, and this demand was received with approval and
+enthusiasm by Unitarians themselves.</p>
+
+<p>In 1879 President Eliot said at a meeting held in the First Church in
+Boston for the purpose of appealing to Unitarians in behalf of the school:
+"The Harvard Divinity School is not distinctly Unitarian either by its
+<a name="pg396"></a>
+constitution or by the intention of its founders. The doctrines of the
+unsectarian sect, called in this century Unitarians, are indeed entitled to
+respectful consideration in the school so long as it exists, simply because
+the school was founded, and for two generations, at least, has been
+supported, by Unitarians. But the government of the University cannot
+undertake to appoint none but Unitarian teachers, or to grant any peculiar
+favors to Unitarian students. They cannot, because the founders of the
+school, themselves Unitarians, imposed upon the University the following
+fundamental rule for its administration: that every encouragement shall be
+given to the serious, impartial, and unbiassed investigation of Christian
+truth, and that no assent to the peculiarities of any denomination of
+Christians shall be required either of the instructors or students."[<a href="#fn_18_12">12</a><a name="fr_18_12"></a>]
+Dr. Charles Carroll Everett, dean of the school from 1878 to 1900, has said
+that "in some respects it differs from every other theological seminary in
+the country." "No pains are taken to learn the denominational relations of
+students even when they are applicants for aid." "No oversight is exercised
+over the instruction of any teacher. No teacher is responsible for any
+other or to any other."[<a href="#fn_18_13">13</a><a name="fr_18_13"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>In 1886 compulsory attendance upon prayers was abolished at Harvard
+University. Religious services are regularly held every week-day morning,
+on Thursday afternoons, and on Sunday evenings, being conducted by the
+Plummer professor of Christian morals, with the co-operation of five other
+preachers, who, as well as the Plummer professor, are selected irrespective
+<a name="pg397"></a>
+of denominational affiliations. In this and other ways the university has
+made itself thoroughly unsectarian. Its attitude is that of scientific
+investigation, open-mindedness towards all phases of truth, and freedom of
+teaching. Theology is thus placed on the same basis with other branches of
+knowledge, and religion is made independent of merely dogmatic
+considerations.</p>
+
+<p>This undenominational temper at Harvard University has been developed
+largely under Unitarian auspices. Its presidents for nearly a century have
+been Unitarians, namely: John T. Kirkland, 1810-28; Josiah Quincy, 1829-45;
+Edward Everett, 1846-49; Jared Sparks, 1849-53; James Walker, 1853-60;
+Cornelius C. Felton, 1860-62; Thomas Hill, 1862-68; and Charles W. Eliot
+since 1869. Kirkland, Everett, Sparks, Walker, and Hill were Unitarian
+ministers; but under their administration the university was as little
+sectarian as at any other time.</p>
+
+<p>When the new era of university growth began in 1865, with the founding of
+Cornell University, the influence of Harvard was widely felt in the
+development of great unsectarian educational institutions. Although Ezra
+Cornell was educated as a Friend, he was expelled from that body, and
+connected himself with no other religious sect. He was essentially a
+Unitarian, often attending the preaching of Dr. Rufus P. Stebbins. The
+university which took his name was inspired with the Harvard ideal, and,
+while recognizing religion as one of the great essential phases of human
+thought and life, gave and continues to give equal opportunity to all
+sects.</p>
+
+<p>Another instance of the same spirit is Washington University, which began
+<a name="pg398"></a>
+under Unitarian auspices, but soon developed into an entirely
+undenominational institution. Members of the Unitarian church in St. Louis
+secured a charter for a seminary, which in 1853 was organized as the
+Washington Institute. In 1857 it was reorganized as Washington University,
+and the charter declared, "No instruction, either sectarian in religion or
+party in politics, shall be allowed in any department of said university,
+and no sectarian or party test shall be allowed in the selection of
+professors, teachers, or other officers of said university or in the
+admission of scholars thereof, or for any purpose whatever." Sectarian
+prejudice, however, regarded the university as essentially Unitarian; and
+for the first twenty years of its existence three-fourths of the gifts and
+endowments came from persons of that religious body.</p>
+
+<p>Although Dr. William G. Eliot knew nothing of the original movement for
+forming a seminary under liberal auspices, he gave the institution his
+unstinted support and encouragement. He was the president of the board of
+management from the first, and in 1871 he became the chancellor. At his
+death, in 1887, the university included Smith Academy, Mary Institute, and
+a manual training school, these being large preparatory schools; the
+college proper, school of engineering, Henry Shaw school of botany, St.
+Louis school of fine arts, law school, medical school, and dental college.
+It then had sixteen hundred students and one hundred and sixty instructors.
+The endowments have since been largely increased, the number of students
+has increased to two thousand, and important new buildings have been added.
+Dr. Eliot gave the university its direction and its unsectarian methods,
+and it has attained its present position because of his devoted labors. The
+<a name="pg399"></a>
+Leland Stanford Jr. University in California, and Clark University in
+Massachusetts, both founded by Unitarians, further illustrate the Harvard
+spirit in education.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn121"></a>The Work of Horace Mann.</h3>
+
+<p>Horace Mann was an earnest and devoted Unitarian, the intimate friend of
+Channing and Parker, to both of whom he was largely indebted for his
+intellectual and spiritual ideals. He was inspired by their ideas of reform
+and progress, and to their personal sympathy he owed much. It is now
+universally conceded that to him we are indebted for the diffusion of the
+common-school idea throughout the country, that he developed and brought to
+full expression the conception of universal education. In full sympathy
+with him in this work were such men as Dr. Channing, Edward Everett,
+Theodore Parker, Josiah Quincy, Samuel J. May, and the younger Robert
+Rantoul; but he made the common school popular, and put it forward as a
+national institution. When Mann became the secretary of the Massachusetts
+Board of Education on its creation, in 1837, the theory that all children
+should be educated by the state, if not otherwise provided for, was by no
+means generally accepted; nor was it an accepted theory that such education
+should be strictly unsectarian.[<a href="#fn_18_14">14</a><a name="fr_18_14"></a>] Mann fought the battle for these two
+ideas, and virtually established them for the whole nation. On the first
+board one-half the members were Unitarians,--Horace Mann, the younger
+Robert Rantoul, Jared Sparks, and Edmund Dwight. Some of the staunchest and
+most devoted and most liberal friends of Mann were of other denominations;
+<a name="pg400"></a>
+but the work for common schools was thoroughly in harmony with Unitarian
+principles. Edmund Dwight was largely instrumental in securing the
+establishment of a Board of Education in Massachusetts, and he brought
+about the election of Horace Mann to fill the position of its secretary. He
+was a leading merchant in Boston, and his house was a centre for meetings
+and consultations relating to educational interests. He contributed freely
+for the purpose of enlarging and improving the state system of common
+schools, his donations amounting to not less than $35,000.[<a href="#fn_18_15">15</a><a name="fr_18_15"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The first person to clearly advocate the establishment of schools for the
+training of teachers was Rev. Charles Brooks, minister of the Second
+Unitarian Church in Hingham from 1821 to 1839, afterwards professor of
+natural history in the University of the City of New York, and a reformer
+and author of some reputation in his day. In 1834 he began to write and
+lecture in behalf of common schools, and especially in the interest of
+normal schools.[<a href="#fn_18_16">16</a><a name="fr_18_16"></a>] He spoke throughout the state in behalf of training
+schools, with which he had become acquainted in Prussia; he went before the
+legislature on this subject; and he carried his labors into other
+states.[<a href="#fn_18_17">17</a><a name="fr_18_17"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Horace Mann took up the idea of professional schools for teachers and made
+it effective. Edmund Dwight gave $10,000 to the state for this purpose, and
+schools were established in 1838. When the first of these normal schools
+opened in Lexington, July 3, 1839, its principal was Rev. Cyrus Peirce, who
+had been the minister of the Unitarian church in North Reading from 1819 to
+<a name="pg401"></a>
+1829, and then had been a teacher in North Andover and Nantucket. "Had it
+not been for Cyrus Peirce," wrote Henry Barnard, "I consider the cause of
+Normal Schools would have failed or have been postponed for an indefinite
+period."[<a href="#fn_18_18">18</a><a name="fr_18_18"></a>] Dr. William T. Harris has said that "all Normal School work
+in this country follows substantially one tradition, and this traces back
+to the course laid down by Cyrus Peirce."[<a href="#fn_18_19">19</a><a name="fr_18_19"></a>] In the Lexington school
+Peirce was succeeded by Samuel J. May, who had been settled over Unitarian
+churches in Brooklyn and Scituate.[<a href="#fn_18_20">20</a><a name="fr_18_20"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The work done by Horace Mann for education includes his labors as president
+of Antioch College from 1852 to 1859. He maintained that the chief end of
+education is the development of character; and he sought to make the
+college an altruistic community, in which teachers and students should
+labor together for the best good of all. He put into practice the
+nonsectarian principle, made the college coeducational, and developed the
+spirit of individual freedom as one of cardinal importance in education.
+"The ideas for which he stood," has written one who has carefully studied
+his work in all its phases, "spread abroad among the people of the Ohio
+valley, and showed themselves in various state institutions, normal
+schools, and high schools that were planted in the central west.
+Altogether, apart from Mr. Mann's visible work in Antioch College may be
+found agencies which he set at work, whose influence only eternity can
+<a name="pg402"></a>
+measure. It was a great thing to the new west that a high standard of
+scholarship should be placed before her sons and daughters, and that a few
+hundred of them should be sent out into every corner of the state, and
+ultimately to the farthest boundaries of the nation, with a sound
+scholarship and a love for truth there and then wholly new. His reputation
+for scholarship and zeal gave his opinions greater weight than those of
+almost any other man in the country. As a result the most radical
+educational ideas were received from him with respect; and he carried
+forward the work of giving a practical embodiment to co-education,
+non-sectarianism, and the requirements of practical and efficient moral
+character, as perhaps no other educator could have done. His influence
+among people, and the aspirations which he kindled in thousands of minds by
+public addresses and personal contact, did for the people of the Ohio
+valley a work, the extent and value of which can never be measured."[<a href="#fn_18_21">21</a><a name="fr_18_21"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn122"></a>Elizabeth Peabody and the Kindergarten.</h3>
+
+<p>Horace Mann was largely influenced by Dr. Channing throughout his career as
+an educational reformer,[<a href="#fn_18_22">22</a><a name="fr_18_22"></a>] as was his wife and her sister, Elizabeth P.
+Peabody. It was to Channing that Miss Peabody owed her interest in the work
+of education; and his teachings brought her naturally into association with
+Bronson Alcott, and made her the leader in introducing the kindergarten
+<a name="pg403"></a>
+into this country. She was influenced by the kindergarten method, at an
+early date, and she gave years of devoted labor to its extension. In
+connection with her sister, Mrs. Horace Mann, she wrote Culture in Infancy,
+1863, Guide to the Kindergarten, 1877, and Letters to Kindergartners, 1886.
+As a result of her enthusiastic efforts, kindergartens were opened in
+Boston in 1864; and it was in 1871 that she organized the American Froebel
+Union, which became the kindergarten department of the National Educational
+Association in 1885. The Kindergarten Messenger was begun by her in 1873,
+and was continued under her editorship until 1877, when it was merged in
+The New Education.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Peabody's Kindergarten Guide has been described as one of the most
+important original contributions made to the literature of the subject in
+this country. Her name is most intimately associated with the educational
+progress of the country because of her enthusiasm for the right training of
+children and her spiritual insight as a teacher.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn123"></a>Work of Unitarian Women for Education.</h3>
+
+<p>Much has been done by Unitarian women to advance the cause of education.
+The conversations of Margaret Fuller, held in Boston from 1839 to 1844,
+were an important influence in awakening women to larger intellectual
+interests; and many of those who attended them were afterwards active in
+promoting the educational enterprises of the city. In 1873 Miss Abby
+Williams May, Mrs. Ann Adeline Badger, Miss Lucretia Crocker, and Miss
+Lucia M. Peabody were elected members of the school committee of Boston,
+but did not serve, as their right to act in that capacity was questioned.
+<a name="pg404"></a>
+Thereupon the legislature took action, making women eligible to the office.
+The next year Misses May, Crocker, and Peabody, with Mrs. Kate Gannett
+Wells, Mrs. Mary Safford Blake, and Miss Lucretia Hale, were elected, and
+served. In 1875 Misses Crocker, Hale, May, and Peabody were re-elected; and
+in 1876 Miss Crocker was elected one of the supervisors of the public
+schools of Boston. It is significant that the first women to hold these
+positions were Unitarians. It is also worthy of note that Miss Sarah
+Freeman Clarke, sister of James Freeman Clarke, was the first landscape
+painter of her sex in the country; and that Mrs. Cornelia W. Walter was the
+first woman to edit a large daily newspaper, she having become the editor
+and manager of the Boston Transcript at an early date.</p>
+
+<p>In 1873 was organized by Miss Anna E. Ticknor, daughter of Professor George
+Ticknor, the historian, the Society to encourage Studies at Home. During
+the twenty-four years of its existence it conducted by correspondence the
+reading and studies of over 7,000 women in all parts of the country, and
+did an important work in enlarging the sphere of women, preparing them for
+the work of teachers and for social and intellectual service in many
+directions. The society was discontinued in 1897, because, largely through
+its influence, many other agencies had come in to do the same work; but the
+large lending library, which had been an important feature of the
+activities of the society, was continued under the management of the Anna
+Ticknor Library Association until 1902. The memorial volume, published in
+1897, shows how important had been the work of the Society to encourage
+<a name="pg405"></a>
+Studies at Home, and how many women, who were otherwise deprived of
+intellectual opportunities, were encouraged, helped, and inspired by it. It
+was said of Miss Ticknor, by Samuel Eliot, the president of the society
+throughout the whole period of its existence: "While appreciative of the
+restrictions which she wished to remove, she was desirous to gratify, if
+possible, the aspirations of the large number of women throughout the
+country who would fain obtain an education, and who had little, if any,
+hope of obtaining it. She was very highly educated herself, and thought
+more and more of her responsibility to share her advantages with others not
+possessing them. In addition to these moral and intellectual
+qualifications, she possessed an executive ability brought into constant
+prominence by her work as secretary of the society. She was a teacher, an
+inspirer, a comforter, and, in the best sense, a friend of many and many a
+lonely and baffled life."[<a href="#fn_18_23">23</a><a name="fr_18_23"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The service of Mrs. Mary Hemenway to education also deserves recognition.
+Possessed of large wealth, she devoted it to advancing important
+educational and intellectual interests. She established the Normal School
+of Swedish Gymnastics in Boston, and provided for its maintenance until it
+was adopted by the city as a part of its educational system. With her
+financial support the Hemenway South-western Archaeological Expedition was
+carried on by Frank H. Cushing and J.W. Fewkes. It was largely because of
+her efforts that the Montana Industrial School was established, and
+maintained for about ten years. Her chief work, however, was in the
+promotion of the study of American history on the part of young persons.
+When the Old South Meeting-house was threatened with destruction, she
+<a name="pg406"></a>
+contributed $100,000 towards its preservation; and by her energy and
+perseverance it was devoted to the interests of historical study. The Old
+South Lectures for Young People were organized in 1883, soon after was
+begun the publication of the Old South Leaflets, a series of historical
+prizes was provided for, the Old South Historical Society was organized,
+and historical pilgrimages were established. All this work was placed in
+charge of Mr. Edwin D. Mead; and the New England Magazine, of which he was
+the editor, gave interpretation to these various educational efforts.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hemenway devoted her life to such works as these. It is impossible to
+enumerate here all her noble undertakings; but they were many. "Mrs.
+Hemenway was a woman whose interests and sympathies were as broad as the
+world," says Edwin D. Mead, "but she was a great patriot; and she was
+pre-eminently that. She had a reverent pride in our position of leadership
+in the history and movement of modern democracy; and she had a consuming
+zeal to keep the nation strong and worthy of its best traditions, and to
+kindle this zeal among the young people of the nation. With all her great
+enthusiasms, she was an amazingly practical and definite woman. She wasted
+no time nor strength in vague generalities, either of speech or action.
+Others might long for the time when the kingdom of God should cover the
+earth as the waters cover the sea, and she longed for it; but, while others
+longed, she devoted herself to doing what she could to bring that corner of
+God's world in which she was set into conformity with the laws of God,--and
+this by every means in her power, by teaching poor girls how to make better
+<a name="pg407"></a>
+clothes and cook better dinners and make better homes, by teaching people
+to value health and respect and train their bodies and love better music
+and better pictures and be interested in more important things. Others
+might long for the parliament of man and the federation of the world, and
+so did she; but while others longed, she devoted herself to doing what she
+could to make this nation, for which she was particularly responsible,
+fitter for the federation when it comes. The good state for which she
+worked was a good Massachusetts; and her chief interest, while others
+talked municipal reform, was to make a better Boston."[<a href="#fn_18_24">24</a><a name="fr_18_24"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn124"></a>Popular Education and Public Libraries.</h3>
+
+<p>The interest of Unitarians in popular education and the general diffusion
+of knowledge may be further indicated by a few illustrations. One of these
+is the Lowell Institute in Boston, founded by John Lowell, son of Francis
+Cabot Lowell, and cousin of James Russell Lowell. He was a Boston merchant,
+became an extensive traveller, and died in Bombay, in 1836, at the age of
+thirty-four. In his will he left one-half his fortune for the promotion of
+popular education through lectures, and in other ways. John Amory Lowell
+became the trustee of this fund, nearly $250,000; and in December, 1839,
+the Lowell Institute began its work with a lecture by Edward Everett, which
+gave a biographical account of John Lowell, and a statement of the purposes
+of the Institute. Since that time the Lowell Institute has given to the
+people of Boston, free of charge, from fifty to one hundred lectures each
+winter. The topics treated have taken a wide range, and the lecturers have
+<a name="pg408"></a>
+included many of the ablest men in this and other countries. The work of
+the Lowell Institute has also included free lectures for advanced students
+given in connection with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, science
+lectures to the teachers of Boston, and a free drawing school.</p>
+
+<p>In 1846 Louis Agassiz came to this country to lecture before the Lowell
+Institute. The result was that he became permanently connected with Harvard
+University, and transferred his scientific work to this country. This was
+accomplished by means of the gift of Abbott Lawrence, who founded the
+Lawrence Scientific School in 1847. Although the Lowell Institute was
+founded by a Unitarian, and although it has always been largely managed by
+Unitarians, it has been wholly unsectarian in its work. Many of its
+lecturers have been of that body, but only because they were men of science
+or of literary attainments.</p>
+
+<p>In 1854 Peter Cooper founded the Cooper Union in New York for the
+Advancement of Science and Art, to promote "instruction in branches of
+knowledge by which men and women earn their daily bread; in laws of health
+and improvement of the sanitary conditions of families as well as
+individuals; in social and political science, whereby communities and
+nations advance in virtue, wealth, and power; and finally in matters which
+affect the eye, the ear, and the imagination, and furnish a basis for
+recreation to the working classes." He erected a large building, and
+established therein the Cooper Institute, with its reading-room, library,
+lectures, schools, and other facilities for bringing the means of education
+within reach of those who could not otherwise obtain them.</p>
+
+<a name="pg409"></a>
+<p>Peter Cooper was an earnest Unitarian in his opinions, attending the church
+of Dr. Bellows; but he was wholly without sectarian bias. In a letter
+addressed to the delegates to the Evangelical Alliance, at its session held
+in New York in 1873, he expressed the catholicity and the humanitarian
+spirit of his religion. "I look to see the day," he wrote, "when the
+teachers of Christianity will rise above all the cramping power and
+influence of conflicting creeds and systems of human device, when they will
+beseech mankind by all the mercies of God to be reconciled to the
+government of love, the only government that can ever bring the kingdom of
+heaven into the hearts of mankind either here or hereafter."</p>
+
+<p>About 1825 there was opened in Dublin, N.H., under the auspices of Rev.
+Levi W. Leonard, minister of the Unitarian church in that village, the
+first library in the country that was free to all the inhabitants of a town
+or city. In the adjoining town of Peterboro, in 1833, under the leadership
+of Rev. Abiel Abbot, also the Unitarian minister, a library was established
+by vote of the town. This library was maintained by the town itself, being
+the first in the country supported from the tax rates of a municipality. In
+the work of these Unitarian ministers may be found the beginnings of the
+present interest in the establishment and growth of free public libraries.</p>
+
+<p>In the founding and endowment of libraries, Unitarians have taken an active
+part. What they have done in this direction may be illustrated by the gift
+of Enoch Pratt of one and a quarter million dollars to the public library
+in Baltimore. Concerning the time when Jared Sparks was the minister of the
+Unitarian church in Baltimore, Professor Herbert B. Adams has said: "Some
+<a name="pg410"></a>
+of the most generous and public-spirited people of Baltimore were connected
+with the first independent church. Afterwards, men who were to be most
+helpful in the upbuilding of Baltimore's greatest institutions--the Peabody
+Institute, the Pratt Library, and the Johns Hopkins University--were
+associated with the Unitarian society."[<a href="#fn_18_25">25</a><a name="fr_18_25"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Professor Barrett Wendell speaks of George Ticknor as "the chief founder of
+the chief public library in the United States."[<a href="#fn_18_26">26</a><a name="fr_18_26"></a>] Ticknor undoubtedly
+did more than anybody else to make the Boston Public Library the great
+institution it has become, not only in giving it his own collection of
+books, but also in its inception and in its organization. The best working
+library in the country, that of the Boston Athenaeum, also owes a very
+large debt to the early Unitarians, with whom it originated, and by whom it
+was largely maintained in its early days.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn125"></a>Mayo's Southern Ministry of Education.</h3>
+
+<p>One of the most important contributions to the work of education has been
+that of Rev. Amory D. Mayo, known as the "Ministry of Education in the
+South." After settlements over churches in Gloucester, Cleveland, Albany,
+Cincinnati, and Springfield, Mr. Mayo began his southern work in 1880. He
+had an extensive preparation for his southern labors, having served on the
+school boards of Cincinnati and Springfield for fifteen years, lectured
+extensively on educational subjects, and been a frequent contributor to
+educational periodicals. He has written a History of Common Schools, which
+<a name="pg411"></a>
+is published by the national Bureau of Education, prepared several of the
+Circulars of Information of that bureau, and printed a great number of
+educational pamphlets and addresses.</p>
+
+<p>"One of the most helpful agencies in the work of free and universal
+education in the South, for the last twenty years," says Dr. J.L.M. Curry
+in a personal letter, "has been the ministry of A.D. Mayo. His intelligent
+zeal, his instructive addresses, his tireless energy, have made him a
+potent factor in this great work; and any history of what the Unitarian
+denomination has done would be very imperfect which did not make proper and
+grateful recognition of his valuable services."</p>
+
+<p><br >[<a href="#fr_18_1">1</a><a name="fn_18_1"></a>] Christian Examiner, XLVII. 186; Mrs. E.B. Lee, Memoirs of the
+    Buckminsters, 325.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_2">2</a><a name="fn_18_2"></a>] Memoir of Buckminster, introductory to his Sermons, published in
+    1814, xxxii.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_3">3</a><a name="fn_18_3"></a>] The Pentateuch and its Relation to the Jewish and Christian
+    Dispensation. By Andrews Norton. Edited by John James Tayler, London,
+    1863. This was the Note, with introduction.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_4">4</a><a name="fn_18_4"></a>] Boston Unitarianism, 244.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_5">5</a><a name="fn_18_5"></a>] Hengstenberg's Christology, Christian Examiner, July, 1834, XVI. 321.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_6">6</a><a name="fn_18_6"></a>] Ibid., 327.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_7">7</a><a name="fn_18_7"></a>] Ibid., 356.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_8">8</a><a name="fn_18_8"></a>] Ibid., 357.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_9">9</a><a name="fn_18_9"></a>] Ibid., 358.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_10">10</a><a name="fn_18_10"></a>] Our Liberal Movement in Theology, 68.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_11">11</a><a name="fn_18_11"></a>] The Authorship of the Fourth Gospel and Other Critical Essays
+     selected from the published papers of Ezra Abbot, edited, with
+     preface, by Professor J.H. Thayer.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_12">12</a><a name="fn_18_12"></a>] The Divinity School of Harvard University: Its History, Courses of
+     Study, Aims, and Advantages, published by the University, 9.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_13">13</a><a name="fn_18_13"></a>] The Divinity School as it is, Harvard Graduates' Magazine, June,
+     1897.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_14">14</a><a name="fn_18_14"></a>] B.A. Hinsdale, Horace Mann and the Common School Revival in the
+     United States, 127.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_15">15</a><a name="fn_18_15"></a>] B.A. Hinsdale, Horace Mann and the Common School Revival in the
+     United States, 148.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_16">16</a><a name="fn_18_16"></a>] Henry Barnard, Normal Schools, 125.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_17">17</a><a name="fn_18_17"></a>] B.A. Hinsdale, Horace Mann, 147.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_18">18</a><a name="fn_18_18"></a>] Quoted by J.P. Gordy, Rise and Growth of the Normal School Idea in
+     the United States, Circular of Information of the Bureau of
+     Education, 1891, 49.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_19">19</a><a name="fn_18_19"></a>] Ibid., 43.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_20">20</a><a name="fn_18_20"></a>] S.J. May, Memoir of Cyrus Peirce, Barnard's American Journal of
+     Education, December, 1857.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_21">21</a><a name="fn_18_21"></a>] G.A. Hubbell, Horace Mann in Ohio: A Study of the Application of his
+     Public School Ideals to College Administration, No. IV. of Vol. VII.,
+     Columbia University Contributions to Philosophy, Psychology, and
+     Education, 50.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_22">22</a><a name="fn_18_22"></a>] Mary Mann, Life of Horace Mann, 44; Henry Barnard, Normal Schools,
+     93.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_23">23</a><a name="fn_18_23"></a>] Memorial Volume, 2.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_24">24</a><a name="fn_18_24"></a>] Edwin D. Mead, The Old South Work, 1900; also Memorial Sermon, by
+     Charles G. Ames, 17.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_25">25</a><a name="fn_18_25"></a>] Life and Writings of Jared Sparks, I. 141.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_26">26</a><a name="fn_18_26"></a>] A Literary History of America, 266.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<a name="pg412"></a>
+<h2><br ><a name="ch19"></a>XIX.<br >
+
+
+UNITARIANISM AND LITERATURE.</h2>
+
+<p>The history of American literature is intimately connected with the history
+of Unitarianism in this country. The influences that caused the growth of
+Unitarianism were those, to a large extent, that produced American
+literature. It was not merely Harvard College that had this effect, as has
+been often asserted; for the other colleges did not become the centres of
+literary activity. It was more distinctly the freedom, the breadth of
+intellectual interest, and the sympathy with what was human and natural
+developed by the Unitarian movement that were favorable to the growth of
+literature. Yet from the beginning of the eighteenth century Harvard
+fostered the spirit of inquiry, and helped to set the mind free from the
+theological and classical predispositions that had checked its natural
+growth. A taste for literature was encouraged, theology took on a broad and
+humanitarian character, and there was a growing appreciation of art and
+poetry. Harvard College helped to bring men into contact with European
+thought, and thus opened to them fresh and stimulating sources of
+intellectual interest.</p>
+
+<p>During the last quarter of the eighteenth century and the first half of the
+nineteenth New England was largely devoted to commercial enterprises.
+Every coast town of any size from Newport to Belfast was concerned with
+<a name="pg413"></a>
+ship-building and with trade to foreign ports. Such towns as Boston and
+Salem traded with China, India, and many other parts of the world. Not only
+was wealth largely increased by this commercial activity, but the influence
+upon life and thought was very great. The mind was emancipated, and
+religion grew more liberal and humane, as the result of this contact with
+foreign lands. Along the whole coast, within the limits named, there was an
+abandonment of Puritanism and a growth into a genial and humanitarian
+interpretation of Christianity. In New York City somewhat the same results
+were produced, at least on social and intellectual life, though with less
+immediate effect upon religion. It was in these regions, in which
+commercial contact with the great outside world set the mind free and
+awakened the imagination, that American literature was born.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn126"></a>Influence of Unitarian Environment.</h3>
+
+<p>The influence of Unitarian culture and literary tastes is shown by the
+considerable number of literary men who were the sons of Unitarian
+ministers. Ralph Waldo Emerson was the son of William Emerson, the minister
+of the First Church in Boston at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
+George Bancroft was the son of Aaron Bancroft, the first Unitarian minister
+in Worcester, and the first president of the American Unitarian
+Association. To Charles Lowell, of the West Church in Boston, were born
+James Russell Lowell and Robert T.S. Lowell. The father of Francis Parkman
+was of the same name, and was for many years the minister of the New North
+Church in Boston. Richard Hildreth was the son of Hosea Hildreth, Unitarian
+minister in Gloucester. Octavius Brooks Frothingham was the son of
+<a name="pg414"></a>
+Nathaniel L. Frothingham, minister of the First Church in Boston. Joseph
+Allen, father of Joseph Henry Allen and William Francis Allen, was the
+minister in Northboro for many years. Of literary workers now living
+William Everett is the son of Edward Everett, Charles Eliot Norton of
+Andrews Norton, and William Wells Newell of William Newell, minister of the
+First Church in Cambridge for many years.</p>
+
+<p>This influence is shown in the large number of literary men who studied at
+the Harvard Divinity School and began their career as Unitarian ministers.
+It may be partly accounted for by the fact that at the beginning of the
+nineteenth century literature offered but a precarious opportunity to men
+of talent and genius. The respect then accorded to ministers, the wide
+influence they were able to exert, and the many intellectual opportunities
+offered by the profession, naturally attracted many young men. During the
+first part of the nineteenth century no other profession was so attractive,
+and enthusiasm for it was large amongst the students of Harvard College. As
+literary openings began to present themselves, many of these men found
+other occupations, partly because their tastes were intellectual rather
+than theological, and partly because the radical ferment made the pulpit no
+longer acceptable. Such a man as Edward Everett would never have entered
+the pulpit, had it not been socially and intellectually most attractive at
+the time when he began his career. In the instance of Samuel A. Eliot, who
+took the full course in the Divinity School, but did not preach, being
+afterward mayor of Boston and member of Congress the influences at work
+were probably much the same.</p>
+
+<p>George Bancroft is another instance of a graduate of the Divinity School
+<a name="pg415"></a>
+who did not enter the pulpit, but, beginning his career as a teacher,
+devoted his life to literature and diplomacy. With such men as Christopher
+P. Cranch, artist and poet; George P. Bradford, teacher, thinker, and
+friend of literary men; H.G.O. Blake, editor of Thoreau's Journals; J.L.
+Sibley, librarian; John Albee, poet and essayist; and William Cushing,
+bibliographer, the cause operating was probably the same,--the discovery
+that the chosen profession was not acceptable or that some other was
+preferable. Another group of men, including John G. Palfrey, Jared Sparks,
+William Ware, Horatio Alger, James K. Hosmer, Edward Rowland Sill and
+William Wells Newell, who occupied Unitarian pulpits for brief periods,
+were drawn into literary occupations as more congenial to their tastes. The
+same influence doubtless served to withdraw Emerson, George Ripley, John S.
+Dwight, Thomas W. Higginson, Moncure D. Conway, and Francis E. Abbot, from
+the pulpit; but with these men there was also a break with traditional
+Christianity.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn127"></a>Literary Tendencies.</h3>
+
+<p>The early Unitarian movement in New England was literary and religious
+rather than theological. The men who have been most influential in
+determining the course of Unitarian development, such as Charming, Dewey,
+Parker, and Hedge, not to include Emerson, who has been a greater
+affirmative leader than either of the others, were first of all preachers,
+and their published works were originally given to the world from the
+pulpit. They made no effort to produce a Unitarian system of theology; and
+it would have been quite in opposition to the genius of the movement, had
+they entered upon such a task.</p>
+
+<p>With the advent of the Unitarian movement, for the first time in the
+<a name="pg416"></a>
+history of the American pulpit did the sermon become a literary product.
+Channing and his coworkers, especially Buckminster and Everett, departed
+widely from the pulpit traditions of New England, ceased to quote texts,
+abandoned theological exposition, refrained from the exhortatory method,
+and addressed men and women in literary language about the actual interests
+of daily life. Their preaching was not metaphysical, and it was not
+declamatory. The illustrations used were human rather than Biblical, a
+preference was given to what was intellectual rather than to what was
+emotional, and the effect was instruction rather than conversion. It
+resulted in faithful living, good citizenship, fidelity to duty, love of
+the neighbor, and an earnest helpfulness toward the poor and unfortunate.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn128"></a>Literary Tastes of Unitarian Ministers.</h3>
+
+<p>In studying any considerable list of Unitarian ministers, and taking note
+of their personal tastes and their avocations, it will be seen that a large
+number of them were lovers of literature, and ardently devoted much of
+their time to literary pursuits. Not only was there a decidedly literary
+flavor about their preaching, but they were frequent contributors to The
+Christian Examiner and The North American Review; and they wrote poems,
+novels, books of travel, essays, and histories. They were conspicuous in
+historical and scientific societies, in promoting scientific
+investigations, in advancing archaeological researches, in every kind of
+learned inquiry. Their intellectual interests were so catholic and so
+vigorous that they were not contented with parish and pulpit, and in some
+cases it would seem that the avocation was as important as the vocation
+itself.</p>
+
+<a name="pg417"></a>
+<p>Dr. Channing would be named as the man who has done most to give direction
+to the currents of Unitarian thought on theological problems, but he was
+also conspicuously a philanthropist and reformer. He was less a theologian,
+in the technical sense, than one who taught men to live in the spirit. His
+spiritual insight, humanitarian sympathies, and imaginative fellowship with
+all forms of human experience gave his writings a literary charm and power
+of a high order. He was a great religious teacher and inspirer, a preacher
+of unsurpassed gifts of spiritual interpretation, and a prophet of the
+truer religious life.</p>
+
+<p>The Unitarian leaders who were influenced by the transcendental movement,
+of which the most prominent were Parker, Hedge, Clarke, and C.C. Everett,
+interpreted theology in the broadest spirit. Parker was essentially a
+preacher and reformer. It was the one conspicuous aim of his life to
+liberate religion from the intellectual thraldom of the past, and to bring
+it into the open air of the world, where it might be informed of daily
+experience and gain for itself a rightful opportunity. He was therefore
+literary, imaginative, ethical, practical. He wrote for The Dial, and
+established The Massachusetts Review, he was one of the most widely heard
+of popular lecturers, and he was a leader in the most radical of the
+reforms prominent in his day. Parker made all wisdom subservient to his
+religion, treated a wide range of subjects in his pulpit, and brought
+religion into immediate contact with human life.</p>
+
+<p>Frederic H. Hedge did more than any other man to give Unitarianism a
+consistent philosophy and theology. His Reason in Religion and Ways of the
+Spirit have had a profound influence in shaping the thought of the
+<a name="pg418"></a>
+denomination, and have led all American Unitarians to accept his view of
+the universality of incarnation and the consubstantiality of man and God.
+He was wise as an interpreter, and by no means wanting in originality, a
+brilliant essayist, a philosophical historian, and a student of high
+themes. His Prose Writers of Germany, Hours with the German Classics,
+Primeval World of Hebrew Tradition, and Atheism in Philosophy show the
+range of his interests and his ability as a thinker.</p>
+
+<p>James Freeman Clarke may be selected as a typical Unitarian minister, who
+wrote poetry, was more than once an editor, often appeared on the lecture
+platform, was a frequent contributor to the leading periodicals, wrote
+several works of biography and history, gave himself zealously to the
+advocacy of the noblest reforms, and produced many volumes of sermons that
+have in an unusual degree the merit of directness, literary grace,
+suggestiveness, and spiritual warmth and insight. His theological writings
+have been widely read by Unitarians and those not of that fellowship. His
+Self-culture has been largely circulated as a manual of practical ethics.
+His Ten Great Religions and its companion volume opened the way in this
+country for the recognition of the comparative study of religious
+developments. Not content with so wide a range of studies, he wrote Thomas
+Didymus, an historical romance concerned with New Testament characters, How
+to find the Stars, and Exotics, a volume of poetical translation. He was a
+maker of many books, and all of them were well made. His theology was all
+the more humane, and his preaching was all the more effective, because he
+was interested in many subjects and had a real mastery of them.</p>
+
+<a name="pg419"></a>
+<p>Charles Carroll Everett was a philosophical thinker and theologian, and the
+younger generation of Unitarian ministers has been largely influenced by
+him. His theological work was done in the lecture-room, but it was of
+first-rate importance. He was a profound thinker, a vigorous writer, and an
+inspiring teacher. He was an able theologian, philosophical in thought, but
+deeply spiritual in insight. His work on The Science of Thought shows the
+depth and vigor of his thinking; but his volumes on The Gospel of Paul,
+Religions before Christianity, Poetry, Comedy, and Duty, suggest the
+breadth of his inquiries and the richness of his philosophical
+investigations. In his position as the dean of the Harvard Divinity School
+he accomplished his best work, and there his great ability as theologian
+and philosophical thinker made itself amply manifest.</p>
+
+<p>Another group of men largely influenced by the transcendental movement
+included David A. Wasson, John Weiss, Samuel Johnson, Samuel Longfellow,
+Cyrus A. Bartol, Octavius K Frothingham, and William J. Potter. Here we see
+the literary tendency showing itself distinctly and to much advantage. The
+first four of these men wrote exquisite hymns and spiritual lyrics, and all
+of them were contributors to periodical literature or writers of books.
+Weiss was a literary critic of no mean merit in his lectures on Greek and
+Shakespearean subjects; and his volumes on American Religion and Immortal
+Life were purely literary in their method. However deficient were Johnson's
+books on the religions of India, China, and Persia, from the point, of view
+of the science of religion, they have not yet been surpassed as
+interpretations of the inner spirit of Oriental religions. Bartol was a
+master of an incisive literary method in the pulpit, that gives to his
+<a name="pg420"></a>
+Radical Problems, The Rising Faith, and Principles and Portraits a
+scintillating power all their own, with epigram and flash of wit on every
+page. Frothingham published many a volume of sermons; but his biographies
+of Parker, Gerrit Smith, Wasson, Johnson, Ripley, Channing, and his volume
+on the History of Transcendentalism in New England, as well as his Boston
+Unitarianism, and Recollections and Impressions, indicate that his literary
+interests were quite as active as his theological.</p>
+
+<p>The literary tastes of Unitarian ministers are indicated by the large
+number of them who have written poetry that passes beyond the limits of
+mediocrity. The names of John Pierpont, Andrews Norton, Samuel Gilman,
+Nathaniel L. Frothingham, the younger Henry Ware, W.B.O. Peabody, William
+Henry Furness, William Newell, William Parsons Lunt, Frederic H. Hedge,
+James F. Clarke, Theodore Parker, Chandler Robbins, Edmund H. Sears,
+Charles T. Brooks, Robert C. Waterston, Thomas Hill, and others, have been
+lovingly commemorated in Alfred P. Putnam's Singers and Songs of the
+Liberal Faith. Hymns of nearly all these men are in common use in many
+congregations, and some of their work has found a place in every hymnal.</p>
+
+<p>No one can read the sermons of Thomas Starr King without feeling their
+literary grace and finish of style, as well as their intellectual vigor.
+His lectures marked his literary interest, which shows itself in his
+Christianity and Humanity and his Substance and Show. Especially does it
+appear in his delightful book on The White Hills, their Legends, Landscape,
+and Poetry. In his day, Henry Giles was widely known as a lecturer; and his
+numerous volumes of literary interpretation and criticism, especially his
+<a name="pg421"></a>
+Human Life in Shakespeare, were read with appreciation. In his District
+School as it was, and My Religious Experience at my Native Home, Warren
+Burton described in simple but effective prose a kind of life that has long
+since passed away. His educational lectures and books helped on the cause
+of public school education, a subject in which he was greatly interested.</p>
+
+<p>Unitarian ministers have also made many contributions to local and general
+history. The history of King's Chapel by Francis W.P. Greenwood may be
+mentioned as a specimen of the former kind of work; but Greenwood also
+published several volumes of sermons, as well as biographical and literary
+volumes. A History of the Second Church in Boston, with Lives of Increase
+and Cotton Mather, was published by Chandler Robbins. The theological
+history of Unitarianism was ably discussed by George E. Ellis in A
+Half-century of the Unitarian Controversy. He devoted much attention to the
+history of New England, gave many lectures and addresses on subjects
+connected therewith, published biographies of Anne Hutchinson, William
+Penn, Count Rumford, Jared Sparks, and Charles W. Upham. His volumes on The
+Red Man and the White Man in North America, The Puritan Theocracy, and
+others, show his historical ability and his large grasp of his subjects.
+Joseph Henry Allen published an Historical Sketch of the Unitarian Movement
+since the Reformation, in the American Church History series. In Our
+Liberal Movement in Theology, and its Sequel, he critically and
+appreciatively treated of the history of Unitarianism in New England, and
+of the men who were most important in its development. His taste for
+historical studies appeared in his Christian History in its Three Great
+<a name="pg422"></a>
+Periods, a work of admirable critical judgment, sobriety of statement, and
+concise presentation of the essential facts.</p>
+
+<p>Alvan Lamson produced a book of critical value in The Church of the First
+Three Centuries, which treats of the origin of the Trinitarian beliefs
+during that period. A work of a similar character was done by Frederic
+Huidekoper, in whose books were included the results of many years of
+minute research, and of critical investigation into the origins of
+Christianity.</p>
+
+<p>Books of a widely different nature were written by Artemas B. Muzzey in his
+Personal Recollection of the Men in the Battle of Lexington, and
+Reminiscences of Men of the Revolution and their Families. He published
+several volumes of sermons, as well as a number of educational works.
+Somewhat of a theologian and an ardent student and expounder of philosophy,
+William R. Alger has made himself widely known by his books on The Genius
+of Solitude, Friendships of Women, and The School of Life. His fine
+literary judgments, his artistic appreciations, and his richness of
+sentiment and imagination show themselves in these attractive volumes. He
+has also published a Life of Edwin Forrest, with a Critical History of the
+Dramatic Art. His Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life is a
+work of ripe scholarship and great literary merit, and is everywhere
+recognized as an authority.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn129"></a>Unitarians as Historians.</h3>
+
+<p>In the chapter on historians, in his American Literature, Professor Charles
+F. Richardson enumerates seventeen writers, twelve of whom were Unitarians.
+It was in Cambridge and Boston, amongst the graduates of Harvard College,
+<a name="pg423"></a>
+that American historical writing began, and that it attained its greatest
+successes. The same causes that had given the Unitarians pre-eminence in
+other directions made them especially so in this, where wide learning and
+sound criticism were of importance. Wealth, leisure, intellectual
+emancipation, sympathetic interest in all that is human, combined with
+scholarship and plodding industry, gave the historians an unusual equipment
+for their tasks.</p>
+
+<p>It may be justly said that historical writing in this country began with
+Jeremy Belknap, the predecessor of Dr. Channing in the Federal Street
+Church. When settled in Dover, he wrote his History of New Hampshire; and
+after his removal to Boston he produced a biography of Watts and two
+volumes of American Biographies. He first voiced the historical interest
+that was awakened by the establishment of national independence, and the
+desire to know of the past of the American people. His chief service to
+historical studies, however, was in the formation of the Massachusetts
+Historical Society.</p>
+
+<p>Hannah Adams was not only a Unitarian, but the first woman in this country
+to enter upon a literary career. Her View of Religious Opinions, first
+issued in 1784, afterwards changed to a Dictionary of Religions, was the
+earliest work attempting to give an account of all the religions of the
+world. It was followed by her History of New England, and by her History of
+the Jews. She also took part in the religious controversies of the day, her
+contest with Dr. Jedediah Morse being one of the minor phases of the
+struggle between the Unitarians and the Orthodox Congregationalists; and
+her Evidences of Christianity, as well as her letters on the Gospels, were
+<a name="pg424"></a>
+written from the Unitarian point of view. Her books had no literary value,
+but in their time they helped to foster the growing interest in American
+subjects.</p>
+
+<p>Alexander Young, minister of the New South Church in Boston, rendered
+valuable service to historical investigations by his Chronicles of the
+Pilgrim Fathers of the Colony of Plymouth and his Chronicles of the First
+Planters of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, works that were scholarly,
+accurate, and judicious. Perhaps his most important service was the editing
+of the Library of Old English Prose Writers, in nine volumes, which
+appeared from 1831 to 1834, and included such works as Sidney's Defence of
+Poesie and Sir Thomas Browne's Urn Burial. Of his historical works, O.B.
+Frothingham has justly said that "they showed extensive and accurate
+knowledge, extraordinary zeal in research, singular impartiality of
+judgment, great activity of mind, a strong inclination towards ethical as
+distinguished from speculative subjects, a passionate love of books and
+elegant letters."[<a href="#fn_19_1">1</a><a name="fr_19_1"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Of the greater historians, Bancroft, Prescott, Motley, Hildreth, Sparks,
+Palfrey, Ticknor, Parkman, Higginson, Parton, and Fiske were Unitarians.
+Three of these men were sons of Unitarian ministers, and four of them
+prepared for that profession or entered upon its duties. It is not
+desirable that any attempt should be made here to estimate their historical
+labors, for their position and their achievements are well known.</p>
+
+<p>It would be interesting to give an account of the Unitarian connections and
+sympathies of these writers, but the materials are not at hand in the case
+<a name="pg425"></a>
+of most of them. One or two illustrations will suffice for them all,
+indicating their religious tastes and preferences. In 1829 Prescott made a
+careful examination of the evidences for belief in Christianity, and his
+biographer says that "the conclusions at which he arrived were, that the
+narratives of the Gospels were authentic; and that, even if Christianity
+were not a divine revelation, no system of morals was so likely to fit him
+for happiness here and hereafter. But he did not find in the Gospels or in
+any part of the New Testament the doctrines commonly accounted orthodox,
+and he deliberately recorded his rejection of them." At a later time he
+stated his creed in these words: "To do well and act justly, to fear and to
+love God, and to love our neighbor as ourselves--in these is the essence of
+religion. To do this is the safest, our only safe course. For what we can
+believe we are not responsible, supposing we examine candidly and
+patiently. For what we do we shall indeed be accountable. The doctrines of
+the Saviour unfold the whole code of morals by which our conduct should be
+regulated."[<a href="#fn_19_2">2</a><a name="fr_19_2"></a>] Prescott was a regular attendant at the First Church in
+Boston.</p>
+
+<p>In his biography of George Ticknor, George S. Hilliard says that "the
+strong religious impressions which Mr. Ticknor received in early years
+deepened as his character matured into personal convictions, the confirmed
+and ruling principles of his life. He had been brought up in the doctrines
+of Calvinistic orthodoxy, but later serious reflection led him to reject
+those doctrines; and soon after his return from Europe he joined Dr.
+Channing's church, of which he continued through life a faithful member. He
+<a name="pg426"></a>
+was a sincere Liberal Christian, and his convictions were firm, but they
+were held without bigotry, and he never allowed them to interfere with
+kindliness and courtesy." It may be added that Ticknor was an active member
+of the church with which he was connected, that in 1822 he took charge of a
+class of boys in the Sunday-school, which he kept for eight years. In 1839
+and the next year he gave a course of instruction in the history and
+contents of the Bible to a class of young girls, for which he prepared
+himself carefully.[<a href="#fn_19_3">3</a><a name="fr_19_3"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The influence exerted by the historians in teaching love of country and a
+true patriotism may be accounted as very large. That men thoroughly
+grounded in principles of religious liberty, in high ideals of justice and
+humanity, in the broadest spirit of toleration and freedom of opinion,
+should have written our histories, is of no small importance in the
+formation of American character. That they have made many Unitarians we
+cannot suppose, but that their influence has been large in the development
+of a true spirit of nationality we have a right to think. They have
+indicated concretely the effects of bigotry and intolerance, and they have
+not failed to point out the defects in the practices of the Puritans. In so
+far as they have had to deal with religious subjects, they have taught the
+true Unitarian idea of liberty of conscience and freedom of opinion. They
+have wisely helped to make it possible for many religions to live kindly
+side by side, and to give every creed the right of utterance. These ideals
+had been developed before our historians began to write, but these men have
+helped to make them the inheritance of the whole nation. All the more
+<a name="pg427"></a>
+effective has been their teaching that it has grown out of the events of
+our history, and has not been the voice of a merely personal opinion. But
+we owe much to them that they have seen the true meaning of our history,
+and that they have uttered it with clearness of interpretation and with
+vigorous moral emphasis.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn130"></a>Scientific Unitarians.</h3>
+
+<p>A considerable number of the leading men of science have been Unitarians.
+Notable among the mathematicians were Nathaniel Bowditch, Benjamin Peirce,
+and Thomas Hill, who was president of Antioch College and of Harvard
+University. Among the astronomers have been Benjamin Gould, Maria Mitchell,
+Asaph Hall, and Edward C. Picketing. Of Maria Mitchell it was said that she
+"was entirely ignorant of the peculiar phrases and customs of rigid
+sectarians." Her biographer says she "never joined any church, but for
+years before she left Nantucket she attended the Unitarian church, and her
+sympathies, as long as she lived, were with that denomination, especially
+with the more liberally inclined portion."[<a href="#fn_19_4">4</a><a name="fr_19_4"></a>] James Jackson, the first
+physician of the Massachusetts General Hospital, should be named in this
+connection. Joseph Lovering, the physicist, and Jeffries Wyman, the
+comparative anatomist, are also to be included. And here belongs Louis
+Agassiz, who has had more influence than any other man in developing an
+interest in science among the people generally. He gave to scientific
+investigations the largest importance for scientific men themselves. At the
+same time he was a religious man and a theist. "In religion," says his
+<a name="pg428"></a>
+biographer, "Agassiz very liberal and tolerant, and respected the views and
+convictions of every one. In his youth and early manhood, Agassiz was
+undoubtedly a materialist, or, more exactly, a sceptic; but in time, and
+little by little, his studies led him to belief in a divine Creative Power.
+He was more in sympathy with Unitarianism than with any other Christian
+denomination."[<a href="#fn_19_5">5</a><a name="fr_19_5"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn131"></a>Unitarian Essayists.</h3>
+
+<p>A considerable number of essayists, lecturers, and general writers have
+been Unitarians. Among these have been Edwin P. Whipple, George Ripley,
+Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney, John S. Dwight, Professor Charles Eliot Norton, Henry
+T. Tuckerman, James T. Fields, and Professor Francis J. Child. These
+writers represent several phases of Unitarian opinion, but they belong to
+this fellowship by birthright or intellectual sympathies. In the same
+company may be placed Henry D. Thoreau and John Burroughs, not because they
+had any direct connection with Unitarianism, but because the religious
+convictions they expressed are such as most Unitarians accept.</p>
+
+<p>To the Unitarian fellowship belong Margaret Fuller, Lydia Maria Child,
+Caroline M. Kirkland, Grace Greenwood (Mrs. Lippincott), and Julia Ward
+Howe. All the early associations of Margaret Fuller were with Unitarians;
+and her brother, Arthur Fuller, became a Unitarian minister. In her maturer
+life she was with the transcendentalists, finding in Rev. W.H. Channing and
+Emerson her spiritual teachers. Writing of her debt to Emerson, she said,
+"His influence has been more beneficial to me than that of any American;
+and from him I first learned what is meant by an inward life."[<a href="#fn_19_6">6</a><a name="fr_19_6"></a>] She was
+<a name="pg429"></a>
+a pronounced individualist, an intense lover of spiritual liberty, a friend
+of those who live in the spirit. This may be seen in what she called her
+credo, a sentence or two from which will indicate her type of thought. "I
+will not loathe sects, persuasions, systems," she writes, "though I cannot
+abide in them one moment; for I see that by most men they are still
+needed." "Ages may not produce one worthy to loose the shoes of the Prophet
+of Nazareth; yet there will surely be another manifestation of this word
+which was in the beginning. The very greatness of this manifestation
+demands a greater. We have had a Messiah to teach and reconcile. Let us now
+have a man to live out all the symbolical forms of human life, with the
+calm beauty of a Greek god, with the deep consciousness of Moses, with the
+holy love and purity of Jesus."[<a href="#fn_19_7">7</a><a name="fr_19_7"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn132"></a>Unitarian Novelists.</h3>
+
+<p>Among the novelists have been several who were Unitarian ministers,
+including Sylvester Judd, William Ware, Thomas W. Higginson, and Edward
+Everett Hale. Judd's Margaret was of the very essence of transcendentalism,
+besides being an excellent interpretation of some of the phases of New
+England character. Ware's historical novels were popular in their day, and
+are now worth going back to by modern readers, and especially by those who
+do not insist upon having their romances hot from the press. Catherine M.
+Sedgwick is another novelist worth returning to by modern readers, and
+especially by those who would know of New England life in the early part of
+the nineteenth century. She became an ardent Unitarian, and her biography
+gives interesting glimpses of the early struggles of that faith in York
+<a name="pg430"></a>
+City. Other Unitarian women novelists were Lydia Maria Child, Grace
+Greenwood, Helen Hunt Jackson, Louisa M. Alcott, and Harriet Prescott
+Spofford.</p>
+
+<p>In naming John T. Trowbridge, Bayard Taylor, Bret Harte, William D.
+Howells, and Nathaniel Hawthorne as Unitarians, no merely sectarian aim is
+in view. In the common use of the word, Hawthorne was not a religious man;
+for he rarely attended church, and he had no interest in ecclesiastical
+formalities. No man who has written in this country, however, was more
+deeply influenced than he by those spiritual ideas and traditions which may
+be properly called Unitarian. The same may be said of Howells, who is not a
+Unitarian in any denominational sense; but his religious interests and
+convictions bring him into sympathy with the movement represented by
+Unitarianism.</p>
+
+<p>It may be said of the most popular novels of Edward Everett Hale, such as
+Ten Times One Is Ten, In His Name, His Level Best, that they are the best
+possible interpretations of the Unitarian spirit; for it is not merely a
+certain conception of God that characterizes Unitarianism, nor yet a
+particular theological attitude. It is the wish to make religion real,
+practical, altruistic.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn133"></a>Unitarian Artists and Poets.</h3>
+
+<p>Unitarianism has been as friendly to poetry and the other arts as it has
+been to philosophy and science. In its early days it fostered the artistic
+careers of Washington Allston, the painter, and Charles Bulfinch, the
+architect. It has also nurtured the sculptors, William Wetmore Story, who
+was also poet and essayist; Harriet Hosmer, whose career shows what a woman
+can accomplish in opening new opportunities for her sex; Larkin G. Mead and
+Daniel C. French. To these must be added the actors Fanny Kemble and
+Charlotte Cushman.</p>
+
+<a name="pg431"></a>
+<p>It is as one of the earliest of our poets that Charles Sprague is to be
+mentioned, and one or two of his poems are deservedly remembered. Jones
+Very was one of the best of the transcendental poets, and a few of his
+religious poems have not been surpassed. The younger William Ellery
+Channing and Edward R. Sill belong to the same school, and deservedly keep
+their places with those who admire what is choice in thought and individual
+in artistic workmanship. As a biographer of O.B. Frothingham and as a
+member of his congregation, it may be proper to add here the name of Edmund
+C. Stedman.</p>
+
+<p>Among our greater poets, Bryant, Longfellow, Emerson, Holmes, Lowell,
+Stoddard, and Bayard Taylor were Unitarians. As being essentially of the
+same way of thinking and believing, Whittier and Whitman might also be so
+classed. Though Whittier was a Friend by education and by conviction, he
+was of the liberal school that places religion above sect and interprets
+dogmas in the light of human needs and affections. If he had been born and
+bred a Unitarian, he could not have more sympathetically interpreted the
+Unitarian faith than he has in his poems. Whitman had in him the heart of
+transcendentalism, and he was informed of its inmost spirit. To the more
+radical Unitarians his pleas for liberty, his intense individualism, and
+his idealistic conceptions of nature and man would be acceptable, and, it
+may be, enthusiastically approved.</p>
+
+<p>William Cullen Bryant early became a Unitarian; and he listened to the
+preaching of Follen, Dewey, Osgood, and Bellows. "A devoted lover of
+religious liberty," Bellows said of him, "he was an equal lover of religion
+<a name="pg432"></a>
+itself--not in any precise, dogmatic form, but in its righteousness,
+reverence, and charity. He was not a dogmatist, but preferred practical
+piety and working virtue to all modes of faith."[<a href="#fn_19_8">8</a><a name="fr_19_8"></a>] It would be difficult
+to give a better definition of Unitarianism itself; and it was the large
+humanity of it, and its generous outlook upon the lives of individuals and
+nations, that made of Bryant a faithful Unitarian.</p>
+
+<p>Henry W. Longfellow was educated as a Unitarian, his father having been one
+of the first vice-presidents of the Unitarian Association,--a position he
+held for many years. Stephen Longfellow was an intimate friend of Dr.
+Channing in his college years, and he followed the advance of his classmate
+in the growth of his liberal faith. "It was in the doctrine and the spirit
+of the early Unitarianism that Henry Longfellow was nurtured at church and
+at home," says his brother. "And there is no reason to suppose that he ever
+found these insufficient, or that he ever essentially departed from them.
+Of his genuine religious feeling his writings, give ample testimony. His
+nature was at heart devout; his ideas of life, of death, and of what lies
+beyond, were essentially cheerful, hopeful, optimistic. He did not care to
+talk much on theological points; but he believed in the supremacy of good
+in the world and in the universe."[<a href="#fn_19_9">9</a><a name="fr_19_9"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Although Oliver Wendell Holmes was educated in the older forms of religious
+beliefs, he became one of the most devoted of Unitarians. His rejection of
+Calvinism is marked by his intense aversion to it, shown upon many a page
+of his prose and poetry. No other prominent Unitarian was so aggressive
+against the doctrines of the older time. He was a regular attendant at
+<a name="pg433"></a>
+King's Chapel upon the preaching of Dr. F.W.P. Greenwood, Dr. Ephraim
+Peabody, and Rev. H.W. Foote; but, when he was in Pittsfield, for a number
+of years he went to the Episcopal church, and at Beverly Farms in his later
+years, during the summer, he attended a Baptist church. He was, therefore,
+a conservative Unitarian, but with a generous recognition of the good in
+other religious bodies. At the Unitarian Festival of 1859 Dr. Holmes was
+the presiding officer, and in his address he gave a statement of the
+Unitarian faith that clearly defines his own religious position:--</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>  We believe in vital religion, or the religion of life, as contrasted
+  with that of trust in hierarchies, establishments, and traditional
+  formulae, settled by the votes of wavering majorities in old councils
+  and convocations. We believe in evangelical religion, or the religion
+  of glad tidings, in distinction from the schemes that make our planet
+  the ante-chamber of the mansions of eternal woe to the vast majority of
+  all the men, women, and children that have lived and suffered upon its
+  surface. We believe that every age must judge the Scriptures by its own
+  light; and we mean, by God's grace, to exercise that privilege, without
+  asking permission of pope or bishop, or any other human tribunal. We
+  believe that sin is the much-abused step-daughter of ignorance, and
+  this not only from our own observation, but on the authority of him
+  whose last prayer on earth was that the perpetrators of the greatest
+  crime on record might be forgiven, for they knew not what they were
+  doing. We believe, beyond all other beliefs, in the fatherly relation
+  of the Deity to all his creatures; and, wherever there is a conflict of
+  Scriptural or theological doctrines, we hold this to be the article of
+  faith that stands supreme above all others. And, lastly, we know that,
+  whether we agree precisely in these or any other articles of belief, we
+<a name="pg434"></a>
+  can meet in Christian charity and fellowship, in that we all agree in
+  the love of our race, and the worship of a common Father, as taught us
+  by the Master whom we profess to follow.[<a href="#fn_19_10">10</a><a name="fr_19_10"></a>]</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>Educated as a Unitarian, James Russell Lowell felt none of the animosity
+toward Calvinism that was characteristic of Holmes; but his poetry
+everywhere indicates the liberality and nobleness of his religious
+convictions. That he was not sectarian, that he felt no active interest in
+dogmatic theology as such, is only saying that he was a genuine Unitarian.
+Writing in 1838, Lowell said, "I am an infidel to the Christianity of
+to-day."[<a href="#fn_19_11">11</a><a name="fr_19_11"></a>] In a letter to Longfellow written in 1845, he made a more
+explicit statement of his attitude: "Christ has declared war against the
+Christianity of the world, and it must down. There is no help for it. The
+church, that great bulwark of our practical paganism, must be reformed from
+foundation to weathercock."[<a href="#fn_19_12">12</a><a name="fr_19_12"></a>] These passages indicate his
+dissatisfaction with an external religion and with dogmatic theology. On
+the other hand, his letters and his poems prove that he was strongly
+grounded in the faith of the spirit. In that faith he lived and died; and,
+if in later years he gave recognition to some of the higher claims of the
+older types of Christianity, it was a generous concession to their rational
+qualities and their practical results, and in no degree an acceptance of
+their teachings. The definite form of Lowell's faith he expressed when he
+wrote, "I will never enter a church from which a prayer goes up for the
+prosperous only, or for the unfortunate among the oppressors, and not for
+<a name="pg435"></a>
+the oppressed and fallen; as if God had ordained our pride of caste and our
+distinctions of color, and as if Christ had forgotten those that are in
+bonds."[<a href="#fn_19_13">13</a><a name="fr_19_13"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Emerson left the pulpit, and he withdrew from outward conformity to the
+church; but that there came a time when he no longer felt an interest in
+religion or that he even ceased to be a Christian, after his own manner of
+interpretation, there is no reason to assume. His radicalism was in the
+direction of a deeper and truer religion, a religion of the spirit. He
+rejected the faith that is founded on the letter, on historical evidences,
+that is a body without a soul. He was not the less a Unitarian because he
+ceased to be one outwardly, for he carried forward the Unitarian principles
+to their legitimate conclusion. The newer Unitarianism owes to him more
+than to any other man, and of him more than of any other man the older
+Unitarianism can boast that he was its product.</p>
+
+<p>Such a survey as this indicates how great has been the influence of
+Unitarianism upon American literature. There can be no question that it has
+been one of the greatest formative forces in its development. "Almost
+everybody," says Professor Barrett Wendell, "who attained literary
+distinction in New England during the nineteenth century was either a
+Unitarian or closely associated with Unitarian influences,"[<a href="#fn_19_14">14</a><a name="fr_19_14"></a>] More even
+than that may be said, for it is the Unitarian writers who have most truly
+interpreted American institutions and American ideals.</p>
+
+<p><br >[<a href="#fr_19_1">1</a><a name="fn_19_1"></a>] Boston Unitarianism, 168.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_19_2">2</a><a name="fn_19_2"></a>] George Ticknor, Life of William Hickling Prescott, 91, 164.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_19_3">3</a><a name="fn_19_3"></a>] George S. Hillard, Life, Letters, and Journals of George Ticknor,
+    327.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_19_4">4</a><a name="fn_19_4"></a>] Phoebe Mitchell Kendall, Life, Letters, and Journals of Maria
+    Mitchell, 239.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_19_5">5</a><a name="fn_19_5"></a>] Jules Marcou, Life of Agassiz, II. 220.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_19_6">6</a><a name="fn_19_6"></a>] Memoirs, I. 194.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_19_7">7</a><a name="fn_19_7"></a>] Memoirs, II. 91.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_19_8">8</a><a name="fn_19_8"></a>] John Bigelow, Life of Bryant, 274, 285.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_19_9">9</a><a name="fn_19_9"></a>] Samuel Longfellow, Life of H.W. Longfellow, I. 14</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_19_10">10</a><a name="fn_19_10"></a>] Quarterly Journal, VI. 359, July, 1859.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_19_11">11</a><a name="fn_19_11"></a>] Biography of James Russell Lowell, by H.E. Scudder, I. 63.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_19_12">12</a><a name="fn_19_12"></a>] Ibid., 169.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_19_13">13</a><a name="fn_19_13"></a>] Biography of James Russell Lowell, by H.E. Scudder, I. 144, quoted
+     from Conversations on Some of the Old Poets.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_19_14">14</a><a name="fn_19_14"></a>] A Literary History of America, 289.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<a name="pg436"></a>
+<h2><br ><a name="ch20"></a>XX.<br >
+
+
+THE FUTURE OF UNITARIANISM.</h2>
+
+<p>The early Unitarians in this country did not desire to form a new sect.
+They wished to remain Congregationalists, and to continue unbroken the
+fellowship that had existed from the beginning of New England. When they
+were compelled to separate from the older churches, they refrained from
+organizing a strictly defined religious body, and have called theirs a
+"movement." The words "denomination" and "sect" have been repellent to
+them; and they have attempted, not only to avoid their use, but to escape
+from that which they represent. They have wished to establish a broad, free
+fellowship, that would draw together all liberal thinkers and movements
+into one wide and inclusive religious body.</p>
+
+<p>The Unitarian body accepted in theory from the first the principles of
+liberty, reason, and free inquiry. These were fully established, however,
+only as the result of discussion, agitation, and much friction. Theodore
+Parker was subjected to severe criticism, Emerson was regarded with
+distrust, and the Free Religious Association was organized as a protest and
+for the sake of a freer fellowship. In fact, however, Parker was never
+disfellowshipped; and from the first many Unitarians regarded Emerson as
+the teacher of a higher type of spiritual religion. Through this period of
+<a name="pg437"></a>
+controversy, when there was much of bitter feeling engendered, no one was
+expelled from the Unitarian body for opinion's sake. All stayed in who did
+not choose to go out, there being no trials for, heresy. The result of this
+method has been that the Unitarian body is now one of the most united and
+harmonious in Christendom. The free spirit has abundantly justified itself.
+When it was found that every one could think for himself, express freely
+his own beliefs, and live in accordance with his own convictions,
+controversy came to an end. When heresy was no longer sought for, heresy
+ceased to have an existence. The result has not been discord and distrust,
+but peace, harmony, and a more perfect fellowship.</p>
+
+<p>In the Unitarian body from the first there has been a free spirit of
+inquiry. Criticism has had a free course. The Bible has been subjected to
+the most searching investigation, as have all the foundations of religion.
+As a result, no religious body shows, a more rational interest in the Bible
+or a more confident trust in its great spiritual teachings.</p>
+
+<p>The early Unitarians anticipated that Unitarianism would soon become the
+popular form of religion accepted in this country. Thomas Jefferson thought
+that all young men of his time would die Unitarians. Others were afraid
+that Unitarianism would become sectarian in its methods as soon as it
+became popular, which they anticipated would occur in a brief period.[<a href="#fn_20_1">1</a><a name="fr_20_1"></a>]
+The cause of the slow growth of Unitarianism is to be found in the fact
+that it has been too modern in its spirit, too removed from the currents of
+popular belief, to find ready acceptance on the part of those who are
+<a name="pg438"></a>
+largely influenced by traditional beliefs. The religion of the great
+majority of persons is determined by tradition or social heredity, by what
+they are taught in childhood or hear commonly repeated around them. Only
+persons who are naturally independent and self-reliant can overcome the
+difficulties in the way of embracing a form of religion which carries them
+outside of the established tradition. For these reasons it is not
+surprising that as yet there has not been a rapid growth of organized
+Unitarianism. In fact, Unitarianism has made little progress outside of New
+England, and those regions to which New England traditions have been
+carried by those who migrated westward.</p>
+
+<p>The early promise for the growth of Unitarianism in the south, from 1825 to
+1840, failed because there was no background of tradition for its
+encouragement and support. Individuals could think their way into the
+Unitarian faith, but their influence proved ineffective when all around
+them the old tradition prevailed as stubborn conviction. Even the influence
+of a literature pervaded with Unitarianism proved ineffective in securing
+any rapid spread of the new faith, except as it has found its way into the
+common Christian tradition by a process of spiritual infiltration. The
+result has been that Unitarianism has grown slowly, because it has been
+obliged to create new traditions, to form a new habit of thought, and to
+make free inquiry a common motive and purpose.</p>
+
+<p>In a word, Unitarianism has been a heresy; and therefore there has been no
+open door for it. Most heretical sects have been narrow in spirit, bigoted
+in temper, and intensely sectarian in method. Their isolation from the
+great currents of the world's life acts on them intellectually and
+<a name="pg439"></a>
+spiritually as the process of in-and-in breeding does upon animals: it
+intensifies their peculiarities and defects. A process of atrophy or
+degeneration takes place; and they grow from generation to generation more
+isolated, sectarian, and peculiar. Unitarianism has escaped this tendency
+because it has accepted the modern spirit and because to a large degree its
+adherents have been educated and progressive persons. Its principles of
+liberty, reason, and free inquiry, have brought its followers into touch
+with those forces that are making most rapidly for the development of
+mankind. Unitarians have been conspicuously capable of individual
+initiative; and yet their culture has been large enough to give them a
+conservative loyalty to the past and to the profounder and more spiritual
+phases of the Christian tradition. While strongly individualistic and
+heretical they have been sturdily faithful to Christianity, seeking to
+revive its earlier and more simple life.</p>
+
+<p>A chief value of Unitarianism in the past has been that it has pioneered
+the way for the development of the modern spirit within the limits of
+Christianity. The churches from which it came out have followed it far on
+the way it has travelled. Its most liberal advocates of the first
+generation were more conservative than many of the leaders are to-day in
+the older churches. Its period of criticism, controversy, and agitation is
+being reproduced in many another religious body of the present time. The
+debates about miracles, the theory of the supernatural, the authenticity of
+Scripture, the nature of Christ, and other problems that are now agitating
+most of the progressive Protestant denominations, are almost precisely
+those that exercised Unitarians years ago. The only final solution of these
+<a name="pg440"></a>
+problems, that will give peace and harmony, is that of free inquiry and
+rational interpretation, which Unitarians have finally accepted. If other
+religious bodies would profit by this experience and by the Unitarian
+method for the solution of these problems, it would be greatly to their
+advantage.</p>
+
+<p>The Unitarian churches have been few in number, and they have suffered from
+isolation and provincialism. These defects of the earlier period have now
+in part passed away, new traditions have been created, a cosmopolitan
+spirit has been developed, and Unitarianism has become a world movement.
+This was conspicuously indicated at the seventy-fifth anniversary of the
+organization of the American Unitarian Association, and in the formation of
+The International Council of Unitarian and Other Liberal Religious Thinkers
+and Workers. It was then shown that Unitarianism has found expression in
+many parts of the world, that it answers to an intellectual and spiritual
+need of the time, and that it is capable of interpreting the religious
+convictions of persons belonging to many phases of human development and
+culture. A broader, more philosophical, and humaner tradition is being
+formed, that will in time become a wide-reaching influence for the
+development of a religious life that will be at once more scientific and
+more spiritual in its nature than anything the past has produced.</p>
+
+<p>The promise of Unitarianism for the future does not consist in its becoming
+a sect and in its striving for the development of merely denominational
+interests, but in its cultivation of the deeper spiritual life and in its
+cosmopolitan sympathy with all phases of religious growth. Its mission is
+one with philanthropy, charity, and altruism. Its attitude should be that
+<a name="pg441"></a>
+of free inquiry, loyalty to the spirit of philosophy and science, and
+fidelity to the largest results of human progress. It should always
+represent justice, righteousness, and personal integrity. That promise is
+not to be found in the rapid multiplication of its churches or in its
+devotion to propagandist aims, but in its loyalty to the free spirit and in
+its exemplification of the worth and beauty of the religion of humanity. As
+a sect, it will fail; but as a movement towards a larger faith, a purer
+life, and a more inclusive fellowship, the future is on its side.</p>
+
+<p>While recognizing the Unitarian as a great pioneer movement in religion, it
+should be seen that its strong individualism has been a cause of its slow
+growth. Until recently the Unitarian body has been less an organic phase of
+the religious life of the time than a group of isolated churches held
+together only by the spontaneous bonds of fellowship and good will. Such a
+body can have little effective force in any effort at missionary
+propagandism or in making its spirit dominant in the religious life of the
+country. As heredity and variation are but two phases of organic growth, so
+are tradition and individual initiative but two phases of social progress.
+In both processes--organic growth and social progress--the primary force is
+the conservative one, that maintains what the past has secured. If
+individualism is necessary to healthy growth, associative action is
+essential to any growth whatever of the social body. In so far as
+individual perfection can be attained, it cannot be by seeking it as an end
+in itself: it can be reached only by means of that which conduces to
+general social progress.</p>
+
+<a name="pg442"></a>
+<p>It may be questioned whether there is any large future for Unitarianism
+unless all excessive individualism is modified and controlled. Such
+individualism is in opposition to the altruistic and associative spirit of
+the present time. Liberty is not an end in itself, but its value is to be
+found in the opportunity it gives for a natural and fitting association of
+individuals with each other. Freedom of religious inquiry is but an
+instrument for securing spiritual growth, not merely for the individual,
+but for all mankind. So long as liberty of thought and spiritual freedom
+remain the means of individual gratification, they are ineffective as
+spiritual forces. They must be given a wider heritage in the life of
+mankind before they can accomplish their legitimate results in securing for
+men freedom from the external bonds of traditionalism. Even reason is but
+an instrument for securing truth, and not truth itself.</p>
+
+<p>Rightly understood, authority in the church is but the principle of social
+action, respect for what mankind has gained of spiritual power through its
+centuries of development. Authority is therefore as necessary as freedom,
+and the two must be reconciled in order that progress may take place. When
+so understood and so limited, authority becomes essential to all growth in
+freedom and individuality. What above all else is needed in religion is
+social action on the part of freedom-loving men and women, who, in the
+strength of their individuality, co-operate for the attainment, not of
+their own personal good, but the advancement of mankind. This is what
+Unitarianism has striven for, and what it has gained in some measure. It
+has sought to make philanthropy the test of piety, and to make liberty a
+means of social fidelity.</p>
+
+<a name="pg443"></a>
+<p>Free inquiry cannot mean liberty to think as one pleases, but only to think
+the truth, and to recognize with submissive spirit the absolute conditions
+and the limitations of the truth. Though religion is life and not a creed,
+it none the less compels the individual to loyalty of social action; and
+that means nothing more and nothing less than faithfulness to what will
+make for the common good, and not primarily what will minister to one's own
+personal development, intellectually and spiritually.</p>
+
+<p>The future of Unitarianism will depend on its ability further to reconcile,
+individualism with associative action, the spirit of free inquiry with the
+larger human tradition. Its advantage cannot be found in the abandonment of
+Christianity, which has been the source and sustaining power of its life,
+but in the development of the Christian tradition by the processes of
+modern thought. The real promise of Unitarianism is in identifying itself
+with the altruistic spirit of the age, and in becoming the spiritual
+interpreter of the social aspirations of mankind. In order to this result
+it must not only withdraw from its extreme individualism, but bring its
+liberty into organic relations with its spirit of social fidelity. It will
+then welcome the fact that freedom and authority are identical in their
+deeper meanings. It will discover that service is more important than
+culture, and that culture is of value to the end that service may become
+more effective. Then it will cheerfully recognize the truth that the social
+obligation is as important as the individual right, and that the two make
+the rounded whole of human action.</p>
+
+<p><br >[<a href="#fr_20_1">1</a><a name="fn_20_1"></a>] See pp. 131, 328.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<a name="pg444"></a>
+<h2><br >APPENDIX.</h2>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><br ><a name="chaa"></a>A. FORMATION OF THE LOCAL CONFERENCES.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The local conferences came into existence in the following order: Wisconsin
+and Minnesota Quarterly Conference, organized at Sheboygan, Wis., October
+24, 1866; New York Central Conference of Liberal Christians, Rochester,
+November 21, 1866; Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches of
+the Middle and Southern States, Wilmington, Del., November 22, 1866;
+Norfolk Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches, Dedham,
+Mass., November 28, 1866; New York and Hudson River Local Conference, New
+York, December 6, 1866; Essex Conference of Liberal Christian Churches,
+Salem, Mass., December 11, 1866; Lake Erie Conference of Unitarian and
+Other Christian Societies, Meadville, Penn., December 11, 1866; Worcester
+County Conference of Congregational (Unitarian) and Other Christian
+Societies, Worcester, Mass., December 12, 1866; South Middlesex Conference
+of Congregational Unitarian and Other Christian Societies, Cambridgeport,
+Mass., December 12, 1866; Suffolk Conference of Unitarian and Other
+Christian Churches, Boston, December 17, 1866; North Middlesex Conference
+of Unitarian Congregational and Other Christian Churches, Littleton, Mass.,
+December 18, 1866.</p>
+
+<p>The Champlain Liberal Christian Conference, Montpelier, Vt., January 9,
+1867; the Connecticut Valley Conference of Congregational Unitarian and
+Other Christian Churches, Greenfield, Mass., January 16, 1867; the Plymouth
+and Bay Conference, Hingham, Mass., February 5, 1867; the Ohio Valley
+Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches, Louisville, Ky.,
+February 22, 1867; the Channing Conference, Providence, R.I., April 17,
+1867; Liberal Christian Conference of Western Maine, Brunswick, Me.,
+October 22, 1867.</p>
+
+<a name="pg445"></a>
+<p>The Local Conference of Liberal Christians of the Missouri Valley, Weston,
+Mo., March 18, 1868; the Chicago Conference of Unitarian Churches, Chicago,
+December 2, 1868; Western Illinois and Iowa Conference of Unitarian and
+Other Christian Churches, Sheffield, Ill., January 28, 1869; Cape Cod
+Conference of Unitarian Congregational and Other Liberal Christian
+Churches, Barnstable, Mass., November 30, 1870; Conference of Liberal
+Christians of the Missouri Valley, Kansas City, Mo., May 3, 1871; Michigan
+Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches, Jackson, October 21,
+1875; the Fraternity of Illinois Liberal Christian Societies, Bloomington,
+November 11, 1875; Iowa Association of Unitarian and Other Independent
+Churches, Burlington, June 1, 1877; Indiana Conference of Unitarian and
+Independent Religious Societies, Hobart, October 1, 1878; Ohio State
+Conference of Unitarian and Other Liberal Societies, Cincinnati, May, 1879.</p>
+
+<p>Kansas Unitarian Conference, December 2, 1880; Nebraska Unitarian
+Association, Omaha, November 9, 1882; the Southern Conference of Unitarian
+and Other Christian Churches, Atlanta, Ga., April 24, 1884; the New York
+Conference of Unitarian Churches superseded the New York and Hudson River
+Conference at a session held in New York, April 29, 1885; Pacific Unitarian
+Conference, San Francisco, November 2, 1885; the Illinois Conference of
+Unitarian and Other Independent Societies superseded the Illinois
+Fraternity in 1885; Minnesota Unitarian Conference, St. Paul, November 17,
+1887; Hancock Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches, Bar
+Harbor, Me., August 8, 1889; Missouri Valley Unitarian Conference
+superseded the Kansas Unitarian Conference, December 2, 1889.</p>
+
+<p>Rocky Mountain Conference of Unitarian and Other Liberal Christian
+Churches, Denver, Col., May 17, 1890; the Unitarian Conference of the
+Middle States and Canada, Brooklyn, N.Y., November 19, 1890, superseded New
+York State Conference; Central States Conference of Unitarian Churches,
+Cincinnati, December 9, 1891, superseded the Ohio State Conference; Pacific
+Northwest Conference of Unitarian, Liberal Christian, and Independent
+Churches, Puyallup, Wash., August 1, 1892; Southern California Conference
+<a name="pg446"></a>
+of Unitarian and Other Liberal Christian Churches, Santa Ana, October 1892.</p>
+
+<p>Four of the early conferences, the New York Central, Champlain, Western
+Maine, and Missouri Valley, were not distinctly Unitarian. These were union
+organizations, in which Universalists, and perhaps other denominations,
+were associated with Unitarians. The New York Central Conference refused to
+send delegates to the National Conference on account of its union
+character. In other conferences, such as the Connecticut Valley and the
+Norfolk, Universalists took part in their organization, and were for a
+number of years connected with them.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the conferences organized from 1875 to 1885 were within state
+limits; but those organized subsequently to 1885 were more distinctly
+district conferences, and included several states. Several of the
+conferences have been reorganized in order to bring them into harmony with
+the prevailing theory of state or district limits at the time when such
+action took place. A few of the conferences had only a name to live, and
+they soon passed out of existence.</p>
+
+<p>In the local, as in the National Conference, two purposes contended for
+expression, the one looking to the uniting of all liberal denominations in
+one general organization, and the other to the promotion of distinctly
+Unitarian interests. In the National Conference the denominational purpose
+controlled the aims kept most clearly in view; but the other purpose found
+expression in the addition of "Other Christian Churches" to the name,
+though only in the most limited way did such churches connect themselves
+with the conference. The local conferences made like provision for those
+not wishing to call themselves distinctly Unitarian. Such desire for
+co-operation, however, was in a large degree rendered ineffective by the
+fact that the primary aim had in view in the creation of the local
+conferences was the increase of the funds of the American Unitarian
+Association.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<a name="pg447"></a>
+<h2><br ><a name="chab"></a>B. UNITARIAN NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES.</h2>
+
+
+<p>There was a very considerable activity from 1825 to 1850 in the publication
+of Unitarian periodicals, and probably the energies of the denomination
+found a larger expression in that direction than in any other.</p>
+
+<p>In January, 1827, was begun in Boston The Liberal Preacher, a monthly
+publication of sermons by living ministers, conducted by the Cheshire
+Association of Ministers, with Rev. Thomas R. Sullivan, of Keene, N.H., as
+the editor. It was continued for eight or ten years, and with considerable
+success.</p>
+
+<p>With November, 1827, Rev. William Ware began the publication in New York
+City of The Unitarian, a quarterly magazine, of which the last number
+appeared February 15, 1828.</p>
+
+<p>The Unitarian Monitor was begun at Dover, N.H., October 1, 1831, and was
+continued until October 10, 1833. It was a fortnightly of four three-column
+pages, and was well conducted. It was under the editorial management of
+Rev. Samuel K. Lothrop, then the minister in Dover.</p>
+
+<p>The Unitarian Christian, edited by Rev. Stephen G. Bulfinch, was published
+quarterly in Augusta, Ga., for a year or two.</p>
+
+<p>In 1823 Rev. Samuel J. May published The Liberal Christian at Brooklyn,
+Conn., as a fortnightly county paper of eight small quarto pages. He
+followed it by The Christian Monitor and Common People's Adviser, which was
+begun in April, 1832, its object being "to promote the free discussion of
+all subjects connected with happiness and holiness."</p>
+
+<p>The Unitarian, conducted by Rev. Bernard Whitman, then settled in Waltham,
+Mass., was published in Cambridge and Boston during the year 1834, and came
+to its end because of the death of Whitman in the last month of the year.
+It was a monthly magazine of a distinctly missionary character.</p>
+
+<p>Of a more permanent character was The Unitarian Advocate, the first number
+of which was issued in Boston, January, 1828. It was a small 12mo of sixty
+pages, monthly, the editor being Rev. Edmund Q. Sewall. He continued in
+that capacity to the end of 1829, when it was "conducted by an association
+<a name="pg448"></a>
+of gentlemen." The purpose was to make a popular magazine at a moderate
+price. It came to an end in December, 1832.</p>
+
+<p>With January 1, 1835, was issued in Boston the first number of The Boston
+Observer and Religious Intelligencer, a weekly of eight three-column pages,
+edited by Rev. George Ripley. It was continued for only six months, when it
+was joined to The Christian Register, which took its name as a sub-title
+for a time. Its motto, "Liberty, Holiness, Love," was also borrowed by that
+paper.</p>
+
+<p>The Western Messenger was begun in Cincinnati, June, 1835, with Rev.
+Ephraim Peabody as the editor. It was a monthly of ninety-six pages, and
+was ably edited. Owing to the illness of Mr. Peabody, it was removed to
+Louisville after the ninth number; and Rev. James Freeman Clarke became the
+editor, with Rev. W.H. Channing and Rev. J.H. Perkins as assistants for a
+time. It was published by the Western Unitarian Association, and was
+discontinued with the number for May, 1841. Among the contributors were
+Emerson, Margaret Fuller, William Henry Channing, Christopher P. Cranch,
+William G. Eliot, who aided in giving it a high literary character. For a
+number of years the American Unitarian Association made an annual
+appropriation to aid in its publication.</p>
+
+<p>The Monthly Miscellany of Religion and Letters was begun in Boston with
+April, 1839. It was a 12mo of forty-eight pages, monthly. The editor was
+Rev. Ezra S. Gannett, by whom it was "designed to furnish religious reading
+for the people, treat Unitarian opinions in their practical bearings, and
+show their power to produce holiness of life; and by weight of contents to
+come between The Christian Register and The Christian Examiner." It was
+continued until the end of 1843, when it was absorbed by the latter
+periodical.</p>
+
+<p>With the first of January, 1844, was begun The Monthly Religious Magazine,
+to meet the needs of those who found The Christian Examiner too scholarly.
+The first editor, was Rev. Frederic D. Huntington, who was succeeded by
+Rev. Edmund H. Sears, Rev. James W. Thompson, Rev. Rufus Ellis, and Rev.
+John H. Morison. The last issue was that of February, 1874.</p>
+
+<a name="pg449"></a>
+<p>A large weekly was begun in Boston, January 7, 1843, called The Christian
+World, of which Rev. George G. Channing was the publisher and managing
+editor. He was assisted by Rev. James Freeman Clarke and Hon. John A.
+Andrew, afterward Governor of Massachusetts, as editors or editorial
+contributors. The special aims of the paper were "to awaken a deeper
+religious interest in all the great philanthropic and benevolent
+enterprises of the day." It was continued until December 30, 1848. George
+G. Channing was a brother of Dr. Channing, and was settled over two or
+three parishes. The paper was ably conducted, and while Unitarian was not
+distinctly denominational.</p>
+
+<p>The Christian Inquirer was started in New York, October 17, 1846, and was a
+weekly of four six-column pages. It was managed by the New York Unitarian
+Association; and it was largely under the control of Rev. Henry W. Bellows,
+who in 1850 was assisted by Rev. Samuel Osgood, Rev. James F. Clarke, and
+Rev. Frederic H. Hedge.</p>
+
+<p>In 1846 was begun the publication of the Unitarian Annual Register in
+Boston by Crosby &amp; Nichols, with Rev. Abiel A. Livermore, then settled in
+Keene, N.H., as the editor. In 1851 the work came under the control of the
+American Unitarian Association, and as the Year Book of the denomination it
+was edited by the secretary or his assistant. From 1860 to 1869 the Year
+Book was issued as a part of the December number of The Monthly Journal of
+the American Unitarian Association.</p>
+
+<p>The Bible Christian was begun in 1847 at Toronto by Rev. John Cordner, the
+minister there, and was continued as a semi-monthly for a brief period.</p>
+
+<p>The Unitarian and Foreign Religious Miscellany was published in Boston
+during 1847, with Rev. George E. Ellis as the editor. It was a monthly
+magazine devoted to the explanation and defence of Unitarian Christianity;
+and its contents were mostly selected from the English Unitarian
+periodicals, especially The Prospective Review, The Monthly Reformer, Bible
+Christian, The Unitarian, and The Inquirer.</p>
+
+<p>During this period The Christian Examiner had its largest influence upon
+the denomination, and came to an end. Its scholarship and its liberality
+<a name="pg450"></a>
+made it of interest to only a limited constituency, and the publisher was
+compelled to discontinue it at the end of 1869 from lack of adequate
+support. It was edited from the beginning by the ablest men. Rev. James
+Walker and Rev. Francis W.P. Greenwood became the editors in 1831, Rev.
+William Ware taking the place of Dr. Walker in 1837. From 1844 to 1849 Rev.
+Ezra S. Gannett and Rev. Alvan Lamson were the editors, and they were
+succeeded by Rev. George Putnam and Rev. George E. Ellis. In July, 1857,
+Rev. Frederic H. Hedge and Rev. Edward E. Hale became the editors, and
+continued until 1861. Then the editorship was assumed by Rev. Thomas B.
+Fox, who was for several years its owner and publisher; and he was assisted
+as editor by Rev. Joseph H. Allen. The magazine was purchased by Mr. James
+Miller in 1865, who removed it to New York. Dr. Henry W. Bellows became the
+editor, and Mr. Allen continued as assistant, until it was discontinued
+with the December number, 1869.</p>
+
+<p>One of the purposes which found expression after the awakening of 1865 was
+the establishment of a large popular weekly religious journal that should
+reach all classes of liberals throughout the country. The Christian
+Inquirer was changed into The Liberal Christian with the number for
+December 22, 1866; and under this name it appeared in a larger and more
+vigorous form. Dr. Bellows was the editor, and contributors were sought
+from all classes of Liberal Christians. The effort made to establish an able
+undenominational journal, of a broad and progressive but distinctly liberal
+type, was energetic; but the time was not ready for it. With December 2,
+1876, the paper became The Inquirer, which was continued to the close of
+1877.</p>
+
+<p>There was also planned in 1865 a monthly journal that should be everywhere
+acceptable in the homes of liberals of every kind. In January, 1870,
+appeared the Old and New, a large monthly magazine, combining popular and
+scholarly features. The editors were Dr. Edward E. Hale and Mr. Frederic B.
+Perkins. In its pages were first published Dr. Hale's Ten Times Ten, and
+also many of the chapters of Dr. James Martineau's Seat of Authority in
+Religion. It was discontinued with the number for December, 1875.</p>
+
+<a name="pg451"></a>
+<p>The Monthly Religious Magazine was discontinued with the February issue of
+1874; and the next month appeared The Unitarian Review and Religious
+Magazine, edited by Rev. Charles Lowe. When Lowe died, in June, 1874, he
+was succeeded by Rev. Henry H. Barber and Rev. James De Normandie. In 1880
+Dr. J.H. Allen became the editor,--a position he held until the magazine
+was discontinued, in December, 1891.</p>
+
+<p>In March, 1878, was begun in Chicago the publication of The Pamphlet
+Mission, a semi-monthly issue of sermons for missionary circulation, with a
+dozen pages of news added in a supplement. In September the name was
+changed to Unity; and this publication grew into a small fortnightly
+journal, representing the interests of the Western Unitarian Conference. A
+few years later it became a weekly; and it has continued as the
+representative of the more radical Unitarian opinions, though in 1894 it
+became the special organ of The Liberal Congress. The chief editorial
+management has been in the hands of Rev. Jenkin Ll. Jones.</p>
+
+<p>The Unitarian was begun in Chicago by Rev. Brooke Herford and Rev. Jabez T.
+Sunderland with January, 1886, as the organ of the more conservative
+members of the Western Conference. In June, 1887, this monthly magazine was
+removed to Ann Arbor, Mr. Sunderland becoming the managing editor; and in
+1890 the office of publication was removed to Boston, and Rev. Frederic B.
+Mott became the assistant editor. In 1897 the magazine was merged into The
+Christian Register.</p>
+
+<p>In 1880 The Rising Faith was published at Manchester, N.H., as a monthly,
+and continued for two or three years.</p>
+
+<p>In August, 1891, The Guidon appeared in San Francisco; and in November,
+1893, it became The Pacific Unitarian, a monthly representing the interests
+of the Unitarian churches on the Pacific coast. Mr. Charles A. Murdock has
+been the editor.</p>
+
+<p>The Southern Unitarian was begun at Atlanta, Ga., January, 1893; and it was
+published for five years as a monthly by the Southern Conference.</p>
+
+<p>In December, 1891, was begun at Davenport, Ia., with Rev. Arthur M. Judy as
+<a name="pg452"></a>
+editor, a monthly parish paper, called Old and New. Other parishes joined
+in its publication, and in 1895 it became the organ of the Iowa Unitarian
+Association. In 1896 it was published in Chicago, with Rev. A.W. Gould as
+the editor, in behalf of the interests of the Western Conference. In
+September, 1898, its publication was resumed in Davenport by Mr. Judy; and
+a year later it became again the organ of the Iowa Association.</p>
+
+<p>The New World, a Quarterly Review of Religion, Ethics, and Theology, was
+begun in Boston, March, 1892, and was discontinued with the December number
+for 1900. Its editors were Dr. C.C. Everett, Dr. C.H. Toy, Dr. Orello Cone,
+with Rev. N.P. Gilman as managing editor.</p>
+
+<p>The Church Exchange began in June, 1893, and was published as a monthly at
+Portland, in the interest of the Maine Conference of Unitarian Churches,
+with Rev. John C. Perkins as editor. In 1896-97 it was published at
+Farmington, and in 1897-99 Mr. H.P. White was the editor. Since 1899 it has
+been published in Portland, with Mr. Perkins as editor.</p>
+
+<p>The above list of periodicals is not complete. More detailed information is
+desirable, and that the list may be made, full and accurate to date.</p>
+
+
+<hr width="50%" size="3" >
+
+<h2><br >INDEX.</h2>
+
+
+<p><i>The foot-notes and appendix have been included in the index with
+the text.</i></p>
+
+<p>
+Abbot, Abiel (Beverly), <a href="#pg131">131</a>, <a href="#pg133">133</a>, <a href="#pg262">262</a>, <a href="#pg350">350</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>.<br >
+Abbot, Abiel (Peterboro), <a href="#pg409">409</a>.<br >
+Abbot, Ezra, <a href="#pg393">393</a>, <a href="#pg394">394</a>.<br >
+Abbot, Francis Ellingwood, <a href="#pg200">200-204</a>, <a href="#pg207">207</a>, <a href="#pg210">210</a>, <a href="#pg211">211</a>, <a href="#pg213">213</a>, <a href="#pg415">415</a>.<br >
+Abolitionists, <a href="#pg353">353</a>.<br >
+Adam, <a href="#pg51">51</a>, <a href="#pg63">63</a>.<br >
+Adam, William, <a href="#pg296">296-298</a>.<br >
+Adams, Hannah, <a href="#pg265">265</a>, <a href="#pg423">423</a>.<br >
+Adams, Herbert W., <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg409">409</a>.<br >
+Adams, John, <a href="#pg58">58</a>, <a href="#pg136">136</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>. 377, <a href="#pg380">380</a>, <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br >
+Adams, John Quincy, <a href="#pg366">366</a>, <a href="#pg380">380</a>.<br >
+Adams, Phineas, <a href="#pg95">95</a>.<br >
+African Methodist Episcopal Church, <a href="#pg338">338</a>, <a href="#pg339">339</a>.<br >
+Agassiz, Louis, <a href="#pg408">408</a>, <a href="#pg427">427</a>, <a href="#pg428">428</a>.<br >
+Albee, John, <a href="#pg415">415</a>.<br >
+Alcott, Amos Bronson, <a href="#pg155">155</a>, <a href="#pg202">202</a>, <a href="#pg358">358</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>.<br >
+Alcott, Louisa M., <a href="#pg178">178</a>, <a href="#pg368">368</a>, <a href="#pg430">430</a>.<br >
+Alger, William Rounseville, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg163">163</a>, <a href="#pg164">164</a>, <a href="#pg346">346</a>, <a href="#pg422">422</a>.<br >
+Allen, Joseph, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg264">264</a>, <a href="#pg268">268</a>, <a href="#pg360">360</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg414">414</a>.<br >
+Allen, Joseph Henry, <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg261">261</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg393">393</a>, <a href="#pg414">414</a>, <a href="#pg421">421</a>, <a href="#pg450">450</a>, <a href="#pg451">451</a>.<br >
+Allison, William B., <a href="#pg380">380</a>, <a href="#pg383">383</a>.<br >
+Allston, Washington, <a href="#pg98">98</a>, <a href="#pg430">430</a>.<br >
+Allyn, John, <a href="#pg131">131</a>, <a href="#pg133">133</a>.<br >
+American literature, <a href="#pg412">412</a>, <a href="#pg413">413</a>, <a href="#pg415">415</a>, <a href="#pg416">416</a>, <a href="#pg435">435</a>.<br >
+"American Unitarianism," 79, <a href="#pg82">82</a>, <a href="#pg101">101-104</a>.<br >
+Ames, Charles Gordon, <a href="#pg168">168</a>, <a href="#pg214">214</a>.<br >
+Ames, Fisher, <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br >
+Ames, Oliver, <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br >
+Amory, John C., <a href="#pg385">385</a>.<br >
+Andover Theological School, <a href="#pg93">93</a>.<br >
+Andrew, John Albion, <a href="#pg191">191</a>, <a href="#pg192">192</a>, <a href="#pg196">196</a>, <a href="#pg324">324</a>, <a href="#pg367">367</a>, <a href="#pg382">382</a>, <a href="#pg449">449</a>.<br >
+Angell, George T., <a href="#pg336">336</a>.<br >
+Animals, humane treatment of, <a href="#pg335">335</a>, <a href="#pg336">336</a>.<br >
+Anonymous Association, <a href="#pg127">127</a>.<br >
+Anthology Club, <a href="#pg96">96</a>.<br >
+Anthology, Monthly, <a href="#pg93">93</a>, <a href="#pg95">95</a>, <a href="#pg390">390</a>.<br >
+Anthony, Henry B., <a href="#pg367">367</a>, <a href="#pg380">380</a>.<br >
+Anthony, Susan B., <a href="#pg368">368</a>.<br >
+Antinomianism, <a href="#pg16">16</a>.<br >
+Antioch College, <a href="#pg172">172</a>, <a href="#pg193">193</a>, <a href="#pg197">197</a>, <a href="#pg401">401</a>, <a href="#pg402">402</a>.<br >
+Anti-slavery, <a href="#pg100">100</a>, <a href="#pg159">159</a>, <a href="#pg343">343</a>, <a href="#pg353">353-367</a>.<br >
+Appleton, Nathan, <a href="#pg386">386</a>.<br >
+Arianism, <a href="#pg42">42</a>, <a href="#pg43">43</a>, <a href="#pg44">44</a>, <a href="#pg56">56</a>, <a href="#pg59">59</a>, <a href="#pg65">65</a>, <a href="#pg66">66</a>, <a href="#pg70">70</a>, <a href="#pg83">83</a>.<br >
+Arminianism, <a href="#pg8">8</a>, <a href="#pg9">9</a>, <a href="#pg11">11</a>, <a href="#pg28">28</a>, <a href="#pg37">37-39</a>, <a href="#pg42">42</a>, <a href="#pg44">44</a>, <a href="#pg48">48</a>, <a href="#pg50">50</a>, <a href="#pg59">59</a>, <a href="#pg66">66</a>, <a href="#pg67">67</a>, <a href="#pg70">70</a>, <a href="#pg75">75</a>, <a href="#pg84">84</a>, <a href="#pg89">89</a>.<br >
+Arminius, <a href="#pg8">8</a>.<br >
+Artists, <a href="#pg430">430</a>.<br >
+Association of Benevolent Societies, <a href="#pg255">255</a>.<br >
+Association of Young Men, <a href="#pg248">248-251</a>, <a href="#pg264">264</a>.<br >
+Autumnal Conventions, <a href="#pg173">173-176</a>, <a href="#pg187">187</a>.<br >
+Auxiliaries of American Unitarian Association, <a href="#pg146">146</a>.<br >
+Ayer, Adams, <a href="#pg216">216</a>.<br >
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ballou, Hosea, <a href="#pg93">93</a>.<br >
+Baltimore, <a href="#pg111">111-113</a>.<br >
+Bancroft, Aaron, <a href="#pg73">73</a>, <a href="#pg74">74</a>, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg130">130</a>, <a href="#pg132">132</a>, <a href="#pg135">135</a>, <a href="#pg136">136</a>, <a href="#pg142">142</a>, <a href="#pg413">413</a>.<br >
+Bancroft, George, <a href="#pg380">380</a>, <a href="#pg413">413</a>, <a href="#pg414">414</a>, <a href="#pg424">424</a>.<br >
+Baptists, <a href="#pg6">6</a>, <a href="#pg7">7</a>, <a href="#pg21">21</a>, <a href="#pg87">87</a>, <a href="#pg88">88</a>.<br >
+Barnard, Charles F., <a href="#pg254">254</a>, <a href="#pg256">256</a>, <a href="#pg260">260</a>, <a href="#pg332">332</a>, <a href="#pg337">337</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br >
+Barnard, Thomas, <a href="#pg70">70</a>.<br >
+Barrett, Samuel, <a href="#pg127">127</a>, <a href="#pg135">135</a>, <a href="#pg137">137</a>, <a href="#pg144">144</a>, <a href="#pg264">264</a>.<br >
+Barry, Joseph, <a href="#pg333">333</a>.<br >
+Bartol, Cyrus Augustus, <a href="#pg148">148</a>, <a href="#pg155">155</a>, <a href="#pg202">202</a>, <a href="#pg240">240</a>, <a href="#pg241">241</a>, <a href="#pg419">419</a>.<br >
+Batchelor, George, <a href="#pg196">196</a>, <a href="#pg226">226</a>, <a href="#pg232">232</a>.<br >
+Beecher, Henry Ward, <a href="#pg370">370</a>.<br >
+Beecher, Lyman, <a href="#pg384">384</a>.<br >
+Belknap, Jeremy, <a href="#pg83">83</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg423">423</a>.<br >
+Bellamy, Joseph, <a href="#pg44">44</a>, <a href="#pg52">52</a>, <a href="#pg57">57</a>, <a href="#pg73">73</a>.<br >
+Bellows, Henry Whitney, <a href="#pg136">136</a>, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg154">154</a>, <a href="#pg175">175</a>, <a href="#pg178">178-182</a>, <a href="#pg187">187-189</a>, <a href="#pg191">191</a>, <a href="#pg196">196</a>, <a href="#pg198">198</a>, <a href="#pg205">205</a>, <a href="#pg206">206</a>, <a href="#pg215">215</a>, <a href="#pg217">217</a>, <a href="#pg218">218</a>, <a href="#pg220">220</a>, <a href="#pg222">222</a>, <a href="#pg223">223</a>, <a href="#pg232">232</a>, <a href="#pg233">233</a>, <a href="#pg335">335</a>, <a href="#pg363">363</a>, <a href="#pg409">409</a>, <a href="#pg431">431</a>, <a href="#pg449">449</a>, <a href="#pg450">450</a>.<br >
+Belsham, Thomas, <a href="#pg79">79</a>, <a href="#pg102">102</a>, <a href="#pg103">103</a>.<br >
+Benevolent Fraternity of Churches, <a href="#pg197">197</a>, <a href="#pg256">256</a>, <a href="#pg257">257</a>, <a href="#pg282">282</a>.<br >
+Bentley, William, <a href="#pg71">71</a>, <a href="#pg80">80</a>, <a href="#pg90">90</a>.<br >
+Bergh, Henry, <a href="#pg335">335</a>.<br >
+Berry Street Conference, <a href="#pg106">106</a>, <a href="#pg107">107</a>, <a href="#pg133">133</a>.<br >
+Bible, <a href="#pg4">4</a>, <a href="#pg5">5</a>, <a href="#pg8">8</a>, <a href="#pg9">9</a>, <a href="#pg10">10</a>, <a href="#pg14">14</a>, <a href="#pg20">20</a>, <a href="#pg25">25</a>, <a href="#pg27">27</a>, <a href="#pg32">32</a>, <a href="#pg40">40</a>, <a href="#pg45">45</a>, <a href="#pg48">48</a>, <a href="#pg50">50</a>, <a href="#pg53">53</a>, <a href="#pg55">55</a>, <a href="#pg60">60</a>, <a href="#pg64">64</a>, <a href="#pg85">85</a>, <a href="#pg86">86</a>, <a href="#pg122">122</a>, <a href="#pg156">156</a>, <a href="#pg157">157</a>, <a href="#pg171">171</a>, <a href="#pg198">198</a>, <a href="#pg199">199</a>, <a href="#pg321">321</a>, <a href="#pg389">389</a>, <a href="#pg395">395</a>, <a href="#pg437">437</a>.<br >
+Bible Societies, <a href="#pg100">100</a>, <a href="#pg147">147</a>, <a href="#pg322">322</a>.<br >
+Bigelow, Andrew, <a href="#pg258">258</a>.<br >
+Birthright church, <a href="#pg240">240</a>, <a href="#pg241">241</a>.<br >
+Bixby, James T., <a href="#pg307">307</a>, <a href="#pg320">320</a>.<br >
+Blackwell, Antoinette Brown, <a href="#pg371">371</a>.<br >
+Blackwell, Henry B., <a href="#pg368">368</a>.<br >
+Blake, H.G.O., <a href="#pg415">415</a>.<br >
+Bond, Edward P., <a href="#pg153">153</a>.<br >
+Bond, George, <a href="#pg131">131</a>, <a href="#pg133">133</a>.<br >
+Bond, Henry F., <a href="#pg341">341</a>, <a href="#pg342">342</a>.<br >
+Book distribution, <a href="#pg148">148</a>, <a href="#pg163">163</a>, <a href="#pg166">166</a>, <a href="#pg169">169</a>, <a href="#pg338">338</a>.<br >
+Boston, <a href="#pg16">16</a>, <a href="#pg20">20</a>, <a href="#pg61">61</a>, <a href="#pg75">75</a>, <a href="#pg77">77</a>, <a href="#pg118">118</a>, <a href="#pg141">141</a>, <a href="#pg160">160</a>, <a href="#pg213">213</a>, <a href="#pg383">383-388</a>, <a href="#pg413">413</a>.<br >
+Boston Observer, The, <a href="#pg448">448</a>.<br >
+Boston Provident Association, <a href="#pg334">334</a>, <a href="#pg335">335</a>.<br >
+Boutwell, George S., <a href="#pg367">367</a>, <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br >
+Bowditch, Henry I., <a href="#pg367">367</a>.<br >
+Bowditch, Nathaniel, <a href="#pg117">117</a>, <a href="#pg381">381</a>, <a href="#pg427">427</a>.<br >
+Bowditch, William I., <a href="#pg367">367</a>.<br >
+Bowdoin, James, <a href="#pg80">80</a>, <a href="#pg385">385</a>.<br >
+Bowles &amp; Dearborn, <a href="#pg235">235</a>.<br >
+Bowles, Leonard C., <a href="#pg235">235</a>.<br >
+Brackett, J.Q.A., <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br >
+Bradford, Alden, <a href="#pg47">47</a>, <a href="#pg65">65</a>, <a href="#pg127">127</a>, <a href="#pg128">128</a>, <a href="#pg132">132</a>, <a href="#pg133">133</a>.<br >
+Bradford, George P., <a href="#pg415">415</a>.<br >
+Bradlee, Caleb D., <a href="#pg336">336</a>.<br >
+Bradley, Amy, <a href="#pg181">181</a>, <a href="#pg338">338</a>.<br >
+Brattle Street Church, <a href="#pg29">29</a>, <a href="#pg35">35</a>, <a href="#pg40">40</a>, <a href="#pg52">52</a>, <a href="#pg53">53</a>, <a href="#pg77">77</a>, <a href="#pg94">94</a>, <a href="#pg143">143</a>, <a href="#pg160">160</a>, <a href="#pg385">385</a>, <a href="#pg387">387</a>.<br >
+Breck, Robert, <a href="#pg40">40</a>.<br >
+Briant, Lemuel, <a href="#pg50">50</a>, <a href="#pg58">58</a>.<br >
+Bridgman, Laura, <a href="#pg326">326</a>.<br >
+Briggs, Charles, <a href="#pg144">144</a>, <a href="#pg151">151</a>, <a href="#pg235">235</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br >
+Briggs, George W., <a href="#pg270">270</a>, <a href="#pg360">360</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br >
+Brigham, Charles H., <a href="#pg189">189</a>, <a href="#pg214">214</a>, <a href="#pg215">215</a>, <a href="#pg319">319</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br >
+British and Foreign Unitarian Association, <a href="#pg295">295</a>, <a href="#pg298">298</a>, <a href="#pg303">303</a>.<br >
+Brooks, Charles, <a href="#pg336">336</a>, <a href="#pg400">400</a>.<br >
+Brooks, Charles T., <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg244">244</a>, <a href="#pg298">298</a>, <a href="#pg359">359</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br >
+Brooks Fund, <a href="#pg166">166</a>.<br >
+Brown, Howard N., <a href="#pg196">196</a>, <a href="#pg243">243</a>.<br >
+Bryant, William Cullen, <a href="#pg117">117</a>, <a href="#pg191">191</a>, <a href="#pg195">195</a>, <a href="#pg243">243</a>, <a href="#pg381">381</a>, <a href="#pg431">431</a>, <a href="#pg432">432</a>.<br >
+Buckminster, J.S., <a href="#pg94">94</a>, <a href="#pg98">98</a>, <a href="#pg390">390</a>, <a href="#pg391">391</a>, <a href="#pg416">416</a>.<br >
+Bulfinch, Charles, <a href="#pg430">430</a>.<br >
+Bulfinch, Stephen G., <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg268">268</a>, <a href="#pg270">270</a>, <a href="#pg271">271</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg447">447</a>.<br >
+Burleigh, Celia C., <a href="#pg369">369</a>, <a href="#pg370">370</a>.<br >
+Burleigh, William H., <a href="#pg369">369</a>.<br >
+Burnap, George W., <a href="#pg114">114</a>.<br >
+Burnside, Ambrose E., <a href="#pg383">383</a>.<br >
+Burroughs, John, <a href="#pg428">428</a>.<br >
+Burton, Warren, <a href="#pg139">139</a>, <a href="#pg257">257</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg421">421</a>.<br >
+Bushnell, Horace, <a href="#pg241">241</a>.<br >
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Calcutta, <a href="#pg296">296</a>, <a href="#pg297">297</a>, <a href="#pg299">299</a>, <a href="#pg300">300</a>.<br >
+Calhoun, John C., <a href="#pg376">376</a>, <a href="#pg380">380</a>.<br >
+Calvinism, <a href="#pg9">9</a>, <a href="#pg26">26</a>, <a href="#pg28">28</a>, <a href="#pg34">34</a>, <a href="#pg37">37</a>, <a href="#pg39">39</a>, <a href="#pg44">44</a>, <a href="#pg45">45</a>, <a href="#pg46">46</a>, <a href="#pg48">48</a>, <a href="#pg62">62</a>, <a href="#pg73">73</a>, <a href="#pg75">75</a>, <a href="#pg76">76</a>, <a href="#pg84">84</a>, <a href="#pg87">87</a>, <a href="#pg92">92</a>.<br >
+Carpenter, Lant, <a href="#pg154">154</a>.<br >
+Carpenter, Mary, <a href="#pg259">259</a>.<br >
+Cary, George L., <a href="#pg318">318</a>.<br >
+"Catholic Christians," 104, <a href="#pg106">106</a>, <a href="#pg123">123</a>.<br >
+Catholicism, <a href="#pg3">3</a>, <a href="#pg5">5</a>, <a href="#pg18">18</a>, <a href="#pg53">53</a>.<br >
+Chadwick, John White, <a href="#pg157">157</a>, <a href="#pg216">216</a>, <a href="#pg244">244</a>, <a href="#pg275">275</a>, <a href="#pg354">354</a>, <a href="#pg370">370</a>.<br >
+Chaney, George L., <a href="#pg337">337</a>.<br >
+Channing, George G., <a href="#pg144">144</a>, <a href="#pg449">449</a>.<br >
+Channing, William Ellery, <a href="#pg70">70</a>, <a href="#pg94">94</a>, <a href="#pg99">99</a>, <a href="#pg102">102</a>, <a href="#pg103">103</a>, <a href="#pg106">106</a>, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg119">119</a>, <a href="#pg123">123</a>, <a href="#pg125">125</a>, <a href="#pg129">129</a>, <a href="#pg130">130</a>, <a href="#pg135">135</a>, <a href="#pg142">142</a>, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg148">148</a>, <a href="#pg163">163</a>, <a href="#pg164">164</a>, <a href="#pg173">173</a>, <a href="#pg174">174</a>, <a href="#pg184">184</a>, <a href="#pg199">199</a>, <a href="#pg321">321</a>, <a href="#pg324">324</a>, <a href="#pg328">328</a>, <a href="#pg343">343-345</a>, <a href="#pg349">349</a>, <a href="#pg350">350</a>, <a href="#pg365">365</a>, <a href="#pg399">399</a>, <a href="#pg402">402</a>, <a href="#pg415">415</a>, <a href="#pg432">432</a>.<br >
+Channing, William Ellery, poet, <a href="#pg431">431</a>.<br >
+Channing, William Henry, <a href="#pg155">155</a>, <a href="#pg176">176</a>, <a href="#pg200">200</a>, <a href="#pg258">258</a>, <a href="#pg359">359</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg365">365</a>, <a href="#pg368">368</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>, <a href="#pg428">428</a>, <a href="#pg448">448</a>.<br >
+Chapin, Henry, <a href="#pg212">212</a>.<br >
+Chapman, Maria W., <a href="#pg367">367</a>, <a href="#pg368">368</a>.<br >
+Charity work, <a href="#pg35">35</a>, <a href="#pg252">252</a>, <a href="#pg254">254-256</a>, <a href="#pg322">322-325</a>, <a href="#pg328">328</a>.<br >
+Charleston, S.C., <a href="#pg118">118</a>.<br >
+Chauncy, Charles, second president Harvard College, <a href="#pg24">24</a>.<br >
+Chauncy, Charles, minister First Church in Boston, <a href="#pg45">45</a>, <a href="#pg46">46</a>, <a href="#pg48">48</a>, <a href="#pg52">52</a>, <a href="#pg53">53</a>, <a href="#pg66">66-69</a>, <a href="#pg77">77</a>, <a href="#pg85">85</a>, <a href="#pg90">90</a>.<br >
+Cheerful Letter Exchange, <a href="#pg288">288</a>.<br >
+Cheney, Ednah D., <a href="#pg202">202</a>, <a href="#pg279">279</a>, <a href="#pg283">283</a>, <a href="#pg368">368</a>, <a href="#pg428">428</a>.<br >
+Chicago, <a href="#pg167">167</a>, <a href="#pg213">213</a>.<br >
+Child, David Lee, <a href="#pg359">359</a>.<br >
+Child, Lydia Maria, <a href="#pg367">367</a>, <a href="#pg428">428</a>, <a href="#pg430">430</a>.<br >
+Children's Mission, <a href="#pg197">197</a>, <a href="#pg331">331-334</a>.<br >
+Chillingworth, William, <a href="#pg5">5</a>, <a href="#pg10">10</a>, <a href="#pg12">12</a>, <a href="#pg14">14</a>, <a href="#pg31">31</a>, <a href="#pg45">45</a>.<br >
+Choate, Joseph H., <a href="#pg381">381</a>.<br >
+Christ, <a href="#pg6">6</a>, <a href="#pg11">11</a>, <a href="#pg14">14</a>, <a href="#pg15">15</a>, <a href="#pg24">24</a>, <a href="#pg27">27</a>, <a href="#pg40">40</a>, <a href="#pg49">49</a>, <a href="#pg50">50</a>, <a href="#pg56">56</a>, <a href="#pg62">62</a>, <a href="#pg64">64</a>, <a href="#pg67">67</a>, <a href="#pg69">69</a>, <a href="#pg70">70</a>, <a href="#pg74">74</a>, <a href="#pg75">75</a>, <a href="#pg83">83</a>, <a href="#pg85">85</a>, <a href="#pg86">86</a>, <a href="#pg99">99</a>, <a href="#pg138">138</a>, <a href="#pg139">139</a>, <a href="#pg157">157</a>, <a href="#pg170">170</a>, <a href="#pg171">171</a>, <a href="#pg193">193</a>, <a href="#pg198">198</a>, <a href="#pg200">200</a>, <a href="#pg206">206</a>, <a href="#pg207">207</a>, <a href="#pg209">209</a>, <a href="#pg210">210</a>, <a href="#pg227">227</a>, <a href="#pg378">378</a>, <a href="#pg393">393</a>, <a href="#pg429">429</a>, <a href="#pg434">434</a>.<br >
+Christian connection, <a href="#pg89">89</a>, <a href="#pg140">140</a>, <a href="#pg194">194</a>, <a href="#pg314">314</a>, <a href="#pg315">315</a>, <a href="#pg316">316</a>.<br >
+Christian Examiner, The, <a href="#pg101">101</a>, <a href="#pg156">156</a>, <a href="#pg236">236</a>, <a href="#pg416">416</a>, <a href="#pg449">449</a>, <a href="#pg450">450</a>.<br >
+Christian Inquirer, The, <a href="#pg449">449</a>, <a href="#pg450">450</a>.<br >
+Christian Monitor, The, <a href="#pg96">96</a>.<br >
+Christian Register, The, <a href="#pg114">114-116</a>, <a href="#pg127">127</a>, <a href="#pg145">145</a>, <a href="#pg147">147</a>, <a href="#pg156">156</a>, <a href="#pg173">173</a>, <a href="#pg185">185</a>, <a href="#pg207">207</a>, <a href="#pg232">232</a>, <a href="#pg264">264</a>, <a href="#pg296">296</a>, <a href="#pg356">356</a>, <a href="#pg448">448</a>.<br >
+Christian Union, Boston, Young Men's, <a href="#pg214">214</a>, <a href="#pg216">216</a>, <a href="#pg336">336</a>, <a href="#pg337">337</a>.<br >
+Christian Unions, <a href="#pg216">216</a>, <a href="#pg337">337</a>.<br >
+Christian World, The, <a href="#pg145">145</a>, <a href="#pg147">147</a>, <a href="#pg449">449</a>.<br >
+Christianity, <a href="#pg11">11-13</a>, <a href="#pg45">45</a>, <a href="#pg62">62</a>, <a href="#pg63">63</a>, <a href="#pg75">75</a>, <a href="#pg85">85</a>, <a href="#pg86">86</a>, <a href="#pg123">123</a>, <a href="#pg138">138</a>, <a href="#pg156">156</a>, <a href="#pg200">200</a>, <a href="#pg201">201</a>, <a href="#pg206">206</a>, <a href="#pg209">209-211</a>, <a href="#pg222">222</a>, <a href="#pg227">227</a>, <a href="#pg241">241</a>, <a href="#pg362">362</a>.<br >
+Christians, <a href="#pg6">6</a>, <a href="#pg9">9</a>, <a href="#pg14">14</a>, <a href="#pg51">51</a>, <a href="#pg64">64</a>, <a href="#pg170">170</a>, <a href="#pg206">206</a>, <a href="#pg209">209</a>, <a href="#pg222">222</a>, <a href="#pg224">224</a>, <a href="#pg227">227</a>.<br >
+Church, <a href="#pg5">5</a>, <a href="#pg7">7</a>, <a href="#pg10">10</a>, <a href="#pg12">12</a>, <a href="#pg14">14</a>, <a href="#pg17">17</a>, <a href="#pg20">20</a>, <a href="#pg52">52</a>, <a href="#pg106">106</a>, <a href="#pg115">115</a>.<br >
+Church and state, <a href="#pg7">7</a>, <a href="#pg17">17</a>, <a href="#pg20">20</a>, <a href="#pg21">21</a>, <a href="#pg23">23</a>, <a href="#pg27">27-29</a>, <a href="#pg52">52</a>, <a href="#pg68">68</a>, <a href="#pg85">85-87</a>, <a href="#pg120">120-123</a>.<br >
+Church Building Loan Fund, <a href="#pg234">234</a>.<br >
+Church membership, <a href="#pg18">18-20</a>, <a href="#pg27">27</a>, <a href="#pg241">241</a>, <a href="#pg242">242</a>.<br >
+Church of the Disciples, <a href="#pg242">242</a>, <a href="#pg327">327</a>.<br >
+Civil service reform, <a href="#pg372">372-375</a>.<br >
+Civil war, <a href="#pg171">171</a>, <a href="#pg175">175-184</a>, <a href="#pg187">187</a>, <a href="#pg283">283</a>.<br >
+Clark University, <a href="#pg399">399</a>.<br >
+Clarke, James Freeman, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg155">155</a>, <a href="#pg160">160</a>, <a href="#pg161">161</a>, <a href="#pg163">163</a>, <a href="#pg164">164</a>, <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg175">175</a>, <a href="#pg191">191</a>, <a href="#pg192">192</a>, <a href="#pg194">194</a>, <a href="#pg201">201</a>, <a href="#pg204">204</a>, <a href="#pg215">215</a>, <a href="#pg242">242</a>, <a href="#pg244">244</a>, <a href="#pg273">273</a>, <a href="#pg307">307</a>, <a href="#pg312">312</a>, <a href="#pg318">318</a>, <a href="#pg327">327</a>, <a href="#pg360">360</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg366">366</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>, <a href="#pg370">370</a>, <a href="#pg417">417</a>, <a href="#pg418">418</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>, <a href="#pg448">448</a>, <a href="#pg449">449</a>.<br >
+Clarke, Samuel, <a href="#pg13">13</a>, <a href="#pg44">44-46</a>, <a href="#pg56">56</a>, <a href="#pg67">67</a>, <a href="#pg70">70</a>.<br >
+Clarke, Sarah Freeman, <a href="#pg404">404</a>.<br >
+Clifford, John H., <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br >
+Codding, Ichabod, <a href="#pg168">168</a>, <a href="#pg365">365</a>.<br >
+Codman, John, <a href="#pg102">102</a>.<br >
+College town missions, <a href="#pg214">214</a>, <a href="#pg215">215</a>.<br >
+Collyer, Robert, <a href="#pg167">167</a>, <a href="#pg171">171</a>, <a href="#pg185">185</a>, <a href="#pg194">194</a>.<br >
+Colporters, <a href="#pg148">148</a>, <a href="#pg169">169</a>.<br >
+Commerce, <a href="#pg72">72</a>.<br >
+Committee on fellowship, <a href="#pg220">220</a>, <a href="#pg221">221</a>.<br >
+Conant, Augustus H., <a href="#pg169">169</a>, <a href="#pg172">172</a>, <a href="#pg176">176</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br >
+Conference, Berry Street, <a href="#pg106">106</a>, <a href="#pg107">107</a>, <a href="#pg133">133</a>.<br >
+Confirmation, <a href="#pg241">241</a>, <a href="#pg242">242</a>.<br >
+Congregational independence, <a href="#pg34">34</a>, <a href="#pg126">126</a>.<br >
+Congregationalism, <a href="#pg74">74</a>, <a href="#pg87">87</a>, <a href="#pg89">89</a>, <a href="#pg93">93</a>, <a href="#pg117">117</a>, <a href="#pg119">119</a>, <a href="#pg194">194</a>, <a href="#pg199">199</a>, <a href="#pg241">241</a>, <a href="#pg436">436</a>.<br >
+Contributions to American Unitarian Association, <a href="#pg142">142</a>, <a href="#pg153">153</a>, <a href="#pg159">159</a>, <a href="#pg162">162</a>, <a href="#pg164">164</a>, <a href="#pg188">188</a>, <a href="#pg190">190</a>, <a href="#pg193">193</a>, <a href="#pg197">197</a>, <a href="#pg213">213</a>, <a href="#pg234">234</a>.<br >
+Convention, Autumnal, <a href="#pg173">173-176</a>, <a href="#pg187">187</a>.<br >
+Conversion, <a href="#pg18">18</a>, <a href="#pg20">20</a>, <a href="#pg21">21</a>, <a href="#pg24">24</a>, <a href="#pg27">27</a>.<br >
+Conway, Moncure D., <a href="#pg365">365</a>, <a href="#pg415">415</a>.<br >
+Cooper Institute, <a href="#pg215">215</a>, <a href="#pg408">408</a>.<br >
+Cooper, Peter, <a href="#pg381">381</a>, <a href="#pg408">408</a>, <a href="#pg409">409</a>.<br >
+Cordner, John, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg238">238</a>.<br >
+Cornell University, <a href="#pg215">215</a>.<br >
+Corporate idea of church, <a href="#pg5">5</a>, <a href="#pg7">7</a>, <a href="#pg17">17-19</a>, <a href="#pg20">20</a>.<br >
+Country Week, <a href="#pg337">337</a>.<br >
+Covenants, Church, <a href="#pg26">26</a>.<br >
+Cranch, Christopher, P., <a href="#pg415">415</a>, <a href="#pg448">448</a>.<br >
+Cranch, William, <a href="#pg377">377</a>, <a href="#pg380">380</a>.<br >
+Creeds, <a href="#pg26">26</a>, <a href="#pg49">49</a>, <a href="#pg62">62</a>, <a href="#pg64">64</a>, <a href="#pg66">66</a>, <a href="#pg85">85</a>, <a href="#pg206">206</a>.<br >
+Crocker, Lucretia, <a href="#pg370">370</a>, <a href="#pg403">403</a>, <a href="#pg404">404</a>.<br >
+Crosby, Nichols &amp; Co., <a href="#pg236">236</a>.<br >
+Crosby, William, <a href="#pg334">334</a>.<br >
+Cudworth, Warren H., <a href="#pg271">271</a>.<br >
+Curtis, Benjamin R., <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br >
+Curtis, George Ticknor, <a href="#pg381">381</a>.<br >
+Curtis, George William, <a href="#pg196">196</a>, <a href="#pg239">239</a>, <a href="#pg347">347</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>, <a href="#pg373">373-375</a>, <a href="#pg381">381</a>.<br >
+Cutter, George W., <a href="#pg226">226</a>.<br >
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Dall, Caroline Healey, <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg202">202</a>, <a href="#pg279">279</a>, <a href="#pg368">368</a>, <a href="#pg370">370</a>, <a href="#pg371">371</a>.<br >
+Dall, Charles, H.A., <a href="#pg259">259</a>, <a href="#pg299">299-302</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br >
+Dane, Nathan, <a href="#pg350">350</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br >
+Davis, John, <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br >
+Dedham, <a href="#pg29">29</a>, <a href="#pg54">54</a>, <a href="#pg87">87</a>, <a href="#pg115">115</a>, <a href="#pg218">218</a>.<br >
+Deism, <a href="#pg42">42</a>.<br >
+Democratic tendencies, <a href="#pg8">8</a>, <a href="#pg33">33</a>, <a href="#pg34">34</a>, <a href="#pg37">37</a>, <a href="#pg90">90</a>, <a href="#pg121">121</a>, <a href="#pg174">174</a>.<br >
+Depositaries, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg149">149</a>, <a href="#pg169">169</a>.<br >
+Depravity of man, <a href="#pg51">51</a>, <a href="#pg63">63</a>, <a href="#pg66">66</a>, <a href="#pg68">68</a>, <a href="#pg69">69</a>.<br >
+Devotional library, <a href="#pg164">164</a>.<br >
+Dewey, Orville, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg143">143</a>, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg174">174</a>, <a href="#pg191">191</a>, <a href="#pg267">267</a>, <a href="#pg354">354</a>, <a href="#pg415">415</a>, <a href="#pg431">431</a>.<br >
+Dexter, Henry M., <a href="#pg22">22</a>.<br >
+Dexter, Samuel, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br >
+Dickens, Charles, <a href="#pg324">324</a>.<br >
+Dillingham, Pitt, <a href="#pg339">339</a>.<br >
+Disciple, The Christian, <a href="#pg99">99-101</a>.<br >
+Dix, Dorothea, <a href="#pg324">324</a>, <a href="#pg327">327</a>, <a href="#pg328">328-331</a>.<br >
+Dole, Charles F., <a href="#pg274">274</a>, <a href="#pg352">352</a>.<br >
+Douthit, Jasper L., <a href="#pg214">214</a>.<br >
+Doyle, J.A., <a href="#pg22">22</a>.<br >
+Dunster, Henry, <a href="#pg24">24</a>.<br >
+Dwight, Edmund, <a href="#pg399">399</a>, <a href="#pg400">400</a>.<br >
+Dwight, John S., <a href="#pg155">155</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>, <a href="#pg415">415</a>, <a href="#pg428">428</a>.<br >
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Eaton, Dorman B., <a href="#pg373">373</a>, <a href="#pg381">381</a>.<br >
+Education, <a href="#pg253">253</a>, <a href="#pg323">323</a>, <a href="#pg325">325</a>, <a href="#pg337">337-342</a>, <a href="#pg343">343</a>, <a href="#pg384">384</a>, <a href="#pg389">389</a>, <a href="#pg395">395-408</a>, <a href="#pg410">410</a>, <a href="#pg411">411</a>.<br >
+Education in south, <a href="#pg338">338-340</a>, <a href="#pg410">410</a>, <a href="#pg411">411</a>.<br >
+Education of Indians, <a href="#pg340">340-342</a>.<br >
+Edwards, Jonathan, <a href="#pg38">38-41</a>, <a href="#pg44">44</a>.<br >
+Effinger, J.R., <a href="#pg226">226</a>.<br >
+Eliot, Charles W., <a href="#pg238">238</a>, <a href="#pg305">305</a>, <a href="#pg395">395</a>, <a href="#pg397">397</a>.<br >
+Eliot, Rev. Samuel A., <a href="#pg232">232</a>, <a href="#pg245">245</a>.<br >
+Eliot, Samuel A., <a href="#pg127">127</a>, <a href="#pg335">335</a>, <a href="#pg383">383</a>, <a href="#pg414">414</a>.<br >
+Eliot, Thomas D., <a href="#pg196">196</a>, <a href="#pg212">212</a>.<br >
+Eliot, William G., <a href="#pg144">144</a>, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg169">169</a>, <a href="#pg184">184</a>, <a href="#pg311">311</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg364">364</a>, <a href="#pg398">398</a>, <a href="#pg448">448</a>.<br >
+Ellis, George E., <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg164">164</a>, <a href="#pg267">267</a>, <a href="#pg421">421</a>, <a href="#pg450">450</a>.<br >
+Ellis, Rufus, <a href="#pg270">270</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg448">448</a>.<br >
+Ellis, Sallie, <a href="#pg289">289</a>, <a href="#pg290">290</a>.<br >
+Emerson, George B., <a href="#pg127">127</a>, <a href="#pg164">164</a>.<br >
+Emerson, Ralph Waldo, <a href="#pg151">151</a>, <a href="#pg155">155</a>, <a href="#pg202">202</a>, <a href="#pg324">324</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>, <a href="#pg413">413</a>, <a href="#pg415">415</a>, <a href="#pg416">416</a>, <a href="#pg428">428</a>, <a href="#pg431">431</a>, <a href="#pg435">435</a>, <a href="#pg436">436</a>, <a href="#pg448">448</a>.<br >
+Emerson, William, <a href="#pg95">95</a>, <a href="#pg96">96</a>, <a href="#pg413">413</a>.<br >
+Emlyn, Thomas, <a href="#pg57">57</a>, <a href="#pg58">58</a>.<br >
+Emmons, Nathaniel, <a href="#pg55">55</a>.<br >
+Equality, <a href="#pg33">33</a>, <a href="#pg38">38</a>.<br >
+Evangelical Missionary Society, <a href="#pg104">104</a>, <a href="#pg105">105</a>, <a href="#pg141">141</a>.<br >
+Everett, Charles Carroll, <a href="#pg196">196</a>, <a href="#pg275">275</a>, <a href="#pg396">396</a>, <a href="#pg417">417-419</a>, <a href="#pg452">452</a>.<br >
+Everett, Edward, <a href="#pg94">94</a>, <a href="#pg98">98</a>, <a href="#pg109">109</a>, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg380">380</a>, <a href="#pg382">382</a>, <a href="#pg391">391</a>, <a href="#pg397">397</a>, <a href="#pg399">399</a>, <a href="#pg407">407</a>, <a href="#pg414">414</a>, <a href="#pg416">416</a>.<br >
+Everett, William, <a href="#pg414">414</a>.<br >
+Exchange of pulpits, <a href="#pg101">101</a>.<br >
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Farley, Frederic A., <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br >
+Fearing, Albert, <a href="#pg238">238</a>, <a href="#pg324">324</a>.<br >
+Federal (now Arlington) Street Church, <a href="#pg83">83</a>, <a href="#pg94">94</a>, <a href="#pg106">106</a>, <a href="#pg129">129</a>, <a href="#pg250">250</a>, <a href="#pg256">256</a>, <a href="#pg257">257</a>, <a href="#pg301">301</a>.<br >
+Fellowship, Unitarian, <a href="#pg205">205</a>, <a href="#pg209">209</a>, <a href="#pg211">211</a>, <a href="#pg219">219-221</a>, <a href="#pg436">436</a>, <a href="#pg437">437</a>.<br >
+Fellowship with other religious bodies, <a href="#pg192">192-195</a>, <a href="#pg296">296</a>.<br >
+Felton, Cornelius C., <a href="#pg397">397</a>.<br >
+Fields, James T., <a href="#pg369">369</a>, <a href="#pg428">428</a>.<br >
+Fillmore, Millard, <a href="#pg331">331</a>, <a href="#pg380">380</a>.<br >
+First Church of Boston, <a href="#pg53">53</a>, <a href="#pg66">66</a>.<br >
+Fiske, John, <a href="#pg22">22</a>, <a href="#pg307">307</a>, <a href="#pg424">424</a>.<br >
+Flagg, J.F., <a href="#pg265">265</a>, <a href="#pg350">350</a>.<br >
+Flower Mission, <a href="#pg337">337</a>.<br >
+Follen, Charles, <a href="#pg359">359</a>, <a href="#pg431">431</a>.<br >
+Follen, Eliza Lee, <a href="#pg266">266</a>, <a href="#pg367">367</a>.<br >
+Folsom, Nathaniel, <a href="#pg319">319</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br >
+Forbes, John Murray, <a href="#pg386">386</a>.<br >
+Forbush, T.B., <a href="#pg226">226</a>.<br >
+Forman, J.G., <a href="#pg176">176</a>, <a href="#pg178">178</a>, <a href="#pg184">184</a>.<br >
+Forster, Anthony, <a href="#pg118">118</a>.<br >
+Fox, George W., <a href="#pg161">161</a>, <a href="#pg162">162</a>, <a href="#pg207">207-209</a>.<br >
+Fox, Thomas B., <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg268">268</a>, <a href="#pg450">450</a>.<br >
+Francis, Convers, <a href="#pg110">110</a>, <a href="#pg155">155</a>, <a href="#pg200">200</a>, <a href="#pg360">360</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br >
+Francke, Kuno, <a href="#pg17">17</a>.<br >
+Franklin, Benjamin, <a href="#pg376">376</a>, <a href="#pg377">377</a>, <a href="#pg379">379</a>.<br >
+Fraternity of Churches, Benevolent, <a href="#pg197">197</a>, <a href="#pg256">256</a>, <a href="#pg257">257</a>, <a href="#pg282">282</a>.<br >
+Freedman's Bureau, <a href="#pg184">184</a>, <a href="#pg197">197</a>.<br >
+Freedom of Thought, <a href="#pg1">1</a>, <a href="#pg3">3</a>, <a href="#pg5">5</a>, <a href="#pg8">8</a>, <a href="#pg32">32</a>, <a href="#pg37">37</a>, <a href="#pg59">59</a>, <a href="#pg61">61-64</a>, <a href="#pg70">70</a>, <a href="#pg71">71</a>, <a href="#pg80">80</a>, <a href="#pg115">115</a>, <a href="#pg125">125</a>, <a href="#pg205">205</a>, <a href="#pg210">210</a>, <a href="#pg212">212</a>, <a href="#pg389">389</a>.<br >
+Freeman, James, <a href="#pg76">76</a>, <a href="#pg78">78</a>, <a href="#pg80">80</a>, <a href="#pg82">82</a>, <a href="#pg98">98</a>, <a href="#pg111">111</a>, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg344">344</a>.<br >
+Free Religion, <a href="#pg203">203</a>, <a href="#pg210">210</a>, <a href="#pg211">211</a>.<br >
+Free Religious Association, <a href="#pg194">194</a>, <a href="#pg202">202-204</a>, <a href="#pg207">207</a>, <a href="#pg225">225</a>, <a href="#pg436">436</a>.<br >
+French, Daniel C., <a href="#pg430">430</a>.<br >
+Friend of Peace, <a href="#pg345">345</a>.<br >
+Friends, <a href="#pg88">88</a>.<br >
+Frothingham, Nathaniel L., <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg124">124</a>, <a href="#pg344">344</a>, <a href="#pg413">413</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br >
+Frothingham, Octavius B., <a href="#pg124">124</a>, <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg175">175</a>, <a href="#pg200">200</a>, <a href="#pg202">202</a>, <a href="#pg207">207</a>, <a href="#pg216">216</a>, <a href="#pg322">322</a>, <a href="#pg323">323</a>, <a href="#pg366">366</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>, <a href="#pg387">387</a>, <a href="#pg392">392</a>, <a href="#pg394">394</a>, <a href="#pg413">413</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>, <a href="#pg424">424</a>, <a href="#pg431">431</a>.<br >
+Fuller, Margaret, <a href="#pg155">155</a>, <a href="#pg368">368</a>, <a href="#pg428">428</a>, <a href="#pg429">429</a>, <a href="#pg448">448</a>.<br >
+Furness, William Henry, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg244">244</a>, <a href="#pg267">267</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg365">365</a>, <a href="#pg394">394</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br >
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Galvin, Edward I., <a href="#pg176">176</a>, <a href="#pg337">337</a>.<br >
+Gannett, Ezra Stiles, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg127">127</a>, <a href="#pg128">128</a>, <a href="#pg134">134-137</a>, <a href="#pg139">139</a>, <a href="#pg143">143</a>, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg172">172</a>, <a href="#pg191">191</a>, <a href="#pg266">266</a>, <a href="#pg346">346</a>, <a href="#pg350">350-351</a>, <a href="#pg354">354</a>, <a href="#pg355">355</a>, <a href="#pg450">450</a>.<br >
+Gannett, William C., <a href="#pg225">225-227</a>, <a href="#pg241">241</a>, <a href="#pg277">277</a>, <a href="#pg290">290</a>.<br >
+Garrison, William Lloyd, <a href="#pg353">353</a>, <a href="#pg359">359</a>, <a href="#pg367">367</a>, <a href="#pg377">377</a>.<br >
+Gay, Ebenezer, <a href="#pg58">58-60</a>, <a href="#pg77">77</a>.<br >
+General Repositary, The, <a href="#pg97">97</a>, <a href="#pg390">390</a>.<br >
+Giddings, Joshua R., <a href="#pg367">367</a>.<br >
+Gierke, Otto, <a href="#pg4">4</a>.<br >
+Giles, Henry, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br >
+Gilman, Samuel, <a href="#pg119">119</a>, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br >
+God, <a href="#pg2">2</a>, <a href="#pg4">4</a>, <a href="#pg7">7</a>, <a href="#pg9">9</a>, <a href="#pg11">11</a>, <a href="#pg13">13</a>, <a href="#pg38">38</a>, <a href="#pg41">41</a>, <a href="#pg51">51</a>, <a href="#pg53">53</a>, <a href="#pg59">59</a>, <a href="#pg60">60</a>, <a href="#pg64">64</a>, <a href="#pg68">68</a>, <a href="#pg70">70</a>, <a href="#pg73">73</a>, <a href="#pg90">90</a>, <a href="#pg157">157</a>, <a href="#pg198">198</a>, <a href="#pg227">227</a>, <a href="#pg228">228</a>.<br >
+Goodell, William, <a href="#pg365">365</a>.<br >
+Gore, Christopher, <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br >
+Gould, Allen W., <a href="#pg226">226</a>, <a href="#pg277">277</a>, <a href="#pg452">452</a>.<br >
+Gould, Benjamin, <a href="#pg427">427</a>.<br >
+Grant, Moses, <a href="#pg248">248</a>, <a href="#pg264">264</a>, <a href="#pg265">265</a>, <a href="#pg344">344</a>, <a href="#pg350">350</a>.<br >
+Graves, Mary H., <a href="#pg371">371</a>.<br >
+Gray, Frederic T., <a href="#pg167">167</a>, <a href="#pg248">248</a>, <a href="#pg254">254</a>, <a href="#pg256">256</a>, <a href="#pg265">265</a>, <a href="#pg267">267</a>, <a href="#pg270">270</a>, <a href="#pg271">271</a>, <a href="#pg334">334</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br >
+Great Awakening, <a href="#pg46">46</a>, <a href="#pg66">66</a>, <a href="#pg210">210</a>.<br >
+Greene, Benjamin H., <a href="#pg248">248</a>, <a href="#pg333">333</a>.<br >
+Greenhalge, Frederic T., <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br >
+Greenwood, Francis W.P., <a href="#pg101">101</a>, <a href="#pg111">111</a>, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg148">148</a>, <a href="#pg421">421</a>, <a href="#pg433">433</a>, <a href="#pg450">450</a>.<br >
+Greenwood, Grace (Mrs. Lippincott), <a href="#pg428">428</a>, <a href="#pg430">430</a>.<br >
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Hale, Edward Everett, <a href="#pg154">154</a>, <a href="#pg175">175</a>, <a href="#pg189">189</a>, <a href="#pg191">191</a>, <a href="#pg194">194</a>, <a href="#pg195">195</a>, <a href="#pg196">196</a>, <a href="#pg205">205</a>, <a href="#pg217">217</a>, <a href="#pg218">218</a>, <a href="#pg269">269</a>, <a href="#pg270">270</a>, <a href="#pg318">318</a>, <a href="#pg323">323</a>, <a href="#pg342">342</a>, <a href="#pg429">429</a>, <a href="#pg430">430</a>, <a href="#pg450">450</a>.<br >
+Hale, George S., <a href="#pg231">231</a>.<br >
+Hale, John P., <a href="#pg367">367</a>, <a href="#pg380">380</a>.<br >
+Hale, Lucretia P., <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg279">279</a>, <a href="#pg404">404</a>.<br >
+Half-way Covenant, <a href="#pg22">22</a>, <a href="#pg27">27</a>, <a href="#pg28">28</a>, <a href="#pg68">68</a>.<br >
+Hall, Asaph, <a href="#pg427">427</a>.<br >
+Hall, Edward Brooks, <a href="#pg127">127</a>, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg160">160</a>, <a href="#pg267">267</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br >
+Hall, Nathaniel, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg366">366</a>.<br >
+Hall, Nathaniel, the younger, <a href="#pg387">387</a>.<br >
+Hamlin, Hannibal, <a href="#pg383">383</a>.<br >
+Hampton Institute, <a href="#pg339">339</a>, <a href="#pg340">340</a>.<br >
+Hancock, John, <a href="#pg385">385</a>.<br >
+Hancock Sunday-school, <a href="#pg247">247</a>, <a href="#pg264">264</a>, <a href="#pg265">265</a>.<br >
+Harte, Bret, <a href="#pg430">430</a>.<br >
+Harvard College, <a href="#pg35">35</a>, <a href="#pg41">41</a>, <a href="#pg44">44</a>, <a href="#pg47">47</a>, <a href="#pg92">92</a>, <a href="#pg98">98</a>, <a href="#pg384">384</a>, <a href="#pg388">388</a>, <a href="#pg390">390</a>, <a href="#pg395">395-397</a>, <a href="#pg412">412</a>.<br >
+Harvard Divinity School, <a href="#pg108">108-110</a>, <a href="#pg124">124</a>, <a href="#pg193">193</a>, <a href="#pg214">214</a>, <a href="#pg391">391</a>, <a href="#pg392">392</a>, <a href="#pg394">394</a>, <a href="#pg395">395</a>, <a href="#pg396">396</a>, <a href="#pg414">414</a>, <a href="#pg415">415</a>.<br >
+Hawthorne, Nathaniel, <a href="#pg381">381</a>, <a href="#pg430">430</a>.<br >
+Haynes, George H., <a href="#pg29">29</a>.<br >
+Hazlitt, Rev. William, <a href="#pg71">71</a>, <a href="#pg77">77-79</a>.<br >
+Hedge, Frederic H., <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg155">155</a>, <a href="#pg161">161</a>, <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg180">180</a>, <a href="#pg239">239</a>, <a href="#pg244">244</a>, <a href="#pg346">346</a>, <a href="#pg359">359</a>, <a href="#pg360">360</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg415">415</a>, <a href="#pg417">417</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>, <a href="#pg449">449</a>, <a href="#pg450">450</a>.<br >
+Hemenway, Augustus, <a href="#pg385">385</a>.<br >
+Hemenway, Mary, <a href="#pg405">405-407</a>.<br >
+Hepworth, George H., <a href="#pg176">176</a>, <a href="#pg205">205</a>.<br >
+Herford, Brooke, <a href="#pg196">196</a>, <a href="#pg225">225</a>, <a href="#pg452">452</a>.<br >
+Heywood, John H., <a href="#pg178">178</a>, <a href="#pg180">180</a>, <a href="#pg364">364</a>.<br >
+Higginson, Stephen, <a href="#pg130">130</a>, <a href="#pg133">133</a>.<br >
+Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, <a href="#pg177">177</a>, <a href="#pg202">202</a>, <a href="#pg367">367</a>, <a href="#pg368">368</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>, <a href="#pg415">415</a>, <a href="#pg424">424</a>, <a href="#pg429">429</a>.<br >
+Higher criticism, <a href="#pg389">389-395</a>.<br >
+Hildreth, Richard, <a href="#pg413">413</a>, <a href="#pg424">424</a>.<br >
+Hill, Thomas, <a href="#pg320">320</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg397">397</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>, <a href="#pg427">427</a>.<br >
+Historians, <a href="#pg422">422-427</a>.<br >
+Hoar, Ebenezer Rockwood, <a href="#pg191">191</a>, <a href="#pg196">196</a>, <a href="#pg367">367</a>, <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br >
+Hoar, George Frisbie, <a href="#pg196">196</a>, <a href="#pg367">367</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>, <a href="#pg380">380</a>.<br >
+Holland, Frederick West, <a href="#pg144">144</a>, <a href="#pg178">178</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br >
+Hollis Professorship, <a href="#pg92">92</a>, <a href="#pg108">108</a>, <a href="#pg109">109</a>.<br >
+Holmes, Oliver Wendell, <a href="#pg431">431-433</a>.<br >
+Hooker, Thomas, <a href="#pg16">16</a>, <a href="#pg25">25</a>.<br >
+Hopkins, Samuel, <a href="#pg73">73</a>.<br >
+Horton, Edward A., <a href="#pg275">275</a>.<br >
+Hosmer, Frederick L., <a href="#pg226">226</a>, <a href="#pg244">244</a>, <a href="#pg277">277</a>.<br >
+Hosmer, George W., <a href="#pg311">311</a>, <a href="#pg314">314</a>, <a href="#pg316">316</a>, <a href="#pg338">338</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br >
+Hosmer, Harriet, <a href="#pg430">430</a>.<br >
+Hosmer, James Kendall, <a href="#pg176">176</a>, <a href="#pg338">338</a>, <a href="#pg415">415</a>.<br >
+Howard, Simeon, <a href="#pg66">66</a>, <a href="#pg78">78</a>.<br >
+Howard Sunday-school, <a href="#pg252">252</a>, <a href="#pg265">265</a>, <a href="#pg332">332</a>.<br >
+Howe, Julia Ward, <a href="#pg328">328</a>, <a href="#pg348">348</a>, <a href="#pg349">349</a>, <a href="#pg368">368</a>, <a href="#pg370">370</a>, <a href="#pg371">371</a>, <a href="#pg428">428</a>.<br >
+Howe, Samuel G., <a href="#pg180">180</a>, <a href="#pg325">325-329</a>, <a href="#pg367">367</a>.<br >
+Howells, William D., <a href="#pg430">430</a>.<br >
+Huidekoper, Frederic, <a href="#pg317">317</a>, <a href="#pg319">319</a>, <a href="#pg422">422</a>.<br >
+Huidekoper, Harm Jan, <a href="#pg311">311-314</a>.<br >
+Hunt, John, <a href="#pg11">11</a>, <a href="#pg13">13</a>.<br >
+Hunting, Sylvan S., <a href="#pg176">176</a>, <a href="#pg214">214</a>.<br >
+Huntington, Frederic D., <a href="#pg270">270</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg448">448</a>.<br >
+Hymns of Unitarians, <a href="#pg244">244</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br >
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Idealism, <a href="#pg45">45</a>.<br >
+Independents, <a href="#pg7">7</a>.<br >
+Index, The, <a href="#pg203">203</a>, <a href="#pg207">207</a>.<br >
+India, <a href="#pg72">72</a>, <a href="#pg248">248</a>, <a href="#pg296">296</a>, <a href="#pg303">303</a>.<br >
+Individualism, <a href="#pg1">1-4</a>, <a href="#pg8">8</a>, <a href="#pg17">17</a>, <a href="#pg18">18</a>, <a href="#pg27">27</a>, <a href="#pg63">63</a>, <a href="#pg90">90</a>, <a href="#pg125">125</a>, <a href="#pg205">205</a>, <a href="#pg210">210</a>, <a href="#pg211">211</a>, <a href="#pg224">224</a>, <a href="#pg343">343</a>, <a href="#pg349">349</a>, <a href="#pg428">428</a>, <a href="#pg441">441-443</a>.<br >
+Insane, care of, <a href="#pg328">328-331</a>.<br >
+International Council, <a href="#pg245">245</a>, <a href="#pg440">440</a>.<br >
+Intuition, <a href="#pg2">2</a>, <a href="#pg4">4</a>, <a href="#pg12">12</a>.<br >
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jackson, Charles, <a href="#pg130">130</a>, <a href="#pg387">387</a>.<br >
+Jackson, Helen Hunt, <a href="#pg430">430</a>.<br >
+Jackson, James, <a href="#pg427">427</a>.<br >
+Japan, <a href="#pg303">303-309</a>.<br >
+Japanese Unitarian Association, <a href="#pg306">306-309</a>.<br >
+Jefferson, Thomas, <a href="#pg136">136</a>, <a href="#pg378">378-380</a>, <a href="#pg437">437</a>.<br >
+Jenckes, Thomas A., <a href="#pg372">372</a>.<br >
+Johnson, Samuel, <a href="#pg201">201</a>, <a href="#pg244">244</a>, <a href="#pg366">366</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>, <a href="#pg419">419</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br >
+Jones, Jenkin Lloyd, <a href="#pg214">214</a>, <a href="#pg225">225</a>, <a href="#pg276">276</a>, <a href="#pg278">278</a>, <a href="#pg451">451</a>.<br >
+Judd, Sylvester, <a href="#pg217">217</a>, <a href="#pg240">240</a>, <a href="#pg241">241</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg366">366</a>, <a href="#pg429">429</a>.<br >
+Julian, George W., <a href="#pg367">367</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>.<br >
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Kanda, Saichiro, <a href="#pg305">305</a>, <a href="#pg306">306</a>.<br >
+Kendall, James, <a href="#pg84">84</a>.<br >
+Kentucky, <a href="#pg119">119</a>.<br >
+Khasi Hills, <a href="#pg302">302</a>, <a href="#pg303">303</a>.<br >
+Kidder, Henry P., <a href="#pg189">189</a>, <a href="#pg212">212</a>, <a href="#pg231">231</a>, <a href="#pg238">238</a>.<br >
+Kindergarten, <a href="#pg492">492</a>, <a href="#pg493">493</a>.<br >
+King's Chapel, <a href="#pg52">52</a>, <a href="#pg76">76</a>, <a href="#pg160">160</a>, <a href="#pg313">313</a>, <a href="#pg387">387</a>, <a href="#pg421">421</a>.<br >
+King, Starr, <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg167">167</a>, <a href="#pg182">182</a>, <a href="#pg183">183</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br >
+Kirkland, Caroline, <a href="#pg369">369</a>, <a href="#pg428">428</a>.<br >
+Kirkland, John T., <a href="#pg98">98</a>, <a href="#pg109">109</a>, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg323">323</a>, <a href="#pg344">344</a>, <a href="#pg350">350</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg397">397</a>.<br >
+Knapp, Arthur M., <a href="#pg304">304</a>.<br >
+Knapp, Frederick N., <a href="#pg181">181</a>.<br >
+Kneeland, John, <a href="#pg273">273</a>.<br >
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ladies' Commission on Sunday-school Books, <a href="#pg279">279-281</a>.<br >
+Lafargue, Paul, <a href="#pg2">2</a>.<br >
+Lamson, Alvan, <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg200">200</a>, <a href="#pg422">422</a>, <a href="#pg450">450</a>.<br >
+Latitudinarianism, <a href="#pg9">9</a>, <a href="#pg10">10</a>.<br >
+Lawrence, Abbott, <a href="#pg385">385</a>, <a href="#pg386">386</a>.<br >
+Lawrence, Amos, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg385">385</a>, <a href="#pg386">386</a>.<br >
+Leland Stanford, Jr., University, <a href="#pg399">399</a>.<br >
+Leonard, Levi W., <a href="#pg409">409</a>.<br >
+Liberal Christian, The, <a href="#pg193">193</a>.<br >
+Liberal Preacher, The, <a href="#pg447">447</a>.<br >
+Liberalism, <a href="#pg24">24</a>, <a href="#pg26">26</a>, <a href="#pg29">29</a>, <a href="#pg32">32</a>, <a href="#pg34">34</a>, <a href="#pg37">37</a>, <a href="#pg46">46</a>, <a href="#pg49">49-52</a>, <a href="#pg54">54</a>, <a href="#pg57">57</a>, <a href="#pg59">59</a>, <a href="#pg61">61</a>, <a href="#pg70">70</a>, <a href="#pg72">72</a>, <a href="#pg75">75</a>, <a href="#pg85">85</a>, <a href="#pg87">87</a>, <a href="#pg88">88</a>, <a href="#pg94">94</a>, <a href="#pg104">104</a>, <a href="#pg106">106</a>, <a href="#pg111">111</a>, <a href="#pg122">122</a>.<br >
+Liberator, The, <a href="#pg359">359</a>.<br >
+Liberty, <a href="#pg206">206</a>, <a href="#pg342">342</a>, <a href="#pg343">343</a>, <a href="#pg349">349</a>.<br >
+Libraries, <a href="#pg289">289</a>, <a href="#pg409">409</a>, <a href="#pg410">410</a>.<br >
+Lincoln, Abraham, <a href="#pg376">376</a>, <a href="#pg377">377</a>.<br >
+Lincoln, Calvin, <a href="#pg127">127</a>, <a href="#pg161">161</a>.<br >
+Lincoln, Levi, <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br >
+Lindsey, Theophilus, <a href="#pg78">78</a>, <a href="#pg102">102</a>.<br >
+Little, Robert, <a href="#pg119">119</a>.<br >
+Liturgy, <a href="#pg242">242</a>, <a href="#pg343">343</a>.<br >
+Livermore, Abiel Abbot, <a href="#pg148">148</a>, <a href="#pg169">169</a>, <a href="#pg317">317</a>, <a href="#pg318">318</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg366">366</a>.<br >
+Livermore, Leonard J., <a href="#pg272">272</a>.<br >
+Livermore, Mary A., <a href="#pg368">368</a>, <a href="#pg371">371</a>.<br >
+Local Conferences, <a href="#pg216">216-219</a>, <a href="#pg445">445</a>, <a href="#pg446">446</a>.<br >
+Locke, John, <a href="#pg5">5</a>, <a href="#pg6">6</a>, <a href="#pg12">12</a>, <a href="#pg43">43</a>, <a href="#pg56">56</a>.<br >
+Long, John D., <a href="#pg231">231</a>, <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br >
+Longfellow, Henry W., <a href="#pg431">431</a>, <a href="#pg432">432</a>.<br >
+Longfellow, Samuel, <a href="#pg175">175</a>, <a href="#pg200">200</a>, <a href="#pg242">242</a>, <a href="#pg244">244</a>, <a href="#pg366">366</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>, <a href="#pg419">419</a>.<br >
+Longfellow, Stephen, <a href="#pg134">134</a>, <a href="#pg432">432</a>.<br >
+Lord's Supper, <a href="#pg27">27</a>, <a href="#pg240">240</a>.<br >
+Loring, Charles G., <a href="#pg127">127</a>.<br >
+Loring, Ellis Gray, <a href="#pg359">359</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>.<br >
+Lothrop, Samuel K., <a href="#pg143">143</a>, <a href="#pg144">144</a>, <a href="#pg160">160</a>, <a href="#pg163">163</a>, <a href="#pg236">236</a>, <a href="#pg350">350</a>, <a href="#pg447">447</a>.<br >
+Lovering, Joseph, <a href="#pg427">427</a>.<br >
+Low, A.A., <a href="#pg189">189</a>.<br >
+Lowe, Charles, <a href="#pg172">172</a>, <a href="#pg177">177</a>, <a href="#pg196">196</a>, <a href="#pg197">197</a>, <a href="#pg205">205</a>, <a href="#pg209">209</a>, <a href="#pg212">212</a>, <a href="#pg216">216</a>, <a href="#pg218">218</a>, <a href="#pg237">237</a>, <a href="#pg279">279</a>, <a href="#pg370">370</a>, <a href="#pg451">451</a>.<br >
+Lowell, Charles, <a href="#pg94">94</a>, <a href="#pg99">99</a>, <a href="#pg109">109</a>, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg263">263</a>, <a href="#pg344">344</a>, <a href="#pg350">350</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg366">366</a>, <a href="#pg413">413</a>.<br >
+Lowell, Francis Cabot, <a href="#pg385">385</a>, <a href="#pg386">386</a>.<br >
+Lowell Institute, <a href="#pg407">407</a>, <a href="#pg408">408</a>.<br >
+Lowell, James Russell, <a href="#pg413">413</a>, <a href="#pg431">431</a>, <a href="#pg434">434</a>, <a href="#pg435">435</a>.<br >
+Lowell, John, <a href="#pg382">382</a>, <a href="#pg385">385</a>.<br >
+Lowell, John Amory, <a href="#pg385">385</a>, <a href="#pg407">407</a>.<br >
+Lunt, William Parsons, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br >
+</p>
+
+<p>
+MacCauley, Clay, <a href="#pg304">304</a>, <a href="#pg305">305</a>.<br >
+McCrary, George W., <a href="#pg326">326</a>, <a href="#pg383">383</a>.<br >
+Maine Conference of Unitarian Churches, <a href="#pg218">218</a>.<br >
+Mann, Horace. 166, <a href="#pg327">327</a>, <a href="#pg329">329</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg399">399-402</a>.<br >
+Mann, Mrs. Horace, <a href="#pg324">324</a>, <a href="#pg403">403</a>.<br >
+Marshall, John, <a href="#pg376">376</a>, <a href="#pg380">380</a>.<br >
+Marshall, J.B.F., <a href="#pg339">339</a>, <a href="#pg340">340</a>.<br >
+Martineau, James, <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg450">450</a>..<br >
+Mason, L.B., <a href="#pg112">112</a>, <a href="#pg176">176</a>.<br >
+Massachusetts Congregational Charitable Society, <a href="#pg119">119</a>.<br >
+Massachusetts Convention of Congregational Ministers, <a href="#pg120">120</a>.<br >
+May, Abby Williams, <a href="#pg283">283</a>, <a href="#pg403">403</a>, <a href="#pg404">404</a>.<br >
+May, Col. Joseph, <a href="#pg132">132</a>, <a href="#pg133">133</a>, <a href="#pg344">344</a>.<br >
+May, Rev. Joseph, <a href="#pg216">216</a>.<br >
+May, Samuel, <a href="#pg359">359-361</a>, <a href="#pg366">366</a>.<br >
+May, Samuel J., <a href="#pg127">127</a>, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg194">194</a>, <a href="#pg346">346</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg356">356</a>, <a href="#pg358">358</a>, <a href="#pg360">360</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg366">366</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>, <a href="#pg399">399</a>, <a href="#pg401">401</a>, <a href="#pg447">447</a>.<br >
+Mayhew, Experience, <a href="#pg49">49</a>, <a href="#pg60">60</a>.<br >
+Mayhew, Jonathan, <a href="#pg45">45</a>, <a href="#pg47">47</a>, <a href="#pg48">48</a>, <a href="#pg53">53</a>, <a href="#pg58">58</a>, <a href="#pg60">60-66</a>, <a href="#pg85">85</a>, <a href="#pg90">90</a>, <a href="#pg199">199</a>.<br >
+Mayo, Amory D., <a href="#pg320">320</a>, <a href="#pg368">368</a>, <a href="#pg410">410</a>, <a href="#pg411">411</a>.<br >
+Mead, Edwin D., <a href="#pg406">406</a>.<br >
+Mead, Larkin G., <a href="#pg430">430</a>.<br >
+Meadville Theological School, <a href="#pg161">161</a>, <a href="#pg193">193</a>, <a href="#pg215">215</a>, <a href="#pg310">310-320</a>.<br >
+Methodism, <a href="#pg89">89</a>, <a href="#pg194">194</a>.<br >
+Miles, Henry A., <a href="#pg161">161</a>, <a href="#pg164">164</a>, <a href="#pg360">360</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br >
+Miller, Samuel F., <a href="#pg196">196</a>, <a href="#pg380">380</a>.<br >
+Milton, John, <a href="#pg5">5</a>, <a href="#pg6">6</a>, <a href="#pg10">10</a>, <a href="#pg12">12</a>, <a href="#pg31">31</a>, <a href="#pg45">45</a>, <a href="#pg56">56</a>.<br >
+Ministry at Large, <a href="#pg247">247-261</a>.<br >
+Miracles, <a href="#pg156">156</a>, <a href="#pg157">157</a>, <a href="#pg198">198</a>, <a href="#pg200">200</a>, <a href="#pg211">211</a>.<br >
+Missions, domestic, <a href="#pg104">104</a>, <a href="#pg140">140</a>, <a href="#pg144">144</a>, <a href="#pg149">149-153</a>, <a href="#pg167">167</a>, <a href="#pg171">171</a>, <a href="#pg172">172</a>, <a href="#pg212">212-214</a>, <a href="#pg218">218</a>.<br >
+Mitchell, Maria, <a href="#pg427">427</a>.<br >
+Montana Industrial School, <a href="#pg341">341</a>, <a href="#pg342">342</a>, <a href="#pg405">405</a>.<br >
+Monthly Journal of American Unitarian Association, <a href="#pg162">162</a>, <a href="#pg184">184</a>, <a href="#pg237">237</a>.<br >
+Monthly Miscellany, The, <a href="#pg448">448</a>.<br >
+Monthly Religious Magazine, <a href="#pg448">448</a>.<br >
+Morehouse, Daniel W., <a href="#pg196">196</a>.<br >
+Morison, John H., <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg270">270</a>, <a href="#pg355">355</a>, <a href="#pg356">356</a>, <a href="#pg448">448</a>.<br >
+Morrill, Justin S., <a href="#pg380">380</a>.<br >
+Morse, Jedediah, <a href="#pg93">93</a>, <a href="#pg102">102</a>, <a href="#pg423">423</a>.<br >
+Motley, John Lothrop, <a href="#pg424">424</a>.<br >
+Mott, Lucretia, <a href="#pg202">202</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>.<br >
+Mumford, Thomas J., <a href="#pg207">207</a>, <a href="#pg271">271</a>, <a href="#pg366">366</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>.<br >
+Munroe, James, &amp; Co., <a href="#pg235">235</a>.<br >
+Muzzey, Artemas M., <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg178">178</a>, <a href="#pg359">359</a>, <a href="#pg360">360</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg422">422</a>.<br >
+</p>
+
+<p>
+National Conference: origin, <a href="#pg190">190-195</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Syracuse session, <a href="#pg201">201</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;change in constitution, <a href="#pg204">204</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Hepworth's amendment, <a href="#pg207">207</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;protests against dropping names from Year Book, <a href="#pg209">209</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;formation of local conferences, <a href="#pg218">218-221</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;revision of constitution, in 1892, <a href="#pg229">229</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;adjustment of Conference and Association, <a href="#pg233">233</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;temperance resolutions, <a href="#pg352">352</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;women represented, <a href="#pg369">369</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;organ proposed, <a href="#pg446">446</a>.<br >
+New Divinity, <a href="#pg73">73</a>.<br >
+New Hampshire Unitarian Association, <a href="#pg217">217</a>.<br >
+New York, <a href="#pg119">119</a>, <a href="#pg213">213</a>, <a href="#pg381">381</a>, <a href="#pg429">429</a>.<br >
+New York Convention, <a href="#pg190">190-195</a>.<br >
+Newell, Frederick R., <a href="#pg172">172</a>, <a href="#pg176">176</a>, <a href="#pg184">184</a>.<br >
+Newell, William, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg414">414</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br >
+Newell, William Wells, <a href="#pg414">414</a>, <a href="#pg415">415</a>.<br >
+Nichols, Ichabod, <a href="#pg140">140</a>, <a href="#pg142">142</a>, <a href="#pg165">165</a>.<br >
+Nitti, F.S., <a href="#pg3">3</a>.<br >
+North American Review, <a href="#pg116">116</a>, <a href="#pg416">416</a>.<br >
+Northampton, <a href="#pg27">27</a>, <a href="#pg38">38</a>, <a href="#pg41">41</a>, <a href="#pg381">381</a>.<br >
+Norton, Andrews, <a href="#pg98">98</a>, <a href="#pg109">109-111</a>, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg122">122</a>, <a href="#pg126">126</a>, <a href="#pg130">130</a>, <a href="#pg132">132</a>, <a href="#pg135">135</a>, <a href="#pg139">139</a>, <a href="#pg164">164</a>, <a href="#pg243">243</a>, <a href="#pg391">391</a>, <a href="#pg392">392</a>, <a href="#pg414">414</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br >
+Norton, Charles, Eliot, <a href="#pg175">175</a>, <a href="#pg185">185</a>, <a href="#pg414">414</a>, <a href="#pg428">428</a>.<br >
+Novelists, <a href="#pg429">429</a>, <a href="#pg430">430</a>.<br >
+Noyes, George Rapall, <a href="#pg110">110</a>, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg164">164</a>, <a href="#pg200">200</a>, <a href="#pg392">392</a>, <a href="#pg393">393</a>.<br >
+Nute, Ephraim, <a href="#pg167">167</a>, <a href="#pg176">176</a>.<br >
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Old and New, <a href="#pg450">450</a>.<br >
+Old South historical work, <a href="#pg405">405-407</a>.<br >
+Oriental religions, <a href="#pg72">72</a>.<br >
+Orton, Edward, <a href="#pg338">338</a>.<br >
+Osgood, Samuel, <a href="#pg154">154</a>, <a href="#pg215">215</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg431">431</a>, <a href="#pg449">449</a>.<br >
+"Other Christian Churches," 201, <a href="#pg219">219</a>, <a href="#pg446">446</a>.<br >
+Otis, Harrison Gray, <a href="#pg382">382</a>, <a href="#pg385">385</a>.<br >
+Oxnard, Thomas, <a href="#pg80">80</a>.<br >
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Palfrey, Cazneau, <a href="#pg173">173</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br >
+Palfrey, John G., <a href="#pg95">95</a>, <a href="#pg101">101</a>, <a href="#pg109">109</a>, <a href="#pg110">110</a>, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg117">117</a>, <a href="#pg126">126</a>, <a href="#pg127">127</a>, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg154">154</a>, <a href="#pg157">157</a>, <a href="#pg191">191</a>, <a href="#pg212">212</a>, <a href="#pg249">249</a>, <a href="#pg329">329</a>, <a href="#pg350">350</a>, <a href="#pg366">366</a>, <a href="#pg385">385</a>, <a href="#pg391">391</a>, <a href="#pg415">415</a>, <a href="#pg424">424</a>.<br >
+Panoplist, The, <a href="#pg93">93</a>, <a href="#pg102">102</a>.<br >
+Parish, <a href="#pg29">29</a>, <a href="#pg115">115</a>.<br >
+Parker, Isaac, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br >
+Parker, Theodore, <a href="#pg155">155-157</a>, <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg267">267</a>, <a href="#pg327">327</a>, <a href="#pg328">328</a>, <a href="#pg343">343</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg365">365</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>, <a href="#pg394">394</a>, <a href="#pg399">399</a>, <a href="#pg415">415</a>, <a href="#pg417">417</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>, <a href="#pg436">436</a>.<br >
+Parkman, Francis, historian, <a href="#pg413">413</a>.<br >
+Parkman, John, <a href="#pg154">154</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br >
+Parkman, Rev. Francis, <a href="#pg74">74</a>, <a href="#pg95">95</a>, <a href="#pg99">99</a>, <a href="#pg109">109</a>, <a href="#pg173">173</a>, <a href="#pg344">344</a>, <a href="#pg413">413</a>, <a href="#pg424">424</a>.<br >
+Parsons, Theophilus, <a href="#pg86">86</a>, <a href="#pg117">117</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg377">377</a>, <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br >
+Parton, James, <a href="#pg424">424</a>.<br >
+Peabody, Andrew P., <a href="#pg117">117</a>, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg148">148</a>, <a href="#pg173">173</a>, <a href="#pg239">239</a>, <a href="#pg260">260</a>, <a href="#pg313">313</a>, <a href="#pg323">323</a>, <a href="#pg360">360</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br >
+Peabody, Elizabeth P., <a href="#pg155">155</a>, <a href="#pg368">368</a>, <a href="#pg402">402</a>, <a href="#pg403">403</a>.<br >
+Peabody, Ephraim, <a href="#pg270">270</a>, <a href="#pg313">313</a>, <a href="#pg334">334</a>, <a href="#pg335">335</a>, <a href="#pg433">433</a>, <a href="#pg448">448</a>.<br >
+Peabody, Francis G., <a href="#pg331">331</a>.<br >
+Peabody, W.B.O., <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br >
+Peace movement, <a href="#pg343">343-349</a>.<br >
+Peace societies, <a href="#pg322">322</a>, <a href="#pg344">344</a>.<br >
+Peirce, Benjamin, <a href="#pg427">427</a>.<br >
+Perkins Institute for the Blind, <a href="#pg323">323</a>, <a href="#pg325">325</a>, <a href="#pg326">326</a>.<br >
+Perkins, Thomas H., <a href="#pg325">325</a>, <a href="#pg386">386</a>, <a href="#pg387">387</a>.<br >
+Phillips, Jonathan, <a href="#pg109">109</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg385">385</a>.<br >
+Phillips, Stephen C., <a href="#pg385">385</a>.<br >
+Pickering, Edward C., <a href="#pg427">427</a>.<br >
+Pickering, John, <a href="#pg381">381</a>.<br >
+Pickering, Timothy, <a href="#pg377">377</a>, <a href="#pg381">381</a>.<br >
+Pierce, Cyrus, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg400">400</a>, <a href="#pg401">401</a>.<br >
+Pierce, John, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg131">131</a>, <a href="#pg133">133</a>, <a href="#pg344">344</a>, <a href="#pg350">350</a>.<br >
+Pierpont, John, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg127">127</a>, <a href="#pg132">132</a>, <a href="#pg176">176</a>, <a href="#pg243">243</a>, <a href="#pg350">350</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg365">365</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br >
+Pillsbury, Parker, <a href="#pg368">368</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>.<br >
+Piper, George F., <a href="#pg273">273</a>.<br >
+Pitts Street Chapel, <a href="#pg257">257</a>, <a href="#pg258">258</a>, <a href="#pg332">332</a>.<br >
+Plymouth, <a href="#pg16">16</a>, <a href="#pg83">83</a>, <a href="#pg118">118</a>.<br >
+Poets, <a href="#pg431">431-435</a>.<br >
+Poor, care of, <a href="#pg250">250</a>, <a href="#pg255">255</a>, <a href="#pg321">321</a>, <a href="#pg322">322</a>, <a href="#pg334">334</a>, <a href="#pg335">335</a>.<br >
+Porter, Eliphalet, <a href="#pg76">76</a>.<br >
+Portland, <a href="#pg80">80</a>, <a href="#pg118">118</a>.<br >
+Post-office Mission, <a href="#pg289">289</a>, <a href="#pg290">290</a>.<br >
+Potter, William J., <a href="#pg170">170</a>, <a href="#pg200">200</a>, <a href="#pg203">203</a>, <a href="#pg208">208</a>, <a href="#pg209">209</a>, <a href="#pg211">211</a>.<br >
+Pratt, Enoch, <a href="#pg189">189</a>, <a href="#pg409">409</a>, <a href="#pg410">410</a>.<br >
+Pray, Lewis G., <a href="#pg270">270</a>.<br >
+Prescott, William Hickling, <a href="#pg117">117</a>, <a href="#pg381">381</a>, <a href="#pg424">424</a>, <a href="#pg425">425</a>.<br >
+Priestley, Joseph, <a href="#pg71">71</a>, <a href="#pg78">78</a>, <a href="#pg80">80</a>, <a href="#pg81">81</a>, <a href="#pg83">83</a>, <a href="#pg118">118</a>.<br >
+Primitive Christianity, <a href="#pg48">48</a>, <a href="#pg67">67</a>, <a href="#pg112">112</a>, <a href="#pg122">122</a>.<br >
+Prince, John, <a href="#pg71">71</a>, <a href="#pg76">76</a>, <a href="#pg381">381</a>.<br >
+Prison reform, <a href="#pg327">327</a>, <a href="#pg328">328</a>, <a href="#pg329">329</a>, <a href="#pg343">343</a>.<br >
+Protestantism, <a href="#pg1">1</a>, <a href="#pg3">3</a>, <a href="#pg4">4</a>, <a href="#pg7">7</a>, <a href="#pg14">14</a>, <a href="#pg17">17</a>, <a href="#pg18">18</a>, <a href="#pg156">156</a>.<br >
+Publishing Fund Society, <a href="#pg107">107</a>, <a href="#pg108">108</a>, <a href="#pg141">141</a>.<br >
+Publishing interests, <a href="#pg113">113</a>, <a href="#pg128">128</a>, <a href="#pg145">145</a>, <a href="#pg162">162</a>, <a href="#pg164">164</a>, <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg184">184</a>.<br >
+Puritanism, <a href="#pg10">10</a>, <a href="#pg19">19</a>, <a href="#pg20">20</a>, <a href="#pg21">21</a>, <a href="#pg37">37</a>, <a href="#pg53">53</a>.<br >
+Puritans, <a href="#pg19">19</a>, <a href="#pg22">22</a>.<br >
+Putnam, Alfred P., <a href="#pg216">216</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br >
+Putnam, George, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg185">185</a>, <a href="#pg450">450</a>.<br >
+Pynchon, William, <a href="#pg23">23</a>, <a href="#pg24">24</a>.<br >
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Quarterly Journal of American Unitarian Association, <a href="#pg162">162</a>.<br >
+Quincy, Edmund, <a href="#pg359">359</a>.<br >
+Quincy, Josiah, <a href="#pg35">35</a>, <a href="#pg42">42</a>, <a href="#pg128">128</a>, <a href="#pg344">344</a>, <a href="#pg366">366</a>, <a href="#pg382">382</a>, <a href="#pg397">397</a>, <a href="#pg399">399</a>.<br >
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Radical, The, <a href="#pg203">203</a>.<br >
+Radicalism, <a href="#pg155">155</a>, <a href="#pg156">156</a>, <a href="#pg158">158</a>, <a href="#pg199">199</a>, <a href="#pg203">203</a>, <a href="#pg204">204</a>, <a href="#pg210">210</a>, <a href="#pg222">222</a>.<br >
+Rammohun Roy, <a href="#pg296">296</a>.<br >
+Rantoul, Robert, <a href="#pg127">127</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg399">399</a>.<br >
+Rationalism, <a href="#pg5">5</a>, <a href="#pg6">6</a>, <a href="#pg12">12</a>, <a href="#pg31">31</a>, <a href="#pg44">44</a>, <a href="#pg45">45</a>, <a href="#pg55">55</a>, <a href="#pg62">62</a>, <a href="#pg69">69</a>, <a href="#pg90">90</a>, <a href="#pg156">156</a>.<br >
+Reason, <a href="#pg2">2</a>, <a href="#pg3">3</a>, <a href="#pg9">9-11</a>, <a href="#pg13">13</a>, <a href="#pg31">31</a>, <a href="#pg37">37</a>, <a href="#pg90">90</a>.<br >
+Reed, David, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg127">127</a>, <a href="#pg129">129</a>, <a href="#pg145">145</a>, <a href="#pg234">234</a>, <a href="#pg269">269</a>.<br >
+Reforms, <a href="#pg343">343</a>, <a href="#pg356">356</a>.<br >
+Revelation, <a href="#pg12">12</a>, <a href="#pg13">13</a>, <a href="#pg20">20</a>, <a href="#pg46">46</a>, <a href="#pg66">66</a>, <a href="#pg69">69</a>, <a href="#pg73">73</a>, <a href="#pg88">88</a>.<br >
+Reynolds, Grindall, <a href="#pg232">232</a>, <a href="#pg238">238</a>, <a href="#pg239">239</a>.<br >
+Ripley, Ezra, <a href="#pg74">74</a>, <a href="#pg263">263</a>, <a href="#pg344">344</a>.<br >
+Ripley, George, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg415">415</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>, <a href="#pg428">428</a>, <a href="#pg448">448</a>.<br >
+Ripley, Samuel. 360, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br >
+Robbins, Chandler, <a href="#pg83">83</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br >
+Roberts, William, <a href="#pg297">297</a>, <a href="#pg298">298</a>.<br >
+Robinson, George D., <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br >
+Robinson, John, <a href="#pg25">25</a>, <a href="#pg84">84</a>.<br >
+Roman Catholic Church, <a href="#pg2">2</a>, <a href="#pg3">3</a>, <a href="#pg17">17</a>.<br >
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Saco, <a href="#pg81">81</a>.<br >
+Safford, Mary A., <a href="#pg371">371</a>.<br >
+St. Louis, <a href="#pg141">141</a>, <a href="#pg184">184</a>, <a href="#pg225">225</a>, <a href="#pg259">259</a>, <a href="#pg398">398</a>.<br >
+Salem, <a href="#pg16">16</a>, <a href="#pg29">29</a>, <a href="#pg54">54</a>, <a href="#pg70">70</a>, <a href="#pg76">76</a>, <a href="#pg80">80</a>, <a href="#pg118">118</a>, <a href="#pg218">218</a>, <a href="#pg381">381</a>, <a href="#pg413">413</a>.<br >
+Saltonstall, Leverett, <a href="#pg127">127</a>, <a href="#pg133">133</a>, <a href="#pg140">140</a>, <a href="#pg381">381</a>.<br >
+Saltonstall, Sir Richard, <a href="#pg16">16</a>, <a href="#pg23">23</a>.<br >
+San Francisco, <a href="#pg153">153</a>, <a href="#pg167">167</a>, <a href="#pg182">182</a>.<br >
+Sanborn, Frank B., <a href="#pg202">202</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>.<br >
+Sanitary Commission, <a href="#pg176">176</a>, <a href="#pg178">178-184</a>, <a href="#pg188">188</a>, <a href="#pg338">338</a>.<br >
+Sargent, John T., <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>, <a href="#pg370">370</a>.<br >
+Savage, Minot J., <a href="#pg196">196</a>, <a href="#pg274">274</a>.<br >
+Scandlin, William G., <a href="#pg176">176</a>, <a href="#pg177">177</a>, <a href="#pg182">182</a>.<br >
+Scientists, <a href="#pg427">427</a>, <a href="#pg428">428</a>.<br >
+Scudder, Eliza, <a href="#pg244">244</a>.<br >
+Sears, Edmund H., <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg217">217</a>, <a href="#pg395">395</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>, <a href="#pg448">448</a>.<br >
+Sectarianism, <a href="#pg125">125</a>, <a href="#pg131">131</a>, <a href="#pg149">149</a>, <a href="#pg150">150</a>, <a href="#pg201">201</a>, <a href="#pg266">266</a>, <a href="#pg356">356</a>, <a href="#pg436">436</a>.<br >
+Sedgwick, Catherine M., <a href="#pg369">369</a>, <a href="#pg381">381</a>, <a href="#pg429">429</a>.<br >
+Sewall, Edmund Q., <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br >
+Sewall, Samuel E., <a href="#pg358">358</a>, <a href="#pg359">359</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>.<br >
+Shaw, Lemuel, <a href="#pg382">382</a>, <a href="#pg387">387</a>.<br >
+Shaw, Robert Gould, <a href="#pg386">386</a>.<br >
+Sherman, John, <a href="#pg92">92</a>, <a href="#pg98">98</a>.<br >
+Shippen, Rush R., <a href="#pg213">213</a>, <a href="#pg237">237</a>, <a href="#pg238">238</a>.<br >
+Shute, Daniel, <a href="#pg58">58</a>, <a href="#pg85">85</a>, <a href="#pg87">87</a>.<br >
+Sill, Edward Rowland, <a href="#pg415">415</a>, <a href="#pg431">431</a>.<br >
+Sin, original, <a href="#pg50">50</a>.<br >
+Singh, Hajom Kissor, <a href="#pg302">302</a>, <a href="#pg303">303</a>.<br >
+Sloan, W.M., <a href="#pg2">2</a>.<br >
+Smith, Gerrit, <a href="#pg367">367</a>, <a href="#pg376">376</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br >
+Smith, Mary P. Wells, <a href="#pg285">285</a>, <a href="#pg290">290</a>.<br >
+Socialism in the church, <a href="#pg3">3</a>, <a href="#pg4">4</a>, <a href="#pg17">17</a>, <a href="#pg20">20</a>, <a href="#pg27">27</a>, <a href="#pg33">33</a>.<br >
+Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity, <a href="#pg96">96</a>, <a href="#pg141">141</a>, <a href="#pg148">148</a>.<br >
+Society for Promoting Theological Education, <a href="#pg109">109</a>, <a href="#pg110">110</a>.<br >
+Society for Propagating the Gospel, <a href="#pg120">120</a>.<br >
+Society to Encourage Home Studies, <a href="#pg404">404</a>, <a href="#pg405">405</a>.<br >
+Socinianism, <a href="#pg42">42</a>, <a href="#pg75">75</a>, <a href="#pg80">80</a>.<br >
+Solemn Review of Custom of War, <a href="#pg344">344</a>, <a href="#pg346">346</a>.<br >
+Sparks, Jared, <a href="#pg111">111</a>, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg117">117</a>, <a href="#pg119">119</a>, <a href="#pg126">126</a>, <a href="#pg132">132</a>, <a href="#pg135">135</a>, <a href="#pg397">397</a>, <a href="#pg399">399</a>, <a href="#pg415">415</a>, <a href="#pg421">421</a>, <a href="#pg424">424</a>.<br >
+Spaulding, Henry G., <a href="#pg274">274</a>.<br >
+Spirit of the Pilgrims, The, <a href="#pg93">93</a>.<br >
+Spofford Harriet Prescott, <a href="#pg430">430</a>.<br >
+Sprague, Charles, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg431">431</a>.<br >
+Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, <a href="#pg368">368</a>.<br >
+Staples, Carlton A., <a href="#pg176">176</a>, <a href="#pg214">214</a>, <a href="#pg259">259</a>, <a href="#pg364">364</a>.<br >
+Staples, Nahor A., <a href="#pg167">167</a>, <a href="#pg176">176</a>, <a href="#pg366">366</a>.<br >
+Stearns, Oliver, <a href="#pg317">317</a>, <a href="#pg360">360</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br >
+Stebbins, Horatio, <a href="#pg239">239</a>.<br >
+Stebbins, Rufus, P., <a href="#pg161">161</a>, <a href="#pg188">188</a>, <a href="#pg189">189</a>, <a href="#pg196">196</a>, <a href="#pg315">315</a>, <a href="#pg316">316</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg397">397</a>.<br >
+Stedman, Edmund C., <a href="#pg431">431</a>.<br >
+Stetson, Caleb, <a href="#pg360">360</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg365">365</a>.<br >
+Stevenson, Hannah E., <a href="#pg202">202</a>, <a href="#pg279">279</a>.<br >
+Stoddard, Richard Henry, <a href="#pg431">431</a>.<br >
+Stoddard, Solomon, <a href="#pg27">27</a>, <a href="#pg39">39</a>, <a href="#pg44">44</a>, <a href="#pg68">68</a>, <a href="#pg241">241</a>.<br >
+Stone, Lucy, <a href="#pg367">367-369</a>.<br >
+Stone, Thomas T., <a href="#pg164">164</a>, <a href="#pg366">366</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>.<br >
+Story, Joseph, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg117">117</a>, <a href="#pg133">133</a>, <a href="#pg134">134</a>, <a href="#pg140">140</a>, <a href="#pg143">143</a>, <a href="#pg260">260</a>, <a href="#pg377">377</a>, <a href="#pg380">380</a>, <a href="#pg381">381</a>, <a href="#pg387">387</a>.<br >
+Story, William Wetmore, <a href="#pg430">430</a>.<br >
+Stowe, Harriet Beecher, <a href="#pg384">384</a>.<br >
+Strong, Caleb, <a href="#pg385">385</a>.<br >
+Sullivan, James, <a href="#pg385">385</a>.<br >
+Sullivan, Richard, <a href="#pg128">128</a>, <a href="#pg129">129</a>.<br >
+Sullivan, Thomas E., <a href="#pg127">127</a>, <a href="#pg447">447</a>.<br >
+Sumner, Charles, <a href="#pg347">347</a>, <a href="#pg348">348</a>, <a href="#pg364">364</a>, <a href="#pg367">367</a>, <a href="#pg372">372</a>, <a href="#pg380">380</a>.<br >
+Sunday-school papers, <a href="#pg266">266</a>, <a href="#pg269">269-271</a>, <a href="#pg273">273</a>, <a href="#pg274">274</a>.<br >
+Sunday-schools, <a href="#pg247">247</a>, <a href="#pg254">254</a>, <a href="#pg262">262-281</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;origin of, <a href="#pg262">262</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Boston society, <a href="#pg265">265</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;growth of, <a href="#pg267">267</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;first publications, <a href="#pg268">268</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;local societies, <a href="#pg269">269</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;paper, <a href="#pg269">269</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;national society, <a href="#pg270">270</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;awakening interest, <a href="#pg272">272</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;George F. Piper as secretary, <a href="#pg273">273</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Henry G. Spaulding, <a href="#pg274">274</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Edward A. Horton, <a href="#pg275">275</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;western society, <a href="#pg276">276</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;unity clubs, <a href="#pg278">278</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Religious Union, <a href="#pg278">278</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Ladies' Commission, <a href="#pg279">279</a>, <a href="#pg332">332</a>.<br >
+Sunderland, Jabez T., <a href="#pg225">225</a>, <a href="#pg301">301-303</a>, <a href="#pg451">451</a>.<br >
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Talbot, Thomas, <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br >
+Tappan, Lewis, <a href="#pg134">134</a>, <a href="#pg137">137</a>, <a href="#pg139">139</a>.<br >
+Taylor, Bayard, <a href="#pg430">430</a>, <a href="#pg431">431</a>.<br >
+Taylor, Edward T., "Father Taylor," 324, <a href="#pg327">327</a>.<br >
+Taylor, Jeremy, <a href="#pg5">5</a>, <a href="#pg12">12</a>, <a href="#pg14">14</a>, <a href="#pg31">31</a>, <a href="#pg66">66</a>.<br >
+Taylor, John, of Norwich, <a href="#pg39">39</a>.<br >
+Temperance reform, <a href="#pg100">100</a>, <a href="#pg322">322</a>, <a href="#pg327">327</a>, <a href="#pg349">349-353</a>.<br >
+Thacher, Samuel C., <a href="#pg94">94</a>, <a href="#pg96">96</a>, <a href="#pg99">99</a>, <a href="#pg103">103</a>, <a href="#pg344">344</a>.<br >
+Thayer, Nathaniel, <a href="#pg134">134</a>.<br >
+Theatre preaching, <a href="#pg215">215</a>, <a href="#pg216">216</a>.<br >
+Theological library, <a href="#pg164">164</a>.<br >
+Thomas, Moses G., <a href="#pg140">140</a>.<br >
+Thompson, James W., <a href="#pg360">360</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg448">448</a>.<br >
+Thoreau, Henry D., <a href="#pg415">415</a>, <a href="#pg428">428</a>.<br >
+Ticknor, Anna E., <a href="#pg404">404</a>, <a href="#pg405">405</a>.<br >
+Ticknor, George, <a href="#pg98">98</a>, <a href="#pg390">390</a>, <a href="#pg410">410</a>, <a href="#pg424">424</a>, <a href="#pg525">525</a>, <a href="#pg526">526</a>.<br >
+Tilden, William P., <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br >
+Tileston, Thomas, <a href="#pg385">385</a>.<br >
+Tillotson, John, <a href="#pg11">11</a>, <a href="#pg44">44</a>, <a href="#pg45">45</a>, <a href="#pg67">67</a>.<br >
+Toleration, <a href="#pg6">6</a>, <a href="#pg7">7</a>, <a href="#pg9">9</a>, <a href="#pg11">11</a>, <a href="#pg13">13</a>, <a href="#pg21">21</a>, <a href="#pg37">37</a>, <a href="#pg43">43</a>, <a href="#pg61">61</a>, <a href="#pg67">67</a>, <a href="#pg85">85</a>, <a href="#pg89">89</a>, <a href="#pg103">103</a>, <a href="#pg107">107</a>, <a href="#pg121">121</a>.<br >
+Toy, Crawford H., <a href="#pg274">274</a>, <a href="#pg452">452</a>.<br >
+Tracts, <a href="#pg145">145-147</a>, <a href="#pg163">163</a>, <a href="#pg248">248</a>, <a href="#pg300">300</a>, <a href="#pg307">307</a>.<br >
+Tracts, distribution of, <a href="#pg147">147</a>, <a href="#pg163">163</a>, <a href="#pg184">184</a>, <a href="#pg290">290</a>.<br >
+Transcendentalism, <a href="#pg155">155</a>, <a href="#pg199">199</a>, <a href="#pg200">200</a>, <a href="#pg222">222</a>, <a href="#pg417">417</a>, <a href="#pg431">431</a>.<br >
+Trinity, <a href="#pg13">13</a>, <a href="#pg14">14</a>, <a href="#pg42">42</a>, <a href="#pg45">45</a>, <a href="#pg55">55</a>, <a href="#pg58">58</a>, <a href="#pg63">63</a>, <a href="#pg65">65</a>, <a href="#pg66">66</a>, <a href="#pg69">69</a>, <a href="#pg71">71</a>, <a href="#pg79">79</a>, <a href="#pg83">83</a>.<br >
+Trowbridge, John T., <a href="#pg430">430</a>.<br >
+Tucker, John, <a href="#pg75">75</a>.<br >
+Tuckerman, Henry T., <a href="#pg261">261</a>, <a href="#pg428">428</a>.<br >
+Tuckerman, Joseph, <a href="#pg96">96</a>, <a href="#pg99">99</a>, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg247">247</a>, <a href="#pg250">250-257</a>, <a href="#pg260">260</a>, <a href="#pg264">264</a>, <a href="#pg265">265</a>, <a href="#pg270">270</a>, <a href="#pg282">282</a>, <a href="#pg297">297</a>, <a href="#pg298">298</a>, <a href="#pg322">322</a>, <a href="#pg323">323</a>, <a href="#pg331">331</a>, <a href="#pg334">334</a>, <a href="#pg344">344</a>.<br >
+Tudor, William, <a href="#pg116">116</a>.<br >
+Tullock, John, <a href="#pg5">5</a>.<br >
+Tuskegee Institute, <a href="#pg339">339</a>.<br >
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Unitarian Advocate, <a href="#pg447">447</a>.<br >
+Unitarian Association, American, <a href="#pg117">117</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;discussion in anonymous association, <a href="#pg129">129</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;meeting at house of Josiah Quincy, <a href="#pg128">128</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Gannett's statement of purpose, <a href="#pg128">128</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;printed report of committee, <a href="#pg128">128</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;meeting in Federal Street Church, <a href="#pg129">129</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;discussion as to advisability of organizing, <a href="#pg129">129</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;announcement at Berry Street Conference, <a href="#pg133">133</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;organization, <a href="#pg134">134</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;officers, <a href="#pg135">135</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;name selected, <a href="#pg138">138</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;work of first year, <a href="#pg139">139</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;first annual meeting, <a href="#pg140">140</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;missionary tour of Moses G. Thomas, <a href="#pg140">140</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;effort to absorb other societies, <a href="#pg141">141</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;report of directors, <a href="#pg141">141</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;attitude of churches, <a href="#pg142">142</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;receipts, <a href="#pg142">142</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;presidents, <a href="#pg142">142</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;secretaries, <a href="#pg143">143</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;missionary agents, <a href="#pg144">144</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;incorporation, <a href="#pg145">145</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;tracts, <a href="#pg145">145</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;depositaries, <a href="#pg146">146</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Book and Pamphlet Society, <a href="#pg147">147</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;distribution of books, <a href="#pg148">148</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;colporters, <a href="#pg148">148</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;missionary work in New England, <a href="#pg149">149</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;work in South and West, <a href="#pg151">151</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;tour of secretary, <a href="#pg152">152</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;contributions for domestic missions, <a href="#pg153">153</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;work of first quarter-century, <a href="#pg154">154</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;influence of radicalism, <a href="#pg155">155</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;indifference of churches, <a href="#pg160">160</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;officers, <a href="#pg160">160</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Quarterly and Monthly Journal, <a href="#pg162">162</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;tracts and books, <a href="#pg163">163</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;theological library, <a href="#pg164">164</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;devotional library, <a href="#pg164">164</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;publishing firm, <a href="#pg165">165</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;missionary activities, <a href="#pg167">167</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Association and Western Conference, <a href="#pg172">172</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;work during civil war, <a href="#pg177">177</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;results of fifteen years, <a href="#pg184">184</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;meeting to consider interests of Association, <a href="#pg187">187</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;vote to raise $100,000, <a href="#pg189">189</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;success, <a href="#pg190">190</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;convention in New; York, <a href="#pg190">190</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;organization of National Conference, <a href="#pg192">192</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;work planned, <a href="#pg193">193</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;new life in Association, <a href="#pg196">196</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;contributions, <a href="#pg197">197</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;new theological position, <a href="#pg197">197</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;organization of Free Religious Association, <a href="#pg202">202</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;attempts at reconciliation, <a href="#pg204">204</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;demand for creed, <a href="#pg205">205</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Year Book controversy, <a href="#pg207">207</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;attitude of Unitarians, <a href="#pg209">209</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;missionary work, <a href="#pg212">212</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Charles Lowe as secretary, <a href="#pg212">212</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;fires in Chicago and Boston, <a href="#pg213">213</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;work in west, <a href="#pg214">214</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;college town missions, <a href="#pg214">214</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;theatre preaching, <a href="#pg215">215</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;organization of local conferences, <a href="#pg217">217</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;fellowship and fraternity, <a href="#pg219">219</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;results of denominational awakening, <a href="#pg221">221</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;western issue, <a href="#pg225">225</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;constitution of 1892, <a href="#pg229">229</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;fellowship with Universalists, <a href="#pg230">230</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;officers, <a href="#pg231">231</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;adoption of representation, <a href="#pg232">232</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;co-operation of Association and National Conference, <a href="#pg233">233</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;building loan fund, <a href="#pg234">234</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Unitarian building, <a href="#pg237">237</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;seventy-fifth anniversary, <a href="#pg244">244</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;ministry at large, <a href="#pg247">247</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;aid to Sunday School Society, <a href="#pg266">266</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;fellowship with foreign Unitarians, <a href="#pg295">295</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;relations with British Association, <a href="#pg295">295</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Dall in India, <a href="#pg299">299</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;work in Japan, <a href="#pg303">303</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;educational work in South, <a href="#pg338">338</a>, <a href="#pg410">410</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;educational work for Indians, <a href="#pg340">340</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;attitude towards slavery, <a href="#pg363">363</a>;<br >
+&nbsp;&nbsp;formation of International Council, <a href="#pg440">440</a>.<br >
+Unitarian Association, British and Foreign, <a href="#pg295">295</a>, <a href="#pg298">298</a>, <a href="#pg303">303</a>.<br >
+Unitarian beliefs, <a href="#pg157">157</a>, <a href="#pg158">158</a>, <a href="#pg168">168</a>, <a href="#pg170">170</a>, <a href="#pg171">171</a>, <a href="#pg193">193</a>, <a href="#pg201">201</a>, <a href="#pg203">203</a>, <a href="#pg205">205-207</a>, <a href="#pg209">209</a>, <a href="#pg211">211</a>, <a href="#pg212">212</a>, <a href="#pg225">225-227</a>, <a href="#pg229">229</a>, <a href="#pg362">362</a>, <a href="#pg376">376</a>, <a href="#pg378">378</a>, <a href="#pg381">381</a>, <a href="#pg382">382</a>, <a href="#pg409">409</a>, <a href="#pg425">425</a>, <a href="#pg429">429</a>, <a href="#pg431">431</a>, <a href="#pg433">433</a>, <a href="#pg434">434</a>.<br >
+Unitarian Book and Pamphlet Society, <a href="#pg147">147</a>, <a href="#pg148">148</a>.<br >
+Unitarian Church Association of Maine, <a href="#pg217">217</a>, <a href="#pg240">240</a>.<br >
+Unitarian hymnology, <a href="#pg244">244</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br >
+Unitarian Miscellany, The, <a href="#pg111">111-114</a>.<br >
+Unitarian Monitor, The, <a href="#pg447">447</a>.<br >
+Unitarian name, <a href="#pg103">103</a>, <a href="#pg104">104</a>, <a href="#pg123">123</a>, <a href="#pg125">125</a>, <a href="#pg138">138</a>, <a href="#pg192">192</a>, <a href="#pg266">266</a>.<br >
+Unitarian Review, <a href="#pg451">451</a>.<br >
+Unitarian Temperance Society, <a href="#pg278">278</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg352">352</a>.<br >
+Unitarian, The (1834), <a href="#pg447">447</a>.<br >
+Unitarian, The (1886), <a href="#pg225">225</a>, <a href="#pg451">451</a>.<br >
+Unitarianism, American, <a href="#pg9">9</a>, <a href="#pg14">14</a>, <a href="#pg16">16</a>, <a href="#pg36">36</a>, <a href="#pg57">57-59</a>, <a href="#pg63">63</a>, <a href="#pg67">67</a>, <a href="#pg72">72</a>, <a href="#pg78">78</a>, <a href="#pg79">79</a>, <a href="#pg82">82</a>, <a href="#pg102">102</a>, <a href="#pg104">104</a>, <a href="#pg111">111</a>, <a href="#pg115">115</a>, <a href="#pg118">118</a>, <a href="#pg122">122</a>, <a href="#pg124">124-126</a>, <a href="#pg128">128</a>, <a href="#pg132">132</a>, <a href="#pg138">138</a>, <a href="#pg149">149</a>, <a href="#pg169">169</a>, <a href="#pg185">185</a>, <a href="#pg222">222-224</a>, <a href="#pg378">378</a>, <a href="#pg379">379</a>, <a href="#pg384">384</a>, <a href="#pg387">387</a>, <a href="#pg389">389</a>, <a href="#pg436">436-443</a>.<br >
+Unity, <a href="#pg225">225</a>, <a href="#pg451">451</a>.<br >
+Unity clubs, <a href="#pg277">277-278</a>.<br >
+Unity of God, <a href="#pg63">63</a>, <a href="#pg65">65</a>.<br >
+Universalism, <a href="#pg67">67-69</a>, <a href="#pg71">71</a>, <a href="#pg75">75</a>, <a href="#pg88">88</a>, <a href="#pg90">90</a>, <a href="#pg93">93</a>, <a href="#pg193">193</a>, <a href="#pg194">194</a>, <a href="#pg230">230</a>.<br >
+Universality of religion, <a href="#pg203">203</a>, <a href="#pg210">210</a>.<br >
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Vane, Sir Henry, <a href="#pg16">16</a>, <a href="#pg24">24</a>.<br >
+Very, Jones, <a href="#pg155">155</a>, <a href="#pg244">244</a>, <a href="#pg381">381</a>, <a href="#pg431">431</a>.<br >
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Walcutt, Robert F., <a href="#pg359">359</a>, <a href="#pg366">366</a>.<br >
+Walker, James, <a href="#pg95">95</a> 101, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg126">126</a>, <a href="#pg127">127</a>, <a href="#pg129">129</a>, <a href="#pg133">133-135</a>, <a href="#pg138">138</a>, <a href="#pg139">139</a>, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg200">200</a>, <a href="#pg267">267</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg397">397</a>, <a href="#pg450">450</a>.<br >
+Walker, James P., <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg188">188</a>, <a href="#pg236">236</a>, <a href="#pg272">272</a>, <a href="#pg280">280</a>.<br >
+Walker, Williston, <a href="#pg18">18</a>, <a href="#pg22">22</a>.<br >
+Walter, Cornelia W., <a href="#pg404">404</a>.<br >
+War, <a href="#pg343">343</a>, <a href="#pg346">346-348</a>.<br >
+Ware, Dr. Henry, <a href="#pg60">60</a>, <a href="#pg92">92</a>, <a href="#pg108">108</a>, <a href="#pg135">135</a>, <a href="#pg146">146</a>.<br >
+Ware, Henry, the younger, <a href="#pg100">100</a>, <a href="#pg110">110</a>, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg128">128</a>, <a href="#pg129">129</a>, <a href="#pg132">132</a>, <a href="#pg133">133</a>, <a href="#pg135">135</a>, <a href="#pg138">138</a>, <a href="#pg143">143</a>, <a href="#pg145">145</a>, <a href="#pg148">148</a>, <a href="#pg163">163</a>, <a href="#pg184">184</a>, <a href="#pg243">243</a>, <a href="#pg249">249</a>, <a href="#pg267">267</a>, <a href="#pg268">268</a>, <a href="#pg295">295</a>, <a href="#pg297">297</a>, <a href="#pg310">310</a>, <a href="#pg344">344</a>, <a href="#pg345">345</a>, <a href="#pg350">350</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg359">359</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br >
+Ware, Dr. John, <a href="#pg350">350</a>.<br >
+Ware, John F. W, <a href="#pg177">177</a>, <a href="#pg185">185</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br >
+Ware, William, <a href="#pg287">287</a>, <a href="#pg360">360</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg415">415</a>, <a href="#pg429">429</a>, <a href="#pg447">447</a>, <a href="#pg450">450</a>.<br >
+Warren Street Chapel, <a href="#pg257">257</a>, <a href="#pg332">332</a>, <a href="#pg337">337</a>.<br >
+Washington, <a href="#pg119">119</a>, <a href="#pg213">213</a>, <a href="#pg376">376</a>, <a href="#pg380">380</a>.<br >
+Washington, George, <a href="#pg377">377</a>, <a href="#pg379">379</a>.<br >
+Washington University, <a href="#pg397">397</a>, <a href="#pg398">398</a>.<br >
+Wasson, David A., <a href="#pg201">201</a>, <a href="#pg202">202</a>, <a href="#pg211">211</a>, <a href="#pg419">419</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br >
+Waterston, Robert C., <a href="#pg332">332</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br >
+Webster, Daniel, <a href="#pg356">356</a>, <a href="#pg380">380</a>, <a href="#pg385">385</a>, <a href="#pg387">387</a>.<br >
+Webster, Samuel, <a href="#pg50">50</a>.<br >
+Weeden, William B., <a href="#pg383">383</a>.<br >
+Weiss, John, <a href="#pg200">200</a>, <a href="#pg202">202</a>, <a href="#pg360">360</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg419">419</a>.<br >
+Weld, Angelina Grimké, <a href="#pg367">367</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>.<br >
+Weld, Theodore D., <a href="#pg365">365</a>, <a href="#pg367">367</a>.<br >
+Wells, John, <a href="#pg212">212</a>, <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br >
+Wendell, Barrett, <a href="#pg410">410</a>, <a href="#pg435">435</a>.<br >
+Wendte, Charles W., <a href="#pg246">246</a>, <a href="#pg276">276</a>, <a href="#pg289">289</a>, <a href="#pg337">337</a>.<br >
+West, Samuel, <a href="#pg69">69</a>, <a href="#pg85">85</a>, <a href="#pg87">87</a>.<br >
+West, Unitarianism in the, <a href="#pg151">151-153</a>, <a href="#pg224">224</a>.<br >
+Western Conference, <a href="#pg168">168-172</a>, <a href="#pg197">197</a>, <a href="#pg209">209</a>, <a href="#pg214">214</a>, <a href="#pg224">224-229</a>, <a href="#pg284">284</a>, <a href="#pg285">285</a>, <a href="#pg364">364</a>.<br >
+"Western issue," 225-228.<br >
+Western Messenger, The, <a href="#pg366">366</a>, <a href="#pg448">448</a>.<br >
+Western ministers, <a href="#pg149">149</a>, <a href="#pg152">152</a>.<br >
+Western Unitarian Association, <a href="#pg226">226</a>.<br >
+Wheaton, Henry, <a href="#pg134">134</a>, <a href="#pg381">381</a>.<br >
+Whipple, Edwin P., <a href="#pg428">428</a>.<br >
+White, Andrew D., <a href="#pg376">376</a>.<br >
+Whitefield, George, <a href="#pg41">41</a>, <a href="#pg44">44</a>, <a href="#pg46">46</a>.<br >
+Whitman, Bernard, <a href="#pg269">269</a>, <a href="#pg447">447</a>.<br >
+Whitman, Jason, <a href="#pg144">144</a>, <a href="#pg148">148</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br >
+Whitman, Walter, <a href="#pg431">431</a>.<br >
+Whitney, Leonard, <a href="#pg172">172</a>, <a href="#pg176">176</a>.<br >
+Whittier, John G., <a href="#pg376">376</a>, <a href="#pg431">431</a>.<br >
+Wigglesworth, Dr., <a href="#pg44">44</a>.<br >
+Wigglesworth, Thomas, <a href="#pg385">385</a>.<br >
+Wilkes, Eliza Tupper, <a href="#pg371">371</a>.<br >
+Willard, Samuel, <a href="#pg26">26</a>, <a href="#pg35">35</a>.<br >
+Williams, John E., <a href="#pg332">332</a>.<br >
+Williams, Roger, <a href="#pg16">16</a>, <a href="#pg24">24</a>, <a href="#pg121">121</a>.<br >
+Willson, Edmund B., <a href="#pg176">176</a>, <a href="#pg269">269</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br >
+Winkley, Samuel H., <a href="#pg185">185</a>.<br >
+Wise, John, <a href="#pg30">30-34</a>.<br >
+Wolcott, J.H., <a href="#pg385">385</a>.<br >
+Wolcott, Roger, <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br >
+Women, <a href="#pg30">30</a>, <a href="#pg191">191</a>, <a href="#pg250">250</a>, <a href="#pg282">282-294</a>, <a href="#pg343">343</a>, <a href="#pg348">348</a>, <a href="#pg349">349</a>, <a href="#pg368">368-372</a>, <a href="#pg402">402-407</a>, <a href="#pg428">428</a>, <a href="#pg429">429</a>.<br >
+Women's Alliance, <a href="#pg287">287-294</a>.<br >
+Women's Auxiliary, <a href="#pg286">286</a>.<br >
+Women's Western Unitarian Conference, <a href="#pg284">284</a>, <a href="#pg285">285</a>.<br >
+Woodbury, Augustus, <a href="#pg146">146</a>.<br >
+Worcester, <a href="#pg73">73</a>, <a href="#pg173">173</a>, <a href="#pg218">218</a>.<br >
+Worcester Association of Ministers, <a href="#pg173">173</a>, <a href="#pg269">269</a>.<br >
+Worcester, Noah, <a href="#pg93">93</a>, <a href="#pg98">98-100</a>, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg148">148</a>, <a href="#pg344">344</a>, <a href="#pg345">345</a>, <a href="#pg350">350</a>, <a href="#pg365">365</a>, <a href="#pg389">389</a>.<br >
+Wright, Carroll D., <a href="#pg196">196</a>, <a href="#pg231">231</a>.<br >
+Wyman, Jeffries, <a href="#pg180">180</a>, <a href="#pg427">427</a>.<br >
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Yale College, <a href="#pg43">43</a>.<br >
+Year Book of American Unitarian Association, <a href="#pg207">207</a>, <a href="#pg449">449</a>.<br >
+Young, Alexander, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg127">127</a>, <a href="#pg143">143</a>, <a href="#pg267">267</a>, <a href="#pg424">424</a>.<br >
+Young People's Religious Union, <a href="#pg278">278</a>.
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Unitarianism in America, by George Willis Cooke
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNITARIANISM IN AMERICA ***
+
+***** This file should be named 8605-h.htm or 8605-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/8/6/0/8605/
+
+Produced by David Starner, Christopher Lund, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
+  www.gutenberg.org/license.
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at 809
+North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887.  Email
+contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the
+Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:  www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For forty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
+</pre>
+
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/8605.txt b/8605.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..96a3790
--- /dev/null
+++ b/8605.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,14655 @@
+Project Gutenberg's Unitarianism in America, by George Willis Cooke
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Unitarianism in America
+
+Author: George Willis Cooke
+
+Posting Date: April 5, 2014 [EBook #8605]
+Release Date: August, 2005
+First Posted: July 28, 2003
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNITARIANISM IN AMERICA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Starner, Christopher Lund, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+UNITARIANISM IN AMERICA
+A History of its Origin and Development
+
+
+BY
+
+
+GEORGE WILLIS COOKE
+
+MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, AMERICAN ASSOCIATION
+FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, AMERICAN ACADEMY OF
+POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCE, ETC.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The aim I have had in view in writing this book has been to give a history
+of the origin of Unitarianism in the United States, how it has organized
+itself, and what it has accomplished. It seemed desirable to deal more
+fully than has been done hitherto with the obscure beginnings of the
+Unitarian movement in New England; but limits of space have made it
+impossible to treat this phase of the subject in other than a cursory
+manner. It deserves an exhaustive treatment, which will amply repay the
+necessary labor to this end. The theological controversies that led to the
+separation of the Unitarians from the older Congregational body have been
+only briefly alluded to, the design of my work not requiring an ampler
+treatment. It was not thought best to cover the ground so ably traversed by
+Rev. George E. Ellis, in his Half-century of the Unitarian Controversy;
+Rev. Joseph Henry Allen, in his Our Liberal Movement in Theology; Rev.
+William Channing Gannett, in his Memoir of Dr. Ezra Stiles Gannett; and by
+Rev. John White Chadwick, in his Old and New Unitarian Beliefs. The attempt
+here made has been to supplement these works, and to treat of the practical
+side of Unitarianism,--its organizations, charities, philanthropies, and
+reforms.
+
+With the theological problems involved in the history of Unitarianism this
+volume deals only so far as they have affected its general development. I
+have endeavored to treat of them fairly and without prejudice, to state the
+position of each side to the various controversies in the words of those
+who have accepted its point of view, and to judge of them as phases of a
+larger religious growth. I have not thought it wise to attempt anything
+approaching an exhaustive treatment of the controversies produced by the
+transcendental movement and by "the Western issue." If they are to be dealt
+with in the true spirit of the historical method, it must be at a period
+more remote from these discussions than that of one who participated in
+them, however slightly. I have endeavored to treat of all phases of
+Unitarianism without reference to local interests and without sectional
+preferences. If my book does not indicate such regard to what is national
+rather than to what is provincial, as some of my readers may desire, it is
+due to inability to secure information that would have given a broader
+character to my treatment of the subject.
+
+The present work may appear to some of its readers to have been written in
+a sectarian spirit, with a purpose to magnify the excellences of
+Unitarianism, and to ignore its limitations. Such has not been the purpose
+I have kept before me; but, rather, my aim has been to present the facts
+candidly and justly, and to treat of them from the standpoint of a student
+of the religious evolution of mankind. Unitarianism in this country
+presents an attempt to bring religion into harmony with philosophy and
+science, and to reconcile Christianity with the modern spirit. Its effort
+in this direction is one that deserves careful consideration, especially in
+view of the unity and harmony it has developed in the body of believers who
+accept its teachings. The Unitarian body is a small one, but it has a
+history of great significance with reference to the future development of
+Christianity.
+
+The names of those who accept Unitarianism have not been given in this book
+in any boastful spirit. A faith that is often spoken against may justify
+itself by what it has accomplished, and its best fruits are the men and
+women who have lived in the spirit of its teachings. In presenting the
+names of those who are not in any way identified with Unitarian churches,
+the purpose has been to suggest the wide and inclusive character of the
+Unitarian movement, and to indicate that it is not represented merely by a
+body of churches, but that it is an individual way of looking at the facts
+of life and its problems.
+
+In writing the following pages, I have had constantly in mind those who
+have not been educated as Unitarians, and who have come into this
+inheritance through struggle and search. Not having been to the manner born
+myself, I have sought to provide such persons with the kind of information
+that would have been helpful to me in my endeavors to know the Unitarian
+life and temper. Something of what appears in these pages is due to this
+desire to help those who wish to know concretely what Unitarianism is, and
+what it has said and done to justify its existence. This will account for
+the manner of treatment and for some of the topics selected.
+
+When this work was begun, the design was that it should form a part of the
+exhibit of Unitarianism in this country presented at the seventy-fifth
+anniversary of the formation of the American Unitarian Association. The
+time required for a careful verification of facts made it impossible to
+have the book ready at that date. The delay in its publication has not
+freed the work from all errors and defects, but it has given the
+opportunity for a more adequate treatment of many phases of the subject.
+Much of the work required in its preparation does not show itself in the
+following pages; but it has involved an extended examination of manuscript
+journals and records, as well as printed reports of societies, newspapers,
+magazines, pamphlets, and books. Many of the subjects dealt with, not
+having been touched upon in any previous historical work, have demanded a
+first-hand study of records, often difficult to find access to, and even
+more difficult to summarize in an interesting and adequate manner.
+
+I wish here to warmly thank all those persons, many in number and too
+numerous to give all their names, who have generously aided me with their
+letters and manuscripts, and by the loan of books, magazines, pamphlets,
+and newspapers. Without their aid the book would have been much less
+adequate in its treatment of many subjects than it is at present. Though I
+am responsible for the book as it presents itself to the reader, much of
+its value is due to those who have thus labored with me in its preparation.
+In manuscript and in proof-sheet it has been read by several persons, who
+have kindly aided in securing accuracy to names, dates, and historic facts.
+
+G.W.C.
+
+BOSTON, October 1, 1902.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+I. INTRODUCTION.--ENGLISH SOURCES OF AMERICAN UNITARIANISM
+  Renaissance
+  Reformation
+  Toleration
+  Arminianism
+  English Rationalists
+
+II. THE LIBERAL SIDE OF PURITANISM
+  The Church of Authority and the Church of Freedom
+  Seventeenth-century Liberals
+  Growth of Liberty in Church Methods
+  A Puritan Rationalist
+  Harvard College
+
+III. THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY IN THE CHURCHES
+  Arminianism
+  The Growth of Arminianism
+  Robert Breck
+  Books Read by Liberal Men
+  The Great Awakening
+  Cardinal Beliefs of the Liberals
+  Publications defining the Liberal Beliefs
+  Phases of Religious Progress
+
+IV. THE SILENT ADVANCE OF LIBERALISM
+  Subordinate Nature of Christ
+  Some of the Liberal Leaders
+  The First Unitarian
+  A Pronounced Universalist
+  Other Men of Mark
+  The Second Period of Revivals
+  King's Chapel becomes Unitarian
+  Other Unitarian Movements
+  Growth of Toleration
+
+V. THE PERIOD OF CONTROVERSY
+  The Monthly Anthology
+  Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity
+  General Repository
+  The Christian Disciple
+  Dr. Morse and American Unitarianism
+  Evangelical Missionary Society
+  The Berry Street Conference
+  The Publishing Fund Society
+  Harvard Divinity School
+  The Unitarian Miscellany
+  The Christian Register
+  Results of the Division in Congregationalism
+  Final Separation of State and Church
+
+VI. THE AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION
+  Initial Meetings
+  Work of the First Year
+  Work of the First Quarter of a Century
+  Publication of Tracts and Books
+  Domestic Missions
+
+VII. THE PERIOD OF RADICALISM
+  Depression in Denominational Activities
+  Publications
+  A Firm of Publishers
+  The Brooks Fund
+  Missionary Efforts
+  The Western Unitarian Conference
+  The Autumnal Conventions
+  Influence of the Civil War
+  The Sanitary Commission
+  Results of Fifteen years
+
+VIII. THE DENOMINATIONAL AWAKENING
+  The New York Convention of 1865
+  New Life in the Unitarian Association
+  The New Theological Position
+  Organization of the Free Religious Association
+  Unsuccessful Attempts at Reconciliation
+  The Year Book Controversy
+  Missionary Activities
+  College Town Missions
+  Theatre Preaching
+  Organization of Local Conferences
+  Fellowship and Fraternity
+  Results of the Denominational Awakening
+
+IX. GROWTH OF DENOMINATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS
+  "The Western Issue"
+  Fellowship with Universalists
+  Officers of the American Unitarian Association
+  The American Unitarian Association as a Representative Boy
+  The Church Building Loan Fund
+  The Unitarian Building in Boston
+  Growth of the Devotional Spirit
+  The Seventy-fifth Anniversary
+
+X. THE MINISTRY AT LARGE
+  Association of Young Men
+  Preaching to the Poor
+  Tuckerman as Minister to the Poor
+  Tuckerman's Methods
+  Organization of Charities
+  Benevolent Fraternity of Churches
+  Other Ministers at Large
+  Ministry at Large in Other Cities
+
+XI. ORGANIZED SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK
+  Boston Sunday School Society
+  Unitarian Sunday School Society
+  Western Unitarian Sunday School Society
+  Unity Clubs
+  The Ladies' Commission on Sunday-school Books
+
+XII. THE WOMEN'S ALLIANCE AND ITS PREDECESSORS
+  Women's Western Unitarian Conference
+  Women's Auxiliary Conference
+  The National Alliance
+  Cheerful Letter and Post-office Missions
+  Associate Alliances
+  Alliance Methods
+
+XIII. MISSIONS TO INDIA AND JAPAN
+  Society respecting the State of Religion in India
+  Dall's Work in India
+  Recent Work in India
+  The Beginnings in Japan
+
+XIV. THE MEADVILLE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL
+  The Beginnings in Meadville
+  The Growth of the School
+
+XV. UNITARIAN PHILANTHROPIES
+  Unitarian Charities
+  Education of the Blind
+  Care of the Insane
+  Child-saving Missions
+  Care of the Poor
+  Humane Treatment of Animals
+  Young Men's Christian Unions
+  Educational Work in the South
+  Educational Work for the Indians
+
+XVI. UNITARIANS AND REFORMS
+  Peace Movement
+  Temperance Reform
+  Anti-slavery
+  The Enfranchisement of Women
+  Civil Service Reform
+
+XVII. UNITARIAN MEN AND WOMEN
+  Eminent Statesmen
+  Some Representative Unitarians
+  Judges and Legislators
+  Boston Unitarianism
+
+XVIII. UNITARIANS AND EDUCATION
+  Pioneers of the Higher Criticism
+  The Catholic Influence of Harvard University
+  The Work of Horace Mann
+  Elizabeth Peabody and the Kindergarten
+  Work of Unitarian Women for Education
+  Popular Education and Public Libraries
+  Mayo's Southern Ministry of Education
+
+XIX. UNITARIANISM AND LITERATURE
+  Influence of Unitarian Environment
+  Literary Tendencies
+  Literary Tastes of Unitarian Ministers
+  Unitarians as Historians
+  Scientific Unitarians
+  Unitarian Essayists
+  Unitarian Novelists
+  Unitarian Artists and Poets
+
+XX. THE FUTURE OF UNITARIANISM
+
+APPENDIX.
+  A. Formation of the Local Conferences
+  B. Unitarian Newspapers and Magazines
+
+
+
+
+UNITARIANISM IN AMERICA.
+
+A HISTORY OF ITS ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.--ENGLISH SOURCES OF AMERICAN UNITARIANISM.
+
+The sources of American Unitarianism are to be found in the spirit of
+individualism developed by the Renaissance, the tendency to free inquiry
+that manifested itself in the Protestant Reformation, and the general
+movement of the English churches of the seventeenth century toward
+toleration and rationalism. The individualism of modern thought and life
+first found distinct expression in the Renaissance; and it was essentially
+a new creation, and not a revival. Hitherto the tribe, the city, the
+nation, the guild, or the church, had been the source of authority, the
+centre of power, and the giver of life. Although Greece showed a desire for
+freedom of thought, and a tendency to recognize the worth of the individual
+and his capacity as a discoverer and transmitter of truth, it did not set
+the individual mind free from bondage to the social and political power of
+the city. Socrates and Plato saw somewhat of the real worth of the
+individual, but the great mass of the people were never emancipated from
+the old tribal authority as inherited by the city-state; and not one of the
+great dramatists had conceived of the significance of a genuine
+individualism.[1]
+
+[Sidenote: Renaissance.]
+
+The Renaissance advanced to a new conception of the worth and the capacity
+of the individual mind, and for the first time in history recognized the
+full social meaning of personality in man. It sanctioned and authenticated
+the right of the individual to think for himself, and it developed clearly
+the idea that he may become the transmitter of valid revelations of
+spiritual truth. That God may speak through individual intuition and
+reason, and that this inward revelation may be of the highest authority and
+worth, was a conception first brought to distinct acceptance by the
+Renaissance.
+
+A marked tendency of the Reformation which it received from the Renaissance
+was its acceptance of the free spirit of individualism. The Roman Church
+had taught that all valid religious truth comes to mankind through its own
+corporate existence, but the Reformers insisted that truth is the result of
+individual insight and investigation. The Reformation magnified the worth
+of personality, and made it the central force in all human effort.[2] To
+gain a positive personal life, one of free initiative power, that may in
+itself become creative, and capable of bringing truth and life to larger
+issues, was the chief motive of the Protestant leaders in their work of
+reformation. The result was that, wherever genuine Protestantism appeared,
+it manifested itself by its attitude of free inquiry, its tendency to
+emphasize individual life and thought, and its break with the traditions of
+the past, whether in literature or in religion. The Reformation did not,
+however, bring the principle of individuality to full maturity; and it
+retained many of the old institutional methods, as well as a large degree
+of their social motive. The Reformed churches were often as autocratic as
+the Catholic Church had been, and as little inclined to approve of
+individual departures from their creeds and disciplines; but the motive of
+individualism they had adopted in theory, and could not wholly depart from
+in practice. Their merit was that they had recognized and made a place for
+the principle of individuality; and it proved to be a developing social
+power, however much they might ignore or try to suppress it.
+
+[Sidenote: Reformation.]
+
+In its earliest phases Protestantism magnified the importance of reason in
+religious investigations, although it used an imperfect method in so doing.
+All doctrines were subjected more or less faithfully to this test, every
+rite was criticised and reinterpreted, and the Bible itself was handled in
+the freest manner. The individualism of the movement showed itself in
+Luther's doctrine of justification by faith, and his confidence in the
+validity of personal insight into spiritual realities. Most of all this
+tendency manifested itself in the assertion of the right of every believer
+to read the Bible for himself, and to interpret it according to his own
+needs. The vigorous assertion of the right to the free interpretation of
+the Word of God, and to personal insight into spiritual truth, led their
+followers much farther than the first reformers had anticipated.
+Individualism showed itself in an endless diversity of personal opinions,
+and in the creation of many little groups of believers, who were drawn
+together by an interest in individual leaders or by a common acceptance of
+hair-splitting interpretations of religious truths.[3]
+
+The Protestant Church inculcated the law of individual fidelity to God, and
+declared that the highest obligation is that of personal faith and purity.
+What separated the Catholic and the Protestant was not merely a question of
+socialism as against individualism,[4] but it was also a problem of outward
+or inward law, of environment or intuition as the source of wholesome
+teaching, of ritualism or belief as the higher form of religious
+expression. The Protestants held that belief is better than ritual, faith
+than sacraments, inward authority than external force. They insisted that
+the individual has a right to think his own thoughts and to pray his own
+prayer, and that the revelation of the Supreme Good Will is to all who
+inwardly bear God's image and to every one whose will is a centre of new
+creative force in the world of conduct. They affirmed that the individual
+is of more worth than the social organism, the soul than the church, the
+motive than the conduct, the search for truth than the truth attained.
+
+These tendencies of Protestantism found expression in the rationalism that
+appeared in England at the time of the Commonwealth, and especially at the
+Restoration. All the men of broader temper proclaimed the use of reason in
+the discussion of theological problems. In their opinion the Bible was to
+be interpreted as other books are, while with regard to doctrines there
+must be compromise and latitude. We find such a theologian as Chillingworth
+recognizing "the free right of the individual reason to interpret the
+Bible."[5] To such men as Milton, Jeremy Taylor, and Locke the free spirit
+was essential, even though they had not become rationalists in the modern
+philosophical sense. They were slow to discard tradition, and they desired
+to establish the validity of the Bible; but they would not accept any
+authority until it had borne the test of as thorough an investigation as
+they could give it. The methods of rationalism were not yet understood, but
+the rational spirit had been accepted with a clear apprehension of its
+significance.
+
+[Sidenote: Toleration.]
+
+Toleration had two classes of advocates in the seventeenth century,--on the
+one hand, the minor and persecuted sects, and, on the other, such of the
+great leaders of religious opinion as Milton and Locke. The first clear
+assertion of the modern idea of toleration was made by the Anabaptists of
+Holland, who in 1611 put into their Confession of Faith this declaration of
+the freedom of religion from all state regulation: "The magistrate is not
+to meddle with religion, or matters of conscience, nor compel men to this
+or that form of religion, because Christ is King, and Lawgiver of the
+church and conscience." When the Baptists appeared in England, they
+advocated this principle as the one which ought to control in the relations
+of church and state. In 1614 there was published in London a little tract,
+written by one Leonard Busher, a poor laborer, and a member of the Baptist
+church that had recently been organized there. The writer addressed the
+King and Parliament with a statement of his conviction "that by fire and
+sword to constrain princes and peoples to receive that one true religion of
+the Gospel is wholly against the mind and merciful law of Christ."[6] He
+went on to say that no king or bishop is able to command faith, that it is
+monstrous for Christians to vex and destroy each other on account of
+religious differences. The leading Protestant bodies, especially the
+established churches, still held to the corporate idea of the nature of
+religious institutions; and, although they had rejected the domination of
+the Roman Church, they accepted the control of the state as essential to
+the purity of the church. This half-way retention of the corporate spirit
+made it impossible for any of the leading churches to give recognition to
+the full meaning of the Protestant idea of the worth of the individual
+soul, and its right to communicate directly with God. It remained for the
+persecuted Baptists and Independents, too feeble and despised to aspire to
+state influence, to work out the Protestant principle to its full
+expression in the spirit of toleration, to declare for liberty of
+conscience, the voluntary maintenance of worship, and the separation of
+church and state.
+
+After the Restoration, and again after the enthronement of William and
+Mary, it became a serious practical problem to establish satisfactory
+relations between the various sects. All who were not sectarian fanatics
+saw that some kind of compromise was desirable, and the more liberal wished
+to include all but the most extreme phases of belief within the national
+church. When that national church was finally established on the lines
+which it has since retained, and numerous bodies of dissenters found
+themselves compelled to remain outside, toleration became more and more
+essential, in order that the nation might live at peace with itself. From
+generation to generation the dissenters were able to secure for themselves
+a larger recognition, disabilities were removed as men of all sects saw
+that restrictions were useless, and toleration became the established law
+in the relations of the various religious bodies to each other.
+
+[Sidenote: Arminianism.]
+
+The conditions which led to toleration also developed a liberal
+interpretation of the relations of the church to the people, a broader
+explanation of doctrines, and a rational insight into the problems of the
+religious life. One phase of this more comprehensive religious spirit was
+shown in Arminianism, which was nothing more than an assertion of
+individualism in the sphere of man's relations to God. Calvinism maintained
+that man cannot act freely for himself, that he is strictly under the
+sovereignty of the Divine Will. The democratic tendency in Holland, where
+Arminianism had its origin, expressed itself in the declaration that every
+man is free to accept or to reject religious truth, that the will is
+individual and self-assertive, and that the conscience is not bound.
+Arminius and his coworkers accepted what the early Protestant movement had
+regarded as essential, that religion should be always obedient to the
+rational spirit, that nature should be the test in regard to all which
+affects human conduct, and that the critical spirit ought to be applied to
+dogma and Bible. Arminius reasserted this freedom of the human spirit, and
+vindicated the right of the individual mind to seek God and his truth
+wherever they may be found.
+
+As Protestantism became firmly established in England, and the nation
+accepted its mental and moral attitude without reserve, what is known as
+Arminianism came to be more and more prevalent. This was not a body of
+doctrines, and it was in no sense a sectarian movement: it was rather a
+mental temper of openness and freedom. In a word, Arminianism became a
+method of religious inquiry that appealed to reason, nature, and the needs
+of man. It put new emphasis on the intellectual side of religion, and it
+developed as a moral protest against the harsher features of Calvinism. It
+gave to human feelings the right to express themselves as elements in the
+problem of man's relations to God, and vindicated for God the right to be
+deemed as sympathetic and loving as the men who worship him.
+
+While the Arminians accepted the Bible as an authoritative standard as
+fully as did the Calvinists, they were more critical in its study: they
+applied literary and historical standards in its interpretation, and they
+submitted it to the vindication of reason. They sought to escape from the
+tyranny of the Bible, and yet to make it a living force in the world of
+conduct and character. They not only declared anew the right of private
+judgment, but they wished to make the Bible the source of inward spiritual
+illumination,--not a standard and a test, but an awakener of the divine
+life in the soul. They sought for what is really essential in religious
+truth, limited the number of dogmas that may be regarded as requisite to
+the Christian life, and took the position that only what is of prime
+importance is to be required of the believer. The result was that
+Arminianism became a positive aid to the growth of toleration in England;
+for it became what was called latitudinarian,--that is, broad in temper,
+inclusive in spirit, and desirous of bringing all the nation within the
+limits of one harmonizing and noble-minded church.
+
+[Sidenote: English Rationalists.]
+
+It was in such tendencies as these, as they were developed in Holland and
+England, that American Unitarianism had its origin. To show how true this
+is, it may be desirable to speak of a few of the men whose books were most
+frequently read in New England during the eighteenth century. The prose
+writings of Milton exerted great influence in favor of toleration and in
+vindication of reason. Without doubt he became in his later years a
+believer in free will and the subordinate nature of Christ, and he was true
+to the Protestant ideal of an open Bible and a free spirit in man. Known as
+a Puritan, his pleas for toleration must have been read with confidence by
+his coreligionists of New England; while his rational temper could not have
+failed to have its effect.
+
+His vindication of the Bible as the religion of Protestants must have
+commended Chillingworth to the liberal minds in New England; and there is
+evidence that he was read with acceptance, although he was of the
+established church. Chillingworth was of the noblest type of the
+latitudinarians in the Church of England during the first half of the
+seventeenth century; for he was generously tolerant, his mind was broad and
+liberal, and he knew the true value of a really comprehensive and inclusive
+church, which he earnestly desired should be established in England. He
+wished to have the creed reduced to the most limited proportions by giving
+emphasis to what is fundamental, and by the extrusion of all else. It was
+his desire to maintain what is essential that caused him to say: "I am
+fully assured that God does not, and therefore that man ought not, to
+require any more of any man than this--to believe the Scripture to be God's
+word, to endeavor to find the true sense of it, and to live according to
+it."[7]
+
+He would therefore leave every man free to interpret the Bible for himself,
+and he would make no dogmatic test to deprive any man of this right. The
+chief fact in the Bible being Christ, he insisted that Christianity is
+loyalty to his spirit. "To believe only in Christ" is his definition of
+Christianity, and he would add nothing to this standard. He would put no
+church or creed or council between the individual soul and God; and he
+would direct every believer to the Bible as the free and open way of the
+soul's access to divine truth. He found that the religion of Protestants
+consisted in the rational use of that book, and not in the teachings of the
+Reformers or in the confessions they devised. It is the great merit of
+Chillingworth that he vindicated the spirit of toleration in a broad and
+noble manner, that he was without sectarian prejudice or narrowness in his
+desire for an inclusive church, and that he spoke and wrote in a truly
+rational temper. He applied reason to all religious problems, and he
+regarded it as the final judge and arbiter. Religious freedom received from
+him the fullest recognition, and no one has more clearly indicated the
+scope and purpose of toleration.
+
+Another English religious leader, much read in New England, was Archbishop
+Tillotson. It has been said of him that "for the first time since the
+Reformation the voice of reason was now clearly heard in the high places of
+the church."[8] He was an Arminian in his sympathies, and held that the way
+of salvation is open to all who choose to accept its opportunities. He
+expressed himself as being as certain that the doctrine of eternal decrees
+is not of God as he was sure that God is good and just. His ground for this
+opinion was that it is repugnant to the convictions of justice and goodness
+natural to men. He maintained that we shall be justified before God by
+means of the reformation that is wrought in our own lives. We have an
+intuition of what is right, and a natural capacity for living justly and
+righteously. Experience and reason he made concomitant spiritual forces
+with the Bible, and he held that revelation is but a republication of the
+truths of natural religion. Tillotson was truly a broad churchman, who was
+desirous of making the national church as comprehensive as possible; and he
+was one who practised as well as preached toleration.
+
+Not less liberal was Jeremy Taylor, who was numbered among the dissenters.
+In the introduction to his Liberty of Prophesying he said, "So long as men
+have such variety of principles, such several constitutions, educations,
+tempers, and distempers, hopes, interests, and weaknesses, degrees of light
+and degrees of understanding, it was impossible all should be of one mind."
+Taylor justly said that in heaven there is room for all faiths. His Liberty
+of Prophesying, Chillingworth's Religion of Protestants, and Milton's
+Liberty of Unlicensed Printing are the great expressions of the spirit of
+toleration in the seventeenth century. Each was broad, comprehensive, and
+noble in its plea for religious freedom. It has been said of Taylor that
+"he sets a higher value on a good life than on an orthodox creed. He
+estimates every doctrine by its capacity to do men good."[9]
+
+Another advocate of toleration was John Locke, whose chief influence was as
+a rationalist in philosophy and religion. While accepting Christianity with
+simple confidence, he subjected it to the careful scrutiny of reason. His
+philosophy awakened the rationalistic spirit in all who accepted it, so
+that many of his disciples went much farther than he did himself. While
+accepting revelation, he maintained that natural knowledge is more certain
+in its character. He taught that the conclusions of reason are more
+important than anything given men in the name of revelation. He did not
+himself widely depart from the orthodoxy of his day, though he did not
+accept the doctrine of the Trinity in the most approved form.
+
+One of the rationalistic followers of Locke was Samuel Clarke, who
+attempted to apply the scientific methods of Newton to the interpretation
+of Christianity. He tried to establish faith in God on a purely scientific
+basis. He declared that goodness does not exist because God commands it,
+but that he commands it because it is good. He interpreted the doctrine of
+the Trinity in a rationalistic manner, holding to its form, but rejecting
+its substance.
+
+These men were widely read in New England during the eighteenth century. In
+England they were accounted orthodox, and they held high positions either
+in the national church or in the leading dissenting bodies. They were not
+sectarian or bigoted, they wished to give religion a basis in common sense
+and ethical integrity, and they approved of a Christianity that is
+practical and leads to noble living.
+
+When we consider what were the relations of the colonies to England during
+the first half of the eighteenth century, and that the New England churches
+were constantly influenced by the religious attitude of the
+mother-country,[10] it is plain enough that toleration and rationalism were
+in large measure received from England. In the same school was learned the
+lesson of a return to the simplicity of Christ, of making him and his life
+the standard of Christian fellowship. The great leaders in England taught
+positively that loyalty to Christ is the only essential test of Christian
+duty; and it is not in the least surprising the same idea should have found
+noble advocacy in New England. That a good life and character are the true
+indications of the possession of a saving faith was a thought too often
+uttered in England not to find advocacy in the colonies.
+
+In this way Unitarianism had its origin, in the teachings of men who were
+counted orthodox in England, but who favored submitting all theological
+problems to the test of reason. It was not a sectarian movement in its
+origin or at any time during the eighteenth century; but it was an effort
+to make religion practical, to give it a basis in reality, and to establish
+it as acceptable to the sound judgment and common sense of all men. It was
+an application to the interpretation of theological problems of that
+individualistic spirit which was at the very source of Protestantism. If
+the individual ought to interpret the Bible for himself, so ought he to
+accept his own explanation of the dogmas of the church. In so doing, he
+necessarily becomes a rationalist, which may lead him far from the
+traditions of the past. If he thinks for himself, there is an end to
+uniformity of faith--a conclusion which such men as Chillingworth and
+Jeremy Taylor were willing to accept; and, therefore, they desired an
+all-inclusive church, in order that freedom and unity of faith might be
+both maintained.
+
+In its beginning the liberal movement in New England was not concerned with
+the Trinity. It was a demand for simplicity, rationality, and toleration.
+When it had proceeded far on its way, it was led to a consideration of the
+problem of the Trinity, because it did not find that doctrine distinctly
+taught in the New Testament. Accepting implicitly the words of Christ, it
+found him declaring positively his own subordination to the Father, and
+preferred his teaching to that of the creeds. To the early liberals this
+was simply a question of the nature of Christ, and did not lessen for them
+their implicit faith in his revelation or their recognition of the beauty
+and glory of his divine character.
+
+[1] Paul Lafargue, The Evolution of Property from Savagery to
+    Civilization, 18, 19. "If the savage is incapable of conceiving the
+    idea of individual possession of objects not incorporated with his
+    person, it is because he has no conception of his individuality as
+    distinct from the consanguine group in which he lives.... Savages, even
+    though individually completer beings, seeing that they are
+    self-sufficing, than are civilized persons, are so thoroughly
+    identified with their hordes and clans that their individuality does
+    not make itself felt either in the family or in property. The clan was
+    all in all: the clan was the family; it was the clan that was the owner
+    of property." Also W.M. Sloan, The French Revolution and Religious
+    Reform, 38. "In the Greek and Roman world the individual, body, mind,
+    and soul, had no place in reference to the state. It was only as a
+    member of family, gens, curia, phratry, or deme, and tribe, that the
+    ancient city-state knew the men and women which composed it. The same
+    was true of knowledge: every sensation, perception, and judgment fell
+    into the category of some abstraction, and, instead of concrete things,
+    men knew nothing but generalized ideals."
+
+[2] Francesco S. Nitti, Catholic Socialism, 74, 85, 86. "If we consider
+    the teachings of the Gospel, the communistic origins of the church, the
+    socialistic tendencies of the early fathers, the traditions of the
+    Canon Law, we cannot wonder that at the present day Socialism should
+    count no small number of its adherents among Catholic writers.... The
+    Reformation was the triumph of Individualism. Catholicism, instead, is
+    communistic by its origin and traditions.... The Catholic Church, with
+    her powerful organization, dating back over many centuries, has
+    accustomed Catholic peoples to passive obedience, to a passive
+    renunciation of the greater part of individualistic tendencies."
+
+[3] See David Masson, Life of John Milton, III. 136; John Tulloch, Rational
+    Theology and Christian Philosophy in England, II. 9; John Hunt,
+    Religious Thought in England, I. 234.
+
+[4] The word socialism is not used here with any understanding that the
+    Catholic Church accepts the social theories implied by that name. It is
+    used to indicate that the Roman Church maintains that revelation is to
+    the church itself, and that it is now the visible representative of
+    Christ. The Protestant maintains that revelation is made through an
+    individual, and not to a church. See Otto Gierke, Political Theories of
+    the Middle Age, translated by F.W. Maitland, 10, 22. "In all centuries
+    of the Middle Age Christendom is set before us a single, universal
+    community, founded and governed by God himself. Mankind is one mystical
+    body; it is one single and internally connected people or fold; it is
+    an all-embracing corporation, which constitutes that Universal Realm,
+    spiritual, and temporal, which may be called the Universal Church, or,
+    with equal propriety, the Commonwealth of the Human Race.... Mediaeval
+    thought proceeded from the idea of a single whole. Therefore an organic
+    construction of human society was as familiar to it as a mechanical and
+    atomistic construction was originally alien. Under the influence of
+    biblical allegories and the models set by Greek and Roman writers, the
+    comparison of mankind at large and every smaller group to an animate
+    body was universally adopted and pressed. Mankind in its totality was
+    conceived as an Organism."
+
+[5] Tulloch, Rational Theology in England, I. 339.
+
+[6] David Masson, Life of Milton, III. 102.
+
+[7] The Religion of Protestants, II. 411.
+
+[8] John Hunt, Religious Thought in England, II. 99.
+
+[9] John Hunt, Religious Thought in England, I. 340.
+
+[10] John Hunt, Religious Thought in England, I. 340.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+
+THE LIBERAL SIDE OF PURITANISM.
+
+Unitarianism was brought to America with the Pilgrims and the Puritans. Its
+origins are not to be found in the religious indifference and torpidity of
+the eighteenth century, but in the individualism and the rational temper of
+the men who settled Plymouth, Salem, and Boston. Its development is
+coextensive with the origin and growth of Congregationalism, even with that
+of Protestantism itself. So long as New England has been in existence, so
+long, at least, Unitarianism, in its motives and in its spirit, has been at
+work in the name of toleration, liberty, and free inquiry.
+
+The many and wide divergences of opinion which were an essential result of
+the spirit and methods of Protestantism were shown from the first by the
+Pilgrims and Puritans. In Massachusetts, stringent laws were adopted in
+order to secure uniformity of belief and practice; but it was never
+achieved, except in name. Antinomianism early presented itself in Boston,
+and it was quickly followed by the incursions of the Baptists and Friends.
+Hooker did not find himself in sympathy with the Massachusetts leaders, and
+led a considerable company to Connecticut from Cambridge, Watertown, and
+Dorchester. Sir Henry Vane could not always agree with those who guided the
+religion and the politics of Boston; Roger Williams had another ideal of
+church and state than that which had come to the Puritans; and Sir Richard
+Saltonstall would not submit himself to the aristocratic methods of the
+Boston preachers.
+
+These are but a few of the many indications of the individualistic spirit
+that marked the first years of the Puritan colonies. It was a part of the
+Protestant inheritance, and was inherent in the very nature of
+Protestantism itself. Although the Puritans had only in part, and with
+faltering steps, come to the acceptance of the individualistic and rational
+spirit in religion, yet they were on the way to it, however long they might
+be hindered by an autocratic temper. In fact, the Puritans throughout the
+seventeenth century in New England were trying at one and the same time to
+use reason and yet to cling to authority, to accept the Protestant ideal
+and yet to employ the Catholic methods in state and church. In being
+Protestants, they were committed to the central motive of individualism;
+but they never consistently turned away from that conception of the church
+which is autocratic and authoritative.
+
+[Sidenote: The Church of Authority and the Church of Freedom.]
+
+Looked at from the modern sociological point of view, there are two types
+of church, the one socialistic or institutional and the other
+individualistic, the one making the corporate power of the church the
+source of spiritual life, the other making the personal insight of the
+individual man the fountain of religious truth. Such a church as that of
+Rome may be properly called socialistic because of its corporate nature,
+because it maintains that revelation is to, and by means of, an
+institution, an organic religious body.[1]
+
+Catholicism, whether of Rome, Greece, or England, makes the church as a
+great religious corporation the organ of religious expression. Such a
+corporation is the source of authority, the test of truth, the creator of
+spiritual ideals. On the other hand, such a church as the Protestant may be
+called individualistic because it makes the individual the channel of
+revelation. It emphasizes personality as of supreme worth, and it makes
+religious institutions of little value in comparison.
+
+Practically, the difference between the socialistic and the individualistic
+church is as wide as it is theoretically. In all Catholic churches the
+child is born into the church, with the right to full acceptance into it by
+methods of tuition and ritual, whatever his individual qualities or
+capacities. In all distinctly Protestant churches, membership must be
+sought by individual preference or supernatural process.[2] The way to it
+is through individual profession of its creed or inward miraculous
+transformation of character by the profoundest of personal experiences. In
+all socialistic or Catholic churches--whether heathen, ethnic, or
+Christian--young people are admitted to membership after a definite period
+of training and an initiation by means of an impressive ritual. In all
+Protestant churches, initiation takes place as the result of personal
+experiences and mature convictions, and is therefore usually deferred until
+adult life has been reached.
+
+When we bring out thus distinctly the ideals and methods of the two
+churches, we are able to understand that the Puritans were theoretically
+Protestants, but that they practically used the methods of the Catholics.
+This will be seen more clearly when we take the individualistic tendencies
+of the Puritans into distinct recognition, and place them in contrast with
+their socialistic practices. The Puritan churches were thoroughly
+individualistic in their admission of members, none being accepted into
+full membership but those who had been converted by means of a personal
+experience. In theory every male church member was a priest and king,
+authorized to interpret spiritual truth and to exercise political
+authority. Therefore, in 1631 the General Court of Massachusetts (being the
+legislative body) established the rule that only church members should
+exercise the right of suffrage. This law was continued on the statute books
+until 1664, and was accepted in practice until 1691.
+
+Because the individual Christian was accounted a priest, however humble in
+learning or social position, he had the right to join with others in
+ordaining and setting apart to the ministry of God the man who was to lead
+the church as its teacher or pastor, though this practice was abandoned as
+the state-church idea developed, as it did in New England by a process of
+reaction. Every man could read the Bible for himself, and give it such
+meaning as his own conscience and reason dictated. By virtue of his
+Christian experience he had the personal right to find in it his own creed
+and the law of his own conduct. It was not only his right to do this, but
+it was also his duty. Revivalism was therefore the distinct outgrowth of
+Puritanism, the expression of its individualistic spirit. It was the human
+means of bringing the individual soul within reach of the supernatural
+power of God, and of facilitating that choice of the Holy Spirit by which
+one was selected for this change rather than another. The means were
+social, it is true; but the end reached was absolutely individual, as an
+experience and as a result attained. What confirmation was to the Catholic,
+that was conversion to the Puritan.
+
+The Puritans in New England, however, inherited the older socialism to so
+large an extent that they proceeded to establish what was a state church in
+method, if not in theory. Though they began with the idea that the churches
+were to be supported by voluntary contributions (and always continued that
+method in Boston), yet in a few years they resorted to taxation for their
+maintenance, and enacted stringent laws compelling attendance upon them by
+every resident of a town, whatever his beliefs or his personal interests.
+They forbade the utterance of opinions not approved by the authorities, and
+made use of fines, imprisonment, and death in support of arbitrary laws
+enacted for this purpose. These methods were the same as those used by the
+older socialistic and state churches to compel acceptance of their
+teachings and practices. They were based on the idea of the corporate
+nature of the church, and its right to control the individual in the name
+of the social whole.
+
+The harshness of the Puritan methods was the result of this attempt to
+maintain a new idea in harmony with an old practice. The Baptists were
+consistently individualists in rejecting infant baptism, accepting
+conversion as essential to church membership, maintaining freedom of
+conscience, and practising toleration as a fundamental social law. The
+Puritans inconsistently combined conversion and infant baptism,--the
+Protestant right of private judgment with the Catholic methods of the state
+church,--a democratic theory of popular suffrage with a most aristocratic
+limitation of that suffrage to church members. As late as 1674 only 2,527
+men in all had been admitted to the exercise of the franchise in
+Massachusetts. One-sixth or one-eighth of the men were voters, the rest
+were disfranchised. The church and the state were controlled by this small
+minority in a community that was theoretically democratic, both in religion
+and politics.
+
+It is not surprising that there began to be mutterings against such
+restrictions. It shows the strength of character in the Puritan communities
+of Massachusetts and New Haven that a large majority of the men submitted
+as long as they did to conditions thoroughly undemocratic. As a political
+measure, when the grumblings became so loud as to be no longer ignored,
+what is called the half-way covenant was adopted, by means of which a
+semi-membership in the churches could be secured, that gave the right of
+suffrage, but permitted no action within the church itself.[3] Many
+writers on this period fail to understand the significance of the half-way
+covenant; for they attribute to that legislation the disintegrating results
+that followed. They forget that these half-members were not admitted to any
+part in church affairs; and they refuse to see that the methods employed by
+the Puritans were, because of their exclusiveness, of necessity
+demoralizing. In fact, the half-way covenant was a result of the
+disintegration that had already taken place as the issue of an attempted
+compromise between the institutional and the individualistic theories of
+church government.
+
+[Sidenote: Seventeenth-century Liberals.]
+
+By arbitrary methods the Puritans succeeded in controlling church and state
+until 1688, when the interference of the English authorities compelled them
+to practise toleration and to widen the suffrage. The words of Sir Richard
+Saltonstall to John Cotton and John Wilson show clearly that these methods
+were not accepted by all, and even Saltonstall returned to England to
+escape the restrictions he condemned. "It doth not a little grieve my
+spirit to hear what sad things are daily reported of your tyranny and
+persecutions in New England," he wrote, "as that you fine, whip, and
+imprison men for their consciences. First you compel such to come into your
+assemblies as you know will not join with you in your worship, and when
+they show their dislike thereof or witness against it, then you stir up
+your magistrates to punish them for such (as you conceive) their public
+affronts. Truly, friends, this your practice of compelling any in matters
+of worship to do that whereof they are not persuaded is to make them sin,
+and many are made hypocrites thereby, conforming in their outward man for
+fear of punishment. We pray for you and wish you prosperity in every way,
+hoped that the Lord would have given you so much light and love there, that
+you might have been eyes to God's people here, and not to practise those
+courses in wilderness which you went so far to prevent. These rigid ways
+have laid you very low in the hearts of the saints."[4]
+
+Another man who withdrew to England from the narrow spirit of the Puritans
+was William Pynchon, of Springfield, one of the best trained and ablest of
+the early settlers of Massachusetts. In 1650 he published a book on the
+Meritorious Price of our Redemption, in which he denied that Christ was
+subject to the wrath of God or suffered torments in hell for the redemption
+of men or paid the penalty for all human sins; but such teachings were too
+liberal and modern for the leaders in church and state.[5] What is now
+orthodox, that Christ's sacrifice was voluntary, was then heretical and
+forbidden.
+
+If during the first half-century of New England no liberalism found
+definite utterance, it was because of its repression. It was in the air,
+even then, and it would have found expression, had there been opportunity
+or invitation. There were other men than Williams, Saltonstall, Pynchon,
+and Henry Vane, who believed in toleration, liberty of conscience, and a
+rational interpretation of religion. In a limited way such men were Henry
+Dunster and Charles Chauncy, the first two presidents of Harvard College,
+who both rejected infant baptism because it was not consistent with a
+converted church membership. It was a small thing to protest against, and
+to suffer for as Dunster suffered; but the principle was great for which he
+contended, the principle of individual conviction in religion.
+
+The better spirit of the Puritans appears in such a saying as that of Sir
+Henry Vane, the second governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, that "all
+magistrates are to fear or forbear intermeddling with giving rule or
+imposing their own beliefs in religious matters."[6] To a similar purport
+was the saying of Thomas Hooker, the founder of Connecticut, that "the
+foundation of authority is laid in the free consent of the people."[7] In
+the writings of John Robinson, the Pilgrim leader, a like greatness of
+purpose and thought appears, as where he says that "the meanest man's
+reason, specially in matter of faith and obedience to God, is to be
+preferred before all authority of all men."[8] Robinson was a very strict
+Calvinist in doctrine; but he was tolerant in large degree, and thoroughly
+convinced of the worth of liberty of conscience. His liberality comes out
+in such words as these: "The custom of the church is but the custom of men;
+the sentence of the fathers but the opinions of men; the determinations of
+councils but the judgments of men."[9] How strong a believer in individual
+reason he was appears in this statement: "God, who hath made two great
+lights for the bodily eye, hath also made two lights for the eye of the
+mind; the one the Scriptures for her supernatural light, and the other
+reason for her natural light. And, indeed, only these two are a man's own,
+and so is not the authority of other men. The Scriptures are as well mine
+as any other man's, and so is reason as far as I can attain to it."[10]
+When he says that "the credit commending a testimony to others cannot be
+greater than is the authority in itself of him that gives it nor his
+authority greater than his person,"[11] he puts an end to all arbitrary
+authority of priest and church.
+
+It will be seen from these quotations that the spirit of liberality existed
+even in the very beginnings of New England, and in the convictions of the
+men who were its chief prophets and leaders. It was hidden away for a time,
+it may be, though it never ceased to find utterance in some form. The
+breadth of the underlying spirit finds expression in the compacts by which
+local churches united their members. The liberality was incipient, a
+promise of the future rather than a realization in the present.
+
+The earliest churches of New England were not organized with a creed, but
+with a covenant. Occasionally there was a confession of faith or a creedal
+statement; but it was regarded as quite unnecessary because it was implied
+in the general acceptance of the Calvinistic doctrines, and the use of the
+Cambridge platform or other similar document. The covenant of a church
+could not be a statement of beliefs, because it was a vow between Christ
+and his church, and a pledge of the individual members of the church with
+relation to each other. The creed was implied, but it was not expressed;
+and, although all the churches were Calvinist at first, the nature of the
+covenant was such that, when men grew liberal, there was no written creedal
+test by which they could be held to the old beliefs. When Calvinism was
+outgrown, it could be slowly and silently discarded, both by individual
+members of a church and by the church itself, because it was not explicitly
+contained in the covenant. The creed was rejected, but the covenant was
+retained.
+
+As soon as authority was withdrawn from the Puritan leaders by the English
+crown, the spirit of liberty began to show itself in many directions. In a
+sermon preached in 1691, Samuel Willard, the minister of the Old South
+Church in Boston, and afterwards president of Harvard College, gave
+utterance to what was stirring in many minds at that time. He said that God
+"hath nowhere by any general indulgence given away this liberty of his to
+any other authority in the world to have dominion over the consciences of
+men or to give rules of worship, but hath, on the other hand, strongly
+prohibited it and severely threatened any that shall presume to do it." He
+earnestly asserted that no authority is to be accepted but that of the
+Bible, and that is to be free for each person's individual interpretation.
+"Hath there not," Willard questions, "been too much of a pinning our faith
+on the credit or practice of others, attended on with a woful neglect to
+know what is the mind of Christ?" Here was a spirit that not many years
+later was showing itself in the liberal movement that grew into
+Unitarianism. The effort to free the consciences of men, and to bring all
+appeals to the Bible and to Christ, was what gave significance to the
+liberal movement of the next century.
+
+[Sidenote: Growth of Liberty in Church Methods.]
+
+There also began a movement to bring church and state into harmonious
+relations with each other, and to overcome the inconsistency of being
+individualist and socialist at the same moment. The theory of conversion
+being retained, it was proposed to make the ordinances of religion free to
+all, in order that they might bring about the supernatural change that was
+desired. This is the real significance of the position taken by Solomon
+Stoddard, of Northampton, who taught that the Lord's Supper is a converting
+ordinance, and who in practice did not ask for a supernatural regeneration
+as preparatory to a limited church membership, though he regarded this as
+essential to full admission. The half-way covenant had been adopted before
+Mr. Stoddard became the pastor of the church; but soon after his settlement
+this limited form of admission was more clearly defined, and he admitted
+persons into what he described as a "state of education."[12] This "large
+congregationalism," as it was called, was in time accepted as meaning that
+those who have faith enough to justify the baptism of their children have
+enough to admit them to full communion in the church. Mr. Stoddard appealed
+to the English practice in his defence of the broader principle which he
+adopted. He also vindicated his position by reference to the practices of
+the leading Protestant countries in Europe. His methods, as outlined and
+interpreted in his Appeal to the Learned,[13] were based more or less
+explicitly on the corporate idea of the church.
+
+Although Stoddard was a strict Calvinist, there can be no doubt that his
+method of open communion slowly led to theological modifications. Not only
+did it have a tendency to bring the state and church into closer relations
+with each other, by making the membership in the two more nearly the same,
+but it led the way to the acceptance of the doctrine of moral ability, and
+therefore to a modification of Calvinism. If it was a practical rather than
+a theological reason that caused Stoddard to adopt open communion, it
+almost inevitably led to Arminianism, because it implied, as he presented
+its conditions, that man is able of his own free will to accept the terms
+of salvation which Calvinism had confined to the operation of the
+sovereignty of God alone.
+
+Another way in which the spirit of the time was showing itself may be seen
+in the fact that the parish, towards the end of the seventeenth century, on
+more than one occasion refused to the church the selection of the minister;
+and church and parish met together for that purpose. This was the case in
+the first church of Salem in 1672, and at Dedham in 1685. So long as church
+members only were given the right of suffrage, the selection of the
+minister was wholly in their hands. As soon as the suffrage was extended,
+there was a movement to include all tax-payers amongst those who could
+exercise this choice. In 1666 such a proposition was discussed in
+Connecticut, and not long after it became the law. In 1692 the
+Massachusetts laws gave the church the right to select the minister, but
+permitted the parish to concur in or to reject such choice. During the next
+century there was a growing tendency to enlarge the privileges of the
+parish, and to make that the controlling factor in calling the minister and
+in all that pertained to the outward life of the church and congregation.
+The result will be seen more and more in the influence of the parish in the
+selection of liberal men for the pulpit.
+
+A notable instance of the more liberal tendencies is seen in the formation
+of the Brattle Street Church of Boston in 1699. Although this church
+accepted the Westminster Confession of Faith and adopted the practices
+common to the New England churches at this period, it insisted upon the
+reading of the Bible without comment as a part of the church service. The
+relation of religious experiences as preparatory to admission to the church
+was discarded, all were admitted to communion who were approved by the
+pastor, and women were permitted to take part in voting on all church
+questions. These and other innovations occasioned much discussion; and a
+controversy ensued between the pastor Benjamin Colman and Increase
+Mather.[14] The Salem pastors, Rev. John Higginson and Rev. Nicholas Noyes,
+addressed a letter to the Brattle Street congregation, in which they
+criticised the church because it did not consult with other churches in its
+formation, because it did not make a public profession of repentance on
+behalf of its members, because baptism was administered on less stringent
+terms than was customary and too lax admission was given to the sacraments,
+and because the admission of females to full church activity had a direct
+tendency "to subvert the order and liberty of the churches." Though the
+Brattle Street Church was for a time severely criticised, it soon came into
+intimate relations with the other churches of Boston, and it ceased to
+appear as in any way peculiar. That it was organized on a broader basis of
+membership indicates very clearly that the old methods were not
+satisfactory to all the people.[15]
+
+[Sidenote: A Puritan Rationalist.]
+
+The influence of similar ideas is seen in the books of John Wise, of
+Ipswich, whose Churches' Quarrel Espoused was published in 1710, and his
+Vindication of the Government of the New England Churches in 1717. His
+first book was in answer to the proposition of a number of the ministers of
+Boston to bring the churches under the control of associations. By this
+remonstrance the plan was defeated, and the independence of the local
+church fully established. In republishing his book, he added the
+Vindication, in order to give his ideas a more systematic expression. The
+Vindication is the most thoroughly modern book published in America during
+the eighteenth century. It has a literary directness and power remarkable
+for the time. Wise gives no quotations indicating that he had read the
+great liberal writers of England, but he was familiar with Plato and
+Cicero.
+
+In his first book he speaks of "the natural freedom of human beings,"[16]
+and says that "right reason is a ray of divine wisdom enstamped upon human
+nature."[17] Again, he says that "right reason, that great oracle in human
+affairs, is the soul of man so formed and endowed by creation with a
+certain sagacity or acumen whereby man's intellect is enabled to take up
+the true idea or perception of things agreeable with and according to their
+natures."[18] In such utterances as these Wise was putting himself into the
+company of the most liberal minds of England in his day, though he may not
+have read one of them. The considerations that were influencing Milton,
+Chillingworth, and Jeremy Taylor, in favor of toleration and a broad
+inclusiveness of spirit, evidently were having their effect upon this New
+England pastor.
+
+It is not to be assumed that John Wise was a rationalist in the modern
+sense; but he gave to the use of reason a significance that is surprising
+and refreshing, coming from the time and circumstances of his writing. In
+his Vindication we find him accepting reason and revelation as of equal
+validity. He appeals to the "dictates of right reason"[19] and the "common
+reason of mankind"[20] with quite as much confidence as to the Bible. He
+says that all questions of government, religious as well as political, are
+to be brought to "the assizes of man's own intellectual powers, reason, and
+conscience."[21] He assumes that God has created man capable of obeying his
+will and living in conformity with his law; for he says that, "if God did
+not highly estimate man as a creature exalted by his reason, liberty, and
+nobleness of nature, he would not caress him as he does in order to his
+submission."[22]
+
+Wise says that the characteristic of man which is of greatest importance is
+that he is "most properly the subject of the law of nature."[23] He uses
+this expression frequently and in a thoroughly modern sense.
+
+The second great characteristic of man, according to Wise, "is an original
+liberty enstamped upon his rational nature."[24] He indicates that he is
+not inclined to discuss the merely theological problem of man's relations
+to God, but, considered physically, man is at the head of creation, "and as
+such is a creature of a very noble character." [24] All the lower world is
+subject to his command, "and his liberty under the conduct of right reason
+is equal with his trust." [24] "He that intrudes upon this liberty violates
+the law of nature." [24] The effect of such liberty is not to lead man into
+license, but to make him the rational master of his own conduct. Every man
+is therefore at liberty "to judge for himself what shall be most for his
+behoof, happiness, and well-being."[25]
+
+The third great characteristic of man is found in "an equality amongst
+men," [25] which is to be respected and vindicated by governments that are
+just and humane. "By a natural right," he says, "all men are born free;
+and, nature having set all men upon a level and made them equals, no
+servitude or subjection can be conceived without inequality."[26] Again he
+says that it is "a fundamental principle relating to government that, under
+God, all power is originally in the people."[27] This is true of the church
+as well as of the state, and Wise says the Reformation was a cheat and a
+schism and a notorious rebellion if the people are not the source of power
+in the church.
+
+Two other ideas presented by this leader show his modernness and his
+originality. He says that "the happiness of the people is the object of all
+government,"[28] and that the state should seek to promote "the peculiar
+good and benefit of the whole, and every particular member, fairly and
+sincerely."[29] "The end of all good government," he assures his readers,
+"is to cultivate humanity, and promote the happiness of all, and the good
+of every man in all his rights, his life, liberty, estate, and honor,
+without injury or abuse done to any." [29] That government will seek the
+good of all is likely to be the case, because man has it as a fundamental
+law of his nature that he "maintain a sociableness with others."[30] "From
+the principles of sociableness it follows as a fundamental law of nature
+that man is not so wedded to his own interest but that he can make the
+common good the mark of his aim, and hence he becomes capacitated to enter
+into a civil state by the law of nature."[31] This attraction of man to his
+kind enables him to yield so much of his freedom as is necessary to make
+the state an efficient social power, "in which covenant is included that
+submission and union of wills by which a state may be conceived to be but
+one person."[32] This thoroughly modern idea of the social body, as being
+analogous in its nature to the individual man, is nobly expressed by Wise,
+who says that "a civil state is a compound moral person, whose will is the
+will of all, to the end it may use and apply the strength and riches of
+private persons toward maintaining the common peace, security, and
+well-being of all, which may be conceived as though the whole state was now
+become but one man."[33]
+
+It is not surprising that the writings of John Wise had no immediate effect
+upon the theological thinking of the time, but they must have had their
+influence. Just before the opening of the Revolution they were republished
+because of their vindication of the spirit of human liberty and democracy.
+What Wise wrote to promote was congregational independence, and this may
+have been the reason why his theological attitude was never called in
+question. It is true enough that he questioned none of the Calvinistic
+doctrines in his books; but his political views were certain to disturb the
+old beliefs, and to give incentives to free discussion in religion.
+
+[Sidenote: Harvard College.]
+
+The centre of the liberalizing tendencies of the last years of the
+seventeenth century was Harvard College. That institution was organized on
+a basis as broad as that of the early church covenants, with no creed or
+doctrinal requirements. The original seal bore the motto Veritas; but, as
+the state-church idea grew, this motto was succeeded by In Christi gloriam,
+and then by Christo et Ecclesiae, though neither of these later mottoes was
+authoritatively adopted. The early charters were thoroughly liberal in
+spirit and intent, so much so as to be fully in harmony with the present
+attitude of the university.[34] Under the Puritanic development, however,
+this liberality was discarded, only to be restored in 1691, when William
+and Mary gave to Massachusetts a new and broader charter. From that time a
+new life entered into the college, that put it uncompromisingly on the
+liberal side a century later. Even under the rule of Increase Mather,
+seconded by the influence of his son Cotton, a broader spirit declared
+itself in the culture imparted and in the method of free inquiry.[35]
+
+Samuel Willard, the successor to Increase Mather in the presidency, was of
+the liberal party in his breadth of mind and in his sound judgment. He was
+followed in 1708 by John Leverett, one of the founders of the Brattle
+Street Church, a man in whom the liberal spirit became a controlling motive
+in his management of the college.[36] It is not strange that the men who
+had been shut out from the suffrage and from active participation in the
+management of the churches, should now come forward to claim their rights,
+and to make their influence felt in college, church, and state. It was the
+distinct beginning of the liberal movement in New England, the time from
+which Unitarianism really took its origin.
+
+[1] Kuno Francke, Social Forces in German Literature, 105. "No mediaeval
+    man ever thought of himself as a perfectly independent being founded
+    only on himself, or without a most direct and definite relation to
+    some larger organism, be it empire, church, city, or guild. No
+    mediaeval man ever doubted that the institutions within which he lived
+    were divinely established ordinances, far superior and quite
+    inaccessible to his own individual reason and judgment. No mediaeval
+    man would ever have admitted that he conceived nature to be other than
+    the creation of an extramundane God, destined to glorify its creator
+    and to please the eye of man. It was reserved for the eighteenth
+    century to draw the last consequences of individualism; to see in man,
+    in each individual man, an independent and complete entity; to derive
+    the origin of state, church, and society from the spontaneous action
+    of these independent individuals; and to consider nature as a system
+    of forces sufficient unto themselves. When we speak of individualism
+    in the declining centuries of the Middle Ages, we mean by it that
+    these centuries initiated the movement which the eighteenth century
+    brought to a climax."
+
+[2] Williston Walker, the Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism, 246.
+    "From the first the fathers of New England insisted that the children
+    of church members were themselves members, and as such were justly
+    entitled to those church privileges which were adapted to their state
+    of Christian development, of which the chief were baptism and the
+    watchful discipline of the church. They did not enter the church by
+    baptism; they were entitled to baptism because they were already
+    members of the church. Here then was an inconsistency in the
+    application of the Congregational theory of the constitution of a
+    church. While affirming that a proper church consisted only of those
+    possessed of personal Christian character, the fathers admitted to
+    membership, in some degree at least, those who had no claim but
+    Christian parentage." That is, in theory they were Protestants, but in
+    practice they were Catholics.
+
+[3] The ecclesiastical historians say that the half-way covenant had no
+    effect on suffrage. Dexter, Congregationalism as Seen in its
+    Literature, 468, says: "I am aware of no proof that half-way covenant
+    members of the church by that relation did acquire any further
+    privileges in the state." Williston Walker, New Englander, cclxiii.,
+    93, February, 1892, takes ground that "added political privilege was
+    no consequence of the dispute." On the other hand, the secular
+    historians as strongly assert that the suffrage was widened. John
+    Fiske, Beginnings of New England, 250, says the half-way covenant
+    "entitled to the exercise of political rights those who were
+    unqualified for participation in the Lord's Supper." Alexander
+    Johnston, Connecticut, 227, says "it really gave every baptized person
+    voice in church government." J.A. Doyle, The Puritan Colonies, II.,
+    98, asserts that "it broke down the hard barrier which fenced in
+    political privileges." The true explanation is given by George H.
+    Haynes, Representation and Suffrage in Massachusetts, 1620-1691, 54,
+    published in Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and
+    Political Science, Vol. XII., Nos. VIII. and IX. Haynes says that the
+    half-way covenant, as first formulated in 1657, "virtually recognized
+    a partial church-membership in persons who had made no formal
+    profession and subscribed to no creed. In 1662 the same opinion was
+    reaffirmed by the clergy, and the General Court ordered the result of
+    the Synod to be printed and 'commended the same unto the consideration
+    of all the churches and people of this jurisdiction.' Here ended
+    legislative action on the matter. This was no statutory change of the
+    basis of the franchise; but, as individual churches gradually adopted
+    more liberal conditions of admission and were therein sanctioned by
+    the General Court, it resulted that the operation of the religious
+    test became less odious and the suffrage was not a little broadened."
+
+[4] Henry Bond, Early Settlers of Watertown, II. 916; Convers Francis,
+    Historical Sketch of Watertown, 135.
+
+[5] Mason A. Green, History of Springfield, 113; E.H. Byington, The
+    Puritan in England and New England, 185.
+
+[6] A Healing Question.
+
+[7] Alexander Johnston, Connecticut: A Study of a Commonwealth-Democracy,
+    72, Hooker's sermon preparatory to forming a government.
+
+[8] The Works of John Robinson, American edition of 1851, I., 53.
+
+[9] Ibid., 47.
+
+[10] Ibid., 54.
+
+[11] Ibid., 56.
+
+[12] J.R. Trumbull, History of Northampton, I. 213.
+
+[13] An Appeal to the Learned, being a vindication of the right of visible
+     saints to the Lord's Supper, though they be destitute of a saving work
+     of God's Spirit in their hearts, Boston, 1709. See also his Doctrine
+     of Instituted Churches, Boston, 1700.
+
+[14] Dwight, Life of Edwards, 300.
+
+[15] S.K. Lothrop, History of Brattle Street Church, 7-40; E. Turrell, Life
+    of Benjamin Colman, D.D., 96, 125, 178, 180.
+
+[16] The Churches' Quarrel Espoused, edition of 1860, 140.
+
+[17] Ibid., 143.
+
+[18] Ibid., 145
+
+[19] The Churches' Quarrel Espoused, edition of 1860, 32.
+
+[20] Ibid., 58.
+
+[21] Ibid., 72.
+
+[22] Ibid., 65.
+
+[23] Ibid., 30.
+
+[24] Ibid., 33.
+
+[25] The Churches' Quarrel Espoused, edition of 1860, 34.
+
+[26] Ibid., 37.
+
+[27] Ibid., 64.
+
+[28] Ibid., 54.
+
+[29] Ibid., 55.
+
+[30] Ibid., 32.
+
+[31] The Churches' Quarrel Espoused, edition of 1860, 32.
+
+[32] Ibid., 39.
+
+[33] Ibid., 40.
+
+[34] Josiah Quincy, History of Harvard University, i. 44-54.
+
+[35] Ibid., 65, 200.
+
+[36] Josiah Quincy, in the seventh chapter of his History, gives a detailed
+     account of this movement. It is also dealt with by Brooks Adams in his
+     chapter on the founding of the Brattle Street Church, in his
+     Emancipation of Massachusetts, though he gives it a somewhat
+     exaggerated and biassed importance. Most of the facts appear in
+     Lothrop's History of the Brattle Street Church.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+
+THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY IN THE CHURCHES.
+
+From the moment when the Puritan control of the church and state in New
+England was so far weakened as to permit of free intellectual and religious
+activity the democratic spirit began to manifest itself. The old regime had
+so fixed itself upon the people that the progress was slow, but none the
+less it was steady and sure. So far as the new spirit influenced doctrines,
+it was called Arminianism, the technical theological name for democracy in
+religion at this time.
+
+[Sidenote: Arminianism.]
+
+Arminianism is a dead issue at the present day, for the Calvinists have
+accepted all that it taught when the name first came into vogue. Every kind
+of reaction from Calvinism in the New England of the first half of the
+eighteenth century took this designation, however; and to the Calvinists it
+was a word of disapproval and contempt. Toleration, free inquiry, the use
+of reason, democratic methods in church and state, were all named by this
+condemning word. Vices, social depravities, love of freedom and the world,
+assertion of personal independence, had the same designation. It is now
+difficult to understand how bitter was the feeling thus produced, how keen
+the hurt that was given the men who tried to defend themselves and their
+beliefs from this odium.
+
+What the word "Arminian" legitimately meant, then, is what we now mean by
+liberalism. Primarily theological and doctrinal, it meant much more than
+the rejection of the doctrine of decrees and the autocratic sovereignty of
+God or the acceptance of the freedom of the will and the spiritual capacity
+of man. First of all, it was faith in man; and then it was the assertion of
+human liberty and equality. In a theological sense it did not have so wide
+a purport, but in a practical and popular sense it grew into these
+meanings.
+
+In order fully to comprehend what Arminianism was in the eighteenth
+century, the student must remember that it was the theological expression
+of the democratic spirit, as Calvinism was of the autocratic. The doctrine
+of the sovereignty of God is but the intellectual reflection of kingship
+and the belief that the king can do no evil. The doctrine of decrees, as
+taught by the Calvinist, was the spiritual side of the assertion of the
+divine right of kings. On the other hand, when the people claim the right
+to rule, they modify their theology into Arminianism. From an age of the
+absolute rule of the king comes the doctrine of human depravity; and with
+the establishment of democracy appears the doctrine of man's moral
+capacity.
+
+[Sidenote: The Growth of Arminianism.]
+
+As early as 1730 Arminianism had come to have an influence sufficient to
+secure its condemnation and to awaken the fears of the stricter Calvinists.
+Jonathan Edwards said of the year 1734 that "about this time began the
+great noise that was in this part of the country about Arminianism."[1] At
+Northampton the leader of the opposition to Jonathan Edwards was an open
+Arminian, a grandson of Solomon Stoddard, and a cousin of Edwards. He was a
+young man of talent and education, and well read in theology. In a letter
+written in 1750, Edwards said, "There seems to be the utmost danger that
+the younger generation will be carried away with Arminianism as with a
+flood." In another letter of the same year he said that "Arminianism and
+Pelagianism[2] have made a strange progress within a few years."[3] In
+his farewell sermon, Edwards spoke of the prevalence of Arminianism when he
+settled in Northampton, and of its rapid increase in the succeeding years.
+He said that Arminian views were creeping into almost all parts of the
+land, and that they were making a progress unknown before.[4] In a letter
+of 1752 Edwards said that the principles of John Taylor, of Norwich, one of
+the early English Unitarians, were gaining many converts in the colonies.
+Taylor's works were made use of by Solomon Williams in his reply to Edwards
+on the qualifications necessary to communion.[5]
+
+It was owing to the rapid growth of Arminianism that Edwards undertook his
+work on free will. In the preface to that work he said that "the term
+Calvinistic is, in these days, among most, a term of greater reproach than
+the term Arminian." That Edwards exaggerated the extent of this defection
+from Calvinism is probable, and yet it is very plain that it was this more
+liberal attitude of the Northampton church which caused his dismissal. What
+Stoddard had taught and practised was as yet powerful there, and Edwards's
+opposition to his grandfather's teachings undoubtedly led to the failure of
+his local work.
+
+[Sidenote: Robert Breck.]
+
+The council which dismissed Edwards from Northampton decided against him by
+a majority of one; and that one vote may have been cast by Robert Breck, of
+Springfield. If this were the case, there was something of poetic justice
+in it; for only a few years earlier Edwards had used his influence against
+the settlement of Breck because the latter was an Arminian. In 1734 a
+fierce church quarrel took place in Springfield, that involved many of the
+ministers of Massachusetts and Connecticut, invoked the aid of the county
+court, and was finally settled by the legislature of Massachusetts, when
+Mr. Breck was ordained.[6] He was charged with denying the authenticity of
+parts of the Bible, with discarding the necessity of Christ's satisfaction
+to divine justice for sin, with maintaining that the heathen who live up to
+the light of nature would be saved, and that the contrary doctrine was
+harsh. Breck refused to admit that he held these opinions, as thus stated;
+but he was regarded by many as an Arminian and a heretic. It was said of him
+that he would read any book, orthodox or otherwise, that would clear up a
+subject. That he departed to any considerable extent from the generally
+accepted faith of the time there is no evidence, but he was probably what
+was often called "a moderate Calvinist." He did not favor the methods of
+Whitefield, and he thoroughly distrusted the revival introduced by him.
+Soon after Breck's settlement the Springfield church followed the Brattle
+Street Church of Boston in discarding the relation of religious experiences
+as preliminary to admission to the church. It voted that it "did not look
+upon the making a relation to be a necessary term of communion."[7] At the
+very time that Edwards was preaching of the awful fate of sinners in the
+hands of an angry God, Breck was teaching that God is good and loving, and
+that his salvation is freely open to all who may wish for it. It has been
+truly said of these two men that "one had the heart and the other the
+intellect of theology." With all his logic and power of thought and
+marvellous spiritual insight, Edwards failed at Northampton because of
+conditions beyond the control of his strenuous will. Robert Breck gained
+year by year in his personal influence in Springfield, his cheerful and
+progressive teaching made a deep impression on the community, and before he
+died he saw a great change for the better in the people for whom he
+diligently labored. Perhaps we could not have a plainer indication of the
+change that was going on than is found in the experiences of these two
+men.[8]
+
+When Whitefield visited Harvard College in 1740, he was received in a most
+friendly manner; yet he afterwards criticised the teaching there on the
+ground that it was not sufficiently devout and earnest, and that the pupils
+were not examined as to their religious experiences.[9] These charges were
+denied by the president and tutors, and he was not again welcomed to the
+college.
+
+That there was a substantial basis for some of Whitefield's criticisms of
+Harvard there can be no doubt. In 1737, when Edward Holyoke was proposed as
+a candidate for the presidency, he met with a strong opposition from the
+strict Calvinists. After the opposition had spent itself, he was elected
+unanimously; and this act was received with marked approval by the General
+Court, from which body his maintenance was obtained. President Quincy says
+of President Holyoke that his religious principles coincided with the
+mildness and catholicity which characterized the government of the college.
+This evidently refers to the growing liberality of the college, and its
+unwillingness to lend its aid to extreme theological opinions. That
+moderateness of temper and that attitude of toleration which characterized
+the leading men in England had shown themselves at Cambridge, and with a
+strength that could not be overcome. "In Boston and its vicinity and along
+the seaboard of Massachusetts, clergymen of great talent and religious
+zeal," says President Quincy, "openly avowed doctrines which were variously
+denounced by the Calvinistic party as Arminianism, Arianism, Pelagianism,
+Socinianism, and Deism. The most eminent of these clergymen were alumni of
+Harvard, active friends and advocates of the institution, and in habits of
+intimacy and professional intercourse with its government. Their religious
+views, indeed, received no public countenance from the college; but
+circumstances gave color for reports, which were assiduously circulated
+throughout New England, that the influences of the institution were not
+unfavorable to the extension of such doctrines."[10]
+
+At the commencement of 1737 candidates for degrees proposed to prove that
+the doctrine of the Trinity was not contained in the Old Testament, that
+creation did not exist from eternity, and that religion is not mysterious
+in its nature. Much alarm was caused to the conservative party by the
+negative form given these questions, which, it was said, "had the plain
+face of Arianism." This criticism the faculty tried to quiet, but their
+sympathies were evidently on the side of the graduates.[11] In 1738, when a
+professor of mathematics was chosen, it was proposed to examine him as to
+"his principles of religion"; but, after a long debate, this proposition
+was rejected. After these and other efforts to control the religious
+position of the college the strict Calvinists for the time withdrew their
+efforts and concentrated them upon Yale College, in which institution the
+faculty were now required for the first time to accept the Assembly's
+Catechism and Confession of Faith.
+
+When the legislature of Connecticut, during the great awakening, passed a
+law prohibiting ministers from preaching as itinerants, several of the
+members of the Senior Class subscribed the money necessary for the
+publication of an edition of Locke's essay On Toleration. When this was
+known to the faculty, they forbade the publication; and all the students
+apologized but one, who learned a few days before commencement that his
+name was to be dropped from the roll of graduates. He went to the faculty
+with the statement that he was of age, that he possessed ample means, and
+that he would carry his case to a hearing before the crown in England. In a
+few days he was quietly informed that he would be permitted to graduate.
+This is but a straw, and yet it shows clearly enough the direction of the
+current at this time. A demand for toleration was made because it was felt
+that there was a need for it.
+
+[Sidenote: Books Read by Liberal Men.]
+
+The names of no less than thirty-three ministers have been given who,
+during the period from 1730 to 1750, did not teach the Calvinistic
+doctrines in their fulness, and who had adopted more or less distinctly
+some form of Arminianism or Arianism. These men were among the best known,
+most successful, and most scholarly men in Eastern Massachusetts, though
+they were not wholly confined to that neighborhood. We find here and there
+some hint of the books these men read; and in that way we not only
+ascertain the cause of their departure from Calvinism, but we also obtain
+some clew to the nature of their opinions. Among the charges brought by
+Whitefield against Harvard in 1740 was that "Tillotson and Clarke are read
+instead of Shepard and Stoddard, and such like evangelical writers."[12]
+Dr. Wigglesworth, the divinity professor at Harvard, said that Tillotson
+had not been taken out of the college library in nine years, and Clarke not
+in two; and he gave a long list of evangelical writers who were frequently
+read. In spite of this disclaimer, however, it is evident that the methods
+of the rationalistic writers were coming into vogue at Harvard, and that
+even Dr. Wigglesworth did not teach theology in the manner of the author of
+the Day of Doom.
+
+Writing in 1759, Dr. Joseph Bellamy, one of the chief followers and
+expositors of the teachings of Jonathan Edwards, said that the teachings of
+the liberal men in England had crossed the Atlantic; "and too many in our
+churches, and even among our ministers, have fallen in with them. Books
+containing them have been imported; and the demand for them has been so
+great as to encourage new impressions of some of them. Others have been
+written on the same principles in this country, and even the doctrine of
+the Trinity has been publicly treated in such a manner as all who believe
+that doctrine must judge not only heretical, but highly blasphemous."[13]
+
+It is said of Charles Chauncy, of the First Church in Boston, that his
+favorite authors were Tillotson and Baxter.[14] Far more suggestive is the
+account we have of the books read by Jonathan Mayhew of the West Church in
+Boston, the first open antagonist of Calvinism in New England. Soon after
+1740 he was reading the works of the great Protestant theologians of the
+seventeenth century, including Milton, Chillingworth, and Tillotson; and
+the eighteenth-century works of Locke, Samuel Clarke, Taylor, Wollaston,
+and Whiston. He also probably read Cudworth, Butler, Hutcheson, Leland, and
+other authors of a like character, some of them deists. Not one of these
+writers was a Calvinist for they found the basis of religion either in
+idealism or in rationalism.
+
+The biographer of Mayhew says it "is evident from some of his discourses
+that he was a great admirer of Samuel Clarke, whose voluminous works were
+in his day much read by the liberal clergy." Clarke's Boyle lectures,
+delivered in 1704-5, showed that natural and revealed religion were
+essentially one, that moral action in man is free, and that Christianity is
+the religion of reason and nature. At a later period he defended the two
+propositions, that "no article of Christian faith delivered in the holy
+Scriptures is disagreeable to right reason," and that "without liberty of
+human actions there can be no real religion or morality." Even if one such
+man as Jonathan Mayhew read Clarke's work in the Harvard Library, it
+justified the alarm felt by Whitefield lest the students should be led away
+from their Calvinist faith.[15]
+
+[Sidenote: The Great Awakening.]
+
+It was "the great awakening" that showed how marked had been the growth of
+liberal opinions throughout New England in the forty years preceding.
+Silently, a great change had gone on, with little open expression of
+dissent from Calvinism, and without a knowledge on the part of most of the
+liberal men that they had in any way departed from the faith of the
+fathers. It was only with the coming of Whitefield and the revival that
+this change came to have recognition, and that even the slightest
+separation into parties took place.
+
+The revival was an attempt to reintroduce the stricter Calvinism of the
+earlier time, with its doctrines of justification by faith alone,
+supernatural regeneration, and predestination made known to the believer by
+the Holy Ghost. The liberal party objected to the revival because it was
+opposed to the good old customs of the Congregational churches of New
+England. The itinerant methods of the revivalists, the shriekings,
+faintings, and appeals to fear and terror, were condemned as not in harmony
+with the established methods of the churches. In his book against the
+revivalists, Dr. Chauncy said that "now is the time when we are
+particularly called to stand for the good old way, and bear testimony
+against everything that may tend to cast a blemish on true primitive
+Christianity."[16]
+
+When the great awakening came to an end, the liberal party was far stronger
+than before, partly because the members of it had come to know each other
+and to feel their own power, partly because men had been led to declare
+themselves who had never before perceived their own position, and partly
+because the agitation had set men to thinking, and to making such scrutiny
+of their beliefs as they had never made before. The testimonies of Harvard
+College and various associations of ministers against the methods of the
+revivalists were signed by sixty-three men, while those in favor of the
+revival were signed by one hundred and ten. These numbers represent the
+comparative strength of the two parties. It must be said, however, that the
+leading men in nearly every part of New England were among those opposing
+the revival methods, while in Eastern Massachusetts at least two-thirds of
+the ministers were of the liberal party.[17]
+
+The strong feeling caused by the revival soon subsided, and no division
+between the Calvinist and the Arminian parties took place. The progressive
+tendencies went quietly on, step by step the old beliefs were discarded;
+but it was by individuals, and not in any form as a sectarian movement. The
+relations of the church to the state at this time would have made such a
+result impossible.
+
+[Sidenote: Cardinal Beliefs of the Liberals.]
+
+Looking over the whole field of the theological advance from 1725 to 1760,
+we find that three conclusions had been arrived at by the men of the
+liberal movement. The first of these was that what they stood for as a body
+was a recovery and restoration of primitive Christianity in its simplicity
+and power. It was said of Dr. Mayhew by his biographer that he "was a great
+advocate of primitive Christianity, and zealously contended for the faith
+once delivered to the saints."
+
+The second opinion, to which they gave frequent utterance, was that the
+Bible is a divine revelation, the true source of all religious teaching,
+and the one sufficient creed for all men. In his sermon against the
+enthusiasm of the revivalists, Chauncy said that a true test of all
+religious excitement, and of every kind of new teachings, was to be found
+in their "regard to the Bible, and its acknowledgment that the things
+therein contained are the commandments of God." "Keep close to the
+Scripture," was his admonition to his congregation, "and admit of nothing
+for an impression of the spirit but what agrees with that unerring rule.
+Fix it in your minds as a truth you will invariably abide by, that the
+Bible is the grand test by which everything in religion is to be tried."
+
+The third position of the men of the liberal movement was that Christ is
+the only means of salvation, and they yielded to him unquestioning loyalty
+and faith. Turning away from the creeds of men, as they did in so far as
+they could see their way, they concentrated their convictions upon Christ,
+and found in him the spiritual and vital centre of all faith that lives
+with true power to help men. Mayhew held that God could not have forgiven
+men their sins without the atonement of Christ, for his life and his gospel
+are the means of the great reconciliation by which man and God are brought
+into harmony with each other.
+
+[Sidenote: Publications defining the Liberal Beliefs.]
+
+In three publications may be seen what the Arminians had to teach that was
+opposed to Calvinism. In 1744 appeared in Boston a book of two hundred and
+eight pages by Rev. Experience Mayhew, one of a devoted family of
+missionaries to the Indians of Martha's Vineyard. He called his book "Grace
+Defended, in a Modest Plea for an important Truth: namely, that the offer
+of Salvation made to sinners comprises in it an offer of the Grace given in
+Regeneration." Mr. Mayhew claimed that he was a Calvinist, yet he rejected
+the teaching that every act of the unregenerate person is equal in the
+sight of God to the worst sin, and claimed that even the sinner can live so
+well and so justly as to favor his being accepted of God. Mayhew maintained
+that Christ died for all men, not for the elect only.[18] He claimed that
+"God cannot be truly said to offer salvation to sinners without offering to
+them whatsoever is necessary on his part, in order to their salvation."[19]
+Mayhew was usually credited with being an Arminian; for he positively
+rejected the doctrine of election, and he defended the principle of human
+freedom in the most affirmative manner.
+
+In 1749 Lemuel Briant (or Bryant), the minister in that part of Braintree
+which became the town of Quincy, published a sermon which he entitled The
+Absurdity and Blasphemy of Depreciating Moral Virtue. It condemned reliance
+on Christ's merits without effort to live his life, and showed that it is
+the duty of the Christian to live righteously. Briant said that to hold any
+other view was hurtful and blasphemous. He claimed that "the great rule the
+Scriptures lay down for men to go by in passing judgment on their spiritual
+state is the sincere, upright, steady, and universal practice of virtue."
+"To preach up chiefly what Christ himself laid the stress upon (and whether
+this was not moral virtue let every one judge from his discourses) must
+certainly, in the opinion of all sober men, be called truly and properly,
+and in the best sense, preaching of Christ."
+
+A pamphlet of thirty pages appeared in 1757, written by Samuel Webster, the
+minister of Salisbury, with the title "A Winter Evening's Conversation upon
+the doctrine of Original Sin, wherein the notion of our having sinned in
+Adam, and being on that account only liable to eternal Damnation, is proved
+to be Unscriptural." It is in the form of a dialogue between a minister and
+three of his parishioners, and gives, as few other writings of the
+eighteenth century do, a clear and explicit statement of the author's
+opinions in a readable and interesting form. That all have sinned in Adam
+the minister pronounces "a very shocking doctrine." "What! make them first
+to open their eyes in torment, and all this for a sin which certainly they
+had no hand in,--a sin which, if it comes upon them at all, certainly is
+without any fault or blame on their parts, for they had no hand in
+receiving it!" That Adam is our federal head, and that we sinned because he
+sinned, he calls "a mere castle in the air." "Sin and guilt are personal
+things as much as knowledge. I can as easily conceive of one man's
+knowledge being imputed to another as of his sins being so. No imputation
+in either case can make the thing to be mine which is not mine any more
+than one person may be another person." He declares that this doctrine of
+imputation causes infidelity. "It naturally leads men into every
+dishonorable thought of God which gives a great and general blow to
+religion." It impeaches the holiness of God, "for it supposes him to make
+millions sinners by his decree of imputation, who would otherwise have been
+innocent." That it was his decree alone "that made all Adam's posterity
+sinners is the very essence of this doctrine." "And so Christians are
+guilty of holding what even heathen would blush at." That God "should
+pronounce a sentence by which myriads of infants, as blameless as helpless,
+were consigned over to blackness of darkness to be tormented with fire and
+brimstone forever, is not consistent with infinite goodness." "How
+dreadfully is God dishonored by such monstrous representations as these!"
+Such a being cannot be loved by us, for every heart rebels against it. "All
+descriptions of the Divine Being which represent him in an unamiable light
+do the greatest hurt to religion that can be, as they strike at love, which
+is the fulfilling of the law. I am persuaded that many of those who think
+they believe this doctrine do not really believe it, or else they do not
+consider how it represents their heavenly Father." The pamphlet concludes
+with the acceptance of this broader teaching by the parishioners, but it
+was the cause of controversy in pulpits and by means of pamphlets. Bellamy
+denied the teachings of Webster, and Chauncy defended them. So bold a
+pamphlet as this showed how men had come to reason without compromise about
+the old doctrines, and gave evidence that the growing spirit of humanity
+would no longer accept what was harsh and cruel.
+
+[Sidenote: Phases of Religious Progress.]
+
+The New England churches were thus not standing still as regards doctrines,
+moral conduct, the methods of worship, or the relations they held to the
+state; but step by step they were moving away from the methods and the
+ideas of the fathers. The "lining out" of hymns was slowly abandoned, and
+singing by note took its place. The agitation that followed this attempt at
+reform was great and wide-spread. The introduction of an organized and
+trained choir was also in the nature of a genuine reform. When the liberal
+Thomas Brattle offered an organ to the new church in Brattle Street, it was
+voted "that they do not think it proper to use the same in the public
+worship of God." The instrument was, however, accepted by King's Chapel;
+and an organist was secured from London. It was not until 1770 that the
+church in Providence procured an organ, the first used in a Congregational
+church in New England.
+
+When Dr. Jonathan Mayhew died, in 1766, Dr. Chauncy prayed at his funeral;
+and this was said to have been the first prayer ever made at a funeral in
+Boston, so strong was the Puritan dislike of the customs of the Catholic
+Church.[20] In this way, as well as in others, the new liberalism broke
+down the old customs, and introduced those with which we are familiar.
+Perhaps the most marked tendency of this kind was the introduction of the
+reading of the Bible into the services of the churches as a part of the
+order of worship. This innovation was distinctly due to the liberal men and
+the high esteem in which they held the Scriptures as a means of giving
+sobriety and reasonableness to their religion. The First Church in Boston,
+in May, 1730, voted that the reading of the Scriptures, instead of the old
+Puritan way of expounding them, be thereafter discretionary with the
+ministers of that church, but "that the mind of the church is that larger
+portions should be publicly read than has been used."[21] As we have seen,
+the Brattle Street Church had already led in this reform, having adopted
+this practice in 1699. This custom of reading the Bible as a part of the
+service of worship came slowly into general acceptance, for there was a
+strong feeling against it. When a Bible was presented to the parish in
+Mendon, in 1767, a serious commotion resulted because of the strong feeling
+against the Church of England then prevalent; and the donor gave it to the
+minister until such time as the church might wish to use it. It was as late
+as 1785 that a copy of the Bible was given to the First Church in Dedham,
+with the request that the reading of it should be made a part of the
+exercises of the Lord's day; and the parish instructed the minister to read
+such portions of it as he thought "most desirable" and of "such length as
+the several seasons of the year and other circumstances" might render
+proper. In the West Church of Medway it was not until 1806 that this
+practice was established, and two of the Salem churches began it the same
+year. The reading of the Bible at ordination services did not become
+customary until an even later date.[22]
+
+Such are some of the practical innovations which accompanied the doctrinal
+development that was taking place. Liberality in one direction brought
+toleration and progress in others. Some of these changes were due to the
+fact that the prejudices against the Catholic Church and the Church of
+England had, in a measure, disappeared, because there was nothing to keep
+them alive. Others were due to the intellectual influences that came into
+the colonies from England. Still others resulted from the shifting
+relations of church and state, and were the effect of attempts to adjust
+those relations more satisfactorily.
+
+[1] Narrative of Surprising Conversions, edition of 1808, 13.
+
+[2] Denial of original sin, from Pelagius, an ascetic preacher of the
+    fifth century.
+
+[3] Dwight, Life of Edwards, 307, 336, 410, 413.
+
+[4] Ibid., 649.
+
+[5] Ibid., 495.
+
+[6] Green, History of Springfield.
+
+[7] Ibid., 255.
+
+[8] E.H. Byington, The Puritan in England and New England, devotes a
+    chapter to the controversy over Breck's settlement; but he does not
+    treat of the theological problems involved.
+
+[9] Whitefield's Seventh Journal, 28.
+
+[10] History of Harvard University, 52.
+
+[11] History of Harvard University, 23, 26.
+
+[12] Whitefield's Journal, seventh part, 28.
+
+[13] Historical Magazine, new series, IX. 227, April, 1871.
+
+[14] W.B. Sprague, Annals of the Unitarian Pulpit, II.
+
+[15] Levi L. Paine, A Critical History of the Evolution of Trinitarianism,
+     99. "Samuel Clarke and others took the ground that God is unipersonal,
+     and hence that the Son is a distinct personal being, distinguishing
+     God the Father as the absolute Deity from the Son whom they regarded
+     as God in a relative or secondary sense, being derived from the
+     Father, and having his beginning from Him."
+
+[16] Seasonable Thoughts, 337.
+
+[17] Alden Bradford, in his Memoir of the Life and Writings of Rev.
+     Jonathan Mayhew, D.D., gives a list of "the clergymen who openly
+     opposed or did not teach and advocate the Calvinistic doctrines" at
+     the time of Mayhew's ordination, in 1747. These were: Dr. Appleton,
+     Cambridge; Dr. Gay, Hingham; Dr. Chauncy, Boston; William Rand,
+     Kingston; Nathaniel Eelles, Scituate; Edward Barnard, Haverhill;
+     Samuel Cooke, West Cambridge (now Arlington); Jeremiah Fogg,
+     Kensington, N.H.; Dr. A. Eliot, Boston; Dr. Samuel Webster, Salisbury;
+     Lemuel Briant, Braintree; Dr. Stevens, Kittery, Me.; Dr. Tucker,
+     Newbury; Timothy Harrington, Lancaster; Dr. Gad Hitchcock, Pembroke;
+     Josiah Smith, Pembroke; William Smith, Weymouth; Dr. Daniel Shute,
+     Hingham; Dr. Samuel Cooper, Boston; Dr. Mayhew, Boston; Abraham
+     Williams, Sandwich; Anthony Wibird, Braintree (now Quincy); Dr.
+     Cushing, Waltham; Professor Wigglesworth, Harvard College; Dr. Symmes,
+     Andover; Dr. John Willard, Connecticut; Amos Adams, Roxbury; Dr.
+     Barnes, Scituate; Charles Turner, Duxbury; Dr. Dana Wallingford,
+     Conn.; Ebenezer Thayer, Hampton, N.H.; Dr. Fiske, Brookfield; Dr.
+     Samuel West, Dartmouth (now New Bedford); Dr. Hemenway, Wells. Among
+     those who took part in the ordination of Jonathan Mayhew, and
+     therefore presumably of the same theological opinions, were Hancock,
+     Lexington; Cotton, Newton; Cooke, Sudbury; Prescott, Danvers (now
+     Salem). To these may be added, says Bradford, though of a somewhat
+     later date: Dr. Coffin, Buxton; Drs. Howard, West, Lathrop, and
+     Belknap, Boston; Dr. Henry Cummings, Billerica; Dr. Deane, Portland;
+     Thomas Cary, Newburyport; Dr. Fobes, Raynham; Timothy Hilliard,
+     Cambridge; Thomas Haven, Reading; Dr. Willard, Beverly. Dr. Ezra
+     Ripley added the names of Hedge, of Warwick, and Foster, of Stafford.
+     This makes fifty-two in all, but probably as many more could be added
+     by careful search.
+
+[18] Grace Defended, 43.
+
+[19] Ibid., 60.
+
+[20] Alice Morse Earle, Customs and Fashions in Old New England, 364, 367.
+     See H.M. Dexter, Congregationalism as seen in its Literature, 458.
+
+[21] A.B. Ellis, History of the First Church in Boston, 199.
+
+[22] New England Magazine, February, 1899. A.H. Coolidge on Scripture
+     Reading in the Worship of the New England Churches.
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+
+THE SILENT ADVANCE OF LIBERALISM.
+
+The progressive tendencies went silently on; and step by step the old
+beliefs were discarded, but always by individuals and churches, and not by
+associations or general official action. Even before the middle of the
+eighteenth century there was not only a questioning of the doctrine of
+divine decrees, the conception that God elects some to bliss and some to
+perdition in accordance with his own arbitrary will, but there was also
+developing a tendency to reject the tritheism[1] which in New England took
+the place of a philosophical conception of the Trinity, such as had been
+held by the great thinkers of the Christian ages. In part this doubt about
+the Trinity was the result of a more thoughtful study of the Bible, where
+the doctrine taught by the leading theologians of the old school in New
+England does not appear; and in part it was the result of the reading of
+the works of the English divines of the more liberal school. Something of
+this tendency was also due to the spirit of free inquiry, and the rational
+interpretation of religion, that were beginning to make themselves felt
+amongst those not wholly committed to the old ways of thinking.
+
+It was characteristic of those who questioned the doctrine of the Trinity,
+as then taught, that they insisted on stating their beliefs in the language
+of the New Testament, especially in that of Jesus himself. They found him
+teaching his own dependence on his Father, claiming for himself only an
+inferior and subordinate position. Believing in his pre-existence, his
+supernatural character and mission, they held that he was the creator of
+the world or that creation took place by means of the spirit that was in
+him, and that every honor should be paid him except that of worshipping him
+as the Supreme Being. As in the ancient family the son was always
+subordinate to his father, so the Son of God presented in the New Testament
+is less exalted than his Father. This conception of Christ is technically
+called Arianism, from the Alexandrian presbyter of the fourth century who
+first brought it into prominence.
+
+[Sidenote: Subordinate Nature of Christ.]
+
+The Arian heresy did not necessarily follow the Arminian, but much the same
+causes led to its appearance. Many of the leading men in England had become
+Arians, including Milton, Locke, Taylor, Clarke, Watts, and others; and the
+reading of their books in New England led to an inquiry into the
+truthfulness of the doctrine of the Trinity. As early as 1720 the preachers
+of convention and election sermons were insisting upon a recognition of
+Christ in the old way, showing that they were suspicious of heresy.[2]
+Most of the Arians retained the other doctrines in which they had been
+educated, even putting a stronger emphasis upon them than before. Rarely
+was the subordinate nature of Christ made in any way prominent in
+preaching. It was held so strictly subsidiary to the cardinal doctrines of
+incarnation and atonement that only the most intelligent and watchful could
+detect any difference between those who were Arians and those who were
+strict Trinitarians. Now and then a man of more pronounced convictions and
+utterance was shunned by his ministerial neighbors, but this rarely
+occurred and had little practical effect. So long as a preacher gave
+satisfaction to his own congregation, and had behind him the voters and the
+tax-list of his town, his heresies were passed by with only comment and
+gossip.
+
+We find here and there definite indications of the doctrinal changes that
+were taking place, as in the republication of Emlyn's Humble Inquiry into
+the Scripture Account of Jesus Christ, which appeared in Boston in 1756.
+Thomas Emlyn, the first English preacher who called himself a Unitarian,
+published his Humble Inquiry in 1702; and in 1705 he established a
+Unitarian congregation in London. This distinctively Unitarian book made an
+able defence of the doctrine of the subordinate nature of Christ. More
+significant than the republication of the book itself was the preface
+written for it by a Boston layman, addressed to the ministers of the town,
+in which he said that he found its teaching "to be the true, plain,
+unadulterated doctrine of the Gospel." He also intimated that "many of his
+brethren of the laity in the town and country were in sympathy with him and
+sincerely desirous of knowing the truth." "In New Hampshire Province,"
+wrote Dr. Joseph Bellamy, in 1760, "this party have actually, three years
+ago, got things so ripe that they have ventured to new model our Shorter
+Catechism, to alter or entirely leave out the doctrine of the Trinity, of
+the decrees, of our first parents being created holy, of original sin,
+Christ satisfying divine justice, effectual calling, justification,
+etc."[3]
+
+[Sidenote: Some of the Liberal Leaders.]
+
+The farther advance in the liberal movement may be most easily traced in
+the lives and teachings of three or four men. Rev Ebenezer Gay, who was
+settled in Hingham in 1717, was the first man in New England to arrive at a
+clear statement of opinions quite outside of and distinct from Calvinism.
+Writing of the years from 1750 to 1755, John Adams said that at that time
+Lemuel Briant, of Braintree, Jonathan Mayhew, of the West Church in Boston,
+Daniel Shute, of Hingham, John Brown, of Cohasset, and perhaps equal to
+all, if not above all, Ebenezer Gay, of Hingham, were Unitarians.[4] The
+rapid sale of Emlyn's book would prove the truthfulness of this statement.
+It was not by any sudden process that these men had come to what may be
+called Unitarianism, though, more properly, Arianism; and not as a mere
+result of a reaction from Calvinism. A new time had come, and with it new
+hopes and thoughts. The burdening sense of the spiritual world that
+belonged to the men of the seventeenth century did not belong to those of
+the eighteenth. Men had come to see that God must manifest himself in
+reason, common sense, nature, and the facts of life.
+
+In the life and teachings of such a man as Ebenezer Gay we catch a new
+insight into the spirit that was active in New England throughout the
+eighteenth century for the realization of a larger faith. He was a man of a
+strong, original, vigorous nature, a born leader of men, and one who
+impressed his own character upon those with whom he came into contact. He
+opposed the revival, and he made the men of his own association think with
+him in their opposition to it. Years before the revival, however, he was a
+liberal in theology, and had found his way into Arminianism. With the
+spirit of free inquiry he was in fullest sympathy. He was strongly opposed
+to creeds and to all written articles of faith. He condemned in the most
+forcible terms the young man who, on the occasion of his ordination,
+"engages to preach according to a rule of faith, creed, or confession which
+is merely of human prescription or imposition." In his convention sermon of
+1746 he denounced those who "insist upon the offensive peculiarities of the
+party they espoused rather than upon the more mighty things in which we are
+all agreed." It has been said of him that, after the middle of the century,
+"his discourses will be searched in vain for any discussions of
+controversial theology, any advocacy of the peculiar doctrines regarded as
+orthodox, or the expression of any opinions at variance with those of his
+successor, Dr. Ware."[5]
+
+The sermon on Natural Religion as distinguished from Revealed, which Dr.
+Gay delivered as the Dudleian lecture at Harvard, in 1759, showed the
+reasonable and progressive spirit of his preaching. He claimed that there
+is no antagonism between natural and revealed religion, and that, while
+revealed religion is an addition to the natural, it is not built on the
+ruins, but on the everlasting foundations of it. Revelation can teach
+nothing contrary to natural religion or to the dictates of reason. "No
+doctrine or scheme of religion," he said, "should be advanced or received
+as Scriptural and divine which is plainly and absolutely inconsistent with
+the perfections of God, and the possibility of things. Absurdities and
+contradictions, are not to be obtruded upon our faith. No pretence of
+revelation can be sufficient for the admission of them. The manifest
+absurdity of any doctrine is a stronger argument that it is not of God than
+any other evidence can be that it is."
+
+Jonathan Mayhew, the son of Experience Mayhew, of Martha's Vineyard, was
+settled over the West Church of Boston in 1747. He was even then known as a
+heretic, who had read the most liberal books of the English philosophers
+and theologians, and who had boldly accepted their opinions as his own. On
+the occasion of his ordination not one of the Boston ministers was present,
+although a number of them were well known for their liberal opinions. The
+ordination was postponed, and later several men of remoter parishes joined
+in inducting this young independent into his pulpit. No Boston minister
+would exchange pulpits with him, and he was not invited to join the
+ministerial association. He was shunned by the ministers, and he was
+dreaded by the orthodox; but he was gladly heard by a large congregation,
+which grew in numbers and intelligence as the years went on. He had among
+his hearers many of the leading men of the town, and to him gathered those
+who were most thoughtful and progressive. Boston has never had in any of
+its pulpits a man of nobler, broader, more humane qualities, or one with a
+mind more completely committed to seeking and knowing the truth, or with a
+more unflinching purpose to speak his own mind without fear or favor. His
+influence was soon powerfully felt in the town, and his name came to stand
+for liberty in politics as well as in religion. His sermons were rapidly
+printed and distributed widely. They were read in every part of New England
+with great eagerness; they were reprinted in England, and brought him a
+large correspondence from those who admired and approved of his teaching.
+Though he died in 1766, at the age of forty-six, his work and his influence
+did not die with him.
+
+The cardinal thought of Jonathan Mayhew with reference to religion was that
+of free inquiry. Diligent and free examination of all questions, he felt,
+was necessary to any acquisition of the truth. He believed in liberty and
+toleration everywhere, and this made him accept in the fullest sense the
+doctrine of the freedom of the will. In man he found a self-determining
+power, the source of his moral and intellectual freedom. He said that we
+are more certain of the fact that we are free than we are of the truth of
+Christianity. This belief led him to the rejection of the Calvinistic
+doctrine of inability, and to a strong faith in the moral and spiritual
+possibilities of human nature. He described Christianity as "a practical
+science, the art of living piously and virtuously."[6] He had quite freed
+his mind from bondage to creeds when he said that, "how much soever any man
+may be mistaken in opinion concerning the terms of salvation, yet if he is
+practically in the right there is no doubt but he will be accepted of
+God."[7] He held that no speculative error, however great, is sufficient
+to exclude a good and upright man from the kingdom of heaven, who lives
+according to the genuine spirit of the gospel. To him the principle of
+grace was always a principle of goodness and holiness; and he held that
+grace can never be operative as a saving power without obedience to that
+righteousness and love which Christ taught as essential.[8] He declared
+that "the doctrine that men may obtain salvation without ceasing to do evil
+and learning to do well, without yielding a sincere obedience to the laws
+of Christianity, is not so properly called a doctrine of grace as it is a
+doctrine of devils."[9] He said, again, that we cannot be justified by a
+faith that is without obedience; for it is obedience and good works that
+give to faith all its life, efficacy, and perfection.[10]
+
+[Sidenote: The First Unitarian.]
+
+Dr. Mayhew accepted without equivocation the right of private judgment in
+religion, and he practised it judicially and with wise insight. He
+unhesitatingly applied the rational method to all theological problems, and
+to him reason was the final court of appeal for everything connected with
+religion. His love of freedom was enthusiastic and persistent, and he was
+zealously committed to the principle of individuality. He believed in the
+essential goodness of human nature, and in the doctrine of the Divine
+Unity. He was the first outspoken Unitarian in New England, not merely
+because he rejected the doctrine of the Trinity, but because he accepted
+all the cardinal principles developed by that movement since his day. He
+was a rationalist, an individualist, a defender of personal freedom, and
+tested religious practices by the standard of common sense. His sermons
+were plain, direct, vigorous, and modern. A truly religious man, Mayhew
+taught a practical and humanitarian religion, genuinely ethical, and
+faithful in inculcating the motive of civic duty.
+
+Dr. Mayhew's words may be quoted in regard to some of the religious beliefs
+commonly accepted in his day. "The doctrine of a total ignorance and
+incapacity to judge of moral and religious truths brought upon mankind by
+the disobedience of our first parents," he wrote, "is without
+foundation."[11] "I hope it appears," he says, "that the love of God and of
+our neighbor, that sincere piety of heart, and a righteous, holy and
+charitable life, are the weightier matters of the gospel, as well as of the
+law."[12] "Although Christianity cannot," he asserts, "with any propriety
+or justice be said to be the same with natural religion, or merely a
+republication of the laws of nature, yet the principal, the most important
+and fundamental duties required by Christianity are, nevertheless, the same
+which were enjoined under the legal dispensation of Moses, and the same
+which are dictated by the light of nature."[13] His great love of
+intellectual and spiritual freedom finds utterance in such a statement as
+this: "Nor has any order or body of men authority to enjoin any particular
+article of faith, nor the use of any modes of worship not expressly pointed
+out in the Scriptures; nor has the enjoining of such articles a tendency to
+preserve the peace and harmony of the church, but directly the
+contrary."[14] Such sentences as the following are frequent on Mayhew's
+pages, and they show clearly the trend of his mind: "Free examination,
+weighing arguments for and against with care and impartiality, is the way
+to find truth." "True religion flourishes the more, the more people
+exercise their right of private judgment."[15] "There is nothing more
+foolish and superstitious than a veneration for ancient creeds and
+doctrines as such, and nothing is more unworthy a reasonable creature than
+to value principles by their age, as some men do their wines."[16]
+
+Mayhew insisted upon the strict unity of God, "who is without rival or
+competitor." "The dominion and sovereignty of the universe is necessarily
+one and in one, the only living and true God, who delegates such measures
+of power and authority to other beings as seemeth good in his sight." He
+declared that the not preserving of such unity and supremacy of God on the
+part of Christians "has long been just matter of reproach to them"; and he
+said the authority of Christ is always "exercised in subordination to God's
+will."[17] His position was that "the faith of Christians does not
+terminate in Christ as the ultimate object of it, but it is extended
+through him to the one God."[18] The very idea of a mediator implies
+subordination as essential to it.[19] His biographer says he did not accept
+the notion of vicarious suffering, and, that he was an Arian in his views
+of the nature of Christ. "He was the first clergyman in New England who
+expressly and openly opposed the scholastic doctrine of the Trinity.
+Several others declined pressing the Athanasian Creed, and believed
+strictly in the unity of God. They also probably found it difficult to
+explain their views on the subject, and the great danger of losing their
+good name served to prevent their speaking out. But Dr. Mayhew did not
+conceal or disguise his sentiments on this point any more than on others,
+such as the peculiar tenets of Calvinism. He explicitly and boldly declared
+the doctrine irrational, unscriptural, and directly contradictory."[20] He
+taught the strict unity of God as early as 1753, "in the most unequivocal
+and plain manner, in his sermons of that year."[21] What most excited
+comment and objection was that, in a foot-note to the volume of his sermons
+published in 1755, Mayhew said that a Catholic Council had elevated the
+Virgin Mary to the position of a fourth person in the Godhead, and added,
+by way of comment: "Neither Papists nor Protestants should imagine that
+they will be understood by others if they do not understand themselves. Nor
+should they think that nonsense and contradictions can ever be too sacred
+to be ridiculous." The ridicule here was not directed against the doctrine
+of the Trinity, as has been maintained, but the foolish defences of it made
+by men who accepted its "mysteries" as too wonderful for reason to deal
+with in a serious manner. This boldness of comment on the part of Mayhew
+was in harmony with his strong disapproval of creed-making in all its
+forms. He condemned creeds because they set up "human tests of orthodoxy
+instead of the infallible word of God, and make other terms of Christian
+communion than those explicitly pointed out by the Gospel."[22]
+
+Dr. Mayhew was succeeded in the West Church by Rev. Simeon Howard in 1767,
+who, though he was received in a more friendly spirit by the ministers of
+the town, was not less radical in his theology than his predecessor. Dr.
+Howard was both an Arminian and an Arian, and he was "a believer neither in
+the Trinity, nor in the divine predestination of total depravity, and
+necessary ruin to any human soul."[23] He was of a gentle and conciliatory
+temper, but his preaching was quite as thorough-going in its intellectual
+earnestness as was Dr. Mayhew's.
+
+[Sidenote: A Pronounced Universalist.]
+
+Another preacher on the liberal side was Dr. Charles Chauncy of the First
+Church in Boston, whose ministry lasted from 1727 to 1787. He was the most
+vigorous of the opponents of the great awakening, both in his pulpit and
+through the press. He wrote a book on certain French fanatics, with the
+purpose of showing what would be the natural results of the excesses of the
+revival; he preached a powerful sermon on enthusiasm, to indicate the
+dangers of religious excitement, when not controlled by common sense and
+reason; and he travelled throughout New England to gain all the information
+possible about the revival, its methods and results, and published his
+Seasonable Thoughts on the State of Religion in New England in 1743. He had
+been influenced by the reading of Taylor, Tillotson, Clarke, and the other
+latitudinarian and rationalistic writers of England; and he found the
+revival in its excesses repugnant to his every thought of what was true and
+devout in religion.
+
+Dr. Chauncy was not an eloquent preacher; but he was clear, earnest, and
+honest. Many of his sermons were published, and his books numbered nearly a
+dozen. As early as 1739 he preached a sermon in favor of religious
+toleration. At a later period he said, "It is with me past all doubt that
+the religion of Jesus will never be restored to its primitive purity,
+simplicity, and glory, until religious establishments are so brought down
+as to be no more."[24] It was this conviction which made him oppose in his
+pulpit and in two or three books the effort that was made just before the
+Revolution to establish the English Church as the state form of religion in
+the colonies. He said, in 1767, that the American people would hazard
+everything dear to them--their estates, their lives--rather than suffer
+their necks to be put under the yoke of bondage to any foreign power in
+state or church.[25]
+
+In his early life Dr. Chauncy was an Arminian, but slowly he grew to the
+acceptance of distinctly Unitarian and Universalist doctrines. Near the end
+of his life he Published four or five books in which he advanced very
+liberal opinions. One of these, published in Boston in 1784, was on The
+Benevolence of the Deity fairly and impartially Considered. This book
+followed the same method and purpose as Butler's Analogy, and aimed to show
+that God has manifested his goodness in creation and in the life of man. He
+said that our moral self-determination, or free will, is our one great gift
+from God. He discussed the moral problems of life in order to prove the
+benevolence of God, maintaining that the goodness we see in him is of the
+same nature with goodness in ourselves. The year following he published a
+book on the Scriptural account of the Fall and its Consequences, in which
+he rejected the doctrine of total depravity, and interpreted the new birth
+as a result of education rather than of supernatural change. Thus he
+brought to full statement the logical result of the half-way covenant and
+the teachings of Solomon Stoddard, as well as of the connection of church
+and state in New England. He saw that the method of education is the only
+one that can justly be followed in the preparation of the young for
+admission to a church that is sustained in any direct way by the state.
+
+Dr. Chauncy's great work as a preacher and author[26] was brought to its
+close by his books in favor of universal salvation. In 1783-84 he published
+in Boston two anonymous pamphlets advocating the salvation of all men, and
+these pamphlets made no little stir. In 1784 he published in London a work
+which he called The Mystery hid from Ages and Generations, made manifest by
+the Gospel Revelation; or, The Salvation of All Men the Grand Thing aimed
+at in the Scheme of God: By One who wishes well to the whole Human Race. In
+this book Dr. Chauncy made an elaborate study of the New Testament, in
+order to prove that salvation is to be universal. Christ died for all,
+therefore all will be saved; because all have sinned in Adam, therefore all
+will be made alive in Christ. He looked to a future probation, to a long
+period after death, when the opportunity of salvation will be open to all.
+He maintained that the misery threatened against the wicked in Scripture is
+that of this intermediate state between the earthly life and the time when
+God shall be all in all. He held that sin will be punished hereafter in
+proportion to depravity, and that none will be saved until they come into
+willing harmony with Christ, who will finally be able to win all men to
+himself, otherwise the power of God will be set at naught and his good will
+towards men frustrated of its purpose. In the future state of discipline,
+punishment will be inflicted with salutary effect, and thus the moral
+recovery of mankind will be accomplished.
+
+[Sidenote: Other Men of Mark.]
+
+Another leader was Dr. Samuel West, of Dartmouth, now New Bedford, where he
+was settled in 1760, and where he preached for more than forty years.[27]
+He rejected the doctrines of fore-ordination, election, total depravity,
+and the Trinity. In preaching the election sermon of 1776, he took the
+ground of an undisguised rationalism. "A revelation," he said, "pretending
+to be from God, that contradicts any part of natural laws ought immediately
+to be rejected as imposture; for the deity cannot make a law contrary to
+the law of nature without acting contrary to himself,--a thing in the
+strictest sense impossible, for that which implies contradiction is not an
+object of Divine Power." The cardinal idea of West's; position, as of that
+of most of the liberal men of his time, was stated by him in one sentence,
+when he said, "To preach Christ is to preach the whole system of divinity,
+as it consists of both natural and revealed religion."[28]
+
+In 1751 Rev. Thomas Barnard, of Newbury, was dismissed from his parish
+because he was regarded as unconverted by the revivalistic portion of his
+congregation; and in 1755 he was settled over the First Church in Salem. He
+was an Arminian, and at the same time an Arian of the school of Samuel
+Clarke. His son Thomas was settled over the North Church of Salem in 1773,
+which church was organized especially for him by his admirers in the First
+Church. He followed in the theological opinions of his father, but probably
+became somewhat more pronounced in his Arian views, so that, after his
+death, Dr. Channing called him a Unitarian. It is not surprising that the
+younger Barnard should have been liberal in his opinions and spirit, when
+we find his theological instructor, Rev. Samuel Williams, at his
+ordination, saying to him in the sermon preached on that occasion, "Be of
+no sect or party but that of good men, and to all such (whatever their
+differences among themselves) let your heart be opened." On another similar
+occasion Mr. Williams said that it had always been his advice to examine
+with caution and modesty, "but with the greatest freedom all religious
+matters."[29] It was said of the younger Barnard that he believed "the
+final salvation of no man depended upon the belief or disbelief of those
+speculative opinions about which men, equally learned and pious, differ."
+When it was said to him by one of his parishioners, "Dr. Barnard, I never
+heard you preach a sermon upon the Trinity," the reply was, "And you never
+will."[30]
+
+In 1779 Rev. John Prince was settled over the First Church in Salem, as the
+colleague of the elder Barnard. He was an Arian, but in no combative or
+dogmatic manner. He was a student, a lover of science, and an advanced
+thinker and investigator for his time. In 1787 he invited the Universalist,
+Rev. John Murray, into his pulpit, then an act of the greatest
+liberality.[31] Another lover of science, Rev. William Bentley, was settled
+over the East Church of Salem, as colleague to Rev. James Diman, in 1782.
+The senior pastor was a strict Calvinist, but the parish called as his
+colleague this young man of pronounced liberal views in theology. As early
+as 1784 Mr. Bentley was interested in the teachings of the English
+Unitarian, William Hazlitt,[32] who at that time visited New England. And
+in 1786 he was reading Joseph Priestley's book against the Trinity with
+approval. He soon after commended Dr. Priestley's short tracts as giving a
+good statement of the simple doctrines of Christianity.[33] He insisted
+upon free inquiry in religion from the beginning of his ministry, and not
+long after he began preaching he became substantially a Unitarian.[34] In
+1789 he maintained that "the full conviction of a future moral retribution"
+is "the great point of Christian faith."[35] It has been claimed that Mr.
+Bentley was the first minister in New England to take distinctly the
+Unitarian position, and there are good reasons for this understanding of
+his doctrinal attitude.[36] Dr. Bentley corresponded with scholars in
+Europe, as he also did with Arab chiefs in their own tongue. He knew of the
+religions of India, and he seems to have given them appreciative
+recognition. The shipmasters and foreign merchants of Salem, as they came
+in contact with the Oriental races and religions, discarded their dogmatic
+Christianity; and these men, almost without exception, were connected with
+the churches that became Unitarian. It may be accepted as a very
+interesting fact that "the two potent influences shaping the ancient
+Puritanism of Salem into Unitarianism were foreign commerce and contact
+with the Oriental religions."[37]
+
+The formation of a second parish in Worcester, in 1785, was a significant
+step in the progress of liberal opinion. This was the first time when a
+town, outside of Boston, was divided into two parishes of the
+Congregational order on doctrinal grounds. On the death of the minister of
+the first parish several candidates were heard, and among them Rev. Aaron
+Bancroft, who was a pronounced Arminian and Arian. The majority preferred a
+Calvinist; but the more intelligent minority insisted upon the settlement
+of Mr. Bancroft,--a result they finally accomplished by the organization of
+a new parish. It was a severe struggle by which this result was brought
+about, every effort being made to defeat it; and for many years Mr.
+Bancroft was almost completely isolated in his religious opinions.[38]
+
+[Sidenote: The Second Period of Revivals.]
+
+It must not be understood that there was any marked separation in the
+churches as yet on doctrinal grounds. Calvinism was mildly taught, and
+ministers of all shades of opinion exchanged pulpits freely with each
+other. They met in ministerial associations, and in various duties of
+ordinations, councils, and other ecclesiastical gatherings. The preaching
+was practical, not doctrinal; and controverted subjects were for the most
+part not touched upon in the pulpits. About 1780, however, began a revival
+of Calvinism on the part of Drs. Bellamy, Emmons, Hopkins, and others; and
+especially did it take a strenuous form in the works of Samuel Hopkins. The
+New Divinity, as it was sometimes called, taught that unconditional
+submission to God is the duty of every human being, that we should be
+willing to be damned for the glory of God, and that the attitude of God
+towards men is one of unbounded benevolence. This newer Calvinism was full
+of incentives to missionary enterprise, and was zealous for the making of
+converts. Under the impulse of its greater enthusiasm there began, about
+1790, a series of revivals which continued to the middle of the nineteenth
+century. This was the second great period of revivalism in New England. It
+was far better organized than the first one, while its methods were more
+systematic and under better guidance; and the results were great in the
+building of churches, in establishing missionary outposts, and in awakening
+an active religious life amongst the people. It aroused much opposition to
+the liberals, and it made the orthodox party more aggressive. Just as the
+great awakening developed opposition to the liberals of that day, and
+served to bring into view the two tendencies in the Congregational
+churches, so this new revival period accentuated the divergencies between
+those who believed in the deity of Christ and those who believed in his
+subordinate nature, and led to the first assuming of positions on both
+sides. There can be little doubt that it put a check upon the friendly
+spirit that had existed in the churches, and that it began a division which
+ultimately resulted in their separation into two denominations.[39]
+
+Such details of individual and local opinion as have here been given are
+all the more necessary because there was at this time no consensus of
+belief on the part of the more liberal men. Each man thought for himself,
+but he was very reluctant to depart from the old ways in ritual and
+doctrine; and if the ministers consulted with each other, and gave each
+other confidential assistance, there was certainly nothing in the way of
+public conference or of party assimilation and encouragement. A visitor to
+Boston in 1791 wrote of the ministers there that "they are so diverse in
+their sentiments that they cannot agree on any point in theology. Some are
+Calvinists, some Universalists, some Arminians, and one, at least, is a
+Socinian."[40] Another visitor, this time in 1801, found the range of
+opinions much wider. In all the ministers of Boston he found only one rigid
+Trinitarian; one was a follower of Edwards, several were Arminians, two
+were Socinians, one a Universalist, and one a Unitarian.[41] This writer
+says it was not difficult to find out what men did not believe, but there
+was as yet no public line of demarcation among the clergy. There being no
+outward pressure to bring men into uniformity, no institution or body of
+men with authority to require assent to a standard of orthodoxy, little
+attention was given to merely doctrinal interests. The position taken was
+that presented by Rev. John Tucker of Newbury, in the convention sermon of
+1768, when he said that no one has any right whatever to legislate in
+behalf of Christ, who alone has authority to fix the terms of the Gospel.
+He said that, as all believers and teachers of Christianity are "perfectly
+upon a level with one another, none of them can have any authority even to
+interpret the laws of this kingdom for others, so as to require their
+assent to such interpretation." He also declared that as "every Christian
+has and must have a right to judge for himself of the true sense and
+meaning of all gospel truths, no doctrines, therefore, no laws, no
+religious rites, no terms of acceptance with God or of admission to
+Christian privileges not found in the gospel, are to be looked upon by him
+as any part of this divine system, nor to be received and submitted to as
+the doctrines and laws of Christ."[42] Of Rev. John Prince, the minister
+of the First Church in Salem during the last years of the century, it was
+said that he never "preached distinctly upon any of the points of
+controversy which, in his day, agitated the New England churches."[43] The
+minister of Roxbury, Rev. Eliphalet Porter, said of the Calvinistic
+beliefs, that there was not one of them he considered "essential to the
+Christian faith or character."[44]
+
+[Sidenote: King's Chapel becomes Unitarian.]
+
+These quotations will indicate the liberty of spirit that existed in the
+New England churches of the later years of the eighteenth century,
+especially in the neighborhood of Boston, and along the seacoast; and also
+the diversity of opinion on doctrinal subjects among the ministers. It is
+impossible here to follow minutely the stages of doctrinal evolution, but a
+few dates and incidents will serve to indicate the several steps that were
+taken. The first of these was the settlement of Rev. James Freeman over
+King's Chapel in 1782, and his ordination by the congregation in 1787, the
+liturgy having been revised two years earlier to conform to the liberal
+opinions of the minister and people. These changes were brought about
+largely through the influence of Rev. William Hazlitt, the father of the
+essayist and critic of the same name, who had been settled over several of
+the smaller Unitarian churches in Great Britain. In the spring of 1783 he
+visited the United States, and spent several months in Philadelphia. He
+gave a course of lectures on the Evidences of Christianity in the college
+there, which were largely attended. He preached for several weeks in a
+country parish in Maryland, he had invitations to settle in Charleston and
+Pittsburg, and he had an opportunity to become the president of a college
+by subscribing to the doctrinal tests required, which he would not do; for
+"he would sooner die in a ditch than submit to human authority in matters
+of faith."[45] In June, 1784, he preached in the Brattle Street Church of
+Boston, and he anticipated becoming its minister; but his pronounced
+doctrinal position seems to have made that impossible. He also preached in
+Hingham, and some of the people there desired his settlement; but the aged
+Dr. Gay would not resign. It would appear that he preached for Dr. Chauncy,
+for Mr. Barnes in Salem, and also in several pulpits on Cape Cod. He gave
+in Boston his course of lectures on the Evidences of Christianity, and it
+was received with much favor by large audiences. The winter of 1784-85 was
+spent by Mr. Hazlitt in Hallowell, Me., in which place was a small group of
+wealthy English Unitarians, led by Samuel Vaughan, by whom Mr. Hazlitt had
+been entertained in Philadelphia. Mr. Hazlitt returned to Boston in the
+spring of 1785, and had some hope of settling in Roxbury. In the autumn,
+however, finding no definite promise of employment, he returned to England.
+He afterward corresponded with Dr. Howard, of the West Church in Boston,
+and with Dr. Lathrop, of West Springfield. The volumes of sermons he
+published in 1786 and 1790 were sold in this country, and one or two of
+them republished.
+
+It would appear that Mr. Hazlitt's positive Unitarianism made it impossible
+for him to settle over any church in Boston or its neighborhood. In 1784 he
+assisted Dr. Freeman in revising the Prayer Book, the form of prayer used
+by Dr. Lindsey[46] in the Essex Street Chapel in London being adapted to
+the new conditions at King's Chapel. He also republished in Philadelphia
+and Boston many of Dr. Priestley's Unitarian tracts, while writing much
+himself for publication.[47] In his correspondence with Theophilus
+Lindsey, Dr. Freeman wrote of Mr. Hazlitt as a pious, zealous, and
+intelligent minister, to whose instructions and conversation he was
+particularly indebted.[48] "Before Mr. Hazlitt came to Boston", Dr.
+Freeman wrote, "the Trinitarian doxology was almost universally used. That
+honest, good man prevailed upon several respectable ministers to omit it.
+Since his departure the number of those who repeat only Scriptural
+doxologies has greatly increased, so that there are now many churches in
+which the worship is strictly Unitarian."[49]
+
+Beginning with the year 1786, several of the liberal men in Boston were in
+correspondence with the leading Unitarian ministers in London, and their
+letters were afterward published by Thomas Belsham in his Life of
+Theophilus Lindsey. From this work we learn that Dr. Lindsey presented his
+own theological works and those of Dr. Priestley to Harvard College, and
+that they were read with great avidity by the students.[50] One of the
+Boston correspondents, writing in 1783, names James Bowdoin, governor of
+Massachusetts in 1785 and 1786, General Benjamin Lincoln, and General Henry
+Knox as among the liberal men. He said: "There are many others besides, in
+our legislature, of similar sentiments. While so many of our great men are
+thus on the side of truth and free inquiry, they will necessarily influence
+many of the common people."[51] He also said that people were less
+frightened at the Socinian name than formerly, and that this form of
+Christianity was beginning to have some public advocates. The only minister
+who preached in favor of it was Mr. Bentley, of Salem, who was described as
+"a young man of a bold, independent mind, of strong, natural powers, and of
+more skill in the learned languages than any person of his years in the
+state." Mr. Bentley's congregation was spoken of as uncommonly liberal, not
+alarmed at any improvements, and pleased with his introduction into the
+pulpit of various modern translations of the Scriptures, especially of the
+prophecies.[52]
+
+[Sidenote: Other Unitarian Movements.]
+
+In March, 1792, a Unitarian congregation was formed in Portland under the
+leadership of Thomas Oxnard, who had been an Episcopalian. Having been
+supplied with the works of Priestley and Lindsey through the generosity of
+Dr. Freeman, he became a Unitarian; and his personal intercourse with Dr.
+Freeman gave strength to his changed convictions. A number of persons of
+property and respectability of character joined him in accepting his new
+faith. In writing to his friend in November, 1788, Mr. Oxnard said: "I
+cannot express to you the avidity with which these Unitarian publications
+are sought after. Our friends here are clearly convinced that the Unitarian
+doctrine will soon become the prevailing opinion in this country. Three
+years ago I did not know a single Unitarian in this part of the country
+besides myself; and now, entirely from the various publications you have
+furnished, a decent society might be collected in this and the neighboring
+towns."[53] In 1792 an attempt was made to introduce a revised liturgy
+into the Episcopal church of Portland; and, when this was resisted, a
+majority of the congregation seceded and formed a Unitarian society, with
+Mr. Oxnard as the minister. This society was continued for a few years, and
+then ceased to exist. The members joined the first Congregational church,
+which in 1809, became Unitarian.[54] Also in 1792 was organized a
+Unitarian congregation in Saco, under the auspices of Hon. Samuel Thatcher,
+a member of Congress and a Massachusetts judge.[55] Mr. Thatcher had been
+an unbeliever, but through the reading of Priestley's works he became a
+sincere and rational Christian. He met with much opposition from his
+neighbors, and an effort was made to prevent his re-election to Congress;
+but it did not succeed. The Saco congregation was at first connected with
+that at Portland, and it seems to have ceased its existence at the same
+time.[56]
+
+In 1794 Dr. Freeman wrote that Unitarianism was making considerable
+progress in the southern counties of Massachusetts. In Barnstable he
+reported "a very large body of Unitarians."[57] Writing in May, 1796, he
+states that Unitarianism is on the increase in Maine, that it is making a
+considerable increase in the southern part of Massachusetts, and that a few
+seeds have been sown in Vermont. He thinks it may be losing ground in some
+places, but that it is growing in others. "I consider it," he writes, "as
+one of the most happy effects which have resulted from my feeble exertions
+in the Unitarian cause, that they have introduced me to the knowledge and
+friendship of some of the most valuable characters of the present age, men
+of enlightened heads and benevolent hearts. Though it is a standing article
+of most of our social libraries, that nothing of a controversial character
+should be purchased, yet any book which is presented is freely accepted. I
+have found means, therefore, of introducing into them some of the Unitarian
+Tracts with which you have kindly furnished me. There are few persons who
+have not read them with avidity; and when read they cannot fail to make an
+impression upon the minds of many. From these and other causes the
+Unitarian doctrine appears to be still upon the increase. I am acquainted
+with a number of ministers, particularly in the southern part of this
+state, who avow and publicly preach this sentiment. There are others more
+cautious, who content themselves with leading their hearers by a course of
+rational but prudent sermons gradually and insensibly to embrace it. Though
+this latter mode is not what I entirely approve, yet it produces good
+effects. For the people are thus kept out of the reach of false opinions,
+and are prepared for the impressions which will be made on them by more
+bold and ardent successors, who will probably be raised up when these timid
+characters are removed off the stage. The clergy are generally the first
+who begin to speculate; but the people soon follow, where they are so much
+accustomed to read and enquire."[58]
+
+In 1793 was published Jeremy Belknap's biography of Samuel Watts, who was
+an Arian, or, at least, held to the subordinate nature of Christ. This book
+had a very considerable influence in directing attention to the doctrine of
+the Trinity, and in inducing inquiring men to study the subject critically
+for themselves. In 1797 Dr. Belknap became the minister of the Federal
+Street Church in Boston, and his preaching was from that time distinctly
+Unitarian. Dr. Joseph Priestley removed to Philadelphia in 1794, and he was
+at first listened to by large congregations. His humanitarian
+theology--that is, his denial of divinity as well as deity to
+Christ--probably had the effect of limiting the interest in his teachings.
+However, a small congregation was established in Philadelphia in 1796,
+formed mostly of English Unitarians. A congregation was gathered at
+Northumberland in 1794, to which place Priestley removed in that year.
+
+In the year 1800 a division took place in the church at Plymouth, owing to
+the growth there of liberal sentiments. These began to manifest themselves
+as early as 1742, as a reaction from the intense revivalism of that
+Period.[59] Rev. Chandler Bobbins, who was strictly Calvinistic in his
+theology, was the minister from 1760 until his death in 1799. In 1794 a
+considerable number of persons in the parish discussed the desirability of
+organizing another church, in order to secure more liberal preaching. It
+was recognized that Mr. Robbins was an old man, that he was very much
+beloved, and that in a few years the opportunity desired would be presented
+without needless agitation; and the effort was therefore deferred. In
+November, 1799, at a meeting held for the election of a new pastor,
+twenty-three members of the church were in favor of Rev. James Kendall, the
+only candidate, while fifteen were in opposition. When the parish voted,
+two hundred and fifty-three favored Mr. Kendall, and fifteen were opposed.
+In September, 1800, the conservative minority, numbering eighteen males and
+thirty-five females, withdrew; and two years later they organized the
+society now called the Church of the Pilgrimage. The settlement of Mr.
+Kendall, a pronounced Arminian,[60] was an instance of the almost complete
+abandonment of Calvinism on the part of a congregation, in opposition to
+the preaching from the pulpit. In spite of the strict confession of faith
+which Dr. Robbins had persuaded the church to adopt, the parish outgrew the
+old teachings. Mr. Kendall, with the approval of his church, soon grew into
+a Unitarian; and it was fitting that the church of the Mayflower, the
+church of Robinson and Brewster, should lead the way in this advance.
+
+As yet there was no controversy, except in a quiet way. Occasionally sharp
+criticism was uttered, especially in convention and election sermons; but
+there was no thought of separation or exclusion. The liberal men showed a
+tendency to magnify the work of charity; and they were, in a limited
+degree, zealous in every kind of philanthropic effort. More distinctly,
+however, they showed their position in their enthusiasm for the Bible and
+in their summing up of Christianity in loyalty to Christ. Towards all
+creeds and dogmas they were indifferent and silent, except as they
+occasionally spoke plainly out to condemn them. They believed in and
+preached toleration, and their whole movement stood more distinctly for
+comprehensiveness and latitudinarianism than for aught else. They were not
+greatly concerned about theological problems; but they thoroughly believed
+in a broad, generous, sympathetic, and practical Christianity, that would
+exemplify the teachings of Christ, and that would lead men to a pure and
+noble moral life.
+
+[Sidenote: Growth of Toleration.]
+
+That toleration was not as yet fully accepted in Massachusetts is seen in
+the fact that the proposed Constitution of 1778 was defeated because it
+provided for freedom of worship on the part of all Protestant
+denominations. The dominant religious body was not yet ready to put itself
+on a level with the other sects. In the Constitutional Convention of 1779
+the more liberal men worked with the Baptists to secure a separation of
+state and church. Such men as Drs. Chauncy, Mayhew, West, and Shute were
+desirous of the broadest toleration; and they did what they could to secure
+it. As early as 1768, Dr. Chauncy spoke in plainest terms in opposition to
+the state support of religion. "We are in principle," he wrote, "against
+all civil establishments in religion. It does not appear to us that God has
+entrusted, the state with a right to make religious establishments. But let
+it be heedfully minded we claim no right to desire the interposition of the
+state to establish the mode of worship, government or discipline, we
+apprehend is most agreeable to the mind of Christ. We desire no other
+liberty than to be left unrestrained in the exercise of our principles, in
+so far as we are good members of society.... The plain truth is, by the
+gospel charter, all professed Christians are vested with precisely the same
+rights; nor has our denomination any more a right to the interposition of
+the civil magistrate in their favor than any other; and whenever this
+difference takes place, it is beside the rule of Scripture, and the genuine
+dictates, of uncorrupted reason."[61] All persons throughout the state, of
+whatever religious connection, who had become emancipated from the Puritan
+spirit, supported him in this opinion. They were in the minority as yet,
+and they were not organized. Therefore, their efforts were unsuccessful.
+
+Another testing of public sentiment on this subject was had in the
+Massachusetts convention which, in 1788, ratified the Constitution of the
+United States. The sixth article, which provides that "no religious tests
+shall ever be required as a qualification to any office," was the occasion
+of a prolonged debate and much opposition. Hon. Theophilus Parsons took the
+liberal side, and declared that "the only evidence we can have of the
+sincerity and excellency of a man's religion is a good life," precisely the
+position of the liberal men. By several members it was urged, however, that
+this article was a departure from the principles of our forefathers, who
+came here for the preservation of their religion, and that it would admit
+deists and atheists into the general government.
+
+In these efforts to secure religious toleration as a fundamental law of the
+state and nation the Baptist denomination took an active and a leading
+part. Not less faithful to this cause were the liberal men among the
+Congregationalists, while the opposition came almost wholly from the
+Calvinistic and orthodox churches. Such leaders on the liberal side as Dr.
+David Shute of the South Parish in Hingham, Rev. Thomas Thatcher of the
+West Parish in Dedham, and Dr. Samuel West of New Bedford, were loyally
+devoted in the convention to the support of the toleration act of the
+Constitution. In the membership of the convention there were seventeen
+ministers, and fourteen of them voted for the Constitution. The opinions of
+the fourteen were expressed by Rev. Phillips Payson, the minister of
+Chelsea, who held that a religious test would be a great blemish on the
+Constitution. He also said that God is the God of the conscience, and for
+human tribunals to encroach upon the consciences of men is impious.[62] As
+the Constitution was ratified by only a small majority of the convention,
+and as at the opening of its sessions the opposition seemed almost
+overwhelming, the position taken by the more liberal ministers was a sure
+indication of growing liberality. The great majority of the people,
+however, were still strongly in favor of the old religious tests and
+restrictions, as was fully indicated by subsequent events. The Revolution
+operated as a liberalizing influence, because of the breaking of old
+customs and the discussion of the principles of liberty attendant upon the
+adoption of the state and national constitutions. The growth of democratic
+sentiment made a strong opposition to the churches and their privileges,
+and it caused a diminution of reverence for the authority of the clergy.
+The twenty years following the Revolution showed a notable growth in
+liberal opinions.
+
+Universalism presented itself as a new form of Calvinism, its advocates
+claiming that God decreed that all should be saved, and that his will would
+be triumphant. In many parts of the country the doctrine of universal
+salvation began to be heard during the last two decades of the eighteenth
+century, and the growth of interest in it was rapid from the beginning of
+the nineteenth. This movement began in the Baptist churches, but it soon
+appeared in others. At first it was undefined, a protest against the harsh
+teaching of future punishment. It was a part of the humanitarian awakening
+of the time, the new faith in man, the recognition that love is diviner
+than wrath. Many persons found escape from creeds that were hateful to them
+into this new and more hopeful interpretation of religion. Persons of every
+shade of protest, and "infidelity," and free thinking, found their way into
+this new body; and great was the condemnation and hatred with which it was
+received on the part of the other sects. In time this movement clarified
+itself, and it has had a positive influence for piety and for nobler views
+of God and the future.
+
+Of much the same nature was the movement within the fellowship of the
+Friends led by Thomas Hicks. It was Unitarian and reformatory, influenced
+by the growing democracy and zeal for humanity the age was everywhere
+manifesting.
+
+In the border states between north and south began, during the last decade
+of the eighteenth century, a movement in favor of discarding all creeds and
+confessions. It favored a return to the Bible itself as the great
+Protestant book, and as the one revealed word of God. Without learning or
+culture, these persons sought to make their faith in Christ more real by an
+evangelical obedience to his teachings. Some of them called themselves
+Disciples, holding that to follow Christ is quite enough. Others said that
+no other name than Christian is required. They were Biblical in their
+theology, and unsectarian in their attitude towards the forms and rituals
+of the church. In time these scattered groups of earnest seekers for a
+better Christian way, from Maine to Georgia, came to know each other and to
+organize for the common good.
+
+With the rapid growth of Methodism the Arminian view of man was widely
+adopted. The Baptists received into their fellowship in all parts of New
+England, at least, many who were not deeply in sympathy with their strict
+rules, but who found with them a means of protesting against the harsher
+methods of the "standing order" of Congregationalists. Their demand for
+toleration and liberty of conscience began to receive recognition after the
+Revolution, and their influence was a powerful one in bringing about the
+separation of state and church. Those who were dissatisfied with a church
+that taxed all the people, and that was upheld by state authority, found
+with the Baptists a means of making their protest heard and felt.
+
+In all directions the democratic spirit was being manifested, and
+conditions which had been upheld by the restrictive authority of England
+had to give way. The people were now speaking, and not the ministers only.
+It was an age of individualism, and of the reassertion of the tendency that
+had characterized New England from the first, but that had been held in
+check by autocratic power. There was no outbreak, no rapid change, no
+iconoclastic overturning of old institutions and customs, but the people
+were coming to their own, thinking for themselves. In reality, the people
+were conservative, especially in New England; and they moved slowly, there
+was little infidelity, and steadily were the old ideals maintained. Yet the
+individualism would assert itself. Men held the old creeds in distinctly
+personal ways, and the churches grew into more and more of independency.
+
+The theological development of the eighteenth century took two directions:
+that of rationalism and a demand for free inquiry, as represented by
+Jonathan Mayhew and William Bentley; and that of a philanthropic protest
+against the harsh features of Calvinism, as represented by Charles Chauncy
+and the Universalists. The demand that all theological problems should be
+submitted to reason for vindication or readjustment was not widely urged;
+but a few men recognized the worth of this claim, and applied this method
+without hesitation. A larger number followed them with hesitating steps,
+but with a growing confidence in reason as God's method for man's finding
+and maintaining the truth. The other tendency grew out of a benevolent
+desire to justify the ways of God to man, and was the expression of a
+deepening faith that the Divine Being deals with his children in a fatherly
+manner. That God is generous and loving was the faith of Dr. Chauncy, as it
+was of the Universalists and of the more liberal party among the
+Calvinists. Their philanthropic feelings toward their fellow-men seemed to
+them representative of God's ways of dealing with his creatures.
+
+[1] Levi L. Paine, A Critical History of the Evolution of Trinitarianism,
+    105. "Nathaniel Emmons held tenaciously to three real persons. He said,
+    'It is as easy to conceive of God existing in three persons as in one
+    person.' This language shows that Emmons employed the term 'person' in
+    the strict literal sense. The three are absolutely equal, this
+    involving the metaphysical assumption that in the Trinity being and
+    person are not coincident. Emmons is the first theologian who asserts
+    that, though we cannot conceive that three persons should be one
+    person, we may conceive that three persons may be one Being, 'if we
+    only suppose that being may signify something different from person in
+    respect to Deity.'"
+
+[2] E.H. Gillett, History and Literature of the Unitarian Controversy.
+    Historical Magazine, April 1871; second series, IX. 222.
+
+[3] Letter to Scripturista by Paulinus, 18.
+
+[4] William S. Pattee, A History of Old Braintree and Quincy, 222. When a
+    copy of Dr. Jedediah Morse's little book on American Unitarianism was
+    sent to John Adams, he acknowledged its receipt in the following
+    letter:--
+
+      QUINCY, May 15, 1815.
+
+      _Dear Doctor_,--I thank you for your favor of the 10th, and the
+      pamphlet enclosed, entitled American Unitarianism. I have turned
+      over its leaves, and found nothing that was not familiarly known to
+      me. In the preface Unitarianism is represented as only thirty years
+      old in New England. I can testify as a witness to its old age.
+      Sixty-five years ago my own minister, the Rev. Lemuel Briant; Dr.
+      Jonathan Mayhew, of the West Church in Boston; the Rev. Mr. Shute,
+      of Hingham; the Rev. John Brown, of Cohasset; and perhaps equal to
+      all, if not above all, the, Rev. Mr. Gay, of Hingham, were
+      Unitarians. Among the laity how many could I name, lawyers,
+      physicians, tradesmen, farmers! But at present I will name only
+      one, Richard Cranch, a man who had studied divinity, and Jewish and
+      Christian antiquities, more than any clergyman now existing in New
+      England.
+
+      JOHN ADAMS.
+
+    Also see C.F. Adams, Three Episodes of Massachusetts History, 643; and
+    J.H. Allen, An Historical Sketch of the Unitarian Movement since the
+    Reformation, 175.
+
+[5] History of Hingham, I., Part II., 24, Memoir of Ebenezer Gay, by
+    Solomon Lincoln.
+
+[6] Sermons, 1755, 83.
+
+[7] Ibid., 103.
+
+[8] Ibid., 119.
+
+[9] Ibid., 125.
+
+[10] Ibid., 245.
+
+[11] Sermons, 1755, 50.
+
+[12] Ibid., 82.
+
+[13] Sermons, 1755, 83.
+
+[14] Ibid., 65.
+
+[15] Ibid., 62.
+
+[16] Ibid., 63.
+
+[17] Ibid, 268, 269.
+
+[18] Sermons, 1755, 275, 276.
+
+[19] A. Bradford, Memoir of the Life and Writings of Rev. Jonathan Mayhew,
+     D.D., 36.
+
+[20] Ibid., 464.
+
+[21] Letter from his daughter, quoted by Bartol, The West Church and its
+     Ministers, 129.
+
+[22] Sermons, 293
+
+[23] C.A. Bartol, The West Church and its Ministers.
+
+[24] Reply to Dr. Chandler, quoted in Sprague's Annals of the Unitarian
+     Pulpit, 9.
+
+[25] Remarks upon a Sermon of the Bishop of Landaff, quoted by Sprague.
+
+[26] Chauncy's many published sermons and volumes are carefully enumerated
+     by Paul Leicester Ford in his Bibliotheca Chaunciana, a List of the
+     Writings of Charles Chauncy. He gives the titles of sixty-one books
+     and pamphlets published by Chauncy, and of eighty-eight about him or
+     in reply to him.
+
+[27] Sprague's Annals, 49; W.J. Potter, History of the First Congregational
+     Society, New Bedford.
+
+[28] Sprague's Annals. 42.
+
+[29] George Batchelor, Social Equilibrium, 263, 264.
+
+[30] Ibid., 265.
+
+[31] Sprague's Annals, 131.
+
+[32] Father of the essayist of the same name.
+
+[33] Joseph Priestley, 1733-1804, was one of the ablest of English
+     Unitarians. Educated in non-conformist schools, in 1755 he became a
+     Presbyterian minister. In 1761 he became a tutor in a non-conformist
+     academy, and in 1767 he was settled over a congregation in Leeds. He
+     was the librarian of Lord Shelburne from 1774 until he was settled in
+     Birmingham as minister, in 1780. In 1791 a mob destroyed his house,
+     his manuscripts, and his scientific apparatus, because of his liberal
+     political views. After three years as a preacher in Hackney, he
+     removed to the United States in 1794, and settled at Northumberland
+     in Pennsylvania, where the remainder of his life was spent. He
+     published one hundred and thirty distinct works, of which those best
+     remembered are his Institutes of Natural and Revealed Religion, A
+     History of the Corruptions of Christianity, and A General History of
+     the Christian Church to the Fall of the Western Empire. He was the
+     discoverer of oxygen, and holds a high place in the history of
+     science. He was a materialist, but believed in immortality; and he
+     believed that Christ was a man in his nature.
+
+[34] C.S. Osgood and H.M. Batchelder, Historical Sketch of Salem, 86. "He
+     took strong Arminian grounds; and under his lead the church became
+     practically Unitarian in 1785, and was one of the first churches in
+     America to adopt that faith."
+
+[35] George Batchelor, Social Equilibrium, 270.
+
+[36] Ibid., 267.
+
+[37] Ibid., 283.
+
+[38] E. Smalley, The Worcester Pulpit, 226, 232.
+
+[39] See the Unitarian Advocate and Religious Miscellany, January, 1831,
+     new series, III. 27, for Aaron Bancroft's recollections of this
+     period. In the same volume was published Ezra Ripley's reminiscences,
+     contained in the March, April, and May numbers. They are both of much
+     importance for the history of this period. Also the third volume of
+     first series, June, 1829, gives an important letter from Francis
+     Parkman concerning Unitarianism in Boston in 1812.
+
+[40] Life of Ashbel Green, President of Princeton College, 236.
+
+[41] Life of Archibald Alexander, 252.
+
+[42] Convention Sermon, 12, 13.
+
+[43] Sprague, Annals of Unitarian Pulpit, 131.
+
+[44] Ibid., 159.
+
+[45] This is the statement of his daughter.
+
+[46] Theophilus Lindsey, 1723-1808, was a curate in London, then the tutor
+     of the Duke of Northumberland, and afterward a rector in Yorkshire
+     and Dorsetshire. In 1763 he was settled at Catterick, in Yorkshire,
+     where his study of the Bible led him to doubt the truth of the
+     doctrine of the Trinity. In 1771 he joined with others in a petition
+     to Parliament asking that clergymen might not be required to
+     subscribe to the thirty-nine articles. When it was rejected a second
+     time he resigned, went to London, and opened in a room in Essex
+     Street, April 1774, the first permanent Unitarian meeting in England.
+     A chapel was built for him in 1778, and he preached there until 1793.
+     He published, in 1783, An Historical View of the State of the
+     Unitarian Doctrine and Worship from the Reformation to our own Times,
+     two volumes of sermons, and other works. In 1774 he published a
+     revised Prayer Book according to the plan suggested by Dr. Samuel
+     Clarke, which was used in the Essex Street Chapel.
+
+[47] Four Generations of a Literary Family: The Hazlitts in England,
+     Ireland, and America, 23, 26, 30, 40, 43, 50; Lamb and Hazlitt:
+     Further Letters and Records, 11-15.
+
+[48] Monthly Repository, III., 305. Mr. Hazlitt "arrived at Boston May 15,
+     1784; and, having a letter to Mr. Eliot, who received him with great
+     kindness, he was introduced on that very day to the Boston
+     Association of Ministers. The venerable Chauncy, at whose house it
+     happened to be held, entered into a familiar conversation with him,
+     and showed him every possible respect as he learned that he had been
+     acquainted with Dr. Price. Without knowing at the time anything of
+     the occasion which led to it, ordination happened to be the general
+     subject of discussion. After the different gentlemen had severally
+     delivered their opinions, the stranger was requested to declare his
+     sentiments, who unhesitatingly replied that the people or the
+     congregation who chose any man to be their minister were his proper
+     ordainers. Mr. Freeman, upon hearing this, jumped from his seat in a
+     kind of transport, saying, 'I wish you could prove that, Sir,' The
+     gentleman answered that 'few things could admit of an easier proof.'
+     And from that moment a thorough intimacy commenced between him and
+     Mr. Freeman. Soon after, the Boston prints being under no
+     _imprimatur_, he published several letters in supporting the cause of
+     Mr. Freeman. At the solicitation of Mr. Freeman he also published a
+     Scriptural Confutation of the Thirty-nine Articles. Notice being
+     circulated that this publication would appear on a particular day, the
+     printer, apprised of this circumstance, threw off a hundred papers
+     beyond his usual number, and had not one paper remaining upon his
+     hands at noon. This publication in its consequences converted Mr.
+     Freeman's congregation into a Unitarian church, which, as Mr. Freeman
+     acknowledged, could never have been done without the labors of this
+     gentleman."
+
+[49] American Unitarianism, from Belsham's Life of Lindsey, 12,
+     _note_.
+
+[50] American Unitarianism, 16.
+
+[51] American Unitarianism, note.
+
+[52] Ibid., 20.
+
+[53] American Unitarianism, 17.
+
+[54] "Oxnard was a merchant, born in Boston in 1740, but settled in
+     Portland, where he married the daughter of General Preble, in 1787.
+     He was a loyalist, and fled from the country at the outbreak of the
+     war. He returned to Portland in 1787. A few years later, 1792, the
+     Episcopal church being destitute of a minister, he was engaged as lay
+     reader, with the intention of taking orders. His Unitarianism put a
+     sudden end to his Episcopacy, but not to his preaching. He gathered a
+     small congregation in the school-house, and preached sometimes
+     sermons of his own, but more often of other men. He died in 1799."
+     John C. Perkins, How the First Parish became Unitarian,--historical
+     sermon preached in Portland.
+
+[55] American Unitarianism, 18.
+
+[56] Ibid., 17, 20.
+
+[57] American Unitarianism, 24.
+
+[58] American Unitarianism, 22.
+
+[59] Church Records, in MS., II. 7.
+
+[60] Rev. Thomas Robbins, Diary for October 13, 1799, I. 97, heard Mr.
+     Kendall, and said: "He appears to be an Arminian in full. I fear he
+     will lead many souls astray." See John Cuckson, A Brief History of
+     the First Church in Plymouth, eighth chapter.
+
+[61] Chauncy against Chandler, 152.
+
+[62] These particulars are taken from the Debates and Proceedings in the
+     Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts held in the year
+     1788, and which finally ratified the Constitution of the United
+     States, Boston, 1856.
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+
+THE PERIOD OF CONTROVERSY.
+
+In the spring of 1805 Rev. Henry Ware, who had been for nearly twenty years
+pastor of the first church in the town of Hingham, was inaugurated as the
+Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard College. The place had been made
+vacant by the death of Professor David Tappan, who was a moderate
+Calvinist; that is, one who recognized the sovereignty of God, but allowed
+to man a limited opportunity for personal effort in the process of
+salvation. It was assumed by the conservative party that a Calvinist would
+be appointed, because the founder of this important professorship, it was
+claimed, was of that way of thinking, and so conditioned his gift as to
+require that no one but a Calvinist should hold the position. This was
+strenuously denied by the liberals, who maintained that Hollis was not only
+liberal and catholic in his own theology, but that he made no such
+restrictions as were claimed.[1] When the nomination of Mr. Ware was
+presented to the overseers, it was strongly opposed; but he was elected by
+a considerable majority. A pamphlet soon appeared in opposition to him, and
+this was the beginning of a controversy that lasted for a quarter of a
+century.[2]
+
+This war of pamphlets was made more furious by Rev. John Sherman's One God
+in One Person Only, and Rev. Hosea Ballou's Treatise on the Atonement, both
+of which appeared in 1805. Mr. Sherman's book was described in The Monthly
+Anthology as "one of the first acts of direct hostility against the
+orthodox committed on these western shores."[3] The little book by Hosea
+Ballou had small influence on the current of religious thinking outside the
+Universalist body, to which he belonged, and probably did not at all enter
+into the controversy between the orthodox and the liberal
+Congregationalists. It was, however, the first positive statement of the
+doctrine of the atonement in a rational form, not as expiatory, but as
+reconciling man to the loving authority of God. Within a decade it brought
+the leading Universalists to the Unitarian position.[4] These works were
+followed, in 1810, by Rev. Noah Worcester's Bible News of the Father, Son,
+and Holy Ghost, which presented clearly and forcibly an Arian view of the
+Trinity, or the subordination of Christ to God. These definitions of their
+position on the part of the liberals were met by the publication of The
+Panoplist, which was begun by Dr. Jedidiah Morse, of Charlestown, Mass., in
+1805. This magazine interpreted the orthodox positions, and devoted itself
+zealously to the defence of the old ideas, as understood by its editors. It
+was not vehemently aggressive, but was largely devoted to general religious
+interests, and to the promotion of a higher spirit of devotion. It was
+followed by The Spirit of the Pilgrims, which was more combative, and in
+some degree intolerant. In the year 1808 the Andover Theological School was
+founded, the result of a reconciliation between the Hopkinsians and the
+Calvinists of the old type, affording an opportunity for theological
+training on the part of those who could not accept the liberal attitude of
+Harvard.
+
+Most of the liberal men of this time refused to bring their beliefs to the
+test of exact definition. It was their opinion that no theological
+statement can have high value in relation to Christian attainments. Under
+these conditions were trained the men who became the leaders in the early
+Unitarian movement. William Ellery Channing, who was settled over the
+Federal Street Church in June, 1803, was distinctly evangelical, and of a
+profound and earnest piety. Slowly he grew to accept the liberal attitude,
+as the result of his love of freedom, his lofty spirituality of nature, and
+his tolerant and generous cast of mind. He gave spiritual and intellectual
+direction to the new movement, guided its philanthropic efforts, and
+brought to noble issue its spiritual philosophy. Early in the year 1804,
+Joseph Stevens Buckminster was settled over the Brattle Street Church; and,
+though he preached but a little over six years before a blighting disease
+took him away, yet he left behind a tradition of great pulpit gifts and a
+wonderfully attractive personality. Another to die in early manhood was
+Samuel Cooper Thacher, who was settled at the New South in 1811, and who
+was long remembered for his scholarship and his zeal in the work which he
+had undertaken. Charles Lowell went to the West Church in 1806, and he
+nobly sustained the traditions for liberality and spiritual freedom that
+had gathered about that place of worship. In 1814 appeared Edward Everett,
+at the age of twenty (which had been that of Buckminster when he entered
+the pulpit), as the minister of the Brattle Street Church, to charm with
+his eloquence, learning, grace, and power. Francis Parkman began his career
+at the New North in 1812,--"a man of various information, a kind spirit,
+singular benevolence, polished yet simple manners, fine literary
+taste."[5] A few years later John Gorham Palfrey became the minister of
+the Brattle Street Church, and James Walker was settled over the Harvard
+Church in Charlestown. Among the laymen in the churches to which these men
+preached were many persons of distinction. The liberal fellowship,
+therefore, was of the highest social and intellectual standing. The piety
+of the churches was serious, if not profound; and the religion presented
+was simple, sincere, intellectual, and earnestly spiritual.
+
+[Sidenote: The Monthly Anthology.]
+
+The practical and tolerant aims of the liberals were shown by the manner in
+which they began to give expression publicly to their position. In The
+Monthly Anthology they first found voice, although that publication was
+started without the slightest controversial purpose. Begun by a young man
+as a monthly literary journal in 1803, when he found it would not support
+him, he abandoned it;[6] and the publishers asked Rev. William Emerson,
+the minister of the First Church in Boston, to take charge of it. He
+consented to do so, and gathered about him a company of friends to aid him
+in its management. Their meetings finally grew into The Anthology Club,
+which continued the publication through ten volumes. Among the members were
+William Emerson, Samuel Cooper Thacher, Joseph S. Buckminster, and Joseph
+Tuckerman, pastors of churches in Boston and vicinity of the liberal
+school. There was also John S.J. Gardiner, the rector of Trinity Church,
+who was the president of the club throughout the whole period of its
+existence, and one of the most frequent contributors to the periodical. The
+members were not drawn together by any sectarian spirit, but by a common
+aim of doing something for literature, and for the advancement of culture.
+The Monthly Anthology was the first distinctly literary journal published
+in this country. It had an important influence in developing the
+intellectual tastes of New England, and of giving initiative to its
+literary capacities. The spirit of The Monthly Anthology was broad and
+catholic. Naturally, therefore, in its pages the liberals made their first
+protest against party aims and methods. In a few instances theological
+problems were discussed, the extreme Trinitarian doctrines were criticised,
+and the liberal attitude was defended.
+
+[Sidenote: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity.]
+
+In the year 1806 Rev. William Emerson began the publication of The
+Christian Monitor, in his capacity as the secretary of the Society for
+promoting Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity, a society then newly
+founded by residents of Boston and its vicinity for the purpose of
+publishing enlightened and practical tracts and books. This series of small
+books, each containing one hundred and fifty or two hundred pages, and
+issued quarterly, was begun for the purpose of publishing devotional works
+of a practical and liberal type. The first number contained prayers and
+devotional exercises for personal or family use, and there followed Bishop
+Newcombe's Life and Character of Christ, a condensed reproduction of Law's
+Serious Call, Bishop Hall's Contemplations, Erskine's Letters to the
+Bereaved, and two or three volumes of sermons on religious duties and the
+education of children.
+
+Besides The Christian Monitor this society issued a series of Religious
+Tracts which had a considerable circulation. Then it undertook the
+publication of books for children, and for family reading. In aiming to
+publish works of pure morality and practical piety, its methods were
+thoroughly catholic and liberal; for it was unsectarian, and yet earnestly
+Christian. The spirit and methods of this society were thoroughly
+characteristic of the time when it was organized, and of the men who gave
+it life and purpose. Not dogma, but piety, was what they desired. In the
+truest sense they were unsectarian Christians, zealous for good works and a
+devout life.[7]
+
+[Sidenote: General Repository.]
+
+The Monthly Anthology and The Christian Monitor represented the mild and
+undogmatic attitude of the liberals, their shrinking from all controversy,
+and their desire to devote their labors wholly to the promotion of a
+tolerant and catholic Christianity. The beginning of the controversial
+spirit on the liberal side found expression in The General Repository and
+Review, which was begun in Cambridge by Rev. Andrews Norton, in April,
+1812. In the first number of this quarterly review the editor said that the
+discussion of the doctrine of the Trinity "in our own country has hitherto
+been chiefly confined to private circles," and cited the books of John
+Sherman and Noah Worcester as the only exceptions. The review opened,
+however, with a defence of liberal Christianity which was aggressive and
+outspoken. In later issues an energetic statement was made of the liberal
+position, the controversial articles were able and explicit, and in a
+manner hitherto quite unknown on the part of what the editor called
+"catholic Christians." One of the numbers contained a long and interesting
+survey of the religious interests of the country, and summed up in an
+admirable manner the prospects for the liberal churches. After the
+publication of the sixth number, Mr. Norton withdrew from the work to
+become the librarian of Harvard College; and it was continued through two
+more issues by "a society of gentlemen." To this journal Mr. Norton was by
+far the largest contributor; but other writers were Edward Everett, and his
+brother, Alexander H. Everett, Joseph S. Buckminster, John T. Kirkland,
+Sidney Willard, George Ticknor, Washington Allston, John Lowell, Noah
+Worcester, and James Freeman, most of them connected with Harvard College
+or with the liberal churches in Boston. It is evident, however, that the
+liberal public was not yet ready for so aggressive and out-spoken a
+journal.
+
+[Sidenote: The Christian Disciple.]
+
+What was desired was something milder, less aggressive, of a distinctly
+religious and conciliatory character. To this end Drs. Channing, Charles
+Lowell, and Tuckerman, and Rev. S.C. Thatcher, with whom was afterwards
+associated Rev. Francis Parkman, planned a monthly magazine that should be
+liberal in its character, but not sectarian or dogmatic. They invited Rev.
+Noah Worcester, whose Bible News had cost him his pulpit, to remove from
+New Hampshire to Boston to become its editor. Although Mr. Worcester's
+beliefs affiliated him with the Hopkinsians in everything except his
+attitude in regard to the inferiority of Christ to God, yet he was
+compelled to withdraw from his old connections, and to find new fields of
+activity. He began The Christian Disciple as a religious and family
+magazine, the first number being issued in May, 1813. It was not designed
+for theological discussion or distinctly for the defence of the liberal
+position. Its tone was conciliatory and moderate, while it zealously
+defended religious liberty and charity. Its aim was practical and
+humanitarian, to help men live the Christian life, as individuals, and in
+their social relations. When it touched upon controverted questions, it was
+in an expository manner, with the purpose of instructing its readers, and
+of leading them to a higher appreciation of true religion. As his
+biographer well said of Noah Worcester, he made this work "distinguished
+for its unqualified devotedness to the individual rights of opinion, and
+the sacred duty of a liberal regard to them in other men."[8]
+
+Dr. Worcester was not so much a theologian as a philanthropist; and, if he
+was drawn into controversy, it was accidentally, and much to his surprise
+and disappointment. It was not for the sake of defending his own positions
+that he replied to his critics, but in the name of truth, and from an
+exacting sense of duty. His gentle, loving, and sympathetic nature unfitted
+him for intellectual contentions; and he much preferred to devote himself
+to philanthropies and reforms. In the briefest way The Christian Disciple
+reported the doings of the liberal churches and men, but it gave much space
+to all kinds of organizations of a humanitarian character. It advocated the
+temperance reform with earnestness, and this at a time when there were few
+other voices speaking in its behalf. It devoted many pages to the
+condemnation of slavery, and to the approval of all efforts to secure its
+mitigation or its abolition. It gave large attention to the evils of war, a
+subject which more and more absorbed the interest of the editor. It
+condemned duelling in the most emphatic terms, as it did all forms of
+aggressiveness and inhumanity. In spirit Dr. Worcester was as much a
+non-resistant as Tolstoi, and for much the same reasons. More extended
+reports of Bible societies were given than of any other kind of
+organization, and these societies especially enlisted the interest of Dr.
+Worcester and his associates.
+
+With the end of 1818 Dr. Worcester withdrew from the editorship of The
+Christian Disciple, to devote himself to the cause of peace, the interests
+of Christian amity and goodwill, and the exposition of his own theological
+convictions. The management of the magazine came into the hands of its
+original proprietors, who continued its publication.
+
+Under the new management the circulation of the magazine increased. At
+first the younger Henry Ware became the editor, and he carried the work
+through the six volumes published before it took a new name. It became more
+distinctly theological in its purpose, and it undertook the task of
+presenting and defending the views of the liberals. In 1824 The Christian
+Disciple passed into the hands of Rev. John Gorham Palfrey, and he changed
+its name to The Christian Examiner without changing its general character.
+At the end of two years Mr. Francis Jenks became the editor, but in 1831 it
+came under the control of Rev. James Walker and Rev. Francis W.P.
+Greenwood. Gradually it became the organ of the higher intellectual life of
+the Unitarians, and gave expression to their interest in literature,
+general culture, and the philanthropies, as well as theological knowledge.
+The sub-title of Theological Review, which it bore during the first five
+volumes, indicated its preference for subjects of speculative religious
+interest; but during the half-century of its best influence it was the
+General Review or the Religious Miscellany, showing that it was theological
+only in the broadest spirit.
+
+[Sidenote: Dr. Morse and American Unitarianism.]
+
+Reluctant as the liberal men were, to take a denominational position, and
+to commit themselves to the interests of a party in religion, or even to
+withdraw themselves in any way from the churches with which they had been
+connected, they were compelled to do so by the force of conditions they
+could not control. One of the first distinct lines of separation was caused
+by the refusal of the more conservative men to exchange pulpits with their
+liberal neighbors. This tendency first began to show itself about the year
+1810; and it received a decided impetus from the attitude taken by Rev.
+John Codman, who in 1808 became the minister of the Second Church in
+Dorchester. He refused to exchange with several of the liberal ministers of
+the Boston Association, although he was an intimate friend of Dr. Channing,
+who had directed his theological training, and also preached his ordination
+sermon. The more liberal members of his parish attempted to compel him to
+exchange with the Boston ministers without regard to theological beliefs;
+and a long contention followed, with the result that the more liberal part
+of his congregation withdrew in 1813, and formed the Third Religious
+Society in Dorchester.[9] The withdrawal of ministerial courtesies of
+this kind gradually increased, especially after the controversies that
+began in 1815, though it was not until many years later that exchanges
+between the two parties ceased.
+
+In 1815 Dr. Jedidiah Morse, the editor of The Panoplist, and the author of
+various school books in geography and history, published in a little book
+of about one hundred pages, which bore the title of American Unitarianism,
+a chapter from Thomas Belsham's[10] biography of Theophilus Lindsey, in
+which Dr. Lindsey's American correspondents, including prominent ministers
+in Boston and other parts of New England, had declared their Unitarianism.
+Morse also published an article in The Panoplist, setting forth that these
+ministers had not the courage of their convictions, that, while they were
+Unitarians, they had withheld their opinions from open utterance. His
+object was to force them to declare themselves, and either to retract their
+heresies or else to state them and to withdraw from the churches with which
+they had been connected. In a letter addressed to Rev. Samuel C. Thacher,
+Dr. Channing gave to the public a reply to these charges of insincerity and
+want of open-mindedness. He said that, while many of the ministers and
+members of their congregations were Unitarians, they did not accept Dr.
+Belsham's type of Unitarianism, which made Christ a man. He declared that
+no open declaration of Unitarianism had been made, because they were not in
+love with the sectarian spirit, and because they were quite unwilling to
+indulge in any form of proselyting. "Accustomed as we are," he wrote, "to
+see genuine piety in all classes of Christians, in Trinitarians and
+Unitarians, in Calvinists and Arminians, in Episcopalians, Methodists,
+Baptists, and Congregationalists, and delighting in this character wherever
+it appears, we are little anxious to bring men over to our peculiar
+opinions."[11]
+
+The publication of Dr. Morse's book, however, gave new emphasis to the
+spirit of separation which was soon to compel the formation of a new
+denomination. It was followed four years later by Dr. Channing's Baltimore
+sermon and by other positive declarations of theological opinion.[12] From
+that time the controversy raged fiercely, and any possibility of
+reconciliation was removed. Before this time those who were not orthodox
+had called themselves Catholic, Christians or Liberal Christians to
+designate their attitude of toleration and liberality. The orthodox had
+called them Unitarians; and especially was this attempted by Dr. Morse in
+the introduction to his American Unitarianism, in order to fasten upon them
+the objectionable name given to the English liberals. It was assumed that
+the American liberals must agree with the English in their materialism and
+in their conception of Christ as a man. Dr. Channing repudiated this
+assumption, and declared it unjust and untrue; but he accepted the word
+Unitarian and gave it a meaning of his own. Channing defined the word to
+mean only anti-Trinitarianism; and he accepted it because it seemed to him
+presumptuous to use the word liberal as applied to a party, whereas it may
+be applicable to men of all opinions.
+
+[Sidenote: Evangelical Missionary Society.]
+
+Of more interest than these contentions in behalf of theological opinions
+is the way in which the liberal party brought itself to the task of
+manifesting its own purposes. Its first organizations were tentative and
+inclusive, without theological purpose or bias. No distinct lines were
+drawn, and to them belonged orthodox and liberal alike. Their sole
+distinguishing attitude was a catholicity of temper that permitted the free
+activity of the liberals. One of the first organizations of this kind was
+the Evangelical Missionary Society, which was formed by several of the
+ministers resident in Worcester and Middlesex Counties. The first meeting
+was held in Lancaster, November 4, 1807, when a constitution was adopted
+and the society elected officers. "The great object of this Society," said
+the constitution, "is to furnish the means of Christian knowledge and moral
+improvement to those inhabitants of our own country who are destitute or
+poorly provided." The growth of the country, even in New England (for the
+operations of the society were confined to that region), developed many
+communities in which the population was scattered, and without adequate
+means of education and religion. To aid these communities in securing good
+teachers and ministers was the purpose of the society. It refused to send
+forth itinerants, but carefully selected such towns as gave promise of
+permanent growth, and sent to them ministers instructed to organize
+churches and to promote the building of meeting-houses. In this way it was
+the means of establishing a number of churches in Maine, New Hampshire, and
+Massachusetts. It also sent a number of teachers into new settlements in
+Maine, who were successful in training many of their pupils for teaching in
+the public schools. In several instances minister and teacher were combined
+in one person, but the work was none the less effective.
+
+In 1816 this society was incorporated, its membership was broadened to
+include the state, and active aid and financial support were given it by
+the churches in Boston and Salem. It was not sectarian, though, after its
+incorporation, its membership was more largely recruited from liberals. In
+time it became distinctly Unitarian in its character, and such it has
+remained to the present day. Very slowly, however, did it permit itself to
+lose any of its marks of catholicity and inclusiveness. In the end its
+membership was confined to Unitarians because no one else wished to share
+in its unsectarian purposes. At the present time this society does a quiet
+and helpful work in the way of aiding churches that have ceased to be
+self-supporting because of the shifting conditions of population, and in
+affording friendly assistance to ministers in times of distress or when old
+age has come upon them.
+
+[Sidenote: The Berry Street Conference.]
+
+The first meeting of the liberal ministers for organization was held in the
+vestry of the Federal Street Church[13] on the evening of May 30, 1820,
+which immediately preceded election day, the time when anniversary meetings
+were usually held. The ministers of the state then gathered in Boston to
+hear the election sermon, and for such counselling of each other as their
+congregational methods made desirable. At this meeting Dr. Channing gave an
+address stating the objects that had brought those present together, and
+the desirability of their drawing near each other as liberal men for mutual
+aid and support. "It was thought by some of us," he said, "that the
+ministers of this commonwealth who are known to agree in what are called
+liberal and catholic views of Christianity needed a bond of union, a means
+of intercourse, and an opportunity of conference not as yet enjoyed. It was
+thought that by meeting to join their prayers and counsels, to report the
+state and prospects of religion in different parts of the commonwealth, to
+communicate the methods of advancing it which have been found most
+successful, to give warning of dangers not generally apprehended, to seek
+advice in difficulties, and to take a broad survey of our ecclesiastical
+affairs and of the wants of our churches, much light, strength, comfort,
+animation, zeal, would be spread through our body. The individuals who
+originated this plan were agreed that, whilst the meeting should be
+confined to those who harmonize generally in opinion, it should be
+considered as having for its object, not simply the advancement of their
+peculiar views, but the general diffusion of practical religion and of the
+spirit of Christianity."
+
+As this address indicates in every word of it the liberal men were
+sensitively anxious to put no fetters on each other; and their reluctance
+to circumscribe their own personal freedom was extreme. This was the cause
+that had thus far prevented any effectual organization, and it now withheld
+the members from any but the most tentative methods. Having escaped from
+the bondage of sect, they were suspicious of everything that in any manner
+gave indication of denominational restrictions.
+
+[Sidenote: The Publishing Fund Society.]
+
+In May, 1821, a year later than the foundation of the Berry Street
+Conference, several gentlemen in Boston, "desirous of promoting the
+circulation of works adapted to improve the public mind in religion and
+morality," met and established a Publishing Fund. The publishing committee
+then appointed consisted of Dr. Joseph Tuckerman, Dr. John Gorham Palfrey,
+and Mr. George Ticknor. The Publishing Fund Society refused to print
+doctrinal tracts or those devoted in any way to sectarian interests. The
+members of the society made declaration that their publications had nothing
+to do with any of the isms in religion. Their great object was the increase
+of practical goodness, the improvement of men in all that truly exalts and
+ennobles them or that qualifies them for usefulness and happiness. Most of
+their tracts were in the form of stories of a didactic character, in which
+the writers assumed the broad principles of Christian theology and ethics
+which are common to all the followers of Christ, without meddling with
+sectarian prejudice or party views. In such statements as these the
+promoters of this work indicated their methods, their aim being to furnish
+good reading to youth, and to those in scattered communities who could not
+have access to books that were instructive. Besides the tracts of this kind
+the society also published a series for adults, which were of a more
+strictly devotional character, and yet did not omit to provide
+entertainment and instruction.[14] This society continued its work for
+many years, and it issued a considerable number of tracts and books that
+well served the purpose for which they were designed.
+
+[Sidenote: Harvard Divinity School.]
+
+One important result of the theological discussions of the time was the
+organization of the Divinity School in connection with Harvard College. The
+eighteenth-century method of preparation for the ministerial office was to
+study with some settled pastor, who directed the reading of the student,
+gave him practical acquaintance with the labors of a pastor, and initiated
+him into the profession by securing for him the "approbation" of the
+ministerial association with which he was connected. Another method was for
+the student to continue his residence in Cambridge, and follow his
+theological studies under the guidance of the president and the Hollis
+professor, making use of the library of the college. When Rev. Henry Ware
+was inducted into the Hollis professorship, it was seen that some more
+systematic method of theological study was desirable. He gradually enlarged
+the scope of his activities, and in 1811 he began a systematic courser of
+instruction for the resident students in theology. Ware "was one of those
+genuine lovers of reform and progress," as John Gorham Palfrey said, "who
+are always ready for any innovation for the better; who, in the pursuit of
+what is truly good and useful, are not only content to move on with the
+age, but desirous to move on before it."[15] This effort of his to improve
+the methods of theological study proved to be the germ of the existing
+Divinity School.
+
+The Hollis professorship of divinity was founded by Thomas Hollis, of
+London, in 1721. Samuel Dexter, of Boston, established a lectureship of
+Biblical criticism in 1811. Both the professorship and the lectureship were
+designed for the undergraduates, and not primarily for students in
+theology. In 1815, however, it became apparent to some of the liberals that
+a school wholly devoted to the preparation of young men for the ministry
+was needed.
+
+Those who subscribed to the $30,000 secured for this purpose were in 1816
+formed into the Society for the Promotion of Theological Education in
+Harvard University. This society rendered efficient aid to the school for
+several years. At a meeting held at the Boston Athenaeum, July 17, 1816,
+Rev. John T. Kirkland became its president, Rev. Francis Parkman, recording
+secretary, Rev. Charles Lowell, corresponding secretary, and Jonathan
+Phillips, treasurer. The society was supported by annual subscriptions,
+life subscriptions, and donations. The school began its work in 1816, with
+Rev. Andrews Norton as the Dexter lecturer on Biblical criticism, Rev. J.T.
+Kirkland as instructor in systematic theology, Rev. Edward Everett in the
+criticism of the Septaugint, Professor Sidney Willard in Hebrew, and
+Professor Levi Frisbie in ethics. In 1819 Mr. Norton was advanced to a
+professorship, and thereafter devoted his whole time to the school; and
+during that year the school was divided into three classes. In 1824 the
+Society for the Promotion of Theological Education took the general
+direction of the school, arranging the course of study and otherwise
+assuming a supervision, which continued until 1831, when the school
+received a place as one of the departments of the University. In 1826 a
+building was erected for the school by the society, which has borne the
+name of Divinity Hall. In 1828 a professorship of pulpit eloquence and
+pastoral care was established by the society, and in 1830 the younger Henry
+Ware entered upon its duties.[16] He was succeeded in 1842 by Rev. Convers
+Francis. In 1830 Rev. John Gorham Palfrey became the professor of Biblical
+literature, and soon after the instructor in Hebrew. Rev. George Rapall
+Noyes, in 1840, took the Hancock professorship of Hebrew and the Dexter
+lectureship in Biblical criticism.
+
+Though organized and conducted by the Unitarians, the Divinity School was
+from the first unsectarian in its purpose and methods; for the Society for
+the Promotion of Theological Education, on its organization, put into its
+constitution this fundamental law: "It being understood that every
+encouragement be given to the serious, impartial and unbiassed
+investigation of Christian truth, and that no assent to the peculiarities
+of any denomination, be required either of the students or professors or
+instructors."
+
+[Sidenote: The Unitarian Miscellany.]
+
+The first outspoken periodical on the liberal side that aimed at being
+distinctly denominational was published in Baltimore. Dr. Freeman preached
+in that city in 1816, with the result that during the following year a
+church was organized there. It was there in 1819, on the occasion of the
+ordination of Rev. Jared Sparks as the first minister of this church, that
+Dr. Channing gave utterance to the first great declaration of the Unitarian
+position, in a sermon that has never been surpassed in this country as an
+intellectual interpretation of the highest spiritual problems.
+
+In January, 1821, Rev. Jared Sparks began the publication in Baltimore of
+The Unitarian Miscellany and Christian Monitor; and for three years he was
+its editor. For another three years it was conducted by his successor in
+the Baltimore pulpit, Rev. Francis W.P. Greenwood, who continued it until
+he became the minister of King's Chapel, when it ceased to exist. During
+the six years of its publication this magazine was ably edited. It was
+controversial in a liberal spirit, it was positively denominational, and it
+had a large and widely extended circulation. It reported all prominent
+Unitarian events, and those of a liberal tendency in all religious bodies.
+Attacks on Unitarianism were repelled, and the Unitarian position was
+explained and vindicated. Mr. Sparks was as aggressive as Andrews Norton
+had been, and was by no means willing to keep to the quiet and reticent
+manner of the Unitarians of Boston. When he was attacked, he replied with
+energy and skill; and he carried the war into the enemies' camp. His
+magazine was far more positive than anything the liberals had hitherto put
+forth, and its methods were viewed with something of suspicion in the
+conservative circles of Massachusetts. He published a series of letters on
+the Episcopal Church in The Unitarian Miscellany, which he enlarged and put
+into a book.[17] Another series of letters was on the comparative moral
+tendencies of Trinitarian and Unitarian doctrines, and these grew into a
+volume.[18] Both were in reply to attacks made upon him, and both were
+regarded with suspicion and doubt by the men about Cambridge; but, in time,
+they came to see that his method was sincere, learned, and honest.
+
+In The Unitarian Miscellany, as in all their utterances of this time, the
+Unitarians manifested much anxiety to maintain their position as the true
+expounders of primitive Christianity. They did not covet a place outside
+the larger fellowship of the Christian faith. A favorite method of
+vindicating their right to Christian recognition was by the publication of
+the works of liberal orthodox writers of previous generations. Such an
+attempt was made by Jared Sparks in his Collection of Essays and Tracts in
+Theology, with Biographical and Critical Notices, issued in Boston from
+1823 to 1826. In the general preface to these six volumes, Mr. Sparks said
+that "the only undeviating rule of selection will be that every article
+chosen shall be marked with rational and liberal views of Christianity, and
+suited to inform the mind or improve the temper and practice," and that the
+series was "designed to promote the cause of sacred learning, of truth and
+charity, of religious freedom and rational piety." In the first volume were
+included Turretin's essay on the fundamentals of religious truth, a number
+of short essays by Firmin Abauzit, Francis Blackburne's discussion of the
+value of confessions of faith, and several essays by Bishop Hoadley. That
+these writings have now no significance, even to intelligent readers, does
+not detract from the value of their publication; for they had a living
+meaning and power. Other writers, drawn upon in the succeeding volumes were
+Isaac Newton, Jeremy Taylor, John Locke, Isaac Watts, William Penn, and
+Mrs. Barbauld. The catholicity of the editor was shown in the wide range of
+his authors, whose doctrinal connections covered the whole field of
+Christian theology.
+
+In the publication of The Unitarian Miscellany, Mr. Sparks had the business
+aid of the Baltimore Unitarian Book Society, formed November 19, 1820,
+which was organized to carry on this work, and to disseminate other liberal
+books and tracts. This society distributed Bibles, "and such other books as
+contain rational and consistent views of Christian doctrines, and are
+calculated to promote a correct faith, sincere piety, and a holy practice."
+In the year 1821 was formed the Unitarian Library and Tract Society of New
+York; and similar societies were started in Philadelphia and Charleston
+soon after, as well as in other cities. Some of these societies published
+books, tracts, and periodicals, all of them distributed Unitarian
+publications, and libraries were formed of liberal works. The most
+successful of these societies, which soon numbered a score or two, was that
+in Baltimore. This society extended its missionary operations with the
+printed page widely, sending tracts into every part of the country, the
+demand for them having become very large. Its periodical had an extended
+circulation, its cheapness, its popular character, and its outspoken
+attitude on doctrinal questions serving to make it the most successful of
+the liberal publications of the time.[19]
+
+[Sidenote: The Christian Register.]
+
+On April 20, 1821, was issued the first number of The Christian Register,
+the regular weekly publication of which began with August 24 of that year.
+Its four pages contained four columns each, but the third of these pages
+was given to secular news and advertisements. The first page was devoted to
+general religious subjects, the second discussed those topics which were of
+special interest to Unitarians, while the fourth was given to literary
+miscellanies. Almost nothing of church news was reported, and only in a
+limited way was the paper denominational. It was a general religious
+newspaper of a kind that was acceptable to the liberals, and it defended
+and interpreted their cause when occasion demanded. The paper was started
+wholly as an individual enterprise by its publisher, Rev. David Reed, who
+acted for about five years as its editor. He had the encouragement of the
+leading Unitarians of Boston and its vicinity; and, when such men as
+Channing, Ware, and Norton wished to speak for the Unitarians, its columns
+were open to them. Among the other early contributors were Kirkland, Story,
+Edward Everett, Walker, Dewey, Furness, Palfrey, Gannett, Noah Worcester,
+Greenwood, Bancroft, Sparks, Alexander Young, Freeman, Burnap, Pierpont,
+Noyes, Lowell, Frothingham, and Pierce.
+
+In his prospectus the publisher spoke of the growth of the spirit of free
+religious inquiry in the country; and he said that in all classes of the
+community there was an eagerness to understand theological questions, and
+to arrive at and practice the genuine principles of Christianity. His ideal
+was a periodical that should present the same doctrines and temper as The
+Christian Disciple, but that would be of a more popular character. "The
+great object of The Christian Register," he said to his readers, "will be
+to inculcate the principles of a rational faith, and to promote the
+practice of genuine piety. To accomplish this purpose it will aim to excite
+a spirit of free and independent religious inquiry, and to assist in
+ascertaining and bringing into use the true principles of interpreting the
+Scriptures."
+
+For a number of years The Christian Register conformed to "the mild and
+amiable spirit" in which it began its career, rarely being aroused to an
+aggressive attitude, and seldom undertaking to speak for Unitarianism as a
+distinct form of Christianity. When the liberals were fiercely attacked, it
+spoke out, as, for instance, at the time when the Unitarians were charged
+with stealing churches from the orthodox.[20] Otherwise it was mild and
+placid enough, given to expressing its friendly interest in every kind of
+reform, from the education of women to the emancipation of slaves,
+thoroughly humanitarian in its attitude, not doctrinal or controversial,
+but faithfully catholic and tolerant. It was a well-conducted periodical,
+represented a wide range of interests, and was admirably suited to
+interpret the temper and spirit of a rational religion. It is now the
+oldest weekly religious newspaper published in this country. As the leading
+Unitarian periodical, it is still conducted with notable enterprise and
+ability.
+
+Another periodical also deserves mention in this connection, and that is
+the North American Review, which was begun by William Tudor, one of the
+members of The Anthology Club, in May, 1815. While it was not religious in
+its character, it was from the first, and for more than sixty years, edited
+by Unitarians; and its contributors were very largely from that religious
+body. The same tendencies and conditions that led the liberals to establish
+The Monthly Anthology, The Christian Disciple, and The Christian Examiner,
+gave demand amongst them for a distinctly literary and critical journal.
+They had gained that form of liberated and catholic culture which made such
+works possible, and to a large extent they afforded the public necessary to
+their support. Mr. Tudor was succeeded as the editor of the review by
+Professor Edward T. Channing, and then followed in succession Edward
+Everett, Jared Sparks, Alexander H. Everett, John Gorham Palfrey, Francis
+Bowen, and Andrew P. Peabody, all Unitarians. Among the early Unitarian
+contributors were Nathan Hale, Joseph Story, Nathaniel Bowditch, W.H.
+Prescott, William Cullen Bryant, and Theophilus Parsons. For many years few
+of the regular contributors were from any other religious body, not because
+the editors put restrictions upon others, but because those who were
+interested in general literary, historical, and scientific subjects
+belonged almost exclusively to the churches of this faith.
+
+[Sidenote: Results of the Division in Congregationalism.]
+
+The controversy which began in 1805 continued for about twenty years. The
+pamphlets and books it brought forth are almost forgotten, and they would
+have little interest at the present time. They gradually widened the breach
+between the orthodox and the liberal Congregationalists. It would be
+difficult to name a decisive date for their actual separation. The
+organization of the societies, and the establishment of the periodicals
+already mentioned, were successive steps to that result. The most important
+event was undoubtedly the formation of the American Unitarian Association,
+in 1825; but even that important movement on the part of the Unitarians did
+not bring about a final separation. Individual churches and ministers
+continued to treat each other with the same courtesy and hospitality as
+before.
+
+That the breach was inevitable seems to be the verdict of history; and yet
+it is not difficult to see to-day how it might have been avoided. The
+Unitarians were dealt with in such a manner that they could not continue
+the old connection without great discomfort and loss of self-respect. They
+were forced to organize for self-protection, and yet they did so
+reluctantly and with much misgiving. They would have preferred to remain as
+members of the united Congregational body, but the theological temper of
+the time made this impossible. It would not be just to say that there was
+actual persecution, but there could not be unity where there was not
+community of thought and faith.
+
+When the division in the Congregational churches came, one hundred and
+twenty-five churches allied themselves with the Unitarians,--one hundred in
+Massachusetts, a score in other parts of New England, and a half-dozen west
+of the Hudson River. These churches numbered among them, however, many of
+the oldest and the strongest, including about twenty of the first
+twenty-five organized in Massachusetts, and among them Plymouth (organized
+in Scrooby), Salem, Dorchester, Boston, Watertown, Roxbury, Hingham,
+Concord, and Quincy. The ten Congregational churches in Boston, with the
+exception of the Old South, allied themselves with the Unitarians. Other
+first churches to take this action were those of Portsmouth, Kennebunk, and
+Portland.
+
+Outside New England a beginning was made almost as soon as the Unitarian
+name came into recognition. At Charleston, S.C., the Congregational church,
+which had been very liberal, was divided in 1816 as the result of the
+preaching of Rev. Anthony Forster. He was led to read the works of Dr.
+Priestley, and became a Unitarian in consequence. Owing to ill-health, he
+was soon obliged to resign; and Rev. Samuel Gilman was installed in 1819.
+Rev. Robert Little, an English Unitarian, took up his residence in
+Washington in 1819, and began to preach there; and a church was organized
+in 1821. While chaplain of the House of Representatives, in 1821-22, Jared
+Sparks preached to this society fortnightly, and in the House Chamber on
+the alternate Sunday. When he went to Charleston, in 1819, to assist in the
+installation of Mr. Gilman, he preached to a very large congregation in the
+state-house in Raleigh; and the next year he spoke to large congregations
+in Virginia.[21] More than a decade earlier there were individual
+Unitarians in Kentucky.[22] On his journey to the ordination of Jared
+Sparks, Dr. Channing preached in a New York parlor; and on his return he
+occupied the lecture-hall of the Medical School. The result was the First
+Congregational Church (All Souls'), organized in 1819, which was followed
+by the Church of the Messiah in 1825. In fact, many of the more intelligent
+and thoughtful persons everywhere were inclined to accept a liberal
+interpretation of Christianity.
+
+Although the Congregational body was divided into two distinct
+denominations, there were three organizations, formed prior to that event,
+which have remained intact to this day. In these societies Orthodox and
+Unitarian continue to unite as Congregationalists, and the sectarian lines
+are not recognized. The first of these organizations is the Massachusetts
+Congregational Charitable Society, which was formed early in the eighteenth
+century for the purpose of securing "support to the widows and children of
+deceased congregational ministers." The second is the Massachusetts
+Convention of Congregational Ministers, also formed early in the eighteenth
+century, although its records begin only with the year 1748. It was formed
+for consultation, advice, and counsel, to aid orphans and widows of
+ministers, and to secure the general promotion of the interests of
+religion. The convention sermon has been one of the recognized institutions
+of Massachusetts, and since the beginning of the Unitarian controversy it
+has been preached alternately by ministers of the two denominations. The
+Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians and Others in North
+America was formed in 1787. The members, officers, and missionaries of this
+society have been of both denominations; and the work accomplished has been
+carried on in a spirit of amity and good-will. These societies indicate
+that co-operation may be secured without theological unity, and it is
+possible that they may become the basis in the future of a closer sympathy
+and fellowship between the severed Congregational churches.
+
+[Sidenote: Final Separation of State and Church.]
+
+From the beginning the liberal movement had been more or less intimately
+associated with that for the promotion of religious freedom and the
+separation of state and church. Many of the states withdrew religion from
+state control on the adoption of the Federal Constitution. In New England
+this was done in the first years of the century. Connecticut came to this
+result after an exciting agitation in 1818. Massachusetts was more
+tenacious of the old ways; but in 1811 its legislative body passed a
+"religious freedom act," that secured individuals from taxation for the
+support of churches with which they were not connected. The constitutional
+convention of 1820 proposed a bill of rights that aimed to secure religious
+freedom, but it was defeated by large majorities. It was only when church
+property was given by the courts to the parish in preference to the church,
+and when the "standing order" churches had been repeatedly foiled in their
+efforts to retain the old prerogatives, that a majority could be secured
+for religious freedom. In November, 1833, the legislature submitted to the
+people a revision of the bill of rights, which provided for the separation
+of state and church, and the voluntary support of churches. A majority was
+secured for this amendment, and it became the law in 1834. Massachusetts
+was the last of all the states to arrive at this result, and a far greater
+effort was required to bring it about than elsewhere. The support of the
+churches was now purely voluntary, the state no longer lending its aid to
+tax person and property for their maintenance.
+
+Thus it came about that Massachusetts adopted the principle and method of
+Roger Williams after two centuries. For the first time she came to the full
+recognition of her own democratic ideals, and to the practical acceptance
+of the individualism for which she had contended from the beginning. She
+had fought stubbornly and zealously for the faith she prized above all
+other things, but by the logic of events and the greatness of the principle
+of liberty she was conquered. The minister and the meeting-house were by
+her so dearly loved that she could not endure the thought of having them
+shorn of any of their power and influence; but for the sake of their true
+life she at last found it wise and just to leave all the people free to
+worship God in their own way, without coercion and without restraint.
+
+Although the liberal ministers and churches led the way in securing
+religious freedom, yet they were socially and intellectually conservative.
+Radical changes they would not accept, and they moved away from the old
+beliefs with great caution. The charge that they were timid was undoubtedly
+true, though there is no evidence that they attempted to conceal their real
+beliefs. Evangelical enthusiasm was not congenial to them, and they
+rejected fanaticism in every form. They had a deep, serious, and spiritual
+faith, that was intellectual without being rationalistic, marked by strong
+common sense, and vigorous with moral integrity. They permitted a wide
+latitude of opinion, and yet they were thoroughly Christian in their
+convictions. Most of them saw in the miracles of the New Testament the only
+positive evidence of the truth of Christianity, which was to them an
+external and supernatural revelation. They were quite willing to follow
+Andrews Norton, however, who was the chief defender of the miraculous, in
+his free criticism of the Old Testament and the birth-stories in the
+Gospels.
+
+The liberal ministers fostered an intellectual and literary expression of
+religion, and yet their chief characteristic was their spirituality. They
+aimed at ethical insight and moral integrity in their influence upon men
+and women, and at cultivating purity of life and an inward probity. In
+large degree they developed the spirit of philanthropy and a fine regard
+for the rights and the welfare of others. They were not sectarian or
+zealous for bringing others to the acceptance of their own beliefs; but
+they were generous in behalf of all public interests, faithful to all civic
+duties, and known for their private generosity and faithful Christian
+living. Under the leadership of Dr. Channing the Catholic Christians, as
+they preferred to call themselves, cultivated a spirituality that was
+devout without being ritualistic, sincere without being fanatical. The
+churches around them, to a large degree, kept zealously to the externals of
+religion, and accepted physical evidences of the truthfulness of
+Christianity; but Channing sought for what is deeper and more permanent.
+His preference of rationality to the testimony of miracles, spiritual
+insight to external evidences, devoutness of life to the rites of the
+church, characterized him as a great religious leader, and developed for
+the Catholic Christians a new type of Christianity. Whatever Channing's
+limitations as a thinker and a reformer, he was a man of prophetic insight
+and lofty spiritual vision. In other ages he would have been canonized as a
+saint or called the beatific doctor; but in Boston he was a heretic and a
+reformer, who sought to lead men into a faith that is ethical, sincere, and
+humanitarian. He prized Christianity for what it is in itself, for its
+inwardness, its fidelity to human nature, and its ethical integrity. His
+mind was always open to truth, he was always young for liberty, and his
+soul dwelt in the serene atmosphere of a pure and lofty faith.
+
+[1] Josiah Quincy, History of Harvard University, I. 230, Chapter XII;
+    Christian Examiner, VII. 64; XXX. 70.
+
+[2] Jedidiah Morse, True Reasons on which the Election of a Hollis
+    Professor of Divinity in Harvard College were opposed at the Board of
+    Overseers.
+
+[3] III. 251, March, 1806.
+
+[4] Richard Eddy, Universalism in America, II. 87; Oscar F. Safford,
+    Hosea Ballou: A Marvellous Life Story, 71.
+
+[5] O.B. Frothingham, Boston Unitarianism, 161.
+
+[6] Josiah Quincy, History of the Boston Athenaeum, 1. "In the year 1803
+    Phineas Adams, a graduate of Harvard College, of the class of 1801,
+    commenced in Boston, under the name of _Sylvanus Per-se_, a periodical
+    work entitled The Monthly Anthology or Magazine of Polite Literature.
+    He conducted it for six months, but not finding its proceeds sufficient
+    for his support, he abandoned the undertaking. Mr. Adams, the son of a
+    farmer in Lexington, manifested in early boyhood a passion for elegant
+    learning. He adopted literature as a profession; but, after the failure
+    of his attempt as editor of The Anthology, he taught school in
+    different places, till, in 1811, he entered the Navy as chaplain and
+    teacher of mathematics. Here he became distinguished for mathematical
+    science in its relation to nautical affairs. In 1812 he accompanied
+    Commodore Porter in his eventful cruise in the Pacific, of which the
+    published journal bears honorable testimony to Mr. Adams's zeal for
+    promoting geographical and mathematical knowledge. He again joined
+    Porter in the expedition for the suppression of piracy in the West
+    Indies, and he died on that station in 1823, much respected in the
+    service."
+
+[7] In October, 1888, this society gave up its organization, and the sum
+    of $1,265.10 was given to the American Unitarian Association for the
+    establishment of a publishing fund.
+
+[8] Unitarian Biography, I. 40, Memoir by Henry Ware, Jr.
+
+[9] William Allen, Memoir of John Codman, 81.
+
+[10] Thomas Belsham, 1750-1829, was a dissenting English preacher and
+     teacher. In 1789 he became a Unitarian, and was settled in
+     Birmingham. From 1805 to his death he preached to the Essex Street
+     congregation in London. He wrote a popular work on the Evidences of
+     Christianity, and he translated the Epistles of St. Paul. He was a
+     vigorous and able writer.
+
+[11] Memoir of W.E. Channing, by W.H. Channing, I. 380.
+
+[12] Among the controversial works printed in Boston at this time was
+     Yates's Vindication of Unitarianism, an English book, which was
+     republished in 1816.
+
+[13] The entrance to the vestry of Federal Street Church was on Berry
+     Street, hence the name given the conference.
+
+[14] Christian Examiner, I. 248.
+
+[15] American Unitarian Biography, Life of Henry Ware, I. 241.
+
+[16] James Walker, Christian Examiner, X. 129; John G. Palfrey, Christian
+     Examiner, XI. 84; The Divinity School of Harvard University: Its
+     History, Courses of Study, Aims and Advantages.
+
+[17] Letters on the Ministry, Ritual, and Doctrines of the Protestant
+     Episcopal Church, addressed to Rev. William E. Wyatt, D.D., in Reply
+     to a Sermon, Baltimore, 1820.
+
+[18] Comparative Moral Tendency of Trinitarian and Unitarian Doctrines,
+     addressed to Rev. Samuel Miller, Boston, 1823.
+
+[19] H.B. Adams, Life and Writings of Jared Sparks, I. 175.
+
+[20] Dr. George E. Ellis, in Unitarianism: Its origin and History, 147.
+     The most prominent instance was that of the First Church in Dedham,
+     and this was decided by legal proceedings. "The question recognized
+     by the court was simply this: whether the claimants had been lawfully
+     appointed deacons of the First Church; that is, whether the body
+     which had appointed them was by law the First Church. The decision of
+     the court was as follows: 'When the majority of the members of a
+     Congregational church separate from the majority of the parish, the
+     members who remain, although a minority, constitute the church in
+     such parish, and retain the rights and property belonging thereto.'
+     This legal decision would have been regarded as a momentous one had
+     it applied only to the single case then in hearing. But it was the
+     establishment of a precedent which would dispose of all cases then to
+     be expected to present themselves in the troubles of the time between
+     parishes and the churches gathered within them. The full purport of
+     this decision was that the law did not recognize a church
+     independently of its connection with the parish in which it was
+     gathered, from which it might sever itself and carry property with
+     it." It was in accordance with the practice in New England for at
+     least a century preceding the decision in the Dedham case, and the
+     decision was rendered as the result of this practice.
+
+[21] H.B. Adams, Life and Writings of Jared Sparks, gives a most
+     interesting account in his earlier chapters of the origin of
+     Unitarianism, especially of its beginnings in Baltimore and other
+     places outside New England.
+
+[22] James Garrard, governor of Kentucky from 1796 to 1802, was a
+     Unitarian. Harry Toulmin, president of Transylvania Seminary and
+     secretary of the state of Kentucky, was also a Unitarian.
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+
+THE AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION.
+
+The time had come for the liberals to organize in a more distinctive form,
+in order that they might secure permanently the results they had already
+attained. The demand for organization, however, came almost wholly from the
+younger men, those who had grown up under the influence of the freer life
+of the liberal churches or who had been trained in the independent spirit
+of the Divinity School at Harvard. The older men, for the most part, were
+bound by the traditions of "the standing order":[1] they could not bring
+themselves to desire new conditions and new methods.
+
+The spirit of the older and leading laymen and ministers is admirably
+illustrated in Rev. O.B. Frothingham's account of his father in his book
+entitled Boston Unitarianism. They were interested in many, public-spirited
+enterprises, and the social circle in which they moved was cultivated and
+refined; but they were provincial, and little inclined to look beyond the
+limits of their own immediate interests. Dr. Nathaniel L. Frothingham,
+minister of the First Church in Boston, one of the earliest American
+students of German literature and philosophy, and a man of rational insight
+and progressive thinking, may be regarded as a representative of the best
+type of Boston minister in the first half of the nineteenth century. In a
+sermon preached in 1835, on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of
+his settlement, Dr. Frothingham said that he had never before used the word
+"Unitarian", in his pulpit, though his church had been for thirty years
+counted as Unitarian. "We have," he said, "made more account of the
+religious sentiment than of theological opinions." In this attitude he was
+in harmony with the leading men of his day.[2]
+
+Channing, for instance, was opposed to every phase of religious
+organization that put bonds upon men; and he would accept nothing in the
+form of a creed. He severely condemned "the guilt of a sectarian spirit,"
+and said that "to bestow our affections on those who are ranged under the
+same human leader, or who belong to the same church with ourselves, and to
+withhold it from others who possess equal if not superior virtue, because
+they bear a different name, is to prefer a party to the church of
+Christ."[3] In 1831 he described Unitarianism as being "characterized by
+nothing more than by the spirit of freedom and individuality. It has no
+established creed or symbol," he wrote. "Its friends think each for
+himself, and differ much from each other."[4] Later he wrote to a friend:
+"I distrust sectarian influence more and more. I am more detached from a
+denomination, and strive to feel more my connection with the Universal
+Church, with all good and holy men. I am little of a Unitarian, and stand
+aloof from all but those who strive and pray for clearer light, who look
+for a purer and more effectual manifestation of Christian truth."[5]
+
+Many of the Unitarians were in fullest sympathy with Channing as to the
+fundamental law of spiritual freedom and as to the evils of sectarianism. A
+considerable number of them were in agreement with him as to the course
+pursued by the Unitarian movement. Having escaped from one sect, they were
+not ready to commit themselves to the control of another. Therefore they
+withheld themselves from all definitely organized phases of Unitarianism,
+and would give no active support to those who sought to bring the liberals
+together for purposes of protection and forward movement. Under these
+circumstances it was difficult to secure concert of action or to make
+successful any definite missionary enterprise, however little of
+sectarianism it might manifest. Even to the present time Unitarianism has
+shown this independence on the part of local churches and this freedom on
+the part of individuals. Because of this attitude, unity of action has been
+difficult, and denominational loyalty never strong or assured.
+
+However, a different spirit animated the younger men, who persisted in
+their effort to secure an organization that would represent distinctively
+the Unitarian thought and sentiment. The movement towards organization had
+its origin and impulse in a group of young ministers who had been trained
+at the Harvard Divinity School under Professor Andrews Norton. While Norton
+was conservative in theology and opposed to sectarian measures, his
+teaching was radical, progressive, and stimulating. His students accepted
+his spirit of intellectual progress, and often advanced beyond his more
+conservative teachings. In the years between 1817 and 1824 James Walker,
+John G. Palfrey, Jared Sparks, Alexander Young, John Pierpont, Ezra S.
+Gannett, Samuel Barrett, Thomas R. Sullivan, Samuel J. May, Calvin Lincoln,
+and Edward B. Hall were students in the Divinity School; and all of these
+men were leaders in the movement to organize a Unitarian Association.
+Pierpont gave the name to the new organization, distinctly defining it as
+Unitarian. Gannett, Palfrey, and Hall served it as presidents; Gannett,
+Lincoln, and Young, as secretaries. Walker, Palfrey, and Barrett gave it
+faithful service as directors, and Lincoln as its active missionary agent.
+A number of young laymen in Boston and elsewhere, mostly graduates of
+Harvard College, were also interested in the formation of the new
+organization. Among them were Charles G. Loring, Robert Rantoul, Samuel A.
+Eliot, Leverett Salstonstall, George B. Emerson, and Alden Bradford. All
+these young men were afterwards prominent in the affairs of the city or
+state, and they were faithful to the interests of the Unitarian churches
+with which they were connected.
+
+[Sidenote: Initial Meetings.]
+
+The first proposition to form a Unitarian organization for missionary
+purposes was made in a meeting of the Anonymous Association, a club to
+which belonged thirty or forty of the leading men of Boston. They were all
+connected with Unitarian churches, and were actively interested in
+promoting the growth of a liberal form of Christianity. It appears from the
+journal of David Reed, for many years the editor and publisher of The
+Christian Register, that the members of this association were in the habit
+of meeting at each other's houses during the year 1824 for the purpose of
+discussing important subjects connected with religion, morals, and
+politics. At a meeting held at the house of Hon. Josiah Quincy in the
+autumn of that year, attention was called to certain articles that had been
+published in The Christian Register, and the importance was suggested of
+promoting the growth of liberal Christianity through the distribution of
+the printed word. A resolution was submitted, inquiring if measures could
+not be taken for uniting the efforts of liberal-minded persons to give
+greater efficiency to the attempt to extend a knowledge of Unitarian
+principles by means of the public press; and a committee was appointed to
+consider and report on the expediency of forming an organization for this
+purpose. This committee consisted of Rev. Henry Ware, the younger, Alden
+Bradford, and Richard Sullivan. Henry Ware was the beloved and devoted
+minister of the Second Church in Boston. His colleagues were older men,
+both graduates of Harvard College and prominent in the social and business
+life of Boston. The purpose which these men had in mind was well defined by
+Dr. Gannett, writing twenty years after the event: "We found ourselves," he
+said, "under the painful necessity of contributing our assistance to the
+propagation of tenets which we accounted false or of forming an association
+through which we might address the great truths of religion to our
+fellow-men without the adulteration of erroneous dogmas. To take one of
+these courses, or to do nothing in the way of Christian beneficence, was
+the only alternative permitted to us. The name which we adopted has a
+sectarian sound; but it was chosen to avoid equivocation on the one hand
+and misapprehension on the other."[6] The committee, under date of
+December 29, 1824, sent out a circular inviting a meeting of all
+interested, "in order to confer together on the expediency of appointing an
+annual meeting for the purpose of union, sympathy, and co-operation in the
+cause of Christian truth and Christian charity." In this circular will be
+found the origin of the clause in the present constitution of the Unitarian
+Association defining its purposes.
+
+In response to this call a meeting was held in the vestry of the Federal
+Street Church on January 27, 1825. Dr. Channing opened the meeting with
+prayer. Richard Sullivan was chosen moderator, and James Walker secretary.
+There were present all those who have been hitherto named in connection
+with this movement, together with many others of the leading laymen and
+ministers of the liberal churches in New England.[7] The record of the
+meeting made by Rev. James Walker is preserved in the first volume of the
+correspondence of the Unitarian Association; and it enables us, in
+connection with the more confidential reminiscences of David Reed, to give
+a fairly complete record of, what was said and done. Henry Ware, the
+younger, in behalf of the committee, presented a statement of the objects
+proposed by those desirous of organizing a national Unitarian society; and
+he offered a resolution declaring it "desirable and expedient that
+provision should be made for future meetings of Unitarians and liberal
+Christians generally." The adoption of this resolution was moved by Stephen
+Higginson; and the discussion was opened by Dr. Aaron Bancroft, the learned
+and honored minister of the Second Church in Worcester. He was fearful that
+sufficient care might not be taken as to the manner of instituting the
+proposed organization, and he doubted its expediency. He was of the opinion
+that Unitarianism was to be propagated slowly and silently, for it had
+succeeded in his own parish because it had not been openly advocated. He
+did not wish to oppose the design generally, but he was convinced that it
+would do more harm than good.
+
+Dr. Bancroft was followed by Professor Andrews Norton, the greatly
+respected teacher of most of the younger ministers, who defended the
+proposed organization, and said that its purpose was not to make
+proselytes. Then Dr. Charming arose, and gave to the proposition of the
+committee a guarded approval. He thought the object of the convention, as
+he wished to call it, should be to "spread our views of religion, not our
+mere opinions, for our religion is essentially practical." The friendly
+attitude of Channing gave added emphasis to the disapproval of the
+prominent laymen who spoke after him. Judge Charles Jackson, an eminent
+justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, thought there was danger in
+the proposed plan, that it was not becoming to liberal Christians, that it,
+was inconsistent with their principles, and that it would not be beneficial
+to the community. He was ready to give his aid, to any specific work, but
+he thought that everything could be accomplished that was necessary,
+without a general-association of any kind. The same opinion was expressed
+by George Bond, a leading merchant of Boston, who was afraid that
+Unitarianism would become popular, and that, when it had gamed a majority
+of the people of the country to its side, it would become as intolerant as
+the other sects. For this reason he believed the measure inexpedient, and
+moved an adjournment of the meeting.
+
+Three of the most widely known and respected of the older ministers also
+spoke in opposition to the proposition to form an association of liberal
+Christians. These men were typical pastors and preachers, whose parishes
+were limited only by the town in which they lived, and who preached the
+gospel without sectarian prejudice or doctrinal qualifications. Dr. John
+Pierce, of Brookline, thought the measure of the committee "very
+dangerous," and likely to do much harm in many of the parishes by arousing
+the sectarian spirit. He spoke three times in the course of the meeting,
+opposing with his accustomed vehemence all attempt at organization. Dr.
+Abiel Abbot, of Beverly, thought that presenting a distinct object for
+opposition would arrest the progress of Unitarianism, for in his
+neighborhood liberal Christianity owed everything to slow and silent
+progress. Dr. John Allyn, of Duxbury, one of the most original and learned
+ministers of his time in New England, was opposed to the use of any
+sectarian name, especially that of Unitarian or Liberal. He was willing to
+join in a general convention, and he desired to have a meeting of delegates
+from all sects. He expressed the opinion of several leading men who were
+present at this meeting, who favored an unsectarian organization, that
+should include all men of liberal opinions, of whatever name or
+denominational connection.
+
+Those who were in favor of a Unitarian Association did not remain silent,
+and they spoke with clearness and vigor in approval of the proposition of
+the committee. Alden Bradford, who became the Secretary of State in
+Massachusetts, and wrote several valuable biographical and historical
+works, thought that Unitarians were too timid and did not wisely defend
+their position. He was followed by Andrews Norton in a vigorous declaration
+of the importance of the association, in the course of which he pointed out
+how inadequately Unitarians had protected and fostered the institutions
+under their care, and declared that closer union was necessary. Jared
+Sparks also earnestly favored the project, and said that what was proposed
+was not a plan of proselyting. It was his opinion that Unitarians ought to
+come forward in support of their views of truth, and that an association
+was necessary in order to promote sympathy among them throughout the
+country. Colonel Joseph May, who had been for thirty years a warden of
+King's Chapel, and a man held in high esteem in Boston, referred to the
+work already accomplished by the zeal and effort of the few Unitarians who
+had worked together to promote liberal interests. The most incisive word
+spoken, however, came from John Pierpont, who was just coming into his fame
+as an orator and a leader in reforms. "We have," he declared, "and we must
+have, the name Unitarian. It is not for us to shrink from it. Organization
+is necessary in order to maintain it, and organization there must be. The
+general interests of Unitarians will be promoted by using the name, and
+organizing in harmony with it."
+
+In the long discussion at this meeting it appears that, of the ministers,
+Channing, Norton, Bancroft, Ware, Pierpont, Sparks, Edes, Nichols, Parker,
+Thayer, Willard, and Harding were in favor of organization; Pierce, Allyn,
+Abbot, Freeman, and Bigelow, against it. Of the laymen, Charles Jackson and
+George Bond were vigorously in opposition; and Judge Story, Judge White,
+Judge Howe, of Northampton, Alden Bradford, Leverett Salstonstall, Stephen
+Higginson, and Joseph May spoke in favor. The result of the meeting was the
+appointment of a committee, consisting of Sullivan, Bradford, Ware,
+Channing, Palfrey, Walker, Pierpont, and Higginson, which was empowered to
+call together a larger meeting at some time during the session of the
+General Court. But this committee seems never to have acted. At the end of
+his report of this preliminary meeting James Walker wrote: "The meeting
+proposed was never called. As there appeared to be so much difference of
+opinion as to the expediency and nature of the measure proposed, it was
+thought best to let it subside in silence."
+
+The zeal of those favorable to organization, however, did not abate; and
+the discussion went on throughout the winter. On May 25, 1825, at the
+meeting of the Berry Street Conference of Ministers, Henry Ware, the
+younger, who had been chairman of the first committee, renewed the effort,
+and presented the following statement as a declaration of the purposes of
+the proposed organization:--
+
+  It is proposed to form a new association, to be called The American
+  Unitarian Society. The chief and ultimate object will be the promotion
+  of pure and undefiled religion by disseminating the knowledge of it
+  where adequate means of religious instruction are not enjoyed. A
+  secondary good which will follow from it is the union of all Unitarian
+  Christians in this country, so that they would become mutually
+  acquainted, and the concentration of their efforts would increase their
+  efficiency. The society will embrace all Unitarian Christians in the
+  United States. Its operations would extend themselves through the whole
+  country. These operations would chiefly consist in the publication and
+  distribution of tracts, and the support of missionaries.
+
+It was announced that in the afternoon a meeting would be held for the
+further consideration of the subject. This meeting was held at four
+o'clock, and Dr. Henry Ware acted as moderator. The opponents of
+organization probably absented themselves, for action was promptly taken,
+and it was "_Voted_, that it is expedient to form a new society to be
+called the American Unitarian Association." All who were present expressed
+themselves as in favor of this action. Rev. James Walker, Mr. Lewis Tappan,
+and Rev. Ezra S. Gannett were appointed a committee to draft a form of
+organization. On the next morning, Thursday, May 26, 1825, this committee
+reported to a meeting, of which Dr. Nathaniel Thayer, of Lancaster, was
+moderator; and, with one or two amendments, the constitution prepared by
+the committee was adopted. This constitution, with slight modifications, is
+still in force. The object of the Association was declared to be "to
+diffuse the knowledge and promote the interests of pure Christianity." A
+committee to nominate officers selected Dr. Channing for president; Joseph
+Story, of Salem, Joseph Lyman, of Northampton, Stephen Longfellow, of
+Portland, Charles H. Atherton, of Amherst, N.H., Henry Wheaton, of New
+York, James Taylor, of Philadelphia, Henry Payson, of Baltimore, William
+Cranch, of Alexandria, Martin L. Hurlbut, of Charleston, as
+vice-presidents; Ezra S. Gannett, of Boston, for secretary; Lewis Tappan,
+of Boston, for treasurer; and Andrews Norton, Jared Sparks, and James
+Walker, for executive committee.
+
+When Mr. Gannett wrote to his colleague, Dr. Channing, to notify him of his
+election as president, there came a letter declining the proffered office.
+"I was a little disappointed," Channing wrote, "at learning that the
+Unitarian Association is to commence operations immediately. I conversed
+with Mr. Norton on the subject before leaving Boston, and found him so
+indisposed to engage in it that I imagined that it would be let alone for
+the present. The office which in your kindness you have assigned to me I
+must beg to decline. As you have made a beginning, I truly rejoice in your
+success." Norton and Sparks also declined to serve as directors, ill-health
+and previous engagements being assigned by them for their inability to act
+with the other officers elected. The executive committee proceeded to fill
+these vacancies by the election of Dr. Aaron Bancroft, of Worcester, as
+president, and of the younger Henry Ware and Samuel Barrett to the
+executive committee; and the board of directors thus constituted
+administered the Association during its first year.
+
+In the selection of Dr. Bancroft as the head of the new association a wise
+choice was made, for he had the executive and organizing ability that was
+eminently desirable at this juncture. He was an able preacher, and one of
+the strongest thinkers in the Unitarian body. His biography of Washington
+had made him widely known; and his volume of controversial sermons,
+published in 1822, had received the enthusiastic praise of John Adams and
+Thomas Jefferson. When he was settled, he was almost an outcast in
+Worcester County because of his liberalism; but such were the strength of
+his character and the power of his thought that gradually he secured a wide
+hearing, and became the most popular preacher in Central Massachusetts.
+After fifty years of his ministry he could count twenty-one vigorous
+Unitarian societies about him, all of which had profited by his
+influence.[8] Although he was seventy years of age at the time he
+accepted the presidency of the Unitarian Association, he was in the full
+enjoyment of his powers; and he filled the office for ten years, giving it
+and the cause which the Association represented the impetus and weight of
+his sound judgment and deserved reputation.
+
+The executive work of the Association fell to the charge of the secretary,
+Ezra S. Gannett, who had been one of the most enthusiastic advocates of the
+new organization. Gannett was but twenty-four years old, and had been but
+one year in the active ministry, as the colleague of Dr. Channing. He had
+youth, zeal, and executive force. Writing of him after his death, Dr.
+Bellows said: "He had rare administrative qualities and a statesmanlike
+mind. He would have been a leader anywhere. He had the ambition, the
+faculties, and the impulsive temperament of an actor in affairs. He had the
+fervor, the concentration of will, the passionate enthusiasm of conviction,
+the love of martyrdom, which make men great in action."[9] Throughout his
+life Gannett labored assiduously for the Association, serving it in every
+capacity refusing no drudgery, travelling over the country in its
+interests, and giving himself, heart and soul, to the cause it represented.
+The Unitarian cause never had a more devoted friend or one who made greater
+sacrifices in its behalf. To him more than to any other man it owes its
+organized life and its missionary serviceableness.
+
+Lewis Tappan, the treasurer, was a successful young business man. His term
+of service was brief; for two years after the organization of the
+Association he removed to New York, where he had an honorable career as one
+of the founders of the Journal of Commerce, and as the head of the first
+mercantile agency established in the country. He was later one of the
+anti-slavery leaders in New York, and an active and earnest member of
+Plymouth Church in Brooklyn.[10]
+
+The executive committee was composed of the three devoted young ministers
+who had been foremost in organizing the Association. Barrett was thirty,
+Ware and Walker were thirty-one years of age; and all three had been in
+Harvard College and the Divinity School together. Samuel Barrett had just
+been chosen minister of the newly formed Twelfth Congregational Church of
+Boston, which he served throughout his life. He was identified with all
+good causes in Eastern Massachusetts, a founder of the Benevolent
+Fraternity, and an overseer of Harvard College. Henry Ware, the younger,
+was, at the time of his election, the minister of the Second Church in
+Boston. Five years later he became professor in the Harvard Divinity
+School, and his memory is still cherished as the teacher and exemplar of a
+generation of Unitarian ministers. James Walker was, in 1825, the minister
+of the Harvard Church in Charlestown, and already gave evidence of the
+sanity and catholicity of mind, the practical organizing power, the wide
+philosophic culture, and the dignity of character which afterward
+distinguished him as professor in Harvard College, and as its president.
+
+Thus the organization started on its way, as the result of the determined
+purpose of a small company of the younger ministers and laymen. It took a
+name that separated it from all other religious organizations in this
+country, so far as its members then knew. The Unitarian name had been first
+definitely used in this country in 1815, to describe the liberal or
+Catholic Christians. They at first scornfully rejected it, but many of them
+had finally come to rejoice in its declaration of the simple unity of God.
+As a matter of history, it may be said that the word "Unitarian" was used
+in this doctrinal sense only; and it had none of the implications since
+given it by philosophy and science. Those who used it meant thereby to say
+that they accepted the doctrine of the absolute unity of God, and that the
+position of Christ was a subordinate though a very exalted one. No one can
+read their statements with historic apprehension, and arrive at any other
+conclusion. Yet these persons had no wish to cut themselves off from
+historic Christianity; rather was it their intent to restore it to its
+primitive purity.
+
+[Sidenote: Work of the First Year.]
+
+If others were disinclined to action, the executive committee of the
+Unitarian Association was determined that something should be done. At
+their first, meeting, held in the secretary's study four days after their
+election, there were present Norton, Walker, Tappan, and Gannett. They
+commissioned Rev. Warren Burton to act as their agent in visiting
+neighboring towns to solicit funds, and a week later they voted to employ
+him as a general agent. The committee held six meetings during June; and at
+one of these an address was adopted, defining the purposes and methods of
+the Association. "They wish it to be understood," was their statement,
+"that its efforts will be directed to the promotion of true religion
+throughout our country; intending by this, not exclusively those views
+which distinguish the friends of this Association from other disciples of
+Christ; but those views in connection with the great doctrines and
+principles in which all Christians coincide, and which constitute the
+substance of our religion. We wish to diffuse the knowledge and influence
+of the gospel of our Lord and Saviour. Great good is anticipated from the
+co-operation of persons entertaining similar views, who are now strangers
+to each other's religious sentiments. Interest will be awakened, confidence
+inspired, efficiency produced by the concentration of labors. The spirit of
+inquiry will be fostered, and individuals at a distance will know where to
+apply for information and encouragement. Respectability and strength will
+be given to the class among us whom our fellow Christians have excluded
+from the control of their religious charities, and whom, by their exclusive
+treatment, they have compelled in some measure to act as a party." The
+objects of the Association were stated to be the collection of information
+about Unitarianism in various parts of the country; the securing of union,
+sympathy, and co-operation among liberal Christians; the publishing and
+distribution of books inculcating correct views of religion; the employment
+of missionaries, and the adoption of other measures that might promote the
+general purposes held in view.
+
+At the end of the year the Association held its first anniversary meeting
+in Pantheon Hall, on the evening of June 30, 1826, when addresses were made
+by Hon. Joseph Story, Hon. Leverett Salstonstall, Rev. Ichabod Nichols, and
+Rev. Henry Coleman. The executive committee presented its report, which
+gave a detailed account of the operations during the year. They gave
+special attention to their discovery of "a body of Christians in the
+Western states who have for years been Unitarians, have encountered
+persecution on account of their faith, and have lived in ignorance of
+others east of the mountains who maintained many similar views of Christian
+doctrine." With this group of churches, which would consent to no other
+name than that of Christian, a correspondence had been opened; and, to
+secure a larger acquaintance with them, Rev. Moses G. Thomas[11] had
+visited several of the Western states. His tour carried him through
+Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and as far as St. Louis.
+His account of his journey was published in connection with the second
+report of the Association, and is full of interest. He did not preach, but
+he carefully investigated the religious prospects of the states he
+journeyed through; and he sought the acquaintance of the Christian churches
+and ministers. He gave an enthusiastic account of his travels, and reported
+that the west was a promising field for the planting of Unitarian churches.
+He recommended Northumberland, Harrisburg, Pittsburg, Steubenville,
+Marietta, Paris, Lexington, Louisville, St. Louis, St. Charles,
+Indianapolis, and Cincinnati as promising places for the labors of
+Unitarian missionaries,--places "which will properly appreciate their
+talents and render them doubly useful in their day and generation."
+
+During the first year of its existence the Unitarian Association endeavored
+to unite with itself, or to secure the co-operation of, the Society for the
+Promotion of Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity, the Evangelical
+Missionary Society, and the Publishing Fund Society; but these
+organizations were unwilling to come into close affiliation with it. The
+Evangelical Missionary Society has continued its separate existence to the
+present time, but the others were absorbed by the Unitarian Association
+after many years. This is one indication of how difficult it was to secure
+an active co-operation among Unitarians, and to bring them all into one
+vigorous working body. In concluding their first report, the officers of
+the Association alluded to the difficulties with which they had met the
+reluctance of the liberal churches to come into close affiliation with each
+other. "They have strenuously opposed the opinion," they said of the
+leaders of the Association, "that the object of the founders was to build
+up a party, to organize an opposition, to perpetuate pride and bigotry. Had
+they believed that such was its purpose or such would be its effect, they
+would have withdrawn themselves from any connection with so hateful a
+thing. They thought otherwise, and experience has proved they did not judge
+wrongly."
+
+[Sidenote: Work of the First Quarter of a Century.]
+
+Having thus organized itself and begun its work, the Association went
+quietly on its way. At no time during the first quarter of a century of its
+existence did it secure annual contributions from one-half the churches
+calling themselves Unitarian, and it did well when even one-third of them
+contributed to its treasury during any one year. The churches of Boston,
+for the most part, held aloof from it, and gave it only a feeble support,
+if any at all. They had so long accepted the spirit of congregational
+exclusiveness, had so great a dread of interference on the part of
+ecclesiastical organizations, and so keenly suspected every attempt at
+co-operation on the part of the churches as likely to lead to restrictions
+upon congregational independence, that it was nearly impossible to secure
+their aid for any kind of common work. Very slowly the contributions
+increased to the sum of $5,000 a year, and only once in the first quarter
+of a century did the total receipts of a year reach $15,000. With so small
+a treasury no great work could be undertaken; but the money given was
+husbanded to the utmost, and the salaries paid to clerks and the general
+secretary were kept to the lowest possible limit.
+
+Dr. Bancroft was succeeded in the presidency of the Association, in 1836,
+by Dr. Channing, who nominally held the position for one year; but at the
+next annual meeting he declined to have his name presented as a
+candidate.[12] The office was then filled by Dr. Ichabod Nichols, of
+Portland, who served from 1837 to 1844. He was the minister of the First
+Church in Portland from 1809 to 1855, and then retired to Cambridge, where
+he wrote his Natural Theology and his Hours with the Evangelists. Joseph
+Story, the great jurist, who had been vice-president of the Association
+from 1826 to 1836, was elected president in 1844, and served for one year.
+He was followed by Dr. Orville Dewey, who was president from 1845 to 1847.
+He had been settled in New Bedford, and over the Church of the Messiah in
+New York; and subsequently he had short pastorates in Albany, in
+Washington, and over the New South Church in Boston. His lectures and his
+sermons have made him widely known. In intellectual and emotional power he
+was one of the greatest preachers the country has produced. Dr. Gannett
+served as the president from 1847 to 1851, being succeeded by Dr. Samuel K.
+Lothop, who continued to hold the office until 1856. Dr. Lothrop was first
+settled in Dover, N.H., but became the minister of the Brattle Street
+Church, Boston, in 1834, retaining that position until 1876.
+
+The office of secretary was held by Rev. Ezra S, Gannett until 1831. He was
+succeeded in that year by Rev. Alexander Young, who held the position for
+two years. Dr. Young was the minister of the New South Church from 1825
+until his death, in 1854. His Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers, and other
+works, have given him a reputation as a historian. In 1829 the office of
+foreign secretary was created; and it was held by the younger Henry Ware
+from 1830 to 1834, when it ceased to exist. Rev. Samuel Barnett was
+secretary in 1833 and 1834, and recording secretary until 1837. In 1834 the
+office of general secretary was established, in order to secure the
+services of an active missionary. Rev. Jason Whitman, who held this
+position for one year, had been the minister in Saco; and he was afterward
+settled in Portland and Lexington. Rev. Charles Briggs became the general
+secretary in 1835, and continued in office until the end of 1847. He had
+been settled in Lexington, but did not hold a pastorate subsequent to his
+connection with the Association. In the mean time Rev. Samuel K. Lothrop
+was the assistant or recording secretary from 1837 to 1847. In 1847 Rev.
+William G. Eliot was elected the general secretary; but he did not serve,
+owing to the claims of his parish in St. Louis. Rev. Frederick West
+Holland, who had been settled in Rochester, was made the general secretary
+in January, 1848; and he held the position until the annual meeting of
+1860. Subsequently he was settled in East Cambridge, Neponset, North
+Cambridge, Rochester, and Newburg.
+
+It was Charles Briggs who first gave definite purpose to the missionary
+work of the Association. The annual report of 1850 said of him that he "had
+led the institution forward to high ground as a missionary body, by
+unfailing patience prevailed over every discouragement, by inexhaustible
+hope surmounted serious obstacles, by the most persuasive gentleness
+conciliated opposition, and done perhaps as much as could be asked of sound
+judgment, knowledge of mankind, and devotion to the cause, with the
+drawback of a slender and failing frame." In 1845 Rev. George G. Channing
+entered upon a service as the travelling agent of the Association, which he
+continued for two years. His duties required him to take an active interest
+in missionary enterprises, revive drooping churches, secure information as
+to the founding of new churches, and to add to the income of the
+Association. He was a brother of Dr. Channing, held one or two pastorates,
+and was the founder and editor of The Christian World, which he published
+in Boston as a weekly Unitarian paper from January, 1843, to the end of
+1848.
+
+At a meeting of the Unitarian Association held on June 3, 1847, the final
+steps were taken that secured its incorporation under the laws of
+Massachusetts. In the revised constitution the fifteen vice-presidents were
+reduced to two, and the president and vice-presidents were made members of
+the executive committee, and so brought into intimate connection with the
+work of the Association. The directors and other officers were made an
+executive committee, by which all affairs of moment must be considered; and
+it was required to hold stated monthly meetings. These changes were
+conducive to an enlarged interest in the work of the Association, and also
+to the more thorough consideration of its activities on the part of a
+considerable body of judicious and experienced officers. They were made in
+recognition of the increasing missionary labors of the Association, and
+enabled it thenceforth to hold and to manage legally the moneys that came
+under its control.
+
+[Sidenote: Publication of Tracts and Books.]
+
+One of the first subjects to which the Association gave attention was the
+publication of tracts, six of which were issued during the first year. In
+connection with their publication a series of depositaries was established
+for their sale. David Reed of The Christian Register became the general
+agent, while there were ten county depositaries in Massachusetts, four in
+New Hampshire, three in Maine, and one each in Connecticut, New York City,
+Philadelphia, Charleston, and Washington.[13] For a number of years the
+tracts were devoted to doctrinal subjects. Several of Channing's ablest
+sermons and addresses were first printed in this form. Among the other
+contributors to the first series were the three Wares, Orville Dewey,
+Joseph Tuckerman, James Walker, George Ripley, Samuel J. May, John G.
+Palfrey, Ezra S. Gannett, Samuel Gilman, George R. Noyes, William G. Eliot,
+Andrew P. Peabody, F.A. Farley, James Freeman Clarke, S.G. Bulfinch, George
+Putnam, Joseph Allen, Frederic H. Hedge, Edward B. Hall, George E. Ellis,
+Thomas B. Fox, Charles T. Brooks, J.H. Morison, Henry W. Bellows, William
+H. Furness, John Cordner, Chandler Robbins, Augustus Woodbury, and William
+R. Alger. Ten or twelve tracts were issued yearly, those of the year having
+a consecutive page numbering, so that, in fact, they appeared in the form
+of a monthly periodical, each tract bearing the date of its publication,
+and being sent regularly to all subscribers to the Association. In all,
+three hundred tracts appeared in this form in the first series, making
+twenty-six volumes.
+
+For nearly half a century none of the tracts of the Association were
+published for free distribution. They were issued at prices ranging from
+two to ten cents each, according to the size, some of them having not more
+than ten or twelve pages, while others had more than a hundred. So long as
+there was an eagerness for theological reading, and an earnest intellectual
+interest in the questions which divided the several religious bodies of the
+country from each other, it was not difficult to sell editions of from
+3,000 to 10,000 copies of all the tracts published by the Association. From
+the first, however, there were many calls for tracts for free distribution.
+To meet this demand, there was formed in Boston, by a number of young men
+during the year 1827, The Unitarian Book and Pamphlet Society, for "the
+gratuitous distribution of Unitarian publications of an approved
+character." It undertook especially to distribute "such publications as
+shall be issued by the American Unitarian Association or recommended by
+it." This society also circulated tracts printed by The Christian Register
+and The Christian World, the call for such publications having led the
+publishers of these periodicals to give their aid in meeting the demand for
+pamphlets on theological problems and on practical religious duties. The
+society also distributed Bibles to the poor of the city and in more distant
+country places, furnishing them to missionaries and others who would
+undertake work of this kind. In the same manner they gave away large
+numbers of books, their list for 1836 including Scougal's Life of God in
+the Soul of Man, Ware's Formation of the Christian Character, and works by
+Worcester, Channing Whitman, and Greenwood. The call for aid was
+considerable from the western and southern states; and books were sent to
+Havana, New Brunswick, and the Sandwich Islands. In the winter of 1840-41
+this society was reorganized, an urgent appeal was made to the churches for
+an increase of funds, and during the next few years its work was large and
+important.
+
+In the year 1848 was begun a special effort for the circulation of
+Unitarian books, on the part of The Book and Pamphlet Society, The Society
+for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity, as well as by the
+Unitarian Association. In that year the second of these organizations sent
+out circulars to 263 colleges and theological schools, offering to give
+Unitarian books, to those desiring to receive them; and to 59 of these
+institutions assortments of books worth from two dollars to one hundred
+dollars were forwarded. The first request came from the Catholic College at
+Worcester, and the last from the Wisconsin University at Madison. At the
+same time the Association was pressing the sale and free distribution of
+the Works and the Memoir of Dr. Charming, as well as various books by
+Peabody, Livermore, Bartol, and others.
+
+The Association began to make use of colporters about the year 1847. The
+next year it had two young ministers engaged in this work, and by 1850 this
+kind of missionary labor had increased to considerable proportions.
+Especially in the West was much use made of the colporter, and in this way
+in many of the states the works of Channing were sold in large numbers. By
+these agents, tracts were given away with a free hand, and books were given
+to ministers and those who especially needed them. The Western ministers,
+almost without exception, served as colporters, selling books and
+distributing them as important helps to their missionary labors. In many
+communities zealous laymen took part in this kind of service, and the
+several depositaries of books and tracts were used as centres from which
+colporters and others could draw their supplies. As early as 1835 a general
+depositary had been established in Cincinnati, and in 1849 one was opened
+in Chicago.
+
+The Association could not have undertaken any work that would have brought
+in a larger or more immediate return in the way of religious education and
+spiritual growth than this of the publication of tracts and books. Previous
+to 1850 a doctrinal sermon was rarely preached in a Unitarian church, and
+the tracts were the most important means of giving to the members of
+established churches a knowledge of Unitarian theology. By the same means
+many other persons were made acquainted with the Unitarian beliefs, and the
+result was to be seen in the formation of churches where tracts and books
+had been largely distributed.[14]
+
+[Sidenote: Domestic Missions.]
+
+The work of domestic missions from the first largely claimed the attention
+of the Association, and it was one the chief objects in its formation.
+During the summer of 1826 the members of the Harvard Divinity School were
+sent throughout New England to gather information, and to preach where
+opportunity offered. The special object was to make ministers and
+congregations acquainted with the purposes of the Association. It was found
+that there was much opposition to it, and that in many parishes there
+existed no desire to have its mission extended.
+
+Persons of all shades of belief were connected with many of the liberal
+parishes, some of the churches not having as yet ceased their relations
+with the towns in which they were located; and the ministers were not
+willing to have theological questions brought to the attention of their
+congregations. "The great objection everywhere seems to be," reported one
+of the young men, who had travelled through many of the towns of central
+Massachusetts, "that the clergymen do not like to awaken party spirit.
+People will go on quietly performing all external duties of religion
+without asking themselves if they are listening to the doctrine of the
+Trinity or not; but the moment you wish to act, they call up all their old
+prejudices, and take a very firm stand. This necessarily creates division
+and dissension, and renders the situation of the minister very
+uncomfortable."[15] The ministers did not preach on theological subjects;
+and, while they were liberal themselves, they had not instructed their
+parishioners in such a manner that they followed in the same path of
+thinking which their leaders had travelled.
+
+It was evident, therefore, that there was work enough in New England for
+the Association to accomplish, and such as would fully tax its
+resources.[16] It had turned its eyes toward the West and South, however;
+and it was not willing to leave these fields unoccupied. In 1836 the
+general secretary, Charles Briggs, spent eight months in these regions; and
+he found everywhere large opportunities for the spread of Unitarianism.
+Promising openings were found at Erie, Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit,
+Marietta, Tremont, Jacksonville, Memphis, and Nashville, in which villages
+or cities churches were soon after formed. It was reported at this time
+that there was hardly a town in the West where there were not Unitarians,
+or in which it was not possible by the right kind of effort to establish a
+Unitarian church.
+
+As a result of the interest awakened by the tour of the general secretary,
+fourteen missionaries were put into the field in 1837. In 1838 twenty-three
+missionaries visited eleven states, including New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
+Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky Alabama, and Georgia.[17] They were
+men of experience in parish labors, but they did not go out to the new
+country to remain there permanently. They attracted large congregations,
+however, formed several societies which promised to be permanent,
+administered the ordinances, established Sunday-schools, and did much to
+strengthen the churches. In 1839 seven preachers were sent into the west,
+and at the next anniversary there was an urgent call made by the
+Association for funds with which to establish a permanent missionary agent
+in the field. Something more was needed than a few Massachusetts ministers
+preaching from town to town with no purpose of locating with any of the
+churches they helped to organize. Ministers for the new churches were
+urgently demanded, but few men from New England were willing to remove to
+the west; and, though recruits came from the orthodox churches, this source
+of supply was not sufficient.
+
+The repeated calls made for larger resources with which to carry on the
+work of domestic missions resulted in meetings held in Boston during the
+year 1841, at which pledges were made to a fund of $10,000 yearly for five
+years, to be used for missionary purposes. This sum was secured in 1843 and
+the next four years, so that larger aid was given to missionary activities
+and to the building of churches. At the annual meeting of 1849 special
+attention was given to the subject of domestic missions, and plans were
+devised for largely extending all the activities in this direction. Much
+interest was taken in the western work during the following years, and
+slowly new churches came into existence. In 1849 Rev. Edward P. Bond was
+sent to San Francisco, where a number of New England people had held lay
+services and formed a church, and in a few years a strong society had grown
+up in that city. Mr. Bond also went to the Sandwich Islands; but he was not
+able to open a mission there, owing to ill-health. In the South the work
+languished, largely owing to the growth of anti-slavery sentiment in the
+North, with which Unitarians were generally in sympathy.
+
+From 1830 to 1850 the Unitarians were confronted by the greatest
+opportunity which has ever opened to them for missionary activities. The
+vast region of the middle west was in a formative state, the people were
+everywhere receptive to liberal influences, other churches had not been
+firmly established, and there was urgent demand for leadership of a
+progressive and rational kind. Here has come to be the controlling centre
+of American life,--in politics, education, and social power. A few of the
+leaders saw the opportunity, but the churches were not ready to respond to
+their appeals.
+
+The work accomplished by the Association during the first twenty-five or
+thirty years of its existence, the period reviewed in this chapter, was
+small, compared with the opportunity and with the wishes of those who most
+had at heart the interests for the promotion of which it was established.
+Yet there was wanting in no year encouragement for its friends or something
+accomplished that cheered them to larger efforts. In 1850, at the
+twenty-fifth anniversary, historical addresses were delivered by Samuel
+Osgood, John G. Palfrey, Henry W. Bellows, Edward E. Hale, and Lant
+Carpenter; and a hopeful review of the labors of the Association was
+presented by the executive committee. First of all its efforts had been
+directed to securing religious liberty. Then came its philanthropic
+enterprises, and finally its missionary labors. During the quarter of a
+century one hundred churches that were weak and struggling, owing to their
+situation in towns of decreasing population or in cities not congenial to
+their teachings, had been aided. More than fifty vigorous churches had been
+planted in the west and south, nearly all of them helped in some way by the
+Association. There was a renewed call for strong men to enter the
+missionary field, and it was uttered more urgently at this time than ever
+before. Special pride was expressed in the high quality of the religious
+writings produced by Unitarians, and in the nobleness the men and women who
+had been connected with denominational activities.[18]
+
+[1] An eighteenth-century term for the Congregational churches, which
+     were the legally established churches throughout New England, an
+     supported by the towns.
+
+[2] Boston Unitarianism, 67.
+
+[3] Memoir of Dr. Channing, one-volume edition, 215.
+
+[4] Ibid., 432.
+
+[5] Ibid., 427.
+
+[6] Memoir of Ezra Stiles Gannett, by W.C. Gannett, 103.
+
+[7] The records give the following names: Drs. Freeman, Channing, Lowell,
+     Tuckerman, Bancroft, Pierce, and Allyn; Rev. Messrs. Henry Ware,
+     Francis Parkman, J.G. Palfrey, Jared Sparks, Samuel Ripley, A.
+     Bigelow, A. Abbot, C. Francis, L. Capen, J. Pierpont, James Walker,
+     Mr. Harding, and Mr. Edes; and the following laymen,--Richard
+     Sullivan, Stephen Higginson, B. Gould, H.J. Oliver, S. Dorr, Colonel
+     Joseph May, C.G. Loring, George Bond, Samuel A. Eliot, G.B. Emerson,
+     C.P. Phelps, Lewis Tappan, David Reed, Mr. Storer, J. Rucker, N.
+     Mitchell, Robert Rantoul, Alden Bradford, Mr. Dwight, Mr. Mackintosh,
+     General Walker, Mr. Strong, Dr. John Ware, and Professor Andrews
+     Norton.
+
+[8] John Brazer, The Christian Examiner, xx. 240; Alonzo Hill, American
+     Unitarian Biography, i. 171.
+
+[9] The Liberal Christian, March 3, 1875.
+
+[10] Although Lewis Tappan took a zealous interest in the formation of the
+     Unitarian Association, as he did in all Unitarian activities of the
+     time, in the autumn of 1827 he withdrew from the Unitarian
+     fellowship, and joined the orthodox Congregationalist. In a letter
+     addressed to a Unitarian minister he explained his reasons for so
+     doing. This letter circulated for some time in manuscript, and in
+     1828 was printed in a pamphlet with the title, Letter from a
+     Gentleman in Boston to a Unitarian Clergyman of that City. Want of
+     Piety among Unitarians, failure to sustain missionary enterprises,
+     and the absence of a rigid business integrity he assigned as reasons
+     for his withdrawal. This pamphlet excited much discussion, pro and
+     con; and it was answered in a caustic review by J.P. Blanchard.
+
+[11] Moses George Thomas was a graduate of Brown and of the Harvard
+     Divinity School, was settled in Dover, N.H., from 1829 to 1845,
+     Broadway Church in South Boston from 1845 to 1848, New Bedford 1848
+     to 1854, and was subsequently minister at large in the same city.
+
+[12] In writing to Charles Briggs from Newport, under date of July 30
+     1836, Dr. Channing wrote, "In the pressure of subjects, when I saw
+     you, I forgot to say to you, that I cannot accept the office with
+     which the Unitarian Association honored me." That is the whole of
+     what he wrote on the subject. No one else was elected to the office
+     for year. It is evident, therefore, that his name should occupy the
+     place of president.
+
+[13] The depositaries in Massachusetts were at Salem, Concord, Hingham,
+     Plymouth, Yarmouth, Cambridge, Worcester, Northampton, Springfield,
+     and Greenfield; in New Hampshire, at Concord, Portsmouth, Keene, and
+     Amherst; in Maine, at Hallowell, Brunswick, and Eastport; and, in
+     Connecticut, at Brooklyn. In 1828 the number had increased to
+     twenty-five in Massachusetts, six in Maine, seven in New Hampshire,
+     one in Rhode Island, four in New York, two in Pennsylvania, and two
+     in Maryland. At the first annual meeting of the Unitarian Association
+     a system of auxiliaries was recommended, which was inaugurated the
+     next year. It was proposed to organize an auxiliary to the
+     Association in every parish, and also in each county. These societies
+     came rapidly into existence, were of much help to the Association in
+     raising money and in distributing its tracts, and energetic efforts
+     were made on the part of the officers of the Association to extend
+     their number and influence. They continued in existence for about
+     twenty years, and gradually disappeared. They numbered about one
+     hundred and fifty when most prosperous.
+
+[14] During the first twenty-five years of the Association, 272 tracts of
+     the first series were issued, and also 29 miscellaneous tracts and 37
+     reports. The number of copies published was estimated as 1,764,000,
+     making an average of 70,000 each year. Of these tracts, 103 were
+     practical, and 93 doctrinal; and, of the doctrinal, one-half were on
+     the Divine Unity, one-sixth on the Atonement, ten on Regeneration,
+     five on the Ordinances, four on Human Nature, three on Retribution,
+     and two on the Holy Spirit. In the Monthly Journal, May, 1860, Vol.
+     I. pp. 230-240, were given the titles and authors.
+
+[15] From a letter of Samuel K. Lothrop, afterward minister of the Brattle
+     Street Church.
+
+[16] The following letter is of interest, not only because of the name of
+     the writer, but because it gives a very good idea of the work done by
+     the first missionaries of the Association. It is dated at
+     Northampton, Mass., October 9, 1827. "My dear Sir,--I designed when I
+     left you to send some earlier notice of my doings than this; but as
+     it has not been in my power to say much, I have said nothing. Mr.
+     Hall is preparing an account of his own missions, but thinks it not
+     worth while to send it to you till it is completed. The first Sabbath
+     after my arrival I preached here. The second, for the convenience of
+     the Greenfield people, an exchange was made, and I went to Deerfield,
+     and Dr. Willard went to Colrain. There were some unfavorable
+     circumstances which operated to diminish the audience, but they were
+     glad to see and hear him. The fourth Sabbath (which followed the
+     meeting of the Franklin Association) I preached at Greenfield, and
+     Mr. Bailey went to Colrain. I enclose his journal. The fifth Sabbath
+     at Deerfield, and Dr. Willard at Adams in Berkshire. I have not seen
+     him since his return. I have told the Franklin Association I would
+     remain here till November, and in consequence have been thus put to
+     and fro, but expect to preach the three coming Sundays in
+     Northampton. I have offered my services to preach lectures in the
+     week, but circumstances have made it inexpedient in towns where it
+     was proposed. The clergymen are very glad to see me, having feared
+     that the mission was indefinitely postponed. They find the better
+     sort of people in most of the towns inquisitive and favorably
+     disposed to views of liberal Christianity. It is a singular fact, of
+     which I hear frequent mention made, that in elections Unitarians are
+     almost universally preferred when the suffrage is by ballot, and
+     rejected when given by hand ballot. In Franklin county it is thought
+     there is a majority of Unitarians. I have been much disappointed in
+     being obliged to lead a vagrant life, as you know I came hither with
+     different expectations, and hoped for leisure and retirement for
+     study, which I needed much. But it would not do for a missionary to
+     be stiff necked, and so I have been a shuttle. I have promised to go
+     to New Bedford the first three Sundays of November. With great
+     regard, your servant, R. Waldo Emerson." From this letter it will be
+     seen that Emerson supplied the pulpits at Northampton and Greenfield
+     in order that the ministers in those towns might preach elsewhere.
+
+[17] Fourteenth Annual Report, 14. "They were the following: Rev. George
+     Ripley, Boston; Rev. A.B. Muzzey, Cambridgeport; Rev. Samuel Barrett,
+     Boston; Rev. Mr. Green, East Cambridge; Rev. Calvin Lincoln,
+     Fitchburg; Rev. E.B. Willson, Westford; Dr. James Kendall, Plymouth;
+     Rev. George W. Hosmer, Buffalo; Rev. Warren Burton, Dr. Thompson,
+     Salem; Rev. J.P.B. Storer, Syracuse; Rev. Charles Babbidge,
+     Pepperell; Rev. John M. Myrick, Walpole; Rev. J.D. Swett, Boston;
+     Rev. A.D. Jones, Brighton; Rev. Henry Emmons, Meadville; Rev. J.F.
+     Clarke, Louisville; Rev. F.D. Huntington, Rev. B.F. Barrett, Rev.
+     G.F. Simmons, Rev. C. Nightingale, Mr. Wilson, of the Divinity
+     School; and Mr. C.P. Cranch. Among the places where they preached
+     are Houlton Me.; Syracuse, Lockport, Lewiston, Pekin, and Vernon,
+     N.Y.; Philadelphia and Erie, Pa.; Marietta, Zanesville, Cleveland,
+     and Toledo, Ohio; Detroit, Mich.; Owensburg, Ky.; Chicago, Peoria,
+     Tremont, Jacksonville, Hillsboro, and several other places in
+     Illinois."
+
+[18] For a most interesting account of the growth of the denomination, see
+     The Christian Examiner for May, 1854, lvi. 397, article by John
+     Parkman.
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+
+THE PERIOD OF RADICALISM.
+
+Before the controversy with the Orthodox had come to its end, a somewhat
+similar conflict of opinions arose within the Unitarian ranks. The same
+influences that had led the Unitarians away from the Orthodox were now
+causing the more radical Unitarians to advance beyond their more
+conservative neighbors. English philosophy had given direction to the
+Unitarian movement in America; and now German philosophy was helping to
+develop what has been designated as transcendentalism, which largely found
+expression within the Unitarian body. Beginning with 1835, the more liberal
+Unitarians were increasingly active. Hedge's[1] Club held its meetings,
+The Dial was published, Brook Farm lived its brief day of a reformed
+humanity, Parker began his preaching in Boston, Emerson was lecturing and
+publishing, and the more radical younger Unitarian preachers were bravely
+speaking for a religion natural to man and authenticated by the inner
+witness of the truth.
+
+The agitation thus started went on its way with many varying
+manifestations, and with a growing incisiveness of statement and
+earnestness of feeling. The new teachings gained the interest and the faith
+of the young in increasing numbers. In pulpits and on the platform, in
+newspapers and magazines, in essays and addresses, this new teaching was
+uttered for the world's hearing. The breeze thus created seems to have
+grown into a gale, but The Christian Register and The Christian Examiner
+gave almost no indication that it had blown their way. In the official
+actions and in the publications of the Unitarian Association there was no
+word indicating that the discussion had come to its knowledge. All at once,
+however, in 1853, it came into the greatest prominence, as the result of
+action taken by the Unitarian Association; and, thenceforth, for a quarter
+of a century it was never absent as a disturbing element in the
+intellectual and religious life of the Unitarian body.
+
+The early Unitarians were believers in the supernatural and in the miracles
+of the New Testament. They accepted without question the ideas on this
+subject that had been entertained by all Protestants from the days of
+Luther and Calvin. When Theodore Parker and the transcendentalists began to
+question the miraculous foundations of Christianity, many Unitarians were
+quite unprepared to accept their theories. They believed that the miracles
+of the New Testament afford the only evidence for the truthfulness of
+Christianity. This issue was distinctly stated in the twenty-eighth annual
+report of the Unitarian Association for 1853, wherein an attempt was made
+to defend the Unitarian body against the charge of infidelity and
+rationalism made by the Orthodox. The teachings of the transcendentalists
+and radicals had been attributed to all Unitarians, and the leaders of the
+Association felt that it was time to define explicitly the position they
+occupied. Therefore they said, in the report of that year:--"We desire, in
+a denominational capacity, to assert our profound belief in the Divine
+origin, the Divine authority, the Divine sanctions, of the religion of
+Jesus Christ. This is the basis of our associated action. We desire openly
+to declare our belief as a denomination, so far as it can be officially
+represented by the American Unitarian Association, that God, moved by his
+own love, did raise up Jesus to aid in our redemption from sin, did by him
+pour a fresh flood of purifying life through the withered veins of humanity
+and along the corrupted channels of the world, and is, by his religion,
+forever sweeping the nations with regenerating gales from heaven, and
+visiting the hearts of men with celestial solicitations. We receive the
+teachings of Christ, separated from all foreign admixtures and later
+accretions, as infallible truth from God."[2] At the same meeting a
+resolution was adopted, "without a dissenting voice," which declared that
+"the Divine authority of the Gospel, as founded on a special and miraculous
+interposition of God, is the basis of the action of the Association."[3]
+
+As these statements indicate, the majority of Unitarians were very
+conservative at this time in their theological position and methods. They
+were nearly as hesitating and reticent in their beliefs as Unitarians as
+they had been while connected with the older Congregational body. The
+reason for this was the same in the later as in the earlier period, that a
+predominant social conservatism held them aloof from all that was
+intellectually aggressive and theologically rationalistic. They had
+outgrown Tritheism, as it had been taught for generations in New England;
+they had refused to accept the fatalism that had been taught in the name of
+Calvin, and they had rejected the ecclesiastical tyrannies that had been
+imposed on men by the New England theology. But they had advanced only a
+little way in accepting modern thought as a basis of faith, and in seeking
+a rational interpretation of the relations of God and man. Their belief in
+a superhuman Christ was theoretically weaker, but practically stronger,
+than that of the churches from which they had withdrawn; while the grounds
+of that belief were in the one instance the same as in the other.
+
+[Sidenote: Depression in Denominational Activities.]
+
+The activities of the Unitarian Association were largely interfered with by
+these differences of opinion. The more conservative churches were unwilling
+to contribute to its treasury because it did not exclude the radicals from
+all connection with it. The radicals, on, the other hand, withheld their
+gifts because, while they were not excommunicated, they were regarded with
+suspicion by many of the churches, and did not have the fullest recognition
+from the Association.
+
+This controversy was emphasized by that arising from the reform movements
+of the day, especially the agitation against slavery. Almost without
+exception the radicals belonged to the anti-slavery party, while the
+conservative churches were generally opposed to this agitation. As a
+result, anti-slavery efforts became a serious cause of discord in the
+Unitarian churches, and helped to cripple the resources of the Association.
+When, as the climax of all, the civil war came on, the Association was
+brought to a condition of almost desperate poverty. Not more than twoscore
+churches contributed to its treasury, and it was obliged, to curtail its
+expenses in every direction.[4]
+
+Up to the year 1865 the Unitarians had not been efficiently organized; and
+they had developed very imperfectly what has been called denominational
+consciousness, or the capacity for co-operative efforts. The Unitarian
+Association was not a representative body, and it depended wholly upon
+individuals for its membership. Not more than one-fourth or, at the
+largest, one-third of the Unitarian churches were represented in its
+support and in its activities. There were: Unitarian churches, and there
+was a Unitarian movement; but such a thing as a Unitarian denomination, in
+any clearly defined meaning of the words, did not exist. This fact was
+explained by James Freeman Clarke in 1863, when he said that "the
+traditions of the Unitarian body are conservative and timid."[5] How this
+attitude affected the Unitarian Association was pointedly stated by Mr.
+Clarke, after several years of experience as its secretary. "The Unitarian
+churches in Boston," he wrote, "see no reason for diffusing their faith.
+They treat it as a luxury to be kept for themselves, as they keep Boston
+Common. The Boston churches, with the exception of a few noble and generous
+examples, have not done a great deal for Unitarian missions. I have heard,
+it said that they do not wish to make Unitarianism too common. The church
+in Brattle street contains wealthy and generous persons who have given
+largely to humane objects and to all public purposes; but we believe that,
+even while their pastor was president of the Unitarian Association, they
+never gave a dollar to that Association for its missionary objects. The
+society in King's Chapel was the first in the United States which professed
+Unitarianism. It is so wealthy that it might give ten or twenty thousand
+dollars a year to missionary objects without feeling it. It has always been
+very liberal to its ministers, to all philanthropic and benevolent objects,
+and its members have probably given away millions of dollars for public and
+social uses; but it never gives anything to diffuse Unitarianism."[6]
+
+Dr. Samuel K. Lothrop continued as the president of the Unitarian
+Association until the annual meeting of 1858, when Dr. Edward Brooks Hall
+was elected to that position for one year. After short pastorates in
+Northampton and Cincinnati, Dr. Hall had been settled over the First Church
+in Providence in 1832, which position he held until his death in 1866. At
+the annual meeting of 1859 Dr. Frederic H. Hedge was elected president, and
+he was twice re-elected. His interest in the Association was active, and he
+often spoke at the public meetings. One of the ablest thinkers and
+theologians that has appeared among Unitarians in this country, he always
+rightly estimated the practical activities of organized religious
+movements. He was succeeded in 1862 by Dr. Rufus P. Stebbins, who held the
+office for three years. After a settlement in Leominster, Dr. Stebbins was
+the first president of the Meadville Theological School from 1844 to 1856.
+Then followed a pastorate in Woburn, after which he went to Ithaca and
+opened a mission for the students of Cornell University, which grew into
+the Unitarian church in that town. From 1877 he was pastor at Newton Centre
+until his death in 1885.
+
+The secretary of the Association from 1850 to 1853 was Rev. Calvin Lincoln,
+who had been settled in Fitchburg for thirty-one years, and who was the
+minister of the First Church in Hingham from 1855 until his death in 1881.
+He was succeeded in 1853 by Rev. Henry A. Miles, who continued in office
+until 1859. Dr. Miles was settled in Hallowell and Lowell before serving
+the Association, and in Longwood and Hingham (Third Parish) afterward. His
+little book on The Birth of Jesus has gained him recognition as a
+theologian of ability and a critic of independent judgment. For three years
+Rev. James Freeman Clarke was the secretary; and in 1861 he was succeeded
+by George W. Fox, who served in that capacity until the annual meeting of
+1865. Mr. Fox wrote the annual reports from 1862 to 1864, and efficiently
+performed all the duties of the secretary which could devolve upon a
+layman, with the exception of editing The Monthly Journal, a task which was
+continued by James Freeman Clarke.[7]
+
+[Sidenote: Publications.]
+
+In spite of its restricted income during this troubled period, the
+Association was able, owing to its invested funds,[8] to increase its
+publishing operations to a considerable extent. The number of tracts
+published, however, was much smaller; and their monthly issue was
+discontinued in order to publish The Quarterly Journal of the American
+Unitarian Association, the first number of which appeared in October, 1853.
+During the first year each number contained ninety-six pages, which were
+increased to one hundred and ninety-two in 1854, but reduced to one hundred
+and thirty the following year. In 1860 this publication became The Monthly
+Journal; and it was continued until December, 1869, each number containing
+forty-eight pages. The Journal was sent to all subscribers to the funds of
+the Association, to life members, to all churches contributing to its
+funds, as well as to regular subscribers. Its circulation in 1855 was
+7,000, and it increased to 15,000 before it was discontinued. It was used
+largely, however, for free distribution as a missionary document.
+
+The Journal served an important purpose during the seventeen years of its
+publication, as a means of bringing the Association into touch with its
+constituency and of making the people acquainted with its work. It
+published the records of the meetings of the executive committee as well as
+of the annual meeting, it gave numerous extracts from the correspondence of
+the secretary, it contained the news of the churches, and all the
+denominational activities were kept constantly before its readers. In its
+pages were frequently published biographies of prominent Unitarians,
+notable addresses were printed, sermons appeared frequently, and able
+theological articles. During the editorship of James Freeman Clarke it
+contained the successive chapters of his Orthodoxy: Its Truths and Errors.
+It also printed one or more chapters of Alger's History of the Doctrine of
+the Future Life. The secretary of the Association was its editor, and he
+made it at once a theological tract and a denominational newspaper.
+
+The increase in demand for Unitarian tracts and books had been so large
+that early in 1854 the executive committee of the Association decided that
+a special effort should be made to meet it. They called a meeting in
+Freeman Place Chapel on the afternoon of February 1, which was largely
+attended. An address was given by Dr. Lothrop, the president, who said that
+Channing's works had reached a sale of 100,000 copies, and Ware's Formation
+of Christian Character 12,000, that there was an urgent call for liberal
+works that would meet the spiritual needs of the age. A large number of
+prominent ministers and laymen addressed the meeting, and expressed
+themselves as thoroughly sympathy with its objects. A committee was
+appointed to consider the proposition made by Dr. George E. Ellis, that a
+fund of $50,000 be raised for the publication of books. This committee
+reported a month later through its chairman, George B. Emerson, in favor of
+the project; and it was voted that the money should be raised. It was
+easier to pass this vote, however, than to secure the money from the
+churches; for in 1859, after five years of effort, the sum collected was
+only $28,163.33.
+
+The money secured, however, was immediately utilized in the publication of
+a number of books. Three series of works were undertaken, the first of
+these being The Theological Library, in which were published Selections
+from the Works of Dr. Channing; Wilson's Unitarian Principles Confirmed by
+Trinitarian Testimonies; a one-volume edition of Norton's Statement of
+Reasons for not Believing the Doctrines of Trinitarians concerning the
+Nature of God and the Person of Christ, with a memoir of the author by Dr.
+William Newell; a volume of Theological Essays selected from the writings
+of Jowett, Tholuck, Guizot, Roland Williams, and others, and edited by
+George R. Noyes; and Martineau's Studies of Christianity, a series of
+miscellaneous papers, edited by William R. Alger. The Devotional Library,
+the second of the three series, included The Altar at Home, a series of
+prayers, collects, and litanies for family devotions, written by a large
+number of the leading Unitarian ministers, and edited by Dr. Miles, the
+secretary of the Association; Clarke's Christian Doctrine of Prayer; Thomas
+T. Stone's The Rod and the Staff, a transcendentalist presentation of
+Christianity as a spiritual life; The Harp and the Cross, a selection of
+religious poetry, edited by Stephen G. Bulfinch; Sears's Athanasia, or
+Foregleams of Immortality; and Seven Stormy Sundays, a volume of original
+sermons by well-known ministers, with devotional services, edited by Miss
+Lucretia P. Hale. A Biblical Library was also planned, to include a popular
+commentary on the New Testament, a Bible Dictionary, and other works of a
+like character; but John H. Morison's Disquisitions and Notes on the Gospel
+of Matthew was the only volume published.
+
+[Sidenote: A Firm of Publishers.]
+
+In May, 1859, a young business man of Boston, James P. Walker, established
+the firm of Walker, Wise & Co., for the publication of Unitarian books. In
+1863 Horace B. Fuller joined the firm, and it became Walker, Fuller & Co.
+This firm took charge of all the publishing interests of the Association,
+and the head of the house was ambitious of bringing out all the liberal
+books issued in this country. Among the works published were: The New
+Discussion of the Trinity, a series of articles and sermons by Hedge,
+Clarke, Sears, Dewey, and Starr King; Lamson's Church of the First Three
+Centuries; Farley's Unitarianism Defined; Recent Inquiries in Theology,
+essays by Jowett, Mark Pattison, Baden Powell, and other English Broad
+Churchmen, edited by Dr. F.H. Hedge; Alien's Hebrew Men and Times; Dall's
+Woman's Right to Labor; Muzzey's Christ in the Will, the Heart, and the
+Life; Ichabod Nichols's Sermons; Martineau's Common Prayer for Christian
+Worship; Cobbe's Religious Demands of the Age; Ware's Silent Pastor;
+Frothingham's Stories from the Patriarchs; Clarke's Hour which Cometh and
+Now Is; Parker's Prayers; a second series The Altar at Home; Hedge's Reason
+in Religion; Life of Horace Mann by his wife, as well as certain novels,
+historical works, and books for the young. The demand for liberal books was
+not large enough, however, even with the aid of the Association, to make
+such a business successful; and in the autumn of 1866 the publishing firm
+of Walker, Fuller & Co. failed. In part the business was carried on for a
+time by Horace B. Fuller.
+
+[Sidenote: The Brooks Fund.]
+
+An important work in the distribution of books was inaugurated in 1859 in
+connection with the Meadville Theological School, by means of the Fund for
+Liberal Christianity established at that time by Joshua Brooks of New York.
+He appointed as trustee of the fund Professor Frederick Huidekoper, who
+gave his services gratuitously to its care, and to the direction of the
+distribution of books for which it provided. The sum given to this purpose
+was $20,000, which was increased by favorable investments to $23,000. The
+original purpose was to aid in any way that seemed desirable the cause of
+liberal Christianity, and a part of the income was devoted to helping
+struggling societies. In time the whole income, with the approval of the
+donor, was centred upon the distribution of books to settled ministers,
+irrespective of denomination. In 1877 the whole number of books that had
+been distributed was 40,000. At the present time about $1,000 yearly are
+devoted to this work, the recipients being graduates of the Meadville
+Theological School, and the ministers of any denomination who may ask for
+them, provided they are settled west of the Hudson River. The demands upon
+the funds have increased so rapidly that it has become necessary to reduce
+the amount of each gift.
+
+[Sidenote: Missionary Efforts.]
+
+The missionary activities of the Association did not actually cease even in
+these dark days. In May, 1855, Rev. Ephraim Nute was sent to Kansas, which
+was then the battle-ground between the pro-slavery and the anti-slavery
+forces of the nation. He established himself at Lawrence, and was the first
+settled pastor in the state. With the aid of the Association a church was
+built at Lawrence in 1859, which was the first in the state to receive
+dedication and to be used as a permanent house of worship. Mr. Nute went
+through all the trying scenes preceding the opening of the civil war, and
+did his part in maintaining the cause of liberty. He was succeeded by Rev.
+John S. Brown in 1859, who labored in this difficult field for several
+years.
+
+A church was organized in San Francisco in 1849, without the aid of a
+minister; and there was gathered a large and prosperous congregation. In
+1850 Rev. Charles A. Farley took up the work; and he was succeeded by Rev.
+Joseph Harrington, Rev. Frederick T. Gray, and Rev. Rufus P. Cutler. Thomas
+Starr King preached his first sermon in the church April 28, 1860; and he
+spoke to crowded congregations until his death, March 4, 1864. On January
+10, 1864, a new church was dedicated, in the morning to the worship of God,
+and in the afternoon to the service of man.
+
+Among those who carried forward the Unitarian cause in the middle west was
+Rev. Nahor A. Staples, a brilliant preacher and a zealous worker, who was
+settled in Milwaukee at the end of 1856, and who made his influence widely
+felt around him. In 1859 Rev. Robert Collyer began his work in Chicago as a
+city Missionary; and the next year Unity Church was organized, with him as
+the pastor. In 1859 Rev. Charles G. Ames began his connection with the
+Unitarians at Minneapolis, and he subsequently labored at Bloomington.
+After a short pastorate in Albany he began general missionary labors on the
+Pacific coast. A characteristic type of the western Unitarian was Rev.
+Ichabod Codding, who preached at Bloomington, Keokuk, and Baraboo, but who
+had no formal settlement. He was a breezy, radical, and ardent preacher,
+bold in statement and picturesque in style, a zealous advocate of freedom
+for the slave, and warmly devoted to other reforms. He was fitted admirably
+for the pioneer preaching to which he largely devoted himself; and his
+strong, vigorous, and aggressive ideas were acceptable to those who heard
+him.
+
+[Sidenote: The Western Unitarian Conference.]
+
+There was organized in the church at Cincinnati, May 7, 1852, the Annual
+Conference of Western Unitarian Churches. At this meeting delegates were
+present from the churches in Buffalo, Meadville, Pittsburg, Wheeling,
+Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, Cannelton, Quincy, Geneva, Chicago, and
+Detroit. Much enthusiasm was expressed in anticipation of this meeting,
+many letters were written, approving of the proposed organization, and
+large expectations were manifested as to its promised work. In harmony with
+these large and generous anticipations of the influence of the conference
+was its statement of purposes, as presented in its constitution. It was
+organized for "the promotion of the Christian spirit in the several
+churches which compose it, and the increase of vital, practical religion;
+the diffusion of Gospel truth and the accomplishment of such works of
+Christian benevolence as may be agreed upon; the support of domestic or
+home missionaries, the publication of tracts, the distribution of religious
+books, the promotion of theological education, and extending aid to such
+societies as may need it."
+
+When the conference organized, Rev. William G. Eliot was elected the
+president, Mr. Charles Harlow and Rev. A.A. Livermore the recording and
+corresponding secretaries. During the year $994.22 were raised for
+missionary purposes, and three missionaries--Boyer, Conant, and
+Bradley--were kept in the field, mainly in Illinois and Michigan. The
+reports of these men, given at the second meeting of the conference, held
+in St. Louis, were full of enthusiasm and courage. At this meeting the
+constituency numbered nineteen churches, located in eleven states. Several
+struggling societies had been aided, assistance given to young men
+preparing for the ministry, and many tracts and books had been distributed.
+A book depositary was opened in Cincinnati, and it was proposed to
+establish one in every large city in the west. The call was for a much
+larger number of preachers, it being rightly maintained that only the
+living man can reach the people in such a region. "The Unitarian minister
+is _per se_ a bookseller and colporter also, and he can thus preach to
+multitudes who never hear his voice."
+
+The early anticipations of a rapid advance of Unitarianism in the west were
+not realized, partly owing to the want of ministers of energy and the
+necessary staying qualities, and partly to the fact that tradition is
+always far more powerful with the masses of men and women than reason.
+Before the organization of the conference new churches appeared at
+infrequent intervals, though, if those that have ceased to exist were
+counted, they would not be so remote from each other in time.[9] From the
+first there was in the west a distinctive attitude of freedom, which was
+the result in large, measure of its fluctuating conditions, and the absence
+of fixed habits and traditions. In 1853 the missionaries of the conference
+were instructed that "in spirit and in aim the Conference would be
+Christian, not sectarian, and it does not, therefore, require of them
+subscription to any human creed, the wearing of any distinctive name, or
+the doing of any merely sectarian work. All that it requires is, that they
+should be Christians and do Christian work, that they should believe on the
+Lord Jesus Christ as one who spake with authority and whose religion is the
+divinely appointed means for the regeneration of man individually and
+collectively, and that they should labor earnestly, intelligently,
+affectionately, and perseveringly to enthrone this religion in the hearts
+and make it, effective over the lives of men." Such a statement as this,
+indeed, was quite as conservative as anything put forth by Unitarians in
+New England; but behind it was an attitude of free inquiry that gave to
+western Unitarianism distinctive characteristics.
+
+In 1854 a committee reported on the doctrinal basis of the conference, in
+the form of a little book of sixty-five pages, bearing the title of
+Unitarian Views of Christ.[10] It was widely circulated, and served an
+excellent missionary purpose. When the conference accepted the report, in
+which it was declared that Jesus is the Son of God and the miracles of the
+New Testament facts on which the gospel is based, a resolution was
+unanimously passed, asserting that "we have no right to adopt any statement
+of belief as authoritative or as a declaration of the Unitarian faith,
+other than the New Testament." In 1858 it was the opinion of the conference
+that "all who wish to take upon themselves the Christian name should be so
+recognized." The next year the conservatives and radicals came face to
+face, the one party asking for the old faith according to Channing, while
+one or more of the other party asserted their disbelief in the miracles and
+in the resurrection of Christ. In 1860 the conference declared itself
+willing to "welcome as fellow laborers all who are seeking to learn and to
+do the will of the Father and work righteousness, and recommend that in all
+places, with or without preaching, they organize for religious worship and
+culture--the work of faith and the labor of love."
+
+The meeting at Quincy in 1860 was one of great interest and enthusiasm. The
+missionary spirit rose high; and it was proposed to put into the field an
+aggressive worker, and to give him the necessary financial support. To this
+end a missionary association was organized, with Rev. Robert Collyer as the
+president, and Artemas Carter, a successful business man of Chicago, as the
+treasurer. Before the result desired could be realized, the war gave a very
+different direction to all the interests of the western churches. Of the
+twenty-nine ministers in the west at this time, sixteen went into the
+army,--twelve as chaplains, two as officers, and two as privates,--while
+several others devoted themselves to hospital work for longer or shorter
+periods. Rev. Augustus H. Conant, Rev. Leonard Whitney, Rev. Frederick R.
+Newell, and Rev. L.B. Mason answered with their lives to their country's
+call.
+
+The period immediately following the close of the civil war was one of
+generous giving and of great activity on the part of the western churches.
+From 1864 to 1866 the field was occupied by twenty-one new laborers,
+several new societies were organized, four old ones were resuscitated,
+seven new churches were built, and fifteen missionary stations were opened.
+The churches during these two years contributed $5,000 to missionary
+purposes and $13,000 to Antioch College. The degree of success met with in
+the efforts of the Western Conference depended in large degree upon the
+interest and activity of the western churches themselves. When they devoted
+themselves earnestly to missionary work, they contributed to it with a fair
+degree of liberality, and that work prospered. When the conference was
+asked to withdraw from the direction of that work by Rev. Charles Lowe, in
+order to secure greater unity of missionary effort by bringing all work of
+this kind under the direction of the Association, the contributions of the
+churches diminished, and the missionary activities in the west languished.
+However valuable the aid of the Unitarian Association,--and there can be no
+question that it was of the greatest importance,--local interest and
+co-operation were also essential to permanent success. Local activity and
+general oversight were alike necessary.
+
+[Sidenote: The Autumnal Conventions.]
+
+For more than twenty years Autumnal Conventions, as they were called, were
+held in the larger cities, beginning at Worcester in 1842. These meetings
+originated in the Worcester Association of Ministers at a meeting held July
+11, 1842, when the association considered the "desirableness of a meeting
+of Unitarians in the autumn for the purpose of awakening mutual sympathy
+and considering the wants of the Unitarian body."[11]
+
+At the invitation thereafter issued by the Worcester Association of
+ministers a convention was held in the church of the Second Congregational
+Parish in Worcester, October 18-20, 1842. On the first evening a sermon was
+preached by Dr. Ezra S. Gannett, and a committee of business was
+subsequently chosen. The next morning the convention organized, with Dr.
+Francis Parkman as president and Rev. Cazneau Palfrey as secretary. A
+series of resolutions were discussed,[12] and on the second evening a
+sermon was preached by Dr. A.P. Peabody. No essays were read, and nothing
+but the sermons were prepared beforehand. The Christian Register closed its
+report by saying that it could "give but a faint impression of the feeling
+which pervaded the meeting. The discussions were characterized by great
+earnestness and seriousness, and were conducted, at the same time, with
+entire freedom and with candor and liberality toward the differences of
+opinion which, amidst a general unanimity upon great principles, were
+occasionally elicited respecting details and methods. The expectations of
+those who called the convention were abundantly realized."
+
+The second of the Autumnal Conventions was held in Providence, October 2-4,
+1843. On the first evening the theme of the sermon preached by Dr. Dewey
+was the spiritual ministry of Dr. Channing, and it produced a great and
+deep impression. The resolutions discussed related to the duty, on the part
+of Unitarians, of making an explicit statement of their convictions, and an
+earnest application of them to life, and the need on the part of the
+denomination for a more united and vigorous action as a religious body. At
+the third meeting held in Albany, a statement was made by Dr. Dewey that
+exactly defined these gatherings, in their methods and purposes, when he
+said: "This and other conventions like it that are held in our body, I am
+inclined to think, have never been held before in the world. There is
+nothing like them to be found in the records of ecclesiastical history. We
+meet as distinct churches, on the pure democratic basis, which we believe
+to be the true basis of the church of Christ. We meet, without any
+formalities--to institute, or correct no canons--without the slightest
+system whatever. We come to meditate, to assist each other in experience,
+by unfolding our own experience, by declaring our convictions."
+
+The subjects introduced at these meetings were practical, such as commanded
+the interest of both ministers and laymen of the churches. The method
+adopted allowed a free interchange of opinions, and the participation of
+all in the discussions. So great was the interest awakened that these
+meetings were largely attended, and they were to a considerable degree
+helpful in bringing the churches into vital relations with each other.[13]
+
+At the session held in Brooklyn in 1862, great interest was manifested in
+the vespers, then a novelty, that were arranged by Samuel Longfellow. This
+meeting was marked by its glowing patriotism, that rose to a white heat. A
+sermon of great power was preached by Dr. Bellows, interpreting the duty of
+the hour and the destiny of America. The resolutions and the discussions
+were almost wholly along the lines of patriotic duty and devotion suggested
+by the sermon. At the last of the Autumnal Conventions, held in
+Springfield, Mass., October 13-15, 1863, the sermons were preached by Rev.
+Edward Everett Hale and Rev. Octavius B. Frothingham, while the essays were
+by Professor Charles Eliot Norton and Rev. James Freeman Clarke.
+
+The Autumnal Conventions came to an end, probably in part because the civil
+war was more and more absorbing the energies of the people both in and out
+of the churches, and partly because the desire for a more efficient
+organization had begun to make itself felt. In the spring of 1865 was held
+the meeting in New York that resulted in the organization of the National
+Conference, the legitimate successor to the Autumnal Conventions.
+
+[Sidenote: Influence of the Civil War.]
+
+During the period of the civil war, Unitarian activities were largely
+turned in new directions. Unitarians bore their full share in the councils
+of the nation, in the halls of legislation, on the fields of battle, in the
+care of the sick and wounded, and in the final efforts that brought about
+emancipation and peace. At least fifty Unitarian ministers entered the army
+as chaplains, privates, officers, and members of the Sanitary
+Commission.[14]
+
+The Unitarian Association also directed its attention to such work as it
+could accomplish in behalf of the soldiers in the field and in hospitals.
+Books were distributed, tracts published, and hymn-books prepared to meet
+their needs. Rev. John F.W. Ware developed a special gift for writing army
+tracts, of which he wrote about a dozen, which were published by the
+Association. As the war went on, the Association largely increased its
+activities in the army; and, when the end came, it had as many as seventy
+workers in the field, distributing its publications, aiding the Sanitary
+Commission, or acting as nurses and voluntary chaplains in the hospitals.
+The end of the war served rather to increase than to contract its labors,
+aid being largely needed for several months in returning the soldiers to
+their homes and in caring for those who were left in hospitals.
+
+Early in the summer of 1863 Rev. William G. Scandlin was sent to the Army
+of the Potomac as the agent of the Association. Taken prisoner in July, he
+spent several months in Libby prison, where he was kindly treated and
+exercised a beneficent influence. He was followed in this work by Rev.
+William M. Mellen, who established a library of 3,000 volumes at the
+convalescent camp, Alexandria, and also distributed a large amount of
+reading matter in the army. Rev. Charles Lowe served for several months as
+chaplain in the camp of drafted men on Long Island, his salary being paid
+by the Association. In November, 1864, he made a tour of inspection, as the
+agent of the Association, to the hospitals of Philadelphia, Baltimore
+Annapolis, Washington, Alexandria, Fortress Monroe, City Point, and the
+Army of the Potomac, in order to arrange for the proper distribution of
+reading matter and for such other hospital service as could be rendered.
+More than 3,000 volumes of the publications of the Association were
+distributed to the soldiers and in the hospitals, largely by Rev. J.G.
+Forman, of St. Louis, and Rev. John H. Heywood, of Louisville. Among those
+who acted as agents of the Association in furnishing reading to the army
+and hospitals were Rev. Calvin Stebbins, Rev. Frederick W. Holland, Rev.
+Benjamin H. Bailey, Rev. Artemas B. Muzzey, Rev. Newton M. Mann, and Mr.
+Henry G. Denny. Rev. Samuel Abbot Smith worked zealously at Norfolk at the
+hospitals and in preaching to the soldiers, until disease and death brought
+his labors to a close. What this kind of work was, and what it
+accomplished, was described by Louisa Alcott in her Hospital Sketches, and
+by William Howell Reed in his Hospital Life in the Army of the Potomac.
+
+[Sidenote: The Sanitary Commission.]
+
+The Sanitary Commission has been described by its historian as "one of the
+most shining monuments of our civilization," and as an expression of
+organized sympathy that "must always and everywhere call forth the homage
+and admiration of mankind." The organizer and leader of this great
+philanthropic movement for relieving human suffering was Dr. Henry W.
+Bellows, the minister of All Souls' Church in New York, the first Unitarian
+church organized in that city. The Commission was first suggested by Dr.
+Bellows, and he was its efficient leader from the first to the last. He was
+unanimously selected as its president, when the government had been
+persuaded, largely through his influence, to establish it as an addition to
+its medical and hospital service. The historian of the Commission has
+justly said that he "possessed many remarkable qualifications for so
+responsible, a position. Perhaps no man in the country exerted a wider or
+more powerful influence over those who were earnestly seeking the best
+means of defending our threatened nationality, and certainly never was a
+moral power of this kind founded upon juster and truer grounds. This
+influence was not confined to his home, the city of New York, although
+there it was incontestably very great, but it extended over many other
+portions of the country, and particularly throughout New England, where
+circumstances had made his name and his reputation for zeal and ability
+familiar to those most likely to aid in the furtherance of the new scheme.
+This power was due, partly of course to the very eminent position which he
+occupied as a clergyman, partly to the persistent efforts and enlightened
+zeal with which he advocated all wise measures of social reform, perhaps to
+his widely extended reputation as an orator, but primarily, and above all,
+to the rare combination of wide comprehensive views of great questions of
+public policy with extraordinary practical sagacity, which enabled him so
+to organize popular intelligence and sympathy that the best practical
+results were attained while the life-giving principle was preserved. He had
+the credit of not being what so many of his profession are, an ideologue;
+he had the clearest perception of what could and what could not be done,
+and he never hesitated to regard actual experience as the best practical
+test of the value of his plans and theories. These qualities, so precious
+and so exceptional in their nature, appeared conspicuously in the efforts
+made by him to secure the appointment of the Commission by the Government,
+and it will be found that every page of its history bears the strong
+impress of his peculiar and characteristic views."[15]
+
+These words of Charles J. Stille, a member of the Sanitary Commission and
+its authorized historian, afterward the provost of the University of
+Pennsylvania, indicate the remarkable qualities of leadership possessed by
+Dr. Bellows. These were undoubtedly added to and made more impressive by
+his oratorical genius, that was of a very high order. Dr. Hedge spoke of
+the miraculous power of speech possessed by Dr. Bellows, when he was at his
+best, as being "incomparably better than anything he could have possibly
+compassed by careful preparation or conscious effort," and of "those
+exalted moments when he was fully possessed by his demon."[16] He was
+inexhaustible in his efforts for the success of the Commission, in
+directing the work of committees and branches, in appealing to the
+indifferent, and in giving enthusiasm to all the forces under his
+direction.
+
+Of the nine original members of the Sanitary Commission, four were
+Unitarians,--Dr. Bellows, Dr. Samuel G. Howe, Dr. Jeffries Wyman, and
+Professor Wolcott Gibbs. In the number of those added later was Rev. John
+H. Heywood, for many years the minister of the Unitarian church in
+Louisville, who rendered efficient service in the western department. In
+the convalescents' camp at Alexandria "a wonderful woman," Miss Amy
+Bradley, had charge of the efficient labors of the Commission, "where for
+two and a half years she and her assistants rendered incalculable service,
+in distributing clothing among the needy, procuring dainties for the sick,
+accompanying discharged soldiers to Washington and assisting them in
+procuring their papers and pay, furnishing paper and postage, and writing
+letters for the sick, forwarding money home by drafts that cost nothing to
+the soldier, answering letters of inquiry to hospital directors, securing
+certificates of arrears of pay and getting erroneous charges of desertion
+removed (the Commission saved several innocent soldiers from being shot as
+condemned deserters), distributing reading matter, telegraphing the friends
+of very ill soldiers, furnishing meals for feeble soldiers in barracks who
+could not eat the regulation food. Miss Bradley assisted 2,000 men to
+secure arrears of pay amounting to $200,000. Prisoners of war, while in
+prison and when released by general exchange, were largely and promptly
+relieved and comforted by this department."[17] Another effective worker
+was Frederick N. Knapp, who had been for several years a Unitarian
+minister, and who was the leading spirit in the special relief service of
+the Commission, "and organized and controlled it with masterly zeal,
+humanity, and success."[18] The work of Mr. Knapp was of great importance;
+for he was the confidential secretary of Dr. Bellows, and gave his whole
+time to the service of the Commission. He was a methodical worker, an
+efficient organizer, and supplied those qualities of persistent industry
+and grasp of details in which Dr. Bellows was deficient. Without his
+untiring energy and skilful directing power the Commission would have been
+less effective than it was in fact. Dr. Bellows also described William G.
+Scandlin as "one of the most earnest and effective of the Sanitary
+Commission agents."
+
+In the autumn of 1862 the Commission was greatly crippled in its work
+because it could not obtain the money with which to carry on its extensive
+operations, and it was saved from failure by the generosity of California,
+and the other Pacific states and territories. The remoteness of these
+states at that time made it impossible for them to contribute their
+proportion of men, "and they indulged their patriotism and gave relief to
+their pent-up sympathies with the national cause by pouring out their money
+like water."[19] The first contribution was received by the Sanitary
+Commission on September 19, 1862, and was $100,000: a fortnight later the
+same sum was again sent; and similar contributions followed at short
+intervals. These sums enabled the Commission to accomplish its splendid
+work, and to meet the urgent needs of those trying days. How the Pacific
+coast was able to contribute so largely to this work may be explained in
+the words of Dr. Bellows, who fully understood the situation, and the vast
+importance of the help afforded: "The most gifted and inspiring of the
+patriots who rallied California and the Pacific coast to the flag of the
+Union was undoubtedly Thomas Starr King, minister of the first Unitarian
+church in San Francisco. Born in New York, but reared in Massachusetts, he
+had earned an almost national reputation for eloquence and wit, humanity
+and nobleness of soul, in the lecture-rooms and pulpits of the north and
+west, when at the age of thirty-five, he yielded to the religious claims of
+the Pacific coast and transferred himself to California. There in four
+years he had built up as public speaker from the pulpit and platform a
+prodigious popularity. His temperament sympathetic, mercurial, and
+electric; his disposition hearty, genial, and sweet; his mind versatile,
+quick, and sparkling; his tact exquisite, and infallible; with a voice as
+clear as a bell and loud and cheering as a trumpet, his nature and
+accomplishments perfectly adapted to the people, and place, and the time.
+His religious profession disarmed many of his political enemies, his
+political orthodoxy quieted many of his religious opponents. Generous,
+charitable, disinterested, his full heart and open hand captivated the
+California people, while his sparkling wit, melodious cadences, and
+rhetorical abundance perfectly satisfied their taste for intensity and
+novelty and a touch of extravagance. It has been said by high authority
+that Mr. King saved California to the Union. California was too loyal at
+heart to make the boast reasonable; but it is not too much to say that Mr.
+King did more than any man, by his prompt, outspoken, uncalculating
+loyalty, to make California know what her own feelings really were. He did
+all that any man could have done to lead public sentiment that was
+unconsciously ready to follow where earnest loyalty and patriotism should
+guide the way."[20]
+
+Not less important in its own degree was the work done in St. Louis by Dr.
+William G. Eliot, minister since 1834 of the Unitarian church in that city.
+He became the leader in all efforts for aiding the soldiers, and was most
+active in forming and directing the Western Sanitary Commission, that
+worked harmoniously with the national organization, but independently. A
+large hospital was established and maintained, a home for refugees was
+secured, and a large camp for "contraband" negroes was established, chiefly
+under the direction of Dr. Eliot, and largely maintained by his church. He
+was a potent force in keeping St. Louis and the northern portions of
+Missouri loyal to the Union. The secretary of the Western Sanitary
+Commission, J.G. Forman, a Unitarian minister for many years, was most
+faithful and efficient in this work; and he subsequently became its
+historian. In the Freedman's Hospital at St. Louis labored with zeal and
+success Rev. Frederick R. Newall; and he was also superintendent of the
+Freedman's Bureau in that city, his life being sacrificed to these devoted
+labors.
+
+[Sidenote: Results of Fifteen Years.]
+
+The work done by the Unitarian Association during the civil war and under
+the conditions it produced was not a large one, but it absorbed a
+considerable part of its energies for about five years. In all it printed
+over 3,000 copies of three books for the soldiers,[21] distributed 750,000
+tracts which it had prepared for them,[22] sent to the soldiers 5,000
+copies weekly of The Christian Register and The Christian Inquirer, 1,500
+copies of the Monthly Journal, 1,000 of The Monthly Religious Magazine, and
+1,000 of the Sunday-school Gazette. During the last year or two of the war
+its tracts went out at the rate of 50,000 monthly. The tracts and the
+periodicals therefore numbered a monthly distribution of about 75,000
+copies. The seventy volunteer agents who brought these publications to the
+hands of the soldiers, together with the army chaplains, agents of the
+Sanitary Commission, and the many nurses in the hospitals, made a
+considerable force of Unitarian missionaries developed by the exigencies of
+the war, and the attempts to meliorate its hard conditions.
+
+The period of fifteen years, from 1850 to 1865, which has been under
+consideration in this chapter, was one of the greatest trial and
+discouragement to the Association. Its funds reached their lowest ebb, a
+missionary secretary could not be maintained, a layman performed the
+necessary office duties, and no considerable aggressive work along
+missionary lines was undertaken. Writing in a most hopeful spirit of the
+situation, in November, 1863, the editor of The Christian Register showed
+that in 1848 the number of Unitarian churches was 201, while in 1863 it was
+205, an increase of four only in fifteen years. During this period fifty
+parishes had gained pastors, but fifty had lost them. Several strong
+parishes, he said, had come into existence, and two in large places had
+died. Most of those that had been closed were in small country towns.
+Nevertheless, with truth it could be said of these fifteen years of
+discouragement and failure that every one of them was a seed-time for the
+harvest that was soon to be reaped.
+
+[1] Usually known as the Transcendental Club, sometimes as The Symposium.
+    It was started in 1836 by Emerson, Ripley, and Hedge, and met at the
+    houses of the members to discuss philosophical and literary subjects.
+    It was called Hedge's Club because it met when Rev. F.H. Hedge came
+    to Boston from Bangor, where he was settled in 1835. It also included
+    Clarke, Francis, Alcott, Dwight, W.H. Channing, Bartol, Very,
+    Margaret Fuller, and Elizabeth P. Peabody.
+
+[2] Twenty-eighth Report of the American Unitarian Association, 22.
+
+[3] Ibid., 30. For other statements made at this time see pp. 22 and 26
+    of this report; Quarterly Journal, L 44, 228, 243, 275, 333; and O.B.
+    Frothingham's Transcendentalism in New England, 123. John Gorham
+    Palfrey said (Twenty-eighth Report, 31) that "the evidence of
+    Christianity is identical with the evidence of the miraculous
+    character of Jesus," and that "his miraculous powers were the highest
+    evidence that he came from God." Parker replied to this report of the
+    Association in his Friendly Letter to the Executive Committee. Of
+    this report John W. Chadwick has said that it is "the most curious,
+    not to say amusing, document in our denominational archives." See The
+    Organization of our Liberty, Christian Register, July 19, 1900.
+
+[4] In 1854 the receipts from all sources for the year preceding, except
+    from sales of books and interest on investments, was $4,267.32. For
+    the next two years there was a rapid gain, the sum reported in 1856
+    being $11,615.90; but there was a slight decrease the next year, and
+    the financial panic of 1857 brought the donations down to $4,602.38,
+    the amount reported at the annual meeting of 1858. Then there was a
+    steady gain until the civil war began, after which the contributions
+    were small, the general donations being only $3,056.03 in 1863, which
+    sum was brought up to $5,547.73 by contributions for special
+    purposes, more than one-third of the whole being for the Army Fund.
+
+[5] The Christian Register, October 17, 1863.
+
+[6] The Monthly Journal, I. 350.
+
+[7] Mr. Fox entered the employ of the Association in 1855 as a clerk, and
+    then he became the assistant of the secretary by the appointment of
+    the directors. From 1864 to the present time he has served as the
+    assistant secretary. His services have been invaluable to the
+    Association in many ways, because of his diligence, fidelity,
+    unfailing devotion to its interests, and loyalty to the Unitarian
+    cause.
+
+[8] The beginning of a general fund seems to have been made in 1835, and
+    was secured by special subscriptions for the purpose of paying the
+    salary of a general secretary or missionary agent. The treasurer
+    reported in 1836 that during the previous year $2,408.37 had been
+    collected for this purpose.
+
+[9] Of the churches now in existence the first in Chicago was organized
+    in 1836, that at Quincy in 1840, Milwaukee and Geneva in 1842,
+    Detroit in 1850. After the conference began its work, they appear
+    more frequently, Keokuk coming into existence in 1853, Marietta in
+    1855, Lawrence in 1856, Unity of Chicago, Kalamazoo, and Buda in
+    1858, Bloomington in 1859. Then comes a blank during the war period,
+    and a more rapid growth after it, especially when the National
+    Conference had given impetus to missionary activities. Janesville was
+    organized in 1864; Ann Arbor, Kenosha, and Baraboo, in 1865; Tremont,
+    in 1866; Cleveland and Mattoon, in 1867; Unity of St. Louis, Kansas
+    City, St. Joseph, Shelbyville, Davenport, Geneseo, Third of Chicago,
+    and Sheffield, in 1868; Omaha, in 1869.
+
+[10] Written by William G. Eliot, of St. Louis.
+
+[11] Joseph Allen, The Worcester Association and its Antecedents, 268.
+
+[12] Through the business committee the following resolutions were
+     submitted for the consideration of the convention, and they were
+     taken up in order:--
+
+       _Resolved_, That we acknowledge with profound gratitude the success
+       which has attended our labors in the cause of religious freedom,
+       virtue, and piety, and are encouraged to persevere with renewed zeal
+       and energy.
+
+       _Resolved_, That in the character and life of Rev. William E.
+       Channing, just removed from us, we acknowledge one of the richest
+       gifts of God, in intellectual endowments, pure aspiration, moral
+       courage, and disinterested devotion to the cause of truth, freedom,
+       and humanity, and that in view of this, we feel out increased
+       obligation to Christian fidelity and heavenward progress.
+
+       _Resolved_, That viewing with anxiety prevailing fanaticism and
+       growing disregard of public trusts and private relations, we should
+       earnestly labor for a higher religious principle, and especially
+       urge the paramount claims of moral duty.
+
+[13] The places and dates of the Autumnal Conventions were as follows:
+     Worcester, 1842; Provence, 1843; Albany, 1844; New York, 1845;
+     Philadelphia, 1846; Salem, 1847; New Bedford, 1848; Portland, 1849;
+     Springfield, 1850; Portsmouth, 1851; Baltimore, 1852; Worcester,
+     1853; Montreal, 1854; Providence, 1855; Bangor, 1856; Syracuse, 1857;
+     Salem, 1858; Lowell, 1859; New Bedford, 1860; Boston, 1861; Brooklyn,
+     1862; Springfield, 1863.
+
+[14] The first regiments from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Kansas, had
+     as their chaplains Warren H. Cudworth, Augustus Woodbury, and Ephraim
+     Nute. Charles Babbidge was the chaplain of the sixth Massachusetts
+     regiment, that which was fired upon in Baltimore. The first artillery
+     company from Massachusetts had as its chaplain Stephen Barker. Others
+     who served as army chaplains were John Pierpont, Edmund B. Willson,
+     Francis C. Williams, Arthur B. Fuller, Sylvan S. Hunting, Charles T.
+     Canfield, Edward H. Hall, George H. Hepworth, Joseph F. Lovering,
+     Edwin M. Wheelock, George W. Bartlett, John C. Kimball, Augustus M.
+     Haskell, Charles A. Humphreys, Milton J. Miller, George A. Ball,
+     William G. Scandlin, E.B. Fairchild, Samuel W. McDaniel, Frederick R.
+     Newell, George W. Woodward, Stephen H. Camp, William D. Haley,
+     Leonard Whitney, Gilbert Cummings, Nahor A. Staples, Carlton A.
+     Staples, Martin M. Willis, John F. Moors, L.B. Mason, Robert Hassall,
+     Liberty Billings, Daniel Foster, J.G. Forman, and Augustus H. Conant.
+     Robert Collyer was chaplain-at-large in the Army of the Potomac.
+     Charles J. Bowen, William J. Potter, Charles Noyes, James Richardson,
+     and William H. Channing served as hospital chaplains.
+
+     Among the ministers who served as officers were: Hasbrouck Davis, who
+     became a general; William B. Greene, colonel; Gerald Fitzgerald, who
+     enlisted as a private, rose to the rank of first lieutenant, and was
+     elected chaplain of his regiment; Edward I. Galvin, lieutenant, also
+     elected chaplain; James K. Hosmer, who served through the war, at
+     first as a private and then as a corporal, writing his experiences
+     into The Color Guard and The Thinking Bayonet; George W. Shaw and
+     Alvin Allen, privates. Thomas D. Howard and James H. Fowler were
+     chaplains in colored regiments. After service as a chaplain of a Hew
+     Hampshire regiment, Edwin M. Wheelock became a lieutenant in a
+     colored regiment, as did Charles B. Webster. Thomas W. Higginson was
+     colonel of a colored regiment, and in another Henry Stone was
+     lieutenant colonel. It is doubtful if this list is complete, though
+     an effort has been made to have it as nearly so as possible. Those
+     who served in the army, and became ministers after leaving it, have
+     not been included. So far as known, only ordained ministers are
+     named.
+
+[15] History of the United States Sanitary Commission, being the General
+     Report of its Work during the War of the Rebellion.
+
+[16] J.H. Allen, Our Liberal Movement in Theology, 210.
+
+[17] Henry W. Bellows, article on the Sanitary Commission, in Johnson's
+     Cyclopedia, revised edition.
+
+[18] Ibid.
+
+[19] Henry W. Bellows, article on the Sanitary Commission, in Johnson's
+     Cyclopedia, revised edition.
+
+[20] History of the Sanitary Commission.
+
+[21] Thoughts selected from Channing's Works, Ware's The Silent Pastor,
+     and Eliot's Discipline of Sorrow. The Association also issued one
+     number of the Monthly Journal as an Army Companion, which contained
+     fifty hymns of a patriotic and religions character, with appropriate
+     tunes, selections from the Bible, directions for preserving health in
+     the army, and selections from addresses on the injustice of the
+     rebellion and the spirit in which it should be put down.
+
+[22] Twenty tracts were published. The first was written by Dr. George
+     Putnam; and was on The Man and the Soldier. The second was The
+     Soldier of the Good Cause, by Prof. C.E. Norton. Others were A Letter
+     to a Sick Soldier, by Rev. Robert Collyer; An Enemy within the Lines,
+     by Rev. S.H. Winkley. Rev. John F.W. Ware wrote fourteen of these
+     tracts, the following being some of the subjects: The Home to the
+     Camp, The Home to the Hospital, Wounded and in the Hands of the
+     Enemy, Traitors in Camp, A Change of Base, On Picket, The Rebel, The
+     Recruit, A Few Words with the Convalescent, Mustered Out, A Few Words
+     with the Rank and File at Parting.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+
+THE DENOMINATIONAL AWAKENING.
+
+The war had an inspiring influence upon Unitarians, awakening them to a
+consciousness of their strength, and drawing them together to work for
+common purposes as nothing else had ever done. From the beginning they saw
+in the effort to save the Union, and in the spirit of liberty that animated
+the nation, an expression of their own principles. Whatever its effect upon
+other religious bodies, the war gave to Unitarians new faith, courage, and
+enthusiasm. For the first time they became conscious of their opportunity,
+and united in a determined purpose to meet its demands with fidelity to
+their convictions and loyalty to the call of humanity.[1]
+
+No Autumnal Convention having been held in 1864, owing to the failure of
+the committee appointed for that purpose to make the necessary
+arrangements, a special meeting of the Unitarian Association was held in
+the Hollis Street Church, Boston, December 6-7, at the call of the
+executive committee, "to awaken interest in the work of the Association by
+laying before the churches the condition of our funds and the demand for
+our labor." The attendance was large, and the tone of the meeting was
+hopeful and enthusiastic. After Dr. Stebbins, the president, had stated the
+purpose of the meeting, Dr. Bellows urged the importance of a more
+effective organization of the Unitarian body. His success with the Sanitary
+Commission had evidently prepared his mind for a like work on the part of
+Unitarians, and for a strong faith in the value of organized effort in
+behalf of liberal religion. His capacity as leader during the war had
+prepared men to accept it in other fields of effort, and Unitarians were
+ready to use it in their behalf. The hopefulness that existed, in view of
+the success of the Union cause, and the enthusiastic interest in the
+methods of moral and spiritual reform that was manifested because of the
+triumph of the spirit of freedom in the nation, led many to think that like
+efforts in behalf of liberal Christianity would result in like successes.
+
+On the afternoon of the second day (a meeting in the evening of the first
+day only having been held) James P. Walker, the publisher, gave a resume of
+the activities of the Association during the forty years of its existence,
+and said that its receipts had been on the average only $8,038.88 yearly.
+He showed that much had been done with this small sum, and that the results
+were much larger than the amount of money invested would indicate. He
+pointed out the fact that the demands upon the Association were rapidly
+increasing, and far more rapidly than the contributions. There was an
+urgent need for larger giving, he said, and for a more loyal support of the
+missionary arm of the denomination. He offered a series of resolutions
+calling for the raising of $25,000 during the year. Rev. Edward Everett
+Hale said that $100,000 ought to be given to the proposed object, and urged
+that more missionaries should be sent into the field. Thereupon Mr. Henry
+P. Kidder arose, and said: "It is often easier to do a great thing than a
+small one. I move that this meeting undertake to raise $100,000 for the
+service of the next year." Dr. Bellows then called the attention of the
+conference to the importance of considering the manner of securing this
+large sum and of devising methods to insure success. He proposed "that a
+committee of ten persons, three ministers and seven laymen, should be
+appointed to call a convention, to consist of the pastor and two delegates
+from each church or parish in the Unitarian denomination, to meet in the
+city of New York, to consider the interests of our cause and to institute
+measures for its good." The two resolutions were unanimously adopted,
+pledging the denomination to raise $100,000, and to the holding of a
+delegate convention in New York. The president appointed, as members of the
+committee of arrangements for the convention, Rev. Henry W. Bellows,
+Messrs. A.A. Low, U.A. Murdock, Henry P. Kidder, Atherton Blight, Enoch
+Pratt, and Artemas Carter, Rev. Edward E. Hale, and Rev. Charles H.
+Brigham.
+
+The convention in New York was not waited for in order to make an effort to
+secure the $100,000 it was proposed to raise; and early in January the
+president of the Association, Dr. Rufus P. Stebbins, was authorized to
+devote his whole time to securing that sum. A circular was sent to the
+churches saying that such a sum "was needed, and should and could be
+raised." "The hour has come," said the executive committee in their appeal
+to the churches, "which the fathers longed to see, but were denied the
+sight,--of taking our true position among other branches of the church of
+our Lord Jesus Christ in the spread and establishment of the Gospel."
+
+The response to this call was prompt and enthusiastic beyond any precedent.
+The war had made money plentiful, and it came easily to those who were
+successful. Great fortunes had been rapidly gathered; and the country had
+never known an equal prosperity, even though the burden of the war had not
+yet been removed. In February the president of the Association was able to
+announce that $28,871.47 had been subscribed by twelve churches. By the end
+of March the pledges had reached $63,862.63; and when the convention met in
+New York, April 5, 1865, the contributions then pledged were only a few
+thousand dollars short of the sum desired. By the end of May the sum
+reported was $111,676.74, which was increased by several hundred dollars
+more.
+
+[Sidenote: The New York Convention of 1865.]
+
+It was when this success was certain that the convention met in New York.
+The victory of the Union cause was then assured, and the utmost enthusiasm
+prevailed. Some of the final and most important scenes of the great
+national struggle were enacted while the convention was in session. Courage
+and hope ran high under these circumstances; and the convention was not
+only enthusiastically loyal to the nation, but equally so to its own
+denominational interests. For the first time in the history of the
+Unitarian body in this country the churches were directly represented at a
+general gathering. The number of churches represented was two hundred and
+two, and they sent three hundred and eighty-five delegates. Many other
+persons attended, however; and throughout all the sittings of the
+convention the audience was a large one. Many women were present, though
+not as delegates, the men only having official recognition in this
+gathering. It is evident from the records, the newspaper reports, and the
+memories of those present, that the interest in this meeting was very
+large, and that the attendance was quite beyond what was anticipated by any
+one concerned in planning it. The call to all the churches, and the giving
+them an equality of representation in the convention, was doubtless one of
+the causes of its success. As a result, an able body of laymen appeared in
+the convention, who were accustomed to business methods and familiar with
+legislative procedure, and who carried through the work of the convention
+with deliberation and skill.
+
+On the first evening of the convention a sermon was preached by Dr. James
+Freeman Clarke that was a noble and generous introduction to its
+deliberations. He called for the exercise of the spirit of inclusiveness, a
+broad and tolerant catholicity, and union on the basis of the work to be
+done. On the morning of April 5, 1865, at eleven o'clock, the convention
+met for the transaction of business in All Souls' Church, of which Henry
+Whitney Bellows was the minister. Hon. John A. Andrew, then the governor of
+Massachusetts, was elected to preside over the convention; and among the
+vice-presidents were William Cullen Bryant, Rev. John Gorham Palfrey, Hon.
+Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, Rev. Orville Dewey, and Rev. Ezra Stiles Gannett,
+while Rev. Edward Everett Hale was made the secretary. In Governor Andrew
+the convention had as its presiding officer a man of a broad and generous
+spirit, who was insistent that the main purpose of the meeting should be
+kept always steadily in view, and yet that all the members and all the
+varying opinions should have just recognition. In a large degree the
+success of the convention was due to his catholicity and to his skill in
+reconciling opposing interests.
+
+The time of the convention was devoted almost wholly to legislating for the
+denomination and to planning for its future work. On the morning of the
+second day the subject of organization came up for consideration, and the
+committee selected for that purpose presented a constitution providing for
+a National Conference that should meet annually, and that should be
+constituted of the minister and two lay delegates from each church,
+together with three delegates each from the American Unitarian Association,
+the Western Conference, and such other bodies as might be invited to
+participate in its deliberations. This Conference was to be only
+recommendatory in its character, adopting "the existing organizations of
+the Unitarian body as the instruments of its power." The name of the new
+organization was the subject of some discussion, James Freeman Clarke
+wishing to make the Conference one of Independent and Unitarian churches,
+while another delegate desired to substitute "free Christian" for
+Unitarian. The desire strongly manifested by a considerable number to make
+the Conference include in its membership all liberal churches of whatever
+name not acceptable to the majority of the delegates, voted with a decided
+emphasis to organize strictly on the Unitarian basis.
+
+As soon as the convention was organized, expression was given to the demand
+for a doctrinal basis for its deliberations. Though several attempts were
+made to bring about the acceptance of a creed, these met with complete
+failure. In the preamble to the constitution, however, it was asserted that
+the delegates were "disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ," while the first
+article declared that the conference was organized to promote "the cause of
+Christian faith and work." It was quite evident that a large majority of
+the delegates regarded the convention as Christian in its purposes and
+distinctly Unitarian in its denominational mission. A minority desired a
+platform that should have no theological implications, and that should
+permit the co-operation of every kind of liberal church. The use of the
+phrase Lord Jesus Christ was strongly opposed by the more radical section
+of the convention, but the members of it were not organized or ready to
+give utterance to their protest in an effective manner.
+
+The convention gave its approval to the efforts of the Unitarian
+Association to secure the sum of $100,000, and urged the churches, that had
+not already done so, to contribute. It also advised the securing of a like
+sum as an endowment for Antioch College, and commended to men of wealth the
+needs of the Harvard and Meadville Theological Schools. The council of the
+Conference was asked to give its attention to the necessity and duty of
+creating an organ for the denomination, to be called The Liberal Christian.
+A resolution looking to union with the Universalist body was presented, and
+one was passed declaring "that there should be recognition, fellowship, and
+co-operation between all those various elements in our population that are
+prepared to meet on the basis of Christianity." James Freeman Clarke,
+Samuel J. May, and Robert Collyer were constituted a committee of
+correspondence, to promote acquaintance, fraternity, and unity between
+Unitarians and all of like liberal faith.[2]
+
+A resolution offered by William Cullen Bryant expressive of thanksgiving
+because of the near approach of peace, and for the opening made by the
+extinction of slavery for the diffusion of Christianity in its true spirit
+as a religion of love, mercy, and universal liberty, was unanimously
+adopted by a rising vote.
+
+The convention was a remarkable success in the number who attended its
+sessions, the character of the men who participated in its deliberations,
+and the skill with which the unsectarian sect had been organized for
+effective co-operation and work. Its influence was immediately felt
+throughout the denomination and upon all its activities. The change in
+attitude was very great, and the depressed and discouraged tone of many
+Unitarian utterances for a number of years preceding and following 1860
+gave way to one of enthusiasm and courage.[3]
+
+[Sidenote: New Life in the Unitarian Association.]
+
+The annual meeting of the Unitarian Association, that soon followed, felt
+the new stir of life, and the awakening to a larger consciousness of power.
+The chief attention was directed to meeting the new opportunities that had
+been presented, and to preparing for the larger work required. Dr. Rufus P.
+Stebbins, who had been for three years the president, and who had been
+actively instrumental in securing the large accession to the contributions
+of the year, was elected secretary, with the intent that he should devote
+himself to pushing forward the missionary enterprises of the Association.
+He refused to serve, and accepted the position only until his successor
+could be secured. In a few weeks, the executive committee elected Rev.
+Charles Lowe to this office, and he immediately entered upon its duties. He
+proved to be eminently fitted for the place by his enthusiastic interest in
+the work to be accomplished, and by his skill as an organizer. His
+catholicity of mind enabled him to conciliate, as far as this was possible,
+the conservative and radical elements in the denomination, and to unite
+them into an effective working body. Educated at Harvard College and
+Divinity School, Lowe spent two years as a tutor in the college, and then
+was settled successively over parishes in New Bedford, Salem, and
+Somerville. His experience and skill as an army agent of the Association
+suggested his fitness for the larger sphere of labor into which he was now
+inducted. For six most difficult and trying years he successfully conducted
+the affairs of the Association.
+
+For the first time in the history of the Association its income was such as
+to enable it to plan its work on a large scale, and in some degree
+commensurate with its opportunities. During the year and a half preceding
+the first of June, 1866, there was contributed to the Association about
+$175,000, to Antioch College $103,000, to the Boston Fraternity of Churches
+$22,920, to the Children's Mission $42,000, to the Freedman's Aid Societies
+$30,000, to the Sunday School Society $2,500, to The Christian Register
+$15,000, and to the Western Conference $6,000, making a total of about
+$400,000 given by the denomination to these religious, educational, and
+philanthropic purposes; and this financial success was truly indicative of
+the new interest in its work that had come to the Unitarian body.
+
+[Sidenote: The New Theological Position.]
+
+Although the New York convention voted that $100,000 ought to be raised in
+1866, because the needs of the denomination demanded it, yet only $60,000
+were secured. The reaction that followed the close of the war had set in,
+the financial prosperity of the country had begun to lessen, and the
+enthusiasm that had made the first great effort of the denomination so
+eminently successful did not continue. A chief cause for the waning
+interest in the denomination itself was the agitation, in regard to the
+theological position of the Unitarian body that began almost immediately
+after the New York convention.
+
+The older Unitarians held to the Bible and the teachings of Jesus as the
+great sources of spiritual truth as strongly as did the orthodox, and they
+differed from them only as to the purport of the message conveyed. This may
+be seen in a creed offered to the New York convention, by a prominent
+layman,[4] almost immediately after it was opened on the first morning.
+In this proposed creed it was asserted that Unitarians believe "in one
+Lord, Jesus Christ; the Son of God and his specially appointed messenger,
+and representative to our race; gifted with supernatural power, approved of
+God by miracles and signs and wonders which God did by him, and thus by
+divine authority commanding the devout and reverential faith of all who
+claim the Christian name." Although this creed was not adopted by the
+convention, it expressed the belief of a majority of Unitarians. To the
+same purport was the word spoken by Dr. Bellows, when he said: "Unitarians
+of the school to which I belong accept Jesus Christ with all their hearts
+as the Sent of God, the divinely inspired Son of the Father, who by his
+miraculously proven office and his sinless life and character was fitted to
+be, and was made revealer of the universal and permanent religion of the
+human race."[5] These quotations indicate that the more conservative
+Unitarians had not changed their position since 1853, when they made
+official statement of their acceptance of Christianity as authenticated by
+miracles and the supernatural. In fact, they held essentially to the
+attitude taken when they left the older Congregational body.
+
+On the other hand, the transcendentalists and the radical Unitarians
+proposed a new theory of the nature of religious truth, and insisted that
+the spiritual message of Christianity is inward, and not outward, directly
+to the soul of man, and not through the mediation of a person or a book.
+Almost from the first Channing had been moving towards this newer
+conception of the nature and method of religion. He did not wholly abandon
+the miraculous, but it grew to have less significance for him with each
+year. The Unitarian conception of religion as natural to man, which was
+maintained strenuously from the time of Jonathan Mayhew, made it probable,
+if not certain, that a merely external system of religion would be
+ultimately outgrown. In his lecture on self-denial Channing stated this
+position in the clearest terms. "If," he said, "after a deliberate and
+impartial use of our best faculties, a professed revelation seems to us
+plainly to disagree with itself or to clash with great principles which we
+cannot question, we ought not to hesitate to withhold from it our belief. I
+am surer that my rational nature is from God, than that any book is an
+expression of his will. This light in my own breast is his primary
+revelation, and all subsequent ones must accord with it, and are in fact
+intended to blend with and brighten it."[6]
+
+Channing was not alone in accepting Christianity as a spiritual principle
+that is natural and universal. As early as 1826 Alvan Lamson had defended
+the proposition that miracles are merely local in their nature, and that
+attention should be chiefly given to the tendency, spirit, and object of
+Christianity. He claimed that it bore on the face of it the marks of its
+heavenly origin, and that, when these are fully accepted, no other form of
+evidence is required.[7] In 1834 James Walker, in writing on The
+Philosophy of Man's Spiritual Nature in regard to the Foundations of Faith,
+had taken what was essentially the transcendentalist view of the origin and
+nature of religion. He contended for the "religion in the soul" that is
+authenticated "by the revelations of consciousness."[8] In 1836 Convers
+Francis, in, describing the religion of Christ as a purely internal
+principle, maintained the "quiet, spirit-searching character of
+Christianity," as "a kingdom wholly within the soul of man."[9]
+
+When Convers Francis became a professor in the Harvard Divinity School, in
+1842, the spiritual philosophy had recognition there; and he had a
+considerable influence upon the young men who came under his guidance.
+Though of the older way of thinking, George R. Noyes, who became a
+professor in the school in 1840, was always on the side of liberty of
+interpretation and expression. For the next two decades the Divinity School
+sent out a succession of such men as John Weiss, Octavius B. Frothingham,
+Samuel Longfellow, William J. Potter, and Francis E. Abbot, who were joined
+by William Henry Channing, Samuel Johnson, David A. Wasson, and others, who
+did not study there. These men gave a new meaning to Unitarianism, took it
+away from miracles to nature, discarded its evidences to rely on intuition,
+rejected its supernatural deity for an immanent God who speaks through all
+life his divine word.
+
+During the interval between the New York convention and the first session
+of the National Conference, which was held in Syracuse, October 10-11,
+1866, the questions which separated the conservatives and radicals were
+freely debated in the periodicals of the denomination, and also in sermons
+and pamphlets. The radicals organized for securing a revision of the
+constitution; and on the morning of the first day Francis E. Abbot, then
+the minister at Dover, N.H., offered a new preamble and first article as
+substitutes for those adopted in New York, in which he stated that "the
+object of Christianity is the universal diffusion of love, righteousness,
+and truth," that "perfect freedom of thought, which is at once the right
+and duty of every human being, always leads to diversity of opinion, and is
+therefore hindered by common creeds or statements of faith," and that
+therefore the churches assembled in the conference, "disregarding all
+sectarian or theological differences, and offering a cordial fellowship to
+all who will join them in Christian work, unite themselves in a common
+body, to be known as The National Conference of Unitarian and Independent
+Churches."
+
+At the afternoon session Mr. Abbot's amendment was rejected; but on the
+motion of James Freeman Clarke the name was changed to The National
+Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches. A resolution stating
+that the expression "Other Christian Churches was not meant to exclude
+religious societies which have no distinctive church organization, and are
+not nominally Christian, if they desire to co-operate with the Conference
+in what it regards as Christian work," was laid on the table.
+
+[Sidenote: Organization of the Free Religious Association.]
+
+The result of the refusal at Syracuse to revise the constitution of the
+National Conference was that the radical men on the railroad train
+returning to Boston held a consultation, and resolved to organize an
+association that would secure them the liberty they desired. After
+correspondence and much planning a meeting was held in Boston, at the house
+of Rev. Cyrus A. Bartol, on February 5, 1867, to consider what should be
+done. After a thorough discussion of the subject the Free Religious
+Association was planned; and the organization was perfected at a meeting
+held in Horticultural Hall, Boston, May 30, 1867. Some of those who took
+part in this movement thought that all religion had been outgrown, but the
+majority believed that it is essential and eternal. What they sought was to
+remove its local and national elements, and to get rid of its merely
+sectarian and traditional features.
+
+At the first meeting the speakers were O.B. Frothingham, Henry Blanchard,
+Lucretia Mott, Robert Dale Owen, John Weiss, Oliver Johnson, Francis E.
+Abbot, David A. Wasson, T.W. Higginson, and R.W. Emerson; and discussion
+was participated in by A.B. Alcott, E.C. Towne, Frank B. Sanborn, Hannah E.
+Stevenson, Ednah D. Cheney, Charles C. Burleigh, and Caroline H. Dall. Of
+these persons, one-half had been Unitarian ministers, and about one-third
+of them were still settled over Unitarian parishes. Mr. Frothingham was
+elected president of the new organization, and Rev. William J. Potter
+secretary. The purposes of the Association were "to promote the interests
+of pure religion, to encourage the scientific study of theology and to
+increase fellowship in the spirit." In 1872 the constitution was revised by
+changing the subject of study from theology to man's religious nature and
+history, and by the addition of the statement that "nothing in the name or
+constitution of the Association shall ever be construed as limiting
+membership by any test of speculative opinion or belief,--or as defining
+the position of the Association, collectively considered, with reference to
+any such opinion or belief,--or as interfering in any other way with that
+absolute freedom of thought and expression which is the natural right of
+every rational being."
+
+The original purpose of the Free Religious Association, as defined in its
+constitution and in the addresses delivered before it, was the recognition
+of the universality of religion, and the representation of all phases of
+religious opinion in its membership and on its platform. The circumstances
+of its organization, however, in some measure took it away from this
+broader position, and made it the organ of the radical Unitarian opinion.
+Those Unitarians who did not find in the American Unitarian Association and
+the National Conference such fellowship as they desired became active in
+the Free Religious organization.
+
+The cause of Free Religion was ably presented in the pages of The Radical,
+a monthly journal edited by Sidney H. Morse, and published in Boston, and
+The Index, edited by Francis E. Abbot, at first in Toledo and then in
+Boston. It also found expression at the Sunday afternoon meetings held in
+Horticultural Hall, Boston, for several winters, beginning in 1868-69; in
+the conventions held in several of the leading cities of the northern
+states; at the gatherings of the Chestnut Street Club; and in the annual
+meetings of the Free Religious Association held in Boston during
+anniversary week. Little effort was made to organize churches, and only two
+or three came into existence distinctly on the basis of Free Religion. In
+connection with The Index, Francis E. Abbot organized the Liberal League to
+promote the interests of Free Religion, with about four hundred local
+branches; but this organization proved ineffective, and soon ceased its
+existence.
+
+The withdrawal of the radicals into the Free Religious Association did not
+quiet the agitation in the Unitarian ranks, partly because some of the most
+active workers in that Association continued to occupy Unitarian pulpits,
+and partly because a considerable radical element did not withdraw in any
+manner. The conferences had an unfailing subject for exciting discussion,
+and the Unitarian body was at this time in a chronic condition of
+agitation. As in the days of the controversy about the Trinity, the more
+conservative ministers would not exchange pulpits with the more radical.
+
+[Sidenote: Unsuccessful Attempts at Reconciliation.]
+
+At the second session of the National Conference, held in New York City,
+October 7-9, 1868, another attempt was made to bring about a reconciliation
+between the two wings of the denomination. In an attitude of generous good
+will and with a noble desire for inclusiveness and peace, James Freeman
+Clarke proposed an addition to the constitution of the Conference, in which
+it was declared "that we heartily welcome to that fellowship all who desire
+to work with us in advancing the kingdom of God." Such a broad invitation
+was not acceptable to the majority; and, after an extended debate, this
+amendment was withdrawn, and the following, offered by Edward Everett Hale,
+and essentially the same as that presented by Mr. Clarke, with the
+exception of the phrase just quoted, was adopted:--
+
+  To secure the largest unity of the spirit and the widest practical
+  co-operation, it is hereby understood that all the declarations of this
+  conference, including the preamble and constitution, are expressions
+  only of its majority, and dependent wholly for their effect upon the
+  consent they command on their own merits from the churches here
+  represented or belonging within the circle of our fellowship.
+
+The annual meeting of the Unitarian Association in 1870 was largely
+occupied with the vexing problem of the basis of fellowship; and the
+secretary, Charles Lowe, read a conciliatory and explanatory address. He
+said that the wide differences of theological opinion existing in the
+denomination were "an inevitable consequence of the great principle on
+which Unitarianism rests. That principle is that Christian faith and
+Christian union can coexist with individual liberty."[10] Rev. George H.
+Hepworth, then the minister of the Church of the Messiah in New York, asked
+for an authoritative statement of the Unitarian position, urging this
+demand with great insistence; and he presented a resolution calling for a
+committee of five to prepare "a statement of faith, which shall, as nearly
+as may be, represent the religious opinions of the Unitarian denomination."
+
+While Dr. Bellows had been the leader in securing the adoption of the
+Christian basis for the National Conference, and the insertion into the
+preamble of its constitution of the expression of faith in the Lordship of
+Jesus Christ, he was strongly opposed to any attempt to impose a creed upon
+the denomination, however attenuated it might be. He has been often charged
+with inconsistency, and it is difficult to reconcile his position in 1870
+with that held in 1865. What he attempted to secure, however, was the
+utmost of liberty possible within the limits of Christianity; and, when he
+had committed the Unitarian body to the Christian position, he desired
+nothing more, believing that a creed would be inconsistent with the liberty
+enjoyed by all Unitarians. Without doubt his address at this meeting, in
+opposition to Mr. Hepworth's proposal, made it impossible to secure a vote
+in favor of a creed. "We want to represent a body," he said, "that presents
+itself to the forming hand of the Almighty Spirit of God in a fluid,
+plastic form. We cannot keep our denomination in that state, and yet give
+it the character of being cast into a positive mould. You must either
+abandon that great work you have done, as the only body in Christendom that
+occupies the position of absolute and perfect liberty, with some measure of
+Christian faith, or you must continue to occupy that position and thank God
+for it without hankering after some immediate victories that are so strong
+a temptation to many in our denomination." When the resolution in favor of
+a creed was brought to a vote, it was "defeated by a very large majority."
+By this act the Unitarian body again asserted its Christian position, but
+refused to define or to limit its Christianity.
+
+Notwithstanding the refusal of the Unitarian Association to adopt a creed,
+the attempt to secure one was renewed in the National Conference with as
+much energy as if this were not already a lost cause. At the session held
+in New York, October, 1870, the subject came up for extended consideration,
+several amendments to the constitution were proposed, and, after a
+prolonged discussion, that offered by George H. Hepworth was adopted:--
+
+  Reaffirming our allegiance to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and desiring
+  to secure the largest unity of the spirit and the widest practical
+  co-operation, we invite to our fellowship all who wish to be followers
+  of Christ.
+
+[Sidenote: The Year Book Controversy.]
+
+One result of this controversy was that in 1873 it having come to the
+attention of Rev. O.B. Frothingham, the president of the Free Religious
+Association, that his name was in the list of Unitarian ministers published
+in the Year Book of the Unitarian Association, he expressed surprise that
+it should have been continued there, and asked for its removal. The same
+action was taken by Francis E. Abbot, the editor of The Index, and others
+of the radicals. This action was in part the result of the attitude taken
+by Rev. Thomas J. Mumford, editor of The Christian Register, who in 1872
+insisted that the word "Religious" had no proper place in the name of the
+Free Religious Association, and who invited those Unitarians "who have
+ceased to accept Jesus as pre-eminently their spiritual leader and teacher"
+to withdraw from the Unitarian body.
+
+In November, 1873, Mr. George W. Fox, the assistant secretary of the
+Unitarian Association and the editor of its Year Book, wrote to several of
+the radicals, calling their attention to the action of Mr. Frothingham in
+requesting the removal of his name, and asked if their names remained in
+that publication "with their knowledge and consent." In a subsequent letter
+to William J. Potter, the minister of the Unitarian church in New Bedford
+and the secretary of the Free Religious Association, he explained that "the
+Year Book lists of societies and ministers are simply a directory, prepared
+by the Association for the accommodation of the denomination, and that the
+Association does not undertake to decide the question as to what are or are
+not Unitarian societies or ministers, but merely puts into print facts, in
+the making of which it assumes no responsibility and has no agency."
+
+Mr. Potter expressed his purpose not to ask for the removal of his name,
+but wrote that he did not call himself a Unitarian Christian or by any
+denominational name. The officers of the Association thereupon instructed
+the editor of the Year Book to remove Mr. Potter's name from the list of
+Unitarian ministers published therein. The reason for this action was
+stated in a letter from the editor to Mr. Potter, announcing that his name
+had been removed. The letter said, "While there might be no desire to
+define Christianity in the case of those who claim that they are in any
+sense of the term entitled to be called Christians, for those persons who,
+like yourself, disavow the name, there seems to be no need of raising any
+question as to how broad a range of opinion the name may properly be
+stretched to cover."[11]
+
+There followed a vigorous discussion of the action of the Association in
+dropping Mr. Potter's name, it being recognized that no more thoroughly
+religious man was to be found in the denomination, and that none more truly
+exemplified the Christian spirit, whatever might be his wish as to the use
+of the Christian name. At the sixth session of the National Conference,
+held at Saratoga in September, 1874, the Essex Conference protested against
+the erasure of the name of a church in long and regular fellowship with the
+Unitarian Association from its Year Book; and a resolution offered by Dr.
+Bellows, indorsing the action of the officers of the National Conference in
+inviting the New Bedford church to send delegates, was passed without
+dissent. At the session of the Western Conference held in Chicago during
+1875, resolutions were passed protesting against the removing of the name
+of any person from the accredited list of Unitarian ministers until he
+requested it, had left the denomination, joined some other sect, or been
+adjudged guilty of immorality. As a result of this discussion and of the
+broad sympathies and inclusive spirit of the conference, the following
+platform, in the shape of a resolution, was adopted:--
+
+  That the Western Unitarian Conference conditions its fellowship on no
+  dogmatic tests, but welcomes all thereto who desire to work with it in
+  advancing the kingdom of God.
+
+The attitude of the Unitarian Association and the National Conference--that
+is, of a large majority of Unitarians at this time--may be accurately
+defined in the words of Charles Lowe, who said: "I admit that we make a
+belief in Christianity a test of fellowship. No stretch of liberality will
+make me wish to deny that a belief in Jesus Christ is the absolutely
+essential qualification. But I will oppose, as a test, any definition of
+Christianity, any words about Christ, for Christ himself, as the principles
+of our fellowship and union."[12] These words exactly define what was
+sought for, which was liberty within the limits of Christianity. The
+primary insistence was upon discipleship to Jesus Christ, but it was
+maintained that loyalty to Christ is compatible with the largest degree of
+personal liberty.
+
+Fundamentally, this controversy was a continuation of that which had
+agitated New England from the beginning, that had divided those opposed to
+"the great awakening" of the middle of the eighteenth century from those
+who favored it, that led the Unitarians away from the Orthodox, and that
+now divided radical and conservative Unitarians. The advance was always
+towards a more pronounced assertion of individualism, and a more positive
+rejection of tradition, organization, and external authority. Indeed, it
+was towards this end that Unitarianism had directed its energies from the
+beginning; and the force of this tendency could not be overcome because
+some called for a creed, and more had come to see the need of an efficient
+organization for practical purposes.
+
+What the radicals desired was freedom, and the broadest assertion of
+individuality. It was maintained by Francis E. Abbot that "the spiritual
+ideal of Free Religion is to develop the individuality of the soul in the
+highest, fullest, and most independent manner possible."[13] The other
+distinctive principle of the radicals was that religion is universal, that
+all religions are essentially, the same, and that Christianity is simply
+one of the phases of universal religion. David A. Wasson defined religion
+as "the consciousness of universal relation,"[14] and as "the sense of
+unity with the infinite whole," adding that "morals, reason, freedom, are
+bound up with it."[15] This means, in simple statement, that religion is
+natural to man, and that it needs no authentication by miracle or
+supernatural manifestation. It means that all religions are essentially the
+same in their origin, and that none can claim the special favor of God in
+their manner of presentation to the world. According to this conception of
+religion, as was stated by. William J. Potter, Christianity is
+"provisional, preparatory, educational, containing, alongside of the most
+valuable truth, much that is only human error and bigotry and superstitious
+imagination."[16] "The spiritual ideal of Christianity," said Francis E.
+Abbot, "is the suppression of self and perfect imitation of Jesus the
+Christ. The spiritual ideal of Free Religion is the development of self,
+and the harmonious education of all its powers to the highest possible
+degree."[17]
+
+Through all this controversy what was sought for was a method of
+reconciling fellowship with individuality of opinion, of establishing a
+church in which freedom of faith for the individual shall have full
+recognition. In a word, the Unitarian body had a conviction that tradition
+is compatible with intuition, institutions with personal freedom, and
+co-operation with individual initiative. The problems involved were too
+large for an immediate solution; and what Unitarians accepted was an ideal,
+and not a fact fully realized in their denominational life. The doctrinal
+phases of the controversy have always been subsidiary to this larger
+search, this desire to give to the individual all the liberty that is
+compatible with his co-operation with others. The result of it has been to
+teach the Unitarian body, in the words of Francis E. Abbot at Syracuse, in
+1866, that "the only reconciliation of the duties of collective Christian
+activity and individual freedom of thought lies in an efficient
+organization for practical Christian work, based rather on unity of spirit
+than on uniformity of belief."[18]
+
+[Sidenote: Missionary Activities.]
+
+During this period of controversy, from 1865 to 1880, the Unitarian
+Association had at its head several able men, who were actively interested
+in its work. The president for 1865-66 was Rev. John G. Palfrey; and he was
+succeeded, in 1867, by Hon. Thomas D. Eliot, of New Bedford, who was in
+both houses of the Massachusetts legislature, and then for a number of
+years in the lower house of Congress. From 1870 to 1872 the president was
+Mr. Henry Chapin, of Worcester, an able lawyer and judge, loyally devoted
+to the Sunday-school work of his city and county. He was succeeded by Hon.
+John Wells, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, who was
+deeply interested in the church with which he was connected. In 1876 Mr.
+Henry P. Kidder was elected to this office,--a position he held for ten
+years. He was prominent in the banking interests of Boston, gave much
+attention to the charities of the city, and was an efficient worker in the
+South Congregational Church.
+
+Rev. Charles Lowe, the secretary from 1865 to 1871, wisely directed the
+activities of the Association through the early period of the great
+awakening of the denomination, and kept it from going to pieces on the
+Scylla and Charybdis of creed and radicalism. He was followed at a most
+critical and difficult time by Rev. Rush R. Shippen, who continued to hold
+the office until 1881. The reaction succeeding the great prosperity that
+followed the close of the civil war brought great burdens of debt to many
+individuals, and to cities, states, and the nation. These troubles
+distracted attention from spiritual interests, and joined with various
+other calamities in making this a trying time for churches and religious
+organizations.
+
+The discussions as to the theological position of the denomination
+naturally resulted in more or less of disorganization, and made it
+impossible to secure the unity of effort which is essential to any positive
+missionary growth. In spite of these drawbacks, however, denominational
+interests slowly advanced. During this period the Unitarian Association
+began to receive a considerable increase of its funds from legacies,--a
+result of its enlarged activities, and of the new interest awakened by the
+formation of the National Conference.
+
+A few facts may be mentioned to illustrate the never-failing generosity of
+Unitarian givers when specific needs are presented. In October, 1871,
+occurred the great fire in Chicago and the burning of Unity Church in that
+city, which was aided with $60,000 in rebuilding; while the Third Church
+and All Souls' were helped liberally in passing through this crisis. The
+following year the Boston fire crippled sadly the resources of the
+Association, and instead of the $150,000 asked for only $42,000 were
+received. Yet in 1876 the church in Washington was built, and $30,000 were
+contributed to that purpose by the denomination. In 1879; the denomination
+gave $56,000 to free the Church of the Messiah in New York from debt.
+During this period $100,000 were contributed to the Young Men's Christian
+Union in Boston, $90,000 to the Harvard Divinity School, $20,000 to the
+Prospect Hill School at Greenfield, and $30,000 towards the Channing
+Memorial Church in Newport.
+
+During these trying times the administration of Unitarian affairs in the
+west was in judicious hands, In 1865 Rev. Charles G. Ames began those
+missionary efforts on the Pacific coast that have led on to the
+establishment of a considerable number of churches in that section of the
+country. In central Illinois the devoted labors of Jasper L. Douthit from
+1868 to the present time have produced wide-reaching results in behalf of a
+genuine religion, temperance, good government, and education. In 1868 Rev.
+Carlton A. Staples was made the missionary agent of the Association in the
+west, with headquarters in Chicago, where a book-room was established. He
+was succeeded in 1872 by Rev. Sylvan S. Hunting, who was a tireless worker
+in the western field for many years. In 1874 Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones became
+the missionary of the Wisconsin Conference, and the next year of the
+Western Conference. For ten years Mr. Jones labored in this position with
+enthusiasm for the Unitarian cause in the west.
+
+[Sidenote: College Town Missions.]
+
+In the spring of 1865 the attention of the Unitarian Association was
+directed to the growing University of Michigan; and Rev. Charles H.
+Brigham, then the minister of the church in Taunton, was invited to proceed
+to Ann Arbor, and see what might be accomplished there. Meetings were held
+in the court-house, but in 1866 an old Methodist church was purchased by
+the Association and adapted to the uses of the new society. The
+congregation numbered at first about eighty persons, but gradually
+increased, especially from the attendance of university students. Mr.
+Brigham was asked by the students who listened to him to form a Bible class
+for their instruction, and this increased in numbers until it included from
+two hundred to three hundred persons. On Sunday evenings he delivered
+lectures wherein his wide and varied learning was made subservient to high
+ideals and to a noble interpretation of Christianity. He led many young men
+and women into the liberal faith, and he exercised through them a wide
+influence throughout the west. His gifts as a lecturer were also made
+available at the Meadville Theological School, with which institution he
+was connected for ten years.[19]
+
+The success of Mr. Brigham led to the founding of other college town
+churches, that at Ithaca, the seat of Cornell University, being established
+in 1866. In 1878 such a mission was begun at Madison for the students of
+the University of Wisconsin, and another at Iowa City for the University of
+Iowa. In more recent years college missions have been started at Lawrence,
+Kan.; Lincoln, Neb.; Minneapolis, Minn.; Berkeley, Cal.; Colorado Springs;
+and Amherst, Mass. This has proved to be one of the most effective ways of
+extending Unitarianism as a modern interpretation of Christianity.
+
+[Sidenote: Theatre Preaching.]
+
+Another interest developed by the awakening of 1865 was the popularization
+of Unitarianism by the use of theatres. In January, 1866, was begun in the
+Cooper Institute, New York, a Sunday evening course of lectures by Clarke,
+Bellows, Osgood, Frothingham, Putnam, Chadwick, and Joseph May, which was
+largely attended. Some of the most important doctrinal subjects were
+discussed. A few weeks later a similar course was undertaken in Washington
+with like success. In March, 1867, the Suffolk Conference undertook such a
+series of lectures in the Boston Theatre, which was crowded to its utmost
+capacity. Then followed courses of sermons or lectures in Lawrence, New
+Bedford, Salem, Springfield, Providence, Chicago, and San Francisco, as
+well as in other places. The council of the National Conference, in 1868,
+commended this as an important work that should be encouraged. Rev. Adams
+Ayer was made an agent of the Association to organize such meetings, and
+their success was remarkable for several years. In 1869 Rev. Charles Lowe
+spoke of "that wonderful feature of our recent experience," and urged that
+these meetings should be so organized as to lead to definite results.
+
+An earnest effort was made to organize the theatre congregations into
+unsectarian societies. It was proposed to form Christian unions that should
+work for Christian improvement and usefulness. The first result of this
+effort was the reorganization of the Boston Young Men's Christian Union in
+the spring of 1868. A similar institution was formed in Providence, to
+promote worship, education, hospitality and benevolence. Unions were also
+formed in, Salem, Lowell, Cambridge, New Bedford, New York, and elsewhere.
+
+[Sidenote: Organization of Local Conferences.]
+
+In the autumn of 1865, in order to facilitate the collection of money for
+the Unitarian Association, a number of local conferences were held in
+Massachusetts. The first of these met at Somerville, November 14, and was
+primarily a meeting of the Cambridge Association of Ministers, including
+all the lay delegates to the New York convention from the churches which
+that association represented. The result of this meeting was an increase of
+contributions to the Unitarian Association, and the determination to
+organize permanently to facilitate that work. Dr. E.E. Hale has stated that
+the initial suggestion of these meetings came from a conversation between
+Dr. Bellows and Dr. E.H. Sears, in which the latter said "that a very
+important element in any effort which should reveal the Unitarian church to
+itself would be some plan by which neighboring churches would be brought
+together more familiarly."[20]
+
+The local conferences had distinct antecedents, however, by which their
+character was doubtless in some degree determined. The early county and
+other local auxiliaries to the Unitarian Association begun in 1826 and
+continued for at least twenty years, which were general throughout New
+England, afforded a precedent; but a more immediate initiative had been
+taken in New Hampshire, where the New Hampshire Unitarian Association had
+been organized at Manchester, February 25, 1863. It does not appear that
+this organization was in any way a revival of the former society of the
+same name in that state, which was organized at Concord in 1832, and which
+was very active for a brief period. A Unitarian Church Association of Maine
+was organized at Portland, September 21, 1852, largely under the influence
+of Rev. Sylvester Judd, of Augusta; but it had only a brief existence. The
+Maine Conference of Unitarian Churches was organized at Farmington, July 8,
+1863.[21] These organizations antedated the movement for the formation of
+local conferences on the part of the National Conference; and they
+doubtless gave motive and impetus to that effort.
+
+On November 30, 1865, a meeting similar to that at Somerville was held by
+the Franklin Evangelical Association[22] at Springfield, and with similar
+results. Other meetings were held at Lowell, Dedham, Quincy, Salem,
+Taunton, Worcester, and Boston. The attendance at all these meetings was
+large, they developed an enthusiastic interest, and pledges were promptly
+made looking to larger contributions to the Unitarian Association.
+
+At the Syracuse meeting of the National Conference, in 1866, Dr. Bellows
+reported for the council in favor of local organizations, auxiliary to the
+national body. "No great national convention of any kind succeeds," it was
+declared, "which is not the concurrence of many local conventions, each of
+which has duties of detail and special spheres of influence upon whose
+co-operation the final and grand success of the whole depends." A series of
+resolutions, calling for the formation of local conferences, "to meet at
+fixed periods, at convenient points, for the organization of missionary
+work," was presented by Dr. E.E. Hale. In order to carry into effect the
+intent of these resolutions, Charles Lowe devised a plan of organization,
+which declared that the object of the local conference "shall be to promote
+the religious life and mutual sympathy of the churches which unite in it,
+and to enable them to co-operate in missionary work, and in raising funds
+for various Christian purposes." The work of organizing such local
+missionary bodies was taken up at once, and proceeded rapidly. The first
+one was organized at Sheboygan, Wis., October 24, 1866; and nearly all the
+churches were brought within the limits of such conferences during the next
+two years.[23]
+
+In the local conferences, as in the National Conference, two purposes
+contended for expression that were not compatible with each other as
+practical incentives to action. The one looked to the uniting of all
+liberal individuals and denominations in a general organization, and the
+other aimed at the promotion of distinctly Unitarian interests. In the
+National Conference the denominational purpose controlled in shaping its
+permanent policy; but the other intent found expression in the addition of
+"Other Christian Churches" to the name, though in only the most limited way
+did such churches connect themselves with the Conference.[24] The local
+conferences made like provision for those not wishing to call themselves
+distinctly Unitarian. Such desire for co-operation, however, was in a large
+degree ineffective because of the fact that the primary aim in the calling
+into existence of such conferences was an increase in the funds of the
+Unitarian Association.
+
+[Sidenote: Fellowship and Fraternity.]
+
+Under the leadership of the National Conference the Unitarian body
+underwent material changes in its internal organization and in its
+relations to other denominations. Not only did it bring the churches to act
+together in the local conferences and in its own sessions, but it taught
+then to co-operate for the protection of their pulpits against adventurers
+and immoral men. Before it was organized, the excessive spirit of
+independency in the churches would permit of no exercise of control as to
+their selection of ministers to fill their pulpits. At the fourth session
+of the National Conference, held in New York in October, 1870, the council,
+through Dr. Bellows, suggested that the local conferences refuse to
+acknowledge as ministers men of proven vices and immoralities. To carry out
+the spirit of this suggestion, Dr. Hale presented a resolution, which was
+adopted, asking the local conferences to appoint committees of fellowship
+to examine and to act upon candidates for the ministry. In October, 1870,
+the New York and Hudson River Conference created such a committee "to
+examine the testimonials of such as desire to become members of the
+conference and enter the Unitarian ministry."
+
+The seventh session of the National Conference, held at Saratoga in 1876,
+provided for the appointment of a committee of fellowship, and the list of
+names of those appointed to its membership appears in the printed report;
+but there is no record that the committee ever organized. In 1878 the
+council reported at considerable length on the desirableness of
+establishing such a committee; and, again, a committee of fellowship was
+appointed "to take into immediate consideration the subject of the
+introduction into the Unitarian ministry of those persons who seek an
+entrance into that ministry from other churches." This committee consisted
+of twelve persons, three each for the eastern, middle, western, and Pacific
+states.
+
+At the session of 1880 the council of the Conference stated that it had
+created a substitute for the old ecclesiastical council, that was called
+together from the neighboring ministers and churches whenever a minister
+was to be inducted into office. That method was costly and had dropped into
+desuetude; but the new method of a committee of fellowship saved true
+Congregational methods and freed the churches from unworthy men. At this
+session the committee reported that it had adopted a uniform plan of
+action; but a resolution was passed recommending that each local conference
+establish its own committee of fellowship. Having once been instituted,
+however, the committee of the National Conference came slowly to be
+recognized as the fit means of introducing ministers into the Unitarian
+fellowship. Its authority has proven beneficent, and in no sense
+autocratic. It has shown that churches may co-operate in this way without
+intruding upon each others' rights, and that such a safeguarding of the
+pulpits of the denomination is essential to their dignity and morality. In
+1896 the Minnesota Conference went one step further, and provided for a
+committee of fellowship with power to exclude for "conduct unbecoming a
+minister."
+
+[Sidenote: Results of the Denominational Awakening.]
+
+The most marked feature in the history of Unitarianism in this country
+during the period from 1865 to 1880 was the organization of the National
+Conference as the legislative body of the denomination, and the adjustment
+to it of the American Unitarian Association as its executive instrument.
+Attendant upon this organizing movement was the termination of the
+theological discussion that had begun twenty years earlier between the
+conservatives and radicals, the supernaturalists and the idealists, or
+transcendentalists. In 1865 the large majority of Unitarians were
+conservatives and supernaturalists, but in 1880 a marked change in belief
+had come about, that had apparently given the victory to the more moderate
+of the radicals. The majority of Unitarians would no longer assert that
+miracles are necessary to faith in Christ and the acceptance of his
+teachings as worthy of credence.
+
+The change that came about during these years was largely due to the
+leadership of Henry W. Bellows. What he did was to keep actively alive in
+the Unitarian body its recognition of its Christian heritage, while at the
+same time he boldly refused assent to its being committed to any definite
+creed. He insisted upon the right of Unitarians to the Christian name, and
+to all that Christianity means as a vital spiritual force; but at the same
+time he refused to accept any limits for the Christian tradition and
+heritage, and left them free for growth. Sometimes apparently reactionary
+and conservative, he was at other times boldly radical and progressive. The
+cause of this seeming inconsistency was to be found in those gifts of
+imagination and emotion that made him a great preacher; but the
+inconsistency was more apparent than real, for in his leadership he
+manifested a wisdom and a capacity for directing the efforts of others that
+has never been surpassed in the history of religion and philanthropy in
+this country. He was both conservative and radical, supernaturalist and
+transcendentalist, a believer in miracles with a confident trust in the
+functions of reason. He saw both before and after, knew the worth of the
+past, and recognized that all the roots of our religious life are found
+therein, and yet courageously faced the future and its power to transform
+our faith by the aid of philosophy and science. Consequently, his
+sympathies were large, generous, and inclusive. Sometimes autocratic in
+word and action, his motives were catholic, and his intentions broad and
+appreciative. He gave direction to the newer Unitarianism in its efforts to
+organize and perpetuate itself. Had it been more flexible to his organizing
+skill, it would have grown more rapidly; but, with all its individualism
+and dislike of proselyting, it has more than doubled in strength since
+1865. He showed the Unitarian body that freedom is consistent with
+organized effort, and that personal liberty is no more essential than
+co-ordinated action. He may be justly described as the real organizer of
+the Unitarian body in this country.
+
+[1] Henry W. Bellows, in Monthly Journal, iv. 336: "These two years of
+    war have witnessed a more rapid progress in liberal opinions than the
+    whole previous century. The public mind has opened itself as it has
+    never been open before." In vi. 3, he said: "There are great and
+    striking changes going on. Men are breaking away from old opinions,
+    and there is a great work for us to do." This was said in December,
+    1864. William G. Eliot, Monthly Journal, iv. 349: "The war has proved
+    that our Unitarian faith works well in time of trial. No other church
+    has been so uniformly and thoroughly loyal, and no other church has
+    done more for the sick and dying." Many other similar words could be
+    quoted.
+
+[2] James Freeman Clarke reported for this committee at the Syracuse
+    session of 1866, and stated that its members had conferred with
+    Christians, Universalists, Methodists, Congregationalists, and
+    others. The committee made several suggestions as to what could be
+    done to promote general fellowship, and recommended that the title of
+    the National Conference be so changed as to permit persons of other
+    religions bodies to find a place within it, if they so desired. The
+    committee was reappointed; and at the third session of the Conference
+    it reported that it had visited the annual gatherings of the
+    Universalists, Methodists, and Free Religionists, and had been
+    cordially welcomed. They were received into the pulpits of different
+    denominations, they found everywhere a cordial spirit of fellowship
+    and a breaking down of sectarian barriers. At this session the
+    Conference expressed its desire "to cultivate the most friendly
+    relations with, and to encourage fraternal intercourse between, the
+    various liberal Christian bodies in this country." A committee of
+    three was appointed "to represent our fraternal sentiments and to
+    consider all questions which relate to mutual intercourse and
+    co-operation."
+
+    This committee reported through Edward E. Hale that it had been well
+    received at two Methodist conferences and at several state
+    conventions of the Universalists. Especially had it been welcomed by
+    the African Methodist Church, which was the beginning of cordial
+    relations between the two bodies for several years. The committee
+    reported, however, that "there are but few regularly organized bodies
+    in this country which, in their formal action, express much desire
+    for intercourse or co-operation with us as an organized branch of the
+    church." A resolution offered by the committee, expressing the desire
+    of the National Conference "to cultivate the most friendly relations
+    with all Christian churches and to encourage fraternal intercourse
+    between them," was adopted. The members of the committee appointed in
+    1870 attended the session of the American Board of Foreign Missions
+    in 1871; and they were received with courtesy, Athanase Coquerel
+    addressing the board as their representative. The committee reported
+    that "in every direction, from clergymen and laymen of different
+    Protestant churches, we have received informal expressions of what we
+    believe to be a very general desire that there might be a more formal
+    and public expression of the fellowship which undoubtedly really
+    exists between the different Protestant communions."
+
+    At the session of the National Conference held in 1874 the council
+    suggested the propriety of preparing a register of the free or
+    liberal churches of the world, and it enumerated the various bodies
+    that might be properly included; but no action was taken on this
+    recommendation. At this session an amendment to the by-laws, offered
+    by Dr. Hale, was adopted, providing for a fellowship committee with
+    other churches. This committee was not appointed, and the amendment
+    was not printed in its proper place in the report. Apparently, the
+    interest in efforts of this kind had exhausted itself, partly because
+    any active co-operation with the more conservative churches was
+    impossible, and partly because the growth of denominational feeling
+    directed the energies of the National Conference into other channels.
+
+[3] The sessions of the National Conference have been held as follows: 1,
+    New York, April 5-6, 1865; 2, Syracuse, October 10-11, 1866; 3, New
+    York, October 7-9, 1868; 4, New York, October 19-21, 1870; 5. Boston,
+    October 22-25, 1872; 6, Saratoga, September 15-18, 1874; 7, Saratoga,
+    September 12-15, 1876; 8, Saratoga, September 17-20, 1878; 9,
+    Saratoga, September 21-24, 1880; 10, Saratoga, September 18-22, 1882;
+    11, Saratoga, September 22-26, 1884; 12, Saratoga, September 20-24,
+    1886; 13, Philadelphia, October 28-31, 1889; 14, Saratoga, September
+    21-25, 1891; 15, Saratoga, September 24-27, 1894; 16, Washington,
+    October 21-24, 1895; 17, Saratoga, September 20-23, 1897; 18,
+    Washington, October 16-19 1899; 19, Saratoga, September 23, 1901. A
+    meeting was held in Chicago, in 1893, in connection with the
+    Parliament of Religions. The presidents of the National Conference
+    have been Hon. John A. Andrew, who served in 1866; Hon. Thomas D.
+    Eliot, whose term of service lasted to 1869; Judge Ebenezer R. Hoar,
+    from 1869 to 1878, and again from 1882 to 1884; Hon. John D. Long,
+    from 1878 to 1882; Judge Samuel F. Miller, 1884 to 1891; Mr. George
+    William Curtis, 1891 to 1894; and Hon. George F. Hoar, 1894 to 1901.
+    Hon. Carroll D. Wright was elected to the office in 1901. The
+    secretaries have been Rev. Edward Everett Hale, Rev. George
+    Batchelor, Rev. Russell N. Bellows, Rev. William H. Lyon, and Rev.
+    Daniel W. Morehouse. The first chairman of the council was Rev. Henry
+    W. Bellows, D.D., who served to 1872, and again from 1876 to 1878;
+    Professor Charles Carroll Everett, D.D., from 1874 to 1876; Rev.
+    Edward Everett Hale, D.D., from 1880 to 1882, and from 1891 to 1894;
+    Rev. James De Normandie, D.D., from 1884 to 1889; Rev. Brooke
+    Herford, D.D., from 1889 to 1891; Rev. George Batchelor, from 1894 to
+    1895; Rev. Minot J. Savage, D.D., from 1895 to 1899; and Rev. Howard
+    N. Brown, from the later year to 1901, when Rev. Thomas R. Slicer was
+    elected.
+
+[4] A.A. Low, a member of the first Unitarian congregation in Brooklyn,
+    N.Y.
+
+[5] Lecture delivered in Cooper Institute, New York, on Unitarian Views
+    of Christ, published in The Christian Examiner, November, 1866, xxxi,
+    310.
+
+[6] Works, iv. 110.
+
+[7] The Christian Examiner, March-April, 1826, iii. 136.
+
+[8] First Series of Tracts of A.U.A. No. 87.
+
+[9] First Series of A.U.A. Tracts, No. 105, April, 1836.
+
+[10] Forty-fifth Annual Report of the American Unitarian Association, 11,
+     14.
+
+[11] This correspondence was published in full in The Christian Register
+     for December 13 and 20, 1873, Mr. Potter's letter protesting against
+     the action of the Association being printed on the later date.
+
+[12] Memoir of Charles Lowe, 454, 458.
+
+[13] Freedom and Fellowship in Religion, 261.
+
+[14] Freedom and Fellowship in Religion, 24.
+
+[15] Ibid., 42.
+
+[16] Ibid., 216.
+
+[17] Fifty Affirmations, 47.
+
+[18] Report of the Second Meeting of the National Conference, 20.
+
+[19] Memoir of Charles H. Brigham, with Sermons and Lectures.
+
+[20] Christian Register. March 15, 1900, lxxxix. 300; Twenty-fifth
+     Anniversary of the Worcester Conference, 7, address by Dr. Hale. See
+     Memoir of Charles Lowe, 372.
+
+[21] Church Exchange, May, 1899, vi. 59.
+
+[22] This association of ministers was organized August 17, 1819, and was
+     orthodox, but found itself Unitarian when the denominational change
+     took place.
+
+[23] See Appendix for a complete list of the local conferences and the
+     dates of their organization.
+
+[24] In a small number of instances such churches did join the Conference,
+     but the number was too small to be in any degree significant.
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+
+GROWTH OF DENOMINATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS.
+
+The period from 1880 to the present time is marked by a growing
+denominational unity. Gradually Unitarians have come to the acceptance of
+their fellowship as a religious body, and to a recognition of their
+distinct mission. The controversy between the conservatives and the
+radicals was transferred to the west in 1886, and continued to have at its
+basis the problem of the relation of the individual to religious
+institutions and traditions. The conservative party maintained that
+Unitarians are Christians, and gave recognition to that continuity of human
+development by which every generation is connected with and draws its life
+from those which precede it, and is consciously dependent upon them. On the
+other hand, the radical party was not willing to accept traditions and
+institutions as having a binding authority over individuals. Some of them
+were reluctant to call themselves Christians, not because they rejected the
+more important of the Christian beliefs, but because they were not willing
+to bind any individual by the action of his fellows. It was their claim
+that religion best serves its own ends when it is free to act upon the
+individual without compulsion of any kind from others, and that its
+attractions should be without any bias of external authority.
+
+[Sidenote: "The Western Issue."]
+
+At the meeting of the Western Conference held in Cleveland in 1882,
+arrangements were made looking to its incorporation, and its object was
+defined to be "the transaction of business pertaining to the general
+interests of the societies connected with the Conference, and the promotion
+of rational religion." It was voted that the motto on the conference seal
+should be "Freedom, Fellowship, and Character in Religion," which was the
+same as that of the Free Religious Association, with the addition of the
+word "character." These results were reached after much discussion, and by
+the way of compromise. The issues thus raised were brought forward again at
+St. Louis, in 1885, when Rev. J.T. Sunderland, the secretary and missionary
+of the conference, deplored the growing spirit of agnosticism and
+scepticism in the Unitarian churches of the west. His report caused a
+division of opinion in the conference; and in the controversy that ensued
+the conservatives were represented by The Unitarian, edited by Rev. Brooke
+Herford and Rev. J.T. Sunderland, and the radicals by Unity, edited by Rev.
+J.Ll. Jones and Rev. W.C. Gannett.
+
+At the Western Conference meeting of 1886, held in Cincinnati, the
+controversy found full expression. The session was preceded a few days
+before by the publication of a pamphlet on The Western Issue from the pen
+of Mr. Sunderland, in which he contended for the theistic and Christian
+character of the conference. A resolution offered by Rev. Oscar Clute,
+"that the primary object of this Conference is to diffuse the knowledge and
+promote the interests of pure Christianity," was rejected by a considerable
+majority. Another, offered by Mr. Sunderland--"that, while rejecting all
+creeds and creed limitations, the Conference hereby expresses its purpose
+as a body to be the promotion of a religion of love to God and love to
+man"--was also rejected. That presented by William C. Gannett was carried
+by a majority of thirty-four to ten, and declared that
+
+  the Western Unitarian Conference conditions its fellowship on no
+  dogmatic tests, but welcomes all who wish to join it to establish
+  truth, righteousness, and love in the world.
+
+The result was a pronounced division between the two parties within the
+conference; and a considerable number of churches, including some of the
+oldest and strongest, withdrew from co-operation in the work of the
+Conference. At the session of 1887, held in All Souls' Church, Chicago, an
+effort was made to bring about a reconciliation; but this was not
+completely secured.[1] A resolution was carried, however, by a majority
+of fifty-nine to three, reaffirming Mr. Gannett's, declaration adopted at
+Cincinnati, but also accepting a statement in regard to fellowship and
+doctrines, which was called The Things Most Commonly Believed To-day among
+Us, and read as follows:--
+
+  In all matters of church government we are strict Congregationalists.
+  We have no creed in the usual sense; that is, articles of doctrinal
+  belief which bind our churches and fix the conditions of our
+  fellowship. Character has always been to us the supreme matter. We have
+  doctrinal beliefs, and for the most part hold such beliefs in common;
+  but above all doctrines we emphasize the principles of freedom,
+  fellowship, and character in religion. These principles make our
+  all-sufficient test of fellowship. All names that divide religion are
+  to us of little consequence compared with religion itself. Whoever
+  loves truth and loves the good is, in a broad sense, of our religious
+  fellowship; whoever loves the one or lives the other better than
+  ourselves is our teacher, whatever church or age he may belong to. So
+  our church is wide, our teachers many, and our holy writings large.
+
+  With a few exceptions we may be called Christian Theists: Theists as
+  worshipping the One-in-All, and naming that One, God our Father;
+  Christian, because revering Jesus as the highest of the historic
+  prophets of religion; these names, as names, receiving more stress in
+  our older than in our younger churches. The general faith is hinted
+  well in words which several of our churches have adopted for their
+  covenant: "In the freedom of the truth, and in the spirit of Jesus
+  Christ, we unite for the worship of God and the service of man." It is
+  hinted in such words as these: "Unitarianism is a religion of love to
+  God and love to man." "It is that free and progressive development of
+  historic Christianity which aspires to be synonymous with universal
+  ethics and universal religion." But because we have no creed which we
+  impose as test of fellowship, specific statements of belief abound
+  among us, always somewhat differing, always largely agreeing. One such
+  we offer here:--
+
+    We believe that to love the Good and live the Good is the supreme
+    thing in religion. We hold reason and conscience to be final
+    authorities in matters of religious belief. We honor the Bible and
+    all inspiring scriptures, old and new. We revere Jesus and all holy
+    souls that have taught men truth and righteousness and love, as
+    prophets of religion. We believe in the growing nobility of man. We
+    trust the unfolding universe as beautiful, beneficent, unchanging
+    Order; to know this order is truth; to obey it is right and liberty
+    and stronger life. We believe that good and evil inevitably carry
+    their own recompense, no good things being failure, and no evil
+    things success; that heaven and hell are states of being; that no
+    evil can befall the good man in either life or death; that all
+    things work together for the victory of Good. We believe that we
+    ought to join hands and work to make the good things better and the
+    worst good, counting nothing good for self that is not good for
+    all. We believe that this self-forgetting, loyal life awakes in man
+    the sense of union, here and now, with things eternal--the sense of
+    deathlessness; and this is to us an earnest of the life to come. We
+    worship One-in-All,--that Life whence suns and stars derive their
+    orbits and the soul of man its Ought,--that Light which lighteth
+    every man that cometh into the world, giving us power to become the
+    sons of God,--that Love with whom our souls commune. This One we
+    name the Eternal God, our Father.
+
+This action not satisfying the remonstrants, the controversy went on with
+considerable vigor for three or four years. Both parties to it were
+characteristically Unitarian in their attitude and in their demands. Both
+sought the truth with an attempt at unbiassed judgment; and neither wished
+to disfellowship the other, or to put any restrictions upon its expression
+of its opinions. Much heat was engendered by the controversy, but light was
+desire by both parties with sincere purpose. The conflict was finally
+brought to an end by the action of the National Conference at its session
+of 1894, held at Saratoga, though this result had been practically reached
+in 1892. A committee on the revision of the constitution had been appointed
+by the council of the session of 1891; and this committee reported the
+following preamble, which was unanimously adopted as a substitute for the
+preamble of 1865 and 1868:--
+
+  The Conference of Unitarian and other Christian Churches was formed in
+  the year 1865, with the purpose of strengthening the churches and
+  societies which should unite in it for more and better work for the
+  kingdom of God. These churches accept the religion of Jesus, holding,
+  in accordance with his teaching, that practical religion is summed up
+  in love to God and love to man. The Conference recognizes the fact that
+  its constituency is Congregational in tradition and polity. Therefore,
+  it declares that nothing in this constitution is to be construed as an
+  authoritative test; and we cordially invite to our working fellowship
+  any who, while differing from us in belief, are in general sympathy
+  with our spirit and our practical aims.
+
+This preamble to the new constitution proved to be so far acceptable to
+both parties in the Western Conference, as well as to their sympathizers
+elsewhere, that harmony was restored throughout the denomination. While the
+Unitarian body thus retained its use of the Christian name and its
+insistence upon loyalty to the teachings of Jesus, yet it put aside every
+form of dogmatic test and of creedal statement. Its fellowship was made
+very broad in its character, and all were invited to join it who so
+desired.
+
+[Sidenote: Fellowship with Universalists.]
+
+At the annual meeting of the Unitarian Association in 1899 resolutions were
+passed looking to joint action between Unitarians and Universalists with
+reference to furthering their common interests. A committee was appointed
+to confer with a similar committee of the Universalist General Convention
+for the purpose of considering "plans of closer co-operation, devise ways
+and means for more efficient usefulness." In October this proposal was
+accepted by the General Convention, and a committee appointed. At the
+annual meeting of the Unitarian Association in 1900 the report of the
+joint committee was presented, in which it was declared that "closer
+co-operation is desirable and practicable"; but the committee expressed the
+wish to go on record "as not desiring nor expecting to disturb in any way
+the separate organic autonomy of the two denominations. We seek
+co-operation, not consolidation, unity, non union." The committee
+recommended that it be given authority to consider the cases in which the
+two denominations are jointly interested, such as opportunities of
+instituting churches or missions in new fields, the circulation of tracts
+and books, the holding of joint meetings of ministers and churches, or
+other efforts to promote intellectual agreements and deep faiths of the
+heart, and to recommend the appropriate action to the proper organizations.
+At the next sessions of the Unitarian Association and of the Universalist
+General Convention these recommendations were accepted, and permanent
+members of the joint committee were appointed. This committee has entered
+upon its duties, and important results may be anticipated in the promotion
+of harmony and co-operation.
+
+[Sidenote: Officers of the American Unitarian Association.]
+
+Mr. Henry P. Kidder continued as the president of the Unitarian Association
+until the annual meeting of 1886. He was then succeeded by Hon. George D.
+Robinson, who held the office for only one year. He had been in both houses
+of the Massachusetts legislature, in the national House from 1877 to 1883,
+and was governor of Massachusetts from 1884 to 1886. His successor was Hon.
+George S. Hale, from 1887 to 1895, who was a distinguished lawyer, and was
+greatly interested in charities and reforms. Hon. John D. Long was the
+president from 1895 to 1897. He had been in the lower house of the
+Massachusetts legislature, was lieutenant governor in 1879, governor in
+1880-82, in the national House from 1883 to 1889, and from 1897 to 1902 was
+Secretary of the Navy. Hon. Carroll D. Wright held the office from 1897 to
+1900. He was in the Massachusetts Senate in 1871 and 1872, was chief of the
+Massachusetts bureau of statistics from 1873 to 1888, superintendent of the
+United States census in 1880, has been commissioner of the national Bureau
+of Labor since 1885, and in 1902 became president of Clark College at
+Worcester. At the annual meeting of 1900 it was thought best to make a
+change in the nature of the presidency, in order that the head of the
+Association might become its chief executive officer. In that way it was
+sought to add dignity and efficiency to the position of the executive
+officer, as well as to meet the greatly increased work of the Association
+by this addition to its salaried force. The secretary, Rev. Samuel A.
+Eliot, was elected to the presidency.
+
+In 1881 Rev. Grindall Reynolds became the secretary of the Association. He
+had previously held pastorates in Jamaica Plain and Concord. He had rare
+executive abilities, was gifted with sound common sense and a judicial
+temper; and he had a most efficient business capacity. Under his leadership
+the growth of the Unitarian denomination was more rapid than it had been at
+any earlier period; and this was largely due to his zeal, energy, and
+wisdom.
+
+In December, 1894, Rev. George Batchelor became the secretary, and he
+continued in office until November, 1897, when he became the editor of The
+Christian Register. He had previously held pastorates in Salem, Chicago,
+and Lowell. He was succeeded, January 1, 1898, by Rev. Samuel A. Eliot, who
+had been settled over churches in Denver and Brooklyn, and who became the
+president of the Association in 1900. Rev. Charles E. St. John, who had
+been settled in Northampton and Pittsburg, became the secretary at the
+annual meeting of 1900.
+
+[Sidenote: The American Unitarian Association as a Representative Body.]
+
+In the report of the council of the National Conference at the session of
+1880, Dr. Bellows pointed out the fact that the American Unitarian
+Association was "not a union of churches, but an association of individuals
+belonging to Unitarian churches, who became members of it and entitled to
+vote by signing its constitution and the annual payment of one dollar. This
+Association never had, and has not now, any explicit relation to our
+churches as churches, but only to such individuals as choose to become
+voluntary subscribers to its funds, and members by signing its
+constitution, and to such churches as choose to employ its services."
+
+This statement led to the appointment of a committee "to consider how the
+National Conference and the American Unitarian Association can more
+effectually co-operate without sacrifice of the advantages belonging to
+either." The committee reported in 1882 in favor of so changing the charter
+of the Association that a church might become a member. At the annual
+meeting of the Association in 1884, after a prolonged discussion, its
+by-laws were so amended that, while the life membership was retained, the
+sum creating it was raised from $30 to $50; and churches were given
+representation on the condition of regular yearly contributions to its
+treasury, two of such contributions being necessary to establish a church
+in this right. Since that time the delegates from churches have
+considerably outnumbered the life members voting at the annual meetings.
+This has practically given the churches the controlling voice in the
+activities of the Association.
+
+The giving a representative character to the Association had the effect of
+increasing the contributions made to its support by the churches. Under the
+leadership of Dr. Bellows, at the National Conference in 1884, there began
+a movement looking to the establishment of a conference in every state and
+the employment of a missionary by every such conference. This plan has not
+yet been fully carried out; but in 1885 and the following years missionary
+superintendents were appointed by the Association for five general sections
+of the country, and, with some variations, this, system has continued in
+operation to the present time.[2]
+
+[Sidenote: The Church Building Loan Fund.]
+
+The work of building churches was greatly facilitated by the establishment,
+in 1884, of a Church Building Loan Fund. The proposition to create such a
+fund was first brought forward by the finance committee at a meeting of the
+directors of the Unitarian Association on February 11, 1884. At the March
+meeting a committee was appointed to mature plans; and at the meeting of
+the National Conference in September, held at Saratoga, a resolution was
+passed asking the Association to set apart $25,000 for this purpose, and
+pledging the Conference to add $20,000 to this sum. At the November meeting
+of the directors of the Association the organization of the fund was
+completed, a board of trustees was created, and the sum of $43,000 was
+reported as secured. The fund was steadily increased by contributions from
+the churches and by gifts and legacies until in 1900 it amounted to
+$142,820.92. Up to May, 1900, an aggregate sum of $294,310 had been
+disbursed, in one hundred loans to ninety societies, chiefly to aid in the
+erection of new church edifices.[3]
+
+[Sidenote: The Unitarian Building in Boston.]
+
+For several years after the organization of the American Unitarian
+Association the records give no indication of the place of meeting of the
+directors. During the latter part of 1825, and in 1826, David Reed was the
+general agent of the Association; and his place of business was at 81
+Washington Street. It is probable that the directors met at the study of
+the secretary or at the place of business of the agent. In December, 1826,
+the firm of Bowles & Dearborn, booksellers, became the agents, their store
+being first at 72 and then at 50 Washington Street. Here all Unitarian
+publications were kept on sale, the name of "general repositary" being
+given to their stock of books, tracts, periodicals, and other publications
+of a liberal character. In 1829 the agent was Leonard C. Bowles, evidently
+a continuation of Bowles & Dearborn.
+
+In 1830 the depositary was removed to 135 Washington Street, and was under
+the management of the firm of Gray & Bowen, who were paid $144.44 for their
+services. In 1831 the place of business of this firm was 141 Washington
+Street; and the sum it received from the Association was $200, which was
+the next year increased to $300. Leonard C. Bowles, located at 147
+Washington Street, again became the agent in 1836. In 1837 James Munroe &
+Co. appear as the publishers of the annual report, but they are not
+mentioned as agents or as having charge of the repositary. The sum of $150
+was paid in that year for the rent of a room for the general secretary,
+Rev. Charles Briggs; and the location of the room is probably indicated by
+the record that in 1838 Munroe & Co. were paid $133.34 for rent of room and
+clerk hire, their store being at 134 Washington Street. Here the
+headquarters of the Association were at last established, for they
+continued in this place until 1846. In 1839 the rental paid was $300, and
+for the six succeeding years it was $200. Surely, these were the days of
+small things; but here the Association carried on such activities as it had
+in hand, and the Unitarian ministers met for conversation and consultation.
+
+In 1846 Crosby, Nichols & Co. became the agents of the Association, first
+at 118 and then at 111 Washington Street. This firm brought out several
+Unitarian books, and issued The Christian Examiner and other Unitarian
+periodicals. For a number of years they were intimately associated with
+Unitarian interests, and the theological and literary traditions of the
+time connect them with many of the leading men and movements of Boston. In
+the rear of their store the Association had its office, its meeting-place
+for the directors and other officers, as well as for the Monday gatherings
+of ministers.
+
+After these many wanderings from the rear of one bookstore to another the
+Association at last secured an abode of its own. On March 9, 1854, rooms
+for the use of the Association were opened at 21 Bromfield Street. On this
+occasion a small company came together, and listened to an address by Dr.
+Samuel K. Lothrop, the president of the Association. Another change was
+made in October, 1859, when Walker, Wise & Co. undertook the book-selling,
+and publishing work of the Association at 21 Bromfield Street.
+
+In the year 1865 there came to the Association an opportunity for securing
+a building of its own. The sum of $16,000 was paid for a house at 26
+Chauncy Street, which was occupied in the spring of 1866. The enlarged
+activities of the Association at this time here found the housing they
+needed. Affiliated organizations also found a home in this building,
+especially the Sunday School Society, the Christian Register Association,
+and The Monthly Religious Magazine.
+
+The theatre meetings, begun in Boston in 1866, having suggested the need of
+a larger denominational building, The Monthly Journal of November, 1867,
+proposed the erection of a building with a spacious hall for these great
+popular meetings, smaller rooms for social gatherings, offices for the
+Association and other affiliated societies, and an attractive bookstore.
+"In short, we would have it comprise all that might properly belong to a
+denominational headquarters or home. We would have it in a convenient and
+conspicuous situation, and every way worthy of our position." This dream of
+Mr. Lowe's he brought forward again in his annual report of 1870, when he
+said: "The building now occupied by the Association has become wholly
+inadequate to its uses; and steps were taken more than a year ago by its
+friends in Boston towards providing more suitable accommodations, and at
+the same time providing in connection with it for such other uses as might
+make the building to be erected worthy to be the headquarters of the
+denomination in the city which gave it birth." Mr. Shippen called attention
+to the needs of the Association in his report of 1872, saying that the
+project of a large hall had been abandoned, but that there was urgent
+demand for a building suited to the business and social needs of the
+denomination in Boston.
+
+The great fire of November, 1872, brought this project to a sudden
+termination. The Chauncy Street building was for many hours in danger of
+being burned, out it was finally saved. Its market value was much increased
+by the fire, however; and in February, 1873, it was sold for $37,000.
+Purchase was soon made, at a cost of $30,000, of the estate at 7 Tremont
+Place, belonging to Hon. Albert Fearing, who had been active in the work of
+the Association and prominent in the Unitarian circles of Boston. This
+building, entered by the Association in May, 1873, was somewhat larger than
+its predecessor and in some respects better suited to the needs of the
+Association; yet the secretary, at the annual meeting held in the same
+month, called for the more convenient building, which should serve "as a
+worthy centre in this city for the various charitable and missionary
+activities of our faith."[4]
+
+In his report of 1880 Mr. Shippen again presented his demand for a suitable
+home for the Association and its kindred organizations. This appeal was
+renewed in the following year by Mr. Reynolds, who urged "the need of a
+denominational house in Boston, which should be commodious, accessible,
+easily found, and where all our charities and all our works should find a
+home." "Very fitting it is," he added, "that such a house should be named
+after him who, by his personal influence in life and by the power of his
+written word after his death, has been the mightiest single force for the
+diffusion of rational Christianity."
+
+In January, 1882, the Unitarian Club of Boston was organized; and it soon
+after took up the task of erecting the desired building. The initiative was
+taken at a meeting of the club held December 13, 1882, when Mr. Henry P.
+Kidder offered to head a subscription for this purpose with the sum of
+$10,000. The proposal was received with much enthusiasm, and a committee
+was appointed, consisting of Henry P. Kidder, Charles Faulkner, Charles W.
+Eliot, William Endicott, Jr., Francis H. Brown, M.D., Dr. John Cordner,
+Arthur T. Lyman, Henry Grew, Thomas Gaffield, and Rev. Grindall Reynolds,
+to whom authority was given to raise funds, purchase a lot, and erect a
+building. It was arranged by this committee that the Association should
+contribute $50,000 from the sale of its Tremont Place building, and that
+the club should raise $150,000. Subscriptions were opened February 9, 1883;
+and in November over $154,000 had been secured. A suitable lot was
+purchased at the corner of Beacon and Bowdoin Streets, and the erection of
+the building was begun in 1884. A prolonged labor strike delayed the
+completion of the building, so that the service of its dedication, which
+had been arranged for the evening of May 25, 1886, was held in Tremont
+Temple. The presiding officer on that occasion was George William Curtis;
+and addresses were made by Drs. Frederic H. Hedge, Andrew P. Peabody, and
+Horatio Stebbins. In July the building was occupied by the Association.
+"The denominational house is but brick and stone," said Mr. Reynolds in his
+report of 1886; "but it is brick and stone which testify to the new hope,
+vigor, life, which have been coming in these later years into our body, and
+without which it could not have been reared. It is brick and stone which
+are the pledges of a noble future, which stimulate to good work, and
+furnish the means of doing it."[5]
+
+[Sidenote: Growth of the Devotional Spirit.]
+
+The last twenty years of the nineteenth century saw an increased use of the
+simpler Christian rites in Unitarian churches. In that time a distinct
+advance was made in the acceptableness of the communion service, and
+probably in the number of those willing to join in its observance. The
+abandonment of its mystical features and its interpretation as a simple
+memorial service, that would help to cherish loved ones gone hence, and the
+saintly and heroic of all ages, as well as the one great leader of the
+Christian body, has given it for Unitarians a new spiritual effectiveness.
+The same causes have led to the adoption of the rite of confirmation in a
+considerable number of churches. Gradually the idea has grown that what
+Rev. Sylvester Judd called "the birthright church" is the true one, and
+that it is desirable that all children should be religiously trained, and
+admitted to the church at the age of adolescence. Mr. Judd gave noble
+utterance to this conception of a church in a series of sermons published
+after his death,[6] as well as in a sermon prepared for the Thursday
+lecture in Boston.[7] The same idea was elaborated by Rev. Cyrus A.
+Bartol in his Church and Congregation: A Plea for their Unity,[8] wherein
+he contended for the union of church and parish, the opening of the
+communion to all as a rite accepted by the whole congregation, and not by a
+few church members, and the education of children as constituent members of
+the church from birth.
+
+It was not until much later, however, that the rite of confirmation came
+into use,[9] largely because of the interpretations of the purposes and
+methods of Christian nurture presented by Bushnell, Bartol, and Judd. This
+rite could have meaning only as the expression of social responsibility on
+the part of parents and church alike, that true religion is not merely a
+question of individual opinion, but that there is high worth in those
+spiritual forces that are carried forward from generation to generation,
+and must descend from parent to child if they have effective power. In a
+word, the use of the confirmation rite is an abandonment of extreme
+individualism, and is an acceptance of the socialistic conception of
+spiritual development.[10] This is distinctly a return to the conception
+of a church maintained by Solomon Stoddard at the beginning of the
+eighteenth century, and to that broader Congregationalism he desired to see
+established throughout New England. It was also theoretically that of the
+Puritan founders of New England, who maintained that all children Of church
+members were also members of the church, but who inconsistently insisted
+upon a supernatural conversion in order to full membership. It is even more
+positively an acceptance of the theory of Christian nurture held by the
+Catholic and the Episcopal churches. That theory is based on the social
+conception of the church, that it is an organic body, and that every child
+is born into it and is to be trained as a member by nature and by right.
+
+There has also been a marked change in the forms of Sunday worship,
+especially in the general adoption of responsive readings or more elaborate
+rituals. The tendency has been away from the bare and unattractive service
+of the Puritan churches, which was the acme of individualism in worship,
+towards the more social conception that brings the whole congregation to
+join in the act and in the spirit of devotion. This social conception of
+worship had its first distinct expression in a Unitarian church when James
+Freeman Clarke organized the Church of the Disciples, in 1843.[11] His
+example was a potent force in introducing into many churches a richer and
+more expressive form of worship. Another influence was that of Samuel
+Longfellow, who became the minister of the Second Unitarian Church in
+Brooklyn, in 1853. He soon after introduced vesper services in place of the
+second sermon in the afternoon, making them largely devotional in their
+character. "His own taste and deep feeling were largely a condition of the
+full success of the vespers," says his biographer, "which were seldom
+elsewhere so impressive or seemed so genuine as a devotional act. They
+needed, for their perfect effect, the influence of a leader with whom
+worship was an habitual mental attitude, and who, combined with the
+instinct of religion the art of a poet and of a musician."[12] The form of
+service thus initiated was adopted in many other churches, and slowly had
+its influence in giving greater beauty and spiritual expressiveness to
+worship in Unitarian churches.
+
+About 1885 the tendency to adopt a more social and a more aesthetic form of
+worship came to assert itself more distinctly. To its furtherance Rev.
+Howard N. Brown gave, perhaps, greater emphasis than any other person; but
+there were others who took an active part in the movement. The old
+Congregational demand for simplicity, however, was very great; and there
+was strong feeling against anything like ritualism. The use of some kind of
+liturgy became quite general in the face of this objection, and a
+considerable number of books of a semi-ritual character were published. The
+most elaborate work of this nature was compiled by a committee appointed by
+the Unitarian Association, and published by it in 1891. What is to be
+recognized in this tendency is not the more general use of liturgies,
+however simple or however elaborate, but the growth in Unitarian churches
+of the worshipping spirit. With the development of a rational theology
+there has been a corresponding evolution of a simple but earnest attitude
+of devotion.
+
+The devotional spirit of Unitarians, however, has found its most emphatic
+and beautiful expression in religious hymns and poems. The older Unitarian
+piety found voice in the hymns of the younger Henry Ware, Norton, Pierpont,
+Frothingham, Peabody, Lunt, Bryant, and many others. It was rational and
+yet Christian, simple in sentiment and yet it found in the New Testament
+traditions its themes and its symbolisms. Then followed the older
+transcendentalists, who sought in the inward life and the soul's oneness
+with God the chief motives to spiritual expression. The hymns and the
+religious poems of Furness, Hedge, Longfellow, Johnson, Clarke, Very,
+Brooks, and Miss Scudder,[13] have an interior and spiritual quality
+seldom found in devotional poetry. They are not the mere utterances of
+conventional sentiments or the repetition of ecclesiastical symbolisms, but
+the voicing of deep inward experiences that reveal and interpret the true
+life of the soul. Of the same character are the hymns and religious poems
+of Gannett, Hosmer, and Chadwick, who have but accentuated the tendencies
+of their predecessors. It is the more radical theology that has voiced
+itself in the religious songs of these men, but with a mystical or
+spiritual insight that fits them to the needs of all devout, worshippers.
+It is these genuinely poetical interpretations of the spiritual life that
+most often claim utterance in song on the part of Unitarian congregations.
+A body of worshippers that can produce such a hymnology must possess a
+large measure of genuine piety and devotion.
+
+[Sidenote: The Seventy-fifth Anniversary.]
+
+Many of the tendencies of the Unitarian movement found utterance on the
+occasion of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the American Unitarian
+Association. The meetings were held in Tremont Temple, May 22, 1900; and
+the attendance was large and enthusiastic, many persons coming from distant
+parts of the country. This meeting brought into full expression the
+denominational consciousness, and showed the harmony that had been secured
+as the result of the controversies of many years. As never before, it was
+realized that the Unitarian body has a distinct mission, that it has
+organic and vital power, and that its individual members are united by a
+common faith for the promotion of the interests of a rational and
+humanitarian religion.
+
+This was also a notable occasion because it brought together
+representatives from nearly all the countries in which Unitarianism exists
+in an organized form, thus clearly indicating that it is a cosmopolitan
+movement, and not one of merely local significance. At the morning session
+addresses were made by the representatives from Hungary, Great Britain,
+Germany, Belgium, India, and Japan. In the afternoon addresses were
+delivered by the missionaries of the Association. Other meetings of much
+interest were held during the week, that were of value as interpretations
+of the past of Unitarianism in this country.
+
+During this anniversary week, on May 26, 1900, upon the suggestion of Rev.
+S.A. Eliot, there was organized The International Council of Unitarian and
+Other Liberal Religious Thinkers and Workers, its object being "to open
+communication with those in all lands who are striving to unite pure
+religion and perfect liberty, and to increase fellowship and co-operation
+among them." Professor J. Estlin Carpenter, of Oxford, England, was
+selected as the president, and Rev. Charles W. Wendte, who shortly after
+became the minister of the Parker Memorial in Boston, was made the
+secretary. The executive committee included representatives from the United
+States, Great Britain, Japan, Hungary, Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, and
+Switzerland. The first annual meeting was held in London, May 30 and 31,
+1901, with delegates present from the above-named countries, as well as
+from Holland, Norway, India, Denmark, Australia, and Canada.[14]
+
+The anniversary exercises, as well as the organization of the International
+Council, gave concrete emphasis to the growing interest in Unitarian ideas
+and principles in many parts of the world. They gave the sense of a large
+fellowship, and kindled new enthusiasm. As interpreted by these meetings,
+the Unitarian name has largely ceased to be one of merely theological
+signification, and has come to mean "an endeavor to unite for common and
+unselfish endeavors all believers in pure religion and perfect
+liberty."[15]
+
+[1] The Unitarian, June, 1887, II. 156. For historical accounts of this
+    controversy see Mrs. S.C.Ll. Jones's Western Unitarian Conference:
+    Its Work and its Mission, Unity Mission Tract, No. 38; W.C. Gannett's
+    The Flowering of Christianity, Lesson XII., Part IV.; and The
+    Unitarian, II. and III. A Western Unitarian Association was organized
+    in Chicago, June 21, 1886. Some of the older and leading churches
+    were connected with it, including those at Meadville, Ann Arbor,
+    Louisville, Shelbyville, Church of the Messiah and Unity in Chicago,
+    Church of the Messiah in St. Louis, Keokuk, and others. Hon. George
+    W. McCrary was elected the president, and Mrs. Jonathan Slade the
+    recording secretary. In October, 1887, Rev. George Batchelor became
+    the Western agent of the American Unitarian Association. He was
+    succeeded the next year by Rev. George W. Cutter. In September, 1890,
+    Rev. T.B. Forbush was made the Western superintendent of the American
+    Unitarian Association, with headquarters in Chicago; and he held this
+    position until 1896. During the period covered by these dates Rev.
+    J.R. Effinger was the general missionary of the Western Unitarian
+    Conference, and he was succeeded by Rev. F.L. Hosmer and Rev. A.W.
+    Gould. In 1896 the Western churches were reunited in the Western
+    Conference, and its secretary has been the superintendent of the
+    American Unitarian Association. As defining the position of the
+    American Unitarian Association during this period of controversy, it
+    may be recalled that in June, 1886, the directors adopted a
+    resolution, in which they said they "would regard it as a subversion
+    of the purpose for which its funds have been contributed, as well as
+    of the principles cherished by its officers, to give assistance to
+    any church or organization which does not rest emphatically on the
+    Christian basis."
+
+[2] New England, Middle States and Canada, Western States, Southern
+    States, and Pacific Coast.
+
+[3] These loans are made without interest under established conditions,
+    one of which is that they must be repaid in ten annual instalments.
+
+[4] Annual Report of 1873, 7.
+
+[5] The building seemed to be ample, when it was first occupied, for any
+    growth that was likely to be made for many years to come. At the
+    present time, only sixteen years later, it is crowded; and an
+    extension is urgently demanded. It does not now afford room for the
+    work required, and much of that work is done at a considerable
+    disadvantage because of the want of room. The promise for the
+    immediate future is that much more room will be required in order to
+    facilitate the growing work of the Association.
+
+[6] The Church: in a Series of Sermons, Boston, 1857.
+
+[7] The Birthright Church: A Discourse, printed for the Association of
+    the Unitarian Church of Maine, Augusta, 1854. Mr. Judd's conception
+    of the church as a social organism was shown in the name given to the
+    organization formed under his leadership in 1852, called The
+    Association of the Unitarian Church in Maine. In the preamble to the
+    constitution he wrote: "We, the Unitarian Christians of Maine,
+    ourselves, and our posterity are a Church.... We are a church, not of
+    creeds, but of the Bible; not of sect, but of humanity; seeking not
+    uniformity of dogma, but communion in the religious life. We embrace
+    in our fellowship all who will be in fellowship with us." In defining
+    a local church, he says: "These Christians, with their families,
+    uniting for religious worship, instruction, growth, and culture,
+    having the ordinances and a pastor, constitute a parochial church."
+
+[8] Boston, 1858.
+
+[9] Probably Dr. William G. Eliot, of St. Louis, was the first Unitarian
+    minister to make a systematic use of this rite. He prepared a brief
+    manual for use in his church, the preface to which bears date of
+    December 6, 1868. Seth C. Beach, while minister in Dedham, printed a
+    paper on the subject in the Unitarian Review, January, 1886. He held
+    a confirmation service in the Dedham church, April 25, 1886. At a
+    meeting of the Western Sunday School Society, held in Cincinnati, May
+    12, 1889, Rev. John C. Learned, read a paper on The Sacrament of
+    Confirmation.
+
+[10] The views of Bartol and Judd are appropriate to a state church,
+     wherein they first found expression; and their motive is always
+     distinctly social.
+
+[11] Life of J.F. Clarke, by E.E. Hale, 145
+
+[12] Memoir of Samuel Longfellow, by Joseph May, 193.
+
+[13] Miss Scudder's best hymns were all written while she was a Unitarian.
+     Unitarian hymnology has been nobly treated by Dr. Alfred P. Putnam,
+     in his Singers and Songs of the Liberal Faith, Boston, 1875. It is
+     understood that he is preparing a second volume. The tendency to a
+     deeper recognition of the spirit of worship has found fitting
+     expression in The Spiritual Life: Studies of Devotion and Worship,
+     George H. Ellis, 1898.
+
+[14] The addresses and papers of this meeting were published under the
+     title of Liberal Religious Thought at the Beginning of the Twentieth
+     Century, London, 1901. They give the most complete account yet
+     published of the various liberal movements in many parts of the
+     world, and the book is one of great interest and value.
+
+[15] From the first circular of the International Council.
+
+
+
+
+X.
+
+
+THE MINISTRY AT LARGE.
+
+One of the most important of the philanthropies undertaken by the early
+Unitarians was the ministry to the poor and unchurched in Boston, usually
+known as the ministry at large. It began in 1822, came under the direction
+of the American Unitarian Association and the shaping hand of Dr. Joseph
+Tuckerman in 1826, and was taken in charge by the Benevolent Fraternity of
+Churches in 1834. It was not begun by Tuckerman, though its origin is
+usually attributed to him. Even before 1822 attempts had been made to
+establish missions amongst the poor by the evangelical denominations; but
+their work was not thoroughly organized, and it had reached no efficient
+results when Tuckerman entered upon his labors. The work of Tuckerman was
+to take up what had been tentatively begun by others, give it a definite
+purpose and method, and so to inform it with his own genius for charity
+that it became a great philanthropy in its intent and in its methods.
+
+[Sidenote: Association of Young Men.]
+
+When the Hancock Grammar School-house in the north end of Boston was being
+erected, a young man, in passing it on a September evening, said to a
+companion, "Why cannot we have a Sunday-school here?" The proposition was
+received with favor, and the two discussed plans while they continued their
+walk. They met frequently to mature their methods of procedure, and they
+invited others to join them in the undertaking. On the evening of October
+2, 1822, these two young men--Frederick T. Gray and Benjamin H. Greene--met
+with Moses Grant, William P. Rice, and others, to give more careful
+consideration to their purpose of forming a society for mutual religious
+improvement.[1]
+
+These young men met with little encouragement, and for some time there was
+small prospect of their succeeding in their undertaking. They continued to
+meet weekly, however; and on November 27 they formed The Association of
+Young Men for their own Mutual Improvement and for the Religious
+Instruction of the Poor. In 1824 the name was changed to The Association
+for Religious Improvement. The members met at each other's houses weekly,
+for the purpose of considering topics which related to their own personal
+improvement or to the wants of the community, always keeping in view the
+fact that their own religious growth must lie at the foundation of any
+great good which could be done by them for society. By degrees their number
+increased; and during the six years following, as appears from the records,
+the subjects to which their meetings were successively devoted were the
+desirableness of employing a missionary and building a mission-house, the
+condition and wants of vagrant children, the diffusion of Christianity in
+India, the importance of issuing tracts and other religions publications,
+the means and best method of improving our state prisons, the utility of
+forming a Unitarian Association, the best means to be adopted to abolish
+intemperance, the character of theatrical entertainments, the want of
+infant schools, and the best methods which could be taken to aid in the
+promotion of peace. All of these subjects were then comparatively new, and
+they were but just beginning to attract attention. Their importance was by
+no means generally understood, and least of all was the place which they
+were soon to occupy in public estimation anticipated.[2] The Association
+was discontinued in December, 1835.
+
+[Sidenote: Preaching to the Poor.]
+
+One of the first enterprises entered upon by this society was the securing
+of preaching for the poor and those connected with no religious
+organization. In this effort they had the co-operation of the younger Henry
+Ware, then the minister of the Second Church, and of John G. Palfrey, then
+the minister of the Brattle Street Church. In November, 1822, Henry Ware
+began these meetings; and four series of them were held throughout the
+winter, in Charter Street, in Hatters' or Creek Square, in Pitts Court, and
+in Spring Street. The Charter Street meetings were at first held in a room
+of a primary school, and then in a small chapel that had been built by a
+benevolent man for teaching and preaching purposes. In this place Mr. Ware
+was assisted by Dr. Jenks of the Christian denomination, and the chapel was
+afterwards occupied by the latter as a minister at large. The meetings in
+Pitts Court were also held in a school-room. Those in Hatters' Square
+occupied a room in a large tenement house and "here the accommodations, and
+probably the audience, were of a humbler character than elsewhere."[3]
+
+[Sidenote: Tuckerman as Minister to the Poor.]
+
+Early in the year 1826 Dr. Joseph Tuckerman expressed his willingness to
+devote himself to this ministry; and the American Unitarian Association was
+appealed to, that the necessary financial support might be secured. Dr.
+Tuckerman had been for twenty-five years the parish minister in Chelsea,
+but his health was such that he had been obliged to relinquish that
+position. On September 4 the sum of $600 was appropriated to the support of
+Dr. Tuckerman for one year as a missionary among the poor in Boston; and
+Ware, Barrett, and Gannett were made a committee to ascertain what amount
+of money could be raised for this purpose. It was thought wise not to use
+the regular funds of the Association for so special and local an object.
+The women of the Boston churches were therefore appealed to in behalf of
+this cause; and during the first year contributions were received from
+those connected with the congregations of the Brattle Street, Federal
+Street, West, New South, New North, Twelfth, and Chauncey Place Churches,
+amounting to $712. These contributions by the women of the churches were
+continued until the Benevolent Fraternity was organized.
+
+Tuckerman entered upon his work November 5, 1826. On the evening of that
+day he met with the Association for, Religious Improvement, and discussed
+with its members the work to be undertaken. He began at once the visiting
+of the poor and the study of their condition in the several parts of the
+city, though confining himself largely to the north end. In making his
+first quarterly report to the Unitarian Association, February 5, 1827, he
+said that he had taken fifty families into his pastoral charge. He had
+given special attention to the children, had arranged that those should be
+sent to school who had not previously attended, and provided them with
+shoes and clothes where these were necessary. He had also aided the sick,
+provided necessaries for those who were helpless and deserving, secured
+work for those out of employment, and given religious consolation and
+correction where these were required.
+
+After Dr. Tuckerman had entered upon his work of visiting the poor, the
+Young Men's Association arranged to have him resume the discontinued
+evening meetings. They accordingly secured the use of a room up two flights
+of stairs, in what was known as the "Circular Building," at the corner of
+Merrimac and Portland Streets. In this rude place, that had been used as a
+paint-shop, services were begun on Sunday evening, December 3, 1826.
+Tuckerman recorded in his diary that he had "a large and very attentive
+audience";[4] and on the same evening he met at the house of Dr. Channing
+"a large circle of ladies and gentlemen, who formed a society to help him
+visit."[5] As soon as services were begun in the Circular Building, it
+was proposed to form a Sunday-school; and on a very cold December day seven
+teachers and three children met to inaugurate it. They hovered about the
+little stove, by means of which the room was warmed, and began their work.
+The school grew rapidly, soon filled the room, and was given the name of
+the Howard School. Very soon, also, this room became too small to
+accommodate the attendants at the preaching services. In recognition of
+this need the Friend Street Free Chapel was erected, and opened for use on
+November 1, 1828.
+
+[Sidenote: Tuckerman's Methods.]
+
+During the first year of his ministry Dr. Tuckerman reported quarterly to
+the American Unitarian Association, and then semi-annually. In all there
+were printed four of the quarterly reports and fifteen of the others. It
+was not his custom in these reports to confine himself to an account of his
+work, which usually received only a brief statement at the end; but he
+discussed important topics relating to the condition of the poor and their
+needs. His third quarterly report was devoted to a consideration of the
+remedies to be used for confirmed intemperance. Others of the topics upon
+which he reported were the condition of the poor in cities, the duties of a
+minister at large (a title invented by him, which he preferred to that of
+city or domestic missionary), the effects of poverty on the moral life of
+the poor, the means of relieving pauperism, the causes of poverty and the
+social remedies, the several classes amongst the poor and the best means of
+reaching each of them, the means to be employed for the recovery of those
+sunk in pauperism, poor laws and outdoor relief. Among the subjects he
+discussed incidentally, and sometimes at considerable length, were the duty
+of providing seats for the poor in the churches at a small rental, the
+employment of children, education as a means of saving children from
+growing up to a life of vagrancy and pauperism, the wages of the poor and
+how they can be increased.[6] He was especially interested in the
+rescuing of children from ignorance and vice, and he strongly advocated the
+establishment of schools for the instruction of dull children and those
+whose education had been neglected. Through his efforts the Broad Street
+Infant School was established, in order to reach the younger children of
+the poor. In 1829 he made a careful study of the religious condition of the
+poor; and he found that out of a population of 55,000, which the city then
+contained, there were 4,200 families, or about 18,000 persons, who were not
+connected with any of the churches or who did not attend them with any
+degree of regularity. This gave him an opportunity to urge upon the public
+more strongly than before the importance of procuring free chapels, and a
+sufficient number of ministers to care for this large unchurched
+population. One or two ministers had labored amongst the poor before he
+began his work, and three or four had entered upon the same line of effort
+since he had done so; but these workers were too few in number to meet the
+large demands made upon them.
+
+In carrying on his work, Dr. Tuckerman sought out all who were in need of
+his services, without distinction of nationality, color, creed, social
+position, or moral condition. If he gave the preference to any, it was
+those who were the most wretched and debased. "It is the first object of
+the ministry at large, never to be lost sight of," he wrote, "and to which
+no other is to be preferred, as far as shall be possible to extend its
+offices to the poor and the poorest, to the low and the lowest, to the most
+friendless and most uncared for, the most miserable."[7] He recognized
+the individuality of the poorest and the most vicious: he sought to foster
+it, and to make it the basis of moral reform and social recovery.
+
+[Sidenote: Organization of Charities.]
+
+The influence of Tuckerman's work was soon felt outside the city in which
+it was carried on. The people of the state came to take an interest in it,
+and to feel that its principles should be applied throughout the
+commonwealth. Therefore, a commission was appointed by the lower house of
+the state legislature, February 29, 1832, to inquire into the condition of
+the poor in all parts of the state, and to make such report as might be the
+basis of needed legislation. Dr. Tuckerman was made a member of this
+commission. The work of investigation largely fell upon him, as well as the
+writing of the report. His suggestions were accepted, and the results were
+beneficent. In the mean time the work of visiting the poor was carried on
+by a young man, Charles F. Barnard, then a student in the Divinity School,
+who entered upon his duties in April. In October he was joined by Frederick
+T. Gray, the founder of the Association for Religious Improvement and of
+the first Sunday-schools for the poor. These workers were ordained in the
+Federal Street Church on the evening of November 5, 1834, after having
+thoroughly tested their capacities for the task they had assumed.
+
+Dr. Tuckerman set forth all the principles which have since been described
+under the name of "scientific charity," and he put them all into practice.
+In the spring of 1832 he organized a company of visitors to the poor, the
+members of which were to act as friends and advisers of those who were
+needy. In October, 1833, he brought about a union of the ministers at large
+of all denominations for purposes of consultation and mutual helpfulness.
+This union resulted in a meeting held in February, 1834, at which those
+interested in the proper care of the poor took counsel together as to the
+best methods to be followed. At a later meeting in March, it was decided to
+secure the aid of all the charitable societies in the city with a view to
+their co-operation and the prevention of the duplication of relief. There
+was accordingly organized the Association of Delegates from the Benevolent
+Societies of Boston, the objects of which were "to adopt measures for the
+most effectual prevention of fraud and deception in the applicants for
+charity; to obtain accurate and thorough information with regard to the
+situation, character, and wants of the poor; and generally to interchange
+knowledge, experience, and advice upon all the important subjects connected
+with the duties and responsibilities of Benevolent Societies." The
+principle upon which this organization acted was that "the public good
+requires that the character and circumstances of the poor should be
+thoroughly investigated and known by those who administer our public
+charities, in order that all the relief which a pure and enlarged
+benevolence dictates may be freely bestowed, and that almsgiving may not
+encourage extravagance or vice, nor injuriously affect the claims of
+society at large upon the personal exertions and moral character of its
+members." The first annual report of this Association, which appeared in
+October, 1835, was written by Dr. Tuckerman, and was one of the best he
+produced. He laid down certain rules he had accepted as the results of his
+experience: that beggary was to be broken up; that all misapplications of
+charity should be reported to the board of visitors; that those asking for
+alms should be relieved only at their homes and after investigation; that
+industry, forethought, economy, and self-denial were to be fostered in
+order to prevent pauperism, and that no help should be given where it led
+to dependence and reliance upon charity. Registration, investigation,
+prevention of duplication of alms, and the fostering of self-help were the
+methods brought to bear by Dr. Tuckerman in the organization of this
+Association.[8]
+
+[Sidenote: Benevolent Fraternity of Churches.]
+
+In the spring of 1834 the part of the ministry at large in Boston supported
+by Unitarians consisted of Dr. Tuckerman's work in visiting and ministering
+to the poor in their own homes, two chapels, in which Barnard and Gray
+preached and conducted their Sunday-schools, and the office of the Visitors
+to the Poor. In order more effectually to organize the support of this
+work, the Benevolent Fraternity of Churches was then suggested. The Second,
+Brattle Street, New South, New North, King's Chapel, Federal Street, Hollis
+Street, Twelfth, and Purchase Street Churches entered upon the work; and
+there was organized in each a society for the purpose of aiding the
+ministry at large. Each of these societies was privileged to send five
+delegates to a central body that should undertake the support and direction
+of that ministry. At a meeting held April 27, 1834, an organization of such
+delegates was effected. It was distinctly stated that "it was not the wish
+to add another to the eleemosynary institutions of the city to which the
+poor might resort either for the supply of the comforts or for the relief
+of necessities which belong to their bodily condition"; but the object of
+the Fraternity was described as being "the improvement of the moral state
+of the poor and irreligious of this city by the support of the ministry at
+large, and by other means."[9]
+
+[Sidenote: Other Ministers at Large.]
+
+Dr. Tuckerman continued his work of visiting the poor, so far as his health
+permitted, until his death, which occurred April 20, 1840. His assistants
+and successors continued the work of visitation outside of their own
+congregations. In August, 1844, Rev. Warren Burton was assigned to this
+special form of ministry, and to that of a systematic investigation of the
+condition of the poor. He gave much attention to the needs of children, and
+made inquiry as to intemperance, licentiousness, and other forms of social
+degeneration. He was a diligent and successful worker until his ministry
+came to an end in October, 1848. For about a year, in 1847, Rev. William
+Ware also devoted himself to the house-to-house ministry; but failing
+health compelled his withdrawal. In April, 1845, Rev. Andrew Bigelow took
+charge of the Pitts Street Chapel for a few months; and then for thirty-two
+years, until his death, in April, 1877, he continued to visit the poor.
+With the assistance of his wife, he went about to the homes of the people,
+administering to their physical needs, acting as their friend and adviser,
+and giving them such moral instruction and spiritual consolation as was
+possible.
+
+For about one year, beginning in March, 1856, Rev. A. Rumpff visited German
+families in behalf of the Fraternity. He was succeeded in 1857 by Rev. A.
+Uebelacker, who continued the work for two or three years. From 1860 to 1864
+Professor J.B. Torricelli carried on a ministry amongst the Italians,
+Spaniards, Greeks, and other natives of southern Europe resident in Boston.
+After the death of Dr. Bigelow this personal ministry was discontinued,
+owing to the increase in the number of other agencies for doing this kind
+of work.
+
+[Sidenote: Ministry at Large in Other Cities.]
+
+The work of the ministry at large was not confined to Boston. The original
+vote of the Unitarian Association establishing it was that it should be
+aided in New York as well. In December, 1836, Rev. William Henry Channing
+entered on such a ministry in New York; and it was continued there for some
+years. It was also established in Charlestown, Roxbury, Cambridge, Salem,
+Portsmouth, Portland, Lowell, New Bedford, Providence, Worcester, and
+elsewhere in New England. With the aid of the Unitarian Association it was
+undertaken in Baltimore, Cincinnati, Louisville, and St. Louis. In 1845
+Rev. Lemuel Capen was carrying on the ministry in Baltimore, Rev. W.H.
+Farmer in Louisville, and Rev. Mordecai de Lange in St. Louis. The ministry
+at large was begun in Cincinnati in 1830, and was in charge for a short
+time of Christopher P. Cranch, who was succeeded by Rev. James H. Perkins,
+a most efficient worker, who soon became the popular minister of the
+Unitarian church in that city. It was established in St. Louis in 1840, and
+a day school for colored children was opened in 1841. A mission-house was
+built, and Rev. Charles H.A. Dall was put in charge. In 1841 the Mission
+Free School was founded, and now has a matron, nursery, kindergarten,
+Sunday-school, with lectures and entertainments. Dall was succeeded by
+Mordecai de Lange, Corlis B. Ward, Carlton A. Staples, and Thomas L. Eliot.
+The City Mission, as it was called, grew so large that in 1860 no one
+denomination could carry it on; and it became the St. Louis Provident
+Association, which has done an extensive and important work.[10]
+
+In July, 1850, was formed the Association of Ministers at Large in New
+England, of which Rev. Charles F. Barnard was for many years the president,
+and Rev. Horatio Wood, of Lowell, the secretary. It met quarterly, or
+oftener, essays were read on subjects connected with the work of
+ministering to the poor, and the special phases of that work were
+discussed. In the spring of 1841 Rev. Charles F. Barnard began the
+publication of the Journal of the Ministry at Large as a sixteen-page
+octavo monthly, which was continued until 1860, part of the time as The
+Record; but during the later years it was issued irregularly.
+
+In 1838 Dr. Tuckerman published The Principles and Results of the Ministry
+at Large in Boston, which embodied an account of his work for twelve years,
+and the conclusions at which he had arrived. It did much to give direction
+and purpose to the ministry, and to extend its influence. It can be read
+with interest and profit at the present time; for it contains all the
+principles since put into practice in many forms of charitable activity.
+Dr. Andrew P. Peabody truly said of Tuckerman's enterprise in behalf of the
+poor that it "was the earliest organized effort in that direction. Its
+success and its permanent establishment as an institution were due to its
+founder's strenuous perseverance, his self-sacrifice, his apostolic fervor
+of spirit, and the power of his influence."[11] Joseph Story spoke of the
+ministry at large as being one of "extraordinary success." "I deem it," he
+wrote, "one of the most glorious triumphs of Christian charity over the
+cold and reluctant doubts of popular opinion." The labors of Dr. Tuckerman
+"initiated a new sphere of Protestant charity," as his nephew well
+said.[12] "This has been the most characteristic, the best organized, and
+by far the most successful co-operative work that the Unitarian body has
+ever attempted by way of church action," was the testimony of Dr. Joseph
+Henry Allen.[13]
+
+[1] The record of the first meeting states the objects for which the
+    young men met, as follows: "Feeling impressed with the importance of
+    giving religious instruction to the youths of that class of our poor
+    who are destitute of any regard for their future well-being, and who,
+    from being under the care of vicious parents, have no attention paid
+    to their moral conduct; and also wishing to become acquainted with
+    those persons of the different religious societies who profess to be
+    followers of the same Master, they agreed to associate themselves.
+    Having great reason to believe that God will bless their humble
+    efforts for the spread of pure religion and virtue, and looking to
+    Him for guidance, the meeting was organized."
+
+[2] Ephraim Peabody, Christian Examiner, January, 1853, LIV. 93.
+
+[3] John Ware, Life of Henry Ware, Jr., 132-135.
+
+[4] The secretary of the Association for Religious Improvement made this
+    record of the meeting: "December 3, 1826. The Lectures under the
+    conduct of the Association commenced this evening at 6-1/2 o'clock at
+    Smith's circular building, corner of Merrimack and Portland Streets,
+    which was very fully attended by those for whom it was intended. The
+    services were of the first order. Rev. Dr. Tuckerman officiated."
+
+[5] Eber R. Butler, Lend a Hand, V. 693, October, 1890.
+
+[6] The substance of these reports has been reproduced in a book edited
+    by E.E. Hale in 1874, Joseph Tuckerman on the Elevation of the Poor.
+
+[7] The Principles and Results of the Ministry at Large in Boston, 61.
+
+[8] Ministry at Large in Boston, 124.
+
+[9] The following is a list of the churches now maintained by the
+    Benevolent Fraternity of Churches, with the date when each was
+    formed, or when it came under Unitarian management: Bulfinch Place
+    Church, successor to Wend Street Chapel (1828); Pitts Street Chapel
+    (1836), 1870. North End Union (begun in 1837); Hanover Street Chapel
+    (1854); Parmenter Street Chapel (1884), 1892. Morgan Chapel, 1884.
+    Channing Church, Dorchester, successor to Washington Village Chapel,
+    1854. The Suffolk Street Chapel (1837), succeeded by the New South
+    Free Church (1867), continues its life in the Parker Memorial, 1889.
+    The Warren Street Chapel (1832), now known as the Barnard Memorial
+    Church, continues its work, but is not under the direction of the
+    Benevolent Fraternity. In 1901 the churches constituting the
+    Benevolent Fraternity were the First Church, Second Church, Arlington
+    Street Church, South Congregational Church, King's Chapel, Church of
+    the Disciples; First Parish, Dorchester; First Parish, Brighton;
+    Hawes Church South Boston; First Parish, West Roxbury; First
+    Congregational Society, Jamaica Plain.
+
+[10] In 1830 the British and Foreign Unitarian Association began to
+     consider the value of this ministry, and in 1832 the first mission
+     was opened in London. In 1835 was formed the London Domestic Mission
+     Society for the purpose of carrying on the work in that city. In 1833
+     a similar movement was made in Manchester, and in 1835 was organized
+     the Liverpool Domestic Mission Society. The visit of Dr. Tuckerman to
+     England in 1834 gave large interest to this movement. He then met
+     Mary Carpenter, and she was led by him to begin her great work of
+     charity. It was during the next year that she entered upon the work
+     in Bristol that made her name widely known. In 1847 there were two
+     ministers at large in London, two in Birmingham, and one each in
+     Liverpool, Bristol, Leeds, Manchester, Halifax, and Leicester. The
+     writings of Dr. Tuckerman were translated into French by the Baron de
+     Gerando, a leading philanthropist and statesman of that day, who
+     praised them highly, and introduced their methods into Paris and
+     elsewhere. Of Tuckerman's book on the ministry at large M. de Gerando
+     said that it throws "invaluable light upon the condition and wants of
+     the indigent and the influence which an enlightened charity can
+     exert." He also said of Tuckerman that "he knew the difference
+     between pauperism and poverty," thus recognizing one of those
+     cardinal distinctions made by the philanthropist in his efforts to
+     aid the poor to self-help and independence.
+
+[11] Memorial History of Boston, III. 477.
+
+[12] Sprague's Annals of the Unitarian Pulpit, 345, the words quoted being
+     from the pen of Henry T. Tuckerman, the well-known essayist.
+
+[13] Our Liberal Movement in Theology, 59.
+
+
+
+
+XI.
+
+
+ORGANIZED SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK.
+
+The first Sunday-schools organized in this country distinctly for purposes
+of religious training were by persons connected with Unitarian churches.
+Several schools had been opened previously, but they were not continued or
+were organized in the interests of secular instruction. In the summer of
+1809 Miss Hannah Hill, then twenty-five years of age, and Miss Joanna B.
+Prince, then twenty, both teachers of private schools for small children,
+and connected with the First Parish in Beverly, Mass., of which Dr. Abiel
+Abbot was the pastor, opened a school in one room of a dwelling-house for
+the religious training of the children who did not receive such teaching at
+home. In the spring of 1810 the same young women reopened their school in a
+larger room, using the Bible as their only book of instruction. Sessions
+were held in the morning before church, and in the afternoon following the
+close of the services.[1]
+
+The first season about thirty children attended, but the interest grew; and
+in 1813 the school occupied the Dane Street chapel, and became a union or
+town school. Jealousies resulted, and a school was soon established by each
+church in the town. In 1822 the First Parish received the original school
+under its sole care, and it was removed to the meeting-house.
+
+A Sunday-school was begun in Concord in the summer of 1810, under the
+leadership of Miss Sarah Ripley, daughter of Dr. Ezra Ripley, the minister
+of the town. On Sunday afternoons she taught a number of children in her
+father's house, since known as the "Old Manse." About five years later a
+school was opened at the centre of the town, near the church, by three
+young women. In 1818 a Sunday-school was begun in connection with the
+church itself, which absorbed the others, or of which they formed the
+nucleus.[2]
+
+A teacher of a charity school supported by the West Church in Boston was
+the first person to open a Sunday-school in that city. In October, 1812,
+the teacher of this school, Miss Lydia K. Adams, then a member of the West
+Parish, according to the statement of Dr. Charles Lowell, minister of the
+church at the time, "having learned on a visit to Beverly that some young
+ladies of the town were in the practice of giving religious instruction to
+poor children on the Sabbath, consulted her minister as to the expediency
+of giving like instruction to the children of her school, and to those who
+had been members of it, on the same day. The project was decidedly
+approved, and immediately carried into effect." In December of the same
+year, Miss Adams was compelled by ill-health to leave her school; and
+ladies of the West Church took charge of it, and in turn instructed the
+children, both on the week-days and the Sabbath, till a suitable permanent
+teacher could be obtained. On this event they relinquished the immediate
+care of the week-day school, but continued the instruction of the
+Sunday-school, till it was transferred to the church, and was enlarged by
+the addition of "children of a different description," in 1822.[3]
+Sunday-schools were also begun in Cambridgeport, in 1814; Wilton, N.H., in
+1816; and Portsmouth, in 1818. The latter school had the enthusiastic
+support of Nathaniel A. Haven, a young lawyer and rising politician, who
+devoted himself with great zeal and success to such instruction of the
+young.[4]
+
+The Association of Young Men for Mutual Improvement and for the Religious
+Instruction of the Poor began the work of forming Sunday-schools for the
+children of the poor in Boston during the year 1823. A school was begun in
+the Hancock School-house, then recently built for grammar-school
+purposes.[5] Soon after they opened a school in Merrimac Street, called
+the Howard Sunday-school, in connection with the work of Dr. Tuckerman; and
+in 1826 the Franklin Sunday-school was begun by the same persons and for
+the same purposes. In connection with these schools was formed the Sunday
+School Benevolent Society, composed of charitable women, who provided such
+children as were needy with suitable clothing.
+
+In 1825 a parish Sunday-school was organized in connection with the Twelfth
+Congregational Church, of which Rev. Samuel Barrett was the minister. It
+was reorganized in 1827, with the object of giving "a religious education
+apart from all sectarian views, as systematically as it is given to the
+same children in other branches of learning."[6] In July, 1828, The
+Christian Register spoke of "the rapid and extensive establishment of
+Sunday-schools by individuals attached to Unitarian societies," and said
+that in the course of two or three years "large and respectable
+Sunday-schools have been established by Unitarians in various parts of the
+city. Several of these are parish schools, under the immediate guidance of
+the pastors. Others are more general in their plan, receiving children from
+all quarters."
+
+[Sidenote: Boston Sunday School Society.]
+
+At a meeting of the teachers of the Franklin Sunday-school held December
+16, 1826, it was proposed that there be organized an association of all the
+teachers connected with Unitarian parishes in Boston and the vicinity. On
+February 27, 1827, a meeting was held in the Berry Street vestry for this
+purpose; and on April 18 a constitution was adopted for the Boston Sunday
+School Society. The schools joining in this organization were the Hancock,
+Franklin, and Howard, and those connected with the West, Federal Street,
+Hollis Street, and Twelfth Congregational Churches. Dr. Joseph Tuckerman
+was elected president; Moses Grant, vice-president; Dr. J.F. Flagg,
+corresponding secretary; and Rev. Frederick T. Gray, recording secretary.
+The first annual meeting was held November 28, 1827; and the above-named
+officers were re-elected. On December 12 a public meeting was held in the
+Federal Street Church, which was well filled. Reports of the work of the
+schools, including that at Cambridgeport, were read; and addresses were
+made.
+
+The objects of the Sunday School Society were the helping of teachers, the
+extending of the interests of the schools, and the publishing of books. It
+was difficult to procure suitable books for use in Sunday-schools and for
+their libraries, and the prices were very high. In the autumn of 1828
+arrangements were made for the publishing of books, the American Unitarian
+Association co-operating therein by providing a capital of $300 for this
+purpose, the profits going to the Sunday School Society, and the money
+borrowed being returned without interest. This connection was abandoned in
+1831 because it was found that the Unitarian name on the title-page of the
+books hindered their sale. In April, 1828, was issued the first number of
+the Christian Teacher's Manual, a small monthly, of which Mrs. Eliza Lee
+Follen was the editor, intended for the use of families and Sunday-schools.
+According to the preface the subjects chiefly considered were the best
+methods of addressing the minds of children, suggestions to teachers,
+explanations of Scripture, religious instruction from natural objects,
+histories taken from real life, stories and hymns adapted to children, and
+accounts of Sunday-schools.
+
+The Manual was continued for two years; and it was followed by The
+Scriptural Interpreter, edited by Rev. Ezra S. Gannett. The editor of the
+Interpreter preferred to publish it under his own name, because he did "not
+wish it to be considered the organ or the representative of a denomination
+of Christians." "It will have one object," he said, "to furnish the means
+of acquaintance with the true sense and value of Scripture, and
+particularly of the New Testament; but whatever will promote this object
+will come within the scope the publication." It was issued bi-monthly, and
+was continued for five years. It was wholly devoted to the exposition of
+the Bible, a systematic series of translations and interpretations of the
+Gospels forming a distinct feature of its pages. A considerable part of it
+was prepared by the editor, who drew freely upon expository works. Among
+the contributors were William H. Furness, Orville Dewey, Alexander Young,
+Edward B. Hall, James Walker, Henry Ware, Jr., and J.P. Dabney. In 1836,
+Dr. Gannett's health having failed, the magazine was edited by Theodore
+Parker, George E. Ellis, and William Silsbee, then students in the Harvard
+Divinity School.
+
+One important feature of the work of the Sunday School Society was the
+extension of the cause it represented. In December, 1829, reports were
+presented at the annual meeting from nearly fifty schools; and it was
+thought desirable that they should be brought into closer relations with
+the society. Accordingly, Frederick T. Gray, the secretary, visited many of
+these schools. The next year, as a result, a considerable number of those
+outside the city connected themselves with the society; and the lists of
+vice-presidents and directors were enlarged to include them in its
+operations. Afterwards this work was carried on by a committee of the
+society, the members of which visited the schools, giving addresses, and in
+other ways helping to give strength and purpose to the work in which they
+were engaged. Schools were visited in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts,
+Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and other states. To give
+better opportunity for the attendance of delegates from schools outside the
+city, the yearly meeting was changed from December to anniversary week in
+May.
+
+The society published a considerable number of tracts, which were
+distributed gratuitously by the agents and in other ways. It also issued
+lesson-books, as well as books for the juvenile libraries which were
+forming at this time in all the churches. To meet this demand, the younger
+Henry Ware began editing, in 1833, the Sunday-school Library for Young
+Persons, in which were included his own Life of the Saviour, Mrs. John
+Farrar's Life of Howard, Rev. Stephen G. Bulfinch's Holy Land, and Rev.
+Thomas B. Fox's Sketch of the Reformation. The next year Mr. Ware began a
+series of books which he called Scenes and Characters illustrating
+Christian Truth. Another method used by the society was the giving of
+expository lectures.
+
+The society at first held quarterly meetings; but the interest grew, and
+the meetings became monthly. Great enthusiasm was felt at this time in
+regard to the work of these schools, and many persons of prominence praised
+them and took part in their management. "The institution of Sunday-schools
+constitutes one of the most remarkable features of the present age," wrote
+Dr. Joseph Allen, in 1830. "It has already done much to supply the
+deficiencies of domestic education, and, if wisely conducted, is destined,
+we trust, to become at no distant day one of the most efficient instruments
+in forming the characters of the young."[7] Writing in 1838, the younger
+Henry Ware said that "the Sunday-school has become one of the established
+institutions of religion in connection with the church, and the character
+of religion is henceforth to depend, in no small degree, on the wisdom with
+which it shall be administered."[8]
+
+In 1834 was organized the Worcester Sunday School Society. It had its
+origin as far back as November 17, 1817, when a committee of the Worcester
+Association of Ministers was appointed to report on the subject of
+Sunday-schools. A meeting was held in Lancaster, October 9, 1834, when an
+organization was perfected. The succeeding meetings were largely attended,
+and much interest was awakened.[9] In 1842 a similar society was
+organized in Middlesex County; and at about the same time one came into
+existence in Cheshire County, New Hampshire. Soon after societies were
+organized in the counties of Norfolk, Plymouth (North), Middlesex (West),
+Worcester, and in Portland and its neighborhood.
+
+In April, 1831, the directors of the Boston Sunday School Society discussed
+the feasibility of starting a weekly paper for the use of the schools. In
+July, 1836, Rev. Bernard Whitman began the publication of The Sunday School
+Teacher and Children's Friend. In January, 1837, The Young Christian was
+begun, and was published weekly at the office of The Christian Register, by
+David Reed. These papers were continued only for a few years. From 1845 to
+1857 Mrs. Eliza Lee Follen edited a monthly magazine for children, called
+The Children's Friend. The first number of the Sunday School Gazette was
+published in Worcester, August 7, 1849, under the direction of the
+Worcester Sunday School Society. It was established at the suggestion of
+Rev. Edward Everett Hale, then a minister in that city, in connection with
+Rev. Edmund B. Willson, then settled in Grafton. The editor was Rev.
+Francis Le Baron, the minister at large in Worcester, though Mr. Hale was a
+frequent contributor. When the National Sunday School Society was
+organized, the Sunday School Gazette was transferred to, its charge; but
+the publication of this paper was continued in Worcester until 1860.[10]
+
+[Sidenote: Unitarian Sunday School Society.]
+
+As time went on, and the work of the Sunday-schools enlarged, it was felt
+that it was necessary there should be one general organization which should
+bring together all Unitarian schools into a compact working force. To meet
+this growing need, a convention of the county societies and of local
+schools was held in Worcester, October 4, 1854, at which time the Sunday
+School Society was organized as a general denominational body. Hon. Albert
+Fearing, of Boston, was made the president, and Rev. Frederick T. Gray the
+secretary. The society provided itself with a desk in the rooms of the
+Unitarian Association, and provision was made for the collection and sale
+of all the helps demanded by the schools.
+
+From 1855 until 1865 the society was sadly crippled by the lack of funds.
+The hard times preceding the Civil War, and the absorption of public
+interest in that great national event, made it difficult for the society to
+continue its work with any degree of success. For some years little was
+done but to hold the annual meeting in the autumn and that in anniversary
+week, and to continue the publication of the Sunday School Gazette. For a
+number of years, however, Teachers' Institutes were held; and these were
+continued at irregular intervals until about 1875. The Sunday School
+Teachers' Institute was organized in 1852, and continued in existence for
+ten years.
+
+After the death of Rev. Frederick T. Gray in 1855, he was succeeded in the
+position of secretary of the Sunday School Society by Rev. Stephen G.
+Bulfinch. In 1856 Rev. Warren H. Cudworth became the secretary, and the
+editor of the Gazette; and he held these positions until May, 1861, when he
+became the chaplain of the first Massachusetts regiment taking part in the
+Civil War. In the October following, Mr. Joseph H. Allen, a Boston
+merchant, afterwards the editor of The Schoolmate, became the secretary and
+editor. He continued to edit the Gazette until November, 1865; but Mr. M.T.
+Rice was made secretary in 1863. At the end of 1865, when the society was
+in a condition of almost complete collapse, Rev. Thomas J. Mumford became
+the secretary, and the editor of the Gazette for one year. He restored
+confidence in the society, and made the paper a success. During the war the
+paper was published monthly for the sake of economy; but with the first of
+January, 1866, it was restored to its former semi-monthly issue.
+
+The new life that came to the denomination in 1865 had its influence upon
+the Sunday School Society. In the autumn of 1866, when the Unitarian
+Association had secured a large increase of funds, it was proposed that the
+Sunday School Society should unite with it, and that the larger
+organization should have the direction of all denominational activities,
+especially those of publishing. The more zealous friends of the society did
+not approve of such consolidation, and succeeded in reanimating its work by
+appointing as its secretary Mr. James P. Walker, who had been the head of
+the publishing firm of Walker, Wise & Co., a young man of earnest purpose,
+a successful Sunday-school teacher and superintendent, and an enthusiastic
+believer in the mission of Unitarianism. Mr. Walker devoted his whole time
+to the interests of the society, and an energetic effort was made to revive
+and extend its work. He proved to be the man for the position, largely
+increasing the bookselling and publishing activities, visiting schools and
+conferences, and awakening much enthusiasm in regard to the interests of
+Sunday-schools. He wore himself out in this work, however, and died in
+March, 1868, greatly lamented throughout the denomination.[11]
+
+After the death of Mr. Walker, consolidation with the Association was again
+urged; but Rev. Leonard J. Livermore was in June elected the secretary. At
+the annual meeting it was resolved to raise $5,000 for the work of the
+society, and the next year it was proposed to make the annual contribution
+$10,000. The name was changed to the Unitarian Sunday School Society at the
+annual meeting of 1868, held in Worcester. In 1871 Mr. John Kneeland became
+the secretary; and with the beginning of 1872 the Gazette was changed to
+The Dayspring, which was issued monthly. In the autumn of that year the
+society began the publication of monthly lessons, and there was issued with
+them a Teachers' Guide for the lessons of the year. With the beginning of
+1877 the Guide was discontinued, and the lesson papers enlarged. In
+November, 1875, Rev. George F. Piper became the secretary,--a position he
+held until May 1, 1883. During his administration about three hundred
+lessons were prepared by him, and these had a circulation of about nine
+thousand copies. The transition condition of the denomination made it
+difficult to carry on the work of the society at this time, for it was
+impossible to please both conservatives and radicals with any lessons that
+might be prepared. One superintendent warned his school against the
+heretical tendencies of lessons which, from the other point of view, a
+minister condemned as being fit for orthodox schools, but not for
+Unitarians. In the same mail came a letter from a minister saying the
+lessons were too elementary, and from another saying they were much too
+advanced. In the latter part of Mr. Piper's term service was begun an
+important work of preparing manuals thoroughly modern in their spirit and
+methods.[12]
+
+In May, 1883, Rev. Henry G. Spaulding became the secretary; and the work of
+publishing modern manuals was largely extended.[13] At the suggestion and
+with the co-operation of the secretary there was organized, November 12,
+1883, the Unitarian Sunday School Union of Boston, having for its object
+"to develop the best methods of Sunday-school work." At about the same time
+a lending library of reference books was established in connection with the
+work of the society. In the autumn of 1883 the society began to hold in
+Channing Hall weekly lectures for teachers. In 1885 The Dayspring was
+enlarged and became Every Other Sunday, being much improved in its literary
+contents as well as in its illustrations. The same year the society was
+incorporated, and the number of directors was increased to include
+representatives from all sections of the country; while all Sunday-schools
+contributing to the society's treasury were given a delegate representation
+in its membership. Mr. Spaulding continued his connection with the society
+until January 1, 1892.
+
+Rev. Edward A. Horton, who had for several years taken an active part in
+the work of the society, assumed charge February 1, 1892. Mr. Horton was
+made the president, it being deemed wise to have the head of the society
+its executive officer. During his administration there has been a steady
+growth in Sunday-school interest, which has demanded a rapid increase in
+the number and variety of publications. The book department has been taxed
+to the utmost to meet the demand. A new book of Song and Service, compiled
+by Mr. Horton, has reached a sale of nearly 25,000 copies. A simple
+statement of "Our Faith" has had a circulation of 40,000 copies, and in a
+form suitable for the walls of Sunday-school rooms it has been in
+considerable demand.[14] A series of lessons, covering a period of seven
+years, upon the three-grade, one-topic plan, has been largely used in the
+schools. Besides the twenty manuals published in this course of lessons,
+forty other text-books have been published, making a total of sixty in all,
+from 1892 to 1902.[15] There have also been many additions to
+Sunday-school helps by way of special services for festival days, free
+tracts, and statements of belief. The Channing Hall talks to Sunday-school
+teachers have been made to bear upon these courses of lessons. Every Other
+Sunday has been improved, and its circulation extended. The number of
+donating churches and schools has been steadily increased, the number in
+1901 being 255, the largest by far yet reached. At the annual meeting of
+the society and at local conferences representative speakers have presented
+the newest methods of Sunday-school work. Sunday-school unions have been
+formed in various parts of the country, and churches are awakened to a new
+interest in the work of religious instruction. "Home and School
+Conferences" have been held with a view to bringing parents and teachers
+into closer sympathy and co-operation.
+
+[Sidenote: Western Unitarian Sunday School Society.]
+
+In the west the first movement towards Sunday-school activities began in
+1871 with the publication of a four-page lesson-sheet at Janesville, Wis.,
+by Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones. This was continued for two or three years.
+Through the interest of Mr. Jones in Sunday-school work a meeting for
+organization was called in the fourth church, Chicago, October 14, 1873,
+when the Western Unitarian Sunday School Society was organized, with Rev.
+Milton J. Miller as president and Mr. Jones as secretary. At the meeting
+the next year in St. Louis a committee was appointed to prepare a song-book
+for the schools, which resulted in the production of The Sunny Side, edited
+by Rev. Charles W. Wendte. The next step was to establish headquarters in
+Chicago, where all kinds of material could be furnished to the schools,
+with the necessary advice and encouragement. Through successive years the
+effort of the society was to systematize the work of Unitarian
+Sunday-schools, to put into them the best literature, the best song and
+service books, the best lesson papers, and other tools,--in short, to
+secure better and more definite teaching, such as is in accord with the
+best scholarship and thought of the age.[16]
+
+In 1882 the society became incorporated, and its work from this time
+enlarged in all directions. To develop these results more fully, an
+Institute was held in the Third Church, Chicago, in November, 1887, at
+which five sessions were given to Sunday-school work, and two to Unity Club
+interests. In the course of several years of encouraging success, the
+Institute developed into a Summer Assembly of two or more weeks'
+continuance at Hillside, Helena Valley, Wis., which still continues its
+yearly sessions. In May, 1902, The Western Sunday School Society was
+consolidated with the national organization; and the plates and stock which
+it possessed were handed over to the Unitarian Sunday School Society. A
+western headquarters is maintained in Chicago, where all the publications
+of the two societies are kept on sale.
+
+[Sidenote: Unity Clubs.]
+
+As adjuncts to the Sunday-school, and to continue its work for adults and
+in other spheres of ethical training, the Unity Club came into existence
+about the year 1873, beginning with the work of Rev. Jenkin Ll. Jones at
+Janesville. In the course of the next ten years nearly every Unitarian
+church in the west organized such a club, and the movement to some degree
+extended to other parts of the country. In 1887 there was organized in
+Boston the National Bureau of Unity Clubs. These clubs devoted themselves
+to literary, sociological, and religious courses of study; and they
+furnished centres for the social activities of the churches. About the year
+1878 began a movement to organize societies of young people for the
+cultivation of the spirit of worship and religious development. This
+resulted in 1889 in the organization of the National Guild Alliance; and in
+1890 this organization joined with the Bureau of Unity Clubs and the
+Unitarian Temperance Society in supporting an agency in the Unitarian
+Building, Boston, with the aid of the Unitarian Association. The Young
+People's Religious Union was organized in Boston, May 28, 1896; and in
+large degree, it took the place of the Bureau and the Alliance, uniting the
+two in a more efficient effort to interest the young people of the
+churches.[17]
+
+[Sidenote: The Ladies' Commission on Sunday-school Books.]
+
+In the autumn of 1865, Rev. Charles Lowe, then the secretary of the
+Unitarian Association, invited a number of women to meet him for the
+purpose of conference on the subject of Sunday-school libraries. At his
+suggestion they organized themselves on October 12 as The Ladies'
+Commission on Sunday-school Books, with the object of preparing a catalogue
+of books read and approved by competent persons. At the first meeting ten
+persons were present, but the number was soon enlarged to thirty; and it
+was still farther increased by the addition of corresponding members in
+cities too remote for personal attendance. Among those taking part in the
+work of the commission at first were Miss Lucretia P. Hale, Miss Anna C.
+Lowell, Mrs. Edwin P. Whipple, Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney, Mrs. A.D.T. Whitney,
+Mrs. S. Bennett, Mrs. Caroline H. Dall, Mrs. E.E. Hale, Mrs. E.P. Tileston,
+and Miss Hannah E. Stevenson.
+
+The commission not only aimed to select books for Sunday-school libraries,
+but also those for the home reading of young persons and for the use of
+teachers. It undertook also the procuring of the publication of suitable
+juvenile books. The first catalogue was issued in October, 1866, and
+contained a list of two hundred books, selected from twelve hundred
+examined. In the spring of 1867 a catalogue of five hundred and
+seventy-three books was printed, as the result of the reading of nineteen
+hundred volumes.
+
+In the beginning of its work the commission did not confine its activities
+to the selecting of juvenile books; for the Sunday School Hymn and Tune
+Book, published in 1869, was largely due to its efforts. Under the
+administration of Mr. James P. Walker the Sunday School Society undertook
+to procure the publication of a number of books of fiction suitable for
+Sunday-school libraries, and offered prizes to this end. The commission
+gave its encouragement to this effort, read the manuscripts, and aided in
+determining to whom the prizes should be given. The result was the
+publication of a half-dozen volumes by the Sunday School Society and the
+Unitarian Association. The society also aided to some extent in meeting the
+expenses of the commission, though these were usually met by the
+Association.
+
+For many years the books approved by the commission were grouped under
+three heads: books especially recommended for Unitarian Sunday-school
+libraries; those highly recommended for their religious tone, but somewhat
+impaired for this purpose by the use of phrases and the adoption of a
+spirit not in accord with the Unitarian faith; and those profitable and
+valuable, but not adapted to the purposes of a Sunday-school library. Every
+book recommended was read and approved by at least five persons, discussed
+in committee of the whole, and accepted by a two-thirds vote of all the
+members. Books about which there was much diversity of opinion were read by
+a larger number of persons. This classification proved rather cumbersome,
+and it was often found difficult to decide into which list a book should be
+placed; and the result was that about 1890 the simpler plan was adopted of
+putting all titles in their alphabetical order, with explanatory notes for
+each book. In 1882 the list of books for teachers was discontinued as being
+no longer necessary.
+
+Annual lists of books have been published by the commission since 1866;
+and, in addition, several catalogues have been issued, containing all the
+books approved during a period of five years. In the early days of the
+commission, supplementary lists for children and young persons were issued,
+containing books of a more secular character than were thought suitable for
+Sunday-school libraries. Gradually, it has extended its work to include the
+needs of all juvenile libraries; and these books are now incorporated into
+the one annual catalogue. In thirty-four years the commission has examined
+10,957 books, and has approved 3,076, or about one-third.[18]
+
+[1] Sunday School Times, September 15, 1860.
+
+[2] Asa Bullard, Fifty Years with the Sabbath Schools, 37.
+
+[3] C.A. Bartol, The West Church and its Ministers, Appendix.
+
+[4] See the Remains of Nathaniel Appleton Haven, with a Memoir of his
+    life, by George Ticknor.
+
+[5] The Hancock Sunday-school assembled at eight in the morning and at
+    one in the afternoon, Moses Grant being the first superintendent.
+
+[6] At the school of the Twelfth Congregational Society, Carpenter's
+    Catechism was used for the small children. This was followed by the
+    Worcester Catechism, compiled in 1822 by the ministers of the
+    Worcester Association of Ministers, Dr. Joseph Allen being the real
+    author. The Geneva Catechism in its three successive parts, followed
+    in order. In the Bible class, use was made of Hannah Adams's Letters
+    on the Gospels, under the immediate charge of the Pastor. A hymn-book
+    issued by the Publishing Fund Society was in use by the whole school.
+
+[7] Christian Examiner, March, 1830, VIII. 49.
+
+[8] Ibid., May, 1838, XXIV. 182.
+
+[9] Joseph Allen, History of the Worcester Association, 261-264.
+
+[10] In 1852 was published a graded series of eight manuals of Christian
+     instruction for Sunday-schools and families,--a result of the
+     activities of the Sunday School Society. The titles and authors of
+     these books were Early Religious Lessons; Palestine and the Hebrew
+     People, Stephen G. Bulfinch; Lessons on the Old Testament, Rev.
+     Ephraim Peabody; The Life of Christ, Rev. John H. Morison; The Books
+     and Characters of the New Testament, Rev. Rufus Ellis; Lessons upon
+     Religious Duties and Christian Morals, Rev. George W. Briggs;
+     Doctrines of Scripture, Rev. Frederic D. Huntington; Scenes from
+     Christian History, Rev. Edward E. Hale. Two other books connected
+     with the early history of Unitarian Sunday-schools properly demand
+     notice here. In 1847 was published The History of Sunday Schools and
+     of Religious Education from the Earliest Times, by Lewis G. Pray, who
+     was treasurer of the Boston Sunday School Society from 1834 to 1853,
+     and chairman of its board of agents from 1841 to 1848. He was one of
+     the first workers in the establishing of Sunday-schools in Boston,
+     and he zealously interested himself in this cause so long as he
+     lived. He compiled the first book of hymns used in Unitarian schools,
+     and also the first book of devotional exercises. For twenty years he
+     was superintendent of the school connected with the Twelfth
+     Congregational Society, holding that place from its organization in
+     1827. In one of the concluding chapters of his book Mr. Pray gave an
+     account of the early history of Unitarian Sunday-schools in Boston
+     and its neighborhood. In 1852 was published a series of addresses
+     which had been given by Rev. Frederick T. Gray at Sunday-school
+     anniversaries and on other similar occasions. The volume contains
+     most interesting information in regard to the origin of
+     Sunday-schools in Boston, and the beginnings of the Sunday School
+     Society, as well as the work of Dr. Tuckerman and his assistants in
+     the ministry, at large.
+
+[11] Memoir of James P. Walker, with Selections from his Writings, by
+     Thomas B. Fox. American Unitarian Association, 1869.
+
+[12] The first of these was Rev. Edward H. Hall's First Lessons on the
+     Bible, which appeared in 1882; and it was soon followed by Professor
+     C.H. Toy's History of the Religion of Israel.
+
+[13] Among these were Religions before Christianity, by Professor Charles
+     Carroll Everett, D.D., 1883; Manual of Unitarian Belief, by Rev.
+     James Freeman Clarke, D.D., 1884; Lessons on the Life of St. Paul, by
+     Rev. Edward H. Hall, 1885; Early Hebrew Stories, by Rev. Charles F.
+     Dole, 1886; Hebrew Prophets and Kings, by Rev. Henry G. Spaulding,
+     1887; The Later Heroes of Israel, by Mr. Spaulding, 1888; Lessons on
+     the Gospel of Luke, by Mr. Spaulding and Rev. W.W. Fenn, 1889; A
+     Story of the Sects, by Rev. William H. Lyon, in 1891. In 1890
+     appeared the Unitarian Catechism of Rev. Minot J. Savage, though not
+     published by the Sunday School Society. These books attracted wide
+     attention, were largely used in Unitarian schools, and were adopted
+     into those of other sects to some extent. In 1886 the president of
+     the American Social Science Association publicly urged the use of the
+     ethical manuals of the society by all Sunday-schools. Several of
+     these books were republished in London, and Dr. Toy's manual was
+     translated into Dutch. The society also published a new Service Book
+     and Hymnal, which went into immediate use in a large number of
+     schools, and did much for the enrichment of the devotional exercises
+     and the promotion of an advanced standard of both words and music in
+     the hymns.
+
+[14] The Fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood of Man, the leadership of
+     Jesus, salvation by character, the progress of mankind onward and
+     upward forever.
+
+[15] Among the publications under Mr. Horton's administration, which may
+     justly be called significant, are: Beacon Lights of Christian
+     History, in three grades; Noble Lives and Noble Deeds, Dole's
+     Catechism of Liberal Faith, Mott's History of Unitarianism,
+     Pulsford's various manuals on the Bible, Mrs. Jaynes's Illustrated
+     Primary Leaflets, Miss Mulliken's Kindergarten Lessons, Story of
+     Israel and Great Thoughts of Israel, in three grades, Fenn's Acts of
+     the Apostles, Chadwick's Questions on the Old Testament Books in
+     their Right Order, Mrs. Kate Gannett Wells's forty Illustrated
+     Primary Lessons, and Walkley's Helps for Teachers. Mr. Horton, during
+     this ten years, has written fourteen manuals on various subjects.
+     Co-extensive with the large increase of text-books has been the
+     enrichment of lessons by pictorial aids. Excellent half-tone pictures
+     have been prepared from the best subjects.
+
+[16] Among the publications of the Western Unitarian Sunday School Society
+     have been Unity Services and Songs, edited by Rev. James Vila Blake,
+     and published in 1878; a service book called The Way of Life, by Rev.
+     Frederick L. Hosmer, issued in 1877; and Unity Festivals, services
+     for special holidays, 1884. Of the lesson-books published by the
+     society, those that have been most successful have been Corner-stones
+     of Character, by Mrs. Kate Gannett Wells; A Chosen Nation, or the
+     Growth of the Hebrew Religion, by Rev. William C. Gannett; and The
+     More Wonderful Genesis, by Rev. Henry M. Simmons. In 1890 the society
+     entered upon the publication of a six-year course of studies, which
+     included Beginnings according to Legend and according to the Truer
+     Story, by Rev. Allen W. Gould; The Flowering of the Hebrew Religion,
+     by Rev. W.W. Fenn; In the Home, by Rev. W.C. Gannett; Mother Nature's
+     Children, by Rev. A.W. Gould; and The Flowering of Christianity, the
+     Liberal Christian Movement toward Universal Religion, by Rev. W.C.
+     Gannett.
+
+[17] The objects of The Young People's Religious Union are: (a) to foster
+     the religious life; (b) to bring the young into closer relations with
+     one another; and (c) to spread rational views of religion, and to put
+     into practice such principles of life and duty as tend to uplift
+     mankind. The cardinal principles of the Union are truth, worship, and
+     service. Any young people's society may become a member of the Union
+     by affirming in writing its sympathy with the general objects of the
+     Union, adopting its cardinal principles, making a contribution to its
+     treasury, and sending the secretary a list of its officers. The
+     annual meeting is held in May at such day and place as the executive
+     board may appoint. Special union meetings are held as often as
+     several societies may arrange. The Union has its headquarters at Room
+     11, in the Unitarian Building, Boston, in charge of the secretary,
+     whose office hours are from 9 A.M. to 1 P.M. daily. Organization
+     hints, hymnals, leaflets, helps for the national topics, and other
+     suggestive materials are supplied. The national officers furnish
+     speakers for initial meetings, visit unions, and help in other ways.
+     The Union maintains a department in The Christian Register, under the
+     charge of the secretary, for notes, notices, helps on the topics, and
+     all matters of interest to the unions, and also publishes a monthly
+     bulletin in connection with the National Alliance of Unitarian Women.
+
+[18] In the thirty-five years which comprise the life of the commission a
+     gradual but marked change has been in operation. Sunday-school
+     libraries are being used less and less, and town libraries have
+     become much more numerous and better patronized by both old and
+     young. In the spring of 1896 the question arose in the commission
+     whether, with the decline of the Sunday-school library, the need
+     which called it into being had not ceased to exist; and, in order to
+     secure information as to the advisability of continuing its work,
+     cards were sent to 305 ministers of the denomination and to 507
+     public libraries, mostly in New England, asking if the lists of the
+     commission were found useful, and whether it was desired that the
+     sending of them should be continued. From Unitarian ministers 209
+     replies were received, one-half using the lists frequently and the
+     other half occasionally or for the selection of special books. From
+     the town libraries cordial replies were received in 220 instances,
+     most of them warmly approving of the lists, which had been found very
+     useful. The result of this investigation was to bring the commission
+     more directly into touch with the various libraries, and to give it a
+     better understanding of their needs.
+
+
+
+
+XII.
+
+
+THE WOMEN'S ALLIANCE AND ITS PREDECESSORS.
+
+The Unitarian body has been remarkable for the women of intellectual power
+and philanthropic achievement who have adorned its fellowship. In
+proportion to their numbers, they have done much for the improvement and
+uplifting of society. In the early Unitarian period, however, the special
+work of women was for the most part confined to the Sunday-school and the
+sewing circle. Whatever the name by which it was known, whether as the
+Dorcas Society, the Benevolent Society, or the Ladies' Aid, the sewing
+circle did a work that was in harmony with the needs of the time, and did
+it well. It helped the church with which it was connected in many quiet
+ways, and gave much aid to the poor and suffering members of the community.
+Nor did it limit its activities to purely local interests; for many a
+church was helped by it and the early missionary societies received its
+contributions gladly.
+
+Before the organization of the Benevolent Fraternity of Churches, the women
+of Boston raised the money necessary for the support of the ministry at
+large in that city. One of the earliest societies organized for general
+service, was the Tuckerman Sewing Circle, formed in 1827. Its purpose was
+to assist Dr. Tuckerman in his work for the poor of the city by providing
+clothing and otherwise aiding the needy. The work of this circle is still
+going on in connection, with the Bulfinch Place Church; and every year it
+raises a large sum of money for the charitable work of the ministry at
+large.
+
+The civil war helped women to recognize the need of organization and
+co-operation, on their part. In working for the soldiers, not only in their
+homes and churches, but in connection with the Sanitary Commission, and
+later in seeking to aid the freedmen, they learned their own power and the
+value of combination with others. In Massachusetts the work of the Sanitary
+Commission was largely carried on by Unitarians. In describing this work,
+Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney has indicated what was done by Unitarian women.
+"During the late war," she wrote, "a woman's branch of the Sanitary
+Commission was organized in New England. Mary Dwight (Parkman) was its
+first president; but Abby Williams May soon took her place, which she held
+till the close of the war. With unwearied zeal Miss May presided over its
+councils, organized its action, and encouraged others to work. She went
+down to the hospitals and camps, to judge of their needs with her own eyes,
+and travelled from town to town in New England, arousing the women to new
+effort. These might be seen, young and old, rich and poor, bearing bundles
+of blue flannel through the streets, and unaccustomed fingers knitting the
+coarse yarn, while the heart throbbed with anxiety for the dear ones gone
+to the war. A noble band of nurses volunteered their services, and the
+strife was as to which should go soonest and do the hardest work. Hannah E.
+Stevenson, Helen Stetson, and many another name became as dear to the
+soldiers as that of mother or sister. A committee was formed to supply the
+colored soldiers with such help as other soldiers received from their
+relations; and, when one of the noblest of Boston's sons passed through her
+streets at their head, his mother 'thanked God for the privilege of seeing
+that day.' The same spirit went into the work of educating the freedmen.
+Young men and women, the noblest and best, went forth together to that work
+of danger and toil."[1]
+
+[Sidenote: Women's Western Unitarian Conference.]
+
+It was such experiences as these that encouraged Unitarian women to enter
+upon other philanthropic and educational labors when the civil war had come
+to an end. Leaders had been trained during this period who were capable of
+guiding such movements to a successful issue. The example of the women of
+the evangelical churches in organizing their home and foreign missionary
+associations also undoubtedly influenced, to a greater or lesser degree,
+the women of the liberal churches. After the organization of the National
+Conference, Unitarian women began to realize, as never before, the need of
+co-operation in behalf of the cause they had at heart.[2] It was in the
+central west, however, that the first effort was made to organize women in
+the interest of denominational activities. In 1877, at the meeting of the
+Western Unitarian Conference held in Toledo, it was voted that the women
+connected with that body be requested to organize immediately for the
+purpose of co-operating in the general work of the conference. At this
+meeting two women, Mrs. E.P. Allis of Milwaukee and Mrs. Mary P. Wells
+Smith of Cincinnati, were placed on the board of directors.
+
+At the next annual meeting of the Western Conference, held in Chicago, the
+committee on organization, consisting of thirteen women, reported the
+readiness of the women to give their aid to the conference work, saying in
+their report "that we signify not only our willingness, but our earnest
+desire to share henceforth with our brothers in the labors and
+responsibilities of this Association, and that we pledge ourselves to an
+active and hearty support of those cherished convictions which constitute
+our liberal faith." In response to their request, the conference selected
+an assistant secretary to have charge of everything relating to the work of
+women. They also recommended that the women of the several churches
+connected with the conference should organize for "the study and
+dissemination of the principles of free thought and liberal religious
+culture, and the practical assistance of all worthy schemes and enterprises
+intended for the spread and upholding of these principles." In 1881, at St.
+Louis, there was organized the Women's Western Unitarian Conference, with
+Mrs. Eliza Sunderland as president and Miss F.L. Roberts as secretary.
+During the seventeen years of its existence this conference raised much
+money for denominational work, developed many earnest workers, and
+accomplished much in behalf of the principles for which it stood. It aided
+in the support of several missionaries, organized the Post-office Mission
+and made it effective, and encouraged a number of women to enter the
+ministry.
+
+[Sidenote: Women's Auxiliary Conference.]
+
+At the National Conference session of 1878, held at Saratoga, where much
+enthusiasm had been awakened, it was suggested that the women, who had been
+hitherto listeners only, should take an active part in, denominational
+work. At a gathering in the parlor of the United States Hotel, called by
+Mrs. Charles G. Ames, Mrs. Fielder Israel, Mrs. J.P. Lesley, and one or two
+others, a plan of action was adopted that led, in 1880, to the formation of
+the Women's Auxiliary Conference. The aim of this organization was to
+quicken the religious life of the churches, to stimulate local charitable
+and missionary undertakings, and to raise money for missionary enterprises;
+but its work was to be done in connection with the National Conference, and
+not as an independent organization. The purpose was stated in a circular
+sent to the churches immediately after the organization was effected.
+"Hitherto," it was said, "women have not been specially represented upon
+the board of the National Conference, and have not fully recognized how
+helpful they might be in its various undertakings or how much they
+themselves might gain from a closer relation with it. But the time has now
+come when our service is called for in the broad field, and also when we
+feel the need of being at work there; for our faith in the great truths of
+religion is no less vital than that of our brethren; and since the service
+we can render, being different from theirs, is needed to supplement it, and
+because it is peculiarly women's service, we must do it, or it will be left
+undone. It is one of the glories of such a work as ours that there is need
+and room in it for the best effort of every individual; indeed, without the
+faithful service of all it must be incomplete."
+
+In 1890, after ten years of active existence, the conference had about
+eighty branches, with a membership of between 3,000 and 4,000 women. Much
+of the success of the conference was due to its president, Abby W. May.
+Miss May was well known as a philanthropist and educator, and had occupied
+many prominent positions before she assumed the presidency of the
+auxiliary; but this was her first active work in connection with the
+denomination.
+
+[Sidenote: The National Alliance.]
+
+Admirable as were the aims, and excellent as was the work of this
+organization, it was auxiliary to the National Conference, and had no
+independent life. After the first enthusiasm was past, it failed to gain
+ground rapidly, the membership remaining nearly stationary during the last
+few years of its existence. As time went on, therefore, it became evident
+that a more complete organization was needed in order to arouse enthusiasm
+and to secure the loyalty of the women of all parts of the country. The New
+York League of Unitarian Women, including those of New York, Brooklyn, and
+New Jersey, organized in 1887, showed the advantages of a closer union and
+a more definite purpose; and the desire to bring into one body all the
+various local organizations hastened the change. It was seen that, in the
+multiplication of organizations, there was danger of wasting the energies
+used, and that one efficient body was greatly to be desired.
+
+In May, 1888, a committee was formed for the purpose of drafting a
+constitution for a new association, "to which all existing organizations
+might subscribe." The constitution provided by this committee was adopted
+October 24, 1890, and the new organization took the name of the National
+Alliance of Unitarian and Other Liberal Christian Women. The object
+proposed was "to quicken the life of our Unitarian churches, and to bring
+the women of the denomination into closer acquaintance, co-operation, and
+fellowship." In 1891 there were ninety branches, with about 5,000 members.
+While the membership, doubled under the impulse of the new organization,
+the increase in the amount of money raised was fivefold.
+
+The admirable results secured by the Women's Alliance, which has finally
+drawn all the sectional organizations into co-operation with itself, are in
+no small measure due to the energy and the organizing skill of the women
+who have been at the head of its activities. Mrs. Judith W. Andrews, of
+Boston, was the president during the first year of its existence. From 1891
+to 1901 the president was Mrs. B. Ward Dix, of Brooklyn, who was succeeded
+by Miss Emma C. Low, of the same city. Mrs. Emily A. Fifield, of Boston,
+has been the recording secretary; Mrs. Mary B. Davis, of New York, the
+corresponding secretary; and Miss Flora L. Close, of Boston, the treasurer
+from the first.
+
+[Sidenote: Cheerful Letter and Post-office Missions.]
+
+In 1891 the executive board appointed a committee to organize a Cheerful
+Letter Exchange, of which Miss Lilian Freeman Clarke was made the chairman.
+One of its chief purposes is to cheer the lonely and discouraged, invalids
+and others, by interchange of letters and by gifts of books and
+periodicals. To young persons in remote places it affords facilities for
+securing a better education, with the aid of correspondence classes. By
+means of a little monthly magazine, The Cheerful Letter, religious teaching
+is brought to many persons, who in this find a substitute for church
+attendance where that is not possible. Through the same channel, as well as
+by correspondence, these workers help young mothers in the right training
+of their children. Libraries have been started in communities destitute of
+books, and struggling libraries have been aided with gifts. Forty
+travelling libraries are kept in circulation.
+
+Although much had been done to circulate Unitarian tracts and the other
+publications of the American Unitarian Association, by means of
+colporteurs, by the aid of the post-office, as well as by direct gift of
+friend to friend, it remained for Miss Sallie Ellis, of Cincinnati, in
+1881, to systematize this kind of missionary effort, and to make it one of
+the most valuable of all agents for the dissemination of liberal religious
+ideas. Miss Ellis was aided by the Cincinnati branch of the Women's
+Auxiliary, but she was from the first the heart and soul of this mission.
+"If there had been no Miss Ellis," says one who knew her work intimately,
+"there would have been no Post-office Mission. Many helped about it in
+various ways, but she was the mission."
+
+Miss Ellis was a frail little woman, hopelessly deaf and suffering from an
+incurable disease. Notwithstanding her physical limitations, she longed to
+be of service to the faith she cherished; and the missionary spirit burned
+strong within her. "I want," she said often, "to do something for
+Unitarianism before I die"; but the usual avenues of opportunity seemed
+firmly closed to her. At last, in the winter of 1877-78, Rev. Charles W.
+Wendte, then her pastor, anxious to find something for her to do, proposed
+that she should send the Association's tracts and copies of the Pamphlet
+Mission to persons in the west who were interested in the liberal faith.
+She took up this work gladly, and during that winter distributed 1,846
+tracts and 211 copies of the Pamphlet Mission in twenty-six States.
+
+A tract table in the vestibule of the church was started by Miss Ellis; and
+she not only distributed sermons freely in this way, but she also sold
+Unitarian books. It was in 1881 that she was made the secretary of the
+newly organized Women's Auxiliary in Cincinnati, and that her work really
+began systematically. At the suggestion of Mrs. Mary P. Wells Smith,
+advertisements were inserted in the daily papers, and offers made to send
+Unitarian publications, when requested. Many doubted the advisability of
+such an enterprise, but the letters received soon indicated that an
+important method of mission work had been discovered. Rev. William C.
+Gannett christened this work the Post-office Mission, and that name it has
+since retained.
+
+Only four and one-half years were permitted to Miss Ellis in which to
+accomplish her work,--a work dear to her heart, and one for which her many
+losses and sufferings had prepared her. During this period she wrote 2,500
+letters, sent out 22,000 tracts and papers, sold 286 books, and loaned 258.
+The real value of such work cannot be rightly estimated in figures. Through
+her influence, several young men entered the ministry who are to-day doing
+effective work. She saved several persons from doubt and despair, gave
+strength to the weak, and comfort to those who mourned. At her death, in
+1885, the letters received from many of her correspondents showed how
+strong and deep had been her influence.[3]
+
+The movement initiated by Miss Ellis grew rapidly, and has become one of
+the most valuable of all agents for the dissemination of liberal religious
+ideas. In the year 1900 the number of correspondents was about 5,000, and
+the number of tracts, sermons, periodicals, and books distributed was about
+200,000. The extent of this mission is also seen in the fact that in that
+year about 8,000 letters were written by the workers, and about 6,000 were
+received.
+
+By means of the Post-office Mission the literature of the denomination, the
+tracts of the Unitarian Association, copies of The Christian Register, and
+other periodicals have been scattered all over the world. Thousands of
+sermons are distributed also from tables in church vestibules. Several
+branches publish and exchange sermons, and a loan library has been
+established to supplement this work.[4]
+
+From the distribution of tracts and sermons has grown the formation of
+"Sunday Circles" and "Groups" of Unitarians, carefully planned circuit
+preaching, the employment of missionaries, and the building of chapels or
+small churches. Two of these are already built; and the Alliance has
+insured the support of their ministers for five years, and two others are
+in the process of erection.
+
+[Sidenote: Associate Alliances.]
+
+The women on the Pacific coast have been compelled in a large measure to
+organize their own work and to adopt their own methods, the distance being
+too great for immediate co-operation with the other organizations. In this
+work they have not only displayed energy and perseverance, but, says one
+who knows intimately of their efforts, "they have shown executive ability
+and power as organizers that have furnished an example to many
+non-sectarian organizations of women, and have made the Unitarian women
+conspicuous in all charitable and social activities."
+
+The oldest society of Unitarian women on the Pacific coast was connected
+with the First Church in San Francisco. In 1873 it was reorganized as the
+Society for Christian Work. Its work has been mainly social and
+philanthropic, contributing reading matter to penal institutions, money for
+the care of the poor of the city, and aiding every new Unitarian church in
+the State. The Channing Auxiliary combines the activities of the churches
+in the vicinity of San Francisco with those in the city. Its objects are
+"moral and religious culture, practical literary work, and co-operation
+with the denominational and missionary agencies of the Unitarian faith."
+From 1890 to 1899 this society spent over $6,000 in aid of denominational
+enterprises, and it appropriates annually a large sum for Post-office
+Mission work. While these two organizations represent San Francisco and its
+neighborhood, the women up and down the coast have also been earnest
+workers. In 1890 they felt the need of a closer bond of union, and
+organized the Women's Unitarian Conference of the Pacific Coast. In 1894
+this conference became a branch of the National Alliance, and has
+co-operated cordially with it since that time.
+
+The New York League of Unitarian Women has been active in forming Alliance
+branches and new churches, as well as in affording aid to Meadville
+students. The Chicago Associate Alliance, the Southern Associate Alliance,
+and the Connecticut Valley Associate Alliance were organized in 1890. The
+Worcester League of Unitarian Women began its existence in 1889, and was
+reorganized in connection with the National Alliance in 1892.
+
+[Sidenote: Alliance Methods.]
+
+In thus coming into closer relations with each other and forming a national
+organization, each local branch continues free in its own action, chooses
+its own methods of carrying on its work, but keeps close knowledge of what
+the Alliance as a whole is doing, that all interference with others and
+overlapping of assistance may be avoided, and the greatest mutual benefit
+may be secured. This method gives the utmost independence to the branches,
+while preserving the element of personal interest in all financial
+disbursements, and creates a strong bond of sympathy between those who give
+and those who receive.
+
+The first duty of each branch is to strengthen the church to which its
+members belong; and the value of such an organized group of women, meeting
+to exchange ideas and experiences on the most vital topics of human
+interest, has been everywhere recognized. Each branch is expected to engage
+in some form of religious study, not only for the improvement of the
+members themselves, but to enable them to gain, and to give others, a
+comprehensive knowledge of Unitarian beliefs. A study class committee
+provides programmes for the use of the branches, arranges for the lending
+and exchange of papers, and assists those who do not have access to books
+of reference or are remote from the centres of Unitarian thought and
+activity.
+
+With this preparation the Alliance undertakes the higher service of joining
+in the missionary activities of the denomination, supplementing as far as
+possible the work of the American Unitarian Association. This includes
+sending missionaries into new fields, aiding small and struggling churches,
+helping to found new ones, supporting ministers at important points, and
+and distributing religious literature among those who need light on
+religious problems.
+
+[1] Memorial History of Boston, IV. 353.
+
+[2] See later chapters for account of admission of women to National
+    Conference, Unitarian Association, the ministry, Boston school board,
+    and various other lines of activity.
+
+[3] Mary P.W. Smith, Miss Ellis's Mission.
+
+[4] This library is in the Unitarian Building, 25 Beacon Street, Boston.
+
+
+
+
+XIII.
+
+
+MISSIONS TO INDIA AND JAPAN.
+
+Foreign missions have never commanded a general interest on the part of
+Unitarians. Their dislike of the proselyting spirit, their intense love of
+liberty for others as well as for themselves, and the absence of sectarian
+feeling have combined to make them, as a body, indifferent to the
+propagation of their faith in other countries. They have done something,
+however, to express their sympathy with those of kindred faith in foreign
+lands.
+
+In 1829 the younger Henry Ware visited England and Ireland as the foreign
+secretary of the Unitarian Association; and at the annual meeting of 1831
+he reported the results of his inquiries.[1] This was the beginning of
+many interchanges of good fellowship with the Unitarians of Great Britain,
+and also with those of Hungary, Transylvania, France, Germany, and other
+European countries. During the first decade or two of the existence of the
+Unitarian Association much interest was taken in the liberal movements in
+Geneva; and the third annual report gave account of what was being done in
+that city and in Calcutta, as well as in Transylvania and Great Britain.
+Some years later, aid was promised to the Unitarians of Hungary in a time
+of persecution; but they were dispossessed of their schools before help
+reached them. In 1868 the Association founded Channing and Priestley
+professorships in the theological school at Kolozsvar, and Mrs. Anna
+Richmond furnished money for a permanent professorship in the same
+institution. Soon after the renewed activity of 1865 an unsuccessful
+attempt was made to establish an American Unitarian church in Paris; and
+aid was given to the founding of an English liberal church in that city.
+These are indications of the many interchanges of fellowship and
+helpfulness between the Unitarians of this country and those of Europe.
+
+[Sidenote: Society respecting the State of Religion in India.]
+
+As early as 1824 began a movement to aid the native Unitarians of India,
+partly the result of a lively interest in Rammohun Roy and the
+republication in this country of his writings. On June 7, 1822, The
+Christian Register gave an account of the adoption of Unitarianism by that
+remarkable Hindoo leader; and it often recurred to the subject in later
+years. In February of the next year it described the formation of a
+Unitarian society in Calcutta, and the conversion to Unitarianism of a
+Baptist missionary, Rev. William Adam, as a result of his attempt to
+convert Rammohun Roy. There followed frequent reports of this movement, and
+after a few months a letter from Mr. Adam was published. Even before this
+there had appeared accounts of William Roberts, of Madras, a native Tamil,
+who had been educated in England, and had there become a Unitarian. On his
+return to his own country he had established small congregations in the
+suburbs of Madras.
+
+In 1823 a letter from Rev. William Adam was received in Boston, addressed
+to Dr. Channing. It was put into the hands of the younger Henry Ware, who
+wrote to Mr. Adam and Rammohun Roy, propounding to them a number of
+questions in regard to the religious situation in India. In 1824 were
+published in a volume the letter of Ware and the series of questions sent
+by him to India, together with the replies of Rammohun Roy and William
+Adam.[2] This book was one of much interest, and furnished the first
+systematic account that had been given to the public of the reformatory
+religious interest awakened at that time in India. In February, 1825, was
+organized the Society for obtaining Information respecting the State of
+Religion in India, "with a view to obtain and diffuse information and to
+devise and recommend means for the promotion of Christianity in that part
+of the world." The younger Henry Ware was made the president, and Dr.
+Tuckerman the secretary. Already a fund had been collected to aid the
+British Indian Unitarian Association of Calcutta in its missionary efforts,
+especially in building a church and maintaining a minister.
+
+During the year 1825 there was published at the office of The Christian
+Register a pamphlet of sixty-three pages, written by a member of the
+Information Society, being An Appeal to Liberal Christians for the Cause of
+Christianity in India. In 1826 Dr. Tuckerman addressed A Letter on the
+Principles of the Missionary Enterprise to the executive committee of the
+Unitarian Association, in which he gave a noble exposition of the work of
+foreign missions, especially with reference to the Indian field. This
+letter and other writings of Tuckerman served to arouse much interest. The
+Appeal urged what many Unitarians had large faith in,--the promulgation of
+"just and rational views of our religion" "upon enlarged and liberal
+principles, from which we may hope for the speedy establishment and the
+wider extension there of the uncorrupted truth as it is in Jesus."
+
+In 1826 the sum of $7,000 was secured for this work; and in the spring of
+1827 a pledge was made to send yearly to Calcutta the sum of $600 for ten
+years. These pledges were in connection with like efforts made by the
+British and Foreign Unitarian Association. In 1839 Mr. Adam visited the
+United States, and spoke at the annual meeting of the Unitarian
+Association. Following this, he was for a few years professor of Oriental
+literature in Harvard University.
+
+[Sidenote: Dall's Work in India.]
+
+In 1853 Rev. Charles T. Brooks, who was for many years the minister of the
+church in Newport, visited India in search of health; and he was
+commissioned by the Unitarian Association to make inquiries as to the
+prospects for missionary labors in that country. In Madras he met William
+Roberts, the younger son of the former Unitarian preacher there and visited
+the several missions carried on by him. In Calcutta he found Unitarians,
+but the work of Mr. Adam had left almost no results. The report of Mr.
+Brooks was such that an effort was at once made to secure a missionary for
+India.[3] In 1855 Rev. Charles H.A. Dall undertook this mission. He had
+been a minister at large in St. Louis, Baltimore, and Portsmouth, and
+settled over parishes in Needham and Toronto. Mr. Ball was given the widest
+liberty of action in conducting his mission, as his instructions indicate:
+"There you are to enter upon the work of a missionary; and whether by
+preaching, in English or through an interpreter, or by school-teaching or
+by writing for the press, or by visiting from house to house, or by
+translating tracts, or by circulation of books, you are instructed, what we
+know your heart will prompt you to do, to give yourself to a life of
+usefulness as a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ."
+
+On his arrival at Calcutta, Mr. Ball was in a prostrate condition, and had
+to be carried ashore. After a time he rallied and began his work. He
+gathered a small congregation about him, then began teaching; and his work
+grew until he had four large and flourishing schools under his charge. In
+these he gave special attention, to moral and religious training, and to
+the industrial arts. In his school work he had the efficient aid of Miss
+Chamberlain, and after her death of Mrs. Helen Tompkins. One of the native
+teachers, Dwarkanath Singha, was of great service in securing the interest
+of the natives, being at the head, for many years, of all the schools under
+Mr. Dall's control. Mr. Dall founded the Calcutta School of Industrial Art,
+the Useful Arts' School, Hindoo Girls' School, as well as a school for the
+waifs of the streets. In these schools were 8,000 pupils, mostly Hindoos,
+who were taught a practical religion,--the simple principles of the gospel.
+In education Mr. Dall accomplished large results, not only by his schools,
+but by talking and lecturing on the subject. His influence was especially
+felt in the education of girls and in industrial training, in both of which
+directions he was a pioneer. Only one of his schools is now in existence,
+simply because the government took up the work he began, and gave it a
+larger support than was possible on the part of any individual or any
+society.
+
+Mr. Dall wrote extensively for the leading journals of India, and in that
+way he reached a larger number of persons throughout the country. This
+brought him a large correspondence, and he frequently journeyed far to
+visit individuals and congregations thus brought to his knowledge. For many
+years he was one of the leading men of Calcutta. Few great public meetings
+of any reformatory or educational kind were held without his having a
+prominent part in them. He published great numbers of tracts and
+lectures,[4] and translated the works of the leading Unitarians of
+America and Great Britain into Hindostanee, Bengali, Tamil, Sanscrit, and
+other native languages. His zeal in circulating liberal writings was great,
+and met with a large reward. He distributed hundreds of copies of the
+complete Works of Dr. Channing, and these brought many persons to the
+acceptance of Unitarianism. When Rev. Jabez T. Sunderland was in India, in
+1895-96, he found many traces of these volumes, even in remote parts of the
+country. When he was in Madras, a very intelligent Hindoo walked one
+hundred and fifty miles to procure of him a copy of Channing's biography to
+replace a copy received from Mr. Dall, which, had been reread and loaned
+until it was almost worn out.
+
+A considerable part of Mr. Ball's influence was in connection with the
+Brahmo-Somaj, in directing its religious, educational, and reformatory
+work. He did not make many nominal Unitarians; but he had a very large
+influence in shaping the life of India by his personal influence and by the
+weight of his religious character. Everywhere he was greatly beloved. He
+earned considerable sums as a reporter and author in aid of his mission,
+and he lived in a most abstemious manner in order to devote as much money
+as possible to his work.[5] In this devoted service he continued until
+his death, which took place July 18, 1886.
+
+[Sidenote: Recent Work in India.]
+
+Since the death of Mr. Dall the aid given to India by American Unitarians
+has been through the natives themselves. The work of Pundita, Ramabai has
+received considerable assistance, as has also that of Mozoomdar. Early in
+the year 1888, Rev. Brooke Herford, then minister of the Arlington Street
+Church in Boston, received from India a letter addressed "To the chief
+pastor of the Unitarian congregation at Boston." It proved to be from a
+young lawyer or pleader in Banda, North-west Provinces, named Akbar Masih.
+His father was an educated Mohammedan, who in early life had been converted
+to Calvinistic Christianity, and had become a missionary. At the Calcutta
+University the son had outgrown the faith he had been taught; and a volume
+of Channing's Works, put in circulation by Mr. Dall, had given him the
+mental and spiritual teaching he desired. Tracts and books were sent him,
+and a correspondence followed. He read with great delight what he received,
+and in a year or two he desired to become a missionary. Mr. Herford sent
+him money, and he was employed to spend one-third of his time in the
+missionary service of Unitarianism. When Mr. Herford removed to London, the
+support of Akbar Masih was arranged for in England; and he has done a large
+work in preaching, lecturing, holding conferences, and publishing tracts
+and books.
+
+Nearly in the same week in which Mr. Herford received his first letter from
+Akbar Masih, Mr. Sunderland, in Ann Arbor, received one from Hajam Kissor
+Singh, Jowai, Khasi Hills, Assam. He was a young man employed by the
+government as a surveyor, was well educated, but belonged to one of the
+primitive tribes that retain their aboriginal religion and customs to a
+large extent. He had been taught orthodox Christianity, however; but it was
+not satisfactory to him. A Brahmo friend loaned him a copy of Channing, and
+furnished him with Mr. Dall's address. In the bundle of tracts sent him by
+Mr. Dall was a copy of The Unitarian, which led him to write to its editor,
+Mr. Sunderland. A correspondence followed, and the sending of many tracts
+and books. Mr. Singh began to talk of his new views to others, who gathered
+in his room on Sunday afternoons for religious inquiry and worship. Soon
+there was a call for similar meetings in another village, and Mr. Singh
+began to serve as a lay-preacher. A church was organized in Jowai, and then
+a day school was opened. Tracts and books being necessary in order to carry
+on the work successfully, Mr. Sunderland raised the necessary money,
+printed them in Khasi at Ann Arbor, and forwarded them to Assam, thus
+greatly facilitating the labors of Mr. Singh and his assistants. Also,
+through the help of American Unitarians, Mr. Singh was able to secure the
+aid of two paid helpers. When Mr. Sunderland visited the Khasi Hills, in
+1895, as the agent of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association, he
+helped to ordain a regular pastor; and he found church buildings in five
+villages, day-schools in four, and religious circles meeting in eight or
+nine others. This mission is now being supported by the English Unitarians.
+
+[Sidenote: The Beginnings in Japan.]
+
+After the death of Mr. Dall it was not found desirable to continue his
+educational work, and the missionary activities in India naturally came
+under the jurisdiction of the British Unitarian Association. At the same
+time, Japan offered an inviting field for missionary effort, and one not
+hitherto occupied by Unitarians. In 1884 a movement began in that country,
+looking to the introduction of a rational Christianity, the leader being
+Yukichi Fukuzawa, a prominent statesman, head of the Keiogijiku University
+and editor of the leading newspaper. In 1886 Fumio Yano, after a visit to
+England, took up the same mission, and urged the adoption of Christianity
+as a moral force in the life of the nation. The latter interpreted
+Unitarianism as being the form of Christianity needed in Japan, and
+strongly urged its acceptance. Other prominent men joined with these two in
+commending a rational Christianity to their countrymen. Not long afterwards
+the American Unitarian Association was asked to establish a mission in that
+country. In 1887 Rev. Arthur M. Knapp was sent to Japan to investigate the
+situation, and in the spring of 1889 he returned to report the results of
+his inquiries. He had; been welcomed; by the leading men, such as the
+Marquis Tokujawa and Kentaro Kaneko, who opened to him many avenues of
+influence. He had written for the most important newspapers, had come into
+personal contact with the leading men of all parties, had lectured; on many
+occasions to highly educated audiences, and had opened a wide-reaching
+correspondence.
+
+On his return to Japan, in 1889, Mr. Knapp was prepared to begin systematic
+work in behalf of rational Christianity. It was not his purpose, however,
+to seek to establish Unitarianism there as the basis of a new Japanese
+sect, but to diffuse it as a leaven for the moral and spiritual elevation
+of the people of Japan. "The errand of Unitarianism in Japan," said Mr.
+Knapp to the Japanese, "is based upon the familiar idea of the sympathy of
+religions. With the conviction that we are the messengers of distinctive
+and valuable truths which have not yet been emphasized, and that, in
+return, there is much in your faith and life which to our harm we have not
+emphasized, receive us not as theological propagandists, but as messengers
+of the new gospel of human brotherhood in the religion of man."
+
+With Mr. Knapp were associated Rev. Clay MacCauley as colleague, and also
+Garrett Droppers, John H. Wigmore, and William Shields Liscomb, who were to
+become, professors in the Keiogijiku, a leading university, situated in
+Tokio, and to give such aid as they could to the Unitarian mission. With
+these men was soon associated Rev. H.W. Hawkes, a young English minister,
+who gave his services to this important work. There also accompanied the
+American party Mr. Saichiro Kanda, who had become a Unitarian while
+residing in San Francisco, and had attended the Meadville Theological
+School. In the winter of 1890-91, Mr. Knapp returned to the United States,
+and a little later Mr. Hawkes went back to England. In 1891 Rev. William I.
+Lawrance joined the mission force; and he continued with it until 1894,
+when a severe illness compelled his resignation. Professor Wigmore returned
+to America in 1892 to accept a chair in the North-western University;
+Professor Liscomb came home in 1893, dying soon after his return; while
+Professor Droppers remained until the winter of 1898, when he became the
+president of the University of South Dakota. In the beginning of 1900, Mr.
+MacCauley, after having had direction of the mission for nine years,
+returned to America; and it was left in control of the Japanese Unitarian
+Association, the American Association continuing to give it generous
+financial aid and counsel.
+
+As already indicated, the purpose of the mission has not been Unitarian
+propagandism as such. It has been that of religious enlightenment, the
+bringing to the Japanese, in a catholic and humanitarian spirit, of the
+body of religious truths and convictions known as Unitarianism, and then
+permitting them to organize themselves after the manner of their own
+national life. No churches were organized by the representatives of the
+American Unitarian Association. Those that have come into existence have
+been wholly at the initiative of the natives. Early in 1894 was erected, in
+Tokio, Yuiitsukwan, or Unity Hall, with money furnished largely from the
+United States. This building serves as the headquarters for Unitarian work,
+including lectures and social and religious meetings. In 1896 was organized
+the Japanese Unitarian Association for the work of diffusing Unitarian
+principles throughout the country. The mission is organized into the three
+departments of church extension, publication, and education. Of this
+Association, Jitsunen Saji, formerly a prominent Buddhist lecturer and a
+member at present of the city council of Tokyo, is the superintendent. The
+secretary has been Saichiro Kanda, who has faithfully given his time to
+this work since he returned to Japan with the mission party, in 1889. The
+broad purposes of the Japanese Unitarian Association have been clearly
+defined in its constitution: "We desire to act in accordance with God's
+will, which we perceive by our inborn reason. We strive to follow the
+guidance of noble religion, exact science and philosophy, and to discover
+their truth. We believe it to be a natural law of the human mind to
+investigate freely all phenomena of the universe. We aim to maintain the
+peace of the world, and to promote the happiness of mankind. We endeavor to
+assert our rights, and to fulfil our duties as Japanese citizens; and to
+increase the prosperity of the country by all honorable means."
+
+Early in 1891 was begun the publication in Japanese of a magazine called at
+first The Unitarian, but afterwards Religion. The paid circulation was
+about 1,000 copies, but it was largely used as a tract for free
+distribution. In 1897 this magazine was merged into a popular religious
+monthly called Rikugo-Zasshi or Cosmos, which has a large circulation. It
+is published at the headquarters of the Japanese Unitarian Association, and
+is the organ of the liberalizing work carried on by that institution. The
+Association has translated thirty or forty American and English
+tracts,--some have been added by native writers; and these were distributed
+to the number of 100,000 in 1900. A number of important liberal books,
+including Bixby's Crisis in Morals, Clarke's Steps in Belief, and Fiske's
+Idea of God, have been translated into Japanese, and obtain a ready sale.
+An extensive work of education, is carried on through the press, nearly all
+the leading journals having been freely open to the Unitarians since the
+beginning of the mission.
+
+The direct work of education has been the most important of all the phases
+of the mission's activities. A library of several thousand volumes,
+representing all phases of modern thought, has been collected in Unity
+Hall; and it is of great value to the teaching carried on there. Lectures
+are given every Sunday in Unity Hall, and listened to by large audiences.
+Much has been done in various parts of Tokyo, as well as elsewhere, to
+reach the student class, and educated persons in all classes of society;
+and many persons have thus been brought to an acceptance of Unitarianism.
+In 1890 were begun systematic courses of lectures, with a view to giving
+educated Japanese inquirers a thorough knowledge of modern religious ideas;
+and these grew into the Senshin Gakuin, or School of Advanced Learning, a
+theological school with seven professors, and an annual attendance of
+thirty or forty students, nearly all of whom have been graduates of
+colleges and universities. Unhappily, the failure of financial support
+compelled the abandonment of this school in 1898. The chief educational
+work, however, has been done in the colleges and universities, through the
+general diffusion of liberal religious principles, and by the free spirit
+of inquiry characteristic of all educated Japanese.
+
+The success of the Japanese mission is chiefly due to Rev. Clay MacCauley,
+who gave it the wise direction and the organizing skill necessary to its
+permanent growth. It is a noble monument to his devotion, and to his
+untiring efforts for its advancement. His little book on Christianity in
+History is very popular, both in its English and Japanese versions; and
+thousands of copies are annually distributed.
+
+The results of the Japanese mission are especially evident in a general
+liberalizing of religious thought throughout the country in both the
+Buddhist and Christian communions, and in the wide-spread approval shown
+towards its methods and principles among the upper and student classes. Its
+chief gain, however, consists of the scholarly and influential men who have
+accepted the Unitarian faith, and given it their zealous support. Among
+these men are the late Hajime Onishi, president of the College of
+Literature in the new Imperial University at Kyoto; Nobuta Kishimoto,
+professor of ethics in the Imperial Normal School; Tomoyoshi Murai,
+professor of English in the Foreign Languages School of Japan; Iso Abe,
+professor in the Doshisha University; Kinza Hirai, professor in the
+Imperial Normal School; Yoshiwo Ogasawara, who is leading an extensive work
+of social and moral reform in Wakayama; Saburo Shimada, proprietor of the
+Mainichi, one of the largest daily newspapers of the empire; and Zennosuki
+Toyosaki, professor in the Kokumin Eigakukwai, and associate editor of the
+Rikugo Zasshi.[6] These men are educating the Japanese people to know
+Christianity in its rational forms; and their influence is being rapidly
+extended throughout the country. In their hands the future of liberal
+religion in Japan is safe; and what they do for their own people is more
+certain of permanent results than anything that can be accomplished by
+foreigners. The real significance of the Japanese Unitarian mission is that
+it has inaugurated a new era in religious propagandism; that it has been
+for the followers of the religions traditional to Japan, as well as for
+those of the Christian missions, eminently a means for presenting them with
+the world's most advanced thought in religion, and that it has been a
+stimulus to a purer faith and a larger fellowship.
+
+[1] First Report of the Executive Committee of the American Unitarian
+    Association, 16. "The thoughts of the committee have been turned to
+    their brethren in other lands. A correspondence has been opened with
+    Unitarians in England, and the coincidence is worthy of notice, that
+    the British and Foreign Unitarian Association, and the American
+    Unitarian Association were organized on the same day, for the same
+    objects, and without the least previous concert. Our good wishes have
+    been reciprocated by the directors of the British Society. Letters
+    received from gentlemen who have recently visited England speak of
+    the interest which our brethren in that country feel for us, and of
+    their desire to strengthen the bonds of union. A constant
+    communication will be preserved between the two Associations and your
+    committee believe it will have a beneficial effect, by making us
+    better acquainted with one another, by introducing the publications
+    of each country into the other, by the influence which we shall
+    mutually exert, and by the strength which will be given to our
+    separate, or it may be, to our united efforts for the spread of the
+    glorious gospel of our Lord and Saviour."
+
+[2] Correspondence relative to the Prospects of Christianity and the
+    Means of Promoting its Reception in India. Cambridge: Billiard &
+    Metcalfe. 1824. 138 pp.
+
+[3] Christian Examiner, LXIII 36, India's Appeal to Christian Unitarians,
+    by Rev. C.T. Brooks.
+
+[4] Some Gospel Principles, in Ten Lectures, by C.H.A. Dall, Calcutta,
+    1856. Also see The Mission to India instituted by the American
+    Unitarian Association. Boston: Office of the Quarterly Journal.
+    1857.
+
+[5] See Out Indian Mission and Our First Missionary, by Rev. John H.
+    Heywood, Boston, 1887.
+
+[6] The Unitarian Movement in Japan: Sketches of the Lives and Religious
+    Work of Ten Representative Japanese. Tokyo, 1900.
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+
+THE MEADVILLE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL.
+
+In a few years after the movement began for the organization of churches
+west of the Hudson River, the needs of theological instruction for
+residents of that region were being discussed. In 1827 the younger Henry
+Ware was interested in a plan of uniting Unitarians and "the Christian
+connection" in the establishment of a theological school, to be located in
+the eastern part of the state of New York. In July of that year he wrote to
+a friend: "We have had; no little talk here within a few days respecting a
+new theological school. Many of us think favorably of the plan, and are
+disposed to patronize it, if feasible, but are a little fearful that it is
+not. Others start strong objections to it _in toto_. Something must be done
+to gain us an increase of ministers."[1] This proposition came from the
+Christians, and their plan was to locate the school on the Hudson.
+
+Although this project came to nothing for the time being, it was revived a
+decade later. When the Unitarian Association had entered upon its active
+missionary efforts west of the Alleghanies, the new impulse to
+denominational life manifested itself in a wide-spread desire for an
+increase in the number of workers available for the western field. The
+establishment of a liberal theological school in that region was felt to be
+almost a necessity, if the opportunities everywhere opening there for the
+dissemination of a purer faith were not to be neglected. Plans were
+therefore formed about 1836 for the founding of a theological school at
+Buffalo under the direction of Rev. George W. Hosmer, then the minister in
+that city; but, business becoming greatly depressed the following year, the
+project was abandoned. In 1840 the importance of such a school was again
+causing the western workers to plan for its establishment, this time in
+Cincinnati or Louisville; but this expectation also failed of realization.
+Then Rev. William G. Eliot, of St. Louis, undertook to provide a
+theological education for such young men as might apply to him. But the
+response to his offer was so slight as to indicate that there was little
+demand for such instruction.
+
+[Sidenote: The Beginnings in Meadville.]
+
+The demand for a school had steadily grown since the year 1827, and the fit
+occasion only was awaited for its establishment. It was found at Meadville,
+Penn., in the autumn of 1844. In order to understand why it should have
+been founded in this country village instead of one of the growing and
+prosperous cities of the west, it is necessary to give a brief account of
+the origin and growth of the Meadville church. The first Unitarian church
+organized west of the Alleghanies was that in Meadville, and it had its
+origin in the religious experiences of one man. The founder of this church,
+Harm Jan Huidekoper, was born in the district of Drenthe, Holland, at the
+village of Hogeveen, in 1776. At the age of twenty he came to the United
+States; and in 1804 he became the agent of the Holland Land Company in the
+north-western counties of Pennsylvania, and established himself at
+Meadville, then a small village. He was successful in his land operations,
+and was largely influential in the development of that part of the state.
+When his children were of an age to need religious instruction, he began to
+study the Bible with a view to deciding what he could conscientiously teach
+them. He had become a member of the Reformed Church in his native land, and
+he had attended the Presbyterian church in Meadville; but he now desired to
+form convictions based on his own inquiries. "When I had become a father,"
+he wrote, "and saw the time approaching when I should have to give
+religious instruction to my children, I felt it to be my duty to give this
+subject a thorough examination. I accordingly commenced studying the
+Scriptures, as being the only safe rule of the Christian's faith; and the
+result was, that I soon acquired clear, and definite views as to the
+leading doctrines of the Christian religion. But the good I derived from
+these studies has not been confined to giving me clear ideas as to the
+Christian doctrines. They created in me a strong and constantly increasing
+interest in religion itself, not as mere theory, but as a practical rule of
+life."[2] As the result of this study, he arrived at the conclusion that
+the Bible does not teach the doctrines of the Trinity, the total depravity
+of man, and the vicarious atonement of Christ. Solely from the careful
+reading of the Bible with reference to each of the leading doctrines he had
+been taught, he became a Unitarian.
+
+With the zeal of a new convert Mr. Huidekoper began to talk about his new
+faith, and he brought it to the attention of others with the enthusiasm of
+a propagandist. In conversation, by means of the distribution of tracts,
+and with the aid of the press he extended the liberal faith. He could not
+send his children to the church he had attended, and he therefore secured
+tutors for them from Harvard College who were preparing for the ministry;
+and in October, 1825, one of these tutors began holding Unitarian services
+in Meadville.[3] In May, 1829, a church was organized, and a goodly
+number of thoughtful men and women connected themselves with it. But this
+movement met with persistent opposition, and a vigorous controversy was
+carried on in the local papers and by means of pamphlets. This was
+increased when, in 1830, Ephraim Peabody, afterwards settled in Cincinnati,
+New Bedford, and at King's Chapel in Boston, became the minister, and
+entered upon an active effort for the extension of Unitarianism. With the
+first of January, 1831, he began the publication of the Unitarian Essayist,
+a small monthly pamphlet, in which the leading theological questions were
+discussed. In a few months Mr. Peabody went to Cincinnati; and the Essayist
+was continued by Mr. Huidekoper, who wrote with vigor and directness on the
+subjects he had carefully studied.
+
+In 1831 the church for the first time secured an ordained minister, and
+three years later one who gave his whole time to its service.[4] A church
+building was erected in 1836, and the prosperity of the congregation was
+thereby much increased. In 1843 a minister of the Christian connection,
+Rev. E.G. Holland, became the pastor for a brief period. At this time
+Frederic Huidekoper, a son of the founder of the Unitarian church in
+Meadville, had returned from his studies in the Harvard Divinity School and
+in Europe, and was ordained in Meadville, October 12, 1843. It was his
+purpose to become a Unitarian evangelist in the region about Meadville, but
+his attention was soon directed by Rev. George W. Hosmer to the importance
+of furnishing theological instruction to young men preparing for the
+Unitarian ministry. He was encouraged in this undertaking by Mr. Holland,
+who pointed out to him the large patronage that might be expected from the
+Christian body. It was at first intended that Mr. Huidekoper should give
+the principal instruction, and that he should be assisted by the pastor of
+the Independent Congregational Church (Unitarian) and by Mr. Hosmer, who
+was to come from Buffalo for a few weeks each year, exchanging pulpits with
+the Meadville minister. When the opening of the school was fixed for the
+autumn of 1844, the prospective number of applicants was so large as to
+necessitate a modification of the proposed plan; and it was deemed wise to
+secure a competent person to preside over the school and to become the
+minister of the church. Through the active co-operation of the American
+Unitarian Association, Rev. Rufus P. Stebbins, then settled at Leominster,
+Mass., was secured for this double service.
+
+The students present at the opening of the school on the first day of
+October, 1844, were but five; but this number was increased to nine during
+the year. The next year the number was twenty-three, nine of them from New
+England. For several years the Christian connection furnished a
+considerable proportion of the students, and took a lively interest in the
+establishment and growth of the school, although contributing little or
+nothing to its pecuniary support. It was also represented on the board of
+instruction by a non-resident lecturer. At this time the Christian body had
+no theological school of its own, and many of its members even looked with
+disfavor upon all ministerial education. What brought them into some degree
+of sympathy with Unitarians of that day was their rejection of binding
+creeds and their acceptance of Christian character as the only test of
+Christian fellowship, together with their recognition of the Bible,
+interpreted by every man for himself, as the authoritative standard of
+religious truth. The churches of this denomination in the northern states
+were also pronounced in their rejection of the doctrines of the Trinity and
+predestination. Unitarians themselves have not been more strenuous in the
+defence of the principle of religious liberty than were the leaders among
+the Christians of the last generation. The two bodies also joined in the
+management of Antioch College, in southern Ohio; and when Horace Mann
+became its president in 1852, he was made a minister of the Christian
+connection, in order that he might work more effectually in the promotion
+of its interests.
+
+The Meadville school began its work in a simple way, with few instructors
+and a limited course of study. Mr. Stebbins taught the Old Testament,
+Hebrew, Biblical antiquities, natural and revealed religion, mental and
+moral philosophy, systematic theology, and pulpit eloquence. Mr. Huidekoper
+gave instruction in the New Testament, hermeneutics, ecclesiastical
+history, Latin, Greek, and German. Mr. Hosmer lectured on pastoral care for
+a brief period during each year. A building for the school was provided by
+the generosity of the elder Huidekoper; and the expenses of board,
+instruction, rent, fuel, etc., were reduced to $30 per annum. Many of the
+students had received little education, and they needed a preliminary
+training in the most primary studies. Nevertheless, the school at once
+justified its establishment, and sent out many capable men, even from among
+those who came to it with the least preparation.
+
+Dr. Stebbins was president of the school for ten years. During his term of
+service the school was incorporated by the legislature of Pennsylvania in
+the spring of 1846. The charter was carefully drawn with a view to securing
+freedom in its administration. No denominational name appeared in the act
+of incorporation, and the original board of trustees included Christians as
+well as Unitarians. Dr. Stebbins was an admirable man to whom to intrust
+the organization of the school, for he was a born teacher and a masterful
+administrator. He was prompt, decisive, a great worker, a powerful
+preacher, an inspirer of others, and his students warmly admired and
+praised him.
+
+[Sidenote: The Growth of the School.]
+
+The next president of the school was Oliver Stearns, who held the office
+from 1856 to 1863. He was a student, a true and just thinker, of great
+moral earnestness, fine discrimination, and with a gift for academic
+organization. He was a man of a strong and deep personality, and his
+spiritual influence was profound. He had been settled at Northampton and
+over the third parish in Hingham before entering upon his work at
+Meadville. In 1863 he went to the Harvard Divinity School as the professor
+of pulpit eloquence and pastoral care until 1869, when he became the
+professor of theology; and from 1870 to 1878 he was the dean of the school.
+He was a preacher who "held and deserved a reputation among the foremost,"
+for his preaching was "pre-eminently spiritual." "In his relations to the
+divinity schools that enjoyed his services, it is impossible to
+over-estimate the extent, accuracy, and thoroughness of his scholarship,
+and his unwearying devotion to his work."[5]
+
+During Dr. Stearns' administration the small building originally occupied
+by the school was outgrown; and Divinity Hall was built on land east of the
+town, donated by Professor Frederic Huidekoper, and first occupied in 1861.
+In 1857 began a movement to elevate, the standard of admission to the
+school, in order that its work might be of a more advanced character. To
+meet the needs of those not able to accept this higher standard, a
+preparatory department was established in 1858, which was continued until
+1867.
+
+Rev. Abiel A. Livermore became the president of the school in 1863, and he
+remained in that position until 1890. He had been settled in Keene,
+Cincinnati, and Yonkers before going to Meadville. He was a Christian of
+the finest type, a true gentleman, and a noble friend. Under his direction
+the school grew in all directions, the course of study being largely
+enriched by the addition of new departments. In 1863 church polity and
+administration, including a study of the sects of Christendom, was made a
+special department. In 1868 the school opened its doors to women, and it
+has received about thirty women for a longer or shorter term of study. In
+1872 the academic degree of Bachelor of Divinity was offered for the first
+time to those completing the full course. In 1879 the philosophy of
+religion, and also the comparative study of religions, received the
+recognition they deserve. The same year ecclesiastical jurisprudence became
+a special department. In 1882 Rev. E.E. Hale lectured on charities, and
+from that time this subject has been systematically treated in connection
+with philanthropies. A movement was begun in 1889 to endow a professorship
+in memory of Dr. James Freeman Clarke, which was successful. These
+successive steps indicate the progress made under the faithful
+administration of Dr. Livermore. He became widely known to Unitarians by
+his commentaries on the books of the New Testament, as well as by his other
+writings, including volumes of sermons and lectures.
+
+In 1890 George L. Cary, who had been for many years the professor of New
+Testament literature, became the president of the school, a position he
+held for ten years. Under his leadership the school has largely advanced
+its standard of scholarship, outgrown studies have been discarded, while
+new ones have been added. New professorships and lectureships have been
+established, and the endowment of the school has been greatly increased.
+Huidekoper Hall, for the use of the library, was erected in 1890, and other
+important improvements have been added to the equipment of the school. In
+1892 the Adin Ballou lectureship of practical Christian sociology was
+established, and in 1895 the Hackley professorship of sociology and ethics.
+
+From the time of its establishment the Huidekoper family have been devoted
+friends and benefactors of the Theological School.[6] Frederic Huidekoper
+occupied the chair of New Testament literature from 1844 to 1855, and from
+1863 to 1877 that of ecclesiastical history. His services were given wholly
+without remuneration, and his benefactions to the school were numerous. He
+also added largely to the Brookes Fund for the distribution of Unitarian
+books. His historical writings made him widely known to scholars, and added
+to the reputation of the school. His Belief of the First Three Centuries
+concerning Christ's Mission to the Underworld appeared in 1853; Judaism at
+Rome, 1876; and Indirect Testimony of History to the Genuineness of the
+Gospels, 1879. He also republished at his own expense many valuable works
+that were out of print.
+
+Among the other professors have been Rev. Nathanial S. Folsom, who was in
+charge of the department of Biblical literature from 1848 to 1861. Of the
+regular lecturers have been Rev. Charles H. Brigham, Rev. Amory D. Mayo,
+and Dr. Thomas Hill. There has been an intimate relation between the
+Meadville church and the Theological School, and several of the pastors
+have been instructors and lecturers in the Theological School, including
+Rev. J.C. Zachos, Rev. James T. Bixby, and Rev. James M. Whiton. The
+Christian denomination has been represented among the lecturers by Rev.
+David Millard and Rev. Austin Craig.
+
+The whole number of graduates of the Meadville Theological School up to
+April, 1902, has been 267; and eighty other students have entered the
+ministry. At the present time 156 of its students are on the roll of
+Unitarian ministers. Thirty-two of its students served in the civil war,
+twenty per cent of its graduates previous to the close of the war being
+engaged in it as privates, chaplains, or in some other capacity. The
+endowment of the school has steadily increased until it now is somewhat
+more than $600,000.
+
+[1] Memoir of Henry Ware, Jr. 202.
+
+[2] J.F. Clarke, Christian Examiner, September, 1854, LVII. 310. "Mr.
+    Huidekoper had the satisfaction, in the later years of his life, of
+    seeing a respectable society worshipping in the tasteful building
+    which he loved and of witnessing the prosperity of the theological
+    school in which he was so much interested. We have never known any
+    one who seemed to live so habitually in the presence of God. The form
+    which his piety mostly took was that of gratitude and reliance. His
+    trust in the Divine goodness was like that of a child in its mother.
+    His cheerful views, of this life and of the other, his simple tastes,
+    his enjoyment of nature, his happiness in society, his love for
+    children, his pleasure in doing good, his tender affection for those
+    nearest to him,--these threw a warm light around his last days and
+    gave his home the aspect of a perpetual Sabbath. A well-balanced
+    activity of faculties contributed still more to his usefulness and
+    happiness. He was always a student, occupying every vacant hour with
+    a book, and so had attained a surprising knowledge of biography and
+    history." Mr. Huidekoper died in Meadville, May 22, 1854.
+
+[3] John M. Merrick, afterwards settled in Hardwick and Walpole, Mass.,
+    who was in Mr. Huidekoper's family from October, 1825, to October,
+    1827. He was succeeded by Andrew P. Peabody, who did not preach. In
+    1828-30 Washington Gilbert, who had settlements in Harvard, Lincoln,
+    and West Newton, was the tutor and preacher.
+
+[4] Rev. George Nichols, July, 1831, to July, 1832; Rev. Alanson Brigham,
+    who died in Meadville, August 24, 1833; Rev. John Quincy Day,
+    October, 1834, to September, 1837.
+
+[5] A.P. Peabody, Harvard Reminiscences, 165, 166
+
+[6] The first treasurer of the school was Edgar Huidekoper, who was
+    succeeded by Professor F. Huidekoper, and he in turn by Edgar
+    Huidekoper, the son of the first treasurer. Among the other generous
+    friends and benefactors of the school have been Alfred Huidekoper,
+    Miss Elizabeth Huidekoper, and Mrs. Henry P. Kidder.
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+
+
+UNITARIAN PHILANTHROPIES.
+
+The liberal movement in religion was characterized in its early period by
+its humanitarianism. As theology grew less important for it, there was an
+increase in its philanthropy. With the waning of the sectarian spirit there
+was a growth in desire for practical reforms. The awakened interest in man
+and enlarged faith in his spiritual capacities showed itself in efforts to
+improve his social condition. No one expressed this tendency more perfectly
+than Dr. Channing, though he was a spiritual teacher rather than a reformer
+or philanthropist.
+
+Any statement concerning the charities in connection with which Channing
+was active will give the most inadequate idea of his actual influence in
+this direction. He was greatly interested in promoting the circulation of
+the Bible, in aiding the cause of temperance, and in bringing freedom to
+the slave. His biographer says that his thoughts were continually becoming
+concentrated more and more upon the terrible problem of pauperism, "and he
+saw more clearly each year that what the times demanded was that the axe
+should be laid at the very root of ignorance, temptation and strife by
+substituting for the present unjust and unequal distribution of the
+privileges of life some system of cordial, respectful brotherly
+co-operation."[1] His interest in education was most comprehensive, and
+he sought its advancement in all directions with the confident faith that
+it would help to uplift all classes and make them more truly human.[2]
+
+[Sidenote: Unitarian Charities.]
+
+The liberals of New England, in the early years of the nineteenth century,
+were not mere theorizers in regard to human helpfulness and the application
+of Christianity to life; for they endeavored to realize the spirit of
+charity and service. Largely under their leadership the Massachusetts Bible
+Society was organized in 1809. A more distinctly charitable undertaking was
+the Fragment Society, organized in 1812 to help the poor by the
+distribution of garments, the lending of bedding to the sick and clothes to
+children in charity schools, as well as the providing of such children with
+shoes. This society also undertook to provide Bibles for the poor who had
+none. Under the leadership of Rev. Joseph Tuckerman, then settled in
+Chelsea, there was organized, May 11, 1812, the Boston Society for the
+Religious and Moral Improvement of Seamen, "to distribute tracts of a
+religious and moral kind for the use of seamen, and to establish a regular
+divine service on board of our merchant vessels." In 1813 the Massachusetts
+Society for the Suppression of Intemperance, in 1815 the Massachusetts
+Peace Society, and at about the same time the Society for the Employment of
+the Poor came into existence.
+
+Of the early Unitarians Rev. Octavius B. Frothingham justly said: "They all
+had a genuine desire to render the earthly lot of mankind tolerable. It is
+not too much to say that they started every one of our best secular
+charities. The town of Boston had a poor-house, and nothing more until the
+Unitarians initiated humane institutions for the helpless, the blind, the
+insane. The Massachusetts General Hospital (1811), the McLean Asylum for
+the Insane (1818), the Perkins Blind Asylum (1832), the Female Orphan
+Asylum (1800), were of their devising."[3] What this work meant was well
+stated by Dr. Andrew P. Peabody, when he said there was "probably no city
+in the world where there had been more ample provision for the poor than in
+Boston, whether by private alms-giving, benevolent organizations, or public
+institutions."[4] Nor was this altruistic spirit manifested alone in
+Boston, for Mr. Frothingham quotes the saying of a lady to Dr. E.E. Hale:
+"A Unitarian church to you merely means one more name on your calendar. To
+the people in this town it means better books, better music, better
+sewerage, better health, better life, less drunkenness, more purity, and
+better government."[5] The Unitarian conception of the relations of
+altruism and religion was pertinently stated by Dr. J.T. Kirkland,
+president of Harvard College during the early years of the nineteenth
+century, when he said that "we have as much piety as charity, and no
+more."[6] One who knew intimately of the work of the ministry at large
+has truly said of the labors of Dr. Tuckerman: "From the beginning he had
+the moral and pecuniary support of the leaders of life in Boston; her first
+merchants and her statesmen were watching these experiments with a curious
+interest, and although he was often so radical as to startle the most
+conservative notions of men engaged in trade, or learned in the
+old-fashioned science of government, there was that in the persistence of
+his life and the accuracy of his method which engaged their support."[7]
+
+Another instance of Unitarian philanthropy is to be found in the support
+given to Rev. Edward T. Taylor, usually known as "Father Taylor," in his
+work for sailors. When he went to Boston in 1829 to begin his mission, the
+first person he visited was Dr. Channing, and the second Ralph Waldo
+Emerson, then a settled pastor in the city. Both of these men made generous
+contributions to his mission, and aided him in securing the attention of
+wealthy contributors.[8] In fact, his Bethel was almost wholly supported
+by Unitarians. For thirty years Mr. Albert Fearing was the president of the
+Boston Port Society, organized for the support of Taylor's Seamen's Bethel.
+The corresponding secretary was Mr. Henry Parker. Among other Unitarian
+supporters of this work was Hon. John A. Andrew.[9]
+
+We have no right to assume that the Unitarians alone were philanthropic,
+but they had the wealth and the social position to make their efforts in
+this direction thoroughly effective.[10] That the results were beneficent
+may be understood from the testimony of Mrs. Horace Mann. "The liberal
+sects of Boston," she wrote to a friend, "quite carried the day at that
+time in works of benevolence and Christian charity. They took care of the
+needy without regard to sectarianism. Such women as Helen Loring and
+Elizabeth Howard, (Mrs. Cyrus A. Bartol), Dorothea Dix, Mary Pritchard
+(Mrs. Henry Ware), and many others less known to the world, but equally
+devoted to the work, with many youthful coadjutors, took care of the poor
+wonderfully."[11] After spending several weeks in Boston in 1842, and
+giving careful attention to the charities and philanthropies of the city,
+Charles Dickens wrote: "I sincerely believe that the public institutions
+and charities of this capital of Massachusetts are as nearly perfect as the
+most considerate wisdom, benevolence, humanity, can make them. I never in
+my life was more affected by the contemplation of happiness, under
+circumstances of privation and bereavement, than in my visits to these
+establishments."[12]
+
+[Sidenote: Education of the Blind.]
+
+The pioneer in the work of educating the blind and the deaf was Dr. Samuel
+G. Howe, who had been one of those who in 1824 went to Greece to aid in the
+establishment of Greek independence. On his return, in 1832, he became
+acquainted with European methods of teaching the blind; and in that year he
+opened the Massachusetts School and Asylum for the Blind, "the pioneer of
+such establishments in America, and the most illustrious of its class in
+the world."[13] In his father's house in Pleasant Street, Dr. Howe began
+his school with a few pupils, prepared books for them, and then set about
+raising money to secure larger facilities. Colonel Thomas H. Perkins, of
+Boston, gave his house in Pearl Street, valued at $50,000, on condition
+that a like sum should be contributed for the maintenance of the school. In
+six weeks the desired sum was secured, and the school was, afterwards known
+as the Perkins Institution for the Blind. Dr. Howe addressed seventeen
+state legislatures on the education of the blind, with the result of
+establishing schools similar to his own. His arduous task, however, was
+that of providing the blind with books; and he used his great inventive
+skill in perfecting the necessary methods. He succeeded in making it
+comparatively easy to print books for the blind, and therefore made it
+possible to have a library of such works.
+
+In the autumn of 1837 Dr. Howe discovered Laura Bridgman, who had only the
+one sense of touch remaining in a normal condition; and his remarkable
+success, in her education made him famous. In connection with her and other
+pupils he began the process of teaching the deaf to use articulate speech,
+and all who have followed him in this work have but extended and perfected
+his methods. While teaching the blind and deaf, Dr. Howe found those who
+were idiotic; and he began to study this class of persons about 1840, and
+to devise methods for their education. As a member of the Massachusetts
+legislature in 1846, he secured the appointment of a commission to
+investigate the condition of the idiotic; and for this commission he wrote
+the report. In 1847, the state having made an appropriation for the
+teaching of idiotic, children, ten of them were taught at the Blind Asylum,
+under the care of Dr. Howe. In 1851 a separate school was provided for such
+children.
+
+Dr. Howe was called "the Massachusetts philanthropist," but his
+philanthropy was universal in its humanitarian aims. He gave large and
+faithful attention, in 1845 and later, to prisons and prisoners; he was a
+zealous friend of the slave and the freedman; and in 1864 he devoted
+arduous service to the reform of the state charities of Massachusetts. His
+biographer justly says of his spirit of universal philanthropy: "He joined
+in the movement in Boston which abolished imprisonment for debt; he was an
+early and active member of the Boston Prison Discipline Society, which once
+did much service; and for years, when interest in prison reform was at a
+low ebb in Massachusetts, the one forlorn relict of that once powerful
+organization, a Prisoner's Aid Society, used to hold its meetings in Dr.
+Howe's spacious chamber in Bromfield Street. He took an early interest in
+the care of the insane, with which his friends Horace Mann, Dr. Edward
+Jarvis, and Dorothea Dix were greatly occupied; and in later years he
+introduced some most useful methods of caring for the insane in
+Massachusetts. He favored the temperance reform, and wrote much as a
+physician on the harm done to individuals and to the human stock by the use
+of alcoholic liquors. He stood with Father Taylor of the Seamen's Bethel in
+Boston for the salvation of the sailors and their protection from cruel
+punishments, and he was one of those who almost abolished the flogging of
+children in schools. During his whole career as a reformer of public
+schools in New England, Horace Mann had no friend more intimate or helpful
+than Dr. Howe, nor one whose support was more indispensable to Mann
+himself."[14]
+
+Dr. Howe was an attendant upon the preaching of Theodore Parker, and was
+his intimate friend. In after years he was a member of the congregation of
+James Freeman Clarke at the Church of the Disciples. "After our return to
+America," says Mrs. Howe of the year 1844, "my husband went often to the
+Melodeon, where Parker preached until he took possession of the Music Hall.
+The interest which my husband showed in these services led me in time to
+attend them, and I remember as among the great opportunities of my life the
+years in which I listened to Theodore Parker."[15]
+
+[Sidenote: Care of the Insane.]
+
+Another among the many persons who came under the influence of Dr. Channing
+was Dorothea Dix, who, as a teacher of his children, lived for many months
+in his family and enjoyed his intimate friendship. Her biographer says:
+"She had drunk in with passionate faith Dr. Channing's fervid insistence on
+the presence in human nature, even under its most degraded types, of germs,
+at least, of endless spiritual development. But it was the characteristic
+of her own mind that it tended not to protracted speculation, but to
+immediate, embodied action."[16] Her work for the insane was the
+expression of the deep faith in humanity she had been taught by Channing.
+
+When she entered upon her humanitarian efforts, but few hospitals for the
+insane existed in the country. A notable exception was the McLean Asylum at
+Somerville, which had been built as the result of that same philanthropic
+spirit that had led the Unitarians to establish the many charities already
+mentioned in these pages. In March, 1841, Miss Dix visited the House of
+Correction in East Cambridge; and for the wretched condition of the
+inmates, she at once set to work to provide remedies. Then she visited the
+jails and alms-houses in many parts of the state, and presented a memorial
+to the legislature recounting what she had found and asking for reforms.
+She was met by bitter opposition; but such persons as Samuel G. Howe, Dr.
+Channing, Horace Mann, and John G. Palfrey came to her aid. The bill
+providing for relief to the insane came into the hands of a committee of
+which Dr. Howe was the chairman, and he energetically pushed it forward to
+enactment. Thus Miss Dix began her crusade against an enormous evil.
+
+In 1845 Miss Dix reported that in three years she had travelled ten
+thousand miles, visited eighteen state penitentiaries, three hundred jails
+and houses of correction, and five hundred almshouses and other
+institutions, secured the establishment or enlargement of six hospitals for
+the insane, several county poorhouses, and several jails on a reformed
+plan. She visited every state east of the Rocky Mountains, and also the
+British Provinces, to secure legislation in behalf of the insane. She
+secured the erection of hospitals or other reformatory action in Rhode
+Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee,
+Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina, Nova Scotia, and
+Newfoundland. Her labors also secured the establishment of a hospital for
+the insane of the army and navy, near Washington. All this was the work of
+nine years.
+
+In 1853 Miss Dix gave her attention to providing an adequate life-saving
+equipment for Sable Island, one of we most dangerous places to seamen on
+the Atlantic coast; and this became the means of saving many lives. In 1854
+she went to England for needed rest; but almost at once she took up her
+humanitarian work, this time in Scotland, where she secured a commission of
+inquiry, which in 1857 resulted in reformatory legislation on the part of
+Parliament. In 1855 she visited the island of Jersey, and secured great
+improvements in the care of the insane. Later in that year she visited
+Switzerland for rest, but in a few weeks was studying the charities of
+Paris and then those of Italy. In Rome she had two interviews with the
+pope, and the erection of a new hospital for the insane on modern
+principles resulted. Speaking only English, and without letters of
+introduction, she visited the insane hospitals and the prisons of Greece,
+Turkey, Austria, Sclavonia, Russia, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark,
+Holland, and Belgium. "Day by day she patiently explored the asylums,
+prisons, and poor-houses of every place in which she set her foot, glad to
+her heart's core when she found anything to commend and learn a lesson
+from, and patiently striving, where she struck the traces of ignorance,
+neglect, or wrong, to right the evil by direct appeal to the highest
+authorities."
+
+On her return home, in September, 1856, she was met by many urgent appeals
+for help in enlarging hospitals and erecting new ones; and she devoted her
+time until the outbreak of the civil war in work for the insane in the
+southern and middle north-western states. As soon as the troops were
+ordered to Washington, she went there and offered her services as a nurse,
+and was at once appointed superintendent of women nurses for the whole
+army. She carried through the tasks of this office with energy and
+devotion. In 1866 she secured the erection of a monument to the fallen
+soldiers in the National Cemetery, at Hampton.
+
+Then she returned at once to her work in asylums, poorhouses, and prisons,
+continuing this task until past her seventy-fifth year. "Her frequent
+visits to our institutions of the insane now, and her searching
+criticisms," wrote a leading alienist, "constitute of themselves a better
+lunacy commission than would be likely to be appointed in many of our
+states."[17] The last five years of her life were spent as a guest in the
+New Jersey State Asylum at Trenton, it being fit that one of the thirty-two
+hospitals she had been the means of erecting should afford her a home for
+her declining years.
+
+Miss Dix was called by many "our Lady," "our Patron Saint"; and well she
+deserved these expressions of reverence. President Fillmore said in a
+letter to her, "Wealth and power never reared such monuments to selfish
+pride as you have reared to the love of mankind." She had the unreserved
+consecration to the needs of the poor and suffering that caused her to
+write: "If I am cold, they are cold; if I am weary, they are distressed; if
+I am alone, they are abandoned."[18] Her biographer justly compares her
+with the greatest of the saints, and says, "Precisely the same
+characteristics marked her, the same absolute religious consecration, the
+same heroic readiness to trample under foot the pains of illness,
+loneliness, and opposition, the same intellectual grasp of what a great
+reformatory work demanded."[19] Truly was it said of her that she was "the
+most useful and distinguished woman America has produced."[20]
+
+[Sidenote: Child-saving Missions.]
+
+As was justly said by Professor Francis G. Peabody, "the Boston Children's
+Mission was the direct fruit of the ministry of Dr. Tuckerman, and
+antedates all other conspicuous undertakings of the same nature. The first
+president of the Children's Mission, John E. Williams, a Unitarian layman,
+moved later to New York, and became the first treasurer of the newly
+created Children's Aid Society of that city, formed in 1853. Thus the work
+of the Children's Mission and the kindred service of the Warren Street
+Chapel, under the leadership of Charles Barnard, must be reckoned as the
+most immediate, if not the only American antecedent, of the great modern
+works of child-saving charity."[21]
+
+The Children's Mission to the Children of the Destitute grew out of the
+work of the Howard Sunday-school, then connected with the Pitts Street
+Chapel. When several men connected with that school were discussing the
+fact that a great number of vagrant children were dealt with by the police,
+Fanny S. Merrill said to her father, Mr. George Merrill, "Father, can't we
+children do something to help those poor little ones?" This question
+suggested a new field of work; and a meeting was held on April 27, 1849,
+under the auspices of Rev. Robert C. Waterston, to consider this
+proposition. On May 9 the society was organized "to create a special
+mission to the poor, ignorant, neglected children of this city; to gather
+them into day and Sunday schools; to procure places and employment for
+them; and generally to adopt and pursue such measures as would be most
+likely to save or rescue them from vice, ignorance and degradation." In the
+beginning this mission was supported by the Unitarian Sunday-schools in
+Boston, but gradually the number of schools contributing to its maintenance
+was enlarged until it included nearly all of those connected with Unitarian
+churches in New England.
+
+As soon as the mission was organized, Rev. Joseph E. Barry was made the
+missionary; and he opened a Sunday-school in Utica Street. Beginning in
+1853, one or more women were employed to aid him in his work. In May, 1857,
+Rev. Edmund Squire began work as a missionary in Washington Village; but
+this mission was soon given into the hands of the Benevolent Fraternity. In
+June, 1858, Mr. B.H. Greene was engaged to visit the jail and lockup in aid
+of the young persons found there. In 1859 work was undertaken in East
+Boston, and also in South Boston. From this time onward from three to five
+persons were constantly employed as missionaries, in visiting throughout
+the city, persuading children to attend day-schools, sewing-schools, and
+Sunday-schools, securing employment for those old enough to labor, and in
+placing children in country homes. In April, 1857, Mr. Barry took a party
+of forty-eight children to Illinois; and five other parties followed to
+that state and to Michigan and Ohio. Since 1860 homes have been found in
+New England for all children sent outside the city.
+
+In November, 1858, a hall in Eliot Street was secured for the religious
+services of the mission, which included boys' classes, Sunday-school, and
+various organizations of a moral and intellectual character. In 1859 a
+house was rented in Camden Street especially for the care of the boys who
+came under the charge of the mission. In March, 1867, was completed the
+house on Tremont Street in which the work of the mission has, since been
+carried on. An additional building for very young children was provided in
+October, 1890. For years Mr. Barry continued his work as the missionary of
+this noble ministry to the children of the poor. Since 1877 Mr. William
+Crosby has been the efficient superintendent, having served for eighteen
+years previously as the treasurer. The mission has cared for more than five
+thousand children.
+
+[Sidenote: Care of the Poor.]
+
+It has been indicated already that much attention was given to the care of
+the poor and to the prevention of pauperism. It is safe to assume that
+every Unitarian minister was a worker in this direction. It is well to
+notice the efforts of one man, because his work led to the scientific
+methods of charitable relief which are employed in Boston at the present
+time. When Rev. Ephraim Peabody became the minister of King's Chapel, in
+1846, he turned his attention to the education of the poor and to the
+prevention of pauperism. In connection with Rev. Frederick T. Gray he
+opened a school for those adults whose education had been neglected.
+Especial attention was given to the elementary instruction of emigrant
+women. Many children and adults accepted the opportunity thus afforded, and
+a large school was maintained for several years.
+
+With the aid of Mr. Francis E. Parker another important work was undertaken
+by Mr. Peabody. Although Dr. Tuckerman had labored to prevent duplication
+of charitable gifts and to organize the philanthropies of Boston in an
+effective manner, with the increase of population the evils he strove to
+prevent had grown into large proportions. In order to prevent overlapping,
+imposition, and failure to provide for many who were really needy, but not
+eager to push their own claims, Mr. Peabody organized the Boston Provident
+Association in 1851. This society divided the city into small districts,
+and put each under the supervision of a person who was to examine every
+case that came before the society within the territory assigned him. The
+first president of this society was Hon. Samuel A. Eliot, who was a mayor
+of the city, a representative in the lower house of Congress, and an
+organizer of many philanthropies. This society was eminently successful in
+its operations, and did a great amount of good. Its friendly visits to the
+poor and its judicious methods of procuring the co-operation of many
+charity workers prepared the way for the introduction, in 1879, of the
+Associated Charities of Boston, which extended and effectively organized
+the work begun by Mr. Peabody.[22] Numerous other organizations might be
+mentioned that have been initiated by Unitarians or largely supported by
+them.[23]
+
+[Sidenote: Humane Treatment of Animals.]
+
+The work for the humane treatment of animals was begun, and has been
+largely carried on, by Unitarians. The founder of the American Society for
+the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was Henry Bergh, who was a member of
+All Souls' Church in New York, under the ministry of Dr. Bellows. In 1865
+he began his work in behalf of kindness to animals in New York City, and
+the society he organized was incorporated April 10, 1866. It was soon
+engaged in an extensive work. In 1873 Mr. Bergh proceeded to organize
+branch humane societies; and, as the result of his work, most of the states
+have legislated for the humane care of animals.
+
+A similar work of a Unitarian is that of Mr. George T. Angell in Boston,
+who in 1868 founded, and has since been the president of, the Massachusetts
+Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. In 1889 he became the
+president of the American Humane Education Society, a position he continues
+to hold. He is the editor of Our Dumb Animals, and has in many ways been
+active in the work of the great charity with which he has been connected.
+
+[Sidenote: Young Men's Christian Unions.]
+
+The initiative in the establishment of Christian unions for young men in
+cities, on a wholly unsectarian basis, was taken by a Unitarian. Mr. Caleb
+Davis Bradlee, a Harvard undergraduate, who was afterward a Boston pastor
+for many years, gathered together in the parlor of his father's house a
+company of young men, and proposed to them the formation of a society for
+mutual improvement. This was on September 17, 1851; and the organization
+then formed was called the Biblical Literature Society. Those who belonged
+to the society during the winter of 1851-52 were so much benefited by it
+that they decided to enlarge their plans and to extend their influence to a
+greater number. At the suggestion of Rev. Charles Brooks, minister of the
+Unitarian church in South Hingham, the name was changed to the Boston Young
+Men's Christian Union, the first meeting under the new form of organization
+being held March 15, 1852. On October 11 of the same year the society was
+incorporated, many of the leading men of the city having already given it
+their encouragement and support.[24]
+
+[Sidenote: Educational Work in the South.]
+
+After the close of the civil war there was a large demand for help in the
+South, especially amongst the negroes. Most of the aid given by Unitarians
+was through other than denominational channels; but something was done by
+the Unitarian Association as well as by other Unitarian organizations. Miss
+Amy Bradley, who had been a very successful worker for the Sanitary
+Commission, opened a school for the whites in Wilmington, N.C. Her work
+extended to all the schools of the city, and was eminently successful. She
+became the city and then the county superintendent of schools. She was
+supported by the Unitarian Association and the Soldiers' Memorial Society.
+Among the Unitarians who at that time engaged in the work of educating the
+negroes were Rev. Henry F. Edes in Georgia, Rev. James Thurston in North
+Carolina, Miss M. Louisa Shaw in Florida, Miss Bottume on Ladies' Island,
+and Miss Sally Holley and Miss Caroline F. Putnam in Virginia.
+
+In 1868 the Unitarian Association entered upon a systematic effort to aid
+the negroes through co-operation with the African Methodist Episcopal
+Church. The sum of $4,000 was in that year devoted to this work; and it was
+largely spent in educational efforts, especially in aid of college and
+theological students. Wilberforce University had the benefit of lectures
+from Dr. George W. Hosmer, president of Antioch College, and of Edward
+Orton, James K. Hosmer, and other professors in that institution. Libraries
+of about fifty volumes of carefully selected books, including elementary
+works of science, history, biography, and a few theological works, were
+given to ministers of that church who applied for them. This connection
+continued for several years, and was of much importance in the advancement
+of the South.
+
+With the first of January, 1886, the Unitarian Association established a
+bureau of information in regard to southern education, of which General
+J.B.F. Marshall, who had been for many years the treasurer of the Hampton
+Institute, was made the superintendent. This bureau, during its existence
+of three years, investigated the claims of various schools, and recommended
+those most deserving of aid.
+
+In 1891 Miss Mabel W. Dillingham and Miss Charlotte R. Thorn, who had been
+teachers for several years in the Hampton Institute, opened a school for
+negroes in Calhoun, Ala. Miss Dillingham died in 1894; and she was
+succeeded by her brother, Rev. Pitt Dillingham, as the principal of the
+school. The Calhoun School has been supported mostly by Unitarians, and it
+has been successful in doing a practical and important work.
+
+During the first eight years of the Tuskegee Institute it received $5,000
+annually from Unitarians, and in more recent years $10,000 annually. This
+has been given by individuals, churches, and other organizations, but in no
+sense as a denominational work. Concerning the aid given to the Hampton
+Institute this statement has been made by the principal: "The Unitarian
+denomination has had a very important part in the work of Hampton. Our
+first treasurer was General J.F.B. Marshall, a Unitarian who made it
+possible for General Armstrong first to gain access to Boston and secure
+friends there, many of whom have been lifelong contributors to this work.
+General Marshall came to Hampton in 1872, and for some twelve years took a
+most important part in building up this institution. He trained young men
+for the treasurer's office, who still hold important positions in the
+school, and others who have been sent to various institutions. The home of
+General and Mrs. Marshall here was of incalculable help in many ways,
+brightening and cheering the lives of our teachers and students. Unitarians
+have always had a prominent part in the support of Hampton. Mrs. Mary
+Hemenway was the largest donor to the Institute during her lifetime. She
+gave $10,000 for the purchase of our Hemenway Farm, and helped General
+Armstrong in many ways."[25]
+
+[Sidenote: Educational Work for the Indians.]
+
+At three different periods the Unitarian Association has undertaken
+educational work amongst the Indians. The first of these proved abortive,
+but is of much interest. James Tanner,[26] a half-breed Chippeway or
+Ojibway from Minnesota, appeared before the board of the Association,
+February 12, 1855, in behalf of his people. He had been a Baptist
+missionary to the Ojibways, but had found that he could accomplish little
+while the Indians continued their roving life and their wars with the
+Sioux. He therefore wished to have his people adopt a settled agricultural
+life. The Baptist Home Missionary Society, with which he was laboring,
+would not accede to his plans in this respect, and desired that he should
+confine himself to the preaching of the gospel. Unable to do this on
+account of his liberal views, he went to Boston with the hope that he might
+secure aid from the Baptists there. He was soon told that he was a
+Unitarian, and he sought a knowledge of those of that faith. He was thus
+led to apply to the Unitarian Association for help, which was granted. He
+secured an outfit of agricultural and other implements, and returned to his
+people in the spring of 1855. In December of that year Mr. Tanner attended
+a meeting of the board of the Association, accompanied by six Ojibway
+chiefs. On this unique occasion the calumet was smoked by all present, and
+addresses were made by the Indians. In April, 1856, the board reluctantly
+abandoned this enterprise, because the money for the yearly expenditure of
+$4,000, which it required, could not be secured.[27]
+
+In 1871 President Grant inaugurated the policy of educating the Indians
+under the direction of the several religious denominations of the country.
+To the Unitarians were assigned the Utes of Colorado. The reservation at
+White River was placed in charge of Mr. J.S. Littlefield, and that at Los
+Pinos of Rev. J. Nelson Trask. Several other persons took up this work,
+including Rev. Henry F. Bond and his wife. In 1885 the Utes were removed to
+a reservation in Utah. In the spring of 1886 Mr. Bond returned to them for
+the purpose of establishing a boarding-school amongst them; but, not
+getting sufficient encouragement, he went to Montana, where in the autumn
+he opened the Montana Industrial School, with eighteen pupils from the
+Crows in attendance. Buildings were erected, farm work begun, carpenter and
+blacksmith shops put in operation, all at a cost of $20,000. The school was
+located on the Big Horn River, thirty miles from Fort Custer.
+
+It was the object of the Montana Industrial School to remove the Indian
+children from their nomadic conditions and to give them a practical
+education, with so much of instruction in books as would be of real help to
+them. The boys were taught farm work and the use of tools, while the girls
+were trained in sewing, cooking, and other useful employments. At the same
+time there was constant training in cleanliness, good manners, and right
+living. The school was fairly successful; and the results would doubtless
+have been important, could the experiment have gone on for a longer period.
+In 1891 Mr. Bond withdrew from the school on account of his age, and it was
+placed in charge of Rev. A.A. Spencer. With the 1st of July, 1895, however,
+the care of the school was assumed by the national government.
+
+Extended as this chapter has become, it has failed to give anything like an
+exhaustive statement of the philanthropies of Unitarians. Their charitable
+activities have been constant and in many directions. This may be seen in
+the wide-reaching philanthropic interests of Dr. Edward Everett Hale, whose
+Lend-a-hand Clubs, King's Daughters societies, and kindred movements
+admirably illustrate the practical side of Unitarianism, its broad
+humanitarian spirit, its philanthropic and reformatory purpose, and its
+high ideal of Christian fidelity and service.
+
+[1] Memoir, III. 17; one-volume edition, 465.
+
+[2] Memoir, III. 61, 62; one-volume edition, 487, 488.
+
+[3] Boston Unitarianism, 127.
+
+[4] Harvard Graduates, 155.
+
+[5] Boston Unitarianism, 253.
+
+[6] Elizabeth P. Peabody, Reminiscences of Dr. W.E. Channing, 290.
+
+[7] Eber R. Butler, Lend a Hand, October, 1890, V. 681.
+
+[8] Elizabeth P. Peabody, Reminiscences of W.E. Channing, 273.
+
+[9] Gilbert Haven, Anecdotes of Rev. Edward T. Taylor, 114.
+
+[10] Ibid., 119.
+
+[11] Gilbert Haven, Anecdotes of Rev. Edward T. Taylor, 330.
+
+[12] American Notes, chap. iii.
+
+[13] Frank B. Sanborn, Biography of Dr. S.G. Howe, Philanthropist, 110.
+
+[14] Frank B. Sanborn, Biography of Dr. S.G. Howe, Philanthropist, 170.
+
+[15] Reminiscences, 161.
+
+[16] Francis Tiffany, Life of Dorothea Lynde Dix, 58.
+
+[17] Francis Tiffany, Life of Dorothea Lynde Dix, 355.
+
+[18] Ibid., 327.
+
+[19] Ibid., 290.
+
+[20] Ibid., 375.
+
+[21] Report of the National Conference, 1895, 205.
+
+[22] Sermons of Ephraim Peabody, introductory Memoir, xxv; Memorial
+     History of Boston, IV. 662, George S. Hale on the Charities of
+     Boston; A.P. Peabody, Harvard Graduates, 155.
+
+[23] Besides the Fragment Society, the Children's Mission, and the Boston
+     Provident Society, already mentioned and still vigorously at work,
+     several other societies are wholly supported by Unitarians. Of these
+     may be named the Howard Benevolent Society in the City of Boston,
+     organized in 1812, incorporated in 1818; Young Men's Benevolent
+     Society, organized in 1827, incorporated in 1852; Industrial Aid
+     Society for the Prevention of Pauperism, organized in 1835,
+     incorporated in 1884.
+
+[24] Alfred Manchester, Life of Caleb Davis Bradlee, 8; First Anniversary,
+     address before the Boston Young Men's Christian Union by Rev. F.D.
+     Huntington, Appendix.
+
+[25] Personal letter from Mr. H.B. Frissell.
+
+[26] Edwin James, A Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John
+     Tanner during Thirty Tears' Residence among the Indians of North
+     America. (John Tanner was the father of James.)
+
+[27] Quarterly Journal, II. 326, 344; III. 64, 257, 449, 625.
+
+
+
+
+XVI.
+
+
+UNITARIANS AND REFORMS.
+
+The belief of Unitarians in the innate goodness of man and in his progress
+towards a higher moral life, together with their desire to make religion
+practical in its character and to have it deal with the actual facts of
+human life, has made it obligatory that they should give the encouragement
+of their support to whatever promised to further the cause of justice,
+liberty, and purity. Their attitude towards reforms, however, has been
+qualified by their love of individual freedom. They have had a dread of
+ecclesiastical restriction and of any attempt to coerce opinions or to
+establish a despotism over individual convictions. And yet, with all this
+insistence upon personal liberty, no body of men and women has ever been
+more devoted to the furthering of practical reforms than those connected
+with Unitarian churches. No one, for instance, was ever more zealous for
+individual freedom than Theodore Parker; but he was essentially a reformer.
+He was a persistent advocate of peace, temperance, education, the rights of
+women, the rights of the slave, the abolition of capital punishment, reform
+in prison discipline, and the application of humanitarian principles to the
+conduct of life.
+
+[Sidenote: Peace Movement.]
+
+"It may be doubted whether any man who ever lived contributed more to
+spread just sentiments on the subject of war and to hasten the era of
+universal peace," said Dr. Channing of Noah Worcester, who has been often
+called "the Apostle of Peace." It was the second contest with Great Britain
+that led Dr. Worcester to consider the nature and effects of war. In
+August, 1812, on the day appointed for a national fast, he preached a
+sermon in which he maintained that the war then beginning was without
+sufficient justification, and that war is always an evil. In 1814 he
+further studied the subject, with the result that he wrote a little book
+which he called A Solemn Review of the Custom of War.[1]
+
+The Solemn Review was widely circulated, it was translated into many
+languages, it made a deep and lasting impression, and it had a world-wide
+influence in preparing the minds of men for the acceptance of peace
+principles. The remedy for war it proposed was an international court of
+arbitration.[2] Through the efforts of Dr. Worcester the Massachusetts
+Peace Society was organized December 28, 1815, one of the first societies
+of the kind in the world.[3] William Phillips was made the president, and
+Dr. Noah Worcester the corresponding secretary, with Dr. Henry Ware, Dr.
+Channing, and Rev. Francis Parkman among his councillors. On the executive
+committee with Dr. Worcester in 1819 were Rev. Ezra Ripley and Rev. John
+Pierce. Other Unitarian members and workers were James Freeman, Nathaniel
+L. Frothingham, Charles Lowell, Samuel C. Thacher, J.T. Kirkland, and
+Joseph Tuckerman; and, of laymen, Moses Grant, Josiah Quincy, and Colonel
+Joseph May. In 1819 Dr. Worcester began the publication of The Friends of
+Peace, a small quarterly magazine, a large part of the contents of which he
+wrote himself. After the first number, having obtained the assistance of
+several wealthy Friends, he relinquished the copyright; and the numbers
+were republished in several parts of the country, thus obtaining a wide
+circulation. He devoted himself almost wholly to this publication and the
+advocacy of the cause of peace until 1829, when he relinquished its
+editorship. "This must be looked upon as a very remarkable work," wrote
+Henry Ware, the younger. "To his wakeful mind everything that occurred and
+everything that he read offered him materials; he appeared to see nothing
+which had not a bearing on this one topic; and his book becomes a boundless
+repository of curious, entertaining, striking extracts from writers of all
+sorts and the history of all times, displaying the criminality and folly of
+war, and the beauty and efficacy of the principles of peace."[4]
+
+In his efforts hi behalf of peace, Dr. Worcester had the support of Dr.
+Channing's "respectful sympathy and active co-operation."[5] According to
+Dr. John Pierce, Channing was the life and soul of the Massachusetts Peace
+Society. "For years," says his biographer, "he devoted himself to the work
+of extending its influence with unwavering zeal, as many of his papers of
+that period attest."[6] From his pulpit Dr. Channing frequently expressed
+his faith in the principles of peace, and he strongly advocated those
+Christian convictions and that spirit of good will which would make war
+impossible if they were applied to the conduct of nations.
+
+Not less devoted to the cause of peace was Dr. Ezra S. Gannett, of whom his
+son says: "He thought that reason, religion, the whole spirit as well as
+the letter of the gospel, united in forbidding war. Probably, he was
+non-resistant up to, rather than in, the absolutely last extremity;
+although he writes that an English book which Dr. Channing lent him as the
+best he knew upon the subject, 'has made me a thorough peace man!'"[7]
+"Let the fact of brotherhood be fairly grasped," wrote Dr. Frederic H.
+Hedge, "and war becomes impossible."[8] "The tremendous extent and
+pertinacity of the habit of human slaughter in battle," wrote Dr. William
+R. Alger, "its shocking criminality, and its incredible foolishness, when
+regarded from an advanced religious position, are three facts calculated to
+appall every thoughtful man and startle him into amazement." "It is vain,"
+he said, "to undertake to impart a competent conception of the crimes and
+miseries belonging to war. Their appalling character and magnitude stun the
+imagination and pass off like the burden of a frightful dream."[9]
+
+Worcester's Solemn Review convinced Rev. Samuel J. May "that the precepts,
+spirit, and example of Jesus gave no warrant to the violent, bloody
+resistance of evil; that wrong could be effectually overcome by right,
+hatred by love, violence by gentleness, evil of any kind by its opposite
+good. I preached this," he said, "as one of the cardinal doctrines of the
+gospel, and endeavored especially to show the wickedness and folly of the
+custom of war."[10] In 1826 he organized a county peace society, the first
+in the country; and his first publication was in advocacy of this
+reform.[11]
+
+Of the men connected with political life, Charles Sumner was the most
+devoted and influential friend of the peace cause. As early as March, 1839,
+he wrote to a friend, "I hold all wars, as unjust and, unchristian." His
+address on The True Grandeur of Nations, given before the mayor and other
+officials of Boston, July 4, 1845, was one of the noblest and most
+effective utterances on the subject. Though a considerable part of the
+audience was in military array, Sumner showed the evils of war in
+uncompromising terms, denouncing it as cruel and unnecessary, while with
+true eloquence, great learning, and deep conviction he made his plea for
+peace. "The effect was immediate and striking," wrote George W. Curtis.
+"There were great indignation and warm protest on the one hand, and upon
+the other sincere congratulation and high compliment. Sumner's view of the
+absolute wrong and iniquity of war was somewhat modified subsequently; but
+the great purpose of a peaceful solution of international disputes he never
+relinquished."[12] He said in this oration that "in our age there can be
+no peace that is not honorable; there can be no war that is not
+dishonorable." This statement was severely criticised, but it indicates his
+uncompromising acceptance of peace principles.[13] He added these
+pertinent sentences: "The true honor of a nation is to be found only in
+deeds of justice and in the happiness of its people, all of which are
+inconsistent with war. In the clear eye of Christian judgment vain are its
+victories, infamous are its spoils."[14] He further declared that "war is
+utterly and irreconcilably inconsistent with true greatness."[15] These
+views he continued to hold throughout his life, though in a more
+conciliatory spirit; and on several occasions he presented them before the
+Peace Society and elsewhere. When in the Senate he was a leader of the
+cause of arbitration, and exerted his large influence in securing its
+adoption by the United States as a means of preventing war with foreign
+countries. As late as July, 1873, he wrote to one of his friends: "I long
+to witness the harmony of nations, which I am sure is near. When an evil so
+great is recognized and discussed, the remedy must be near at hand."[16]
+
+The work done by Julia Ward Howe for the cause of peace is eminently worthy
+of recognition. One chapter of her Reminiscences is devoted to her "Peace
+Crusade" of 1870. The cruel and unnecessary character of the
+Franco-Prussian war led her to write an appeal to mothers to use their
+influence in behalf of peace. "The august dignity of motherhood and its
+terrible responsibilities now appeared to me in a new aspect," she writes,
+"and I could think of no better way of expressing my sense of these than of
+sending forth an appeal to womanhood throughout the world, which I then and
+there composed."[17] She printed and distributed her appeal, had it
+translated into French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Swedish, and then
+spent many months in corresponding with leading women in various countries.
+She invited these women to a Women's Peace Congress to be held in London.
+After holding two successful meetings in New York, she began her crusade in
+England, holding meetings in many places, and also attending a Peace
+Congress in Paris. She hired a hall in London, and held Sunday meetings to
+promote the reform she had deeply at heart. The Women's Congress was a
+success, and after two years of earnest effort Mrs. Howe had the
+satisfaction of knowing that she had done something to promote peace on
+earth and good will among men.
+
+[Sidenote: Temperance Reform.]
+
+Unitarians have been active in the cause of temperance, but again as
+individuals rather than as a denomination. The emphasis they have put on
+the importance of individual opinion and personal liberty has made them
+often reluctant to join societies that sought to promote this reform by
+restrictive and coercive measures. As a body, therefore, they have shown a
+greater inclination to the use of moral suasion than legislative power.
+
+From Dr. Channing this reform had the most earnest approval. "The
+temperance reform which is going on among us," he wrote, "deserves all
+praise, and I see not what is to hinder its complete success. I believe the
+movements now made will succeed, because they are in harmony with and are
+seconded by the general spirit and progress of the age. Every advance in
+knowledge, in refined manners, in domestic enjoyments, in habits of
+foresight and economy, in regular industry, in the comforts of life, in
+civilization, good morals and religion, is an aid to the cause of
+temperance; and believing as we do that these are making progress, may we
+not hope that drunkenness will be driven from society?"[18] He regarded
+the subject from a broader point of view than many, and urged that a sound
+physical education for all youth, as well as larger opportunities for
+intellectual improvement on the part of workingmen, would do much to
+prevent intemperance.[19] He maintained that to give men "strength within
+to withstand the temptations of intemperance" is incalculably more
+important than to remove merely outward temptations. Better education,
+innocent amusements, a wider spirit of sympathy and brotherhood,
+discouragement of the use and sale of ardent spirits, were among the means
+he recommended for suppressing this evil.[20]
+
+The Massachusetts Society for the Suppression of Intemperance was organized
+at the State House in Boston on February 5, 1813, "to discountenance and
+suppress the too free use of ardent spirits, and to encourage and promote
+temperance and general morality." This was one of the first temperance
+societies organized in the country, and its chief promoters were
+Unitarians. Dr. John C. Collins, who published the records of the society,
+said of the year 1827, when he became a member, that "Channing, Gannett,
+and others were the most active men at that time in the temperance
+cause."[21] Dr. Abiel Abbot was the first corresponding secretary of the
+society, and on the council were Drs. Kirkland, Lothrop, Worcester, and
+Pierce. Among the other Unitarian ministers who were active in the society
+were Charles Lowell, the younger Henry Ware, John Pierpont, and John G.
+Palfrey. Among the laymen were Moses Grant, Nathan Dane, Dr. John Ware,
+Stephen Fairbanks, Dr. J.F. Flagg, William Sullivan, Amos Lawrence, Samuel
+Dexter, and Isaac Parker.[22] Auxiliary societies were organized in Salem,
+Beverly, and other towns; and these gave to the temperance cause the
+activities of such Unitarians as Theophilus Parsons, Robert Rantoul, and
+Samuel Hoar.[23]
+
+Of the more recent interest of Unitarians in questions of temperance reform
+there may be mentioned the thorough study made by the United States
+Commissioner of Labor, and printed in 1898 under the title of Economic
+Aspects of the Liquor Problem.[24] This investigation was ordered by
+Congress as the result of a petition sent to that body by the Unitarian
+Temperance Society. Probably few petitions have ever been sent to Congress
+that contained so many prominent names of leading statesmen, presidents of
+colleges and universities, bishops, clergymen, well-known literary men, and
+other persons of influence. The Unitarian Temperance Society was organized
+September 23, 1886, in connection with the meeting of the National
+Conference at Saratoga. Its purpose is "to work for the cause of temperance
+in whatever ways may seem to it wise and right; to study the social
+problems of poverty, crime, and disease, in their relation to the use of
+intoxicating drinks, and to diffuse whatever knowledge may be gained; to
+discuss methods of temperance reform; to devise and, so far as possible, to
+execute plans for practical reform; to exert by its meetings and by its
+membership such influence for good as by the grace of God it may possess."
+It has held annual meetings in Boston, and other meetings in connection
+with the National Conference; it has published a number of important
+tracts, temperance text-books, and temperance services for Sunday-schools;
+and it has exerted a considerable influence on the denomination in shaping
+public opinion in regard to this reform. The presidents of the society have
+been Rev. Christopher R. Eliot, Rev. George H. Hosmer, and Rev. Charles F.
+Dole.
+
+The subject of temperance reform has been before the National Conference on
+several occasions and in various forms. At the session of 1882 a resolution
+offered by Miss Mary Grew was adopted:--
+
+  That the unutterable evils continually wrought by intemperance, the
+  easy descent from moderate to immoderate drinking, and the moral wrecks
+  strewn along that downward path, call upon Christians and patriots to
+  practise and advocate abstinence from the use of all intoxicating
+  liquors as a beverage.
+
+In 1891 a series of resolutions recommended by the Unitarian Temperance
+Society were adopted as expressing the convictions of the Conference:--
+
+  First, that the liquor saloon, as it exists to-day in the United
+  States, is the nation's chief school of crime, chief college of
+  corruption in politics, chief source of poverty and ruined homes, chief
+  menace to our country's future, is the standing enemy of society, and,
+  as such, deserves the condemnation of all good men.
+
+  Second, that, whatever be the best mode of dealing with the saloon by
+  law, law can avail little until those who condemn the saloon consent to
+  totally abstain themselves from the use of alcoholic drink for
+  pleasure.
+
+  Third, that we affectionately and urgently call on every minister and
+  all laymen and women in our denomination--our old, our young, our rich,
+  our poor, our leaders, and our humblest--to take this stand of total
+  abstinence, remembering those that are in bonds as bound with them, and
+  throw the solid influence of our church against the influence of the
+  saloon.
+
+[Sidenote: Anti-slavery.]
+
+In proportion to its numbers no religious body in the country did so much
+to promote the anti-slavery reform as the Unitarian. No Unitarian defended
+slavery from the pulpit or by means of the press, and no one was its
+apologist.[25] Many, however, did not approve of the methods of the
+abolitionists, and some strongly opposed the extreme measures of a part of
+that body of reformers. The desire of Unitarians to be just, rational, and
+open-minded, exposed many of them to the criticism of being neither for nor
+against slavery. But it is certain that they were not indifferent to its
+evils nor recreant to their humanitarian principles.
+
+The period of the anti-slavery agitation was truly one that tried the souls
+of men; and those who were equally conscientious, desirous of serving the
+cause of justice and humanity, and solicitous for the welfare of the slave,
+widely differed from one another as to what was the wise method of action.
+Among those severely condemned by the anti-slavery party were several
+Unitarian ministers of great force of character and of a genuinely
+humanitarian spirit. Three of them may be selected as representative.
+
+Dr. Orville Dewey had seen something of slavery, and was strongly opposed
+to it. He thought the system hateful in itself and productive of nearly
+unmingled evil, and yet he was not in favor of immediate emancipation. His
+frequent indictments of slavery in his sermons and lectures were severe in
+the extreme; but his demand for wise and patient counsel, and for a
+rational method of gradual emancipation, subjected him to severe
+condemnation. "And nothing else brings out the nobleness of Dr. Dewey into
+such bold relief as the fact," says Rev. John W. Chadwick, "that the
+immeasurable torrent of abuse that greeted his expressed opinion did not in
+any least degree avail to make him one of the pro-slavery faction. He
+differed from the most earnest of the anti-slavery men only as to the best
+method of getting rid of the curse of human bondage."[26]
+
+As early as 1830 Dr. E.S. Gannett said that "the greatest evil under which
+our nation labors is the existence of slavery. It is the only vicious part
+of our body politic, but this is a deep and disgusting sore. It must be
+treated with the utmost judgment and skill." The violence of the
+abolitionists he did not approve, however; for his respect for law and
+constituted authority was so great that he was not ready for radical
+measures. He abhorred slavery, but he was not willing to condemn the
+slaveholder. He was therefore regarded by the abolitionists as more hostile
+to them than any other Unitarian minister. His attitude as a peace man, his
+strong regard for justice and fair dealing, as well as his earnest faith in
+the gentle influence of the gospel, forbade his accepting the strenuous
+methods of the abolitionists. He would not, however, permit anti-slavery
+ministers to be silenced in Unitarian meetings. When he saw something of
+slavery, in 1833, he expressed his convictions in regard to it in these
+forcible words: "It is the attempt to degrade a human being into something
+less than a man,--not the confinement, unjust as this is, nor the blows,
+cruel as these are,--but the denial of his equal share in the rights,
+prerogatives, and responsibilities of a human being, which brands the
+institution of slavery with its peculiar and ineffaceable odiousness."[27]
+
+Another minister who came under the condemnation of the abolitionists was
+Rev. John H. Morison, and yet he preached sermons against slavery that met
+with the vigorous disapproval of his congregation. "We all agree," he wrote
+in 1844, "in the sad conviction that slavery in its political influence,
+more than all other subjects, threatens to upturn the foundation of our
+government; that in its moral and religious bearings it is a grievous wrong
+to master and slave; and that, as it is in violation of the fundamental
+principles of Christian duty, it must, if continued beyond the absolute
+necessity of the case, be attended with consequences the most disastrous."
+Again, when Daniel Webster made his 7th of March speech in 1850, Dr.
+Morison, then the editor of The Christian Register, took the earliest
+possible opportunity to express himself as strongly as he could against it.
+"We at the North," he wrote, "believe that slavery is morally wrong." He
+said that the government, in its attempt to defend slavery as against the
+moral convictions of a large number of the people, was doing the country a
+great harm.[28]
+
+The position of these men and of others who thought and acted with them can
+best be understood by recognizing the fact that they were opposed to
+sectarian methods in promoting reforms as in advancing the interests of
+religion. It is probable that in these heated times neither party did full
+justice to the spirit and purposes of the other. Even so gentle and
+charitable a man as Rev. Samuel J. May speaks of the "discreditable
+pro-slavery conduct of the Unitarian denomination." "The Unitarians as a
+body," he says again, "dealt with the question of slavery in anything but
+an impartial, courageous, and Christian way. Continually in their public
+meetings the question was staved off and driven out because of technical,
+formal, verbal difficulties which were of no real importance, and ought not
+to have caused a moment's hesitation. Avowing among their distinctive
+doctrines the fatherly character of God and the brotherhood of man, we had
+a right to expect from the Unitarians a steadfast and unqualified protest
+against so unjust, tyrannical, and cruel a system as that of American
+slavery. And considering their position as a body, not entangled with any
+pro-slavery alliances, not hampered with any ecclesiastical organization,
+it does seem to me that they were pre-eminently guilty in reference to the
+enslavement of the millions in our land with its attendant wrongs,
+cruelties, horrors. They refused to speak as a body, and censured,
+condemned, execrated their members who did speak faithfully for the
+down-trodden, and who co-operated with him whom a merciful Providence sent
+as the prophet of the reform."[29]
+
+The testimony of Rev. O.B. Frothingham is fully as condemnatory of
+Unitarian timidity and conservatism, even of the moral cowardice betrayed
+by many of the leaders. He says the Unitarians, as such, "were indifferent
+or lukewarm; the leading classes were opposed to the agitation. Dr.
+Channing was almost alone in lending countenance to the reform, though his
+hesitation between the dictates of natural feeling and Christian charity
+towards the masters hampered his action, and rendered him obnoxious to both
+parties,--the radicals finding fault with him for not going further, the
+conservatives blaming him because he went so far."[30] Mr. Frothingham
+finds, however, that the transcendentalists were quite "universally
+abolitionists, their faith in the natural powers of man making them zealous
+promoters of the cause of the slave." He insists that as a class "the
+Unitarians were not ardent disciples of any moral cause, and took pride in
+being reasoners, believers in education and in general social influence, in
+the progress of knowledge and the uplifting of humanity by means of ideas,"
+but that they permitted these qualities to cool their ardor for reform and
+to mitigate their love of humanity.[31]
+
+The biographers of William Lloyd Garrison are never tired of condemning Dr.
+Channing for what they call his timidity, his shunning any personal contact
+with the great abolitionist, his failure to grapple boldly with the evils
+of slavery, and his half-hearted espousal of the cause of abolition. The
+Unitarians generally are by these writers regarded in the same manner.[32]
+
+Most of the accounts mentioned were written by those who took part in the
+agitation against slavery, in condemnation of those who had not kept step
+with their abolition pace or in apology for those whose words and conduct
+were thought to need defence. The time has come, perhaps, when it is
+possible to consider, the attitude of individuals and the denomination
+without a partisan wish to condemn or to defend. In this spirit the
+statement of Samuel J. May is to be accepted as true and just, when he
+says: "We Unitarians have given to the anti-slavery cause more preachers,
+writers, lecturers, agents, poets, than any other denomination in
+proportion to our numbers, if not without any comparison."[33]
+
+Among those who listened to William Lloyd Garrison when in October, 1830,
+he first presented in Boston his views in favor of immediate emancipation,
+were Samuel J. May, Samuel E. Sewall, and A.B. Alcott; and these men at
+once became his disciples and friends.[34] When Garrison organized the New
+England Anti-slavery Society in December, 1832, he was actively supported
+by Samuel E. Sewall, David Lee Child, and Ellis Gray Loring. It was to the
+financial support of Sewall and Loring, though they did not at first accept
+his doctrine of immediate emancipation, that Garrison owed his ability to
+begin The Liberator, and to sustain it in its earliest years.[35] For many
+years, Edmund Quincy was connected with The Liberator, serving as its
+editor when Garrison was ill, absent on lecturing tours, or journeying in
+Europe. The Massachusetts Anti-slavery Society, which in 1835 succeeded the
+New England Society, had during many years Francis Jackson as its
+president, Edmund Quincy as its corresponding secretary, and Robert F.
+Walcutt as its recording secretary, all Unitarians.
+
+In 1834 was formed the Cambridge Anti-slavery Society, under the leadership
+of the younger Henry Ware; and the membership was largely Unitarian,
+including the names of Dr. Henry Ware, Sidney Willard, Charles Follen,
+William H. Charming, Artemus B. Muzzey, Barzillai Frost, Charles T. Brooks,
+and Frederic H. Hedge. The purposes of the society were stated in its
+constitution:--
+
+  We believe that the emancipation of all who are in bondage is the
+  requisition, not less of sound policy, than of justice and humanity;
+  and that it is the duty of those with whom the power lies at once to
+  remove the sanction of the law from the principle that man can be the
+  property of man,--a principle inconsistent with our free institutions,
+  subversive of the purposes for which man was made, and utterly at
+  variance with the plainest dictates of reason and Christianity.
+
+In 1843 Samuel May visited England, and at Unitarian meetings described the
+obstacles in the way of the abolition of slavery, and spoke of the apathy
+of American Unitarians. He advised the sending a letter of fraternal
+counsel to the Unitarian ministers of the United States "in behalf of the
+unhappy slave." Such a letter was prepared, and signed by eighty-five
+ministers. It was published in the Unitarian papers in this country, a
+meeting was held to consider it, and a reply sent to England signed by one
+hundred and thirty ministers. Mr. May was severely condemned for his part
+in causing such a letter to be sent, and the reply was rather in the nature
+of a protest than a friendly acceptance of the advice given.
+
+A year later, however, this letter was again the subject of earnest
+discussion. In anniversary week, 1845, a meeting of Unitarian ministers was
+held to "discuss their duties in relation to American slavery." The call
+for this meeting was signed by James Thompson, Joseph Allen, Caleb Stetson,
+Samuel Ripley, Converse Francis, William Ware, Samuel J. May, Artemus B.
+Muzzey, Oliver Stearns, James W. Thompson, Alonzo Hill, Andrew P. Peabody,
+Henry A. Miles, Frederic H. Hedge, James F. Clarke, George W. Briggs,
+Samuel May, Barzillai Frost, Nathaniel Hall, David Fosdick, and John Weiss.
+At the third session, by a vote of forty-seven to seven, it was declared
+"that we consider slavery to be utterly opposed to the principles and
+spirit of Christianity, and that, as ministers of the gospel, we feel it
+our duty to protest against it, in the name of Christ, and to do all we may
+to create a public opinion to secure the overthrow of the institution." It
+was also decided to appoint a committee to draw up, secure signatures to,
+and publish "a protest against the institution of American slavery, as
+unchristian and inhuman." Though some of those who spoke at these meetings
+condemned the abolitionists, yet all of them expressed in the strongest
+terms their opposition to slavery.
+
+The committee selected to prepare this protest consisted of Caleb Stetson,
+James F. Clarke, John Parkman, Stephen G. Bulfinch, A.P. Peabody, John
+Pierpont, Samuel J. May, Oliver Stearns, George W. Briggs, William P.
+Tilden, and William H. Channing. The protest was written by James Freeman
+Clarke and was accepted essentially as it came from his hands. It was
+signed by one hundred and seventy-three ministers,[36] the whole number of
+Unitarian ministers at that time being two hundred and sixty-seven. Some of
+the most prominent ministers were conspicuous by the absence of their names
+from this protest. It must be understood, however, that those who did not
+sign it were as much opposed to slavery as those who did. "This protest,"
+said the editor of The Christian Register, in presenting it to the
+public,[37] "is written with great clearness of expression and moderation
+of spirit. It exhibits unequivocally and distinctly the sentiments of the
+numerous and most enlightened body of clergy whose names are attached to
+it, as well as many other ministers of the denomination who may be
+disinclined to act conjointly, or do not feel called upon to act at all in
+any prescribed way, on the subject." It was not a desire to defend slavery
+that kept these ministers from signing the protest, but their excessive
+individualism, and their unwillingness to commit the denomination to
+opinions all might not accept. A few paragraphs from the protest will
+indicate its spirit and purpose:--
+
+"Especially do we feel that the denomination which takes for its motto
+Liberty, Holiness and Love should be foremost in opposing this system. More
+than others we have contended for three great principles,--individual
+liberty, perfect righteousness, and human brotherhood. All of these are
+grossly violated by the system of slavery. We contend for mental freedom;
+shall we not denounce the system which fetters both mind and body? We have
+declared righteousness to be the essence of Christianity; shall we not
+oppose the system which is the sum of all wrong? We claim for all men the
+right of brotherhood before a universal Father; ought we not to testify
+against that which tramples so many of our brethren under foot?"
+
+"We, therefore, ministers of the gospel of truth and love, in the name of
+God the universal Father, in the name of Christ the Redeemer, in the name
+of humanity and human brotherhood, do solemnly protest against the system
+of slavery as unchristian, and inhuman," "because it is a violation of
+right, being the sum of all unrighteousness which man can do to man,"
+"violates the law of love," "degrades man, the image of God, into a thing,"
+"necessarily tends to pollute the soul of the slave," "to defile the soul
+of the master," "restricts education, keeps the Bible from the slave, makes
+life insecure, deprives female innocence of protection, sanctions adultery,
+tears children from parents and husbands from wives, violates the divine
+institutions of families, and by hard and hopeless toil makes existence a
+burden," "eats out the heart of nations and tends every year more and more
+to sear the popular conscience and impair the virtue of the people."
+
+"We implore all Christians and Christian preachers to unite in unceasing
+prayer to God for aid against this system, to leave no opportunity of
+speaking the truth and spreading the light on this subject, in faith that
+the truth is strong enough to break every yoke." "And we do hereby pledge
+ourselves, before God and our brethren, never to be weary of laboring in
+the cause of human rights and freedom until slavery be abolished and every
+slave made free."
+
+Although many ministers and laymen took the position that the question of
+slavery was not one that should receive attention in the meetings of the
+Unitarian Association or other religious organizations, that these should
+be kept strictly to their own special purposes, it was not possible to
+exclude the one great exciting topic of the age. How persistently it
+intruded itself is clearly indicated in words used by Dr. Bellows at the
+annual meeting of the Association, in 1856. "Year after year this horrid
+image of slavery come in here," he said, "and obtruded itself upon our
+concerns. It has prevented our giving attention to any other subject; we
+could not keep it out of our minds; and why is that awful crime against
+humanity still known in the world, still supported and active in this age
+of Christendom, but because it is in alliance with certain views of
+theology with which we are at war?"[38] At the same meeting strong
+resolutions of sympathy with the free settlers of Kansas, and with Charles
+Sumner because "the barbarity of the slave power had attempted to silence
+him by brutal outrage," were unanimously adopted.[39]
+
+In 1857 the subject of slavery came before the Western Conference in its
+session at Alton. The most uncompromising anti-slavery resolutions were
+presented at the opening of the meeting, and everything else was put aside
+for their consideration, a day and a half being devoted to them. The
+opinion of the majority was, in the words of one of the speakers, that
+slavery is a crime that "denies millions marital and parental rights,
+requires ignorance as a condition, encourages licentiousness and cruelty,
+scars a country all over with incidents that appall and outrage the human
+world." Dr. W.G. Eliot, of St. Louis, and others, thought it not expedient
+to press the subject to an issue, though he regarded slavery in much the
+same way as did the other members of the conference. When the conference
+finally took issue with slavery, he and his delegates withdrew from its
+membership. His assistant, Rev. Carlton A. Staples, and Rev. John H.
+Heywood, of Louisville, went with the majority. A committee appointed to
+formulate a statement the conference could accept said that it had no right
+to interfere with the freedom of action of individual churches; but it
+recommended them to do all they could in opposition to slavery, and said
+that the conference was of one mind in the conviction "that slavery is an
+evil doomed by God to pass away." This report was accepted by the
+conference with only one opposing vote.[40] When the year 1860 had
+arrived, Unitarians were practically unanimous in their condemnation of
+slavery.
+
+When the names of individual Unitarians who took an active part in the
+anti-slavery movement are given, it is at once seen how important was the
+influence of the denomination. Early in the century Rev. Noah Worcester
+uttered his word of protest against slavery. Rev. Charles Follen joined the
+Massachusetts Anti-slavery Society in the second year of its existence, and
+no nobler champion of liberty ever lived. If Dr. Channing was slow in
+applying his Christian ideal of liberty to slavery, there can be no
+question that his influence was powerful on the right side, and all the
+more so because of his gentle and ethical interpretation of individual and
+national duty. His various publications on the subject, his identification
+of himself with the abolitionists by joining their ranks in the
+Massachusetts State House in 1836, his speech in Faneuil Hall in protest
+against the killing of Lovejoy in Alton during the same year, exerted a
+great influence in behalf of abolition throughout the North. It is only
+necessary to mention John Pierpont, Theodore Parker, William H. Furness,
+William H. Channing, William Goodell, Theodore D. Weld, Ichabod Codding,
+Caleb Stetson, and M.D. Conway in order to recognize their uncompromising
+fidelity to the cause of freedom. Only less devoted were such men as
+Charles Lowell, Nahor A. Staples, Sylvester Judd, Nathaniel Hall, Thomas T.
+Stone, O.B. Frothingham, Abiel A. Livermore, Samuel Johnson, Samuel
+Longfellow, Thomas J. Mumford, and many others.
+
+Samuel J. May and his cousin, Samuel May, were both employed by the
+Massachusetts Anti-slavery Society. From 1847 until 1865 the latter was the
+general agent of that organization; and his assistant was another Unitarian
+minister, Robert F. Walcutt. James Freeman Clarke, though settled at
+Louisville from 1833 to 1840, was opposed to slavery; and in the pages of
+The Western Messenger, of which he was publisher and editor, he took every
+occasion to press home the claims of emancipation. John G. Palfrey
+emancipated the slaves that came into his possession from his father's
+estate, insisting on receiving them for that purpose, though the
+opportunity was given him to accept other property in their stead. In
+accordance with this action was his attitude toward slavery in the pulpit
+and on the platform, as well as when he was a member of the lower house of
+Congress.
+
+Of Unitarian laymen who were loyal to the ideal of freedom, the list may
+properly open with the name of Josiah Quincy, afterwards mayor of Boston
+and president of Harvard College, who began as early as 1804 his opposition
+to slavery, and carried it faithfully into his work as a member of the
+national House of Representatives soon after. The fidelity of John Quincy
+Adams to freedom during many years is known to every one, and his service
+in the national House has given him a foremost place in the company of the
+anti-slavery leaders. Not less loyal was the service of Charles Sumner,
+Horace Mann, John P. Hale, George W. Julian, John A. Andrew, Samuel G.
+Howe, Henry I. Bowditch, William I. Bowditch, Thomas W. Higginson, George
+F. Hoar, Ebenezer R. Hoar, George S. Boutwell, and Henry B. Anthony. Of the
+poets the anti-slavery reform had the support of Longfellow, Lowell,
+Bryant, and Emerson. The Unitarian women were also zealous for freedom. The
+loyalty of Lydia Maria Child is well known, as are the sacrifices she made
+in publishing her early anti-slavery books. Lucretia Mott, of the Unitarian
+branch of the Friends, was a devoted supporter of the anti-slavery cause.
+Mrs. Maria W. Chapman was one of the most faithful supporters of Garrison,
+doing more than any one else to give financial aid to the anti-slavery
+reform movement in its earlier years. With these women deserve to be
+mentioned Eliza Lee Follen, Angelina Grimke Weld, Lucy Stone, and many
+more.
+
+A considerable group of persons who had been trained in evangelical
+churches became essentially Unitarians as a result of the anti-slavery
+agitation. Of these may be mentioned William Lloyd Garrison, Gerrit Smith,
+Beriah Green, Joshua R. Giddings, Myron Holley, Theodore D. Weld, and
+Francis W. Bird. Of the first four of these men, George W. Julian has said:
+"They were theologically reconstructed through their unselfish devotion to
+humanity and the recreancy of the churches to which they had been attached.
+They were less orthodox, but more Christian. Their faith in the fatherhood
+of God and the brotherhood of man became a living principle, and compelled
+to reject all dogmas which stood in its way."[41]
+
+[Sidenote: The Enfranchisement of Women.]
+
+It is not surprising that the first great advocate of "the rights of women"
+in this country should have been the Unitarian, Margaret Fuller. She did no
+more than apply what she had been taught in religion to problems of
+personal duty, professional activity, and political obligations. With her
+freedom of faith and liberty of thought meant also freedom to devote her
+life to such tasks as she could best perform for the good of others. It was
+inevitable that other Unitarian women should follow her example, and that
+many women, trained in other faiths, having come to accept the doctrine of
+universal political rights, should seek in Unitarianism the religion
+consonant with their individuality of purpose and their sense of human
+freedom.
+
+Among the leaders of the movement for the enfranchisement of women have
+been such Unitarians as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy
+Stone, Julia Ward Howe, Mary A. Livermore, Maria Weston Chapman, Caroline
+H. Dall, and Louisa M. Alcott. The first pronounced woman suffrage paper in
+the country was The Una, begun at Providence in 1853, with Mrs. Caroline H.
+Dall as the assistant editor. Among other Unitarian contributors were
+William H. Charming, Elizabeth P. Peabody, Thomas W. Higginson, Ednah D.
+Cheney, Amory D. Mayo, Elizabeth Oakes Smith, Lucy Stone, and Mrs. E.C.
+Stanton. The next important paper was The Revolution, begun at New York in
+1868, with Susan B. Anthony as publisher and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and
+Parker Pillsbury as editors. Then came The Woman's Journal, begun at Boston
+in 1870, with Mary A. Livermore, Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, T.W.
+Higginson, and Henry B. Blackwell, all Unitarians, as the editors.
+
+The first national woman's suffrage meeting was held in Worcester, October
+28 and 24, 1850; and among those who took part in it by letter or personal
+presence were Emerson, Alcott, Higginson, Pillsbury, Samuel J. May, William
+H. Channing, William H. Burleigh, Elizabeth C. Stanton, Catherine M.
+Sedgwick, Caroline Kirkland, and Lucy Stone. In April, 1853, when the
+Constitution of Massachusetts was to receive revision, a petition was
+presented, asking that suffrage should be granted to women. Of twenty-seven
+persons signing it, more than half were Unitarians, including Abby May
+Alcott, Lucy Stone, T.W. Higginson, Anna Q.T. Parsons, Theodore Parker,
+William I. Bowditch, Samuel E. Sewall, Ellis Gray Loring, Charles K.
+Whipple, and Thomas T. Stone. Among other Unitarians who have taken an
+active part in promoting this cause have been Lucretia Mott, Mary Grew,
+Caroline M. Severance, Celia C. Burleigh, Angelina Grimke Weld, and Maria
+Giddings Julian. Of men there have been Dr. William F. Channing, James F.
+Clarke, George F. Hoar, George W. Curtis, John S. Dwight, John T. Sargent,
+Samuel Johnson, Samuel Longfellow, Octavius B. Frothingham, Adin Ballou,
+George W. Julian, Frank B. Sanborn, and James T. Fields.
+
+Unitarians have been amongst the first to recognize women in education,
+literature, the professions, and in the management of church and
+denominational interests. At the convention held in New York in 1865, which
+organized the National Conference, no women appeared as delegates; and the
+same was true at the second session, held at Syracuse in 1866. At that
+session Rev. Thomas J. Mumford moved "that our churches shall be left to
+their own wishes and discretion with reference to the sex of the delegates
+chosen to represent them in the conference"; and this resolution was
+adopted. At the third meeting, held at New York in 1868, thirty-seven women
+appeared as delegates, including Julia Ward Howe and Caroline H. Dall. The
+lay delegates to the session held at Washington in 1899 numbered four
+hundred and two; and, of these, two hundred and twenty seven were women.
+
+At the annual meeting of the Unitarian Association in 1870, Rev. John T.
+Sargent brought forward the subject of the representation of women on its
+board of directors. Dr. James F. Clarke made a motion looking to that
+result, which was largely discussed, much opposition being manifested. It
+was urged by many that women were unfit to serve in a position demanding so
+much business capacity, that they would displace capable men, and that it
+was improper for them to assume so public a duty. Charles Lowe, James F.
+Clarke, John T. Sargent, and others strongly championed the proposition,
+with the result that Miss Lucretia Crocker was elected a member of the
+board.[42]
+
+The first woman ordained to the Unitarian ministry was Mrs. Celia C.
+Burleigh, who was settled over the parish in Brooklyn, Conn., October 5,
+1871. The sermon was preached by Rev. John W. Chadwick, and the address to
+the people was given by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe. A letter was read from Henry
+Ward Beecher, in which he said to Mrs. Burleigh: "I do cordially believe
+that you ought to preach. I think you had a _call_ in your very nature."
+Mrs. Burleigh continued at Brooklyn for less than three years, ill-health
+compelling her to resign.
+
+The second woman to enter the Unitarian ministry was Miss Mary H. Graves,
+who was ordained at Mansfield, Mass., December 14, 1871. She was subjected
+to a thorough examination; and the committee reported "that her words have
+commanded our thorough respect by their freedom and clearness, and won our
+full sympathy and approval by their earnest, discreet, and beautiful
+spirit." Mrs. Eliza Tupper Wilkes was ordained by the Universalists at
+Rochester, Minn., May 2, 1871, though she had preached for two or three
+years previously; and she subsequently identified herself with the
+Unitarians. Mrs. Antoinette Brown Blackwell was ordained in Central New
+York, in 1853, by the Orthodox Congregationalists; but somewhat later she
+became a Unitarian.
+
+The first woman to receive ordination who has continued without
+interruption her ministerial duties was Miss Mary A. Safford, ordained in
+1880. She has held every official position in connection with the Iowa
+Unitarian Association, and she has also been an officer of the Western
+Conference and a director of the American Unitarian Association.
+
+Several women have also frequently appeared in Unitarian pulpits who have
+not received ordination or devoted themselves to the ministry as a
+profession. Among these are Mrs. Caroline H. Dall, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe,
+and Mrs. Mary A. Livermore. In 1875 Mrs. Howe was active in organizing the
+Women's Ministerial Conference, which met in the Church of the Disciples,
+and brought together women ministers of several denominations. Of this
+conference Mrs. Howe was for many years the president.
+
+In most Unitarian churches there is no longer any question as to the right
+of women to take any place they are individually fitted to occupy. On
+denominational committees and boards, women sit with entire success, their
+fitness for the duties required being called in question by no one. In
+those conferences where women have for a number of years been actively
+engaged in the work of the ministry they are received on a basis of perfect
+equality with men, and the sex question no longer presents itself in regard
+to official positions or any other ministerial duty.
+
+[Sidenote: Civil Service Reform.]
+
+The first advocate of the reform of the civil service was Charles Sumner,
+who as early as December, 1847, anticipated its methods in a series of
+articles contributed to a newspaper.[43] He was the first to bring this
+reform before Congress, which he did April 30, 1864, when he introduced a
+bill to provide a system of competitive examinations for admission to and
+promotion in the civil service, which made merit and fitness the conditions
+of employment by the government, and provided against removal without
+cause. This bill was drawn by Sumner without consultation with any other
+person, but the time had not yet arrived when it could be successfully
+advocated.
+
+The next person to advocate the reform of the civil service in Congress was
+Thomas A. Jenckes, of Rhode Island, who in 1867 brought the merit system
+forward in the form of a report from the joint committee on retrenchment,
+which reported on the condition of the civil service, and accompanied its
+report with a bill "to regulate the civil service and to promote its
+efficiency." The next year Mr. Jenckes made a second report, but it was not
+until 1871 that action on the subject was secured.[44] George W. Curtis
+says that at first he "pressed it upon an utterly listless Congress, and
+his proposition was regarded as the harmless hobby of an amiable man, from
+which a little knowledge of practical politics would soon dismount
+him."[45] Most members of Congress thought the reform a mere vagary, and
+that it was brought forward at a most inopportune time.[46] Mr. Jenckes
+was the pioneer of the reform, according to Curtis, who says that he
+"powerfully and vigorously and alone opened the debate in Congress."[47]
+He drew the amendment to the appropriation bill in 1871 that became the
+law, and under which the first civil service commission was appointed. "By
+his experience, thorough knowledge, fertility of resource and suggestion
+and great legal ability, he continued to serve with as much efficiency as
+modesty the cause to which he was devoted."[48]
+
+One of the first persons to give attention to this subject was Dorman B.
+Eaton, an active member of All Souls' Church in New York, who was for
+several years chairman of the committee on political reform of the Union
+League Club of New York. In 1866, and again in 1870 and 1875, he travelled
+in Europe to secure information in regard to methods of civil service. The
+results of these investigations were presented in his work on Civil Service
+in Great Britain, a report made at the request of President Hayes. In 1873
+he was appointed a member of the Civil Service Commission by President
+Grant; in 1883 he was the chairman of the committee appointed by President
+Arthur; and in 1885 he was reappointed by President Cleveland. The bill of
+January, 1883, which firmly established civil service by act of Congress,
+was drawn by him. He was a devoted worker for good government in all its
+phases; and the results of his studies of the subject may be found in his
+books on The Independent Movement in New York and The Government of
+Municipalities. He was described by George William Curtis as "one of the
+most conspicuous, intelligent, and earnest friends of reform."[49]
+
+The most conspicuous advocate of the merit system was Mr. George William
+Curtis, another New York Unitarian, who was the chairman of the Civil
+Service Commission of 1871. In 1880 he became the president of the New York
+Civil Service Reform Association, a position he held until his death. The
+National Civil Service Reform League was organized at Newport in August,
+1881; and he was the president from that time as long as he lived. His
+annual addresses before the league show his devoted interest in its aims,
+as well as his eloquence, intellectual power, and political integrity.[50]
+In an address before the Unitarian National Conference, in 1878, Mr. Curtis
+gave a noble exposition and vindication of the reform which he labored
+zealously for twelve years to advance.[51]
+
+It has been justly said of Mr. Curtis that "far above the pleasures of life
+he placed its duties; and no man could have set himself more sternly to the
+serious work of citizenship. The national struggle over slavery, and the
+re-establishment of the Union on permanent foundations enlisted his whole
+nature. In the same spirit, he devoted his later years to the overthrow of
+the spoils system. He did this under no delusion as to the magnitude of the
+undertaking. Probably no one else comprehended it so well. He had studied
+the problem profoundly, and had solved every difficulty, and could answer
+every cavil to his own satisfaction." There can be no question that "his
+name imparted a strength to the movement no other would have given." Nor
+can there be much question that "among public men there was none who so won
+the confidence of sincere and earnest men and women by his own personality.
+The powers of such a character, with all his gifts and accomplishments, was
+what Mr. Curtis brought to the civil service reform."[52]
+
+[1] American Unitarian Biography, edited by William Ware; Memoir of
+    Worcester, by Henry Ware, Jr., I. 45, 46.
+
+[2] Solemn Review, edition of 1836 by American Peace Society, 7.
+
+[3] It had been preceded by societies in Ohio and New York, results of
+    the influence of the Solemn Review.
+
+[4] Unitarian Biography, I. 49.
+
+[5] Memoir, II. 284; one-volume edition, 111.
+
+[6] Ibid., III. 111; one-volume edition, 284.
+
+[7] Memoir, 139.
+
+[8] Christian Examiner, May, 1850, XLVIII. 378.
+
+[9] Ibid., November, 1861, LXXI. 313.
+
+[10] Life, 83.
+
+[11] Ibid., 115.
+
+[12] Cyclopedia of American Biography, V. 746.
+
+[13] Memoir, II. 348.
+
+[14] Memoir.
+
+[15] Ibid., 351.
+
+[16] Ibid., IV. 572.
+
+[17] Reminiscences, 328.
+
+[18] Memoir, III. 36; one-volume edition, 477.
+
+[19] Memoir, III. 31; one-volume edition, 474, 475.
+
+[20] Works, II. 301.
+
+[21] When will the Day come? and other tracts of the Massachusetts
+     Temperance Society, 135.
+
+[22] Of the twenty-seven annual addresses given before this society from
+     1814 to 1840, at least sixteen were by Unitarians; and among these
+     were John T. Kirkland, Abiel Abbot, William E. Channing, Edward
+     Everett, the younger Henry Ware, Gamaliel Bradford, Charles Sprague,
+     James Walker, Alexander H. Everett, William Sullivan, and Samuel K.
+     Lothrop. The first four presidents of this society--Samuel Dexter,
+     Nathan Dane, Isaac Parker, and Stephen Fairbanks--were Unitarians. Of
+     the same faith were also a large proportion of the vice-presidents
+     and other officers. Many of the tracts published by the society were
+     written by Unitarians.
+
+[23] Unitarians of every calling have been the advocates of temperance.
+     Among those who have been loyal to it in word and action may be named
+     John Adams, Jeremy Belknap, Jonathan Phillips, Charles Lowell, Ezra
+     S. Gannett, John Pierpont, Samuel J. May, Amos Lawrence, Horace Mann,
+     William H. and George S. Burleigh, Governor Pitman, William G. Eliot,
+     Rufus P. Stebbins, and William B. Spooner. "Many of the leading men
+     and women who were eminent as lawyers, judges, legislators, scholars,
+     also prominent in the business walks of life, and in social position,
+     gave this cause the force of their example, and the inspiration of
+     their minds. By their contributions of money, by their personal
+     efforts, by their public speeches and writings, and by their practice
+     of total abstinence, they rendered very valuable service."
+
+[24] Twelfth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, 1897.
+
+[25] Theodore Clapp, of New Orleans, may be an exception, though he is
+     claimed by the Universalists. See S.J. May's Recollections of the
+     Anti-slavery Conflict, 335.
+
+[26] Autobiography and Letters, 117, 127, 129. The criticism of Dr. Dewey
+     may be found in S.J. May's Recollections, 367.
+
+[27] Memoir, 139, 284, 296. See S.J. May, Recollections, 341, 367, for an
+     anti-slavery indictment of Dr. Gannett.
+
+[28] Memoir, chapter on Slavery.
+
+[29] Recollections of the Anti-slavery Conflict, chapter on the
+     Unitarians, 335.
+
+[30] See Lydia Maria Child's account of conversations with Channing on
+     this subject, in her Letters from New York.
+
+[31] Recollections and Impressions, 47, 183.
+
+[32] The Story of his Life as Told by his Children.
+
+[33] Recollections, 335.
+
+[34] S.J. May, Recollections, 19; Life of A.B. Alcott, 220; Life of
+     Garrison, I. 212.
+
+[35] Life of Garrison, I. 223.
+
+[36] The more prominent names are herewith given as they were printed in
+     The Christian Register: Joseph Allen, J.H. Allen, S.G. Bulfinch, C.F.
+     Barnard, Charles Briggs, W.G. Babcock, C.T. Brooks, Warren Burton,
+     C.H. Brigham, Edgar Buckingham, William H. Channing, James F. Clarke,
+     S.B. Cruft, A.H. Conant, C.H.A. Dall, R. Ellis, Converse Francis,
+     James Flint, William H. Furness, N.S. Folsom, Frederick A. Farley,
+     Frederick T. Gray, Henry Giles, F.D. Huntington, E.B. Hall, N. Hall,
+     F.H. Hedge, F. Hinckley, G.W. Hosmer, F.W. Holland, Thomas Hill,
+     Sylvester Judd, James Kendall, William H. Knapp, A.A. Livermore, S.J.
+     May, Samuel May, M.I. Mott, A.B. Muzzey, J.F. Moors, Henry A. Miles,
+     William Newell, J. Osgood, S. Osgood, Andrew P. Peabody, John
+     Parkman, John Pierpont, Theodore Parker, Cyrus Pierce, J.H. Perkins,
+     Cazneau Palfey, O.W.B. Peabody, Samuel Ripley, Chandler Robbins,
+     Caleb Stetson, Oliver Stearns, Rufus P. Stebbins, Edmund Q. Sewall,
+     Charles Sewall, John T. Sargent, George F. Simmons, William Silsbee,
+     William P. Tilden, J.W. Thompson, John Weiss, Robert T. Waterston,
+     William Ware, J.F.W. Ware, E.B. Willson, Frederick A. Whitney, Jason
+     Whitman.
+
+[37] Printed in The Christian Register, October 4, 1845.
+
+[38] Quarterly Journal, III. 567.
+
+[39] Ibid., 572.
+
+[40] Unity, Sept. 4, 1886, Mrs. S.C.Ll. Jones, Historic Unitarianism in
+     the West.
+
+[41] Life of Joshua R. Giddings, 399.
+
+[42] Memoir of Charles Lowe, 486. In 1901 four of the eighteen directors
+     of the American Unitarian Association were women.
+
+[43] Life, III. 149.
+
+[44] Life of Charles Sumner, IV. 191; Works, VII. 452.
+
+[45] G.W. Curtis, Orations and Addresses, II. 30.
+
+[46] Ibid., 173.
+
+[47] Ibid., 180.
+
+[48] Ibid., 223.
+
+[49] G.W. Curtis, Orations and Addresses, II. 458.
+
+[50] See Curtis's Orations and Addresses, II.; also, his Reports as civil
+     service commissioner, and various addresses before the Social Science
+     Association.
+
+[51] Edward Cary, Life of Curtis, American Men of Letters, 294.
+
+[52] George William Curtis and Civil Service Reform, by Sherman S. Rogers,
+     in Atlantic Monthly, January, 1893, LXXI. 15.
+
+
+
+
+XVII.
+
+
+UNITARIAN MEN AND WOMEN.
+
+Many of the most influential Americans have been in practical accord with
+Unitarianism, while not actually connected with Unitarian churches. They
+have accepted its principles of individual freedom, the rational
+interpretation of religion, and the necessity of bringing religious beliefs
+into harmony with modern science and philosophy. Among these may be
+properly included such men as Benjamin Franklin, John Marshall, Gerrit
+Smith, John G. Whittier, William Lloyd Garrison, Andrew D. White, and
+Abraham Lincoln. Whittier was a Friend, and White an Episcopalian; but the
+religion of both is acceptable to all Unitarians. Marshall was undoubtedly
+a Unitarian in his intellectual convictions, and he sometimes attended the
+Unitarian church in Washington; but his church affiliations were with the
+Episcopalians. John C. Calhoun was all his life a member of an Episcopal
+church and a communicant in it; but he frequently attended the Unitarian
+church in Washington, and intellectually he discarded the doctrines taught
+in the creeds of his church.
+
+Lincoln belonged to no church, and had no interest in the forms and
+disputes that constitute so large a part of outward religion; but he was
+one of those men whose great deeds rest on a basis of simple but
+profoundest religious conviction. The most explicit statement he ever made
+of his faith was in these words: "I have never united myself to any church,
+because I have found difficulty in giving my assent, without mental
+reservation, to the long, complicated statements of Christian doctrine
+which characterize their articles of belief and confessions of faith. When
+any church will inscribe over its altar, as its sole qualification of
+membership, the Saviour's condensed statement of both law and gospel, 'Thou
+shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and
+with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself,' that church will I join
+with all my heart and all my soul."[1] This declaration brings Lincoln
+into fullest harmony with the position of the Unitarian churches.
+
+[Sidenote: Eminent Statesmen.]
+
+The intellectual tendencies of the eighteenth century led many of the
+leading Americans to discard the Puritan habit of mind and the religious
+beliefs it had cherished. An intellectual revolt caused the rejection of
+many of the Protestant doctrines, and a political revolt in the direction
+of democracy led to the acceptance of religious principles not in harmony
+with those of the past. Many Americans shared in these protests who did not
+openly break with the older faiths. Washington was of this class; for,
+while he remained outwardly a churchman, he had little intellectual or
+practical sympathy with the stricter beliefs. Franklin was thoroughly of
+the Deistic faith of the thinkers of England and France in his time. These
+tendencies had their effect upon such men as John Adams, Timothy Pickering,
+Joseph Story, and Theophilus Parsons, as well as upon Thomas Jefferson and
+William Cranch. They showed themselves with especial prominence in the case
+of Jefferson, who always remained outwardly faithful to the state religion
+of Virginia, in which he had been educated, attended the Episcopal church
+in the neighborhood of his home, sometimes joining in its communion, but
+who was, nevertheless, intellectually a pronounced Unitarian.
+
+With Jefferson his Unitarianism was a part of his democracy, for he was
+consistent enough to make his religion and his politics agree with each
+other. As he would have kings no longer rule over men, but give political
+power into the hands of the people, so in religion he would put aside all
+theologians and priests, and permit the people to worship in their own way.
+It was for this reason that he rejoiced in the emancipating work of
+Channing, of which he wrote in 1822, "I rejoice that in this blessed
+country of free inquiry and belief, which has surrendered its creeds and
+conscience neither to kings nor priests, the genuine doctrine of only one
+God is reviving; and I trust there is not a young man now living who will
+not die a Unitarian."[2] Jefferson's revolt against authority was tersely
+expressed in his declaration: "Had there never been a commentator, there
+never would have been an infidel."[3] This was in harmony with his
+saying, that "the doctrines of Jesus are simple and tend all to the
+happiness of man."[4] It also fully agrees with the claims of the early
+Unitarians with regard to the teachings of Jesus. "No one sees with greater
+pleasure than myself," he wrote, "the progress of reason in its advance
+toward rational Christianity. When we shall have done away with the
+incomprehensible jargon of the Trinitarian arithmetic, that three are one,
+and one are three; when we shall have knocked down the artificial
+scaffolding reared to mask from view the simple structure of Jesus; when,
+in short, we shall have unlearned everything taught since his day, and got
+back to the pure and simple doctrines he inculcated--we shall then be truly
+and worthily his disciples; and my opinion is that, if nothing had ever
+been added to what flowed purely from his lips, the whole world would at
+this day have been Christian."[5]
+
+However mistaken Jefferson may have been in the historical opinions thus
+expressed, we cannot question the sincerity of his beliefs or fail to
+recognize that he had the keenest interest in whatever gave indication of
+the growth of a rational spirit in religion. These opinions he shared with
+many of the leading men of his time; but he was more outspoken in their
+utterance, as he was more consistent in holding them. That Washington,
+though remaining an Episcopalian, was in fullest accord with Jefferson in
+his principles of toleration and religious freedom, is apparent from one of
+his letters. "I am not less ardent in my wish," he wrote, "that you may
+succeed in your toleration in religious matters. Being no bigot myself to
+any mode of worship, I am disposed to indulge the professors of
+Christianity in the church with that road to heaven which to them shall
+seem the most direct, easiest, and least liable to exception."[6]
+Intellectually, Franklin was a Deist of essentially the same beliefs with
+Jefferson, as may be seen in his statement of faith: "I believe in one God,
+the creator of the universe; that he governs it by his providence; that he
+ought to be worshipped; that the most acceptable service we render to him
+is doing good to his other children; that the soul of man is immortal, and
+will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in
+this. These I take to be the fundamental points in all sound religion. As
+to Jesus of Nazareth, I think his system of morals and his religion, as he
+left them to us, the best the world ever saw, or is likely to see; but I
+apprehend it has received various corrupting changes, and I have some
+doubts of his divinity; though it is a question I do not dogmatize upon,
+having never studied it."[7] Franklin was a member of a Unitarian church
+in London.
+
+[Sidenote: Some Representative Unitarians.]
+
+The church in Washington, not having been popular or of fine appointments,
+has been a test of the Unitarian faith of those frequenting the capital
+city. It has included in its congregation, from time to time, such men as
+John Adams, John Quincy Adams,[8] John Marshall, Joseph Story, Samuel F.
+Miller, Millard Fillmore, William Cranch, George Bancroft, Nathan K. Hall,
+James Moore Wayne, and Senators Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, William S.
+Archer, Henry B. Anthony, William B. Allison, Timothy O. Howe, Edward
+Everett, Justin S. Morrill, Charles Sumner, William E. Chandler, George F.
+Hoar, and John P. Hale. William Winston Seaton and Joseph Gales, once
+prominent in Washington as editors and publishers of The National
+Intelligencer, were both Unitarians.
+
+In New York the Unitarian churches have had among their attendants and
+members such persons as William Cullen Bryant, Catherine M. Sedgwick, Henry
+D. Sedgwick, Henry Wheaton, Peter Cooper, George William Curtis, George
+Ticknor Curtis, Moses H. Grinnell, Dorman B. Eaton, and Joseph H. Choate.
+The churches in Salem have had connected with them such men as John Prince,
+Nathaniel Bowditch, Benjamin Peirce, Timothy Pickering, John Pickering,
+Leverett Saltonstall, Joseph Story,[9] Jones Very, William H. Prescott,
+and Nathaniel Hawthorne.[10]
+
+[Sidenote: Judges and Legislators.]
+
+During the early Unitarian period "the judges on the bench" included such
+men as Theophilus Parsons, Isaac Parker, and Lemuel Shaw, all of whom held
+the office of chief justice in Massachusetts. Other lawyers, jurists, and
+statesmen were Fisher Ames, political orator and statesman; Nathan Dane,
+who drew the ordinance for the north-western territory; Samuel Dexter,
+senator, and secretary of the treasury under John Adams; Christopher Gore,
+senator, and governor of Massachusetts; and Benjamin R. Curtis, of the
+United States Supreme Court. Other chief justices of the Supreme Court of
+Massachusetts have been George T. Bigelow, John Wells, Pliny Myrick,
+Walbridge A. Field, Charles Allen; and of associates in that court have
+been Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, Benjamin F. Thomas, Seth Ames, Samuel S.
+Wilde, Levi Lincoln, and John Lowell. Among the governors of Massachusetts
+have been Levi Lincoln, Edward Everett, John Davis, John H. Clifford, John
+A. Andrew, George S. Boutwell, John D. Long, Thomas Talbot, George D.
+Robinson, J.Q.A. Brackett, Oliver Ames, Frederic T. Greenhalge, and Roger
+Wolcott. The first mayors of Boston, John Phillips, Josiah Quincy,[11] and
+Harrison Gray Otis, were Unitarians. Then, after an interval of one year,
+followed Samuel A. Eliot and Jonathan Chapman.
+
+It has often been assumed that Unitarianism attracts only intellectual
+persons; but it also appeals to practical business men, legislators, and
+the leaders of political life. In Maine have been Vice-President Hannibal
+Hamlin, Governor Edward Kent, and Chief Justice John Appleton. In New
+Hampshire it has appealed to such men as Chief Justices Cushing, Henry A.
+Bellows, Jeremiah Smith, and, Charles Doe, as well as to Governors Onslow
+Stearns, Charles H. Bell, Benjamin F. Prescott, and Ichabod Goodwin; in
+Rhode Island, Governors Lippitt and Seth Paddelford, Chief Justices Samuel
+Ames and Samuel Eddy, General Ambrose E. Burnside, and William B. Weeden,
+historian and economist. Alphonso Taft and George Hoadly, both governors of
+Ohio, were Unitarians, as were Austin Blair, John T. Bagley, Charles S.
+May, and Henry H. Crapo, governors of Michigan. Among the prominent
+Unitarians of Iowa have been Senator William B. Allison and General George
+W. McCrary. In California may be named Leland Stanford, Horace Davis, Chief
+Justice W.H. Beatty, and Oscar L. Shafter of the Supreme Court.
+
+[Sidenote: Boston Unitarianism.]
+
+What Unitarianism has been in the lives of its men and women may be most
+conspicuously seen in Boston and the region about it, for there throughout
+the first half of the nineteenth century Unitarianism was the dominant form
+of Christianity. Of the period from 1826 to 1832, when Dr. Lyman Beecher
+was settled in Boston, Mrs. Stowe has given this testimony: "All the
+literary men of Massachusetts were Unitarians. All the trustees and
+professors of Harvard College were Unitarians. All the elite of wealth and
+fashion crowded Unitarian churches. The judges on the bench were Unitarian,
+giving decisions by which the peculiar features of church organization, so
+carefully ordained by the Pilgrim fathers, had been nullified."[12] Of the
+same period Dr. Beecher wrote, "All offices were in the hands of
+Unitarians."[13]
+
+These statements were literally true, except in so far as they implied that
+Unitarians used high positions in order to overthrow the old institutions
+of Massachusetts and substitute those of their own devising. The calmer
+judgment of the present day would not accept this conclusion, and it has no
+historic foundation. The religious development of Boston brought its
+churches into the acceptance of a tolerant, rational, and practical form of
+Christianity, that was not dogmatic or sectarian. It took the Unitarian
+name, but only in the sense of rejecting the harsher interpretations of the
+doctrine of the Trinity and of election. The members of the Unitarian
+churches during this period were devout in an unostentatious manner, pious
+after a simple fashion, loyal Christians without excess of zeal, lovers of
+liberty, but in a conservative spirit. This simple form of piety enabled
+the men who accepted it to govern the state in a most faithful manner. They
+managed its affairs justly, wisely, and in the true intent of economy.
+Sometimes it was complained that they held a much larger number of offices
+than was their proportion according to population; but to this John G.
+Palfrey replied that the people of the state had confidence in them, and
+elected them because nobody else governed so well.
+
+With the aid of the biography of James Sullivan, judge, legislator,
+attorney-general, and diplomatist,[14] we may study the constituency of a
+single church in Boston, the Brattle Street Church. We find there James
+Bowdoin and John Hancock, rival candidates for the position of governor of
+the state in 1785. The same rivalry occurred twenty years later between
+James Sullivan and Caleb Strong, both of the number of its communicants. On
+the parish committee of this church at one time were Hancock, Bowdoin, and
+Sullivan, who became governors of the state, and Judges Wendell and John
+Lowell.[15] Some years later there were included in the congregation such
+men as Daniel Webster, Harrison Gray Otis, Abbott Lawrence, and Amos
+Lawrence, who was one of the deacons for many years.
+
+Of the distinguished business men of Boston may be named John Amory Lowell,
+John C. Amory, Jonathan Phillips (the confidential friend and supporter of
+Dr. Channing), Thomas Wigglesworth, J. Huntington Wolcott, Augustus
+Hemenway, Stephen C. Phillips, and Thomas Tileston. Francis Cabot Lowell
+was largely concerned in building up the manufacturing interests of
+Massachusetts, especially the cotton industry; and the city of Lowell took
+his name in recognition of the importance of his leadership in this
+direction. For similar reasons the city of Lawrence was named after Abbott
+Lawrence, minister of the United States to Great Britain, who was one of
+the leading merchants of Boston in the China trade, and was also largely
+concerned in the development of cotton manufacturing. With these business
+and manufacturing interests Amos Lawrence was also connected. Nathan
+Appleton[16] was associated with Francis C. Lowell in the establishment of
+the great manufacturing interests that have been a large source of the
+wealth of Massachusetts. Thomas H. Perkins, from whom was named the Perkins
+Institute for the Blind, was also concerned in the China trade and in the
+first development of railroads. Robert Gould Shaw was another leading
+merchant, who left a large sum of money for the benefit of the children of
+mariners. John Murray Forbes was a builder of railroads, notably active in
+the financial support of the national government during the civil war, and
+a generous friend of noble men and interests.[17] Nathaniel Thayer was a
+manager of railroads, erected Thayer Hall at Harvard College, and bore the
+expenses of Agassiz's expedition to South America.
+
+A Boston man by birth and training, who knew the defects as well as the
+merits of the class of men and women who have been named, has given
+generous testimony to the high qualities of mind and heart possessed by
+these Unitarians. In writing of his maternal grandfather, Octavius Brooks
+Frothingham has said: "Peter C. Brooks was an admirable example of the
+Unitarian laymen of that period, industrious, honest, faithful in all
+relations of life, charitable, public-spirited, intelligent, sagacious,
+mingling the prudence of the man of affairs with the faith of the
+Christian.... As one recalls the leading persons in Brattle Street, Federal
+Street, Chauncy Place, King's Chapel, the New North, the New South,--men
+like Adams, Eliot, Perkins, Bumstead, Lawrence, Sullivan, Jackson, Judge
+Shaw, Daniel Webster, Jacob Bigelow, T.B. Wales, Dr. Bowditch,--forms of
+dignity and of worth rise before the mind. Better men there are not. More
+honorable men, according to the standard of the time, there are not likely
+to be.... He joined the church and was a consistent church member. He was
+not effusive, demonstrative, or loud-voiced. His name did not stand high on
+church lists or among the patrons of the faith. His was the calm, rational,
+sober belief of the thoughtful, educated, honorable men of his day,--men
+like Lemuel Shaw, Joseph Story, Daniel A. White,--intellectual, noble
+people, with worthy aims, a lofty sense of duty, a strong conviction of the
+essential truths of revealed Christianity; sincere believers in the gospel,
+of enduring principle, of pure, consistent, blameless life and conduct.
+Speculative theology he cared little or nothing about. He was no disputant,
+no doubter, no casuist; of the heights of mysticism, of the depths of
+infidelity, he knew nothing. He was conservative, of course, from
+temperament rather than from inquiry. He took the literal, prose view of
+Calvinism, and rejected doctrines which did not commend themselves to his
+common sense. In a word, he was a Unitarian of the old school.... The
+Unitarian laity in general, both men and women, had a genuine desire to
+render the earthly lot of mankind more tolerable. It is not too much to say
+that they started every one of our best secular charities. They were
+exceedingly liberal in their gifts to Harvard College, and to other
+colleges as well--for they were not at all sectarian, as their large
+subscriptions to the Roman Catholic cathedral proved. Whatever tended to
+exalt humanity, in their view, was encouraged. They were as noble a set of
+men and women as ever lived."[18]
+
+This estimate of the Unitarians of Boston during the first half of the
+nineteenth century is eminently just and accurate. To a large extent these
+men and their associates in the Unitarian churches gave to the city its
+worth and its character; and they built up the industries, the commerce,
+the educational and philanthropic interests, and the progressive
+legislation of Massachusetts. They were men of integrity and sincerity, who
+were generous, faithful, and just. They accepted the religion of the
+spirit, and they gave it expression in daily conduct and character.
+
+[1] F.B. Carpenter, Six Months in the White House, 190.
+
+[2] James Parton, Life of Thomas Jefferson, 711.
+
+[3] Charles W. Upham, Life of Timothy Pickering, IV. 327.
+
+[4] P.L. Ford's edition Jefferson's Works, X.220.
+
+[5] Life of Pickering, IV. 326.
+
+[6] P.L. Ford, The True George Washington, 81.
+
+[7] P.L. Ford, The Many-sided Franklin, 174. See Diary of Ezra Stiles,
+    III. 387.
+
+[8] John Quincy Adams, in reply to a question about the church in
+    Washington, said: "I go there to church, although I am not decided in
+    my mind as to all the controverted doctrines of religion." Years
+    later he said to a preacher in the Unitarian church at Quincy: "I
+    agree entirely with the ground you took in your discourse. You did
+    not speak of any particular class of doctrines that were everlasting,
+    but of the great, fundamental principles in which all Christians
+    agree; and these, I think, are what will be permanent." See A.B.
+    Muzzey, Reminiscences and Memorials of the Men of the Revolution and
+    their Families, 53.
+
+[9] William W. Story, Life and Letters of Joseph Story, 57, 93. Joseph
+    Story grew away from Calvinism in early manhood, and accepted a
+    humanitarian view of the nature of Christ. "No man was ever more free
+    from a spirit of bigotry and proselytism," says his biographer. "He
+    gladly allowed every one freedom of belief and claimed only that it
+    should be a genuine conviction and not a mere theologic opinion,
+    considering the true faith of every man to be the necessary exponent
+    of his nature, and honoring a religious life more than a formal
+    creed. He admitted within the pale of salvation Mohammedan and
+    Christian, Catholic and infidel. He believed that whatever is sincere
+    and honest is recognized by God--that as the views of any sect are
+    but human opinion, susceptible of error on every side, it behooves
+    all men to be on their guard against arrogance of belief--and that in
+    the sight of God it is not the truth or falsehood of our views, but
+    the spirit in which we believe which alone is of vital consequence.
+    His moral sense was not satisfied with a theory of religion founded
+    upon the depravity of man and recognizing an austere and vengeful
+    God, nor could he give his metaphysical assent to the doctrine of the
+    Trinity. In the doctrines of liberal Christianity he found the
+    resolution of his doubts, and from the moment he embraced the
+    Unitarian faith he became a warm and unhesitating believer."
+
+[10] For an interesting picture of New England Unitarianism see
+     Recollections of my Mother (Mrs. Anne Jean Lyman), by Mrs. J.P.
+     Lesley. Mrs. Lyman's home was in Northampton, Mass. The Reminiscences
+     of Caroline C. Briggs describe life in the same town and under
+     similar conditions. Also Memoir of Mary L. Ware, Memorial of Joseph
+     and Lucy Clark Allen by their Children, and Life of Dr. Samuel
+     Willard.
+
+[11] Edmund Quincy, Life of Josiah Quincy, 532. In a speech to the
+     overseers of Harvard University in 1845, Josiah Quincy said: "I never
+     did and never will call myself a Unitarian; because the name has the
+     aspect, and is loaded by the world with the imputation of
+     sectarianism." His biographer says: "He regarded differences as of
+     slight importance, especially as to matters beyond the grasp of the
+     human intellect. His catholicity of spirit fraternized with all who
+     profess to call themselves Christians, and who prove their title to
+     the name by their lives." It was precisely this catholicity of spirit
+     that was the most characteristic feature of early American
+     Unitarianism, and not the rejection of the doctrine of the Trinity.
+     However, Josiah Quincy was undoubtedly a Unitarian, both in what he
+     rejected and in what he affirmed, as may be seen from these words
+     recorded in his diary in 1854: "From the doctrines with which
+     metaphysical divines have chosen to obscure the word of God,--such as
+     predestination, election, reprobation, etc.,--I turn with loathing to
+     the refreshing assurance which, to my mind, contains the substance of
+     revealed religion,--in every nation he who feareth God, and worketh
+     righteousness, is accepted of him."
+
+[12] Autobiography, Correspondence, etc., of Lyman Beecher, II. 109.
+
+[13] Ibid., 144.
+
+[14] Thomas C. Amory. Life of James Sullivan.
+
+[15] John Lowell, a son of Judge John Lowell, and a brother of Dr. Charles
+     Lowell of the West Church, was the author of an effective
+     controversial pamphlet entitled Are you a Christian or a Calvinist?
+     Or do you prefer the Authority of Christ to that of the Genevan
+     Reformer? Both the Form and Spirit of these Questions being suggested
+     by the Late Review of American Unitarianism in The Panoplist, and by
+     the Rev. Mr. Worcester's Letter to Mr. Channing. By a Layman. Boston,
+     1815.
+
+[16] Nathan Appleton's interest in theology may be seen in his book
+     entitled The Doctrine of Original Sin and the Trinity, discussed in a
+     Correspondence between a Clergyman of the Episcopal Church, in
+     England, and a Layman of Boston, United States, published in Boston
+     in 1859. "I was brought up," he said in one of these letters, "in the
+     strictest form of Calvinistic Congregationalism; but since arriving
+     at an age capable of examining the subject, and after a careful study
+     of it, I have renounced what appear to me unworthy views of the
+     Deity, for a system which appears to me more worthy of him, and less
+     abhorrent to human reason." "I can say," he wrote in another letter,
+     "that the Unitarian party embraces the most intelligent and
+     high-minded portion of the community. It is my opinion that the views
+     of the Unitarians are the best and only security against the spirit
+     of infidelity which is prevailing so extensively amongst the most
+     highly educated and intelligent men in Europe." See Memoir of Nathan
+     Appleton, by Robert C. Winthrop.
+
+[17] John Murray Forbes: Letters and Recollections, edited by his
+     daughter, Sarah Forbes Hughes.
+
+[18] Boston Unitarianism, 93, 94, 101, 127.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII.
+
+
+UNITARIANS AND EDUCATION.
+
+The interest of Unitarians in education has always been very great, but it
+has not been in the direction of building and fostering sectarian
+institutions. As a body, Unitarians have not only been opposed to
+denominational colleges, but they have been leaders in promoting
+unsectarian education. Freedom of academic teaching and the scientific
+study of theology may be found where Unitarianism has no existence, and yet
+it is significant that in this country such mental liberty should have
+first found expression under Unitarian auspices. From the first, American
+Unitarianism has been unsectarian and liberty-loving, taking an attitude of
+toleration, free investigation, and loyalty to truth. That it has always
+been faithful to its ideal cannot be maintained, and yet its history shows
+that the open-mindedness and the spirit of freedom have never been wholly
+ignored.
+
+[Sidenote: Pioneers of the Higher Criticism.]
+
+The attitude of the early Unitarians towards the Bible, their trust in it
+as the revealed word of God and the source of divine authority in all
+matters of faith, and their confidence that a return to its simple
+principles would liberate men from superstition and bigotry, naturally made
+them the first to welcome the higher criticism of the Bible in this
+country. Such men as Noah Worcester and his successors brought to the Bible
+new and common-sense interpretations, and began the work of pointing out
+the defects in the common version. The Unitarians were not hampered by the
+theory of the verbal infallibility of the Bible; and they were therefore
+prepared to advance the critical work of the scholars, as it came to them
+from England and Germany, as was no other religious body in this country.
+
+Joseph, S. Buckminster was an enthusiastic student of the Bible, securing
+when in Europe all the apparatus of the more advanced criticism that could
+then be procured; and after his return to Boston he gave his attention to
+bringing out the New Testament in the most scholarly form that was then
+possible. In 1808, in connection with William Wells, and under the
+patronage of Harvard College, he republished Griesbach's Greek Testament,
+with a selection of the most important various readings. He also formed a
+plan of publishing in this country all the best modern English versions of
+the Hebrew prophets, with introductions and notes; but he did not find the
+necessary support for this project. In The Monthly Anthology and in The
+General Repository he "first discussed subjects of Biblical criticism in a
+spirit of philosophical and painstaking learning, and took the critical
+study of the Scriptures from the old basis on which it had rested during
+the Arminian discussions and placed it on the solid foundation of the text
+of the New Testament as settled by Wetstein and Griesbach, and elucidated
+by the labors of Michaelis, Marsh, Rosenmueller, and by the safe and wise
+learning of Grotius, Le Clerc, and Simon." "It has," wrote George Ticknor,
+"in our opinion, hardly been permitted to any other man to render so
+considerable a service as this to Christianity in the western world."[1]
+In 1811 Mr. Buckminster was made the first lecturer in Biblical criticism
+at Harvard, on, the foundation established by the gift of Samuel Dexter;
+and he entered with great interest and enthusiasm upon the work of
+preparing for the duties of this office. We are assured that "this
+appointment was universally thought to be an honor most justly due to his
+pre-eminent attainments in this science";[2] but his death the next year
+brought these plans to an untimely end.
+
+To some extent the critical work of Buckminster was continued by Edward
+Everett, his successor in the Brattle Street Church. Mr. Everett's
+successor in that pulpit, Rev. John G. Palfrey, became the professor of
+sacred literature in the Harvard Divinity School in 1831, and was the dean
+of that institution. In his lectures on the Jewish Scriptures and
+Antiquities, published in four volumes, from 1833 to 1852, he gave the most
+advanced criticism of the time. A more important work was done by Professor
+Andrews Norton, who was as radical in his labors as a Biblical critic as he
+was conservative in his theology. For the time when they were published,
+his Statement of Reasons, the first edition of which appeared in 1819,
+Historical Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels, 1837-44,
+Translation of the Gospels, with Notes, 1855, Internal Evidences of the
+Genuineness of the Gospels, 1855, have not been surpassed by any other work
+done in this country. As a scholar, he was careful, thorough, honest, and
+uncompromising in his search for the truth. In an extended note added to
+the second volume of his work on the Genuineness of the Gospels he
+investigated the origin of the Pentateuch and the validity of its
+historical statements. He showed that the work could not have bee its man
+written by Moses, that it was a compilation from prior accounts, and that
+its marvels were not to be accepted as authentic history.[3] In dealing
+with the New Testament, Professor Norton discarded the first two chapters
+of Matthew, regarding them as later additions. Frothingham speaks of Norton
+as "an accomplished and elegant scholar," and says that his interpretations
+of the Bible were by Unitarians "tacitly received as final." "He was the
+great authority, as bold, fearless, truthful, as he was exact and
+careful."[4] Although these words of praise intimate that Unitarians were
+too ready to accept the conclusions of Professor Norton as needing no
+emendation, yet his work was searching in its character and thoroughly
+sincere in its methods. Considering the general attitude of scholarship in
+his day, it was bold and uncompromising, as well as accurate and just.
+
+Another scholar was George Rapall Noyes, who was a country pastor in
+Brookfield and Petersham from 1827 to 1840, and devoted his leisure to
+Biblical studies. He became the professor of Hebrew and, lecturer on
+Biblical Literature in the Harvard Divinity School in 1840. His
+translations, with notes, of the poetical books of the Old Testament,
+beginning with Job in 1827, were of great importance as aids, to the
+interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures. His translation of the New
+Testament, which appeared after his death, in 1868, gave the best results
+of critical studies in homely prose, and with painstaking fidelity to the
+original. That Noyes was in advance of the criticism of his time may be
+indicated by the fact that, when he published his conclusions in regard to
+the Messianic prophecies in 1834,[5] he was threatened with an indictment
+for blasphemy by the attorney-general of Massachusetts. Better judgment
+prevailed against this attempt to coerce opinion, but that such an
+indictment was seriously considered shows how little genuine criticism
+there was then in existence. What are now the commonplaces of scholarship
+were then regarded as destructive and blasphemous. Noyes said that the
+truth of the Christian religion does not in any sense depend upon the
+literal fulfilment of any predictions in the Old Testament by Jesus as a
+person.[6] He said that the apostles partook of the errors and prejudices
+of their age,[7] that the commonly received doctrine of the inspiration
+of the whole Bible is a millstone about the neck of Christianity,[8] and
+that the Bible contains much that cannot be regarded as revelation.[9]
+Even as early as 1835 these opinions were generally accepted by Unitarians;
+and they were not thought to impair the true worth of the spiritual
+revelation contained in the Bible, and especially not the divine nature of
+the teachings of Christ. It was very important, as Dr. Joseph Henry Allen
+has said, in speaking of Norton and Noyes, that "these decisive first steps
+were taken by deliberate, conscientious, conservative scholars,--the best
+and soberest scholars we had to show."[10]
+
+The work of Ezra Abbot especially deserves notice here, because of "the
+variety and extent of his learning, the retentiveness and accuracy of his
+memory, the penetration and fairness of his judgment."[11] For fourteen
+years previous to his death, in 1884, he was the professor of New Testament
+criticism and interpretation in the Harvard Divinity School. He also
+rendered important service as a member of the American committee on the
+revision of the New Testament. His essay on The Authorship of the Fourth
+Gospel was one of the ablest statements of the conservative view of the
+origin of that writing. The volume of his Critical Essays, collected after
+his death, shows the ripe fruits of his "punctilious and vigilant
+scholarship." He was a zealous Unitarian, and did much to show that the New
+Testament is in harmony with that faith. In 1843 Rev. Theodore Parker
+published his translation of De Wette's Introduction to the New Testament,
+with learned notes. The extreme views of Baur and Zeller were interpreted
+by Rev. O.B. Frothingham in his The Cradle of the Christ, 1872.
+
+Various attempts were also made by those who were not professional scholars
+to bring the Bible into harmony with modern religious ideas. One of the
+most notable of these was that of Dr. William Henry Furness, pastor of the
+church in Philadelphia from 1825 to 1875. His Remarks on the Four Gospels
+appeared in 1835, and was followed by Jesus and his Biographers, 1838,
+Thoughts on the Life and Character of Jesus of Nazareth, 1859, and The Veil
+Partly Lifted and Jesus Becoming Visible, 1864, as well as several other
+works. His attempt was to give a rational interpretation of the life of
+Jesus that should largely eliminate the miraculous and yet preserve the
+spiritual. These works have little critical value, and yet they have much
+of charm and suggestiveness as religious expositions of the Gospels. Of
+somewhat the same nature was Dr. Edmund H. Sears's The Fourth Gospel: The
+Heart of Christ, 1872, a work of deep spiritual insight.
+
+[Sidenote: The Catholic Influence of Harvard University.]
+
+The catholic and inclusive spirit manifested by the Unitarians in their
+Biblical studies is worthy of notice, however, much more than any definite
+results of scholarship produced by them. In the cultivation of the broader
+academic fields which their control of Harvard University brought within
+their reach this attitude is especially conspicuous. At no time since it
+came under their administration has it been used for sectarian purposes, to
+make proselytes or to compel acceptance of their theology. During the first
+half of the nineteenth century, Harvard was in some degree distinctly
+Unitarian; but since 1870 it has been wholly non-sectarian. When the
+Divinity School was organized, it was provided in its constitution that no
+denominational requirements should be exacted of professors or students;
+yet the school was essentially Unitarian until 1878. In that year the
+president, Charles W. Eliot, asked of Unitarians the sum of $130,000 as an
+endowment for the school; but he insisted that it should be henceforth
+wholly unsectarian, and this demand was received with approval and
+enthusiasm by Unitarians themselves.
+
+In 1879 President Eliot said at a meeting held in the First Church in
+Boston for the purpose of appealing to Unitarians in behalf of the school:
+"The Harvard Divinity School is not distinctly Unitarian either by its
+constitution or by the intention of its founders. The doctrines of the
+unsectarian sect, called in this century Unitarians, are indeed entitled to
+respectful consideration in the school so long as it exists, simply because
+the school was founded, and for two generations, at least, has been
+supported, by Unitarians. But the government of the University cannot
+undertake to appoint none but Unitarian teachers, or to grant any peculiar
+favors to Unitarian students. They cannot, because the founders of the
+school, themselves Unitarians, imposed upon the University the following
+fundamental rule for its administration: that every encouragement shall be
+given to the serious, impartial, and unbiassed investigation of Christian
+truth, and that no assent to the peculiarities of any denomination of
+Christians shall be required either of the instructors or students."[12]
+Dr. Charles Carroll Everett, dean of the school from 1878 to 1900, has said
+that "in some respects it differs from every other theological seminary in
+the country." "No pains are taken to learn the denominational relations of
+students even when they are applicants for aid." "No oversight is exercised
+over the instruction of any teacher. No teacher is responsible for any
+other or to any other."[13]
+
+In 1886 compulsory attendance upon prayers was abolished at Harvard
+University. Religious services are regularly held every week-day morning,
+on Thursday afternoons, and on Sunday evenings, being conducted by the
+Plummer professor of Christian morals, with the co-operation of five other
+preachers, who, as well as the Plummer professor, are selected irrespective
+of denominational affiliations. In this and other ways the university has
+made itself thoroughly unsectarian. Its attitude is that of scientific
+investigation, open-mindedness towards all phases of truth, and freedom of
+teaching. Theology is thus placed on the same basis with other branches of
+knowledge, and religion is made independent of merely dogmatic
+considerations.
+
+This undenominational temper at Harvard University has been developed
+largely under Unitarian auspices. Its presidents for nearly a century have
+been Unitarians, namely: John T. Kirkland, 1810-28; Josiah Quincy, 1829-45;
+Edward Everett, 1846-49; Jared Sparks, 1849-53; James Walker, 1853-60;
+Cornelius C. Felton, 1860-62; Thomas Hill, 1862-68; and Charles W. Eliot
+since 1869. Kirkland, Everett, Sparks, Walker, and Hill were Unitarian
+ministers; but under their administration the university was as little
+sectarian as at any other time.
+
+When the new era of university growth began in 1865, with the founding of
+Cornell University, the influence of Harvard was widely felt in the
+development of great unsectarian educational institutions. Although Ezra
+Cornell was educated as a Friend, he was expelled from that body, and
+connected himself with no other religious sect. He was essentially a
+Unitarian, often attending the preaching of Dr. Rufus P. Stebbins. The
+university which took his name was inspired with the Harvard ideal, and,
+while recognizing religion as one of the great essential phases of human
+thought and life, gave and continues to give equal opportunity to all
+sects.
+
+Another instance of the same spirit is Washington University, which began
+under Unitarian auspices, but soon developed into an entirely
+undenominational institution. Members of the Unitarian church in St. Louis
+secured a charter for a seminary, which in 1853 was organized as the
+Washington Institute. In 1857 it was reorganized as Washington University,
+and the charter declared, "No instruction, either sectarian in religion or
+party in politics, shall be allowed in any department of said university,
+and no sectarian or party test shall be allowed in the selection of
+professors, teachers, or other officers of said university or in the
+admission of scholars thereof, or for any purpose whatever." Sectarian
+prejudice, however, regarded the university as essentially Unitarian; and
+for the first twenty years of its existence three-fourths of the gifts and
+endowments came from persons of that religious body.
+
+Although Dr. William G. Eliot knew nothing of the original movement for
+forming a seminary under liberal auspices, he gave the institution his
+unstinted support and encouragement. He was the president of the board of
+management from the first, and in 1871 he became the chancellor. At his
+death, in 1887, the university included Smith Academy, Mary Institute, and
+a manual training school, these being large preparatory schools; the
+college proper, school of engineering, Henry Shaw school of botany, St.
+Louis school of fine arts, law school, medical school, and dental college.
+It then had sixteen hundred students and one hundred and sixty instructors.
+The endowments have since been largely increased, the number of students
+has increased to two thousand, and important new buildings have been added.
+Dr. Eliot gave the university its direction and its unsectarian methods,
+and it has attained its present position because of his devoted labors. The
+Leland Stanford Jr. University in California, and Clark University in
+Massachusetts, both founded by Unitarians, further illustrate the Harvard
+spirit in education.
+
+[Sidenote: The Work of Horace Mann.]
+
+Horace Mann was an earnest and devoted Unitarian, the intimate friend of
+Channing and Parker, to both of whom he was largely indebted for his
+intellectual and spiritual ideals. He was inspired by their ideas of reform
+and progress, and to their personal sympathy he owed much. It is now
+universally conceded that to him we are indebted for the diffusion of the
+common-school idea throughout the country, that he developed and brought to
+full expression the conception of universal education. In full sympathy
+with him in this work were such men as Dr. Channing, Edward Everett,
+Theodore Parker, Josiah Quincy, Samuel J. May, and the younger Robert
+Rantoul; but he made the common school popular, and put it forward as a
+national institution. When Mann became the secretary of the Massachusetts
+Board of Education on its creation, in 1837, the theory that all children
+should be educated by the state, if not otherwise provided for, was by no
+means generally accepted; nor was it an accepted theory that such education
+should be strictly unsectarian.[14] Mann fought the battle for these two
+ideas, and virtually established them for the whole nation. On the first
+board one-half the members were Unitarians,--Horace Mann, the younger
+Robert Rantoul, Jared Sparks, and Edmund Dwight. Some of the staunchest and
+most devoted and most liberal friends of Mann were of other denominations;
+but the work for common schools was thoroughly in harmony with Unitarian
+principles. Edmund Dwight was largely instrumental in securing the
+establishment of a Board of Education in Massachusetts, and he brought
+about the election of Horace Mann to fill the position of its secretary. He
+was a leading merchant in Boston, and his house was a centre for meetings
+and consultations relating to educational interests. He contributed freely
+for the purpose of enlarging and improving the state system of common
+schools, his donations amounting to not less than $35,000.[15]
+
+The first person to clearly advocate the establishment of schools for the
+training of teachers was Rev. Charles Brooks, minister of the Second
+Unitarian Church in Hingham from 1821 to 1839, afterwards professor of
+natural history in the University of the City of New York, and a reformer
+and author of some reputation in his day. In 1834 he began to write and
+lecture in behalf of common schools, and especially in the interest of
+normal schools.[16] He spoke throughout the state in behalf of training
+schools, with which he had become acquainted in Prussia; he went before the
+legislature on this subject; and he carried his labors into other
+states.[17]
+
+Horace Mann took up the idea of professional schools for teachers and made
+it effective. Edmund Dwight gave $10,000 to the state for this purpose, and
+schools were established in 1838. When the first of these normal schools
+opened in Lexington, July 3, 1839, its principal was Rev. Cyrus Peirce, who
+had been the minister of the Unitarian church in North Reading from 1819 to
+1829, and then had been a teacher in North Andover and Nantucket. "Had it
+not been for Cyrus Peirce," wrote Henry Barnard, "I consider the cause of
+Normal Schools would have failed or have been postponed for an indefinite
+period."[18] Dr. William T. Harris has said that "all Normal School work
+in this country follows substantially one tradition, and this traces back
+to the course laid down by Cyrus Peirce."[19] In the Lexington school
+Peirce was succeeded by Samuel J. May, who had been settled over Unitarian
+churches in Brooklyn and Scituate.[20]
+
+The work done by Horace Mann for education includes his labors as president
+of Antioch College from 1852 to 1859. He maintained that the chief end of
+education is the development of character; and he sought to make the
+college an altruistic community, in which teachers and students should
+labor together for the best good of all. He put into practice the
+nonsectarian principle, made the college coeducational, and developed the
+spirit of individual freedom as one of cardinal importance in education.
+"The ideas for which he stood," has written one who has carefully studied
+his work in all its phases, "spread abroad among the people of the Ohio
+valley, and showed themselves in various state institutions, normal
+schools, and high schools that were planted in the central west.
+Altogether, apart from Mr. Mann's visible work in Antioch College may be
+found agencies which he set at work, whose influence only eternity can
+measure. It was a great thing to the new west that a high standard of
+scholarship should be placed before her sons and daughters, and that a few
+hundred of them should be sent out into every corner of the state, and
+ultimately to the farthest boundaries of the nation, with a sound
+scholarship and a love for truth there and then wholly new. His reputation
+for scholarship and zeal gave his opinions greater weight than those of
+almost any other man in the country. As a result the most radical
+educational ideas were received from him with respect; and he carried
+forward the work of giving a practical embodiment to co-education,
+non-sectarianism, and the requirements of practical and efficient moral
+character, as perhaps no other educator could have done. His influence
+among people, and the aspirations which he kindled in thousands of minds by
+public addresses and personal contact, did for the people of the Ohio
+valley a work, the extent and value of which can never be measured."[21]
+
+[Sidenote: Elizabeth Peabody and the Kindergarten.]
+
+Horace Mann was largely influenced by Dr. Channing throughout his career as
+an educational reformer,[22] as was his wife and her sister, Elizabeth P.
+Peabody. It was to Channing that Miss Peabody owed her interest in the work
+of education; and his teachings brought her naturally into association with
+Bronson Alcott, and made her the leader in introducing the kindergarten
+into this country. She was influenced by the kindergarten method, at an
+early date, and she gave years of devoted labor to its extension. In
+connection with her sister, Mrs. Horace Mann, she wrote Culture in Infancy,
+1863, Guide to the Kindergarten, 1877, and Letters to Kindergartners, 1886.
+As a result of her enthusiastic efforts, kindergartens were opened in
+Boston in 1864; and it was in 1871 that she organized the American Froebel
+Union, which became the kindergarten department of the National Educational
+Association in 1885. The Kindergarten Messenger was begun by her in 1873,
+and was continued under her editorship until 1877, when it was merged in
+The New Education.
+
+Miss Peabody's Kindergarten Guide has been described as one of the most
+important original contributions made to the literature of the subject in
+this country. Her name is most intimately associated with the educational
+progress of the country because of her enthusiasm for the right training of
+children and her spiritual insight as a teacher.
+
+[Sidenote: Work of Unitarian Women for Education.]
+
+Much has been done by Unitarian women to advance the cause of education.
+The conversations of Margaret Fuller, held in Boston from 1839 to 1844,
+were an important influence in awakening women to larger intellectual
+interests; and many of those who attended them were afterwards active in
+promoting the educational enterprises of the city. In 1873 Miss Abby
+Williams May, Mrs. Ann Adeline Badger, Miss Lucretia Crocker, and Miss
+Lucia M. Peabody were elected members of the school committee of Boston,
+but did not serve, as their right to act in that capacity was questioned.
+Thereupon the legislature took action, making women eligible to the office.
+The next year Misses May, Crocker, and Peabody, with Mrs. Kate Gannett
+Wells, Mrs. Mary Safford Blake, and Miss Lucretia Hale, were elected, and
+served. In 1875 Misses Crocker, Hale, May, and Peabody were re-elected; and
+in 1876 Miss Crocker was elected one of the supervisors of the public
+schools of Boston. It is significant that the first women to hold these
+positions were Unitarians. It is also worthy of note that Miss Sarah
+Freeman Clarke, sister of James Freeman Clarke, was the first landscape
+painter of her sex in the country; and that Mrs. Cornelia W. Walter was the
+first woman to edit a large daily newspaper, she having become the editor
+and manager of the Boston Transcript at an early date.
+
+In 1873 was organized by Miss Anna E. Ticknor, daughter of Professor George
+Ticknor, the historian, the Society to encourage Studies at Home. During
+the twenty-four years of its existence it conducted by correspondence the
+reading and studies of over 7,000 women in all parts of the country, and
+did an important work in enlarging the sphere of women, preparing them for
+the work of teachers and for social and intellectual service in many
+directions. The society was discontinued in 1897, because, largely through
+its influence, many other agencies had come in to do the same work; but the
+large lending library, which had been an important feature of the
+activities of the society, was continued under the management of the Anna
+Ticknor Library Association until 1902. The memorial volume, published in
+1897, shows how important had been the work of the Society to encourage
+Studies at Home, and how many women, who were otherwise deprived of
+intellectual opportunities, were encouraged, helped, and inspired by it. It
+was said of Miss Ticknor, by Samuel Eliot, the president of the society
+throughout the whole period of its existence: "While appreciative of the
+restrictions which she wished to remove, she was desirous to gratify, if
+possible, the aspirations of the large number of women throughout the
+country who would fain obtain an education, and who had little, if any,
+hope of obtaining it. She was very highly educated herself, and thought
+more and more of her responsibility to share her advantages with others not
+possessing them. In addition to these moral and intellectual
+qualifications, she possessed an executive ability brought into constant
+prominence by her work as secretary of the society. She was a teacher, an
+inspirer, a comforter, and, in the best sense, a friend of many and many a
+lonely and baffled life."[23]
+
+The service of Mrs. Mary Hemenway to education also deserves recognition.
+Possessed of large wealth, she devoted it to advancing important
+educational and intellectual interests. She established the Normal School
+of Swedish Gymnastics in Boston, and provided for its maintenance until it
+was adopted by the city as a part of its educational system. With her
+financial support the Hemenway South-western Archaeological Expedition was
+carried on by Frank H. Cushing and J.W. Fewkes. It was largely because of
+her efforts that the Montana Industrial School was established, and
+maintained for about ten years. Her chief work, however, was in the
+promotion of the study of American history on the part of young persons.
+When the Old South Meeting-house was threatened with destruction, she
+contributed $100,000 towards its preservation; and by her energy and
+perseverance it was devoted to the interests of historical study. The Old
+South Lectures for Young People were organized in 1883, soon after was
+begun the publication of the Old South Leaflets, a series of historical
+prizes was provided for, the Old South Historical Society was organized,
+and historical pilgrimages were established. All this work was placed in
+charge of Mr. Edwin D. Mead; and the New England Magazine, of which he was
+the editor, gave interpretation to these various educational efforts.
+
+Mrs. Hemenway devoted her life to such works as these. It is impossible to
+enumerate here all her noble undertakings; but they were many. "Mrs.
+Hemenway was a woman whose interests and sympathies were as broad as the
+world," says Edwin D. Mead, "but she was a great patriot; and she was
+pre-eminently that. She had a reverent pride in our position of leadership
+in the history and movement of modern democracy; and she had a consuming
+zeal to keep the nation strong and worthy of its best traditions, and to
+kindle this zeal among the young people of the nation. With all her great
+enthusiasms, she was an amazingly practical and definite woman. She wasted
+no time nor strength in vague generalities, either of speech or action.
+Others might long for the time when the kingdom of God should cover the
+earth as the waters cover the sea, and she longed for it; but, while others
+longed, she devoted herself to doing what she could to bring that corner of
+God's world in which she was set into conformity with the laws of God,--and
+this by every means in her power, by teaching poor girls how to make better
+clothes and cook better dinners and make better homes, by teaching people
+to value health and respect and train their bodies and love better music
+and better pictures and be interested in more important things. Others
+might long for the parliament of man and the federation of the world, and
+so did she; but while others longed, she devoted herself to doing what she
+could to make this nation, for which she was particularly responsible,
+fitter for the federation when it comes. The good state for which she
+worked was a good Massachusetts; and her chief interest, while others
+talked municipal reform, was to make a better Boston."[24]
+
+[Sidenote: Popular Education and Public Libraries.]
+
+The interest of Unitarians in popular education and the general diffusion
+of knowledge may be further indicated by a few illustrations. One of these
+is the Lowell Institute in Boston, founded by John Lowell, son of Francis
+Cabot Lowell, and cousin of James Russell Lowell. He was a Boston merchant,
+became an extensive traveller, and died in Bombay, in 1836, at the age of
+thirty-four. In his will he left one-half his fortune for the promotion of
+popular education through lectures, and in other ways. John Amory Lowell
+became the trustee of this fund, nearly $250,000; and in December, 1839,
+the Lowell Institute began its work with a lecture by Edward Everett, which
+gave a biographical account of John Lowell, and a statement of the purposes
+of the Institute. Since that time the Lowell Institute has given to the
+people of Boston, free of charge, from fifty to one hundred lectures each
+winter. The topics treated have taken a wide range, and the lecturers have
+included many of the ablest men in this and other countries. The work of
+the Lowell Institute has also included free lectures for advanced students
+given in connection with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, science
+lectures to the teachers of Boston, and a free drawing school.
+
+In 1846 Louis Agassiz came to this country to lecture before the Lowell
+Institute. The result was that he became permanently connected with Harvard
+University, and transferred his scientific work to this country. This was
+accomplished by means of the gift of Abbott Lawrence, who founded the
+Lawrence Scientific School in 1847. Although the Lowell Institute was
+founded by a Unitarian, and although it has always been largely managed by
+Unitarians, it has been wholly unsectarian in its work. Many of its
+lecturers have been of that body, but only because they were men of science
+or of literary attainments.
+
+In 1854 Peter Cooper founded the Cooper Union in New York for the
+Advancement of Science and Art, to promote "instruction in branches of
+knowledge by which men and women earn their daily bread; in laws of health
+and improvement of the sanitary conditions of families as well as
+individuals; in social and political science, whereby communities and
+nations advance in virtue, wealth, and power; and finally in matters which
+affect the eye, the ear, and the imagination, and furnish a basis for
+recreation to the working classes." He erected a large building, and
+established therein the Cooper Institute, with its reading-room, library,
+lectures, schools, and other facilities for bringing the means of education
+within reach of those who could not otherwise obtain them.
+
+Peter Cooper was an earnest Unitarian in his opinions, attending the church
+of Dr. Bellows; but he was wholly without sectarian bias. In a letter
+addressed to the delegates to the Evangelical Alliance, at its session held
+in New York in 1873, he expressed the catholicity and the humanitarian
+spirit of his religion. "I look to see the day," he wrote, "when the
+teachers of Christianity will rise above all the cramping power and
+influence of conflicting creeds and systems of human device, when they will
+beseech mankind by all the mercies of God to be reconciled to the
+government of love, the only government that can ever bring the kingdom of
+heaven into the hearts of mankind either here or hereafter."
+
+About 1825 there was opened in Dublin, N.H., under the auspices of Rev.
+Levi W. Leonard, minister of the Unitarian church in that village, the
+first library in the country that was free to all the inhabitants of a town
+or city. In the adjoining town of Peterboro, in 1833, under the leadership
+of Rev. Abiel Abbot, also the Unitarian minister, a library was established
+by vote of the town. This library was maintained by the town itself, being
+the first in the country supported from the tax rates of a municipality. In
+the work of these Unitarian ministers may be found the beginnings of the
+present interest in the establishment and growth of free public libraries.
+
+In the founding and endowment of libraries, Unitarians have taken an active
+part. What they have done in this direction may be illustrated by the gift
+of Enoch Pratt of one and a quarter million dollars to the public library
+in Baltimore. Concerning the time when Jared Sparks was the minister of the
+Unitarian church in Baltimore, Professor Herbert B. Adams has said: "Some
+of the most generous and public-spirited people of Baltimore were connected
+with the first independent church. Afterwards, men who were to be most
+helpful in the upbuilding of Baltimore's greatest institutions--the Peabody
+Institute, the Pratt Library, and the Johns Hopkins University--were
+associated with the Unitarian society."[25]
+
+Professor Barrett Wendell speaks of George Ticknor as "the chief founder of
+the chief public library in the United States."[26] Ticknor undoubtedly
+did more than anybody else to make the Boston Public Library the great
+institution it has become, not only in giving it his own collection of
+books, but also in its inception and in its organization. The best working
+library in the country, that of the Boston Athenaeum, also owes a very
+large debt to the early Unitarians, with whom it originated, and by whom it
+was largely maintained in its early days.
+
+[Sidenote: Mayo's Southern Ministry of Education.]
+
+One of the most important contributions to the work of education has been
+that of Rev. Amory D. Mayo, known as the "Ministry of Education in the
+South." After settlements over churches in Gloucester, Cleveland, Albany,
+Cincinnati, and Springfield, Mr. Mayo began his southern work in 1880. He
+had an extensive preparation for his southern labors, having served on the
+school boards of Cincinnati and Springfield for fifteen years, lectured
+extensively on educational subjects, and been a frequent contributor to
+educational periodicals. He has written a History of Common Schools, which
+is published by the national Bureau of Education, prepared several of the
+Circulars of Information of that bureau, and printed a great number of
+educational pamphlets and addresses.
+
+"One of the most helpful agencies in the work of free and universal
+education in the South, for the last twenty years," says Dr. J.L.M. Curry
+in a personal letter, "has been the ministry of A.D. Mayo. His intelligent
+zeal, his instructive addresses, his tireless energy, have made him a
+potent factor in this great work; and any history of what the Unitarian
+denomination has done would be very imperfect which did not make proper and
+grateful recognition of his valuable services."
+
+[1] Christian Examiner, XLVII. 186; Mrs. E.B. Lee, Memoirs of the
+    Buckminsters, 325.
+
+[2] Memoir of Buckminster, introductory to his Sermons, published in
+    1814, xxxii.
+
+[3] The Pentateuch and its Relation to the Jewish and Christian
+    Dispensation. By Andrews Norton. Edited by John James Tayler, London,
+    1863. This was the Note, with introduction.
+
+[4] Boston Unitarianism, 244.
+
+[5] Hengstenberg's Christology, Christian Examiner, July, 1834, XVI. 321.
+
+[6] Ibid., 327.
+
+[7] Ibid., 356.
+
+[8] Ibid., 357.
+
+[9] Ibid., 358.
+
+[10] Our Liberal Movement in Theology, 68.
+
+[11] The Authorship of the Fourth Gospel and Other Critical Essays
+     selected from the published papers of Ezra Abbot, edited, with
+     preface, by Professor J.H. Thayer.
+
+[12] The Divinity School of Harvard University: Its History, Courses of
+     Study, Aims, and Advantages, published by the University, 9.
+
+[13] The Divinity School as it is, Harvard Graduates' Magazine, June,
+     1897.
+
+[14] B.A. Hinsdale, Horace Mann and the Common School Revival in the
+     United States, 127.
+
+[15] B.A. Hinsdale, Horace Mann and the Common School Revival in the
+     United States, 148.
+
+[16] Henry Barnard, Normal Schools, 125.
+
+[17] B.A. Hinsdale, Horace Mann, 147.
+
+[18] Quoted by J.P. Gordy, Rise and Growth of the Normal School Idea in
+     the United States, Circular of Information of the Bureau of
+     Education, 1891, 49.
+
+[19] Ibid., 43.
+
+[20] S.J. May, Memoir of Cyrus Peirce, Barnard's American Journal of
+     Education, December, 1857.
+
+[21] G.A. Hubbell, Horace Mann in Ohio: A Study of the Application of his
+     Public School Ideals to College Administration, No. IV. of Vol. VII.,
+     Columbia University Contributions to Philosophy, Psychology, and
+     Education, 50.
+
+[22] Mary Mann, Life of Horace Mann, 44; Henry Barnard, Normal Schools,
+     93.
+
+[23] Memorial Volume, 2.
+
+[24] Edwin D. Mead, The Old South Work, 1900; also Memorial Sermon, by
+     Charles G. Ames, 17.
+
+[25] Life and Writings of Jared Sparks, I. 141.
+
+[26] A Literary History of America, 266.
+
+
+
+
+XIX.
+
+
+UNITARIANISM AND LITERATURE.
+
+The history of American literature is intimately connected with the history
+of Unitarianism in this country. The influences that caused the growth of
+Unitarianism were those, to a large extent, that produced American
+literature. It was not merely Harvard College that had this effect, as has
+been often asserted; for the other colleges did not become the centres of
+literary activity. It was more distinctly the freedom, the breadth of
+intellectual interest, and the sympathy with what was human and natural
+developed by the Unitarian movement that were favorable to the growth of
+literature. Yet from the beginning of the eighteenth century Harvard
+fostered the spirit of inquiry, and helped to set the mind free from the
+theological and classical predispositions that had checked its natural
+growth. A taste for literature was encouraged, theology took on a broad and
+humanitarian character, and there was a growing appreciation of art and
+poetry. Harvard College helped to bring men into contact with European
+thought, and thus opened to them fresh and stimulating sources of
+intellectual interest.
+
+During the last quarter of the eighteenth century and the first half of the
+nineteenth New England was largely devoted to commercial enterprises.
+Every coast town of any size from Newport to Belfast was concerned with
+ship-building and with trade to foreign ports. Such towns as Boston and
+Salem traded with China, India, and many other parts of the world. Not only
+was wealth largely increased by this commercial activity, but the influence
+upon life and thought was very great. The mind was emancipated, and
+religion grew more liberal and humane, as the result of this contact with
+foreign lands. Along the whole coast, within the limits named, there was an
+abandonment of Puritanism and a growth into a genial and humanitarian
+interpretation of Christianity. In New York City somewhat the same results
+were produced, at least on social and intellectual life, though with less
+immediate effect upon religion. It was in these regions, in which
+commercial contact with the great outside world set the mind free and
+awakened the imagination, that American literature was born.
+
+[Sidenote: Influence of Unitarian Environment.]
+
+The influence of Unitarian culture and literary tastes is shown by the
+considerable number of literary men who were the sons of Unitarian
+ministers. Ralph Waldo Emerson was the son of William Emerson, the minister
+of the First Church in Boston at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
+George Bancroft was the son of Aaron Bancroft, the first Unitarian minister
+in Worcester, and the first president of the American Unitarian
+Association. To Charles Lowell, of the West Church in Boston, were born
+James Russell Lowell and Robert T.S. Lowell. The father of Francis Parkman
+was of the same name, and was for many years the minister of the New North
+Church in Boston. Richard Hildreth was the son of Hosea Hildreth, Unitarian
+minister in Gloucester. Octavius Brooks Frothingham was the son of
+Nathaniel L. Frothingham, minister of the First Church in Boston. Joseph
+Allen, father of Joseph Henry Allen and William Francis Allen, was the
+minister in Northboro for many years. Of literary workers now living
+William Everett is the son of Edward Everett, Charles Eliot Norton of
+Andrews Norton, and William Wells Newell of William Newell, minister of the
+First Church in Cambridge for many years.
+
+This influence is shown in the large number of literary men who studied at
+the Harvard Divinity School and began their career as Unitarian ministers.
+It may be partly accounted for by the fact that at the beginning of the
+nineteenth century literature offered but a precarious opportunity to men
+of talent and genius. The respect then accorded to ministers, the wide
+influence they were able to exert, and the many intellectual opportunities
+offered by the profession, naturally attracted many young men. During the
+first part of the nineteenth century no other profession was so attractive,
+and enthusiasm for it was large amongst the students of Harvard College. As
+literary openings began to present themselves, many of these men found
+other occupations, partly because their tastes were intellectual rather
+than theological, and partly because the radical ferment made the pulpit no
+longer acceptable. Such a man as Edward Everett would never have entered
+the pulpit, had it not been socially and intellectually most attractive at
+the time when he began his career. In the instance of Samuel A. Eliot, who
+took the full course in the Divinity School, but did not preach, being
+afterward mayor of Boston and member of Congress the influences at work
+were probably much the same.
+
+George Bancroft is another instance of a graduate of the Divinity School
+who did not enter the pulpit, but, beginning his career as a teacher,
+devoted his life to literature and diplomacy. With such men as Christopher
+P. Cranch, artist and poet; George P. Bradford, teacher, thinker, and
+friend of literary men; H.G.O. Blake, editor of Thoreau's Journals; J.L.
+Sibley, librarian; John Albee, poet and essayist; and William Cushing,
+bibliographer, the cause operating was probably the same,--the discovery
+that the chosen profession was not acceptable or that some other was
+preferable. Another group of men, including John G. Palfrey, Jared Sparks,
+William Ware, Horatio Alger, James K. Hosmer, Edward Rowland Sill and
+William Wells Newell, who occupied Unitarian pulpits for brief periods,
+were drawn into literary occupations as more congenial to their tastes. The
+same influence doubtless served to withdraw Emerson, George Ripley, John S.
+Dwight, Thomas W. Higginson, Moncure D. Conway, and Francis E. Abbot, from
+the pulpit; but with these men there was also a break with traditional
+Christianity.
+
+[Sidenote: Literary Tendencies.]
+
+The early Unitarian movement in New England was literary and religious
+rather than theological. The men who have been most influential in
+determining the course of Unitarian development, such as Charming, Dewey,
+Parker, and Hedge, not to include Emerson, who has been a greater
+affirmative leader than either of the others, were first of all preachers,
+and their published works were originally given to the world from the
+pulpit. They made no effort to produce a Unitarian system of theology; and
+it would have been quite in opposition to the genius of the movement, had
+they entered upon such a task.
+
+With the advent of the Unitarian movement, for the first time in the
+history of the American pulpit did the sermon become a literary product.
+Channing and his coworkers, especially Buckminster and Everett, departed
+widely from the pulpit traditions of New England, ceased to quote texts,
+abandoned theological exposition, refrained from the exhortatory method,
+and addressed men and women in literary language about the actual interests
+of daily life. Their preaching was not metaphysical, and it was not
+declamatory. The illustrations used were human rather than Biblical, a
+preference was given to what was intellectual rather than to what was
+emotional, and the effect was instruction rather than conversion. It
+resulted in faithful living, good citizenship, fidelity to duty, love of
+the neighbor, and an earnest helpfulness toward the poor and unfortunate.
+
+[Sidenote: Literary Tastes of Unitarian Ministers.]
+
+In studying any considerable list of Unitarian ministers, and taking note
+of their personal tastes and their avocations, it will be seen that a large
+number of them were lovers of literature, and ardently devoted much of
+their time to literary pursuits. Not only was there a decidedly literary
+flavor about their preaching, but they were frequent contributors to The
+Christian Examiner and The North American Review; and they wrote poems,
+novels, books of travel, essays, and histories. They were conspicuous in
+historical and scientific societies, in promoting scientific
+investigations, in advancing archaeological researches, in every kind of
+learned inquiry. Their intellectual interests were so catholic and so
+vigorous that they were not contented with parish and pulpit, and in some
+cases it would seem that the avocation was as important as the vocation
+itself.
+
+Dr. Channing would be named as the man who has done most to give direction
+to the currents of Unitarian thought on theological problems, but he was
+also conspicuously a philanthropist and reformer. He was less a theologian,
+in the technical sense, than one who taught men to live in the spirit. His
+spiritual insight, humanitarian sympathies, and imaginative fellowship with
+all forms of human experience gave his writings a literary charm and power
+of a high order. He was a great religious teacher and inspirer, a preacher
+of unsurpassed gifts of spiritual interpretation, and a prophet of the
+truer religious life.
+
+The Unitarian leaders who were influenced by the transcendental movement,
+of which the most prominent were Parker, Hedge, Clarke, and C.C. Everett,
+interpreted theology in the broadest spirit. Parker was essentially a
+preacher and reformer. It was the one conspicuous aim of his life to
+liberate religion from the intellectual thraldom of the past, and to bring
+it into the open air of the world, where it might be informed of daily
+experience and gain for itself a rightful opportunity. He was therefore
+literary, imaginative, ethical, practical. He wrote for The Dial, and
+established The Massachusetts Review, he was one of the most widely heard
+of popular lecturers, and he was a leader in the most radical of the
+reforms prominent in his day. Parker made all wisdom subservient to his
+religion, treated a wide range of subjects in his pulpit, and brought
+religion into immediate contact with human life.
+
+Frederic H. Hedge did more than any other man to give Unitarianism a
+consistent philosophy and theology. His Reason in Religion and Ways of the
+Spirit have had a profound influence in shaping the thought of the
+denomination, and have led all American Unitarians to accept his view of
+the universality of incarnation and the consubstantiality of man and God.
+He was wise as an interpreter, and by no means wanting in originality, a
+brilliant essayist, a philosophical historian, and a student of high
+themes. His Prose Writers of Germany, Hours with the German Classics,
+Primeval World of Hebrew Tradition, and Atheism in Philosophy show the
+range of his interests and his ability as a thinker.
+
+James Freeman Clarke may be selected as a typical Unitarian minister, who
+wrote poetry, was more than once an editor, often appeared on the lecture
+platform, was a frequent contributor to the leading periodicals, wrote
+several works of biography and history, gave himself zealously to the
+advocacy of the noblest reforms, and produced many volumes of sermons that
+have in an unusual degree the merit of directness, literary grace,
+suggestiveness, and spiritual warmth and insight. His theological writings
+have been widely read by Unitarians and those not of that fellowship. His
+Self-culture has been largely circulated as a manual of practical ethics.
+His Ten Great Religions and its companion volume opened the way in this
+country for the recognition of the comparative study of religious
+developments. Not content with so wide a range of studies, he wrote Thomas
+Didymus, an historical romance concerned with New Testament characters, How
+to find the Stars, and Exotics, a volume of poetical translation. He was a
+maker of many books, and all of them were well made. His theology was all
+the more humane, and his preaching was all the more effective, because he
+was interested in many subjects and had a real mastery of them.
+
+Charles Carroll Everett was a philosophical thinker and theologian, and the
+younger generation of Unitarian ministers has been largely influenced by
+him. His theological work was done in the lecture-room, but it was of
+first-rate importance. He was a profound thinker, a vigorous writer, and an
+inspiring teacher. He was an able theologian, philosophical in thought, but
+deeply spiritual in insight. His work on The Science of Thought shows the
+depth and vigor of his thinking; but his volumes on The Gospel of Paul,
+Religions before Christianity, Poetry, Comedy, and Duty, suggest the
+breadth of his inquiries and the richness of his philosophical
+investigations. In his position as the dean of the Harvard Divinity School
+he accomplished his best work, and there his great ability as theologian
+and philosophical thinker made itself amply manifest.
+
+Another group of men largely influenced by the transcendental movement
+included David A. Wasson, John Weiss, Samuel Johnson, Samuel Longfellow,
+Cyrus A. Bartol, Octavius K Frothingham, and William J. Potter. Here we see
+the literary tendency showing itself distinctly and to much advantage. The
+first four of these men wrote exquisite hymns and spiritual lyrics, and all
+of them were contributors to periodical literature or writers of books.
+Weiss was a literary critic of no mean merit in his lectures on Greek and
+Shakespearean subjects; and his volumes on American Religion and Immortal
+Life were purely literary in their method. However deficient were Johnson's
+books on the religions of India, China, and Persia, from the point, of view
+of the science of religion, they have not yet been surpassed as
+interpretations of the inner spirit of Oriental religions. Bartol was a
+master of an incisive literary method in the pulpit, that gives to his
+Radical Problems, The Rising Faith, and Principles and Portraits a
+scintillating power all their own, with epigram and flash of wit on every
+page. Frothingham published many a volume of sermons; but his biographies
+of Parker, Gerrit Smith, Wasson, Johnson, Ripley, Channing, and his volume
+on the History of Transcendentalism in New England, as well as his Boston
+Unitarianism, and Recollections and Impressions, indicate that his literary
+interests were quite as active as his theological.
+
+The literary tastes of Unitarian ministers are indicated by the large
+number of them who have written poetry that passes beyond the limits of
+mediocrity. The names of John Pierpont, Andrews Norton, Samuel Gilman,
+Nathaniel L. Frothingham, the younger Henry Ware, W.B.O. Peabody, William
+Henry Furness, William Newell, William Parsons Lunt, Frederic H. Hedge,
+James F. Clarke, Theodore Parker, Chandler Robbins, Edmund H. Sears,
+Charles T. Brooks, Robert C. Waterston, Thomas Hill, and others, have been
+lovingly commemorated in Alfred P. Putnam's Singers and Songs of the
+Liberal Faith. Hymns of nearly all these men are in common use in many
+congregations, and some of their work has found a place in every hymnal.
+
+No one can read the sermons of Thomas Starr King without feeling their
+literary grace and finish of style, as well as their intellectual vigor.
+His lectures marked his literary interest, which shows itself in his
+Christianity and Humanity and his Substance and Show. Especially does it
+appear in his delightful book on The White Hills, their Legends, Landscape,
+and Poetry. In his day, Henry Giles was widely known as a lecturer; and his
+numerous volumes of literary interpretation and criticism, especially his
+Human Life in Shakespeare, were read with appreciation. In his District
+School as it was, and My Religious Experience at my Native Home, Warren
+Burton described in simple but effective prose a kind of life that has long
+since passed away. His educational lectures and books helped on the cause
+of public school education, a subject in which he was greatly interested.
+
+Unitarian ministers have also made many contributions to local and general
+history. The history of King's Chapel by Francis W.P. Greenwood may be
+mentioned as a specimen of the former kind of work; but Greenwood also
+published several volumes of sermons, as well as biographical and literary
+volumes. A History of the Second Church in Boston, with Lives of Increase
+and Cotton Mather, was published by Chandler Robbins. The theological
+history of Unitarianism was ably discussed by George E. Ellis in A
+Half-century of the Unitarian Controversy. He devoted much attention to the
+history of New England, gave many lectures and addresses on subjects
+connected therewith, published biographies of Anne Hutchinson, William
+Penn, Count Rumford, Jared Sparks, and Charles W. Upham. His volumes on The
+Red Man and the White Man in North America, The Puritan Theocracy, and
+others, show his historical ability and his large grasp of his subjects.
+Joseph Henry Allen published an Historical Sketch of the Unitarian Movement
+since the Reformation, in the American Church History series. In Our
+Liberal Movement in Theology, and its Sequel, he critically and
+appreciatively treated of the history of Unitarianism in New England, and
+of the men who were most important in its development. His taste for
+historical studies appeared in his Christian History in its Three Great
+Periods, a work of admirable critical judgment, sobriety of statement, and
+concise presentation of the essential facts.
+
+Alvan Lamson produced a book of critical value in The Church of the First
+Three Centuries, which treats of the origin of the Trinitarian beliefs
+during that period. A work of a similar character was done by Frederic
+Huidekoper, in whose books were included the results of many years of
+minute research, and of critical investigation into the origins of
+Christianity.
+
+Books of a widely different nature were written by Artemas B. Muzzey in his
+Personal Recollection of the Men in the Battle of Lexington, and
+Reminiscences of Men of the Revolution and their Families. He published
+several volumes of sermons, as well as a number of educational works.
+Somewhat of a theologian and an ardent student and expounder of philosophy,
+William R. Alger has made himself widely known by his books on The Genius
+of Solitude, Friendships of Women, and The School of Life. His fine
+literary judgments, his artistic appreciations, and his richness of
+sentiment and imagination show themselves in these attractive volumes. He
+has also published a Life of Edwin Forrest, with a Critical History of the
+Dramatic Art. His Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life is a
+work of ripe scholarship and great literary merit, and is everywhere
+recognized as an authority.
+
+[Sidenote: Unitarians as Historians.]
+
+In the chapter on historians, in his American Literature, Professor Charles
+F. Richardson enumerates seventeen writers, twelve of whom were Unitarians.
+It was in Cambridge and Boston, amongst the graduates of Harvard College,
+that American historical writing began, and that it attained its greatest
+successes. The same causes that had given the Unitarians pre-eminence in
+other directions made them especially so in this, where wide learning and
+sound criticism were of importance. Wealth, leisure, intellectual
+emancipation, sympathetic interest in all that is human, combined with
+scholarship and plodding industry, gave the historians an unusual equipment
+for their tasks.
+
+It may be justly said that historical writing in this country began with
+Jeremy Belknap, the predecessor of Dr. Channing in the Federal Street
+Church. When settled in Dover, he wrote his History of New Hampshire; and
+after his removal to Boston he produced a biography of Watts and two
+volumes of American Biographies. He first voiced the historical interest
+that was awakened by the establishment of national independence, and the
+desire to know of the past of the American people. His chief service to
+historical studies, however, was in the formation of the Massachusetts
+Historical Society.
+
+Hannah Adams was not only a Unitarian, but the first woman in this country
+to enter upon a literary career. Her View of Religious Opinions, first
+issued in 1784, afterwards changed to a Dictionary of Religions, was the
+earliest work attempting to give an account of all the religions of the
+world. It was followed by her History of New England, and by her History of
+the Jews. She also took part in the religious controversies of the day, her
+contest with Dr. Jedediah Morse being one of the minor phases of the
+struggle between the Unitarians and the Orthodox Congregationalists; and
+her Evidences of Christianity, as well as her letters on the Gospels, were
+written from the Unitarian point of view. Her books had no literary value,
+but in their time they helped to foster the growing interest in American
+subjects.
+
+Alexander Young, minister of the New South Church in Boston, rendered
+valuable service to historical investigations by his Chronicles of the
+Pilgrim Fathers of the Colony of Plymouth and his Chronicles of the First
+Planters of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, works that were scholarly,
+accurate, and judicious. Perhaps his most important service was the editing
+of the Library of Old English Prose Writers, in nine volumes, which
+appeared from 1831 to 1834, and included such works as Sidney's Defence of
+Poesie and Sir Thomas Browne's Urn Burial. Of his historical works, O.B.
+Frothingham has justly said that "they showed extensive and accurate
+knowledge, extraordinary zeal in research, singular impartiality of
+judgment, great activity of mind, a strong inclination towards ethical as
+distinguished from speculative subjects, a passionate love of books and
+elegant letters."[1]
+
+Of the greater historians, Bancroft, Prescott, Motley, Hildreth, Sparks,
+Palfrey, Ticknor, Parkman, Higginson, Parton, and Fiske were Unitarians.
+Three of these men were sons of Unitarian ministers, and four of them
+prepared for that profession or entered upon its duties. It is not
+desirable that any attempt should be made here to estimate their historical
+labors, for their position and their achievements are well known.
+
+It would be interesting to give an account of the Unitarian connections and
+sympathies of these writers, but the materials are not at hand in the case
+of most of them. One or two illustrations will suffice for them all,
+indicating their religious tastes and preferences. In 1829 Prescott made a
+careful examination of the evidences for belief in Christianity, and his
+biographer says that "the conclusions at which he arrived were, that the
+narratives of the Gospels were authentic; and that, even if Christianity
+were not a divine revelation, no system of morals was so likely to fit him
+for happiness here and hereafter. But he did not find in the Gospels or in
+any part of the New Testament the doctrines commonly accounted orthodox,
+and he deliberately recorded his rejection of them." At a later time he
+stated his creed in these words: "To do well and act justly, to fear and to
+love God, and to love our neighbor as ourselves--in these is the essence of
+religion. To do this is the safest, our only safe course. For what we can
+believe we are not responsible, supposing we examine candidly and
+patiently. For what we do we shall indeed be accountable. The doctrines of
+the Saviour unfold the whole code of morals by which our conduct should be
+regulated."[2] Prescott was a regular attendant at the First Church in
+Boston.
+
+In his biography of George Ticknor, George S. Hilliard says that "the
+strong religious impressions which Mr. Ticknor received in early years
+deepened as his character matured into personal convictions, the confirmed
+and ruling principles of his life. He had been brought up in the doctrines
+of Calvinistic orthodoxy, but later serious reflection led him to reject
+those doctrines; and soon after his return from Europe he joined Dr.
+Channing's church, of which he continued through life a faithful member. He
+was a sincere Liberal Christian, and his convictions were firm, but they
+were held without bigotry, and he never allowed them to interfere with
+kindliness and courtesy." It may be added that Ticknor was an active member
+of the church with which he was connected, that in 1822 he took charge of a
+class of boys in the Sunday-school, which he kept for eight years. In 1839
+and the next year he gave a course of instruction in the history and
+contents of the Bible to a class of young girls, for which he prepared
+himself carefully.[3]
+
+The influence exerted by the historians in teaching love of country and a
+true patriotism may be accounted as very large. That men thoroughly
+grounded in principles of religious liberty, in high ideals of justice and
+humanity, in the broadest spirit of toleration and freedom of opinion,
+should have written our histories, is of no small importance in the
+formation of American character. That they have made many Unitarians we
+cannot suppose, but that their influence has been large in the development
+of a true spirit of nationality we have a right to think. They have
+indicated concretely the effects of bigotry and intolerance, and they have
+not failed to point out the defects in the practices of the Puritans. In so
+far as they have had to deal with religious subjects, they have taught the
+true Unitarian idea of liberty of conscience and freedom of opinion. They
+have wisely helped to make it possible for many religions to live kindly
+side by side, and to give every creed the right of utterance. These ideals
+had been developed before our historians began to write, but these men have
+helped to make them the inheritance of the whole nation. All the more
+effective has been their teaching that it has grown out of the events of
+our history, and has not been the voice of a merely personal opinion. But
+we owe much to them that they have seen the true meaning of our history,
+and that they have uttered it with clearness of interpretation and with
+vigorous moral emphasis.
+
+[Sidenote: Scientific Unitarians.]
+
+A considerable number of the leading men of science have been Unitarians.
+Notable among the mathematicians were Nathaniel Bowditch, Benjamin Peirce,
+and Thomas Hill, who was president of Antioch College and of Harvard
+University. Among the astronomers have been Benjamin Gould, Maria Mitchell,
+Asaph Hall, and Edward C. Picketing. Of Maria Mitchell it was said that she
+"was entirely ignorant of the peculiar phrases and customs of rigid
+sectarians." Her biographer says she "never joined any church, but for
+years before she left Nantucket she attended the Unitarian church, and her
+sympathies, as long as she lived, were with that denomination, especially
+with the more liberally inclined portion."[4] James Jackson, the first
+physician of the Massachusetts General Hospital, should be named in this
+connection. Joseph Lovering, the physicist, and Jeffries Wyman, the
+comparative anatomist, are also to be included. And here belongs Louis
+Agassiz, who has had more influence than any other man in developing an
+interest in science among the people generally. He gave to scientific
+investigations the largest importance for scientific men themselves. At the
+same time he was a religious man and a theist. "In religion," says his
+biographer, "Agassiz very liberal and tolerant, and respected the views and
+convictions of every one. In his youth and early manhood, Agassiz was
+undoubtedly a materialist, or, more exactly, a sceptic; but in time, and
+little by little, his studies led him to belief in a divine Creative Power.
+He was more in sympathy with Unitarianism than with any other Christian
+denomination."[5]
+
+[Sidenote: Unitarian Essayists.]
+
+A considerable number of essayists, lecturers, and general writers have
+been Unitarians. Among these have been Edwin P. Whipple, George Ripley,
+Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney, John S. Dwight, Professor Charles Eliot Norton, Henry
+T. Tuckerman, James T. Fields, and Professor Francis J. Child. These
+writers represent several phases of Unitarian opinion, but they belong to
+this fellowship by birthright or intellectual sympathies. In the same
+company may be placed Henry D. Thoreau and John Burroughs, not because they
+had any direct connection with Unitarianism, but because the religious
+convictions they expressed are such as most Unitarians accept.
+
+To the Unitarian fellowship belong Margaret Fuller, Lydia Maria Child,
+Caroline M. Kirkland, Grace Greenwood (Mrs. Lippincott), and Julia Ward
+Howe. All the early associations of Margaret Fuller were with Unitarians;
+and her brother, Arthur Fuller, became a Unitarian minister. In her maturer
+life she was with the transcendentalists, finding in Rev. W.H. Channing and
+Emerson her spiritual teachers. Writing of her debt to Emerson, she said,
+"His influence has been more beneficial to me than that of any American;
+and from him I first learned what is meant by an inward life."[6] She was
+a pronounced individualist, an intense lover of spiritual liberty, a friend
+of those who live in the spirit. This may be seen in what she called her
+credo, a sentence or two from which will indicate her type of thought. "I
+will not loathe sects, persuasions, systems," she writes, "though I cannot
+abide in them one moment; for I see that by most men they are still
+needed." "Ages may not produce one worthy to loose the shoes of the Prophet
+of Nazareth; yet there will surely be another manifestation of this word
+which was in the beginning. The very greatness of this manifestation
+demands a greater. We have had a Messiah to teach and reconcile. Let us now
+have a man to live out all the symbolical forms of human life, with the
+calm beauty of a Greek god, with the deep consciousness of Moses, with the
+holy love and purity of Jesus."[7]
+
+[Sidenote: Unitarian Novelists.]
+
+Among the novelists have been several who were Unitarian ministers,
+including Sylvester Judd, William Ware, Thomas W. Higginson, and Edward
+Everett Hale. Judd's Margaret was of the very essence of transcendentalism,
+besides being an excellent interpretation of some of the phases of New
+England character. Ware's historical novels were popular in their day, and
+are now worth going back to by modern readers, and especially by those who
+do not insist upon having their romances hot from the press. Catherine M.
+Sedgwick is another novelist worth returning to by modern readers, and
+especially by those who would know of New England life in the early part of
+the nineteenth century. She became an ardent Unitarian, and her biography
+gives interesting glimpses of the early struggles of that faith in York
+City. Other Unitarian women novelists were Lydia Maria Child, Grace
+Greenwood, Helen Hunt Jackson, Louisa M. Alcott, and Harriet Prescott
+Spofford.
+
+In naming John T. Trowbridge, Bayard Taylor, Bret Harte, William D.
+Howells, and Nathaniel Hawthorne as Unitarians, no merely sectarian aim is
+in view. In the common use of the word, Hawthorne was not a religious man;
+for he rarely attended church, and he had no interest in ecclesiastical
+formalities. No man who has written in this country, however, was more
+deeply influenced than he by those spiritual ideas and traditions which may
+be properly called Unitarian. The same may be said of Howells, who is not a
+Unitarian in any denominational sense; but his religious interests and
+convictions bring him into sympathy with the movement represented by
+Unitarianism.
+
+It may be said of the most popular novels of Edward Everett Hale, such as
+Ten Times One Is Ten, In His Name, His Level Best, that they are the best
+possible interpretations of the Unitarian spirit; for it is not merely a
+certain conception of God that characterizes Unitarianism, nor yet a
+particular theological attitude. It is the wish to make religion real,
+practical, altruistic.
+
+[Sidenote: Unitarian Artists and Poets.]
+
+Unitarianism has been as friendly to poetry and the other arts as it has
+been to philosophy and science. In its early days it fostered the artistic
+careers of Washington Allston, the painter, and Charles Bulfinch, the
+architect. It has also nurtured the sculptors, William Wetmore Story, who
+was also poet and essayist; Harriet Hosmer, whose career shows what a woman
+can accomplish in opening new opportunities for her sex; Larkin G. Mead and
+Daniel C. French. To these must be added the actors Fanny Kemble and
+Charlotte Cushman.
+
+It is as one of the earliest of our poets that Charles Sprague is to be
+mentioned, and one or two of his poems are deservedly remembered. Jones
+Very was one of the best of the transcendental poets, and a few of his
+religious poems have not been surpassed. The younger William Ellery
+Channing and Edward R. Sill belong to the same school, and deservedly keep
+their places with those who admire what is choice in thought and individual
+in artistic workmanship. As a biographer of O.B. Frothingham and as a
+member of his congregation, it may be proper to add here the name of Edmund
+C. Stedman.
+
+Among our greater poets, Bryant, Longfellow, Emerson, Holmes, Lowell,
+Stoddard, and Bayard Taylor were Unitarians. As being essentially of the
+same way of thinking and believing, Whittier and Whitman might also be so
+classed. Though Whittier was a Friend by education and by conviction, he
+was of the liberal school that places religion above sect and interprets
+dogmas in the light of human needs and affections. If he had been born and
+bred a Unitarian, he could not have more sympathetically interpreted the
+Unitarian faith than he has in his poems. Whitman had in him the heart of
+transcendentalism, and he was informed of its inmost spirit. To the more
+radical Unitarians his pleas for liberty, his intense individualism, and
+his idealistic conceptions of nature and man would be acceptable, and, it
+may be, enthusiastically approved.
+
+William Cullen Bryant early became a Unitarian; and he listened to the
+preaching of Follen, Dewey, Osgood, and Bellows. "A devoted lover of
+religious liberty," Bellows said of him, "he was an equal lover of religion
+itself--not in any precise, dogmatic form, but in its righteousness,
+reverence, and charity. He was not a dogmatist, but preferred practical
+piety and working virtue to all modes of faith."[8] It would be difficult
+to give a better definition of Unitarianism itself; and it was the large
+humanity of it, and its generous outlook upon the lives of individuals and
+nations, that made of Bryant a faithful Unitarian.
+
+Henry W. Longfellow was educated as a Unitarian, his father having been one
+of the first vice-presidents of the Unitarian Association,--a position he
+held for many years. Stephen Longfellow was an intimate friend of Dr.
+Channing in his college years, and he followed the advance of his classmate
+in the growth of his liberal faith. "It was in the doctrine and the spirit
+of the early Unitarianism that Henry Longfellow was nurtured at church and
+at home," says his brother. "And there is no reason to suppose that he ever
+found these insufficient, or that he ever essentially departed from them.
+Of his genuine religious feeling his writings, give ample testimony. His
+nature was at heart devout; his ideas of life, of death, and of what lies
+beyond, were essentially cheerful, hopeful, optimistic. He did not care to
+talk much on theological points; but he believed in the supremacy of good
+in the world and in the universe."[9]
+
+Although Oliver Wendell Holmes was educated in the older forms of religious
+beliefs, he became one of the most devoted of Unitarians. His rejection of
+Calvinism is marked by his intense aversion to it, shown upon many a page
+of his prose and poetry. No other prominent Unitarian was so aggressive
+against the doctrines of the older time. He was a regular attendant at
+King's Chapel upon the preaching of Dr. F.W.P. Greenwood, Dr. Ephraim
+Peabody, and Rev. H.W. Foote; but, when he was in Pittsfield, for a number
+of years he went to the Episcopal church, and at Beverly Farms in his later
+years, during the summer, he attended a Baptist church. He was, therefore,
+a conservative Unitarian, but with a generous recognition of the good in
+other religious bodies. At the Unitarian Festival of 1859 Dr. Holmes was
+the presiding officer, and in his address he gave a statement of the
+Unitarian faith that clearly defines his own religious position:--
+
+  We believe in vital religion, or the religion of life, as contrasted
+  with that of trust in hierarchies, establishments, and traditional
+  formulae, settled by the votes of wavering majorities in old councils
+  and convocations. We believe in evangelical religion, or the religion
+  of glad tidings, in distinction from the schemes that make our planet
+  the ante-chamber of the mansions of eternal woe to the vast majority of
+  all the men, women, and children that have lived and suffered upon its
+  surface. We believe that every age must judge the Scriptures by its own
+  light; and we mean, by God's grace, to exercise that privilege, without
+  asking permission of pope or bishop, or any other human tribunal. We
+  believe that sin is the much-abused step-daughter of ignorance, and
+  this not only from our own observation, but on the authority of him
+  whose last prayer on earth was that the perpetrators of the greatest
+  crime on record might be forgiven, for they knew not what they were
+  doing. We believe, beyond all other beliefs, in the fatherly relation
+  of the Deity to all his creatures; and, wherever there is a conflict of
+  Scriptural or theological doctrines, we hold this to be the article of
+  faith that stands supreme above all others. And, lastly, we know that,
+  whether we agree precisely in these or any other articles of belief, we
+  can meet in Christian charity and fellowship, in that we all agree in
+  the love of our race, and the worship of a common Father, as taught us
+  by the Master whom we profess to follow.[10]
+
+Educated as a Unitarian, James Russell Lowell felt none of the animosity
+toward Calvinism that was characteristic of Holmes; but his poetry
+everywhere indicates the liberality and nobleness of his religious
+convictions. That he was not sectarian, that he felt no active interest in
+dogmatic theology as such, is only saying that he was a genuine Unitarian.
+Writing in 1838, Lowell said, "I am an infidel to the Christianity of
+to-day."[11] In a letter to Longfellow written in 1845, he made a more
+explicit statement of his attitude: "Christ has declared war against the
+Christianity of the world, and it must down. There is no help for it. The
+church, that great bulwark of our practical paganism, must be reformed from
+foundation to weathercock."[12] These passages indicate his
+dissatisfaction with an external religion and with dogmatic theology. On
+the other hand, his letters and his poems prove that he was strongly
+grounded in the faith of the spirit. In that faith he lived and died; and,
+if in later years he gave recognition to some of the higher claims of the
+older types of Christianity, it was a generous concession to their rational
+qualities and their practical results, and in no degree an acceptance of
+their teachings. The definite form of Lowell's faith he expressed when he
+wrote, "I will never enter a church from which a prayer goes up for the
+prosperous only, or for the unfortunate among the oppressors, and not for
+the oppressed and fallen; as if God had ordained our pride of caste and our
+distinctions of color, and as if Christ had forgotten those that are in
+bonds."[13]
+
+Emerson left the pulpit, and he withdrew from outward conformity to the
+church; but that there came a time when he no longer felt an interest in
+religion or that he even ceased to be a Christian, after his own manner of
+interpretation, there is no reason to assume. His radicalism was in the
+direction of a deeper and truer religion, a religion of the spirit. He
+rejected the faith that is founded on the letter, on historical evidences,
+that is a body without a soul. He was not the less a Unitarian because he
+ceased to be one outwardly, for he carried forward the Unitarian principles
+to their legitimate conclusion. The newer Unitarianism owes to him more
+than to any other man, and of him more than of any other man the older
+Unitarianism can boast that he was its product.
+
+Such a survey as this indicates how great has been the influence of
+Unitarianism upon American literature. There can be no question that it has
+been one of the greatest formative forces in its development. "Almost
+everybody," says Professor Barrett Wendell, "who attained literary
+distinction in New England during the nineteenth century was either a
+Unitarian or closely associated with Unitarian influences,"[14] More even
+than that may be said, for it is the Unitarian writers who have most truly
+interpreted American institutions and American ideals.
+
+[1] Boston Unitarianism, 168.
+
+[2] George Ticknor, Life of William Hickling Prescott, 91, 164.
+
+[3] George S. Hillard, Life, Letters, and Journals of George Ticknor,
+    327.
+
+[4] Phoebe Mitchell Kendall, Life, Letters, and Journals of Maria
+    Mitchell, 239.
+
+[5] Jules Marcou, Life of Agassiz, II. 220.
+
+[6] Memoirs, I. 194.
+
+[7] Memoirs, II. 91.
+
+[8] John Bigelow, Life of Bryant, 274, 285.
+
+[9] Samuel Longfellow, Life of H.W. Longfellow, I. 14
+
+[10] Quarterly Journal, VI. 359, July, 1859.
+
+[11] Biography of James Russell Lowell, by H.E. Scudder, I. 63.
+
+[12] Ibid., 169.
+
+[13] Biography of James Russell Lowell, by H.E. Scudder, I. 144, quoted
+     from Conversations on Some of the Old Poets.
+
+[14] A Literary History of America, 289.
+
+
+
+
+XX.
+
+
+THE FUTURE OF UNITARIANISM.
+
+The early Unitarians in this country did not desire to form a new sect.
+They wished to remain Congregationalists, and to continue unbroken the
+fellowship that had existed from the beginning of New England. When they
+were compelled to separate from the older churches, they refrained from
+organizing a strictly defined religious body, and have called theirs a
+"movement." The words "denomination" and "sect" have been repellent to
+them; and they have attempted, not only to avoid their use, but to escape
+from that which they represent. They have wished to establish a broad, free
+fellowship, that would draw together all liberal thinkers and movements
+into one wide and inclusive religious body.
+
+The Unitarian body accepted in theory from the first the principles of
+liberty, reason, and free inquiry. These were fully established, however,
+only as the result of discussion, agitation, and much friction. Theodore
+Parker was subjected to severe criticism, Emerson was regarded with
+distrust, and the Free Religious Association was organized as a protest and
+for the sake of a freer fellowship. In fact, however, Parker was never
+disfellowshipped; and from the first many Unitarians regarded Emerson as
+the teacher of a higher type of spiritual religion. Through this period of
+controversy, when there was much of bitter feeling engendered, no one was
+expelled from the Unitarian body for opinion's sake. All stayed in who did
+not choose to go out, there being no trials for, heresy. The result of this
+method has been that the Unitarian body is now one of the most united and
+harmonious in Christendom. The free spirit has abundantly justified itself.
+When it was found that every one could think for himself, express freely
+his own beliefs, and live in accordance with his own convictions,
+controversy came to an end. When heresy was no longer sought for, heresy
+ceased to have an existence. The result has not been discord and distrust,
+but peace, harmony, and a more perfect fellowship.
+
+In the Unitarian body from the first there has been a free spirit of
+inquiry. Criticism has had a free course. The Bible has been subjected to
+the most searching investigation, as have all the foundations of religion.
+As a result, no religious body shows, a more rational interest in the Bible
+or a more confident trust in its great spiritual teachings.
+
+The early Unitarians anticipated that Unitarianism would soon become the
+popular form of religion accepted in this country. Thomas Jefferson thought
+that all young men of his time would die Unitarians. Others were afraid
+that Unitarianism would become sectarian in its methods as soon as it
+became popular, which they anticipated would occur in a brief period.[1]
+The cause of the slow growth of Unitarianism is to be found in the fact
+that it has been too modern in its spirit, too removed from the currents of
+popular belief, to find ready acceptance on the part of those who are
+largely influenced by traditional beliefs. The religion of the great
+majority of persons is determined by tradition or social heredity, by what
+they are taught in childhood or hear commonly repeated around them. Only
+persons who are naturally independent and self-reliant can overcome the
+difficulties in the way of embracing a form of religion which carries them
+outside of the established tradition. For these reasons it is not
+surprising that as yet there has not been a rapid growth of organized
+Unitarianism. In fact, Unitarianism has made little progress outside of New
+England, and those regions to which New England traditions have been
+carried by those who migrated westward.
+
+The early promise for the growth of Unitarianism in the south, from 1825 to
+1840, failed because there was no background of tradition for its
+encouragement and support. Individuals could think their way into the
+Unitarian faith, but their influence proved ineffective when all around
+them the old tradition prevailed as stubborn conviction. Even the influence
+of a literature pervaded with Unitarianism proved ineffective in securing
+any rapid spread of the new faith, except as it has found its way into the
+common Christian tradition by a process of spiritual infiltration. The
+result has been that Unitarianism has grown slowly, because it has been
+obliged to create new traditions, to form a new habit of thought, and to
+make free inquiry a common motive and purpose.
+
+In a word, Unitarianism has been a heresy; and therefore there has been no
+open door for it. Most heretical sects have been narrow in spirit, bigoted
+in temper, and intensely sectarian in method. Their isolation from the
+great currents of the world's life acts on them intellectually and
+spiritually as the process of in-and-in breeding does upon animals: it
+intensifies their peculiarities and defects. A process of atrophy or
+degeneration takes place; and they grow from generation to generation more
+isolated, sectarian, and peculiar. Unitarianism has escaped this tendency
+because it has accepted the modern spirit and because to a large degree its
+adherents have been educated and progressive persons. Its principles of
+liberty, reason, and free inquiry, have brought its followers into touch
+with those forces that are making most rapidly for the development of
+mankind. Unitarians have been conspicuously capable of individual
+initiative; and yet their culture has been large enough to give them a
+conservative loyalty to the past and to the profounder and more spiritual
+phases of the Christian tradition. While strongly individualistic and
+heretical they have been sturdily faithful to Christianity, seeking to
+revive its earlier and more simple life.
+
+A chief value of Unitarianism in the past has been that it has pioneered
+the way for the development of the modern spirit within the limits of
+Christianity. The churches from which it came out have followed it far on
+the way it has travelled. Its most liberal advocates of the first
+generation were more conservative than many of the leaders are to-day in
+the older churches. Its period of criticism, controversy, and agitation is
+being reproduced in many another religious body of the present time. The
+debates about miracles, the theory of the supernatural, the authenticity of
+Scripture, the nature of Christ, and other problems that are now agitating
+most of the progressive Protestant denominations, are almost precisely
+those that exercised Unitarians years ago. The only final solution of these
+problems, that will give peace and harmony, is that of free inquiry and
+rational interpretation, which Unitarians have finally accepted. If other
+religious bodies would profit by this experience and by the Unitarian
+method for the solution of these problems, it would be greatly to their
+advantage.
+
+The Unitarian churches have been few in number, and they have suffered from
+isolation and provincialism. These defects of the earlier period have now
+in part passed away, new traditions have been created, a cosmopolitan
+spirit has been developed, and Unitarianism has become a world movement.
+This was conspicuously indicated at the seventy-fifth anniversary of the
+organization of the American Unitarian Association, and in the formation of
+The International Council of Unitarian and Other Liberal Religious Thinkers
+and Workers. It was then shown that Unitarianism has found expression in
+many parts of the world, that it answers to an intellectual and spiritual
+need of the time, and that it is capable of interpreting the religious
+convictions of persons belonging to many phases of human development and
+culture. A broader, more philosophical, and humaner tradition is being
+formed, that will in time become a wide-reaching influence for the
+development of a religious life that will be at once more scientific and
+more spiritual in its nature than anything the past has produced.
+
+The promise of Unitarianism for the future does not consist in its becoming
+a sect and in its striving for the development of merely denominational
+interests, but in its cultivation of the deeper spiritual life and in its
+cosmopolitan sympathy with all phases of religious growth. Its mission is
+one with philanthropy, charity, and altruism. Its attitude should be that
+of free inquiry, loyalty to the spirit of philosophy and science, and
+fidelity to the largest results of human progress. It should always
+represent justice, righteousness, and personal integrity. That promise is
+not to be found in the rapid multiplication of its churches or in its
+devotion to propagandist aims, but in its loyalty to the free spirit and in
+its exemplification of the worth and beauty of the religion of humanity. As
+a sect, it will fail; but as a movement towards a larger faith, a purer
+life, and a more inclusive fellowship, the future is on its side.
+
+While recognizing the Unitarian as a great pioneer movement in religion, it
+should be seen that its strong individualism has been a cause of its slow
+growth. Until recently the Unitarian body has been less an organic phase of
+the religious life of the time than a group of isolated churches held
+together only by the spontaneous bonds of fellowship and good will. Such a
+body can have little effective force in any effort at missionary
+propagandism or in making its spirit dominant in the religious life of the
+country. As heredity and variation are but two phases of organic growth, so
+are tradition and individual initiative but two phases of social progress.
+In both processes--organic growth and social progress--the primary force is
+the conservative one, that maintains what the past has secured. If
+individualism is necessary to healthy growth, associative action is
+essential to any growth whatever of the social body. In so far as
+individual perfection can be attained, it cannot be by seeking it as an end
+in itself: it can be reached only by means of that which conduces to
+general social progress.
+
+It may be questioned whether there is any large future for Unitarianism
+unless all excessive individualism is modified and controlled. Such
+individualism is in opposition to the altruistic and associative spirit of
+the present time. Liberty is not an end in itself, but its value is to be
+found in the opportunity it gives for a natural and fitting association of
+individuals with each other. Freedom of religious inquiry is but an
+instrument for securing spiritual growth, not merely for the individual,
+but for all mankind. So long as liberty of thought and spiritual freedom
+remain the means of individual gratification, they are ineffective as
+spiritual forces. They must be given a wider heritage in the life of
+mankind before they can accomplish their legitimate results in securing for
+men freedom from the external bonds of traditionalism. Even reason is but
+an instrument for securing truth, and not truth itself.
+
+Rightly understood, authority in the church is but the principle of social
+action, respect for what mankind has gained of spiritual power through its
+centuries of development. Authority is therefore as necessary as freedom,
+and the two must be reconciled in order that progress may take place. When
+so understood and so limited, authority becomes essential to all growth in
+freedom and individuality. What above all else is needed in religion is
+social action on the part of freedom-loving men and women, who, in the
+strength of their individuality, co-operate for the attainment, not of
+their own personal good, but the advancement of mankind. This is what
+Unitarianism has striven for, and what it has gained in some measure. It
+has sought to make philanthropy the test of piety, and to make liberty a
+means of social fidelity.
+
+Free inquiry cannot mean liberty to think as one pleases, but only to think
+the truth, and to recognize with submissive spirit the absolute conditions
+and the limitations of the truth. Though religion is life and not a creed,
+it none the less compels the individual to loyalty of social action; and
+that means nothing more and nothing less than faithfulness to what will
+make for the common good, and not primarily what will minister to one's own
+personal development, intellectually and spiritually.
+
+The future of Unitarianism will depend on its ability further to reconcile,
+individualism with associative action, the spirit of free inquiry with the
+larger human tradition. Its advantage cannot be found in the abandonment of
+Christianity, which has been the source and sustaining power of its life,
+but in the development of the Christian tradition by the processes of
+modern thought. The real promise of Unitarianism is in identifying itself
+with the altruistic spirit of the age, and in becoming the spiritual
+interpreter of the social aspirations of mankind. In order to this result
+it must not only withdraw from its extreme individualism, but bring its
+liberty into organic relations with its spirit of social fidelity. It will
+then welcome the fact that freedom and authority are identical in their
+deeper meanings. It will discover that service is more important than
+culture, and that culture is of value to the end that service may become
+more effective. Then it will cheerfully recognize the truth that the social
+obligation is as important as the individual right, and that the two make
+the rounded whole of human action.
+
+[1] See pp. 131, 328.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+
+
+
+A. FORMATION OF THE LOCAL CONFERENCES.
+
+
+The local conferences came into existence in the following order: Wisconsin
+and Minnesota Quarterly Conference, organized at Sheboygan, Wis., October
+24, 1866; New York Central Conference of Liberal Christians, Rochester,
+November 21, 1866; Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches of
+the Middle and Southern States, Wilmington, Del., November 22, 1866;
+Norfolk Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches, Dedham,
+Mass., November 28, 1866; New York and Hudson River Local Conference, New
+York, December 6, 1866; Essex Conference of Liberal Christian Churches,
+Salem, Mass., December 11, 1866; Lake Erie Conference of Unitarian and
+Other Christian Societies, Meadville, Penn., December 11, 1866; Worcester
+County Conference of Congregational (Unitarian) and Other Christian
+Societies, Worcester, Mass., December 12, 1866; South Middlesex Conference
+of Congregational Unitarian and Other Christian Societies, Cambridgeport,
+Mass., December 12, 1866; Suffolk Conference of Unitarian and Other
+Christian Churches, Boston, December 17, 1866; North Middlesex Conference
+of Unitarian Congregational and Other Christian Churches, Littleton, Mass.,
+December 18, 1866.
+
+The Champlain Liberal Christian Conference, Montpelier, Vt., January 9,
+1867; the Connecticut Valley Conference of Congregational Unitarian and
+Other Christian Churches, Greenfield, Mass., January 16, 1867; the Plymouth
+and Bay Conference, Hingham, Mass., February 5, 1867; the Ohio Valley
+Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches, Louisville, Ky.,
+February 22, 1867; the Channing Conference, Providence, R.I., April 17,
+1867; Liberal Christian Conference of Western Maine, Brunswick, Me.,
+October 22, 1867.
+
+The Local Conference of Liberal Christians of the Missouri Valley, Weston,
+Mo., March 18, 1868; the Chicago Conference of Unitarian Churches, Chicago,
+December 2, 1868; Western Illinois and Iowa Conference of Unitarian and
+Other Christian Churches, Sheffield, Ill., January 28, 1869; Cape Cod
+Conference of Unitarian Congregational and Other Liberal Christian
+Churches, Barnstable, Mass., November 30, 1870; Conference of Liberal
+Christians of the Missouri Valley, Kansas City, Mo., May 3, 1871; Michigan
+Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches, Jackson, October 21,
+1875; the Fraternity of Illinois Liberal Christian Societies, Bloomington,
+November 11, 1875; Iowa Association of Unitarian and Other Independent
+Churches, Burlington, June 1, 1877; Indiana Conference of Unitarian and
+Independent Religious Societies, Hobart, October 1, 1878; Ohio State
+Conference of Unitarian and Other Liberal Societies, Cincinnati, May, 1879.
+
+Kansas Unitarian Conference, December 2, 1880; Nebraska Unitarian
+Association, Omaha, November 9, 1882; the Southern Conference of Unitarian
+and Other Christian Churches, Atlanta, Ga., April 24, 1884; the New York
+Conference of Unitarian Churches superseded the New York and Hudson River
+Conference at a session held in New York, April 29, 1885; Pacific Unitarian
+Conference, San Francisco, November 2, 1885; the Illinois Conference of
+Unitarian and Other Independent Societies superseded the Illinois
+Fraternity in 1885; Minnesota Unitarian Conference, St. Paul, November 17,
+1887; Hancock Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches, Bar
+Harbor, Me., August 8, 1889; Missouri Valley Unitarian Conference
+superseded the Kansas Unitarian Conference, December 2, 1889.
+
+Rocky Mountain Conference of Unitarian and Other Liberal Christian
+Churches, Denver, Col., May 17, 1890; the Unitarian Conference of the
+Middle States and Canada, Brooklyn, N.Y., November 19, 1890, superseded New
+York State Conference; Central States Conference of Unitarian Churches,
+Cincinnati, December 9, 1891, superseded the Ohio State Conference; Pacific
+Northwest Conference of Unitarian, Liberal Christian, and Independent
+Churches, Puyallup, Wash., August 1, 1892; Southern California Conference
+of Unitarian and Other Liberal Christian Churches, Santa Ana, October 1892.
+
+Four of the early conferences, the New York Central, Champlain, Western
+Maine, and Missouri Valley, were not distinctly Unitarian. These were union
+organizations, in which Universalists, and perhaps other denominations,
+were associated with Unitarians. The New York Central Conference refused to
+send delegates to the National Conference on account of its union
+character. In other conferences, such as the Connecticut Valley and the
+Norfolk, Universalists took part in their organization, and were for a
+number of years connected with them.
+
+Most of the conferences organized from 1875 to 1885 were within state
+limits; but those organized subsequently to 1885 were more distinctly
+district conferences, and included several states. Several of the
+conferences have been reorganized in order to bring them into harmony with
+the prevailing theory of state or district limits at the time when such
+action took place. A few of the conferences had only a name to live, and
+they soon passed out of existence.
+
+In the local, as in the National Conference, two purposes contended for
+expression, the one looking to the uniting of all liberal denominations in
+one general organization, and the other to the promotion of distinctly
+Unitarian interests. In the National Conference the denominational purpose
+controlled the aims kept most clearly in view; but the other purpose found
+expression in the addition of "Other Christian Churches" to the name,
+though only in the most limited way did such churches connect themselves
+with the conference. The local conferences made like provision for those
+not wishing to call themselves distinctly Unitarian. Such desire for
+co-operation, however, was in a large degree rendered ineffective by the
+fact that the primary aim had in view in the creation of the local
+conferences was the increase of the funds of the American Unitarian
+Association.
+
+
+
+
+B. UNITARIAN NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES.
+
+
+There was a very considerable activity from 1825 to 1850 in the publication
+of Unitarian periodicals, and probably the energies of the denomination
+found a larger expression in that direction than in any other.
+
+In January, 1827, was begun in Boston The Liberal Preacher, a monthly
+publication of sermons by living ministers, conducted by the Cheshire
+Association of Ministers, with Rev. Thomas R. Sullivan, of Keene, N.H., as
+the editor. It was continued for eight or ten years, and with considerable
+success.
+
+With November, 1827, Rev. William Ware began the publication in New York
+City of The Unitarian, a quarterly magazine, of which the last number
+appeared February 15, 1828.
+
+The Unitarian Monitor was begun at Dover, N.H., October 1, 1831, and was
+continued until October 10, 1833. It was a fortnightly of four three-column
+pages, and was well conducted. It was under the editorial management of
+Rev. Samuel K. Lothrop, then the minister in Dover.
+
+The Unitarian Christian, edited by Rev. Stephen G. Bulfinch, was published
+quarterly in Augusta, Ga., for a year or two.
+
+In 1823 Rev. Samuel J. May published The Liberal Christian at Brooklyn,
+Conn., as a fortnightly county paper of eight small quarto pages. He
+followed it by The Christian Monitor and Common People's Adviser, which was
+begun in April, 1832, its object being "to promote the free discussion of
+all subjects connected with happiness and holiness."
+
+The Unitarian, conducted by Rev. Bernard Whitman, then settled in Waltham,
+Mass., was published in Cambridge and Boston during the year 1834, and came
+to its end because of the death of Whitman in the last month of the year.
+It was a monthly magazine of a distinctly missionary character.
+
+Of a more permanent character was The Unitarian Advocate, the first number
+of which was issued in Boston, January, 1828. It was a small 12mo of sixty
+pages, monthly, the editor being Rev. Edmund Q. Sewall. He continued in
+that capacity to the end of 1829, when it was "conducted by an association
+of gentlemen." The purpose was to make a popular magazine at a moderate
+price. It came to an end in December, 1832.
+
+With January 1, 1835, was issued in Boston the first number of The Boston
+Observer and Religious Intelligencer, a weekly of eight three-column pages,
+edited by Rev. George Ripley. It was continued for only six months, when it
+was joined to The Christian Register, which took its name as a sub-title
+for a time. Its motto, "Liberty, Holiness, Love," was also borrowed by that
+paper.
+
+The Western Messenger was begun in Cincinnati, June, 1835, with Rev.
+Ephraim Peabody as the editor. It was a monthly of ninety-six pages, and
+was ably edited. Owing to the illness of Mr. Peabody, it was removed to
+Louisville after the ninth number; and Rev. James Freeman Clarke became the
+editor, with Rev. W.H. Channing and Rev. J.H. Perkins as assistants for a
+time. It was published by the Western Unitarian Association, and was
+discontinued with the number for May, 1841. Among the contributors were
+Emerson, Margaret Fuller, William Henry Channing, Christopher P. Cranch,
+William G. Eliot, who aided in giving it a high literary character. For a
+number of years the American Unitarian Association made an annual
+appropriation to aid in its publication.
+
+The Monthly Miscellany of Religion and Letters was begun in Boston with
+April, 1839. It was a 12mo of forty-eight pages, monthly. The editor was
+Rev. Ezra S. Gannett, by whom it was "designed to furnish religious reading
+for the people, treat Unitarian opinions in their practical bearings, and
+show their power to produce holiness of life; and by weight of contents to
+come between The Christian Register and The Christian Examiner." It was
+continued until the end of 1843, when it was absorbed by the latter
+periodical.
+
+With the first of January, 1844, was begun The Monthly Religious Magazine,
+to meet the needs of those who found The Christian Examiner too scholarly.
+The first editor, was Rev. Frederic D. Huntington, who was succeeded by
+Rev. Edmund H. Sears, Rev. James W. Thompson, Rev. Rufus Ellis, and Rev.
+John H. Morison. The last issue was that of February, 1874.
+
+A large weekly was begun in Boston, January 7, 1843, called The Christian
+World, of which Rev. George G. Channing was the publisher and managing
+editor. He was assisted by Rev. James Freeman Clarke and Hon. John A.
+Andrew, afterward Governor of Massachusetts, as editors or editorial
+contributors. The special aims of the paper were "to awaken a deeper
+religious interest in all the great philanthropic and benevolent
+enterprises of the day." It was continued until December 30, 1848. George
+G. Channing was a brother of Dr. Channing, and was settled over two or
+three parishes. The paper was ably conducted, and while Unitarian was not
+distinctly denominational.
+
+The Christian Inquirer was started in New York, October 17, 1846, and was a
+weekly of four six-column pages. It was managed by the New York Unitarian
+Association; and it was largely under the control of Rev. Henry W. Bellows,
+who in 1850 was assisted by Rev. Samuel Osgood, Rev. James F. Clarke, and
+Rev. Frederic H. Hedge.
+
+In 1846 was begun the publication of the Unitarian Annual Register in
+Boston by Crosby & Nichols, with Rev. Abiel A. Livermore, then settled in
+Keene, N.H., as the editor. In 1851 the work came under the control of the
+American Unitarian Association, and as the Year Book of the denomination it
+was edited by the secretary or his assistant. From 1860 to 1869 the Year
+Book was issued as a part of the December number of The Monthly Journal of
+the American Unitarian Association.
+
+The Bible Christian was begun in 1847 at Toronto by Rev. John Cordner, the
+minister there, and was continued as a semi-monthly for a brief period.
+
+The Unitarian and Foreign Religious Miscellany was published in Boston
+during 1847, with Rev. George E. Ellis as the editor. It was a monthly
+magazine devoted to the explanation and defence of Unitarian Christianity;
+and its contents were mostly selected from the English Unitarian
+periodicals, especially The Prospective Review, The Monthly Reformer, Bible
+Christian, The Unitarian, and The Inquirer.
+
+During this period The Christian Examiner had its largest influence upon
+the denomination, and came to an end. Its scholarship and its liberality
+made it of interest to only a limited constituency, and the publisher was
+compelled to discontinue it at the end of 1869 from lack of adequate
+support. It was edited from the beginning by the ablest men. Rev. James
+Walker and Rev. Francis W.P. Greenwood became the editors in 1831, Rev.
+William Ware taking the place of Dr. Walker in 1837. From 1844 to 1849 Rev.
+Ezra S. Gannett and Rev. Alvan Lamson were the editors, and they were
+succeeded by Rev. George Putnam and Rev. George E. Ellis. In July, 1857,
+Rev. Frederic H. Hedge and Rev. Edward E. Hale became the editors, and
+continued until 1861. Then the editorship was assumed by Rev. Thomas B.
+Fox, who was for several years its owner and publisher; and he was assisted
+as editor by Rev. Joseph H. Allen. The magazine was purchased by Mr. James
+Miller in 1865, who removed it to New York. Dr. Henry W. Bellows became the
+editor, and Mr. Allen continued as assistant, until it was discontinued
+with the December number, 1869.
+
+One of the purposes which found expression after the awakening of 1865 was
+the establishment of a large popular weekly religious journal that should
+reach all classes of liberals throughout the country. The Christian
+Inquirer was changed into The Liberal Christian with the number for
+December 22, 1866; and under this name it appeared in a larger and more
+vigorous form. Dr. Bellows was the editor, and contributors were sought
+from all classes of Liberal Christians. The effort made to establish an able
+undenominational journal, of a broad and progressive but distinctly liberal
+type, was energetic; but the time was not ready for it. With December 2,
+1876, the paper became The Inquirer, which was continued to the close of
+1877.
+
+There was also planned in 1865 a monthly journal that should be everywhere
+acceptable in the homes of liberals of every kind. In January, 1870,
+appeared the Old and New, a large monthly magazine, combining popular and
+scholarly features. The editors were Dr. Edward E. Hale and Mr. Frederic B.
+Perkins. In its pages were first published Dr. Hale's Ten Times Ten, and
+also many of the chapters of Dr. James Martineau's Seat of Authority in
+Religion. It was discontinued with the number for December, 1875.
+
+The Monthly Religious Magazine was discontinued with the February issue of
+1874; and the next month appeared The Unitarian Review and Religious
+Magazine, edited by Rev. Charles Lowe. When Lowe died, in June, 1874, he
+was succeeded by Rev. Henry H. Barber and Rev. James De Normandie. In 1880
+Dr. J.H. Allen became the editor,--a position he held until the magazine
+was discontinued, in December, 1891.
+
+In March, 1878, was begun in Chicago the publication of The Pamphlet
+Mission, a semi-monthly issue of sermons for missionary circulation, with a
+dozen pages of news added in a supplement. In September the name was
+changed to Unity; and this publication grew into a small fortnightly
+journal, representing the interests of the Western Unitarian Conference. A
+few years later it became a weekly; and it has continued as the
+representative of the more radical Unitarian opinions, though in 1894 it
+became the special organ of The Liberal Congress. The chief editorial
+management has been in the hands of Rev. Jenkin Ll. Jones.
+
+The Unitarian was begun in Chicago by Rev. Brooke Herford and Rev. Jabez T.
+Sunderland with January, 1886, as the organ of the more conservative
+members of the Western Conference. In June, 1887, this monthly magazine was
+removed to Ann Arbor, Mr. Sunderland becoming the managing editor; and in
+1890 the office of publication was removed to Boston, and Rev. Frederic B.
+Mott became the assistant editor. In 1897 the magazine was merged into The
+Christian Register.
+
+In 1880 The Rising Faith was published at Manchester, N.H., as a monthly,
+and continued for two or three years.
+
+In August, 1891, The Guidon appeared in San Francisco; and in November,
+1893, it became The Pacific Unitarian, a monthly representing the interests
+of the Unitarian churches on the Pacific coast. Mr. Charles A. Murdock has
+been the editor.
+
+The Southern Unitarian was begun at Atlanta, Ga., January, 1893; and it was
+published for five years as a monthly by the Southern Conference.
+
+In December, 1891, was begun at Davenport, Ia., with Rev. Arthur M. Judy as
+editor, a monthly parish paper, called Old and New. Other parishes joined
+in its publication, and in 1895 it became the organ of the Iowa Unitarian
+Association. In 1896 it was published in Chicago, with Rev. A.W. Gould as
+the editor, in behalf of the interests of the Western Conference. In
+September, 1898, its publication was resumed in Davenport by Mr. Judy; and
+a year later it became again the organ of the Iowa Association.
+
+The New World, a Quarterly Review of Religion, Ethics, and Theology, was
+begun in Boston, March, 1892, and was discontinued with the December number
+for 1900. Its editors were Dr. C.C. Everett, Dr. C.H. Toy, Dr. Orello Cone,
+with Rev. N.P. Gilman as managing editor.
+
+The Church Exchange began in June, 1893, and was published as a monthly at
+Portland, in the interest of the Maine Conference of Unitarian Churches,
+with Rev. John C. Perkins as editor. In 1896-97 it was published at
+Farmington, and in 1897-99 Mr. H.P. White was the editor. Since 1899 it has
+been published in Portland, with Mr. Perkins as editor.
+
+The above list of periodicals is not complete. More detailed information is
+desirable, and that the list may be made, full and accurate to date.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+_The foot-notes and appendix have been included in the index with
+the text._
+
+Abbot, Abiel (Beverly), 131, 133, 262, 350, 351.
+Abbot, Abiel (Peterboro), 409.
+Abbot, Ezra, 393, 394.
+Abbot, Francis Ellingwood, 200-204, 207, 210, 211, 213, 415.
+Abolitionists, 353.
+Adam, 51, 63.
+Adam, William, 296-298.
+Adams, Hannah, 265, 423.
+Adams, Herbert W., 114, 409.
+Adams, John, 58, 136, 351. 377, 380, 382.
+Adams, John Quincy, 366, 380.
+Adams, Phineas, 95.
+African Methodist Episcopal Church, 338, 339.
+Agassiz, Louis, 408, 427, 428.
+Albee, John, 415.
+Alcott, Amos Bronson, 155, 202, 358, 369.
+Alcott, Louisa M., 178, 368, 430.
+Alger, William Rounseville, 146, 163, 164, 346, 422.
+Allen, Joseph, 146, 264, 268, 360, 361, 414.
+Allen, Joseph Henry, 165, 261, 361, 393, 414, 421, 450, 451.
+Allison, William B., 380, 383.
+Allston, Washington, 98, 430.
+Allyn, John, 131, 133.
+American literature, 412, 413, 415, 416, 435.
+"American Unitarianism," 79, 82, 101-104.
+Ames, Charles Gordon, 168, 214.
+Ames, Fisher, 382.
+Ames, Oliver, 382.
+Amory, John C., 385.
+Andover Theological School, 93.
+Andrew, John Albion, 191, 192, 196, 324, 367, 382, 449.
+Angell, George T., 336.
+Animals, humane treatment of, 335, 336.
+Anonymous Association, 127.
+Anthology Club, 96.
+Anthology, Monthly, 93, 95, 390.
+Anthony, Henry B., 367, 380.
+Anthony, Susan B., 368.
+Antinomianism, 16.
+Antioch College, 172, 193, 197, 401, 402.
+Anti-slavery, 100, 159, 343, 353-367.
+Appleton, Nathan, 386.
+Arianism, 42, 43, 44, 56, 59, 65, 66, 70, 83.
+Arminianism, 8, 9, 11, 28, 37-39, 42, 44, 48, 50, 59, 66, 67, 70, 75,
+      84, 89.
+Arminius, 8.
+Artists, 430.
+Association of Benevolent Societies, 255.
+Association of Young Men, 248-251, 264.
+Autumnal Conventions, 173-176, 187.
+Auxiliaries of American Unitarian Association, 146.
+Ayer, Adams, 216.
+
+Ballou, Hosea, 93.
+Baltimore, 111-113.
+Bancroft, Aaron, 73, 74, 114, 130, 132, 135, 136, 142, 413.
+Bancroft, George, 380, 413, 414, 424.
+Baptists, 6, 7, 21, 87, 88.
+Barnard, Charles F., 254, 256, 260, 332, 337, 361.
+Barnard, Thomas, 70.
+Barrett, Samuel, 127, 135, 137, 144, 264.
+Barry, Joseph, 333.
+Bartol, Cyrus Augustus, 148, 155, 202, 240, 241, 419.
+Batchelor, George, 196, 226, 232.
+Beecher, Henry Ward, 370.
+Beecher, Lyman, 384.
+Belknap, Jeremy, 83, 351, 423.
+Bellamy, Joseph, 44, 52, 57, 73.
+Bellows, Henry Whitney, 136, 146, 154, 175, 178-182, 187-189, 191, 196,
+      198, 205, 206, 215, 217, 218, 220, 222, 223, 232, 233, 335, 363, 409,
+      431, 449, 450.
+Belsham, Thomas, 79, 102, 103.
+Benevolent Fraternity of Churches, 197, 256, 257, 282.
+Bentley, William, 71, 80, 90.
+Bergh, Henry, 335.
+Berry Street Conference, 106, 107, 133.
+Bible, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 14, 20, 25, 27, 32, 40, 45, 48, 50, 53, 55, 60, 64,
+      85, 86, 122, 156, 157, 171, 198, 199, 321, 389, 395, 437.
+Bible Societies, 100, 147, 322.
+Bigelow, Andrew, 258.
+Birthright church, 240, 241.
+Bixby, James T., 307, 320.
+Blackwell, Antoinette Brown, 371.
+Blackwell, Henry B., 368.
+Blake, H.G.O., 415.
+Bond, Edward P., 153.
+Bond, George, 131, 133.
+Bond, Henry F., 341, 342.
+Book distribution, 148, 163, 166, 169, 338.
+Boston, 16, 20, 61, 75, 77, 118, 141, 160, 213, 383-388, 413.
+Boston Observer, The, 448.
+Boston Provident Association, 334, 335.
+Boutwell, George S., 367, 382.
+Bowditch, Henry I., 367.
+Bowditch, Nathaniel, 117, 381, 427.
+Bowditch, William I., 367.
+Bowdoin, James, 80, 385.
+Bowles & Dearborn, 235.
+Bowles, Leonard C., 235.
+Brackett, J.Q.A., 382.
+Bradford, Alden, 47, 65, 127, 128, 132, 133.
+Bradford, George P., 415.
+Bradlee, Caleb D., 336.
+Bradley, Amy, 181, 338.
+Brattle Street Church, 29, 35, 40, 52, 53, 77, 94, 143, 160, 385, 387.
+Breck, Robert, 40.
+Briant, Lemuel, 50, 58.
+Bridgman, Laura, 326.
+Briggs, Charles, 144, 151, 235, 361.
+Briggs, George W., 270, 360, 361.
+Brigham, Charles H., 189, 214, 215, 319, 361.
+British and Foreign Unitarian Association, 295, 298, 303.
+Brooks, Charles, 336, 400.
+Brooks, Charles T., 146, 244, 298, 359, 420.
+Brooks Fund, 166.
+Brown, Howard N., 196, 243.
+Bryant, William Cullen, 117, 191, 195, 243, 381, 431, 432.
+Buckminster, J.S., 94, 98, 390, 391, 416.
+Bulfinch, Charles, 430.
+Bulfinch, Stephen G., 146, 165, 268, 270, 271, 361, 447.
+Burleigh, Celia C., 369, 370.
+Burleigh, William H., 369.
+Burnap, George W., 114.
+Burnside, Ambrose E., 383.
+Burroughs, John, 428.
+Burton, Warren, 139, 257, 361, 421.
+Bushnell, Horace, 241.
+
+Calcutta, 296, 297, 299, 300.
+Calhoun, John C., 376, 380.
+Calvinism, 9, 26, 28, 34, 37, 39, 44, 45, 46, 48, 62, 73, 75, 76, 84,
+      87, 92.
+Carpenter, Lant, 154.
+Carpenter, Mary, 259.
+Cary, George L., 318.
+"Catholic Christians," 104, 106, 123.
+Catholicism, 3, 5, 18, 53.
+Chadwick, John White, 157, 216, 244, 275, 354, 370.
+Chaney, George L., 337.
+Channing, George G., 144, 449.
+Channing, William Ellery, 70, 94, 99, 102, 103, 106, 114, 119, 123, 125,
+      129, 130, 135, 142, 146, 148, 163, 164, 173, 174, 184, 199, 321, 324,
+      328, 343-345, 349, 350, 365, 399, 402, 415, 432.
+Channing, William Ellery, poet, 431.
+Channing, William Henry, 155, 176, 200, 258, 359, 361, 365, 368, 369, 420,
+      428, 448.
+Chapin, Henry, 212.
+Chapman, Maria W., 367, 368.
+Charity work, 35, 252, 254-256, 322-325, 328.
+Charleston, S.C., 118.
+Chauncy, Charles, second president Harvard College, 24.
+Chauncy, Charles, minister First Church in Boston, 45, 46, 48, 52, 53,
+      66-69, 77, 85, 90.
+Cheerful Letter Exchange, 288.
+Cheney, Ednah D., 202, 279, 283, 368, 428.
+Chicago, 167, 213.
+Child, David Lee, 359.
+Child, Lydia Maria, 367, 428, 430.
+Children's Mission, 197, 331-334.
+Chillingworth, William, 5, 10, 12, 14, 31, 45.
+Choate, Joseph H., 381.
+Christ, 6, 11, 14, 15, 24, 27, 40, 49, 50, 56, 62, 64, 67, 69, 70, 74, 75,
+      83, 85, 86, 99, 138, 139, 157, 170, 171, 193, 198, 200, 206, 207,
+      209, 210, 227, 378, 393, 429, 434.
+Christian connection, 89, 140, 194, 314, 315, 316.
+Christian Examiner, The, 101, 156, 236, 416, 449, 450.
+Christian Inquirer, The, 449, 450.
+Christian Monitor, The, 96.
+Christian Register, The, 114-116, 127, 145, 147, 156, 173, 185, 207, 232,
+      264, 296, 356, 448.
+Christian Union, Boston, Young Men's, 214, 216, 336, 337.
+Christian Unions, 216, 337.
+Christian World, The, 145, 147, 449.
+Christianity, 11-13, 45, 62, 63, 75, 85, 86, 123, 138, 156, 200, 201, 206,
+      209-211, 222, 227, 241, 362.
+Christians, 6, 9, 14, 51, 64, 170, 206, 209, 222, 224, 227.
+Church, 5, 7, 10, 12, 14, 17, 20, 52, 106, 115.
+Church and state, 7, 17, 20, 21, 23, 27-29, 52, 68, 85-87, 120-123.
+Church Building Loan Fund, 234.
+Church membership, 18-20, 27, 241, 242.
+Church of the Disciples, 242, 327.
+Civil service reform, 372-375.
+Civil war, 171, 175-184, 187, 283.
+Clark University, 399.
+Clarke, James Freeman, 146, 155, 160, 161, 163, 164, 165, 175, 191, 192,
+      194, 201, 204, 215, 242, 244, 273, 307, 312, 318, 327, 360, 361, 366,
+      369, 370, 417, 418, 420, 448, 449.
+Clarke, Samuel, 13, 44-46, 56, 67, 70.
+Clarke, Sarah Freeman, 404.
+Clifford, John H., 382.
+Codding, Ichabod, 168, 365.
+Codman, John, 102.
+College town missions, 214, 215.
+Collyer, Robert, 167, 171, 185, 194.
+Colporters, 148, 169.
+Commerce, 72.
+Committee on fellowship, 220, 221.
+Conant, Augustus H., 169, 172, 176, 361.
+Conference, Berry Street, 106, 107, 133.
+Confirmation, 241, 242.
+Congregational independence, 34, 126.
+Congregationalism, 74, 87, 89, 93, 117, 119, 194, 199, 241, 436.
+Contributions to American Unitarian Association, 142, 153, 159, 162, 164,
+      188, 190, 193, 197, 213, 234.
+Convention, Autumnal, 173-176, 187.
+Conversion, 18, 20, 21, 24, 27.
+Conway, Moncure D., 365, 415.
+Cooper Institute, 215, 408.
+Cooper, Peter, 381, 408, 409.
+Cordner, John, 146, 238.
+Cornell University, 215.
+Corporate idea of church, 5, 7, 17-19, 20.
+Country Week, 337.
+Covenants, Church, 26.
+Cranch, Christopher, P., 415, 448.
+Cranch, William, 377, 380.
+Creeds, 26, 49, 62, 64, 66, 85, 206.
+Crocker, Lucretia, 370, 403, 404.
+Crosby, Nichols & Co., 236.
+Crosby, William, 334.
+Cudworth, Warren H., 271.
+Curtis, Benjamin R., 382.
+Curtis, George Ticknor, 381.
+Curtis, George William, 196, 239, 347, 369, 373-375, 381.
+Cutter, George W., 226.
+
+Dall, Caroline Healey, 165, 202, 279, 368, 370, 371.
+Dall, Charles, H.A., 259, 299-302, 361.
+Dane, Nathan, 350, 351, 382.
+Davis, John, 382.
+Dedham, 29, 54, 87, 115, 218.
+Deism, 42.
+Democratic tendencies, 8, 33, 34, 37, 90, 121, 174.
+Depositaries, 146, 149, 169.
+Depravity of man, 51, 63, 66, 68, 69.
+Devotional library, 164.
+Dewey, Orville, 114, 143, 146, 165, 174, 191, 267, 354, 415, 431.
+Dexter, Henry M., 22.
+Dexter, Samuel, 351, 382.
+Dickens, Charles, 324.
+Dillingham, Pitt, 339.
+Disciple, The Christian, 99-101.
+Dix, Dorothea, 324, 327, 328-331.
+Dole, Charles F., 274, 352.
+Douthit, Jasper L., 214.
+Doyle, J.A., 22.
+Dunster, Henry, 24.
+Dwight, Edmund, 399, 400.
+Dwight, John S., 155, 369, 415, 428.
+
+Eaton, Dorman B., 373, 381.
+Education, 253, 323, 325, 337-342, 343, 384, 389, 395-408, 410, 411.
+Education in south, 338-340, 410, 411.
+Education of Indians, 340-342.
+Edwards, Jonathan, 38-41, 44.
+Effinger, J.R., 226.
+Eliot, Charles W., 238, 305, 395, 397.
+Eliot, Rev. Samuel A., 232, 245.
+Eliot, Samuel A., 127, 335, 383, 414.
+Eliot, Thomas D., 196, 212.
+Eliot, William G., 144, 146, 169, 184, 311, 351, 364, 398, 448.
+Ellis, George E., 146, 164, 267, 421, 450.
+Ellis, Rufus, 270, 361, 448.
+Ellis, Sallie, 289, 290.
+Emerson, George B., 127, 164.
+Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 151, 155, 202, 324, 369, 413, 415, 416, 428, 431,
+      435, 436, 448.
+Emerson, William, 95, 96, 413.
+Emlyn, Thomas, 57, 58.
+Emmons, Nathaniel, 55.
+Equality, 33, 38.
+Evangelical Missionary Society, 104, 105, 141.
+Everett, Charles Carroll, 196, 275, 396, 417-419, 452.
+Everett, Edward, 94, 98, 109, 114, 351, 380, 382, 391, 397, 399, 407,
+      414, 416.
+Everett, William, 414.
+Exchange of pulpits, 101.
+
+Farley, Frederic A., 146, 165, 361.
+Fearing, Albert, 238, 324.
+Federal (now Arlington) Street Church, 83, 94, 106, 129, 250, 256,
+      257, 301.
+Fellowship, Unitarian, 205, 209, 211, 219-221, 436, 437.
+Fellowship with other religious bodies, 192-195, 296.
+Felton, Cornelius C., 397.
+Fields, James T., 369, 428.
+Fillmore, Millard, 331, 380.
+First Church of Boston, 53, 66.
+Fiske, John, 22, 307, 424.
+Flagg, J.F., 265, 350.
+Flower Mission, 337.
+Follen, Charles, 359, 431.
+Follen, Eliza Lee, 266, 367.
+Folsom, Nathaniel, 319, 361.
+Forbes, John Murray, 386.
+Forbush, T.B., 226.
+Forman, J.G., 176, 178, 184.
+Forster, Anthony, 118.
+Fox, George W., 161, 162, 207-209.
+Fox, Thomas B., 146, 268, 450.
+Francis, Convers, 110, 155, 200, 360, 361.
+Francke, Kuno, 17.
+Franklin, Benjamin, 376, 377, 379.
+Fraternity of Churches, Benevolent, 197, 256, 257, 282.
+Freedman's Bureau, 184, 197.
+Freedom of Thought, 1, 3, 5, 8, 32, 37, 59, 61-64, 70, 71, 80, 115, 125,
+      205, 210, 212, 389.
+Freeman, James, 76, 78, 80, 82, 98, 111, 114, 344.
+Free Religion, 203, 210, 211.
+Free Religious Association, 194, 202-204, 207, 225, 436.
+French, Daniel C., 430.
+Friend of Peace, 345.
+Friends, 88.
+Frothingham, Nathaniel L., 114, 124, 344, 413, 420.
+Frothingham, Octavius B., 124, 165, 175, 200, 202, 207, 216, 322, 323, 366,
+      369, 387, 392, 394, 413, 420, 424, 431.
+Fuller, Margaret, 155, 368, 428, 429, 448.
+Furness, William Henry, 114, 146, 244, 267, 361, 365, 394, 420.
+
+Galvin, Edward I., 176, 337.
+Gannett, Ezra Stiles, 114, 127, 128, 134-137, 139, 143, 146, 172, 191, 266,
+      346, 350-351, 354, 355, 450.
+Gannett, William C., 225-227, 241, 277, 290.
+Garrison, William Lloyd, 353, 359, 367, 377.
+Gay, Ebenezer, 58-60, 77.
+General Repositary, The, 97, 390.
+Giddings, Joshua R., 367.
+Gierke, Otto, 4.
+Giles, Henry, 361, 420.
+Gilman, Samuel, 119, 146, 420.
+God, 2, 4, 7, 9, 11, 13, 38, 41, 51, 53, 59, 60, 64, 68, 70, 73, 90, 157,
+      198, 227, 228.
+Goodell, William, 365.
+Gore, Christopher, 382.
+Gould, Allen W., 226, 277, 452.
+Gould, Benjamin, 427.
+Grant, Moses, 248, 264, 265, 344, 350.
+Graves, Mary H., 371.
+Gray, Frederic T., 167, 248, 254, 256, 265, 267, 270, 271, 334, 361.
+Great Awakening, 46, 66, 210.
+Greene, Benjamin H., 248, 333.
+Greenhalge, Frederic T., 382.
+Greenwood, Francis W.P., 101, 111, 114, 148, 421, 433, 450.
+Greenwood, Grace (Mrs. Lippincott), 428, 430.
+
+Hale, Edward Everett, 154, 175, 189, 191, 194, 195, 196, 205, 217, 218,
+      269, 270, 318, 323, 342, 429, 430, 450.
+Hale, George S., 231.
+Hale, John P., 367, 380.
+Hale, Lucretia P., 165, 279, 404.
+Half-way Covenant, 22, 27, 28, 68.
+Hall, Asaph, 427.
+Hall, Edward Brooks, 127, 146, 160, 267, 361.
+Hall, Nathaniel, 361, 366.
+Hall, Nathaniel, the younger, 387.
+Hamlin, Hannibal, 383.
+Hampton Institute, 339, 340.
+Hancock, John, 385.
+Hancock Sunday-school, 247, 264, 265.
+Harte, Bret, 430.
+Harvard College, 35, 41, 44, 47, 92, 98, 384, 388, 390, 395-397, 412.
+Harvard Divinity School, 108-110, 124, 193, 214, 391, 392, 394, 395, 396,
+      414, 415.
+Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 381, 430.
+Haynes, George H., 29.
+Hazlitt, Rev. William, 71, 77-79.
+Hedge, Frederic H., 146, 155, 161, 165, 180, 239, 244, 346, 359, 360, 361,
+      415, 417, 420, 449, 450.
+Hemenway, Augustus, 385.
+Hemenway, Mary, 405-407.
+Hepworth, George H., 176, 205.
+Herford, Brooke, 196, 225, 452.
+Heywood, John H., 178, 180, 364.
+Higginson, Stephen, 130, 133.
+Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 177, 202, 367, 368, 369, 415, 424, 429.
+Higher criticism, 389-395.
+Hildreth, Richard, 413, 424.
+Hill, Thomas, 320, 361, 397, 420, 427.
+Historians, 422-427.
+Hoar, Ebenezer Rockwood, 191, 196, 367, 382.
+Hoar, George Frisbie, 196, 367, 369, 380.
+Holland, Frederick West, 144, 178, 361.
+Hollis Professorship, 92, 108, 109.
+Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 431-433.
+Hooker, Thomas, 16, 25.
+Hopkins, Samuel, 73.
+Horton, Edward A., 275.
+Hosmer, Frederick L., 226, 244, 277.
+Hosmer, George W., 311, 314, 316, 338, 361.
+Hosmer, Harriet, 430.
+Hosmer, James Kendall, 176, 338, 415.
+Howard, Simeon, 66, 78.
+Howard Sunday-school, 252, 265, 332.
+Howe, Julia Ward, 328, 348, 349, 368, 370, 371, 428.
+Howe, Samuel G., 180, 325-329, 367.
+Howells, William D., 430.
+Huidekoper, Frederic, 317, 319, 422.
+Huidekoper, Harm Jan, 311-314.
+Hunt, John, 11, 13.
+Hunting, Sylvan S., 176, 214.
+Huntington, Frederic D., 270, 361, 448.
+Hymns of Unitarians, 244, 420.
+
+Idealism, 45.
+Independents, 7.
+Index, The, 203, 207.
+India, 72, 248, 296, 303.
+Individualism, 1-4, 8, 17, 18, 27, 63, 90, 125, 205, 210, 211, 224, 343,
+      349, 428, 441-443.
+Insane, care of, 328-331.
+International Council, 245, 440.
+Intuition, 2, 4, 12.
+
+Jackson, Charles, 130, 387.
+Jackson, Helen Hunt, 430.
+Jackson, James, 427.
+Japan, 303-309.
+Japanese Unitarian Association, 306-309.
+Jefferson, Thomas, 136, 378-380, 437.
+Jenckes, Thomas A., 372.
+Johnson, Samuel, 201, 244, 366, 369, 419, 420.
+Jones, Jenkin Lloyd, 214, 225, 276, 278, 451.
+Judd, Sylvester, 217, 240, 241, 361, 366, 429.
+Julian, George W., 367, 369.
+
+Kanda, Saichiro, 305, 306.
+Kendall, James, 84.
+Kentucky, 119.
+Khasi Hills, 302, 303.
+Kidder, Henry P., 189, 212, 231, 238.
+Kindergarten, 492, 493.
+King's Chapel, 52, 76, 160, 313, 387, 421.
+King, Starr, 165, 167, 182, 183, 420.
+Kirkland, Caroline, 369, 428.
+Kirkland, John T., 98, 109, 114, 323, 344, 350, 351, 397.
+Knapp, Arthur M., 304.
+Knapp, Frederick N., 181.
+Kneeland, John, 273.
+
+Ladies' Commission on Sunday-school Books, 279-281.
+Lafargue, Paul, 2.
+Lamson, Alvan, 165, 200, 422, 450.
+Latitudinarianism, 9, 10.
+Lawrence, Abbott, 385, 386.
+Lawrence, Amos, 351, 385, 386.
+Leland Stanford, Jr., University, 399.
+Leonard, Levi W., 409.
+Liberal Christian, The, 193.
+Liberal Preacher, The, 447.
+Liberalism, 24, 26, 29, 32, 34, 37, 46, 49-52, 54, 57, 59, 61, 70, 72, 75,
+      85, 87, 88, 94, 104, 106, 111, 122.
+Liberator, The, 359.
+Liberty, 206, 342, 343, 349.
+Libraries, 289, 409, 410.
+Lincoln, Abraham, 376, 377.
+Lincoln, Calvin, 127, 161.
+Lincoln, Levi, 382.
+Lindsey, Theophilus, 78, 102.
+Little, Robert, 119.
+Liturgy, 242, 343.
+Livermore, Abiel Abbot, 148, 169, 317, 318, 361, 366.
+Livermore, Leonard J., 272.
+Livermore, Mary A., 368, 371.
+Local Conferences, 216-219, 445, 446.
+Locke, John, 5, 6, 12, 43, 56.
+Long, John D., 231, 382.
+Longfellow, Henry W., 431, 432.
+Longfellow, Samuel, 175, 200, 242, 244, 366, 369, 419.
+Longfellow, Stephen, 134, 432.
+Lord's Supper, 27, 240.
+Loring, Charles G., 127.
+Loring, Ellis Gray, 359, 369.
+Lothrop, Samuel K., 143, 144, 160, 163, 236, 350, 447.
+Lovering, Joseph, 427.
+Low, A.A., 189.
+Lowe, Charles, 172, 177, 196, 197, 205, 209, 212, 216, 218, 237, 279,
+      370, 451.
+Lowell, Charles, 94, 99, 109, 114, 263, 344, 350, 351, 366, 413.
+Lowell, Francis Cabot, 385, 386.
+Lowell Institute, 407, 408.
+Lowell, James Russell, 413, 431, 434, 435.
+Lowell, John, 382, 385.
+Lowell, John Amory, 385, 407.
+Lunt, William Parsons, 420.
+
+MacCauley, Clay, 304, 305.
+McCrary, George W., 326, 383.
+Maine Conference of Unitarian Churches, 218.
+Mann, Horace. 166, 327, 329, 351, 399-402.
+Mann, Mrs. Horace, 324, 403.
+Marshall, John, 376, 380.
+Marshall, J.B.F., 339, 340.
+Martineau, James, 165, 450..
+Mason, L.B., 112, 176.
+Massachusetts Congregational Charitable Society, 119.
+Massachusetts Convention of Congregational Ministers, 120.
+May, Abby Williams, 283, 403, 404.
+May, Col. Joseph, 132, 133, 344.
+May, Rev. Joseph, 216.
+May, Samuel, 359-361, 366.
+May, Samuel J., 127, 146, 194, 346, 351, 356, 358, 360, 361, 366, 369, 399,
+      401, 447.
+Mayhew, Experience, 49, 60.
+Mayhew, Jonathan, 45, 47, 48, 53, 58, 60-66, 85, 90, 199.
+Mayo, Amory D., 320, 368, 410, 411.
+Mead, Edwin D., 406.
+Mead, Larkin G., 430.
+Meadville Theological School, 161, 193, 215, 310-320.
+Methodism, 89, 194.
+Miles, Henry A., 161, 164, 360, 361.
+Miller, Samuel F., 196, 380.
+Milton, John, 5, 6, 10, 12, 31, 45, 56.
+Ministry at Large, 247-261.
+Miracles, 156, 157, 198, 200, 211.
+Missions, domestic, 104, 140, 144, 149-153, 167, 171, 172, 212-214, 218.
+Mitchell, Maria, 427.
+Montana Industrial School, 341, 342, 405.
+Monthly Journal of American Unitarian Association, 162, 184, 237.
+Monthly Miscellany, The, 448.
+Monthly Religious Magazine, 448.
+Morehouse, Daniel W., 196.
+Morison, John H., 165, 270, 355, 356, 448.
+Morrill, Justin S., 380.
+Morse, Jedediah, 93, 102, 423.
+Motley, John Lothrop, 424.
+Mott, Lucretia, 202, 369.
+Mumford, Thomas J., 207, 271, 366, 369.
+Munroe, James, & Co., 235.
+Muzzey, Artemas M., 165, 178, 359, 360, 361, 422.
+
+National Conference: origin, 190-195;
+  Syracuse session, 201;
+  change in constitution, 204;
+  Hepworth's amendment, 207;
+  protests against dropping names from Year Book, 209;
+  formation of local conferences, 218-221;
+  revision of constitution, in 1892, 229;
+  adjustment of Conference and Association, 233;
+  temperance resolutions, 352;
+  women represented, 369;
+  organ proposed, 446.
+New Divinity, 73.
+New Hampshire Unitarian Association, 217.
+New York, 119, 213, 381, 429.
+New York Convention, 190-195.
+Newell, Frederick R., 172, 176, 184.
+Newell, William, 361, 414, 420.
+Newell, William Wells, 414, 415.
+Nichols, Ichabod, 140, 142, 165.
+Nitti, F.S., 3.
+North American Review, 116, 416.
+Northampton, 27, 38, 41, 381.
+Norton, Andrews, 98, 109-111, 114, 122, 126, 130, 132, 135, 139, 164, 243,
+      391, 392, 414, 420.
+Norton, Charles, Eliot, 175, 185, 414, 428.
+Novelists, 429, 430.
+Noyes, George Rapall, 110, 114, 146, 164, 200, 392, 393.
+Nute, Ephraim, 167, 176.
+
+Old and New, 450.
+Old South historical work, 405-407.
+Oriental religions, 72.
+Orton, Edward, 338.
+Osgood, Samuel, 154, 215, 361, 431, 449.
+"Other Christian Churches," 201, 219, 446.
+Otis, Harrison Gray, 382, 385.
+Oxnard, Thomas, 80.
+
+Palfrey, Cazneau, 173, 361.
+Palfrey, John G., 95, 101, 109, 110, 114, 117, 126, 127, 146, 154, 157,
+      191, 212, 249, 329, 350, 366, 385, 391, 415, 424.
+Panoplist, The, 93, 102.
+Parish, 29, 115.
+Parker, Isaac, 351, 382.
+Parker, Theodore, 155-157, 165, 267, 327, 328, 343, 361, 365, 369, 394,
+      399, 415, 417, 420, 436.
+Parkman, Francis, historian, 413.
+Parkman, John, 154, 361.
+Parkman, Rev. Francis, 74, 95, 99, 109, 173, 344, 413, 424.
+Parsons, Theophilus, 86, 117, 351, 377, 382.
+Parton, James, 424.
+Peabody, Andrew P., 117, 146, 148, 173, 239, 260, 313, 323, 360, 361.
+Peabody, Elizabeth P., 155, 368, 402, 403.
+Peabody, Ephraim, 270, 313, 334, 335, 433, 448.
+Peabody, Francis G., 331.
+Peabody, W.B.O., 361, 420.
+Peace movement, 343-349.
+Peace societies, 322, 344.
+Peirce, Benjamin, 427.
+Perkins Institute for the Blind, 323, 325, 326.
+Perkins, Thomas H., 325, 386, 387.
+Phillips, Jonathan, 109, 351, 385.
+Phillips, Stephen C., 385.
+Pickering, Edward C., 427.
+Pickering, John, 381.
+Pickering, Timothy, 377, 381.
+Pierce, Cyrus, 361, 400, 401.
+Pierce, John, 114, 131, 133, 344, 350.
+Pierpont, John, 114, 127, 132, 176, 243, 350, 351, 361, 365, 420.
+Pillsbury, Parker, 368, 369.
+Piper, George F., 273.
+Pitts Street Chapel, 257, 258, 332.
+Plymouth, 16, 83, 118.
+Poets, 431-435.
+Poor, care of, 250, 255, 321, 322, 334, 335.
+Porter, Eliphalet, 76.
+Portland, 80, 118.
+Post-office Mission, 289, 290.
+Potter, William J., 170, 200, 203, 208, 209, 211.
+Pratt, Enoch, 189, 409, 410.
+Pray, Lewis G., 270.
+Prescott, William Hickling, 117, 381, 424, 425.
+Priestley, Joseph, 71, 78, 80, 81, 83, 118.
+Primitive Christianity, 48, 67, 112, 122.
+Prince, John, 71, 76, 381.
+Prison reform, 327, 328, 329, 343.
+Protestantism, 1, 3, 4, 7, 14, 17, 18, 156.
+Publishing Fund Society, 107, 108, 141.
+Publishing interests, 113, 128, 145, 162, 164, 165, 184.
+Puritanism, 10, 19, 20, 21, 37, 53.
+Puritans, 19, 22.
+Putnam, Alfred P., 216, 420.
+Putnam, George, 146, 185, 450.
+Pynchon, William, 23, 24.
+
+Quarterly Journal of American Unitarian Association, 162.
+Quincy, Edmund, 359.
+Quincy, Josiah, 35, 42, 128, 344, 366, 382, 397, 399.
+
+Radical, The, 203.
+Radicalism, 155, 156, 158, 199, 203, 204, 210, 222.
+Rammohun Roy, 296.
+Rantoul, Robert, 127, 351, 399.
+Rationalism, 5, 6, 12, 31, 44, 45, 55, 62, 69, 90, 156.
+Reason, 2, 3, 9-11, 13, 31, 37, 90.
+Reed, David, 114, 127, 129, 145, 234, 269.
+Reforms, 343, 356.
+Revelation, 12, 13, 20, 46, 66, 69, 73, 88.
+Reynolds, Grindall, 232, 238, 239.
+Ripley, Ezra, 74, 263, 344.
+Ripley, George, 146, 415, 420, 428, 448.
+Ripley, Samuel. 360, 361.
+Robbins, Chandler, 83, 361, 420.
+Roberts, William, 297, 298.
+Robinson, George D., 382.
+Robinson, John, 25, 84.
+Roman Catholic Church, 2, 3, 17.
+
+Saco, 81.
+Safford, Mary A., 371.
+St. Louis, 141, 184, 225, 259, 398.
+Salem, 16, 29, 54, 70, 76, 80, 118, 218, 381, 413.
+Saltonstall, Leverett, 127, 133, 140, 381.
+Saltonstall, Sir Richard, 16, 23.
+San Francisco, 153, 167, 182.
+Sanborn, Frank B., 202, 369.
+Sanitary Commission, 176, 178-184, 188, 338.
+Sargent, John T., 361, 369, 370.
+Savage, Minot J., 196, 274.
+Scandlin, William G., 176, 177, 182.
+Scientists, 427, 428.
+Scudder, Eliza, 244.
+Sears, Edmund H., 165, 217, 395, 420, 448.
+Sectarianism, 125, 131, 149, 150, 201, 266, 356, 436.
+Sedgwick, Catherine M., 369, 381, 429.
+Sewall, Edmund Q., 361.
+Sewall, Samuel E., 358, 359, 369.
+Shaw, Lemuel, 382, 387.
+Shaw, Robert Gould, 386.
+Sherman, John, 92, 98.
+Shippen, Rush R., 213, 237, 238.
+Shute, Daniel, 58, 85, 87.
+Sill, Edward Rowland, 415, 431.
+Sin, original, 50.
+Singh, Hajom Kissor, 302, 303.
+Sloan, W.M., 2.
+Smith, Gerrit, 367, 376, 420.
+Smith, Mary P. Wells, 285, 290.
+Socialism in the church, 3, 4, 17, 20, 27, 33.
+Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity, 96,
+      141, 148.
+Society for Promoting Theological Education, 109, 110.
+Society for Propagating the Gospel, 120.
+Society to Encourage Home Studies, 404, 405.
+Socinianism, 42, 75, 80.
+Solemn Review of Custom of War, 344, 346.
+Sparks, Jared, 111, 114, 117, 119, 126, 132, 135, 397, 399, 415, 421, 424.
+Spaulding, Henry G., 274.
+Spirit of the Pilgrims, The, 93.
+Spofford Harriet Prescott, 430.
+Sprague, Charles, 351, 431.
+Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 368.
+Staples, Carlton A., 176, 214, 259, 364.
+Staples, Nahor A., 167, 176, 366.
+Stearns, Oliver, 317, 360, 361.
+Stebbins, Horatio, 239.
+Stebbins, Rufus, P., 161, 188, 189, 196, 315, 316, 351, 361, 397.
+Stedman, Edmund C., 431.
+Stetson, Caleb, 360, 361, 365.
+Stevenson, Hannah E., 202, 279.
+Stoddard, Richard Henry, 431.
+Stoddard, Solomon, 27, 39, 44, 68, 241.
+Stone, Lucy, 367-369.
+Stone, Thomas T., 164, 366, 369.
+Story, Joseph, 114, 117, 133, 134, 140, 143, 260, 377, 380, 381, 387.
+Story, William Wetmore, 430.
+Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 384.
+Strong, Caleb, 385.
+Sullivan, James, 385.
+Sullivan, Richard, 128, 129.
+Sullivan, Thomas E., 127, 447.
+Sumner, Charles, 347, 348, 364, 367, 372, 380.
+Sunday-school papers, 266, 269-271, 273, 274.
+Sunday-schools, 247, 254, 262-281;
+  origin of, 262;
+  Boston society, 265;
+  growth of, 267;
+  first publications, 268;
+  local societies, 269;
+  paper, 269;
+  national society, 270;
+  awakening interest, 272;
+  George F. Piper as secretary, 273;
+  Henry G. Spaulding, 274;
+  Edward A. Horton, 275;
+  western society, 276;
+  unity clubs, 278;
+  Religious Union, 278;
+  Ladies' Commission, 279, 332.
+Sunderland, Jabez T., 225, 301-303, 451.
+
+Talbot, Thomas, 382.
+Tappan, Lewis, 134, 137, 139.
+Taylor, Bayard, 430, 431.
+Taylor, Edward T., "Father Taylor," 324, 327.
+Taylor, Jeremy, 5, 12, 14, 31, 66.
+Taylor, John, of Norwich, 39.
+Temperance reform, 100, 322, 327, 349-353.
+Thacher, Samuel C., 94, 96, 99, 103, 344.
+Thayer, Nathaniel, 134.
+Theatre preaching, 215, 216.
+Theological library, 164.
+Thomas, Moses G., 140.
+Thompson, James W., 360, 361, 448.
+Thoreau, Henry D., 415, 428.
+Ticknor, Anna E., 404, 405.
+Ticknor, George, 98, 390, 410, 424, 525, 526.
+Tilden, William P., 361.
+Tileston, Thomas, 385.
+Tillotson, John, 11, 44, 45, 67.
+Toleration, 6, 7, 9, 11, 13, 21, 37, 43, 61, 67, 85, 89, 103, 107, 121.
+Toy, Crawford H., 274, 452.
+Tracts, 145-147, 163, 248, 300, 307.
+Tracts, distribution of, 147, 163, 184, 290.
+Transcendentalism, 155, 199, 200, 222, 417, 431.
+Trinity, 13, 14, 42, 45, 55, 58, 63, 65, 66, 69, 71, 79, 83.
+Trowbridge, John T., 430.
+Tucker, John, 75.
+Tuckerman, Henry T., 261, 428.
+Tuckerman, Joseph, 96, 99, 146, 247, 250-257, 260, 264, 265, 270, 282, 297,
+      298, 322, 323, 331, 334, 344.
+Tudor, William, 116.
+Tullock, John, 5.
+Tuskegee Institute, 339.
+
+Unitarian Advocate, 447.
+Unitarian Association, American, 117;
+  discussion in anonymous association, 129;
+  meeting at house of Josiah Quincy, 128;
+  Gannett's statement of purpose, 128;
+  printed report of committee, 128;
+  meeting in Federal Street Church, 129;
+  discussion as to advisability of organizing, 129;
+  announcement at Berry Street Conference, 133;
+  organization, 134;
+  officers, 135;
+  name selected, 138;
+  work of first year, 139;
+  first annual meeting, 140;
+  missionary tour of Moses G. Thomas, 140;
+  effort to absorb other societies, 141;
+  report of directors, 141;
+  attitude of churches, 142;
+  receipts, 142;
+  presidents, 142;
+  secretaries, 143;
+  missionary agents, 144;
+  incorporation, 145;
+  tracts, 145;
+  depositaries, 146;
+  Book and Pamphlet Society, 147;
+  distribution of books, 148;
+  colporters, 148;
+  missionary work in New England, 149;
+  work in South and West, 151;
+  tour of secretary, 152;
+  contributions for domestic missions, 153;
+  work of first quarter-century, 154;
+  influence of radicalism, 155;
+  indifference of churches, 160;
+  officers, 160;
+  Quarterly and Monthly Journal, 162;
+  tracts and books, 163;
+  theological library, 164;
+  devotional library, 164;
+  publishing firm, 165;
+  missionary activities, 167;
+  Association and Western Conference, 172;
+  work during civil war, 177;
+  results of fifteen years, 184;
+  meeting to consider interests of Association, 187;
+  vote to raise $100,000, 189;
+  success, 190;
+  convention in New; York, 190;
+  organization of National Conference, 192;
+  work planned, 193;
+  new life in Association, 196;
+  contributions, 197;
+  new theological position, 197;
+  organization of Free Religious Association, 202;
+  attempts at reconciliation, 204;
+  demand for creed, 205;
+  Year Book controversy, 207;
+  attitude of Unitarians, 209;
+  missionary work, 212;
+  Charles Lowe as secretary, 212;
+  fires in Chicago and Boston, 213;
+  work in west, 214;
+  college town missions, 214;
+  theatre preaching, 215;
+  organization of local conferences, 217;
+  fellowship and fraternity, 219;
+  results of denominational awakening, 221;
+  western issue, 225;
+  constitution of 1892, 229;
+  fellowship with Universalists, 230;
+  officers, 231;
+  adoption of representation, 232;
+  co-operation of Association and National Conference, 233;
+  building loan fund, 234;
+  Unitarian building, 237;
+  seventy-fifth anniversary, 244;
+  ministry at large, 247;
+  aid to Sunday School Society, 266;
+  fellowship with foreign Unitarians, 295;
+  relations with British Association, 295;
+  Dall in India, 299;
+  work in Japan, 303;
+  educational work in South, 338, 410;
+  educational work for Indians, 340;
+  attitude towards slavery, 363;
+  formation of International Council, 440.
+Unitarian Association, British and Foreign, 295, 298, 303.
+Unitarian beliefs, 157, 158, 168, 170, 171, 193, 201, 203, 205-207, 209,
+      211, 212, 225-227, 229, 362, 376, 378, 381, 382, 409, 425, 429, 431,
+      433, 434.
+Unitarian Book and Pamphlet Society, 147, 148.
+Unitarian Church Association of Maine, 217, 240.
+Unitarian hymnology, 244, 420.
+Unitarian Miscellany, The, 111-114.
+Unitarian Monitor, The, 447.
+Unitarian name, 103, 104, 123, 125, 138, 192, 266.
+Unitarian Review, 451.
+Unitarian Temperance Society, 278, 351, 352.
+Unitarian, The (1834), 447.
+Unitarian, The (1886), 225, 451.
+Unitarianism, American, 9, 14, 16, 36, 57-59, 63, 67, 72, 78, 79, 82, 102,
+      104, 111, 115, 118, 122, 124-126, 128, 132, 138, 149, 169, 185,
+      222-224, 378, 379, 384, 387, 389, 436-443.
+Unity, 225, 451.
+Unity clubs, 277-278.
+Unity of God, 63, 65.
+Universalism, 67-69, 71, 75, 88, 90, 93, 193, 194, 230.
+Universality of religion, 203, 210.
+
+Vane, Sir Henry, 16, 24.
+Very, Jones, 155, 244, 381, 431.
+
+Walcutt, Robert F., 359, 366.
+Walker, James, 95 101, 114, 126, 127, 129, 133-135, 138, 139, 146, 200,
+      267, 351, 397, 450.
+Walker, James P., 165, 188, 236, 272, 280.
+Walker, Williston, 18, 22.
+Walter, Cornelia W., 404.
+War, 343, 346-348.
+Ware, Dr. Henry, 60, 92, 108, 135, 146.
+Ware, Henry, the younger, 100, 110, 114, 128, 129, 132, 133, 135, 138, 143,
+      145, 148, 163, 184, 243, 249, 267, 268, 295, 297, 310, 344, 345, 350,
+      351, 359, 420.
+Ware, Dr. John, 350.
+Ware, John F. W, 177, 185, 361.
+Ware, William, 287, 360, 361, 415, 429, 447, 450.
+Warren Street Chapel, 257, 332, 337.
+Washington, 119, 213, 376, 380.
+Washington, George, 377, 379.
+Washington University, 397, 398.
+Wasson, David A., 201, 202, 211, 419, 420.
+Waterston, Robert C., 332, 361.
+Webster, Daniel, 356, 380, 385, 387.
+Webster, Samuel, 50.
+Weeden, William B., 383.
+Weiss, John, 200, 202, 360, 361, 419.
+Weld, Angelina Grimke, 367, 369.
+Weld, Theodore D., 365, 367.
+Wells, John, 212, 382.
+Wendell, Barrett, 410, 435.
+Wendte, Charles W., 246, 276, 289, 337.
+West, Samuel, 69, 85, 87.
+West, Unitarianism in the, 151-153, 224.
+Western Conference, 168-172, 197, 209, 214, 224-229, 284, 285, 364.
+"Western issue," 225-228.
+Western Messenger, The, 366, 448.
+Western ministers, 149, 152.
+Western Unitarian Association, 226.
+Wheaton, Henry, 134, 381.
+Whipple, Edwin P., 428.
+White, Andrew D., 376.
+Whitefield, George, 41, 44, 46.
+Whitman, Bernard, 269, 447.
+Whitman, Jason, 144, 148, 361.
+Whitman, Walter, 431.
+Whitney, Leonard, 172, 176.
+Whittier, John G., 376, 431.
+Wigglesworth, Dr., 44.
+Wigglesworth, Thomas, 385.
+Wilkes, Eliza Tupper, 371.
+Willard, Samuel, 26, 35.
+Williams, John E., 332.
+Williams, Roger, 16, 24, 121.
+Willson, Edmund B., 176, 269, 361.
+Winkley, Samuel H., 185.
+Wise, John, 30-34.
+Wolcott, J.H., 385.
+Wolcott, Roger, 382.
+Women, 30, 191, 250, 282-294, 343, 348, 349, 368-372, 402-407, 428, 429.
+Women's Alliance, 287-294.
+Women's Auxiliary, 286.
+Women's Western Unitarian Conference, 284, 285.
+Woodbury, Augustus, 146.
+Worcester, 73, 173, 218.
+Worcester Association of Ministers, 173, 269.
+Worcester, Noah, 93, 98-100, 114, 148, 344, 345, 350, 365, 389.
+Wright, Carroll D., 196, 231.
+Wyman, Jeffries, 180, 427.
+
+Yale College, 43.
+Year Book of American Unitarian Association, 207, 449.
+Young, Alexander, 114, 127, 143, 267, 424.
+Young People's Religious Union, 278.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Unitarianism in America, by George Willis Cooke
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNITARIANISM IN AMERICA ***
+
+***** This file should be named 8605.txt or 8605.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/8/6/0/8605/
+
+Produced by David Starner, Christopher Lund, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
+  www.gutenberg.org/license.
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at 809
+North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887.  Email
+contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the
+Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:  www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For forty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/8605.zip b/8605.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0e2c810
--- /dev/null
+++ b/8605.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4a18bf8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #8605 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8605)
diff --git a/old/7unit10.txt b/old/7unit10.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..773215e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/7unit10.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,14627 @@
+Project Gutenberg's Unitarianism in America, by George Willis Cooke
+#2 in our series by George Willis Cooke
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
+this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
+
+This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
+Gutenberg file.  Please do not remove it.  Do not change or edit the
+header without written permission.
+
+Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
+eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file.  Included is
+important information about your specific rights and restrictions in
+how the file may be used.  You can also find out about how to make a
+donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: Unitarianism in America
+
+Author: George Willis Cooke
+
+Release Date: August, 2005 [EBook #8605]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on July 28, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNITARIANISM IN AMERICA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Starner, Christopher Lund, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+UNITARIANISM IN AMERICA
+A History of its Origin and Development
+
+
+BY
+
+
+GEORGE WILLIS COOKE
+
+MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, AMERICAN ASSOCIATION
+FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, AMERICAN ACADEMY OF
+POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCE, ETC.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The aim I have had in view in writing this book has been to give a history
+of the origin of Unitarianism in the United States, how it has organized
+itself, and what it has accomplished. It seemed desirable to deal more
+fully than has been done hitherto with the obscure beginnings of the
+Unitarian movement in New England; but limits of space have made it
+impossible to treat this phase of the subject in other than a cursory
+manner. It deserves an exhaustive treatment, which will amply repay the
+necessary labor to this end. The theological controversies that led to the
+separation of the Unitarians from the older Congregational body have been
+only briefly alluded to, the design of my work not requiring an ampler
+treatment. It was not thought best to cover the ground so ably traversed by
+Rev. George E. Ellis, in his Half-century of the Unitarian Controversy;
+Rev. Joseph Henry Allen, in his Our Liberal Movement in Theology; Rev.
+William Channing Gannett, in his Memoir of Dr. Ezra Stiles Gannett; and by
+Rev. John White Chadwick, in his Old and New Unitarian Beliefs. The attempt
+here made has been to supplement these works, and to treat of the practical
+side of Unitarianism,--its organizations, charities, philanthropies, and
+reforms.
+
+With the theological problems involved in the history of Unitarianism this
+volume deals only so far as they have affected its general development. I
+have endeavored to treat of them fairly and without prejudice, to state the
+position of each side to the various controversies in the words of those
+who have accepted its point of view, and to judge of them as phases of a
+larger religious growth. I have not thought it wise to attempt anything
+approaching an exhaustive treatment of the controversies produced by the
+transcendental movement and by "the Western issue." If they are to be dealt
+with in the true spirit of the historical method, it must be at a period
+more remote from these discussions than that of one who participated in
+them, however slightly. I have endeavored to treat of all phases of
+Unitarianism without reference to local interests and without sectional
+preferences. If my book does not indicate such regard to what is national
+rather than to what is provincial, as some of my readers may desire, it is
+due to inability to secure information that would have given a broader
+character to my treatment of the subject.
+
+The present work may appear to some of its readers to have been written in
+a sectarian spirit, with a purpose to magnify the excellences of
+Unitarianism, and to ignore its limitations. Such has not been the purpose
+I have kept before me; but, rather, my aim has been to present the facts
+candidly and justly, and to treat of them from the standpoint of a student
+of the religious evolution of mankind. Unitarianism in this country
+presents an attempt to bring religion into harmony with philosophy and
+science, and to reconcile Christianity with the modern spirit. Its effort
+in this direction is one that deserves careful consideration, especially in
+view of the unity and harmony it has developed in the body of believers who
+accept its teachings. The Unitarian body is a small one, but it has a
+history of great significance with reference to the future development of
+Christianity.
+
+The names of those who accept Unitarianism have not been given in this book
+in any boastful spirit. A faith that is often spoken against may justify
+itself by what it has accomplished, and its best fruits are the men and
+women who have lived in the spirit of its teachings. In presenting the
+names of those who are not in any way identified with Unitarian churches,
+the purpose has been to suggest the wide and inclusive character of the
+Unitarian movement, and to indicate that it is not represented merely by a
+body of churches, but that it is an individual way of looking at the facts
+of life and its problems.
+
+In writing the following pages, I have had constantly in mind those who
+have not been educated as Unitarians, and who have come into this
+inheritance through struggle and search. Not having been to the manner born
+myself, I have sought to provide such persons with the kind of information
+that would have been helpful to me in my endeavors to know the Unitarian
+life and temper. Something of what appears in these pages is due to this
+desire to help those who wish to know concretely what Unitarianism is, and
+what it has said and done to justify its existence. This will account for
+the manner of treatment and for some of the topics selected.
+
+When this work was begun, the design was that it should form a part of the
+exhibit of Unitarianism in this country presented at the seventy-fifth
+anniversary of the formation of the American Unitarian Association. The
+time required for a careful verification of facts made it impossible to
+have the book ready at that date. The delay in its publication has not
+freed the work from all errors and defects, but it has given the
+opportunity for a more adequate treatment of many phases of the subject.
+Much of the work required in its preparation does not show itself in the
+following pages; but it has involved an extended examination of manuscript
+journals and records, as well as printed reports of societies, newspapers,
+magazines, pamphlets, and books. Many of the subjects dealt with, not
+having been touched upon in any previous historical work, have demanded a
+first-hand study of records, often difficult to find access to, and even
+more difficult to summarize in an interesting and adequate manner.
+
+I wish here to warmly thank all those persons, many in number and too
+numerous to give all their names, who have generously aided me with their
+letters and manuscripts, and by the loan of books, magazines, pamphlets,
+and newspapers. Without their aid the book would have been much less
+adequate in its treatment of many subjects than it is at present. Though I
+am responsible for the book as it presents itself to the reader, much of
+its value is due to those who have thus labored with me in its preparation.
+In manuscript and in proof-sheet it has been read by several persons, who
+have kindly aided in securing accuracy to names, dates, and historic facts.
+
+G.W.C.
+
+BOSTON, October 1, 1902.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+I. INTRODUCTION.--ENGLISH SOURCES OF AMERICAN UNITARIANISM
+  Renaissance
+  Reformation
+  Toleration
+  Arminianism
+  English Rationalists
+
+II. THE LIBERAL SIDE OF PURITANISM
+  The Church of Authority and the Church of Freedom
+  Seventeenth-century Liberals
+  Growth of Liberty in Church Methods
+  A Puritan Rationalist
+  Harvard College
+
+III. THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY IN THE CHURCHES
+  Arminianism
+  The Growth of Arminianism
+  Robert Breck
+  Books Read by Liberal Men
+  The Great Awakening
+  Cardinal Beliefs of the Liberals
+  Publications defining the Liberal Beliefs
+  Phases of Religious Progress
+
+IV. THE SILENT ADVANCE OF LIBERALISM
+  Subordinate Nature of Christ
+  Some of the Liberal Leaders
+  The First Unitarian
+  A Pronounced Universalist
+  Other Men of Mark
+  The Second Period of Revivals
+  King's Chapel becomes Unitarian
+  Other Unitarian Movements
+  Growth of Toleration
+
+V. THE PERIOD OF CONTROVERSY
+  The Monthly Anthology
+  Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity
+  General Repository
+  The Christian Disciple
+  Dr. Morse and American Unitarianism
+  Evangelical Missionary Society
+  The Berry Street Conference
+  The Publishing Fund Society
+  Harvard Divinity School
+  The Unitarian Miscellany
+  The Christian Register
+  Results of the Division in Congregationalism
+  Final Separation of State and Church
+
+VI. THE AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION
+  Initial Meetings
+  Work of the First Year
+  Work of the First Quarter of a Century
+  Publication of Tracts and Books
+  Domestic Missions
+
+VII. THE PERIOD OF RADICALISM
+  Depression in Denominational Activities
+  Publications
+  A Firm of Publishers
+  The Brooks Fund
+  Missionary Efforts
+  The Western Unitarian Conference
+  The Autumnal Conventions
+  Influence of the Civil War
+  The Sanitary Commission
+  Results of Fifteen years
+
+VIII. THE DENOMINATIONAL AWAKENING
+  The New York Convention of 1865
+  New Life in the Unitarian Association
+  The New Theological Position
+  Organization of the Free Religious Association
+  Unsuccessful Attempts at Reconciliation
+  The Year Book Controversy
+  Missionary Activities
+  College Town Missions
+  Theatre Preaching
+  Organization of Local Conferences
+  Fellowship and Fraternity
+  Results of the Denominational Awakening
+
+IX. GROWTH OF DENOMINATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS
+  "The Western Issue"
+  Fellowship with Universalists
+  Officers of the American Unitarian Association
+  The American Unitarian Association as a Representative Boy
+  The Church Building Loan Fund
+  The Unitarian Building in Boston
+  Growth of the Devotional Spirit
+  The Seventy-fifth Anniversary
+
+X. THE MINISTRY AT LARGE
+  Association of Young Men
+  Preaching to the Poor
+  Tuckerman as Minister to the Poor
+  Tuckerman's Methods
+  Organization of Charities
+  Benevolent Fraternity of Churches
+  Other Ministers at Large
+  Ministry at Large in Other Cities
+
+XI. ORGANIZED SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK
+  Boston Sunday School Society
+  Unitarian Sunday School Society
+  Western Unitarian Sunday School Society
+  Unity Clubs
+  The Ladies' Commission on Sunday-school Books
+
+XII. THE WOMEN'S ALLIANCE AND ITS PREDECESSORS
+  Women's Western Unitarian Conference
+  Women's Auxiliary Conference
+  The National Alliance
+  Cheerful Letter and Post-office Missions
+  Associate Alliances
+  Alliance Methods
+
+XIII. MISSIONS TO INDIA AND JAPAN
+  Society respecting the State of Religion in India
+  Dall's Work in India
+  Recent Work in India
+  The Beginnings in Japan
+
+XIV. THE MEADVILLE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL
+  The Beginnings in Meadville
+  The Growth of the School
+
+XV. UNITARIAN PHILANTHROPIES
+  Unitarian Charities
+  Education of the Blind
+  Care of the Insane
+  Child-saving Missions
+  Care of the Poor
+  Humane Treatment of Animals
+  Young Men's Christian Unions
+  Educational Work in the South
+  Educational Work for the Indians
+
+XVI. UNITARIANS AND REFORMS
+  Peace Movement
+  Temperance Reform
+  Anti-slavery
+  The Enfranchisement of Women
+  Civil Service Reform
+
+XVII. UNITARIAN MEN AND WOMEN
+  Eminent Statesmen
+  Some Representative Unitarians
+  Judges and Legislators
+  Boston Unitarianism
+
+XVIII. UNITARIANS AND EDUCATION
+  Pioneers of the Higher Criticism
+  The Catholic Influence of Harvard University
+  The Work of Horace Mann
+  Elizabeth Peabody and the Kindergarten
+  Work of Unitarian Women for Education
+  Popular Education and Public Libraries
+  Mayo's Southern Ministry of Education
+
+XIX. UNITARIANISM AND LITERATURE
+  Influence of Unitarian Environment
+  Literary Tendencies
+  Literary Tastes of Unitarian Ministers
+  Unitarians as Historians
+  Scientific Unitarians
+  Unitarian Essayists
+  Unitarian Novelists
+  Unitarian Artists and Poets
+
+XX. THE FUTURE OF UNITARIANISM
+
+APPENDIX.
+  A. Formation of the Local Conferences
+  B. Unitarian Newspapers and Magazines
+
+
+
+
+UNITARIANISM IN AMERICA.
+
+A HISTORY OF ITS ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.--ENGLISH SOURCES OF AMERICAN UNITARIANISM.
+
+The sources of American Unitarianism are to be found in the spirit of
+individualism developed by the Renaissance, the tendency to free inquiry
+that manifested itself in the Protestant Reformation, and the general
+movement of the English churches of the seventeenth century toward
+toleration and rationalism. The individualism of modern thought and life
+first found distinct expression in the Renaissance; and it was essentially
+a new creation, and not a revival. Hitherto the tribe, the city, the
+nation, the guild, or the church, had been the source of authority, the
+centre of power, and the giver of life. Although Greece showed a desire for
+freedom of thought, and a tendency to recognize the worth of the individual
+and his capacity as a discoverer and transmitter of truth, it did not set
+the individual mind free from bondage to the social and political power of
+the city. Socrates and Plato saw somewhat of the real worth of the
+individual, but the great mass of the people were never emancipated from
+the old tribal authority as inherited by the city-state; and not one of the
+great dramatists had conceived of the significance of a genuine
+individualism.[1]
+
+[Sidenote: Renaissance.]
+
+The Renaissance advanced to a new conception of the worth and the capacity
+of the individual mind, and for the first time in history recognized the
+full social meaning of personality in man. It sanctioned and authenticated
+the right of the individual to think for himself, and it developed clearly
+the idea that he may become the transmitter of valid revelations of
+spiritual truth. That God may speak through individual intuition and
+reason, and that this inward revelation may be of the highest authority and
+worth, was a conception first brought to distinct acceptance by the
+Renaissance.
+
+A marked tendency of the Reformation which it received from the Renaissance
+was its acceptance of the free spirit of individualism. The Roman Church
+had taught that all valid religious truth comes to mankind through its own
+corporate existence, but the Reformers insisted that truth is the result of
+individual insight and investigation. The Reformation magnified the worth
+of personality, and made it the central force in all human effort.[2] To
+gain a positive personal life, one of free initiative power, that may in
+itself become creative, and capable of bringing truth and life to larger
+issues, was the chief motive of the Protestant leaders in their work of
+reformation. The result was that, wherever genuine Protestantism appeared,
+it manifested itself by its attitude of free inquiry, its tendency to
+emphasize individual life and thought, and its break with the traditions of
+the past, whether in literature or in religion. The Reformation did not,
+however, bring the principle of individuality to full maturity; and it
+retained many of the old institutional methods, as well as a large degree
+of their social motive. The Reformed churches were often as autocratic as
+the Catholic Church had been, and as little inclined to approve of
+individual departures from their creeds and disciplines; but the motive of
+individualism they had adopted in theory, and could not wholly depart from
+in practice. Their merit was that they had recognized and made a place for
+the principle of individuality; and it proved to be a developing social
+power, however much they might ignore or try to suppress it.
+
+[Sidenote: Reformation.]
+
+In its earliest phases Protestantism magnified the importance of reason in
+religious investigations, although it used an imperfect method in so doing.
+All doctrines were subjected more or less faithfully to this test, every
+rite was criticised and reinterpreted, and the Bible itself was handled in
+the freest manner. The individualism of the movement showed itself in
+Luther's doctrine of justification by faith, and his confidence in the
+validity of personal insight into spiritual realities. Most of all this
+tendency manifested itself in the assertion of the right of every believer
+to read the Bible for himself, and to interpret it according to his own
+needs. The vigorous assertion of the right to the free interpretation of
+the Word of God, and to personal insight into spiritual truth, led their
+followers much farther than the first reformers had anticipated.
+Individualism showed itself in an endless diversity of personal opinions,
+and in the creation of many little groups of believers, who were drawn
+together by an interest in individual leaders or by a common acceptance of
+hair-splitting interpretations of religious truths.[3]
+
+The Protestant Church inculcated the law of individual fidelity to God, and
+declared that the highest obligation is that of personal faith and purity.
+What separated the Catholic and the Protestant was not merely a question of
+socialism as against individualism,[4] but it was also a problem of outward
+or inward law, of environment or intuition as the source of wholesome
+teaching, of ritualism or belief as the higher form of religious
+expression. The Protestants held that belief is better than ritual, faith
+than sacraments, inward authority than external force. They insisted that
+the individual has a right to think his own thoughts and to pray his own
+prayer, and that the revelation of the Supreme Good Will is to all who
+inwardly bear God's image and to every one whose will is a centre of new
+creative force in the world of conduct. They affirmed that the individual
+is of more worth than the social organism, the soul than the church, the
+motive than the conduct, the search for truth than the truth attained.
+
+These tendencies of Protestantism found expression in the rationalism that
+appeared in England at the time of the Commonwealth, and especially at the
+Restoration. All the men of broader temper proclaimed the use of reason in
+the discussion of theological problems. In their opinion the Bible was to
+be interpreted as other books are, while with regard to doctrines there
+must be compromise and latitude. We find such a theologian as Chillingworth
+recognizing "the free right of the individual reason to interpret the
+Bible."[5] To such men as Milton, Jeremy Taylor, and Locke the free spirit
+was essential, even though they had not become rationalists in the modern
+philosophical sense. They were slow to discard tradition, and they desired
+to establish the validity of the Bible; but they would not accept any
+authority until it had borne the test of as thorough an investigation as
+they could give it. The methods of rationalism were not yet understood, but
+the rational spirit had been accepted with a clear apprehension of its
+significance.
+
+[Sidenote: Toleration.]
+
+Toleration had two classes of advocates in the seventeenth century,--on the
+one hand, the minor and persecuted sects, and, on the other, such of the
+great leaders of religious opinion as Milton and Locke. The first clear
+assertion of the modern idea of toleration was made by the Anabaptists of
+Holland, who in 1611 put into their Confession of Faith this declaration of
+the freedom of religion from all state regulation: "The magistrate is not
+to meddle with religion, or matters of conscience, nor compel men to this
+or that form of religion, because Christ is King, and Lawgiver of the
+church and conscience." When the Baptists appeared in England, they
+advocated this principle as the one which ought to control in the relations
+of church and state. In 1614 there was published in London a little tract,
+written by one Leonard Busher, a poor laborer, and a member of the Baptist
+church that had recently been organized there. The writer addressed the
+King and Parliament with a statement of his conviction "that by fire and
+sword to constrain princes and peoples to receive that one true religion of
+the Gospel is wholly against the mind and merciful law of Christ."[6] He
+went on to say that no king or bishop is able to command faith, that it is
+monstrous for Christians to vex and destroy each other on account of
+religious differences. The leading Protestant bodies, especially the
+established churches, still held to the corporate idea of the nature of
+religious institutions; and, although they had rejected the domination of
+the Roman Church, they accepted the control of the state as essential to
+the purity of the church. This half-way retention of the corporate spirit
+made it impossible for any of the leading churches to give recognition to
+the full meaning of the Protestant idea of the worth of the individual
+soul, and its right to communicate directly with God. It remained for the
+persecuted Baptists and Independents, too feeble and despised to aspire to
+state influence, to work out the Protestant principle to its full
+expression in the spirit of toleration, to declare for liberty of
+conscience, the voluntary maintenance of worship, and the separation of
+church and state.
+
+After the Restoration, and again after the enthronement of William and
+Mary, it became a serious practical problem to establish satisfactory
+relations between the various sects. All who were not sectarian fanatics
+saw that some kind of compromise was desirable, and the more liberal wished
+to include all but the most extreme phases of belief within the national
+church. When that national church was finally established on the lines
+which it has since retained, and numerous bodies of dissenters found
+themselves compelled to remain outside, toleration became more and more
+essential, in order that the nation might live at peace with itself. From
+generation to generation the dissenters were able to secure for themselves
+a larger recognition, disabilities were removed as men of all sects saw
+that restrictions were useless, and toleration became the established law
+in the relations of the various religious bodies to each other.
+
+[Sidenote: Arminianism.]
+
+The conditions which led to toleration also developed a liberal
+interpretation of the relations of the church to the people, a broader
+explanation of doctrines, and a rational insight into the problems of the
+religious life. One phase of this more comprehensive religious spirit was
+shown in Arminianism, which was nothing more than an assertion of
+individualism in the sphere of man's relations to God. Calvinism maintained
+that man cannot act freely for himself, that he is strictly under the
+sovereignty of the Divine Will. The democratic tendency in Holland, where
+Arminianism had its origin, expressed itself in the declaration that every
+man is free to accept or to reject religious truth, that the will is
+individual and self-assertive, and that the conscience is not bound.
+Arminius and his coworkers accepted what the early Protestant movement had
+regarded as essential, that religion should be always obedient to the
+rational spirit, that nature should be the test in regard to all which
+affects human conduct, and that the critical spirit ought to be applied to
+dogma and Bible. Arminius reasserted this freedom of the human spirit, and
+vindicated the right of the individual mind to seek God and his truth
+wherever they may be found.
+
+As Protestantism became firmly established in England, and the nation
+accepted its mental and moral attitude without reserve, what is known as
+Arminianism came to be more and more prevalent. This was not a body of
+doctrines, and it was in no sense a sectarian movement: it was rather a
+mental temper of openness and freedom. In a word, Arminianism became a
+method of religious inquiry that appealed to reason, nature, and the needs
+of man. It put new emphasis on the intellectual side of religion, and it
+developed as a moral protest against the harsher features of Calvinism. It
+gave to human feelings the right to express themselves as elements in the
+problem of man's relations to God, and vindicated for God the right to be
+deemed as sympathetic and loving as the men who worship him.
+
+While the Arminians accepted the Bible as an authoritative standard as
+fully as did the Calvinists, they were more critical in its study: they
+applied literary and historical standards in its interpretation, and they
+submitted it to the vindication of reason. They sought to escape from the
+tyranny of the Bible, and yet to make it a living force in the world of
+conduct and character. They not only declared anew the right of private
+judgment, but they wished to make the Bible the source of inward spiritual
+illumination,--not a standard and a test, but an awakener of the divine
+life in the soul. They sought for what is really essential in religious
+truth, limited the number of dogmas that may be regarded as requisite to
+the Christian life, and took the position that only what is of prime
+importance is to be required of the believer. The result was that
+Arminianism became a positive aid to the growth of toleration in England;
+for it became what was called latitudinarian,--that is, broad in temper,
+inclusive in spirit, and desirous of bringing all the nation within the
+limits of one harmonizing and noble-minded church.
+
+[Sidenote: English Rationalists.]
+
+It was in such tendencies as these, as they were developed in Holland and
+England, that American Unitarianism had its origin. To show how true this
+is, it may be desirable to speak of a few of the men whose books were most
+frequently read in New England during the eighteenth century. The prose
+writings of Milton exerted great influence in favor of toleration and in
+vindication of reason. Without doubt he became in his later years a
+believer in free will and the subordinate nature of Christ, and he was true
+to the Protestant ideal of an open Bible and a free spirit in man. Known as
+a Puritan, his pleas for toleration must have been read with confidence by
+his coreligionists of New England; while his rational temper could not have
+failed to have its effect.
+
+His vindication of the Bible as the religion of Protestants must have
+commended Chillingworth to the liberal minds in New England; and there is
+evidence that he was read with acceptance, although he was of the
+established church. Chillingworth was of the noblest type of the
+latitudinarians in the Church of England during the first half of the
+seventeenth century; for he was generously tolerant, his mind was broad and
+liberal, and he knew the true value of a really comprehensive and inclusive
+church, which he earnestly desired should be established in England. He
+wished to have the creed reduced to the most limited proportions by giving
+emphasis to what is fundamental, and by the extrusion of all else. It was
+his desire to maintain what is essential that caused him to say: "I am
+fully assured that God does not, and therefore that man ought not, to
+require any more of any man than this--to believe the Scripture to be God's
+word, to endeavor to find the true sense of it, and to live according to
+it."[7]
+
+He would therefore leave every man free to interpret the Bible for himself,
+and he would make no dogmatic test to deprive any man of this right. The
+chief fact in the Bible being Christ, he insisted that Christianity is
+loyalty to his spirit. "To believe only in Christ" is his definition of
+Christianity, and he would add nothing to this standard. He would put no
+church or creed or council between the individual soul and God; and he
+would direct every believer to the Bible as the free and open way of the
+soul's access to divine truth. He found that the religion of Protestants
+consisted in the rational use of that book, and not in the teachings of the
+Reformers or in the confessions they devised. It is the great merit of
+Chillingworth that he vindicated the spirit of toleration in a broad and
+noble manner, that he was without sectarian prejudice or narrowness in his
+desire for an inclusive church, and that he spoke and wrote in a truly
+rational temper. He applied reason to all religious problems, and he
+regarded it as the final judge and arbiter. Religious freedom received from
+him the fullest recognition, and no one has more clearly indicated the
+scope and purpose of toleration.
+
+Another English religious leader, much read in New England, was Archbishop
+Tillotson. It has been said of him that "for the first time since the
+Reformation the voice of reason was now clearly heard in the high places of
+the church."[8] He was an Arminian in his sympathies, and held that the way
+of salvation is open to all who choose to accept its opportunities. He
+expressed himself as being as certain that the doctrine of eternal decrees
+is not of God as he was sure that God is good and just. His ground for this
+opinion was that it is repugnant to the convictions of justice and goodness
+natural to men. He maintained that we shall be justified before God by
+means of the reformation that is wrought in our own lives. We have an
+intuition of what is right, and a natural capacity for living justly and
+righteously. Experience and reason he made concomitant spiritual forces
+with the Bible, and he held that revelation is but a republication of the
+truths of natural religion. Tillotson was truly a broad churchman, who was
+desirous of making the national church as comprehensive as possible; and he
+was one who practised as well as preached toleration.
+
+Not less liberal was Jeremy Taylor, who was numbered among the dissenters.
+In the introduction to his Liberty of Prophesying he said, "So long as men
+have such variety of principles, such several constitutions, educations,
+tempers, and distempers, hopes, interests, and weaknesses, degrees of light
+and degrees of understanding, it was impossible all should be of one mind."
+Taylor justly said that in heaven there is room for all faiths. His Liberty
+of Prophesying, Chillingworth's Religion of Protestants, and Milton's
+Liberty of Unlicensed Printing are the great expressions of the spirit of
+toleration in the seventeenth century. Each was broad, comprehensive, and
+noble in its plea for religious freedom. It has been said of Taylor that
+"he sets a higher value on a good life than on an orthodox creed. He
+estimates every doctrine by its capacity to do men good."[9]
+
+Another advocate of toleration was John Locke, whose chief influence was as
+a rationalist in philosophy and religion. While accepting Christianity with
+simple confidence, he subjected it to the careful scrutiny of reason. His
+philosophy awakened the rationalistic spirit in all who accepted it, so
+that many of his disciples went much farther than he did himself. While
+accepting revelation, he maintained that natural knowledge is more certain
+in its character. He taught that the conclusions of reason are more
+important than anything given men in the name of revelation. He did not
+himself widely depart from the orthodoxy of his day, though he did not
+accept the doctrine of the Trinity in the most approved form.
+
+One of the rationalistic followers of Locke was Samuel Clarke, who
+attempted to apply the scientific methods of Newton to the interpretation
+of Christianity. He tried to establish faith in God on a purely scientific
+basis. He declared that goodness does not exist because God commands it,
+but that he commands it because it is good. He interpreted the doctrine of
+the Trinity in a rationalistic manner, holding to its form, but rejecting
+its substance.
+
+These men were widely read in New England during the eighteenth century. In
+England they were accounted orthodox, and they held high positions either
+in the national church or in the leading dissenting bodies. They were not
+sectarian or bigoted, they wished to give religion a basis in common sense
+and ethical integrity, and they approved of a Christianity that is
+practical and leads to noble living.
+
+When we consider what were the relations of the colonies to England during
+the first half of the eighteenth century, and that the New England churches
+were constantly influenced by the religious attitude of the
+mother-country,[10] it is plain enough that toleration and rationalism were
+in large measure received from England. In the same school was learned the
+lesson of a return to the simplicity of Christ, of making him and his life
+the standard of Christian fellowship. The great leaders in England taught
+positively that loyalty to Christ is the only essential test of Christian
+duty; and it is not in the least surprising the same idea should have found
+noble advocacy in New England. That a good life and character are the true
+indications of the possession of a saving faith was a thought too often
+uttered in England not to find advocacy in the colonies.
+
+In this way Unitarianism had its origin, in the teachings of men who were
+counted orthodox in England, but who favored submitting all theological
+problems to the test of reason. It was not a sectarian movement in its
+origin or at any time during the eighteenth century; but it was an effort
+to make religion practical, to give it a basis in reality, and to establish
+it as acceptable to the sound judgment and common sense of all men. It was
+an application to the interpretation of theological problems of that
+individualistic spirit which was at the very source of Protestantism. If
+the individual ought to interpret the Bible for himself, so ought he to
+accept his own explanation of the dogmas of the church. In so doing, he
+necessarily becomes a rationalist, which may lead him far from the
+traditions of the past. If he thinks for himself, there is an end to
+uniformity of faith--a conclusion which such men as Chillingworth and
+Jeremy Taylor were willing to accept; and, therefore, they desired an
+all-inclusive church, in order that freedom and unity of faith might be
+both maintained.
+
+In its beginning the liberal movement in New England was not concerned with
+the Trinity. It was a demand for simplicity, rationality, and toleration.
+When it had proceeded far on its way, it was led to a consideration of the
+problem of the Trinity, because it did not find that doctrine distinctly
+taught in the New Testament. Accepting implicitly the words of Christ, it
+found him declaring positively his own subordination to the Father, and
+preferred his teaching to that of the creeds. To the early liberals this
+was simply a question of the nature of Christ, and did not lessen for them
+their implicit faith in his revelation or their recognition of the beauty
+and glory of his divine character.
+
+[1] Paul Lafargue, The Evolution of Property from Savagery to
+    Civilization, 18, 19. "If the savage is incapable of conceiving the
+    idea of individual possession of objects not incorporated with his
+    person, it is because he has no conception of his individuality as
+    distinct from the consanguine group in which he lives.... Savages, even
+    though individually completer beings, seeing that they are
+    self-sufficing, than are civilized persons, are so thoroughly
+    identified with their hordes and clans that their individuality does
+    not make itself felt either in the family or in property. The clan was
+    all in all: the clan was the family; it was the clan that was the owner
+    of property." Also W.M. Sloan, The French Revolution and Religious
+    Reform, 38. "In the Greek and Roman world the individual, body, mind,
+    and soul, had no place in reference to the state. It was only as a
+    member of family, gens, curia, phratry, or deme, and tribe, that the
+    ancient city-state knew the men and women which composed it. The same
+    was true of knowledge: every sensation, perception, and judgment fell
+    into the category of some abstraction, and, instead of concrete things,
+    men knew nothing but generalized ideals."
+
+[2] Francesco S. Nitti, Catholic Socialism, 74, 85, 86. "If we consider
+    the teachings of the Gospel, the communistic origins of the church, the
+    socialistic tendencies of the early fathers, the traditions of the
+    Canon Law, we cannot wonder that at the present day Socialism should
+    count no small number of its adherents among Catholic writers.... The
+    Reformation was the triumph of Individualism. Catholicism, instead, is
+    communistic by its origin and traditions.... The Catholic Church, with
+    her powerful organization, dating back over many centuries, has
+    accustomed Catholic peoples to passive obedience, to a passive
+    renunciation of the greater part of individualistic tendencies."
+
+[3] See David Masson, Life of John Milton, III. 136; John Tulloch, Rational
+    Theology and Christian Philosophy in England, II. 9; John Hunt,
+    Religious Thought in England, I. 234.
+
+[4] The word socialism is not used here with any understanding that the
+    Catholic Church accepts the social theories implied by that name. It is
+    used to indicate that the Roman Church maintains that revelation is to
+    the church itself, and that it is now the visible representative of
+    Christ. The Protestant maintains that revelation is made through an
+    individual, and not to a church. See Otto Gierke, Political Theories of
+    the Middle Age, translated by F.W. Maitland, 10, 22. "In all centuries
+    of the Middle Age Christendom is set before us a single, universal
+    community, founded and governed by God himself. Mankind is one mystical
+    body; it is one single and internally connected people or fold; it is
+    an all-embracing corporation, which constitutes that Universal Realm,
+    spiritual, and temporal, which may be called the Universal Church, or,
+    with equal propriety, the Commonwealth of the Human Race.... Mediaeval
+    thought proceeded from the idea of a single whole. Therefore an organic
+    construction of human society was as familiar to it as a mechanical and
+    atomistic construction was originally alien. Under the influence of
+    biblical allegories and the models set by Greek and Roman writers, the
+    comparison of mankind at large and every smaller group to an animate
+    body was universally adopted and pressed. Mankind in its totality was
+    conceived as an Organism."
+
+[5] Tulloch, Rational Theology in England, I. 339.
+
+[6] David Masson, Life of Milton, III. 102.
+
+[7] The Religion of Protestants, II. 411.
+
+[8] John Hunt, Religious Thought in England, II. 99.
+
+[9] John Hunt, Religious Thought in England, I. 340.
+
+[10] John Hunt, Religious Thought in England, I. 340.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+
+THE LIBERAL SIDE OF PURITANISM.
+
+Unitarianism was brought to America with the Pilgrims and the Puritans. Its
+origins are not to be found in the religious indifference and torpidity of
+the eighteenth century, but in the individualism and the rational temper of
+the men who settled Plymouth, Salem, and Boston. Its development is
+coextensive with the origin and growth of Congregationalism, even with that
+of Protestantism itself. So long as New England has been in existence, so
+long, at least, Unitarianism, in its motives and in its spirit, has been at
+work in the name of toleration, liberty, and free inquiry.
+
+The many and wide divergences of opinion which were an essential result of
+the spirit and methods of Protestantism were shown from the first by the
+Pilgrims and Puritans. In Massachusetts, stringent laws were adopted in
+order to secure uniformity of belief and practice; but it was never
+achieved, except in name. Antinomianism early presented itself in Boston,
+and it was quickly followed by the incursions of the Baptists and Friends.
+Hooker did not find himself in sympathy with the Massachusetts leaders, and
+led a considerable company to Connecticut from Cambridge, Watertown, and
+Dorchester. Sir Henry Vane could not always agree with those who guided the
+religion and the politics of Boston; Roger Williams had another ideal of
+church and state than that which had come to the Puritans; and Sir Richard
+Saltonstall would not submit himself to the aristocratic methods of the
+Boston preachers.
+
+These are but a few of the many indications of the individualistic spirit
+that marked the first years of the Puritan colonies. It was a part of the
+Protestant inheritance, and was inherent in the very nature of
+Protestantism itself. Although the Puritans had only in part, and with
+faltering steps, come to the acceptance of the individualistic and rational
+spirit in religion, yet they were on the way to it, however long they might
+be hindered by an autocratic temper. In fact, the Puritans throughout the
+seventeenth century in New England were trying at one and the same time to
+use reason and yet to cling to authority, to accept the Protestant ideal
+and yet to employ the Catholic methods in state and church. In being
+Protestants, they were committed to the central motive of individualism;
+but they never consistently turned away from that conception of the church
+which is autocratic and authoritative.
+
+[Sidenote: The Church of Authority and the Church of Freedom.]
+
+Looked at from the modern sociological point of view, there are two types
+of church, the one socialistic or institutional and the other
+individualistic, the one making the corporate power of the church the
+source of spiritual life, the other making the personal insight of the
+individual man the fountain of religious truth. Such a church as that of
+Rome may be properly called socialistic because of its corporate nature,
+because it maintains that revelation is to, and by means of, an
+institution, an organic religious body.[1]
+
+Catholicism, whether of Rome, Greece, or England, makes the church as a
+great religious corporation the organ of religious expression. Such a
+corporation is the source of authority, the test of truth, the creator of
+spiritual ideals. On the other hand, such a church as the Protestant may be
+called individualistic because it makes the individual the channel of
+revelation. It emphasizes personality as of supreme worth, and it makes
+religious institutions of little value in comparison.
+
+Practically, the difference between the socialistic and the individualistic
+church is as wide as it is theoretically. In all Catholic churches the
+child is born into the church, with the right to full acceptance into it by
+methods of tuition and ritual, whatever his individual qualities or
+capacities. In all distinctly Protestant churches, membership must be
+sought by individual preference or supernatural process.[2] The way to it
+is through individual profession of its creed or inward miraculous
+transformation of character by the profoundest of personal experiences. In
+all socialistic or Catholic churches--whether heathen, ethnic, or
+Christian--young people are admitted to membership after a definite period
+of training and an initiation by means of an impressive ritual. In all
+Protestant churches, initiation takes place as the result of personal
+experiences and mature convictions, and is therefore usually deferred until
+adult life has been reached.
+
+When we bring out thus distinctly the ideals and methods of the two
+churches, we are able to understand that the Puritans were theoretically
+Protestants, but that they practically used the methods of the Catholics.
+This will be seen more clearly when we take the individualistic tendencies
+of the Puritans into distinct recognition, and place them in contrast with
+their socialistic practices. The Puritan churches were thoroughly
+individualistic in their admission of members, none being accepted into
+full membership but those who had been converted by means of a personal
+experience. In theory every male church member was a priest and king,
+authorized to interpret spiritual truth and to exercise political
+authority. Therefore, in 1631 the General Court of Massachusetts (being the
+legislative body) established the rule that only church members should
+exercise the right of suffrage. This law was continued on the statute books
+until 1664, and was accepted in practice until 1691.
+
+Because the individual Christian was accounted a priest, however humble in
+learning or social position, he had the right to join with others in
+ordaining and setting apart to the ministry of God the man who was to lead
+the church as its teacher or pastor, though this practice was abandoned as
+the state-church idea developed, as it did in New England by a process of
+reaction. Every man could read the Bible for himself, and give it such
+meaning as his own conscience and reason dictated. By virtue of his
+Christian experience he had the personal right to find in it his own creed
+and the law of his own conduct. It was not only his right to do this, but
+it was also his duty. Revivalism was therefore the distinct outgrowth of
+Puritanism, the expression of its individualistic spirit. It was the human
+means of bringing the individual soul within reach of the supernatural
+power of God, and of facilitating that choice of the Holy Spirit by which
+one was selected for this change rather than another. The means were
+social, it is true; but the end reached was absolutely individual, as an
+experience and as a result attained. What confirmation was to the Catholic,
+that was conversion to the Puritan.
+
+The Puritans in New England, however, inherited the older socialism to so
+large an extent that they proceeded to establish what was a state church in
+method, if not in theory. Though they began with the idea that the churches
+were to be supported by voluntary contributions (and always continued that
+method in Boston), yet in a few years they resorted to taxation for their
+maintenance, and enacted stringent laws compelling attendance upon them by
+every resident of a town, whatever his beliefs or his personal interests.
+They forbade the utterance of opinions not approved by the authorities, and
+made use of fines, imprisonment, and death in support of arbitrary laws
+enacted for this purpose. These methods were the same as those used by the
+older socialistic and state churches to compel acceptance of their
+teachings and practices. They were based on the idea of the corporate
+nature of the church, and its right to control the individual in the name
+of the social whole.
+
+The harshness of the Puritan methods was the result of this attempt to
+maintain a new idea in harmony with an old practice. The Baptists were
+consistently individualists in rejecting infant baptism, accepting
+conversion as essential to church membership, maintaining freedom of
+conscience, and practising toleration as a fundamental social law. The
+Puritans inconsistently combined conversion and infant baptism,--the
+Protestant right of private judgment with the Catholic methods of the state
+church,--a democratic theory of popular suffrage with a most aristocratic
+limitation of that suffrage to church members. As late as 1674 only 2,527
+men in all had been admitted to the exercise of the franchise in
+Massachusetts. One-sixth or one-eighth of the men were voters, the rest
+were disfranchised. The church and the state were controlled by this small
+minority in a community that was theoretically democratic, both in religion
+and politics.
+
+It is not surprising that there began to be mutterings against such
+restrictions. It shows the strength of character in the Puritan communities
+of Massachusetts and New Haven that a large majority of the men submitted
+as long as they did to conditions thoroughly undemocratic. As a political
+measure, when the grumblings became so loud as to be no longer ignored,
+what is called the half-way covenant was adopted, by means of which a
+semi-membership in the churches could be secured, that gave the right of
+suffrage, but permitted no action within the church itself.[3] Many
+writers on this period fail to understand the significance of the half-way
+covenant; for they attribute to that legislation the disintegrating results
+that followed. They forget that these half-members were not admitted to any
+part in church affairs; and they refuse to see that the methods employed by
+the Puritans were, because of their exclusiveness, of necessity
+demoralizing. In fact, the half-way covenant was a result of the
+disintegration that had already taken place as the issue of an attempted
+compromise between the institutional and the individualistic theories of
+church government.
+
+[Sidenote: Seventeenth-century Liberals.]
+
+By arbitrary methods the Puritans succeeded in controlling church and state
+until 1688, when the interference of the English authorities compelled them
+to practise toleration and to widen the suffrage. The words of Sir Richard
+Saltonstall to John Cotton and John Wilson show clearly that these methods
+were not accepted by all, and even Saltonstall returned to England to
+escape the restrictions he condemned. "It doth not a little grieve my
+spirit to hear what sad things are daily reported of your tyranny and
+persecutions in New England," he wrote, "as that you fine, whip, and
+imprison men for their consciences. First you compel such to come into your
+assemblies as you know will not join with you in your worship, and when
+they show their dislike thereof or witness against it, then you stir up
+your magistrates to punish them for such (as you conceive) their public
+affronts. Truly, friends, this your practice of compelling any in matters
+of worship to do that whereof they are not persuaded is to make them sin,
+and many are made hypocrites thereby, conforming in their outward man for
+fear of punishment. We pray for you and wish you prosperity in every way,
+hoped that the Lord would have given you so much light and love there, that
+you might have been eyes to God's people here, and not to practise those
+courses in wilderness which you went so far to prevent. These rigid ways
+have laid you very low in the hearts of the saints."[4]
+
+Another man who withdrew to England from the narrow spirit of the Puritans
+was William Pynchon, of Springfield, one of the best trained and ablest of
+the early settlers of Massachusetts. In 1650 he published a book on the
+Meritorious Price of our Redemption, in which he denied that Christ was
+subject to the wrath of God or suffered torments in hell for the redemption
+of men or paid the penalty for all human sins; but such teachings were too
+liberal and modern for the leaders in church and state.[5] What is now
+orthodox, that Christ's sacrifice was voluntary, was then heretical and
+forbidden.
+
+If during the first half-century of New England no liberalism found
+definite utterance, it was because of its repression. It was in the air,
+even then, and it would have found expression, had there been opportunity
+or invitation. There were other men than Williams, Saltonstall, Pynchon,
+and Henry Vane, who believed in toleration, liberty of conscience, and a
+rational interpretation of religion. In a limited way such men were Henry
+Dunster and Charles Chauncy, the first two presidents of Harvard College,
+who both rejected infant baptism because it was not consistent with a
+converted church membership. It was a small thing to protest against, and
+to suffer for as Dunster suffered; but the principle was great for which he
+contended, the principle of individual conviction in religion.
+
+The better spirit of the Puritans appears in such a saying as that of Sir
+Henry Vane, the second governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, that "all
+magistrates are to fear or forbear intermeddling with giving rule or
+imposing their own beliefs in religious matters."[6] To a similar purport
+was the saying of Thomas Hooker, the founder of Connecticut, that "the
+foundation of authority is laid in the free consent of the people."[7] In
+the writings of John Robinson, the Pilgrim leader, a like greatness of
+purpose and thought appears, as where he says that "the meanest man's
+reason, specially in matter of faith and obedience to God, is to be
+preferred before all authority of all men."[8] Robinson was a very strict
+Calvinist in doctrine; but he was tolerant in large degree, and thoroughly
+convinced of the worth of liberty of conscience. His liberality comes out
+in such words as these: "The custom of the church is but the custom of men;
+the sentence of the fathers but the opinions of men; the determinations of
+councils but the judgments of men."[9] How strong a believer in individual
+reason he was appears in this statement: "God, who hath made two great
+lights for the bodily eye, hath also made two lights for the eye of the
+mind; the one the Scriptures for her supernatural light, and the other
+reason for her natural light. And, indeed, only these two are a man's own,
+and so is not the authority of other men. The Scriptures are as well mine
+as any other man's, and so is reason as far as I can attain to it."[10]
+When he says that "the credit commending a testimony to others cannot be
+greater than is the authority in itself of him that gives it nor his
+authority greater than his person,"[11] he puts an end to all arbitrary
+authority of priest and church.
+
+It will be seen from these quotations that the spirit of liberality existed
+even in the very beginnings of New England, and in the convictions of the
+men who were its chief prophets and leaders. It was hidden away for a time,
+it may be, though it never ceased to find utterance in some form. The
+breadth of the underlying spirit finds expression in the compacts by which
+local churches united their members. The liberality was incipient, a
+promise of the future rather than a realization in the present.
+
+The earliest churches of New England were not organized with a creed, but
+with a covenant. Occasionally there was a confession of faith or a creedal
+statement; but it was regarded as quite unnecessary because it was implied
+in the general acceptance of the Calvinistic doctrines, and the use of the
+Cambridge platform or other similar document. The covenant of a church
+could not be a statement of beliefs, because it was a vow between Christ
+and his church, and a pledge of the individual members of the church with
+relation to each other. The creed was implied, but it was not expressed;
+and, although all the churches were Calvinist at first, the nature of the
+covenant was such that, when men grew liberal, there was no written creedal
+test by which they could be held to the old beliefs. When Calvinism was
+outgrown, it could be slowly and silently discarded, both by individual
+members of a church and by the church itself, because it was not explicitly
+contained in the covenant. The creed was rejected, but the covenant was
+retained.
+
+As soon as authority was withdrawn from the Puritan leaders by the English
+crown, the spirit of liberty began to show itself in many directions. In a
+sermon preached in 1691, Samuel Willard, the minister of the Old South
+Church in Boston, and afterwards president of Harvard College, gave
+utterance to what was stirring in many minds at that time. He said that God
+"hath nowhere by any general indulgence given away this liberty of his to
+any other authority in the world to have dominion over the consciences of
+men or to give rules of worship, but hath, on the other hand, strongly
+prohibited it and severely threatened any that shall presume to do it." He
+earnestly asserted that no authority is to be accepted but that of the
+Bible, and that is to be free for each person's individual interpretation.
+"Hath there not," Willard questions, "been too much of a pinning our faith
+on the credit or practice of others, attended on with a woful neglect to
+know what is the mind of Christ?" Here was a spirit that not many years
+later was showing itself in the liberal movement that grew into
+Unitarianism. The effort to free the consciences of men, and to bring all
+appeals to the Bible and to Christ, was what gave significance to the
+liberal movement of the next century.
+
+[Sidenote: Growth of Liberty in Church Methods.]
+
+There also began a movement to bring church and state into harmonious
+relations with each other, and to overcome the inconsistency of being
+individualist and socialist at the same moment. The theory of conversion
+being retained, it was proposed to make the ordinances of religion free to
+all, in order that they might bring about the supernatural change that was
+desired. This is the real significance of the position taken by Solomon
+Stoddard, of Northampton, who taught that the Lord's Supper is a converting
+ordinance, and who in practice did not ask for a supernatural regeneration
+as preparatory to a limited church membership, though he regarded this as
+essential to full admission. The half-way covenant had been adopted before
+Mr. Stoddard became the pastor of the church; but soon after his settlement
+this limited form of admission was more clearly defined, and he admitted
+persons into what he described as a "state of education."[12] This "large
+congregationalism," as it was called, was in time accepted as meaning that
+those who have faith enough to justify the baptism of their children have
+enough to admit them to full communion in the church. Mr. Stoddard appealed
+to the English practice in his defence of the broader principle which he
+adopted. He also vindicated his position by reference to the practices of
+the leading Protestant countries in Europe. His methods, as outlined and
+interpreted in his Appeal to the Learned,[13] were based more or less
+explicitly on the corporate idea of the church.
+
+Although Stoddard was a strict Calvinist, there can be no doubt that his
+method of open communion slowly led to theological modifications. Not only
+did it have a tendency to bring the state and church into closer relations
+with each other, by making the membership in the two more nearly the same,
+but it led the way to the acceptance of the doctrine of moral ability, and
+therefore to a modification of Calvinism. If it was a practical rather than
+a theological reason that caused Stoddard to adopt open communion, it
+almost inevitably led to Arminianism, because it implied, as he presented
+its conditions, that man is able of his own free will to accept the terms
+of salvation which Calvinism had confined to the operation of the
+sovereignty of God alone.
+
+Another way in which the spirit of the time was showing itself may be seen
+in the fact that the parish, towards the end of the seventeenth century, on
+more than one occasion refused to the church the selection of the minister;
+and church and parish met together for that purpose. This was the case in
+the first church of Salem in 1672, and at Dedham in 1685. So long as church
+members only were given the right of suffrage, the selection of the
+minister was wholly in their hands. As soon as the suffrage was extended,
+there was a movement to include all tax-payers amongst those who could
+exercise this choice. In 1666 such a proposition was discussed in
+Connecticut, and not long after it became the law. In 1692 the
+Massachusetts laws gave the church the right to select the minister, but
+permitted the parish to concur in or to reject such choice. During the next
+century there was a growing tendency to enlarge the privileges of the
+parish, and to make that the controlling factor in calling the minister and
+in all that pertained to the outward life of the church and congregation.
+The result will be seen more and more in the influence of the parish in the
+selection of liberal men for the pulpit.
+
+A notable instance of the more liberal tendencies is seen in the formation
+of the Brattle Street Church of Boston in 1699. Although this church
+accepted the Westminster Confession of Faith and adopted the practices
+common to the New England churches at this period, it insisted upon the
+reading of the Bible without comment as a part of the church service. The
+relation of religious experiences as preparatory to admission to the church
+was discarded, all were admitted to communion who were approved by the
+pastor, and women were permitted to take part in voting on all church
+questions. These and other innovations occasioned much discussion; and a
+controversy ensued between the pastor Benjamin Colman and Increase
+Mather.[14] The Salem pastors, Rev. John Higginson and Rev. Nicholas Noyes,
+addressed a letter to the Brattle Street congregation, in which they
+criticised the church because it did not consult with other churches in its
+formation, because it did not make a public profession of repentance on
+behalf of its members, because baptism was administered on less stringent
+terms than was customary and too lax admission was given to the sacraments,
+and because the admission of females to full church activity had a direct
+tendency "to subvert the order and liberty of the churches." Though the
+Brattle Street Church was for a time severely criticised, it soon came into
+intimate relations with the other churches of Boston, and it ceased to
+appear as in any way peculiar. That it was organized on a broader basis of
+membership indicates very clearly that the old methods were not
+satisfactory to all the people.[15]
+
+[Sidenote: A Puritan Rationalist.]
+
+The influence of similar ideas is seen in the books of John Wise, of
+Ipswich, whose Churches' Quarrel Espoused was published in 1710, and his
+Vindication of the Government of the New England Churches in 1717. His
+first book was in answer to the proposition of a number of the ministers of
+Boston to bring the churches under the control of associations. By this
+remonstrance the plan was defeated, and the independence of the local
+church fully established. In republishing his book, he added the
+Vindication, in order to give his ideas a more systematic expression. The
+Vindication is the most thoroughly modern book published in America during
+the eighteenth century. It has a literary directness and power remarkable
+for the time. Wise gives no quotations indicating that he had read the
+great liberal writers of England, but he was familiar with Plato and
+Cicero.
+
+In his first book he speaks of "the natural freedom of human beings,"[16]
+and says that "right reason is a ray of divine wisdom enstamped upon human
+nature."[17] Again, he says that "right reason, that great oracle in human
+affairs, is the soul of man so formed and endowed by creation with a
+certain sagacity or acumen whereby man's intellect is enabled to take up
+the true idea or perception of things agreeable with and according to their
+natures."[18] In such utterances as these Wise was putting himself into the
+company of the most liberal minds of England in his day, though he may not
+have read one of them. The considerations that were influencing Milton,
+Chillingworth, and Jeremy Taylor, in favor of toleration and a broad
+inclusiveness of spirit, evidently were having their effect upon this New
+England pastor.
+
+It is not to be assumed that John Wise was a rationalist in the modern
+sense; but he gave to the use of reason a significance that is surprising
+and refreshing, coming from the time and circumstances of his writing. In
+his Vindication we find him accepting reason and revelation as of equal
+validity. He appeals to the "dictates of right reason"[19] and the "common
+reason of mankind"[20] with quite as much confidence as to the Bible. He
+says that all questions of government, religious as well as political, are
+to be brought to "the assizes of man's own intellectual powers, reason, and
+conscience."[21] He assumes that God has created man capable of obeying his
+will and living in conformity with his law; for he says that, "if God did
+not highly estimate man as a creature exalted by his reason, liberty, and
+nobleness of nature, he would not caress him as he does in order to his
+submission."[22]
+
+Wise says that the characteristic of man which is of greatest importance is
+that he is "most properly the subject of the law of nature."[23] He uses
+this expression frequently and in a thoroughly modern sense.
+
+The second great characteristic of man, according to Wise, "is an original
+liberty enstamped upon his rational nature."[24] He indicates that he is
+not inclined to discuss the merely theological problem of man's relations
+to God, but, considered physically, man is at the head of creation, "and as
+such is a creature of a very noble character." [24] All the lower world is
+subject to his command, "and his liberty under the conduct of right reason
+is equal with his trust." [24] "He that intrudes upon this liberty violates
+the law of nature." [24] The effect of such liberty is not to lead man into
+license, but to make him the rational master of his own conduct. Every man
+is therefore at liberty "to judge for himself what shall be most for his
+behoof, happiness, and well-being."[25]
+
+The third great characteristic of man is found in "an equality amongst
+men," [25] which is to be respected and vindicated by governments that are
+just and humane. "By a natural right," he says, "all men are born free;
+and, nature having set all men upon a level and made them equals, no
+servitude or subjection can be conceived without inequality."[26] Again he
+says that it is "a fundamental principle relating to government that, under
+God, all power is originally in the people."[27] This is true of the church
+as well as of the state, and Wise says the Reformation was a cheat and a
+schism and a notorious rebellion if the people are not the source of power
+in the church.
+
+Two other ideas presented by this leader show his modernness and his
+originality. He says that "the happiness of the people is the object of all
+government,"[28] and that the state should seek to promote "the peculiar
+good and benefit of the whole, and every particular member, fairly and
+sincerely."[29] "The end of all good government," he assures his readers,
+"is to cultivate humanity, and promote the happiness of all, and the good
+of every man in all his rights, his life, liberty, estate, and honor,
+without injury or abuse done to any." [29] That government will seek the
+good of all is likely to be the case, because man has it as a fundamental
+law of his nature that he "maintain a sociableness with others."[30] "From
+the principles of sociableness it follows as a fundamental law of nature
+that man is not so wedded to his own interest but that he can make the
+common good the mark of his aim, and hence he becomes capacitated to enter
+into a civil state by the law of nature."[31] This attraction of man to his
+kind enables him to yield so much of his freedom as is necessary to make
+the state an efficient social power, "in which covenant is included that
+submission and union of wills by which a state may be conceived to be but
+one person."[32] This thoroughly modern idea of the social body, as being
+analogous in its nature to the individual man, is nobly expressed by Wise,
+who says that "a civil state is a compound moral person, whose will is the
+will of all, to the end it may use and apply the strength and riches of
+private persons toward maintaining the common peace, security, and
+well-being of all, which may be conceived as though the whole state was now
+become but one man."[33]
+
+It is not surprising that the writings of John Wise had no immediate effect
+upon the theological thinking of the time, but they must have had their
+influence. Just before the opening of the Revolution they were republished
+because of their vindication of the spirit of human liberty and democracy.
+What Wise wrote to promote was congregational independence, and this may
+have been the reason why his theological attitude was never called in
+question. It is true enough that he questioned none of the Calvinistic
+doctrines in his books; but his political views were certain to disturb the
+old beliefs, and to give incentives to free discussion in religion.
+
+[Sidenote: Harvard College.]
+
+The centre of the liberalizing tendencies of the last years of the
+seventeenth century was Harvard College. That institution was organized on
+a basis as broad as that of the early church covenants, with no creed or
+doctrinal requirements. The original seal bore the motto Veritas; but, as
+the state-church idea grew, this motto was succeeded by In Christi gloriam,
+and then by Christo et Ecclesiae, though neither of these later mottoes was
+authoritatively adopted. The early charters were thoroughly liberal in
+spirit and intent, so much so as to be fully in harmony with the present
+attitude of the university.[34] Under the Puritanic development, however,
+this liberality was discarded, only to be restored in 1691, when William
+and Mary gave to Massachusetts a new and broader charter. From that time a
+new life entered into the college, that put it uncompromisingly on the
+liberal side a century later. Even under the rule of Increase Mather,
+seconded by the influence of his son Cotton, a broader spirit declared
+itself in the culture imparted and in the method of free inquiry.[35]
+
+Samuel Willard, the successor to Increase Mather in the presidency, was of
+the liberal party in his breadth of mind and in his sound judgment. He was
+followed in 1708 by John Leverett, one of the founders of the Brattle
+Street Church, a man in whom the liberal spirit became a controlling motive
+in his management of the college.[36] It is not strange that the men who
+had been shut out from the suffrage and from active participation in the
+management of the churches, should now come forward to claim their rights,
+and to make their influence felt in college, church, and state. It was the
+distinct beginning of the liberal movement in New England, the time from
+which Unitarianism really took its origin.
+
+[1] Kuno Francke, Social Forces in German Literature, 105. "No mediaeval
+    man ever thought of himself as a perfectly independent being founded
+    only on himself, or without a most direct and definite relation to
+    some larger organism, be it empire, church, city, or guild. No
+    mediaeval man ever doubted that the institutions within which he lived
+    were divinely established ordinances, far superior and quite
+    inaccessible to his own individual reason and judgment. No mediaeval
+    man would ever have admitted that he conceived nature to be other than
+    the creation of an extramundane God, destined to glorify its creator
+    and to please the eye of man. It was reserved for the eighteenth
+    century to draw the last consequences of individualism; to see in man,
+    in each individual man, an independent and complete entity; to derive
+    the origin of state, church, and society from the spontaneous action
+    of these independent individuals; and to consider nature as a system
+    of forces sufficient unto themselves. When we speak of individualism
+    in the declining centuries of the Middle Ages, we mean by it that
+    these centuries initiated the movement which the eighteenth century
+    brought to a climax."
+
+[2] Williston Walker, the Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism, 246.
+    "From the first the fathers of New England insisted that the children
+    of church members were themselves members, and as such were justly
+    entitled to those church privileges which were adapted to their state
+    of Christian development, of which the chief were baptism and the
+    watchful discipline of the church. They did not enter the church by
+    baptism; they were entitled to baptism because they were already
+    members of the church. Here then was an inconsistency in the
+    application of the Congregational theory of the constitution of a
+    church. While affirming that a proper church consisted only of those
+    possessed of personal Christian character, the fathers admitted to
+    membership, in some degree at least, those who had no claim but
+    Christian parentage." That is, in theory they were Protestants, but in
+    practice they were Catholics.
+
+[3] The ecclesiastical historians say that the half-way covenant had no
+    effect on suffrage. Dexter, Congregationalism as Seen in its
+    Literature, 468, says: "I am aware of no proof that half-way covenant
+    members of the church by that relation did acquire any further
+    privileges in the state." Williston Walker, New Englander, cclxiii.,
+    93, February, 1892, takes ground that "added political privilege was
+    no consequence of the dispute." On the other hand, the secular
+    historians as strongly assert that the suffrage was widened. John
+    Fiske, Beginnings of New England, 250, says the half-way covenant
+    "entitled to the exercise of political rights those who were
+    unqualified for participation in the Lord's Supper." Alexander
+    Johnston, Connecticut, 227, says "it really gave every baptized person
+    voice in church government." J.A. Doyle, The Puritan Colonies, II.,
+    98, asserts that "it broke down the hard barrier which fenced in
+    political privileges." The true explanation is given by George H.
+    Haynes, Representation and Suffrage in Massachusetts, 1620-1691, 54,
+    published in Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and
+    Political Science, Vol. XII., Nos. VIII. and IX. Haynes says that the
+    half-way covenant, as first formulated in 1657, "virtually recognized
+    a partial church-membership in persons who had made no formal
+    profession and subscribed to no creed. In 1662 the same opinion was
+    reaffirmed by the clergy, and the General Court ordered the result of
+    the Synod to be printed and 'commended the same unto the consideration
+    of all the churches and people of this jurisdiction.' Here ended
+    legislative action on the matter. This was no statutory change of the
+    basis of the franchise; but, as individual churches gradually adopted
+    more liberal conditions of admission and were therein sanctioned by
+    the General Court, it resulted that the operation of the religious
+    test became less odious and the suffrage was not a little broadened."
+
+[4] Henry Bond, Early Settlers of Watertown, II. 916; Convers Francis,
+    Historical Sketch of Watertown, 135.
+
+[5] Mason A. Green, History of Springfield, 113; E.H. Byington, The
+    Puritan in England and New England, 185.
+
+[6] A Healing Question.
+
+[7] Alexander Johnston, Connecticut: A Study of a Commonwealth-Democracy,
+    72, Hooker's sermon preparatory to forming a government.
+
+[8] The Works of John Robinson, American edition of 1851, I., 53.
+
+[9] Ibid., 47.
+
+[10] Ibid., 54.
+
+[11] Ibid., 56.
+
+[12] J.R. Trumbull, History of Northampton, I. 213.
+
+[13] An Appeal to the Learned, being a vindication of the right of visible
+     saints to the Lord's Supper, though they be destitute of a saving work
+     of God's Spirit in their hearts, Boston, 1709. See also his Doctrine
+     of Instituted Churches, Boston, 1700.
+
+[14] Dwight, Life of Edwards, 300.
+
+[15] S.K. Lothrop, History of Brattle Street Church, 7-40; E. Turrell, Life
+    of Benjamin Colman, D.D., 96, 125, 178, 180.
+
+[16] The Churches' Quarrel Espoused, edition of 1860, 140.
+
+[17] Ibid., 143.
+
+[18] Ibid., 145
+
+[19] The Churches' Quarrel Espoused, edition of 1860, 32.
+
+[20] Ibid., 58.
+
+[21] Ibid., 72.
+
+[22] Ibid., 65.
+
+[23] Ibid., 30.
+
+[24] Ibid., 33.
+
+[25] The Churches' Quarrel Espoused, edition of 1860, 34.
+
+[26] Ibid., 37.
+
+[27] Ibid., 64.
+
+[28] Ibid., 54.
+
+[29] Ibid., 55.
+
+[30] Ibid., 32.
+
+[31] The Churches' Quarrel Espoused, edition of 1860, 32.
+
+[32] Ibid., 39.
+
+[33] Ibid., 40.
+
+[34] Josiah Quincy, History of Harvard University, i. 44-54.
+
+[35] Ibid., 65, 200.
+
+[36] Josiah Quincy, in the seventh chapter of his History, gives a detailed
+     account of this movement. It is also dealt with by Brooks Adams in his
+     chapter on the founding of the Brattle Street Church, in his
+     Emancipation of Massachusetts, though he gives it a somewhat
+     exaggerated and biassed importance. Most of the facts appear in
+     Lothrop's History of the Brattle Street Church.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+
+THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY IN THE CHURCHES.
+
+From the moment when the Puritan control of the church and state in New
+England was so far weakened as to permit of free intellectual and religious
+activity the democratic spirit began to manifest itself. The old regime had
+so fixed itself upon the people that the progress was slow, but none the
+less it was steady and sure. So far as the new spirit influenced doctrines,
+it was called Arminianism, the technical theological name for democracy in
+religion at this time.
+
+[Sidenote: Arminianism.]
+
+Arminianism is a dead issue at the present day, for the Calvinists have
+accepted all that it taught when the name first came into vogue. Every kind
+of reaction from Calvinism in the New England of the first half of the
+eighteenth century took this designation, however; and to the Calvinists it
+was a word of disapproval and contempt. Toleration, free inquiry, the use
+of reason, democratic methods in church and state, were all named by this
+condemning word. Vices, social depravities, love of freedom and the world,
+assertion of personal independence, had the same designation. It is now
+difficult to understand how bitter was the feeling thus produced, how keen
+the hurt that was given the men who tried to defend themselves and their
+beliefs from this odium.
+
+What the word "Arminian" legitimately meant, then, is what we now mean by
+liberalism. Primarily theological and doctrinal, it meant much more than
+the rejection of the doctrine of decrees and the autocratic sovereignty of
+God or the acceptance of the freedom of the will and the spiritual capacity
+of man. First of all, it was faith in man; and then it was the assertion of
+human liberty and equality. In a theological sense it did not have so wide
+a purport, but in a practical and popular sense it grew into these
+meanings.
+
+In order fully to comprehend what Arminianism was in the eighteenth
+century, the student must remember that it was the theological expression
+of the democratic spirit, as Calvinism was of the autocratic. The doctrine
+of the sovereignty of God is but the intellectual reflection of kingship
+and the belief that the king can do no evil. The doctrine of decrees, as
+taught by the Calvinist, was the spiritual side of the assertion of the
+divine right of kings. On the other hand, when the people claim the right
+to rule, they modify their theology into Arminianism. From an age of the
+absolute rule of the king comes the doctrine of human depravity; and with
+the establishment of democracy appears the doctrine of man's moral
+capacity.
+
+[Sidenote: The Growth of Arminianism.]
+
+As early as 1730 Arminianism had come to have an influence sufficient to
+secure its condemnation and to awaken the fears of the stricter Calvinists.
+Jonathan Edwards said of the year 1734 that "about this time began the
+great noise that was in this part of the country about Arminianism."[1] At
+Northampton the leader of the opposition to Jonathan Edwards was an open
+Arminian, a grandson of Solomon Stoddard, and a cousin of Edwards. He was a
+young man of talent and education, and well read in theology. In a letter
+written in 1750, Edwards said, "There seems to be the utmost danger that
+the younger generation will be carried away with Arminianism as with a
+flood." In another letter of the same year he said that "Arminianism and
+Pelagianism[2] have made a strange progress within a few years."[3] In
+his farewell sermon, Edwards spoke of the prevalence of Arminianism when he
+settled in Northampton, and of its rapid increase in the succeeding years.
+He said that Arminian views were creeping into almost all parts of the
+land, and that they were making a progress unknown before.[4] In a letter
+of 1752 Edwards said that the principles of John Taylor, of Norwich, one of
+the early English Unitarians, were gaining many converts in the colonies.
+Taylor's works were made use of by Solomon Williams in his reply to Edwards
+on the qualifications necessary to communion.[5]
+
+It was owing to the rapid growth of Arminianism that Edwards undertook his
+work on free will. In the preface to that work he said that "the term
+Calvinistic is, in these days, among most, a term of greater reproach than
+the term Arminian." That Edwards exaggerated the extent of this defection
+from Calvinism is probable, and yet it is very plain that it was this more
+liberal attitude of the Northampton church which caused his dismissal. What
+Stoddard had taught and practised was as yet powerful there, and Edwards's
+opposition to his grandfather's teachings undoubtedly led to the failure of
+his local work.
+
+[Sidenote: Robert Breck.]
+
+The council which dismissed Edwards from Northampton decided against him by
+a majority of one; and that one vote may have been cast by Robert Breck, of
+Springfield. If this were the case, there was something of poetic justice
+in it; for only a few years earlier Edwards had used his influence against
+the settlement of Breck because the latter was an Arminian. In 1734 a
+fierce church quarrel took place in Springfield, that involved many of the
+ministers of Massachusetts and Connecticut, invoked the aid of the county
+court, and was finally settled by the legislature of Massachusetts, when
+Mr. Breck was ordained.[6] He was charged with denying the authenticity of
+parts of the Bible, with discarding the necessity of Christ's satisfaction
+to divine justice for sin, with maintaining that the heathen who live up to
+the light of nature would be saved, and that the contrary doctrine was
+harsh. Breck refused to admit that he held these opinions, as thus stated;
+but he was regarded by many as an Arminian and a heretic. It was said of him
+that he would read any book, orthodox or otherwise, that would clear up a
+subject. That he departed to any considerable extent from the generally
+accepted faith of the time there is no evidence, but he was probably what
+was often called "a moderate Calvinist." He did not favor the methods of
+Whitefield, and he thoroughly distrusted the revival introduced by him.
+Soon after Breck's settlement the Springfield church followed the Brattle
+Street Church of Boston in discarding the relation of religious experiences
+as preliminary to admission to the church. It voted that it "did not look
+upon the making a relation to be a necessary term of communion."[7] At the
+very time that Edwards was preaching of the awful fate of sinners in the
+hands of an angry God, Breck was teaching that God is good and loving, and
+that his salvation is freely open to all who may wish for it. It has been
+truly said of these two men that "one had the heart and the other the
+intellect of theology." With all his logic and power of thought and
+marvellous spiritual insight, Edwards failed at Northampton because of
+conditions beyond the control of his strenuous will. Robert Breck gained
+year by year in his personal influence in Springfield, his cheerful and
+progressive teaching made a deep impression on the community, and before he
+died he saw a great change for the better in the people for whom he
+diligently labored. Perhaps we could not have a plainer indication of the
+change that was going on than is found in the experiences of these two
+men.[8]
+
+When Whitefield visited Harvard College in 1740, he was received in a most
+friendly manner; yet he afterwards criticised the teaching there on the
+ground that it was not sufficiently devout and earnest, and that the pupils
+were not examined as to their religious experiences.[9] These charges were
+denied by the president and tutors, and he was not again welcomed to the
+college.
+
+That there was a substantial basis for some of Whitefield's criticisms of
+Harvard there can be no doubt. In 1737, when Edward Holyoke was proposed as
+a candidate for the presidency, he met with a strong opposition from the
+strict Calvinists. After the opposition had spent itself, he was elected
+unanimously; and this act was received with marked approval by the General
+Court, from which body his maintenance was obtained. President Quincy says
+of President Holyoke that his religious principles coincided with the
+mildness and catholicity which characterized the government of the college.
+This evidently refers to the growing liberality of the college, and its
+unwillingness to lend its aid to extreme theological opinions. That
+moderateness of temper and that attitude of toleration which characterized
+the leading men in England had shown themselves at Cambridge, and with a
+strength that could not be overcome. "In Boston and its vicinity and along
+the seaboard of Massachusetts, clergymen of great talent and religious
+zeal," says President Quincy, "openly avowed doctrines which were variously
+denounced by the Calvinistic party as Arminianism, Arianism, Pelagianism,
+Socinianism, and Deism. The most eminent of these clergymen were alumni of
+Harvard, active friends and advocates of the institution, and in habits of
+intimacy and professional intercourse with its government. Their religious
+views, indeed, received no public countenance from the college; but
+circumstances gave color for reports, which were assiduously circulated
+throughout New England, that the influences of the institution were not
+unfavorable to the extension of such doctrines."[10]
+
+At the commencement of 1737 candidates for degrees proposed to prove that
+the doctrine of the Trinity was not contained in the Old Testament, that
+creation did not exist from eternity, and that religion is not mysterious
+in its nature. Much alarm was caused to the conservative party by the
+negative form given these questions, which, it was said, "had the plain
+face of Arianism." This criticism the faculty tried to quiet, but their
+sympathies were evidently on the side of the graduates.[11] In 1738, when a
+professor of mathematics was chosen, it was proposed to examine him as to
+"his principles of religion"; but, after a long debate, this proposition
+was rejected. After these and other efforts to control the religious
+position of the college the strict Calvinists for the time withdrew their
+efforts and concentrated them upon Yale College, in which institution the
+faculty were now required for the first time to accept the Assembly's
+Catechism and Confession of Faith.
+
+When the legislature of Connecticut, during the great awakening, passed a
+law prohibiting ministers from preaching as itinerants, several of the
+members of the Senior Class subscribed the money necessary for the
+publication of an edition of Locke's essay On Toleration. When this was
+known to the faculty, they forbade the publication; and all the students
+apologized but one, who learned a few days before commencement that his
+name was to be dropped from the roll of graduates. He went to the faculty
+with the statement that he was of age, that he possessed ample means, and
+that he would carry his case to a hearing before the crown in England. In a
+few days he was quietly informed that he would be permitted to graduate.
+This is but a straw, and yet it shows clearly enough the direction of the
+current at this time. A demand for toleration was made because it was felt
+that there was a need for it.
+
+[Sidenote: Books Read by Liberal Men.]
+
+The names of no less than thirty-three ministers have been given who,
+during the period from 1730 to 1750, did not teach the Calvinistic
+doctrines in their fulness, and who had adopted more or less distinctly
+some form of Arminianism or Arianism. These men were among the best known,
+most successful, and most scholarly men in Eastern Massachusetts, though
+they were not wholly confined to that neighborhood. We find here and there
+some hint of the books these men read; and in that way we not only
+ascertain the cause of their departure from Calvinism, but we also obtain
+some clew to the nature of their opinions. Among the charges brought by
+Whitefield against Harvard in 1740 was that "Tillotson and Clarke are read
+instead of Shepard and Stoddard, and such like evangelical writers."[12]
+Dr. Wigglesworth, the divinity professor at Harvard, said that Tillotson
+had not been taken out of the college library in nine years, and Clarke not
+in two; and he gave a long list of evangelical writers who were frequently
+read. In spite of this disclaimer, however, it is evident that the methods
+of the rationalistic writers were coming into vogue at Harvard, and that
+even Dr. Wigglesworth did not teach theology in the manner of the author of
+the Day of Doom.
+
+Writing in 1759, Dr. Joseph Bellamy, one of the chief followers and
+expositors of the teachings of Jonathan Edwards, said that the teachings of
+the liberal men in England had crossed the Atlantic; "and too many in our
+churches, and even among our ministers, have fallen in with them. Books
+containing them have been imported; and the demand for them has been so
+great as to encourage new impressions of some of them. Others have been
+written on the same principles in this country, and even the doctrine of
+the Trinity has been publicly treated in such a manner as all who believe
+that doctrine must judge not only heretical, but highly blasphemous."[13]
+
+It is said of Charles Chauncy, of the First Church in Boston, that his
+favorite authors were Tillotson and Baxter.[14] Far more suggestive is the
+account we have of the books read by Jonathan Mayhew of the West Church in
+Boston, the first open antagonist of Calvinism in New England. Soon after
+1740 he was reading the works of the great Protestant theologians of the
+seventeenth century, including Milton, Chillingworth, and Tillotson; and
+the eighteenth-century works of Locke, Samuel Clarke, Taylor, Wollaston,
+and Whiston. He also probably read Cudworth, Butler, Hutcheson, Leland, and
+other authors of a like character, some of them deists. Not one of these
+writers was a Calvinist for they found the basis of religion either in
+idealism or in rationalism.
+
+The biographer of Mayhew says it "is evident from some of his discourses
+that he was a great admirer of Samuel Clarke, whose voluminous works were
+in his day much read by the liberal clergy." Clarke's Boyle lectures,
+delivered in 1704-5, showed that natural and revealed religion were
+essentially one, that moral action in man is free, and that Christianity is
+the religion of reason and nature. At a later period he defended the two
+propositions, that "no article of Christian faith delivered in the holy
+Scriptures is disagreeable to right reason," and that "without liberty of
+human actions there can be no real religion or morality." Even if one such
+man as Jonathan Mayhew read Clarke's work in the Harvard Library, it
+justified the alarm felt by Whitefield lest the students should be led away
+from their Calvinist faith.[15]
+
+[Sidenote: The Great Awakening.]
+
+It was "the great awakening" that showed how marked had been the growth of
+liberal opinions throughout New England in the forty years preceding.
+Silently, a great change had gone on, with little open expression of
+dissent from Calvinism, and without a knowledge on the part of most of the
+liberal men that they had in any way departed from the faith of the
+fathers. It was only with the coming of Whitefield and the revival that
+this change came to have recognition, and that even the slightest
+separation into parties took place.
+
+The revival was an attempt to reintroduce the stricter Calvinism of the
+earlier time, with its doctrines of justification by faith alone,
+supernatural regeneration, and predestination made known to the believer by
+the Holy Ghost. The liberal party objected to the revival because it was
+opposed to the good old customs of the Congregational churches of New
+England. The itinerant methods of the revivalists, the shriekings,
+faintings, and appeals to fear and terror, were condemned as not in harmony
+with the established methods of the churches. In his book against the
+revivalists, Dr. Chauncy said that "now is the time when we are
+particularly called to stand for the good old way, and bear testimony
+against everything that may tend to cast a blemish on true primitive
+Christianity."[16]
+
+When the great awakening came to an end, the liberal party was far stronger
+than before, partly because the members of it had come to know each other
+and to feel their own power, partly because men had been led to declare
+themselves who had never before perceived their own position, and partly
+because the agitation had set men to thinking, and to making such scrutiny
+of their beliefs as they had never made before. The testimonies of Harvard
+College and various associations of ministers against the methods of the
+revivalists were signed by sixty-three men, while those in favor of the
+revival were signed by one hundred and ten. These numbers represent the
+comparative strength of the two parties. It must be said, however, that the
+leading men in nearly every part of New England were among those opposing
+the revival methods, while in Eastern Massachusetts at least two-thirds of
+the ministers were of the liberal party.[17]
+
+The strong feeling caused by the revival soon subsided, and no division
+between the Calvinist and the Arminian parties took place. The progressive
+tendencies went quietly on, step by step the old beliefs were discarded;
+but it was by individuals, and not in any form as a sectarian movement. The
+relations of the church to the state at this time would have made such a
+result impossible.
+
+[Sidenote: Cardinal Beliefs of the Liberals.]
+
+Looking over the whole field of the theological advance from 1725 to 1760,
+we find that three conclusions had been arrived at by the men of the
+liberal movement. The first of these was that what they stood for as a body
+was a recovery and restoration of primitive Christianity in its simplicity
+and power. It was said of Dr. Mayhew by his biographer that he "was a great
+advocate of primitive Christianity, and zealously contended for the faith
+once delivered to the saints."
+
+The second opinion, to which they gave frequent utterance, was that the
+Bible is a divine revelation, the true source of all religious teaching,
+and the one sufficient creed for all men. In his sermon against the
+enthusiasm of the revivalists, Chauncy said that a true test of all
+religious excitement, and of every kind of new teachings, was to be found
+in their "regard to the Bible, and its acknowledgment that the things
+therein contained are the commandments of God." "Keep close to the
+Scripture," was his admonition to his congregation, "and admit of nothing
+for an impression of the spirit but what agrees with that unerring rule.
+Fix it in your minds as a truth you will invariably abide by, that the
+Bible is the grand test by which everything in religion is to be tried."
+
+The third position of the men of the liberal movement was that Christ is
+the only means of salvation, and they yielded to him unquestioning loyalty
+and faith. Turning away from the creeds of men, as they did in so far as
+they could see their way, they concentrated their convictions upon Christ,
+and found in him the spiritual and vital centre of all faith that lives
+with true power to help men. Mayhew held that God could not have forgiven
+men their sins without the atonement of Christ, for his life and his gospel
+are the means of the great reconciliation by which man and God are brought
+into harmony with each other.
+
+[Sidenote: Publications defining the Liberal Beliefs.]
+
+In three publications may be seen what the Arminians had to teach that was
+opposed to Calvinism. In 1744 appeared in Boston a book of two hundred and
+eight pages by Rev. Experience Mayhew, one of a devoted family of
+missionaries to the Indians of Martha's Vineyard. He called his book "Grace
+Defended, in a Modest Plea for an important Truth: namely, that the offer
+of Salvation made to sinners comprises in it an offer of the Grace given in
+Regeneration." Mr. Mayhew claimed that he was a Calvinist, yet he rejected
+the teaching that every act of the unregenerate person is equal in the
+sight of God to the worst sin, and claimed that even the sinner can live so
+well and so justly as to favor his being accepted of God. Mayhew maintained
+that Christ died for all men, not for the elect only.[18] He claimed that
+"God cannot be truly said to offer salvation to sinners without offering to
+them whatsoever is necessary on his part, in order to their salvation."[19]
+Mayhew was usually credited with being an Arminian; for he positively
+rejected the doctrine of election, and he defended the principle of human
+freedom in the most affirmative manner.
+
+In 1749 Lemuel Briant (or Bryant), the minister in that part of Braintree
+which became the town of Quincy, published a sermon which he entitled The
+Absurdity and Blasphemy of Depreciating Moral Virtue. It condemned reliance
+on Christ's merits without effort to live his life, and showed that it is
+the duty of the Christian to live righteously. Briant said that to hold any
+other view was hurtful and blasphemous. He claimed that "the great rule the
+Scriptures lay down for men to go by in passing judgment on their spiritual
+state is the sincere, upright, steady, and universal practice of virtue."
+"To preach up chiefly what Christ himself laid the stress upon (and whether
+this was not moral virtue let every one judge from his discourses) must
+certainly, in the opinion of all sober men, be called truly and properly,
+and in the best sense, preaching of Christ."
+
+A pamphlet of thirty pages appeared in 1757, written by Samuel Webster, the
+minister of Salisbury, with the title "A Winter Evening's Conversation upon
+the doctrine of Original Sin, wherein the notion of our having sinned in
+Adam, and being on that account only liable to eternal Damnation, is proved
+to be Unscriptural." It is in the form of a dialogue between a minister and
+three of his parishioners, and gives, as few other writings of the
+eighteenth century do, a clear and explicit statement of the author's
+opinions in a readable and interesting form. That all have sinned in Adam
+the minister pronounces "a very shocking doctrine." "What! make them first
+to open their eyes in torment, and all this for a sin which certainly they
+had no hand in,--a sin which, if it comes upon them at all, certainly is
+without any fault or blame on their parts, for they had no hand in
+receiving it!" That Adam is our federal head, and that we sinned because he
+sinned, he calls "a mere castle in the air." "Sin and guilt are personal
+things as much as knowledge. I can as easily conceive of one man's
+knowledge being imputed to another as of his sins being so. No imputation
+in either case can make the thing to be mine which is not mine any more
+than one person may be another person." He declares that this doctrine of
+imputation causes infidelity. "It naturally leads men into every
+dishonorable thought of God which gives a great and general blow to
+religion." It impeaches the holiness of God, "for it supposes him to make
+millions sinners by his decree of imputation, who would otherwise have been
+innocent." That it was his decree alone "that made all Adam's posterity
+sinners is the very essence of this doctrine." "And so Christians are
+guilty of holding what even heathen would blush at." That God "should
+pronounce a sentence by which myriads of infants, as blameless as helpless,
+were consigned over to blackness of darkness to be tormented with fire and
+brimstone forever, is not consistent with infinite goodness." "How
+dreadfully is God dishonored by such monstrous representations as these!"
+Such a being cannot be loved by us, for every heart rebels against it. "All
+descriptions of the Divine Being which represent him in an unamiable light
+do the greatest hurt to religion that can be, as they strike at love, which
+is the fulfilling of the law. I am persuaded that many of those who think
+they believe this doctrine do not really believe it, or else they do not
+consider how it represents their heavenly Father." The pamphlet concludes
+with the acceptance of this broader teaching by the parishioners, but it
+was the cause of controversy in pulpits and by means of pamphlets. Bellamy
+denied the teachings of Webster, and Chauncy defended them. So bold a
+pamphlet as this showed how men had come to reason without compromise about
+the old doctrines, and gave evidence that the growing spirit of humanity
+would no longer accept what was harsh and cruel.
+
+[Sidenote: Phases of Religious Progress.]
+
+The New England churches were thus not standing still as regards doctrines,
+moral conduct, the methods of worship, or the relations they held to the
+state; but step by step they were moving away from the methods and the
+ideas of the fathers. The "lining out" of hymns was slowly abandoned, and
+singing by note took its place. The agitation that followed this attempt at
+reform was great and wide-spread. The introduction of an organized and
+trained choir was also in the nature of a genuine reform. When the liberal
+Thomas Brattle offered an organ to the new church in Brattle Street, it was
+voted "that they do not think it proper to use the same in the public
+worship of God." The instrument was, however, accepted by King's Chapel;
+and an organist was secured from London. It was not until 1770 that the
+church in Providence procured an organ, the first used in a Congregational
+church in New England.
+
+When Dr. Jonathan Mayhew died, in 1766, Dr. Chauncy prayed at his funeral;
+and this was said to have been the first prayer ever made at a funeral in
+Boston, so strong was the Puritan dislike of the customs of the Catholic
+Church.[20] In this way, as well as in others, the new liberalism broke
+down the old customs, and introduced those with which we are familiar.
+Perhaps the most marked tendency of this kind was the introduction of the
+reading of the Bible into the services of the churches as a part of the
+order of worship. This innovation was distinctly due to the liberal men and
+the high esteem in which they held the Scriptures as a means of giving
+sobriety and reasonableness to their religion. The First Church in Boston,
+in May, 1730, voted that the reading of the Scriptures, instead of the old
+Puritan way of expounding them, be thereafter discretionary with the
+ministers of that church, but "that the mind of the church is that larger
+portions should be publicly read than has been used."[21] As we have seen,
+the Brattle Street Church had already led in this reform, having adopted
+this practice in 1699. This custom of reading the Bible as a part of the
+service of worship came slowly into general acceptance, for there was a
+strong feeling against it. When a Bible was presented to the parish in
+Mendon, in 1767, a serious commotion resulted because of the strong feeling
+against the Church of England then prevalent; and the donor gave it to the
+minister until such time as the church might wish to use it. It was as late
+as 1785 that a copy of the Bible was given to the First Church in Dedham,
+with the request that the reading of it should be made a part of the
+exercises of the Lord's day; and the parish instructed the minister to read
+such portions of it as he thought "most desirable" and of "such length as
+the several seasons of the year and other circumstances" might render
+proper. In the West Church of Medway it was not until 1806 that this
+practice was established, and two of the Salem churches began it the same
+year. The reading of the Bible at ordination services did not become
+customary until an even later date.[22]
+
+Such are some of the practical innovations which accompanied the doctrinal
+development that was taking place. Liberality in one direction brought
+toleration and progress in others. Some of these changes were due to the
+fact that the prejudices against the Catholic Church and the Church of
+England had, in a measure, disappeared, because there was nothing to keep
+them alive. Others were due to the intellectual influences that came into
+the colonies from England. Still others resulted from the shifting
+relations of church and state, and were the effect of attempts to adjust
+those relations more satisfactorily.
+
+[1] Narrative of Surprising Conversions, edition of 1808, 13.
+
+[2] Denial of original sin, from Pelagius, an ascetic preacher of the
+    fifth century.
+
+[3] Dwight, Life of Edwards, 307, 336, 410, 413.
+
+[4] Ibid., 649.
+
+[5] Ibid., 495.
+
+[6] Green, History of Springfield.
+
+[7] Ibid., 255.
+
+[8] E.H. Byington, The Puritan in England and New England, devotes a
+    chapter to the controversy over Breck's settlement; but he does not
+    treat of the theological problems involved.
+
+[9] Whitefield's Seventh Journal, 28.
+
+[10] History of Harvard University, 52.
+
+[11] History of Harvard University, 23, 26.
+
+[12] Whitefield's Journal, seventh part, 28.
+
+[13] Historical Magazine, new series, IX. 227, April, 1871.
+
+[14] W.B. Sprague, Annals of the Unitarian Pulpit, II.
+
+[15] Levi L. Paine, A Critical History of the Evolution of Trinitarianism,
+     99. "Samuel Clarke and others took the ground that God is unipersonal,
+     and hence that the Son is a distinct personal being, distinguishing
+     God the Father as the absolute Deity from the Son whom they regarded
+     as God in a relative or secondary sense, being derived from the
+     Father, and having his beginning from Him."
+
+[16] Seasonable Thoughts, 337.
+
+[17] Alden Bradford, in his Memoir of the Life and Writings of Rev.
+     Jonathan Mayhew, D.D., gives a list of "the clergymen who openly
+     opposed or did not teach and advocate the Calvinistic doctrines" at
+     the time of Mayhew's ordination, in 1747. These were: Dr. Appleton,
+     Cambridge; Dr. Gay, Hingham; Dr. Chauncy, Boston; William Rand,
+     Kingston; Nathaniel Eelles, Scituate; Edward Barnard, Haverhill;
+     Samuel Cooke, West Cambridge (now Arlington); Jeremiah Fogg,
+     Kensington, N.H.; Dr. A. Eliot, Boston; Dr. Samuel Webster, Salisbury;
+     Lemuel Briant, Braintree; Dr. Stevens, Kittery, Me.; Dr. Tucker,
+     Newbury; Timothy Harrington, Lancaster; Dr. Gad Hitchcock, Pembroke;
+     Josiah Smith, Pembroke; William Smith, Weymouth; Dr. Daniel Shute,
+     Hingham; Dr. Samuel Cooper, Boston; Dr. Mayhew, Boston; Abraham
+     Williams, Sandwich; Anthony Wibird, Braintree (now Quincy); Dr.
+     Cushing, Waltham; Professor Wigglesworth, Harvard College; Dr. Symmes,
+     Andover; Dr. John Willard, Connecticut; Amos Adams, Roxbury; Dr.
+     Barnes, Scituate; Charles Turner, Duxbury; Dr. Dana Wallingford,
+     Conn.; Ebenezer Thayer, Hampton, N.H.; Dr. Fiske, Brookfield; Dr.
+     Samuel West, Dartmouth (now New Bedford); Dr. Hemenway, Wells. Among
+     those who took part in the ordination of Jonathan Mayhew, and
+     therefore presumably of the same theological opinions, were Hancock,
+     Lexington; Cotton, Newton; Cooke, Sudbury; Prescott, Danvers (now
+     Salem). To these may be added, says Bradford, though of a somewhat
+     later date: Dr. Coffin, Buxton; Drs. Howard, West, Lathrop, and
+     Belknap, Boston; Dr. Henry Cummings, Billerica; Dr. Deane, Portland;
+     Thomas Cary, Newburyport; Dr. Fobes, Raynham; Timothy Hilliard,
+     Cambridge; Thomas Haven, Reading; Dr. Willard, Beverly. Dr. Ezra
+     Ripley added the names of Hedge, of Warwick, and Foster, of Stafford.
+     This makes fifty-two in all, but probably as many more could be added
+     by careful search.
+
+[18] Grace Defended, 43.
+
+[19] Ibid., 60.
+
+[20] Alice Morse Earle, Customs and Fashions in Old New England, 364, 367.
+     See H.M. Dexter, Congregationalism as seen in its Literature, 458.
+
+[21] A.B. Ellis, History of the First Church in Boston, 199.
+
+[22] New England Magazine, February, 1899. A.H. Coolidge on Scripture
+     Reading in the Worship of the New England Churches.
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+
+THE SILENT ADVANCE OF LIBERALISM.
+
+The progressive tendencies went silently on; and step by step the old
+beliefs were discarded, but always by individuals and churches, and not by
+associations or general official action. Even before the middle of the
+eighteenth century there was not only a questioning of the doctrine of
+divine decrees, the conception that God elects some to bliss and some to
+perdition in accordance with his own arbitrary will, but there was also
+developing a tendency to reject the tritheism[1] which in New England took
+the place of a philosophical conception of the Trinity, such as had been
+held by the great thinkers of the Christian ages. In part this doubt about
+the Trinity was the result of a more thoughtful study of the Bible, where
+the doctrine taught by the leading theologians of the old school in New
+England does not appear; and in part it was the result of the reading of
+the works of the English divines of the more liberal school. Something of
+this tendency was also due to the spirit of free inquiry, and the rational
+interpretation of religion, that were beginning to make themselves felt
+amongst those not wholly committed to the old ways of thinking.
+
+It was characteristic of those who questioned the doctrine of the Trinity,
+as then taught, that they insisted on stating their beliefs in the language
+of the New Testament, especially in that of Jesus himself. They found him
+teaching his own dependence on his Father, claiming for himself only an
+inferior and subordinate position. Believing in his pre-existence, his
+supernatural character and mission, they held that he was the creator of
+the world or that creation took place by means of the spirit that was in
+him, and that every honor should be paid him except that of worshipping him
+as the Supreme Being. As in the ancient family the son was always
+subordinate to his father, so the Son of God presented in the New Testament
+is less exalted than his Father. This conception of Christ is technically
+called Arianism, from the Alexandrian presbyter of the fourth century who
+first brought it into prominence.
+
+[Sidenote: Subordinate Nature of Christ.]
+
+The Arian heresy did not necessarily follow the Arminian, but much the same
+causes led to its appearance. Many of the leading men in England had become
+Arians, including Milton, Locke, Taylor, Clarke, Watts, and others; and the
+reading of their books in New England led to an inquiry into the
+truthfulness of the doctrine of the Trinity. As early as 1720 the preachers
+of convention and election sermons were insisting upon a recognition of
+Christ in the old way, showing that they were suspicious of heresy.[2]
+Most of the Arians retained the other doctrines in which they had been
+educated, even putting a stronger emphasis upon them than before. Rarely
+was the subordinate nature of Christ made in any way prominent in
+preaching. It was held so strictly subsidiary to the cardinal doctrines of
+incarnation and atonement that only the most intelligent and watchful could
+detect any difference between those who were Arians and those who were
+strict Trinitarians. Now and then a man of more pronounced convictions and
+utterance was shunned by his ministerial neighbors, but this rarely
+occurred and had little practical effect. So long as a preacher gave
+satisfaction to his own congregation, and had behind him the voters and the
+tax-list of his town, his heresies were passed by with only comment and
+gossip.
+
+We find here and there definite indications of the doctrinal changes that
+were taking place, as in the republication of Emlyn's Humble Inquiry into
+the Scripture Account of Jesus Christ, which appeared in Boston in 1756.
+Thomas Emlyn, the first English preacher who called himself a Unitarian,
+published his Humble Inquiry in 1702; and in 1705 he established a
+Unitarian congregation in London. This distinctively Unitarian book made an
+able defence of the doctrine of the subordinate nature of Christ. More
+significant than the republication of the book itself was the preface
+written for it by a Boston layman, addressed to the ministers of the town,
+in which he said that he found its teaching "to be the true, plain,
+unadulterated doctrine of the Gospel." He also intimated that "many of his
+brethren of the laity in the town and country were in sympathy with him and
+sincerely desirous of knowing the truth." "In New Hampshire Province,"
+wrote Dr. Joseph Bellamy, in 1760, "this party have actually, three years
+ago, got things so ripe that they have ventured to new model our Shorter
+Catechism, to alter or entirely leave out the doctrine of the Trinity, of
+the decrees, of our first parents being created holy, of original sin,
+Christ satisfying divine justice, effectual calling, justification,
+etc."[3]
+
+[Sidenote: Some of the Liberal Leaders.]
+
+The farther advance in the liberal movement may be most easily traced in
+the lives and teachings of three or four men. Rev Ebenezer Gay, who was
+settled in Hingham in 1717, was the first man in New England to arrive at a
+clear statement of opinions quite outside of and distinct from Calvinism.
+Writing of the years from 1750 to 1755, John Adams said that at that time
+Lemuel Briant, of Braintree, Jonathan Mayhew, of the West Church in Boston,
+Daniel Shute, of Hingham, John Brown, of Cohasset, and perhaps equal to
+all, if not above all, Ebenezer Gay, of Hingham, were Unitarians.[4] The
+rapid sale of Emlyn's book would prove the truthfulness of this statement.
+It was not by any sudden process that these men had come to what may be
+called Unitarianism, though, more properly, Arianism; and not as a mere
+result of a reaction from Calvinism. A new time had come, and with it new
+hopes and thoughts. The burdening sense of the spiritual world that
+belonged to the men of the seventeenth century did not belong to those of
+the eighteenth. Men had come to see that God must manifest himself in
+reason, common sense, nature, and the facts of life.
+
+In the life and teachings of such a man as Ebenezer Gay we catch a new
+insight into the spirit that was active in New England throughout the
+eighteenth century for the realization of a larger faith. He was a man of a
+strong, original, vigorous nature, a born leader of men, and one who
+impressed his own character upon those with whom he came into contact. He
+opposed the revival, and he made the men of his own association think with
+him in their opposition to it. Years before the revival, however, he was a
+liberal in theology, and had found his way into Arminianism. With the
+spirit of free inquiry he was in fullest sympathy. He was strongly opposed
+to creeds and to all written articles of faith. He condemned in the most
+forcible terms the young man who, on the occasion of his ordination,
+"engages to preach according to a rule of faith, creed, or confession which
+is merely of human prescription or imposition." In his convention sermon of
+1746 he denounced those who "insist upon the offensive peculiarities of the
+party they espoused rather than upon the more mighty things in which we are
+all agreed." It has been said of him that, after the middle of the century,
+"his discourses will be searched in vain for any discussions of
+controversial theology, any advocacy of the peculiar doctrines regarded as
+orthodox, or the expression of any opinions at variance with those of his
+successor, Dr. Ware."[5]
+
+The sermon on Natural Religion as distinguished from Revealed, which Dr.
+Gay delivered as the Dudleian lecture at Harvard, in 1759, showed the
+reasonable and progressive spirit of his preaching. He claimed that there
+is no antagonism between natural and revealed religion, and that, while
+revealed religion is an addition to the natural, it is not built on the
+ruins, but on the everlasting foundations of it. Revelation can teach
+nothing contrary to natural religion or to the dictates of reason. "No
+doctrine or scheme of religion," he said, "should be advanced or received
+as Scriptural and divine which is plainly and absolutely inconsistent with
+the perfections of God, and the possibility of things. Absurdities and
+contradictions, are not to be obtruded upon our faith. No pretence of
+revelation can be sufficient for the admission of them. The manifest
+absurdity of any doctrine is a stronger argument that it is not of God than
+any other evidence can be that it is."
+
+Jonathan Mayhew, the son of Experience Mayhew, of Martha's Vineyard, was
+settled over the West Church of Boston in 1747. He was even then known as a
+heretic, who had read the most liberal books of the English philosophers
+and theologians, and who had boldly accepted their opinions as his own. On
+the occasion of his ordination not one of the Boston ministers was present,
+although a number of them were well known for their liberal opinions. The
+ordination was postponed, and later several men of remoter parishes joined
+in inducting this young independent into his pulpit. No Boston minister
+would exchange pulpits with him, and he was not invited to join the
+ministerial association. He was shunned by the ministers, and he was
+dreaded by the orthodox; but he was gladly heard by a large congregation,
+which grew in numbers and intelligence as the years went on. He had among
+his hearers many of the leading men of the town, and to him gathered those
+who were most thoughtful and progressive. Boston has never had in any of
+its pulpits a man of nobler, broader, more humane qualities, or one with a
+mind more completely committed to seeking and knowing the truth, or with a
+more unflinching purpose to speak his own mind without fear or favor. His
+influence was soon powerfully felt in the town, and his name came to stand
+for liberty in politics as well as in religion. His sermons were rapidly
+printed and distributed widely. They were read in every part of New England
+with great eagerness; they were reprinted in England, and brought him a
+large correspondence from those who admired and approved of his teaching.
+Though he died in 1766, at the age of forty-six, his work and his influence
+did not die with him.
+
+The cardinal thought of Jonathan Mayhew with reference to religion was that
+of free inquiry. Diligent and free examination of all questions, he felt,
+was necessary to any acquisition of the truth. He believed in liberty and
+toleration everywhere, and this made him accept in the fullest sense the
+doctrine of the freedom of the will. In man he found a self-determining
+power, the source of his moral and intellectual freedom. He said that we
+are more certain of the fact that we are free than we are of the truth of
+Christianity. This belief led him to the rejection of the Calvinistic
+doctrine of inability, and to a strong faith in the moral and spiritual
+possibilities of human nature. He described Christianity as "a practical
+science, the art of living piously and virtuously."[6] He had quite freed
+his mind from bondage to creeds when he said that, "how much soever any man
+may be mistaken in opinion concerning the terms of salvation, yet if he is
+practically in the right there is no doubt but he will be accepted of
+God."[7] He held that no speculative error, however great, is sufficient
+to exclude a good and upright man from the kingdom of heaven, who lives
+according to the genuine spirit of the gospel. To him the principle of
+grace was always a principle of goodness and holiness; and he held that
+grace can never be operative as a saving power without obedience to that
+righteousness and love which Christ taught as essential.[8] He declared
+that "the doctrine that men may obtain salvation without ceasing to do evil
+and learning to do well, without yielding a sincere obedience to the laws
+of Christianity, is not so properly called a doctrine of grace as it is a
+doctrine of devils."[9] He said, again, that we cannot be justified by a
+faith that is without obedience; for it is obedience and good works that
+give to faith all its life, efficacy, and perfection.[10]
+
+[Sidenote: The First Unitarian.]
+
+Dr. Mayhew accepted without equivocation the right of private judgment in
+religion, and he practised it judicially and with wise insight. He
+unhesitatingly applied the rational method to all theological problems, and
+to him reason was the final court of appeal for everything connected with
+religion. His love of freedom was enthusiastic and persistent, and he was
+zealously committed to the principle of individuality. He believed in the
+essential goodness of human nature, and in the doctrine of the Divine
+Unity. He was the first outspoken Unitarian in New England, not merely
+because he rejected the doctrine of the Trinity, but because he accepted
+all the cardinal principles developed by that movement since his day. He
+was a rationalist, an individualist, a defender of personal freedom, and
+tested religious practices by the standard of common sense. His sermons
+were plain, direct, vigorous, and modern. A truly religious man, Mayhew
+taught a practical and humanitarian religion, genuinely ethical, and
+faithful in inculcating the motive of civic duty.
+
+Dr. Mayhew's words may be quoted in regard to some of the religious beliefs
+commonly accepted in his day. "The doctrine of a total ignorance and
+incapacity to judge of moral and religious truths brought upon mankind by
+the disobedience of our first parents," he wrote, "is without
+foundation."[11] "I hope it appears," he says, "that the love of God and of
+our neighbor, that sincere piety of heart, and a righteous, holy and
+charitable life, are the weightier matters of the gospel, as well as of the
+law."[12] "Although Christianity cannot," he asserts, "with any propriety
+or justice be said to be the same with natural religion, or merely a
+republication of the laws of nature, yet the principal, the most important
+and fundamental duties required by Christianity are, nevertheless, the same
+which were enjoined under the legal dispensation of Moses, and the same
+which are dictated by the light of nature."[13] His great love of
+intellectual and spiritual freedom finds utterance in such a statement as
+this: "Nor has any order or body of men authority to enjoin any particular
+article of faith, nor the use of any modes of worship not expressly pointed
+out in the Scriptures; nor has the enjoining of such articles a tendency to
+preserve the peace and harmony of the church, but directly the
+contrary."[14] Such sentences as the following are frequent on Mayhew's
+pages, and they show clearly the trend of his mind: "Free examination,
+weighing arguments for and against with care and impartiality, is the way
+to find truth." "True religion flourishes the more, the more people
+exercise their right of private judgment."[15] "There is nothing more
+foolish and superstitious than a veneration for ancient creeds and
+doctrines as such, and nothing is more unworthy a reasonable creature than
+to value principles by their age, as some men do their wines."[16]
+
+Mayhew insisted upon the strict unity of God, "who is without rival or
+competitor." "The dominion and sovereignty of the universe is necessarily
+one and in one, the only living and true God, who delegates such measures
+of power and authority to other beings as seemeth good in his sight." He
+declared that the not preserving of such unity and supremacy of God on the
+part of Christians "has long been just matter of reproach to them"; and he
+said the authority of Christ is always "exercised in subordination to God's
+will."[17] His position was that "the faith of Christians does not
+terminate in Christ as the ultimate object of it, but it is extended
+through him to the one God."[18] The very idea of a mediator implies
+subordination as essential to it.[19] His biographer says he did not accept
+the notion of vicarious suffering, and, that he was an Arian in his views
+of the nature of Christ. "He was the first clergyman in New England who
+expressly and openly opposed the scholastic doctrine of the Trinity.
+Several others declined pressing the Athanasian Creed, and believed
+strictly in the unity of God. They also probably found it difficult to
+explain their views on the subject, and the great danger of losing their
+good name served to prevent their speaking out. But Dr. Mayhew did not
+conceal or disguise his sentiments on this point any more than on others,
+such as the peculiar tenets of Calvinism. He explicitly and boldly declared
+the doctrine irrational, unscriptural, and directly contradictory."[20] He
+taught the strict unity of God as early as 1753, "in the most unequivocal
+and plain manner, in his sermons of that year."[21] What most excited
+comment and objection was that, in a foot-note to the volume of his sermons
+published in 1755, Mayhew said that a Catholic Council had elevated the
+Virgin Mary to the position of a fourth person in the Godhead, and added,
+by way of comment: "Neither Papists nor Protestants should imagine that
+they will be understood by others if they do not understand themselves. Nor
+should they think that nonsense and contradictions can ever be too sacred
+to be ridiculous." The ridicule here was not directed against the doctrine
+of the Trinity, as has been maintained, but the foolish defences of it made
+by men who accepted its "mysteries" as too wonderful for reason to deal
+with in a serious manner. This boldness of comment on the part of Mayhew
+was in harmony with his strong disapproval of creed-making in all its
+forms. He condemned creeds because they set up "human tests of orthodoxy
+instead of the infallible word of God, and make other terms of Christian
+communion than those explicitly pointed out by the Gospel."[22]
+
+Dr. Mayhew was succeeded in the West Church by Rev. Simeon Howard in 1767,
+who, though he was received in a more friendly spirit by the ministers of
+the town, was not less radical in his theology than his predecessor. Dr.
+Howard was both an Arminian and an Arian, and he was "a believer neither in
+the Trinity, nor in the divine predestination of total depravity, and
+necessary ruin to any human soul."[23] He was of a gentle and conciliatory
+temper, but his preaching was quite as thorough-going in its intellectual
+earnestness as was Dr. Mayhew's.
+
+[Sidenote: A Pronounced Universalist.]
+
+Another preacher on the liberal side was Dr. Charles Chauncy of the First
+Church in Boston, whose ministry lasted from 1727 to 1787. He was the most
+vigorous of the opponents of the great awakening, both in his pulpit and
+through the press. He wrote a book on certain French fanatics, with the
+purpose of showing what would be the natural results of the excesses of the
+revival; he preached a powerful sermon on enthusiasm, to indicate the
+dangers of religious excitement, when not controlled by common sense and
+reason; and he travelled throughout New England to gain all the information
+possible about the revival, its methods and results, and published his
+Seasonable Thoughts on the State of Religion in New England in 1743. He had
+been influenced by the reading of Taylor, Tillotson, Clarke, and the other
+latitudinarian and rationalistic writers of England; and he found the
+revival in its excesses repugnant to his every thought of what was true and
+devout in religion.
+
+Dr. Chauncy was not an eloquent preacher; but he was clear, earnest, and
+honest. Many of his sermons were published, and his books numbered nearly a
+dozen. As early as 1739 he preached a sermon in favor of religious
+toleration. At a later period he said, "It is with me past all doubt that
+the religion of Jesus will never be restored to its primitive purity,
+simplicity, and glory, until religious establishments are so brought down
+as to be no more."[24] It was this conviction which made him oppose in his
+pulpit and in two or three books the effort that was made just before the
+Revolution to establish the English Church as the state form of religion in
+the colonies. He said, in 1767, that the American people would hazard
+everything dear to them--their estates, their lives--rather than suffer
+their necks to be put under the yoke of bondage to any foreign power in
+state or church.[25]
+
+In his early life Dr. Chauncy was an Arminian, but slowly he grew to the
+acceptance of distinctly Unitarian and Universalist doctrines. Near the end
+of his life he Published four or five books in which he advanced very
+liberal opinions. One of these, published in Boston in 1784, was on The
+Benevolence of the Deity fairly and impartially Considered. This book
+followed the same method and purpose as Butler's Analogy, and aimed to show
+that God has manifested his goodness in creation and in the life of man. He
+said that our moral self-determination, or free will, is our one great gift
+from God. He discussed the moral problems of life in order to prove the
+benevolence of God, maintaining that the goodness we see in him is of the
+same nature with goodness in ourselves. The year following he published a
+book on the Scriptural account of the Fall and its Consequences, in which
+he rejected the doctrine of total depravity, and interpreted the new birth
+as a result of education rather than of supernatural change. Thus he
+brought to full statement the logical result of the half-way covenant and
+the teachings of Solomon Stoddard, as well as of the connection of church
+and state in New England. He saw that the method of education is the only
+one that can justly be followed in the preparation of the young for
+admission to a church that is sustained in any direct way by the state.
+
+Dr. Chauncy's great work as a preacher and author[26] was brought to its
+close by his books in favor of universal salvation. In 1783-84 he published
+in Boston two anonymous pamphlets advocating the salvation of all men, and
+these pamphlets made no little stir. In 1784 he published in London a work
+which he called The Mystery hid from Ages and Generations, made manifest by
+the Gospel Revelation; or, The Salvation of All Men the Grand Thing aimed
+at in the Scheme of God: By One who wishes well to the whole Human Race. In
+this book Dr. Chauncy made an elaborate study of the New Testament, in
+order to prove that salvation is to be universal. Christ died for all,
+therefore all will be saved; because all have sinned in Adam, therefore all
+will be made alive in Christ. He looked to a future probation, to a long
+period after death, when the opportunity of salvation will be open to all.
+He maintained that the misery threatened against the wicked in Scripture is
+that of this intermediate state between the earthly life and the time when
+God shall be all in all. He held that sin will be punished hereafter in
+proportion to depravity, and that none will be saved until they come into
+willing harmony with Christ, who will finally be able to win all men to
+himself, otherwise the power of God will be set at naught and his good will
+towards men frustrated of its purpose. In the future state of discipline,
+punishment will be inflicted with salutary effect, and thus the moral
+recovery of mankind will be accomplished.
+
+[Sidenote: Other Men of Mark.]
+
+Another leader was Dr. Samuel West, of Dartmouth, now New Bedford, where he
+was settled in 1760, and where he preached for more than forty years.[27]
+He rejected the doctrines of fore-ordination, election, total depravity,
+and the Trinity. In preaching the election sermon of 1776, he took the
+ground of an undisguised rationalism. "A revelation," he said, "pretending
+to be from God, that contradicts any part of natural laws ought immediately
+to be rejected as imposture; for the deity cannot make a law contrary to
+the law of nature without acting contrary to himself,--a thing in the
+strictest sense impossible, for that which implies contradiction is not an
+object of Divine Power." The cardinal idea of West's; position, as of that
+of most of the liberal men of his time, was stated by him in one sentence,
+when he said, "To preach Christ is to preach the whole system of divinity,
+as it consists of both natural and revealed religion."[28]
+
+In 1751 Rev. Thomas Barnard, of Newbury, was dismissed from his parish
+because he was regarded as unconverted by the revivalistic portion of his
+congregation; and in 1755 he was settled over the First Church in Salem. He
+was an Arminian, and at the same time an Arian of the school of Samuel
+Clarke. His son Thomas was settled over the North Church of Salem in 1773,
+which church was organized especially for him by his admirers in the First
+Church. He followed in the theological opinions of his father, but probably
+became somewhat more pronounced in his Arian views, so that, after his
+death, Dr. Channing called him a Unitarian. It is not surprising that the
+younger Barnard should have been liberal in his opinions and spirit, when
+we find his theological instructor, Rev. Samuel Williams, at his
+ordination, saying to him in the sermon preached on that occasion, "Be of
+no sect or party but that of good men, and to all such (whatever their
+differences among themselves) let your heart be opened." On another similar
+occasion Mr. Williams said that it had always been his advice to examine
+with caution and modesty, "but with the greatest freedom all religious
+matters."[29] It was said of the younger Barnard that he believed "the
+final salvation of no man depended upon the belief or disbelief of those
+speculative opinions about which men, equally learned and pious, differ."
+When it was said to him by one of his parishioners, "Dr. Barnard, I never
+heard you preach a sermon upon the Trinity," the reply was, "And you never
+will."[30]
+
+In 1779 Rev. John Prince was settled over the First Church in Salem, as the
+colleague of the elder Barnard. He was an Arian, but in no combative or
+dogmatic manner. He was a student, a lover of science, and an advanced
+thinker and investigator for his time. In 1787 he invited the Universalist,
+Rev. John Murray, into his pulpit, then an act of the greatest
+liberality.[31] Another lover of science, Rev. William Bentley, was settled
+over the East Church of Salem, as colleague to Rev. James Diman, in 1782.
+The senior pastor was a strict Calvinist, but the parish called as his
+colleague this young man of pronounced liberal views in theology. As early
+as 1784 Mr. Bentley was interested in the teachings of the English
+Unitarian, William Hazlitt,[32] who at that time visited New England. And
+in 1786 he was reading Joseph Priestley's book against the Trinity with
+approval. He soon after commended Dr. Priestley's short tracts as giving a
+good statement of the simple doctrines of Christianity.[33] He insisted
+upon free inquiry in religion from the beginning of his ministry, and not
+long after he began preaching he became substantially a Unitarian.[34] In
+1789 he maintained that "the full conviction of a future moral retribution"
+is "the great point of Christian faith."[35] It has been claimed that Mr.
+Bentley was the first minister in New England to take distinctly the
+Unitarian position, and there are good reasons for this understanding of
+his doctrinal attitude.[36] Dr. Bentley corresponded with scholars in
+Europe, as he also did with Arab chiefs in their own tongue. He knew of the
+religions of India, and he seems to have given them appreciative
+recognition. The shipmasters and foreign merchants of Salem, as they came
+in contact with the Oriental races and religions, discarded their dogmatic
+Christianity; and these men, almost without exception, were connected with
+the churches that became Unitarian. It may be accepted as a very
+interesting fact that "the two potent influences shaping the ancient
+Puritanism of Salem into Unitarianism were foreign commerce and contact
+with the Oriental religions."[37]
+
+The formation of a second parish in Worcester, in 1785, was a significant
+step in the progress of liberal opinion. This was the first time when a
+town, outside of Boston, was divided into two parishes of the
+Congregational order on doctrinal grounds. On the death of the minister of
+the first parish several candidates were heard, and among them Rev. Aaron
+Bancroft, who was a pronounced Arminian and Arian. The majority preferred a
+Calvinist; but the more intelligent minority insisted upon the settlement
+of Mr. Bancroft,--a result they finally accomplished by the organization of
+a new parish. It was a severe struggle by which this result was brought
+about, every effort being made to defeat it; and for many years Mr.
+Bancroft was almost completely isolated in his religious opinions.[38]
+
+[Sidenote: The Second Period of Revivals.]
+
+It must not be understood that there was any marked separation in the
+churches as yet on doctrinal grounds. Calvinism was mildly taught, and
+ministers of all shades of opinion exchanged pulpits freely with each
+other. They met in ministerial associations, and in various duties of
+ordinations, councils, and other ecclesiastical gatherings. The preaching
+was practical, not doctrinal; and controverted subjects were for the most
+part not touched upon in the pulpits. About 1780, however, began a revival
+of Calvinism on the part of Drs. Bellamy, Emmons, Hopkins, and others; and
+especially did it take a strenuous form in the works of Samuel Hopkins. The
+New Divinity, as it was sometimes called, taught that unconditional
+submission to God is the duty of every human being, that we should be
+willing to be damned for the glory of God, and that the attitude of God
+towards men is one of unbounded benevolence. This newer Calvinism was full
+of incentives to missionary enterprise, and was zealous for the making of
+converts. Under the impulse of its greater enthusiasm there began, about
+1790, a series of revivals which continued to the middle of the nineteenth
+century. This was the second great period of revivalism in New England. It
+was far better organized than the first one, while its methods were more
+systematic and under better guidance; and the results were great in the
+building of churches, in establishing missionary outposts, and in awakening
+an active religious life amongst the people. It aroused much opposition to
+the liberals, and it made the orthodox party more aggressive. Just as the
+great awakening developed opposition to the liberals of that day, and
+served to bring into view the two tendencies in the Congregational
+churches, so this new revival period accentuated the divergencies between
+those who believed in the deity of Christ and those who believed in his
+subordinate nature, and led to the first assuming of positions on both
+sides. There can be little doubt that it put a check upon the friendly
+spirit that had existed in the churches, and that it began a division which
+ultimately resulted in their separation into two denominations.[39]
+
+Such details of individual and local opinion as have here been given are
+all the more necessary because there was at this time no consensus of
+belief on the part of the more liberal men. Each man thought for himself,
+but he was very reluctant to depart from the old ways in ritual and
+doctrine; and if the ministers consulted with each other, and gave each
+other confidential assistance, there was certainly nothing in the way of
+public conference or of party assimilation and encouragement. A visitor to
+Boston in 1791 wrote of the ministers there that "they are so diverse in
+their sentiments that they cannot agree on any point in theology. Some are
+Calvinists, some Universalists, some Arminians, and one, at least, is a
+Socinian."[40] Another visitor, this time in 1801, found the range of
+opinions much wider. In all the ministers of Boston he found only one rigid
+Trinitarian; one was a follower of Edwards, several were Arminians, two
+were Socinians, one a Universalist, and one a Unitarian.[41] This writer
+says it was not difficult to find out what men did not believe, but there
+was as yet no public line of demarcation among the clergy. There being no
+outward pressure to bring men into uniformity, no institution or body of
+men with authority to require assent to a standard of orthodoxy, little
+attention was given to merely doctrinal interests. The position taken was
+that presented by Rev. John Tucker of Newbury, in the convention sermon of
+1768, when he said that no one has any right whatever to legislate in
+behalf of Christ, who alone has authority to fix the terms of the Gospel.
+He said that, as all believers and teachers of Christianity are "perfectly
+upon a level with one another, none of them can have any authority even to
+interpret the laws of this kingdom for others, so as to require their
+assent to such interpretation." He also declared that as "every Christian
+has and must have a right to judge for himself of the true sense and
+meaning of all gospel truths, no doctrines, therefore, no laws, no
+religious rites, no terms of acceptance with God or of admission to
+Christian privileges not found in the gospel, are to be looked upon by him
+as any part of this divine system, nor to be received and submitted to as
+the doctrines and laws of Christ."[42] Of Rev. John Prince, the minister
+of the First Church in Salem during the last years of the century, it was
+said that he never "preached distinctly upon any of the points of
+controversy which, in his day, agitated the New England churches."[43] The
+minister of Roxbury, Rev. Eliphalet Porter, said of the Calvinistic
+beliefs, that there was not one of them he considered "essential to the
+Christian faith or character."[44]
+
+[Sidenote: King's Chapel becomes Unitarian.]
+
+These quotations will indicate the liberty of spirit that existed in the
+New England churches of the later years of the eighteenth century,
+especially in the neighborhood of Boston, and along the seacoast; and also
+the diversity of opinion on doctrinal subjects among the ministers. It is
+impossible here to follow minutely the stages of doctrinal evolution, but a
+few dates and incidents will serve to indicate the several steps that were
+taken. The first of these was the settlement of Rev. James Freeman over
+King's Chapel in 1782, and his ordination by the congregation in 1787, the
+liturgy having been revised two years earlier to conform to the liberal
+opinions of the minister and people. These changes were brought about
+largely through the influence of Rev. William Hazlitt, the father of the
+essayist and critic of the same name, who had been settled over several of
+the smaller Unitarian churches in Great Britain. In the spring of 1783 he
+visited the United States, and spent several months in Philadelphia. He
+gave a course of lectures on the Evidences of Christianity in the college
+there, which were largely attended. He preached for several weeks in a
+country parish in Maryland, he had invitations to settle in Charleston and
+Pittsburg, and he had an opportunity to become the president of a college
+by subscribing to the doctrinal tests required, which he would not do; for
+"he would sooner die in a ditch than submit to human authority in matters
+of faith."[45] In June, 1784, he preached in the Brattle Street Church of
+Boston, and he anticipated becoming its minister; but his pronounced
+doctrinal position seems to have made that impossible. He also preached in
+Hingham, and some of the people there desired his settlement; but the aged
+Dr. Gay would not resign. It would appear that he preached for Dr. Chauncy,
+for Mr. Barnes in Salem, and also in several pulpits on Cape Cod. He gave
+in Boston his course of lectures on the Evidences of Christianity, and it
+was received with much favor by large audiences. The winter of 1784-85 was
+spent by Mr. Hazlitt in Hallowell, Me., in which place was a small group of
+wealthy English Unitarians, led by Samuel Vaughan, by whom Mr. Hazlitt had
+been entertained in Philadelphia. Mr. Hazlitt returned to Boston in the
+spring of 1785, and had some hope of settling in Roxbury. In the autumn,
+however, finding no definite promise of employment, he returned to England.
+He afterward corresponded with Dr. Howard, of the West Church in Boston,
+and with Dr. Lathrop, of West Springfield. The volumes of sermons he
+published in 1786 and 1790 were sold in this country, and one or two of
+them republished.
+
+It would appear that Mr. Hazlitt's positive Unitarianism made it impossible
+for him to settle over any church in Boston or its neighborhood. In 1784 he
+assisted Dr. Freeman in revising the Prayer Book, the form of prayer used
+by Dr. Lindsey[46] in the Essex Street Chapel in London being adapted to
+the new conditions at King's Chapel. He also republished in Philadelphia
+and Boston many of Dr. Priestley's Unitarian tracts, while writing much
+himself for publication.[47] In his correspondence with Theophilus
+Lindsey, Dr. Freeman wrote of Mr. Hazlitt as a pious, zealous, and
+intelligent minister, to whose instructions and conversation he was
+particularly indebted.[48] "Before Mr. Hazlitt came to Boston", Dr.
+Freeman wrote, "the Trinitarian doxology was almost universally used. That
+honest, good man prevailed upon several respectable ministers to omit it.
+Since his departure the number of those who repeat only Scriptural
+doxologies has greatly increased, so that there are now many churches in
+which the worship is strictly Unitarian."[49]
+
+Beginning with the year 1786, several of the liberal men in Boston were in
+correspondence with the leading Unitarian ministers in London, and their
+letters were afterward published by Thomas Belsham in his Life of
+Theophilus Lindsey. From this work we learn that Dr. Lindsey presented his
+own theological works and those of Dr. Priestley to Harvard College, and
+that they were read with great avidity by the students.[50] One of the
+Boston correspondents, writing in 1783, names James Bowdoin, governor of
+Massachusetts in 1785 and 1786, General Benjamin Lincoln, and General Henry
+Knox as among the liberal men. He said: "There are many others besides, in
+our legislature, of similar sentiments. While so many of our great men are
+thus on the side of truth and free inquiry, they will necessarily influence
+many of the common people."[51] He also said that people were less
+frightened at the Socinian name than formerly, and that this form of
+Christianity was beginning to have some public advocates. The only minister
+who preached in favor of it was Mr. Bentley, of Salem, who was described as
+"a young man of a bold, independent mind, of strong, natural powers, and of
+more skill in the learned languages than any person of his years in the
+state." Mr. Bentley's congregation was spoken of as uncommonly liberal, not
+alarmed at any improvements, and pleased with his introduction into the
+pulpit of various modern translations of the Scriptures, especially of the
+prophecies.[52]
+
+[Sidenote: Other Unitarian Movements.]
+
+In March, 1792, a Unitarian congregation was formed in Portland under the
+leadership of Thomas Oxnard, who had been an Episcopalian. Having been
+supplied with the works of Priestley and Lindsey through the generosity of
+Dr. Freeman, he became a Unitarian; and his personal intercourse with Dr.
+Freeman gave strength to his changed convictions. A number of persons of
+property and respectability of character joined him in accepting his new
+faith. In writing to his friend in November, 1788, Mr. Oxnard said: "I
+cannot express to you the avidity with which these Unitarian publications
+are sought after. Our friends here are clearly convinced that the Unitarian
+doctrine will soon become the prevailing opinion in this country. Three
+years ago I did not know a single Unitarian in this part of the country
+besides myself; and now, entirely from the various publications you have
+furnished, a decent society might be collected in this and the neighboring
+towns."[53] In 1792 an attempt was made to introduce a revised liturgy
+into the Episcopal church of Portland; and, when this was resisted, a
+majority of the congregation seceded and formed a Unitarian society, with
+Mr. Oxnard as the minister. This society was continued for a few years, and
+then ceased to exist. The members joined the first Congregational church,
+which in 1809, became Unitarian.[54] Also in 1792 was organized a
+Unitarian congregation in Saco, under the auspices of Hon. Samuel Thatcher,
+a member of Congress and a Massachusetts judge.[55] Mr. Thatcher had been
+an unbeliever, but through the reading of Priestley's works he became a
+sincere and rational Christian. He met with much opposition from his
+neighbors, and an effort was made to prevent his re-election to Congress;
+but it did not succeed. The Saco congregation was at first connected with
+that at Portland, and it seems to have ceased its existence at the same
+time.[56]
+
+In 1794 Dr. Freeman wrote that Unitarianism was making considerable
+progress in the southern counties of Massachusetts. In Barnstable he
+reported "a very large body of Unitarians."[57] Writing in May, 1796, he
+states that Unitarianism is on the increase in Maine, that it is making a
+considerable increase in the southern part of Massachusetts, and that a few
+seeds have been sown in Vermont. He thinks it may be losing ground in some
+places, but that it is growing in others. "I consider it," he writes, "as
+one of the most happy effects which have resulted from my feeble exertions
+in the Unitarian cause, that they have introduced me to the knowledge and
+friendship of some of the most valuable characters of the present age, men
+of enlightened heads and benevolent hearts. Though it is a standing article
+of most of our social libraries, that nothing of a controversial character
+should be purchased, yet any book which is presented is freely accepted. I
+have found means, therefore, of introducing into them some of the Unitarian
+Tracts with which you have kindly furnished me. There are few persons who
+have not read them with avidity; and when read they cannot fail to make an
+impression upon the minds of many. From these and other causes the
+Unitarian doctrine appears to be still upon the increase. I am acquainted
+with a number of ministers, particularly in the southern part of this
+state, who avow and publicly preach this sentiment. There are others more
+cautious, who content themselves with leading their hearers by a course of
+rational but prudent sermons gradually and insensibly to embrace it. Though
+this latter mode is not what I entirely approve, yet it produces good
+effects. For the people are thus kept out of the reach of false opinions,
+and are prepared for the impressions which will be made on them by more
+bold and ardent successors, who will probably be raised up when these timid
+characters are removed off the stage. The clergy are generally the first
+who begin to speculate; but the people soon follow, where they are so much
+accustomed to read and enquire."[58]
+
+In 1793 was published Jeremy Belknap's biography of Samuel Watts, who was
+an Arian, or, at least, held to the subordinate nature of Christ. This book
+had a very considerable influence in directing attention to the doctrine of
+the Trinity, and in inducing inquiring men to study the subject critically
+for themselves. In 1797 Dr. Belknap became the minister of the Federal
+Street Church in Boston, and his preaching was from that time distinctly
+Unitarian. Dr. Joseph Priestley removed to Philadelphia in 1794, and he was
+at first listened to by large congregations. His humanitarian
+theology--that is, his denial of divinity as well as deity to
+Christ--probably had the effect of limiting the interest in his teachings.
+However, a small congregation was established in Philadelphia in 1796,
+formed mostly of English Unitarians. A congregation was gathered at
+Northumberland in 1794, to which place Priestley removed in that year.
+
+In the year 1800 a division took place in the church at Plymouth, owing to
+the growth there of liberal sentiments. These began to manifest themselves
+as early as 1742, as a reaction from the intense revivalism of that
+Period.[59] Rev. Chandler Bobbins, who was strictly Calvinistic in his
+theology, was the minister from 1760 until his death in 1799. In 1794 a
+considerable number of persons in the parish discussed the desirability of
+organizing another church, in order to secure more liberal preaching. It
+was recognized that Mr. Robbins was an old man, that he was very much
+beloved, and that in a few years the opportunity desired would be presented
+without needless agitation; and the effort was therefore deferred. In
+November, 1799, at a meeting held for the election of a new pastor,
+twenty-three members of the church were in favor of Rev. James Kendall, the
+only candidate, while fifteen were in opposition. When the parish voted,
+two hundred and fifty-three favored Mr. Kendall, and fifteen were opposed.
+In September, 1800, the conservative minority, numbering eighteen males and
+thirty-five females, withdrew; and two years later they organized the
+society now called the Church of the Pilgrimage. The settlement of Mr.
+Kendall, a pronounced Arminian,[60] was an instance of the almost complete
+abandonment of Calvinism on the part of a congregation, in opposition to
+the preaching from the pulpit. In spite of the strict confession of faith
+which Dr. Robbins had persuaded the church to adopt, the parish outgrew the
+old teachings. Mr. Kendall, with the approval of his church, soon grew into
+a Unitarian; and it was fitting that the church of the Mayflower, the
+church of Robinson and Brewster, should lead the way in this advance.
+
+As yet there was no controversy, except in a quiet way. Occasionally sharp
+criticism was uttered, especially in convention and election sermons; but
+there was no thought of separation or exclusion. The liberal men showed a
+tendency to magnify the work of charity; and they were, in a limited
+degree, zealous in every kind of philanthropic effort. More distinctly,
+however, they showed their position in their enthusiasm for the Bible and
+in their summing up of Christianity in loyalty to Christ. Towards all
+creeds and dogmas they were indifferent and silent, except as they
+occasionally spoke plainly out to condemn them. They believed in and
+preached toleration, and their whole movement stood more distinctly for
+comprehensiveness and latitudinarianism than for aught else. They were not
+greatly concerned about theological problems; but they thoroughly believed
+in a broad, generous, sympathetic, and practical Christianity, that would
+exemplify the teachings of Christ, and that would lead men to a pure and
+noble moral life.
+
+[Sidenote: Growth of Toleration.]
+
+That toleration was not as yet fully accepted in Massachusetts is seen in
+the fact that the proposed Constitution of 1778 was defeated because it
+provided for freedom of worship on the part of all Protestant
+denominations. The dominant religious body was not yet ready to put itself
+on a level with the other sects. In the Constitutional Convention of 1779
+the more liberal men worked with the Baptists to secure a separation of
+state and church. Such men as Drs. Chauncy, Mayhew, West, and Shute were
+desirous of the broadest toleration; and they did what they could to secure
+it. As early as 1768, Dr. Chauncy spoke in plainest terms in opposition to
+the state support of religion. "We are in principle," he wrote, "against
+all civil establishments in religion. It does not appear to us that God has
+entrusted, the state with a right to make religious establishments. But let
+it be heedfully minded we claim no right to desire the interposition of the
+state to establish the mode of worship, government or discipline, we
+apprehend is most agreeable to the mind of Christ. We desire no other
+liberty than to be left unrestrained in the exercise of our principles, in
+so far as we are good members of society.... The plain truth is, by the
+gospel charter, all professed Christians are vested with precisely the same
+rights; nor has our denomination any more a right to the interposition of
+the civil magistrate in their favor than any other; and whenever this
+difference takes place, it is beside the rule of Scripture, and the genuine
+dictates, of uncorrupted reason."[61] All persons throughout the state, of
+whatever religious connection, who had become emancipated from the Puritan
+spirit, supported him in this opinion. They were in the minority as yet,
+and they were not organized. Therefore, their efforts were unsuccessful.
+
+Another testing of public sentiment on this subject was had in the
+Massachusetts convention which, in 1788, ratified the Constitution of the
+United States. The sixth article, which provides that "no religious tests
+shall ever be required as a qualification to any office," was the occasion
+of a prolonged debate and much opposition. Hon. Theophilus Parsons took the
+liberal side, and declared that "the only evidence we can have of the
+sincerity and excellency of a man's religion is a good life," precisely the
+position of the liberal men. By several members it was urged, however, that
+this article was a departure from the principles of our forefathers, who
+came here for the preservation of their religion, and that it would admit
+deists and atheists into the general government.
+
+In these efforts to secure religious toleration as a fundamental law of the
+state and nation the Baptist denomination took an active and a leading
+part. Not less faithful to this cause were the liberal men among the
+Congregationalists, while the opposition came almost wholly from the
+Calvinistic and orthodox churches. Such leaders on the liberal side as Dr.
+David Shute of the South Parish in Hingham, Rev. Thomas Thatcher of the
+West Parish in Dedham, and Dr. Samuel West of New Bedford, were loyally
+devoted in the convention to the support of the toleration act of the
+Constitution. In the membership of the convention there were seventeen
+ministers, and fourteen of them voted for the Constitution. The opinions of
+the fourteen were expressed by Rev. Phillips Payson, the minister of
+Chelsea, who held that a religious test would be a great blemish on the
+Constitution. He also said that God is the God of the conscience, and for
+human tribunals to encroach upon the consciences of men is impious.[62] As
+the Constitution was ratified by only a small majority of the convention,
+and as at the opening of its sessions the opposition seemed almost
+overwhelming, the position taken by the more liberal ministers was a sure
+indication of growing liberality. The great majority of the people,
+however, were still strongly in favor of the old religious tests and
+restrictions, as was fully indicated by subsequent events. The Revolution
+operated as a liberalizing influence, because of the breaking of old
+customs and the discussion of the principles of liberty attendant upon the
+adoption of the state and national constitutions. The growth of democratic
+sentiment made a strong opposition to the churches and their privileges,
+and it caused a diminution of reverence for the authority of the clergy.
+The twenty years following the Revolution showed a notable growth in
+liberal opinions.
+
+Universalism presented itself as a new form of Calvinism, its advocates
+claiming that God decreed that all should be saved, and that his will would
+be triumphant. In many parts of the country the doctrine of universal
+salvation began to be heard during the last two decades of the eighteenth
+century, and the growth of interest in it was rapid from the beginning of
+the nineteenth. This movement began in the Baptist churches, but it soon
+appeared in others. At first it was undefined, a protest against the harsh
+teaching of future punishment. It was a part of the humanitarian awakening
+of the time, the new faith in man, the recognition that love is diviner
+than wrath. Many persons found escape from creeds that were hateful to them
+into this new and more hopeful interpretation of religion. Persons of every
+shade of protest, and "infidelity," and free thinking, found their way into
+this new body; and great was the condemnation and hatred with which it was
+received on the part of the other sects. In time this movement clarified
+itself, and it has had a positive influence for piety and for nobler views
+of God and the future.
+
+Of much the same nature was the movement within the fellowship of the
+Friends led by Thomas Hicks. It was Unitarian and reformatory, influenced
+by the growing democracy and zeal for humanity the age was everywhere
+manifesting.
+
+In the border states between north and south began, during the last decade
+of the eighteenth century, a movement in favor of discarding all creeds and
+confessions. It favored a return to the Bible itself as the great
+Protestant book, and as the one revealed word of God. Without learning or
+culture, these persons sought to make their faith in Christ more real by an
+evangelical obedience to his teachings. Some of them called themselves
+Disciples, holding that to follow Christ is quite enough. Others said that
+no other name than Christian is required. They were Biblical in their
+theology, and unsectarian in their attitude towards the forms and rituals
+of the church. In time these scattered groups of earnest seekers for a
+better Christian way, from Maine to Georgia, came to know each other and to
+organize for the common good.
+
+With the rapid growth of Methodism the Arminian view of man was widely
+adopted. The Baptists received into their fellowship in all parts of New
+England, at least, many who were not deeply in sympathy with their strict
+rules, but who found with them a means of protesting against the harsher
+methods of the "standing order" of Congregationalists. Their demand for
+toleration and liberty of conscience began to receive recognition after the
+Revolution, and their influence was a powerful one in bringing about the
+separation of state and church. Those who were dissatisfied with a church
+that taxed all the people, and that was upheld by state authority, found
+with the Baptists a means of making their protest heard and felt.
+
+In all directions the democratic spirit was being manifested, and
+conditions which had been upheld by the restrictive authority of England
+had to give way. The people were now speaking, and not the ministers only.
+It was an age of individualism, and of the reassertion of the tendency that
+had characterized New England from the first, but that had been held in
+check by autocratic power. There was no outbreak, no rapid change, no
+iconoclastic overturning of old institutions and customs, but the people
+were coming to their own, thinking for themselves. In reality, the people
+were conservative, especially in New England; and they moved slowly, there
+was little infidelity, and steadily were the old ideals maintained. Yet the
+individualism would assert itself. Men held the old creeds in distinctly
+personal ways, and the churches grew into more and more of independency.
+
+The theological development of the eighteenth century took two directions:
+that of rationalism and a demand for free inquiry, as represented by
+Jonathan Mayhew and William Bentley; and that of a philanthropic protest
+against the harsh features of Calvinism, as represented by Charles Chauncy
+and the Universalists. The demand that all theological problems should be
+submitted to reason for vindication or readjustment was not widely urged;
+but a few men recognized the worth of this claim, and applied this method
+without hesitation. A larger number followed them with hesitating steps,
+but with a growing confidence in reason as God's method for man's finding
+and maintaining the truth. The other tendency grew out of a benevolent
+desire to justify the ways of God to man, and was the expression of a
+deepening faith that the Divine Being deals with his children in a fatherly
+manner. That God is generous and loving was the faith of Dr. Chauncy, as it
+was of the Universalists and of the more liberal party among the
+Calvinists. Their philanthropic feelings toward their fellow-men seemed to
+them representative of God's ways of dealing with his creatures.
+
+[1] Levi L. Paine, A Critical History of the Evolution of Trinitarianism,
+    105. "Nathaniel Emmons held tenaciously to three real persons. He said,
+    'It is as easy to conceive of God existing in three persons as in one
+    person.' This language shows that Emmons employed the term 'person' in
+    the strict literal sense. The three are absolutely equal, this
+    involving the metaphysical assumption that in the Trinity being and
+    person are not coincident. Emmons is the first theologian who asserts
+    that, though we cannot conceive that three persons should be one
+    person, we may conceive that three persons may be one Being, 'if we
+    only suppose that being may signify something different from person in
+    respect to Deity.'"
+
+[2] E.H. Gillett, History and Literature of the Unitarian Controversy.
+    Historical Magazine, April 1871; second series, IX. 222.
+
+[3] Letter to Scripturista by Paulinus, 18.
+
+[4] William S. Pattee, A History of Old Braintree and Quincy, 222. When a
+    copy of Dr. Jedediah Morse's little book on American Unitarianism was
+    sent to John Adams, he acknowledged its receipt in the following
+    letter:--
+
+      QUINCY, May 15, 1815.
+
+      _Dear Doctor_,--I thank you for your favor of the 10th, and the
+      pamphlet enclosed, entitled American Unitarianism. I have turned
+      over its leaves, and found nothing that was not familiarly known to
+      me. In the preface Unitarianism is represented as only thirty years
+      old in New England. I can testify as a witness to its old age.
+      Sixty-five years ago my own minister, the Rev. Lemuel Briant; Dr.
+      Jonathan Mayhew, of the West Church in Boston; the Rev. Mr. Shute,
+      of Hingham; the Rev. John Brown, of Cohasset; and perhaps equal to
+      all, if not above all, the, Rev. Mr. Gay, of Hingham, were
+      Unitarians. Among the laity how many could I name, lawyers,
+      physicians, tradesmen, farmers! But at present I will name only
+      one, Richard Cranch, a man who had studied divinity, and Jewish and
+      Christian antiquities, more than any clergyman now existing in New
+      England.
+
+      JOHN ADAMS.
+
+    Also see C.F. Adams, Three Episodes of Massachusetts History, 643; and
+    J.H. Allen, An Historical Sketch of the Unitarian Movement since the
+    Reformation, 175.
+
+[5] History of Hingham, I., Part II., 24, Memoir of Ebenezer Gay, by
+    Solomon Lincoln.
+
+[6] Sermons, 1755, 83.
+
+[7] Ibid., 103.
+
+[8] Ibid., 119.
+
+[9] Ibid., 125.
+
+[10] Ibid., 245.
+
+[11] Sermons, 1755, 50.
+
+[12] Ibid., 82.
+
+[13] Sermons, 1755, 83.
+
+[14] Ibid., 65.
+
+[15] Ibid., 62.
+
+[16] Ibid., 63.
+
+[17] Ibid, 268, 269.
+
+[18] Sermons, 1755, 275, 276.
+
+[19] A. Bradford, Memoir of the Life and Writings of Rev. Jonathan Mayhew,
+     D.D., 36.
+
+[20] Ibid., 464.
+
+[21] Letter from his daughter, quoted by Bartol, The West Church and its
+     Ministers, 129.
+
+[22] Sermons, 293
+
+[23] C.A. Bartol, The West Church and its Ministers.
+
+[24] Reply to Dr. Chandler, quoted in Sprague's Annals of the Unitarian
+     Pulpit, 9.
+
+[25] Remarks upon a Sermon of the Bishop of Landaff, quoted by Sprague.
+
+[26] Chauncy's many published sermons and volumes are carefully enumerated
+     by Paul Leicester Ford in his Bibliotheca Chaunciana, a List of the
+     Writings of Charles Chauncy. He gives the titles of sixty-one books
+     and pamphlets published by Chauncy, and of eighty-eight about him or
+     in reply to him.
+
+[27] Sprague's Annals, 49; W.J. Potter, History of the First Congregational
+     Society, New Bedford.
+
+[28] Sprague's Annals. 42.
+
+[29] George Batchelor, Social Equilibrium, 263, 264.
+
+[30] Ibid., 265.
+
+[31] Sprague's Annals, 131.
+
+[32] Father of the essayist of the same name.
+
+[33] Joseph Priestley, 1733-1804, was one of the ablest of English
+     Unitarians. Educated in non-conformist schools, in 1755 he became a
+     Presbyterian minister. In 1761 he became a tutor in a non-conformist
+     academy, and in 1767 he was settled over a congregation in Leeds. He
+     was the librarian of Lord Shelburne from 1774 until he was settled in
+     Birmingham as minister, in 1780. In 1791 a mob destroyed his house,
+     his manuscripts, and his scientific apparatus, because of his liberal
+     political views. After three years as a preacher in Hackney, he
+     removed to the United States in 1794, and settled at Northumberland
+     in Pennsylvania, where the remainder of his life was spent. He
+     published one hundred and thirty distinct works, of which those best
+     remembered are his Institutes of Natural and Revealed Religion, A
+     History of the Corruptions of Christianity, and A General History of
+     the Christian Church to the Fall of the Western Empire. He was the
+     discoverer of oxygen, and holds a high place in the history of
+     science. He was a materialist, but believed in immortality; and he
+     believed that Christ was a man in his nature.
+
+[34] C.S. Osgood and H.M. Batchelder, Historical Sketch of Salem, 86. "He
+     took strong Arminian grounds; and under his lead the church became
+     practically Unitarian in 1785, and was one of the first churches in
+     America to adopt that faith."
+
+[35] George Batchelor, Social Equilibrium, 270.
+
+[36] Ibid., 267.
+
+[37] Ibid., 283.
+
+[38] E. Smalley, The Worcester Pulpit, 226, 232.
+
+[39] See the Unitarian Advocate and Religious Miscellany, January, 1831,
+     new series, III. 27, for Aaron Bancroft's recollections of this
+     period. In the same volume was published Ezra Ripley's reminiscences,
+     contained in the March, April, and May numbers. They are both of much
+     importance for the history of this period. Also the third volume of
+     first series, June, 1829, gives an important letter from Francis
+     Parkman concerning Unitarianism in Boston in 1812.
+
+[40] Life of Ashbel Green, President of Princeton College, 236.
+
+[41] Life of Archibald Alexander, 252.
+
+[42] Convention Sermon, 12, 13.
+
+[43] Sprague, Annals of Unitarian Pulpit, 131.
+
+[44] Ibid., 159.
+
+[45] This is the statement of his daughter.
+
+[46] Theophilus Lindsey, 1723-1808, was a curate in London, then the tutor
+     of the Duke of Northumberland, and afterward a rector in Yorkshire
+     and Dorsetshire. In 1763 he was settled at Catterick, in Yorkshire,
+     where his study of the Bible led him to doubt the truth of the
+     doctrine of the Trinity. In 1771 he joined with others in a petition
+     to Parliament asking that clergymen might not be required to
+     subscribe to the thirty-nine articles. When it was rejected a second
+     time he resigned, went to London, and opened in a room in Essex
+     Street, April 1774, the first permanent Unitarian meeting in England.
+     A chapel was built for him in 1778, and he preached there until 1793.
+     He published, in 1783, An Historical View of the State of the
+     Unitarian Doctrine and Worship from the Reformation to our own Times,
+     two volumes of sermons, and other works. In 1774 he published a
+     revised Prayer Book according to the plan suggested by Dr. Samuel
+     Clarke, which was used in the Essex Street Chapel.
+
+[47] Four Generations of a Literary Family: The Hazlitts in England,
+     Ireland, and America, 23, 26, 30, 40, 43, 50; Lamb and Hazlitt:
+     Further Letters and Records, 11-15.
+
+[48] Monthly Repository, III., 305. Mr. Hazlitt "arrived at Boston May 15,
+     1784; and, having a letter to Mr. Eliot, who received him with great
+     kindness, he was introduced on that very day to the Boston
+     Association of Ministers. The venerable Chauncy, at whose house it
+     happened to be held, entered into a familiar conversation with him,
+     and showed him every possible respect as he learned that he had been
+     acquainted with Dr. Price. Without knowing at the time anything of
+     the occasion which led to it, ordination happened to be the general
+     subject of discussion. After the different gentlemen had severally
+     delivered their opinions, the stranger was requested to declare his
+     sentiments, who unhesitatingly replied that the people or the
+     congregation who chose any man to be their minister were his proper
+     ordainers. Mr. Freeman, upon hearing this, jumped from his seat in a
+     kind of transport, saying, 'I wish you could prove that, Sir,' The
+     gentleman answered that 'few things could admit of an easier proof.'
+     And from that moment a thorough intimacy commenced between him and
+     Mr. Freeman. Soon after, the Boston prints being under no
+     _imprimatur_, he published several letters in supporting the cause of
+     Mr. Freeman. At the solicitation of Mr. Freeman he also published a
+     Scriptural Confutation of the Thirty-nine Articles. Notice being
+     circulated that this publication would appear on a particular day, the
+     printer, apprised of this circumstance, threw off a hundred papers
+     beyond his usual number, and had not one paper remaining upon his
+     hands at noon. This publication in its consequences converted Mr.
+     Freeman's congregation into a Unitarian church, which, as Mr. Freeman
+     acknowledged, could never have been done without the labors of this
+     gentleman."
+
+[49] American Unitarianism, from Belsham's Life of Lindsey, 12,
+     _note_.
+
+[50] American Unitarianism, 16.
+
+[51] American Unitarianism, note.
+
+[52] Ibid., 20.
+
+[53] American Unitarianism, 17.
+
+[54] "Oxnard was a merchant, born in Boston in 1740, but settled in
+     Portland, where he married the daughter of General Preble, in 1787.
+     He was a loyalist, and fled from the country at the outbreak of the
+     war. He returned to Portland in 1787. A few years later, 1792, the
+     Episcopal church being destitute of a minister, he was engaged as lay
+     reader, with the intention of taking orders. His Unitarianism put a
+     sudden end to his Episcopacy, but not to his preaching. He gathered a
+     small congregation in the school-house, and preached sometimes
+     sermons of his own, but more often of other men. He died in 1799."
+     John C. Perkins, How the First Parish became Unitarian,--historical
+     sermon preached in Portland.
+
+[55] American Unitarianism, 18.
+
+[56] Ibid., 17, 20.
+
+[57] American Unitarianism, 24.
+
+[58] American Unitarianism, 22.
+
+[59] Church Records, in MS., II. 7.
+
+[60] Rev. Thomas Robbins, Diary for October 13, 1799, I. 97, heard Mr.
+     Kendall, and said: "He appears to be an Arminian in full. I fear be
+     will lead many souls astray." See John Cuckson, A Brief History of
+     the First Church in Plymouth, eighth chapter.
+
+[61] Chauncy against Chandler, 152.
+
+[62] These particulars are taken from the Debates and Proceedings in the
+     Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts held in the year
+     1788, and which finally ratified the Constitution of the United
+     States, Boston, 1856.
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+
+THE PERIOD OF CONTROVERSY.
+
+In the spring of 1805 Rev. Henry Ware, who had been for nearly twenty years
+pastor of the first church in the town of Hingham, was inaugurated as the
+Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard College. The place had been made
+vacant by the death of Professor David Tappan, who was a moderate
+Calvinist; that is, one who recognized the sovereignty of God, but allowed
+to man a limited opportunity for personal effort in the process of
+salvation. It was assumed by the conservative party that a Calvinist would
+be appointed, because the founder of this important professorship, it was
+claimed, was of that way of thinking, and so conditioned his gift as to
+require that no one but a Calvinist should hold the position. This was
+strenuously denied by the liberals, who maintained that Hollis was not only
+liberal and catholic in his own theology, but that he made no such
+restrictions as were claimed.[1] When the nomination of Mr. Ware was
+presented to the overseers, it was strongly opposed; but he was elected by
+a considerable majority. A pamphlet soon appeared in opposition to him, and
+this was the beginning of a controversy that lasted for a quarter of a
+century.[2]
+
+This war of pamphlets was made more furious by Rev. John Sherman's One God
+in One Person Only, and Rev. Hosea Ballou's Treatise on the Atonement, both
+of which appeared in 1805. Mr. Sherman's book was described in The Monthly
+Anthology as "one of the first acts of direct hostility against the
+orthodox committed on these western shores."[3] The little book by Hosea
+Ballou had small influence on the current of religious thinking outside the
+Universalist body, to which he belonged, and probably did not at all enter
+into the controversy between the orthodox and the liberal
+Congregationalists. It was, however, the first positive statement of the
+doctrine of the atonement in a rational form, not as expiatory, but as
+reconciling man to the loving authority of God. Within a decade it brought
+the leading Universalists to the Unitarian position.[4] These works were
+followed, in 1810, by Rev. Noah Worcester's Bible News of the Father, Son,
+and Holy Ghost, which presented clearly and forcibly an Arian view of the
+Trinity, or the subordination of Christ to God. These definitions of their
+position on the part of the liberals were met by the publication of The
+Panoplist, which was begun by Dr. Jedidiah Morse, of Charlestown, Mass., in
+1805. This magazine interpreted the orthodox positions, and devoted itself
+zealously to the defence of the old ideas, as understood by its editors. It
+was not vehemently aggressive, but was largely devoted to general religious
+interests, and to the promotion of a higher spirit of devotion. It was
+followed by The Spirit of the Pilgrims, which was more combative, and in
+some degree intolerant. In the year 1808 the Andover Theological School was
+founded, the result of a reconciliation between the Hopkinsians and the
+Calvinists of the old type, affording an opportunity for theological
+training on the part of those who could not accept the liberal attitude of
+Harvard.
+
+Most of the liberal men of this time refused to bring their beliefs to the
+test of exact definition. It was their opinion that no theological
+statement can have high value in relation to Christian attainments. Under
+these conditions were trained the men who became the leaders in the early
+Unitarian movement. William Ellery Channing, who was settled over the
+Federal Street Church in June, 1803, was distinctly evangelical, and of a
+profound and earnest piety. Slowly he grew to accept the liberal attitude,
+as the result of his love of freedom, his lofty spirituality of nature, and
+his tolerant and generous cast of mind. He gave spiritual and intellectual
+direction to the new movement, guided its philanthropic efforts, and
+brought to noble issue its spiritual philosophy. Early in the year 1804,
+Joseph Stevens Buckminster was settled over the Brattle Street Church; and,
+though he preached but a little over six years before a blighting disease
+took him away, yet he left behind a tradition of great pulpit gifts and a
+wonderfully attractive personality. Another to die in early manhood was
+Samuel Cooper Thacher, who was settled at the New South in 1811, and who
+was long remembered for his scholarship and his zeal in the work which he
+had undertaken. Charles Lowell went to the West Church in 1806, and he
+nobly sustained the traditions for liberality and spiritual freedom that
+had gathered about that place of worship. In 1814 appeared Edward Everett,
+at the age of twenty (which had been that of Buckminster when he entered
+the pulpit), as the minister of the Brattle Street Church, to charm with
+his eloquence, learning, grace, and power. Francis Parkman began his career
+at the New North in 1812,--"a man of various information, a kind spirit,
+singular benevolence, polished yet simple manners, fine literary
+taste."[5] A few years later John Gorham Palfrey became the minister of
+the Brattle Street Church, and James Walker was settled over the Harvard
+Church in Charlestown. Among the laymen in the churches to which these men
+preached were many persons of distinction. The liberal fellowship,
+therefore, was of the highest social and intellectual standing. The piety
+of the churches was serious, if not profound; and the religion presented
+was simple, sincere, intellectual, and earnestly spiritual.
+
+[Sidenote: The Monthly Anthology.]
+
+The practical and tolerant aims of the liberals were shown by the manner in
+which they began to give expression publicly to their position. In The
+Monthly Anthology they first found voice, although that publication was
+started without the slightest controversial purpose. Begun by a young man
+as a monthly literary journal in 1803, when he found it would not support
+him, he abandoned it;[6] and the publishers asked Rev. William Emerson,
+the minister of the First Church in Boston, to take charge of it. He
+consented to do so, and gathered about him a company of friends to aid him
+in its management. Their meetings finally grew into The Anthology Club,
+which continued the publication through ten volumes. Among the members were
+William Emerson, Samuel Cooper Thacher, Joseph S. Buckminster, and Joseph
+Tuckerman, pastors of churches in Boston and vicinity of the liberal
+school. There was also John S.J. Gardiner, the rector of Trinity Church,
+who was the president of the club throughout the whole period of its
+existence, and one of the most frequent contributors to the periodical. The
+members were not drawn together by any sectarian spirit, but by a common
+aim of doing something for literature, and for the advancement of culture.
+The Monthly Anthology was the first distinctly literary journal published
+in this country. It had an important influence in developing the
+intellectual tastes of New England, and of giving initiative to its
+literary capacities. The spirit of The Monthly Anthology was broad and
+catholic. Naturally, therefore, in its pages the liberals made their first
+protest against party aims and methods. In a few instances theological
+problems were discussed, the extreme Trinitarian doctrines were criticised,
+and the liberal attitude was defended.
+
+[Sidenote: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity.]
+
+In the year 1806 Rev. William Emerson began the publication of The
+Christian Monitor, in his capacity as the secretary of the Society for
+promoting Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity, a society then newly
+founded by residents of Boston and its vicinity for the purpose of
+publishing enlightened and practical tracts and books. This series of small
+books, each containing one hundred and fifty or two hundred pages, and
+issued quarterly, was begun for the purpose of publishing devotional works
+of a practical and liberal type. The first number contained prayers and
+devotional exercises for personal or family use, and there followed Bishop
+Newcombe's Life and Character of Christ, a condensed reproduction of Law's
+Serious Call, Bishop Hall's Contemplations, Erskine's Letters to the
+Bereaved, and two or three volumes of sermons on religious duties and the
+education of children.
+
+Besides The Christian Monitor this society issued a series of Religious
+Tracts which had a considerable circulation. Then it undertook the
+publication of books for children, and for family reading. In aiming to
+publish works of pure morality and practical piety, its methods were
+thoroughly catholic and liberal; for it was unsectarian, and yet earnestly
+Christian. The spirit and methods of this society were thoroughly
+characteristic of the time when it was organized, and of the men who gave
+it life and purpose. Not dogma, but piety, was what they desired. In the
+truest sense they were unsectarian Christians, zealous for good works and a
+devout life.[7]
+
+[Sidenote: General Repository.]
+
+The Monthly Anthology and The Christian Monitor represented the mild and
+undogmatic attitude of the liberals, their shrinking from all controversy,
+and their desire to devote their labors wholly to the promotion of a
+tolerant and catholic Christianity. The beginning of the controversial
+spirit on the liberal side found expression in The General Repository and
+Review, which was begun in Cambridge by Rev. Andrews Norton, in April,
+1812. In the first number of this quarterly review the editor said that the
+discussion of the doctrine of the Trinity "in our own country has hitherto
+been chiefly confined to private circles," and cited the books of John
+Sherman and Noah Worcester as the only exceptions. The review opened,
+however, with a defence of liberal Christianity which was aggressive and
+outspoken. In later issues an energetic statement was made of the liberal
+position, the controversial articles were able and explicit, and in a
+manner hitherto quite unknown on the part of what the editor called
+"catholic Christians." One of the numbers contained a long and interesting
+survey of the religious interests of the country, and summed up in an
+admirable manner the prospects for the liberal churches. After the
+publication of the sixth number, Mr. Norton withdrew from the work to
+become the librarian of Harvard College; and it was continued through two
+more issues by "a society of gentlemen." To this journal Mr. Norton was by
+far the largest contributor; but other writers were Edward Everett, and his
+brother, Alexander H. Everett, Joseph S. Buckminster, John T. Kirkland,
+Sidney Willard, George Ticknor, Washington Allston, John Lowell, Noah
+Worcester, and James Freeman, most of them connected with Harvard College
+or with the liberal churches in Boston. It is evident, however, that the
+liberal public was not yet ready for so aggressive and out-spoken a
+journal.
+
+[Sidenote: The Christian Disciple.]
+
+What was desired was something milder, less aggressive, of a distinctly
+religious and conciliatory character. To this end Drs. Channing, Charles
+Lowell, and Tuckerman, and Rev. S.C. Thatcher, with whom was afterwards
+associated Rev. Francis Parkman, planned a monthly magazine that should be
+liberal in its character, but not sectarian or dogmatic. They invited Rev.
+Noah Worcester, whose Bible News had cost him his pulpit, to remove from
+New Hampshire to Boston to become its editor. Although Mr. Worcester's
+beliefs affiliated him with the Hopkinsians in everything except his
+attitude in regard to the inferiority of Christ to God, yet he was
+compelled to withdraw from his old connections, and to find new fields of
+activity. He began The Christian Disciple as a religious and family
+magazine, the first number being issued in May, 1813. It was not designed
+for theological discussion or distinctly for the defence of the liberal
+position. Its tone was conciliatory and moderate, while it zealously
+defended religious liberty and charity. Its aim was practical and
+humanitarian, to help men live the Christian life, as individuals, and in
+their social relations. When it touched upon controverted questions, it was
+in an expository manner, with the purpose of instructing its readers, and
+of leading them to a higher appreciation of true religion. As his
+biographer well said of Noah Worcester, he made this work "distinguished
+for its unqualified devotedness to the individual rights of opinion, and
+the sacred duty of a liberal regard to them in other men."[8]
+
+Dr. Worcester was not so much a theologian as a philanthropist; and, if he
+was drawn into controversy, it was accidentally, and much to his surprise
+and disappointment. It was not for the sake of defending his own positions
+that he replied to his critics, but in the name of truth, and from an
+exacting sense of duty. His gentle, loving, and sympathetic nature unfitted
+him for intellectual contentions; and he much preferred to devote himself
+to philanthropies and reforms. In the briefest way The Christian Disciple
+reported the doings of the liberal churches and men, but it gave much space
+to all kinds of organizations of a humanitarian character. It advocated the
+temperance reform with earnestness, and this at a time when there were few
+other voices speaking in its behalf. It devoted many pages to the
+condemnation of slavery, and to the approval of all efforts to secure its
+mitigation or its abolition. It gave large attention to the evils of war, a
+subject which more and more absorbed the interest of the editor. It
+condemned duelling in the most emphatic terms, as it did all forms of
+aggressiveness and inhumanity. In spirit Dr. Worcester was as much a
+non-resistant as Tolstoi, and for much the same reasons. More extended
+reports of Bible societies were given than of any other kind of
+organization, and these societies especially enlisted the interest of Dr.
+Worcester and his associates.
+
+With the end of 1818 Dr. Worcester withdrew from the editorship of The
+Christian Disciple, to devote himself to the cause of peace, the interests
+of Christian amity and goodwill, and the exposition of his own theological
+convictions. The management of the magazine came into the hands of its
+original proprietors, who continued its publication.
+
+Under the new management the circulation of the magazine increased. At
+first the younger Henry Ware became the editor, and he carried the work
+through the six volumes published before it took a new name. It became more
+distinctly theological in its purpose, and it undertook the task of
+presenting and defending the views of the liberals. In 1824 The Christian
+Disciple passed into the hands of Rev. John Gorham Palfrey, and he changed
+its name to The Christian Examiner without changing its general character.
+At the end of two years Mr. Francis Jenks became the editor, but in 1831 it
+came under the control of Rev. James Walker and Rev. Francis W.P.
+Greenwood. Gradually it became the organ of the higher intellectual life of
+the Unitarians, and gave expression to their interest in literature,
+general culture, and the philanthropies, as well as theological knowledge.
+The sub-title of Theological Review, which it bore during the first five
+volumes, indicated its preference for subjects of speculative religious
+interest; but during the half-century of its best influence it was the
+General Review or the Religious Miscellany, showing that it was theological
+only in the broadest spirit.
+
+[Sidenote: Dr. Morse and American Unitarianism.]
+
+Reluctant as the liberal men were, to take a denominational position, and
+to commit themselves to the interests of a party in religion, or even to
+withdraw themselves in any way from the churches with which they had been
+connected, they were compelled to do so by the force of conditions they
+could not control. One of the first distinct lines of separation was caused
+by the refusal of the more conservative men to exchange pulpits with their
+liberal neighbors. This tendency first began to show itself about the year
+1810; and it received a decided impetus from the attitude taken by Rev.
+John Codman, who in 1808 became the minister of the Second Church in
+Dorchester. He refused to exchange with several of the liberal ministers of
+the Boston Association, although he was an intimate friend of Dr. Channing,
+who had directed his theological training, and also preached his ordination
+sermon. The more liberal members of his parish attempted to compel him to
+exchange with the Boston ministers without regard to theological beliefs;
+and a long contention followed, with the result that the more liberal part
+of his congregation withdrew in 1813, and formed the Third Religious
+Society in Dorchester.[9] The withdrawal of ministerial courtesies of
+this kind gradually increased, especially after the controversies that
+began in 1815, though it was not until many years later that exchanges
+between the two parties ceased.
+
+In 1815 Dr. Jedidiah Morse, the editor of The Panoplist, and the author of
+various school books in geography and history, published in a little book
+of about one hundred pages, which bore the title of American Unitarianism,
+a chapter from Thomas Belsham's[10] biography of Theophilus Lindsey, in
+which Dr. Lindsey's American correspondents, including prominent ministers
+in Boston and other parts of New England, had declared their Unitarianism.
+Morse also published an article in The Panoplist, setting forth that these
+ministers had not the courage of their convictions, that, while they were
+Unitarians, they had withheld their opinions from open utterance. His
+object was to force them to declare themselves, and either to retract their
+heresies or else to state them and to withdraw from the churches with which
+they had been connected. In a letter addressed to Rev. Samuel C. Thacher,
+Dr. Channing gave to the public a reply to these charges of insincerity and
+want of open-mindedness. He said that, while many of the ministers and
+members of their congregations were Unitarians, they did not accept Dr.
+Belsham's type of Unitarianism, which made Christ a man. He declared that
+no open declaration of Unitarianism had been made, because they were not in
+love with the sectarian spirit, and because they were quite unwilling to
+indulge in any form of proselyting. "Accustomed as we are," he wrote, "to
+see genuine piety in all classes of Christians, in Trinitarians and
+Unitarians, in Calvinists and Arminians, in Episcopalians, Methodists,
+Baptists, and Congregationalists, and delighting in this character wherever
+it appears, we are little anxious to bring men over to our peculiar
+opinions."[11]
+
+The publication of Dr. Morse's book, however, gave new emphasis to the
+spirit of separation which was soon to compel the formation of a new
+denomination. It was followed four years later by Dr. Channing's Baltimore
+sermon and by other positive declarations of theological opinion.[12] From
+that time the controversy raged fiercely, and any possibility of
+reconciliation was removed. Before this time those who were not orthodox
+had called themselves Catholic, Christians or Liberal Christians to
+designate their attitude of toleration and liberality. The orthodox had
+called them Unitarians; and especially was this attempted by Dr. Morse in
+the introduction to his American Unitarianism, in order to fasten upon them
+the objectionable name given to the English liberals. It was assumed that
+the American liberals must agree with the English in their materialism and
+in their conception of Christ as a man. Dr. Channing repudiated this
+assumption, and declared it unjust and untrue; but he accepted the word
+Unitarian and gave it a meaning of his own. Channing defined the word to
+mean only anti-Trinitarianism; and he accepted it because it seemed to him
+presumptuous to use the word liberal as applied to a party, whereas it may
+be applicable to men of all opinions.
+
+[Sidenote: Evangelical Missionary Society.]
+
+Of more interest than these contentions in behalf of theological opinions
+is the way in which the liberal party brought itself to the task of
+manifesting its own purposes. Its first organizations were tentative and
+inclusive, without theological purpose or bias. No distinct lines were
+drawn, and to them belonged orthodox and liberal alike. Their sole
+distinguishing attitude was a catholicity of temper that permitted the free
+activity of the liberals. One of the first organizations of this kind was
+the Evangelical Missionary Society, which was formed by several of the
+ministers resident in Worcester and Middlesex Counties. The first meeting
+was held in Lancaster, November 4, 1807, when a constitution was adopted
+and the society elected officers. "The great object of this Society," said
+the constitution, "is to furnish the means of Christian knowledge and moral
+improvement to those inhabitants of our own country who are destitute or
+poorly provided." The growth of the country, even in New England (for the
+operations of the society were confined to that region), developed many
+communities in which the population was scattered, and without adequate
+means of education and religion. To aid these communities in securing good
+teachers and ministers was the purpose of the society. It refused to send
+forth itinerants, but carefully selected such towns as gave promise of
+permanent growth, and sent to them ministers instructed to organize
+churches and to promote the building of meeting-houses. In this way it was
+the means of establishing a number of churches in Maine, New Hampshire, and
+Massachusetts. It also sent a number of teachers into new settlements in
+Maine, who were successful in training many of their pupils for teaching in
+the public schools. In several instances minister and teacher were combined
+in one person, but the work was none the less effective.
+
+In 1816 this society was incorporated, its membership was broadened to
+include the state, and active aid and financial support were given it by
+the churches in Boston and Salem. It was not sectarian, though, after its
+incorporation, its membership was more largely recruited from liberals. In
+time it became distinctly Unitarian in its character, and such it has
+remained to the present day. Very slowly, however, did it permit itself to
+lose any of its marks of catholicity and inclusiveness. In the end its
+membership was confined to Unitarians because no one else wished to share
+in its unsectarian purposes. At the present time this society does a quiet
+and helpful work in the way of aiding churches that have ceased to be
+self-supporting because of the shifting conditions of population, and in
+affording friendly assistance to ministers in times of distress or when old
+age has come upon them.
+
+[Sidenote: The Berry Street Conference.]
+
+The first meeting of the liberal ministers for organization was held in the
+vestry of the Federal Street Church[13] on the evening of May 30, 1820,
+which immediately preceded election day, the time when anniversary meetings
+were usually held. The ministers of the state then gathered in Boston to
+hear the election sermon, and for such counselling of each other as their
+congregational methods made desirable. At this meeting Dr. Channing gave an
+address stating the objects that had brought those present together, and
+the desirability of their drawing near each other as liberal men for mutual
+aid and support. "It was thought by some of us," he said, "that the
+ministers of this commonwealth who are known to agree in what are called
+liberal and catholic views of Christianity needed a bond of union, a means
+of intercourse, and an opportunity of conference not as yet enjoyed. It was
+thought that by meeting to join their prayers and counsels, to report the
+state and prospects of religion in different parts of the commonwealth, to
+communicate the methods of advancing it which have been found most
+successful, to give warning of dangers not generally apprehended, to seek
+advice in difficulties, and to take a broad survey of our ecclesiastical
+affairs and of the wants of our churches, much light, strength, comfort,
+animation, zeal, would be spread through our body. The individuals who
+originated this plan were agreed that, whilst the meeting should be
+confined to those who harmonize generally in opinion, it should be
+considered as having for its object, not simply the advancement of their
+peculiar views, but the general diffusion of practical religion and of the
+spirit of Christianity."
+
+As this address indicates in every word of it the liberal men were
+sensitively anxious to put no fetters on each other; and their reluctance
+to circumscribe their own personal freedom was extreme. This was the cause
+that had thus far prevented any effectual organization, and it now withheld
+the members from any but the most tentative methods. Having escaped from
+the bondage of sect, they were suspicious of everything that in any manner
+gave indication of denominational restrictions.
+
+[Sidenote: The Publishing Fund Society.]
+
+In May, 1821, a year later than the foundation of the Berry Street
+Conference, several gentlemen in Boston, "desirous of promoting the
+circulation of works adapted to improve the public mind in religion and
+morality," met and established a Publishing Fund. The publishing committee
+then appointed consisted of Dr. Joseph Tuckerman, Dr. John Gorham Palfrey,
+and Mr. George Ticknor. The Publishing Fund Society refused to print
+doctrinal tracts or those devoted in any way to sectarian interests. The
+members of the society made declaration that their publications had nothing
+to do with any of the isms in religion. Their great object was the increase
+of practical goodness, the improvement of men in all that truly exalts and
+ennobles them or that qualifies them for usefulness and happiness. Most of
+their tracts were in the form of stories of a didactic character, in which
+the writers assumed the broad principles of Christian theology and ethics
+which are common to all the followers of Christ, without meddling with
+sectarian prejudice or party views. In such statements as these the
+promoters of this work indicated their methods, their aim being to furnish
+good reading to youth, and to those in scattered communities who could not
+have access to books that were instructive. Besides the tracts of this kind
+the society also published a series for adults, which were of a more
+strictly devotional character, and yet did not omit to provide
+entertainment and instruction.[14] This society continued its work for
+many years, and it issued a considerable number of tracts and books that
+well served the purpose for which they were designed.
+
+[Sidenote: Harvard Divinity School.]
+
+One important result of the theological discussions of the time was the
+organization of the Divinity School in connection with Harvard College. The
+eighteenth-century method of preparation for the ministerial office was to
+study with some settled pastor, who directed the reading of the student,
+gave him practical acquaintance with the labors of a pastor, and initiated
+him into the profession by securing for him the "approbation" of the
+ministerial association with which he was connected. Another method was for
+the student to continue his residence in Cambridge, and follow his
+theological studies under the guidance of the president and the Hollis
+professor, making use of the library of the college. When Rev. Henry Ware
+was inducted into the Hollis professorship, it was seen that some more
+systematic method of theological study was desirable. He gradually enlarged
+the scope of his activities, and in 1811 he began a systematic courser of
+instruction for the resident students in theology. Ware "was one of those
+genuine lovers of reform and progress," as John Gorham Palfrey said, "who
+are always ready for any innovation for the better; who, in the pursuit of
+what is truly good and useful, are not only content to move on with the
+age, but desirous to move on before it."[15] This effort of his to improve
+the methods of theological study proved to be the germ of the existing
+Divinity School.
+
+The Hollis professorship of divinity was founded by Thomas Hollis, of
+London, in 1721. Samuel Dexter, of Boston, established a lectureship of
+Biblical criticism in 1811. Both the professorship and the lectureship were
+designed for the undergraduates, and not primarily for students in
+theology. In 1815, however, it became apparent to some of the liberals that
+a school wholly devoted to the preparation of young men for the ministry
+was needed.
+
+Those who subscribed to the $30,000 secured for this purpose were in 1816
+formed into the Society for the Promotion of Theological Education in
+Harvard University. This society rendered efficient aid to the school for
+several years. At a meeting held at the Boston Athenaeum, July 17, 1816,
+Rev. John T. Kirkland became its president, Rev. Francis Parkman, recording
+secretary, Rev. Charles Lowell, corresponding secretary, and Jonathan
+Phillips, treasurer. The society was supported by annual subscriptions,
+life subscriptions, and donations. The school began its work in 1816, with
+Rev. Andrews Norton as the Dexter lecturer on Biblical criticism, Rev. J.T.
+Kirkland as instructor in systematic theology, Rev. Edward Everett in the
+criticism of the Septaugint, Professor Sidney Willard in Hebrew, and
+Professor Levi Frisbie in ethics. In 1819 Mr. Norton was advanced to a
+professorship, and thereafter devoted his whole time to the school; and
+during that year the school was divided into three classes. In 1824 the
+Society for the Promotion of Theological Education took the general
+direction of the school, arranging the course of study and otherwise
+assuming a supervision, which continued until 1831, when the school
+received a place as one of the departments of the University. In 1826 a
+building was erected for the school by the society, which has borne the
+name of Divinity Hall. In 1828 a professorship of pulpit eloquence and
+pastoral care was established by the society, and in 1830 the younger Henry
+Ware entered upon its duties.[16] He was succeeded in 1842 by Rev. Convers
+Francis. In 1830 Rev. John Gorham Palfrey became the professor of Biblical
+literature, and soon after the instructor in Hebrew. Rev. George Rapall
+Noyes, in 1840, took the Hancock professorship of Hebrew and the Dexter
+lectureship in Biblical criticism.
+
+Though organized and conducted by the Unitarians, the Divinity School was
+from the first unsectarian in its purpose and methods; for the Society for
+the Promotion of Theological Education, on its organization, put into its
+constitution this fundamental law: "It being understood that every
+encouragement be given to the serious, impartial and unbiassed
+investigation of Christian truth, and that no assent to the peculiarities
+of any denomination, be required either of the students or professors or
+instructors."
+
+[Sidenote: The Unitarian Miscellany.]
+
+The first outspoken periodical on the liberal side that aimed at being
+distinctly denominational was published in Baltimore. Dr. Freeman preached
+in that city in 1816, with the result that during the following year a
+church was organized there. It was there in 1819, on the occasion of the
+ordination of Rev. Jared Sparks as the first minister of this church, that
+Dr. Channing gave utterance to the first great declaration of the Unitarian
+position, in a sermon that has never been surpassed in this country as an
+intellectual interpretation of the highest spiritual problems.
+
+In January, 1821, Rev. Jared Sparks began the publication in Baltimore of
+The Unitarian Miscellany and Christian Monitor; and for three years he was
+its editor. For another three years it was conducted by his successor in
+the Baltimore pulpit, Rev. Francis W.P. Greenwood, who continued it until
+he became the minister of King's Chapel, when it ceased to exist. During
+the six years of its publication this magazine was ably edited. It was
+controversial in a liberal spirit, it was positively denominational, and it
+had a large and widely extended circulation. It reported all prominent
+Unitarian events, and those of a liberal tendency in all religious bodies.
+Attacks on Unitarianism were repelled, and the Unitarian position was
+explained and vindicated. Mr. Sparks was as aggressive as Andrews Norton
+had been, and was by no means willing to keep to the quiet and reticent
+manner of the Unitarians of Boston. When he was attacked, he replied with
+energy and skill; and he carried the war into the enemies' camp. His
+magazine was far more positive than anything the liberals had hitherto put
+forth, and its methods were viewed with something of suspicion in the
+conservative circles of Massachusetts. He published a series of letters on
+the Episcopal Church in The Unitarian Miscellany, which he enlarged and put
+into a book.[17] Another series of letters was on the comparative moral
+tendencies of Trinitarian and Unitarian doctrines, and these grew into a
+volume.[18] Both were in reply to attacks made upon him, and both were
+regarded with suspicion and doubt by the men about Cambridge; but, in time,
+they came to see that his method was sincere, learned, and honest.
+
+In The Unitarian Miscellany, as in all their utterances of this time, the
+Unitarians manifested much anxiety to maintain their position as the true
+expounders of primitive Christianity. They did not covet a place outside
+the larger fellowship of the Christian faith. A favorite method of
+vindicating their right to Christian recognition was by the publication of
+the works of liberal orthodox writers of previous generations. Such an
+attempt was made by Jared Sparks in his Collection of Essays and Tracts in
+Theology, with Biographical and Critical Notices, issued in Boston from
+1823 to 1826. In the general preface to these six volumes, Mr. Sparks said
+that "the only undeviating rule of selection will be that every article
+chosen shall be marked with rational and liberal views of Christianity, and
+suited to inform the mind or improve the temper and practice," and that the
+series was "designed to promote the cause of sacred learning, of truth and
+charity, of religious freedom and rational piety." In the first volume were
+included Turretin's essay on the fundamentals of religious truth, a number
+of short essays by Firmin Abauzit, Francis Blackburne's discussion of the
+value of confessions of faith, and several essays by Bishop Hoadley. That
+these writings have now no significance, even to intelligent readers, does
+not detract from the value of their publication; for they had a living
+meaning and power. Other writers, drawn upon in the succeeding volumes were
+Isaac Newton, Jeremy Taylor, John Locke, Isaac Watts, William Penn, and
+Mrs. Barbauld. The catholicity of the editor was shown in the wide range of
+his authors, whose doctrinal connections covered the whole field of
+Christian theology.
+
+In the publication of The Unitarian Miscellany, Mr. Sparks had the business
+aid of the Baltimore Unitarian Book Society, formed November 19, 1820,
+which was organized to carry on this work, and to disseminate other liberal
+books and tracts. This society distributed Bibles, "and such other books as
+contain rational and consistent views of Christian doctrines, and are
+calculated to promote a correct faith, sincere piety, and a holy practice."
+In the year 1821 was formed the Unitarian Library and Tract Society of New
+York; and similar societies were started in Philadelphia and Charleston
+soon after, as well as in other cities. Some of these societies published
+books, tracts, and periodicals, all of them distributed Unitarian
+publications, and libraries were formed of liberal works. The most
+successful of these societies, which soon numbered a score or two, was that
+in Baltimore. This society extended its missionary operations with the
+printed page widely, sending tracts into every part of the country, the
+demand for them having become very large. Its periodical had an extended
+circulation, its cheapness, its popular character, and its outspoken
+attitude on doctrinal questions serving to make it the most successful of
+the liberal publications of the time.[19]
+
+[Sidenote: The Christian Register.]
+
+On April 20, 1821, was issued the first number of The Christian Register,
+the regular weekly publication of which began with August 24 of that year.
+Its four pages contained four columns each, but the third of these pages
+was given to secular news and advertisements. The first page was devoted to
+general religious subjects, the second discussed those topics which were of
+special interest to Unitarians, while the fourth was given to literary
+miscellanies. Almost nothing of church news was reported, and only in a
+limited way was the paper denominational. It was a general religious
+newspaper of a kind that was acceptable to the liberals, and it defended
+and interpreted their cause when occasion demanded. The paper was started
+wholly as an individual enterprise by its publisher, Rev. David Reed, who
+acted for about five years as its editor. He had the encouragement of the
+leading Unitarians of Boston and its vicinity; and, when such men as
+Channing, Ware, and Norton wished to speak for the Unitarians, its columns
+were open to them. Among the other early contributors were Kirkland, Story,
+Edward Everett, Walker, Dewey, Furness, Palfrey, Gannett, Noah Worcester,
+Greenwood, Bancroft, Sparks, Alexander Young, Freeman, Burnap, Pierpont,
+Noyes, Lowell, Frothingham, and Pierce.
+
+In his prospectus the publisher spoke of the growth of the spirit of free
+religious inquiry in the country; and he said that in all classes of the
+community there was an eagerness to understand theological questions, and
+to arrive at and practice the genuine principles of Christianity. His ideal
+was a periodical that should present the same doctrines and temper as The
+Christian Disciple, but that would be of a more popular character. "The
+great object of The Christian Register," he said to his readers, "will be
+to inculcate the principles of a rational faith, and to promote the
+practice of genuine piety. To accomplish this purpose it will aim to excite
+a spirit of free and independent religious inquiry, and to assist in
+ascertaining and bringing into use the true principles of interpreting the
+Scriptures."
+
+For a number of years The Christian Register conformed to "the mild and
+amiable spirit" in which it began its career, rarely being aroused to an
+aggressive attitude, and seldom undertaking to speak for Unitarianism as a
+distinct form of Christianity. When the liberals were fiercely attacked, it
+spoke out, as, for instance, at the time when the Unitarians were charged
+with stealing churches from the orthodox.[20] Otherwise it was mild and
+placid enough, given to expressing its friendly interest in every kind of
+reform, from the education of women to the emancipation of slaves,
+thoroughly humanitarian in its attitude, not doctrinal or controversial,
+but faithfully catholic and tolerant. It was a well-conducted periodical,
+represented a wide range of interests, and was admirably suited to
+interpret the temper and spirit of a rational religion. It is now the
+oldest weekly religious newspaper published in this country. As the leading
+Unitarian periodical, it is still conducted with notable enterprise and
+ability.
+
+Another periodical also deserves mention in this connection, and that is
+the North American Review, which was begun by William Tudor, one of the
+members of The Anthology Club, in May, 1815. While it was not religious in
+its character, it was from the first, and for more than sixty years, edited
+by Unitarians; and its contributors were very largely from that religious
+body. The same tendencies and conditions that led the liberals to establish
+The Monthly Anthology, The Christian Disciple, and The Christian Examiner,
+gave demand amongst them for a distinctly literary and critical journal.
+They had gained that form of liberated and catholic culture which made such
+works possible, and to a large extent they afforded the public necessary to
+their support. Mr. Tudor was succeeded as the editor of the review by
+Professor Edward T. Channing, and then followed in succession Edward
+Everett, Jared Sparks, Alexander H. Everett, John Gorham Palfrey, Francis
+Bowen, and Andrew P. Peabody, all Unitarians. Among the early Unitarian
+contributors were Nathan Hale, Joseph Story, Nathaniel Bowditch, W.H.
+Prescott, William Cullen Bryant, and Theophilus Parsons. For many years few
+of the regular contributors were from any other religious body, not because
+the editors put restrictions upon others, but because those who were
+interested in general literary, historical, and scientific subjects
+belonged almost exclusively to the churches of this faith.
+
+[Sidenote: Results of the Division in Congregationalism.]
+
+The controversy which began in 1805 continued for about twenty years. The
+pamphlets and books it brought forth are almost forgotten, and they would
+have little interest at the present time. They gradually widened the breach
+between the orthodox and the liberal Congregationalists. It would be
+difficult to name a decisive date for their actual separation. The
+organization of the societies, and the establishment of the periodicals
+already mentioned, were successive steps to that result. The most important
+event was undoubtedly the formation of the American Unitarian Association,
+in 1825; but even that important movement on the part of the Unitarians did
+not bring about a final separation. Individual churches and ministers
+continued to treat each other with the same courtesy and hospitality as
+before.
+
+That the breach was inevitable seems to be the verdict of history; and yet
+it is not difficult to see to-day how it might have been avoided. The
+Unitarians were dealt with in such a manner that they could not continue
+the old connection without great discomfort and loss of self-respect. They
+were forced to organize for self-protection, and yet they did so
+reluctantly and with much misgiving. They would have preferred to remain as
+members of the united Congregational body, but the theological temper of
+the time made this impossible. It would not be just to say that there was
+actual persecution, but there could not be unity where there was not
+community of thought and faith.
+
+When the division in the Congregational churches came, one hundred and
+twenty-five churches allied themselves with the Unitarians,--one hundred in
+Massachusetts, a score in other parts of New England, and a half-dozen west
+of the Hudson River. These churches numbered among them, however, many of
+the oldest and the strongest, including about twenty of the first
+twenty-five organized in Massachusetts, and among them Plymouth (organized
+in Scrooby), Salem, Dorchester, Boston, Watertown, Roxbury, Hingham,
+Concord, and Quincy. The ten Congregational churches in Boston, with the
+exception of the Old South, allied themselves with the Unitarians. Other
+first churches to take this action were those of Portsmouth, Kennebunk, and
+Portland.
+
+Outside New England a beginning was made almost as soon as the Unitarian
+name came into recognition. At Charleston, S.C., the Congregational church,
+which had been very liberal, was divided in 1816 as the result of the
+preaching of Rev. Anthony Forster. He was led to read the works of Dr.
+Priestley, and became a Unitarian in consequence. Owing to ill-health, he
+was soon obliged to resign; and Rev. Samuel Gilman was installed in 1819.
+Rev. Robert Little, an English Unitarian, took up his residence in
+Washington in 1819, and began to preach there; and a church was organized
+in 1821. While chaplain of the House of Representatives, in 1821-22, Jared
+Sparks preached to this society fortnightly, and in the House Chamber on
+the alternate Sunday. When he went to Charleston, in 1819, to assist in the
+installation of Mr. Gilman, he preached to a very large congregation in the
+state-house in Raleigh; and the next year he spoke to large congregations
+in Virginia.[21] More than a decade earlier there were individual
+Unitarians in Kentucky.[22] On his journey to the ordination of Jared
+Sparks, Dr. Channing preached in a New York parlor; and on his return he
+occupied the lecture-hall of the Medical School. The result was the First
+Congregational Church (All Souls'), organized in 1819, which was followed
+by the Church of the Messiah in 1825. In fact, many of the more intelligent
+and thoughtful persons everywhere were inclined to accept a liberal
+interpretation of Christianity.
+
+Although the Congregational body was divided into two distinct
+denominations, there were three organizations, formed prior to that event,
+which have remained intact to this day. In these societies Orthodox and
+Unitarian continue to unite as Congregationalists, and the sectarian lines
+are not recognized. The first of these organizations is the Massachusetts
+Congregational Charitable Society, which was formed early in the eighteenth
+century for the purpose of securing "support to the widows and children of
+deceased congregational ministers." The second is the Massachusetts
+Convention of Congregational Ministers, also formed early in the eighteenth
+century, although its records begin only with the year 1748. It was formed
+for consultation, advice, and counsel, to aid orphans and widows of
+ministers, and to secure the general promotion of the interests of
+religion. The convention sermon has been one of the recognized institutions
+of Massachusetts, and since the beginning of the Unitarian controversy it
+has been preached alternately by ministers of the two denominations. The
+Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians and Others in North
+America was formed in 1787. The members, officers, and missionaries of this
+society have been of both denominations; and the work accomplished has been
+carried on in a spirit of amity and good-will. These societies indicate
+that co-operation may be secured without theological unity, and it is
+possible that they may become the basis in the future of a closer sympathy
+and fellowship between the severed Congregational churches.
+
+[Sidenote: Final Separation of State and Church.]
+
+From the beginning the liberal movement had been more or less intimately
+associated with that for the promotion of religious freedom and the
+separation of state and church. Many of the states withdrew religion from
+state control on the adoption of the Federal Constitution. In New England
+this was done in the first years of the century. Connecticut came to this
+result after an exciting agitation in 1818. Massachusetts was more
+tenacious of the old ways; but in 1811 its legislative body passed a
+"religious freedom act," that secured individuals from taxation for the
+support of churches with which they were not connected. The constitutional
+convention of 1820 proposed a bill of rights that aimed to secure religious
+freedom, but it was defeated by large majorities. It was only when church
+property was given by the courts to the parish in preference to the church,
+and when the "standing order" churches had been repeatedly foiled in their
+efforts to retain the old prerogatives, that a majority could be secured
+for religious freedom. In November, 1833, the legislature submitted to the
+people a revision of the bill of rights, which provided for the separation
+of state and church, and the voluntary support of churches. A majority was
+secured for this amendment, and it became the law in 1834. Massachusetts
+was the last of all the states to arrive at this result, and a far greater
+effort was required to bring it about than elsewhere. The support of the
+churches was now purely voluntary, the state no longer lending its aid to
+tax person and property for their maintenance.
+
+Thus it came about that Massachusetts adopted the principle and method of
+Roger Williams after two centuries. For the first time she came to the full
+recognition of her own democratic ideals, and to the practical acceptance
+of the individualism for which she had contended from the beginning. She
+had fought stubbornly and zealously for the faith she prized above all
+other things, but by the logic of events and the greatness of the principle
+of liberty she was conquered. The minister and the meeting-house were by
+her so dearly loved that she could not endure the thought of having them
+shorn of any of their power and influence; but for the sake of their true
+life she at last found it wise and just to leave all the people free to
+worship God in their own way, without coercion and without restraint.
+
+Although the liberal ministers and churches led the way in securing
+religious freedom, yet they were socially and intellectually conservative.
+Radical changes they would not accept, and they moved away from the old
+beliefs with great caution. The charge that they were timid was undoubtedly
+true, though there is no evidence that they attempted to conceal their real
+beliefs. Evangelical enthusiasm was not congenial to them, and they
+rejected fanaticism in every form. They had a deep, serious, and spiritual
+faith, that was intellectual without being rationalistic, marked by strong
+common sense, and vigorous with moral integrity. They permitted a wide
+latitude of opinion, and yet they were thoroughly Christian in their
+convictions. Most of them saw in the miracles of the New Testament the only
+positive evidence of the truth of Christianity, which was to them an
+external and supernatural revelation. They were quite willing to follow
+Andrews Norton, however, who was the chief defender of the miraculous, in
+his free criticism of the Old Testament and the birth-stories in the
+Gospels.
+
+The liberal ministers fostered an intellectual and literary expression of
+religion, and yet their chief characteristic was their spirituality. They
+aimed at ethical insight and moral integrity in their influence upon men
+and women, and at cultivating purity of life and an inward probity. In
+large degree they developed the spirit of philanthropy and a fine regard
+for the rights and the welfare of others. They were not sectarian or
+zealous for bringing others to the acceptance of their own beliefs; but
+they were generous in behalf of all public interests, faithful to all civic
+duties, and known for their private generosity and faithful Christian
+living. Under the leadership of Dr. Channing the Catholic Christians, as
+they preferred to call themselves, cultivated a spirituality that was
+devout without being ritualistic, sincere without being fanatical. The
+churches around them, to a large degree, kept zealously to the externals of
+religion, and accepted physical evidences of the truthfulness of
+Christianity; but Channing sought for what is deeper and more permanent.
+His preference of rationality to the testimony of miracles, spiritual
+insight to external evidences, devoutness of life to the rites of the
+church, characterized him as a great religious leader, and developed for
+the Catholic Christians a new type of Christianity. Whatever Channing's
+limitations as a thinker and a reformer, he was a man of prophetic insight
+and lofty spiritual vision. In other ages he would have been canonized as a
+saint or called the beatific doctor; but in Boston he was a heretic and a
+reformer, who sought to lead men into a faith that is ethical, sincere, and
+humanitarian. He prized Christianity for what it is in itself, for its
+inwardness, its fidelity to human nature, and its ethical integrity. His
+mind was always open to truth, he was always young for liberty, and his
+soul dwelt in the serene atmosphere of a pure and lofty faith.
+
+[1] Josiah Quincy, History of Harvard University, I. 230, Chapter XII;
+    Christian Examiner, VII. 64; XXX. 70.
+
+[2] Jedidiah Morse, True Reasons on which the Election of a Hollis
+    Professor of Divinity in Harvard College were opposed at the Board of
+    Overseers.
+
+[3] III. 251, March, 1806.
+
+[4] Richard Eddy, Universalism in America, II. 87; Oscar F. Safford,
+    Hosea Ballou: A Marvellous Life Story, 71.
+
+[5] O.B. Frothingham, Boston Unitarianism, 161.
+
+[6] Josiah Quincy, History of the Boston Athenaeum, 1. "In the year 1803
+    Phineas Adams, a graduate of Harvard College, of the class of 1801,
+    commenced in Boston, under the name of _Sylvanus Per-se_, a periodical
+    work entitled The Monthly Anthology or Magazine of Polite Literature.
+    He conducted it for six months, but not finding its proceeds sufficient
+    for his support, he abandoned the undertaking. Mr. Adams, the son of a
+    farmer in Lexington, manifested in early boyhood a passion for elegant
+    learning. He adopted literature as a profession; but, after the failure
+    of his attempt as editor of The Anthology, he taught school in
+    different places, till, in 1811, he entered the Navy as chaplain and
+    teacher of mathematics. Here he became distinguished for mathematical
+    science in its relation to nautical affairs. In 1812 he accompanied
+    Commodore Porter in his eventful cruise in the Pacific, of which the
+    published journal bears honorable testimony to Mr. Adams's zeal for
+    promoting geographical and mathematical knowledge. He again joined
+    Porter in the expedition for the suppression of piracy in the West
+    Indies, and he died on that station in 1823, much respected in the
+    service."
+
+[7] In October, 1888, this society gave up its organization, and the sum
+    of $1,265.10 was given to the American Unitarian Association for the
+    establishment of a publishing fund.
+
+[8] Unitarian Biography, I. 40, Memoir by Henry Ware, Jr.
+
+[9] William Allen, Memoir of John Codman, 81.
+
+[10] Thomas Belsham, 1750-1829, was a dissenting English preacher and
+     teacher. In 1789 he became a Unitarian, and was settled in
+     Birmingham. From 1805 to his death he preached to the Essex Street
+     congregation in London. He wrote a popular work on the Evidences of
+     Christianity, and he translated the Epistles of St. Paul. He was a
+     vigorous and able writer.
+
+[11] Memoir of W.E. Channing, by W.H. Channing, I. 380.
+
+[12] Among the controversial works printed in Boston at this time was
+     Yates's Vindication of Unitarianism, an English book, which was
+     republished in 1816.
+
+[13] The entrance to the vestry of Federal Street Church was on Berry
+     Street, hence the name given the conference.
+
+[14] Christian Examiner, I. 248.
+
+[15] American Unitarian Biography, Life of Henry Ware, I. 241.
+
+[16] James Walker, Christian Examiner, X. 129; John G. Palfrey, Christian
+     Examiner, XI. 84; The Divinity School of Harvard University: Its
+     History, Courses of Study, Aims and Advantages.
+
+[17] Letters on the Ministry, Ritual, and Doctrines of the Protestant
+     Episcopal Church, addressed to Rev. William E. Wyatt, D.D., in Reply
+     to a Sermon, Baltimore, 1820.
+
+[18] Comparative Moral Tendency of Trinitarian and Unitarian Doctrines,
+     addressed to Rev. Samuel Miller, Boston, 1823.
+
+[19] H.B. Adams, Life and Writings of Jared Sparks, I. 175.
+
+[20] Dr. George E. Ellis, in Unitarianism: Its origin and History, 147.
+     The most prominent instance was that of the First Church in Dedham,
+     and this was decided by legal proceedings. "The question recognized
+     by the court was simply this: whether the claimants had been lawfully
+     appointed deacons of the First Church; that is, whether the body
+     which had appointed them was by law the First Church. The decision of
+     the court was as follows: 'When the majority of the members of a
+     Congregational church separate from the majority of the parish, the
+     members who remain, although a minority, constitute the church in
+     such parish, and retain the rights and property belonging thereto.'
+     This legal decision would have been regarded as a momentous one had
+     it applied only to the single case then in hearing. But it was the
+     establishment of a precedent which would dispose of all cases then to
+     be expected to present themselves in the troubles of the time between
+     parishes and the churches gathered within them. The full purport of
+     this decision was that the law did not recognize a church
+     independently of its connection with the parish in which it was
+     gathered, from which it might sever itself and carry property with
+     it." It was in accordance with the practice in New England for at
+     least a century preceding the decision in the Dedham case, and the
+     decision was rendered as the result of this practice.
+
+[21] H.B. Adams, Life and Writings of Jared Sparks, gives a most
+     interesting account in his earlier chapters of the origin of
+     Unitarianism, especially of its beginnings in Baltimore and other
+     places outside New England.
+
+[22] James Garrard, governor of Kentucky from 1796 to 1802, was a
+     Unitarian. Harry Toulmin, president of Transylvania Seminary and
+     secretary of the state of Kentucky, was also a Unitarian.
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+
+THE AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION.
+
+The time had come for the liberals to organize in a more distinctive form,
+in order that they might secure permanently the results they had already
+attained. The demand for organization, however, came almost wholly from the
+younger men, those who had grown up under the influence of the freer life
+of the liberal churches or who had been trained in the independent spirit
+of the Divinity School at Harvard. The older men, for the most part, were
+bound by the traditions of "the standing order":[1] they could not bring
+themselves to desire new conditions and new methods.
+
+The spirit of the older and leading laymen and ministers is admirably
+illustrated in Rev. O.B. Frothingham's account of his father in his book
+entitled Boston Unitarianism. They were interested in many, public-spirited
+enterprises, and the social circle in which they moved was cultivated and
+refined; but they were provincial, and little inclined to look beyond the
+limits of their own immediate interests. Dr. Nathaniel L. Frothingham,
+minister of the First Church in Boston, one of the earliest American
+students of German literature and philosophy, and a man of rational insight
+and progressive thinking, may be regarded as a representative of the best
+type of Boston minister in the first half of the nineteenth century. In a
+sermon preached in 1835, on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of
+his settlement, Dr. Frothingham said that he had never before used the word
+"Unitarian", in his pulpit, though his church had been for thirty years
+counted as Unitarian. "We have," he said, "made more account of the
+religious sentiment than of theological opinions." In this attitude he was
+in harmony with the leading men of his day.[2]
+
+Channing, for instance, was opposed to every phase of religious
+organization that put bonds upon men; and he would accept nothing in the
+form of a creed. He severely condemned "the guilt of a sectarian spirit,"
+and said that "to bestow our affections on those who are ranged under the
+same human leader, or who belong to the same church with ourselves, and to
+withhold it from others who possess equal if not superior virtue, because
+they bear a different name, is to prefer a party to the church of
+Christ."[3] In 1831 he described Unitarianism as being "characterized by
+nothing more than by the spirit of freedom and individuality. It has no
+established creed or symbol," he wrote. "Its friends think each for
+himself, and differ much from each other."[4] Later he wrote to a friend:
+"I distrust sectarian influence more and more. I am more detached from a
+denomination, and strive to feel more my connection with the Universal
+Church, with all good and holy men. I am little of a Unitarian, and stand
+aloof from all but those who strive and pray for clearer light, who look
+for a purer and more effectual manifestation of Christian truth."[5]
+
+Many of the Unitarians were in fullest sympathy with Channing as to the
+fundamental law of spiritual freedom and as to the evils of sectarianism. A
+considerable number of them were in agreement with him as to the course
+pursued by the Unitarian movement. Having escaped from one sect, they were
+not ready to commit themselves to the control of another. Therefore they
+withheld themselves from all definitely organized phases of Unitarianism,
+and would give no active support to those who sought to bring the liberals
+together for purposes of protection and forward movement. Under these
+circumstances it was difficult to secure concert of action or to make
+successful any definite missionary enterprise, however little of
+sectarianism it might manifest. Even to the present time Unitarianism has
+shown this independence on the part of local churches and this freedom on
+the part of individuals. Because of this attitude, unity of action has been
+difficult, and denominational loyalty never strong or assured.
+
+However, a different spirit animated the younger men, who persisted in
+their effort to secure an organization that would represent distinctively
+the Unitarian thought and sentiment. The movement towards organization had
+its origin and impulse in a group of young ministers who had been trained
+at the Harvard Divinity School under Professor Andrews Norton. While Norton
+was conservative in theology and opposed to sectarian measures, his
+teaching was radical, progressive, and stimulating. His students accepted
+his spirit of intellectual progress, and often advanced beyond his more
+conservative teachings. In the years between 1817 and 1824 James Walker,
+John G. Palfrey, Jared Sparks, Alexander Young, John Pierpont, Ezra S.
+Gannett, Samuel Barrett, Thomas R. Sullivan, Samuel J. May, Calvin Lincoln,
+and Edward B. Hall were students in the Divinity School; and all of these
+men were leaders in the movement to organize a Unitarian Association.
+Pierpont gave the name to the new organization, distinctly defining it as
+Unitarian. Gannett, Palfrey, and Hall served it as presidents; Gannett,
+Lincoln, and Young, as secretaries. Walker, Palfrey, and Barrett gave it
+faithful service as directors, and Lincoln as its active missionary agent.
+A number of young laymen in Boston and elsewhere, mostly graduates of
+Harvard College, were also interested in the formation of the new
+organization. Among them were Charles G. Loring, Robert Rantoul, Samuel A.
+Eliot, Leverett Salstonstall, George B. Emerson, and Alden Bradford. All
+these young men were afterwards prominent in the affairs of the city or
+state, and they were faithful to the interests of the Unitarian churches
+with which they were connected.
+
+[Sidenote: Initial Meetings.]
+
+The first proposition to form a Unitarian organization for missionary
+purposes was made in a meeting of the Anonymous Association, a club to
+which belonged thirty or forty of the leading men of Boston. They were all
+connected with Unitarian churches, and were actively interested in
+promoting the growth of a liberal form of Christianity. It appears from the
+journal of David Reed, for many years the editor and publisher of The
+Christian Register, that the members of this association were in the habit
+of meeting at each other's houses during the year 1824 for the purpose of
+discussing important subjects connected with religion, morals, and
+politics. At a meeting held at the house of Hon. Josiah Quincy in the
+autumn of that year, attention was called to certain articles that had been
+published in The Christian Register, and the importance was suggested of
+promoting the growth of liberal Christianity through the distribution of
+the printed word. A resolution was submitted, inquiring if measures could
+not be taken for uniting the efforts of liberal-minded persons to give
+greater efficiency to the attempt to extend a knowledge of Unitarian
+principles by means of the public press; and a committee was appointed to
+consider and report on the expediency of forming an organization for this
+purpose. This committee consisted of Rev. Henry Ware, the younger, Alden
+Bradford, and Richard Sullivan. Henry Ware was the beloved and devoted
+minister of the Second Church in Boston. His colleagues were older men,
+both graduates of Harvard College and prominent in the social and business
+life of Boston. The purpose which these men had in mind was well defined by
+Dr. Gannett, writing twenty years after the event: "We found ourselves," he
+said, "under the painful necessity of contributing our assistance to the
+propagation of tenets which we accounted false or of forming an association
+through which we might address the great truths of religion to our
+fellow-men without the adulteration of erroneous dogmas. To take one of
+these courses, or to do nothing in the way of Christian beneficence, was
+the only alternative permitted to us. The name which we adopted has a
+sectarian sound; but it was chosen to avoid equivocation on the one hand
+and misapprehension on the other."[6] The committee, under date of
+December 29, 1824, sent out a circular inviting a meeting of all
+interested, "in order to confer together on the expediency of appointing an
+annual meeting for the purpose of union, sympathy, and co-operation in the
+cause of Christian truth and Christian charity." In this circular will be
+found the origin of the clause in the present constitution of the Unitarian
+Association defining its purposes.
+
+In response to this call a meeting was held in the vestry of the Federal
+Street Church on January 27, 1825. Dr. Channing opened the meeting with
+prayer. Richard Sullivan was chosen moderator, and James Walker secretary.
+There were present all those who have been hitherto named in connection
+with this movement, together with many others of the leading laymen and
+ministers of the liberal churches in New England.[7] The record of the
+meeting made by Rev. James Walker is preserved in the first volume of the
+correspondence of the Unitarian Association; and it enables us, in
+connection with the more confidential reminiscences of David Reed, to give
+a fairly complete record of, what was said and done. Henry Ware, the
+younger, in behalf of the committee, presented a statement of the objects
+proposed by those desirous of organizing a national Unitarian society; and
+he offered a resolution declaring it "desirable and expedient that
+provision should be made for future meetings of Unitarians and liberal
+Christians generally." The adoption of this resolution was moved by Stephen
+Higginson; and the discussion was opened by Dr. Aaron Bancroft, the learned
+and honored minister of the Second Church in Worcester. He was fearful that
+sufficient care might not be taken as to the manner of instituting the
+proposed organization, and he doubted its expediency. He was of the opinion
+that Unitarianism was to be propagated slowly and silently, for it had
+succeeded in his own parish because it had not been openly advocated. He
+did not wish to oppose the design generally, but he was convinced that it
+would do more harm than good.
+
+Dr. Bancroft was followed by Professor Andrews Norton, the greatly
+respected teacher of most of the younger ministers, who defended the
+proposed organization, and said that its purpose was not to make
+proselytes. Then Dr. Charming arose, and gave to the proposition of the
+committee a guarded approval. He thought the object of the convention, as
+he wished to call it, should be to "spread our views of religion, not our
+mere opinions, for our religion is essentially practical." The friendly
+attitude of Channing gave added emphasis to the disapproval of the
+prominent laymen who spoke after him. Judge Charles Jackson, an eminent
+justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, thought there was danger in
+the proposed plan, that it was not becoming to liberal Christians, that it,
+was inconsistent with their principles, and that it would not be beneficial
+to the community. He was ready to give his aid, to any specific work, but
+he thought that everything could be accomplished that was necessary,
+without a general-association of any kind. The same opinion was expressed
+by George Bond, a leading merchant of Boston, who was afraid that
+Unitarianism would become popular, and that, when it had gamed a majority
+of the people of the country to its side, it would become as intolerant as
+the other sects. For this reason he believed the measure inexpedient, and
+moved an adjournment of the meeting.
+
+Three of the most widely known and respected of the older ministers also
+spoke in opposition to the proposition to form an association of liberal
+Christians. These men were typical pastors and preachers, whose parishes
+were limited only by the town in which they lived, and who preached the
+gospel without sectarian prejudice or doctrinal qualifications. Dr. John
+Pierce, of Brookline, thought the measure of the committee "very
+dangerous," and likely to do much harm in many of the parishes by arousing
+the sectarian spirit. He spoke three times in the course of the meeting,
+opposing with his accustomed vehemence all attempt at organization. Dr.
+Abiel Abbot, of Beverly, thought that presenting a distinct object for
+opposition would arrest the progress of Unitarianism, for in his
+neighborhood liberal Christianity owed everything to slow and silent
+progress. Dr. John Allyn, of Duxbury, one of the most original and learned
+ministers of his time in New England, was opposed to the use of any
+sectarian name, especially that of Unitarian or Liberal. He was willing to
+join in a general convention, and he desired to have a meeting of delegates
+from all sects. He expressed the opinion of several leading men who were
+present at this meeting, who favored an unsectarian organization, that
+should include all men of liberal opinions, of whatever name or
+denominational connection.
+
+Those who were in favor of a Unitarian Association did not remain silent,
+and they spoke with clearness and vigor in approval of the proposition of
+the committee. Alden Bradford, who became the Secretary of State in
+Massachusetts, and wrote several valuable biographical and historical
+works, thought that Unitarians were too timid and did not wisely defend
+their position. He was followed by Andrews Norton in a vigorous declaration
+of the importance of the association, in the course of which he pointed out
+how inadequately Unitarians had protected and fostered the institutions
+under their care, and declared that closer union was necessary. Jared
+Sparks also earnestly favored the project, and said that what was proposed
+was not a plan of proselyting. It was his opinion that Unitarians ought to
+come forward in support of their views of truth, and that an association
+was necessary in order to promote sympathy among them throughout the
+country. Colonel Joseph May, who had been for thirty years a warden of
+King's Chapel, and a man held in high esteem in Boston, referred to the
+work already accomplished by the zeal and effort of the few Unitarians who
+had worked together to promote liberal interests. The most incisive word
+spoken, however, came from John Pierpont, who was just coming into his fame
+as an orator and a leader in reforms. "We have," he declared, "and we must
+have, the name Unitarian. It is not for us to shrink from it. Organization
+is necessary in order to maintain it, and organization there must be. The
+general interests of Unitarians will be promoted by using the name, and
+organizing in harmony with it."
+
+In the long discussion at this meeting it appears that, of the ministers,
+Channing, Norton, Bancroft, Ware, Pierpont, Sparks, Edes, Nichols, Parker,
+Thayer, Willard, and Harding were in favor of organization; Pierce, Allyn,
+Abbot, Freeman, and Bigelow, against it. Of the laymen, Charles Jackson and
+George Bond were vigorously in opposition; and Judge Story, Judge White,
+Judge Howe, of Northampton, Alden Bradford, Leverett Salstonstall, Stephen
+Higginson, and Joseph May spoke in favor. The result of the meeting was the
+appointment of a committee, consisting of Sullivan, Bradford, Ware,
+Channing, Palfrey, Walker, Pierpont, and Higginson, which was empowered to
+call together a larger meeting at some time during the session of the
+General Court. But this committee seems never to have acted. At the end of
+his report of this preliminary meeting James Walker wrote: "The meeting
+proposed was never called. As there appeared to be so much difference of
+opinion as to the expediency and nature of the measure proposed, it was
+thought best to let it subside in silence."
+
+The zeal of those favorable to organization, however, did not abate; and
+the discussion went on throughout the winter. On May 25, 1825, at the
+meeting of the Berry Street Conference of Ministers, Henry Ware, the
+younger, who had been chairman of the first committee, renewed the effort,
+and presented the following statement as a declaration of the purposes of
+the proposed organization:--
+
+  It is proposed to form a new association, to be called The American
+  Unitarian Society. The chief and ultimate object will be the promotion
+  of pure and undefiled religion by disseminating the knowledge of it
+  where adequate means of religious instruction are not enjoyed. A
+  secondary good which will follow from it is the union of all Unitarian
+  Christians in this country, so that they would become mutually
+  acquainted, and the concentration of their efforts would increase their
+  efficiency. The society will embrace all Unitarian Christians in the
+  United States. Its operations would extend themselves through the whole
+  country. These operations would chiefly consist in the publication and
+  distribution of tracts, and the support of missionaries.
+
+It was announced that in the afternoon a meeting would be held for the
+further consideration of the subject. This meeting was held at four
+o'clock, and Dr. Henry Ware acted as moderator. The opponents of
+organization probably absented themselves, for action was promptly taken,
+and it was "_Voted_, that it is expedient to form a new society to be
+called the American Unitarian Association." All who were present expressed
+themselves as in favor of this action. Rev. James Walker, Mr. Lewis Tappan,
+and Rev. Ezra S. Gannett were appointed a committee to draft a form of
+organization. On the next morning, Thursday, May 26, 1825, this committee
+reported to a meeting, of which Dr. Nathaniel Thayer, of Lancaster, was
+moderator; and, with one or two amendments, the constitution prepared by
+the committee was adopted. This constitution, with slight modifications, is
+still in force. The object of the Association was declared to be "to
+diffuse the knowledge and promote the interests of pure Christianity." A
+committee to nominate officers selected Dr. Channing for president; Joseph
+Story, of Salem, Joseph Lyman, of Northampton, Stephen Longfellow, of
+Portland, Charles H. Atherton, of Amherst, N.H., Henry Wheaton, of New
+York, James Taylor, of Philadelphia, Henry Payson, of Baltimore, William
+Cranch, of Alexandria, Martin L. Hurlbut, of Charleston, as
+vice-presidents; Ezra S. Gannett, of Boston, for secretary; Lewis Tappan,
+of Boston, for treasurer; and Andrews Norton, Jared Sparks, and James
+Walker, for executive committee.
+
+When Mr. Gannett wrote to his colleague, Dr. Channing, to notify him of his
+election as president, there came a letter declining the proffered office.
+"I was a little disappointed," Channing wrote, "at learning that the
+Unitarian Association is to commence operations immediately. I conversed
+with Mr. Norton on the subject before leaving Boston, and found him so
+indisposed to engage in it that I imagined that it would be let alone for
+the present. The office which in your kindness you have assigned to me I
+must beg to decline. As you have made a beginning, I truly rejoice in your
+success." Norton and Sparks also declined to serve as directors, ill-health
+and previous engagements being assigned by them for their inability to act
+with the other officers elected. The executive committee proceeded to fill
+these vacancies by the election of Dr. Aaron Bancroft, of Worcester, as
+president, and of the younger Henry Ware and Samuel Barrett to the
+executive committee; and the board of directors thus constituted
+administered the Association during its first year.
+
+In the selection of Dr. Bancroft as the head of the new association a wise
+choice was made, for he had the executive and organizing ability that was
+eminently desirable at this juncture. He was an able preacher, and one of
+the strongest thinkers in the Unitarian body. His biography of Washington
+had made him widely known; and his volume of controversial sermons,
+published in 1822, had received the enthusiastic praise of John Adams and
+Thomas Jefferson. When he was settled, he was almost an outcast in
+Worcester County because of his liberalism; but such were the strength of
+his character and the power of his thought that gradually he secured a wide
+hearing, and became the most popular preacher in Central Massachusetts.
+After fifty years of his ministry he could count twenty-one vigorous
+Unitarian societies about him, all of which had profited by his
+influence.[8] Although he was seventy years of age at the time he
+accepted the presidency of the Unitarian Association, he was in the full
+enjoyment of his powers; and he filled the office for ten years, giving it
+and the cause which the Association represented the impetus and weight of
+his sound judgment and deserved reputation.
+
+The executive work of the Association fell to the charge of the secretary,
+Ezra S. Gannett, who had been one of the most enthusiastic advocates of the
+new organization. Gannett was but twenty-four years old, and had been but
+one year in the active ministry, as the colleague of Dr. Channing. He had
+youth, zeal, and executive force. Writing of him after his death, Dr.
+Bellows said: "He had rare administrative qualities and a statesmanlike
+mind. He would have been a leader anywhere. He had the ambition, the
+faculties, and the impulsive temperament of an actor in affairs. He had the
+fervor, the concentration of will, the passionate enthusiasm of conviction,
+the love of martyrdom, which make men great in action."[9] Throughout his
+life Gannett labored assiduously for the Association, serving it in every
+capacity refusing no drudgery, travelling over the country in its
+interests, and giving himself, heart and soul, to the cause it represented.
+The Unitarian cause never had a more devoted friend or one who made greater
+sacrifices in its behalf. To him more than to any other man it owes its
+organized life and its missionary serviceableness.
+
+Lewis Tappan, the treasurer, was a successful young business man. His term
+of service was brief; for two years after the organization of the
+Association he removed to New York, where he had an honorable career as one
+of the founders of the Journal of Commerce, and as the head of the first
+mercantile agency established in the country. He was later one of the
+anti-slavery leaders in New York, and an active and earnest member of
+Plymouth Church in Brooklyn.[10]
+
+The executive committee was composed of the three devoted young ministers
+who had been foremost in organizing the Association. Barrett was thirty,
+Ware and Walker were thirty-one years of age; and all three had been in
+Harvard College and the Divinity School together. Samuel Barrett had just
+been chosen minister of the newly formed Twelfth Congregational Church of
+Boston, which he served throughout his life. He was identified with all
+good causes in Eastern Massachusetts, a founder of the Benevolent
+Fraternity, and an overseer of Harvard College. Henry Ware, the younger,
+was, at the time of his election, the minister of the Second Church in
+Boston. Five years later he became professor in the Harvard Divinity
+School, and his memory is still cherished as the teacher and exemplar of a
+generation of Unitarian ministers. James Walker was, in 1825, the minister
+of the Harvard Church in Charlestown, and already gave evidence of the
+sanity and catholicity of mind, the practical organizing power, the wide
+philosophic culture, and the dignity of character which afterward
+distinguished him as professor in Harvard College, and as its president.
+
+Thus the organization started on its way, as the result of the determined
+purpose of a small company of the younger ministers and laymen. It took a
+name that separated it from all other religious organizations in this
+country, so far as its members then knew. The Unitarian name had been first
+definitely used in this country in 1815, to describe the liberal or
+Catholic Christians. They at first scornfully rejected it, but many of them
+had finally come to rejoice in its declaration of the simple unity of God.
+As a matter of history, it may be said that the word "Unitarian" was used
+in this doctrinal sense only; and it had none of the implications since
+given it by philosophy and science. Those who used it meant thereby to say
+that they accepted the doctrine of the absolute unity of God, and that the
+position of Christ was a subordinate though a very exalted one. No one can
+read their statements with historic apprehension, and arrive at any other
+conclusion. Yet these persons had no wish to cut themselves off from
+historic Christianity; rather was it their intent to restore it to its
+primitive purity.
+
+[Sidenote: Work of the First Year.]
+
+If others were disinclined to action, the executive committee of the
+Unitarian Association was determined that something should be done. At
+their first, meeting, held in the secretary's study four days after their
+election, there were present Norton, Walker, Tappan, and Gannett. They
+commissioned Rev. Warren Burton to act as their agent in visiting
+neighboring towns to solicit funds, and a week later they voted to employ
+him as a general agent. The committee held six meetings during June; and at
+one of these an address was adopted, defining the purposes and methods of
+the Association. "They wish it to be understood," was their statement,
+"that its efforts will be directed to the promotion of true religion
+throughout our country; intending by this, not exclusively those views
+which distinguish the friends of this Association from other disciples of
+Christ; but those views in connection with the great doctrines and
+principles in which all Christians coincide, and which constitute the
+substance of our religion. We wish to diffuse the knowledge and influence
+of the gospel of our Lord and Saviour. Great good is anticipated from the
+co-operation of persons entertaining similar views, who are now strangers
+to each other's religious sentiments. Interest will be awakened, confidence
+inspired, efficiency produced by the concentration of labors. The spirit of
+inquiry will be fostered, and individuals at a distance will know where to
+apply for information and encouragement. Respectability and strength will
+be given to the class among us whom our fellow Christians have excluded
+from the control of their religious charities, and whom, by their exclusive
+treatment, they have compelled in some measure to act as a party." The
+objects of the Association were stated to be the collection of information
+about Unitarianism in various parts of the country; the securing of union,
+sympathy, and co-operation among liberal Christians; the publishing and
+distribution of books inculcating correct views of religion; the employment
+of missionaries, and the adoption of other measures that might promote the
+general purposes held in view.
+
+At the end of the year the Association held its first anniversary meeting
+in Pantheon Hall, on the evening of June 30, 1826, when addresses were made
+by Hon. Joseph Story, Hon. Leverett Salstonstall, Rev. Ichabod Nichols, and
+Rev. Henry Coleman. The executive committee presented its report, which
+gave a detailed account of the operations during the year. They gave
+special attention to their discovery of "a body of Christians in the
+Western states who have for years been Unitarians, have encountered
+persecution on account of their faith, and have lived in ignorance of
+others east of the mountains who maintained many similar views of Christian
+doctrine." With this group of churches, which would consent to no other
+name than that of Christian, a correspondence had been opened; and, to
+secure a larger acquaintance with them, Rev. Moses G. Thomas[11] had
+visited several of the Western states. His tour carried him through
+Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and as far as St. Louis.
+His account of his journey was published in connection with the second
+report of the Association, and is full of interest. He did not preach, but
+he carefully investigated the religious prospects of the states he
+journeyed through; and he sought the acquaintance of the Christian churches
+and ministers. He gave an enthusiastic account of his travels, and reported
+that the west was a promising field for the planting of Unitarian churches.
+He recommended Northumberland, Harrisburg, Pittsburg, Steubenville,
+Marietta, Paris, Lexington, Louisville, St. Louis, St. Charles,
+Indianapolis, and Cincinnati as promising places for the labors of
+Unitarian missionaries,--places "which will properly appreciate their
+talents and render them doubly useful in their day and generation."
+
+During the first year of its existence the Unitarian Association endeavored
+to unite with itself, or to secure the co-operation of, the Society for the
+Promotion of Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity, the Evangelical
+Missionary Society, and the Publishing Fund Society; but these
+organizations were unwilling to come into close affiliation with it. The
+Evangelical Missionary Society has continued its separate existence to the
+present time, but the others were absorbed by the Unitarian Association
+after many years. This is one indication of how difficult it was to secure
+an active co-operation among Unitarians, and to bring them all into one
+vigorous working body. In concluding their first report, the officers of
+the Association alluded to the difficulties with which they had met the
+reluctance of the liberal churches to come into close affiliation with each
+other. "They have strenuously opposed the opinion," they said of the
+leaders of the Association, "that the object of the founders was to build
+up a party, to organize an opposition, to perpetuate pride and bigotry. Had
+they believed that such was its purpose or such would be its effect, they
+would have withdrawn themselves from any connection with so hateful a
+thing. They thought otherwise, and experience has proved they did not judge
+wrongly."
+
+[Sidenote: Work of the First Quarter of a Century.]
+
+Having thus organized itself and begun its work, the Association went
+quietly on its way. At no time during the first quarter of a century of its
+existence did it secure annual contributions from one-half the churches
+calling themselves Unitarian, and it did well when even one-third of them
+contributed to its treasury during any one year. The churches of Boston,
+for the most part, held aloof from it, and gave it only a feeble support,
+if any at all. They had so long accepted the spirit of congregational
+exclusiveness, had so great a dread of interference on the part of
+ecclesiastical organizations, and so keenly suspected every attempt at
+co-operation on the part of the churches as likely to lead to restrictions
+upon congregational independence, that it was nearly impossible to secure
+their aid for any kind of common work. Very slowly the contributions
+increased to the sum of $5,000 a year, and only once in the first quarter
+of a century did the total receipts of a year reach $15,000. With so small
+a treasury no great work could be undertaken; but the money given was
+husbanded to the utmost, and the salaries paid to clerks and the general
+secretary were kept to the lowest possible limit.
+
+Dr. Bancroft was succeeded in the presidency of the Association, in 1836,
+by Dr. Channing, who nominally held the position for one year; but at the
+next annual meeting he declined to have his name presented as a
+candidate.[12] The office was then filled by Dr. Ichabod Nichols, of
+Portland, who served from 1837 to 1844. He was the minister of the First
+Church in Portland from 1809 to 1855, and then retired to Cambridge, where
+he wrote his Natural Theology and his Hours with the Evangelists. Joseph
+Story, the great jurist, who had been vice-president of the Association
+from 1826 to 1836, was elected president in 1844, and served for one year.
+He was followed by Dr. Orville Dewey, who was president from 1845 to 1847.
+He had been settled in New Bedford, and over the Church of the Messiah in
+New York; and subsequently he had short pastorates in Albany, in
+Washington, and over the New South Church in Boston. His lectures and his
+sermons have made him widely known. In intellectual and emotional power he
+was one of the greatest preachers the country has produced. Dr. Gannett
+served as the president from 1847 to 1851, being succeeded by Dr. Samuel K.
+Lothop, who continued to hold the office until 1856. Dr. Lothrop was first
+settled in Dover, N.H., but became the minister of the Brattle Street
+Church, Boston, in 1834, retaining that position until 1876.
+
+The office of secretary was held by Rev. Ezra S, Gannett until 1831. He was
+succeeded in that year by Rev. Alexander Young, who held the position for
+two years. Dr. Young was the minister of the New South Church from 1825
+until his death, in 1854. His Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers, and other
+works, have given him a reputation as a historian. In 1829 the office of
+foreign secretary was created; and it was held by the younger Henry Ware
+from 1830 to 1834, when it ceased to exist. Rev. Samuel Barnett was
+secretary in 1833 and 1834, and recording secretary until 1837. In 1834 the
+office of general secretary was established, in order to secure the
+services of an active missionary. Rev. Jason Whitman, who held this
+position for one year, had been the minister in Saco; and he was afterward
+settled in Portland and Lexington. Rev. Charles Briggs became the general
+secretary in 1835, and continued in office until the end of 1847. He had
+been settled in Lexington, but did not hold a pastorate subsequent to his
+connection with the Association. In the mean time Rev. Samuel K. Lothrop
+was the assistant or recording secretary from 1837 to 1847. In 1847 Rev.
+William G. Eliot was elected the general secretary; but he did not serve,
+owing to the claims of his parish in St. Louis. Rev. Frederick West
+Holland, who had been settled in Rochester, was made the general secretary
+in January, 1848; and he held the position until the annual meeting of
+1860. Subsequently he was settled in East Cambridge, Neponset, North
+Cambridge, Rochester, and Newburg.
+
+It was Charles Briggs who first gave definite purpose to the missionary
+work of the Association. The annual report of 1850 said of him that he "had
+led the institution forward to high ground as a missionary body, by
+unfailing patience prevailed over every discouragement, by inexhaustible
+hope surmounted serious obstacles, by the most persuasive gentleness
+conciliated opposition, and done perhaps as much as could be asked of sound
+judgment, knowledge of mankind, and devotion to the cause, with the
+drawback of a slender and failing frame." In 1845 Rev. George G. Channing
+entered upon a service as the travelling agent of the Association, which he
+continued for two years. His duties required him to take an active interest
+in missionary enterprises, revive drooping churches, secure information as
+to the founding of new churches, and to add to the income of the
+Association. He was a brother of Dr. Channing, held one or two pastorates,
+and was the founder and editor of The Christian World, which he published
+in Boston as a weekly Unitarian paper from January, 1843, to the end of
+1848.
+
+At a meeting of the Unitarian Association held on June 3, 1847, the final
+steps were taken that secured its incorporation under the laws of
+Massachusetts. In the revised constitution the fifteen vice-presidents were
+reduced to two, and the president and vice-presidents were made members of
+the executive committee, and so brought into intimate connection with the
+work of the Association. The directors and other officers were made an
+executive committee, by which all affairs of moment must be considered; and
+it was required to hold stated monthly meetings. These changes were
+conducive to an enlarged interest in the work of the Association, and also
+to the more thorough consideration of its activities on the part of a
+considerable body of judicious and experienced officers. They were made in
+recognition of the increasing missionary labors of the Association, and
+enabled it thenceforth to hold and to manage legally the moneys that came
+under its control.
+
+[Sidenote: Publication of Tracts and Books.]
+
+One of the first subjects to which the Association gave attention was the
+publication of tracts, six of which were issued during the first year. In
+connection with their publication a series of depositaries was established
+for their sale. David Reed of The Christian Register became the general
+agent, while there were ten county depositaries in Massachusetts, four in
+New Hampshire, three in Maine, and one each in Connecticut, New York City,
+Philadelphia, Charleston, and Washington.[13] For a number of years the
+tracts were devoted to doctrinal subjects. Several of Channing's ablest
+sermons and addresses were first printed in this form. Among the other
+contributors to the first series were the three Wares, Orville Dewey,
+Joseph Tuckerman, James Walker, George Ripley, Samuel J. May, John G.
+Palfrey, Ezra S. Gannett, Samuel Gilman, George R. Noyes, William G. Eliot,
+Andrew P. Peabody, F.A. Farley, James Freeman Clarke, S.G. Bulfinch, George
+Putnam, Joseph Allen, Frederic H. Hedge, Edward B. Hall, George E. Ellis,
+Thomas B. Fox, Charles T. Brooks, J.H. Morison, Henry W. Bellows, William
+H. Furness, John Cordner, Chandler Robbins, Augustus Woodbury, and William
+R. Alger. Ten or twelve tracts were issued yearly, those of the year having
+a consecutive page numbering, so that, in fact, they appeared in the form
+of a monthly periodical, each tract bearing the date of its publication,
+and being sent regularly to all subscribers to the Association. In all,
+three hundred tracts appeared in this form in the first series, making
+twenty-six volumes.
+
+For nearly half a century none of the tracts of the Association were
+published for free distribution. They were issued at prices ranging from
+two to ten cents each, according to the size, some of them having not more
+than ten or twelve pages, while others had more than a hundred. So long as
+there was an eagerness for theological reading, and an earnest intellectual
+interest in the questions which divided the several religious bodies of the
+country from each other, it was not difficult to sell editions of from
+3,000 to 10,000 copies of all the tracts published by the Association. From
+the first, however, there were many calls for tracts for free distribution.
+To meet this demand, there was formed in Boston, by a number of young men
+during the year 1827, The Unitarian Book and Pamphlet Society, for "the
+gratuitous distribution of Unitarian publications of an approved
+character." It undertook especially to distribute "such publications as
+shall be issued by the American Unitarian Association or recommended by
+it." This society also circulated tracts printed by The Christian Register
+and The Christian World, the call for such publications having led the
+publishers of these periodicals to give their aid in meeting the demand for
+pamphlets on theological problems and on practical religious duties. The
+society also distributed Bibles to the poor of the city and in more distant
+country places, furnishing them to missionaries and others who would
+undertake work of this kind. In the same manner they gave away large
+numbers of books, their list for 1836 including Scougal's Life of God in
+the Soul of Man, Ware's Formation of the Christian Character, and works by
+Worcester, Channing Whitman, and Greenwood. The call for aid was
+considerable from the western and southern states; and books were sent to
+Havana, New Brunswick, and the Sandwich Islands. In the winter of 1840-41
+this society was reorganized, an urgent appeal was made to the churches for
+an increase of funds, and during the next few years its work was large and
+important.
+
+In the year 1848 was begun a special effort for the circulation of
+Unitarian books, on the part of The Book and Pamphlet Society, The Society
+for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity, as well as by the
+Unitarian Association. In that year the second of these organizations sent
+out circulars to 263 colleges and theological schools, offering to give
+Unitarian books, to those desiring to receive them; and to 59 of these
+institutions assortments of books worth from two dollars to one hundred
+dollars were forwarded. The first request came from the Catholic College at
+Worcester, and the last from the Wisconsin University at Madison. At the
+same time the Association was pressing the sale and free distribution of
+the Works and the Memoir of Dr. Charming, as well as various books by
+Peabody, Livermore, Bartol, and others.
+
+The Association began to make use of colporters about the year 1847. The
+next year it had two young ministers engaged in this work, and by 1850 this
+kind of missionary labor had increased to considerable proportions.
+Especially in the West was much use made of the colporter, and in this way
+in many of the states the works of Channing were sold in large numbers. By
+these agents, tracts were given away with a free hand, and books were given
+to ministers and those who especially needed them. The Western ministers,
+almost without exception, served as colporters, selling books and
+distributing them as important helps to their missionary labors. In many
+communities zealous laymen took part in this kind of service, and the
+several depositaries of books and tracts were used as centres from which
+colporters and others could draw their supplies. As early as 1835 a general
+depositary had been established in Cincinnati, and in 1849 one was opened
+in Chicago.
+
+The Association could not have undertaken any work that would have brought
+in a larger or more immediate return in the way of religious education and
+spiritual growth than this of the publication of tracts and books. Previous
+to 1850 a doctrinal sermon was rarely preached in a Unitarian church, and
+the tracts were the most important means of giving to the members of
+established churches a knowledge of Unitarian theology. By the same means
+many other persons were made acquainted with the Unitarian beliefs, and the
+result was to be seen in the formation of churches where tracts and books
+had been largely distributed.[14]
+
+[Sidenote: Domestic Missions.]
+
+The work of domestic missions from the first largely claimed the attention
+of the Association, and it was one the chief objects in its formation.
+During the summer of 1826 the members of the Harvard Divinity School were
+sent throughout New England to gather information, and to preach where
+opportunity offered. The special object was to make ministers and
+congregations acquainted with the purposes of the Association. It was found
+that there was much opposition to it, and that in many parishes there
+existed no desire to have its mission extended.
+
+Persons of all shades of belief were connected with many of the liberal
+parishes, some of the churches not having as yet ceased their relations
+with the towns in which they were located; and the ministers were not
+willing to have theological questions brought to the attention of their
+congregations. "The great objection everywhere seems to be," reported one
+of the young men, who had travelled through many of the towns of central
+Massachusetts, "that the clergymen do not like to awaken party spirit.
+People will go on quietly performing all external duties of religion
+without asking themselves if they are listening to the doctrine of the
+Trinity or not; but the moment you wish to act, they call up all their old
+prejudices, and take a very firm stand. This necessarily creates division
+and dissension, and renders the situation of the minister very
+uncomfortable."[15] The ministers did not preach on theological subjects;
+and, while they were liberal themselves, they had not instructed their
+parishioners in such a manner that they followed in the same path of
+thinking which their leaders had travelled.
+
+It was evident, therefore, that there was work enough in New England for
+the Association to accomplish, and such as would fully tax its
+resources.[16] It had turned its eyes toward the West and South, however;
+and it was not willing to leave these fields unoccupied. In 1836 the
+general secretary, Charles Briggs, spent eight months in these regions; and
+he found everywhere large opportunities for the spread of Unitarianism.
+Promising openings were found at Erie, Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit,
+Marietta, Tremont, Jacksonville, Memphis, and Nashville, in which villages
+or cities churches were soon after formed. It was reported at this time
+that there was hardly a town in the West where there were not Unitarians,
+or in which it was not possible by the right kind of effort to establish a
+Unitarian church.
+
+As a result of the interest awakened by the tour of the general secretary,
+fourteen missionaries were put into the field in 1837. In 1838 twenty-three
+missionaries visited eleven states, including New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
+Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky Alabama, and Georgia.[17] They were
+men of experience in parish labors, but they did not go out to the new
+country to remain there permanently. They attracted large congregations,
+however, formed several societies which promised to be permanent,
+administered the ordinances, established Sunday-schools, and did much to
+strengthen the churches. In 1839 seven preachers were sent into the west,
+and at the next anniversary there was an urgent call made by the
+Association for funds with which to establish a permanent missionary agent
+in the field. Something more was needed than a few Massachusetts ministers
+preaching from town to town with no purpose of locating with any of the
+churches they helped to organize. Ministers for the new churches were
+urgently demanded, but few men from New England were willing to remove to
+the west; and, though recruits came from the orthodox churches, this source
+of supply was not sufficient.
+
+The repeated calls made for larger resources with which to carry on the
+work of domestic missions resulted in meetings held in Boston during the
+year 1841, at which pledges were made to a fund of $10,000 yearly for five
+years, to be used for missionary purposes. This sum was secured in 1843 and
+the next four years, so that larger aid was given to missionary activities
+and to the building of churches. At the annual meeting of 1849 special
+attention was given to the subject of domestic missions, and plans were
+devised for largely extending all the activities in this direction. Much
+interest was taken in the western work during the following years, and
+slowly new churches came into existence. In 1849 Rev. Edward P. Bond was
+sent to San Francisco, where a number of New England people had held lay
+services and formed a church, and in a few years a strong society had grown
+up in that city. Mr. Bond also went to the Sandwich Islands; but he was not
+able to open a mission there, owing to ill-health. In the South the work
+languished, largely owing to the growth of anti-slavery sentiment in the
+North, with which Unitarians were generally in sympathy.
+
+From 1830 to 1850 the Unitarians were confronted by the greatest
+opportunity which has ever opened to them for missionary activities. The
+vast region of the middle west was in a formative state, the people were
+everywhere receptive to liberal influences, other churches had not been
+firmly established, and there was urgent demand for leadership of a
+progressive and rational kind. Here has come to be the controlling centre
+of American life,--in politics, education, and social power. A few of the
+leaders saw the opportunity, but the churches were not ready to respond to
+their appeals.
+
+The work accomplished by the Association during the first twenty-five or
+thirty years of its existence, the period reviewed in this chapter, was
+small, compared with the opportunity and with the wishes of those who most
+had at heart the interests for the promotion of which it was established.
+Yet there was wanting in no year encouragement for its friends or something
+accomplished that cheered them to larger efforts. In 1850, at the
+twenty-fifth anniversary, historical addresses were delivered by Samuel
+Osgood, John G. Palfrey, Henry W. Bellows, Edward E. Hale, and Lant
+Carpenter; and a hopeful review of the labors of the Association was
+presented by the executive committee. First of all its efforts had been
+directed to securing religious liberty. Then came its philanthropic
+enterprises, and finally its missionary labors. During the quarter of a
+century one hundred churches that were weak and struggling, owing to their
+situation in towns of decreasing population or in cities not congenial to
+their teachings, had been aided. More than fifty vigorous churches had been
+planted in the west and south, nearly all of them helped in some way by the
+Association. There was a renewed call for strong men to enter the
+missionary field, and it was uttered more urgently at this time than ever
+before. Special pride was expressed in the high quality of the religious
+writings produced by Unitarians, and in the nobleness the men and women who
+had been connected with denominational activities.[18]
+
+[1] An eighteenth-century term for the Congregational churches, which
+     were the legally established churches throughout New England, an
+     supported by the towns.
+
+[2] Boston Unitarianism, 67.
+
+[3] Memoir of Dr. Channing, one-volume edition, 215.
+
+[4] Ibid., 432.
+
+[5] Ibid., 427.
+
+[6] Memoir of Ezra Stiles Gannett, by W.C. Gannett, 103.
+
+[7] The records give the following names: Drs. Freeman, Channing, Lowell,
+     Tuckerman, Bancroft, Pierce, and Allyn; Rev. Messrs. Henry Ware,
+     Francis Parkman, J.G. Palfrey, Jared Sparks, Samuel Ripley, A.
+     Bigelow, A. Abbot, C. Francis, L. Capen, J. Pierpont, James Walker,
+     Mr. Harding, and Mr. Edes; and the following laymen,--Richard
+     Sullivan, Stephen Higginson, B. Gould, H.J. Oliver, S. Dorr, Colonel
+     Joseph May, C.G. Loring, George Bond, Samuel A. Eliot, G.B. Emerson,
+     C.P. Phelps, Lewis Tappan, David Reed, Mr. Storer, J. Rucker, N.
+     Mitchell, Robert Rantoul, Alden Bradford, Mr. Dwight, Mr. Mackintosh,
+     General Walker, Mr. Strong, Dr. John Ware, and Professor Andrews
+     Norton.
+
+[8] John Brazer, The Christian Examiner, xx. 240; Alonzo Hill, American
+     Unitarian Biography, i. 171.
+
+[9] The Liberal Christian, March 3, 1875.
+
+[10] Although Lewis Tappan took a zealous interest in the formation of the
+     Unitarian Association, as he did in all Unitarian activities of the
+     time, in the autumn of 1827 he withdrew from the Unitarian
+     fellowship, and joined the orthodox Congregationalist. In a letter
+     addressed to a Unitarian minister he explained his reasons for so
+     doing. This letter circulated for some time in manuscript, and in
+     1828 was printed in a pamphlet with the title, Letter from a
+     Gentleman in Boston to a Unitarian Clergyman of that City. Want of
+     Piety among Unitarians, failure to sustain missionary enterprises,
+     and the absence of a rigid business integrity he assigned as reasons
+     for his withdrawal. This pamphlet excited much discussion, pro and
+     con; and it was answered in a caustic review by J.P. Blanchard.
+
+[11] Moses George Thomas was a graduate of Brown and of the Harvard
+     Divinity School, was settled in Dover, N.H., from 1829 to 1845,
+     Broadway Church in South Boston from 1845 to 1848, New Bedford 1848
+     to 1854, and was subsequently minister at large in the same city.
+
+[12] In writing to Charles Briggs from Newport, under date of July 30
+     1836, Dr. Channing wrote, "In the pressure of subjects, when I saw
+     you, I forgot to say to you, that I cannot accept the office with
+     which the Unitarian Association honored me." That is the whole of
+     what he wrote on the subject. No one else was elected to the office
+     for year. It is evident, therefore, that his name should occupy the
+     place of president.
+
+[13] The depositaries in Massachusetts were at Salem, Concord, Hingham,
+     Plymouth, Yarmouth, Cambridge, Worcester, Northampton, Springfield,
+     and Greenfield; in New Hampshire, at Concord, Portsmouth, Keene, and
+     Amherst; in Maine, at Hallowell, Brunswick, and Eastport; and, in
+     Connecticut, at Brooklyn. In 1828 the number had increased to
+     twenty-five in Massachusetts, six in Maine, seven in New Hampshire,
+     one in Rhode Island, four in New York, two in Pennsylvania, and two
+     in Maryland. At the first annual meeting of the Unitarian Association
+     a system of auxiliaries was recommended, which was inaugurated the
+     next year. It was proposed to organize an auxiliary to the
+     Association in every parish, and also in each county. These societies
+     came rapidly into existence, were of much help to the Association in
+     raising money and in distributing its tracts, and energetic efforts
+     were made on the part of the officers of the Association to extend
+     their number and influence. They continued in existence for about
+     twenty years, and gradually disappeared. They numbered about one
+     hundred and fifty when most prosperous.
+
+[14] During the first twenty-five years of the Association, 272 tracts of
+     the first series were issued, and also 29 miscellaneous tracts and 37
+     reports. The number of copies published was estimated as 1,764,000,
+     making an average of 70,000 each year. Of these tracts, 103 were
+     practical, and 93 doctrinal; and, of the doctrinal, one-half were on
+     the Divine Unity, one-sixth on the Atonement, ten on Regeneration,
+     five on the Ordinances, four on Human Nature, three on Retribution,
+     and two on the Holy Spirit. In the Monthly Journal, May, 1860, Vol.
+     I. pp. 230-240, were given the titles and authors.
+
+[15] From a letter of Samuel K. Lothrop, afterward minister of the Brattle
+     Street Church.
+
+[16] The following letter is of interest, not only because of the name of
+     the writer, but because it gives a very good idea of the work done by
+     the first missionaries of the Association. It is dated at
+     Northampton, Mass., October 9, 1827. "My dear Sir,--I designed when I
+     left you to send some earlier notice of my doings than this; but as
+     it has not been in my power to say much, I have said nothing. Mr.
+     Hall is preparing an account of his own missions, but thinks it not
+     worth while to send it to you till it is completed. The first Sabbath
+     after my arrival I preached here. The second, for the convenience of
+     the Greenfield people, an exchange was made, and I went to Deerfield,
+     and Dr. Willard went to Colrain. There were some unfavorable
+     circumstances which operated to diminish the audience, but they were
+     glad to see and hear him. The fourth Sabbath (which followed the
+     meeting of the Franklin Association) I preached at Greenfield, and
+     Mr. Bailey went to Colrain. I enclose his journal. The fifth Sabbath
+     at Deerfield, and Dr. Willard at Adams in Berkshire. I have not seen
+     him since his return. I have told the Franklin Association I would
+     remain here till November, and in consequence have been thus put to
+     and fro, but expect to preach the three coming Sundays in
+     Northampton. I have offered my services to preach lectures in the
+     week, but circumstances have made it inexpedient in towns where it
+     was proposed. The clergymen are very glad to see me, having feared
+     that the mission was indefinitely postponed. They find the better
+     sort of people in most of the towns inquisitive and favorably
+     disposed to views of liberal Christianity. It is a singular fact, of
+     which I hear frequent mention made, that in elections Unitarians are
+     almost universally preferred when the suffrage is by ballot, and
+     rejected when given by hand ballot. In Franklin county it is thought
+     there is a majority of Unitarians. I have been much disappointed in
+     being obliged to lead a vagrant life, as you know I came hither with
+     different expectations, and hoped for leisure and retirement for
+     study, which I needed much. But it would not do for a missionary to
+     be stiff necked, and so I have been a shuttle. I have promised to go
+     to New Bedford the first three Sundays of November. With great
+     regard, your servant, R. Waldo Emerson." From this letter it will be
+     seen that Emerson supplied the pulpits at Northampton and Greenfield
+     in order that the ministers in those towns might preach elsewhere.
+
+[17] Fourteenth Annual Report, 14. "They were the following: Rev. George
+     Ripley, Boston; Rev. A.B. Muzzey, Cambridgeport; Rev. Samuel Barrett,
+     Boston; Rev. Mr. Green, East Cambridge; Rev. Calvin Lincoln,
+     Fitchburg; Rev. E.B. Willson, Westford; Dr. James Kendall, Plymouth;
+     Rev. George W. Hosmer, Buffalo; Rev. Warren Burton, Dr. Thompson,
+     Salem; Rev. J.P.B. Storer, Syracuse; Rev. Charles Babbidge,
+     Pepperell; Rev. John M. Myrick, Walpole; Rev. J.D. Swett, Boston;
+     Rev. A.D. Jones, Brighton; Rev. Henry Emmons, Meadville; Rev. J.F.
+     Clarke, Louisville; Rev. F.D. Huntington, Rev. B.F. Barrett, Rev.
+     G.F. Simmons, Rev. C. Nightingale, Mr. Wilson, of the Divinity
+     School; and Mr. C.P. Cranch. Among the places where they preached
+     are Houlton Me.; Syracuse, Lockport, Lewiston, Pekin, and Vernon,
+     N.Y.; Philadelphia and Erie, Pa.; Marietta, Zanesville, Cleveland,
+     and Toledo, Ohio; Detroit, Mich.; Owensburg, Ky.; Chicago, Peoria,
+     Tremont, Jacksonville, Hillsboro, and several other places in
+     Illinois."
+
+[18] For a most interesting account of the growth of the denomination, see
+     The Christian Examiner for May, 1854, lvi. 397, article by John
+     Parkman.
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+
+THE PERIOD OF RADICALISM.
+
+Before the controversy with the Orthodox had come to its end, a somewhat
+similar conflict of opinions arose within the Unitarian ranks. The same
+influences that had led the Unitarians away from the Orthodox were now
+causing the more radical Unitarians to advance beyond their more
+conservative neighbors. English philosophy had given direction to the
+Unitarian movement in America; and now German philosophy was helping to
+develop what has been designated as transcendentalism, which largely found
+expression within the Unitarian body. Beginning with 1835, the more liberal
+Unitarians were increasingly active. Hedge's[1] Club held its meetings,
+The Dial was published, Brook Farm lived its brief day of a reformed
+humanity, Parker began his preaching in Boston, Emerson was lecturing and
+publishing, and the more radical younger Unitarian preachers were bravely
+speaking for a religion natural to man and authenticated by the inner
+witness of the truth.
+
+The agitation thus started went on its way with many varying
+manifestations, and with a growing incisiveness of statement and
+earnestness of feeling. The new teachings gained the interest and the faith
+of the young in increasing numbers. In pulpits and on the platform, in
+newspapers and magazines, in essays and addresses, this new teaching was
+uttered for the world's hearing. The breeze thus created seems to have
+grown into a gale, but The Christian Register and The Christian Examiner
+gave almost no indication that it had blown their way. In the official
+actions and in the publications of the Unitarian Association there was no
+word indicating that the discussion had come to its knowledge. All at once,
+however, in 1853, it came into the greatest prominence, as the result of
+action taken by the Unitarian Association; and, thenceforth, for a quarter
+of a century it was never absent as a disturbing element in the
+intellectual and religious life of the Unitarian body.
+
+The early Unitarians were believers in the supernatural and in the miracles
+of the New Testament. They accepted without question the ideas on this
+subject that had been entertained by all Protestants from the days of
+Luther and Calvin. When Theodore Parker and the transcendentalists began to
+question the miraculous foundations of Christianity, many Unitarians were
+quite unprepared to accept their theories. They believed that the miracles
+of the New Testament afford the only evidence for the truthfulness of
+Christianity. This issue was distinctly stated in the twenty-eighth annual
+report of the Unitarian Association for 1853, wherein an attempt was made
+to defend the Unitarian body against the charge of infidelity and
+rationalism made by the Orthodox. The teachings of the transcendentalists
+and radicals had been attributed to all Unitarians, and the leaders of the
+Association felt that it was time to define explicitly the position they
+occupied. Therefore they said, in the report of that year:--"We desire, in
+a denominational capacity, to assert our profound belief in the Divine
+origin, the Divine authority, the Divine sanctions, of the religion of
+Jesus Christ. This is the basis of our associated action. We desire openly
+to declare our belief as a denomination, so far as it can be officially
+represented by the American Unitarian Association, that God, moved by his
+own love, did raise up Jesus to aid in our redemption from sin, did by him
+pour a fresh flood of purifying life through the withered veins of humanity
+and along the corrupted channels of the world, and is, by his religion,
+forever sweeping the nations with regenerating gales from heaven, and
+visiting the hearts of men with celestial solicitations. We receive the
+teachings of Christ, separated from all foreign admixtures and later
+accretions, as infallible truth from God."[2] At the same meeting a
+resolution was adopted, "without a dissenting voice," which declared that
+"the Divine authority of the Gospel, as founded on a special and miraculous
+interposition of God, is the basis of the action of the Association."[3]
+
+As these statements indicate, the majority of Unitarians were very
+conservative at this time in their theological position and methods. They
+were nearly as hesitating and reticent in their beliefs as Unitarians as
+they had been while connected with the older Congregational body. The
+reason for this was the same in the later as in the earlier period, that a
+predominant social conservatism held them aloof from all that was
+intellectually aggressive and theologically rationalistic. They had
+outgrown Tritheism, as it had been taught for generations in New England;
+they had refused to accept the fatalism that had been taught in the name of
+Calvin, and they had rejected the ecclesiastical tyrannies that had been
+imposed on men by the New England theology. But they had advanced only a
+little way in accepting modern thought as a basis of faith, and in seeking
+a rational interpretation of the relations of God and man. Their belief in
+a superhuman Christ was theoretically weaker, but practically stronger,
+than that of the churches from which they had withdrawn; while the grounds
+of that belief were in the one instance the same as in the other.
+
+[Sidenote: Depression in Denominational Activities.]
+
+The activities of the Unitarian Association were largely interfered with by
+these differences of opinion. The more conservative churches were unwilling
+to contribute to its treasury because it did not exclude the radicals from
+all connection with it. The radicals, on, the other hand, withheld their
+gifts because, while they were not excommunicated, they were regarded with
+suspicion by many of the churches, and did not have the fullest recognition
+from the Association.
+
+This controversy was emphasized by that arising from the reform movements
+of the day, especially the agitation against slavery. Almost without
+exception the radicals belonged to the anti-slavery party, while the
+conservative churches were generally opposed to this agitation. As a
+result, anti-slavery efforts became a serious cause of discord in the
+Unitarian churches, and helped to cripple the resources of the Association.
+When, as the climax of all, the civil war came on, the Association was
+brought to a condition of almost desperate poverty. Not more than twoscore
+churches contributed to its treasury, and it was obliged, to curtail its
+expenses in every direction.[4]
+
+Up to the year 1865 the Unitarians had not been efficiently organized; and
+they had developed very imperfectly what has been called denominational
+consciousness, or the capacity for co-operative efforts. The Unitarian
+Association was not a representative body, and it depended wholly upon
+individuals for its membership. Not more than one-fourth or, at the
+largest, one-third of the Unitarian churches were represented in its
+support and in its activities. There were: Unitarian churches, and there
+was a Unitarian movement; but such a thing as a Unitarian denomination, in
+any clearly defined meaning of the words, did not exist. This fact was
+explained by James Freeman Clarke in 1863, when he said that "the
+traditions of the Unitarian body are conservative and timid."[5] How this
+attitude affected the Unitarian Association was pointedly stated by Mr.
+Clarke, after several years of experience as its secretary. "The Unitarian
+churches in Boston," he wrote, "see no reason for diffusing their faith.
+They treat it as a luxury to be kept for themselves, as they keep Boston
+Common. The Boston churches, with the exception of a few noble and generous
+examples, have not done a great deal for Unitarian missions. I have heard,
+it said that they do not wish to make Unitarianism too common. The church
+in Brattle street contains wealthy and generous persons who have given
+largely to humane objects and to all public purposes; but we believe that,
+even while their pastor was president of the Unitarian Association, they
+never gave a dollar to that Association for its missionary objects. The
+society in King's Chapel was the first in the United States which professed
+Unitarianism. It is so wealthy that it might give ten or twenty thousand
+dollars a year to missionary objects without feeling it. It has always been
+very liberal to its ministers, to all philanthropic and benevolent objects,
+and its members have probably given away millions of dollars for public and
+social uses; but it never gives anything to diffuse Unitarianism."[6]
+
+Dr. Samuel K. Lothrop continued as the president of the Unitarian
+Association until the annual meeting of 1858, when Dr. Edward Brooks Hall
+was elected to that position for one year. After short pastorates in
+Northampton and Cincinnati, Dr. Hall had been settled over the First Church
+in Providence in 1832, which position he held until his death in 1866. At
+the annual meeting of 1859 Dr. Frederic H. Hedge was elected president, and
+he was twice re-elected. His interest in the Association was active, and he
+often spoke at the public meetings. One of the ablest thinkers and
+theologians that has appeared among Unitarians in this country, he always
+rightly estimated the practical activities of organized religious
+movements. He was succeeded in 1862 by Dr. Rufus P. Stebbins, who held the
+office for three years. After a settlement in Leominster, Dr. Stebbins was
+the first president of the Meadville Theological School from 1844 to 1856.
+Then followed a pastorate in Woburn, after which he went to Ithaca and
+opened a mission for the students of Cornell University, which grew into
+the Unitarian church in that town. From 1877 he was pastor at Newton Centre
+until his death in 1885.
+
+The secretary of the Association from 1850 to 1853 was Rev. Calvin Lincoln,
+who had been settled in Fitchburg for thirty-one years, and who was the
+minister of the First Church in Hingham from 1855 until his death in 1881.
+He was succeeded in 1853 by Rev. Henry A. Miles, who continued in office
+until 1859. Dr. Miles was settled in Hallowell and Lowell before serving
+the Association, and in Longwood and Hingham (Third Parish) afterward. His
+little book on The Birth of Jesus has gained him recognition as a
+theologian of ability and a critic of independent judgment. For three years
+Rev. James Freeman Clarke was the secretary; and in 1861 he was succeeded
+by George W. Fox, who served in that capacity until the annual meeting of
+1865. Mr. Fox wrote the annual reports from 1862 to 1864, and efficiently
+performed all the duties of the secretary which could devolve upon a
+layman, with the exception of editing The Monthly Journal, a task which was
+continued by James Freeman Clarke.[7]
+
+[Sidenote: Publications.]
+
+In spite of its restricted income during this troubled period, the
+Association was able, owing to its invested funds,[8] to increase its
+publishing operations to a considerable extent. The number of tracts
+published, however, was much smaller; and their monthly issue was
+discontinued in order to publish The Quarterly Journal of the American
+Unitarian Association, the first number of which appeared in October, 1853.
+During the first year each number contained ninety-six pages, which were
+increased to one hundred and ninety-two in 1854, but reduced to one hundred
+and thirty the following year. In 1860 this publication became The Monthly
+Journal; and it was continued until December, 1869, each number containing
+forty-eight pages. The Journal was sent to all subscribers to the funds of
+the Association, to life members, to all churches contributing to its
+funds, as well as to regular subscribers. Its circulation in 1855 was
+7,000, and it increased to 15,000 before it was discontinued. It was used
+largely, however, for free distribution as a missionary document.
+
+The Journal served an important purpose during the seventeen years of its
+publication, as a means of bringing the Association into touch with its
+constituency and of making the people acquainted with its work. It
+published the records of the meetings of the executive committee as well as
+of the annual meeting, it gave numerous extracts from the correspondence of
+the secretary, it contained the news of the churches, and all the
+denominational activities were kept constantly before its readers. In its
+pages were frequently published biographies of prominent Unitarians,
+notable addresses were printed, sermons appeared frequently, and able
+theological articles. During the editorship of James Freeman Clarke it
+contained the successive chapters of his Orthodoxy: Its Truths and Errors.
+It also printed one or more chapters of Alger's History of the Doctrine of
+the Future Life. The secretary of the Association was its editor, and he
+made it at once a theological tract and a denominational newspaper.
+
+The increase in demand for Unitarian tracts and books had been so large
+that early in 1854 the executive committee of the Association decided that
+a special effort should be made to meet it. They called a meeting in
+Freeman Place Chapel on the afternoon of February 1, which was largely
+attended. An address was given by Dr. Lothrop, the president, who said that
+Channing's works had reached a sale of 100,000 copies, and Ware's Formation
+of Christian Character 12,000, that there was an urgent call for liberal
+works that would meet the spiritual needs of the age. A large number of
+prominent ministers and laymen addressed the meeting, and expressed
+themselves as thoroughly sympathy with its objects. A committee was
+appointed to consider the proposition made by Dr. George E. Ellis, that a
+fund of $50,000 be raised for the publication of books. This committee
+reported a month later through its chairman, George B. Emerson, in favor of
+the project; and it was voted that the money should be raised. It was
+easier to pass this vote, however, than to secure the money from the
+churches; for in 1859, after five years of effort, the sum collected was
+only $28,163.33.
+
+The money secured, however, was immediately utilized in the publication of
+a number of books. Three series of works were undertaken, the first of
+these being The Theological Library, in which were published Selections
+from the Works of Dr. Channing; Wilson's Unitarian Principles Confirmed by
+Trinitarian Testimonies; a one-volume edition of Norton's Statement of
+Reasons for not Believing the Doctrines of Trinitarians concerning the
+Nature of God and the Person of Christ, with a memoir of the author by Dr.
+William Newell; a volume of Theological Essays selected from the writings
+of Jowett, Tholuck, Guizot, Roland Williams, and others, and edited by
+George R. Noyes; and Martineau's Studies of Christianity, a series of
+miscellaneous papers, edited by William R. Alger. The Devotional Library,
+the second of the three series, included The Altar at Home, a series of
+prayers, collects, and litanies for family devotions, written by a large
+number of the leading Unitarian ministers, and edited by Dr. Miles, the
+secretary of the Association; Clarke's Christian Doctrine of Prayer; Thomas
+T. Stone's The Rod and the Staff, a transcendentalist presentation of
+Christianity as a spiritual life; The Harp and the Cross, a selection of
+religious poetry, edited by Stephen G. Bulfinch; Sears's Athanasia, or
+Foregleams of Immortality; and Seven Stormy Sundays, a volume of original
+sermons by well-known ministers, with devotional services, edited by Miss
+Lucretia P. Hale. A Biblical Library was also planned, to include a popular
+commentary on the New Testament, a Bible Dictionary, and other works of a
+like character; but John H. Morison's Disquisitions and Notes on the Gospel
+of Matthew was the only volume published.
+
+[Sidenote: A Firm of Publishers.]
+
+In May, 1859, a young business man of Boston, James P. Walker, established
+the firm of Walker, Wise & Co., for the publication of Unitarian books. In
+1863 Horace B. Fuller joined the firm, and it became Walker, Fuller & Co.
+This firm took charge of all the publishing interests of the Association,
+and the head of the house was ambitious of bringing out all the liberal
+books issued in this country. Among the works published were: The New
+Discussion of the Trinity, a series of articles and sermons by Hedge,
+Clarke, Sears, Dewey, and Starr King; Lamson's Church of the First Three
+Centuries; Farley's Unitarianism Defined; Recent Inquiries in Theology,
+essays by Jowett, Mark Pattison, Baden Powell, and other English Broad
+Churchmen, edited by Dr. F.H. Hedge; Alien's Hebrew Men and Times; Dall's
+Woman's Right to Labor; Muzzey's Christ in the Will, the Heart, and the
+Life; Ichabod Nichols's Sermons; Martineau's Common Prayer for Christian
+Worship; Cobbe's Religious Demands of the Age; Ware's Silent Pastor;
+Frothingham's Stories from the Patriarchs; Clarke's Hour which Cometh and
+Now Is; Parker's Prayers; a second series The Altar at Home; Hedge's Reason
+in Religion; Life of Horace Mann by his wife, as well as certain novels,
+historical works, and books for the young. The demand for liberal books was
+not large enough, however, even with the aid of the Association, to make
+such a business successful; and in the autumn of 1866 the publishing firm
+of Walker, Fuller & Co. failed. In part the business was carried on for a
+time by Horace B. Fuller.
+
+[Sidenote: The Brooks Fund.]
+
+An important work in the distribution of books was inaugurated in 1859 in
+connection with the Meadville Theological School, by means of the Fund for
+Liberal Christianity established at that time by Joshua Brooks of New York.
+He appointed as trustee of the fund Professor Frederick Huidekoper, who
+gave his services gratuitously to its care, and to the direction of the
+distribution of books for which it provided. The sum given to this purpose
+was $20,000, which was increased by favorable investments to $23,000. The
+original purpose was to aid in any way that seemed desirable the cause of
+liberal Christianity, and a part of the income was devoted to helping
+struggling societies. In time the whole income, with the approval of the
+donor, was centred upon the distribution of books to settled ministers,
+irrespective of denomination. In 1877 the whole number of books that had
+been distributed was 40,000. At the present time about $1,000 yearly are
+devoted to this work, the recipients being graduates of the Meadville
+Theological School, and the ministers of any denomination who may ask for
+them, provided they are settled west of the Hudson River. The demands upon
+the funds have increased so rapidly that it has become necessary to reduce
+the amount of each gift.
+
+[Sidenote: Missionary Efforts.]
+
+The missionary activities of the Association did not actually cease even in
+these dark days. In May, 1855, Rev. Ephraim Nute was sent to Kansas, which
+was then the battle-ground between the pro-slavery and the anti-slavery
+forces of the nation. He established himself at Lawrence, and was the first
+settled pastor in the state. With the aid of the Association a church was
+built at Lawrence in 1859, which was the first in the state to receive
+dedication and to be used as a permanent house of worship. Mr. Nute went
+through all the trying scenes preceding the opening of the civil war, and
+did his part in maintaining the cause of liberty. He was succeeded by Rev.
+John S. Brown in 1859, who labored in this difficult field for several
+years.
+
+A church was organized in San Francisco in 1849, without the aid of a
+minister; and there was gathered a large and prosperous congregation. In
+1850 Rev. Charles A. Farley took up the work; and he was succeeded by Rev.
+Joseph Harrington, Rev. Frederick T. Gray, and Rev. Rufus P. Cutler. Thomas
+Starr King preached his first sermon in the church April 28, 1860; and he
+spoke to crowded congregations until his death, March 4, 1864. On January
+10, 1864, a new church was dedicated, in the morning to the worship of God,
+and in the afternoon to the service of man.
+
+Among those who carried forward the Unitarian cause in the middle west was
+Rev. Nahor A. Staples, a brilliant preacher and a zealous worker, who was
+settled in Milwaukee at the end of 1856, and who made his influence widely
+felt around him. In 1859 Rev. Robert Collyer began his work in Chicago as a
+city Missionary; and the next year Unity Church was organized, with him as
+the pastor. In 1859 Rev. Charles G. Ames began his connection with the
+Unitarians at Minneapolis, and he subsequently labored at Bloomington.
+After a short pastorate in Albany he began general missionary labors on the
+Pacific coast. A characteristic type of the western Unitarian was Rev.
+Ichabod Codding, who preached at Bloomington, Keokuk, and Baraboo, but who
+had no formal settlement. He was a breezy, radical, and ardent preacher,
+bold in statement and picturesque in style, a zealous advocate of freedom
+for the slave, and warmly devoted to other reforms. He was fitted admirably
+for the pioneer preaching to which he largely devoted himself; and his
+strong, vigorous, and aggressive ideas were acceptable to those who heard
+him.
+
+[Sidenote: The Western Unitarian Conference.]
+
+There was organized in the church at Cincinnati, May 7, 1852, the Annual
+Conference of Western Unitarian Churches. At this meeting delegates were
+present from the churches in Buffalo, Meadville, Pittsburg, Wheeling,
+Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, Cannelton, Quincy, Geneva, Chicago, and
+Detroit. Much enthusiasm was expressed in anticipation of this meeting,
+many letters were written, approving of the proposed organization, and
+large expectations were manifested as to its promised work. In harmony with
+these large and generous anticipations of the influence of the conference
+was its statement of purposes, as presented in its constitution. It was
+organized for "the promotion of the Christian spirit in the several
+churches which compose it, and the increase of vital, practical religion;
+the diffusion of Gospel truth and the accomplishment of such works of
+Christian benevolence as may be agreed upon; the support of domestic or
+home missionaries, the publication of tracts, the distribution of religious
+books, the promotion of theological education, and extending aid to such
+societies as may need it."
+
+When the conference organized, Rev. William G. Eliot was elected the
+president, Mr. Charles Harlow and Rev. A.A. Livermore the recording and
+corresponding secretaries. During the year $994.22 were raised for
+missionary purposes, and three missionaries--Boyer, Conant, and
+Bradley--were kept in the field, mainly in Illinois and Michigan. The
+reports of these men, given at the second meeting of the conference, held
+in St. Louis, were full of enthusiasm and courage. At this meeting the
+constituency numbered nineteen churches, located in eleven states. Several
+struggling societies had been aided, assistance given to young men
+preparing for the ministry, and many tracts and books had been distributed.
+A book depositary was opened in Cincinnati, and it was proposed to
+establish one in every large city in the west. The call was for a much
+larger number of preachers, it being rightly maintained that only the
+living man can reach the people in such a region. "The Unitarian minister
+is _per se_ a bookseller and colporter also, and he can thus preach to
+multitudes who never hear his voice."
+
+The early anticipations of a rapid advance of Unitarianism in the west were
+not realized, partly owing to the want of ministers of energy and the
+necessary staying qualities, and partly to the fact that tradition is
+always far more powerful with the masses of men and women than reason.
+Before the organization of the conference new churches appeared at
+infrequent intervals, though, if those that have ceased to exist were
+counted, they would not be so remote from each other in time.[9] From the
+first there was in the west a distinctive attitude of freedom, which was
+the result in large, measure of its fluctuating conditions, and the absence
+of fixed habits and traditions. In 1853 the missionaries of the conference
+were instructed that "in spirit and in aim the Conference would be
+Christian, not sectarian, and it does not, therefore, require of them
+subscription to any human creed, the wearing of any distinctive name, or
+the doing of any merely sectarian work. All that it requires is, that they
+should be Christians and do Christian work, that they should believe on the
+Lord Jesus Christ as one who spake with authority and whose religion is the
+divinely appointed means for the regeneration of man individually and
+collectively, and that they should labor earnestly, intelligently,
+affectionately, and perseveringly to enthrone this religion in the hearts
+and make it, effective over the lives of men." Such a statement as this,
+indeed, was quite as conservative as anything put forth by Unitarians in
+New England; but behind it was an attitude of free inquiry that gave to
+western Unitarianism distinctive characteristics.
+
+In 1854 a committee reported on the doctrinal basis of the conference, in
+the form of a little book of sixty-five pages, bearing the title of
+Unitarian Views of Christ.[10] It was widely circulated, and served an
+excellent missionary purpose. When the conference accepted the report, in
+which it was declared that Jesus is the Son of God and the miracles of the
+New Testament facts on which the gospel is based, a resolution was
+unanimously passed, asserting that "we have no right to adopt any statement
+of belief as authoritative or as a declaration of the Unitarian faith,
+other than the New Testament." In 1858 it was the opinion of the conference
+that "all who wish to take upon themselves the Christian name should be so
+recognized." The next year the conservatives and radicals came face to
+face, the one party asking for the old faith according to Channing, while
+one or more of the other party asserted their disbelief in the miracles and
+in the resurrection of Christ. In 1860 the conference declared itself
+willing to "welcome as fellow laborers all who are seeking to learn and to
+do the will of the Father and work righteousness, and recommend that in all
+places, with or without preaching, they organize for religious worship and
+culture--the work of faith and the labor of love."
+
+The meeting at Quincy in 1860 was one of great interest and enthusiasm. The
+missionary spirit rose high; and it was proposed to put into the field an
+aggressive worker, and to give him the necessary financial support. To this
+end a missionary association was organized, with Rev. Robert Collyer as the
+president, and Artemas Carter, a successful business man of Chicago, as the
+treasurer. Before the result desired could be realized, the war gave a very
+different direction to all the interests of the western churches. Of the
+twenty-nine ministers in the west at this time, sixteen went into the
+army,--twelve as chaplains, two as officers, and two as privates,--while
+several others devoted themselves to hospital work for longer or shorter
+periods. Rev. Augustus H. Conant, Rev. Leonard Whitney, Rev. Frederick R.
+Newell, and Rev. L.B. Mason answered with their lives to their country's
+call.
+
+The period immediately following the close of the civil war was one of
+generous giving and of great activity on the part of the western churches.
+From 1864 to 1866 the field was occupied by twenty-one new laborers,
+several new societies were organized, four old ones were resuscitated,
+seven new churches were built, and fifteen missionary stations were opened.
+The churches during these two years contributed $5,000 to missionary
+purposes and $13,000 to Antioch College. The degree of success met with in
+the efforts of the Western Conference depended in large degree upon the
+interest and activity of the western churches themselves. When they devoted
+themselves earnestly to missionary work, they contributed to it with a fair
+degree of liberality, and that work prospered. When the conference was
+asked to withdraw from the direction of that work by Rev. Charles Lowe, in
+order to secure greater unity of missionary effort by bringing all work of
+this kind under the direction of the Association, the contributions of the
+churches diminished, and the missionary activities in the west languished.
+However valuable the aid of the Unitarian Association,--and there can be no
+question that it was of the greatest importance,--local interest and
+co-operation were also essential to permanent success. Local activity and
+general oversight were alike necessary.
+
+[Sidenote: The Autumnal Conventions.]
+
+For more than twenty years Autumnal Conventions, as they were called, were
+held in the larger cities, beginning at Worcester in 1842. These meetings
+originated in the Worcester Association of Ministers at a meeting held July
+11, 1842, when the association considered the "desirableness of a meeting
+of Unitarians in the autumn for the purpose of awakening mutual sympathy
+and considering the wants of the Unitarian body."[11]
+
+At the invitation thereafter issued by the Worcester Association of
+ministers a convention was held in the church of the Second Congregational
+Parish in Worcester, October 18-20, 1842. On the first evening a sermon was
+preached by Dr. Ezra S. Gannett, and a committee of business was
+subsequently chosen. The next morning the convention organized, with Dr.
+Francis Parkman as president and Rev. Cazneau Palfrey as secretary. A
+series of resolutions were discussed,[12] and on the second evening a
+sermon was preached by Dr. A.P. Peabody. No essays were read, and nothing
+but the sermons were prepared beforehand. The Christian Register closed its
+report by saying that it could "give but a faint impression of the feeling
+which pervaded the meeting. The discussions were characterized by great
+earnestness and seriousness, and were conducted, at the same time, with
+entire freedom and with candor and liberality toward the differences of
+opinion which, amidst a general unanimity upon great principles, were
+occasionally elicited respecting details and methods. The expectations of
+those who called the convention were abundantly realized."
+
+The second of the Autumnal Conventions was held in Providence, October 2-4,
+1843. On the first evening the theme of the sermon preached by Dr. Dewey
+was the spiritual ministry of Dr. Channing, and it produced a great and
+deep impression. The resolutions discussed related to the duty, on the part
+of Unitarians, of making an explicit statement of their convictions, and an
+earnest application of them to life, and the need on the part of the
+denomination for a more united and vigorous action as a religious body. At
+the third meeting held in Albany, a statement was made by Dr. Dewey that
+exactly defined these gatherings, in their methods and purposes, when he
+said: "This and other conventions like it that are held in our body, I am
+inclined to think, have never been held before in the world. There is
+nothing like them to be found in the records of ecclesiastical history. We
+meet as distinct churches, on the pure democratic basis, which we believe
+to be the true basis of the church of Christ. We meet, without any
+formalities--to institute, or correct no canons--without the slightest
+system whatever. We come to meditate, to assist each other in experience,
+by unfolding our own experience, by declaring our convictions."
+
+The subjects introduced at these meetings were practical, such as commanded
+the interest of both ministers and laymen of the churches. The method
+adopted allowed a free interchange of opinions, and the participation of
+all in the discussions. So great was the interest awakened that these
+meetings were largely attended, and they were to a considerable degree
+helpful in bringing the churches into vital relations with each other.[13]
+
+At the session held in Brooklyn in 1862, great interest was manifested in
+the vespers, then a novelty, that were arranged by Samuel Longfellow. This
+meeting was marked by its glowing patriotism, that rose to a white heat. A
+sermon of great power was preached by Dr. Bellows, interpreting the duty of
+the hour and the destiny of America. The resolutions and the discussions
+were almost wholly along the lines of patriotic duty and devotion suggested
+by the sermon. At the last of the Autumnal Conventions, held in
+Springfield, Mass., October 13-15, 1863, the sermons were preached by Rev.
+Edward Everett Hale and Rev. Octavius B. Frothingham, while the essays were
+by Professor Charles Eliot Norton and Rev. James Freeman Clarke.
+
+The Autumnal Conventions came to an end, probably in part because the civil
+war was more and more absorbing the energies of the people both in and out
+of the churches, and partly because the desire for a more efficient
+organization had begun to make itself felt. In the spring of 1865 was held
+the meeting in New York that resulted in the organization of the National
+Conference, the legitimate successor to the Autumnal Conventions.
+
+[Sidenote: Influence of the Civil War.]
+
+During the period of the civil war, Unitarian activities were largely
+turned in new directions. Unitarians bore their full share in the councils
+of the nation, in the halls of legislation, on the fields of battle, in the
+care of the sick and wounded, and in the final efforts that brought about
+emancipation and peace. At least fifty Unitarian ministers entered the army
+as chaplains, privates, officers, and members of the Sanitary
+Commission.[14]
+
+The Unitarian Association also directed its attention to such work as it
+could accomplish in behalf of the soldiers in the field and in hospitals.
+Books were distributed, tracts published, and hymn-books prepared to meet
+their needs. Rev. John F.W. Ware developed a special gift for writing army
+tracts, of which he wrote about a dozen, which were published by the
+Association. As the war went on, the Association largely increased its
+activities in the army; and, when the end came, it had as many as seventy
+workers in the field, distributing its publications, aiding the Sanitary
+Commission, or acting as nurses and voluntary chaplains in the hospitals.
+The end of the war served rather to increase than to contract its labors,
+aid being largely needed for several months in returning the soldiers to
+their homes and in caring for those who were left in hospitals.
+
+Early in the summer of 1863 Rev. William G. Scandlin was sent to the Army
+of the Potomac as the agent of the Association. Taken prisoner in July, he
+spent several months in Libby prison, where he was kindly treated and
+exercised a beneficent influence. He was followed in this work by Rev.
+William M. Mellen, who established a library of 3,000 volumes at the
+convalescent camp, Alexandria, and also distributed a large amount of
+reading matter in the army. Rev. Charles Lowe served for several months as
+chaplain in the camp of drafted men on Long Island, his salary being paid
+by the Association. In November, 1864, he made a tour of inspection, as the
+agent of the Association, to the hospitals of Philadelphia, Baltimore
+Annapolis, Washington, Alexandria, Fortress Monroe, City Point, and the
+Army of the Potomac, in order to arrange for the proper distribution of
+reading matter and for such other hospital service as could be rendered.
+More than 3,000 volumes of the publications of the Association were
+distributed to the soldiers and in the hospitals, largely by Rev. J.G.
+Forman, of St. Louis, and Rev. John H. Heywood, of Louisville. Among those
+who acted as agents of the Association in furnishing reading to the army
+and hospitals were Rev. Calvin Stebbins, Rev. Frederick W. Holland, Rev.
+Benjamin H. Bailey, Rev. Artemas B. Muzzey, Rev. Newton M. Mann, and Mr.
+Henry G. Denny. Rev. Samuel Abbot Smith worked zealously at Norfolk at the
+hospitals and in preaching to the soldiers, until disease and death brought
+his labors to a close. What this kind of work was, and what it
+accomplished, was described by Louisa Alcott in her Hospital Sketches, and
+by William Howell Reed in his Hospital Life in the Army of the Potomac.
+
+[Sidenote: The Sanitary Commission.]
+
+The Sanitary Commission has been described by its historian as "one of the
+most shining monuments of our civilization," and as an expression of
+organized sympathy that "must always and everywhere call forth the homage
+and admiration of mankind." The organizer and leader of this great
+philanthropic movement for relieving human suffering was Dr. Henry W.
+Bellows, the minister of All Souls' Church in New York, the first Unitarian
+church organized in that city. The Commission was first suggested by Dr.
+Bellows, and he was its efficient leader from the first to the last. He was
+unanimously selected as its president, when the government had been
+persuaded, largely through his influence, to establish it as an addition to
+its medical and hospital service. The historian of the Commission has
+justly said that he "possessed many remarkable qualifications for so
+responsible, a position. Perhaps no man in the country exerted a wider or
+more powerful influence over those who were earnestly seeking the best
+means of defending our threatened nationality, and certainly never was a
+moral power of this kind founded upon juster and truer grounds. This
+influence was not confined to his home, the city of New York, although
+there it was incontestably very great, but it extended over many other
+portions of the country, and particularly throughout New England, where
+circumstances had made his name and his reputation for zeal and ability
+familiar to those most likely to aid in the furtherance of the new scheme.
+This power was due, partly of course to the very eminent position which he
+occupied as a clergyman, partly to the persistent efforts and enlightened
+zeal with which he advocated all wise measures of social reform, perhaps to
+his widely extended reputation as an orator, but primarily, and above all,
+to the rare combination of wide comprehensive views of great questions of
+public policy with extraordinary practical sagacity, which enabled him so
+to organize popular intelligence and sympathy that the best practical
+results were attained while the life-giving principle was preserved. He had
+the credit of not being what so many of his profession are, an ideologue;
+he had the clearest perception of what could and what could not be done,
+and he never hesitated to regard actual experience as the best practical
+test of the value of his plans and theories. These qualities, so precious
+and so exceptional in their nature, appeared conspicuously in the efforts
+made by him to secure the appointment of the Commission by the Government,
+and it will be found that every page of its history bears the strong
+impress of his peculiar and characteristic views."[15]
+
+These words of Charles J. Stille, a member of the Sanitary Commission and
+its authorized historian, afterward the provost of the University of
+Pennsylvania, indicate the remarkable qualities of leadership possessed by
+Dr. Bellows. These were undoubtedly added to and made more impressive by
+his oratorical genius, that was of a very high order. Dr. Hedge spoke of
+the miraculous power of speech possessed by Dr. Bellows, when he was at his
+best, as being "incomparably better than anything he could have possibly
+compassed by careful preparation or conscious effort," and of "those
+exalted moments when he was fully possessed by his demon."[16] He was
+inexhaustible in his efforts for the success of the Commission, in
+directing the work of committees and branches, in appealing to the
+indifferent, and in giving enthusiasm to all the forces under his
+direction.
+
+Of the nine original members of the Sanitary Commission, four were
+Unitarians,--Dr. Bellows, Dr. Samuel G. Howe, Dr. Jeffries Wyman, and
+Professor Wolcott Gibbs. In the number of those added later was Rev. John
+H. Heywood, for many years the minister of the Unitarian church in
+Louisville, who rendered efficient service in the western department. In
+the convalescents' camp at Alexandria "a wonderful woman," Miss Amy
+Bradley, had charge of the efficient labors of the Commission, "where for
+two and a half years she and her assistants rendered incalculable service,
+in distributing clothing among the needy, procuring dainties for the sick,
+accompanying discharged soldiers to Washington and assisting them in
+procuring their papers and pay, furnishing paper and postage, and writing
+letters for the sick, forwarding money home by drafts that cost nothing to
+the soldier, answering letters of inquiry to hospital directors, securing
+certificates of arrears of pay and getting erroneous charges of desertion
+removed (the Commission saved several innocent soldiers from being shot as
+condemned deserters), distributing reading matter, telegraphing the friends
+of very ill soldiers, furnishing meals for feeble soldiers in barracks who
+could not eat the regulation food. Miss Bradley assisted 2,000 men to
+secure arrears of pay amounting to $200,000. Prisoners of war, while in
+prison and when released by general exchange, were largely and promptly
+relieved and comforted by this department."[17] Another effective worker
+was Frederick N. Knapp, who had been for several years a Unitarian
+minister, and who was the leading spirit in the special relief service of
+the Commission, "and organized and controlled it with masterly zeal,
+humanity, and success."[18] The work of Mr. Knapp was of great importance;
+for he was the confidential secretary of Dr. Bellows, and gave his whole
+time to the service of the Commission. He was a methodical worker, an
+efficient organizer, and supplied those qualities of persistent industry
+and grasp of details in which Dr. Bellows was deficient. Without his
+untiring energy and skilful directing power the Commission would have been
+less effective than it was in fact. Dr. Bellows also described William G.
+Scandlin as "one of the most earnest and effective of the Sanitary
+Commission agents."
+
+In the autumn of 1862 the Commission was greatly crippled in its work
+because it could not obtain the money with which to carry on its extensive
+operations, and it was saved from failure by the generosity of California,
+and the other Pacific states and territories. The remoteness of these
+states at that time made it impossible for them to contribute their
+proportion of men, "and they indulged their patriotism and gave relief to
+their pent-up sympathies with the national cause by pouring out their money
+like water."[19] The first contribution was received by the Sanitary
+Commission on September 19, 1862, and was $100,000: a fortnight later the
+same sum was again sent; and similar contributions followed at short
+intervals. These sums enabled the Commission to accomplish its splendid
+work, and to meet the urgent needs of those trying days. How the Pacific
+coast was able to contribute so largely to this work may be explained in
+the words of Dr. Bellows, who fully understood the situation, and the vast
+importance of the help afforded: "The most gifted and inspiring of the
+patriots who rallied California and the Pacific coast to the flag of the
+Union was undoubtedly Thomas Starr King, minister of the first Unitarian
+church in San Francisco. Born in New York, but reared in Massachusetts, he
+had earned an almost national reputation for eloquence and wit, humanity
+and nobleness of soul, in the lecture-rooms and pulpits of the north and
+west, when at the age of thirty-five, he yielded to the religious claims of
+the Pacific coast and transferred himself to California. There in four
+years he had built up as public speaker from the pulpit and platform a
+prodigious popularity. His temperament sympathetic, mercurial, and
+electric; his disposition hearty, genial, and sweet; his mind versatile,
+quick, and sparkling; his tact exquisite, and infallible; with a voice as
+clear as a bell and loud and cheering as a trumpet, his nature and
+accomplishments perfectly adapted to the people, and place, and the time.
+His religious profession disarmed many of his political enemies, his
+political orthodoxy quieted many of his religious opponents. Generous,
+charitable, disinterested, his full heart and open hand captivated the
+California people, while his sparkling wit, melodious cadences, and
+rhetorical abundance perfectly satisfied their taste for intensity and
+novelty and a touch of extravagance. It has been said by high authority
+that Mr. King saved California to the Union. California was too loyal at
+heart to make the boast reasonable; but it is not too much to say that Mr.
+King did more than any man, by his prompt, outspoken, uncalculating
+loyalty, to make California know what her own feelings really were. He did
+all that any man could have done to lead public sentiment that was
+unconsciously ready to follow where earnest loyalty and patriotism should
+guide the way."[20]
+
+Not less important in its own degree was the work done in St. Louis by Dr.
+William G. Eliot, minister since 1834 of the Unitarian church in that city.
+He became the leader in all efforts for aiding the soldiers, and was most
+active in forming and directing the Western Sanitary Commission, that
+worked harmoniously with the national organization, but independently. A
+large hospital was established and maintained, a home for refugees was
+secured, and a large camp for "contraband" negroes was established, chiefly
+under the direction of Dr. Eliot, and largely maintained by his church. He
+was a potent force in keeping St. Louis and the northern portions of
+Missouri loyal to the Union. The secretary of the Western Sanitary
+Commission, J.G. Forman, a Unitarian minister for many years, was most
+faithful and efficient in this work; and he subsequently became its
+historian. In the Freedman's Hospital at St. Louis labored with zeal and
+success Rev. Frederick R. Newall; and he was also superintendent of the
+Freedman's Bureau in that city, his life being sacrificed to these devoted
+labors.
+
+[Sidenote: Results of Fifteen Years.]
+
+The work done by the Unitarian Association during the civil war and under
+the conditions it produced was not a large one, but it absorbed a
+considerable part of its energies for about five years. In all it printed
+over 3,000 copies of three books for the soldiers,[21] distributed 750,000
+tracts which it had prepared for them,[22] sent to the soldiers 5,000
+copies weekly of The Christian Register and The Christian Inquirer, 1,500
+copies of the Monthly Journal, 1,000 of The Monthly Religious Magazine, and
+1,000 of the Sunday-school Gazette. During the last year or two of the war
+its tracts went out at the rate of 50,000 monthly. The tracts and the
+periodicals therefore numbered a monthly distribution of about 75,000
+copies. The seventy volunteer agents who brought these publications to the
+hands of the soldiers, together with the army chaplains, agents of the
+Sanitary Commission, and the many nurses in the hospitals, made a
+considerable force of Unitarian missionaries developed by the exigencies of
+the war, and the attempts to meliorate its hard conditions.
+
+The period of fifteen years, from 1850 to 1865, which has been under
+consideration in this chapter, was one of the greatest trial and
+discouragement to the Association. Its funds reached their lowest ebb, a
+missionary secretary could not be maintained, a layman performed the
+necessary office duties, and no considerable aggressive work along
+missionary lines was undertaken. Writing in a most hopeful spirit of the
+situation, in November, 1863, the editor of The Christian Register showed
+that in 1848 the number of Unitarian churches was 201, while in 1863 it was
+205, an increase of four only in fifteen years. During this period fifty
+parishes had gained pastors, but fifty had lost them. Several strong
+parishes, he said, had come into existence, and two in large places had
+died. Most of those that had been closed were in small country towns.
+Nevertheless, with truth it could be said of these fifteen years of
+discouragement and failure that every one of them was a seed-time for the
+harvest that was soon to be reaped.
+
+[1] Usually known as the Transcendental Club, sometimes as The Symposium.
+    It was started in 1836 by Emerson, Ripley, and Hedge, and met at the
+    houses of the members to discuss philosophical and literary subjects.
+    It was called Hedge's Club because it met when Rev. F.H. Hedge came
+    to Boston from Bangor, where he was settled in 1835. It also included
+    Clarke, Francis, Alcott, Dwight, W.H. Channing, Bartol, Very,
+    Margaret Fuller, and Elizabeth P. Peabody.
+
+[2] Twenty-eighth Report of the American Unitarian Association, 22.
+
+[3] Ibid., 30. For other statements made at this time see pp. 22 and 26
+    of this report; Quarterly Journal, L 44, 228, 243, 275, 333; and O.B.
+    Frothingham's Transcendentalism in New England, 123. John Gorham
+    Palfrey said (Twenty-eighth Report, 31) that "the evidence of
+    Christianity is identical with the evidence of the miraculous
+    character of Jesus," and that "his miraculous powers were the highest
+    evidence that he came from God." Parker replied to this report of the
+    Association in his Friendly Letter to the Executive Committee. Of
+    this report John W. Chadwick has said that it is "the most curious,
+    not to say amusing, document in our denominational archives." See The
+    Organization of our Liberty, Christian Register, July 19, 1900.
+
+[4] In 1854 the receipts from all sources for the year preceding, except
+    from sales of books and interest on investments, was $4,267.32. For
+    the next two years there was a rapid gain, the sum reported in 1856
+    being $11,615.90; but there was a slight decrease the next year, and
+    the financial panic of 1857 brought the donations down to $4,602.38,
+    the amount reported at the annual meeting of 1858. Then there was a
+    steady gain until the civil war began, after which the contributions
+    were small, the general donations being only $3,056.03 in 1863, which
+    sum was brought up to $5,547.73 by contributions for special
+    purposes, more than one-third of the whole being for the Army Fund.
+
+[5] The Christian Register, October 17, 1863.
+
+[6] The Monthly Journal, I. 350.
+
+[7] Mr. Fox entered the employ of the Association in 1855 as a clerk, and
+    then he became the assistant of the secretary by the appointment of
+    the directors. From 1864 to the present time he has served as the
+    assistant secretary. His services have been invaluable to the
+    Association in many ways, because of his diligence, fidelity,
+    unfailing devotion to its interests, and loyalty to the Unitarian
+    cause.
+
+[8] The beginning of a general fund seems to have been made in 1835, and
+    was secured by special subscriptions for the purpose of paying the
+    salary of a general secretary or missionary agent. The treasurer
+    reported in 1836 that during the previous year $2,408.37 had been
+    collected for this purpose.
+
+[9] Of the churches now in existence the first in Chicago was organized
+    in 1836, that at Quincy in 1840, Milwaukee and Geneva in 1842,
+    Detroit in 1850. After the conference began its work, they appear
+    more frequently, Keokuk coming into existence in 1853, Marietta in
+    1855, Lawrence in 1856, Unity of Chicago, Kalamazoo, and Buda in
+    1858, Bloomington in 1859. Then comes a blank during the war period,
+    and a more rapid growth after it, especially when the National
+    Conference had given impetus to missionary activities. Janesville was
+    organized in 1864; Ann Arbor, Kenosha, and Baraboo, in 1865; Tremont,
+    in 1866; Cleveland and Mattoon, in 1867; Unity of St. Louis, Kansas
+    City, St. Joseph, Shelbyville, Davenport, Geneseo, Third of Chicago,
+    and Sheffield, in 1868; Omaha, in 1869.
+
+[10] Written by William G. Eliot, of St. Louis.
+
+[11] Joseph Allen, The Worcester Association and its Antecedents, 268.
+
+[12] Through the business committee the following resolutions were
+     submitted for the consideration of the convention, and they were
+     taken up in order:--
+
+       _Resolved_, That we acknowledge with profound gratitude the success
+       which has attended our labors in the cause of religious freedom,
+       virtue, and piety, and are encouraged to persevere with renewed zeal
+       and energy.
+
+       _Resolved_, That in the character and life of Rev. William E.
+       Channing, just removed from us, we acknowledge one of the richest
+       gifts of God, in intellectual endowments, pure aspiration, moral
+       courage, and disinterested devotion to the cause of truth, freedom,
+       and humanity, and that in view of this, we feel out increased
+       obligation to Christian fidelity and heavenward progress.
+
+       _Resolved_, That viewing with anxiety prevailing fanaticism and
+       growing disregard of public trusts and private relations, we should
+       earnestly labor for a higher religious principle, and especially
+       urge the paramount claims of moral duty.
+
+[13] The places and dates of the Autumnal Conventions were as follows:
+     Worcester, 1842; Provence, 1843; Albany, 1844; New York, 1845;
+     Philadelphia, 1846; Salem, 1847; New Bedford, 1848; Portland, 1849;
+     Springfield, 1850; Portsmouth, 1851; Baltimore, 1852; Worcester,
+     1853; Montreal, 1854; Providence, 1855; Bangor, 1856; Syracuse, 1857;
+     Salem, 1858; Lowell, 1859; New Bedford, 1860; Boston, 1861; Brooklyn,
+     1862; Springfield, 1863.
+
+[14] The first regiments from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Kansas, had
+     as their chaplains Warren H. Cudworth, Augustus Woodbury, and Ephraim
+     Nute. Charles Babbidge was the chaplain of the sixth Massachusetts
+     regiment, that which was fired upon in Baltimore. The first artillery
+     company from Massachusetts had as its chaplain Stephen Barker. Others
+     who served as army chaplains were John Pierpont, Edmund B. Willson,
+     Francis C. Williams, Arthur B. Fuller, Sylvan S. Hunting, Charles T.
+     Canfield, Edward H. Hall, George H. Hepworth, Joseph F. Lovering,
+     Edwin M. Wheelock, George W. Bartlett, John C. Kimball, Augustus M.
+     Haskell, Charles A. Humphreys, Milton J. Miller, George A. Ball,
+     William G. Scandlin, E.B. Fairchild, Samuel W. McDaniel, Frederick R.
+     Newell, George W. Woodward, Stephen H. Camp, William D. Haley,
+     Leonard Whitney, Gilbert Cummings, Nahor A. Staples, Carlton A.
+     Staples, Martin M. Willis, John F. Moors, L.B. Mason, Robert Hassall,
+     Liberty Billings, Daniel Foster, J.G. Forman, and Augustus H. Conant.
+     Robert Collyer was chaplain-at-large in the Army of the Potomac.
+     Charles J. Bowen, William J. Potter, Charles Noyes, James Richardson,
+     and William H. Channing served as hospital chaplains.
+
+     Among the ministers who served as officers were: Hasbrouck Davis, who
+     became a general; William B. Greene, colonel; Gerald Fitzgerald, who
+     enlisted as a private, rose to the rank of first lieutenant, and was
+     elected chaplain of his regiment; Edward I. Galvin, lieutenant, also
+     elected chaplain; James K. Hosmer, who served through the war, at
+     first as a private and then as a corporal, writing his experiences
+     into The Color Guard and The Thinking Bayonet; George W. Shaw and
+     Alvin Allen, privates. Thomas D. Howard and James H. Fowler were
+     chaplains in colored regiments. After service as a chaplain of a Hew
+     Hampshire regiment, Edwin M. Wheelock became a lieutenant in a
+     colored regiment, as did Charles B. Webster. Thomas W. Higginson was
+     colonel of a colored regiment, and in another Henry Stone was
+     lieutenant colonel. It is doubtful if this list is complete, though
+     an effort has been made to have it as nearly so as possible. Those
+     who served in the army, and became ministers after leaving it, have
+     not been included. So far as known, only ordained ministers are
+     named.
+
+[15] History of the United States Sanitary Commission, being the General
+     Report of its Work during the War of the Rebellion.
+
+[16] J.H. Allen, Our Liberal Movement in Theology, 210.
+
+[17] Henry W. Bellows, article on the Sanitary Commission, in Johnson's
+     Cyclopedia, revised edition.
+
+[18] Ibid.
+
+[19] Henry W. Bellows, article on the Sanitary Commission, in Johnson's
+     Cyclopedia, revised edition.
+
+[20] History of the Sanitary Commission.
+
+[21] Thoughts selected from Channing's Works, Ware's The Silent Pastor,
+     and Eliot's Discipline of Sorrow. The Association also issued one
+     number of the Monthly Journal as an Army Companion, which contained
+     fifty hymns of a patriotic and religions character, with appropriate
+     tunes, selections from the Bible, directions for preserving health in
+     the army, and selections from addresses on the injustice of the
+     rebellion and the spirit in which it should be put down.
+
+[22] Twenty tracts were published. The first was written by Dr. George
+     Putnam; and was on The Man and the Soldier. The second was The
+     Soldier of the Good Cause, by Prof. C.E. Norton. Others were A Letter
+     to a Sick Soldier, by Rev. Robert Collyer; An Enemy within the Lines,
+     by Rev. S.H. Winkley. Rev. John F.W. Ware wrote fourteen of these
+     tracts, the following being some of the subjects: The Home to the
+     Camp, The Home to the Hospital, Wounded and in the Hands of the
+     Enemy, Traitors in Camp, A Change of Base, On Picket, The Rebel, The
+     Recruit, A Few Words with the Convalescent, Mustered Out, A Few Words
+     with the Rank and File at Parting.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+
+THE DENOMINATIONAL AWAKENING.
+
+The war had an inspiring influence upon Unitarians, awakening them to a
+consciousness of their strength, and drawing them together to work for
+common purposes as nothing else had ever done. From the beginning they saw
+in the effort to save the Union, and in the spirit of liberty that animated
+the nation, an expression of their own principles. Whatever its effect upon
+other religious bodies, the war gave to Unitarians new faith, courage, and
+enthusiasm. For the first time they became conscious of their opportunity,
+and united in a determined purpose to meet its demands with fidelity to
+their convictions and loyalty to the call of humanity.[1]
+
+No Autumnal Convention having been held in 1864, owing to the failure of
+the committee appointed for that purpose to make the necessary
+arrangements, a special meeting of the Unitarian Association was held in
+the Hollis Street Church, Boston, December 6-7, at the call of the
+executive committee, "to awaken interest in the work of the Association by
+laying before the churches the condition of our funds and the demand for
+our labor." The attendance was large, and the tone of the meeting was
+hopeful and enthusiastic. After Dr. Stebbins, the president, had stated the
+purpose of the meeting, Dr. Bellows urged the importance of a more
+effective organization of the Unitarian body. His success with the Sanitary
+Commission had evidently prepared his mind for a like work on the part of
+Unitarians, and for a strong faith in the value of organized effort in
+behalf of liberal religion. His capacity as leader during the war had
+prepared men to accept it in other fields of effort, and Unitarians were
+ready to use it in their behalf. The hopefulness that existed, in view of
+the success of the Union cause, and the enthusiastic interest in the
+methods of moral and spiritual reform that was manifested because of the
+triumph of the spirit of freedom in the nation, led many to think that like
+efforts in behalf of liberal Christianity would result in like successes.
+
+On the afternoon of the second day (a meeting in the evening of the first
+day only having been held) James P. Walker, the publisher, gave a resume of
+the activities of the Association during the forty years of its existence,
+and said that its receipts had been on the average only $8,038.88 yearly.
+He showed that much had been done with this small sum, and that the results
+were much larger than the amount of money invested would indicate. He
+pointed out the fact that the demands upon the Association were rapidly
+increasing, and far more rapidly than the contributions. There was an
+urgent need for larger giving, he said, and for a more loyal support of the
+missionary arm of the denomination. He offered a series of resolutions
+calling for the raising of $25,000 during the year. Rev. Edward Everett
+Hale said that $100,000 ought to be given to the proposed object, and urged
+that more missionaries should be sent into the field. Thereupon Mr. Henry
+P. Kidder arose, and said: "It is often easier to do a great thing than a
+small one. I move that this meeting undertake to raise $100,000 for the
+service of the next year." Dr. Bellows then called the attention of the
+conference to the importance of considering the manner of securing this
+large sum and of devising methods to insure success. He proposed "that a
+committee of ten persons, three ministers and seven laymen, should be
+appointed to call a convention, to consist of the pastor and two delegates
+from each church or parish in the Unitarian denomination, to meet in the
+city of New York, to consider the interests of our cause and to institute
+measures for its good." The two resolutions were unanimously adopted,
+pledging the denomination to raise $100,000, and to the holding of a
+delegate convention in New York. The president appointed, as members of the
+committee of arrangements for the convention, Rev. Henry W. Bellows,
+Messrs. A.A. Low, U.A. Murdock, Henry P. Kidder, Atherton Blight, Enoch
+Pratt, and Artemas Carter, Rev. Edward E. Hale, and Rev. Charles H.
+Brigham.
+
+The convention in New York was not waited for in order to make an effort to
+secure the $100,000 it was proposed to raise; and early in January the
+president of the Association, Dr. Rufus P. Stebbins, was authorized to
+devote his whole time to securing that sum. A circular was sent to the
+churches saying that such a sum "was needed, and should and could be
+raised." "The hour has come," said the executive committee in their appeal
+to the churches, "which the fathers longed to see, but were denied the
+sight,--of taking our true position among other branches of the church of
+our Lord Jesus Christ in the spread and establishment of the Gospel."
+
+The response to this call was prompt and enthusiastic beyond any precedent.
+The war had made money plentiful, and it came easily to those who were
+successful. Great fortunes had been rapidly gathered; and the country had
+never known an equal prosperity, even though the burden of the war had not
+yet been removed. In February the president of the Association was able to
+announce that $28,871.47 had been subscribed by twelve churches. By the end
+of March the pledges had reached $63,862.63; and when the convention met in
+New York, April 5, 1865, the contributions then pledged were only a few
+thousand dollars short of the sum desired. By the end of May the sum
+reported was $111,676.74, which was increased by several hundred dollars
+more.
+
+[Sidenote: The New York Convention of 1865.]
+
+It was when this success was certain that the convention met in New York.
+The victory of the Union cause was then assured, and the utmost enthusiasm
+prevailed. Some of the final and most important scenes of the great
+national struggle were enacted while the convention was in session. Courage
+and hope ran high under these circumstances; and the convention was not
+only enthusiastically loyal to the nation, but equally so to its own
+denominational interests. For the first time in the history of the
+Unitarian body in this country the churches were directly represented at a
+general gathering. The number of churches represented was two hundred and
+two, and they sent three hundred and eighty-five delegates. Many other
+persons attended, however; and throughout all the sittings of the
+convention the audience was a large one. Many women were present, though
+not as delegates, the men only having official recognition in this
+gathering. It is evident from the records, the newspaper reports, and the
+memories of those present, that the interest in this meeting was very
+large, and that the attendance was quite beyond what was anticipated by any
+one concerned in planning it. The call to all the churches, and the giving
+them an equality of representation in the convention, was doubtless one of
+the causes of its success. As a result, an able body of laymen appeared in
+the convention, who were accustomed to business methods and familiar with
+legislative procedure, and who carried through the work of the convention
+with deliberation and skill.
+
+On the first evening of the convention a sermon was preached by Dr. James
+Freeman Clarke that was a noble and generous introduction to its
+deliberations. He called for the exercise of the spirit of inclusiveness, a
+broad and tolerant catholicity, and union on the basis of the work to be
+done. On the morning of April 5, 1865, at eleven o'clock, the convention
+met for the transaction of business in All Souls' Church, of which Henry
+Whitney Bellows was the minister. Hon. John A. Andrew, then the governor of
+Massachusetts, was elected to preside over the convention; and among the
+vice-presidents were William Cullen Bryant, Rev. John Gorham Palfrey, Hon.
+Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, Rev. Orville Dewey, and Rev. Ezra Stiles Gannett,
+while Rev. Edward Everett Hale was made the secretary. In Governor Andrew
+the convention had as its presiding officer a man of a broad and generous
+spirit, who was insistent that the main purpose of the meeting should be
+kept always steadily in view, and yet that all the members and all the
+varying opinions should have just recognition. In a large degree the
+success of the convention was due to his catholicity and to his skill in
+reconciling opposing interests.
+
+The time of the convention was devoted almost wholly to legislating for the
+denomination and to planning for its future work. On the morning of the
+second day the subject of organization came up for consideration, and the
+committee selected for that purpose presented a constitution providing for
+a National Conference that should meet annually, and that should be
+constituted of the minister and two lay delegates from each church,
+together with three delegates each from the American Unitarian Association,
+the Western Conference, and such other bodies as might be invited to
+participate in its deliberations. This Conference was to be only
+recommendatory in its character, adopting "the existing organizations of
+the Unitarian body as the instruments of its power." The name of the new
+organization was the subject of some discussion, James Freeman Clarke
+wishing to make the Conference one of Independent and Unitarian churches,
+while another delegate desired to substitute "free Christian" for
+Unitarian. The desire strongly manifested by a considerable number to make
+the Conference include in its membership all liberal churches of whatever
+name not acceptable to the majority of the delegates, voted with a decided
+emphasis to organize strictly on the Unitarian basis.
+
+As soon as the convention was organized, expression was given to the demand
+for a doctrinal basis for its deliberations. Though several attempts were
+made to bring about the acceptance of a creed, these met with complete
+failure. In the preamble to the constitution, however, it was asserted that
+the delegates were "disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ," while the first
+article declared that the conference was organized to promote "the cause of
+Christian faith and work." It was quite evident that a large majority of
+the delegates regarded the convention as Christian in its purposes and
+distinctly Unitarian in its denominational mission. A minority desired a
+platform that should have no theological implications, and that should
+permit the co-operation of every kind of liberal church. The use of the
+phrase Lord Jesus Christ was strongly opposed by the more radical section
+of the convention, but the members of it were not organized or ready to
+give utterance to their protest in an effective manner.
+
+The convention gave its approval to the efforts of the Unitarian
+Association to secure the sum of $100,000, and urged the churches, that had
+not already done so, to contribute. It also advised the securing of a like
+sum as an endowment for Antioch College, and commended to men of wealth the
+needs of the Harvard and Meadville Theological Schools. The council of the
+Conference was asked to give its attention to the necessity and duty of
+creating an organ for the denomination, to be called The Liberal Christian.
+A resolution looking to union with the Universalist body was presented, and
+one was passed declaring "that there should be recognition, fellowship, and
+co-operation between all those various elements in our population that are
+prepared to meet on the basis of Christianity." James Freeman Clarke,
+Samuel J. May, and Robert Collyer were constituted a committee of
+correspondence, to promote acquaintance, fraternity, and unity between
+Unitarians and all of like liberal faith.[2]
+
+A resolution offered by William Cullen Bryant expressive of thanksgiving
+because of the near approach of peace, and for the opening made by the
+extinction of slavery for the diffusion of Christianity in its true spirit
+as a religion of love, mercy, and universal liberty, was unanimously
+adopted by a rising vote.
+
+The convention was a remarkable success in the number who attended its
+sessions, the character of the men who participated in its deliberations,
+and the skill with which the unsectarian sect had been organized for
+effective co-operation and work. Its influence was immediately felt
+throughout the denomination and upon all its activities. The change in
+attitude was very great, and the depressed and discouraged tone of many
+Unitarian utterances for a number of years preceding and following 1860
+gave way to one of enthusiasm and courage.[3]
+
+[Sidenote: New Life in the Unitarian Association.]
+
+The annual meeting of the Unitarian Association, that soon followed, felt
+the new stir of life, and the awakening to a larger consciousness of power.
+The chief attention was directed to meeting the new opportunities that had
+been presented, and to preparing for the larger work required. Dr. Rufus P.
+Stebbins, who had been for three years the president, and who had been
+actively instrumental in securing the large accession to the contributions
+of the year, was elected secretary, with the intent that he should devote
+himself to pushing forward the missionary enterprises of the Association.
+He refused to serve, and accepted the position only until his successor
+could be secured. In a few weeks, the executive committee elected Rev.
+Charles Lowe to this office, and he immediately entered upon its duties. He
+proved to be eminently fitted for the place by his enthusiastic interest in
+the work to be accomplished, and by his skill as an organizer. His
+catholicity of mind enabled him to conciliate, as far as this was possible,
+the conservative and radical elements in the denomination, and to unite
+them into an effective working body. Educated at Harvard College and
+Divinity School, Lowe spent two years as a tutor in the college, and then
+was settled successively over parishes in New Bedford, Salem, and
+Somerville. His experience and skill as an army agent of the Association
+suggested his fitness for the larger sphere of labor into which he was now
+inducted. For six most difficult and trying years he successfully conducted
+the affairs of the Association.
+
+For the first time in the history of the Association its income was such as
+to enable it to plan its work on a large scale, and in some degree
+commensurate with its opportunities. During the year and a half preceding
+the first of June, 1866, there was contributed to the Association about
+$175,000, to Antioch College $103,000, to the Boston Fraternity of Churches
+$22,920, to the Children's Mission $42,000, to the Freedman's Aid Societies
+$30,000, to the Sunday School Society $2,500, to The Christian Register
+$15,000, and to the Western Conference $6,000, making a total of about
+$400,000 given by the denomination to these religious, educational, and
+philanthropic purposes; and this financial success was truly indicative of
+the new interest in its work that had come to the Unitarian body.
+
+[Sidenote: The New Theological Position.]
+
+Although the New York convention voted that $100,000 ought to be raised in
+1866, because the needs of the denomination demanded it, yet only $60,000
+were secured. The reaction that followed the close of the war had set in,
+the financial prosperity of the country had begun to lessen, and the
+enthusiasm that had made the first great effort of the denomination so
+eminently successful did not continue. A chief cause for the waning
+interest in the denomination itself was the agitation, in regard to the
+theological position of the Unitarian body that began almost immediately
+after the New York convention.
+
+The older Unitarians held to the Bible and the teachings of Jesus as the
+great sources of spiritual truth as strongly as did the orthodox, and they
+differed from them only as to the purport of the message conveyed. This may
+be seen in a creed offered to the New York convention, by a prominent
+layman,[4] almost immediately after it was opened on the first morning.
+In this proposed creed it was asserted that Unitarians believe "in one
+Lord, Jesus Christ; the Son of God and his specially appointed messenger,
+and representative to our race; gifted with supernatural power, approved of
+God by miracles and signs and wonders which God did by him, and thus by
+divine authority commanding the devout and reverential faith of all who
+claim the Christian name." Although this creed was not adopted by the
+convention, it expressed the belief of a majority of Unitarians. To the
+same purport was the word spoken by Dr. Bellows, when he said: "Unitarians
+of the school to which I belong accept Jesus Christ with all their hearts
+as the Sent of God, the divinely inspired Son of the Father, who by his
+miraculously proven office and his sinless life and character was fitted to
+be, and was made revealer of the universal and permanent religion of the
+human race."[5] These quotations indicate that the more conservative
+Unitarians had not changed their position since 1853, when they made
+official statement of their acceptance of Christianity as authenticated by
+miracles and the supernatural. In fact, they held essentially to the
+attitude taken when they left the older Congregational body.
+
+On the other hand, the transcendentalists and the radical Unitarians
+proposed a new theory of the nature of religious truth, and insisted that
+the spiritual message of Christianity is inward, and not outward, directly
+to the soul of man, and not through the mediation of a person or a book.
+Almost from the first Channing had been moving towards this newer
+conception of the nature and method of religion. He did not wholly abandon
+the miraculous, but it grew to have less significance for him with each
+year. The Unitarian conception of religion as natural to man, which was
+maintained strenuously from the time of Jonathan Mayhew, made it probable,
+if not certain, that a merely external system of religion would be
+ultimately outgrown. In his lecture on self-denial Channing stated this
+position in the clearest terms. "If," he said, "after a deliberate and
+impartial use of our best faculties, a professed revelation seems to us
+plainly to disagree with itself or to clash with great principles which we
+cannot question, we ought not to hesitate to withhold from it our belief. I
+am surer that my rational nature is from God, than that any book is an
+expression of his will. This light in my own breast is his primary
+revelation, and all subsequent ones must accord with it, and are in fact
+intended to blend with and brighten it."[6]
+
+Channing was not alone in accepting Christianity as a spiritual principle
+that is natural and universal. As early as 1826 Alvan Lamson had defended
+the proposition that miracles are merely local in their nature, and that
+attention should be chiefly given to the tendency, spirit, and object of
+Christianity. He claimed that it bore on the face of it the marks of its
+heavenly origin, and that, when these are fully accepted, no other form of
+evidence is required.[7] In 1834 James Walker, in writing on The
+Philosophy of Man's Spiritual Nature in regard to the Foundations of Faith,
+had taken what was essentially the transcendentalist view of the origin and
+nature of religion. He contended for the "religion in the soul" that is
+authenticated "by the revelations of consciousness."[8] In 1836 Convers
+Francis, in, describing the religion of Christ as a purely internal
+principle, maintained the "quiet, spirit-searching character of
+Christianity," as "a kingdom wholly within the soul of man."[9]
+
+When Convers Francis became a professor in the Harvard Divinity School, in
+1842, the spiritual philosophy had recognition there; and he had a
+considerable influence upon the young men who came under his guidance.
+Though of the older way of thinking, George R. Noyes, who became a
+professor in the school in 1840, was always on the side of liberty of
+interpretation and expression. For the next two decades the Divinity School
+sent out a succession of such men as John Weiss, Octavius B. Frothingham,
+Samuel Longfellow, William J. Potter, and Francis E. Abbot, who were joined
+by William Henry Channing, Samuel Johnson, David A. Wasson, and others, who
+did not study there. These men gave a new meaning to Unitarianism, took it
+away from miracles to nature, discarded its evidences to rely on intuition,
+rejected its supernatural deity for an immanent God who speaks through all
+life his divine word.
+
+During the interval between the New York convention and the first session
+of the National Conference, which was held in Syracuse, October 10-11,
+1866, the questions which separated the conservatives and radicals were
+freely debated in the periodicals of the denomination, and also in sermons
+and pamphlets. The radicals organized for securing a revision of the
+constitution; and on the morning of the first day Francis E. Abbot, then
+the minister at Dover, N.H., offered a new preamble and first article as
+substitutes for those adopted in New York, in which he stated that "the
+object of Christianity is the universal diffusion of love, righteousness,
+and truth," that "perfect freedom of thought, which is at once the right
+and duty of every human being, always leads to diversity of opinion, and is
+therefore hindered by common creeds or statements of faith," and that
+therefore the churches assembled in the conference, "disregarding all
+sectarian or theological differences, and offering a cordial fellowship to
+all who will join them in Christian work, unite themselves in a common
+body, to be known as The National Conference of Unitarian and Independent
+Churches."
+
+At the afternoon session Mr. Abbot's amendment was rejected; but on the
+motion of James Freeman Clarke the name was changed to The National
+Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches. A resolution stating
+that the expression "Other Christian Churches was not meant to exclude
+religious societies which have no distinctive church organization, and are
+not nominally Christian, if they desire to co-operate with the Conference
+in what it regards as Christian work," was laid on the table.
+
+[Sidenote: Organization of the Free Religious Association.]
+
+The result of the refusal at Syracuse to revise the constitution of the
+National Conference was that the radical men on the railroad train
+returning to Boston held a consultation, and resolved to organize an
+association that would secure them the liberty they desired. After
+correspondence and much planning a meeting was held in Boston, at the house
+of Rev. Cyrus A. Bartol, on February 5, 1867, to consider what should be
+done. After a thorough discussion of the subject the Free Religious
+Association was planned; and the organization was perfected at a meeting
+held in Horticultural Hall, Boston, May 30, 1867. Some of those who took
+part in this movement thought that all religion had been outgrown, but the
+majority believed that it is essential and eternal. What they sought was to
+remove its local and national elements, and to get rid of its merely
+sectarian and traditional features.
+
+At the first meeting the speakers were O.B. Frothingham, Henry Blanchard,
+Lucretia Mott, Robert Dale Owen, John Weiss, Oliver Johnson, Francis E.
+Abbot, David A. Wasson, T.W. Higginson, and R.W. Emerson; and discussion
+was participated in by A.B. Alcott, E.C. Towne, Frank B. Sanborn, Hannah E.
+Stevenson, Ednah D. Cheney, Charles C. Burleigh, and Caroline H. Dall. Of
+these persons, one-half had been Unitarian ministers, and about one-third
+of them were still settled over Unitarian parishes. Mr. Frothingham was
+elected president of the new organization, and Rev. William J. Potter
+secretary. The purposes of the Association were "to promote the interests
+of pure religion, to encourage the scientific study of theology and to
+increase fellowship in the spirit." In 1872 the constitution was revised by
+changing the subject of study from theology to man's religious nature and
+history, and by the addition of the statement that "nothing in the name or
+constitution of the Association shall ever be construed as limiting
+membership by any test of speculative opinion or belief,--or as defining
+the position of the Association, collectively considered, with reference to
+any such opinion or belief,--or as interfering in any other way with that
+absolute freedom of thought and expression which is the natural right of
+every rational being."
+
+The original purpose of the Free Religious Association, as defined in its
+constitution and in the addresses delivered before it, was the recognition
+of the universality of religion, and the representation of all phases of
+religious opinion in its membership and on its platform. The circumstances
+of its organization, however, in some measure took it away from this
+broader position, and made it the organ of the radical Unitarian opinion.
+Those Unitarians who did not find in the American Unitarian Association and
+the National Conference such fellowship as they desired became active in
+the Free Religious organization.
+
+The cause of Free Religion was ably presented in the pages of The Radical,
+a monthly journal edited by Sidney H. Morse, and published in Boston, and
+The Index, edited by Francis E. Abbot, at first in Toledo and then in
+Boston. It also found expression at the Sunday afternoon meetings held in
+Horticultural Hall, Boston, for several winters, beginning in 1868-69; in
+the conventions held in several of the leading cities of the northern
+states; at the gatherings of the Chestnut Street Club; and in the annual
+meetings of the Free Religious Association held in Boston during
+anniversary week. Little effort was made to organize churches, and only two
+or three came into existence distinctly on the basis of Free Religion. In
+connection with The Index, Francis E. Abbot organized the Liberal League to
+promote the interests of Free Religion, with about four hundred local
+branches; but this organization proved ineffective, and soon ceased its
+existence.
+
+The withdrawal of the radicals into the Free Religious Association did not
+quiet the agitation in the Unitarian ranks, partly because some of the most
+active workers in that Association continued to occupy Unitarian pulpits,
+and partly because a considerable radical element did not withdraw in any
+manner. The conferences had an unfailing subject for exciting discussion,
+and the Unitarian body was at this time in a chronic condition of
+agitation. As in the days of the controversy about the Trinity, the more
+conservative ministers would not exchange pulpits with the more radical.
+
+[Sidenote: Unsuccessful Attempts at Reconciliation.]
+
+At the second session of the National Conference, held in New York City,
+October 7-9, 1868, another attempt was made to bring about a reconciliation
+between the two wings of the denomination. In an attitude of generous good
+will and with a noble desire for inclusiveness and peace, James Freeman
+Clarke proposed an addition to the constitution of the Conference, in which
+it was declared "that we heartily welcome to that fellowship all who desire
+to work with us in advancing the kingdom of God." Such a broad invitation
+was not acceptable to the majority; and, after an extended debate, this
+amendment was withdrawn, and the following, offered by Edward Everett Hale,
+and essentially the same as that presented by Mr. Clarke, with the
+exception of the phrase just quoted, was adopted:--
+
+  To secure the largest unity of the spirit and the widest practical
+  co-operation, it is hereby understood that all the declarations of this
+  conference, including the preamble and constitution, are expressions
+  only of its majority, and dependent wholly for their effect upon the
+  consent they command on their own merits from the churches here
+  represented or belonging within the circle of our fellowship.
+
+The annual meeting of the Unitarian Association in 1870 was largely
+occupied with the vexing problem of the basis of fellowship; and the
+secretary, Charles Lowe, read a conciliatory and explanatory address. He
+said that the wide differences of theological opinion existing in the
+denomination were "an inevitable consequence of the great principle on
+which Unitarianism rests. That principle is that Christian faith and
+Christian union can coexist with individual liberty."[10] Rev. George H.
+Hepworth, then the minister of the Church of the Messiah in New York, asked
+for an authoritative statement of the Unitarian position, urging this
+demand with great insistence; and he presented a resolution calling for a
+committee of five to prepare "a statement of faith, which shall, as nearly
+as may be, represent the religious opinions of the Unitarian denomination."
+
+While Dr. Bellows had been the leader in securing the adoption of the
+Christian basis for the National Conference, and the insertion into the
+preamble of its constitution of the expression of faith in the Lordship of
+Jesus Christ, he was strongly opposed to any attempt to impose a creed upon
+the denomination, however attenuated it might be. He has been often charged
+with inconsistency, and it is difficult to reconcile his position in 1870
+with that held in 1865. What he attempted to secure, however, was the
+utmost of liberty possible within the limits of Christianity; and, when he
+had committed the Unitarian body to the Christian position, he desired
+nothing more, believing that a creed would be inconsistent with the liberty
+enjoyed by all Unitarians. Without doubt his address at this meeting, in
+opposition to Mr. Hepworth's proposal, made it impossible to secure a vote
+in favor of a creed. "We want to represent a body," he said, "that presents
+itself to the forming hand of the Almighty Spirit of God in a fluid,
+plastic form. We cannot keep our denomination in that state, and yet give
+it the character of being cast into a positive mould. You must either
+abandon that great work you have done, as the only body in Christendom that
+occupies the position of absolute and perfect liberty, with some measure of
+Christian faith, or you must continue to occupy that position and thank God
+for it without hankering after some immediate victories that are so strong
+a temptation to many in our denomination." When the resolution in favor of
+a creed was brought to a vote, it was "defeated by a very large majority."
+By this act the Unitarian body again asserted its Christian position, but
+refused to define or to limit its Christianity.
+
+Notwithstanding the refusal of the Unitarian Association to adopt a creed,
+the attempt to secure one was renewed in the National Conference with as
+much energy as if this were not already a lost cause. At the session held
+in New York, October, 1870, the subject came up for extended consideration,
+several amendments to the constitution were proposed, and, after a
+prolonged discussion, that offered by George H. Hepworth was adopted:--
+
+  Reaffirming our allegiance to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and desiring
+  to secure the largest unity of the spirit and the widest practical
+  co-operation, we invite to our fellowship all who wish to be followers
+  of Christ.
+
+[Sidenote: The Year Book Controversy.]
+
+One result of this controversy was that in 1873 it having come to the
+attention of Rev. O.B. Frothingham, the president of the Free Religious
+Association, that his name was in the list of Unitarian ministers published
+in the Year Book of the Unitarian Association, he expressed surprise that
+it should have been continued there, and asked for its removal. The same
+action was taken by Francis E. Abbot, the editor of The Index, and others
+of the radicals. This action was in part the result of the attitude taken
+by Rev. Thomas J. Mumford, editor of The Christian Register, who in 1872
+insisted that the word "Religious" had no proper place in the name of the
+Free Religious Association, and who invited those Unitarians "who have
+ceased to accept Jesus as pre-eminently their spiritual leader and teacher"
+to withdraw from the Unitarian body.
+
+In November, 1873, Mr. George W. Fox, the assistant secretary of the
+Unitarian Association and the editor of its Year Book, wrote to several of
+the radicals, calling their attention to the action of Mr. Frothingham in
+requesting the removal of his name, and asked if their names remained in
+that publication "with their knowledge and consent." In a subsequent letter
+to William J. Potter, the minister of the Unitarian church in New Bedford
+and the secretary of the Free Religious Association, he explained that "the
+Year Book lists of societies and ministers are simply a directory, prepared
+by the Association for the accommodation of the denomination, and that the
+Association does not undertake to decide the question as to what are or are
+not Unitarian societies or ministers, but merely puts into print facts, in
+the making of which it assumes no responsibility and has no agency."
+
+Mr. Potter expressed his purpose not to ask for the removal of his name,
+but wrote that he did not call himself a Unitarian Christian or by any
+denominational name. The officers of the Association thereupon instructed
+the editor of the Year Book to remove Mr. Potter's name from the list of
+Unitarian ministers published therein. The reason for this action was
+stated in a letter from the editor to Mr. Potter, announcing that his name
+had been removed. The letter said, "While there might be no desire to
+define Christianity in the case of those who claim that they are in any
+sense of the term entitled to be called Christians, for those persons who,
+like yourself, disavow the name, there seems to be no need of raising any
+question as to how broad a range of opinion the name may properly be
+stretched to cover."[11]
+
+There followed a vigorous discussion of the action of the Association in
+dropping Mr. Potter's name, it being recognized that no more thoroughly
+religious man was to be found in the denomination, and that none more truly
+exemplified the Christian spirit, whatever might be his wish as to the use
+of the Christian name. At the sixth session of the National Conference,
+held at Saratoga in September, 1874, the Essex Conference protested against
+the erasure of the name of a church in long and regular fellowship with the
+Unitarian Association from its Year Book; and a resolution offered by Dr.
+Bellows, indorsing the action of the officers of the National Conference in
+inviting the New Bedford church to send delegates, was passed without
+dissent. At the session of the Western Conference held in Chicago during
+1875, resolutions were passed protesting against the removing of the name
+of any person from the accredited list of Unitarian ministers until he
+requested it, had left the denomination, joined some other sect, or been
+adjudged guilty of immorality. As a result of this discussion and of the
+broad sympathies and inclusive spirit of the conference, the following
+platform, in the shape of a resolution, was adopted:--
+
+  That the Western Unitarian Conference conditions its fellowship on no
+  dogmatic tests, but welcomes all thereto who desire to work with it in
+  advancing the kingdom of God.
+
+The attitude of the Unitarian Association and the National Conference--that
+is, of a large majority of Unitarians at this time--may be accurately
+defined in the words of Charles Lowe, who said: "I admit that we make a
+belief in Christianity a test of fellowship. No stretch of liberality will
+make me wish to deny that a belief in Jesus Christ is the absolutely
+essential qualification. But I will oppose, as a test, any definition of
+Christianity, any words about Christ, for Christ himself, as the principles
+of our fellowship and union."[12] These words exactly define what was
+sought for, which was liberty within the limits of Christianity. The
+primary insistence was upon discipleship to Jesus Christ, but it was
+maintained that loyalty to Christ is compatible with the largest degree of
+personal liberty.
+
+Fundamentally, this controversy was a continuation of that which had
+agitated New England from the beginning, that had divided those opposed to
+"the great awakening" of the middle of the eighteenth century from those
+who favored it, that led the Unitarians away from the Orthodox, and that
+now divided radical and conservative Unitarians. The advance was always
+towards a more pronounced assertion of individualism, and a more positive
+rejection of tradition, organization, and external authority. Indeed, it
+was towards this end that Unitarianism had directed its energies from the
+beginning; and the force of this tendency could not be overcome because
+some called for a creed, and more had come to see the need of an efficient
+organization for practical purposes.
+
+What the radicals desired was freedom, and the broadest assertion of
+individuality. It was maintained by Francis E. Abbot that "the spiritual
+ideal of Free Religion is to develop the individuality of the soul in the
+highest, fullest, and most independent manner possible."[13] The other
+distinctive principle of the radicals was that religion is universal, that
+all religions are essentially, the same, and that Christianity is simply
+one of the phases of universal religion. David A. Wasson defined religion
+as "the consciousness of universal relation,"[14] and as "the sense of
+unity with the infinite whole," adding that "morals, reason, freedom, are
+bound up with it."[15] This means, in simple statement, that religion is
+natural to man, and that it needs no authentication by miracle or
+supernatural manifestation. It means that all religions are essentially the
+same in their origin, and that none can claim the special favor of God in
+their manner of presentation to the world. According to this conception of
+religion, as was stated by. William J. Potter, Christianity is
+"provisional, preparatory, educational, containing, alongside of the most
+valuable truth, much that is only human error and bigotry and superstitious
+imagination."[16] "The spiritual ideal of Christianity," said Francis E.
+Abbot, "is the suppression of self and perfect imitation of Jesus the
+Christ. The spiritual ideal of Free Religion is the development of self,
+and the harmonious education of all its powers to the highest possible
+degree."[17]
+
+Through all this controversy what was sought for was a method of
+reconciling fellowship with individuality of opinion, of establishing a
+church in which freedom of faith for the individual shall have full
+recognition. In a word, the Unitarian body had a conviction that tradition
+is compatible with intuition, institutions with personal freedom, and
+co-operation with individual initiative. The problems involved were too
+large for an immediate solution; and what Unitarians accepted was an ideal,
+and not a fact fully realized in their denominational life. The doctrinal
+phases of the controversy have always been subsidiary to this larger
+search, this desire to give to the individual all the liberty that is
+compatible with his co-operation with others. The result of it has been to
+teach the Unitarian body, in the words of Francis E. Abbot at Syracuse, in
+1866, that "the only reconciliation of the duties of collective Christian
+activity and individual freedom of thought lies in an efficient
+organization for practical Christian work, based rather on unity of spirit
+than on uniformity of belief."[18]
+
+[Sidenote: Missionary Activities.]
+
+During this period of controversy, from 1865 to 1880, the Unitarian
+Association had at its head several able men, who were actively interested
+in its work. The president for 1865-66 was Rev. John G. Palfrey; and he was
+succeeded, in 1867, by Hon. Thomas D. Eliot, of New Bedford, who was in
+both houses of the Massachusetts legislature, and then for a number of
+years in the lower house of Congress. From 1870 to 1872 the president was
+Mr. Henry Chapin, of Worcester, an able lawyer and judge, loyally devoted
+to the Sunday-school work of his city and county. He was succeeded by Hon.
+John Wells, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, who was
+deeply interested in the church with which he was connected. In 1876 Mr.
+Henry P. Kidder was elected to this office,--a position he held for ten
+years. He was prominent in the banking interests of Boston, gave much
+attention to the charities of the city, and was an efficient worker in the
+South Congregational Church.
+
+Rev. Charles Lowe, the secretary from 1865 to 1871, wisely directed the
+activities of the Association through the early period of the great
+awakening of the denomination, and kept it from going to pieces on the
+Scylla and Charybdis of creed and radicalism. He was followed at a most
+critical and difficult time by Rev. Rush R. Shippen, who continued to hold
+the office until 1881. The reaction succeeding the great prosperity that
+followed the close of the civil war brought great burdens of debt to many
+individuals, and to cities, states, and the nation. These troubles
+distracted attention from spiritual interests, and joined with various
+other calamities in making this a trying time for churches and religious
+organizations.
+
+The discussions as to the theological position of the denomination
+naturally resulted in more or less of disorganization, and made it
+impossible to secure the unity of effort which is essential to any positive
+missionary growth. In spite of these drawbacks, however, denominational
+interests slowly advanced. During this period the Unitarian Association
+began to receive a considerable increase of its funds from legacies,--a
+result of its enlarged activities, and of the new interest awakened by the
+formation of the National Conference.
+
+A few facts may be mentioned to illustrate the never-failing generosity of
+Unitarian givers when specific needs are presented. In October, 1871,
+occurred the great fire in Chicago and the burning of Unity Church in that
+city, which was aided with $60,000 in rebuilding; while the Third Church
+and All Souls' were helped liberally in passing through this crisis. The
+following year the Boston fire crippled sadly the resources of the
+Association, and instead of the $150,000 asked for only $42,000 were
+received. Yet in 1876 the church in Washington was built, and $30,000 were
+contributed to that purpose by the denomination. In 1879; the denomination
+gave $56,000 to free the Church of the Messiah in New York from debt.
+During this period $100,000 were contributed to the Young Men's Christian
+Union in Boston, $90,000 to the Harvard Divinity School, $20,000 to the
+Prospect Hill School at Greenfield, and $30,000 towards the Channing
+Memorial Church in Newport.
+
+During these trying times the administration of Unitarian affairs in the
+west was in judicious hands, In 1865 Rev. Charles G. Ames began those
+missionary efforts on the Pacific coast that have led on to the
+establishment of a considerable number of churches in that section of the
+country. In central Illinois the devoted labors of Jasper L. Douthit from
+1868 to the present time have produced wide-reaching results in behalf of a
+genuine religion, temperance, good government, and education. In 1868 Rev.
+Carlton A. Staples was made the missionary agent of the Association in the
+west, with headquarters in Chicago, where a book-room was established. He
+was succeeded in 1872 by Rev. Sylvan S. Hunting, who was a tireless worker
+in the western field for many years. In 1874 Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones became
+the missionary of the Wisconsin Conference, and the next year of the
+Western Conference. For ten years Mr. Jones labored in this position with
+enthusiasm for the Unitarian cause in the west.
+
+[Sidenote: College Town Missions.]
+
+In the spring of 1865 the attention of the Unitarian Association was
+directed to the growing University of Michigan; and Rev. Charles H.
+Brigham, then the minister of the church in Taunton, was invited to proceed
+to Ann Arbor, and see what might be accomplished there. Meetings were held
+in the court-house, but in 1866 an old Methodist church was purchased by
+the Association and adapted to the uses of the new society. The
+congregation numbered at first about eighty persons, but gradually
+increased, especially from the attendance of university students. Mr.
+Brigham was asked by the students who listened to him to form a Bible class
+for their instruction, and this increased in numbers until it included from
+two hundred to three hundred persons. On Sunday evenings he delivered
+lectures wherein his wide and varied learning was made subservient to high
+ideals and to a noble interpretation of Christianity. He led many young men
+and women into the liberal faith, and he exercised through them a wide
+influence throughout the west. His gifts as a lecturer were also made
+available at the Meadville Theological School, with which institution he
+was connected for ten years.[19]
+
+The success of Mr. Brigham led to the founding of other college town
+churches, that at Ithaca, the seat of Cornell University, being established
+in 1866. In 1878 such a mission was begun at Madison for the students of
+the University of Wisconsin, and another at Iowa City for the University of
+Iowa. In more recent years college missions have been started at Lawrence,
+Kan.; Lincoln, Neb.; Minneapolis, Minn.; Berkeley, Cal.; Colorado Springs;
+and Amherst, Mass. This has proved to be one of the most effective ways of
+extending Unitarianism as a modern interpretation of Christianity.
+
+[Sidenote: Theatre Preaching.]
+
+Another interest developed by the awakening of 1865 was the popularization
+of Unitarianism by the use of theatres. In January, 1866, was begun in the
+Cooper Institute, New York, a Sunday evening course of lectures by Clarke,
+Bellows, Osgood, Frothingham, Putnam, Chadwick, and Joseph May, which was
+largely attended. Some of the most important doctrinal subjects were
+discussed. A few weeks later a similar course was undertaken in Washington
+with like success. In March, 1867, the Suffolk Conference undertook such a
+series of lectures in the Boston Theatre, which was crowded to its utmost
+capacity. Then followed courses of sermons or lectures in Lawrence, New
+Bedford, Salem, Springfield, Providence, Chicago, and San Francisco, as
+well as in other places. The council of the National Conference, in 1868,
+commended this as an important work that should be encouraged. Rev. Adams
+Ayer was made an agent of the Association to organize such meetings, and
+their success was remarkable for several years. In 1869 Rev. Charles Lowe
+spoke of "that wonderful feature of our recent experience," and urged that
+these meetings should be so organized as to lead to definite results.
+
+An earnest effort was made to organize the theatre congregations into
+unsectarian societies. It was proposed to form Christian unions that should
+work for Christian improvement and usefulness. The first result of this
+effort was the reorganization of the Boston Young Men's Christian Union in
+the spring of 1868. A similar institution was formed in Providence, to
+promote worship, education, hospitality and benevolence. Unions were also
+formed in, Salem, Lowell, Cambridge, New Bedford, New York, and elsewhere.
+
+[Sidenote: Organization of Local Conferences.]
+
+In the autumn of 1865, in order to facilitate the collection of money for
+the Unitarian Association, a number of local conferences were held in
+Massachusetts. The first of these met at Somerville, November 14, and was
+primarily a meeting of the Cambridge Association of Ministers, including
+all the lay delegates to the New York convention from the churches which
+that association represented. The result of this meeting was an increase of
+contributions to the Unitarian Association, and the determination to
+organize permanently to facilitate that work. Dr. E.E. Hale has stated that
+the initial suggestion of these meetings came from a conversation between
+Dr. Bellows and Dr. E.H. Sears, in which the latter said "that a very
+important element in any effort which should reveal the Unitarian church to
+itself would be some plan by which neighboring churches would be brought
+together more familiarly."[20]
+
+The local conferences had distinct antecedents, however, by which their
+character was doubtless in some degree determined. The early county and
+other local auxiliaries to the Unitarian Association begun in 1826 and
+continued for at least twenty years, which were general throughout New
+England, afforded a precedent; but a more immediate initiative had been
+taken in New Hampshire, where the New Hampshire Unitarian Association had
+been organized at Manchester, February 25, 1863. It does not appear that
+this organization was in any way a revival of the former society of the
+same name in that state, which was organized at Concord in 1832, and which
+was very active for a brief period. A Unitarian Church Association of Maine
+was organized at Portland, September 21, 1852, largely under the influence
+of Rev. Sylvester Judd, of Augusta; but it had only a brief existence. The
+Maine Conference of Unitarian Churches was organized at Farmington, July 8,
+1863.[21] These organizations antedated the movement for the formation of
+local conferences on the part of the National Conference; and they
+doubtless gave motive and impetus to that effort.
+
+On November 30, 1865, a meeting similar to that at Somerville was held by
+the Franklin Evangelical Association[22] at Springfield, and with similar
+results. Other meetings were held at Lowell, Dedham, Quincy, Salem,
+Taunton, Worcester, and Boston. The attendance at all these meetings was
+large, they developed an enthusiastic interest, and pledges were promptly
+made looking to larger contributions to the Unitarian Association.
+
+At the Syracuse meeting of the National Conference, in 1866, Dr. Bellows
+reported for the council in favor of local organizations, auxiliary to the
+national body. "No great national convention of any kind succeeds," it was
+declared, "which is not the concurrence of many local conventions, each of
+which has duties of detail and special spheres of influence upon whose
+co-operation the final and grand success of the whole depends." A series of
+resolutions, calling for the formation of local conferences, "to meet at
+fixed periods, at convenient points, for the organization of missionary
+work," was presented by Dr. E.E. Hale. In order to carry into effect the
+intent of these resolutions, Charles Lowe devised a plan of organization,
+which declared that the object of the local conference "shall be to promote
+the religious life and mutual sympathy of the churches which unite in it,
+and to enable them to co-operate in missionary work, and in raising funds
+for various Christian purposes." The work of organizing such local
+missionary bodies was taken up at once, and proceeded rapidly. The first
+one was organized at Sheboygan, Wis., October 24, 1866; and nearly all the
+churches were brought within the limits of such conferences during the next
+two years.[23]
+
+In the local conferences, as in the National Conference, two purposes
+contended for expression that were not compatible with each other as
+practical incentives to action. The one looked to the uniting of all
+liberal individuals and denominations in a general organization, and the
+other aimed at the promotion of distinctly Unitarian interests. In the
+National Conference the denominational purpose controlled in shaping its
+permanent policy; but the other intent found expression in the addition of
+"Other Christian Churches" to the name, though in only the most limited way
+did such churches connect themselves with the Conference.[24] The local
+conferences made like provision for those not wishing to call themselves
+distinctly Unitarian. Such desire for co-operation, however, was in a large
+degree ineffective because of the fact that the primary aim in the calling
+into existence of such conferences was an increase in the funds of the
+Unitarian Association.
+
+[Sidenote: Fellowship and Fraternity.]
+
+Under the leadership of the National Conference the Unitarian body
+underwent material changes in its internal organization and in its
+relations to other denominations. Not only did it bring the churches to act
+together in the local conferences and in its own sessions, but it taught
+then to co-operate for the protection of their pulpits against adventurers
+and immoral men. Before it was organized, the excessive spirit of
+independency in the churches would permit of no exercise of control as to
+their selection of ministers to fill their pulpits. At the fourth session
+of the National Conference, held in New York in October, 1870, the council,
+through Dr. Bellows, suggested that the local conferences refuse to
+acknowledge as ministers men of proven vices and immoralities. To carry out
+the spirit of this suggestion, Dr. Hale presented a resolution, which was
+adopted, asking the local conferences to appoint committees of fellowship
+to examine and to act upon candidates for the ministry. In October, 1870,
+the New York and Hudson River Conference created such a committee "to
+examine the testimonials of such as desire to become members of the
+conference and enter the Unitarian ministry."
+
+The seventh session of the National Conference, held at Saratoga in 1876,
+provided for the appointment of a committee of fellowship, and the list of
+names of those appointed to its membership appears in the printed report;
+but there is no record that the committee ever organized. In 1878 the
+council reported at considerable length on the desirableness of
+establishing such a committee; and, again, a committee of fellowship was
+appointed "to take into immediate consideration the subject of the
+introduction into the Unitarian ministry of those persons who seek an
+entrance into that ministry from other churches." This committee consisted
+of twelve persons, three each for the eastern, middle, western, and Pacific
+states.
+
+At the session of 1880 the council of the Conference stated that it had
+created a substitute for the old ecclesiastical council, that was called
+together from the neighboring ministers and churches whenever a minister
+was to be inducted into office. That method was costly and had dropped into
+desuetude; but the new method of a committee of fellowship saved true
+Congregational methods and freed the churches from unworthy men. At this
+session the committee reported that it had adopted a uniform plan of
+action; but a resolution was passed recommending that each local conference
+establish its own committee of fellowship. Having once been instituted,
+however, the committee of the National Conference came slowly to be
+recognized as the fit means of introducing ministers into the Unitarian
+fellowship. Its authority has proven beneficent, and in no sense
+autocratic. It has shown that churches may co-operate in this way without
+intruding upon each others' rights, and that such a safeguarding of the
+pulpits of the denomination is essential to their dignity and morality. In
+1896 the Minnesota Conference went one step further, and provided for a
+committee of fellowship with power to exclude for "conduct unbecoming a
+minister."
+
+[Sidenote: Results of the Denominational Awakening.]
+
+The most marked feature in the history of Unitarianism in this country
+during the period from 1865 to 1880 was the organization of the National
+Conference as the legislative body of the denomination, and the adjustment
+to it of the American Unitarian Association as its executive instrument.
+Attendant upon this organizing movement was the termination of the
+theological discussion that had begun twenty years earlier between the
+conservatives and radicals, the supernaturalists and the idealists, or
+transcendentalists. In 1865 the large majority of Unitarians were
+conservatives and supernaturalists, but in 1880 a marked change in belief
+had come about, that had apparently given the victory to the more moderate
+of the radicals. The majority of Unitarians would no longer assert that
+miracles are necessary to faith in Christ and the acceptance of his
+teachings as worthy of credence.
+
+The change that came about during these years was largely due to the
+leadership of Henry W. Bellows. What he did was to keep actively alive in
+the Unitarian body its recognition of its Christian heritage, while at the
+same time he boldly refused assent to its being committed to any definite
+creed. He insisted upon the right of Unitarians to the Christian name, and
+to all that Christianity means as a vital spiritual force; but at the same
+time he refused to accept any limits for the Christian tradition and
+heritage, and left them free for growth. Sometimes apparently reactionary
+and conservative, he was at other times boldly radical and progressive. The
+cause of this seeming inconsistency was to be found in those gifts of
+imagination and emotion that made him a great preacher; but the
+inconsistency was more apparent than real, for in his leadership he
+manifested a wisdom and a capacity for directing the efforts of others that
+has never been surpassed in the history of religion and philanthropy in
+this country. He was both conservative and radical, supernaturalist and
+transcendentalist, a believer in miracles with a confident trust in the
+functions of reason. He saw both before and after, knew the worth of the
+past, and recognized that all the roots of our religious life are found
+therein, and yet courageously faced the future and its power to transform
+our faith by the aid of philosophy and science. Consequently, his
+sympathies were large, generous, and inclusive. Sometimes autocratic in
+word and action, his motives were catholic, and his intentions broad and
+appreciative. He gave direction to the newer Unitarianism in its efforts to
+organize and perpetuate itself. Had it been more flexible to his organizing
+skill, it would have grown more rapidly; but, with all its individualism
+and dislike of proselyting, it has more than doubled in strength since
+1865. He showed the Unitarian body that freedom is consistent with
+organized effort, and that personal liberty is no more essential than
+co-ordinated action. He may be justly described as the real organizer of
+the Unitarian body in this country.
+
+[1] Henry W. Bellows, in Monthly Journal, iv. 336: "These two years of
+    war have witnessed a more rapid progress in liberal opinions than the
+    whole previous century. The public mind has opened itself as it has
+    never been open before." In vi. 3, he said: "There are great and
+    striking changes going on. Men are breaking away from old opinions,
+    and there is a great work for us to do." This was said in December,
+    1864. William G. Eliot, Monthly Journal, iv. 349: "The war has proved
+    that our Unitarian faith works well in time of trial. No other church
+    has been so uniformly and thoroughly loyal, and no other church has
+    done more for the sick and dying." Many other similar words could be
+    quoted.
+
+[2] James Freeman Clarke reported for this committee at the Syracuse
+    session of 1866, and stated that its members had conferred with
+    Christians, Universalists, Methodists, Congregationalists, and
+    others. The committee made several suggestions as to what could be
+    done to promote general fellowship, and recommended that the title of
+    the National Conference be so changed as to permit persons of other
+    religions bodies to find a place within it, if they so desired. The
+    committee was reappointed; and at the third session of the Conference
+    it reported that it had visited the annual gatherings of the
+    Universalists, Methodists, and Free Religionists, and had been
+    cordially welcomed. They were received into the pulpits of different
+    denominations, they found everywhere a cordial spirit of fellowship
+    and a breaking down of sectarian barriers. At this session the
+    Conference expressed its desire "to cultivate the most friendly
+    relations with, and to encourage fraternal intercourse between, the
+    various liberal Christian bodies in this country." A committee of
+    three was appointed "to represent our fraternal sentiments and to
+    consider all questions which relate to mutual intercourse and
+    co-operation."
+
+    This committee reported through Edward E. Hale that it had been well
+    received at two Methodist conferences and at several state
+    conventions of the Universalists. Especially had it been welcomed by
+    the African Methodist Church, which was the beginning of cordial
+    relations between the two bodies for several years. The committee
+    reported, however, that "there are but few regularly organized bodies
+    in this country which, in their formal action, express much desire
+    for intercourse or co-operation with us as an organized branch of the
+    church." A resolution offered by the committee, expressing the desire
+    of the National Conference "to cultivate the most friendly relations
+    with all Christian churches and to encourage fraternal intercourse
+    between them," was adopted. The members of the committee appointed in
+    1870 attended the session of the American Board of Foreign Missions
+    in 1871; and they were received with courtesy, Athanase Coquerel
+    addressing the board as their representative. The committee reported
+    that "in every direction, from clergymen and laymen of different
+    Protestant churches, we have received informal expressions of what we
+    believe to be a very general desire that there might be a more formal
+    and public expression of the fellowship which undoubtedly really
+    exists between the different Protestant communions."
+
+    At the session of the National Conference held in 1874 the council
+    suggested the propriety of preparing a register of the free or
+    liberal churches of the world, and it enumerated the various bodies
+    that might be properly included; but no action was taken on this
+    recommendation. At this session an amendment to the by-laws, offered
+    by Dr. Hale, was adopted, providing for a fellowship committee with
+    other churches. This committee was not appointed, and the amendment
+    was not printed in its proper place in the report. Apparently, the
+    interest in efforts of this kind had exhausted itself, partly because
+    any active co-operation with the more conservative churches was
+    impossible, and partly because the growth of denominational feeling
+    directed the energies of the National Conference into other channels.
+
+[3] The sessions of the National Conference have been held as follows: 1,
+    New York, April 5-6, 1865; 2, Syracuse, October 10-11, 1866; 3, New
+    York, October 7-9, 1868; 4, New York, October 19-21, 1870; 5. Boston,
+    October 22-25, 1872; 6, Saratoga, September 15-18, 1874; 7, Saratoga,
+    September 12-15, 1876; 8, Saratoga, September 17-20, 1878; 9,
+    Saratoga, September 21-24, 1880; 10, Saratoga, September 18-22, 1882;
+    11, Saratoga, September 22-26, 1884; 12, Saratoga, September 20-24,
+    1886; 13, Philadelphia, October 28-31, 1889; 14, Saratoga, September
+    21-25, 1891; 15, Saratoga, September 24-27, 1894; 16, Washington,
+    October 21-24, 1895; 17, Saratoga, September 20-23, 1897; 18,
+    Washington, October 16-19 1899; 19, Saratoga, September 23, 1901. A
+    meeting was held in Chicago, in 1893, in connection with the
+    Parliament of Religions. The presidents of the National Conference
+    have been Hon. John A. Andrew, who served in 1866; Hon. Thomas D.
+    Eliot, whose term of service lasted to 1869; Judge Ebenezer R. Hoar,
+    from 1869 to 1878, and again from 1882 to 1884; Hon. John D. Long,
+    from 1878 to 1882; Judge Samuel F. Miller, 1884 to 1891; Mr. George
+    William Curtis, 1891 to 1894; and Hon. George F. Hoar, 1894 to 1901.
+    Hon. Carroll D. Wright was elected to the office in 1901. The
+    secretaries have been Rev. Edward Everett Hale, Rev. George
+    Batchelor, Rev. Russell N. Bellows, Rev. William H. Lyon, and Rev.
+    Daniel W. Morehouse. The first chairman of the council was Rev. Henry
+    W. Bellows, D.D., who served to 1872, and again from 1876 to 1878;
+    Professor Charles Carroll Everett, D.D., from 1874 to 1876; Rev.
+    Edward Everett Hale, D.D., from 1880 to 1882, and from 1891 to 1894;
+    Rev. James De Normandie, D.D., from 1884 to 1889; Rev. Brooke
+    Herford, D.D., from 1889 to 1891; Rev. George Batchelor, from 1894 to
+    1895; Rev. Minot J. Savage, D.D., from 1895 to 1899; and Rev. Howard
+    N. Brown, from the later year to 1901, when Rev. Thomas R. Slicer was
+    elected.
+
+[4] A.A. Low, a member of the first Unitarian congregation in Brooklyn,
+    N.Y.
+
+[5] Lecture delivered in Cooper Institute, New York, on Unitarian Views
+    of Christ, published in The Christian Examiner, November, 1866, xxxi,
+    310.
+
+[6] Works, iv. 110.
+
+[7] The Christian Examiner, March-April, 1826, iii. 136.
+
+[8] First Series of Tracts of A.U.A. No. 87.
+
+[9] First Series of A.U.A. Tracts, No. 105, April, 1836.
+
+[10] Forty-fifth Annual Report of the American Unitarian Association, 11,
+     14.
+
+[11] This correspondence was published in full in The Christian Register
+     for December 13 and 20, 1873, Mr. Potter's letter protesting against
+     the action of the Association being printed on the later date.
+
+[12] Memoir of Charles Lowe, 454, 458.
+
+[13] Freedom and Fellowship in Religion, 261.
+
+[14] Freedom and Fellowship in Religion, 24.
+
+[15] Ibid., 42.
+
+[16] Ibid., 216.
+
+[17] Fifty Affirmations, 47.
+
+[18] Report of the Second Meeting of the National Conference, 20.
+
+[19] Memoir of Charles H. Brigham, with Sermons and Lectures.
+
+[20] Christian Register. March 15, 1900, lxxxix. 300; Twenty-fifth
+     Anniversary of the Worcester Conference, 7, address by Dr. Hale. See
+     Memoir of Charles Lowe, 372.
+
+[21] Church Exchange, May, 1899, vi. 59.
+
+[22] This association of ministers was organized August 17, 1819, and was
+     orthodox, but found itself Unitarian when the denominational change
+     took place.
+
+[23] See Appendix for a complete list of the local conferences and the
+     dates of their organization.
+
+[24] In a small number of instances such churches did join the Conference,
+     but the number was too small to be in any degree significant.
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+
+GROWTH OF DENOMINATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS.
+
+The period from 1880 to the present time is marked by a growing
+denominational unity. Gradually Unitarians have come to the acceptance of
+their fellowship as a religious body, and to a recognition of their
+distinct mission. The controversy between the conservatives and the
+radicals was transferred to the west in 1886, and continued to have at its
+basis the problem of the relation of the individual to religious
+institutions and traditions. The conservative party maintained that
+Unitarians are Christians, and gave recognition to that continuity of human
+development by which every generation is connected with and draws its life
+from those which precede it, and is consciously dependent upon them. On the
+other hand, the radical party was not willing to accept traditions and
+institutions as having a binding authority over individuals. Some of them
+were reluctant to call themselves Christians, not because they rejected the
+more important of the Christian beliefs, but because they were not willing
+to bind any individual by the action of his fellows. It was their claim
+that religion best serves its own ends when it is free to act upon the
+individual without compulsion of any kind from others, and that its
+attractions should be without any bias of external authority.
+
+[Sidenote: "The Western Issue."]
+
+At the meeting of the Western Conference held in Cleveland in 1882,
+arrangements were made looking to its incorporation, and its object was
+defined to be "the transaction of business pertaining to the general
+interests of the societies connected with the Conference, and the promotion
+of rational religion." It was voted that the motto on the conference seal
+should be "Freedom, Fellowship, and Character in Religion," which was the
+same as that of the Free Religious Association, with the addition of the
+word "character." These results were reached after much discussion, and by
+the way of compromise. The issues thus raised were brought forward again at
+St. Louis, in 1885, when Rev. J.T. Sunderland, the secretary and missionary
+of the conference, deplored the growing spirit of agnosticism and
+scepticism in the Unitarian churches of the west. His report caused a
+division of opinion in the conference; and in the controversy that ensued
+the conservatives were represented by The Unitarian, edited by Rev. Brooke
+Herford and Rev. J.T. Sunderland, and the radicals by Unity, edited by Rev.
+J.Ll. Jones and Rev. W.C. Gannett.
+
+At the Western Conference meeting of 1886, held in Cincinnati, the
+controversy found full expression. The session was preceded a few days
+before by the publication of a pamphlet on The Western Issue from the pen
+of Mr. Sunderland, in which he contended for the theistic and Christian
+character of the conference. A resolution offered by Rev. Oscar Clute,
+"that the primary object of this Conference is to diffuse the knowledge and
+promote the interests of pure Christianity," was rejected by a considerable
+majority. Another, offered by Mr. Sunderland--"that, while rejecting all
+creeds and creed limitations, the Conference hereby expresses its purpose
+as a body to be the promotion of a religion of love to God and love to
+man"--was also rejected. That presented by William C. Gannett was carried
+by a majority of thirty-four to ten, and declared that
+
+  the Western Unitarian Conference conditions its fellowship on no
+  dogmatic tests, but welcomes all who wish to join it to establish
+  truth, righteousness, and love in the world.
+
+The result was a pronounced division between the two parties within the
+conference; and a considerable number of churches, including some of the
+oldest and strongest, withdrew from co-operation in the work of the
+Conference. At the session of 1887, held in All Souls' Church, Chicago, an
+effort was made to bring about a reconciliation; but this was not
+completely secured.[1] A resolution was carried, however, by a majority
+of fifty-nine to three, reaffirming Mr. Gannett's, declaration adopted at
+Cincinnati, but also accepting a statement in regard to fellowship and
+doctrines, which was called The Things Most Commonly Believed To-day among
+Us, and read as follows:--
+
+  In all matters of church government we are strict Congregationalists.
+  We have no creed in the usual sense; that is, articles of doctrinal
+  belief which bind our churches and fix the conditions of our
+  fellowship. Character has always been to us the supreme matter. We have
+  doctrinal beliefs, and for the most part hold such beliefs in common;
+  but above all doctrines we emphasize the principles of freedom,
+  fellowship, and character in religion. These principles make our
+  all-sufficient test of fellowship. All names that divide religion are
+  to us of little consequence compared with religion itself. Whoever
+  loves truth and loves the good is, in a broad sense, of our religious
+  fellowship; whoever loves the one or lives the other better than
+  ourselves is our teacher, whatever church or age he may belong to. So
+  our church is wide, our teachers many, and our holy writings large.
+
+  With a few exceptions we may be called Christian Theists: Theists as
+  worshipping the One-in-All, and naming that One, God our Father;
+  Christian, because revering Jesus as the highest of the historic
+  prophets of religion; these names, as names, receiving more stress in
+  our older than in our younger churches. The general faith is hinted
+  well in words which several of our churches have adopted for their
+  covenant: "In the freedom of the truth, and in the spirit of Jesus
+  Christ, we unite for the worship of God and the service of man." It is
+  hinted in such words as these: "Unitarianism is a religion of love to
+  God and love to man." "It is that free and progressive development of
+  historic Christianity which aspires to be synonymous with universal
+  ethics and universal religion." But because we have no creed which we
+  impose as test of fellowship, specific statements of belief abound
+  among us, always somewhat differing, always largely agreeing. One such
+  we offer here:--
+
+    We believe that to love the Good and live the Good is the supreme
+    thing in religion. We hold reason and conscience to be final
+    authorities in matters of religious belief. We honor the Bible and
+    all inspiring scriptures, old and new. We revere Jesus and all holy
+    souls that have taught men truth and righteousness and love, as
+    prophets of religion. We believe in the growing nobility of man. We
+    trust the unfolding universe as beautiful, beneficent, unchanging
+    Order; to know this order is truth; to obey it is right and liberty
+    and stronger life. We believe that good and evil inevitably carry
+    their own recompense, no good things being failure, and no evil
+    things success; that heaven and hell are states of being; that no
+    evil can befall the good man in either life or death; that all
+    things work together for the victory of Good. We believe that we
+    ought to join hands and work to make the good things better and the
+    worst good, counting nothing good for self that is not good for
+    all. We believe that this self-forgetting, loyal life awakes in man
+    the sense of union, here and now, with things eternal--the sense of
+    deathlessness; and this is to us an earnest of the life to come. We
+    worship One-in-All,--that Life whence suns and stars derive their
+    orbits and the soul of man its Ought,--that Light which lighteth
+    every man that cometh into the world, giving us power to become the
+    sons of God,--that Love with whom our souls commune. This One we
+    name the Eternal God, our Father.
+
+This action not satisfying the remonstrants, the controversy went on with
+considerable vigor for three or four years. Both parties to it were
+characteristically Unitarian in their attitude and in their demands. Both
+sought the truth with an attempt at unbiassed judgment; and neither wished
+to disfellowship the other, or to put any restrictions upon its expression
+of its opinions. Much heat was engendered by the controversy, but light was
+desire by both parties with sincere purpose. The conflict was finally
+brought to an end by the action of the National Conference at its session
+of 1894, held at Saratoga, though this result had been practically reached
+in 1892. A committee on the revision of the constitution had been appointed
+by the council of the session of 1891; and this committee reported the
+following preamble, which was unanimously adopted as a substitute for the
+preamble of 1865 and 1868:--
+
+  The Conference of Unitarian and other Christian Churches was formed in
+  the year 1865, with the purpose of strengthening the churches and
+  societies which should unite in it for more and better work for the
+  kingdom of God. These churches accept the religion of Jesus, holding,
+  in accordance with his teaching, that practical religion is summed up
+  in love to God and love to man. The Conference recognizes the fact that
+  its constituency is Congregational in tradition and polity. Therefore,
+  it declares that nothing in this constitution is to be construed as an
+  authoritative test; and we cordially invite to our working fellowship
+  any who, while differing from us in belief, are in general sympathy
+  with our spirit and our practical aims.
+
+This preamble to the new constitution proved to be so far acceptable to
+both parties in the Western Conference, as well as to their sympathizers
+elsewhere, that harmony was restored throughout the denomination. While the
+Unitarian body thus retained its use of the Christian name and its
+insistence upon loyalty to the teachings of Jesus, yet it put aside every
+form of dogmatic test and of creedal statement. Its fellowship was made
+very broad in its character, and all were invited to join it who so
+desired.
+
+[Sidenote: Fellowship with Universalists.]
+
+At the annual meeting of the Unitarian Association in 1899 resolutions were
+passed looking to joint action between Unitarians and Universalists with
+reference to furthering their common interests. A committee was appointed
+to confer with a similar committee of the Universalist General Convention
+for the purpose of considering "plans of closer co-operation, devise ways
+and means for more efficient usefulness." In October this proposal was
+accepted by the General Convention, and a committee appointed. At the
+annual meeting of the Unitarian Association in 1900 the report of the
+joint committee was presented, in which it was declared that "closer
+co-operation is desirable and practicable"; but the committee expressed the
+wish to go on record "as not desiring nor expecting to disturb in any way
+the separate organic autonomy of the two denominations. We seek
+co-operation, not consolidation, unity, non union." The committee
+recommended that it be given authority to consider the cases in which the
+two denominations are jointly interested, such as opportunities of
+instituting churches or missions in new fields, the circulation of tracts
+and books, the holding of joint meetings of ministers and churches, or
+other efforts to promote intellectual agreements and deep faiths of the
+heart, and to recommend the appropriate action to the proper organizations.
+At the next sessions of the Unitarian Association and of the Universalist
+General Convention these recommendations were accepted, and permanent
+members of the joint committee were appointed. This committee has entered
+upon its duties, and important results may be anticipated in the promotion
+of harmony and co-operation.
+
+[Sidenote: Officers of the American Unitarian Association.]
+
+Mr. Henry P. Kidder continued as the president of the Unitarian Association
+until the annual meeting of 1886. He was then succeeded by Hon. George D.
+Robinson, who held the office for only one year. He had been in both houses
+of the Massachusetts legislature, in the national House from 1877 to 1883,
+and was governor of Massachusetts from 1884 to 1886. His successor was Hon.
+George S. Hale, from 1887 to 1895, who was a distinguished lawyer, and was
+greatly interested in charities and reforms. Hon. John D. Long was the
+president from 1895 to 1897. He had been in the lower house of the
+Massachusetts legislature, was lieutenant governor in 1879, governor in
+1880-82, in the national House from 1883 to 1889, and from 1897 to 1902 was
+Secretary of the Navy. Hon. Carroll D. Wright held the office from 1897 to
+1900. He was in the Massachusetts Senate in 1871 and 1872, was chief of the
+Massachusetts bureau of statistics from 1873 to 1888, superintendent of the
+United States census in 1880, has been commissioner of the national Bureau
+of Labor since 1885, and in 1902 became president of Clark College at
+Worcester. At the annual meeting of 1900 it was thought best to make a
+change in the nature of the presidency, in order that the head of the
+Association might become its chief executive officer. In that way it was
+sought to add dignity and efficiency to the position of the executive
+officer, as well as to meet the greatly increased work of the Association
+by this addition to its salaried force. The secretary, Rev. Samuel A.
+Eliot, was elected to the presidency.
+
+In 1881 Rev. Grindall Reynolds became the secretary of the Association. He
+had previously held pastorates in Jamaica Plain and Concord. He had rare
+executive abilities, was gifted with sound common sense and a judicial
+temper; and he had a most efficient business capacity. Under his leadership
+the growth of the Unitarian denomination was more rapid than it had been at
+any earlier period; and this was largely due to his zeal, energy, and
+wisdom.
+
+In December, 1894, Rev. George Batchelor became the secretary, and he
+continued in office until November, 1897, when he became the editor of The
+Christian Register. He had previously held pastorates in Salem, Chicago,
+and Lowell. He was succeeded, January 1, 1898, by Rev. Samuel A. Eliot, who
+had been settled over churches in Denver and Brooklyn, and who became the
+president of the Association in 1900. Rev. Charles E. St. John, who had
+been settled in Northampton and Pittsburg, became the secretary at the
+annual meeting of 1900.
+
+[Sidenote: The American Unitarian Association as a Representative Body.]
+
+In the report of the council of the National Conference at the session of
+1880, Dr. Bellows pointed out the fact that the American Unitarian
+Association was "not a union of churches, but an association of individuals
+belonging to Unitarian churches, who became members of it and entitled to
+vote by signing its constitution and the annual payment of one dollar. This
+Association never had, and has not now, any explicit relation to our
+churches as churches, but only to such individuals as choose to become
+voluntary subscribers to its funds, and members by signing its
+constitution, and to such churches as choose to employ its services."
+
+This statement led to the appointment of a committee "to consider how the
+National Conference and the American Unitarian Association can more
+effectually co-operate without sacrifice of the advantages belonging to
+either." The committee reported in 1882 in favor of so changing the charter
+of the Association that a church might become a member. At the annual
+meeting of the Association in 1884, after a prolonged discussion, its
+by-laws were so amended that, while the life membership was retained, the
+sum creating it was raised from $30 to $50; and churches were given
+representation on the condition of regular yearly contributions to its
+treasury, two of such contributions being necessary to establish a church
+in this right. Since that time the delegates from churches have
+considerably outnumbered the life members voting at the annual meetings.
+This has practically given the churches the controlling voice in the
+activities of the Association.
+
+The giving a representative character to the Association had the effect of
+increasing the contributions made to its support by the churches. Under the
+leadership of Dr. Bellows, at the National Conference in 1884, there began
+a movement looking to the establishment of a conference in every state and
+the employment of a missionary by every such conference. This plan has not
+yet been fully carried out; but in 1885 and the following years missionary
+superintendents were appointed by the Association for five general sections
+of the country, and, with some variations, this, system has continued in
+operation to the present time.[2]
+
+[Sidenote: The Church Building Loan Fund.]
+
+The work of building churches was greatly facilitated by the establishment,
+in 1884, of a Church Building Loan Fund. The proposition to create such a
+fund was first brought forward by the finance committee at a meeting of the
+directors of the Unitarian Association on February 11, 1884. At the March
+meeting a committee was appointed to mature plans; and at the meeting of
+the National Conference in September, held at Saratoga, a resolution was
+passed asking the Association to set apart $25,000 for this purpose, and
+pledging the Conference to add $20,000 to this sum. At the November meeting
+of the directors of the Association the organization of the fund was
+completed, a board of trustees was created, and the sum of $43,000 was
+reported as secured. The fund was steadily increased by contributions from
+the churches and by gifts and legacies until in 1900 it amounted to
+$142,820.92. Up to May, 1900, an aggregate sum of $294,310 had been
+disbursed, in one hundred loans to ninety societies, chiefly to aid in the
+erection of new church edifices.[3]
+
+[Sidenote: The Unitarian Building in Boston.]
+
+For several years after the organization of the American Unitarian
+Association the records give no indication of the place of meeting of the
+directors. During the latter part of 1825, and in 1826, David Reed was the
+general agent of the Association; and his place of business was at 81
+Washington Street. It is probable that the directors met at the study of
+the secretary or at the place of business of the agent. In December, 1826,
+the firm of Bowles & Dearborn, booksellers, became the agents, their store
+being first at 72 and then at 50 Washington Street. Here all Unitarian
+publications were kept on sale, the name of "general repositary" being
+given to their stock of books, tracts, periodicals, and other publications
+of a liberal character. In 1829 the agent was Leonard C. Bowles, evidently
+a continuation of Bowles & Dearborn.
+
+In 1830 the depositary was removed to 135 Washington Street, and was under
+the management of the firm of Gray & Bowen, who were paid $144.44 for their
+services. In 1831 the place of business of this firm was 141 Washington
+Street; and the sum it received from the Association was $200, which was
+the next year increased to $300. Leonard C. Bowles, located at 147
+Washington Street, again became the agent in 1836. In 1837 James Munroe &
+Co. appear as the publishers of the annual report, but they are not
+mentioned as agents or as having charge of the repositary. The sum of $150
+was paid in that year for the rent of a room for the general secretary,
+Rev. Charles Briggs; and the location of the room is probably indicated by
+the record that in 1838 Munroe & Co. were paid $133.34 for rent of room and
+clerk hire, their store being at 134 Washington Street. Here the
+headquarters of the Association were at last established, for they
+continued in this place until 1846. In 1839 the rental paid was $300, and
+for the six succeeding years it was $200. Surely, these were the days of
+small things; but here the Association carried on such activities as it had
+in hand, and the Unitarian ministers met for conversation and consultation.
+
+In 1846 Crosby, Nichols & Co. became the agents of the Association, first
+at 118 and then at 111 Washington Street. This firm brought out several
+Unitarian books, and issued The Christian Examiner and other Unitarian
+periodicals. For a number of years they were intimately associated with
+Unitarian interests, and the theological and literary traditions of the
+time connect them with many of the leading men and movements of Boston. In
+the rear of their store the Association had its office, its meeting-place
+for the directors and other officers, as well as for the Monday gatherings
+of ministers.
+
+After these many wanderings from the rear of one bookstore to another the
+Association at last secured an abode of its own. On March 9, 1854, rooms
+for the use of the Association were opened at 21 Bromfield Street. On this
+occasion a small company came together, and listened to an address by Dr.
+Samuel K. Lothrop, the president of the Association. Another change was
+made in October, 1859, when Walker, Wise & Co. undertook the book-selling,
+and publishing work of the Association at 21 Bromfield Street.
+
+In the year 1865 there came to the Association an opportunity for securing
+a building of its own. The sum of $16,000 was paid for a house at 26
+Chauncy Street, which was occupied in the spring of 1866. The enlarged
+activities of the Association at this time here found the housing they
+needed. Affiliated organizations also found a home in this building,
+especially the Sunday School Society, the Christian Register Association,
+and The Monthly Religious Magazine.
+
+The theatre meetings, begun in Boston in 1866, having suggested the need of
+a larger denominational building, The Monthly Journal of November, 1867,
+proposed the erection of a building with a spacious hall for these great
+popular meetings, smaller rooms for social gatherings, offices for the
+Association and other affiliated societies, and an attractive bookstore.
+"In short, we would have it comprise all that might properly belong to a
+denominational headquarters or home. We would have it in a convenient and
+conspicuous situation, and every way worthy of our position." This dream of
+Mr. Lowe's he brought forward again in his annual report of 1870, when he
+said: "The building now occupied by the Association has become wholly
+inadequate to its uses; and steps were taken more than a year ago by its
+friends in Boston towards providing more suitable accommodations, and at
+the same time providing in connection with it for such other uses as might
+make the building to be erected worthy to be the headquarters of the
+denomination in the city which gave it birth." Mr. Shippen called attention
+to the needs of the Association in his report of 1872, saying that the
+project of a large hall had been abandoned, but that there was urgent
+demand for a building suited to the business and social needs of the
+denomination in Boston.
+
+The great fire of November, 1872, brought this project to a sudden
+termination. The Chauncy Street building was for many hours in danger of
+being burned, out it was finally saved. Its market value was much increased
+by the fire, however; and in February, 1873, it was sold for $37,000.
+Purchase was soon made, at a cost of $30,000, of the estate at 7 Tremont
+Place, belonging to Hon. Albert Fearing, who had been active in the work of
+the Association and prominent in the Unitarian circles of Boston. This
+building, entered by the Association in May, 1873, was somewhat larger than
+its predecessor and in some respects better suited to the needs of the
+Association; yet the secretary, at the annual meeting held in the same
+month, called for the more convenient building, which should serve "as a
+worthy centre in this city for the various charitable and missionary
+activities of our faith."[4]
+
+In his report of 1880 Mr. Shippen again presented his demand for a suitable
+home for the Association and its kindred organizations. This appeal was
+renewed in the following year by Mr. Reynolds, who urged "the need of a
+denominational house in Boston, which should be commodious, accessible,
+easily found, and where all our charities and all our works should find a
+home." "Very fitting it is," he added, "that such a house should be named
+after him who, by his personal influence in life and by the power of his
+written word after his death, has been the mightiest single force for the
+diffusion of rational Christianity."
+
+In January, 1882, the Unitarian Club of Boston was organized; and it soon
+after took up the task of erecting the desired building. The initiative was
+taken at a meeting of the club held December 13, 1882, when Mr. Henry P.
+Kidder offered to head a subscription for this purpose with the sum of
+$10,000. The proposal was received with much enthusiasm, and a committee
+was appointed, consisting of Henry P. Kidder, Charles Faulkner, Charles W.
+Eliot, William Endicott, Jr., Francis H. Brown, M.D., Dr. John Cordner,
+Arthur T. Lyman, Henry Grew, Thomas Gaffield, and Rev. Grindall Reynolds,
+to whom authority was given to raise funds, purchase a lot, and erect a
+building. It was arranged by this committee that the Association should
+contribute $50,000 from the sale of its Tremont Place building, and that
+the club should raise $150,000. Subscriptions were opened February 9, 1883;
+and in November over $154,000 had been secured. A suitable lot was
+purchased at the corner of Beacon and Bowdoin Streets, and the erection of
+the building was begun in 1884. A prolonged labor strike delayed the
+completion of the building, so that the service of its dedication, which
+had been arranged for the evening of May 25, 1886, was held in Tremont
+Temple. The presiding officer on that occasion was George William Curtis;
+and addresses were made by Drs. Frederic H. Hedge, Andrew P. Peabody, and
+Horatio Stebbins. In July the building was occupied by the Association.
+"The denominational house is but brick and stone," said Mr. Reynolds in his
+report of 1886; "but it is brick and stone which testify to the new hope,
+vigor, life, which have been coming in these later years into our body, and
+without which it could not have been reared. It is brick and stone which
+are the pledges of a noble future, which stimulate to good work, and
+furnish the means of doing it."[5]
+
+[Sidenote: Growth of the Devotional Spirit.]
+
+The last twenty years of the nineteenth century saw an increased use of the
+simpler Christian rites in Unitarian churches. In that time a distinct
+advance was made in the acceptableness of the communion service, and
+probably in the number of those willing to join in its observance. The
+abandonment of its mystical features and its interpretation as a simple
+memorial service, that would help to cherish loved ones gone hence, and the
+saintly and heroic of all ages, as well as the one great leader of the
+Christian body, has given it for Unitarians a new spiritual effectiveness.
+The same causes have led to the adoption of the rite of confirmation in a
+considerable number of churches. Gradually the idea has grown that what
+Rev. Sylvester Judd called "the birthright church" is the true one, and
+that it is desirable that all children should be religiously trained, and
+admitted to the church at the age of adolescence. Mr. Judd gave noble
+utterance to this conception of a church in a series of sermons published
+after his death,[6] as well as in a sermon prepared for the Thursday
+lecture in Boston.[7] The same idea was elaborated by Rev. Cyrus A.
+Bartol in his Church and Congregation: A Plea for their Unity,[8] wherein
+he contended for the union of church and parish, the opening of the
+communion to all as a rite accepted by the whole congregation, and not by a
+few church members, and the education of children as constituent members of
+the church from birth.
+
+It was not until much later, however, that the rite of confirmation came
+into use,[9] largely because of the interpretations of the purposes and
+methods of Christian nurture presented by Bushnell, Bartol, and Judd. This
+rite could have meaning only as the expression of social responsibility on
+the part of parents and church alike, that true religion is not merely a
+question of individual opinion, but that there is high worth in those
+spiritual forces that are carried forward from generation to generation,
+and must descend from parent to child if they have effective power. In a
+word, the use of the confirmation rite is an abandonment of extreme
+individualism, and is an acceptance of the socialistic conception of
+spiritual development.[10] This is distinctly a return to the conception
+of a church maintained by Solomon Stoddard at the beginning of the
+eighteenth century, and to that broader Congregationalism he desired to see
+established throughout New England. It was also theoretically that of the
+Puritan founders of New England, who maintained that all children Of church
+members were also members of the church, but who inconsistently insisted
+upon a supernatural conversion in order to full membership. It is even more
+positively an acceptance of the theory of Christian nurture held by the
+Catholic and the Episcopal churches. That theory is based on the social
+conception of the church, that it is an organic body, and that every child
+is born into it and is to be trained as a member by nature and by right.
+
+There has also been a marked change in the forms of Sunday worship,
+especially in the general adoption of responsive readings or more elaborate
+rituals. The tendency has been away from the bare and unattractive service
+of the Puritan churches, which was the acme of individualism in worship,
+towards the more social conception that brings the whole congregation to
+join in the act and in the spirit of devotion. This social conception of
+worship had its first distinct expression in a Unitarian church when James
+Freeman Clarke organized the Church of the Disciples, in 1843.[11] His
+example was a potent force in introducing into many churches a richer and
+more expressive form of worship. Another influence was that of Samuel
+Longfellow, who became the minister of the Second Unitarian Church in
+Brooklyn, in 1853. He soon after introduced vesper services in place of the
+second sermon in the afternoon, making them largely devotional in their
+character. "His own taste and deep feeling were largely a condition of the
+full success of the vespers," says his biographer, "which were seldom
+elsewhere so impressive or seemed so genuine as a devotional act. They
+needed, for their perfect effect, the influence of a leader with whom
+worship was an habitual mental attitude, and who, combined with the
+instinct of religion the art of a poet and of a musician."[12] The form of
+service thus initiated was adopted in many other churches, and slowly had
+its influence in giving greater beauty and spiritual expressiveness to
+worship in Unitarian churches.
+
+About 1885 the tendency to adopt a more social and a more aesthetic form of
+worship came to assert itself more distinctly. To its furtherance Rev.
+Howard N. Brown gave, perhaps, greater emphasis than any other person; but
+there were others who took an active part in the movement. The old
+Congregational demand for simplicity, however, was very great; and there
+was strong feeling against anything like ritualism. The use of some kind of
+liturgy became quite general in the face of this objection, and a
+considerable number of books of a semi-ritual character were published. The
+most elaborate work of this nature was compiled by a committee appointed by
+the Unitarian Association, and published by it in 1891. What is to be
+recognized in this tendency is not the more general use of liturgies,
+however simple or however elaborate, but the growth in Unitarian churches
+of the worshipping spirit. With the development of a rational theology
+there has been a corresponding evolution of a simple but earnest attitude
+of devotion.
+
+The devotional spirit of Unitarians, however, has found its most emphatic
+and beautiful expression in religious hymns and poems. The older Unitarian
+piety found voice in the hymns of the younger Henry Ware, Norton, Pierpont,
+Frothingham, Peabody, Lunt, Bryant, and many others. It was rational and
+yet Christian, simple in sentiment and yet it found in the New Testament
+traditions its themes and its symbolisms. Then followed the older
+transcendentalists, who sought in the inward life and the soul's oneness
+with God the chief motives to spiritual expression. The hymns and the
+religious poems of Furness, Hedge, Longfellow, Johnson, Clarke, Very,
+Brooks, and Miss Scudder,[13] have an interior and spiritual quality
+seldom found in devotional poetry. They are not the mere utterances of
+conventional sentiments or the repetition of ecclesiastical symbolisms, but
+the voicing of deep inward experiences that reveal and interpret the true
+life of the soul. Of the same character are the hymns and religious poems
+of Gannett, Hosmer, and Chadwick, who have but accentuated the tendencies
+of their predecessors. It is the more radical theology that has voiced
+itself in the religious songs of these men, but with a mystical or
+spiritual insight that fits them to the needs of all devout, worshippers.
+It is these genuinely poetical interpretations of the spiritual life that
+most often claim utterance in song on the part of Unitarian congregations.
+A body of worshippers that can produce such a hymnology must possess a
+large measure of genuine piety and devotion.
+
+[Sidenote: The Seventy-fifth Anniversary.]
+
+Many of the tendencies of the Unitarian movement found utterance on the
+occasion of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the American Unitarian
+Association. The meetings were held in Tremont Temple, May 22, 1900; and
+the attendance was large and enthusiastic, many persons coming from distant
+parts of the country. This meeting brought into full expression the
+denominational consciousness, and showed the harmony that had been secured
+as the result of the controversies of many years. As never before, it was
+realized that the Unitarian body has a distinct mission, that it has
+organic and vital power, and that its individual members are united by a
+common faith for the promotion of the interests of a rational and
+humanitarian religion.
+
+This was also a notable occasion because it brought together
+representatives from nearly all the countries in which Unitarianism exists
+in an organized form, thus clearly indicating that it is a cosmopolitan
+movement, and not one of merely local significance. At the morning session
+addresses were made by the representatives from Hungary, Great Britain,
+Germany, Belgium, India, and Japan. In the afternoon addresses were
+delivered by the missionaries of the Association. Other meetings of much
+interest were held during the week, that were of value as interpretations
+of the past of Unitarianism in this country.
+
+During this anniversary week, on May 26, 1900, upon the suggestion of Rev.
+S.A. Eliot, there was organized The International Council of Unitarian and
+Other Liberal Religious Thinkers and Workers, its object being "to open
+communication with those in all lands who are striving to unite pure
+religion and perfect liberty, and to increase fellowship and co-operation
+among them." Professor J. Estlin Carpenter, of Oxford, England, was
+selected as the president, and Rev. Charles W. Wendte, who shortly after
+became the minister of the Parker Memorial in Boston, was made the
+secretary. The executive committee included representatives from the United
+States, Great Britain, Japan, Hungary, Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, and
+Switzerland. The first annual meeting was held in London, May 30 and 31,
+1901, with delegates present from the above-named countries, as well as
+from Holland, Norway, India, Denmark, Australia, and Canada.[14]
+
+The anniversary exercises, as well as the organization of the International
+Council, gave concrete emphasis to the growing interest in Unitarian ideas
+and principles in many parts of the world. They gave the sense of a large
+fellowship, and kindled new enthusiasm. As interpreted by these meetings,
+the Unitarian name has largely ceased to be one of merely theological
+signification, and has come to mean "an endeavor to unite for common and
+unselfish endeavors all believers in pure religion and perfect
+liberty."[15]
+
+[1] The Unitarian, June, 1887, II. 156. For historical accounts of this
+    controversy see Mrs. S.C.Ll. Jones's Western Unitarian Conference:
+    Its Work and its Mission, Unity Mission Tract, No. 38; W.C. Gannett's
+    The Flowering of Christianity, Lesson XII., Part IV.; and The
+    Unitarian, II. and III. A Western Unitarian Association was organized
+    in Chicago, June 21, 1886. Some of the older and leading churches
+    were connected with it, including those at Meadville, Ann Arbor,
+    Louisville, Shelbyville, Church of the Messiah and Unity in Chicago,
+    Church of the Messiah in St. Louis, Keokuk, and others. Hon. George
+    W. McCrary was elected the president, and Mrs. Jonathan Slade the
+    recording secretary. In October, 1887, Rev. George Batchelor became
+    the Western agent of the American Unitarian Association. He was
+    succeeded the next year by Rev. George W. Cutter. In September, 1890,
+    Rev. T.B. Forbush was made the Western superintendent of the American
+    Unitarian Association, with headquarters in Chicago; and he held this
+    position until 1896. During the period covered by these dates Rev.
+    J.R. Effinger was the general missionary of the Western Unitarian
+    Conference, and he was succeeded by Rev. F.L. Hosmer and Rev. A.W.
+    Gould. In 1896 the Western churches were reunited in the Western
+    Conference, and its secretary has been the superintendent of the
+    American Unitarian Association. As defining the position of the
+    American Unitarian Association during this period of controversy, it
+    may be recalled that in June, 1886, the directors adopted a
+    resolution, in which they said they "would regard it as a subversion
+    of the purpose for which its funds have been contributed, as well as
+    of the principles cherished by its officers, to give assistance to
+    any church or organization which does not rest emphatically on the
+    Christian basis."
+
+[2] New England, Middle States and Canada, Western States, Southern
+    States, and Pacific Coast.
+
+[3] These loans are made without interest under established conditions,
+    one of which is that they must be repaid in ten annual instalments.
+
+[4] Annual Report of 1873, 7.
+
+[5] The building seemed to be ample, when it was first occupied, for any
+    growth that was likely to be made for many years to come. At the
+    present time, only sixteen years later, it is crowded; and an
+    extension is urgently demanded. It does not now afford room for the
+    work required, and much of that work is done at a considerable
+    disadvantage because of the want of room. The promise for the
+    immediate future is that much more room will be required in order to
+    facilitate the growing work of the Association.
+
+[6] The Church: in a Series of Sermons, Boston, 1857.
+
+[7] The Birthright Church: A Discourse, printed for the Association of
+    the Unitarian Church of Maine, Augusta, 1854. Mr. Judd's conception
+    of the church as a social organism was shown in the name given to the
+    organization formed under his leadership in 1852, called The
+    Association of the Unitarian Church in Maine. In the preamble to the
+    constitution he wrote: "We, the Unitarian Christians of Maine,
+    ourselves, and our posterity are a Church.... We are a church, not of
+    creeds, but of the Bible; not of sect, but of humanity; seeking not
+    uniformity of dogma, but communion in the religious life. We embrace
+    in our fellowship all who will be in fellowship with us." In defining
+    a local church, he says: "These Christians, with their families,
+    uniting for religious worship, instruction, growth, and culture,
+    having the ordinances and a pastor, constitute a parochial church."
+
+[8] Boston, 1858.
+
+[9] Probably Dr. William G. Eliot, of St. Louis, was the first Unitarian
+    minister to make a systematic use of this rite. He prepared a brief
+    manual for use in his church, the preface to which bears date of
+    December 6, 1868. Seth C. Beach, while minister in Dedham, printed a
+    paper on the subject in the Unitarian Review, January, 1886. He held
+    a confirmation service in the Dedham church, April 25, 1886. At a
+    meeting of the Western Sunday School Society, held in Cincinnati, May
+    12, 1889, Rev. John C. Learned, read a paper on The Sacrament of
+    Confirmation.
+
+[10] The views of Bartol and Judd are appropriate to a state church,
+     wherein they first found expression; and their motive is always
+     distinctly social.
+
+[11] Life of J.F. Clarke, by E.E. Hale, 145
+
+[12] Memoir of Samuel Longfellow, by Joseph May, 193.
+
+[13] Miss Scudder's best hymns were all written while she was a Unitarian.
+     Unitarian hymnology has been nobly treated by Dr. Alfred P. Putnam,
+     in his Singers and Songs of the Liberal Faith, Boston, 1875. It is
+     understood that he is preparing a second volume. The tendency to a
+     deeper recognition of the spirit of worship has found fitting
+     expression in The Spiritual Life: Studies of Devotion and Worship,
+     George H. Ellis, 1898.
+
+[14] The addresses and papers of this meeting were published under the
+     title of Liberal Religious Thought at the Beginning of the Twentieth
+     Century, London, 1901. They give the most complete account yet
+     published of the various liberal movements in many parts of the
+     world, and the book is one of great interest and value.
+
+[15] From the first circular of the International Council.
+
+
+
+
+X.
+
+
+THE MINISTRY AT LARGE.
+
+One of the most important of the philanthropies undertaken by the early
+Unitarians was the ministry to the poor and unchurched in Boston, usually
+known as the ministry at large. It began in 1822, came under the direction
+of the American Unitarian Association and the shaping hand of Dr. Joseph
+Tuckerman in 1826, and was taken in charge by the Benevolent Fraternity of
+Churches in 1834. It was not begun by Tuckerman, though its origin is
+usually attributed to him. Even before 1822 attempts had been made to
+establish missions amongst the poor by the evangelical denominations; but
+their work was not thoroughly organized, and it had reached no efficient
+results when Tuckerman entered upon his labors. The work of Tuckerman was
+to take up what had been tentatively begun by others, give it a definite
+purpose and method, and so to inform it with his own genius for charity
+that it became a great philanthropy in its intent and in its methods.
+
+[Sidenote: Association of Young Men.]
+
+When the Hancock Grammar School-house in the north end of Boston was being
+erected, a young man, in passing it on a September evening, said to a
+companion, "Why cannot we have a Sunday-school here?" The proposition was
+received with favor, and the two discussed plans while they continued their
+walk. They met frequently to mature their methods of procedure, and they
+invited others to join them in the undertaking. On the evening of October
+2, 1822, these two young men--Frederick T. Gray and Benjamin H. Greene--met
+with Moses Grant, William P. Rice, and others, to give more careful
+consideration to their purpose of forming a society for mutual religious
+improvement.[1]
+
+These young men met with little encouragement, and for some time there was
+small prospect of their succeeding in their undertaking. They continued to
+meet weekly, however; and on November 27 they formed The Association of
+Young Men for their own Mutual Improvement and for the Religious
+Instruction of the Poor. In 1824 the name was changed to The Association
+for Religious Improvement. The members met at each other's houses weekly,
+for the purpose of considering topics which related to their own personal
+improvement or to the wants of the community, always keeping in view the
+fact that their own religious growth must lie at the foundation of any
+great good which could be done by them for society. By degrees their number
+increased; and during the six years following, as appears from the records,
+the subjects to which their meetings were successively devoted were the
+desirableness of employing a missionary and building a mission-house, the
+condition and wants of vagrant children, the diffusion of Christianity in
+India, the importance of issuing tracts and other religions publications,
+the means and best method of improving our state prisons, the utility of
+forming a Unitarian Association, the best means to be adopted to abolish
+intemperance, the character of theatrical entertainments, the want of
+infant schools, and the best methods which could be taken to aid in the
+promotion of peace. All of these subjects were then comparatively new, and
+they were but just beginning to attract attention. Their importance was by
+no means generally understood, and least of all was the place which they
+were soon to occupy in public estimation anticipated.[2] The Association
+was discontinued in December, 1835.
+
+[Sidenote: Preaching to the Poor.]
+
+One of the first enterprises entered upon by this society was the securing
+of preaching for the poor and those connected with no religious
+organization. In this effort they had the co-operation of the younger Henry
+Ware, then the minister of the Second Church, and of John G. Palfrey, then
+the minister of the Brattle Street Church. In November, 1822, Henry Ware
+began these meetings; and four series of them were held throughout the
+winter, in Charter Street, in Hatters' or Creek Square, in Pitts Court, and
+in Spring Street. The Charter Street meetings were at first held in a room
+of a primary school, and then in a small chapel that had been built by a
+benevolent man for teaching and preaching purposes. In this place Mr. Ware
+was assisted by Dr. Jenks of the Christian denomination, and the chapel was
+afterwards occupied by the latter as a minister at large. The meetings in
+Pitts Court were also held in a school-room. Those in Hatters' Square
+occupied a room in a large tenement house and "here the accommodations, and
+probably the audience, were of a humbler character than elsewhere."[3]
+
+[Sidenote: Tuckerman as Minister to the Poor.]
+
+Early in the year 1826 Dr. Joseph Tuckerman expressed his willingness to
+devote himself to this ministry; and the American Unitarian Association was
+appealed to, that the necessary financial support might be secured. Dr.
+Tuckerman had been for twenty-five years the parish minister in Chelsea,
+but his health was such that he had been obliged to relinquish that
+position. On September 4 the sum of $600 was appropriated to the support of
+Dr. Tuckerman for one year as a missionary among the poor in Boston; and
+Ware, Barrett, and Gannett were made a committee to ascertain what amount
+of money could be raised for this purpose. It was thought wise not to use
+the regular funds of the Association for so special and local an object.
+The women of the Boston churches were therefore appealed to in behalf of
+this cause; and during the first year contributions were received from
+those connected with the congregations of the Brattle Street, Federal
+Street, West, New South, New North, Twelfth, and Chauncey Place Churches,
+amounting to $712. These contributions by the women of the churches were
+continued until the Benevolent Fraternity was organized.
+
+Tuckerman entered upon his work November 5, 1826. On the evening of that
+day he met with the Association for, Religious Improvement, and discussed
+with its members the work to be undertaken. He began at once the visiting
+of the poor and the study of their condition in the several parts of the
+city, though confining himself largely to the north end. In making his
+first quarterly report to the Unitarian Association, February 5, 1827, he
+said that he had taken fifty families into his pastoral charge. He had
+given special attention to the children, had arranged that those should be
+sent to school who had not previously attended, and provided them with
+shoes and clothes where these were necessary. He had also aided the sick,
+provided necessaries for those who were helpless and deserving, secured
+work for those out of employment, and given religious consolation and
+correction where these were required.
+
+After Dr. Tuckerman had entered upon his work of visiting the poor, the
+Young Men's Association arranged to have him resume the discontinued
+evening meetings. They accordingly secured the use of a room up two flights
+of stairs, in what was known as the "Circular Building," at the corner of
+Merrimac and Portland Streets. In this rude place, that had been used as a
+paint-shop, services were begun on Sunday evening, December 3, 1826.
+Tuckerman recorded in his diary that he had "a large and very attentive
+audience";[4] and on the same evening he met at the house of Dr. Channing
+"a large circle of ladies and gentlemen, who formed a society to help him
+visit."[5] As soon as services were begun in the Circular Building, it
+was proposed to form a Sunday-school; and on a very cold December day seven
+teachers and three children met to inaugurate it. They hovered about the
+little stove, by means of which the room was warmed, and began their work.
+The school grew rapidly, soon filled the room, and was given the name of
+the Howard School. Very soon, also, this room became too small to
+accommodate the attendants at the preaching services. In recognition of
+this need the Friend Street Free Chapel was erected, and opened for use on
+November 1, 1828.
+
+[Sidenote: Tuckerman's Methods.]
+
+During the first year of his ministry Dr. Tuckerman reported quarterly to
+the American Unitarian Association, and then semi-annually. In all there
+were printed four of the quarterly reports and fifteen of the others. It
+was not his custom in these reports to confine himself to an account of his
+work, which usually received only a brief statement at the end; but he
+discussed important topics relating to the condition of the poor and their
+needs. His third quarterly report was devoted to a consideration of the
+remedies to be used for confirmed intemperance. Others of the topics upon
+which he reported were the condition of the poor in cities, the duties of a
+minister at large (a title invented by him, which he preferred to that of
+city or domestic missionary), the effects of poverty on the moral life of
+the poor, the means of relieving pauperism, the causes of poverty and the
+social remedies, the several classes amongst the poor and the best means of
+reaching each of them, the means to be employed for the recovery of those
+sunk in pauperism, poor laws and outdoor relief. Among the subjects he
+discussed incidentally, and sometimes at considerable length, were the duty
+of providing seats for the poor in the churches at a small rental, the
+employment of children, education as a means of saving children from
+growing up to a life of vagrancy and pauperism, the wages of the poor and
+how they can be increased.[6] He was especially interested in the
+rescuing of children from ignorance and vice, and he strongly advocated the
+establishment of schools for the instruction of dull children and those
+whose education had been neglected. Through his efforts the Broad Street
+Infant School was established, in order to reach the younger children of
+the poor. In 1829 he made a careful study of the religious condition of the
+poor; and he found that out of a population of 55,000, which the city then
+contained, there were 4,200 families, or about 18,000 persons, who were not
+connected with any of the churches or who did not attend them with any
+degree of regularity. This gave him an opportunity to urge upon the public
+more strongly than before the importance of procuring free chapels, and a
+sufficient number of ministers to care for this large unchurched
+population. One or two ministers had labored amongst the poor before he
+began his work, and three or four had entered upon the same line of effort
+since he had done so; but these workers were too few in number to meet the
+large demands made upon them.
+
+In carrying on his work, Dr. Tuckerman sought out all who were in need of
+his services, without distinction of nationality, color, creed, social
+position, or moral condition. If he gave the preference to any, it was
+those who were the most wretched and debased. "It is the first object of
+the ministry at large, never to be lost sight of," he wrote, "and to which
+no other is to be preferred, as far as shall be possible to extend its
+offices to the poor and the poorest, to the low and the lowest, to the most
+friendless and most uncared for, the most miserable."[7] He recognized
+the individuality of the poorest and the most vicious: he sought to foster
+it, and to make it the basis of moral reform and social recovery.
+
+[Sidenote: Organization of Charities.]
+
+The influence of Tuckerman's work was soon felt outside the city in which
+it was carried on. The people of the state came to take an interest in it,
+and to feel that its principles should be applied throughout the
+commonwealth. Therefore, a commission was appointed by the lower house of
+the state legislature, February 29, 1832, to inquire into the condition of
+the poor in all parts of the state, and to make such report as might be the
+basis of needed legislation. Dr. Tuckerman was made a member of this
+commission. The work of investigation largely fell upon him, as well as the
+writing of the report. His suggestions were accepted, and the results were
+beneficent. In the mean time the work of visiting the poor was carried on
+by a young man, Charles F. Barnard, then a student in the Divinity School,
+who entered upon his duties in April. In October he was joined by Frederick
+T. Gray, the founder of the Association for Religious Improvement and of
+the first Sunday-schools for the poor. These workers were ordained in the
+Federal Street Church on the evening of November 5, 1834, after having
+thoroughly tested their capacities for the task they had assumed.
+
+Dr. Tuckerman set forth all the principles which have since been described
+under the name of "scientific charity," and he put them all into practice.
+In the spring of 1832 he organized a company of visitors to the poor, the
+members of which were to act as friends and advisers of those who were
+needy. In October, 1833, he brought about a union of the ministers at large
+of all denominations for purposes of consultation and mutual helpfulness.
+This union resulted in a meeting held in February, 1834, at which those
+interested in the proper care of the poor took counsel together as to the
+best methods to be followed. At a later meeting in March, it was decided to
+secure the aid of all the charitable societies in the city with a view to
+their co-operation and the prevention of the duplication of relief. There
+was accordingly organized the Association of Delegates from the Benevolent
+Societies of Boston, the objects of which were "to adopt measures for the
+most effectual prevention of fraud and deception in the applicants for
+charity; to obtain accurate and thorough information with regard to the
+situation, character, and wants of the poor; and generally to interchange
+knowledge, experience, and advice upon all the important subjects connected
+with the duties and responsibilities of Benevolent Societies." The
+principle upon which this organization acted was that "the public good
+requires that the character and circumstances of the poor should be
+thoroughly investigated and known by those who administer our public
+charities, in order that all the relief which a pure and enlarged
+benevolence dictates may be freely bestowed, and that almsgiving may not
+encourage extravagance or vice, nor injuriously affect the claims of
+society at large upon the personal exertions and moral character of its
+members." The first annual report of this Association, which appeared in
+October, 1835, was written by Dr. Tuckerman, and was one of the best he
+produced. He laid down certain rules he had accepted as the results of his
+experience: that beggary was to be broken up; that all misapplications of
+charity should be reported to the board of visitors; that those asking for
+alms should be relieved only at their homes and after investigation; that
+industry, forethought, economy, and self-denial were to be fostered in
+order to prevent pauperism, and that no help should be given where it led
+to dependence and reliance upon charity. Registration, investigation,
+prevention of duplication of alms, and the fostering of self-help were the
+methods brought to bear by Dr. Tuckerman in the organization of this
+Association.[8]
+
+[Sidenote: Benevolent Fraternity of Churches.]
+
+In the spring of 1834 the part of the ministry at large in Boston supported
+by Unitarians consisted of Dr. Tuckerman's work in visiting and ministering
+to the poor in their own homes, two chapels, in which Barnard and Gray
+preached and conducted their Sunday-schools, and the office of the Visitors
+to the Poor. In order more effectually to organize the support of this
+work, the Benevolent Fraternity of Churches was then suggested. The Second,
+Brattle Street, New South, New North, King's Chapel, Federal Street, Hollis
+Street, Twelfth, and Purchase Street Churches entered upon the work; and
+there was organized in each a society for the purpose of aiding the
+ministry at large. Each of these societies was privileged to send five
+delegates to a central body that should undertake the support and direction
+of that ministry. At a meeting held April 27, 1834, an organization of such
+delegates was effected. It was distinctly stated that "it was not the wish
+to add another to the eleemosynary institutions of the city to which the
+poor might resort either for the supply of the comforts or for the relief
+of necessities which belong to their bodily condition"; but the object of
+the Fraternity was described as being "the improvement of the moral state
+of the poor and irreligious of this city by the support of the ministry at
+large, and by other means."[9]
+
+[Sidenote: Other Ministers at Large.]
+
+Dr. Tuckerman continued his work of visiting the poor, so far as his health
+permitted, until his death, which occurred April 20, 1840. His assistants
+and successors continued the work of visitation outside of their own
+congregations. In August, 1844, Rev. Warren Burton was assigned to this
+special form of ministry, and to that of a systematic investigation of the
+condition of the poor. He gave much attention to the needs of children, and
+made inquiry as to intemperance, licentiousness, and other forms of social
+degeneration. He was a diligent and successful worker until his ministry
+came to an end in October, 1848. For about a year, in 1847, Rev. William
+Ware also devoted himself to the house-to-house ministry; but failing
+health compelled his withdrawal. In April, 1845, Rev. Andrew Bigelow took
+charge of the Pitts Street Chapel for a few months; and then for thirty-two
+years, until his death, in April, 1877, he continued to visit the poor.
+With the assistance of his wife, he went about to the homes of the people,
+administering to their physical needs, acting as their friend and adviser,
+and giving them such moral instruction and spiritual consolation as was
+possible.
+
+For about one year, beginning in March, 1856, Rev. A. Rumpff visited German
+families in behalf of the Fraternity. He was succeeded in 1857 by Rev. A.
+Uebelacker, who continued the work for two or three years. From 1860 to 1864
+Professor J.B. Torricelli carried on a ministry amongst the Italians,
+Spaniards, Greeks, and other natives of southern Europe resident in Boston.
+After the death of Dr. Bigelow this personal ministry was discontinued,
+owing to the increase in the number of other agencies for doing this kind
+of work.
+
+[Sidenote: Ministry at Large in Other Cities.]
+
+The work of the ministry at large was not confined to Boston. The original
+vote of the Unitarian Association establishing it was that it should be
+aided in New York as well. In December, 1836, Rev. William Henry Channing
+entered on such a ministry in New York; and it was continued there for some
+years. It was also established in Charlestown, Roxbury, Cambridge, Salem,
+Portsmouth, Portland, Lowell, New Bedford, Providence, Worcester, and
+elsewhere in New England. With the aid of the Unitarian Association it was
+undertaken in Baltimore, Cincinnati, Louisville, and St. Louis. In 1845
+Rev. Lemuel Capen was carrying on the ministry in Baltimore, Rev. W.H.
+Farmer in Louisville, and Rev. Mordecai de Lange in St. Louis. The ministry
+at large was begun in Cincinnati in 1830, and was in charge for a short
+time of Christopher P. Cranch, who was succeeded by Rev. James H. Perkins,
+a most efficient worker, who soon became the popular minister of the
+Unitarian church in that city. It was established in St. Louis in 1840, and
+a day school for colored children was opened in 1841. A mission-house was
+built, and Rev. Charles H.A. Dall was put in charge. In 1841 the Mission
+Free School was founded, and now has a matron, nursery, kindergarten,
+Sunday-school, with lectures and entertainments. Dall was succeeded by
+Mordecai de Lange, Corlis B. Ward, Carlton A. Staples, and Thomas L. Eliot.
+The City Mission, as it was called, grew so large that in 1860 no one
+denomination could carry it on; and it became the St. Louis Provident
+Association, which has done an extensive and important work.[10]
+
+In July, 1850, was formed the Association of Ministers at Large in New
+England, of which Rev. Charles F. Barnard was for many years the president,
+and Rev. Horatio Wood, of Lowell, the secretary. It met quarterly, or
+oftener, essays were read on subjects connected with the work of
+ministering to the poor, and the special phases of that work were
+discussed. In the spring of 1841 Rev. Charles F. Barnard began the
+publication of the Journal of the Ministry at Large as a sixteen-page
+octavo monthly, which was continued until 1860, part of the time as The
+Record; but during the later years it was issued irregularly.
+
+In 1838 Dr. Tuckerman published The Principles and Results of the Ministry
+at Large in Boston, which embodied an account of his work for twelve years,
+and the conclusions at which he had arrived. It did much to give direction
+and purpose to the ministry, and to extend its influence. It can be read
+with interest and profit at the present time; for it contains all the
+principles since put into practice in many forms of charitable activity.
+Dr. Andrew P. Peabody truly said of Tuckerman's enterprise in behalf of the
+poor that it "was the earliest organized effort in that direction. Its
+success and its permanent establishment as an institution were due to its
+founder's strenuous perseverance, his self-sacrifice, his apostolic fervor
+of spirit, and the power of his influence."[11] Joseph Story spoke of the
+ministry at large as being one of "extraordinary success." "I deem it," he
+wrote, "one of the most glorious triumphs of Christian charity over the
+cold and reluctant doubts of popular opinion." The labors of Dr. Tuckerman
+"initiated a new sphere of Protestant charity," as his nephew well
+said.[12] "This has been the most characteristic, the best organized, and
+by far the most successful co-operative work that the Unitarian body has
+ever attempted by way of church action," was the testimony of Dr. Joseph
+Henry Allen.[13]
+
+[1] The record of the first meeting states the objects for which the
+    young men met, as follows: "Feeling impressed with the importance of
+    giving religious instruction to the youths of that class of our poor
+    who are destitute of any regard for their future well-being, and who,
+    from being under the care of vicious parents, have no attention paid
+    to their moral conduct; and also wishing to become acquainted with
+    those persons of the different religious societies who profess to be
+    followers of the same Master, they agreed to associate themselves.
+    Having great reason to believe that God will bless their humble
+    efforts for the spread of pure religion and virtue, and looking to
+    Him for guidance, the meeting was organized."
+
+[2] Ephraim Peabody, Christian Examiner, January, 1853, LIV. 93.
+
+[3] John Ware, Life of Henry Ware, Jr., 132-135.
+
+[4] The secretary of the Association for Religious Improvement made this
+    record of the meeting: "December 3, 1826. The Lectures under the
+    conduct of the Association commenced this evening at 6-1/2 o'clock at
+    Smith's circular building, corner of Merrimack and Portland Streets,
+    which was very fully attended by those for whom it was intended. The
+    services were of the first order. Rev. Dr. Tuckerman officiated."
+
+[5] Eber R. Butler, Lend a Hand, V. 693, October, 1890.
+
+[6] The substance of these reports has been reproduced in a book edited
+    by E.E. Hale in 1874, Joseph Tuckerman on the Elevation of the Poor.
+
+[7] The Principles and Results of the Ministry at Large in Boston, 61.
+
+[8] Ministry at Large in Boston, 124.
+
+[9] The following is a list of the churches now maintained by the
+    Benevolent Fraternity of Churches, with the date when each was
+    formed, or when it came under Unitarian management: Bulfinch Place
+    Church, successor to Wend Street Chapel (1828); Pitts Street Chapel
+    (1836), 1870. North End Union (begun in 1837); Hanover Street Chapel
+    (1854); Parmenter Street Chapel (1884), 1892. Morgan Chapel, 1884.
+    Channing Church, Dorchester, successor to Washington Village Chapel,
+    1854. The Suffolk Street Chapel (1837), succeeded by the New South
+    Free Church (1867), continues its life in the Parker Memorial, 1889.
+    The Warren Street Chapel (1832), now known as the Barnard Memorial
+    Church, continues its work, but is not under the direction of the
+    Benevolent Fraternity. In 1901 the churches constituting the
+    Benevolent Fraternity were the First Church, Second Church, Arlington
+    Street Church, South Congregational Church, King's Chapel, Church of
+    the Disciples; First Parish, Dorchester; First Parish, Brighton;
+    Hawes Church South Boston; First Parish, West Roxbury; First
+    Congregational Society, Jamaica Plain.
+
+[10] In 1830 the British and Foreign Unitarian Association began to
+     consider the value of this ministry, and in 1832 the first mission
+     was opened in London. In 1835 was formed the London Domestic Mission
+     Society for the purpose of carrying on the work in that city. In 1833
+     a similar movement was made in Manchester, and in 1835 was organized
+     the Liverpool Domestic Mission Society. The visit of Dr. Tuckerman to
+     England in 1834 gave large interest to this movement. He then met
+     Mary Carpenter, and she was led by him to begin her great work of
+     charity. It was during the next year that she entered upon the work
+     in Bristol that made her name widely known. In 1847 there were two
+     ministers at large in London, two in Birmingham, and one each in
+     Liverpool, Bristol, Leeds, Manchester, Halifax, and Leicester. The
+     writings of Dr. Tuckerman were translated into French by the Baron de
+     Gerando, a leading philanthropist and statesman of that day, who
+     praised them highly, and introduced their methods into Paris and
+     elsewhere. Of Tuckerman's book on the ministry at large M. de Gerando
+     said that it throws "invaluable light upon the condition and wants of
+     the indigent and the influence which an enlightened charity can
+     exert." He also said of Tuckerman that "he knew the difference
+     between pauperism and poverty," thus recognizing one of those
+     cardinal distinctions made by the philanthropist in his efforts to
+     aid the poor to self-help and independence.
+
+[11] Memorial History of Boston, III. 477.
+
+[12] Sprague's Annals of the Unitarian Pulpit, 345, the words quoted being
+     from the pen of Henry T. Tuckerman, the well-known essayist.
+
+[13] Our Liberal Movement in Theology, 59.
+
+
+
+
+XI.
+
+
+ORGANIZED SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK.
+
+The first Sunday-schools organized in this country distinctly for purposes
+of religious training were by persons connected with Unitarian churches.
+Several schools had been opened previously, but they were not continued or
+were organized in the interests of secular instruction. In the summer of
+1809 Miss Hannah Hill, then twenty-five years of age, and Miss Joanna B.
+Prince, then twenty, both teachers of private schools for small children,
+and connected with the First Parish in Beverly, Mass., of which Dr. Abiel
+Abbot was the pastor, opened a school in one room of a dwelling-house for
+the religious training of the children who did not receive such teaching at
+home. In the spring of 1810 the same young women reopened their school in a
+larger room, using the Bible as their only book of instruction. Sessions
+were held in the morning before church, and in the afternoon following the
+close of the services.[1]
+
+The first season about thirty children attended, but the interest grew; and
+in 1813 the school occupied the Dane Street chapel, and became a union or
+town school. Jealousies resulted, and a school was soon established by each
+church in the town. In 1822 the First Parish received the original school
+under its sole care, and it was removed to the meeting-house.
+
+A Sunday-school was begun in Concord in the summer of 1810, under the
+leadership of Miss Sarah Ripley, daughter of Dr. Ezra Ripley, the minister
+of the town. On Sunday afternoons she taught a number of children in her
+father's house, since known as the "Old Manse." About five years later a
+school was opened at the centre of the town, near the church, by three
+young women. In 1818 a Sunday-school was begun in connection with the
+church itself, which absorbed the others, or of which they formed the
+nucleus.[2]
+
+A teacher of a charity school supported by the West Church in Boston was
+the first person to open a Sunday-school in that city. In October, 1812,
+the teacher of this school, Miss Lydia K. Adams, then a member of the West
+Parish, according to the statement of Dr. Charles Lowell, minister of the
+church at the time, "having learned on a visit to Beverly that some young
+ladies of the town were in the practice of giving religious instruction to
+poor children on the Sabbath, consulted her minister as to the expediency
+of giving like instruction to the children of her school, and to those who
+had been members of it, on the same day. The project was decidedly
+approved, and immediately carried into effect." In December of the same
+year, Miss Adams was compelled by ill-health to leave her school; and
+ladies of the West Church took charge of it, and in turn instructed the
+children, both on the week-days and the Sabbath, till a suitable permanent
+teacher could be obtained. On this event they relinquished the immediate
+care of the week-day school, but continued the instruction of the
+Sunday-school, till it was transferred to the church, and was enlarged by
+the addition of "children of a different description," in 1822.[3]
+Sunday-schools were also begun in Cambridgeport, in 1814; Wilton, N.H., in
+1816; and Portsmouth, in 1818. The latter school had the enthusiastic
+support of Nathaniel A. Haven, a young lawyer and rising politician, who
+devoted himself with great zeal and success to such instruction of the
+young.[4]
+
+The Association of Young Men for Mutual Improvement and for the Religious
+Instruction of the Poor began the work of forming Sunday-schools for the
+children of the poor in Boston during the year 1823. A school was begun in
+the Hancock School-house, then recently built for grammar-school
+purposes.[5] Soon after they opened a school in Merrimac Street, called
+the Howard Sunday-school, in connection with the work of Dr. Tuckerman; and
+in 1826 the Franklin Sunday-school was begun by the same persons and for
+the same purposes. In connection with these schools was formed the Sunday
+School Benevolent Society, composed of charitable women, who provided such
+children as were needy with suitable clothing.
+
+In 1825 a parish Sunday-school was organized in connection with the Twelfth
+Congregational Church, of which Rev. Samuel Barrett was the minister. It
+was reorganized in 1827, with the object of giving "a religious education
+apart from all sectarian views, as systematically as it is given to the
+same children in other branches of learning."[6] In July, 1828, The
+Christian Register spoke of "the rapid and extensive establishment of
+Sunday-schools by individuals attached to Unitarian societies," and said
+that in the course of two or three years "large and respectable
+Sunday-schools have been established by Unitarians in various parts of the
+city. Several of these are parish schools, under the immediate guidance of
+the pastors. Others are more general in their plan, receiving children from
+all quarters."
+
+[Sidenote: Boston Sunday School Society.]
+
+At a meeting of the teachers of the Franklin Sunday-school held December
+16, 1826, it was proposed that there be organized an association of all the
+teachers connected with Unitarian parishes in Boston and the vicinity. On
+February 27, 1827, a meeting was held in the Berry Street vestry for this
+purpose; and on April 18 a constitution was adopted for the Boston Sunday
+School Society. The schools joining in this organization were the Hancock,
+Franklin, and Howard, and those connected with the West, Federal Street,
+Hollis Street, and Twelfth Congregational Churches. Dr. Joseph Tuckerman
+was elected president; Moses Grant, vice-president; Dr. J.F. Flagg,
+corresponding secretary; and Rev. Frederick T. Gray, recording secretary.
+The first annual meeting was held November 28, 1827; and the above-named
+officers were re-elected. On December 12 a public meeting was held in the
+Federal Street Church, which was well filled. Reports of the work of the
+schools, including that at Cambridgeport, were read; and addresses were
+made.
+
+The objects of the Sunday School Society were the helping of teachers, the
+extending of the interests of the schools, and the publishing of books. It
+was difficult to procure suitable books for use in Sunday-schools and for
+their libraries, and the prices were very high. In the autumn of 1828
+arrangements were made for the publishing of books, the American Unitarian
+Association co-operating therein by providing a capital of $300 for this
+purpose, the profits going to the Sunday School Society, and the money
+borrowed being returned without interest. This connection was abandoned in
+1831 because it was found that the Unitarian name on the title-page of the
+books hindered their sale. In April, 1828, was issued the first number of
+the Christian Teacher's Manual, a small monthly, of which Mrs. Eliza Lee
+Follen was the editor, intended for the use of families and Sunday-schools.
+According to the preface the subjects chiefly considered were the best
+methods of addressing the minds of children, suggestions to teachers,
+explanations of Scripture, religious instruction from natural objects,
+histories taken from real life, stories and hymns adapted to children, and
+accounts of Sunday-schools.
+
+The Manual was continued for two years; and it was followed by The
+Scriptural Interpreter, edited by Rev. Ezra S. Gannett. The editor of the
+Interpreter preferred to publish it under his own name, because he did "not
+wish it to be considered the organ or the representative of a denomination
+of Christians." "It will have one object," he said, "to furnish the means
+of acquaintance with the true sense and value of Scripture, and
+particularly of the New Testament; but whatever will promote this object
+will come within the scope the publication." It was issued bi-monthly, and
+was continued for five years. It was wholly devoted to the exposition of
+the Bible, a systematic series of translations and interpretations of the
+Gospels forming a distinct feature of its pages. A considerable part of it
+was prepared by the editor, who drew freely upon expository works. Among
+the contributors were William H. Furness, Orville Dewey, Alexander Young,
+Edward B. Hall, James Walker, Henry Ware, Jr., and J.P. Dabney. In 1836,
+Dr. Gannett's health having failed, the magazine was edited by Theodore
+Parker, George E. Ellis, and William Silsbee, then students in the Harvard
+Divinity School.
+
+One important feature of the work of the Sunday School Society was the
+extension of the cause it represented. In December, 1829, reports were
+presented at the annual meeting from nearly fifty schools; and it was
+thought desirable that they should be brought into closer relations with
+the society. Accordingly, Frederick T. Gray, the secretary, visited many of
+these schools. The next year, as a result, a considerable number of those
+outside the city connected themselves with the society; and the lists of
+vice-presidents and directors were enlarged to include them in its
+operations. Afterwards this work was carried on by a committee of the
+society, the members of which visited the schools, giving addresses, and in
+other ways helping to give strength and purpose to the work in which they
+were engaged. Schools were visited in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts,
+Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and other states. To give
+better opportunity for the attendance of delegates from schools outside the
+city, the yearly meeting was changed from December to anniversary week in
+May.
+
+The society published a considerable number of tracts, which were
+distributed gratuitously by the agents and in other ways. It also issued
+lesson-books, as well as books for the juvenile libraries which were
+forming at this time in all the churches. To meet this demand, the younger
+Henry Ware began editing, in 1833, the Sunday-school Library for Young
+Persons, in which were included his own Life of the Saviour, Mrs. John
+Farrar's Life of Howard, Rev. Stephen G. Bulfinch's Holy Land, and Rev.
+Thomas B. Fox's Sketch of the Reformation. The next year Mr. Ware began a
+series of books which he called Scenes and Characters illustrating
+Christian Truth. Another method used by the society was the giving of
+expository lectures.
+
+The society at first held quarterly meetings; but the interest grew, and
+the meetings became monthly. Great enthusiasm was felt at this time in
+regard to the work of these schools, and many persons of prominence praised
+them and took part in their management. "The institution of Sunday-schools
+constitutes one of the most remarkable features of the present age," wrote
+Dr. Joseph Allen, in 1830. "It has already done much to supply the
+deficiencies of domestic education, and, if wisely conducted, is destined,
+we trust, to become at no distant day one of the most efficient instruments
+in forming the characters of the young."[7] Writing in 1838, the younger
+Henry Ware said that "the Sunday-school has become one of the established
+institutions of religion in connection with the church, and the character
+of religion is henceforth to depend, in no small degree, on the wisdom with
+which it shall be administered."[8]
+
+In 1834 was organized the Worcester Sunday School Society. It had its
+origin as far back as November 17, 1817, when a committee of the Worcester
+Association of Ministers was appointed to report on the subject of
+Sunday-schools. A meeting was held in Lancaster, October 9, 1834, when an
+organization was perfected. The succeeding meetings were largely attended,
+and much interest was awakened.[9] In 1842 a similar society was
+organized in Middlesex County; and at about the same time one came into
+existence in Cheshire County, New Hampshire. Soon after societies were
+organized in the counties of Norfolk, Plymouth (North), Middlesex (West),
+Worcester, and in Portland and its neighborhood.
+
+In April, 1831, the directors of the Boston Sunday School Society discussed
+the feasibility of starting a weekly paper for the use of the schools. In
+July, 1836, Rev. Bernard Whitman began the publication of The Sunday School
+Teacher and Children's Friend. In January, 1837, The Young Christian was
+begun, and was published weekly at the office of The Christian Register, by
+David Reed. These papers were continued only for a few years. From 1845 to
+1857 Mrs. Eliza Lee Follen edited a monthly magazine for children, called
+The Children's Friend. The first number of the Sunday School Gazette was
+published in Worcester, August 7, 1849, under the direction of the
+Worcester Sunday School Society. It was established at the suggestion of
+Rev. Edward Everett Hale, then a minister in that city, in connection with
+Rev. Edmund B. Willson, then settled in Grafton. The editor was Rev.
+Francis Le Baron, the minister at large in Worcester, though Mr. Hale was a
+frequent contributor. When the National Sunday School Society was
+organized, the Sunday School Gazette was transferred to, its charge; but
+the publication of this paper was continued in Worcester until 1860.[10]
+
+[Sidenote: Unitarian Sunday School Society.]
+
+As time went on, and the work of the Sunday-schools enlarged, it was felt
+that it was necessary there should be one general organization which should
+bring together all Unitarian schools into a compact working force. To meet
+this growing need, a convention of the county societies and of local
+schools was held in Worcester, October 4, 1854, at which time the Sunday
+School Society was organized as a general denominational body. Hon. Albert
+Fearing, of Boston, was made the president, and Rev. Frederick T. Gray the
+secretary. The society provided itself with a desk in the rooms of the
+Unitarian Association, and provision was made for the collection and sale
+of all the helps demanded by the schools.
+
+From 1855 until 1865 the society was sadly crippled by the lack of funds.
+The hard times preceding the Civil War, and the absorption of public
+interest in that great national event, made it difficult for the society to
+continue its work with any degree of success. For some years little was
+done but to hold the annual meeting in the autumn and that in anniversary
+week, and to continue the publication of the Sunday School Gazette. For a
+number of years, however, Teachers' Institutes were held; and these were
+continued at irregular intervals until about 1875. The Sunday School
+Teachers' Institute was organized in 1852, and continued in existence for
+ten years.
+
+After the death of Rev. Frederick T. Gray in 1855, he was succeeded in the
+position of secretary of the Sunday School Society by Rev. Stephen G.
+Bulfinch. In 1856 Rev. Warren H. Cudworth became the secretary, and the
+editor of the Gazette; and he held these positions until May, 1861, when he
+became the chaplain of the first Massachusetts regiment taking part in the
+Civil War. In the October following, Mr. Joseph H. Allen, a Boston
+merchant, afterwards the editor of The Schoolmate, became the secretary and
+editor. He continued to edit the Gazette until November, 1865; but Mr. M.T.
+Rice was made secretary in 1863. At the end of 1865, when the society was
+in a condition of almost complete collapse, Rev. Thomas J. Mumford became
+the secretary, and the editor of the Gazette for one year. He restored
+confidence in the society, and made the paper a success. During the war the
+paper was published monthly for the sake of economy; but with the first of
+January, 1866, it was restored to its former semi-monthly issue.
+
+The new life that came to the denomination in 1865 had its influence upon
+the Sunday School Society. In the autumn of 1866, when the Unitarian
+Association had secured a large increase of funds, it was proposed that the
+Sunday School Society should unite with it, and that the larger
+organization should have the direction of all denominational activities,
+especially those of publishing. The more zealous friends of the society did
+not approve of such consolidation, and succeeded in reanimating its work by
+appointing as its secretary Mr. James P. Walker, who had been the head of
+the publishing firm of Walker, Wise & Co., a young man of earnest purpose,
+a successful Sunday-school teacher and superintendent, and an enthusiastic
+believer in the mission of Unitarianism. Mr. Walker devoted his whole time
+to the interests of the society, and an energetic effort was made to revive
+and extend its work. He proved to be the man for the position, largely
+increasing the bookselling and publishing activities, visiting schools and
+conferences, and awakening much enthusiasm in regard to the interests of
+Sunday-schools. He wore himself out in this work, however, and died in
+March, 1868, greatly lamented throughout the denomination.[11]
+
+After the death of Mr. Walker, consolidation with the Association was again
+urged; but Rev. Leonard J. Livermore was in June elected the secretary. At
+the annual meeting it was resolved to raise $5,000 for the work of the
+society, and the next year it was proposed to make the annual contribution
+$10,000. The name was changed to the Unitarian Sunday School Society at the
+annual meeting of 1868, held in Worcester. In 1871 Mr. John Kneeland became
+the secretary; and with the beginning of 1872 the Gazette was changed to
+The Dayspring, which was issued monthly. In the autumn of that year the
+society began the publication of monthly lessons, and there was issued with
+them a Teachers' Guide for the lessons of the year. With the beginning of
+1877 the Guide was discontinued, and the lesson papers enlarged. In
+November, 1875, Rev. George F. Piper became the secretary,--a position he
+held until May 1, 1883. During his administration about three hundred
+lessons were prepared by him, and these had a circulation of about nine
+thousand copies. The transition condition of the denomination made it
+difficult to carry on the work of the society at this time, for it was
+impossible to please both conservatives and radicals with any lessons that
+might be prepared. One superintendent warned his school against the
+heretical tendencies of lessons which, from the other point of view, a
+minister condemned as being fit for orthodox schools, but not for
+Unitarians. In the same mail came a letter from a minister saying the
+lessons were too elementary, and from another saying they were much too
+advanced. In the latter part of Mr. Piper's term service was begun an
+important work of preparing manuals thoroughly modern in their spirit and
+methods.[12]
+
+In May, 1883, Rev. Henry G. Spaulding became the secretary; and the work of
+publishing modern manuals was largely extended.[13] At the suggestion and
+with the co-operation of the secretary there was organized, November 12,
+1883, the Unitarian Sunday School Union of Boston, having for its object
+"to develop the best methods of Sunday-school work." At about the same time
+a lending library of reference books was established in connection with the
+work of the society. In the autumn of 1883 the society began to hold in
+Channing Hall weekly lectures for teachers. In 1885 The Dayspring was
+enlarged and became Every Other Sunday, being much improved in its literary
+contents as well as in its illustrations. The same year the society was
+incorporated, and the number of directors was increased to include
+representatives from all sections of the country; while all Sunday-schools
+contributing to the society's treasury were given a delegate representation
+in its membership. Mr. Spaulding continued his connection with the society
+until January 1, 1892.
+
+Rev. Edward A. Horton, who had for several years taken an active part in
+the work of the society, assumed charge February 1, 1892. Mr. Horton was
+made the president, it being deemed wise to have the head of the society
+its executive officer. During his administration there has been a steady
+growth in Sunday-school interest, which has demanded a rapid increase in
+the number and variety of publications. The book department has been taxed
+to the utmost to meet the demand. A new book of Song and Service, compiled
+by Mr. Horton, has reached a sale of nearly 25,000 copies. A simple
+statement of "Our Faith" has had a circulation of 40,000 copies, and in a
+form suitable for the walls of Sunday-school rooms it has been in
+considerable demand.[14] A series of lessons, covering a period of seven
+years, upon the three-grade, one-topic plan, has been largely used in the
+schools. Besides the twenty manuals published in this course of lessons,
+forty other text-books have been published, making a total of sixty in all,
+from 1892 to 1902.[15] There have also been many additions to
+Sunday-school helps by way of special services for festival days, free
+tracts, and statements of belief. The Channing Hall talks to Sunday-school
+teachers have been made to bear upon these courses of lessons. Every Other
+Sunday has been improved, and its circulation extended. The number of
+donating churches and schools has been steadily increased, the number in
+1901 being 255, the largest by far yet reached. At the annual meeting of
+the society and at local conferences representative speakers have presented
+the newest methods of Sunday-school work. Sunday-school unions have been
+formed in various parts of the country, and churches are awakened to a new
+interest in the work of religious instruction. "Home and School
+Conferences" have been held with a view to bringing parents and teachers
+into closer sympathy and co-operation.
+
+[Sidenote: Western Unitarian Sunday School Society.]
+
+In the west the first movement towards Sunday-school activities began in
+1871 with the publication of a four-page lesson-sheet at Janesville, Wis.,
+by Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones. This was continued for two or three years.
+Through the interest of Mr. Jones in Sunday-school work a meeting for
+organization was called in the fourth church, Chicago, October 14, 1873,
+when the Western Unitarian Sunday School Society was organized, with Rev.
+Milton J. Miller as president and Mr. Jones as secretary. At the meeting
+the next year in St. Louis a committee was appointed to prepare a song-book
+for the schools, which resulted in the production of The Sunny Side, edited
+by Rev. Charles W. Wendte. The next step was to establish headquarters in
+Chicago, where all kinds of material could be furnished to the schools,
+with the necessary advice and encouragement. Through successive years the
+effort of the society was to systematize the work of Unitarian
+Sunday-schools, to put into them the best literature, the best song and
+service books, the best lesson papers, and other tools,--in short, to
+secure better and more definite teaching, such as is in accord with the
+best scholarship and thought of the age.[16]
+
+In 1882 the society became incorporated, and its work from this time
+enlarged in all directions. To develop these results more fully, an
+Institute was held in the Third Church, Chicago, in November, 1887, at
+which five sessions were given to Sunday-school work, and two to Unity Club
+interests. In the course of several years of encouraging success, the
+Institute developed into a Summer Assembly of two or more weeks'
+continuance at Hillside, Helena Valley, Wis., which still continues its
+yearly sessions. In May, 1902, The Western Sunday School Society was
+consolidated with the national organization; and the plates and stock which
+it possessed were handed over to the Unitarian Sunday School Society. A
+western headquarters is maintained in Chicago, where all the publications
+of the two societies are kept on sale.
+
+[Sidenote: Unity Clubs.]
+
+As adjuncts to the Sunday-school, and to continue its work for adults and
+in other spheres of ethical training, the Unity Club came into existence
+about the year 1873, beginning with the work of Rev. Jenkin Ll. Jones at
+Janesville. In the course of the next ten years nearly every Unitarian
+church in the west organized such a club, and the movement to some degree
+extended to other parts of the country. In 1887 there was organized in
+Boston the National Bureau of Unity Clubs. These clubs devoted themselves
+to literary, sociological, and religious courses of study; and they
+furnished centres for the social activities of the churches. About the year
+1878 began a movement to organize societies of young people for the
+cultivation of the spirit of worship and religious development. This
+resulted in 1889 in the organization of the National Guild Alliance; and in
+1890 this organization joined with the Bureau of Unity Clubs and the
+Unitarian Temperance Society in supporting an agency in the Unitarian
+Building, Boston, with the aid of the Unitarian Association. The Young
+People's Religious Union was organized in Boston, May 28, 1896; and in
+large degree, it took the place of the Bureau and the Alliance, uniting the
+two in a more efficient effort to interest the young people of the
+churches.[17]
+
+[Sidenote: The Ladies' Commission on Sunday-school Books.]
+
+In the autumn of 1865, Rev. Charles Lowe, then the secretary of the
+Unitarian Association, invited a number of women to meet him for the
+purpose of conference on the subject of Sunday-school libraries. At his
+suggestion they organized themselves on October 12 as The Ladies'
+Commission on Sunday-school Books, with the object of preparing a catalogue
+of books read and approved by competent persons. At the first meeting ten
+persons were present, but the number was soon enlarged to thirty; and it
+was still farther increased by the addition of corresponding members in
+cities too remote for personal attendance. Among those taking part in the
+work of the commission at first were Miss Lucretia P. Hale, Miss Anna C.
+Lowell, Mrs. Edwin P. Whipple, Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney, Mrs. A.D.T. Whitney,
+Mrs. S. Bennett, Mrs. Caroline H. Dall, Mrs. E.E. Hale, Mrs. E.P. Tileston,
+and Miss Hannah E. Stevenson.
+
+The commission not only aimed to select books for Sunday-school libraries,
+but also those for the home reading of young persons and for the use of
+teachers. It undertook also the procuring of the publication of suitable
+juvenile books. The first catalogue was issued in October, 1866, and
+contained a list of two hundred books, selected from twelve hundred
+examined. In the spring of 1867 a catalogue of five hundred and
+seventy-three books was printed, as the result of the reading of nineteen
+hundred volumes.
+
+In the beginning of its work the commission did not confine its activities
+to the selecting of juvenile books; for the Sunday School Hymn and Tune
+Book, published in 1869, was largely due to its efforts. Under the
+administration of Mr. James P. Walker the Sunday School Society undertook
+to procure the publication of a number of books of fiction suitable for
+Sunday-school libraries, and offered prizes to this end. The commission
+gave its encouragement to this effort, read the manuscripts, and aided in
+determining to whom the prizes should be given. The result was the
+publication of a half-dozen volumes by the Sunday School Society and the
+Unitarian Association. The society also aided to some extent in meeting the
+expenses of the commission, though these were usually met by the
+Association.
+
+For many years the books approved by the commission were grouped under
+three heads: books especially recommended for Unitarian Sunday-school
+libraries; those highly recommended for their religious tone, but somewhat
+impaired for this purpose by the use of phrases and the adoption of a
+spirit not in accord with the Unitarian faith; and those profitable and
+valuable, but not adapted to the purposes of a Sunday-school library. Every
+book recommended was read and approved by at least five persons, discussed
+in committee of the whole, and accepted by a two-thirds vote of all the
+members. Books about which there was much diversity of opinion were read by
+a larger number of persons. This classification proved rather cumbersome,
+and it was often found difficult to decide into which list a book should be
+placed; and the result was that about 1890 the simpler plan was adopted of
+putting all titles in their alphabetical order, with explanatory notes for
+each book. In 1882 the list of books for teachers was discontinued as being
+no longer necessary.
+
+Annual lists of books have been published by the commission since 1866;
+and, in addition, several catalogues have been issued, containing all the
+books approved during a period of five years. In the early days of the
+commission, supplementary lists for children and young persons were issued,
+containing books of a more secular character than were thought suitable for
+Sunday-school libraries. Gradually, it has extended its work to include the
+needs of all juvenile libraries; and these books are now incorporated into
+the one annual catalogue. In thirty-four years the commission has examined
+10,957 books, and has approved 3,076, or about one-third.[18]
+
+[1] Sunday School Times, September 15, 1860.
+
+[2] Asa Bullard, Fifty Years with the Sabbath Schools, 37.
+
+[3] C.A. Bartol, The West Church and its Ministers, Appendix.
+
+[4] See the Remains of Nathaniel Appleton Haven, with a Memoir of his
+    life, by George Ticknor.
+
+[5] The Hancock Sunday-school assembled at eight in the morning and at
+    one in the afternoon, Moses Grant being the first superintendent.
+
+[6] At the school of the Twelfth Congregational Society, Carpenter's
+    Catechism was used for the small children. This was followed by the
+    Worcester Catechism, compiled in 1822 by the ministers of the
+    Worcester Association of Ministers, Dr. Joseph Allen being the real
+    author. The Geneva Catechism in its three successive parts, followed
+    in order. In the Bible class, use was made of Hannah Adams's Letters
+    on the Gospels, under the immediate charge of the Pastor. A hymn-book
+    issued by the Publishing Fund Society was in use by the whole school.
+
+[7] Christian Examiner, March, 1830, VIII. 49.
+
+[8] Ibid., May, 1838, XXIV. 182.
+
+[9] Joseph Allen, History of the Worcester Association, 261-264.
+
+[10] In 1852 was published a graded series of eight manuals of Christian
+     instruction for Sunday-schools and families,--a result of the
+     activities of the Sunday School Society. The titles and authors of
+     these books were Early Religious Lessons; Palestine and the Hebrew
+     People, Stephen G. Bulfinch; Lessons on the Old Testament, Rev.
+     Ephraim Peabody; The Life of Christ, Rev. John H. Morison; The Books
+     and Characters of the New Testament, Rev. Rufus Ellis; Lessons upon
+     Religious Duties and Christian Morals, Rev. George W. Briggs;
+     Doctrines of Scripture, Rev. Frederic D. Huntington; Scenes from
+     Christian History, Rev. Edward E. Hale. Two other books connected
+     with the early history of Unitarian Sunday-schools properly demand
+     notice here. In 1847 was published The History of Sunday Schools and
+     of Religious Education from the Earliest Times, by Lewis G. Pray, who
+     was treasurer of the Boston Sunday School Society from 1834 to 1853,
+     and chairman of its board of agents from 1841 to 1848. He was one of
+     the first workers in the establishing of Sunday-schools in Boston,
+     and he zealously interested himself in this cause so long as he
+     lived. He compiled the first book of hymns used in Unitarian schools,
+     and also the first book of devotional exercises. For twenty years he
+     was superintendent of the school connected with the Twelfth
+     Congregational Society, holding that place from its organization in
+     1827. In one of the concluding chapters of his book Mr. Pray gave an
+     account of the early history of Unitarian Sunday-schools in Boston
+     and its neighborhood. In 1852 was published a series of addresses
+     which had been given by Rev. Frederick T. Gray at Sunday-school
+     anniversaries and on other similar occasions. The volume contains
+     most interesting information in regard to the origin of
+     Sunday-schools in Boston, and the beginnings of the Sunday School
+     Society, as well as the work of Dr. Tuckerman and his assistants in
+     the ministry, at large.
+
+[11] Memoir of James P. Walker, with Selections from his Writings, by
+     Thomas B. Fox. American Unitarian Association, 1869.
+
+[12] The first of these was Rev. Edward H. Hall's First Lessons on the
+     Bible, which appeared in 1882; and it was soon followed by Professor
+     C.H. Toy's History of the Religion of Israel.
+
+[13] Among these were Religions before Christianity, by Professor Charles
+     Carroll Everett, D.D., 1883; Manual of Unitarian Belief, by Rev.
+     James Freeman Clarke, D.D., 1884; Lessons on the Life of St. Paul, by
+     Rev. Edward H. Hall, 1885; Early Hebrew Stories, by Rev. Charles F.
+     Dole, 1886; Hebrew Prophets and Kings, by Rev. Henry G. Spaulding,
+     1887; The Later Heroes of Israel, by Mr. Spaulding, 1888; Lessons on
+     the Gospel of Luke, by Mr. Spaulding and Rev. W.W. Fenn, 1889; A
+     Story of the Sects, by Rev. William H. Lyon, in 1891. In 1890
+     appeared the Unitarian Catechism of Rev. Minot J. Savage, though not
+     published by the Sunday School Society. These books attracted wide
+     attention, were largely used in Unitarian schools, and were adopted
+     into those of other sects to some extent. In 1886 the president of
+     the American Social Science Association publicly urged the use of the
+     ethical manuals of the society by all Sunday-schools. Several of
+     these books were republished in London, and Dr. Toy's manual was
+     translated into Dutch. The society also published a new Service Book
+     and Hymnal, which went into immediate use in a large number of
+     schools, and did much for the enrichment of the devotional exercises
+     and the promotion of an advanced standard of both words and music in
+     the hymns.
+
+[14] The Fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood of Man, the leadership of
+     Jesus, salvation by character, the progress of mankind onward and
+     upward forever.
+
+[15] Among the publications under Mr. Horton's administration, which may
+     justly be called significant, are: Beacon Lights of Christian
+     History, in three grades; Noble Lives and Noble Deeds, Dole's
+     Catechism of Liberal Faith, Mott's History of Unitarianism,
+     Pulsford's various manuals on the Bible, Mrs. Jaynes's Illustrated
+     Primary Leaflets, Miss Mulliken's Kindergarten Lessons, Story of
+     Israel and Great Thoughts of Israel, in three grades, Fenn's Acts of
+     the Apostles, Chadwick's Questions on the Old Testament Books in
+     their Right Order, Mrs. Kate Gannett Wells's forty Illustrated
+     Primary Lessons, and Walkley's Helps for Teachers. Mr. Horton, during
+     this ten years, has written fourteen manuals on various subjects.
+     Co-extensive with the large increase of text-books has been the
+     enrichment of lessons by pictorial aids. Excellent half-tone pictures
+     have been prepared from the best subjects.
+
+[16] Among the publications of the Western Unitarian Sunday School Society
+     have been Unity Services and Songs, edited by Rev. James Vila Blake,
+     and published in 1878; a service book called The Way of Life, by Rev.
+     Frederick L. Hosmer, issued in 1877; and Unity Festivals, services
+     for special holidays, 1884. Of the lesson-books published by the
+     society, those that have been most successful have been Corner-stones
+     of Character, by Mrs. Kate Gannett Wells; A Chosen Nation, or the
+     Growth of the Hebrew Religion, by Rev. William C. Gannett; and The
+     More Wonderful Genesis, by Rev. Henry M. Simmons. In 1890 the society
+     entered upon the publication of a six-year course of studies, which
+     included Beginnings according to Legend and according to the Truer
+     Story, by Rev. Allen W. Gould; The Flowering of the Hebrew Religion,
+     by Rev. W.W. Fenn; In the Home, by Rev. W.C. Gannett; Mother Nature's
+     Children, by Rev. A.W. Gould; and The Flowering of Christianity, the
+     Liberal Christian Movement toward Universal Religion, by Rev. W.C.
+     Gannett.
+
+[17] The objects of The Young People's Religious Union are: (a) to foster
+     the religious life; (b) to bring the young into closer relations with
+     one another; and (c) to spread rational views of religion, and to put
+     into practice such principles of life and duty as tend to uplift
+     mankind. The cardinal principles of the Union are truth, worship, and
+     service. Any young people's society may become a member of the Union
+     by affirming in writing its sympathy with the general objects of the
+     Union, adopting its cardinal principles, making a contribution to its
+     treasury, and sending the secretary a list of its officers. The
+     annual meeting is held in May at such day and place as the executive
+     board may appoint. Special union meetings are held as often as
+     several societies may arrange. The Union has its headquarters at Room
+     11, in the Unitarian Building, Boston, in charge of the secretary,
+     whose office hours are from 9 A.M. to 1 P.M. daily. Organization
+     hints, hymnals, leaflets, helps for the national topics, and other
+     suggestive materials are supplied. The national officers furnish
+     speakers for initial meetings, visit unions, and help in other ways.
+     The Union maintains a department in The Christian Register, under the
+     charge of the secretary, for notes, notices, helps on the topics, and
+     all matters of interest to the unions, and also publishes a monthly
+     bulletin in connection with the National Alliance of Unitarian Women.
+
+[18] In the thirty-five years which comprise the life of the commission a
+     gradual but marked change has been in operation. Sunday-school
+     libraries are being used less and less, and town libraries have
+     become much more numerous and better patronized by both old and
+     young. In the spring of 1896 the question arose in the commission
+     whether, with the decline of the Sunday-school library, the need
+     which called it into being had not ceased to exist; and, in order to
+     secure information as to the advisability of continuing its work,
+     cards were sent to 305 ministers of the denomination and to 507
+     public libraries, mostly in New England, asking if the lists of the
+     commission were found useful, and whether it was desired that the
+     sending of them should be continued. From Unitarian ministers 209
+     replies were received, one-half using the lists frequently and the
+     other half occasionally or for the selection of special books. From
+     the town libraries cordial replies were received in 220 instances,
+     most of them warmly approving of the lists, which had been found very
+     useful. The result of this investigation was to bring the commission
+     more directly into touch with the various libraries, and to give it a
+     better understanding of their needs.
+
+
+
+
+XII.
+
+
+THE WOMEN'S ALLIANCE AND ITS PREDECESSORS.
+
+The Unitarian body has been remarkable for the women of intellectual power
+and philanthropic achievement who have adorned its fellowship. In
+proportion to their numbers, they have done much for the improvement and
+uplifting of society. In the early Unitarian period, however, the special
+work of women was for the most part confined to the Sunday-school and the
+sewing circle. Whatever the name by which it was known, whether as the
+Dorcas Society, the Benevolent Society, or the Ladies' Aid, the sewing
+circle did a work that was in harmony with the needs of the time, and did
+it well. It helped the church with which it was connected in many quiet
+ways, and gave much aid to the poor and suffering members of the community.
+Nor did it limit its activities to purely local interests; for many a
+church was helped by it and the early missionary societies received its
+contributions gladly.
+
+Before the organization of the Benevolent Fraternity of Churches, the women
+of Boston raised the money necessary for the support of the ministry at
+large in that city. One of the earliest societies organized for general
+service, was the Tuckerman Sewing Circle, formed in 1827. Its purpose was
+to assist Dr. Tuckerman in his work for the poor of the city by providing
+clothing and otherwise aiding the needy. The work of this circle is still
+going on in connection, with the Bulfinch Place Church; and every year it
+raises a large sum of money for the charitable work of the ministry at
+large.
+
+The civil war helped women to recognize the need of organization and
+co-operation, on their part. In working for the soldiers, not only in their
+homes and churches, but in connection with the Sanitary Commission, and
+later in seeking to aid the freedmen, they learned their own power and the
+value of combination with others. In Massachusetts the work of the Sanitary
+Commission was largely carried on by Unitarians. In describing this work,
+Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney has indicated what was done by Unitarian women.
+"During the late war," she wrote, "a woman's branch of the Sanitary
+Commission was organized in New England. Mary Dwight (Parkman) was its
+first president; but Abby Williams May soon took her place, which she held
+till the close of the war. With unwearied zeal Miss May presided over its
+councils, organized its action, and encouraged others to work. She went
+down to the hospitals and camps, to judge of their needs with her own eyes,
+and travelled from town to town in New England, arousing the women to new
+effort. These might be seen, young and old, rich and poor, bearing bundles
+of blue flannel through the streets, and unaccustomed fingers knitting the
+coarse yarn, while the heart throbbed with anxiety for the dear ones gone
+to the war. A noble band of nurses volunteered their services, and the
+strife was as to which should go soonest and do the hardest work. Hannah E.
+Stevenson, Helen Stetson, and many another name became as dear to the
+soldiers as that of mother or sister. A committee was formed to supply the
+colored soldiers with such help as other soldiers received from their
+relations; and, when one of the noblest of Boston's sons passed through her
+streets at their head, his mother 'thanked God for the privilege of seeing
+that day.' The same spirit went into the work of educating the freedmen.
+Young men and women, the noblest and best, went forth together to that work
+of danger and toil."[1]
+
+[Sidenote: Women's Western Unitarian Conference.]
+
+It was such experiences as these that encouraged Unitarian women to enter
+upon other philanthropic and educational labors when the civil war had come
+to an end. Leaders had been trained during this period who were capable of
+guiding such movements to a successful issue. The example of the women of
+the evangelical churches in organizing their home and foreign missionary
+associations also undoubtedly influenced, to a greater or lesser degree,
+the women of the liberal churches. After the organization of the National
+Conference, Unitarian women began to realize, as never before, the need of
+co-operation in behalf of the cause they had at heart.[2] It was in the
+central west, however, that the first effort was made to organize women in
+the interest of denominational activities. In 1877, at the meeting of the
+Western Unitarian Conference held in Toledo, it was voted that the women
+connected with that body be requested to organize immediately for the
+purpose of co-operating in the general work of the conference. At this
+meeting two women, Mrs. E.P. Allis of Milwaukee and Mrs. Mary P. Wells
+Smith of Cincinnati, were placed on the board of directors.
+
+At the next annual meeting of the Western Conference, held in Chicago, the
+committee on organization, consisting of thirteen women, reported the
+readiness of the women to give their aid to the conference work, saying in
+their report "that we signify not only our willingness, but our earnest
+desire to share henceforth with our brothers in the labors and
+responsibilities of this Association, and that we pledge ourselves to an
+active and hearty support of those cherished convictions which constitute
+our liberal faith." In response to their request, the conference selected
+an assistant secretary to have charge of everything relating to the work of
+women. They also recommended that the women of the several churches
+connected with the conference should organize for "the study and
+dissemination of the principles of free thought and liberal religious
+culture, and the practical assistance of all worthy schemes and enterprises
+intended for the spread and upholding of these principles." In 1881, at St.
+Louis, there was organized the Women's Western Unitarian Conference, with
+Mrs. Eliza Sunderland as president and Miss F.L. Roberts as secretary.
+During the seventeen years of its existence this conference raised much
+money for denominational work, developed many earnest workers, and
+accomplished much in behalf of the principles for which it stood. It aided
+in the support of several missionaries, organized the Post-office Mission
+and made it effective, and encouraged a number of women to enter the
+ministry.
+
+[Sidenote: Women's Auxiliary Conference.]
+
+At the National Conference session of 1878, held at Saratoga, where much
+enthusiasm had been awakened, it was suggested that the women, who had been
+hitherto listeners only, should take an active part in, denominational
+work. At a gathering in the parlor of the United States Hotel, called by
+Mrs. Charles G. Ames, Mrs. Fielder Israel, Mrs. J.P. Lesley, and one or two
+others, a plan of action was adopted that led, in 1880, to the formation of
+the Women's Auxiliary Conference. The aim of this organization was to
+quicken the religious life of the churches, to stimulate local charitable
+and missionary undertakings, and to raise money for missionary enterprises;
+but its work was to be done in connection with the National Conference, and
+not as an independent organization. The purpose was stated in a circular
+sent to the churches immediately after the organization was effected.
+"Hitherto," it was said, "women have not been specially represented upon
+the board of the National Conference, and have not fully recognized how
+helpful they might be in its various undertakings or how much they
+themselves might gain from a closer relation with it. But the time has now
+come when our service is called for in the broad field, and also when we
+feel the need of being at work there; for our faith in the great truths of
+religion is no less vital than that of our brethren; and since the service
+we can render, being different from theirs, is needed to supplement it, and
+because it is peculiarly women's service, we must do it, or it will be left
+undone. It is one of the glories of such a work as ours that there is need
+and room in it for the best effort of every individual; indeed, without the
+faithful service of all it must be incomplete."
+
+In 1890, after ten years of active existence, the conference had about
+eighty branches, with a membership of between 3,000 and 4,000 women. Much
+of the success of the conference was due to its president, Abby W. May.
+Miss May was well known as a philanthropist and educator, and had occupied
+many prominent positions before she assumed the presidency of the
+auxiliary; but this was her first active work in connection with the
+denomination.
+
+[Sidenote: The National Alliance.]
+
+Admirable as were the aims, and excellent as was the work of this
+organization, it was auxiliary to the National Conference, and had no
+independent life. After the first enthusiasm was past, it failed to gain
+ground rapidly, the membership remaining nearly stationary during the last
+few years of its existence. As time went on, therefore, it became evident
+that a more complete organization was needed in order to arouse enthusiasm
+and to secure the loyalty of the women of all parts of the country. The New
+York League of Unitarian Women, including those of New York, Brooklyn, and
+New Jersey, organized in 1887, showed the advantages of a closer union and
+a more definite purpose; and the desire to bring into one body all the
+various local organizations hastened the change. It was seen that, in the
+multiplication of organizations, there was danger of wasting the energies
+used, and that one efficient body was greatly to be desired.
+
+In May, 1888, a committee was formed for the purpose of drafting a
+constitution for a new association, "to which all existing organizations
+might subscribe." The constitution provided by this committee was adopted
+October 24, 1890, and the new organization took the name of the National
+Alliance of Unitarian and Other Liberal Christian Women. The object
+proposed was "to quicken the life of our Unitarian churches, and to bring
+the women of the denomination into closer acquaintance, co-operation, and
+fellowship." In 1891 there were ninety branches, with about 5,000 members.
+While the membership, doubled under the impulse of the new organization,
+the increase in the amount of money raised was fivefold.
+
+The admirable results secured by the Women's Alliance, which has finally
+drawn all the sectional organizations into co-operation with itself, are in
+no small measure due to the energy and the organizing skill of the women
+who have been at the head of its activities. Mrs. Judith W. Andrews, of
+Boston, was the president during the first year of its existence. From 1891
+to 1901 the president was Mrs. B. Ward Dix, of Brooklyn, who was succeeded
+by Miss Emma C. Low, of the same city. Mrs. Emily A. Fifield, of Boston,
+has been the recording secretary; Mrs. Mary B. Davis, of New York, the
+corresponding secretary; and Miss Flora L. Close, of Boston, the treasurer
+from the first.
+
+[Sidenote: Cheerful Letter and Post-office Missions.]
+
+In 1891 the executive board appointed a committee to organize a Cheerful
+Letter Exchange, of which Miss Lilian Freeman Clarke was made the chairman.
+One of its chief purposes is to cheer the lonely and discouraged, invalids
+and others, by interchange of letters and by gifts of books and
+periodicals. To young persons in remote places it affords facilities for
+securing a better education, with the aid of correspondence classes. By
+means of a little monthly magazine, The Cheerful Letter, religious teaching
+is brought to many persons, who in this find a substitute for church
+attendance where that is not possible. Through the same channel, as well as
+by correspondence, these workers help young mothers in the right training
+of their children. Libraries have been started in communities destitute of
+books, and struggling libraries have been aided with gifts. Forty
+travelling libraries are kept in circulation.
+
+Although much had been done to circulate Unitarian tracts and the other
+publications of the American Unitarian Association, by means of
+colporteurs, by the aid of the post-office, as well as by direct gift of
+friend to friend, it remained for Miss Sallie Ellis, of Cincinnati, in
+1881, to systematize this kind of missionary effort, and to make it one of
+the most valuable of all agents for the dissemination of liberal religious
+ideas. Miss Ellis was aided by the Cincinnati branch of the Women's
+Auxiliary, but she was from the first the heart and soul of this mission.
+"If there had been no Miss Ellis," says one who knew her work intimately,
+"there would have been no Post-office Mission. Many helped about it in
+various ways, but she was the mission."
+
+Miss Ellis was a frail little woman, hopelessly deaf and suffering from an
+incurable disease. Notwithstanding her physical limitations, she longed to
+be of service to the faith she cherished; and the missionary spirit burned
+strong within her. "I want," she said often, "to do something for
+Unitarianism before I die"; but the usual avenues of opportunity seemed
+firmly closed to her. At last, in the winter of 1877-78, Rev. Charles W.
+Wendte, then her pastor, anxious to find something for her to do, proposed
+that she should send the Association's tracts and copies of the Pamphlet
+Mission to persons in the west who were interested in the liberal faith.
+She took up this work gladly, and during that winter distributed 1,846
+tracts and 211 copies of the Pamphlet Mission in twenty-six States.
+
+A tract table in the vestibule of the church was started by Miss Ellis; and
+she not only distributed sermons freely in this way, but she also sold
+Unitarian books. It was in 1881 that she was made the secretary of the
+newly organized Women's Auxiliary in Cincinnati, and that her work really
+began systematically. At the suggestion of Mrs. Mary P. Wells Smith,
+advertisements were inserted in the daily papers, and offers made to send
+Unitarian publications, when requested. Many doubted the advisability of
+such an enterprise, but the letters received soon indicated that an
+important method of mission work had been discovered. Rev. William C.
+Gannett christened this work the Post-office Mission, and that name it has
+since retained.
+
+Only four and one-half years were permitted to Miss Ellis in which to
+accomplish her work,--a work dear to her heart, and one for which her many
+losses and sufferings had prepared her. During this period she wrote 2,500
+letters, sent out 22,000 tracts and papers, sold 286 books, and loaned 258.
+The real value of such work cannot be rightly estimated in figures. Through
+her influence, several young men entered the ministry who are to-day doing
+effective work. She saved several persons from doubt and despair, gave
+strength to the weak, and comfort to those who mourned. At her death, in
+1885, the letters received from many of her correspondents showed how
+strong and deep had been her influence.[3]
+
+The movement initiated by Miss Ellis grew rapidly, and has become one of
+the most valuable of all agents for the dissemination of liberal religious
+ideas. In the year 1900 the number of correspondents was about 5,000, and
+the number of tracts, sermons, periodicals, and books distributed was about
+200,000. The extent of this mission is also seen in the fact that in that
+year about 8,000 letters were written by the workers, and about 6,000 were
+received.
+
+By means of the Post-office Mission the literature of the denomination, the
+tracts of the Unitarian Association, copies of The Christian Register, and
+other periodicals have been scattered all over the world. Thousands of
+sermons are distributed also from tables in church vestibules. Several
+branches publish and exchange sermons, and a loan library has been
+established to supplement this work.[4]
+
+From the distribution of tracts and sermons has grown the formation of
+"Sunday Circles" and "Groups" of Unitarians, carefully planned circuit
+preaching, the employment of missionaries, and the building of chapels or
+small churches. Two of these are already built; and the Alliance has
+insured the support of their ministers for five years, and two others are
+in the process of erection.
+
+[Sidenote: Associate Alliances.]
+
+The women on the Pacific coast have been compelled in a large measure to
+organize their own work and to adopt their own methods, the distance being
+too great for immediate co-operation with the other organizations. In this
+work they have not only displayed energy and perseverance, but, says one
+who knows intimately of their efforts, "they have shown executive ability
+and power as organizers that have furnished an example to many
+non-sectarian organizations of women, and have made the Unitarian women
+conspicuous in all charitable and social activities."
+
+The oldest society of Unitarian women on the Pacific coast was connected
+with the First Church in San Francisco. In 1873 it was reorganized as the
+Society for Christian Work. Its work has been mainly social and
+philanthropic, contributing reading matter to penal institutions, money for
+the care of the poor of the city, and aiding every new Unitarian church in
+the State. The Channing Auxiliary combines the activities of the churches
+in the vicinity of San Francisco with those in the city. Its objects are
+"moral and religious culture, practical literary work, and co-operation
+with the denominational and missionary agencies of the Unitarian faith."
+From 1890 to 1899 this society spent over $6,000 in aid of denominational
+enterprises, and it appropriates annually a large sum for Post-office
+Mission work. While these two organizations represent San Francisco and its
+neighborhood, the women up and down the coast have also been earnest
+workers. In 1890 they felt the need of a closer bond of union, and
+organized the Women's Unitarian Conference of the Pacific Coast. In 1894
+this conference became a branch of the National Alliance, and has
+co-operated cordially with it since that time.
+
+The New York League of Unitarian Women has been active in forming Alliance
+branches and new churches, as well as in affording aid to Meadville
+students. The Chicago Associate Alliance, the Southern Associate Alliance,
+and the Connecticut Valley Associate Alliance were organized in 1890. The
+Worcester League of Unitarian Women began its existence in 1889, and was
+reorganized in connection with the National Alliance in 1892.
+
+[Sidenote: Alliance Methods.]
+
+In thus coming into closer relations with each other and forming a national
+organization, each local branch continues free in its own action, chooses
+its own methods of carrying on its work, but keeps close knowledge of what
+the Alliance as a whole is doing, that all interference with others and
+overlapping of assistance may be avoided, and the greatest mutual benefit
+may be secured. This method gives the utmost independence to the branches,
+while preserving the element of personal interest in all financial
+disbursements, and creates a strong bond of sympathy between those who give
+and those who receive.
+
+The first duty of each branch is to strengthen the church to which its
+members belong; and the value of such an organized group of women, meeting
+to exchange ideas and experiences on the most vital topics of human
+interest, has been everywhere recognized. Each branch is expected to engage
+in some form of religious study, not only for the improvement of the
+members themselves, but to enable them to gain, and to give others, a
+comprehensive knowledge of Unitarian beliefs. A study class committee
+provides programmes for the use of the branches, arranges for the lending
+and exchange of papers, and assists those who do not have access to books
+of reference or are remote from the centres of Unitarian thought and
+activity.
+
+With this preparation the Alliance undertakes the higher service of joining
+in the missionary activities of the denomination, supplementing as far as
+possible the work of the American Unitarian Association. This includes
+sending missionaries into new fields, aiding small and struggling churches,
+helping to found new ones, supporting ministers at important points, and
+and distributing religious literature among those who need light on
+religious problems.
+
+[1] Memorial History of Boston, IV. 353.
+
+[2] See later chapters for account of admission of women to National
+    Conference, Unitarian Association, the ministry, Boston school board,
+    and various other lines of activity.
+
+[3] Mary P.W. Smith, Miss Ellis's Mission.
+
+[4] This library is in the Unitarian Building, 25 Beacon Street, Boston.
+
+
+
+
+XIII.
+
+
+MISSIONS TO INDIA AND JAPAN.
+
+Foreign missions have never commanded a general interest on the part of
+Unitarians. Their dislike of the proselyting spirit, their intense love of
+liberty for others as well as for themselves, and the absence of sectarian
+feeling have combined to make them, as a body, indifferent to the
+propagation of their faith in other countries. They have done something,
+however, to express their sympathy with those of kindred faith in foreign
+lands.
+
+In 1829 the younger Henry Ware visited England and Ireland as the foreign
+secretary of the Unitarian Association; and at the annual meeting of 1831
+he reported the results of his inquiries.[1] This was the beginning of
+many interchanges of good fellowship with the Unitarians of Great Britain,
+and also with those of Hungary, Transylvania, France, Germany, and other
+European countries. During the first decade or two of the existence of the
+Unitarian Association much interest was taken in the liberal movements in
+Geneva; and the third annual report gave account of what was being done in
+that city and in Calcutta, as well as in Transylvania and Great Britain.
+Some years later, aid was promised to the Unitarians of Hungary in a time
+of persecution; but they were dispossessed of their schools before help
+reached them. In 1868 the Association founded Channing and Priestley
+professorships in the theological school at Kolozsvar, and Mrs. Anna
+Richmond furnished money for a permanent professorship in the same
+institution. Soon after the renewed activity of 1865 an unsuccessful
+attempt was made to establish an American Unitarian church in Paris; and
+aid was given to the founding of an English liberal church in that city.
+These are indications of the many interchanges of fellowship and
+helpfulness between the Unitarians of this country and those of Europe.
+
+[Sidenote: Society respecting the State of Religion in India.]
+
+As early as 1824 began a movement to aid the native Unitarians of India,
+partly the result of a lively interest in Rammohun Roy and the
+republication in this country of his writings. On June 7, 1822, The
+Christian Register gave an account of the adoption of Unitarianism by that
+remarkable Hindoo leader; and it often recurred to the subject in later
+years. In February of the next year it described the formation of a
+Unitarian society in Calcutta, and the conversion to Unitarianism of a
+Baptist missionary, Rev. William Adam, as a result of his attempt to
+convert Rammohun Roy. There followed frequent reports of this movement, and
+after a few months a letter from Mr. Adam was published. Even before this
+there had appeared accounts of William Roberts, of Madras, a native Tamil,
+who had been educated in England, and had there become a Unitarian. On his
+return to his own country he had established small congregations in the
+suburbs of Madras.
+
+In 1823 a letter from Rev. William Adam was received in Boston, addressed
+to Dr. Channing. It was put into the hands of the younger Henry Ware, who
+wrote to Mr. Adam and Rammohun Roy, propounding to them a number of
+questions in regard to the religious situation in India. In 1824 were
+published in a volume the letter of Ware and the series of questions sent
+by him to India, together with the replies of Rammohun Roy and William
+Adam.[2] This book was one of much interest, and furnished the first
+systematic account that had been given to the public of the reformatory
+religious interest awakened at that time in India. In February, 1825, was
+organized the Society for obtaining Information respecting the State of
+Religion in India, "with a view to obtain and diffuse information and to
+devise and recommend means for the promotion of Christianity in that part
+of the world." The younger Henry Ware was made the president, and Dr.
+Tuckerman the secretary. Already a fund had been collected to aid the
+British Indian Unitarian Association of Calcutta in its missionary efforts,
+especially in building a church and maintaining a minister.
+
+During the year 1825 there was published at the office of The Christian
+Register a pamphlet of sixty-three pages, written by a member of the
+Information Society, being An Appeal to Liberal Christians for the Cause of
+Christianity in India. In 1826 Dr. Tuckerman addressed A Letter on the
+Principles of the Missionary Enterprise to the executive committee of the
+Unitarian Association, in which he gave a noble exposition of the work of
+foreign missions, especially with reference to the Indian field. This
+letter and other writings of Tuckerman served to arouse much interest. The
+Appeal urged what many Unitarians had large faith in,--the promulgation of
+"just and rational views of our religion" "upon enlarged and liberal
+principles, from which we may hope for the speedy establishment and the
+wider extension there of the uncorrupted truth as it is in Jesus."
+
+In 1826 the sum of $7,000 was secured for this work; and in the spring of
+1827 a pledge was made to send yearly to Calcutta the sum of $600 for ten
+years. These pledges were in connection with like efforts made by the
+British and Foreign Unitarian Association. In 1839 Mr. Adam visited the
+United States, and spoke at the annual meeting of the Unitarian
+Association. Following this, he was for a few years professor of Oriental
+literature in Harvard University.
+
+[Sidenote: Dall's Work in India.]
+
+In 1853 Rev. Charles T. Brooks, who was for many years the minister of the
+church in Newport, visited India in search of health; and he was
+commissioned by the Unitarian Association to make inquiries as to the
+prospects for missionary labors in that country. In Madras he met William
+Roberts, the younger son of the former Unitarian preacher there and visited
+the several missions carried on by him. In Calcutta he found Unitarians,
+but the work of Mr. Adam had left almost no results. The report of Mr.
+Brooks was such that an effort was at once made to secure a missionary for
+India.[3] In 1855 Rev. Charles H.A. Dall undertook this mission. He had
+been a minister at large in St. Louis, Baltimore, and Portsmouth, and
+settled over parishes in Needham and Toronto. Mr. Ball was given the widest
+liberty of action in conducting his mission, as his instructions indicate:
+"There you are to enter upon the work of a missionary; and whether by
+preaching, in English or through an interpreter, or by school-teaching or
+by writing for the press, or by visiting from house to house, or by
+translating tracts, or by circulation of books, you are instructed, what we
+know your heart will prompt you to do, to give yourself to a life of
+usefulness as a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ."
+
+On his arrival at Calcutta, Mr. Ball was in a prostrate condition, and had
+to be carried ashore. After a time he rallied and began his work. He
+gathered a small congregation about him, then began teaching; and his work
+grew until he had four large and flourishing schools under his charge. In
+these he gave special attention, to moral and religious training, and to
+the industrial arts. In his school work he had the efficient aid of Miss
+Chamberlain, and after her death of Mrs. Helen Tompkins. One of the native
+teachers, Dwarkanath Singha, was of great service in securing the interest
+of the natives, being at the head, for many years, of all the schools under
+Mr. Dall's control. Mr. Dall founded the Calcutta School of Industrial Art,
+the Useful Arts' School, Hindoo Girls' School, as well as a school for the
+waifs of the streets. In these schools were 8,000 pupils, mostly Hindoos,
+who were taught a practical religion,--the simple principles of the gospel.
+In education Mr. Dall accomplished large results, not only by his schools,
+but by talking and lecturing on the subject. His influence was especially
+felt in the education of girls and in industrial training, in both of which
+directions he was a pioneer. Only one of his schools is now in existence,
+simply because the government took up the work he began, and gave it a
+larger support than was possible on the part of any individual or any
+society.
+
+Mr. Dall wrote extensively for the leading journals of India, and in that
+way he reached a larger number of persons throughout the country. This
+brought him a large correspondence, and he frequently journeyed far to
+visit individuals and congregations thus brought to his knowledge. For many
+years he was one of the leading men of Calcutta. Few great public meetings
+of any reformatory or educational kind were held without his having a
+prominent part in them. He published great numbers of tracts and
+lectures,[4] and translated the works of the leading Unitarians of
+America and Great Britain into Hindostanee, Bengali, Tamil, Sanscrit, and
+other native languages. His zeal in circulating liberal writings was great,
+and met with a large reward. He distributed hundreds of copies of the
+complete Works of Dr. Channing, and these brought many persons to the
+acceptance of Unitarianism. When Rev. Jabez T. Sunderland was in India, in
+1895-96, he found many traces of these volumes, even in remote parts of the
+country. When he was in Madras, a very intelligent Hindoo walked one
+hundred and fifty miles to procure of him a copy of Channing's biography to
+replace a copy received from Mr. Dall, which, had been reread and loaned
+until it was almost worn out.
+
+A considerable part of Mr. Ball's influence was in connection with the
+Brahmo-Somaj, in directing its religious, educational, and reformatory
+work. He did not make many nominal Unitarians; but he had a very large
+influence in shaping the life of India by his personal influence and by the
+weight of his religious character. Everywhere he was greatly beloved. He
+earned considerable sums as a reporter and author in aid of his mission,
+and he lived in a most abstemious manner in order to devote as much money
+as possible to his work.[5] In this devoted service he continued until
+his death, which took place July 18, 1886.
+
+[Sidenote: Recent Work in India.]
+
+Since the death of Mr. Dall the aid given to India by American Unitarians
+has been through the natives themselves. The work of Pundita, Ramabai has
+received considerable assistance, as has also that of Mozoomdar. Early in
+the year 1888, Rev. Brooke Herford, then minister of the Arlington Street
+Church in Boston, received from India a letter addressed "To the chief
+pastor of the Unitarian congregation at Boston." It proved to be from a
+young lawyer or pleader in Banda, North-west Provinces, named Akbar Masih.
+His father was an educated Mohammedan, who in early life had been converted
+to Calvinistic Christianity, and had become a missionary. At the Calcutta
+University the son had outgrown the faith he had been taught; and a volume
+of Channing's Works, put in circulation by Mr. Dall, had given him the
+mental and spiritual teaching he desired. Tracts and books were sent him,
+and a correspondence followed. He read with great delight what he received,
+and in a year or two he desired to become a missionary. Mr. Herford sent
+him money, and he was employed to spend one-third of his time in the
+missionary service of Unitarianism. When Mr. Herford removed to London, the
+support of Akbar Masih was arranged for in England; and he has done a large
+work in preaching, lecturing, holding conferences, and publishing tracts
+and books.
+
+Nearly in the same week in which Mr. Herford received his first letter from
+Akbar Masih, Mr. Sunderland, in Ann Arbor, received one from Hajam Kissor
+Singh, Jowai, Khasi Hills, Assam. He was a young man employed by the
+government as a surveyor, was well educated, but belonged to one of the
+primitive tribes that retain their aboriginal religion and customs to a
+large extent. He had been taught orthodox Christianity, however; but it was
+not satisfactory to him. A Brahmo friend loaned him a copy of Channing, and
+furnished him with Mr. Dall's address. In the bundle of tracts sent him by
+Mr. Dall was a copy of The Unitarian, which led him to write to its editor,
+Mr. Sunderland. A correspondence followed, and the sending of many tracts
+and books. Mr. Singh began to talk of his new views to others, who gathered
+in his room on Sunday afternoons for religious inquiry and worship. Soon
+there was a call for similar meetings in another village, and Mr. Singh
+began to serve as a lay-preacher. A church was organized in Jowai, and then
+a day school was opened. Tracts and books being necessary in order to carry
+on the work successfully, Mr. Sunderland raised the necessary money,
+printed them in Khasi at Ann Arbor, and forwarded them to Assam, thus
+greatly facilitating the labors of Mr. Singh and his assistants. Also,
+through the help of American Unitarians, Mr. Singh was able to secure the
+aid of two paid helpers. When Mr. Sunderland visited the Khasi Hills, in
+1895, as the agent of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association, he
+helped to ordain a regular pastor; and he found church buildings in five
+villages, day-schools in four, and religious circles meeting in eight or
+nine others. This mission is now being supported by the English Unitarians.
+
+[Sidenote: The Beginnings in Japan.]
+
+After the death of Mr. Dall it was not found desirable to continue his
+educational work, and the missionary activities in India naturally came
+under the jurisdiction of the British Unitarian Association. At the same
+time, Japan offered an inviting field for missionary effort, and one not
+hitherto occupied by Unitarians. In 1884 a movement began in that country,
+looking to the introduction of a rational Christianity, the leader being
+Yukichi Fukuzawa, a prominent statesman, head of the Keiogijiku University
+and editor of the leading newspaper. In 1886 Fumio Yano, after a visit to
+England, took up the same mission, and urged the adoption of Christianity
+as a moral force in the life of the nation. The latter interpreted
+Unitarianism as being the form of Christianity needed in Japan, and
+strongly urged its acceptance. Other prominent men joined with these two in
+commending a rational Christianity to their countrymen. Not long afterwards
+the American Unitarian Association was asked to establish a mission in that
+country. In 1887 Rev. Arthur M. Knapp was sent to Japan to investigate the
+situation, and in the spring of 1889 he returned to report the results of
+his inquiries. He had; been welcomed; by the leading men, such as the
+Marquis Tokujawa and Kentaro Kaneko, who opened to him many avenues of
+influence. He had written for the most important newspapers, had come into
+personal contact with the leading men of all parties, had lectured; on many
+occasions to highly educated audiences, and had opened a wide-reaching
+correspondence.
+
+On his return to Japan, in 1889, Mr. Knapp was prepared to begin systematic
+work in behalf of rational Christianity. It was not his purpose, however,
+to seek to establish Unitarianism there as the basis of a new Japanese
+sect, but to diffuse it as a leaven for the moral and spiritual elevation
+of the people of Japan. "The errand of Unitarianism in Japan," said Mr.
+Knapp to the Japanese, "is based upon the familiar idea of the sympathy of
+religions. With the conviction that we are the messengers of distinctive
+and valuable truths which have not yet been emphasized, and that, in
+return, there is much in your faith and life which to our harm we have not
+emphasized, receive us not as theological propagandists, but as messengers
+of the new gospel of human brotherhood in the religion of man."
+
+With Mr. Knapp were associated Rev. Clay MacCauley as colleague, and also
+Garrett Droppers, John H. Wigmore, and William Shields Liscomb, who were to
+become, professors in the Keiogijiku, a leading university, situated in
+Tokio, and to give such aid as they could to the Unitarian mission. With
+these men was soon associated Rev. H.W. Hawkes, a young English minister,
+who gave his services to this important work. There also accompanied the
+American party Mr. Saichiro Kanda, who had become a Unitarian while
+residing in San Francisco, and had attended the Meadville Theological
+School. In the winter of 1890-91, Mr. Knapp returned to the United States,
+and a little later Mr. Hawkes went back to England. In 1891 Rev. William I.
+Lawrance joined the mission force; and he continued with it until 1894,
+when a severe illness compelled his resignation. Professor Wigmore returned
+to America in 1892 to accept a chair in the North-western University;
+Professor Liscomb came home in 1893, dying soon after his return; while
+Professor Droppers remained until the winter of 1898, when he became the
+president of the University of South Dakota. In the beginning of 1900, Mr.
+MacCauley, after having had direction of the mission for nine years,
+returned to America; and it was left in control of the Japanese Unitarian
+Association, the American Association continuing to give it generous
+financial aid and counsel.
+
+As already indicated, the purpose of the mission has not been Unitarian
+propagandism as such. It has been that of religious enlightenment, the
+bringing to the Japanese, in a catholic and humanitarian spirit, of the
+body of religious truths and convictions known as Unitarianism, and then
+permitting them to organize themselves after the manner of their own
+national life. No churches were organized by the representatives of the
+American Unitarian Association. Those that have come into existence have
+been wholly at the initiative of the natives. Early in 1894 was erected, in
+Tokio, Yuiitsukwan, or Unity Hall, with money furnished largely from the
+United States. This building serves as the headquarters for Unitarian work,
+including lectures and social and religious meetings. In 1896 was organized
+the Japanese Unitarian Association for the work of diffusing Unitarian
+principles throughout the country. The mission is organized into the three
+departments of church extension, publication, and education. Of this
+Association, Jitsunen Saji, formerly a prominent Buddhist lecturer and a
+member at present of the city council of Tokyo, is the superintendent. The
+secretary has been Saichiro Kanda, who has faithfully given his time to
+this work since he returned to Japan with the mission party, in 1889. The
+broad purposes of the Japanese Unitarian Association have been clearly
+defined in its constitution: "We desire to act in accordance with God's
+will, which we perceive by our inborn reason. We strive to follow the
+guidance of noble religion, exact science and philosophy, and to discover
+their truth. We believe it to be a natural law of the human mind to
+investigate freely all phenomena of the universe. We aim to maintain the
+peace of the world, and to promote the happiness of mankind. We endeavor to
+assert our rights, and to fulfil our duties as Japanese citizens; and to
+increase the prosperity of the country by all honorable means."
+
+Early in 1891 was begun the publication in Japanese of a magazine called at
+first The Unitarian, but afterwards Religion. The paid circulation was
+about 1,000 copies, but it was largely used as a tract for free
+distribution. In 1897 this magazine was merged into a popular religious
+monthly called Rikugo-Zasshi or Cosmos, which has a large circulation. It
+is published at the headquarters of the Japanese Unitarian Association, and
+is the organ of the liberalizing work carried on by that institution. The
+Association has translated thirty or forty American and English
+tracts,--some have been added by native writers; and these were distributed
+to the number of 100,000 in 1900. A number of important liberal books,
+including Bixby's Crisis in Morals, Clarke's Steps in Belief, and Fiske's
+Idea of God, have been translated into Japanese, and obtain a ready sale.
+An extensive work of education, is carried on through the press, nearly all
+the leading journals having been freely open to the Unitarians since the
+beginning of the mission.
+
+The direct work of education has been the most important of all the phases
+of the mission's activities. A library of several thousand volumes,
+representing all phases of modern thought, has been collected in Unity
+Hall; and it is of great value to the teaching carried on there. Lectures
+are given every Sunday in Unity Hall, and listened to by large audiences.
+Much has been done in various parts of Tokyo, as well as elsewhere, to
+reach the student class, and educated persons in all classes of society;
+and many persons have thus been brought to an acceptance of Unitarianism.
+In 1890 were begun systematic courses of lectures, with a view to giving
+educated Japanese inquirers a thorough knowledge of modern religious ideas;
+and these grew into the Senshin Gakuin, or School of Advanced Learning, a
+theological school with seven professors, and an annual attendance of
+thirty or forty students, nearly all of whom have been graduates of
+colleges and universities. Unhappily, the failure of financial support
+compelled the abandonment of this school in 1898. The chief educational
+work, however, has been done in the colleges and universities, through the
+general diffusion of liberal religious principles, and by the free spirit
+of inquiry characteristic of all educated Japanese.
+
+The success of the Japanese mission is chiefly due to Rev. Clay MacCauley,
+who gave it the wise direction and the organizing skill necessary to its
+permanent growth. It is a noble monument to his devotion, and to his
+untiring efforts for its advancement. His little book on Christianity in
+History is very popular, both in its English and Japanese versions; and
+thousands of copies are annually distributed.
+
+The results of the Japanese mission are especially evident in a general
+liberalizing of religious thought throughout the country in both the
+Buddhist and Christian communions, and in the wide-spread approval shown
+towards its methods and principles among the upper and student classes. Its
+chief gain, however, consists of the scholarly and influential men who have
+accepted the Unitarian faith, and given it their zealous support. Among
+these men are the late Hajime Onishi, president of the College of
+Literature in the new Imperial University at Kyoto; Nobuta Kishimoto,
+professor of ethics in the Imperial Normal School; Tomoyoshi Murai,
+professor of English in the Foreign Languages School of Japan; Iso Abe,
+professor in the Doshisha University; Kinza Hirai, professor in the
+Imperial Normal School; Yoshiwo Ogasawara, who is leading an extensive work
+of social and moral reform in Wakayama; Saburo Shimada, proprietor of the
+Mainichi, one of the largest daily newspapers of the empire; and Zennosuki
+Toyosaki, professor in the Kokumin Eigakukwai, and associate editor of the
+Rikugo Zasshi.[6] These men are educating the Japanese people to know
+Christianity in its rational forms; and their influence is being rapidly
+extended throughout the country. In their hands the future of liberal
+religion in Japan is safe; and what they do for their own people is more
+certain of permanent results than anything that can be accomplished by
+foreigners. The real significance of the Japanese Unitarian mission is that
+it has inaugurated a new era in religious propagandism; that it has been
+for the followers of the religions traditional to Japan, as well as for
+those of the Christian missions, eminently a means for presenting them with
+the world's most advanced thought in religion, and that it has been a
+stimulus to a purer faith and a larger fellowship.
+
+[1] First Report of the Executive Committee of the American Unitarian
+    Association, 16. "The thoughts of the committee have been turned to
+    their brethren in other lands. A correspondence has been opened with
+    Unitarians in England, and the coincidence is worthy of notice, that
+    the British and Foreign Unitarian Association, and the American
+    Unitarian Association were organized on the same day, for the same
+    objects, and without the least previous concert. Our good wishes have
+    been reciprocated by the directors of the British Society. Letters
+    received from gentlemen who have recently visited England speak of
+    the interest which our brethren in that country feel for us, and of
+    their desire to strengthen the bonds of union. A constant
+    communication will be preserved between the two Associations and your
+    committee believe it will have a beneficial effect, by making us
+    better acquainted with one another, by introducing the publications
+    of each country into the other, by the influence which we shall
+    mutually exert, and by the strength which will be given to our
+    separate, or it may be, to our united efforts for the spread of the
+    glorious gospel of our Lord and Saviour."
+
+[2] Correspondence relative to the Prospects of Christianity and the
+    Means of Promoting its Reception in India. Cambridge: Billiard &
+    Metcalfe. 1824. 138 pp.
+
+[3] Christian Examiner, LXIII 36, India's Appeal to Christian Unitarians,
+    by Rev. C.T. Brooks.
+
+[4] Some Gospel Principles, in Ten Lectures, by C.H.A. Dall, Calcutta,
+    1856. Also see The Mission to India instituted by the American
+    Unitarian Association. Boston: Office of the Quarterly Journal.
+    1857.
+
+[5] See Out Indian Mission and Our First Missionary, by Rev. John H.
+    Heywood, Boston, 1887.
+
+[6] The Unitarian Movement in Japan: Sketches of the Lives and Religious
+    Work of Ten Representative Japanese. Tokyo, 1900.
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+
+THE MEADVILLE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL.
+
+In a few years after the movement began for the organization of churches
+west of the Hudson River, the needs of theological instruction for
+residents of that region were being discussed. In 1827 the younger Henry
+Ware was interested in a plan of uniting Unitarians and "the Christian
+connection" in the establishment of a theological school, to be located in
+the eastern part of the state of New York. In July of that year he wrote to
+a friend: "We have had; no little talk here within a few days respecting a
+new theological school. Many of us think favorably of the plan, and are
+disposed to patronize it, if feasible, but are a little fearful that it is
+not. Others start strong objections to it _in toto_. Something must be done
+to gain us an increase of ministers."[1] This proposition came from the
+Christians, and their plan was to locate the school on the Hudson.
+
+Although this project came to nothing for the time being, it was revived a
+decade later. When the Unitarian Association had entered upon its active
+missionary efforts west of the Alleghanies, the new impulse to
+denominational life manifested itself in a wide-spread desire for an
+increase in the number of workers available for the western field. The
+establishment of a liberal theological school in that region was felt to be
+almost a necessity, if the opportunities everywhere opening there for the
+dissemination of a purer faith were not to be neglected. Plans were
+therefore formed about 1836 for the founding of a theological school at
+Buffalo under the direction of Rev. George W. Hosmer, then the minister in
+that city; but, business becoming greatly depressed the following year, the
+project was abandoned. In 1840 the importance of such a school was again
+causing the western workers to plan for its establishment, this time in
+Cincinnati or Louisville; but this expectation also failed of realization.
+Then Rev. William G. Eliot, of St. Louis, undertook to provide a
+theological education for such young men as might apply to him. But the
+response to his offer was so slight as to indicate that there was little
+demand for such instruction.
+
+[Sidenote: The Beginnings in Meadville.]
+
+The demand for a school had steadily grown since the year 1827, and the fit
+occasion only was awaited for its establishment. It was found at Meadville,
+Penn., in the autumn of 1844. In order to understand why it should have
+been founded in this country village instead of one of the growing and
+prosperous cities of the west, it is necessary to give a brief account of
+the origin and growth of the Meadville church. The first Unitarian church
+organized west of the Alleghanies was that in Meadville, and it had its
+origin in the religious experiences of one man. The founder of this church,
+Harm Jan Huidekoper, was born in the district of Drenthe, Holland, at the
+village of Hogeveen, in 1776. At the age of twenty he came to the United
+States; and in 1804 he became the agent of the Holland Land Company in the
+north-western counties of Pennsylvania, and established himself at
+Meadville, then a small village. He was successful in his land operations,
+and was largely influential in the development of that part of the state.
+When his children were of an age to need religious instruction, he began to
+study the Bible with a view to deciding what he could conscientiously teach
+them. He had become a member of the Reformed Church in his native land, and
+he had attended the Presbyterian church in Meadville; but he now desired to
+form convictions based on his own inquiries. "When I had become a father,"
+he wrote, "and saw the time approaching when I should have to give
+religious instruction to my children, I felt it to be my duty to give this
+subject a thorough examination. I accordingly commenced studying the
+Scriptures, as being the only safe rule of the Christian's faith; and the
+result was, that I soon acquired clear, and definite views as to the
+leading doctrines of the Christian religion. But the good I derived from
+these studies has not been confined to giving me clear ideas as to the
+Christian doctrines. They created in me a strong and constantly increasing
+interest in religion itself, not as mere theory, but as a practical rule of
+life."[2] As the result of this study, he arrived at the conclusion that
+the Bible does not teach the doctrines of the Trinity, the total depravity
+of man, and the vicarious atonement of Christ. Solely from the careful
+reading of the Bible with reference to each of the leading doctrines he had
+been taught, he became a Unitarian.
+
+With the zeal of a new convert Mr. Huidekoper began to talk about his new
+faith, and he brought it to the attention of others with the enthusiasm of
+a propagandist. In conversation, by means of the distribution of tracts,
+and with the aid of the press he extended the liberal faith. He could not
+send his children to the church he had attended, and he therefore secured
+tutors for them from Harvard College who were preparing for the ministry;
+and in October, 1825, one of these tutors began holding Unitarian services
+in Meadville.[3] In May, 1829, a church was organized, and a goodly
+number of thoughtful men and women connected themselves with it. But this
+movement met with persistent opposition, and a vigorous controversy was
+carried on in the local papers and by means of pamphlets. This was
+increased when, in 1830, Ephraim Peabody, afterwards settled in Cincinnati,
+New Bedford, and at King's Chapel in Boston, became the minister, and
+entered upon an active effort for the extension of Unitarianism. With the
+first of January, 1831, he began the publication of the Unitarian Essayist,
+a small monthly pamphlet, in which the leading theological questions were
+discussed. In a few months Mr. Peabody went to Cincinnati; and the Essayist
+was continued by Mr. Huidekoper, who wrote with vigor and directness on the
+subjects he had carefully studied.
+
+In 1831 the church for the first time secured an ordained minister, and
+three years later one who gave his whole time to its service.[4] A church
+building was erected in 1836, and the prosperity of the congregation was
+thereby much increased. In 1843 a minister of the Christian connection,
+Rev. E.G. Holland, became the pastor for a brief period. At this time
+Frederic Huidekoper, a son of the founder of the Unitarian church in
+Meadville, had returned from his studies in the Harvard Divinity School and
+in Europe, and was ordained in Meadville, October 12, 1843. It was his
+purpose to become a Unitarian evangelist in the region about Meadville, but
+his attention was soon directed by Rev. George W. Hosmer to the importance
+of furnishing theological instruction to young men preparing for the
+Unitarian ministry. He was encouraged in this undertaking by Mr. Holland,
+who pointed out to him the large patronage that might be expected from the
+Christian body. It was at first intended that Mr. Huidekoper should give
+the principal instruction, and that he should be assisted by the pastor of
+the Independent Congregational Church (Unitarian) and by Mr. Hosmer, who
+was to come from Buffalo for a few weeks each year, exchanging pulpits with
+the Meadville minister. When the opening of the school was fixed for the
+autumn of 1844, the prospective number of applicants was so large as to
+necessitate a modification of the proposed plan; and it was deemed wise to
+secure a competent person to preside over the school and to become the
+minister of the church. Through the active co-operation of the American
+Unitarian Association, Rev. Rufus P. Stebbins, then settled at Leominster,
+Mass., was secured for this double service.
+
+The students present at the opening of the school on the first day of
+October, 1844, were but five; but this number was increased to nine during
+the year. The next year the number was twenty-three, nine of them from New
+England. For several years the Christian connection furnished a
+considerable proportion of the students, and took a lively interest in the
+establishment and growth of the school, although contributing little or
+nothing to its pecuniary support. It was also represented on the board of
+instruction by a non-resident lecturer. At this time the Christian body had
+no theological school of its own, and many of its members even looked with
+disfavor upon all ministerial education. What brought them into some degree
+of sympathy with Unitarians of that day was their rejection of binding
+creeds and their acceptance of Christian character as the only test of
+Christian fellowship, together with their recognition of the Bible,
+interpreted by every man for himself, as the authoritative standard of
+religious truth. The churches of this denomination in the northern states
+were also pronounced in their rejection of the doctrines of the Trinity and
+predestination. Unitarians themselves have not been more strenuous in the
+defence of the principle of religious liberty than were the leaders among
+the Christians of the last generation. The two bodies also joined in the
+management of Antioch College, in southern Ohio; and when Horace Mann
+became its president in 1852, he was made a minister of the Christian
+connection, in order that he might work more effectually in the promotion
+of its interests.
+
+The Meadville school began its work in a simple way, with few instructors
+and a limited course of study. Mr. Stebbins taught the Old Testament,
+Hebrew, Biblical antiquities, natural and revealed religion, mental and
+moral philosophy, systematic theology, and pulpit eloquence. Mr. Huidekoper
+gave instruction in the New Testament, hermeneutics, ecclesiastical
+history, Latin, Greek, and German. Mr. Hosmer lectured on pastoral care for
+a brief period during each year. A building for the school was provided by
+the generosity of the elder Huidekoper; and the expenses of board,
+instruction, rent, fuel, etc., were reduced to $30 per annum. Many of the
+students had received little education, and they needed a preliminary
+training in the most primary studies. Nevertheless, the school at once
+justified its establishment, and sent out many capable men, even from among
+those who came to it with the least preparation.
+
+Dr. Stebbins was president of the school for ten years. During his term of
+service the school was incorporated by the legislature of Pennsylvania in
+the spring of 1846. The charter was carefully drawn with a view to securing
+freedom in its administration. No denominational name appeared in the act
+of incorporation, and the original board of trustees included Christians as
+well as Unitarians. Dr. Stebbins was an admirable man to whom to intrust
+the organization of the school, for he was a born teacher and a masterful
+administrator. He was prompt, decisive, a great worker, a powerful
+preacher, an inspirer of others, and his students warmly admired and
+praised him.
+
+[Sidenote: The Growth of the School.]
+
+The next president of the school was Oliver Stearns, who held the office
+from 1856 to 1863. He was a student, a true and just thinker, of great
+moral earnestness, fine discrimination, and with a gift for academic
+organization. He was a man of a strong and deep personality, and his
+spiritual influence was profound. He had been settled at Northampton and
+over the third parish in Hingham before entering upon his work at
+Meadville. In 1863 he went to the Harvard Divinity School as the professor
+of pulpit eloquence and pastoral care until 1869, when he became the
+professor of theology; and from 1870 to 1878 he was the dean of the school.
+He was a preacher who "held and deserved a reputation among the foremost,"
+for his preaching was "pre-eminently spiritual." "In his relations to the
+divinity schools that enjoyed his services, it is impossible to
+over-estimate the extent, accuracy, and thoroughness of his scholarship,
+and his unwearying devotion to his work."[5]
+
+During Dr. Stearns' administration the small building originally occupied
+by the school was outgrown; and Divinity Hall was built on land east of the
+town, donated by Professor Frederic Huidekoper, and first occupied in 1861.
+In 1857 began a movement to elevate, the standard of admission to the
+school, in order that its work might be of a more advanced character. To
+meet the needs of those not able to accept this higher standard, a
+preparatory department was established in 1858, which was continued until
+1867.
+
+Rev. Abiel A. Livermore became the president of the school in 1863, and he
+remained in that position until 1890. He had been settled in Keene,
+Cincinnati, and Yonkers before going to Meadville. He was a Christian of
+the finest type, a true gentleman, and a noble friend. Under his direction
+the school grew in all directions, the course of study being largely
+enriched by the addition of new departments. In 1863 church polity and
+administration, including a study of the sects of Christendom, was made a
+special department. In 1868 the school opened its doors to women, and it
+has received about thirty women for a longer or shorter term of study. In
+1872 the academic degree of Bachelor of Divinity was offered for the first
+time to those completing the full course. In 1879 the philosophy of
+religion, and also the comparative study of religions, received the
+recognition they deserve. The same year ecclesiastical jurisprudence became
+a special department. In 1882 Rev. E.E. Hale lectured on charities, and
+from that time this subject has been systematically treated in connection
+with philanthropies. A movement was begun in 1889 to endow a professorship
+in memory of Dr. James Freeman Clarke, which was successful. These
+successive steps indicate the progress made under the faithful
+administration of Dr. Livermore. He became widely known to Unitarians by
+his commentaries on the books of the New Testament, as well as by his other
+writings, including volumes of sermons and lectures.
+
+In 1890 George L. Cary, who had been for many years the professor of New
+Testament literature, became the president of the school, a position he
+held for ten years. Under his leadership the school has largely advanced
+its standard of scholarship, outgrown studies have been discarded, while
+new ones have been added. New professorships and lectureships have been
+established, and the endowment of the school has been greatly increased.
+Huidekoper Hall, for the use of the library, was erected in 1890, and other
+important improvements have been added to the equipment of the school. In
+1892 the Adin Ballou lectureship of practical Christian sociology was
+established, and in 1895 the Hackley professorship of sociology and ethics.
+
+From the time of its establishment the Huidekoper family have been devoted
+friends and benefactors of the Theological School.[6] Frederic Huidekoper
+occupied the chair of New Testament literature from 1844 to 1855, and from
+1863 to 1877 that of ecclesiastical history. His services were given wholly
+without remuneration, and his benefactions to the school were numerous. He
+also added largely to the Brookes Fund for the distribution of Unitarian
+books. His historical writings made him widely known to scholars, and added
+to the reputation of the school. His Belief of the First Three Centuries
+concerning Christ's Mission to the Underworld appeared in 1853; Judaism at
+Rome, 1876; and Indirect Testimony of History to the Genuineness of the
+Gospels, 1879. He also republished at his own expense many valuable works
+that were out of print.
+
+Among the other professors have been Rev. Nathanial S. Folsom, who was in
+charge of the department of Biblical literature from 1848 to 1861. Of the
+regular lecturers have been Rev. Charles H. Brigham, Rev. Amory D. Mayo,
+and Dr. Thomas Hill. There has been an intimate relation between the
+Meadville church and the Theological School, and several of the pastors
+have been instructors and lecturers in the Theological School, including
+Rev. J.C. Zachos, Rev. James T. Bixby, and Rev. James M. Whiton. The
+Christian denomination has been represented among the lecturers by Rev.
+David Millard and Rev. Austin Craig.
+
+The whole number of graduates of the Meadville Theological School up to
+April, 1902, has been 267; and eighty other students have entered the
+ministry. At the present time 156 of its students are on the roll of
+Unitarian ministers. Thirty-two of its students served in the civil war,
+twenty per cent of its graduates previous to the close of the war being
+engaged in it as privates, chaplains, or in some other capacity. The
+endowment of the school has steadily increased until it now is somewhat
+more than $600,000.
+
+[1] Memoir of Henry Ware, Jr. 202.
+
+[2] J.F. Clarke, Christian Examiner, September, 1854, LVII. 310. "Mr.
+    Huidekoper had the satisfaction, in the later years of his life, of
+    seeing a respectable society worshipping in the tasteful building
+    which he loved and of witnessing the prosperity of the theological
+    school in which he was so much interested. We have never known any
+    one who seemed to live so habitually in the presence of God. The form
+    which his piety mostly took was that of gratitude and reliance. His
+    trust in the Divine goodness was like that of a child in its mother.
+    His cheerful views, of this life and of the other, his simple tastes,
+    his enjoyment of nature, his happiness in society, his love for
+    children, his pleasure in doing good, his tender affection for those
+    nearest to him,--these threw a warm light around his last days and
+    gave his home the aspect of a perpetual Sabbath. A well-balanced
+    activity of faculties contributed still more to his usefulness and
+    happiness. He was always a student, occupying every vacant hour with
+    a book, and so had attained a surprising knowledge of biography and
+    history." Mr. Huidekoper died in Meadville, May 22, 1854.
+
+[3] John M. Merrick, afterwards settled in Hardwick and Walpole, Mass.,
+    who was in Mr. Huidekoper's family from October, 1825, to October,
+    1827. He was succeeded by Andrew P. Peabody, who did not preach. In
+    1828-30 Washington Gilbert, who had settlements in Harvard, Lincoln,
+    and West Newton, was the tutor and preacher.
+
+[4] Rev. George Nichols, July, 1831, to July, 1832; Rev. Alanson Brigham,
+    who died in Meadville, August 24, 1833; Rev. John Quincy Day,
+    October, 1834, to September, 1837.
+
+[5] A.P. Peabody, Harvard Reminiscences, 165, 166
+
+[6] The first treasurer of the school was Edgar Huidekoper, who was
+    succeeded by Professor F. Huidekoper, and he in turn by Edgar
+    Huidekoper, the son of the first treasurer. Among the other generous
+    friends and benefactors of the school have been Alfred Huidekoper,
+    Miss Elizabeth Huidekoper, and Mrs. Henry P. Kidder.
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+
+
+UNITARIAN PHILANTHROPIES.
+
+The liberal movement in religion was characterized in its early period by
+its humanitarianism. As theology grew less important for it, there was an
+increase in its philanthropy. With the waning of the sectarian spirit there
+was a growth in desire for practical reforms. The awakened interest in man
+and enlarged faith in his spiritual capacities showed itself in efforts to
+improve his social condition. No one expressed this tendency more perfectly
+than Dr. Channing, though he was a spiritual teacher rather than a reformer
+or philanthropist.
+
+Any statement concerning the charities in connection with which Channing
+was active will give the most inadequate idea of his actual influence in
+this direction. He was greatly interested in promoting the circulation of
+the Bible, in aiding the cause of temperance, and in bringing freedom to
+the slave. His biographer says that his thoughts were continually becoming
+concentrated more and more upon the terrible problem of pauperism, "and he
+saw more clearly each year that what the times demanded was that the axe
+should be laid at the very root of ignorance, temptation and strife by
+substituting for the present unjust and unequal distribution of the
+privileges of life some system of cordial, respectful brotherly
+co-operation."[1] His interest in education was most comprehensive, and
+he sought its advancement in all directions with the confident faith that
+it would help to uplift all classes and make them more truly human.[2]
+
+[Sidenote: Unitarian Charities.]
+
+The liberals of New England, in the early years of the nineteenth century,
+were not mere theorizers in regard to human helpfulness and the application
+of Christianity to life; for they endeavored to realize the spirit of
+charity and service. Largely under their leadership the Massachusetts Bible
+Society was organized in 1809. A more distinctly charitable undertaking was
+the Fragment Society, organized in 1812 to help the poor by the
+distribution of garments, the lending of bedding to the sick and clothes to
+children in charity schools, as well as the providing of such children with
+shoes. This society also undertook to provide Bibles for the poor who had
+none. Under the leadership of Rev. Joseph Tuckerman, then settled in
+Chelsea, there was organized, May 11, 1812, the Boston Society for the
+Religious and Moral Improvement of Seamen, "to distribute tracts of a
+religious and moral kind for the use of seamen, and to establish a regular
+divine service on board of our merchant vessels." In 1813 the Massachusetts
+Society for the Suppression of Intemperance, in 1815 the Massachusetts
+Peace Society, and at about the same time the Society for the Employment of
+the Poor came into existence.
+
+Of the early Unitarians Rev. Octavius B. Frothingham justly said: "They all
+had a genuine desire to render the earthly lot of mankind tolerable. It is
+not too much to say that they started every one of our best secular
+charities. The town of Boston had a poor-house, and nothing more until the
+Unitarians initiated humane institutions for the helpless, the blind, the
+insane. The Massachusetts General Hospital (1811), the McLean Asylum for
+the Insane (1818), the Perkins Blind Asylum (1832), the Female Orphan
+Asylum (1800), were of their devising."[3] What this work meant was well
+stated by Dr. Andrew P. Peabody, when he said there was "probably no city
+in the world where there had been more ample provision for the poor than in
+Boston, whether by private alms-giving, benevolent organizations, or public
+institutions."[4] Nor was this altruistic spirit manifested alone in
+Boston, for Mr. Frothingham quotes the saying of a lady to Dr. E.E. Hale:
+"A Unitarian church to you merely means one more name on your calendar. To
+the people in this town it means better books, better music, better
+sewerage, better health, better life, less drunkenness, more purity, and
+better government."[5] The Unitarian conception of the relations of
+altruism and religion was pertinently stated by Dr. J.T. Kirkland,
+president of Harvard College during the early years of the nineteenth
+century, when he said that "we have as much piety as charity, and no
+more."[6] One who knew intimately of the work of the ministry at large
+has truly said of the labors of Dr. Tuckerman: "From the beginning he had
+the moral and pecuniary support of the leaders of life in Boston; her first
+merchants and her statesmen were watching these experiments with a curious
+interest, and although he was often so radical as to startle the most
+conservative notions of men engaged in trade, or learned in the
+old-fashioned science of government, there was that in the persistence of
+his life and the accuracy of his method which engaged their support."[7]
+
+Another instance of Unitarian philanthropy is to be found in the support
+given to Rev. Edward T. Taylor, usually known as "Father Taylor," in his
+work for sailors. When he went to Boston in 1829 to begin his mission, the
+first person he visited was Dr. Channing, and the second Ralph Waldo
+Emerson, then a settled pastor in the city. Both of these men made generous
+contributions to his mission, and aided him in securing the attention of
+wealthy contributors.[8] In fact, his Bethel was almost wholly supported
+by Unitarians. For thirty years Mr. Albert Fearing was the president of the
+Boston Port Society, organized for the support of Taylor's Seamen's Bethel.
+The corresponding secretary was Mr. Henry Parker. Among other Unitarian
+supporters of this work was Hon. John A. Andrew.[9]
+
+We have no right to assume that the Unitarians alone were philanthropic,
+but they had the wealth and the social position to make their efforts in
+this direction thoroughly effective.[10] That the results were beneficent
+may be understood from the testimony of Mrs. Horace Mann. "The liberal
+sects of Boston," she wrote to a friend, "quite carried the day at that
+time in works of benevolence and Christian charity. They took care of the
+needy without regard to sectarianism. Such women as Helen Loring and
+Elizabeth Howard, (Mrs. Cyrus A. Bartol), Dorothea Dix, Mary Pritchard
+(Mrs. Henry Ware), and many others less known to the world, but equally
+devoted to the work, with many youthful coadjutors, took care of the poor
+wonderfully."[11] After spending several weeks in Boston in 1842, and
+giving careful attention to the charities and philanthropies of the city,
+Charles Dickens wrote: "I sincerely believe that the public institutions
+and charities of this capital of Massachusetts are as nearly perfect as the
+most considerate wisdom, benevolence, humanity, can make them. I never in
+my life was more affected by the contemplation of happiness, under
+circumstances of privation and bereavement, than in my visits to these
+establishments."[12]
+
+[Sidenote: Education of the Blind.]
+
+The pioneer in the work of educating the blind and the deaf was Dr. Samuel
+G. Howe, who had been one of those who in 1824 went to Greece to aid in the
+establishment of Greek independence. On his return, in 1832, he became
+acquainted with European methods of teaching the blind; and in that year he
+opened the Massachusetts School and Asylum for the Blind, "the pioneer of
+such establishments in America, and the most illustrious of its class in
+the world."[13] In his father's house in Pleasant Street, Dr. Howe began
+his school with a few pupils, prepared books for them, and then set about
+raising money to secure larger facilities. Colonel Thomas H. Perkins, of
+Boston, gave his house in Pearl Street, valued at $50,000, on condition
+that a like sum should be contributed for the maintenance of the school. In
+six weeks the desired sum was secured, and the school was, afterwards known
+as the Perkins Institution for the Blind. Dr. Howe addressed seventeen
+state legislatures on the education of the blind, with the result of
+establishing schools similar to his own. His arduous task, however, was
+that of providing the blind with books; and he used his great inventive
+skill in perfecting the necessary methods. He succeeded in making it
+comparatively easy to print books for the blind, and therefore made it
+possible to have a library of such works.
+
+In the autumn of 1837 Dr. Howe discovered Laura Bridgman, who had only the
+one sense of touch remaining in a normal condition; and his remarkable
+success, in her education made him famous. In connection with her and other
+pupils he began the process of teaching the deaf to use articulate speech,
+and all who have followed him in this work have but extended and perfected
+his methods. While teaching the blind and deaf, Dr. Howe found those who
+were idiotic; and he began to study this class of persons about 1840, and
+to devise methods for their education. As a member of the Massachusetts
+legislature in 1846, he secured the appointment of a commission to
+investigate the condition of the idiotic; and for this commission he wrote
+the report. In 1847, the state having made an appropriation for the
+teaching of idiotic, children, ten of them were taught at the Blind Asylum,
+under the care of Dr. Howe. In 1851 a separate school was provided for such
+children.
+
+Dr. Howe was called "the Massachusetts philanthropist," but his
+philanthropy was universal in its humanitarian aims. He gave large and
+faithful attention, in 1845 and later, to prisons and prisoners; he was a
+zealous friend of the slave and the freedman; and in 1864 he devoted
+arduous service to the reform of the state charities of Massachusetts. His
+biographer justly says of his spirit of universal philanthropy: "He joined
+in the movement in Boston which abolished imprisonment for debt; he was an
+early and active member of the Boston Prison Discipline Society, which once
+did much service; and for years, when interest in prison reform was at a
+low ebb in Massachusetts, the one forlorn relict of that once powerful
+organization, a Prisoner's Aid Society, used to hold its meetings in Dr.
+Howe's spacious chamber in Bromfield Street. He took an early interest in
+the care of the insane, with which his friends Horace Mann, Dr. Edward
+Jarvis, and Dorothea Dix were greatly occupied; and in later years he
+introduced some most useful methods of caring for the insane in
+Massachusetts. He favored the temperance reform, and wrote much as a
+physician on the harm done to individuals and to the human stock by the use
+of alcoholic liquors. He stood with Father Taylor of the Seamen's Bethel in
+Boston for the salvation of the sailors and their protection from cruel
+punishments, and he was one of those who almost abolished the flogging of
+children in schools. During his whole career as a reformer of public
+schools in New England, Horace Mann had no friend more intimate or helpful
+than Dr. Howe, nor one whose support was more indispensable to Mann
+himself."[14]
+
+Dr. Howe was an attendant upon the preaching of Theodore Parker, and was
+his intimate friend. In after years he was a member of the congregation of
+James Freeman Clarke at the Church of the Disciples. "After our return to
+America," says Mrs. Howe of the year 1844, "my husband went often to the
+Melodeon, where Parker preached until he took possession of the Music Hall.
+The interest which my husband showed in these services led me in time to
+attend them, and I remember as among the great opportunities of my life the
+years in which I listened to Theodore Parker."[15]
+
+[Sidenote: Care of the Insane.]
+
+Another among the many persons who came under the influence of Dr. Channing
+was Dorothea Dix, who, as a teacher of his children, lived for many months
+in his family and enjoyed his intimate friendship. Her biographer says:
+"She had drunk in with passionate faith Dr. Channing's fervid insistence on
+the presence in human nature, even under its most degraded types, of germs,
+at least, of endless spiritual development. But it was the characteristic
+of her own mind that it tended not to protracted speculation, but to
+immediate, embodied action."[16] Her work for the insane was the
+expression of the deep faith in humanity she had been taught by Channing.
+
+When she entered upon her humanitarian efforts, but few hospitals for the
+insane existed in the country. A notable exception was the McLean Asylum at
+Somerville, which had been built as the result of that same philanthropic
+spirit that had led the Unitarians to establish the many charities already
+mentioned in these pages. In March, 1841, Miss Dix visited the House of
+Correction in East Cambridge; and for the wretched condition of the
+inmates, she at once set to work to provide remedies. Then she visited the
+jails and alms-houses in many parts of the state, and presented a memorial
+to the legislature recounting what she had found and asking for reforms.
+She was met by bitter opposition; but such persons as Samuel G. Howe, Dr.
+Channing, Horace Mann, and John G. Palfrey came to her aid. The bill
+providing for relief to the insane came into the hands of a committee of
+which Dr. Howe was the chairman, and he energetically pushed it forward to
+enactment. Thus Miss Dix began her crusade against an enormous evil.
+
+In 1845 Miss Dix reported that in three years she had travelled ten
+thousand miles, visited eighteen state penitentiaries, three hundred jails
+and houses of correction, and five hundred almshouses and other
+institutions, secured the establishment or enlargement of six hospitals for
+the insane, several county poorhouses, and several jails on a reformed
+plan. She visited every state east of the Rocky Mountains, and also the
+British Provinces, to secure legislation in behalf of the insane. She
+secured the erection of hospitals or other reformatory action in Rhode
+Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee,
+Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina, Nova Scotia, and
+Newfoundland. Her labors also secured the establishment of a hospital for
+the insane of the army and navy, near Washington. All this was the work of
+nine years.
+
+In 1853 Miss Dix gave her attention to providing an adequate life-saving
+equipment for Sable Island, one of we most dangerous places to seamen on
+the Atlantic coast; and this became the means of saving many lives. In 1854
+she went to England for needed rest; but almost at once she took up her
+humanitarian work, this time in Scotland, where she secured a commission of
+inquiry, which in 1857 resulted in reformatory legislation on the part of
+Parliament. In 1855 she visited the island of Jersey, and secured great
+improvements in the care of the insane. Later in that year she visited
+Switzerland for rest, but in a few weeks was studying the charities of
+Paris and then those of Italy. In Rome she had two interviews with the
+pope, and the erection of a new hospital for the insane on modern
+principles resulted. Speaking only English, and without letters of
+introduction, she visited the insane hospitals and the prisons of Greece,
+Turkey, Austria, Sclavonia, Russia, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark,
+Holland, and Belgium. "Day by day she patiently explored the asylums,
+prisons, and poor-houses of every place in which she set her foot, glad to
+her heart's core when she found anything to commend and learn a lesson
+from, and patiently striving, where she struck the traces of ignorance,
+neglect, or wrong, to right the evil by direct appeal to the highest
+authorities."
+
+On her return home, in September, 1856, she was met by many urgent appeals
+for help in enlarging hospitals and erecting new ones; and she devoted her
+time until the outbreak of the civil war in work for the insane in the
+southern and middle north-western states. As soon as the troops were
+ordered to Washington, she went there and offered her services as a nurse,
+and was at once appointed superintendent of women nurses for the whole
+army. She carried through the tasks of this office with energy and
+devotion. In 1866 she secured the erection of a monument to the fallen
+soldiers in the National Cemetery, at Hampton.
+
+Then she returned at once to her work in asylums, poorhouses, and prisons,
+continuing this task until past her seventy-fifth year. "Her frequent
+visits to our institutions of the insane now, and her searching
+criticisms," wrote a leading alienist, "constitute of themselves a better
+lunacy commission than would be likely to be appointed in many of our
+states."[17] The last five years of her life were spent as a guest in the
+New Jersey State Asylum at Trenton, it being fit that one of the thirty-two
+hospitals she had been the means of erecting should afford her a home for
+her declining years.
+
+Miss Dix was called by many "our Lady," "our Patron Saint"; and well she
+deserved these expressions of reverence. President Fillmore said in a
+letter to her, "Wealth and power never reared such monuments to selfish
+pride as you have reared to the love of mankind." She had the unreserved
+consecration to the needs of the poor and suffering that caused her to
+write: "If I am cold, they are cold; if I am weary, they are distressed; if
+I am alone, they are abandoned."[18] Her biographer justly compares her
+with the greatest of the saints, and says, "Precisely the same
+characteristics marked her, the same absolute religious consecration, the
+same heroic readiness to trample under foot the pains of illness,
+loneliness, and opposition, the same intellectual grasp of what a great
+reformatory work demanded."[19] Truly was it said of her that she was "the
+most useful and distinguished woman America has produced."[20]
+
+[Sidenote: Child-saving Missions.]
+
+As was justly said by Professor Francis G. Peabody, "the Boston Children's
+Mission was the direct fruit of the ministry of Dr. Tuckerman, and
+antedates all other conspicuous undertakings of the same nature. The first
+president of the Children's Mission, John E. Williams, a Unitarian layman,
+moved later to New York, and became the first treasurer of the newly
+created Children's Aid Society of that city, formed in 1853. Thus the work
+of the Children's Mission and the kindred service of the Warren Street
+Chapel, under the leadership of Charles Barnard, must be reckoned as the
+most immediate, if not the only American antecedent, of the great modern
+works of child-saving charity."[21]
+
+The Children's Mission to the Children of the Destitute grew out of the
+work of the Howard Sunday-school, then connected with the Pitts Street
+Chapel. When several men connected with that school were discussing the
+fact that a great number of vagrant children were dealt with by the police,
+Fanny S. Merrill said to her father, Mr. George Merrill, "Father, can't we
+children do something to help those poor little ones?" This question
+suggested a new field of work; and a meeting was held on April 27, 1849,
+under the auspices of Rev. Robert C. Waterston, to consider this
+proposition. On May 9 the society was organized "to create a special
+mission to the poor, ignorant, neglected children of this city; to gather
+them into day and Sunday schools; to procure places and employment for
+them; and generally to adopt and pursue such measures as would be most
+likely to save or rescue them from vice, ignorance and degradation." In the
+beginning this mission was supported by the Unitarian Sunday-schools in
+Boston, but gradually the number of schools contributing to its maintenance
+was enlarged until it included nearly all of those connected with Unitarian
+churches in New England.
+
+As soon as the mission was organized, Rev. Joseph E. Barry was made the
+missionary; and he opened a Sunday-school in Utica Street. Beginning in
+1853, one or more women were employed to aid him in his work. In May, 1857,
+Rev. Edmund Squire began work as a missionary in Washington Village; but
+this mission was soon given into the hands of the Benevolent Fraternity. In
+June, 1858, Mr. B.H. Greene was engaged to visit the jail and lockup in aid
+of the young persons found there. In 1859 work was undertaken in East
+Boston, and also in South Boston. From this time onward from three to five
+persons were constantly employed as missionaries, in visiting throughout
+the city, persuading children to attend day-schools, sewing-schools, and
+Sunday-schools, securing employment for those old enough to labor, and in
+placing children in country homes. In April, 1857, Mr. Barry took a party
+of forty-eight children to Illinois; and five other parties followed to
+that state and to Michigan and Ohio. Since 1860 homes have been found in
+New England for all children sent outside the city.
+
+In November, 1858, a hall in Eliot Street was secured for the religious
+services of the mission, which included boys' classes, Sunday-school, and
+various organizations of a moral and intellectual character. In 1859 a
+house was rented in Camden Street especially for the care of the boys who
+came under the charge of the mission. In March, 1867, was completed the
+house on Tremont Street in which the work of the mission has, since been
+carried on. An additional building for very young children was provided in
+October, 1890. For years Mr. Barry continued his work as the missionary of
+this noble ministry to the children of the poor. Since 1877 Mr. William
+Crosby has been the efficient superintendent, having served for eighteen
+years previously as the treasurer. The mission has cared for more than five
+thousand children.
+
+[Sidenote: Care of the Poor.]
+
+It has been indicated already that much attention was given to the care of
+the poor and to the prevention of pauperism. It is safe to assume that
+every Unitarian minister was a worker in this direction. It is well to
+notice the efforts of one man, because his work led to the scientific
+methods of charitable relief which are employed in Boston at the present
+time. When Rev. Ephraim Peabody became the minister of King's Chapel, in
+1846, he turned his attention to the education of the poor and to the
+prevention of pauperism. In connection with Rev. Frederick T. Gray he
+opened a school for those adults whose education had been neglected.
+Especial attention was given to the elementary instruction of emigrant
+women. Many children and adults accepted the opportunity thus afforded, and
+a large school was maintained for several years.
+
+With the aid of Mr. Francis E. Parker another important work was undertaken
+by Mr. Peabody. Although Dr. Tuckerman had labored to prevent duplication
+of charitable gifts and to organize the philanthropies of Boston in an
+effective manner, with the increase of population the evils he strove to
+prevent had grown into large proportions. In order to prevent overlapping,
+imposition, and failure to provide for many who were really needy, but not
+eager to push their own claims, Mr. Peabody organized the Boston Provident
+Association in 1851. This society divided the city into small districts,
+and put each under the supervision of a person who was to examine every
+case that came before the society within the territory assigned him. The
+first president of this society was Hon. Samuel A. Eliot, who was a mayor
+of the city, a representative in the lower house of Congress, and an
+organizer of many philanthropies. This society was eminently successful in
+its operations, and did a great amount of good. Its friendly visits to the
+poor and its judicious methods of procuring the co-operation of many
+charity workers prepared the way for the introduction, in 1879, of the
+Associated Charities of Boston, which extended and effectively organized
+the work begun by Mr. Peabody.[22] Numerous other organizations might be
+mentioned that have been initiated by Unitarians or largely supported by
+them.[23]
+
+[Sidenote: Humane Treatment of Animals.]
+
+The work for the humane treatment of animals was begun, and has been
+largely carried on, by Unitarians. The founder of the American Society for
+the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was Henry Bergh, who was a member of
+All Souls' Church in New York, under the ministry of Dr. Bellows. In 1865
+he began his work in behalf of kindness to animals in New York City, and
+the society he organized was incorporated April 10, 1866. It was soon
+engaged in an extensive work. In 1873 Mr. Bergh proceeded to organize
+branch humane societies; and, as the result of his work, most of the states
+have legislated for the humane care of animals.
+
+A similar work of a Unitarian is that of Mr. George T. Angell in Boston,
+who in 1868 founded, and has since been the president of, the Massachusetts
+Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. In 1889 he became the
+president of the American Humane Education Society, a position he continues
+to hold. He is the editor of Our Dumb Animals, and has in many ways been
+active in the work of the great charity with which he has been connected.
+
+[Sidenote: Young Men's Christian Unions.]
+
+The initiative in the establishment of Christian unions for young men in
+cities, on a wholly unsectarian basis, was taken by a Unitarian. Mr. Caleb
+Davis Bradlee, a Harvard undergraduate, who was afterward a Boston pastor
+for many years, gathered together in the parlor of his father's house a
+company of young men, and proposed to them the formation of a society for
+mutual improvement. This was on September 17, 1851; and the organization
+then formed was called the Biblical Literature Society. Those who belonged
+to the society during the winter of 1851-52 were so much benefited by it
+that they decided to enlarge their plans and to extend their influence to a
+greater number. At the suggestion of Rev. Charles Brooks, minister of the
+Unitarian church in South Hingham, the name was changed to the Boston Young
+Men's Christian Union, the first meeting under the new form of organization
+being held March 15, 1852. On October 11 of the same year the society was
+incorporated, many of the leading men of the city having already given it
+their encouragement and support.[24]
+
+[Sidenote: Educational Work in the South.]
+
+After the close of the civil war there was a large demand for help in the
+South, especially amongst the negroes. Most of the aid given by Unitarians
+was through other than denominational channels; but something was done by
+the Unitarian Association as well as by other Unitarian organizations. Miss
+Amy Bradley, who had been a very successful worker for the Sanitary
+Commission, opened a school for the whites in Wilmington, N.C. Her work
+extended to all the schools of the city, and was eminently successful. She
+became the city and then the county superintendent of schools. She was
+supported by the Unitarian Association and the Soldiers' Memorial Society.
+Among the Unitarians who at that time engaged in the work of educating the
+negroes were Rev. Henry F. Edes in Georgia, Rev. James Thurston in North
+Carolina, Miss M. Louisa Shaw in Florida, Miss Bottume on Ladies' Island,
+and Miss Sally Holley and Miss Caroline F. Putnam in Virginia.
+
+In 1868 the Unitarian Association entered upon a systematic effort to aid
+the negroes through co-operation with the African Methodist Episcopal
+Church. The sum of $4,000 was in that year devoted to this work; and it was
+largely spent in educational efforts, especially in aid of college and
+theological students. Wilberforce University had the benefit of lectures
+from Dr. George W. Hosmer, president of Antioch College, and of Edward
+Orton, James K. Hosmer, and other professors in that institution. Libraries
+of about fifty volumes of carefully selected books, including elementary
+works of science, history, biography, and a few theological works, were
+given to ministers of that church who applied for them. This connection
+continued for several years, and was of much importance in the advancement
+of the South.
+
+With the first of January, 1886, the Unitarian Association established a
+bureau of information in regard to southern education, of which General
+J.B.F. Marshall, who had been for many years the treasurer of the Hampton
+Institute, was made the superintendent. This bureau, during its existence
+of three years, investigated the claims of various schools, and recommended
+those most deserving of aid.
+
+In 1891 Miss Mabel W. Dillingham and Miss Charlotte R. Thorn, who had been
+teachers for several years in the Hampton Institute, opened a school for
+negroes in Calhoun, Ala. Miss Dillingham died in 1894; and she was
+succeeded by her brother, Rev. Pitt Dillingham, as the principal of the
+school. The Calhoun School has been supported mostly by Unitarians, and it
+has been successful in doing a practical and important work.
+
+During the first eight years of the Tuskegee Institute it received $5,000
+annually from Unitarians, and in more recent years $10,000 annually. This
+has been given by individuals, churches, and other organizations, but in no
+sense as a denominational work. Concerning the aid given to the Hampton
+Institute this statement has been made by the principal: "The Unitarian
+denomination has had a very important part in the work of Hampton. Our
+first treasurer was General J.F.B. Marshall, a Unitarian who made it
+possible for General Armstrong first to gain access to Boston and secure
+friends there, many of whom have been lifelong contributors to this work.
+General Marshall came to Hampton in 1872, and for some twelve years took a
+most important part in building up this institution. He trained young men
+for the treasurer's office, who still hold important positions in the
+school, and others who have been sent to various institutions. The home of
+General and Mrs. Marshall here was of incalculable help in many ways,
+brightening and cheering the lives of our teachers and students. Unitarians
+have always had a prominent part in the support of Hampton. Mrs. Mary
+Hemenway was the largest donor to the Institute during her lifetime. She
+gave $10,000 for the purchase of our Hemenway Farm, and helped General
+Armstrong in many ways."[25]
+
+[Sidenote: Educational Work for the Indians.]
+
+At three different periods the Unitarian Association has undertaken
+educational work amongst the Indians. The first of these proved abortive,
+but is of much interest. James Tanner,[26] a half-breed Chippeway or
+Ojibway from Minnesota, appeared before the board of the Association,
+February 12, 1855, in behalf of his people. He had been a Baptist
+missionary to the Ojibways, but had found that he could accomplish little
+while the Indians continued their roving life and their wars with the
+Sioux. He therefore wished to have his people adopt a settled agricultural
+life. The Baptist Home Missionary Society, with which he was laboring,
+would not accede to his plans in this respect, and desired that he should
+confine himself to the preaching of the gospel. Unable to do this on
+account of his liberal views, he went to Boston with the hope that he might
+secure aid from the Baptists there. He was soon told that he was a
+Unitarian, and he sought a knowledge of those of that faith. He was thus
+led to apply to the Unitarian Association for help, which was granted. He
+secured an outfit of agricultural and other implements, and returned to his
+people in the spring of 1855. In December of that year Mr. Tanner attended
+a meeting of the board of the Association, accompanied by six Ojibway
+chiefs. On this unique occasion the calumet was smoked by all present, and
+addresses were made by the Indians. In April, 1856, the board reluctantly
+abandoned this enterprise, because the money for the yearly expenditure of
+$4,000, which it required, could not be secured.[27]
+
+In 1871 President Grant inaugurated the policy of educating the Indians
+under the direction of the several religious denominations of the country.
+To the Unitarians were assigned the Utes of Colorado. The reservation at
+White River was placed in charge of Mr. J.S. Littlefield, and that at Los
+Pinos of Rev. J. Nelson Trask. Several other persons took up this work,
+including Rev. Henry F. Bond and his wife. In 1885 the Utes were removed to
+a reservation in Utah. In the spring of 1886 Mr. Bond returned to them for
+the purpose of establishing a boarding-school amongst them; but, not
+getting sufficient encouragement, he went to Montana, where in the autumn
+he opened the Montana Industrial School, with eighteen pupils from the
+Crows in attendance. Buildings were erected, farm work begun, carpenter and
+blacksmith shops put in operation, all at a cost of $20,000. The school was
+located on the Big Horn River, thirty miles from Fort Custer.
+
+It was the object of the Montana Industrial School to remove the Indian
+children from their nomadic conditions and to give them a practical
+education, with so much of instruction in books as would be of real help to
+them. The boys were taught farm work and the use of tools, while the girls
+were trained in sewing, cooking, and other useful employments. At the same
+time there was constant training in cleanliness, good manners, and right
+living. The school was fairly successful; and the results would doubtless
+have been important, could the experiment have gone on for a longer period.
+In 1891 Mr. Bond withdrew from the school on account of his age, and it was
+placed in charge of Rev. A.A. Spencer. With the 1st of July, 1895, however,
+the care of the school was assumed by the national government.
+
+Extended as this chapter has become, it has failed to give anything like an
+exhaustive statement of the philanthropies of Unitarians. Their charitable
+activities have been constant and in many directions. This may be seen in
+the wide-reaching philanthropic interests of Dr. Edward Everett Hale, whose
+Lend-a-hand Clubs, King's Daughters societies, and kindred movements
+admirably illustrate the practical side of Unitarianism, its broad
+humanitarian spirit, its philanthropic and reformatory purpose, and its
+high ideal of Christian fidelity and service.
+
+[1] Memoir, III. 17; one-volume edition, 465.
+
+[2] Memoir, III. 61, 62; one-volume edition, 487, 488.
+
+[3] Boston Unitarianism, 127.
+
+[4] Harvard Graduates, 155.
+
+[5] Boston Unitarianism, 253.
+
+[6] Elizabeth P. Peabody, Reminiscences of Dr. W.E. Channing, 290.
+
+[7] Eber R. Butler, Lend a Hand, October, 1890, V. 681.
+
+[8] Elizabeth P. Peabody, Reminiscences of W.E. Channing, 273.
+
+[9] Gilbert Haven, Anecdotes of Rev. Edward T. Taylor, 114.
+
+[10] Ibid., 119.
+
+[11] Gilbert Haven, Anecdotes of Rev. Edward T. Taylor, 330.
+
+[12] American Notes, chap. iii.
+
+[13] Frank B. Sanborn, Biography of Dr. S.G. Howe, Philanthropist, 110.
+
+[14] Frank B. Sanborn, Biography of Dr. S.G. Howe, Philanthropist, 170.
+
+[15] Reminiscences, 161.
+
+[16] Francis Tiffany, Life of Dorothea Lynde Dix, 58.
+
+[17] Francis Tiffany, Life of Dorothea Lynde Dix, 355.
+
+[18] Ibid., 327.
+
+[19] Ibid., 290.
+
+[20] Ibid., 375.
+
+[21] Report of the National Conference, 1895, 205.
+
+[22] Sermons of Ephraim Peabody, introductory Memoir, xxv; Memorial
+     History of Boston, IV. 662, George S. Hale on the Charities of
+     Boston; A.P. Peabody, Harvard Graduates, 155.
+
+[23] Besides the Fragment Society, the Children's Mission, and the Boston
+     Provident Society, already mentioned and still vigorously at work,
+     several other societies are wholly supported by Unitarians. Of these
+     may be named the Howard Benevolent Society in the City of Boston,
+     organized in 1812, incorporated in 1818; Young Men's Benevolent
+     Society, organized in 1827, incorporated in 1852; Industrial Aid
+     Society for the Prevention of Pauperism, organized in 1835,
+     incorporated in 1884.
+
+[24] Alfred Manchester, Life of Caleb Davis Bradlee, 8; First Anniversary,
+     address before the Boston Young Men's Christian Union by Rev. F.D.
+     Huntington, Appendix.
+
+[25] Personal letter from Mr. H.B. Frissell.
+
+[26] Edwin James, A Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John
+     Tanner during Thirty Tears' Residence among the Indians of North
+     America. (John Tanner was the father of James.)
+
+[27] Quarterly Journal, II. 326, 344; III. 64, 257, 449, 625.
+
+
+
+
+XVI.
+
+
+UNITARIANS AND REFORMS.
+
+The belief of Unitarians in the innate goodness of man and in his progress
+towards a higher moral life, together with their desire to make religion
+practical in its character and to have it deal with the actual facts of
+human life, has made it obligatory that they should give the encouragement
+of their support to whatever promised to further the cause of justice,
+liberty, and purity. Their attitude towards reforms, however, has been
+qualified by their love of individual freedom. They have had a dread of
+ecclesiastical restriction and of any attempt to coerce opinions or to
+establish a despotism over individual convictions. And yet, with all this
+insistence upon personal liberty, no body of men and women has ever been
+more devoted to the furthering of practical reforms than those connected
+with Unitarian churches. No one, for instance, was ever more zealous for
+individual freedom than Theodore Parker; but he was essentially a reformer.
+He was a persistent advocate of peace, temperance, education, the rights of
+women, the rights of the slave, the abolition of capital punishment, reform
+in prison discipline, and the application of humanitarian principles to the
+conduct of life.
+
+[Sidenote: Peace Movement.]
+
+"It may be doubted whether any man who ever lived contributed more to
+spread just sentiments on the subject of war and to hasten the era of
+universal peace," said Dr. Channing of Noah Worcester, who has been often
+called "the Apostle of Peace." It was the second contest with Great Britain
+that led Dr. Worcester to consider the nature and effects of war. In
+August, 1812, on the day appointed for a national fast, he preached a
+sermon in which he maintained that the war then beginning was without
+sufficient justification, and that war is always an evil. In 1814 he
+further studied the subject, with the result that he wrote a little book
+which he called A Solemn Review of the Custom of War.[1]
+
+The Solemn Review was widely circulated, it was translated into many
+languages, it made a deep and lasting impression, and it had a world-wide
+influence in preparing the minds of men for the acceptance of peace
+principles. The remedy for war it proposed was an international court of
+arbitration.[2] Through the efforts of Dr. Worcester the Massachusetts
+Peace Society was organized December 28, 1815, one of the first societies
+of the kind in the world.[3] William Phillips was made the president, and
+Dr. Noah Worcester the corresponding secretary, with Dr. Henry Ware, Dr.
+Channing, and Rev. Francis Parkman among his councillors. On the executive
+committee with Dr. Worcester in 1819 were Rev. Ezra Ripley and Rev. John
+Pierce. Other Unitarian members and workers were James Freeman, Nathaniel
+L. Frothingham, Charles Lowell, Samuel C. Thacher, J.T. Kirkland, and
+Joseph Tuckerman; and, of laymen, Moses Grant, Josiah Quincy, and Colonel
+Joseph May. In 1819 Dr. Worcester began the publication of The Friends of
+Peace, a small quarterly magazine, a large part of the contents of which he
+wrote himself. After the first number, having obtained the assistance of
+several wealthy Friends, he relinquished the copyright; and the numbers
+were republished in several parts of the country, thus obtaining a wide
+circulation. He devoted himself almost wholly to this publication and the
+advocacy of the cause of peace until 1829, when he relinquished its
+editorship. "This must be looked upon as a very remarkable work," wrote
+Henry Ware, the younger. "To his wakeful mind everything that occurred and
+everything that he read offered him materials; he appeared to see nothing
+which had not a bearing on this one topic; and his book becomes a boundless
+repository of curious, entertaining, striking extracts from writers of all
+sorts and the history of all times, displaying the criminality and folly of
+war, and the beauty and efficacy of the principles of peace."[4]
+
+In his efforts hi behalf of peace, Dr. Worcester had the support of Dr.
+Channing's "respectful sympathy and active co-operation."[5] According to
+Dr. John Pierce, Channing was the life and soul of the Massachusetts Peace
+Society. "For years," says his biographer, "he devoted himself to the work
+of extending its influence with unwavering zeal, as many of his papers of
+that period attest."[6] From his pulpit Dr. Channing frequently expressed
+his faith in the principles of peace, and he strongly advocated those
+Christian convictions and that spirit of good will which would make war
+impossible if they were applied to the conduct of nations.
+
+Not less devoted to the cause of peace was Dr. Ezra S. Gannett, of whom his
+son says: "He thought that reason, religion, the whole spirit as well as
+the letter of the gospel, united in forbidding war. Probably, he was
+non-resistant up to, rather than in, the absolutely last extremity;
+although he writes that an English book which Dr. Channing lent him as the
+best he knew upon the subject, 'has made me a thorough peace man!'"[7]
+"Let the fact of brotherhood be fairly grasped," wrote Dr. Frederic H.
+Hedge, "and war becomes impossible."[8] "The tremendous extent and
+pertinacity of the habit of human slaughter in battle," wrote Dr. William
+R. Alger, "its shocking criminality, and its incredible foolishness, when
+regarded from an advanced religious position, are three facts calculated to
+appall every thoughtful man and startle him into amazement." "It is vain,"
+he said, "to undertake to impart a competent conception of the crimes and
+miseries belonging to war. Their appalling character and magnitude stun the
+imagination and pass off like the burden of a frightful dream."[9]
+
+Worcester's Solemn Review convinced Rev. Samuel J. May "that the precepts,
+spirit, and example of Jesus gave no warrant to the violent, bloody
+resistance of evil; that wrong could be effectually overcome by right,
+hatred by love, violence by gentleness, evil of any kind by its opposite
+good. I preached this," he said, "as one of the cardinal doctrines of the
+gospel, and endeavored especially to show the wickedness and folly of the
+custom of war."[10] In 1826 he organized a county peace society, the first
+in the country; and his first publication was in advocacy of this
+reform.[11]
+
+Of the men connected with political life, Charles Sumner was the most
+devoted and influential friend of the peace cause. As early as March, 1839,
+he wrote to a friend, "I hold all wars, as unjust and, unchristian." His
+address on The True Grandeur of Nations, given before the mayor and other
+officials of Boston, July 4, 1845, was one of the noblest and most
+effective utterances on the subject. Though a considerable part of the
+audience was in military array, Sumner showed the evils of war in
+uncompromising terms, denouncing it as cruel and unnecessary, while with
+true eloquence, great learning, and deep conviction he made his plea for
+peace. "The effect was immediate and striking," wrote George W. Curtis.
+"There were great indignation and warm protest on the one hand, and upon
+the other sincere congratulation and high compliment. Sumner's view of the
+absolute wrong and iniquity of war was somewhat modified subsequently; but
+the great purpose of a peaceful solution of international disputes he never
+relinquished."[12] He said in this oration that "in our age there can be
+no peace that is not honorable; there can be no war that is not
+dishonorable." This statement was severely criticised, but it indicates his
+uncompromising acceptance of peace principles.[13] He added these
+pertinent sentences: "The true honor of a nation is to be found only in
+deeds of justice and in the happiness of its people, all of which are
+inconsistent with war. In the clear eye of Christian judgment vain are its
+victories, infamous are its spoils."[14] He further declared that "war is
+utterly and irreconcilably inconsistent with true greatness."[15] These
+views he continued to hold throughout his life, though in a more
+conciliatory spirit; and on several occasions he presented them before the
+Peace Society and elsewhere. When in the Senate he was a leader of the
+cause of arbitration, and exerted his large influence in securing its
+adoption by the United States as a means of preventing war with foreign
+countries. As late as July, 1873, he wrote to one of his friends: "I long
+to witness the harmony of nations, which I am sure is near. When an evil so
+great is recognized and discussed, the remedy must be near at hand."[16]
+
+The work done by Julia Ward Howe for the cause of peace is eminently worthy
+of recognition. One chapter of her Reminiscences is devoted to her "Peace
+Crusade" of 1870. The cruel and unnecessary character of the
+Franco-Prussian war led her to write an appeal to mothers to use their
+influence in behalf of peace. "The august dignity of motherhood and its
+terrible responsibilities now appeared to me in a new aspect," she writes,
+"and I could think of no better way of expressing my sense of these than of
+sending forth an appeal to womanhood throughout the world, which I then and
+there composed."[17] She printed and distributed her appeal, had it
+translated into French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Swedish, and then
+spent many months in corresponding with leading women in various countries.
+She invited these women to a Women's Peace Congress to be held in London.
+After holding two successful meetings in New York, she began her crusade in
+England, holding meetings in many places, and also attending a Peace
+Congress in Paris. She hired a hall in London, and held Sunday meetings to
+promote the reform she had deeply at heart. The Women's Congress was a
+success, and after two years of earnest effort Mrs. Howe had the
+satisfaction of knowing that she had done something to promote peace on
+earth and good will among men.
+
+[Sidenote: Temperance Reform.]
+
+Unitarians have been active in the cause of temperance, but again as
+individuals rather than as a denomination. The emphasis they have put on
+the importance of individual opinion and personal liberty has made them
+often reluctant to join societies that sought to promote this reform by
+restrictive and coercive measures. As a body, therefore, they have shown a
+greater inclination to the use of moral suasion than legislative power.
+
+From Dr. Channing this reform had the most earnest approval. "The
+temperance reform which is going on among us," he wrote, "deserves all
+praise, and I see not what is to hinder its complete success. I believe the
+movements now made will succeed, because they are in harmony with and are
+seconded by the general spirit and progress of the age. Every advance in
+knowledge, in refined manners, in domestic enjoyments, in habits of
+foresight and economy, in regular industry, in the comforts of life, in
+civilization, good morals and religion, is an aid to the cause of
+temperance; and believing as we do that these are making progress, may we
+not hope that drunkenness will be driven from society?"[18] He regarded
+the subject from a broader point of view than many, and urged that a sound
+physical education for all youth, as well as larger opportunities for
+intellectual improvement on the part of workingmen, would do much to
+prevent intemperance.[19] He maintained that to give men "strength within
+to withstand the temptations of intemperance" is incalculably more
+important than to remove merely outward temptations. Better education,
+innocent amusements, a wider spirit of sympathy and brotherhood,
+discouragement of the use and sale of ardent spirits, were among the means
+he recommended for suppressing this evil.[20]
+
+The Massachusetts Society for the Suppression of Intemperance was organized
+at the State House in Boston on February 5, 1813, "to discountenance and
+suppress the too free use of ardent spirits, and to encourage and promote
+temperance and general morality." This was one of the first temperance
+societies organized in the country, and its chief promoters were
+Unitarians. Dr. John C. Collins, who published the records of the society,
+said of the year 1827, when he became a member, that "Channing, Gannett,
+and others were the most active men at that time in the temperance
+cause."[21] Dr. Abiel Abbot was the first corresponding secretary of the
+society, and on the council were Drs. Kirkland, Lothrop, Worcester, and
+Pierce. Among the other Unitarian ministers who were active in the society
+were Charles Lowell, the younger Henry Ware, John Pierpont, and John G.
+Palfrey. Among the laymen were Moses Grant, Nathan Dane, Dr. John Ware,
+Stephen Fairbanks, Dr. J.F. Flagg, William Sullivan, Amos Lawrence, Samuel
+Dexter, and Isaac Parker.[22] Auxiliary societies were organized in Salem,
+Beverly, and other towns; and these gave to the temperance cause the
+activities of such Unitarians as Theophilus Parsons, Robert Rantoul, and
+Samuel Hoar.[23]
+
+Of the more recent interest of Unitarians in questions of temperance reform
+there may be mentioned the thorough study made by the United States
+Commissioner of Labor, and printed in 1898 under the title of Economic
+Aspects of the Liquor Problem.[24] This investigation was ordered by
+Congress as the result of a petition sent to that body by the Unitarian
+Temperance Society. Probably few petitions have ever been sent to Congress
+that contained so many prominent names of leading statesmen, presidents of
+colleges and universities, bishops, clergymen, well-known literary men, and
+other persons of influence. The Unitarian Temperance Society was organized
+September 23, 1886, in connection with the meeting of the National
+Conference at Saratoga. Its purpose is "to work for the cause of temperance
+in whatever ways may seem to it wise and right; to study the social
+problems of poverty, crime, and disease, in their relation to the use of
+intoxicating drinks, and to diffuse whatever knowledge may be gained; to
+discuss methods of temperance reform; to devise and, so far as possible, to
+execute plans for practical reform; to exert by its meetings and by its
+membership such influence for good as by the grace of God it may possess."
+It has held annual meetings in Boston, and other meetings in connection
+with the National Conference; it has published a number of important
+tracts, temperance text-books, and temperance services for Sunday-schools;
+and it has exerted a considerable influence on the denomination in shaping
+public opinion in regard to this reform. The presidents of the society have
+been Rev. Christopher R. Eliot, Rev. George H. Hosmer, and Rev. Charles F.
+Dole.
+
+The subject of temperance reform has been before the National Conference on
+several occasions and in various forms. At the session of 1882 a resolution
+offered by Miss Mary Grew was adopted:--
+
+  That the unutterable evils continually wrought by intemperance, the
+  easy descent from moderate to immoderate drinking, and the moral wrecks
+  strewn along that downward path, call upon Christians and patriots to
+  practise and advocate abstinence from the use of all intoxicating
+  liquors as a beverage.
+
+In 1891 a series of resolutions recommended by the Unitarian Temperance
+Society were adopted as expressing the convictions of the Conference:--
+
+  First, that the liquor saloon, as it exists to-day in the United
+  States, is the nation's chief school of crime, chief college of
+  corruption in politics, chief source of poverty and ruined homes, chief
+  menace to our country's future, is the standing enemy of society, and,
+  as such, deserves the condemnation of all good men.
+
+  Second, that, whatever be the best mode of dealing with the saloon by
+  law, law can avail little until those who condemn the saloon consent to
+  totally abstain themselves from the use of alcoholic drink for
+  pleasure.
+
+  Third, that we affectionately and urgently call on every minister and
+  all laymen and women in our denomination--our old, our young, our rich,
+  our poor, our leaders, and our humblest--to take this stand of total
+  abstinence, remembering those that are in bonds as bound with them, and
+  throw the solid influence of our church against the influence of the
+  saloon.
+
+[Sidenote: Anti-slavery.]
+
+In proportion to its numbers no religious body in the country did so much
+to promote the anti-slavery reform as the Unitarian. No Unitarian defended
+slavery from the pulpit or by means of the press, and no one was its
+apologist.[25] Many, however, did not approve of the methods of the
+abolitionists, and some strongly opposed the extreme measures of a part of
+that body of reformers. The desire of Unitarians to be just, rational, and
+open-minded, exposed many of them to the criticism of being neither for nor
+against slavery. But it is certain that they were not indifferent to its
+evils nor recreant to their humanitarian principles.
+
+The period of the anti-slavery agitation was truly one that tried the souls
+of men; and those who were equally conscientious, desirous of serving the
+cause of justice and humanity, and solicitous for the welfare of the slave,
+widely differed from one another as to what was the wise method of action.
+Among those severely condemned by the anti-slavery party were several
+Unitarian ministers of great force of character and of a genuinely
+humanitarian spirit. Three of them may be selected as representative.
+
+Dr. Orville Dewey had seen something of slavery, and was strongly opposed
+to it. He thought the system hateful in itself and productive of nearly
+unmingled evil, and yet he was not in favor of immediate emancipation. His
+frequent indictments of slavery in his sermons and lectures were severe in
+the extreme; but his demand for wise and patient counsel, and for a
+rational method of gradual emancipation, subjected him to severe
+condemnation. "And nothing else brings out the nobleness of Dr. Dewey into
+such bold relief as the fact," says Rev. John W. Chadwick, "that the
+immeasurable torrent of abuse that greeted his expressed opinion did not in
+any least degree avail to make him one of the pro-slavery faction. He
+differed from the most earnest of the anti-slavery men only as to the best
+method of getting rid of the curse of human bondage."[26]
+
+As early as 1830 Dr. E.S. Gannett said that "the greatest evil under which
+our nation labors is the existence of slavery. It is the only vicious part
+of our body politic, but this is a deep and disgusting sore. It must be
+treated with the utmost judgment and skill." The violence of the
+abolitionists he did not approve, however; for his respect for law and
+constituted authority was so great that he was not ready for radical
+measures. He abhorred slavery, but he was not willing to condemn the
+slaveholder. He was therefore regarded by the abolitionists as more hostile
+to them than any other Unitarian minister. His attitude as a peace man, his
+strong regard for justice and fair dealing, as well as his earnest faith in
+the gentle influence of the gospel, forbade his accepting the strenuous
+methods of the abolitionists. He would not, however, permit anti-slavery
+ministers to be silenced in Unitarian meetings. When he saw something of
+slavery, in 1833, he expressed his convictions in regard to it in these
+forcible words: "It is the attempt to degrade a human being into something
+less than a man,--not the confinement, unjust as this is, nor the blows,
+cruel as these are,--but the denial of his equal share in the rights,
+prerogatives, and responsibilities of a human being, which brands the
+institution of slavery with its peculiar and ineffaceable odiousness."[27]
+
+Another minister who came under the condemnation of the abolitionists was
+Rev. John H. Morison, and yet he preached sermons against slavery that met
+with the vigorous disapproval of his congregation. "We all agree," he wrote
+in 1844, "in the sad conviction that slavery in its political influence,
+more than all other subjects, threatens to upturn the foundation of our
+government; that in its moral and religious bearings it is a grievous wrong
+to master and slave; and that, as it is in violation of the fundamental
+principles of Christian duty, it must, if continued beyond the absolute
+necessity of the case, be attended with consequences the most disastrous."
+Again, when Daniel Webster made his 7th of March speech in 1850, Dr.
+Morison, then the editor of The Christian Register, took the earliest
+possible opportunity to express himself as strongly as he could against it.
+"We at the North," he wrote, "believe that slavery is morally wrong." He
+said that the government, in its attempt to defend slavery as against the
+moral convictions of a large number of the people, was doing the country a
+great harm.[28]
+
+The position of these men and of others who thought and acted with them can
+best be understood by recognizing the fact that they were opposed to
+sectarian methods in promoting reforms as in advancing the interests of
+religion. It is probable that in these heated times neither party did full
+justice to the spirit and purposes of the other. Even so gentle and
+charitable a man as Rev. Samuel J. May speaks of the "discreditable
+pro-slavery conduct of the Unitarian denomination." "The Unitarians as a
+body," he says again, "dealt with the question of slavery in anything but
+an impartial, courageous, and Christian way. Continually in their public
+meetings the question was staved off and driven out because of technical,
+formal, verbal difficulties which were of no real importance, and ought not
+to have caused a moment's hesitation. Avowing among their distinctive
+doctrines the fatherly character of God and the brotherhood of man, we had
+a right to expect from the Unitarians a steadfast and unqualified protest
+against so unjust, tyrannical, and cruel a system as that of American
+slavery. And considering their position as a body, not entangled with any
+pro-slavery alliances, not hampered with any ecclesiastical organization,
+it does seem to me that they were pre-eminently guilty in reference to the
+enslavement of the millions in our land with its attendant wrongs,
+cruelties, horrors. They refused to speak as a body, and censured,
+condemned, execrated their members who did speak faithfully for the
+down-trodden, and who co-operated with him whom a merciful Providence sent
+as the prophet of the reform."[29]
+
+The testimony of Rev. O.B. Frothingham is fully as condemnatory of
+Unitarian timidity and conservatism, even of the moral cowardice betrayed
+by many of the leaders. He says the Unitarians, as such, "were indifferent
+or lukewarm; the leading classes were opposed to the agitation. Dr.
+Channing was almost alone in lending countenance to the reform, though his
+hesitation between the dictates of natural feeling and Christian charity
+towards the masters hampered his action, and rendered him obnoxious to both
+parties,--the radicals finding fault with him for not going further, the
+conservatives blaming him because he went so far."[30] Mr. Frothingham
+finds, however, that the transcendentalists were quite "universally
+abolitionists, their faith in the natural powers of man making them zealous
+promoters of the cause of the slave." He insists that as a class "the
+Unitarians were not ardent disciples of any moral cause, and took pride in
+being reasoners, believers in education and in general social influence, in
+the progress of knowledge and the uplifting of humanity by means of ideas,"
+but that they permitted these qualities to cool their ardor for reform and
+to mitigate their love of humanity.[31]
+
+The biographers of William Lloyd Garrison are never tired of condemning Dr.
+Channing for what they call his timidity, his shunning any personal contact
+with the great abolitionist, his failure to grapple boldly with the evils
+of slavery, and his half-hearted espousal of the cause of abolition. The
+Unitarians generally are by these writers regarded in the same manner.[32]
+
+Most of the accounts mentioned were written by those who took part in the
+agitation against slavery, in condemnation of those who had not kept step
+with their abolition pace or in apology for those whose words and conduct
+were thought to need defence. The time has come, perhaps, when it is
+possible to consider, the attitude of individuals and the denomination
+without a partisan wish to condemn or to defend. In this spirit the
+statement of Samuel J. May is to be accepted as true and just, when he
+says: "We Unitarians have given to the anti-slavery cause more preachers,
+writers, lecturers, agents, poets, than any other denomination in
+proportion to our numbers, if not without any comparison."[33]
+
+Among those who listened to William Lloyd Garrison when in October, 1830,
+he first presented in Boston his views in favor of immediate emancipation,
+were Samuel J. May, Samuel E. Sewall, and A.B. Alcott; and these men at
+once became his disciples and friends.[34] When Garrison organized the New
+England Anti-slavery Society in December, 1832, he was actively supported
+by Samuel E. Sewall, David Lee Child, and Ellis Gray Loring. It was to the
+financial support of Sewall and Loring, though they did not at first accept
+his doctrine of immediate emancipation, that Garrison owed his ability to
+begin The Liberator, and to sustain it in its earliest years.[35] For many
+years, Edmund Quincy was connected with The Liberator, serving as its
+editor when Garrison was ill, absent on lecturing tours, or journeying in
+Europe. The Massachusetts Anti-slavery Society, which in 1835 succeeded the
+New England Society, had during many years Francis Jackson as its
+president, Edmund Quincy as its corresponding secretary, and Robert F.
+Walcutt as its recording secretary, all Unitarians.
+
+In 1834 was formed the Cambridge Anti-slavery Society, under the leadership
+of the younger Henry Ware; and the membership was largely Unitarian,
+including the names of Dr. Henry Ware, Sidney Willard, Charles Follen,
+William H. Charming, Artemus B. Muzzey, Barzillai Frost, Charles T. Brooks,
+and Frederic H. Hedge. The purposes of the society were stated in its
+constitution:--
+
+  We believe that the emancipation of all who are in bondage is the
+  requisition, not less of sound policy, than of justice and humanity;
+  and that it is the duty of those with whom the power lies at once to
+  remove the sanction of the law from the principle that man can be the
+  property of man,--a principle inconsistent with our free institutions,
+  subversive of the purposes for which man was made, and utterly at
+  variance with the plainest dictates of reason and Christianity.
+
+In 1843 Samuel May visited England, and at Unitarian meetings described the
+obstacles in the way of the abolition of slavery, and spoke of the apathy
+of American Unitarians. He advised the sending a letter of fraternal
+counsel to the Unitarian ministers of the United States "in behalf of the
+unhappy slave." Such a letter was prepared, and signed by eighty-five
+ministers. It was published in the Unitarian papers in this country, a
+meeting was held to consider it, and a reply sent to England signed by one
+hundred and thirty ministers. Mr. May was severely condemned for his part
+in causing such a letter to be sent, and the reply was rather in the nature
+of a protest than a friendly acceptance of the advice given.
+
+A year later, however, this letter was again the subject of earnest
+discussion. In anniversary week, 1845, a meeting of Unitarian ministers was
+held to "discuss their duties in relation to American slavery." The call
+for this meeting was signed by James Thompson, Joseph Allen, Caleb Stetson,
+Samuel Ripley, Converse Francis, William Ware, Samuel J. May, Artemus B.
+Muzzey, Oliver Stearns, James W. Thompson, Alonzo Hill, Andrew P. Peabody,
+Henry A. Miles, Frederic H. Hedge, James F. Clarke, George W. Briggs,
+Samuel May, Barzillai Frost, Nathaniel Hall, David Fosdick, and John Weiss.
+At the third session, by a vote of forty-seven to seven, it was declared
+"that we consider slavery to be utterly opposed to the principles and
+spirit of Christianity, and that, as ministers of the gospel, we feel it
+our duty to protest against it, in the name of Christ, and to do all we may
+to create a public opinion to secure the overthrow of the institution." It
+was also decided to appoint a committee to draw up, secure signatures to,
+and publish "a protest against the institution of American slavery, as
+unchristian and inhuman." Though some of those who spoke at these meetings
+condemned the abolitionists, yet all of them expressed in the strongest
+terms their opposition to slavery.
+
+The committee selected to prepare this protest consisted of Caleb Stetson,
+James F. Clarke, John Parkman, Stephen G. Bulfinch, A.P. Peabody, John
+Pierpont, Samuel J. May, Oliver Stearns, George W. Briggs, William P.
+Tilden, and William H. Channing. The protest was written by James Freeman
+Clarke and was accepted essentially as it came from his hands. It was
+signed by one hundred and seventy-three ministers,[36] the whole number of
+Unitarian ministers at that time being two hundred and sixty-seven. Some of
+the most prominent ministers were conspicuous by the absence of their names
+from this protest. It must be understood, however, that those who did not
+sign it were as much opposed to slavery as those who did. "This protest,"
+said the editor of The Christian Register, in presenting it to the
+public,[37] "is written with great clearness of expression and moderation
+of spirit. It exhibits unequivocally and distinctly the sentiments of the
+numerous and most enlightened body of clergy whose names are attached to
+it, as well as many other ministers of the denomination who may be
+disinclined to act conjointly, or do not feel called upon to act at all in
+any prescribed way, on the subject." It was not a desire to defend slavery
+that kept these ministers from signing the protest, but their excessive
+individualism, and their unwillingness to commit the denomination to
+opinions all might not accept. A few paragraphs from the protest will
+indicate its spirit and purpose:--
+
+"Especially do we feel that the denomination which takes for its motto
+Liberty, Holiness and Love should be foremost in opposing this system. More
+than others we have contended for three great principles,--individual
+liberty, perfect righteousness, and human brotherhood. All of these are
+grossly violated by the system of slavery. We contend for mental freedom;
+shall we not denounce the system which fetters both mind and body? We have
+declared righteousness to be the essence of Christianity; shall we not
+oppose the system which is the sum of all wrong? We claim for all men the
+right of brotherhood before a universal Father; ought we not to testify
+against that which tramples so many of our brethren under foot?"
+
+"We, therefore, ministers of the gospel of truth and love, in the name of
+God the universal Father, in the name of Christ the Redeemer, in the name
+of humanity and human brotherhood, do solemnly protest against the system
+of slavery as unchristian, and inhuman," "because it is a violation of
+right, being the sum of all unrighteousness which man can do to man,"
+"violates the law of love," "degrades man, the image of God, into a thing,"
+"necessarily tends to pollute the soul of the slave," "to defile the soul
+of the master," "restricts education, keeps the Bible from the slave, makes
+life insecure, deprives female innocence of protection, sanctions adultery,
+tears children from parents and husbands from wives, violates the divine
+institutions of families, and by hard and hopeless toil makes existence a
+burden," "eats out the heart of nations and tends every year more and more
+to sear the popular conscience and impair the virtue of the people."
+
+"We implore all Christians and Christian preachers to unite in unceasing
+prayer to God for aid against this system, to leave no opportunity of
+speaking the truth and spreading the light on this subject, in faith that
+the truth is strong enough to break every yoke." "And we do hereby pledge
+ourselves, before God and our brethren, never to be weary of laboring in
+the cause of human rights and freedom until slavery be abolished and every
+slave made free."
+
+Although many ministers and laymen took the position that the question of
+slavery was not one that should receive attention in the meetings of the
+Unitarian Association or other religious organizations, that these should
+be kept strictly to their own special purposes, it was not possible to
+exclude the one great exciting topic of the age. How persistently it
+intruded itself is clearly indicated in words used by Dr. Bellows at the
+annual meeting of the Association, in 1856. "Year after year this horrid
+image of slavery come in here," he said, "and obtruded itself upon our
+concerns. It has prevented our giving attention to any other subject; we
+could not keep it out of our minds; and why is that awful crime against
+humanity still known in the world, still supported and active in this age
+of Christendom, but because it is in alliance with certain views of
+theology with which we are at war?"[38] At the same meeting strong
+resolutions of sympathy with the free settlers of Kansas, and with Charles
+Sumner because "the barbarity of the slave power had attempted to silence
+him by brutal outrage," were unanimously adopted.[39]
+
+In 1857 the subject of slavery came before the Western Conference in its
+session at Alton. The most uncompromising anti-slavery resolutions were
+presented at the opening of the meeting, and everything else was put aside
+for their consideration, a day and a half being devoted to them. The
+opinion of the majority was, in the words of one of the speakers, that
+slavery is a crime that "denies millions marital and parental rights,
+requires ignorance as a condition, encourages licentiousness and cruelty,
+scars a country all over with incidents that appall and outrage the human
+world." Dr. W.G. Eliot, of St. Louis, and others, thought it not expedient
+to press the subject to an issue, though he regarded slavery in much the
+same way as did the other members of the conference. When the conference
+finally took issue with slavery, he and his delegates withdrew from its
+membership. His assistant, Rev. Carlton A. Staples, and Rev. John H.
+Heywood, of Louisville, went with the majority. A committee appointed to
+formulate a statement the conference could accept said that it had no right
+to interfere with the freedom of action of individual churches; but it
+recommended them to do all they could in opposition to slavery, and said
+that the conference was of one mind in the conviction "that slavery is an
+evil doomed by God to pass away." This report was accepted by the
+conference with only one opposing vote.[40] When the year 1860 had
+arrived, Unitarians were practically unanimous in their condemnation of
+slavery.
+
+When the names of individual Unitarians who took an active part in the
+anti-slavery movement are given, it is at once seen how important was the
+influence of the denomination. Early in the century Rev. Noah Worcester
+uttered his word of protest against slavery. Rev. Charles Follen joined the
+Massachusetts Anti-slavery Society in the second year of its existence, and
+no nobler champion of liberty ever lived. If Dr. Channing was slow in
+applying his Christian ideal of liberty to slavery, there can be no
+question that his influence was powerful on the right side, and all the
+more so because of his gentle and ethical interpretation of individual and
+national duty. His various publications on the subject, his identification
+of himself with the abolitionists by joining their ranks in the
+Massachusetts State House in 1836, his speech in Faneuil Hall in protest
+against the killing of Lovejoy in Alton during the same year, exerted a
+great influence in behalf of abolition throughout the North. It is only
+necessary to mention John Pierpont, Theodore Parker, William H. Furness,
+William H. Channing, William Goodell, Theodore D. Weld, Ichabod Codding,
+Caleb Stetson, and M.D. Conway in order to recognize their uncompromising
+fidelity to the cause of freedom. Only less devoted were such men as
+Charles Lowell, Nahor A. Staples, Sylvester Judd, Nathaniel Hall, Thomas T.
+Stone, O.B. Frothingham, Abiel A. Livermore, Samuel Johnson, Samuel
+Longfellow, Thomas J. Mumford, and many others.
+
+Samuel J. May and his cousin, Samuel May, were both employed by the
+Massachusetts Anti-slavery Society. From 1847 until 1865 the latter was the
+general agent of that organization; and his assistant was another Unitarian
+minister, Robert F. Walcutt. James Freeman Clarke, though settled at
+Louisville from 1833 to 1840, was opposed to slavery; and in the pages of
+The Western Messenger, of which he was publisher and editor, he took every
+occasion to press home the claims of emancipation. John G. Palfrey
+emancipated the slaves that came into his possession from his father's
+estate, insisting on receiving them for that purpose, though the
+opportunity was given him to accept other property in their stead. In
+accordance with this action was his attitude toward slavery in the pulpit
+and on the platform, as well as when he was a member of the lower house of
+Congress.
+
+Of Unitarian laymen who were loyal to the ideal of freedom, the list may
+properly open with the name of Josiah Quincy, afterwards mayor of Boston
+and president of Harvard College, who began as early as 1804 his opposition
+to slavery, and carried it faithfully into his work as a member of the
+national House of Representatives soon after. The fidelity of John Quincy
+Adams to freedom during many years is known to every one, and his service
+in the national House has given him a foremost place in the company of the
+anti-slavery leaders. Not less loyal was the service of Charles Sumner,
+Horace Mann, John P. Hale, George W. Julian, John A. Andrew, Samuel G.
+Howe, Henry I. Bowditch, William I. Bowditch, Thomas W. Higginson, George
+F. Hoar, Ebenezer R. Hoar, George S. Boutwell, and Henry B. Anthony. Of the
+poets the anti-slavery reform had the support of Longfellow, Lowell,
+Bryant, and Emerson. The Unitarian women were also zealous for freedom. The
+loyalty of Lydia Maria Child is well known, as are the sacrifices she made
+in publishing her early anti-slavery books. Lucretia Mott, of the Unitarian
+branch of the Friends, was a devoted supporter of the anti-slavery cause.
+Mrs. Maria W. Chapman was one of the most faithful supporters of Garrison,
+doing more than any one else to give financial aid to the anti-slavery
+reform movement in its earlier years. With these women deserve to be
+mentioned Eliza Lee Follen, Angelina Grimke Weld, Lucy Stone, and many
+more.
+
+A considerable group of persons who had been trained in evangelical
+churches became essentially Unitarians as a result of the anti-slavery
+agitation. Of these may be mentioned William Lloyd Garrison, Gerrit Smith,
+Beriah Green, Joshua R. Giddings, Myron Holley, Theodore D. Weld, and
+Francis W. Bird. Of the first four of these men, George W. Julian has said:
+"They were theologically reconstructed through their unselfish devotion to
+humanity and the recreancy of the churches to which they had been attached.
+They were less orthodox, but more Christian. Their faith in the fatherhood
+of God and the brotherhood of man became a living principle, and compelled
+to reject all dogmas which stood in its way."[41]
+
+[Sidenote: The Enfranchisement of Women.]
+
+It is not surprising that the first great advocate of "the rights of women"
+in this country should have been the Unitarian, Margaret Fuller. She did no
+more than apply what she had been taught in religion to problems of
+personal duty, professional activity, and political obligations. With her
+freedom of faith and liberty of thought meant also freedom to devote her
+life to such tasks as she could best perform for the good of others. It was
+inevitable that other Unitarian women should follow her example, and that
+many women, trained in other faiths, having come to accept the doctrine of
+universal political rights, should seek in Unitarianism the religion
+consonant with their individuality of purpose and their sense of human
+freedom.
+
+Among the leaders of the movement for the enfranchisement of women have
+been such Unitarians as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy
+Stone, Julia Ward Howe, Mary A. Livermore, Maria Weston Chapman, Caroline
+H. Dall, and Louisa M. Alcott. The first pronounced woman suffrage paper in
+the country was The Una, begun at Providence in 1853, with Mrs. Caroline H.
+Dall as the assistant editor. Among other Unitarian contributors were
+William H. Charming, Elizabeth P. Peabody, Thomas W. Higginson, Ednah D.
+Cheney, Amory D. Mayo, Elizabeth Oakes Smith, Lucy Stone, and Mrs. E.C.
+Stanton. The next important paper was The Revolution, begun at New York in
+1868, with Susan B. Anthony as publisher and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and
+Parker Pillsbury as editors. Then came The Woman's Journal, begun at Boston
+in 1870, with Mary A. Livermore, Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, T.W.
+Higginson, and Henry B. Blackwell, all Unitarians, as the editors.
+
+The first national woman's suffrage meeting was held in Worcester, October
+28 and 24, 1850; and among those who took part in it by letter or personal
+presence were Emerson, Alcott, Higginson, Pillsbury, Samuel J. May, William
+H. Channing, William H. Burleigh, Elizabeth C. Stanton, Catherine M.
+Sedgwick, Caroline Kirkland, and Lucy Stone. In April, 1853, when the
+Constitution of Massachusetts was to receive revision, a petition was
+presented, asking that suffrage should be granted to women. Of twenty-seven
+persons signing it, more than half were Unitarians, including Abby May
+Alcott, Lucy Stone, T.W. Higginson, Anna Q.T. Parsons, Theodore Parker,
+William I. Bowditch, Samuel E. Sewall, Ellis Gray Loring, Charles K.
+Whipple, and Thomas T. Stone. Among other Unitarians who have taken an
+active part in promoting this cause have been Lucretia Mott, Mary Grew,
+Caroline M. Severance, Celia C. Burleigh, Angelina Grimke Weld, and Maria
+Giddings Julian. Of men there have been Dr. William F. Channing, James F.
+Clarke, George F. Hoar, George W. Curtis, John S. Dwight, John T. Sargent,
+Samuel Johnson, Samuel Longfellow, Octavius B. Frothingham, Adin Ballou,
+George W. Julian, Frank B. Sanborn, and James T. Fields.
+
+Unitarians have been amongst the first to recognize women in education,
+literature, the professions, and in the management of church and
+denominational interests. At the convention held in New York in 1865, which
+organized the National Conference, no women appeared as delegates; and the
+same was true at the second session, held at Syracuse in 1866. At that
+session Rev. Thomas J. Mumford moved "that our churches shall be left to
+their own wishes and discretion with reference to the sex of the delegates
+chosen to represent them in the conference"; and this resolution was
+adopted. At the third meeting, held at New York in 1868, thirty-seven women
+appeared as delegates, including Julia Ward Howe and Caroline H. Dall. The
+lay delegates to the session held at Washington in 1899 numbered four
+hundred and two; and, of these, two hundred and twenty seven were women.
+
+At the annual meeting of the Unitarian Association in 1870, Rev. John T.
+Sargent brought forward the subject of the representation of women on its
+board of directors. Dr. James F. Clarke made a motion looking to that
+result, which was largely discussed, much opposition being manifested. It
+was urged by many that women were unfit to serve in a position demanding so
+much business capacity, that they would displace capable men, and that it
+was improper for them to assume so public a duty. Charles Lowe, James F.
+Clarke, John T. Sargent, and others strongly championed the proposition,
+with the result that Miss Lucretia Crocker was elected a member of the
+board.[42]
+
+The first woman ordained to the Unitarian ministry was Mrs. Celia C.
+Burleigh, who was settled over the parish in Brooklyn, Conn., October 5,
+1871. The sermon was preached by Rev. John W. Chadwick, and the address to
+the people was given by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe. A letter was read from Henry
+Ward Beecher, in which he said to Mrs. Burleigh: "I do cordially believe
+that you ought to preach. I think you had a _call_ in your very nature."
+Mrs. Burleigh continued at Brooklyn for less than three years, ill-health
+compelling her to resign.
+
+The second woman to enter the Unitarian ministry was Miss Mary H. Graves,
+who was ordained at Mansfield, Mass., December 14, 1871. She was subjected
+to a thorough examination; and the committee reported "that her words have
+commanded our thorough respect by their freedom and clearness, and won our
+full sympathy and approval by their earnest, discreet, and beautiful
+spirit." Mrs. Eliza Tupper Wilkes was ordained by the Universalists at
+Rochester, Minn., May 2, 1871, though she had preached for two or three
+years previously; and she subsequently identified herself with the
+Unitarians. Mrs. Antoinette Brown Blackwell was ordained in Central New
+York, in 1853, by the Orthodox Congregationalists; but somewhat later she
+became a Unitarian.
+
+The first woman to receive ordination who has continued without
+interruption her ministerial duties was Miss Mary A. Safford, ordained in
+1880. She has held every official position in connection with the Iowa
+Unitarian Association, and she has also been an officer of the Western
+Conference and a director of the American Unitarian Association.
+
+Several women have also frequently appeared in Unitarian pulpits who have
+not received ordination or devoted themselves to the ministry as a
+profession. Among these are Mrs. Caroline H. Dall, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe,
+and Mrs. Mary A. Livermore. In 1875 Mrs. Howe was active in organizing the
+Women's Ministerial Conference, which met in the Church of the Disciples,
+and brought together women ministers of several denominations. Of this
+conference Mrs. Howe was for many years the president.
+
+In most Unitarian churches there is no longer any question as to the right
+of women to take any place they are individually fitted to occupy. On
+denominational committees and boards, women sit with entire success, their
+fitness for the duties required being called in question by no one. In
+those conferences where women have for a number of years been actively
+engaged in the work of the ministry they are received on a basis of perfect
+equality with men, and the sex question no longer presents itself in regard
+to official positions or any other ministerial duty.
+
+[Sidenote: Civil Service Reform.]
+
+The first advocate of the reform of the civil service was Charles Sumner,
+who as early as December, 1847, anticipated its methods in a series of
+articles contributed to a newspaper.[43] He was the first to bring this
+reform before Congress, which he did April 30, 1864, when he introduced a
+bill to provide a system of competitive examinations for admission to and
+promotion in the civil service, which made merit and fitness the conditions
+of employment by the government, and provided against removal without
+cause. This bill was drawn by Sumner without consultation with any other
+person, but the time had not yet arrived when it could be successfully
+advocated.
+
+The next person to advocate the reform of the civil service in Congress was
+Thomas A. Jenckes, of Rhode Island, who in 1867 brought the merit system
+forward in the form of a report from the joint committee on retrenchment,
+which reported on the condition of the civil service, and accompanied its
+report with a bill "to regulate the civil service and to promote its
+efficiency." The next year Mr. Jenckes made a second report, but it was not
+until 1871 that action on the subject was secured.[44] George W. Curtis
+says that at first he "pressed it upon an utterly listless Congress, and
+his proposition was regarded as the harmless hobby of an amiable man, from
+which a little knowledge of practical politics would soon dismount
+him."[45] Most members of Congress thought the reform a mere vagary, and
+that it was brought forward at a most inopportune time.[46] Mr. Jenckes
+was the pioneer of the reform, according to Curtis, who says that he
+"powerfully and vigorously and alone opened the debate in Congress."[47]
+He drew the amendment to the appropriation bill in 1871 that became the
+law, and under which the first civil service commission was appointed. "By
+his experience, thorough knowledge, fertility of resource and suggestion
+and great legal ability, he continued to serve with as much efficiency as
+modesty the cause to which he was devoted."[48]
+
+One of the first persons to give attention to this subject was Dorman B.
+Eaton, an active member of All Souls' Church in New York, who was for
+several years chairman of the committee on political reform of the Union
+League Club of New York. In 1866, and again in 1870 and 1875, he travelled
+in Europe to secure information in regard to methods of civil service. The
+results of these investigations were presented in his work on Civil Service
+in Great Britain, a report made at the request of President Hayes. In 1873
+he was appointed a member of the Civil Service Commission by President
+Grant; in 1883 he was the chairman of the committee appointed by President
+Arthur; and in 1885 he was reappointed by President Cleveland. The bill of
+January, 1883, which firmly established civil service by act of Congress,
+was drawn by him. He was a devoted worker for good government in all its
+phases; and the results of his studies of the subject may be found in his
+books on The Independent Movement in New York and The Government of
+Municipalities. He was described by George William Curtis as "one of the
+most conspicuous, intelligent, and earnest friends of reform."[49]
+
+The most conspicuous advocate of the merit system was Mr. George William
+Curtis, another New York Unitarian, who was the chairman of the Civil
+Service Commission of 1871. In 1880 he became the president of the New York
+Civil Service Reform Association, a position he held until his death. The
+National Civil Service Reform League was organized at Newport in August,
+1881; and he was the president from that time as long as he lived. His
+annual addresses before the league show his devoted interest in its aims,
+as well as his eloquence, intellectual power, and political integrity.[50]
+In an address before the Unitarian National Conference, in 1878, Mr. Curtis
+gave a noble exposition and vindication of the reform which he labored
+zealously for twelve years to advance.[51]
+
+It has been justly said of Mr. Curtis that "far above the pleasures of life
+he placed its duties; and no man could have set himself more sternly to the
+serious work of citizenship. The national struggle over slavery, and the
+re-establishment of the Union on permanent foundations enlisted his whole
+nature. In the same spirit, he devoted his later years to the overthrow of
+the spoils system. He did this under no delusion as to the magnitude of the
+undertaking. Probably no one else comprehended it so well. He had studied
+the problem profoundly, and had solved every difficulty, and could answer
+every cavil to his own satisfaction." There can be no question that "his
+name imparted a strength to the movement no other would have given." Nor
+can there be much question that "among public men there was none who so won
+the confidence of sincere and earnest men and women by his own personality.
+The powers of such a character, with all his gifts and accomplishments, was
+what Mr. Curtis brought to the civil service reform."[52]
+
+[1] American Unitarian Biography, edited by William Ware; Memoir of
+    Worcester, by Henry Ware, Jr., I. 45, 46.
+
+[2] Solemn Review, edition of 1836 by American Peace Society, 7.
+
+[3] It had been preceded by societies in Ohio and New York, results of
+    the influence of the Solemn Review.
+
+[4] Unitarian Biography, I. 49.
+
+[5] Memoir, II. 284; one-volume edition, 111.
+
+[6] Ibid., III. 111; one-volume edition, 284.
+
+[7] Memoir, 139.
+
+[8] Christian Examiner, May, 1850, XLVIII. 378.
+
+[9] Ibid., November, 1861, LXXI. 313.
+
+[10] Life, 83.
+
+[11] Ibid., 115.
+
+[12] Cyclopedia of American Biography, V. 746.
+
+[13] Memoir, II. 348.
+
+[14] Memoir.
+
+[15] Ibid., 351.
+
+[16] Ibid., IV. 572.
+
+[17] Reminiscences, 328.
+
+[18] Memoir, III. 36; one-volume edition, 477.
+
+[19] Memoir, III. 31; one-volume edition, 474, 475.
+
+[20] Works, II. 301.
+
+[21] When will the Day come? and other tracts of the Massachusetts
+     Temperance Society, 135.
+
+[22] Of the twenty-seven annual addresses given before this society from
+     1814 to 1840, at least sixteen were by Unitarians; and among these
+     were John T. Kirkland, Abiel Abbot, William E. Channing, Edward
+     Everett, the younger Henry Ware, Gamaliel Bradford, Charles Sprague,
+     James Walker, Alexander H. Everett, William Sullivan, and Samuel K.
+     Lothrop. The first four presidents of this society--Samuel Dexter,
+     Nathan Dane, Isaac Parker, and Stephen Fairbanks--were Unitarians. Of
+     the same faith were also a large proportion of the vice-presidents
+     and other officers. Many of the tracts published by the society were
+     written by Unitarians.
+
+[23] Unitarians of every calling have been the advocates of temperance.
+     Among those who have been loyal to it in word and action may be named
+     John Adams, Jeremy Belknap, Jonathan Phillips, Charles Lowell, Ezra
+     S. Gannett, John Pierpont, Samuel J. May, Amos Lawrence, Horace Mann,
+     William H. and George S. Burleigh, Governor Pitman, William G. Eliot,
+     Rufus P. Stebbins, and William B. Spooner. "Many of the leading men
+     and women who were eminent as lawyers, judges, legislators, scholars,
+     also prominent in the business walks of life, and in social position,
+     gave this cause the force of their example, and the inspiration of
+     their minds. By their contributions of money, by their personal
+     efforts, by their public speeches and writings, and by their practice
+     of total abstinence, they rendered very valuable service."
+
+[24] Twelfth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, 1897.
+
+[25] Theodore Clapp, of New Orleans, may be an exception, though he is
+     claimed by the Universalists. See S.J. May's Recollections of the
+     Anti-slavery Conflict, 335.
+
+[26] Autobiography and Letters, 117, 127, 129. The criticism of Dr. Dewey
+     may be found in S.J. May's Recollections, 367.
+
+[27] Memoir, 139, 284, 296. See S.J. May, Recollections, 341, 367, for an
+     anti-slavery indictment of Dr. Gannett.
+
+[28] Memoir, chapter on Slavery.
+
+[29] Recollections of the Anti-slavery Conflict, chapter on the
+     Unitarians, 335.
+
+[30] See Lydia Maria Child's account of conversations with Channing on
+     this subject, in her Letters from New York.
+
+[31] Recollections and Impressions, 47, 183.
+
+[32] The Story of his Life as Told by his Children.
+
+[33] Recollections, 335.
+
+[34] S.J. May, Recollections, 19; Life of A.B. Alcott, 220; Life of
+     Garrison, I. 212.
+
+[35] Life of Garrison, I. 223.
+
+[36] The more prominent names are herewith given as they were printed in
+     The Christian Register: Joseph Allen, J.H. Allen, S.G. Bulfinch, C.F.
+     Barnard, Charles Briggs, W.G. Babcock, C.T. Brooks, Warren Burton,
+     C.H. Brigham, Edgar Buckingham, William H. Channing, James F. Clarke,
+     S.B. Cruft, A.H. Conant, C.H.A. Dall, R. Ellis, Converse Francis,
+     James Flint, William H. Furness, N.S. Folsom, Frederick A. Farley,
+     Frederick T. Gray, Henry Giles, F.D. Huntington, E.B. Hall, N. Hall,
+     F.H. Hedge, F. Hinckley, G.W. Hosmer, F.W. Holland, Thomas Hill,
+     Sylvester Judd, James Kendall, William H. Knapp, A.A. Livermore, S.J.
+     May, Samuel May, M.I. Mott, A.B. Muzzey, J.F. Moors, Henry A. Miles,
+     William Newell, J. Osgood, S. Osgood, Andrew P. Peabody, John
+     Parkman, John Pierpont, Theodore Parker, Cyrus Pierce, J.H. Perkins,
+     Cazneau Palfey, O.W.B. Peabody, Samuel Ripley, Chandler Robbins,
+     Caleb Stetson, Oliver Stearns, Rufus P. Stebbins, Edmund Q. Sewall,
+     Charles Sewall, John T. Sargent, George F. Simmons, William Silsbee,
+     William P. Tilden, J.W. Thompson, John Weiss, Robert T. Waterston,
+     William Ware, J.F.W. Ware, E.B. Willson, Frederick A. Whitney, Jason
+     Whitman.
+
+[37] Printed in The Christian Register, October 4, 1845.
+
+[38] Quarterly Journal, III. 567.
+
+[39] Ibid., 572.
+
+[40] Unity, Sept. 4, 1886, Mrs. S.C.Ll. Jones, Historic Unitarianism in
+     the West.
+
+[41] Life of Joshua R. Giddings, 399.
+
+[42] Memoir of Charles Lowe, 486. In 1901 four of the eighteen directors
+     of the American Unitarian Association were women.
+
+[43] Life, III. 149.
+
+[44] Life of Charles Sumner, IV. 191; Works, VII. 452.
+
+[45] G.W. Curtis, Orations and Addresses, II. 30.
+
+[46] Ibid., 173.
+
+[47] Ibid., 180.
+
+[48] Ibid., 223.
+
+[49] G.W. Curtis, Orations and Addresses, II. 458.
+
+[50] See Curtis's Orations and Addresses, II.; also, his Reports as civil
+     service commissioner, and various addresses before the Social Science
+     Association.
+
+[51] Edward Cary, Life of Curtis, American Men of Letters, 294.
+
+[52] George William Curtis and Civil Service Reform, by Sherman S. Rogers,
+     in Atlantic Monthly, January, 1893, LXXI. 15.
+
+
+
+
+XVII.
+
+
+UNITARIAN MEN AND WOMEN.
+
+Many of the most influential Americans have been in practical accord with
+Unitarianism, while not actually connected with Unitarian churches. They
+have accepted its principles of individual freedom, the rational
+interpretation of religion, and the necessity of bringing religious beliefs
+into harmony with modern science and philosophy. Among these may be
+properly included such men as Benjamin Franklin, John Marshall, Gerrit
+Smith, John G. Whittier, William Lloyd Garrison, Andrew D. White, and
+Abraham Lincoln. Whittier was a Friend, and White an Episcopalian; but the
+religion of both is acceptable to all Unitarians. Marshall was undoubtedly
+a Unitarian in his intellectual convictions, and he sometimes attended the
+Unitarian church in Washington; but his church affiliations were with the
+Episcopalians. John C. Calhoun was all his life a member of an Episcopal
+church and a communicant in it; but he frequently attended the Unitarian
+church in Washington, and intellectually he discarded the doctrines taught
+in the creeds of his church.
+
+Lincoln belonged to no church, and had no interest in the forms and
+disputes that constitute so large a part of outward religion; but he was
+one of those men whose great deeds rest on a basis of simple but
+profoundest religious conviction. The most explicit statement he ever made
+of his faith was in these words: "I have never united myself to any church,
+because I have found difficulty in giving my assent, without mental
+reservation, to the long, complicated statements of Christian doctrine
+which characterize their articles of belief and confessions of faith. When
+any church will inscribe over its altar, as its sole qualification of
+membership, the Saviour's condensed statement of both law and gospel, 'Thou
+shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and
+with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself,' that church will I join
+with all my heart and all my soul."[1] This declaration brings Lincoln
+into fullest harmony with the position of the Unitarian churches.
+
+[Sidenote: Eminent Statesmen.]
+
+The intellectual tendencies of the eighteenth century led many of the
+leading Americans to discard the Puritan habit of mind and the religious
+beliefs it had cherished. An intellectual revolt caused the rejection of
+many of the Protestant doctrines, and a political revolt in the direction
+of democracy led to the acceptance of religious principles not in harmony
+with those of the past. Many Americans shared in these protests who did not
+openly break with the older faiths. Washington was of this class; for,
+while he remained outwardly a churchman, he had little intellectual or
+practical sympathy with the stricter beliefs. Franklin was thoroughly of
+the Deistic faith of the thinkers of England and France in his time. These
+tendencies had their effect upon such men as John Adams, Timothy Pickering,
+Joseph Story, and Theophilus Parsons, as well as upon Thomas Jefferson and
+William Cranch. They showed themselves with especial prominence in the case
+of Jefferson, who always remained outwardly faithful to the state religion
+of Virginia, in which he had been educated, attended the Episcopal church
+in the neighborhood of his home, sometimes joining in its communion, but
+who was, nevertheless, intellectually a pronounced Unitarian.
+
+With Jefferson his Unitarianism was a part of his democracy, for he was
+consistent enough to make his religion and his politics agree with each
+other. As he would have kings no longer rule over men, but give political
+power into the hands of the people, so in religion he would put aside all
+theologians and priests, and permit the people to worship in their own way.
+It was for this reason that he rejoiced in the emancipating work of
+Channing, of which he wrote in 1822, "I rejoice that in this blessed
+country of free inquiry and belief, which has surrendered its creeds and
+conscience neither to kings nor priests, the genuine doctrine of only one
+God is reviving; and I trust there is not a young man now living who will
+not die a Unitarian."[2] Jefferson's revolt against authority was tersely
+expressed in his declaration: "Had there never been a commentator, there
+never would have been an infidel."[3] This was in harmony with his
+saying, that "the doctrines of Jesus are simple and tend all to the
+happiness of man."[4] It also fully agrees with the claims of the early
+Unitarians with regard to the teachings of Jesus. "No one sees with greater
+pleasure than myself," he wrote, "the progress of reason in its advance
+toward rational Christianity. When we shall have done away with the
+incomprehensible jargon of the Trinitarian arithmetic, that three are one,
+and one are three; when we shall have knocked down the artificial
+scaffolding reared to mask from view the simple structure of Jesus; when,
+in short, we shall have unlearned everything taught since his day, and got
+back to the pure and simple doctrines he inculcated--we shall then be truly
+and worthily his disciples; and my opinion is that, if nothing had ever
+been added to what flowed purely from his lips, the whole world would at
+this day have been Christian."[5]
+
+However mistaken Jefferson may have been in the historical opinions thus
+expressed, we cannot question the sincerity of his beliefs or fail to
+recognize that he had the keenest interest in whatever gave indication of
+the growth of a rational spirit in religion. These opinions he shared with
+many of the leading men of his time; but he was more outspoken in their
+utterance, as he was more consistent in holding them. That Washington,
+though remaining an Episcopalian, was in fullest accord with Jefferson in
+his principles of toleration and religious freedom, is apparent from one of
+his letters. "I am not less ardent in my wish," he wrote, "that you may
+succeed in your toleration in religious matters. Being no bigot myself to
+any mode of worship, I am disposed to indulge the professors of
+Christianity in the church with that road to heaven which to them shall
+seem the most direct, easiest, and least liable to exception."[6]
+Intellectually, Franklin was a Deist of essentially the same beliefs with
+Jefferson, as may be seen in his statement of faith: "I believe in one God,
+the creator of the universe; that he governs it by his providence; that he
+ought to be worshipped; that the most acceptable service we render to him
+is doing good to his other children; that the soul of man is immortal, and
+will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in
+this. These I take to be the fundamental points in all sound religion. As
+to Jesus of Nazareth, I think his system of morals and his religion, as he
+left them to us, the best the world ever saw, or is likely to see; but I
+apprehend it has received various corrupting changes, and I have some
+doubts of his divinity; though it is a question I do not dogmatize upon,
+having never studied it."[7] Franklin was a member of a Unitarian church
+in London.
+
+[Sidenote: Some Representative Unitarians.]
+
+The church in Washington, not having been popular or of fine appointments,
+has been a test of the Unitarian faith of those frequenting the capital
+city. It has included in its congregation, from time to time, such men as
+John Adams, John Quincy Adams,[8] John Marshall, Joseph Story, Samuel F.
+Miller, Millard Fillmore, William Cranch, George Bancroft, Nathan K. Hall,
+James Moore Wayne, and Senators Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, William S.
+Archer, Henry B. Anthony, William B. Allison, Timothy O. Howe, Edward
+Everett, Justin S. Morrill, Charles Sumner, William E. Chandler, George F.
+Hoar, and John P. Hale. William Winston Seaton and Joseph Gales, once
+prominent in Washington as editors and publishers of The National
+Intelligencer, were both Unitarians.
+
+In New York the Unitarian churches have had among their attendants and
+members such persons as William Cullen Bryant, Catherine M. Sedgwick, Henry
+D. Sedgwick, Henry Wheaton, Peter Cooper, George William Curtis, George
+Ticknor Curtis, Moses H. Grinnell, Dorman B. Eaton, and Joseph H. Choate.
+The churches in Salem have had connected with them such men as John Prince,
+Nathaniel Bowditch, Benjamin Peirce, Timothy Pickering, John Pickering,
+Leverett Saltonstall, Joseph Story,[9] Jones Very, William H. Prescott,
+and Nathaniel Hawthorne.[10]
+
+[Sidenote: Judges and Legislators.]
+
+During the early Unitarian period "the judges on the bench" included such
+men as Theophilus Parsons, Isaac Parker, and Lemuel Shaw, all of whom held
+the office of chief justice in Massachusetts. Other lawyers, jurists, and
+statesmen were Fisher Ames, political orator and statesman; Nathan Dane,
+who drew the ordinance for the north-western territory; Samuel Dexter,
+senator, and secretary of the treasury under John Adams; Christopher Gore,
+senator, and governor of Massachusetts; and Benjamin R. Curtis, of the
+United States Supreme Court. Other chief justices of the Supreme Court of
+Massachusetts have been George T. Bigelow, John Wells, Pliny Myrick,
+Walbridge A. Field, Charles Allen; and of associates in that court have
+been Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, Benjamin F. Thomas, Seth Ames, Samuel S.
+Wilde, Levi Lincoln, and John Lowell. Among the governors of Massachusetts
+have been Levi Lincoln, Edward Everett, John Davis, John H. Clifford, John
+A. Andrew, George S. Boutwell, John D. Long, Thomas Talbot, George D.
+Robinson, J.Q.A. Brackett, Oliver Ames, Frederic T. Greenhalge, and Roger
+Wolcott. The first mayors of Boston, John Phillips, Josiah Quincy,[11] and
+Harrison Gray Otis, were Unitarians. Then, after an interval of one year,
+followed Samuel A. Eliot and Jonathan Chapman.
+
+It has often been assumed that Unitarianism attracts only intellectual
+persons; but it also appeals to practical business men, legislators, and
+the leaders of political life. In Maine have been Vice-President Hannibal
+Hamlin, Governor Edward Kent, and Chief Justice John Appleton. In New
+Hampshire it has appealed to such men as Chief Justices Cushing, Henry A.
+Bellows, Jeremiah Smith, and, Charles Doe, as well as to Governors Onslow
+Stearns, Charles H. Bell, Benjamin F. Prescott, and Ichabod Goodwin; in
+Rhode Island, Governors Lippitt and Seth Paddelford, Chief Justices Samuel
+Ames and Samuel Eddy, General Ambrose E. Burnside, and William B. Weeden,
+historian and economist. Alphonso Taft and George Hoadly, both governors of
+Ohio, were Unitarians, as were Austin Blair, John T. Bagley, Charles S.
+May, and Henry H. Crapo, governors of Michigan. Among the prominent
+Unitarians of Iowa have been Senator William B. Allison and General George
+W. McCrary. In California may be named Leland Stanford, Horace Davis, Chief
+Justice W.H. Beatty, and Oscar L. Shafter of the Supreme Court.
+
+[Sidenote: Boston Unitarianism.]
+
+What Unitarianism has been in the lives of its men and women may be most
+conspicuously seen in Boston and the region about it, for there throughout
+the first half of the nineteenth century Unitarianism was the dominant form
+of Christianity. Of the period from 1826 to 1832, when Dr. Lyman Beecher
+was settled in Boston, Mrs. Stowe has given this testimony: "All the
+literary men of Massachusetts were Unitarians. All the trustees and
+professors of Harvard College were Unitarians. All the elite of wealth and
+fashion crowded Unitarian churches. The judges on the bench were Unitarian,
+giving decisions by which the peculiar features of church organization, so
+carefully ordained by the Pilgrim fathers, had been nullified."[12] Of the
+same period Dr. Beecher wrote, "All offices were in the hands of
+Unitarians."[13]
+
+These statements were literally true, except in so far as they implied that
+Unitarians used high positions in order to overthrow the old institutions
+of Massachusetts and substitute those of their own devising. The calmer
+judgment of the present day would not accept this conclusion, and it has no
+historic foundation. The religious development of Boston brought its
+churches into the acceptance of a tolerant, rational, and practical form of
+Christianity, that was not dogmatic or sectarian. It took the Unitarian
+name, but only in the sense of rejecting the harsher interpretations of the
+doctrine of the Trinity and of election. The members of the Unitarian
+churches during this period were devout in an unostentatious manner, pious
+after a simple fashion, loyal Christians without excess of zeal, lovers of
+liberty, but in a conservative spirit. This simple form of piety enabled
+the men who accepted it to govern the state in a most faithful manner. They
+managed its affairs justly, wisely, and in the true intent of economy.
+Sometimes it was complained that they held a much larger number of offices
+than was their proportion according to population; but to this John G.
+Palfrey replied that the people of the state had confidence in them, and
+elected them because nobody else governed so well.
+
+With the aid of the biography of James Sullivan, judge, legislator,
+attorney-general, and diplomatist,[14] we may study the constituency of a
+single church in Boston, the Brattle Street Church. We find there James
+Bowdoin and John Hancock, rival candidates for the position of governor of
+the state in 1785. The same rivalry occurred twenty years later between
+James Sullivan and Caleb Strong, both of the number of its communicants. On
+the parish committee of this church at one time were Hancock, Bowdoin, and
+Sullivan, who became governors of the state, and Judges Wendell and John
+Lowell.[15] Some years later there were included in the congregation such
+men as Daniel Webster, Harrison Gray Otis, Abbott Lawrence, and Amos
+Lawrence, who was one of the deacons for many years.
+
+Of the distinguished business men of Boston may be named John Amory Lowell,
+John C. Amory, Jonathan Phillips (the confidential friend and supporter of
+Dr. Channing), Thomas Wigglesworth, J. Huntington Wolcott, Augustus
+Hemenway, Stephen C. Phillips, and Thomas Tileston. Francis Cabot Lowell
+was largely concerned in building up the manufacturing interests of
+Massachusetts, especially the cotton industry; and the city of Lowell took
+his name in recognition of the importance of his leadership in this
+direction. For similar reasons the city of Lawrence was named after Abbott
+Lawrence, minister of the United States to Great Britain, who was one of
+the leading merchants of Boston in the China trade, and was also largely
+concerned in the development of cotton manufacturing. With these business
+and manufacturing interests Amos Lawrence was also connected. Nathan
+Appleton[16] was associated with Francis C. Lowell in the establishment of
+the great manufacturing interests that have been a large source of the
+wealth of Massachusetts. Thomas H. Perkins, from whom was named the Perkins
+Institute for the Blind, was also concerned in the China trade and in the
+first development of railroads. Robert Gould Shaw was another leading
+merchant, who left a large sum of money for the benefit of the children of
+mariners. John Murray Forbes was a builder of railroads, notably active in
+the financial support of the national government during the civil war, and
+a generous friend of noble men and interests.[17] Nathaniel Thayer was a
+manager of railroads, erected Thayer Hall at Harvard College, and bore the
+expenses of Agassiz's expedition to South America.
+
+A Boston man by birth and training, who knew the defects as well as the
+merits of the class of men and women who have been named, has given
+generous testimony to the high qualities of mind and heart possessed by
+these Unitarians. In writing of his maternal grandfather, Octavius Brooks
+Frothingham has said: "Peter C. Brooks was an admirable example of the
+Unitarian laymen of that period, industrious, honest, faithful in all
+relations of life, charitable, public-spirited, intelligent, sagacious,
+mingling the prudence of the man of affairs with the faith of the
+Christian.... As one recalls the leading persons in Brattle Street, Federal
+Street, Chauncy Place, King's Chapel, the New North, the New South,--men
+like Adams, Eliot, Perkins, Bumstead, Lawrence, Sullivan, Jackson, Judge
+Shaw, Daniel Webster, Jacob Bigelow, T.B. Wales, Dr. Bowditch,--forms of
+dignity and of worth rise before the mind. Better men there are not. More
+honorable men, according to the standard of the time, there are not likely
+to be.... He joined the church and was a consistent church member. He was
+not effusive, demonstrative, or loud-voiced. His name did not stand high on
+church lists or among the patrons of the faith. His was the calm, rational,
+sober belief of the thoughtful, educated, honorable men of his day,--men
+like Lemuel Shaw, Joseph Story, Daniel A. White,--intellectual, noble
+people, with worthy aims, a lofty sense of duty, a strong conviction of the
+essential truths of revealed Christianity; sincere believers in the gospel,
+of enduring principle, of pure, consistent, blameless life and conduct.
+Speculative theology he cared little or nothing about. He was no disputant,
+no doubter, no casuist; of the heights of mysticism, of the depths of
+infidelity, he knew nothing. He was conservative, of course, from
+temperament rather than from inquiry. He took the literal, prose view of
+Calvinism, and rejected doctrines which did not commend themselves to his
+common sense. In a word, he was a Unitarian of the old school.... The
+Unitarian laity in general, both men and women, had a genuine desire to
+render the earthly lot of mankind more tolerable. It is not too much to say
+that they started every one of our best secular charities. They were
+exceedingly liberal in their gifts to Harvard College, and to other
+colleges as well--for they were not at all sectarian, as their large
+subscriptions to the Roman Catholic cathedral proved. Whatever tended to
+exalt humanity, in their view, was encouraged. They were as noble a set of
+men and women as ever lived."[18]
+
+This estimate of the Unitarians of Boston during the first half of the
+nineteenth century is eminently just and accurate. To a large extent these
+men and their associates in the Unitarian churches gave to the city its
+worth and its character; and they built up the industries, the commerce,
+the educational and philanthropic interests, and the progressive
+legislation of Massachusetts. They were men of integrity and sincerity, who
+were generous, faithful, and just. They accepted the religion of the
+spirit, and they gave it expression in daily conduct and character.
+
+[1] F.B. Carpenter, Six Months in the White House, 190.
+
+[2] James Parton, Life of Thomas Jefferson, 711.
+
+[3] Charles W. Upham, Life of Timothy Pickering, IV. 327.
+
+[4] P.L. Ford's edition Jefferson's Works, X.220.
+
+[5] Life of Pickering, IV. 326.
+
+[6] P.L. Ford, The True George Washington, 81.
+
+[7] P.L. Ford, The Many-sided Franklin, 174. See Diary of Ezra Stiles,
+    III. 387.
+
+[8] John Quincy Adams, in reply to a question about the church in
+    Washington, said: "I go there to church, although I am not decided in
+    my mind as to all the controverted doctrines of religion." Years
+    later he said to a preacher in the Unitarian church at Quincy: "I
+    agree entirely with the ground you took in your discourse. You did
+    not speak of any particular class of doctrines that were everlasting,
+    but of the great, fundamental principles in which all Christians
+    agree; and these, I think, are what will be permanent." See A.B.
+    Muzzey, Reminiscences and Memorials of the Men of the Revolution and
+    their Families, 53.
+
+[9] William W. Story, Life and Letters of Joseph Story, 57, 93. Joseph
+    Story grew away from Calvinism in early manhood, and accepted a
+    humanitarian view of the nature of Christ. "No man was ever more free
+    from a spirit of bigotry and proselytism," says his biographer. "He
+    gladly allowed every one freedom of belief and claimed only that it
+    should be a genuine conviction and not a mere theologic opinion,
+    considering the true faith of every man to be the necessary exponent
+    of his nature, and honoring a religious life more than a formal
+    creed. He admitted within the pale of salvation Mohammedan and
+    Christian, Catholic and infidel. He believed that whatever is sincere
+    and honest is recognized by God--that as the views of any sect are
+    but human opinion, susceptible of error on every side, it behooves
+    all men to be on their guard against arrogance of belief--and that in
+    the sight of God it is not the truth or falsehood of our views, but
+    the spirit in which we believe which alone is of vital consequence.
+    His moral sense was not satisfied with a theory of religion founded
+    upon the depravity of man and recognizing an austere and vengeful
+    God, nor could he give his metaphysical assent to the doctrine of the
+    Trinity. In the doctrines of liberal Christianity he found the
+    resolution of his doubts, and from the moment he embraced the
+    Unitarian faith he became a warm and unhesitating believer."
+
+[10] For an interesting picture of New England Unitarianism see
+     Recollections of my Mother (Mrs. Anne Jean Lyman), by Mrs. J.P.
+     Lesley. Mrs. Lyman's home was in Northampton, Mass. The Reminiscences
+     of Caroline C. Briggs describe life in the same town and under
+     similar conditions. Also Memoir of Mary L. Ware, Memorial of Joseph
+     and Lucy Clark Allen by their Children, and Life of Dr. Samuel
+     Willard.
+
+[11] Edmund Quincy, Life of Josiah Quincy, 532. In a speech to the
+     overseers of Harvard University in 1845, Josiah Quincy said: "I never
+     did and never will call myself a Unitarian; because the name has the
+     aspect, and is loaded by the world with the imputation of
+     sectarianism." His biographer says: "He regarded differences as of
+     slight importance, especially as to matters beyond the grasp of the
+     human intellect. His catholicity of spirit fraternized with all who
+     profess to call themselves Christians, and who prove their title to
+     the name by their lives." It was precisely this catholicity of spirit
+     that was the most characteristic feature of early American
+     Unitarianism, and not the rejection of the doctrine of the Trinity.
+     However, Josiah Quincy was undoubtedly a Unitarian, both in what he
+     rejected and in what he affirmed, as may be seen from these words
+     recorded in his diary in 1854: "From the doctrines with which
+     metaphysical divines have chosen to obscure the word of God,--such as
+     predestination, election, reprobation, etc.,--I turn with loathing to
+     the refreshing assurance which, to my mind, contains the substance of
+     revealed religion,--in every nation he who feareth God, and worketh
+     righteousness, is accepted of him."
+
+[12] Autobiography, Correspondence, etc., of Lyman Beecher, II. 109.
+
+[13] Ibid., 144.
+
+[14] Thomas C. Amory. Life of James Sullivan.
+
+[15] John Lowell, a son of Judge John Lowell, and a brother of Dr. Charles
+     Lowell of the West Church, was the author of an effective
+     controversial pamphlet entitled Are you a Christian or a Calvinist?
+     Or do you prefer the Authority of Christ to that of the Genevan
+     Reformer? Both the Form and Spirit of these Questions being suggested
+     by the Late Review of American Unitarianism in The Panoplist, and by
+     the Rev. Mr. Worcester's Letter to Mr. Channing. By a Layman. Boston,
+     1815.
+
+[16] Nathan Appleton's interest in theology may be seen in his book
+     entitled The Doctrine of Original Sin and the Trinity, discussed in a
+     Correspondence between a Clergyman of the Episcopal Church, in
+     England, and a Layman of Boston, United States, published in Boston
+     in 1859. "I was brought up," he said in one of these letters, "in the
+     strictest form of Calvinistic Congregationalism; but since arriving
+     at an age capable of examining the subject, and after a careful study
+     of it, I have renounced what appear to me unworthy views of the
+     Deity, for a system which appears to me more worthy of him, and less
+     abhorrent to human reason." "I can say," he wrote in another letter,
+     "that the Unitarian party embraces the most intelligent and
+     high-minded portion of the community. It is my opinion that the views
+     of the Unitarians are the best and only security against the spirit
+     of infidelity which is prevailing so extensively amongst the most
+     highly educated and intelligent men in Europe." See Memoir of Nathan
+     Appleton, by Robert C. Winthrop.
+
+[17] John Murray Forbes: Letters and Recollections, edited by his
+     daughter, Sarah Forbes Hughes.
+
+[18] Boston Unitarianism, 93, 94, 101, 127.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII.
+
+
+UNITARIANS AND EDUCATION.
+
+The interest of Unitarians in education has always been very great, but it
+has not been in the direction of building and fostering sectarian
+institutions. As a body, Unitarians have not only been opposed to
+denominational colleges, but they have been leaders in promoting
+unsectarian education. Freedom of academic teaching and the scientific
+study of theology may be found where Unitarianism has no existence, and yet
+it is significant that in this country such mental liberty should have
+first found expression under Unitarian auspices. From the first, American
+Unitarianism has been unsectarian and liberty-loving, taking an attitude of
+toleration, free investigation, and loyalty to truth. That it has always
+been faithful to its ideal cannot be maintained, and yet its history shows
+that the open-mindedness and the spirit of freedom have never been wholly
+ignored.
+
+[Sidenote: Pioneers of the Higher Criticism.]
+
+The attitude of the early Unitarians towards the Bible, their trust in it
+as the revealed word of God and the source of divine authority in all
+matters of faith, and their confidence that a return to its simple
+principles would liberate men from superstition and bigotry, naturally made
+them the first to welcome the higher criticism of the Bible in this
+country. Such men as Noah Worcester and his successors brought to the Bible
+new and common-sense interpretations, and began the work of pointing out
+the defects in the common version. The Unitarians were not hampered by the
+theory of the verbal infallibility of the Bible; and they were therefore
+prepared to advance the critical work of the scholars, as it came to them
+from England and Germany, as was no other religious body in this country.
+
+Joseph, S. Buckminster was an enthusiastic student of the Bible, securing
+when in Europe all the apparatus of the more advanced criticism that could
+then be procured; and after his return to Boston he gave his attention to
+bringing out the New Testament in the most scholarly form that was then
+possible. In 1808, in connection with William Wells, and under the
+patronage of Harvard College, he republished Griesbach's Greek Testament,
+with a selection of the most important various readings. He also formed a
+plan of publishing in this country all the best modern English versions of
+the Hebrew prophets, with introductions and notes; but he did not find the
+necessary support for this project. In The Monthly Anthology and in The
+General Repository he "first discussed subjects of Biblical criticism in a
+spirit of philosophical and painstaking learning, and took the critical
+study of the Scriptures from the old basis on which it had rested during
+the Arminian discussions and placed it on the solid foundation of the text
+of the New Testament as settled by Wetstein and Griesbach, and elucidated
+by the labors of Michaelis, Marsh, Rosenmueller, and by the safe and wise
+learning of Grotius, Le Clerc, and Simon." "It has," wrote George Ticknor,
+"in our opinion, hardly been permitted to any other man to render so
+considerable a service as this to Christianity in the western world."[1]
+In 1811 Mr. Buckminster was made the first lecturer in Biblical criticism
+at Harvard, on, the foundation established by the gift of Samuel Dexter;
+and he entered with great interest and enthusiasm upon the work of
+preparing for the duties of this office. We are assured that "this
+appointment was universally thought to be an honor most justly due to his
+pre-eminent attainments in this science";[2] but his death the next year
+brought these plans to an untimely end.
+
+To some extent the critical work of Buckminster was continued by Edward
+Everett, his successor in the Brattle Street Church. Mr. Everett's
+successor in that pulpit, Rev. John G. Palfrey, became the professor of
+sacred literature in the Harvard Divinity School in 1831, and was the dean
+of that institution. In his lectures on the Jewish Scriptures and
+Antiquities, published in four volumes, from 1833 to 1852, he gave the most
+advanced criticism of the time. A more important work was done by Professor
+Andrews Norton, who was as radical in his labors as a Biblical critic as he
+was conservative in his theology. For the time when they were published,
+his Statement of Reasons, the first edition of which appeared in 1819,
+Historical Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels, 1837-44,
+Translation of the Gospels, with Notes, 1855, Internal Evidences of the
+Genuineness of the Gospels, 1855, have not been surpassed by any other work
+done in this country. As a scholar, he was careful, thorough, honest, and
+uncompromising in his search for the truth. In an extended note added to
+the second volume of his work on the Genuineness of the Gospels he
+investigated the origin of the Pentateuch and the validity of its
+historical statements. He showed that the work could not have bee its man
+written by Moses, that it was a compilation from prior accounts, and that
+its marvels were not to be accepted as authentic history.[3] In dealing
+with the New Testament, Professor Norton discarded the first two chapters
+of Matthew, regarding them as later additions. Frothingham speaks of Norton
+as "an accomplished and elegant scholar," and says that his interpretations
+of the Bible were by Unitarians "tacitly received as final." "He was the
+great authority, as bold, fearless, truthful, as he was exact and
+careful."[4] Although these words of praise intimate that Unitarians were
+too ready to accept the conclusions of Professor Norton as needing no
+emendation, yet his work was searching in its character and thoroughly
+sincere in its methods. Considering the general attitude of scholarship in
+his day, it was bold and uncompromising, as well as accurate and just.
+
+Another scholar was George Rapall Noyes, who was a country pastor in
+Brookfield and Petersham from 1827 to 1840, and devoted his leisure to
+Biblical studies. He became the professor of Hebrew and, lecturer on
+Biblical Literature in the Harvard Divinity School in 1840. His
+translations, with notes, of the poetical books of the Old Testament,
+beginning with Job in 1827, were of great importance as aids, to the
+interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures. His translation of the New
+Testament, which appeared after his death, in 1868, gave the best results
+of critical studies in homely prose, and with painstaking fidelity to the
+original. That Noyes was in advance of the criticism of his time may be
+indicated by the fact that, when he published his conclusions in regard to
+the Messianic prophecies in 1834,[5] he was threatened with an indictment
+for blasphemy by the attorney-general of Massachusetts. Better judgment
+prevailed against this attempt to coerce opinion, but that such an
+indictment was seriously considered shows how little genuine criticism
+there was then in existence. What are now the commonplaces of scholarship
+were then regarded as destructive and blasphemous. Noyes said that the
+truth of the Christian religion does not in any sense depend upon the
+literal fulfilment of any predictions in the Old Testament by Jesus as a
+person.[6] He said that the apostles partook of the errors and prejudices
+of their age,[7] that the commonly received doctrine of the inspiration
+of the whole Bible is a millstone about the neck of Christianity,[8] and
+that the Bible contains much that cannot be regarded as revelation.[9]
+Even as early as 1835 these opinions were generally accepted by Unitarians;
+and they were not thought to impair the true worth of the spiritual
+revelation contained in the Bible, and especially not the divine nature of
+the teachings of Christ. It was very important, as Dr. Joseph Henry Allen
+has said, in speaking of Norton and Noyes, that "these decisive first steps
+were taken by deliberate, conscientious, conservative scholars,--the best
+and soberest scholars we had to show."[10]
+
+The work of Ezra Abbot especially deserves notice here, because of "the
+variety and extent of his learning, the retentiveness and accuracy of his
+memory, the penetration and fairness of his judgment."[11] For fourteen
+years previous to his death, in 1884, he was the professor of New Testament
+criticism and interpretation in the Harvard Divinity School. He also
+rendered important service as a member of the American committee on the
+revision of the New Testament. His essay on The Authorship of the Fourth
+Gospel was one of the ablest statements of the conservative view of the
+origin of that writing. The volume of his Critical Essays, collected after
+his death, shows the ripe fruits of his "punctilious and vigilant
+scholarship." He was a zealous Unitarian, and did much to show that the New
+Testament is in harmony with that faith. In 1843 Rev. Theodore Parker
+published his translation of De Wette's Introduction to the New Testament,
+with learned notes. The extreme views of Baur and Zeller were interpreted
+by Rev. O.B. Frothingham in his The Cradle of the Christ, 1872.
+
+Various attempts were also made by those who were not professional scholars
+to bring the Bible into harmony with modern religious ideas. One of the
+most notable of these was that of Dr. William Henry Furness, pastor of the
+church in Philadelphia from 1825 to 1875. His Remarks on the Four Gospels
+appeared in 1835, and was followed by Jesus and his Biographers, 1838,
+Thoughts on the Life and Character of Jesus of Nazareth, 1859, and The Veil
+Partly Lifted and Jesus Becoming Visible, 1864, as well as several other
+works. His attempt was to give a rational interpretation of the life of
+Jesus that should largely eliminate the miraculous and yet preserve the
+spiritual. These works have little critical value, and yet they have much
+of charm and suggestiveness as religious expositions of the Gospels. Of
+somewhat the same nature was Dr. Edmund H. Sears's The Fourth Gospel: The
+Heart of Christ, 1872, a work of deep spiritual insight.
+
+[Sidenote: The Catholic Influence of Harvard University.]
+
+The catholic and inclusive spirit manifested by the Unitarians in their
+Biblical studies is worthy of notice, however, much more than any definite
+results of scholarship produced by them. In the cultivation of the broader
+academic fields which their control of Harvard University brought within
+their reach this attitude is especially conspicuous. At no time since it
+came under their administration has it been used for sectarian purposes, to
+make proselytes or to compel acceptance of their theology. During the first
+half of the nineteenth century, Harvard was in some degree distinctly
+Unitarian; but since 1870 it has been wholly non-sectarian. When the
+Divinity School was organized, it was provided in its constitution that no
+denominational requirements should be exacted of professors or students;
+yet the school was essentially Unitarian until 1878. In that year the
+president, Charles W. Eliot, asked of Unitarians the sum of $130,000 as an
+endowment for the school; but he insisted that it should be henceforth
+wholly unsectarian, and this demand was received with approval and
+enthusiasm by Unitarians themselves.
+
+In 1879 President Eliot said at a meeting held in the First Church in
+Boston for the purpose of appealing to Unitarians in behalf of the school:
+"The Harvard Divinity School is not distinctly Unitarian either by its
+constitution or by the intention of its founders. The doctrines of the
+unsectarian sect, called in this century Unitarians, are indeed entitled to
+respectful consideration in the school so long as it exists, simply because
+the school was founded, and for two generations, at least, has been
+supported, by Unitarians. But the government of the University cannot
+undertake to appoint none but Unitarian teachers, or to grant any peculiar
+favors to Unitarian students. They cannot, because the founders of the
+school, themselves Unitarians, imposed upon the University the following
+fundamental rule for its administration: that every encouragement shall be
+given to the serious, impartial, and unbiassed investigation of Christian
+truth, and that no assent to the peculiarities of any denomination of
+Christians shall be required either of the instructors or students."[12]
+Dr. Charles Carroll Everett, dean of the school from 1878 to 1900, has said
+that "in some respects it differs from every other theological seminary in
+the country." "No pains are taken to learn the denominational relations of
+students even when they are applicants for aid." "No oversight is exercised
+over the instruction of any teacher. No teacher is responsible for any
+other or to any other."[13]
+
+In 1886 compulsory attendance upon prayers was abolished at Harvard
+University. Religious services are regularly held every week-day morning,
+on Thursday afternoons, and on Sunday evenings, being conducted by the
+Plummer professor of Christian morals, with the co-operation of five other
+preachers, who, as well as the Plummer professor, are selected irrespective
+of denominational affiliations. In this and other ways the university has
+made itself thoroughly unsectarian. Its attitude is that of scientific
+investigation, open-mindedness towards all phases of truth, and freedom of
+teaching. Theology is thus placed on the same basis with other branches of
+knowledge, and religion is made independent of merely dogmatic
+considerations.
+
+This undenominational temper at Harvard University has been developed
+largely under Unitarian auspices. Its presidents for nearly a century have
+been Unitarians, namely: John T. Kirkland, 1810-28; Josiah Quincy, 1829-45;
+Edward Everett, 1846-49; Jared Sparks, 1849-53; James Walker, 1853-60;
+Cornelius C. Felton, 1860-62; Thomas Hill, 1862-68; and Charles W. Eliot
+since 1869. Kirkland, Everett, Sparks, Walker, and Hill were Unitarian
+ministers; but under their administration the university was as little
+sectarian as at any other time.
+
+When the new era of university growth began in 1865, with the founding of
+Cornell University, the influence of Harvard was widely felt in the
+development of great unsectarian educational institutions. Although Ezra
+Cornell was educated as a Friend, he was expelled from that body, and
+connected himself with no other religious sect. He was essentially a
+Unitarian, often attending the preaching of Dr. Rufus P. Stebbins. The
+university which took his name was inspired with the Harvard ideal, and,
+while recognizing religion as one of the great essential phases of human
+thought and life, gave and continues to give equal opportunity to all
+sects.
+
+Another instance of the same spirit is Washington University, which began
+under Unitarian auspices, but soon developed into an entirely
+undenominational institution. Members of the Unitarian church in St. Louis
+secured a charter for a seminary, which in 1853 was organized as the
+Washington Institute. In 1857 it was reorganized as Washington University,
+and the charter declared, "No instruction, either sectarian in religion or
+party in politics, shall be allowed in any department of said university,
+and no sectarian or party test shall be allowed in the selection of
+professors, teachers, or other officers of said university or in the
+admission of scholars thereof, or for any purpose whatever." Sectarian
+prejudice, however, regarded the university as essentially Unitarian; and
+for the first twenty years of its existence three-fourths of the gifts and
+endowments came from persons of that religious body.
+
+Although Dr. William G. Eliot knew nothing of the original movement for
+forming a seminary under liberal auspices, he gave the institution his
+unstinted support and encouragement. He was the president of the board of
+management from the first, and in 1871 he became the chancellor. At his
+death, in 1887, the university included Smith Academy, Mary Institute, and
+a manual training school, these being large preparatory schools; the
+college proper, school of engineering, Henry Shaw school of botany, St.
+Louis school of fine arts, law school, medical school, and dental college.
+It then had sixteen hundred students and one hundred and sixty instructors.
+The endowments have since been largely increased, the number of students
+has increased to two thousand, and important new buildings have been added.
+Dr. Eliot gave the university its direction and its unsectarian methods,
+and it has attained its present position because of his devoted labors. The
+Leland Stanford Jr. University in California, and Clark University in
+Massachusetts, both founded by Unitarians, further illustrate the Harvard
+spirit in education.
+
+[Sidenote: The Work of Horace Mann.]
+
+Horace Mann was an earnest and devoted Unitarian, the intimate friend of
+Channing and Parker, to both of whom he was largely indebted for his
+intellectual and spiritual ideals. He was inspired by their ideas of reform
+and progress, and to their personal sympathy he owed much. It is now
+universally conceded that to him we are indebted for the diffusion of the
+common-school idea throughout the country, that he developed and brought to
+full expression the conception of universal education. In full sympathy
+with him in this work were such men as Dr. Channing, Edward Everett,
+Theodore Parker, Josiah Quincy, Samuel J. May, and the younger Robert
+Rantoul; but he made the common school popular, and put it forward as a
+national institution. When Mann became the secretary of the Massachusetts
+Board of Education on its creation, in 1837, the theory that all children
+should be educated by the state, if not otherwise provided for, was by no
+means generally accepted; nor was it an accepted theory that such education
+should be strictly unsectarian.[14] Mann fought the battle for these two
+ideas, and virtually established them for the whole nation. On the first
+board one-half the members were Unitarians,--Horace Mann, the younger
+Robert Rantoul, Jared Sparks, and Edmund Dwight. Some of the staunchest and
+most devoted and most liberal friends of Mann were of other denominations;
+but the work for common schools was thoroughly in harmony with Unitarian
+principles. Edmund Dwight was largely instrumental in securing the
+establishment of a Board of Education in Massachusetts, and he brought
+about the election of Horace Mann to fill the position of its secretary. He
+was a leading merchant in Boston, and his house was a centre for meetings
+and consultations relating to educational interests. He contributed freely
+for the purpose of enlarging and improving the state system of common
+schools, his donations amounting to not less than $35,000.[15]
+
+The first person to clearly advocate the establishment of schools for the
+training of teachers was Rev. Charles Brooks, minister of the Second
+Unitarian Church in Hingham from 1821 to 1839, afterwards professor of
+natural history in the University of the City of New York, and a reformer
+and author of some reputation in his day. In 1834 he began to write and
+lecture in behalf of common schools, and especially in the interest of
+normal schools.[16] He spoke throughout the state in behalf of training
+schools, with which he had become acquainted in Prussia; he went before the
+legislature on this subject; and he carried his labors into other
+states.[17]
+
+Horace Mann took up the idea of professional schools for teachers and made
+it effective. Edmund Dwight gave $10,000 to the state for this purpose, and
+schools were established in 1838. When the first of these normal schools
+opened in Lexington, July 3, 1839, its principal was Rev. Cyrus Peirce, who
+had been the minister of the Unitarian church in North Reading from 1819 to
+1829, and then had been a teacher in North Andover and Nantucket. "Had it
+not been for Cyrus Peirce," wrote Henry Barnard, "I consider the cause of
+Normal Schools would have failed or have been postponed for an indefinite
+period."[18] Dr. William T. Harris has said that "all Normal School work
+in this country follows substantially one tradition, and this traces back
+to the course laid down by Cyrus Peirce."[19] In the Lexington school
+Peirce was succeeded by Samuel J. May, who had been settled over Unitarian
+churches in Brooklyn and Scituate.[20]
+
+The work done by Horace Mann for education includes his labors as president
+of Antioch College from 1852 to 1859. He maintained that the chief end of
+education is the development of character; and he sought to make the
+college an altruistic community, in which teachers and students should
+labor together for the best good of all. He put into practice the
+nonsectarian principle, made the college coeducational, and developed the
+spirit of individual freedom as one of cardinal importance in education.
+"The ideas for which he stood," has written one who has carefully studied
+his work in all its phases, "spread abroad among the people of the Ohio
+valley, and showed themselves in various state institutions, normal
+schools, and high schools that were planted in the central west.
+Altogether, apart from Mr. Mann's visible work in Antioch College may be
+found agencies which he set at work, whose influence only eternity can
+measure. It was a great thing to the new west that a high standard of
+scholarship should be placed before her sons and daughters, and that a few
+hundred of them should be sent out into every corner of the state, and
+ultimately to the farthest boundaries of the nation, with a sound
+scholarship and a love for truth there and then wholly new. His reputation
+for scholarship and zeal gave his opinions greater weight than those of
+almost any other man in the country. As a result the most radical
+educational ideas were received from him with respect; and he carried
+forward the work of giving a practical embodiment to co-education,
+non-sectarianism, and the requirements of practical and efficient moral
+character, as perhaps no other educator could have done. His influence
+among people, and the aspirations which he kindled in thousands of minds by
+public addresses and personal contact, did for the people of the Ohio
+valley a work, the extent and value of which can never be measured."[21]
+
+[Sidenote: Elizabeth Peabody and the Kindergarten.]
+
+Horace Mann was largely influenced by Dr. Channing throughout his career as
+an educational reformer,[22] as was his wife and her sister, Elizabeth P.
+Peabody. It was to Channing that Miss Peabody owed her interest in the work
+of education; and his teachings brought her naturally into association with
+Bronson Alcott, and made her the leader in introducing the kindergarten
+into this country. She was influenced by the kindergarten method, at an
+early date, and she gave years of devoted labor to its extension. In
+connection with her sister, Mrs. Horace Mann, she wrote Culture in Infancy,
+1863, Guide to the Kindergarten, 1877, and Letters to Kindergartners, 1886.
+As a result of her enthusiastic efforts, kindergartens were opened in
+Boston in 1864; and it was in 1871 that she organized the American Froebel
+Union, which became the kindergarten department of the National Educational
+Association in 1885. The Kindergarten Messenger was begun by her in 1873,
+and was continued under her editorship until 1877, when it was merged in
+The New Education.
+
+Miss Peabody's Kindergarten Guide has been described as one of the most
+important original contributions made to the literature of the subject in
+this country. Her name is most intimately associated with the educational
+progress of the country because of her enthusiasm for the right training of
+children and her spiritual insight as a teacher.
+
+[Sidenote: Work of Unitarian Women for Education.]
+
+Much has been done by Unitarian women to advance the cause of education.
+The conversations of Margaret Fuller, held in Boston from 1839 to 1844,
+were an important influence in awakening women to larger intellectual
+interests; and many of those who attended them were afterwards active in
+promoting the educational enterprises of the city. In 1873 Miss Abby
+Williams May, Mrs. Ann Adeline Badger, Miss Lucretia Crocker, and Miss
+Lucia M. Peabody were elected members of the school committee of Boston,
+but did not serve, as their right to act in that capacity was questioned.
+Thereupon the legislature took action, making women eligible to the office.
+The next year Misses May, Crocker, and Peabody, with Mrs. Kate Gannett
+Wells, Mrs. Mary Safford Blake, and Miss Lucretia Hale, were elected, and
+served. In 1875 Misses Crocker, Hale, May, and Peabody were re-elected; and
+in 1876 Miss Crocker was elected one of the supervisors of the public
+schools of Boston. It is significant that the first women to hold these
+positions were Unitarians. It is also worthy of note that Miss Sarah
+Freeman Clarke, sister of James Freeman Clarke, was the first landscape
+painter of her sex in the country; and that Mrs. Cornelia W. Walter was the
+first woman to edit a large daily newspaper, she having become the editor
+and manager of the Boston Transcript at an early date.
+
+In 1873 was organized by Miss Anna E. Ticknor, daughter of Professor George
+Ticknor, the historian, the Society to encourage Studies at Home. During
+the twenty-four years of its existence it conducted by correspondence the
+reading and studies of over 7,000 women in all parts of the country, and
+did an important work in enlarging the sphere of women, preparing them for
+the work of teachers and for social and intellectual service in many
+directions. The society was discontinued in 1897, because, largely through
+its influence, many other agencies had come in to do the same work; but the
+large lending library, which had been an important feature of the
+activities of the society, was continued under the management of the Anna
+Ticknor Library Association until 1902. The memorial volume, published in
+1897, shows how important had been the work of the Society to encourage
+Studies at Home, and how many women, who were otherwise deprived of
+intellectual opportunities, were encouraged, helped, and inspired by it. It
+was said of Miss Ticknor, by Samuel Eliot, the president of the society
+throughout the whole period of its existence: "While appreciative of the
+restrictions which she wished to remove, she was desirous to gratify, if
+possible, the aspirations of the large number of women throughout the
+country who would fain obtain an education, and who had little, if any,
+hope of obtaining it. She was very highly educated herself, and thought
+more and more of her responsibility to share her advantages with others not
+possessing them. In addition to these moral and intellectual
+qualifications, she possessed an executive ability brought into constant
+prominence by her work as secretary of the society. She was a teacher, an
+inspirer, a comforter, and, in the best sense, a friend of many and many a
+lonely and baffled life."[23]
+
+The service of Mrs. Mary Hemenway to education also deserves recognition.
+Possessed of large wealth, she devoted it to advancing important
+educational and intellectual interests. She established the Normal School
+of Swedish Gymnastics in Boston, and provided for its maintenance until it
+was adopted by the city as a part of its educational system. With her
+financial support the Hemenway South-western Archaeological Expedition was
+carried on by Frank H. Cushing and J.W. Fewkes. It was largely because of
+her efforts that the Montana Industrial School was established, and
+maintained for about ten years. Her chief work, however, was in the
+promotion of the study of American history on the part of young persons.
+When the Old South Meeting-house was threatened with destruction, she
+contributed $100,000 towards its preservation; and by her energy and
+perseverance it was devoted to the interests of historical study. The Old
+South Lectures for Young People were organized in 1883, soon after was
+begun the publication of the Old South Leaflets, a series of historical
+prizes was provided for, the Old South Historical Society was organized,
+and historical pilgrimages were established. All this work was placed in
+charge of Mr. Edwin D. Mead; and the New England Magazine, of which he was
+the editor, gave interpretation to these various educational efforts.
+
+Mrs. Hemenway devoted her life to such works as these. It is impossible to
+enumerate here all her noble undertakings; but they were many. "Mrs.
+Hemenway was a woman whose interests and sympathies were as broad as the
+world," says Edwin D. Mead, "but she was a great patriot; and she was
+pre-eminently that. She had a reverent pride in our position of leadership
+in the history and movement of modern democracy; and she had a consuming
+zeal to keep the nation strong and worthy of its best traditions, and to
+kindle this zeal among the young people of the nation. With all her great
+enthusiasms, she was an amazingly practical and definite woman. She wasted
+no time nor strength in vague generalities, either of speech or action.
+Others might long for the time when the kingdom of God should cover the
+earth as the waters cover the sea, and she longed for it; but, while others
+longed, she devoted herself to doing what she could to bring that corner of
+God's world in which she was set into conformity with the laws of God,--and
+this by every means in her power, by teaching poor girls how to make better
+clothes and cook better dinners and make better homes, by teaching people
+to value health and respect and train their bodies and love better music
+and better pictures and be interested in more important things. Others
+might long for the parliament of man and the federation of the world, and
+so did she; but while others longed, she devoted herself to doing what she
+could to make this nation, for which she was particularly responsible,
+fitter for the federation when it comes. The good state for which she
+worked was a good Massachusetts; and her chief interest, while others
+talked municipal reform, was to make a better Boston."[24]
+
+[Sidenote: Popular Education and Public Libraries.]
+
+The interest of Unitarians in popular education and the general diffusion
+of knowledge may be further indicated by a few illustrations. One of these
+is the Lowell Institute in Boston, founded by John Lowell, son of Francis
+Cabot Lowell, and cousin of James Russell Lowell. He was a Boston merchant,
+became an extensive traveller, and died in Bombay, in 1836, at the age of
+thirty-four. In his will he left one-half his fortune for the promotion of
+popular education through lectures, and in other ways. John Amory Lowell
+became the trustee of this fund, nearly $250,000; and in December, 1839,
+the Lowell Institute began its work with a lecture by Edward Everett, which
+gave a biographical account of John Lowell, and a statement of the purposes
+of the Institute. Since that time the Lowell Institute has given to the
+people of Boston, free of charge, from fifty to one hundred lectures each
+winter. The topics treated have taken a wide range, and the lecturers have
+included many of the ablest men in this and other countries. The work of
+the Lowell Institute has also included free lectures for advanced students
+given in connection with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, science
+lectures to the teachers of Boston, and a free drawing school.
+
+In 1846 Louis Agassiz came to this country to lecture before the Lowell
+Institute. The result was that he became permanently connected with Harvard
+University, and transferred his scientific work to this country. This was
+accomplished by means of the gift of Abbott Lawrence, who founded the
+Lawrence Scientific School in 1847. Although the Lowell Institute was
+founded by a Unitarian, and although it has always been largely managed by
+Unitarians, it has been wholly unsectarian in its work. Many of its
+lecturers have been of that body, but only because they were men of science
+or of literary attainments.
+
+In 1854 Peter Cooper founded the Cooper Union in New York for the
+Advancement of Science and Art, to promote "instruction in branches of
+knowledge by which men and women earn their daily bread; in laws of health
+and improvement of the sanitary conditions of families as well as
+individuals; in social and political science, whereby communities and
+nations advance in virtue, wealth, and power; and finally in matters which
+affect the eye, the ear, and the imagination, and furnish a basis for
+recreation to the working classes." He erected a large building, and
+established therein the Cooper Institute, with its reading-room, library,
+lectures, schools, and other facilities for bringing the means of education
+within reach of those who could not otherwise obtain them.
+
+Peter Cooper was an earnest Unitarian in his opinions, attending the church
+of Dr. Bellows; but he was wholly without sectarian bias. In a letter
+addressed to the delegates to the Evangelical Alliance, at its session held
+in New York in 1873, he expressed the catholicity and the humanitarian
+spirit of his religion. "I look to see the day," he wrote, "when the
+teachers of Christianity will rise above all the cramping power and
+influence of conflicting creeds and systems of human device, when they will
+beseech mankind by all the mercies of God to be reconciled to the
+government of love, the only government that can ever bring the kingdom of
+heaven into the hearts of mankind either here or hereafter."
+
+About 1825 there was opened in Dublin, N.H., under the auspices of Rev.
+Levi W. Leonard, minister of the Unitarian church in that village, the
+first library in the country that was free to all the inhabitants of a town
+or city. In the adjoining town of Peterboro, in 1833, under the leadership
+of Rev. Abiel Abbot, also the Unitarian minister, a library was established
+by vote of the town. This library was maintained by the town itself, being
+the first in the country supported from the tax rates of a municipality. In
+the work of these Unitarian ministers may be found the beginnings of the
+present interest in the establishment and growth of free public libraries.
+
+In the founding and endowment of libraries, Unitarians have taken an active
+part. What they have done in this direction may be illustrated by the gift
+of Enoch Pratt of one and a quarter million dollars to the public library
+in Baltimore. Concerning the time when Jared Sparks was the minister of the
+Unitarian church in Baltimore, Professor Herbert B. Adams has said: "Some
+of the most generous and public-spirited people of Baltimore were connected
+with the first independent church. Afterwards, men who were to be most
+helpful in the upbuilding of Baltimore's greatest institutions--the Peabody
+Institute, the Pratt Library, and the Johns Hopkins University--were
+associated with the Unitarian society."[25]
+
+Professor Barrett Wendell speaks of George Ticknor as "the chief founder of
+the chief public library in the United States."[26] Ticknor undoubtedly
+did more than anybody else to make the Boston Public Library the great
+institution it has become, not only in giving it his own collection of
+books, but also in its inception and in its organization. The best working
+library in the country, that of the Boston Athenaeum, also owes a very
+large debt to the early Unitarians, with whom it originated, and by whom it
+was largely maintained in its early days.
+
+[Sidenote: Mayo's Southern Ministry of Education.]
+
+One of the most important contributions to the work of education has been
+that of Rev. Amory D. Mayo, known as the "Ministry of Education in the
+South." After settlements over churches in Gloucester, Cleveland, Albany,
+Cincinnati, and Springfield, Mr. Mayo began his southern work in 1880. He
+had an extensive preparation for his southern labors, having served on the
+school boards of Cincinnati and Springfield for fifteen years, lectured
+extensively on educational subjects, and been a frequent contributor to
+educational periodicals. He has written a History of Common Schools, which
+is published by the national Bureau of Education, prepared several of the
+Circulars of Information of that bureau, and printed a great number of
+educational pamphlets and addresses.
+
+"One of the most helpful agencies in the work of free and universal
+education in the South, for the last twenty years," says Dr. J.L.M. Curry
+in a personal letter, "has been the ministry of A.D. Mayo. His intelligent
+zeal, his instructive addresses, his tireless energy, have made him a
+potent factor in this great work; and any history of what the Unitarian
+denomination has done would be very imperfect which did not make proper and
+grateful recognition of his valuable services."
+
+[1] Christian Examiner, XLVII. 186; Mrs. E.B. Lee, Memoirs of the
+    Buckminsters, 325.
+
+[2] Memoir of Buckminster, introductory to his Sermons, published in
+    1814, xxxii.
+
+[3] The Pentateuch and its Relation to the Jewish and Christian
+    Dispensation. By Andrews Norton. Edited by John James Tayler, London,
+    1863. This was the Note, with introduction.
+
+[4] Boston Unitarianism, 244.
+
+[5] Hengstenberg's Christology, Christian Examiner, July, 1834, XVI. 321.
+
+[6] Ibid., 327.
+
+[7] Ibid., 356.
+
+[8] Ibid., 357.
+
+[9] Ibid., 358.
+
+[10] Our Liberal Movement in Theology, 68.
+
+[11] The Authorship of the Fourth Gospel and Other Critical Essays
+     selected from the published papers of Ezra Abbot, edited, with
+     preface, by Professor J.H. Thayer.
+
+[12] The Divinity School of Harvard University: Its History, Courses of
+     Study, Aims, and Advantages, published by the University, 9.
+
+[13] The Divinity School as it is, Harvard Graduates' Magazine, June,
+     1897.
+
+[14] B.A. Hinsdale, Horace Mann and the Common School Revival in the
+     United States, 127.
+
+[15] B.A. Hinsdale, Horace Mann and the Common School Revival in the
+     United States, 148.
+
+[16] Henry Barnard, Normal Schools, 125.
+
+[17] B.A. Hinsdale, Horace Mann, 147.
+
+[18] Quoted by J.P. Gordy, Rise and Growth of the Normal School Idea in
+     the United States, Circular of Information of the Bureau of
+     Education, 1891, 49.
+
+[19] Ibid., 43.
+
+[20] S.J. May, Memoir of Cyrus Peirce, Barnard's American Journal of
+     Education, December, 1857.
+
+[21] G.A. Hubbell, Horace Mann in Ohio: A Study of the Application of his
+     Public School Ideals to College Administration, No. IV. of Vol. VII.,
+     Columbia University Contributions to Philosophy, Psychology, and
+     Education, 50.
+
+[22] Mary Mann, Life of Horace Mann, 44; Henry Barnard, Normal Schools,
+     93.
+
+[23] Memorial Volume, 2.
+
+[24] Edwin D. Mead, The Old South Work, 1900; also Memorial Sermon, by
+     Charles G. Ames, 17.
+
+[25] Life and Writings of Jared Sparks, I. 141.
+
+[26] A Literary History of America, 266.
+
+
+
+
+XIX.
+
+
+UNITARIANISM AND LITERATURE.
+
+The history of American literature is intimately connected with the history
+of Unitarianism in this country. The influences that caused the growth of
+Unitarianism were those, to a large extent, that produced American
+literature. It was not merely Harvard College that had this effect, as has
+been often asserted; for the other colleges did not become the centres of
+literary activity. It was more distinctly the freedom, the breadth of
+intellectual interest, and the sympathy with what was human and natural
+developed by the Unitarian movement that were favorable to the growth of
+literature. Yet from the beginning of the eighteenth century Harvard
+fostered the spirit of inquiry, and helped to set the mind free from the
+theological and classical predispositions that had checked its natural
+growth. A taste for literature was encouraged, theology took on a broad and
+humanitarian character, and there was a growing appreciation of art and
+poetry. Harvard College helped to bring men into contact with European
+thought, and thus opened to them fresh and stimulating sources of
+intellectual interest.
+
+During the last quarter of the eighteenth century and the first half of the
+nineteenth New England was largely devoted to commercial enterprises.
+Every coast town of any size from Newport to Belfast was concerned with
+ship-building and with trade to foreign ports. Such towns as Boston and
+Salem traded with China, India, and many other parts of the world. Not only
+was wealth largely increased by this commercial activity, but the influence
+upon life and thought was very great. The mind was emancipated, and
+religion grew more liberal and humane, as the result of this contact with
+foreign lands. Along the whole coast, within the limits named, there was an
+abandonment of Puritanism and a growth into a genial and humanitarian
+interpretation of Christianity. In New York City somewhat the same results
+were produced, at least on social and intellectual life, though with less
+immediate effect upon religion. It was in these regions, in which
+commercial contact with the great outside world set the mind free and
+awakened the imagination, that American literature was born.
+
+[Sidenote: Influence of Unitarian Environment.]
+
+The influence of Unitarian culture and literary tastes is shown by the
+considerable number of literary men who were the sons of Unitarian
+ministers. Ralph Waldo Emerson was the son of William Emerson, the minister
+of the First Church in Boston at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
+George Bancroft was the son of Aaron Bancroft, the first Unitarian minister
+in Worcester, and the first president of the American Unitarian
+Association. To Charles Lowell, of the West Church in Boston, were born
+James Russell Lowell and Robert T.S. Lowell. The father of Francis Parkman
+was of the same name, and was for many years the minister of the New North
+Church in Boston. Richard Hildreth was the son of Hosea Hildreth, Unitarian
+minister in Gloucester. Octavius Brooks Frothingham was the son of
+Nathaniel L. Frothingham, minister of the First Church in Boston. Joseph
+Allen, father of Joseph Henry Allen and William Francis Allen, was the
+minister in Northboro for many years. Of literary workers now living
+William Everett is the son of Edward Everett, Charles Eliot Norton of
+Andrews Norton, and William Wells Newell of William Newell, minister of the
+First Church in Cambridge for many years.
+
+This influence is shown in the large number of literary men who studied at
+the Harvard Divinity School and began their career as Unitarian ministers.
+It may be partly accounted for by the fact that at the beginning of the
+nineteenth century literature offered but a precarious opportunity to men
+of talent and genius. The respect then accorded to ministers, the wide
+influence they were able to exert, and the many intellectual opportunities
+offered by the profession, naturally attracted many young men. During the
+first part of the nineteenth century no other profession was so attractive,
+and enthusiasm for it was large amongst the students of Harvard College. As
+literary openings began to present themselves, many of these men found
+other occupations, partly because their tastes were intellectual rather
+than theological, and partly because the radical ferment made the pulpit no
+longer acceptable. Such a man as Edward Everett would never have entered
+the pulpit, had it not been socially and intellectually most attractive at
+the time when he began his career. In the instance of Samuel A. Eliot, who
+took the full course in the Divinity School, but did not preach, being
+afterward mayor of Boston and member of Congress the influences at work
+were probably much the same.
+
+George Bancroft is another instance of a graduate of the Divinity School
+who did not enter the pulpit, but, beginning his career as a teacher,
+devoted his life to literature and diplomacy. With such men as Christopher
+P. Cranch, artist and poet; George P. Bradford, teacher, thinker, and
+friend of literary men; H.G.O. Blake, editor of Thoreau's Journals; J.L.
+Sibley, librarian; John Albee, poet and essayist; and William Cushing,
+bibliographer, the cause operating was probably the same,--the discovery
+that the chosen profession was not acceptable or that some other was
+preferable. Another group of men, including John G. Palfrey, Jared Sparks,
+William Ware, Horatio Alger, James K. Hosmer, Edward Rowland Sill and
+William Wells Newell, who occupied Unitarian pulpits for brief periods,
+were drawn into literary occupations as more congenial to their tastes. The
+same influence doubtless served to withdraw Emerson, George Ripley, John S.
+Dwight, Thomas W. Higginson, Moncure D. Conway, and Francis E. Abbot, from
+the pulpit; but with these men there was also a break with traditional
+Christianity.
+
+[Sidenote: Literary Tendencies.]
+
+The early Unitarian movement in New England was literary and religious
+rather than theological. The men who have been most influential in
+determining the course of Unitarian development, such as Charming, Dewey,
+Parker, and Hedge, not to include Emerson, who has been a greater
+affirmative leader than either of the others, were first of all preachers,
+and their published works were originally given to the world from the
+pulpit. They made no effort to produce a Unitarian system of theology; and
+it would have been quite in opposition to the genius of the movement, had
+they entered upon such a task.
+
+With the advent of the Unitarian movement, for the first time in the
+history of the American pulpit did the sermon become a literary product.
+Channing and his coworkers, especially Buckminster and Everett, departed
+widely from the pulpit traditions of New England, ceased to quote texts,
+abandoned theological exposition, refrained from the exhortatory method,
+and addressed men and women in literary language about the actual interests
+of daily life. Their preaching was not metaphysical, and it was not
+declamatory. The illustrations used were human rather than Biblical, a
+preference was given to what was intellectual rather than to what was
+emotional, and the effect was instruction rather than conversion. It
+resulted in faithful living, good citizenship, fidelity to duty, love of
+the neighbor, and an earnest helpfulness toward the poor and unfortunate.
+
+[Sidenote: Literary Tastes of Unitarian Ministers.]
+
+In studying any considerable list of Unitarian ministers, and taking note
+of their personal tastes and their avocations, it will be seen that a large
+number of them were lovers of literature, and ardently devoted much of
+their time to literary pursuits. Not only was there a decidedly literary
+flavor about their preaching, but they were frequent contributors to The
+Christian Examiner and The North American Review; and they wrote poems,
+novels, books of travel, essays, and histories. They were conspicuous in
+historical and scientific societies, in promoting scientific
+investigations, in advancing archaeological researches, in every kind of
+learned inquiry. Their intellectual interests were so catholic and so
+vigorous that they were not contented with parish and pulpit, and in some
+cases it would seem that the avocation was as important as the vocation
+itself.
+
+Dr. Channing would be named as the man who has done most to give direction
+to the currents of Unitarian thought on theological problems, but he was
+also conspicuously a philanthropist and reformer. He was less a theologian,
+in the technical sense, than one who taught men to live in the spirit. His
+spiritual insight, humanitarian sympathies, and imaginative fellowship with
+all forms of human experience gave his writings a literary charm and power
+of a high order. He was a great religious teacher and inspirer, a preacher
+of unsurpassed gifts of spiritual interpretation, and a prophet of the
+truer religious life.
+
+The Unitarian leaders who were influenced by the transcendental movement,
+of which the most prominent were Parker, Hedge, Clarke, and C.C. Everett,
+interpreted theology in the broadest spirit. Parker was essentially a
+preacher and reformer. It was the one conspicuous aim of his life to
+liberate religion from the intellectual thraldom of the past, and to bring
+it into the open air of the world, where it might be informed of daily
+experience and gain for itself a rightful opportunity. He was therefore
+literary, imaginative, ethical, practical. He wrote for The Dial, and
+established The Massachusetts Review, he was one of the most widely heard
+of popular lecturers, and he was a leader in the most radical of the
+reforms prominent in his day. Parker made all wisdom subservient to his
+religion, treated a wide range of subjects in his pulpit, and brought
+religion into immediate contact with human life.
+
+Frederic H. Hedge did more than any other man to give Unitarianism a
+consistent philosophy and theology. His Reason in Religion and Ways of the
+Spirit have had a profound influence in shaping the thought of the
+denomination, and have led all American Unitarians to accept his view of
+the universality of incarnation and the consubstantiality of man and God.
+He was wise as an interpreter, and by no means wanting in originality, a
+brilliant essayist, a philosophical historian, and a student of high
+themes. His Prose Writers of Germany, Hours with the German Classics,
+Primeval World of Hebrew Tradition, and Atheism in Philosophy show the
+range of his interests and his ability as a thinker.
+
+James Freeman Clarke may be selected as a typical Unitarian minister, who
+wrote poetry, was more than once an editor, often appeared on the lecture
+platform, was a frequent contributor to the leading periodicals, wrote
+several works of biography and history, gave himself zealously to the
+advocacy of the noblest reforms, and produced many volumes of sermons that
+have in an unusual degree the merit of directness, literary grace,
+suggestiveness, and spiritual warmth and insight. His theological writings
+have been widely read by Unitarians and those not of that fellowship. His
+Self-culture has been largely circulated as a manual of practical ethics.
+His Ten Great Religions and its companion volume opened the way in this
+country for the recognition of the comparative study of religious
+developments. Not content with so wide a range of studies, he wrote Thomas
+Didymus, an historical romance concerned with New Testament characters, How
+to find the Stars, and Exotics, a volume of poetical translation. He was a
+maker of many books, and all of them were well made. His theology was all
+the more humane, and his preaching was all the more effective, because he
+was interested in many subjects and had a real mastery of them.
+
+Charles Carroll Everett was a philosophical thinker and theologian, and the
+younger generation of Unitarian ministers has been largely influenced by
+him. His theological work was done in the lecture-room, but it was of
+first-rate importance. He was a profound thinker, a vigorous writer, and an
+inspiring teacher. He was an able theologian, philosophical in thought, but
+deeply spiritual in insight. His work on The Science of Thought shows the
+depth and vigor of his thinking; but his volumes on The Gospel of Paul,
+Religions before Christianity, Poetry, Comedy, and Duty, suggest the
+breadth of his inquiries and the richness of his philosophical
+investigations. In his position as the dean of the Harvard Divinity School
+he accomplished his best work, and there his great ability as theologian
+and philosophical thinker made itself amply manifest.
+
+Another group of men largely influenced by the transcendental movement
+included David A. Wasson, John Weiss, Samuel Johnson, Samuel Longfellow,
+Cyrus A. Bartol, Octavius K Frothingham, and William J. Potter. Here we see
+the literary tendency showing itself distinctly and to much advantage. The
+first four of these men wrote exquisite hymns and spiritual lyrics, and all
+of them were contributors to periodical literature or writers of books.
+Weiss was a literary critic of no mean merit in his lectures on Greek and
+Shakespearean subjects; and his volumes on American Religion and Immortal
+Life were purely literary in their method. However deficient were Johnson's
+books on the religions of India, China, and Persia, from the point, of view
+of the science of religion, they have not yet been surpassed as
+interpretations of the inner spirit of Oriental religions. Bartol was a
+master of an incisive literary method in the pulpit, that gives to his
+Radical Problems, The Rising Faith, and Principles and Portraits a
+scintillating power all their own, with epigram and flash of wit on every
+page. Frothingham published many a volume of sermons; but his biographies
+of Parker, Gerrit Smith, Wasson, Johnson, Ripley, Channing, and his volume
+on the History of Transcendentalism in New England, as well as his Boston
+Unitarianism, and Recollections and Impressions, indicate that his literary
+interests were quite as active as his theological.
+
+The literary tastes of Unitarian ministers are indicated by the large
+number of them who have written poetry that passes beyond the limits of
+mediocrity. The names of John Pierpont, Andrews Norton, Samuel Gilman,
+Nathaniel L. Frothingham, the younger Henry Ware, W.B.O. Peabody, William
+Henry Furness, William Newell, William Parsons Lunt, Frederic H. Hedge,
+James F. Clarke, Theodore Parker, Chandler Robbins, Edmund H. Sears,
+Charles T. Brooks, Robert C. Waterston, Thomas Hill, and others, have been
+lovingly commemorated in Alfred P. Putnam's Singers and Songs of the
+Liberal Faith. Hymns of nearly all these men are in common use in many
+congregations, and some of their work has found a place in every hymnal.
+
+No one can read the sermons of Thomas Starr King without feeling their
+literary grace and finish of style, as well as their intellectual vigor.
+His lectures marked his literary interest, which shows itself in his
+Christianity and Humanity and his Substance and Show. Especially does it
+appear in his delightful book on The White Hills, their Legends, Landscape,
+and Poetry. In his day, Henry Giles was widely known as a lecturer; and his
+numerous volumes of literary interpretation and criticism, especially his
+Human Life in Shakespeare, were read with appreciation. In his District
+School as it was, and My Religious Experience at my Native Home, Warren
+Burton described in simple but effective prose a kind of life that has long
+since passed away. His educational lectures and books helped on the cause
+of public school education, a subject in which he was greatly interested.
+
+Unitarian ministers have also made many contributions to local and general
+history. The history of King's Chapel by Francis W.P. Greenwood may be
+mentioned as a specimen of the former kind of work; but Greenwood also
+published several volumes of sermons, as well as biographical and literary
+volumes. A History of the Second Church in Boston, with Lives of Increase
+and Cotton Mather, was published by Chandler Robbins. The theological
+history of Unitarianism was ably discussed by George E. Ellis in A
+Half-century of the Unitarian Controversy. He devoted much attention to the
+history of New England, gave many lectures and addresses on subjects
+connected therewith, published biographies of Anne Hutchinson, William
+Penn, Count Rumford, Jared Sparks, and Charles W. Upham. His volumes on The
+Red Man and the White Man in North America, The Puritan Theocracy, and
+others, show his historical ability and his large grasp of his subjects.
+Joseph Henry Allen published an Historical Sketch of the Unitarian Movement
+since the Reformation, in the American Church History series. In Our
+Liberal Movement in Theology, and its Sequel, he critically and
+appreciatively treated of the history of Unitarianism in New England, and
+of the men who were most important in its development. His taste for
+historical studies appeared in his Christian History in its Three Great
+Periods, a work of admirable critical judgment, sobriety of statement, and
+concise presentation of the essential facts.
+
+Alvan Lamson produced a book of critical value in The Church of the First
+Three Centuries, which treats of the origin of the Trinitarian beliefs
+during that period. A work of a similar character was done by Frederic
+Huidekoper, in whose books were included the results of many years of
+minute research, and of critical investigation into the origins of
+Christianity.
+
+Books of a widely different nature were written by Artemas B. Muzzey in his
+Personal Recollection of the Men in the Battle of Lexington, and
+Reminiscences of Men of the Revolution and their Families. He published
+several volumes of sermons, as well as a number of educational works.
+Somewhat of a theologian and an ardent student and expounder of philosophy,
+William R. Alger has made himself widely known by his books on The Genius
+of Solitude, Friendships of Women, and The School of Life. His fine
+literary judgments, his artistic appreciations, and his richness of
+sentiment and imagination show themselves in these attractive volumes. He
+has also published a Life of Edwin Forrest, with a Critical History of the
+Dramatic Art. His Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life is a
+work of ripe scholarship and great literary merit, and is everywhere
+recognized as an authority.
+
+[Sidenote: Unitarians as Historians.]
+
+In the chapter on historians, in his American Literature, Professor Charles
+F. Richardson enumerates seventeen writers, twelve of whom were Unitarians.
+It was in Cambridge and Boston, amongst the graduates of Harvard College,
+that American historical writing began, and that it attained its greatest
+successes. The same causes that had given the Unitarians pre-eminence in
+other directions made them especially so in this, where wide learning and
+sound criticism were of importance. Wealth, leisure, intellectual
+emancipation, sympathetic interest in all that is human, combined with
+scholarship and plodding industry, gave the historians an unusual equipment
+for their tasks.
+
+It may be justly said that historical writing in this country began with
+Jeremy Belknap, the predecessor of Dr. Channing in the Federal Street
+Church. When settled in Dover, he wrote his History of New Hampshire; and
+after his removal to Boston he produced a biography of Watts and two
+volumes of American Biographies. He first voiced the historical interest
+that was awakened by the establishment of national independence, and the
+desire to know of the past of the American people. His chief service to
+historical studies, however, was in the formation of the Massachusetts
+Historical Society.
+
+Hannah Adams was not only a Unitarian, but the first woman in this country
+to enter upon a literary career. Her View of Religious Opinions, first
+issued in 1784, afterwards changed to a Dictionary of Religions, was the
+earliest work attempting to give an account of all the religions of the
+world. It was followed by her History of New England, and by her History of
+the Jews. She also took part in the religious controversies of the day, her
+contest with Dr. Jedediah Morse being one of the minor phases of the
+struggle between the Unitarians and the Orthodox Congregationalists; and
+her Evidences of Christianity, as well as her letters on the Gospels, were
+written from the Unitarian point of view. Her books had no literary value,
+but in their time they helped to foster the growing interest in American
+subjects.
+
+Alexander Young, minister of the New South Church in Boston, rendered
+valuable service to historical investigations by his Chronicles of the
+Pilgrim Fathers of the Colony of Plymouth and his Chronicles of the First
+Planters of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, works that were scholarly,
+accurate, and judicious. Perhaps his most important service was the editing
+of the Library of Old English Prose Writers, in nine volumes, which
+appeared from 1831 to 1834, and included such works as Sidney's Defence of
+Poesie and Sir Thomas Browne's Urn Burial. Of his historical works, O.B.
+Frothingham has justly said that "they showed extensive and accurate
+knowledge, extraordinary zeal in research, singular impartiality of
+judgment, great activity of mind, a strong inclination towards ethical as
+distinguished from speculative subjects, a passionate love of books and
+elegant letters."[1]
+
+Of the greater historians, Bancroft, Prescott, Motley, Hildreth, Sparks,
+Palfrey, Ticknor, Parkman, Higginson, Parton, and Fiske were Unitarians.
+Three of these men were sons of Unitarian ministers, and four of them
+prepared for that profession or entered upon its duties. It is not
+desirable that any attempt should be made here to estimate their historical
+labors, for their position and their achievements are well known.
+
+It would be interesting to give an account of the Unitarian connections and
+sympathies of these writers, but the materials are not at hand in the case
+of most of them. One or two illustrations will suffice for them all,
+indicating their religious tastes and preferences. In 1829 Prescott made a
+careful examination of the evidences for belief in Christianity, and his
+biographer says that "the conclusions at which he arrived were, that the
+narratives of the Gospels were authentic; and that, even if Christianity
+were not a divine revelation, no system of morals was so likely to fit him
+for happiness here and hereafter. But he did not find in the Gospels or in
+any part of the New Testament the doctrines commonly accounted orthodox,
+and he deliberately recorded his rejection of them." At a later time he
+stated his creed in these words: "To do well and act justly, to fear and to
+love God, and to love our neighbor as ourselves--in these is the essence of
+religion. To do this is the safest, our only safe course. For what we can
+believe we are not responsible, supposing we examine candidly and
+patiently. For what we do we shall indeed be accountable. The doctrines of
+the Saviour unfold the whole code of morals by which our conduct should be
+regulated."[2] Prescott was a regular attendant at the First Church in
+Boston.
+
+In his biography of George Ticknor, George S. Hilliard says that "the
+strong religious impressions which Mr. Ticknor received in early years
+deepened as his character matured into personal convictions, the confirmed
+and ruling principles of his life. He had been brought up in the doctrines
+of Calvinistic orthodoxy, but later serious reflection led him to reject
+those doctrines; and soon after his return from Europe he joined Dr.
+Channing's church, of which he continued through life a faithful member. He
+was a sincere Liberal Christian, and his convictions were firm, but they
+were held without bigotry, and he never allowed them to interfere with
+kindliness and courtesy." It may be added that Ticknor was an active member
+of the church with which he was connected, that in 1822 he took charge of a
+class of boys in the Sunday-school, which he kept for eight years. In 1839
+and the next year he gave a course of instruction in the history and
+contents of the Bible to a class of young girls, for which he prepared
+himself carefully.[3]
+
+The influence exerted by the historians in teaching love of country and a
+true patriotism may be accounted as very large. That men thoroughly
+grounded in principles of religious liberty, in high ideals of justice and
+humanity, in the broadest spirit of toleration and freedom of opinion,
+should have written our histories, is of no small importance in the
+formation of American character. That they have made many Unitarians we
+cannot suppose, but that their influence has been large in the development
+of a true spirit of nationality we have a right to think. They have
+indicated concretely the effects of bigotry and intolerance, and they have
+not failed to point out the defects in the practices of the Puritans. In so
+far as they have had to deal with religious subjects, they have taught the
+true Unitarian idea of liberty of conscience and freedom of opinion. They
+have wisely helped to make it possible for many religions to live kindly
+side by side, and to give every creed the right of utterance. These ideals
+had been developed before our historians began to write, but these men have
+helped to make them the inheritance of the whole nation. All the more
+effective has been their teaching that it has grown out of the events of
+our history, and has not been the voice of a merely personal opinion. But
+we owe much to them that they have seen the true meaning of our history,
+and that they have uttered it with clearness of interpretation and with
+vigorous moral emphasis.
+
+[Sidenote: Scientific Unitarians.]
+
+A considerable number of the leading men of science have been Unitarians.
+Notable among the mathematicians were Nathaniel Bowditch, Benjamin Peirce,
+and Thomas Hill, who was president of Antioch College and of Harvard
+University. Among the astronomers have been Benjamin Gould, Maria Mitchell,
+Asaph Hall, and Edward C. Picketing. Of Maria Mitchell it was said that she
+"was entirely ignorant of the peculiar phrases and customs of rigid
+sectarians." Her biographer says she "never joined any church, but for
+years before she left Nantucket she attended the Unitarian church, and her
+sympathies, as long as she lived, were with that denomination, especially
+with the more liberally inclined portion."[4] James Jackson, the first
+physician of the Massachusetts General Hospital, should be named in this
+connection. Joseph Lovering, the physicist, and Jeffries Wyman, the
+comparative anatomist, are also to be included. And here belongs Louis
+Agassiz, who has had more influence than any other man in developing an
+interest in science among the people generally. He gave to scientific
+investigations the largest importance for scientific men themselves. At the
+same time he was a religious man and a theist. "In religion," says his
+biographer, "Agassiz very liberal and tolerant, and respected the views and
+convictions of every one. In his youth and early manhood, Agassiz was
+undoubtedly a materialist, or, more exactly, a sceptic; but in time, and
+little by little, his studies led him to belief in a divine Creative Power.
+He was more in sympathy with Unitarianism than with any other Christian
+denomination."[5]
+
+[Sidenote: Unitarian Essayists.]
+
+A considerable number of essayists, lecturers, and general writers have
+been Unitarians. Among these have been Edwin P. Whipple, George Ripley,
+Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney, John S. Dwight, Professor Charles Eliot Norton, Henry
+T. Tuckerman, James T. Fields, and Professor Francis J. Child. These
+writers represent several phases of Unitarian opinion, but they belong to
+this fellowship by birthright or intellectual sympathies. In the same
+company may be placed Henry D. Thoreau and John Burroughs, not because they
+had any direct connection with Unitarianism, but because the religious
+convictions they expressed are such as most Unitarians accept.
+
+To the Unitarian fellowship belong Margaret Fuller, Lydia Maria Child,
+Caroline M. Kirkland, Grace Greenwood (Mrs. Lippincott), and Julia Ward
+Howe. All the early associations of Margaret Fuller were with Unitarians;
+and her brother, Arthur Fuller, became a Unitarian minister. In her maturer
+life she was with the transcendentalists, finding in Rev. W.H. Channing and
+Emerson her spiritual teachers. Writing of her debt to Emerson, she said,
+"His influence has been more beneficial to me than that of any American;
+and from him I first learned what is meant by an inward life."[6] She was
+a pronounced individualist, an intense lover of spiritual liberty, a friend
+of those who live in the spirit. This may be seen in what she called her
+credo, a sentence or two from which will indicate her type of thought. "I
+will not loathe sects, persuasions, systems," she writes, "though I cannot
+abide in them one moment; for I see that by most men they are still
+needed." "Ages may not produce one worthy to loose the shoes of the Prophet
+of Nazareth; yet there will surely be another manifestation of this word
+which was in the beginning. The very greatness of this manifestation
+demands a greater. We have had a Messiah to teach and reconcile. Let us now
+have a man to live out all the symbolical forms of human life, with the
+calm beauty of a Greek god, with the deep consciousness of Moses, with the
+holy love and purity of Jesus."[7]
+
+[Sidenote: Unitarian Novelists.]
+
+Among the novelists have been several who were Unitarian ministers,
+including Sylvester Judd, William Ware, Thomas W. Higginson, and Edward
+Everett Hale. Judd's Margaret was of the very essence of transcendentalism,
+besides being an excellent interpretation of some of the phases of New
+England character. Ware's historical novels were popular in their day, and
+are now worth going back to by modern readers, and especially by those who
+do not insist upon having their romances hot from the press. Catherine M.
+Sedgwick is another novelist worth returning to by modern readers, and
+especially by those who would know of New England life in the early part of
+the nineteenth century. She became an ardent Unitarian, and her biography
+gives interesting glimpses of the early struggles of that faith in York
+City. Other Unitarian women novelists were Lydia Maria Child, Grace
+Greenwood, Helen Hunt Jackson, Louisa M. Alcott, and Harriet Prescott
+Spofford.
+
+In naming John T. Trowbridge, Bayard Taylor, Bret Harte, William D.
+Howells, and Nathaniel Hawthorne as Unitarians, no merely sectarian aim is
+in view. In the common use of the word, Hawthorne was not a religious man;
+for he rarely attended church, and he had no interest in ecclesiastical
+formalities. No man who has written in this country, however, was more
+deeply influenced than he by those spiritual ideas and traditions which may
+be properly called Unitarian. The same may be said of Howells, who is not a
+Unitarian in any denominational sense; but his religious interests and
+convictions bring him into sympathy with the movement represented by
+Unitarianism.
+
+It may be said of the most popular novels of Edward Everett Hale, such as
+Ten Times One Is Ten, In His Name, His Level Best, that they are the best
+possible interpretations of the Unitarian spirit; for it is not merely a
+certain conception of God that characterizes Unitarianism, nor yet a
+particular theological attitude. It is the wish to make religion real,
+practical, altruistic.
+
+[Sidenote: Unitarian Artists and Poets.]
+
+Unitarianism has been as friendly to poetry and the other arts as it has
+been to philosophy and science. In its early days it fostered the artistic
+careers of Washington Allston, the painter, and Charles Bulfinch, the
+architect. It has also nurtured the sculptors, William Wetmore Story, who
+was also poet and essayist; Harriet Hosmer, whose career shows what a woman
+can accomplish in opening new opportunities for her sex; Larkin G. Mead and
+Daniel C. French. To these must be added the actors Fanny Kemble and
+Charlotte Cushman.
+
+It is as one of the earliest of our poets that Charles Sprague is to be
+mentioned, and one or two of his poems are deservedly remembered. Jones
+Very was one of the best of the transcendental poets, and a few of his
+religious poems have not been surpassed. The younger William Ellery
+Channing and Edward R. Sill belong to the same school, and deservedly keep
+their places with those who admire what is choice in thought and individual
+in artistic workmanship. As a biographer of O.B. Frothingham and as a
+member of his congregation, it may be proper to add here the name of Edmund
+C. Stedman.
+
+Among our greater poets, Bryant, Longfellow, Emerson, Holmes, Lowell,
+Stoddard, and Bayard Taylor were Unitarians. As being essentially of the
+same way of thinking and believing, Whittier and Whitman might also be so
+classed. Though Whittier was a Friend by education and by conviction, he
+was of the liberal school that places religion above sect and interprets
+dogmas in the light of human needs and affections. If he had been born and
+bred a Unitarian, he could not have more sympathetically interpreted the
+Unitarian faith than he has in his poems. Whitman had in him the heart of
+transcendentalism, and he was informed of its inmost spirit. To the more
+radical Unitarians his pleas for liberty, his intense individualism, and
+his idealistic conceptions of nature and man would be acceptable, and, it
+may be, enthusiastically approved.
+
+William Cullen Bryant early became a Unitarian; and he listened to the
+preaching of Follen, Dewey, Osgood, and Bellows. "A devoted lover of
+religious liberty," Bellows said of him, "he was an equal lover of religion
+itself--not in any precise, dogmatic form, but in its righteousness,
+reverence, and charity. He was not a dogmatist, but preferred practical
+piety and working virtue to all modes of faith."[8] It would be difficult
+to give a better definition of Unitarianism itself; and it was the large
+humanity of it, and its generous outlook upon the lives of individuals and
+nations, that made of Bryant a faithful Unitarian.
+
+Henry W. Longfellow was educated as a Unitarian, his father having been one
+of the first vice-presidents of the Unitarian Association,--a position he
+held for many years. Stephen Longfellow was an intimate friend of Dr.
+Channing in his college years, and he followed the advance of his classmate
+in the growth of his liberal faith. "It was in the doctrine and the spirit
+of the early Unitarianism that Henry Longfellow was nurtured at church and
+at home," says his brother. "And there is no reason to suppose that he ever
+found these insufficient, or that he ever essentially departed from them.
+Of his genuine religious feeling his writings, give ample testimony. His
+nature was at heart devout; his ideas of life, of death, and of what lies
+beyond, were essentially cheerful, hopeful, optimistic. He did not care to
+talk much on theological points; but he believed in the supremacy of good
+in the world and in the universe."[9]
+
+Although Oliver Wendell Holmes was educated in the older forms of religious
+beliefs, he became one of the most devoted of Unitarians. His rejection of
+Calvinism is marked by his intense aversion to it, shown upon many a page
+of his prose and poetry. No other prominent Unitarian was so aggressive
+against the doctrines of the older time. He was a regular attendant at
+King's Chapel upon the preaching of Dr. F.W.P. Greenwood, Dr. Ephraim
+Peabody, and Rev. H.W. Foote; but, when he was in Pittsfield, for a number
+of years he went to the Episcopal church, and at Beverly Farms in his later
+years, during the summer, he attended a Baptist church. He was, therefore,
+a conservative Unitarian, but with a generous recognition of the good in
+other religious bodies. At the Unitarian Festival of 1859 Dr. Holmes was
+the presiding officer, and in his address he gave a statement of the
+Unitarian faith that clearly defines his own religious position:--
+
+  We believe in vital religion, or the religion of life, as contrasted
+  with that of trust in hierarchies, establishments, and traditional
+  formulae, settled by the votes of wavering majorities in old councils
+  and convocations. We believe in evangelical religion, or the religion
+  of glad tidings, in distinction from the schemes that make our planet
+  the ante-chamber of the mansions of eternal woe to the vast majority of
+  all the men, women, and children that have lived and suffered upon its
+  surface. We believe that every age must judge the Scriptures by its own
+  light; and we mean, by God's grace, to exercise that privilege, without
+  asking permission of pope or bishop, or any other human tribunal. We
+  believe that sin is the much-abused step-daughter of ignorance, and
+  this not only from our own observation, but on the authority of him
+  whose last prayer on earth was that the perpetrators of the greatest
+  crime on record might be forgiven, for they knew not what they were
+  doing. We believe, beyond all other beliefs, in the fatherly relation
+  of the Deity to all his creatures; and, wherever there is a conflict of
+  Scriptural or theological doctrines, we hold this to be the article of
+  faith that stands supreme above all others. And, lastly, we know that,
+  whether we agree precisely in these or any other articles of belief, we
+  can meet in Christian charity and fellowship, in that we all agree in
+  the love of our race, and the worship of a common Father, as taught us
+  by the Master whom we profess to follow.[10]
+
+Educated as a Unitarian, James Russell Lowell felt none of the animosity
+toward Calvinism that was characteristic of Holmes; but his poetry
+everywhere indicates the liberality and nobleness of his religious
+convictions. That he was not sectarian, that he felt no active interest in
+dogmatic theology as such, is only saying that he was a genuine Unitarian.
+Writing in 1838, Lowell said, "I am an infidel to the Christianity of
+to-day."[11] In a letter to Longfellow written in 1845, he made a more
+explicit statement of his attitude: "Christ has declared war against the
+Christianity of the world, and it must down. There is no help for it. The
+church, that great bulwark of our practical paganism, must be reformed from
+foundation to weathercock."[12] These passages indicate his
+dissatisfaction with an external religion and with dogmatic theology. On
+the other hand, his letters and his poems prove that he was strongly
+grounded in the faith of the spirit. In that faith he lived and died; and,
+if in later years he gave recognition to some of the higher claims of the
+older types of Christianity, it was a generous concession to their rational
+qualities and their practical results, and in no degree an acceptance of
+their teachings. The definite form of Lowell's faith he expressed when he
+wrote, "I will never enter a church from which a prayer goes up for the
+prosperous only, or for the unfortunate among the oppressors, and not for
+the oppressed and fallen; as if God had ordained our pride of caste and our
+distinctions of color, and as if Christ had forgotten those that are in
+bonds."[13]
+
+Emerson left the pulpit, and he withdrew from outward conformity to the
+church; but that there came a time when he no longer felt an interest in
+religion or that he even ceased to be a Christian, after his own manner of
+interpretation, there is no reason to assume. His radicalism was in the
+direction of a deeper and truer religion, a religion of the spirit. He
+rejected the faith that is founded on the letter, on historical evidences,
+that is a body without a soul. He was not the less a Unitarian because he
+ceased to be one outwardly, for he carried forward the Unitarian principles
+to their legitimate conclusion. The newer Unitarianism owes to him more
+than to any other man, and of him more than of any other man the older
+Unitarianism can boast that he was its product.
+
+Such a survey as this indicates how great has been the influence of
+Unitarianism upon American literature. There can be no question that it has
+been one of the greatest formative forces in its development. "Almost
+everybody," says Professor Barrett Wendell, "who attained literary
+distinction in New England during the nineteenth century was either a
+Unitarian or closely associated with Unitarian influences,"[14] More even
+than that may be said, for it is the Unitarian writers who have most truly
+interpreted American institutions and American ideals.
+
+[1] Boston Unitarianism, 168.
+
+[2] George Ticknor, Life of William Hickling Prescott, 91, 164.
+
+[3] George S. Hillard, Life, Letters, and Journals of George Ticknor,
+    327.
+
+[4] Phoebe Mitchell Kendall, Life, Letters, and Journals of Maria
+    Mitchell, 239.
+
+[5] Jules Marcou, Life of Agassiz, II. 220.
+
+[6] Memoirs, I. 194.
+
+[7] Memoirs, II. 91.
+
+[8] John Bigelow, Life of Bryant, 274, 285.
+
+[9] Samuel Longfellow, Life of H.W. Longfellow, I. 14
+
+[10] Quarterly Journal, VI. 359, July, 1859.
+
+[11] Biography of James Russell Lowell, by H.E. Scudder, I. 63.
+
+[12] Ibid., 169.
+
+[13] Biography of James Russell Lowell, by H.E. Scudder, I. 144, quoted
+     from Conversations on Some of the Old Poets.
+
+[14] A Literary History of America, 289.
+
+
+
+
+XX.
+
+
+THE FUTURE OF UNITARIANISM.
+
+The early Unitarians in this country did not desire to form a new sect.
+They wished to remain Congregationalists, and to continue unbroken the
+fellowship that had existed from the beginning of New England. When they
+were compelled to separate from the older churches, they refrained from
+organizing a strictly defined religious body, and have called theirs a
+"movement." The words "denomination" and "sect" have been repellent to
+them; and they have attempted, not only to avoid their use, but to escape
+from that which they represent. They have wished to establish a broad, free
+fellowship, that would draw together all liberal thinkers and movements
+into one wide and inclusive religious body.
+
+The Unitarian body accepted in theory from the first the principles of
+liberty, reason, and free inquiry. These were fully established, however,
+only as the result of discussion, agitation, and much friction. Theodore
+Parker was subjected to severe criticism, Emerson was regarded with
+distrust, and the Free Religious Association was organized as a protest and
+for the sake of a freer fellowship. In fact, however, Parker was never
+disfellowshipped; and from the first many Unitarians regarded Emerson as
+the teacher of a higher type of spiritual religion. Through this period of
+controversy, when there was much of bitter feeling engendered, no one was
+expelled from the Unitarian body for opinion's sake. All stayed in who did
+not choose to go out, there being no trials for, heresy. The result of this
+method has been that the Unitarian body is now one of the most united and
+harmonious in Christendom. The free spirit has abundantly justified itself.
+When it was found that every one could think for himself, express freely
+his own beliefs, and live in accordance with his own convictions,
+controversy came to an end. When heresy was no longer sought for, heresy
+ceased to have an existence. The result has not been discord and distrust,
+but peace, harmony, and a more perfect fellowship.
+
+In the Unitarian body from the first there has been a free spirit of
+inquiry. Criticism has had a free course. The Bible has been subjected to
+the most searching investigation, as have all the foundations of religion.
+As a result, no religious body shows, a more rational interest in the Bible
+or a more confident trust in its great spiritual teachings.
+
+The early Unitarians anticipated that Unitarianism would soon become the
+popular form of religion accepted in this country. Thomas Jefferson thought
+that all young men of his time would die Unitarians. Others were afraid
+that Unitarianism would become sectarian in its methods as soon as it
+became popular, which they anticipated would occur in a brief period.[1]
+The cause of the slow growth of Unitarianism is to be found in the fact
+that it has been too modern in its spirit, too removed from the currents of
+popular belief, to find ready acceptance on the part of those who are
+largely influenced by traditional beliefs. The religion of the great
+majority of persons is determined by tradition or social heredity, by what
+they are taught in childhood or hear commonly repeated around them. Only
+persons who are naturally independent and self-reliant can overcome the
+difficulties in the way of embracing a form of religion which carries them
+outside of the established tradition. For these reasons it is not
+surprising that as yet there has not been a rapid growth of organized
+Unitarianism. In fact, Unitarianism has made little progress outside of New
+England, and those regions to which New England traditions have been
+carried by those who migrated westward.
+
+The early promise for the growth of Unitarianism in the south, from 1825 to
+1840, failed because there was no background of tradition for its
+encouragement and support. Individuals could think their way into the
+Unitarian faith, but their influence proved ineffective when all around
+them the old tradition prevailed as stubborn conviction. Even the influence
+of a literature pervaded with Unitarianism proved ineffective in securing
+any rapid spread of the new faith, except as it has found its way into the
+common Christian tradition by a process of spiritual infiltration. The
+result has been that Unitarianism has grown slowly, because it has been
+obliged to create new traditions, to form a new habit of thought, and to
+make free inquiry a common motive and purpose.
+
+In a word, Unitarianism has been a heresy; and therefore there has been no
+open door for it. Most heretical sects have been narrow in spirit, bigoted
+in temper, and intensely sectarian in method. Their isolation from the
+great currents of the world's life acts on them intellectually and
+spiritually as the process of in-and-in breeding does upon animals: it
+intensifies their peculiarities and defects. A process of atrophy or
+degeneration takes place; and they grow from generation to generation more
+isolated, sectarian, and peculiar. Unitarianism has escaped this tendency
+because it has accepted the modern spirit and because to a large degree its
+adherents have been educated and progressive persons. Its principles of
+liberty, reason, and free inquiry, have brought its followers into touch
+with those forces that are making most rapidly for the development of
+mankind. Unitarians have been conspicuously capable of individual
+initiative; and yet their culture has been large enough to give them a
+conservative loyalty to the past and to the profounder and more spiritual
+phases of the Christian tradition. While strongly individualistic and
+heretical they have been sturdily faithful to Christianity, seeking to
+revive its earlier and more simple life.
+
+A chief value of Unitarianism in the past has been that it has pioneered
+the way for the development of the modern spirit within the limits of
+Christianity. The churches from which it came out have followed it far on
+the way it has travelled. Its most liberal advocates of the first
+generation were more conservative than many of the leaders are to-day in
+the older churches. Its period of criticism, controversy, and agitation is
+being reproduced in many another religious body of the present time. The
+debates about miracles, the theory of the supernatural, the authenticity of
+Scripture, the nature of Christ, and other problems that are now agitating
+most of the progressive Protestant denominations, are almost precisely
+those that exercised Unitarians years ago. The only final solution of these
+problems, that will give peace and harmony, is that of free inquiry and
+rational interpretation, which Unitarians have finally accepted. If other
+religious bodies would profit by this experience and by the Unitarian
+method for the solution of these problems, it would be greatly to their
+advantage.
+
+The Unitarian churches have been few in number, and they have suffered from
+isolation and provincialism. These defects of the earlier period have now
+in part passed away, new traditions have been created, a cosmopolitan
+spirit has been developed, and Unitarianism has become a world movement.
+This was conspicuously indicated at the seventy-fifth anniversary of the
+organization of the American Unitarian Association, and in the formation of
+The International Council of Unitarian and Other Liberal Religious Thinkers
+and Workers. It was then shown that Unitarianism has found expression in
+many parts of the world, that it answers to an intellectual and spiritual
+need of the time, and that it is capable of interpreting the religious
+convictions of persons belonging to many phases of human development and
+culture. A broader, more philosophical, and humaner tradition is being
+formed, that will in time become a wide-reaching influence for the
+development of a religious life that will be at once more scientific and
+more spiritual in its nature than anything the past has produced.
+
+The promise of Unitarianism for the future does not consist in its becoming
+a sect and in its striving for the development of merely denominational
+interests, but in its cultivation of the deeper spiritual life and in its
+cosmopolitan sympathy with all phases of religious growth. Its mission is
+one with philanthropy, charity, and altruism. Its attitude should be that
+of free inquiry, loyalty to the spirit of philosophy and science, and
+fidelity to the largest results of human progress. It should always
+represent justice, righteousness, and personal integrity. That promise is
+not to be found in the rapid multiplication of its churches or in its
+devotion to propagandist aims, but in its loyalty to the free spirit and in
+its exemplification of the worth and beauty of the religion of humanity. As
+a sect, it will fail; but as a movement towards a larger faith, a purer
+life, and a more inclusive fellowship, the future is on its side.
+
+While recognizing the Unitarian as a great pioneer movement in religion, it
+should be seen that its strong individualism has been a cause of its slow
+growth. Until recently the Unitarian body has been less an organic phase of
+the religious life of the time than a group of isolated churches held
+together only by the spontaneous bonds of fellowship and good will. Such a
+body can have little effective force in any effort at missionary
+propagandism or in making its spirit dominant in the religious life of the
+country. As heredity and variation are but two phases of organic growth, so
+are tradition and individual initiative but two phases of social progress.
+In both processes--organic growth and social progress--the primary force is
+the conservative one, that maintains what the past has secured. If
+individualism is necessary to healthy growth, associative action is
+essential to any growth whatever of the social body. In so far as
+individual perfection can be attained, it cannot be by seeking it as an end
+in itself: it can be reached only by means of that which conduces to
+general social progress.
+
+It may be questioned whether there is any large future for Unitarianism
+unless all excessive individualism is modified and controlled. Such
+individualism is in opposition to the altruistic and associative spirit of
+the present time. Liberty is not an end in itself, but its value is to be
+found in the opportunity it gives for a natural and fitting association of
+individuals with each other. Freedom of religious inquiry is but an
+instrument for securing spiritual growth, not merely for the individual,
+but for all mankind. So long as liberty of thought and spiritual freedom
+remain the means of individual gratification, they are ineffective as
+spiritual forces. They must be given a wider heritage in the life of
+mankind before they can accomplish their legitimate results in securing for
+men freedom from the external bonds of traditionalism. Even reason is but
+an instrument for securing truth, and not truth itself.
+
+Rightly understood, authority in the church is but the principle of social
+action, respect for what mankind has gained of spiritual power through its
+centuries of development. Authority is therefore as necessary as freedom,
+and the two must be reconciled in order that progress may take place. When
+so understood and so limited, authority becomes essential to all growth in
+freedom and individuality. What above all else is needed in religion is
+social action on the part of freedom-loving men and women, who, in the
+strength of their individuality, co-operate for the attainment, not of
+their own personal good, but the advancement of mankind. This is what
+Unitarianism has striven for, and what it has gained in some measure. It
+has sought to make philanthropy the test of piety, and to make liberty a
+means of social fidelity.
+
+Free inquiry cannot mean liberty to think as one pleases, but only to think
+the truth, and to recognize with submissive spirit the absolute conditions
+and the limitations of the truth. Though religion is life and not a creed,
+it none the less compels the individual to loyalty of social action; and
+that means nothing more and nothing less than faithfulness to what will
+make for the common good, and not primarily what will minister to one's own
+personal development, intellectually and spiritually.
+
+The future of Unitarianism will depend on its ability further to reconcile,
+individualism with associative action, the spirit of free inquiry with the
+larger human tradition. Its advantage cannot be found in the abandonment of
+Christianity, which has been the source and sustaining power of its life,
+but in the development of the Christian tradition by the processes of
+modern thought. The real promise of Unitarianism is in identifying itself
+with the altruistic spirit of the age, and in becoming the spiritual
+interpreter of the social aspirations of mankind. In order to this result
+it must not only withdraw from its extreme individualism, but bring its
+liberty into organic relations with its spirit of social fidelity. It will
+then welcome the fact that freedom and authority are identical in their
+deeper meanings. It will discover that service is more important than
+culture, and that culture is of value to the end that service may become
+more effective. Then it will cheerfully recognize the truth that the social
+obligation is as important as the individual right, and that the two make
+the rounded whole of human action.
+
+[1] See pp. 131, 328.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+
+
+
+A. FORMATION OF THE LOCAL CONFERENCES.
+
+
+The local conferences came into existence in the following order: Wisconsin
+and Minnesota Quarterly Conference, organized at Sheboygan, Wis., October
+24, 1866; New York Central Conference of Liberal Christians, Rochester,
+November 21, 1866; Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches of
+the Middle and Southern States, Wilmington, Del., November 22, 1866;
+Norfolk Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches, Dedham,
+Mass., November 28, 1866; New York and Hudson River Local Conference, New
+York, December 6, 1866; Essex Conference of Liberal Christian Churches,
+Salem, Mass., December 11, 1866; Lake Erie Conference of Unitarian and
+Other Christian Societies, Meadville, Penn., December 11, 1866; Worcester
+County Conference of Congregational (Unitarian) and Other Christian
+Societies, Worcester, Mass., December 12, 1866; South Middlesex Conference
+of Congregational Unitarian and Other Christian Societies, Cambridgeport,
+Mass., December 12, 1866; Suffolk Conference of Unitarian and Other
+Christian Churches, Boston, December 17, 1866; North Middlesex Conference
+of Unitarian Congregational and Other Christian Churches, Littleton, Mass.,
+December 18, 1866.
+
+The Champlain Liberal Christian Conference, Montpelier, Vt., January 9,
+1867; the Connecticut Valley Conference of Congregational Unitarian and
+Other Christian Churches, Greenfield, Mass., January 16, 1867; the Plymouth
+and Bay Conference, Hingham, Mass., February 5, 1867; the Ohio Valley
+Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches, Louisville, Ky.,
+February 22, 1867; the Channing Conference, Providence, R.I., April 17,
+1867; Liberal Christian Conference of Western Maine, Brunswick, Me.,
+October 22, 1867.
+
+The Local Conference of Liberal Christians of the Missouri Valley, Weston,
+Mo., March 18, 1868; the Chicago Conference of Unitarian Churches, Chicago,
+December 2, 1868; Western Illinois and Iowa Conference of Unitarian and
+Other Christian Churches, Sheffield, Ill., January 28, 1869; Cape Cod
+Conference of Unitarian Congregational and Other Liberal Christian
+Churches, Barnstable, Mass., November 30, 1870; Conference of Liberal
+Christians of the Missouri Valley, Kansas City, Mo., May 3, 1871; Michigan
+Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches, Jackson, October 21,
+1875; the Fraternity of Illinois Liberal Christian Societies, Bloomington,
+November 11, 1875; Iowa Association of Unitarian and Other Independent
+Churches, Burlington, June 1, 1877; Indiana Conference of Unitarian and
+Independent Religious Societies, Hobart, October 1, 1878; Ohio State
+Conference of Unitarian and Other Liberal Societies, Cincinnati, May, 1879.
+
+Kansas Unitarian Conference, December 2, 1880; Nebraska Unitarian
+Association, Omaha, November 9, 1882; the Southern Conference of Unitarian
+and Other Christian Churches, Atlanta, Ga., April 24, 1884; the New York
+Conference of Unitarian Churches superseded the New York and Hudson River
+Conference at a session held in New York, April 29, 1885; Pacific Unitarian
+Conference, San Francisco, November 2, 1885; the Illinois Conference of
+Unitarian and Other Independent Societies superseded the Illinois
+Fraternity in 1885; Minnesota Unitarian Conference, St. Paul, November 17,
+1887; Hancock Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches, Bar
+Harbor, Me., August 8, 1889; Missouri Valley Unitarian Conference
+superseded the Kansas Unitarian Conference, December 2, 1889.
+
+Rocky Mountain Conference of Unitarian and Other Liberal Christian
+Churches, Denver, Col., May 17, 1890; the Unitarian Conference of the
+Middle States and Canada, Brooklyn, N.Y., November 19, 1890, superseded New
+York State Conference; Central States Conference of Unitarian Churches,
+Cincinnati, December 9, 1891, superseded the Ohio State Conference; Pacific
+Northwest Conference of Unitarian, Liberal Christian, and Independent
+Churches, Puyallup, Wash., August 1, 1892; Southern California Conference
+of Unitarian and Other Liberal Christian Churches, Santa Ana, October 1892.
+
+Four of the early conferences, the New York Central, Champlain, Western
+Maine, and Missouri Valley, were not distinctly Unitarian. These were union
+organizations, in which Universalists, and perhaps other denominations,
+were associated with Unitarians. The New York Central Conference refused to
+send delegates to the National Conference on account of its union
+character. In other conferences, such as the Connecticut Valley and the
+Norfolk, Universalists took part in their organization, and were for a
+number of years connected with them.
+
+Most of the conferences organized from 1875 to 1885 were within state
+limits; but those organized subsequently to 1885 were more distinctly
+district conferences, and included several states. Several of the
+conferences have been reorganized in order to bring them into harmony with
+the prevailing theory of state or district limits at the time when such
+action took place. A few of the conferences had only a name to live, and
+they soon passed out of existence.
+
+In the local, as in the National Conference, two purposes contended for
+expression, the one looking to the uniting of all liberal denominations in
+one general organization, and the other to the promotion of distinctly
+Unitarian interests. In the National Conference the denominational purpose
+controlled the aims kept most clearly in view; but the other purpose found
+expression in the addition of "Other Christian Churches" to the name,
+though only in the most limited way did such churches connect themselves
+with the conference. The local conferences made like provision for those
+not wishing to call themselves distinctly Unitarian. Such desire for
+co-operation, however, was in a large degree rendered ineffective by the
+fact that the primary aim had in view in the creation of the local
+conferences was the increase of the funds of the American Unitarian
+Association.
+
+
+
+
+B. UNITARIAN NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES.
+
+
+There was a very considerable activity from 1825 to 1850 in the publication
+of Unitarian periodicals, and probably the energies of the denomination
+found a larger expression in that direction than in any other.
+
+In January, 1827, was begun in Boston The Liberal Preacher, a monthly
+publication of sermons by living ministers, conducted by the Cheshire
+Association of Ministers, with Rev. Thomas R. Sullivan, of Keene, N.H., as
+the editor. It was continued for eight or ten years, and with considerable
+success.
+
+With November, 1827, Rev. William Ware began the publication in New York
+City of The Unitarian, a quarterly magazine, of which the last number
+appeared February 15, 1828.
+
+The Unitarian Monitor was begun at Dover, N.H., October 1, 1831, and was
+continued until October 10, 1833. It was a fortnightly of four three-column
+pages, and was well conducted. It was under the editorial management of
+Rev. Samuel K. Lothrop, then the minister in Dover.
+
+The Unitarian Christian, edited by Rev. Stephen G. Bulfinch, was published
+quarterly in Augusta, Ga., for a year or two.
+
+In 1823 Rev. Samuel J. May published The Liberal Christian at Brooklyn,
+Conn., as a fortnightly county paper of eight small quarto pages. He
+followed it by The Christian Monitor and Common People's Adviser, which was
+begun in April, 1832, its object being "to promote the free discussion of
+all subjects connected with happiness and holiness."
+
+The Unitarian, conducted by Rev. Bernard Whitman, then settled in Waltham,
+Mass., was published in Cambridge and Boston during the year 1834, and came
+to its end because of the death of Whitman in the last month of the year.
+It was a monthly magazine of a distinctly missionary character.
+
+Of a more permanent character was The Unitarian Advocate, the first number
+of which was issued in Boston, January, 1828. It was a small 12mo of sixty
+pages, monthly, the editor being Rev. Edmund Q. Sewall. He continued in
+that capacity to the end of 1829, when it was "conducted by an association
+of gentlemen." The purpose was to make a popular magazine at a moderate
+price. It came to an end in December, 1832.
+
+With January 1, 1835, was issued in Boston the first number of The Boston
+Observer and Religious Intelligencer, a weekly of eight three-column pages,
+edited by Rev. George Ripley. It was continued for only six months, when it
+was joined to The Christian Register, which took its name as a sub-title
+for a time. Its motto, "Liberty, Holiness, Love," was also borrowed by that
+paper.
+
+The Western Messenger was begun in Cincinnati, June, 1835, with Rev.
+Ephraim Peabody as the editor. It was a monthly of ninety-six pages, and
+was ably edited. Owing to the illness of Mr. Peabody, it was removed to
+Louisville after the ninth number; and Rev. James Freeman Clarke became the
+editor, with Rev. W.H. Channing and Rev. J.H. Perkins as assistants for a
+time. It was published by the Western Unitarian Association, and was
+discontinued with the number for May, 1841. Among the contributors were
+Emerson, Margaret Fuller, William Henry Channing, Christopher P. Cranch,
+William G. Eliot, who aided in giving it a high literary character. For a
+number of years the American Unitarian Association made an annual
+appropriation to aid in its publication.
+
+The Monthly Miscellany of Religion and Letters was begun in Boston with
+April, 1839. It was a 12mo of forty-eight pages, monthly. The editor was
+Rev. Ezra S. Gannett, by whom it was "designed to furnish religious reading
+for the people, treat Unitarian opinions in their practical bearings, and
+show their power to produce holiness of life; and by weight of contents to
+come between The Christian Register and The Christian Examiner." It was
+continued until the end of 1843, when it was absorbed by the latter
+periodical.
+
+With the first of January, 1844, was begun The Monthly Religious Magazine,
+to meet the needs of those who found The Christian Examiner too scholarly.
+The first editor, was Rev. Frederic D. Huntington, who was succeeded by
+Rev. Edmund H. Sears, Rev. James W. Thompson, Rev. Rufus Ellis, and Rev.
+John H. Morison. The last issue was that of February, 1874.
+
+A large weekly was begun in Boston, January 7, 1843, called The Christian
+World, of which Rev. George G. Channing was the publisher and managing
+editor. He was assisted by Rev. James Freeman Clarke and Hon. John A.
+Andrew, afterward Governor of Massachusetts, as editors or editorial
+contributors. The special aims of the paper were "to awaken a deeper
+religious interest in all the great philanthropic and benevolent
+enterprises of the day." It was continued until December 30, 1848. George
+G. Channing was a brother of Dr. Channing, and was settled over two or
+three parishes. The paper was ably conducted, and while Unitarian was not
+distinctly denominational.
+
+The Christian Inquirer was started in New York, October 17, 1846, and was a
+weekly of four six-column pages. It was managed by the New York Unitarian
+Association; and it was largely under the control of Rev. Henry W. Bellows,
+who in 1850 was assisted by Rev. Samuel Osgood, Rev. James F. Clarke, and
+Rev. Frederic H. Hedge.
+
+In 1846 was begun the publication of the Unitarian Annual Register in
+Boston by Crosby & Nichols, with Rev. Abiel A. Livermore, then settled in
+Keene, N.H., as the editor. In 1851 the work came under the control of the
+American Unitarian Association, and as the Year Book of the denomination it
+was edited by the secretary or his assistant. From 1860 to 1869 the Year
+Book was issued as a part of the December number of The Monthly Journal of
+the American Unitarian Association.
+
+The Bible Christian was begun in 1847 at Toronto by Rev. John Cordner, the
+minister there, and was continued as a semi-monthly for a brief period.
+
+The Unitarian and Foreign Religious Miscellany was published in Boston
+during 1847, with Rev. George E. Ellis as the editor. It was a monthly
+magazine devoted to the explanation and defence of Unitarian Christianity;
+and its contents were mostly selected from the English Unitarian
+periodicals, especially The Prospective Review, The Monthly Reformer, Bible
+Christian, The Unitarian, and The Inquirer.
+
+During this period The Christian Examiner had its largest influence upon
+the denomination, and came to an end. Its scholarship and its liberality
+made it of interest to only a limited constituency, and the publisher was
+compelled to discontinue it at the end of 1869 from lack of adequate
+support. It was edited from the beginning by the ablest men. Rev. James
+Walker and Rev. Francis W.P. Greenwood became the editors in 1831, Rev.
+William Ware taking the place of Dr. Walker in 1837. From 1844 to 1849 Rev.
+Ezra S. Gannett and Rev. Alvan Lamson were the editors, and they were
+succeeded by Rev. George Putnam and Rev. George E. Ellis. In July, 1857,
+Rev. Frederic H. Hedge and Rev. Edward E. Hale became the editors, and
+continued until 1861. Then the editorship was assumed by Rev. Thomas B.
+Fox, who was for several years its owner and publisher; and he was assisted
+as editor by Rev. Joseph H. Allen. The magazine was purchased by Mr. James
+Miller in 1865, who removed it to New York. Dr. Henry W. Bellows became the
+editor, and Mr. Allen continued as assistant, until it was discontinued
+with the December number, 1869.
+
+One of the purposes which found expression after the awakening of 1865 was
+the establishment of a large popular weekly religious journal that should
+reach all classes of liberals throughout the country. The Christian
+Inquirer was changed into The Liberal Christian with the number for
+December 22, 1866; and under this name it appeared in a larger and more
+vigorous form. Dr. Bellows was the editor, and contributors were sought
+from all classes of Liberal Christians. The effort made to establish an able
+undenominational journal, of a broad and progressive but distinctly liberal
+type, was energetic; but the time was not ready for it. With December 2,
+1876, the paper became The Inquirer, which was continued to the close of
+1877.
+
+There was also planned in 1865 a monthly journal that should be everywhere
+acceptable in the homes of liberals of every kind. In January, 1870,
+appeared the Old and New, a large monthly magazine, combining popular and
+scholarly features. The editors were Dr. Edward E. Hale and Mr. Frederic B.
+Perkins. In its pages were first published Dr. Hale's Ten Times Ten, and
+also many of the chapters of Dr. James Martineau's Seat of Authority in
+Religion. It was discontinued with the number for December, 1875.
+
+The Monthly Religious Magazine was discontinued with the February issue of
+1874; and the next month appeared The Unitarian Review and Religious
+Magazine, edited by Rev. Charles Lowe. When Lowe died, in June, 1874, he
+was succeeded by Rev. Henry H. Barber and Rev. James De Normandie. In 1880
+Dr. J.H. Allen became the editor,--a position he held until the magazine
+was discontinued, in December, 1891.
+
+In March, 1878, was begun in Chicago the publication of The Pamphlet
+Mission, a semi-monthly issue of sermons for missionary circulation, with a
+dozen pages of news added in a supplement. In September the name was
+changed to Unity; and this publication grew into a small fortnightly
+journal, representing the interests of the Western Unitarian Conference. A
+few years later it became a weekly; and it has continued as the
+representative of the more radical Unitarian opinions, though in 1894 it
+became the special organ of The Liberal Congress. The chief editorial
+management has been in the hands of Rev. Jenkin Ll. Jones.
+
+The Unitarian was begun in Chicago by Rev. Brooke Herford and Rev. Jabez T.
+Sunderland with January, 1886, as the organ of the more conservative
+members of the Western Conference. In June, 1887, this monthly magazine was
+removed to Ann Arbor, Mr. Sunderland becoming the managing editor; and in
+1890 the office of publication was removed to Boston, and Rev. Frederic B.
+Mott became the assistant editor. In 1897 the magazine was merged into The
+Christian Register.
+
+In 1880 The Rising Faith was published at Manchester, N.H., as a monthly,
+and continued for two or three years.
+
+In August, 1891, The Guidon appeared in San Francisco; and in November,
+1893, it became The Pacific Unitarian, a monthly representing the interests
+of the Unitarian churches on the Pacific coast. Mr. Charles A. Murdock has
+been the editor.
+
+The Southern Unitarian was begun at Atlanta, Ga., January, 1893; and it was
+published for five years as a monthly by the Southern Conference.
+
+In December, 1891, was begun at Davenport, Ia., with Rev. Arthur M. Judy as
+editor, a monthly parish paper, called Old and New. Other parishes joined
+in its publication, and in 1895 it became the organ of the Iowa Unitarian
+Association. In 1896 it was published in Chicago, with Rev. A.W. Gould as
+the editor, in behalf of the interests of the Western Conference. In
+September, 1898, its publication was resumed in Davenport by Mr. Judy; and
+a year later it became again the organ of the Iowa Association.
+
+The New World, a Quarterly Review of Religion, Ethics, and Theology, was
+begun in Boston, March, 1892, and was discontinued with the December number
+for 1900. Its editors were Dr. C.C. Everett, Dr. C.H. Toy, Dr. Orello Cone,
+with Rev. N.P. Gilman as managing editor.
+
+The Church Exchange began in June, 1893, and was published as a monthly at
+Portland, in the interest of the Maine Conference of Unitarian Churches,
+with Rev. John C. Perkins as editor. In 1896-97 it was published at
+Farmington, and in 1897-99 Mr. H.P. White was the editor. Since 1899 it has
+been published in Portland, with Mr. Perkins as editor.
+
+The above list of periodicals is not complete. More detailed information is
+desirable, and that the list may be made, full and accurate to date.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+_The foot-notes and appendix have been included in the index with
+the text._
+
+Abbot, Abiel (Beverly), 131, 133, 262, 350, 351.
+Abbot, Abiel (Peterboro), 409.
+Abbot, Ezra, 393, 394.
+Abbot, Francis Ellingwood, 200-204, 207, 210, 211, 213, 415.
+Abolitionists, 353.
+Adam, 51, 63.
+Adam, William, 296-298.
+Adams, Hannah, 265, 423.
+Adams, Herbert W., 114, 409.
+Adams, John, 58, 136, 351. 377, 380, 382.
+Adams, John Quincy, 366, 380.
+Adams, Phineas, 95.
+African Methodist Episcopal Church, 338, 339.
+Agassiz, Louis, 408, 427, 428.
+Albee, John, 415.
+Alcott, Amos Bronson, 155, 202, 358, 369.
+Alcott, Louisa M., 178, 368, 430.
+Alger, William Rounseville, 146, 163, 164, 346, 422.
+Allen, Joseph, 146, 264, 268, 360, 361, 414.
+Allen, Joseph Henry, 165, 261, 361, 393, 414, 421, 450, 451.
+Allison, William B., 380, 383.
+Allston, Washington, 98, 430.
+Allyn, John, 131, 133.
+American literature, 412, 413, 415, 416, 435.
+"American Unitarianism," 79, 82, 101-104.
+Ames, Charles Gordon, 168, 214.
+Ames, Fisher, 382.
+Ames, Oliver, 382.
+Amory, John C., 385.
+Andover Theological School, 93.
+Andrew, John Albion, 191, 192, 196, 324, 367, 382, 449.
+Angell, George T., 336.
+Animals, humane treatment of, 335, 336.
+Anonymous Association, 127.
+Anthology Club, 96.
+Anthology, Monthly, 93, 95, 390.
+Anthony, Henry B., 367, 380.
+Anthony, Susan B., 368.
+Antinomianism, 16.
+Antioch College, 172, 193, 197, 401, 402.
+Anti-slavery, 100, 159, 343, 353-367.
+Appleton, Nathan, 386.
+Arianism, 42, 43, 44, 56, 59, 65, 66, 70, 83.
+Arminianism, 8, 9, 11, 28, 37-39, 42, 44, 48, 50, 59, 66, 67, 70, 75,
+      84, 89.
+Arminius, 8.
+Artists, 430.
+Association of Benevolent Societies, 255.
+Association of Young Men, 248-251, 264.
+Autumnal Conventions, 173-176, 187.
+Auxiliaries of American Unitarian Association, 146.
+Ayer, Adams, 216.
+
+Ballou, Hosea, 93.
+Baltimore, 111-113.
+Bancroft, Aaron, 73, 74, 114, 130, 132, 135, 136, 142, 413.
+Bancroft, George, 380, 413, 414, 424.
+Baptists, 6, 7, 21, 87, 88.
+Barnard, Charles F., 254, 256, 260, 332, 337, 361.
+Barnard, Thomas, 70.
+Barrett, Samuel, 127, 135, 137, 144, 264.
+Barry, Joseph, 333.
+Bartol, Cyrus Augustus, 148, 155, 202, 240, 241, 419.
+Batchelor, George, 196, 226, 232.
+Beecher, Henry Ward, 370.
+Beecher, Lyman, 384.
+Belknap, Jeremy, 83, 351, 423.
+Bellamy, Joseph, 44, 52, 57, 73.
+Bellows, Henry Whitney, 136, 146, 154, 175, 178-182, 187-189, 191, 196,
+      198, 205, 206, 215, 217, 218, 220, 222, 223, 232, 233, 335, 363, 409,
+      431, 449, 450.
+Belsham, Thomas, 79, 102, 103.
+Benevolent Fraternity of Churches, 197, 256, 257, 282.
+Bentley, William, 71, 80, 90.
+Bergh, Henry, 335.
+Berry Street Conference, 106, 107, 133.
+Bible, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 14, 20, 25, 27, 32, 40, 45, 48, 50, 53, 55, 60, 64,
+      85, 86, 122, 156, 157, 171, 198, 199, 321, 389, 395, 437.
+Bible Societies, 100, 147, 322.
+Bigelow, Andrew, 258.
+Birthright church, 240, 241.
+Bixby, James T., 307, 320.
+Blackwell, Antoinette Brown, 371.
+Blackwell, Henry B., 368.
+Blake, H.G.O., 415.
+Bond, Edward P., 153.
+Bond, George, 131, 133.
+Bond, Henry F., 341, 342.
+Book distribution, 148, 163, 166, 169, 338.
+Boston, 16, 20, 61, 75, 77, 118, 141, 160, 213, 383-388, 413.
+Boston Observer, The, 448.
+Boston Provident Association, 334, 335.
+Boutwell, George S., 367, 382.
+Bowditch, Henry I., 367.
+Bowditch, Nathaniel, 117, 381, 427.
+Bowditch, William I., 367.
+Bowdoin, James, 80, 385.
+Bowles & Dearborn, 235.
+Bowles, Leonard C., 235.
+Brackett, J.Q.A., 382.
+Bradford, Alden, 47, 65, 127, 128, 132, 133.
+Bradford, George P., 415.
+Bradlee, Caleb D., 336.
+Bradley, Amy, 181, 338.
+Brattle Street Church, 29, 35, 40, 52, 53, 77, 94, 143, 160, 385, 387.
+Breck, Robert, 40.
+Briant, Lemuel, 50, 58.
+Bridgman, Laura, 326.
+Briggs, Charles, 144, 151, 235, 361.
+Briggs, George W., 270, 360, 361.
+Brigham, Charles H., 189, 214, 215, 319, 361.
+British and Foreign Unitarian Association, 295, 298, 303.
+Brooks, Charles, 336, 400.
+Brooks, Charles T., 146, 244, 298, 359, 420.
+Brooks Fund, 166.
+Brown, Howard N., 196, 243.
+Bryant, William Cullen, 117, 191, 195, 243, 381, 431, 432.
+Buckminster, J.S., 94, 98, 390, 391, 416.
+Bulfinch, Charles, 430.
+Bulfinch, Stephen G., 146, 165, 268, 270, 271, 361, 447.
+Burleigh, Celia C., 369, 370.
+Burleigh, William H., 369.
+Burnap, George W., 114.
+Burnside, Ambrose E., 383.
+Burroughs, John, 428.
+Burton, Warren, 139, 257, 361, 421.
+Bushnell, Horace, 241.
+
+Calcutta, 296, 297, 299, 300.
+Calhoun, John C., 376, 380.
+Calvinism, 9, 26, 28, 34, 37, 39, 44, 45, 46, 48, 62, 73, 75, 76, 84,
+      87, 92.
+Carpenter, Lant, 154.
+Carpenter, Mary, 259.
+Cary, George L., 318.
+"Catholic Christians," 104, 106, 123.
+Catholicism, 3, 5, 18, 53.
+Chadwick, John White, 157, 216, 244, 275, 354, 370.
+Chaney, George L., 337.
+Channing, George G., 144, 449.
+Channing, William Ellery, 70, 94, 99, 102, 103, 106, 114, 119, 123, 125,
+      129, 130, 135, 142, 146, 148, 163, 164, 173, 174, 184, 199, 321, 324,
+      328, 343-345, 349, 350, 365, 399, 402, 415, 432.
+Channing, William Ellery, poet, 431.
+Channing, William Henry, 155, 176, 200, 258, 359, 361, 365, 368, 369, 420,
+      428, 448.
+Chapin, Henry, 212.
+Chapman, Maria W., 367, 368.
+Charity work, 35, 252, 254-256, 322-325, 328.
+Charleston, S.C., 118.
+Chauncy, Charles, second president Harvard College, 24.
+Chauncy, Charles, minister First Church in Boston, 45, 46, 48, 52, 53,
+      66-69, 77, 85, 90.
+Cheerful Letter Exchange, 288.
+Cheney, Ednah D., 202, 279, 283, 368, 428.
+Chicago, 167, 213.
+Child, David Lee, 359.
+Child, Lydia Maria, 367, 428, 430.
+Children's Mission, 197, 331-334.
+Chillingworth, William, 5, 10, 12, 14, 31, 45.
+Choate, Joseph H., 381.
+Christ, 6, 11, 14, 15, 24, 27, 40, 49, 50, 56, 62, 64, 67, 69, 70, 74, 75,
+      83, 85, 86, 99, 138, 139, 157, 170, 171, 193, 198, 200, 206, 207,
+      209, 210, 227, 378, 393, 429, 434.
+Christian connection, 89, 140, 194, 314, 315, 316.
+Christian Examiner, The, 101, 156, 236, 416, 449, 450.
+Christian Inquirer, The, 449, 450.
+Christian Monitor, The, 96.
+Christian Register, The, 114-116, 127, 145, 147, 156, 173, 185, 207, 232,
+      264, 296, 356, 448.
+Christian Union, Boston, Young Men's, 214, 216, 336, 337.
+Christian Unions, 216, 337.
+Christian World, The, 145, 147, 449.
+Christianity, 11-13, 45, 62, 63, 75, 85, 86, 123, 138, 156, 200, 201, 206,
+      209-211, 222, 227, 241, 362.
+Christians, 6, 9, 14, 51, 64, 170, 206, 209, 222, 224, 227.
+Church, 5, 7, 10, 12, 14, 17, 20, 52, 106, 115.
+Church and state, 7, 17, 20, 21, 23, 27-29, 52, 68, 85-87, 120-123.
+Church Building Loan Fund, 234.
+Church membership, 18-20, 27, 241, 242.
+Church of the Disciples, 242, 327.
+Civil service reform, 372-375.
+Civil war, 171, 175-184, 187, 283.
+Clark University, 399.
+Clarke, James Freeman, 146, 155, 160, 161, 163, 164, 165, 175, 191, 192,
+      194, 201, 204, 215, 242, 244, 273, 307, 312, 318, 327, 360, 361, 366,
+      369, 370, 417, 418, 420, 448, 449.
+Clarke, Samuel, 13, 44-46, 56, 67, 70.
+Clarke, Sarah Freeman, 404.
+Clifford, John H., 382.
+Codding, Ichabod, 168, 365.
+Codman, John, 102.
+College town missions, 214, 215.
+Collyer, Robert, 167, 171, 185, 194.
+Colporters, 148, 169.
+Commerce, 72.
+Committee on fellowship, 220, 221.
+Conant, Augustus H., 169, 172, 176, 361.
+Conference, Berry Street, 106, 107, 133.
+Confirmation, 241, 242.
+Congregational independence, 34, 126.
+Congregationalism, 74, 87, 89, 93, 117, 119, 194, 199, 241, 436.
+Contributions to American Unitarian Association, 142, 153, 159, 162, 164,
+      188, 190, 193, 197, 213, 234.
+Convention, Autumnal, 173-176, 187.
+Conversion, 18, 20, 21, 24, 27.
+Conway, Moncure D., 365, 415.
+Cooper Institute, 215, 408.
+Cooper, Peter, 381, 408, 409.
+Cordner, John, 146, 238.
+Cornell University, 215.
+Corporate idea of church, 5, 7, 17-19, 20.
+Country Week, 337.
+Covenants, Church, 26.
+Cranch, Christopher, P., 415, 448.
+Cranch, William, 377, 380.
+Creeds, 26, 49, 62, 64, 66, 85, 206.
+Crocker, Lucretia, 370, 403, 404.
+Crosby, Nichols & Co., 236.
+Crosby, William, 334.
+Cudworth, Warren H., 271.
+Curtis, Benjamin R., 382.
+Curtis, George Ticknor, 381.
+Curtis, George William, 196, 239, 347, 369, 373-375, 381.
+Cutter, George W., 226.
+
+Dall, Caroline Healey, 165, 202, 279, 368, 370, 371.
+Dall, Charles, H.A., 259, 299-302, 361.
+Dane, Nathan, 350, 351, 382.
+Davis, John, 382.
+Dedham, 29, 54, 87, 115, 218.
+Deism, 42.
+Democratic tendencies, 8, 33, 34, 37, 90, 121, 174.
+Depositaries, 146, 149, 169.
+Depravity of man, 51, 63, 66, 68, 69.
+Devotional library, 164.
+Dewey, Orville, 114, 143, 146, 165, 174, 191, 267, 354, 415, 431.
+Dexter, Henry M., 22.
+Dexter, Samuel, 351, 382.
+Dickens, Charles, 324.
+Dillingham, Pitt, 339.
+Disciple, The Christian, 99-101.
+Dix, Dorothea, 324, 327, 328-331.
+Dole, Charles F., 274, 352.
+Douthit, Jasper L., 214.
+Doyle, J.A., 22.
+Dunster, Henry, 24.
+Dwight, Edmund, 399, 400.
+Dwight, John S., 155, 369, 415, 428.
+
+Eaton, Dorman B., 373, 381.
+Education, 253, 323, 325, 337-342, 343, 384, 389, 395-408, 410, 411.
+Education in south, 338-340, 410, 411.
+Education of Indians, 340-342.
+Edwards, Jonathan, 38-41, 44.
+Effinger, J.R., 226.
+Eliot, Charles W., 238, 305, 395, 397.
+Eliot, Rev. Samuel A., 232, 245.
+Eliot, Samuel A., 127, 335, 383, 414.
+Eliot, Thomas D., 196, 212.
+Eliot, William G., 144, 146, 169, 184, 311, 351, 364, 398, 448.
+Ellis, George E., 146, 164, 267, 421, 450.
+Ellis, Rufus, 270, 361, 448.
+Ellis, Sallie, 289, 290.
+Emerson, George B., 127, 164.
+Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 151, 155, 202, 324, 369, 413, 415, 416, 428, 431,
+      435, 436, 448.
+Emerson, William, 95, 96, 413.
+Emlyn, Thomas, 57, 58.
+Emmons, Nathaniel, 55.
+Equality, 33, 38.
+Evangelical Missionary Society, 104, 105, 141.
+Everett, Charles Carroll, 196, 275, 396, 417-419, 452.
+Everett, Edward, 94, 98, 109, 114, 351, 380, 382, 391, 397, 399, 407,
+      414, 416.
+Everett, William, 414.
+Exchange of pulpits, 101.
+
+Farley, Frederic A., 146, 165, 361.
+Fearing, Albert, 238, 324.
+Federal (now Arlington) Street Church, 83, 94, 106, 129, 250, 256,
+      257, 301.
+Fellowship, Unitarian, 205, 209, 211, 219-221, 436, 437.
+Fellowship with other religious bodies, 192-195, 296.
+Felton, Cornelius C., 397.
+Fields, James T., 369, 428.
+Fillmore, Millard, 331, 380.
+First Church of Boston, 53, 66.
+Fiske, John, 22, 307, 424.
+Flagg, J.F., 265, 350.
+Flower Mission, 337.
+Follen, Charles, 359, 431.
+Follen, Eliza Lee, 266, 367.
+Folsom, Nathaniel, 319, 361.
+Forbes, John Murray, 386.
+Forbush, T.B., 226.
+Forman, J.G., 176, 178, 184.
+Forster, Anthony, 118.
+Fox, George W., 161, 162, 207-209.
+Fox, Thomas B., 146, 268, 450.
+Francis, Convers, 110, 155, 200, 360, 361.
+Francke, Kuno, 17.
+Franklin, Benjamin, 376, 377, 379.
+Fraternity of Churches, Benevolent, 197, 256, 257, 282.
+Freedman's Bureau, 184, 197.
+Freedom of Thought, 1, 3, 5, 8, 32, 37, 59, 61-64, 70, 71, 80, 115, 125,
+      205, 210, 212, 389.
+Freeman, James, 76, 78, 80, 82, 98, 111, 114, 344.
+Free Religion, 203, 210, 211.
+Free Religious Association, 194, 202-204, 207, 225, 436.
+French, Daniel C., 430.
+Friend of Peace, 345.
+Friends, 88.
+Frothingham, Nathaniel L., 114, 124, 344, 413, 420.
+Frothingham, Octavius B., 124, 165, 175, 200, 202, 207, 216, 322, 323, 366,
+      369, 387, 392, 394, 413, 420, 424, 431.
+Fuller, Margaret, 155, 368, 428, 429, 448.
+Furness, William Henry, 114, 146, 244, 267, 361, 365, 394, 420.
+
+Galvin, Edward I., 176, 337.
+Gannett, Ezra Stiles, 114, 127, 128, 134-137, 139, 143, 146, 172, 191, 266,
+      346, 350-351, 354, 355, 450.
+Gannett, William C., 225-227, 241, 277, 290.
+Garrison, William Lloyd, 353, 359, 367, 377.
+Gay, Ebenezer, 58-60, 77.
+General Repositary, The, 97, 390.
+Giddings, Joshua R., 367.
+Gierke, Otto, 4.
+Giles, Henry, 361, 420.
+Gilman, Samuel, 119, 146, 420.
+God, 2, 4, 7, 9, 11, 13, 38, 41, 51, 53, 59, 60, 64, 68, 70, 73, 90, 157,
+      198, 227, 228.
+Goodell, William, 365.
+Gore, Christopher, 382.
+Gould, Allen W., 226, 277, 452.
+Gould, Benjamin, 427.
+Grant, Moses, 248, 264, 265, 344, 350.
+Graves, Mary H., 371.
+Gray, Frederic T., 167, 248, 254, 256, 265, 267, 270, 271, 334, 361.
+Great Awakening, 46, 66, 210.
+Greene, Benjamin H., 248, 333.
+Greenhalge, Frederic T., 382.
+Greenwood, Francis W.P., 101, 111, 114, 148, 421, 433, 450.
+Greenwood, Grace (Mrs. Lippincott), 428, 430.
+
+Hale, Edward Everett, 154, 175, 189, 191, 194, 195, 196, 205, 217, 218,
+      269, 270, 318, 323, 342, 429, 430, 450.
+Hale, George S., 231.
+Hale, John P., 367, 380.
+Hale, Lucretia P., 165, 279, 404.
+Half-way Covenant, 22, 27, 28, 68.
+Hall, Asaph, 427.
+Hall, Edward Brooks, 127, 146, 160, 267, 361.
+Hall, Nathaniel, 361, 366.
+Hall, Nathaniel, the younger, 387.
+Hamlin, Hannibal, 383.
+Hampton Institute, 339, 340.
+Hancock, John, 385.
+Hancock Sunday-school, 247, 264, 265.
+Harte, Bret, 430.
+Harvard College, 35, 41, 44, 47, 92, 98, 384, 388, 390, 395-397, 412.
+Harvard Divinity School, 108-110, 124, 193, 214, 391, 392, 394, 395, 396,
+      414, 415.
+Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 381, 430.
+Haynes, George H., 29.
+Hazlitt, Rev. William, 71, 77-79.
+Hedge, Frederic H., 146, 155, 161, 165, 180, 239, 244, 346, 359, 360, 361,
+      415, 417, 420, 449, 450.
+Hemenway, Augustus, 385.
+Hemenway, Mary, 405-407.
+Hepworth, George H., 176, 205.
+Herford, Brooke, 196, 225, 452.
+Heywood, John H., 178, 180, 364.
+Higginson, Stephen, 130, 133.
+Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 177, 202, 367, 368, 369, 415, 424, 429.
+Higher criticism, 389-395.
+Hildreth, Richard, 413, 424.
+Hill, Thomas, 320, 361, 397, 420, 427.
+Historians, 422-427.
+Hoar, Ebenezer Rockwood, 191, 196, 367, 382.
+Hoar, George Frisbie, 196, 367, 369, 380.
+Holland, Frederick West, 144, 178, 361.
+Hollis Professorship, 92, 108, 109.
+Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 431-433.
+Hooker, Thomas, 16, 25.
+Hopkins, Samuel, 73.
+Horton, Edward A., 275.
+Hosmer, Frederick L., 226, 244, 277.
+Hosmer, George W., 311, 314, 316, 338, 361.
+Hosmer, Harriet, 430.
+Hosmer, James Kendall, 176, 338, 415.
+Howard, Simeon, 66, 78.
+Howard Sunday-school, 252, 265, 332.
+Howe, Julia Ward, 328, 348, 349, 368, 370, 371, 428.
+Howe, Samuel G., 180, 325-329, 367.
+Howells, William D., 430.
+Huidekoper, Frederic, 317, 319, 422.
+Huidekoper, Harm Jan, 311-314.
+Hunt, John, 11, 13.
+Hunting, Sylvan S., 176, 214.
+Huntington, Frederic D., 270, 361, 448.
+Hymns of Unitarians, 244, 420.
+
+Idealism, 45.
+Independents, 7.
+Index, The, 203, 207.
+India, 72, 248, 296, 303.
+Individualism, 1-4, 8, 17, 18, 27, 63, 90, 125, 205, 210, 211, 224, 343,
+      349, 428, 441-443.
+Insane, care of, 328-331.
+International Council, 245, 440.
+Intuition, 2, 4, 12.
+
+Jackson, Charles, 130, 387.
+Jackson, Helen Hunt, 430.
+Jackson, James, 427.
+Japan, 303-309.
+Japanese Unitarian Association, 306-309.
+Jefferson, Thomas, 136, 378-380, 437.
+Jenckes, Thomas A., 372.
+Johnson, Samuel, 201, 244, 366, 369, 419, 420.
+Jones, Jenkin Lloyd, 214, 225, 276, 278, 451.
+Judd, Sylvester, 217, 240, 241, 361, 366, 429.
+Julian, George W., 367, 369.
+
+Kanda, Saichiro, 305, 306.
+Kendall, James, 84.
+Kentucky, 119.
+Khasi Hills, 302, 303.
+Kidder, Henry P., 189, 212, 231, 238.
+Kindergarten, 492, 493.
+King's Chapel, 52, 76, 160, 313, 387, 421.
+King, Starr, 165, 167, 182, 183, 420.
+Kirkland, Caroline, 369, 428.
+Kirkland, John T., 98, 109, 114, 323, 344, 350, 351, 397.
+Knapp, Arthur M., 304.
+Knapp, Frederick N., 181.
+Kneeland, John, 273.
+
+Ladies' Commission on Sunday-school Books, 279-281.
+Lafargue, Paul, 2.
+Lamson, Alvan, 165, 200, 422, 450.
+Latitudinarianism, 9, 10.
+Lawrence, Abbott, 385, 386.
+Lawrence, Amos, 351, 385, 386.
+Leland Stanford, Jr., University, 399.
+Leonard, Levi W., 409.
+Liberal Christian, The, 193.
+Liberal Preacher, The, 447.
+Liberalism, 24, 26, 29, 32, 34, 37, 46, 49-52, 54, 57, 59, 61, 70, 72, 75,
+      85, 87, 88, 94, 104, 106, 111, 122.
+Liberator, The, 359.
+Liberty, 206, 342, 343, 349.
+Libraries, 289, 409, 410.
+Lincoln, Abraham, 376, 377.
+Lincoln, Calvin, 127, 161.
+Lincoln, Levi, 382.
+Lindsey, Theophilus, 78, 102.
+Little, Robert, 119.
+Liturgy, 242, 343.
+Livermore, Abiel Abbot, 148, 169, 317, 318, 361, 366.
+Livermore, Leonard J., 272.
+Livermore, Mary A., 368, 371.
+Local Conferences, 216-219, 445, 446.
+Locke, John, 5, 6, 12, 43, 56.
+Long, John D., 231, 382.
+Longfellow, Henry W., 431, 432.
+Longfellow, Samuel, 175, 200, 242, 244, 366, 369, 419.
+Longfellow, Stephen, 134, 432.
+Lord's Supper, 27, 240.
+Loring, Charles G., 127.
+Loring, Ellis Gray, 359, 369.
+Lothrop, Samuel K., 143, 144, 160, 163, 236, 350, 447.
+Lovering, Joseph, 427.
+Low, A.A., 189.
+Lowe, Charles, 172, 177, 196, 197, 205, 209, 212, 216, 218, 237, 279,
+      370, 451.
+Lowell, Charles, 94, 99, 109, 114, 263, 344, 350, 351, 366, 413.
+Lowell, Francis Cabot, 385, 386.
+Lowell Institute, 407, 408.
+Lowell, James Russell, 413, 431, 434, 435.
+Lowell, John, 382, 385.
+Lowell, John Amory, 385, 407.
+Lunt, William Parsons, 420.
+
+MacCauley, Clay, 304, 305.
+McCrary, George W., 326, 383.
+Maine Conference of Unitarian Churches, 218.
+Mann, Horace. 166, 327, 329, 351, 399-402.
+Mann, Mrs. Horace, 324, 403.
+Marshall, John, 376, 380.
+Marshall, J.B.F., 339, 340.
+Martineau, James, 165, 450..
+Mason, L.B., 112, 176.
+Massachusetts Congregational Charitable Society, 119.
+Massachusetts Convention of Congregational Ministers, 120.
+May, Abby Williams, 283, 403, 404.
+May, Col. Joseph, 132, 133, 344.
+May, Rev. Joseph, 216.
+May, Samuel, 359-361, 366.
+May, Samuel J., 127, 146, 194, 346, 351, 356, 358, 360, 361, 366, 369, 399,
+      401, 447.
+Mayhew, Experience, 49, 60.
+Mayhew, Jonathan, 45, 47, 48, 53, 58, 60-66, 85, 90, 199.
+Mayo, Amory D., 320, 368, 410, 411.
+Mead, Edwin D., 406.
+Mead, Larkin G., 430.
+Meadville Theological School, 161, 193, 215, 310-320.
+Methodism, 89, 194.
+Miles, Henry A., 161, 164, 360, 361.
+Miller, Samuel F., 196, 380.
+Milton, John, 5, 6, 10, 12, 31, 45, 56.
+Ministry at Large, 247-261.
+Miracles, 156, 157, 198, 200, 211.
+Missions, domestic, 104, 140, 144, 149-153, 167, 171, 172, 212-214, 218.
+Mitchell, Maria, 427.
+Montana Industrial School, 341, 342, 405.
+Monthly Journal of American Unitarian Association, 162, 184, 237.
+Monthly Miscellany, The, 448.
+Monthly Religious Magazine, 448.
+Morehouse, Daniel W., 196.
+Morison, John H., 165, 270, 355, 356, 448.
+Morrill, Justin S., 380.
+Morse, Jedediah, 93, 102, 423.
+Motley, John Lothrop, 424.
+Mott, Lucretia, 202, 369.
+Mumford, Thomas J., 207, 271, 366, 369.
+Munroe, James, & Co., 235.
+Muzzey, Artemas M., 165, 178, 359, 360, 361, 422.
+
+National Conference: origin, 190-195;
+  Syracuse session, 201;
+  change in constitution, 204;
+  Hepworth's amendment, 207;
+  protests against dropping names from Year Book, 209;
+  formation of local conferences, 218-221;
+  revision of constitution, in 1892, 229;
+  adjustment of Conference and Association, 233;
+  temperance resolutions, 352;
+  women represented, 369;
+  organ proposed, 446.
+New Divinity, 73.
+New Hampshire Unitarian Association, 217.
+New York, 119, 213, 381, 429.
+New York Convention, 190-195.
+Newell, Frederick R., 172, 176, 184.
+Newell, William, 361, 414, 420.
+Newell, William Wells, 414, 415.
+Nichols, Ichabod, 140, 142, 165.
+Nitti, F.S., 3.
+North American Review, 116, 416.
+Northampton, 27, 38, 41, 381.
+Norton, Andrews, 98, 109-111, 114, 122, 126, 130, 132, 135, 139, 164, 243,
+      391, 392, 414, 420.
+Norton, Charles, Eliot, 175, 185, 414, 428.
+Novelists, 429, 430.
+Noyes, George Rapall, 110, 114, 146, 164, 200, 392, 393.
+Nute, Ephraim, 167, 176.
+
+Old and New, 450.
+Old South historical work, 405-407.
+Oriental religions, 72.
+Orton, Edward, 338.
+Osgood, Samuel, 154, 215, 361, 431, 449.
+"Other Christian Churches," 201, 219, 446.
+Otis, Harrison Gray, 382, 385.
+Oxnard, Thomas, 80.
+
+Palfrey, Cazneau, 173, 361.
+Palfrey, John G., 95, 101, 109, 110, 114, 117, 126, 127, 146, 154, 157,
+      191, 212, 249, 329, 350, 366, 385, 391, 415, 424.
+Panoplist, The, 93, 102.
+Parish, 29, 115.
+Parker, Isaac, 351, 382.
+Parker, Theodore, 155-157, 165, 267, 327, 328, 343, 361, 365, 369, 394,
+      399, 415, 417, 420, 436.
+Parkman, Francis, historian, 413.
+Parkman, John, 154, 361.
+Parkman, Rev. Francis, 74, 95, 99, 109, 173, 344, 413, 424.
+Parsons, Theophilus, 86, 117, 351, 377, 382.
+Parton, James, 424.
+Peabody, Andrew P., 117, 146, 148, 173, 239, 260, 313, 323, 360, 361.
+Peabody, Elizabeth P., 155, 368, 402, 403.
+Peabody, Ephraim, 270, 313, 334, 335, 433, 448.
+Peabody, Francis G., 331.
+Peabody, W.B.O., 361, 420.
+Peace movement, 343-349.
+Peace societies, 322, 344.
+Peirce, Benjamin, 427.
+Perkins Institute for the Blind, 323, 325, 326.
+Perkins, Thomas H., 325, 386, 387.
+Phillips, Jonathan, 109, 351, 385.
+Phillips, Stephen C., 385.
+Pickering, Edward C., 427.
+Pickering, John, 381.
+Pickering, Timothy, 377, 381.
+Pierce, Cyrus, 361, 400, 401.
+Pierce, John, 114, 131, 133, 344, 350.
+Pierpont, John, 114, 127, 132, 176, 243, 350, 351, 361, 365, 420.
+Pillsbury, Parker, 368, 369.
+Piper, George F., 273.
+Pitts Street Chapel, 257, 258, 332.
+Plymouth, 16, 83, 118.
+Poets, 431-435.
+Poor, care of, 250, 255, 321, 322, 334, 335.
+Porter, Eliphalet, 76.
+Portland, 80, 118.
+Post-office Mission, 289, 290.
+Potter, William J., 170, 200, 203, 208, 209, 211.
+Pratt, Enoch, 189, 409, 410.
+Pray, Lewis G., 270.
+Prescott, William Hickling, 117, 381, 424, 425.
+Priestley, Joseph, 71, 78, 80, 81, 83, 118.
+Primitive Christianity, 48, 67, 112, 122.
+Prince, John, 71, 76, 381.
+Prison reform, 327, 328, 329, 343.
+Protestantism, 1, 3, 4, 7, 14, 17, 18, 156.
+Publishing Fund Society, 107, 108, 141.
+Publishing interests, 113, 128, 145, 162, 164, 165, 184.
+Puritanism, 10, 19, 20, 21, 37, 53.
+Puritans, 19, 22.
+Putnam, Alfred P., 216, 420.
+Putnam, George, 146, 185, 450.
+Pynchon, William, 23, 24.
+
+Quarterly Journal of American Unitarian Association, 162.
+Quincy, Edmund, 359.
+Quincy, Josiah, 35, 42, 128, 344, 366, 382, 397, 399.
+
+Radical, The, 203.
+Radicalism, 155, 156, 158, 199, 203, 204, 210, 222.
+Rammohun Roy, 296.
+Rantoul, Robert, 127, 351, 399.
+Rationalism, 5, 6, 12, 31, 44, 45, 55, 62, 69, 90, 156.
+Reason, 2, 3, 9-11, 13, 31, 37, 90.
+Reed, David, 114, 127, 129, 145, 234, 269.
+Reforms, 343, 356.
+Revelation, 12, 13, 20, 46, 66, 69, 73, 88.
+Reynolds, Grindall, 232, 238, 239.
+Ripley, Ezra, 74, 263, 344.
+Ripley, George, 146, 415, 420, 428, 448.
+Ripley, Samuel. 360, 361.
+Robbins, Chandler, 83, 361, 420.
+Roberts, William, 297, 298.
+Robinson, George D., 382.
+Robinson, John, 25, 84.
+Roman Catholic Church, 2, 3, 17.
+
+Saco, 81.
+Safford, Mary A., 371.
+St. Louis, 141, 184, 225, 259, 398.
+Salem, 16, 29, 54, 70, 76, 80, 118, 218, 381, 413.
+Saltonstall, Leverett, 127, 133, 140, 381.
+Saltonstall, Sir Richard, 16, 23.
+San Francisco, 153, 167, 182.
+Sanborn, Frank B., 202, 369.
+Sanitary Commission, 176, 178-184, 188, 338.
+Sargent, John T., 361, 369, 370.
+Savage, Minot J., 196, 274.
+Scandlin, William G., 176, 177, 182.
+Scientists, 427, 428.
+Scudder, Eliza, 244.
+Sears, Edmund H., 165, 217, 395, 420, 448.
+Sectarianism, 125, 131, 149, 150, 201, 266, 356, 436.
+Sedgwick, Catherine M., 369, 381, 429.
+Sewall, Edmund Q., 361.
+Sewall, Samuel E., 358, 359, 369.
+Shaw, Lemuel, 382, 387.
+Shaw, Robert Gould, 386.
+Sherman, John, 92, 98.
+Shippen, Rush R., 213, 237, 238.
+Shute, Daniel, 58, 85, 87.
+Sill, Edward Rowland, 415, 431.
+Sin, original, 50.
+Singh, Hajom Kissor, 302, 303.
+Sloan, W.M., 2.
+Smith, Gerrit, 367, 376, 420.
+Smith, Mary P. Wells, 285, 290.
+Socialism in the church, 3, 4, 17, 20, 27, 33.
+Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity, 96,
+      141, 148.
+Society for Promoting Theological Education, 109, 110.
+Society for Propagating the Gospel, 120.
+Society to Encourage Home Studies, 404, 405.
+Socinianism, 42, 75, 80.
+Solemn Review of Custom of War, 344, 346.
+Sparks, Jared, 111, 114, 117, 119, 126, 132, 135, 397, 399, 415, 421, 424.
+Spaulding, Henry G., 274.
+Spirit of the Pilgrims, The, 93.
+Spofford Harriet Prescott, 430.
+Sprague, Charles, 351, 431.
+Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 368.
+Staples, Carlton A., 176, 214, 259, 364.
+Staples, Nahor A., 167, 176, 366.
+Stearns, Oliver, 317, 360, 361.
+Stebbins, Horatio, 239.
+Stebbins, Rufus, P., 161, 188, 189, 196, 315, 316, 351, 361, 397.
+Stedman, Edmund C., 431.
+Stetson, Caleb, 360, 361, 365.
+Stevenson, Hannah E., 202, 279.
+Stoddard, Richard Henry, 431.
+Stoddard, Solomon, 27, 39, 44, 68, 241.
+Stone, Lucy, 367-369.
+Stone, Thomas T., 164, 366, 369.
+Story, Joseph, 114, 117, 133, 134, 140, 143, 260, 377, 380, 381, 387.
+Story, William Wetmore, 430.
+Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 384.
+Strong, Caleb, 385.
+Sullivan, James, 385.
+Sullivan, Richard, 128, 129.
+Sullivan, Thomas E., 127, 447.
+Sumner, Charles, 347, 348, 364, 367, 372, 380.
+Sunday-school papers, 266, 269-271, 273, 274.
+Sunday-schools, 247, 254, 262-281;
+  origin of, 262;
+  Boston society, 265;
+  growth of, 267;
+  first publications, 268;
+  local societies, 269;
+  paper, 269;
+  national society, 270;
+  awakening interest, 272;
+  George F. Piper as secretary, 273;
+  Henry G. Spaulding, 274;
+  Edward A. Horton, 275;
+  western society, 276;
+  unity clubs, 278;
+  Religious Union, 278;
+  Ladies' Commission, 279, 332.
+Sunderland, Jabez T., 225, 301-303, 451.
+
+Talbot, Thomas, 382.
+Tappan, Lewis, 134, 137, 139.
+Taylor, Bayard, 430, 431.
+Taylor, Edward T., "Father Taylor," 324, 327.
+Taylor, Jeremy, 5, 12, 14, 31, 66.
+Taylor, John, of Norwich, 39.
+Temperance reform, 100, 322, 327, 349-353.
+Thacher, Samuel C., 94, 96, 99, 103, 344.
+Thayer, Nathaniel, 134.
+Theatre preaching, 215, 216.
+Theological library, 164.
+Thomas, Moses G., 140.
+Thompson, James W., 360, 361, 448.
+Thoreau, Henry D., 415, 428.
+Ticknor, Anna E., 404, 405.
+Ticknor, George, 98, 390, 410, 424, 525, 526.
+Tilden, William P., 361.
+Tileston, Thomas, 385.
+Tillotson, John, 11, 44, 45, 67.
+Toleration, 6, 7, 9, 11, 13, 21, 37, 43, 61, 67, 85, 89, 103, 107, 121.
+Toy, Crawford H., 274, 452.
+Tracts, 145-147, 163, 248, 300, 307.
+Tracts, distribution of, 147, 163, 184, 290.
+Transcendentalism, 155, 199, 200, 222, 417, 431.
+Trinity, 13, 14, 42, 45, 55, 58, 63, 65, 66, 69, 71, 79, 83.
+Trowbridge, John T., 430.
+Tucker, John, 75.
+Tuckerman, Henry T., 261, 428.
+Tuckerman, Joseph, 96, 99, 146, 247, 250-257, 260, 264, 265, 270, 282, 297,
+      298, 322, 323, 331, 334, 344.
+Tudor, William, 116.
+Tullock, John, 5.
+Tuskegee Institute, 339.
+
+Unitarian Advocate, 447.
+Unitarian Association, American, 117;
+  discussion in anonymous association, 129;
+  meeting at house of Josiah Quincy, 128;
+  Gannett's statement of purpose, 128;
+  printed report of committee, 128;
+  meeting in Federal Street Church, 129;
+  discussion as to advisability of organizing, 129;
+  announcement at Berry Street Conference, 133;
+  organization, 134;
+  officers, 135;
+  name selected, 138;
+  work of first year, 139;
+  first annual meeting, 140;
+  missionary tour of Moses G. Thomas, 140;
+  effort to absorb other societies, 141;
+  report of directors, 141;
+  attitude of churches, 142;
+  receipts, 142;
+  presidents, 142;
+  secretaries, 143;
+  missionary agents, 144;
+  incorporation, 145;
+  tracts, 145;
+  depositaries, 146;
+  Book and Pamphlet Society, 147;
+  distribution of books, 148;
+  colporters, 148;
+  missionary work in New England, 149;
+  work in South and West, 151;
+  tour of secretary, 152;
+  contributions for domestic missions, 153;
+  work of first quarter-century, 154;
+  influence of radicalism, 155;
+  indifference of churches, 160;
+  officers, 160;
+  Quarterly and Monthly Journal, 162;
+  tracts and books, 163;
+  theological library, 164;
+  devotional library, 164;
+  publishing firm, 165;
+  missionary activities, 167;
+  Association and Western Conference, 172;
+  work during civil war, 177;
+  results of fifteen years, 184;
+  meeting to consider interests of Association, 187;
+  vote to raise $100,000, 189;
+  success, 190;
+  convention in New; York, 190;
+  organization of National Conference, 192;
+  work planned, 193;
+  new life in Association, 196;
+  contributions, 197;
+  new theological position, 197;
+  organization of Free Religious Association, 202;
+  attempts at reconciliation, 204;
+  demand for creed, 205;
+  Year Book controversy, 207;
+  attitude of Unitarians, 209;
+  missionary work, 212;
+  Charles Lowe as secretary, 212;
+  fires in Chicago and Boston, 213;
+  work in west, 214;
+  college town missions, 214;
+  theatre preaching, 215;
+  organization of local conferences, 217;
+  fellowship and fraternity, 219;
+  results of denominational awakening, 221;
+  western issue, 225;
+  constitution of 1892, 229;
+  fellowship with Universalists, 230;
+  officers, 231;
+  adoption of representation, 232;
+  co-operation of Association and National Conference, 233;
+  building loan fund, 234;
+  Unitarian building, 237;
+  seventy-fifth anniversary, 244;
+  ministry at large, 247;
+  aid to Sunday School Society, 266;
+  fellowship with foreign Unitarians, 295;
+  relations with British Association, 295;
+  Dall in India, 299;
+  work in Japan, 303;
+  educational work in South, 338, 410;
+  educational work for Indians, 340;
+  attitude towards slavery, 363;
+  formation of International Council, 440.
+Unitarian Association, British and Foreign, 295, 298, 303.
+Unitarian beliefs, 157, 158, 168, 170, 171, 193, 201, 203, 205-207, 209,
+      211, 212, 225-227, 229, 362, 376, 378, 381, 382, 409, 425, 429, 431,
+      433, 434.
+Unitarian Book and Pamphlet Society, 147, 148.
+Unitarian Church Association of Maine, 217, 240.
+Unitarian hymnology, 244, 420.
+Unitarian Miscellany, The, 111-114.
+Unitarian Monitor, The, 447.
+Unitarian name, 103, 104, 123, 125, 138, 192, 266.
+Unitarian Review, 451.
+Unitarian Temperance Society, 278, 351, 352.
+Unitarian, The (1834), 447.
+Unitarian, The (1886), 225, 451.
+Unitarianism, American, 9, 14, 16, 36, 57-59, 63, 67, 72, 78, 79, 82, 102,
+      104, 111, 115, 118, 122, 124-126, 128, 132, 138, 149, 169, 185,
+      222-224, 378, 379, 384, 387, 389, 436-443.
+Unity, 225, 451.
+Unity clubs, 277-278.
+Unity of God, 63, 65.
+Universalism, 67-69, 71, 75, 88, 90, 93, 193, 194, 230.
+Universality of religion, 203, 210.
+
+Vane, Sir Henry, 16, 24.
+Very, Jones, 155, 244, 381, 431.
+
+Walcutt, Robert F., 359, 366.
+Walker, James, 95 101, 114, 126, 127, 129, 133-135, 138, 139, 146, 200,
+      267, 351, 397, 450.
+Walker, James P., 165, 188, 236, 272, 280.
+Walker, Williston, 18, 22.
+Walter, Cornelia W., 404.
+War, 343, 346-348.
+Ware, Dr. Henry, 60, 92, 108, 135, 146.
+Ware, Henry, the younger, 100, 110, 114, 128, 129, 132, 133, 135, 138, 143,
+      145, 148, 163, 184, 243, 249, 267, 268, 295, 297, 310, 344, 345, 350,
+      351, 359, 420.
+Ware, Dr. John, 350.
+Ware, John F. W, 177, 185, 361.
+Ware, William, 287, 360, 361, 415, 429, 447, 450.
+Warren Street Chapel, 257, 332, 337.
+Washington, 119, 213, 376, 380.
+Washington, George, 377, 379.
+Washington University, 397, 398.
+Wasson, David A., 201, 202, 211, 419, 420.
+Waterston, Robert C., 332, 361.
+Webster, Daniel, 356, 380, 385, 387.
+Webster, Samuel, 50.
+Weeden, William B., 383.
+Weiss, John, 200, 202, 360, 361, 419.
+Weld, Angelina Grimke, 367, 369.
+Weld, Theodore D., 365, 367.
+Wells, John, 212, 382.
+Wendell, Barrett, 410, 435.
+Wendte, Charles W., 246, 276, 289, 337.
+West, Samuel, 69, 85, 87.
+West, Unitarianism in the, 151-153, 224.
+Western Conference, 168-172, 197, 209, 214, 224-229, 284, 285, 364.
+"Western issue," 225-228.
+Western Messenger, The, 366, 448.
+Western ministers, 149, 152.
+Western Unitarian Association, 226.
+Wheaton, Henry, 134, 381.
+Whipple, Edwin P., 428.
+White, Andrew D., 376.
+Whitefield, George, 41, 44, 46.
+Whitman, Bernard, 269, 447.
+Whitman, Jason, 144, 148, 361.
+Whitman, Walter, 431.
+Whitney, Leonard, 172, 176.
+Whittier, John G., 376, 431.
+Wigglesworth, Dr., 44.
+Wigglesworth, Thomas, 385.
+Wilkes, Eliza Tupper, 371.
+Willard, Samuel, 26, 35.
+Williams, John E., 332.
+Williams, Roger, 16, 24, 121.
+Willson, Edmund B., 176, 269, 361.
+Winkley, Samuel H., 185.
+Wise, John, 30-34.
+Wolcott, J.H., 385.
+Wolcott, Roger, 382.
+Women, 30, 191, 250, 282-294, 343, 348, 349, 368-372, 402-407, 428, 429.
+Women's Alliance, 287-294.
+Women's Auxiliary, 286.
+Women's Western Unitarian Conference, 284, 285.
+Woodbury, Augustus, 146.
+Worcester, 73, 173, 218.
+Worcester Association of Ministers, 173, 269.
+Worcester, Noah, 93, 98-100, 114, 148, 344, 345, 350, 365, 389.
+Wright, Carroll D., 196, 231.
+Wyman, Jeffries, 180, 427.
+
+Yale College, 43.
+Year Book of American Unitarian Association, 207, 449.
+Young, Alexander, 114, 127, 143, 267, 424.
+Young People's Religious Union, 278.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Unitarianism in America, by George Willis Cooke
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNITARIANISM IN AMERICA ***
+
+This file should be named 7unit10.txt or 7unit10.zip
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7unit11.txt
+VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7unit10a.txt
+
+Produced by David Starner, Christopher Lund, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we usually do not
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance
+of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
+Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections,
+even years after the official publication date.
+
+Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.
+
+Most people start at our Web sites at:
+http://gutenberg.net or
+http://promo.net/pg
+
+These Web sites include award-winning information about Project
+Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new
+eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!).
+
+
+Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement
+can get to them as follows, and just download by date.  This is
+also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the
+indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an
+announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.
+
+http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or
+ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03
+
+Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90
+
+Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,
+as it appears in our Newsletters.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
+to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.   Our
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If the value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text
+files per month:  1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+
+We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002
+If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total
+will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks!
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.
+
+Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated):
+
+eBooks Year Month
+
+    1  1971 July
+   10  1991 January
+  100  1994 January
+ 1000  1997 August
+ 1500  1998 October
+ 2000  1999 December
+ 2500  2000 December
+ 3000  2001 November
+ 4000  2001 October/November
+ 6000  2002 December*
+ 9000  2003 November*
+10000  2004 January*
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created
+to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people
+and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut,
+Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois,
+Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts,
+Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New
+Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
+Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South
+Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West
+Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
+
+We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones
+that have responded.
+
+As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list
+will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states.
+Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state.
+
+In answer to various questions we have received on this:
+
+We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally
+request donations in all 50 states.  If your state is not listed and
+you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have,
+just ask.
+
+While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are
+not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting
+donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to
+donate.
+
+International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about
+how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made
+deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are
+ways.
+
+Donations by check or money order may be sent to:
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+PMB 113
+1739 University Ave.
+Oxford, MS 38655-4109
+
+Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment
+method other than by check or money order.
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by
+the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN
+[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154.  Donations are
+tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law.  As fund-raising
+requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be
+made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+You can get up to date donation information online at:
+
+http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html
+
+
+***
+
+If you can't reach Project Gutenberg,
+you can always email directly to:
+
+Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
+
+Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.
+
+We would prefer to send you information by email.
+
+
+**The Legal Small Print**
+
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how
+you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks,
+is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart
+through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project").
+Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook
+under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market
+any commercial products without permission.
+
+To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may
+receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims
+all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from. If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy. If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation,
+and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated
+with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
+texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including
+legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the
+following that you do or cause:  [1] distribution of this eBook,
+[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook,
+or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     eBook or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word
+     processing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the eBook (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the
+     gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation"
+     the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
+     legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
+     periodic) tax return.  Please contact us beforehand to
+     let us know your plans and to work out the details.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of
+public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
+in machine readable form.
+
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time,
+public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses.
+Money should be paid to the:
+"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or
+software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:
+hart@pobox.com
+
+[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only
+when distributed free of all fees.  Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by
+Michael S. Hart.  Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be
+used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be
+they hardware or software or any other related product without
+express permission.]
+
+*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END*
+
diff --git a/old/7unit10.zip b/old/7unit10.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ae5eb40
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/7unit10.zip
diff --git a/old/8unit10.txt b/old/8unit10.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7d0efaa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/8unit10.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,14627 @@
+Project Gutenberg's Unitarianism in America, by George Willis Cooke
+#2 in our series by George Willis Cooke
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
+this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
+
+This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
+Gutenberg file.  Please do not remove it.  Do not change or edit the
+header without written permission.
+
+Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
+eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file.  Included is
+important information about your specific rights and restrictions in
+how the file may be used.  You can also find out about how to make a
+donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: Unitarianism in America
+
+Author: George Willis Cooke
+
+Release Date: August, 2005 [EBook #8605]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on July 28, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNITARIANISM IN AMERICA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Starner, Christopher Lund, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+UNITARIANISM IN AMERICA
+A History of its Origin and Development
+
+
+BY
+
+
+GEORGE WILLIS COOKE
+
+MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, AMERICAN ASSOCIATION
+FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, AMERICAN ACADEMY OF
+POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCE, ETC.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The aim I have had in view in writing this book has been to give a history
+of the origin of Unitarianism in the United States, how it has organized
+itself, and what it has accomplished. It seemed desirable to deal more
+fully than has been done hitherto with the obscure beginnings of the
+Unitarian movement in New England; but limits of space have made it
+impossible to treat this phase of the subject in other than a cursory
+manner. It deserves an exhaustive treatment, which will amply repay the
+necessary labor to this end. The theological controversies that led to the
+separation of the Unitarians from the older Congregational body have been
+only briefly alluded to, the design of my work not requiring an ampler
+treatment. It was not thought best to cover the ground so ably traversed by
+Rev. George E. Ellis, in his Half-century of the Unitarian Controversy;
+Rev. Joseph Henry Allen, in his Our Liberal Movement in Theology; Rev.
+William Channing Gannett, in his Memoir of Dr. Ezra Stiles Gannett; and by
+Rev. John White Chadwick, in his Old and New Unitarian Beliefs. The attempt
+here made has been to supplement these works, and to treat of the practical
+side of Unitarianism,--its organizations, charities, philanthropies, and
+reforms.
+
+With the theological problems involved in the history of Unitarianism this
+volume deals only so far as they have affected its general development. I
+have endeavored to treat of them fairly and without prejudice, to state the
+position of each side to the various controversies in the words of those
+who have accepted its point of view, and to judge of them as phases of a
+larger religious growth. I have not thought it wise to attempt anything
+approaching an exhaustive treatment of the controversies produced by the
+transcendental movement and by "the Western issue." If they are to be dealt
+with in the true spirit of the historical method, it must be at a period
+more remote from these discussions than that of one who participated in
+them, however slightly. I have endeavored to treat of all phases of
+Unitarianism without reference to local interests and without sectional
+preferences. If my book does not indicate such regard to what is national
+rather than to what is provincial, as some of my readers may desire, it is
+due to inability to secure information that would have given a broader
+character to my treatment of the subject.
+
+The present work may appear to some of its readers to have been written in
+a sectarian spirit, with a purpose to magnify the excellences of
+Unitarianism, and to ignore its limitations. Such has not been the purpose
+I have kept before me; but, rather, my aim has been to present the facts
+candidly and justly, and to treat of them from the standpoint of a student
+of the religious evolution of mankind. Unitarianism in this country
+presents an attempt to bring religion into harmony with philosophy and
+science, and to reconcile Christianity with the modern spirit. Its effort
+in this direction is one that deserves careful consideration, especially in
+view of the unity and harmony it has developed in the body of believers who
+accept its teachings. The Unitarian body is a small one, but it has a
+history of great significance with reference to the future development of
+Christianity.
+
+The names of those who accept Unitarianism have not been given in this book
+in any boastful spirit. A faith that is often spoken against may justify
+itself by what it has accomplished, and its best fruits are the men and
+women who have lived in the spirit of its teachings. In presenting the
+names of those who are not in any way identified with Unitarian churches,
+the purpose has been to suggest the wide and inclusive character of the
+Unitarian movement, and to indicate that it is not represented merely by a
+body of churches, but that it is an individual way of looking at the facts
+of life and its problems.
+
+In writing the following pages, I have had constantly in mind those who
+have not been educated as Unitarians, and who have come into this
+inheritance through struggle and search. Not having been to the manner born
+myself, I have sought to provide such persons with the kind of information
+that would have been helpful to me in my endeavors to know the Unitarian
+life and temper. Something of what appears in these pages is due to this
+desire to help those who wish to know concretely what Unitarianism is, and
+what it has said and done to justify its existence. This will account for
+the manner of treatment and for some of the topics selected.
+
+When this work was begun, the design was that it should form a part of the
+exhibit of Unitarianism in this country presented at the seventy-fifth
+anniversary of the formation of the American Unitarian Association. The
+time required for a careful verification of facts made it impossible to
+have the book ready at that date. The delay in its publication has not
+freed the work from all errors and defects, but it has given the
+opportunity for a more adequate treatment of many phases of the subject.
+Much of the work required in its preparation does not show itself in the
+following pages; but it has involved an extended examination of manuscript
+journals and records, as well as printed reports of societies, newspapers,
+magazines, pamphlets, and books. Many of the subjects dealt with, not
+having been touched upon in any previous historical work, have demanded a
+first-hand study of records, often difficult to find access to, and even
+more difficult to summarize in an interesting and adequate manner.
+
+I wish here to warmly thank all those persons, many in number and too
+numerous to give all their names, who have generously aided me with their
+letters and manuscripts, and by the loan of books, magazines, pamphlets,
+and newspapers. Without their aid the book would have been much less
+adequate in its treatment of many subjects than it is at present. Though I
+am responsible for the book as it presents itself to the reader, much of
+its value is due to those who have thus labored with me in its preparation.
+In manuscript and in proof-sheet it has been read by several persons, who
+have kindly aided in securing accuracy to names, dates, and historic facts.
+
+G.W.C.
+
+BOSTON, October 1, 1902.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+I. INTRODUCTION.--ENGLISH SOURCES OF AMERICAN UNITARIANISM
+  Renaissance
+  Reformation
+  Toleration
+  Arminianism
+  English Rationalists
+
+II. THE LIBERAL SIDE OF PURITANISM
+  The Church of Authority and the Church of Freedom
+  Seventeenth-century Liberals
+  Growth of Liberty in Church Methods
+  A Puritan Rationalist
+  Harvard College
+
+III. THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY IN THE CHURCHES
+  Arminianism
+  The Growth of Arminianism
+  Robert Breck
+  Books Read by Liberal Men
+  The Great Awakening
+  Cardinal Beliefs of the Liberals
+  Publications defining the Liberal Beliefs
+  Phases of Religious Progress
+
+IV. THE SILENT ADVANCE OF LIBERALISM
+  Subordinate Nature of Christ
+  Some of the Liberal Leaders
+  The First Unitarian
+  A Pronounced Universalist
+  Other Men of Mark
+  The Second Period of Revivals
+  King's Chapel becomes Unitarian
+  Other Unitarian Movements
+  Growth of Toleration
+
+V. THE PERIOD OF CONTROVERSY
+  The Monthly Anthology
+  Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity
+  General Repository
+  The Christian Disciple
+  Dr. Morse and American Unitarianism
+  Evangelical Missionary Society
+  The Berry Street Conference
+  The Publishing Fund Society
+  Harvard Divinity School
+  The Unitarian Miscellany
+  The Christian Register
+  Results of the Division in Congregationalism
+  Final Separation of State and Church
+
+VI. THE AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION
+  Initial Meetings
+  Work of the First Year
+  Work of the First Quarter of a Century
+  Publication of Tracts and Books
+  Domestic Missions
+
+VII. THE PERIOD OF RADICALISM
+  Depression in Denominational Activities
+  Publications
+  A Firm of Publishers
+  The Brooks Fund
+  Missionary Efforts
+  The Western Unitarian Conference
+  The Autumnal Conventions
+  Influence of the Civil War
+  The Sanitary Commission
+  Results of Fifteen years
+
+VIII. THE DENOMINATIONAL AWAKENING
+  The New York Convention of 1865
+  New Life in the Unitarian Association
+  The New Theological Position
+  Organization of the Free Religious Association
+  Unsuccessful Attempts at Reconciliation
+  The Year Book Controversy
+  Missionary Activities
+  College Town Missions
+  Theatre Preaching
+  Organization of Local Conferences
+  Fellowship and Fraternity
+  Results of the Denominational Awakening
+
+IX. GROWTH OF DENOMINATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS
+  "The Western Issue"
+  Fellowship with Universalists
+  Officers of the American Unitarian Association
+  The American Unitarian Association as a Representative Boy
+  The Church Building Loan Fund
+  The Unitarian Building in Boston
+  Growth of the Devotional Spirit
+  The Seventy-fifth Anniversary
+
+X. THE MINISTRY AT LARGE
+  Association of Young Men
+  Preaching to the Poor
+  Tuckerman as Minister to the Poor
+  Tuckerman's Methods
+  Organization of Charities
+  Benevolent Fraternity of Churches
+  Other Ministers at Large
+  Ministry at Large in Other Cities
+
+XI. ORGANIZED SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK
+  Boston Sunday School Society
+  Unitarian Sunday School Society
+  Western Unitarian Sunday School Society
+  Unity Clubs
+  The Ladies' Commission on Sunday-school Books
+
+XII. THE WOMEN'S ALLIANCE AND ITS PREDECESSORS
+  Women's Western Unitarian Conference
+  Women's Auxiliary Conference
+  The National Alliance
+  Cheerful Letter and Post-office Missions
+  Associate Alliances
+  Alliance Methods
+
+XIII. MISSIONS TO INDIA AND JAPAN
+  Society respecting the State of Religion in India
+  Dall's Work in India
+  Recent Work in India
+  The Beginnings in Japan
+
+XIV. THE MEADVILLE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL
+  The Beginnings in Meadville
+  The Growth of the School
+
+XV. UNITARIAN PHILANTHROPIES
+  Unitarian Charities
+  Education of the Blind
+  Care of the Insane
+  Child-saving Missions
+  Care of the Poor
+  Humane Treatment of Animals
+  Young Men's Christian Unions
+  Educational Work in the South
+  Educational Work for the Indians
+
+XVI. UNITARIANS AND REFORMS
+  Peace Movement
+  Temperance Reform
+  Anti-slavery
+  The Enfranchisement of Women
+  Civil Service Reform
+
+XVII. UNITARIAN MEN AND WOMEN
+  Eminent Statesmen
+  Some Representative Unitarians
+  Judges and Legislators
+  Boston Unitarianism
+
+XVIII. UNITARIANS AND EDUCATION
+  Pioneers of the Higher Criticism
+  The Catholic Influence of Harvard University
+  The Work of Horace Mann
+  Elizabeth Peabody and the Kindergarten
+  Work of Unitarian Women for Education
+  Popular Education and Public Libraries
+  Mayo's Southern Ministry of Education
+
+XIX. UNITARIANISM AND LITERATURE
+  Influence of Unitarian Environment
+  Literary Tendencies
+  Literary Tastes of Unitarian Ministers
+  Unitarians as Historians
+  Scientific Unitarians
+  Unitarian Essayists
+  Unitarian Novelists
+  Unitarian Artists and Poets
+
+XX. THE FUTURE OF UNITARIANISM
+
+APPENDIX.
+  A. Formation of the Local Conferences
+  B. Unitarian Newspapers and Magazines
+
+
+
+
+UNITARIANISM IN AMERICA.
+
+A HISTORY OF ITS ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.--ENGLISH SOURCES OF AMERICAN UNITARIANISM.
+
+The sources of American Unitarianism are to be found in the spirit of
+individualism developed by the Renaissance, the tendency to free inquiry
+that manifested itself in the Protestant Reformation, and the general
+movement of the English churches of the seventeenth century toward
+toleration and rationalism. The individualism of modern thought and life
+first found distinct expression in the Renaissance; and it was essentially
+a new creation, and not a revival. Hitherto the tribe, the city, the
+nation, the guild, or the church, had been the source of authority, the
+centre of power, and the giver of life. Although Greece showed a desire for
+freedom of thought, and a tendency to recognize the worth of the individual
+and his capacity as a discoverer and transmitter of truth, it did not set
+the individual mind free from bondage to the social and political power of
+the city. Socrates and Plato saw somewhat of the real worth of the
+individual, but the great mass of the people were never emancipated from
+the old tribal authority as inherited by the city-state; and not one of the
+great dramatists had conceived of the significance of a genuine
+individualism.[1]
+
+[Sidenote: Renaissance.]
+
+The Renaissance advanced to a new conception of the worth and the capacity
+of the individual mind, and for the first time in history recognized the
+full social meaning of personality in man. It sanctioned and authenticated
+the right of the individual to think for himself, and it developed clearly
+the idea that he may become the transmitter of valid revelations of
+spiritual truth. That God may speak through individual intuition and
+reason, and that this inward revelation may be of the highest authority and
+worth, was a conception first brought to distinct acceptance by the
+Renaissance.
+
+A marked tendency of the Reformation which it received from the Renaissance
+was its acceptance of the free spirit of individualism. The Roman Church
+had taught that all valid religious truth comes to mankind through its own
+corporate existence, but the Reformers insisted that truth is the result of
+individual insight and investigation. The Reformation magnified the worth
+of personality, and made it the central force in all human effort.[2] To
+gain a positive personal life, one of free initiative power, that may in
+itself become creative, and capable of bringing truth and life to larger
+issues, was the chief motive of the Protestant leaders in their work of
+reformation. The result was that, wherever genuine Protestantism appeared,
+it manifested itself by its attitude of free inquiry, its tendency to
+emphasize individual life and thought, and its break with the traditions of
+the past, whether in literature or in religion. The Reformation did not,
+however, bring the principle of individuality to full maturity; and it
+retained many of the old institutional methods, as well as a large degree
+of their social motive. The Reformed churches were often as autocratic as
+the Catholic Church had been, and as little inclined to approve of
+individual departures from their creeds and disciplines; but the motive of
+individualism they had adopted in theory, and could not wholly depart from
+in practice. Their merit was that they had recognized and made a place for
+the principle of individuality; and it proved to be a developing social
+power, however much they might ignore or try to suppress it.
+
+[Sidenote: Reformation.]
+
+In its earliest phases Protestantism magnified the importance of reason in
+religious investigations, although it used an imperfect method in so doing.
+All doctrines were subjected more or less faithfully to this test, every
+rite was criticised and reinterpreted, and the Bible itself was handled in
+the freest manner. The individualism of the movement showed itself in
+Luther's doctrine of justification by faith, and his confidence in the
+validity of personal insight into spiritual realities. Most of all this
+tendency manifested itself in the assertion of the right of every believer
+to read the Bible for himself, and to interpret it according to his own
+needs. The vigorous assertion of the right to the free interpretation of
+the Word of God, and to personal insight into spiritual truth, led their
+followers much farther than the first reformers had anticipated.
+Individualism showed itself in an endless diversity of personal opinions,
+and in the creation of many little groups of believers, who were drawn
+together by an interest in individual leaders or by a common acceptance of
+hair-splitting interpretations of religious truths.[3]
+
+The Protestant Church inculcated the law of individual fidelity to God, and
+declared that the highest obligation is that of personal faith and purity.
+What separated the Catholic and the Protestant was not merely a question of
+socialism as against individualism,[4] but it was also a problem of outward
+or inward law, of environment or intuition as the source of wholesome
+teaching, of ritualism or belief as the higher form of religious
+expression. The Protestants held that belief is better than ritual, faith
+than sacraments, inward authority than external force. They insisted that
+the individual has a right to think his own thoughts and to pray his own
+prayer, and that the revelation of the Supreme Good Will is to all who
+inwardly bear God's image and to every one whose will is a centre of new
+creative force in the world of conduct. They affirmed that the individual
+is of more worth than the social organism, the soul than the church, the
+motive than the conduct, the search for truth than the truth attained.
+
+These tendencies of Protestantism found expression in the rationalism that
+appeared in England at the time of the Commonwealth, and especially at the
+Restoration. All the men of broader temper proclaimed the use of reason in
+the discussion of theological problems. In their opinion the Bible was to
+be interpreted as other books are, while with regard to doctrines there
+must be compromise and latitude. We find such a theologian as Chillingworth
+recognizing "the free right of the individual reason to interpret the
+Bible."[5] To such men as Milton, Jeremy Taylor, and Locke the free spirit
+was essential, even though they had not become rationalists in the modern
+philosophical sense. They were slow to discard tradition, and they desired
+to establish the validity of the Bible; but they would not accept any
+authority until it had borne the test of as thorough an investigation as
+they could give it. The methods of rationalism were not yet understood, but
+the rational spirit had been accepted with a clear apprehension of its
+significance.
+
+[Sidenote: Toleration.]
+
+Toleration had two classes of advocates in the seventeenth century,--on the
+one hand, the minor and persecuted sects, and, on the other, such of the
+great leaders of religious opinion as Milton and Locke. The first clear
+assertion of the modern idea of toleration was made by the Anabaptists of
+Holland, who in 1611 put into their Confession of Faith this declaration of
+the freedom of religion from all state regulation: "The magistrate is not
+to meddle with religion, or matters of conscience, nor compel men to this
+or that form of religion, because Christ is King, and Lawgiver of the
+church and conscience." When the Baptists appeared in England, they
+advocated this principle as the one which ought to control in the relations
+of church and state. In 1614 there was published in London a little tract,
+written by one Leonard Busher, a poor laborer, and a member of the Baptist
+church that had recently been organized there. The writer addressed the
+King and Parliament with a statement of his conviction "that by fire and
+sword to constrain princes and peoples to receive that one true religion of
+the Gospel is wholly against the mind and merciful law of Christ."[6] He
+went on to say that no king or bishop is able to command faith, that it is
+monstrous for Christians to vex and destroy each other on account of
+religious differences. The leading Protestant bodies, especially the
+established churches, still held to the corporate idea of the nature of
+religious institutions; and, although they had rejected the domination of
+the Roman Church, they accepted the control of the state as essential to
+the purity of the church. This half-way retention of the corporate spirit
+made it impossible for any of the leading churches to give recognition to
+the full meaning of the Protestant idea of the worth of the individual
+soul, and its right to communicate directly with God. It remained for the
+persecuted Baptists and Independents, too feeble and despised to aspire to
+state influence, to work out the Protestant principle to its full
+expression in the spirit of toleration, to declare for liberty of
+conscience, the voluntary maintenance of worship, and the separation of
+church and state.
+
+After the Restoration, and again after the enthronement of William and
+Mary, it became a serious practical problem to establish satisfactory
+relations between the various sects. All who were not sectarian fanatics
+saw that some kind of compromise was desirable, and the more liberal wished
+to include all but the most extreme phases of belief within the national
+church. When that national church was finally established on the lines
+which it has since retained, and numerous bodies of dissenters found
+themselves compelled to remain outside, toleration became more and more
+essential, in order that the nation might live at peace with itself. From
+generation to generation the dissenters were able to secure for themselves
+a larger recognition, disabilities were removed as men of all sects saw
+that restrictions were useless, and toleration became the established law
+in the relations of the various religious bodies to each other.
+
+[Sidenote: Arminianism.]
+
+The conditions which led to toleration also developed a liberal
+interpretation of the relations of the church to the people, a broader
+explanation of doctrines, and a rational insight into the problems of the
+religious life. One phase of this more comprehensive religious spirit was
+shown in Arminianism, which was nothing more than an assertion of
+individualism in the sphere of man's relations to God. Calvinism maintained
+that man cannot act freely for himself, that he is strictly under the
+sovereignty of the Divine Will. The democratic tendency in Holland, where
+Arminianism had its origin, expressed itself in the declaration that every
+man is free to accept or to reject religious truth, that the will is
+individual and self-assertive, and that the conscience is not bound.
+Arminius and his coworkers accepted what the early Protestant movement had
+regarded as essential, that religion should be always obedient to the
+rational spirit, that nature should be the test in regard to all which
+affects human conduct, and that the critical spirit ought to be applied to
+dogma and Bible. Arminius reasserted this freedom of the human spirit, and
+vindicated the right of the individual mind to seek God and his truth
+wherever they may be found.
+
+As Protestantism became firmly established in England, and the nation
+accepted its mental and moral attitude without reserve, what is known as
+Arminianism came to be more and more prevalent. This was not a body of
+doctrines, and it was in no sense a sectarian movement: it was rather a
+mental temper of openness and freedom. In a word, Arminianism became a
+method of religious inquiry that appealed to reason, nature, and the needs
+of man. It put new emphasis on the intellectual side of religion, and it
+developed as a moral protest against the harsher features of Calvinism. It
+gave to human feelings the right to express themselves as elements in the
+problem of man's relations to God, and vindicated for God the right to be
+deemed as sympathetic and loving as the men who worship him.
+
+While the Arminians accepted the Bible as an authoritative standard as
+fully as did the Calvinists, they were more critical in its study: they
+applied literary and historical standards in its interpretation, and they
+submitted it to the vindication of reason. They sought to escape from the
+tyranny of the Bible, and yet to make it a living force in the world of
+conduct and character. They not only declared anew the right of private
+judgment, but they wished to make the Bible the source of inward spiritual
+illumination,--not a standard and a test, but an awakener of the divine
+life in the soul. They sought for what is really essential in religious
+truth, limited the number of dogmas that may be regarded as requisite to
+the Christian life, and took the position that only what is of prime
+importance is to be required of the believer. The result was that
+Arminianism became a positive aid to the growth of toleration in England;
+for it became what was called latitudinarian,--that is, broad in temper,
+inclusive in spirit, and desirous of bringing all the nation within the
+limits of one harmonizing and noble-minded church.
+
+[Sidenote: English Rationalists.]
+
+It was in such tendencies as these, as they were developed in Holland and
+England, that American Unitarianism had its origin. To show how true this
+is, it may be desirable to speak of a few of the men whose books were most
+frequently read in New England during the eighteenth century. The prose
+writings of Milton exerted great influence in favor of toleration and in
+vindication of reason. Without doubt he became in his later years a
+believer in free will and the subordinate nature of Christ, and he was true
+to the Protestant ideal of an open Bible and a free spirit in man. Known as
+a Puritan, his pleas for toleration must have been read with confidence by
+his coreligionists of New England; while his rational temper could not have
+failed to have its effect.
+
+His vindication of the Bible as the religion of Protestants must have
+commended Chillingworth to the liberal minds in New England; and there is
+evidence that he was read with acceptance, although he was of the
+established church. Chillingworth was of the noblest type of the
+latitudinarians in the Church of England during the first half of the
+seventeenth century; for he was generously tolerant, his mind was broad and
+liberal, and he knew the true value of a really comprehensive and inclusive
+church, which he earnestly desired should be established in England. He
+wished to have the creed reduced to the most limited proportions by giving
+emphasis to what is fundamental, and by the extrusion of all else. It was
+his desire to maintain what is essential that caused him to say: "I am
+fully assured that God does not, and therefore that man ought not, to
+require any more of any man than this--to believe the Scripture to be God's
+word, to endeavor to find the true sense of it, and to live according to
+it."[7]
+
+He would therefore leave every man free to interpret the Bible for himself,
+and he would make no dogmatic test to deprive any man of this right. The
+chief fact in the Bible being Christ, he insisted that Christianity is
+loyalty to his spirit. "To believe only in Christ" is his definition of
+Christianity, and he would add nothing to this standard. He would put no
+church or creed or council between the individual soul and God; and he
+would direct every believer to the Bible as the free and open way of the
+soul's access to divine truth. He found that the religion of Protestants
+consisted in the rational use of that book, and not in the teachings of the
+Reformers or in the confessions they devised. It is the great merit of
+Chillingworth that he vindicated the spirit of toleration in a broad and
+noble manner, that he was without sectarian prejudice or narrowness in his
+desire for an inclusive church, and that he spoke and wrote in a truly
+rational temper. He applied reason to all religious problems, and he
+regarded it as the final judge and arbiter. Religious freedom received from
+him the fullest recognition, and no one has more clearly indicated the
+scope and purpose of toleration.
+
+Another English religious leader, much read in New England, was Archbishop
+Tillotson. It has been said of him that "for the first time since the
+Reformation the voice of reason was now clearly heard in the high places of
+the church."[8] He was an Arminian in his sympathies, and held that the way
+of salvation is open to all who choose to accept its opportunities. He
+expressed himself as being as certain that the doctrine of eternal decrees
+is not of God as he was sure that God is good and just. His ground for this
+opinion was that it is repugnant to the convictions of justice and goodness
+natural to men. He maintained that we shall be justified before God by
+means of the reformation that is wrought in our own lives. We have an
+intuition of what is right, and a natural capacity for living justly and
+righteously. Experience and reason he made concomitant spiritual forces
+with the Bible, and he held that revelation is but a republication of the
+truths of natural religion. Tillotson was truly a broad churchman, who was
+desirous of making the national church as comprehensive as possible; and he
+was one who practised as well as preached toleration.
+
+Not less liberal was Jeremy Taylor, who was numbered among the dissenters.
+In the introduction to his Liberty of Prophesying he said, "So long as men
+have such variety of principles, such several constitutions, educations,
+tempers, and distempers, hopes, interests, and weaknesses, degrees of light
+and degrees of understanding, it was impossible all should be of one mind."
+Taylor justly said that in heaven there is room for all faiths. His Liberty
+of Prophesying, Chillingworth's Religion of Protestants, and Milton's
+Liberty of Unlicensed Printing are the great expressions of the spirit of
+toleration in the seventeenth century. Each was broad, comprehensive, and
+noble in its plea for religious freedom. It has been said of Taylor that
+"he sets a higher value on a good life than on an orthodox creed. He
+estimates every doctrine by its capacity to do men good."[9]
+
+Another advocate of toleration was John Locke, whose chief influence was as
+a rationalist in philosophy and religion. While accepting Christianity with
+simple confidence, he subjected it to the careful scrutiny of reason. His
+philosophy awakened the rationalistic spirit in all who accepted it, so
+that many of his disciples went much farther than he did himself. While
+accepting revelation, he maintained that natural knowledge is more certain
+in its character. He taught that the conclusions of reason are more
+important than anything given men in the name of revelation. He did not
+himself widely depart from the orthodoxy of his day, though he did not
+accept the doctrine of the Trinity in the most approved form.
+
+One of the rationalistic followers of Locke was Samuel Clarke, who
+attempted to apply the scientific methods of Newton to the interpretation
+of Christianity. He tried to establish faith in God on a purely scientific
+basis. He declared that goodness does not exist because God commands it,
+but that he commands it because it is good. He interpreted the doctrine of
+the Trinity in a rationalistic manner, holding to its form, but rejecting
+its substance.
+
+These men were widely read in New England during the eighteenth century. In
+England they were accounted orthodox, and they held high positions either
+in the national church or in the leading dissenting bodies. They were not
+sectarian or bigoted, they wished to give religion a basis in common sense
+and ethical integrity, and they approved of a Christianity that is
+practical and leads to noble living.
+
+When we consider what were the relations of the colonies to England during
+the first half of the eighteenth century, and that the New England churches
+were constantly influenced by the religious attitude of the
+mother-country,[10] it is plain enough that toleration and rationalism were
+in large measure received from England. In the same school was learned the
+lesson of a return to the simplicity of Christ, of making him and his life
+the standard of Christian fellowship. The great leaders in England taught
+positively that loyalty to Christ is the only essential test of Christian
+duty; and it is not in the least surprising the same idea should have found
+noble advocacy in New England. That a good life and character are the true
+indications of the possession of a saving faith was a thought too often
+uttered in England not to find advocacy in the colonies.
+
+In this way Unitarianism had its origin, in the teachings of men who were
+counted orthodox in England, but who favored submitting all theological
+problems to the test of reason. It was not a sectarian movement in its
+origin or at any time during the eighteenth century; but it was an effort
+to make religion practical, to give it a basis in reality, and to establish
+it as acceptable to the sound judgment and common sense of all men. It was
+an application to the interpretation of theological problems of that
+individualistic spirit which was at the very source of Protestantism. If
+the individual ought to interpret the Bible for himself, so ought he to
+accept his own explanation of the dogmas of the church. In so doing, he
+necessarily becomes a rationalist, which may lead him far from the
+traditions of the past. If he thinks for himself, there is an end to
+uniformity of faith--a conclusion which such men as Chillingworth and
+Jeremy Taylor were willing to accept; and, therefore, they desired an
+all-inclusive church, in order that freedom and unity of faith might be
+both maintained.
+
+In its beginning the liberal movement in New England was not concerned with
+the Trinity. It was a demand for simplicity, rationality, and toleration.
+When it had proceeded far on its way, it was led to a consideration of the
+problem of the Trinity, because it did not find that doctrine distinctly
+taught in the New Testament. Accepting implicitly the words of Christ, it
+found him declaring positively his own subordination to the Father, and
+preferred his teaching to that of the creeds. To the early liberals this
+was simply a question of the nature of Christ, and did not lessen for them
+their implicit faith in his revelation or their recognition of the beauty
+and glory of his divine character.
+
+[1] Paul Lafargue, The Evolution of Property from Savagery to
+    Civilization, 18, 19. "If the savage is incapable of conceiving the
+    idea of individual possession of objects not incorporated with his
+    person, it is because he has no conception of his individuality as
+    distinct from the consanguine group in which he lives.... Savages, even
+    though individually completer beings, seeing that they are
+    self-sufficing, than are civilized persons, are so thoroughly
+    identified with their hordes and clans that their individuality does
+    not make itself felt either in the family or in property. The clan was
+    all in all: the clan was the family; it was the clan that was the owner
+    of property." Also W.M. Sloan, The French Revolution and Religious
+    Reform, 38. "In the Greek and Roman world the individual, body, mind,
+    and soul, had no place in reference to the state. It was only as a
+    member of family, gens, curia, phratry, or deme, and tribe, that the
+    ancient city-state knew the men and women which composed it. The same
+    was true of knowledge: every sensation, perception, and judgment fell
+    into the category of some abstraction, and, instead of concrete things,
+    men knew nothing but generalized ideals."
+
+[2] Francesco S. Nitti, Catholic Socialism, 74, 85, 86. "If we consider
+    the teachings of the Gospel, the communistic origins of the church, the
+    socialistic tendencies of the early fathers, the traditions of the
+    Canon Law, we cannot wonder that at the present day Socialism should
+    count no small number of its adherents among Catholic writers.... The
+    Reformation was the triumph of Individualism. Catholicism, instead, is
+    communistic by its origin and traditions.... The Catholic Church, with
+    her powerful organization, dating back over many centuries, has
+    accustomed Catholic peoples to passive obedience, to a passive
+    renunciation of the greater part of individualistic tendencies."
+
+[3] See David Masson, Life of John Milton, III. 136; John Tulloch, Rational
+    Theology and Christian Philosophy in England, II. 9; John Hunt,
+    Religious Thought in England, I. 234.
+
+[4] The word socialism is not used here with any understanding that the
+    Catholic Church accepts the social theories implied by that name. It is
+    used to indicate that the Roman Church maintains that revelation is to
+    the church itself, and that it is now the visible representative of
+    Christ. The Protestant maintains that revelation is made through an
+    individual, and not to a church. See Otto Gierke, Political Theories of
+    the Middle Age, translated by F.W. Maitland, 10, 22. "In all centuries
+    of the Middle Age Christendom is set before us a single, universal
+    community, founded and governed by God himself. Mankind is one mystical
+    body; it is one single and internally connected people or fold; it is
+    an all-embracing corporation, which constitutes that Universal Realm,
+    spiritual, and temporal, which may be called the Universal Church, or,
+    with equal propriety, the Commonwealth of the Human Race.... Mediaeval
+    thought proceeded from the idea of a single whole. Therefore an organic
+    construction of human society was as familiar to it as a mechanical and
+    atomistic construction was originally alien. Under the influence of
+    biblical allegories and the models set by Greek and Roman writers, the
+    comparison of mankind at large and every smaller group to an animate
+    body was universally adopted and pressed. Mankind in its totality was
+    conceived as an Organism."
+
+[5] Tulloch, Rational Theology in England, I. 339.
+
+[6] David Masson, Life of Milton, III. 102.
+
+[7] The Religion of Protestants, II. 411.
+
+[8] John Hunt, Religious Thought in England, II. 99.
+
+[9] John Hunt, Religious Thought in England, I. 340.
+
+[10] John Hunt, Religious Thought in England, I. 340.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+
+THE LIBERAL SIDE OF PURITANISM.
+
+Unitarianism was brought to America with the Pilgrims and the Puritans. Its
+origins are not to be found in the religious indifference and torpidity of
+the eighteenth century, but in the individualism and the rational temper of
+the men who settled Plymouth, Salem, and Boston. Its development is
+coextensive with the origin and growth of Congregationalism, even with that
+of Protestantism itself. So long as New England has been in existence, so
+long, at least, Unitarianism, in its motives and in its spirit, has been at
+work in the name of toleration, liberty, and free inquiry.
+
+The many and wide divergences of opinion which were an essential result of
+the spirit and methods of Protestantism were shown from the first by the
+Pilgrims and Puritans. In Massachusetts, stringent laws were adopted in
+order to secure uniformity of belief and practice; but it was never
+achieved, except in name. Antinomianism early presented itself in Boston,
+and it was quickly followed by the incursions of the Baptists and Friends.
+Hooker did not find himself in sympathy with the Massachusetts leaders, and
+led a considerable company to Connecticut from Cambridge, Watertown, and
+Dorchester. Sir Henry Vane could not always agree with those who guided the
+religion and the politics of Boston; Roger Williams had another ideal of
+church and state than that which had come to the Puritans; and Sir Richard
+Saltonstall would not submit himself to the aristocratic methods of the
+Boston preachers.
+
+These are but a few of the many indications of the individualistic spirit
+that marked the first years of the Puritan colonies. It was a part of the
+Protestant inheritance, and was inherent in the very nature of
+Protestantism itself. Although the Puritans had only in part, and with
+faltering steps, come to the acceptance of the individualistic and rational
+spirit in religion, yet they were on the way to it, however long they might
+be hindered by an autocratic temper. In fact, the Puritans throughout the
+seventeenth century in New England were trying at one and the same time to
+use reason and yet to cling to authority, to accept the Protestant ideal
+and yet to employ the Catholic methods in state and church. In being
+Protestants, they were committed to the central motive of individualism;
+but they never consistently turned away from that conception of the church
+which is autocratic and authoritative.
+
+[Sidenote: The Church of Authority and the Church of Freedom.]
+
+Looked at from the modern sociological point of view, there are two types
+of church, the one socialistic or institutional and the other
+individualistic, the one making the corporate power of the church the
+source of spiritual life, the other making the personal insight of the
+individual man the fountain of religious truth. Such a church as that of
+Rome may be properly called socialistic because of its corporate nature,
+because it maintains that revelation is to, and by means of, an
+institution, an organic religious body.[1]
+
+Catholicism, whether of Rome, Greece, or England, makes the church as a
+great religious corporation the organ of religious expression. Such a
+corporation is the source of authority, the test of truth, the creator of
+spiritual ideals. On the other hand, such a church as the Protestant may be
+called individualistic because it makes the individual the channel of
+revelation. It emphasizes personality as of supreme worth, and it makes
+religious institutions of little value in comparison.
+
+Practically, the difference between the socialistic and the individualistic
+church is as wide as it is theoretically. In all Catholic churches the
+child is born into the church, with the right to full acceptance into it by
+methods of tuition and ritual, whatever his individual qualities or
+capacities. In all distinctly Protestant churches, membership must be
+sought by individual preference or supernatural process.[2] The way to it
+is through individual profession of its creed or inward miraculous
+transformation of character by the profoundest of personal experiences. In
+all socialistic or Catholic churches--whether heathen, ethnic, or
+Christian--young people are admitted to membership after a definite period
+of training and an initiation by means of an impressive ritual. In all
+Protestant churches, initiation takes place as the result of personal
+experiences and mature convictions, and is therefore usually deferred until
+adult life has been reached.
+
+When we bring out thus distinctly the ideals and methods of the two
+churches, we are able to understand that the Puritans were theoretically
+Protestants, but that they practically used the methods of the Catholics.
+This will be seen more clearly when we take the individualistic tendencies
+of the Puritans into distinct recognition, and place them in contrast with
+their socialistic practices. The Puritan churches were thoroughly
+individualistic in their admission of members, none being accepted into
+full membership but those who had been converted by means of a personal
+experience. In theory every male church member was a priest and king,
+authorized to interpret spiritual truth and to exercise political
+authority. Therefore, in 1631 the General Court of Massachusetts (being the
+legislative body) established the rule that only church members should
+exercise the right of suffrage. This law was continued on the statute books
+until 1664, and was accepted in practice until 1691.
+
+Because the individual Christian was accounted a priest, however humble in
+learning or social position, he had the right to join with others in
+ordaining and setting apart to the ministry of God the man who was to lead
+the church as its teacher or pastor, though this practice was abandoned as
+the state-church idea developed, as it did in New England by a process of
+reaction. Every man could read the Bible for himself, and give it such
+meaning as his own conscience and reason dictated. By virtue of his
+Christian experience he had the personal right to find in it his own creed
+and the law of his own conduct. It was not only his right to do this, but
+it was also his duty. Revivalism was therefore the distinct outgrowth of
+Puritanism, the expression of its individualistic spirit. It was the human
+means of bringing the individual soul within reach of the supernatural
+power of God, and of facilitating that choice of the Holy Spirit by which
+one was selected for this change rather than another. The means were
+social, it is true; but the end reached was absolutely individual, as an
+experience and as a result attained. What confirmation was to the Catholic,
+that was conversion to the Puritan.
+
+The Puritans in New England, however, inherited the older socialism to so
+large an extent that they proceeded to establish what was a state church in
+method, if not in theory. Though they began with the idea that the churches
+were to be supported by voluntary contributions (and always continued that
+method in Boston), yet in a few years they resorted to taxation for their
+maintenance, and enacted stringent laws compelling attendance upon them by
+every resident of a town, whatever his beliefs or his personal interests.
+They forbade the utterance of opinions not approved by the authorities, and
+made use of fines, imprisonment, and death in support of arbitrary laws
+enacted for this purpose. These methods were the same as those used by the
+older socialistic and state churches to compel acceptance of their
+teachings and practices. They were based on the idea of the corporate
+nature of the church, and its right to control the individual in the name
+of the social whole.
+
+The harshness of the Puritan methods was the result of this attempt to
+maintain a new idea in harmony with an old practice. The Baptists were
+consistently individualists in rejecting infant baptism, accepting
+conversion as essential to church membership, maintaining freedom of
+conscience, and practising toleration as a fundamental social law. The
+Puritans inconsistently combined conversion and infant baptism,--the
+Protestant right of private judgment with the Catholic methods of the state
+church,--a democratic theory of popular suffrage with a most aristocratic
+limitation of that suffrage to church members. As late as 1674 only 2,527
+men in all had been admitted to the exercise of the franchise in
+Massachusetts. One-sixth or one-eighth of the men were voters, the rest
+were disfranchised. The church and the state were controlled by this small
+minority in a community that was theoretically democratic, both in religion
+and politics.
+
+It is not surprising that there began to be mutterings against such
+restrictions. It shows the strength of character in the Puritan communities
+of Massachusetts and New Haven that a large majority of the men submitted
+as long as they did to conditions thoroughly undemocratic. As a political
+measure, when the grumblings became so loud as to be no longer ignored,
+what is called the half-way covenant was adopted, by means of which a
+semi-membership in the churches could be secured, that gave the right of
+suffrage, but permitted no action within the church itself.[3] Many
+writers on this period fail to understand the significance of the half-way
+covenant; for they attribute to that legislation the disintegrating results
+that followed. They forget that these half-members were not admitted to any
+part in church affairs; and they refuse to see that the methods employed by
+the Puritans were, because of their exclusiveness, of necessity
+demoralizing. In fact, the half-way covenant was a result of the
+disintegration that had already taken place as the issue of an attempted
+compromise between the institutional and the individualistic theories of
+church government.
+
+[Sidenote: Seventeenth-century Liberals.]
+
+By arbitrary methods the Puritans succeeded in controlling church and state
+until 1688, when the interference of the English authorities compelled them
+to practise toleration and to widen the suffrage. The words of Sir Richard
+Saltonstall to John Cotton and John Wilson show clearly that these methods
+were not accepted by all, and even Saltonstall returned to England to
+escape the restrictions he condemned. "It doth not a little grieve my
+spirit to hear what sad things are daily reported of your tyranny and
+persecutions in New England," he wrote, "as that you fine, whip, and
+imprison men for their consciences. First you compel such to come into your
+assemblies as you know will not join with you in your worship, and when
+they show their dislike thereof or witness against it, then you stir up
+your magistrates to punish them for such (as you conceive) their public
+affronts. Truly, friends, this your practice of compelling any in matters
+of worship to do that whereof they are not persuaded is to make them sin,
+and many are made hypocrites thereby, conforming in their outward man for
+fear of punishment. We pray for you and wish you prosperity in every way,
+hoped that the Lord would have given you so much light and love there, that
+you might have been eyes to God's people here, and not to practise those
+courses in wilderness which you went so far to prevent. These rigid ways
+have laid you very low in the hearts of the saints."[4]
+
+Another man who withdrew to England from the narrow spirit of the Puritans
+was William Pynchon, of Springfield, one of the best trained and ablest of
+the early settlers of Massachusetts. In 1650 he published a book on the
+Meritorious Price of our Redemption, in which he denied that Christ was
+subject to the wrath of God or suffered torments in hell for the redemption
+of men or paid the penalty for all human sins; but such teachings were too
+liberal and modern for the leaders in church and state.[5] What is now
+orthodox, that Christ's sacrifice was voluntary, was then heretical and
+forbidden.
+
+If during the first half-century of New England no liberalism found
+definite utterance, it was because of its repression. It was in the air,
+even then, and it would have found expression, had there been opportunity
+or invitation. There were other men than Williams, Saltonstall, Pynchon,
+and Henry Vane, who believed in toleration, liberty of conscience, and a
+rational interpretation of religion. In a limited way such men were Henry
+Dunster and Charles Chauncy, the first two presidents of Harvard College,
+who both rejected infant baptism because it was not consistent with a
+converted church membership. It was a small thing to protest against, and
+to suffer for as Dunster suffered; but the principle was great for which he
+contended, the principle of individual conviction in religion.
+
+The better spirit of the Puritans appears in such a saying as that of Sir
+Henry Vane, the second governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, that "all
+magistrates are to fear or forbear intermeddling with giving rule or
+imposing their own beliefs in religious matters."[6] To a similar purport
+was the saying of Thomas Hooker, the founder of Connecticut, that "the
+foundation of authority is laid in the free consent of the people."[7] In
+the writings of John Robinson, the Pilgrim leader, a like greatness of
+purpose and thought appears, as where he says that "the meanest man's
+reason, specially in matter of faith and obedience to God, is to be
+preferred before all authority of all men."[8] Robinson was a very strict
+Calvinist in doctrine; but he was tolerant in large degree, and thoroughly
+convinced of the worth of liberty of conscience. His liberality comes out
+in such words as these: "The custom of the church is but the custom of men;
+the sentence of the fathers but the opinions of men; the determinations of
+councils but the judgments of men."[9] How strong a believer in individual
+reason he was appears in this statement: "God, who hath made two great
+lights for the bodily eye, hath also made two lights for the eye of the
+mind; the one the Scriptures for her supernatural light, and the other
+reason for her natural light. And, indeed, only these two are a man's own,
+and so is not the authority of other men. The Scriptures are as well mine
+as any other man's, and so is reason as far as I can attain to it."[10]
+When he says that "the credit commending a testimony to others cannot be
+greater than is the authority in itself of him that gives it nor his
+authority greater than his person,"[11] he puts an end to all arbitrary
+authority of priest and church.
+
+It will be seen from these quotations that the spirit of liberality existed
+even in the very beginnings of New England, and in the convictions of the
+men who were its chief prophets and leaders. It was hidden away for a time,
+it may be, though it never ceased to find utterance in some form. The
+breadth of the underlying spirit finds expression in the compacts by which
+local churches united their members. The liberality was incipient, a
+promise of the future rather than a realization in the present.
+
+The earliest churches of New England were not organized with a creed, but
+with a covenant. Occasionally there was a confession of faith or a creedal
+statement; but it was regarded as quite unnecessary because it was implied
+in the general acceptance of the Calvinistic doctrines, and the use of the
+Cambridge platform or other similar document. The covenant of a church
+could not be a statement of beliefs, because it was a vow between Christ
+and his church, and a pledge of the individual members of the church with
+relation to each other. The creed was implied, but it was not expressed;
+and, although all the churches were Calvinist at first, the nature of the
+covenant was such that, when men grew liberal, there was no written creedal
+test by which they could be held to the old beliefs. When Calvinism was
+outgrown, it could be slowly and silently discarded, both by individual
+members of a church and by the church itself, because it was not explicitly
+contained in the covenant. The creed was rejected, but the covenant was
+retained.
+
+As soon as authority was withdrawn from the Puritan leaders by the English
+crown, the spirit of liberty began to show itself in many directions. In a
+sermon preached in 1691, Samuel Willard, the minister of the Old South
+Church in Boston, and afterwards president of Harvard College, gave
+utterance to what was stirring in many minds at that time. He said that God
+"hath nowhere by any general indulgence given away this liberty of his to
+any other authority in the world to have dominion over the consciences of
+men or to give rules of worship, but hath, on the other hand, strongly
+prohibited it and severely threatened any that shall presume to do it." He
+earnestly asserted that no authority is to be accepted but that of the
+Bible, and that is to be free for each person's individual interpretation.
+"Hath there not," Willard questions, "been too much of a pinning our faith
+on the credit or practice of others, attended on with a woful neglect to
+know what is the mind of Christ?" Here was a spirit that not many years
+later was showing itself in the liberal movement that grew into
+Unitarianism. The effort to free the consciences of men, and to bring all
+appeals to the Bible and to Christ, was what gave significance to the
+liberal movement of the next century.
+
+[Sidenote: Growth of Liberty in Church Methods.]
+
+There also began a movement to bring church and state into harmonious
+relations with each other, and to overcome the inconsistency of being
+individualist and socialist at the same moment. The theory of conversion
+being retained, it was proposed to make the ordinances of religion free to
+all, in order that they might bring about the supernatural change that was
+desired. This is the real significance of the position taken by Solomon
+Stoddard, of Northampton, who taught that the Lord's Supper is a converting
+ordinance, and who in practice did not ask for a supernatural regeneration
+as preparatory to a limited church membership, though he regarded this as
+essential to full admission. The half-way covenant had been adopted before
+Mr. Stoddard became the pastor of the church; but soon after his settlement
+this limited form of admission was more clearly defined, and he admitted
+persons into what he described as a "state of education."[12] This "large
+congregationalism," as it was called, was in time accepted as meaning that
+those who have faith enough to justify the baptism of their children have
+enough to admit them to full communion in the church. Mr. Stoddard appealed
+to the English practice in his defence of the broader principle which he
+adopted. He also vindicated his position by reference to the practices of
+the leading Protestant countries in Europe. His methods, as outlined and
+interpreted in his Appeal to the Learned,[13] were based more or less
+explicitly on the corporate idea of the church.
+
+Although Stoddard was a strict Calvinist, there can be no doubt that his
+method of open communion slowly led to theological modifications. Not only
+did it have a tendency to bring the state and church into closer relations
+with each other, by making the membership in the two more nearly the same,
+but it led the way to the acceptance of the doctrine of moral ability, and
+therefore to a modification of Calvinism. If it was a practical rather than
+a theological reason that caused Stoddard to adopt open communion, it
+almost inevitably led to Arminianism, because it implied, as he presented
+its conditions, that man is able of his own free will to accept the terms
+of salvation which Calvinism had confined to the operation of the
+sovereignty of God alone.
+
+Another way in which the spirit of the time was showing itself may be seen
+in the fact that the parish, towards the end of the seventeenth century, on
+more than one occasion refused to the church the selection of the minister;
+and church and parish met together for that purpose. This was the case in
+the first church of Salem in 1672, and at Dedham in 1685. So long as church
+members only were given the right of suffrage, the selection of the
+minister was wholly in their hands. As soon as the suffrage was extended,
+there was a movement to include all tax-payers amongst those who could
+exercise this choice. In 1666 such a proposition was discussed in
+Connecticut, and not long after it became the law. In 1692 the
+Massachusetts laws gave the church the right to select the minister, but
+permitted the parish to concur in or to reject such choice. During the next
+century there was a growing tendency to enlarge the privileges of the
+parish, and to make that the controlling factor in calling the minister and
+in all that pertained to the outward life of the church and congregation.
+The result will be seen more and more in the influence of the parish in the
+selection of liberal men for the pulpit.
+
+A notable instance of the more liberal tendencies is seen in the formation
+of the Brattle Street Church of Boston in 1699. Although this church
+accepted the Westminster Confession of Faith and adopted the practices
+common to the New England churches at this period, it insisted upon the
+reading of the Bible without comment as a part of the church service. The
+relation of religious experiences as preparatory to admission to the church
+was discarded, all were admitted to communion who were approved by the
+pastor, and women were permitted to take part in voting on all church
+questions. These and other innovations occasioned much discussion; and a
+controversy ensued between the pastor Benjamin Colman and Increase
+Mather.[14] The Salem pastors, Rev. John Higginson and Rev. Nicholas Noyes,
+addressed a letter to the Brattle Street congregation, in which they
+criticised the church because it did not consult with other churches in its
+formation, because it did not make a public profession of repentance on
+behalf of its members, because baptism was administered on less stringent
+terms than was customary and too lax admission was given to the sacraments,
+and because the admission of females to full church activity had a direct
+tendency "to subvert the order and liberty of the churches." Though the
+Brattle Street Church was for a time severely criticised, it soon came into
+intimate relations with the other churches of Boston, and it ceased to
+appear as in any way peculiar. That it was organized on a broader basis of
+membership indicates very clearly that the old methods were not
+satisfactory to all the people.[15]
+
+[Sidenote: A Puritan Rationalist.]
+
+The influence of similar ideas is seen in the books of John Wise, of
+Ipswich, whose Churches' Quarrel Espoused was published in 1710, and his
+Vindication of the Government of the New England Churches in 1717. His
+first book was in answer to the proposition of a number of the ministers of
+Boston to bring the churches under the control of associations. By this
+remonstrance the plan was defeated, and the independence of the local
+church fully established. In republishing his book, he added the
+Vindication, in order to give his ideas a more systematic expression. The
+Vindication is the most thoroughly modern book published in America during
+the eighteenth century. It has a literary directness and power remarkable
+for the time. Wise gives no quotations indicating that he had read the
+great liberal writers of England, but he was familiar with Plato and
+Cicero.
+
+In his first book he speaks of "the natural freedom of human beings,"[16]
+and says that "right reason is a ray of divine wisdom enstamped upon human
+nature."[17] Again, he says that "right reason, that great oracle in human
+affairs, is the soul of man so formed and endowed by creation with a
+certain sagacity or acumen whereby man's intellect is enabled to take up
+the true idea or perception of things agreeable with and according to their
+natures."[18] In such utterances as these Wise was putting himself into the
+company of the most liberal minds of England in his day, though he may not
+have read one of them. The considerations that were influencing Milton,
+Chillingworth, and Jeremy Taylor, in favor of toleration and a broad
+inclusiveness of spirit, evidently were having their effect upon this New
+England pastor.
+
+It is not to be assumed that John Wise was a rationalist in the modern
+sense; but he gave to the use of reason a significance that is surprising
+and refreshing, coming from the time and circumstances of his writing. In
+his Vindication we find him accepting reason and revelation as of equal
+validity. He appeals to the "dictates of right reason"[19] and the "common
+reason of mankind"[20] with quite as much confidence as to the Bible. He
+says that all questions of government, religious as well as political, are
+to be brought to "the assizes of man's own intellectual powers, reason, and
+conscience."[21] He assumes that God has created man capable of obeying his
+will and living in conformity with his law; for he says that, "if God did
+not highly estimate man as a creature exalted by his reason, liberty, and
+nobleness of nature, he would not caress him as he does in order to his
+submission."[22]
+
+Wise says that the characteristic of man which is of greatest importance is
+that he is "most properly the subject of the law of nature."[23] He uses
+this expression frequently and in a thoroughly modern sense.
+
+The second great characteristic of man, according to Wise, "is an original
+liberty enstamped upon his rational nature."[24] He indicates that he is
+not inclined to discuss the merely theological problem of man's relations
+to God, but, considered physically, man is at the head of creation, "and as
+such is a creature of a very noble character." [24] All the lower world is
+subject to his command, "and his liberty under the conduct of right reason
+is equal with his trust." [24] "He that intrudes upon this liberty violates
+the law of nature." [24] The effect of such liberty is not to lead man into
+license, but to make him the rational master of his own conduct. Every man
+is therefore at liberty "to judge for himself what shall be most for his
+behoof, happiness, and well-being."[25]
+
+The third great characteristic of man is found in "an equality amongst
+men," [25] which is to be respected and vindicated by governments that are
+just and humane. "By a natural right," he says, "all men are born free;
+and, nature having set all men upon a level and made them equals, no
+servitude or subjection can be conceived without inequality."[26] Again he
+says that it is "a fundamental principle relating to government that, under
+God, all power is originally in the people."[27] This is true of the church
+as well as of the state, and Wise says the Reformation was a cheat and a
+schism and a notorious rebellion if the people are not the source of power
+in the church.
+
+Two other ideas presented by this leader show his modernness and his
+originality. He says that "the happiness of the people is the object of all
+government,"[28] and that the state should seek to promote "the peculiar
+good and benefit of the whole, and every particular member, fairly and
+sincerely."[29] "The end of all good government," he assures his readers,
+"is to cultivate humanity, and promote the happiness of all, and the good
+of every man in all his rights, his life, liberty, estate, and honor,
+without injury or abuse done to any." [29] That government will seek the
+good of all is likely to be the case, because man has it as a fundamental
+law of his nature that he "maintain a sociableness with others."[30] "From
+the principles of sociableness it follows as a fundamental law of nature
+that man is not so wedded to his own interest but that he can make the
+common good the mark of his aim, and hence he becomes capacitated to enter
+into a civil state by the law of nature."[31] This attraction of man to his
+kind enables him to yield so much of his freedom as is necessary to make
+the state an efficient social power, "in which covenant is included that
+submission and union of wills by which a state may be conceived to be but
+one person."[32] This thoroughly modern idea of the social body, as being
+analogous in its nature to the individual man, is nobly expressed by Wise,
+who says that "a civil state is a compound moral person, whose will is the
+will of all, to the end it may use and apply the strength and riches of
+private persons toward maintaining the common peace, security, and
+well-being of all, which may be conceived as though the whole state was now
+become but one man."[33]
+
+It is not surprising that the writings of John Wise had no immediate effect
+upon the theological thinking of the time, but they must have had their
+influence. Just before the opening of the Revolution they were republished
+because of their vindication of the spirit of human liberty and democracy.
+What Wise wrote to promote was congregational independence, and this may
+have been the reason why his theological attitude was never called in
+question. It is true enough that he questioned none of the Calvinistic
+doctrines in his books; but his political views were certain to disturb the
+old beliefs, and to give incentives to free discussion in religion.
+
+[Sidenote: Harvard College.]
+
+The centre of the liberalizing tendencies of the last years of the
+seventeenth century was Harvard College. That institution was organized on
+a basis as broad as that of the early church covenants, with no creed or
+doctrinal requirements. The original seal bore the motto Veritas; but, as
+the state-church idea grew, this motto was succeeded by In Christi gloriam,
+and then by Christo et Ecclesiae, though neither of these later mottoes was
+authoritatively adopted. The early charters were thoroughly liberal in
+spirit and intent, so much so as to be fully in harmony with the present
+attitude of the university.[34] Under the Puritanic development, however,
+this liberality was discarded, only to be restored in 1691, when William
+and Mary gave to Massachusetts a new and broader charter. From that time a
+new life entered into the college, that put it uncompromisingly on the
+liberal side a century later. Even under the rule of Increase Mather,
+seconded by the influence of his son Cotton, a broader spirit declared
+itself in the culture imparted and in the method of free inquiry.[35]
+
+Samuel Willard, the successor to Increase Mather in the presidency, was of
+the liberal party in his breadth of mind and in his sound judgment. He was
+followed in 1708 by John Leverett, one of the founders of the Brattle
+Street Church, a man in whom the liberal spirit became a controlling motive
+in his management of the college.[36] It is not strange that the men who
+had been shut out from the suffrage and from active participation in the
+management of the churches, should now come forward to claim their rights,
+and to make their influence felt in college, church, and state. It was the
+distinct beginning of the liberal movement in New England, the time from
+which Unitarianism really took its origin.
+
+[1] Kuno Francke, Social Forces in German Literature, 105. "No mediaeval
+    man ever thought of himself as a perfectly independent being founded
+    only on himself, or without a most direct and definite relation to
+    some larger organism, be it empire, church, city, or guild. No
+    mediaeval man ever doubted that the institutions within which he lived
+    were divinely established ordinances, far superior and quite
+    inaccessible to his own individual reason and judgment. No mediaeval
+    man would ever have admitted that he conceived nature to be other than
+    the creation of an extramundane God, destined to glorify its creator
+    and to please the eye of man. It was reserved for the eighteenth
+    century to draw the last consequences of individualism; to see in man,
+    in each individual man, an independent and complete entity; to derive
+    the origin of state, church, and society from the spontaneous action
+    of these independent individuals; and to consider nature as a system
+    of forces sufficient unto themselves. When we speak of individualism
+    in the declining centuries of the Middle Ages, we mean by it that
+    these centuries initiated the movement which the eighteenth century
+    brought to a climax."
+
+[2] Williston Walker, the Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism, 246.
+    "From the first the fathers of New England insisted that the children
+    of church members were themselves members, and as such were justly
+    entitled to those church privileges which were adapted to their state
+    of Christian development, of which the chief were baptism and the
+    watchful discipline of the church. They did not enter the church by
+    baptism; they were entitled to baptism because they were already
+    members of the church. Here then was an inconsistency in the
+    application of the Congregational theory of the constitution of a
+    church. While affirming that a proper church consisted only of those
+    possessed of personal Christian character, the fathers admitted to
+    membership, in some degree at least, those who had no claim but
+    Christian parentage." That is, in theory they were Protestants, but in
+    practice they were Catholics.
+
+[3] The ecclesiastical historians say that the half-way covenant had no
+    effect on suffrage. Dexter, Congregationalism as Seen in its
+    Literature, 468, says: "I am aware of no proof that half-way covenant
+    members of the church by that relation did acquire any further
+    privileges in the state." Williston Walker, New Englander, cclxiii.,
+    93, February, 1892, takes ground that "added political privilege was
+    no consequence of the dispute." On the other hand, the secular
+    historians as strongly assert that the suffrage was widened. John
+    Fiske, Beginnings of New England, 250, says the half-way covenant
+    "entitled to the exercise of political rights those who were
+    unqualified for participation in the Lord's Supper." Alexander
+    Johnston, Connecticut, 227, says "it really gave every baptized person
+    voice in church government." J.A. Doyle, The Puritan Colonies, II.,
+    98, asserts that "it broke down the hard barrier which fenced in
+    political privileges." The true explanation is given by George H.
+    Haynes, Representation and Suffrage in Massachusetts, 1620-1691, 54,
+    published in Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and
+    Political Science, Vol. XII., Nos. VIII. and IX. Haynes says that the
+    half-way covenant, as first formulated in 1657, "virtually recognized
+    a partial church-membership in persons who had made no formal
+    profession and subscribed to no creed. In 1662 the same opinion was
+    reaffirmed by the clergy, and the General Court ordered the result of
+    the Synod to be printed and 'commended the same unto the consideration
+    of all the churches and people of this jurisdiction.' Here ended
+    legislative action on the matter. This was no statutory change of the
+    basis of the franchise; but, as individual churches gradually adopted
+    more liberal conditions of admission and were therein sanctioned by
+    the General Court, it resulted that the operation of the religious
+    test became less odious and the suffrage was not a little broadened."
+
+[4] Henry Bond, Early Settlers of Watertown, II. 916; Convers Francis,
+    Historical Sketch of Watertown, 135.
+
+[5] Mason A. Green, History of Springfield, 113; E.H. Byington, The
+    Puritan in England and New England, 185.
+
+[6] A Healing Question.
+
+[7] Alexander Johnston, Connecticut: A Study of a Commonwealth-Democracy,
+    72, Hooker's sermon preparatory to forming a government.
+
+[8] The Works of John Robinson, American edition of 1851, I., 53.
+
+[9] Ibid., 47.
+
+[10] Ibid., 54.
+
+[11] Ibid., 56.
+
+[12] J.R. Trumbull, History of Northampton, I. 213.
+
+[13] An Appeal to the Learned, being a vindication of the right of visible
+     saints to the Lord's Supper, though they be destitute of a saving work
+     of God's Spirit in their hearts, Boston, 1709. See also his Doctrine
+     of Instituted Churches, Boston, 1700.
+
+[14] Dwight, Life of Edwards, 300.
+
+[15] S.K. Lothrop, History of Brattle Street Church, 7-40; E. Turrell, Life
+    of Benjamin Colman, D.D., 96, 125, 178, 180.
+
+[16] The Churches' Quarrel Espoused, edition of 1860, 140.
+
+[17] Ibid., 143.
+
+[18] Ibid., 145
+
+[19] The Churches' Quarrel Espoused, edition of 1860, 32.
+
+[20] Ibid., 58.
+
+[21] Ibid., 72.
+
+[22] Ibid., 65.
+
+[23] Ibid., 30.
+
+[24] Ibid., 33.
+
+[25] The Churches' Quarrel Espoused, edition of 1860, 34.
+
+[26] Ibid., 37.
+
+[27] Ibid., 64.
+
+[28] Ibid., 54.
+
+[29] Ibid., 55.
+
+[30] Ibid., 32.
+
+[31] The Churches' Quarrel Espoused, edition of 1860, 32.
+
+[32] Ibid., 39.
+
+[33] Ibid., 40.
+
+[34] Josiah Quincy, History of Harvard University, i. 44-54.
+
+[35] Ibid., 65, 200.
+
+[36] Josiah Quincy, in the seventh chapter of his History, gives a detailed
+     account of this movement. It is also dealt with by Brooks Adams in his
+     chapter on the founding of the Brattle Street Church, in his
+     Emancipation of Massachusetts, though he gives it a somewhat
+     exaggerated and biassed importance. Most of the facts appear in
+     Lothrop's History of the Brattle Street Church.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+
+THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY IN THE CHURCHES.
+
+From the moment when the Puritan control of the church and state in New
+England was so far weakened as to permit of free intellectual and religious
+activity the democratic spirit began to manifest itself. The old régime had
+so fixed itself upon the people that the progress was slow, but none the
+less it was steady and sure. So far as the new spirit influenced doctrines,
+it was called Arminianism, the technical theological name for democracy in
+religion at this time.
+
+[Sidenote: Arminianism.]
+
+Arminianism is a dead issue at the present day, for the Calvinists have
+accepted all that it taught when the name first came into vogue. Every kind
+of reaction from Calvinism in the New England of the first half of the
+eighteenth century took this designation, however; and to the Calvinists it
+was a word of disapproval and contempt. Toleration, free inquiry, the use
+of reason, democratic methods in church and state, were all named by this
+condemning word. Vices, social depravities, love of freedom and the world,
+assertion of personal independence, had the same designation. It is now
+difficult to understand how bitter was the feeling thus produced, how keen
+the hurt that was given the men who tried to defend themselves and their
+beliefs from this odium.
+
+What the word "Arminian" legitimately meant, then, is what we now mean by
+liberalism. Primarily theological and doctrinal, it meant much more than
+the rejection of the doctrine of decrees and the autocratic sovereignty of
+God or the acceptance of the freedom of the will and the spiritual capacity
+of man. First of all, it was faith in man; and then it was the assertion of
+human liberty and equality. In a theological sense it did not have so wide
+a purport, but in a practical and popular sense it grew into these
+meanings.
+
+In order fully to comprehend what Arminianism was in the eighteenth
+century, the student must remember that it was the theological expression
+of the democratic spirit, as Calvinism was of the autocratic. The doctrine
+of the sovereignty of God is but the intellectual reflection of kingship
+and the belief that the king can do no evil. The doctrine of decrees, as
+taught by the Calvinist, was the spiritual side of the assertion of the
+divine right of kings. On the other hand, when the people claim the right
+to rule, they modify their theology into Arminianism. From an age of the
+absolute rule of the king comes the doctrine of human depravity; and with
+the establishment of democracy appears the doctrine of man's moral
+capacity.
+
+[Sidenote: The Growth of Arminianism.]
+
+As early as 1730 Arminianism had come to have an influence sufficient to
+secure its condemnation and to awaken the fears of the stricter Calvinists.
+Jonathan Edwards said of the year 1734 that "about this time began the
+great noise that was in this part of the country about Arminianism."[1] At
+Northampton the leader of the opposition to Jonathan Edwards was an open
+Arminian, a grandson of Solomon Stoddard, and a cousin of Edwards. He was a
+young man of talent and education, and well read in theology. In a letter
+written in 1750, Edwards said, "There seems to be the utmost danger that
+the younger generation will be carried away with Arminianism as with a
+flood." In another letter of the same year he said that "Arminianism and
+Pelagianism[2] have made a strange progress within a few years."[3] In
+his farewell sermon, Edwards spoke of the prevalence of Arminianism when he
+settled in Northampton, and of its rapid increase in the succeeding years.
+He said that Arminian views were creeping into almost all parts of the
+land, and that they were making a progress unknown before.[4] In a letter
+of 1752 Edwards said that the principles of John Taylor, of Norwich, one of
+the early English Unitarians, were gaining many converts in the colonies.
+Taylor's works were made use of by Solomon Williams in his reply to Edwards
+on the qualifications necessary to communion.[5]
+
+It was owing to the rapid growth of Arminianism that Edwards undertook his
+work on free will. In the preface to that work he said that "the term
+Calvinistic is, in these days, among most, a term of greater reproach than
+the term Arminian." That Edwards exaggerated the extent of this defection
+from Calvinism is probable, and yet it is very plain that it was this more
+liberal attitude of the Northampton church which caused his dismissal. What
+Stoddard had taught and practised was as yet powerful there, and Edwards's
+opposition to his grandfather's teachings undoubtedly led to the failure of
+his local work.
+
+[Sidenote: Robert Breck.]
+
+The council which dismissed Edwards from Northampton decided against him by
+a majority of one; and that one vote may have been cast by Robert Breck, of
+Springfield. If this were the case, there was something of poetic justice
+in it; for only a few years earlier Edwards had used his influence against
+the settlement of Breck because the latter was an Arminian. In 1734 a
+fierce church quarrel took place in Springfield, that involved many of the
+ministers of Massachusetts and Connecticut, invoked the aid of the county
+court, and was finally settled by the legislature of Massachusetts, when
+Mr. Breck was ordained.[6] He was charged with denying the authenticity of
+parts of the Bible, with discarding the necessity of Christ's satisfaction
+to divine justice for sin, with maintaining that the heathen who live up to
+the light of nature would be saved, and that the contrary doctrine was
+harsh. Breck refused to admit that he held these opinions, as thus stated;
+but he was regarded by many as an Arminian and a heretic. It was said of him
+that he would read any book, orthodox or otherwise, that would clear up a
+subject. That he departed to any considerable extent from the generally
+accepted faith of the time there is no evidence, but he was probably what
+was often called "a moderate Calvinist." He did not favor the methods of
+Whitefield, and he thoroughly distrusted the revival introduced by him.
+Soon after Breck's settlement the Springfield church followed the Brattle
+Street Church of Boston in discarding the relation of religious experiences
+as preliminary to admission to the church. It voted that it "did not look
+upon the making a relation to be a necessary term of communion."[7] At the
+very time that Edwards was preaching of the awful fate of sinners in the
+hands of an angry God, Breck was teaching that God is good and loving, and
+that his salvation is freely open to all who may wish for it. It has been
+truly said of these two men that "one had the heart and the other the
+intellect of theology." With all his logic and power of thought and
+marvellous spiritual insight, Edwards failed at Northampton because of
+conditions beyond the control of his strenuous will. Robert Breck gained
+year by year in his personal influence in Springfield, his cheerful and
+progressive teaching made a deep impression on the community, and before he
+died he saw a great change for the better in the people for whom he
+diligently labored. Perhaps we could not have a plainer indication of the
+change that was going on than is found in the experiences of these two
+men.[8]
+
+When Whitefield visited Harvard College in 1740, he was received in a most
+friendly manner; yet he afterwards criticised the teaching there on the
+ground that it was not sufficiently devout and earnest, and that the pupils
+were not examined as to their religious experiences.[9] These charges were
+denied by the president and tutors, and he was not again welcomed to the
+college.
+
+That there was a substantial basis for some of Whitefield's criticisms of
+Harvard there can be no doubt. In 1737, when Edward Holyoke was proposed as
+a candidate for the presidency, he met with a strong opposition from the
+strict Calvinists. After the opposition had spent itself, he was elected
+unanimously; and this act was received with marked approval by the General
+Court, from which body his maintenance was obtained. President Quincy says
+of President Holyoke that his religious principles coincided with the
+mildness and catholicity which characterized the government of the college.
+This evidently refers to the growing liberality of the college, and its
+unwillingness to lend its aid to extreme theological opinions. That
+moderateness of temper and that attitude of toleration which characterized
+the leading men in England had shown themselves at Cambridge, and with a
+strength that could not be overcome. "In Boston and its vicinity and along
+the seaboard of Massachusetts, clergymen of great talent and religious
+zeal," says President Quincy, "openly avowed doctrines which were variously
+denounced by the Calvinistic party as Arminianism, Arianism, Pelagianism,
+Socinianism, and Deism. The most eminent of these clergymen were alumni of
+Harvard, active friends and advocates of the institution, and in habits of
+intimacy and professional intercourse with its government. Their religious
+views, indeed, received no public countenance from the college; but
+circumstances gave color for reports, which were assiduously circulated
+throughout New England, that the influences of the institution were not
+unfavorable to the extension of such doctrines."[10]
+
+At the commencement of 1737 candidates for degrees proposed to prove that
+the doctrine of the Trinity was not contained in the Old Testament, that
+creation did not exist from eternity, and that religion is not mysterious
+in its nature. Much alarm was caused to the conservative party by the
+negative form given these questions, which, it was said, "had the plain
+face of Arianism." This criticism the faculty tried to quiet, but their
+sympathies were evidently on the side of the graduates.[11] In 1738, when a
+professor of mathematics was chosen, it was proposed to examine him as to
+"his principles of religion"; but, after a long debate, this proposition
+was rejected. After these and other efforts to control the religious
+position of the college the strict Calvinists for the time withdrew their
+efforts and concentrated them upon Yale College, in which institution the
+faculty were now required for the first time to accept the Assembly's
+Catechism and Confession of Faith.
+
+When the legislature of Connecticut, during the great awakening, passed a
+law prohibiting ministers from preaching as itinerants, several of the
+members of the Senior Class subscribed the money necessary for the
+publication of an edition of Locke's essay On Toleration. When this was
+known to the faculty, they forbade the publication; and all the students
+apologized but one, who learned a few days before commencement that his
+name was to be dropped from the roll of graduates. He went to the faculty
+with the statement that he was of age, that he possessed ample means, and
+that he would carry his case to a hearing before the crown in England. In a
+few days he was quietly informed that he would be permitted to graduate.
+This is but a straw, and yet it shows clearly enough the direction of the
+current at this time. A demand for toleration was made because it was felt
+that there was a need for it.
+
+[Sidenote: Books Read by Liberal Men.]
+
+The names of no less than thirty-three ministers have been given who,
+during the period from 1730 to 1750, did not teach the Calvinistic
+doctrines in their fulness, and who had adopted more or less distinctly
+some form of Arminianism or Arianism. These men were among the best known,
+most successful, and most scholarly men in Eastern Massachusetts, though
+they were not wholly confined to that neighborhood. We find here and there
+some hint of the books these men read; and in that way we not only
+ascertain the cause of their departure from Calvinism, but we also obtain
+some clew to the nature of their opinions. Among the charges brought by
+Whitefield against Harvard in 1740 was that "Tillotson and Clarke are read
+instead of Shepard and Stoddard, and such like evangelical writers."[12]
+Dr. Wigglesworth, the divinity professor at Harvard, said that Tillotson
+had not been taken out of the college library in nine years, and Clarke not
+in two; and he gave a long list of evangelical writers who were frequently
+read. In spite of this disclaimer, however, it is evident that the methods
+of the rationalistic writers were coming into vogue at Harvard, and that
+even Dr. Wigglesworth did not teach theology in the manner of the author of
+the Day of Doom.
+
+Writing in 1759, Dr. Joseph Bellamy, one of the chief followers and
+expositors of the teachings of Jonathan Edwards, said that the teachings of
+the liberal men in England had crossed the Atlantic; "and too many in our
+churches, and even among our ministers, have fallen in with them. Books
+containing them have been imported; and the demand for them has been so
+great as to encourage new impressions of some of them. Others have been
+written on the same principles in this country, and even the doctrine of
+the Trinity has been publicly treated in such a manner as all who believe
+that doctrine must judge not only heretical, but highly blasphemous."[13]
+
+It is said of Charles Chauncy, of the First Church in Boston, that his
+favorite authors were Tillotson and Baxter.[14] Far more suggestive is the
+account we have of the books read by Jonathan Mayhew of the West Church in
+Boston, the first open antagonist of Calvinism in New England. Soon after
+1740 he was reading the works of the great Protestant theologians of the
+seventeenth century, including Milton, Chillingworth, and Tillotson; and
+the eighteenth-century works of Locke, Samuel Clarke, Taylor, Wollaston,
+and Whiston. He also probably read Cudworth, Butler, Hutcheson, Leland, and
+other authors of a like character, some of them deists. Not one of these
+writers was a Calvinist for they found the basis of religion either in
+idealism or in rationalism.
+
+The biographer of Mayhew says it "is evident from some of his discourses
+that he was a great admirer of Samuel Clarke, whose voluminous works were
+in his day much read by the liberal clergy." Clarke's Boyle lectures,
+delivered in 1704-5, showed that natural and revealed religion were
+essentially one, that moral action in man is free, and that Christianity is
+the religion of reason and nature. At a later period he defended the two
+propositions, that "no article of Christian faith delivered in the holy
+Scriptures is disagreeable to right reason," and that "without liberty of
+human actions there can be no real religion or morality." Even if one such
+man as Jonathan Mayhew read Clarke's work in the Harvard Library, it
+justified the alarm felt by Whitefield lest the students should be led away
+from their Calvinist faith.[15]
+
+[Sidenote: The Great Awakening.]
+
+It was "the great awakening" that showed how marked had been the growth of
+liberal opinions throughout New England in the forty years preceding.
+Silently, a great change had gone on, with little open expression of
+dissent from Calvinism, and without a knowledge on the part of most of the
+liberal men that they had in any way departed from the faith of the
+fathers. It was only with the coming of Whitefield and the revival that
+this change came to have recognition, and that even the slightest
+separation into parties took place.
+
+The revival was an attempt to reintroduce the stricter Calvinism of the
+earlier time, with its doctrines of justification by faith alone,
+supernatural regeneration, and predestination made known to the believer by
+the Holy Ghost. The liberal party objected to the revival because it was
+opposed to the good old customs of the Congregational churches of New
+England. The itinerant methods of the revivalists, the shriekings,
+faintings, and appeals to fear and terror, were condemned as not in harmony
+with the established methods of the churches. In his book against the
+revivalists, Dr. Chauncy said that "now is the time when we are
+particularly called to stand for the good old way, and bear testimony
+against everything that may tend to cast a blemish on true primitive
+Christianity."[16]
+
+When the great awakening came to an end, the liberal party was far stronger
+than before, partly because the members of it had come to know each other
+and to feel their own power, partly because men had been led to declare
+themselves who had never before perceived their own position, and partly
+because the agitation had set men to thinking, and to making such scrutiny
+of their beliefs as they had never made before. The testimonies of Harvard
+College and various associations of ministers against the methods of the
+revivalists were signed by sixty-three men, while those in favor of the
+revival were signed by one hundred and ten. These numbers represent the
+comparative strength of the two parties. It must be said, however, that the
+leading men in nearly every part of New England were among those opposing
+the revival methods, while in Eastern Massachusetts at least two-thirds of
+the ministers were of the liberal party.[17]
+
+The strong feeling caused by the revival soon subsided, and no division
+between the Calvinist and the Arminian parties took place. The progressive
+tendencies went quietly on, step by step the old beliefs were discarded;
+but it was by individuals, and not in any form as a sectarian movement. The
+relations of the church to the state at this time would have made such a
+result impossible.
+
+[Sidenote: Cardinal Beliefs of the Liberals.]
+
+Looking over the whole field of the theological advance from 1725 to 1760,
+we find that three conclusions had been arrived at by the men of the
+liberal movement. The first of these was that what they stood for as a body
+was a recovery and restoration of primitive Christianity in its simplicity
+and power. It was said of Dr. Mayhew by his biographer that he "was a great
+advocate of primitive Christianity, and zealously contended for the faith
+once delivered to the saints."
+
+The second opinion, to which they gave frequent utterance, was that the
+Bible is a divine revelation, the true source of all religious teaching,
+and the one sufficient creed for all men. In his sermon against the
+enthusiasm of the revivalists, Chauncy said that a true test of all
+religious excitement, and of every kind of new teachings, was to be found
+in their "regard to the Bible, and its acknowledgment that the things
+therein contained are the commandments of God." "Keep close to the
+Scripture," was his admonition to his congregation, "and admit of nothing
+for an impression of the spirit but what agrees with that unerring rule.
+Fix it in your minds as a truth you will invariably abide by, that the
+Bible is the grand test by which everything in religion is to be tried."
+
+The third position of the men of the liberal movement was that Christ is
+the only means of salvation, and they yielded to him unquestioning loyalty
+and faith. Turning away from the creeds of men, as they did in so far as
+they could see their way, they concentrated their convictions upon Christ,
+and found in him the spiritual and vital centre of all faith that lives
+with true power to help men. Mayhew held that God could not have forgiven
+men their sins without the atonement of Christ, for his life and his gospel
+are the means of the great reconciliation by which man and God are brought
+into harmony with each other.
+
+[Sidenote: Publications defining the Liberal Beliefs.]
+
+In three publications may be seen what the Arminians had to teach that was
+opposed to Calvinism. In 1744 appeared in Boston a book of two hundred and
+eight pages by Rev. Experience Mayhew, one of a devoted family of
+missionaries to the Indians of Martha's Vineyard. He called his book "Grace
+Defended, in a Modest Plea for an important Truth: namely, that the offer
+of Salvation made to sinners comprises in it an offer of the Grace given in
+Regeneration." Mr. Mayhew claimed that he was a Calvinist, yet he rejected
+the teaching that every act of the unregenerate person is equal in the
+sight of God to the worst sin, and claimed that even the sinner can live so
+well and so justly as to favor his being accepted of God. Mayhew maintained
+that Christ died for all men, not for the elect only.[18] He claimed that
+"God cannot be truly said to offer salvation to sinners without offering to
+them whatsoever is necessary on his part, in order to their salvation."[19]
+Mayhew was usually credited with being an Arminian; for he positively
+rejected the doctrine of election, and he defended the principle of human
+freedom in the most affirmative manner.
+
+In 1749 Lemuel Briant (or Bryant), the minister in that part of Braintree
+which became the town of Quincy, published a sermon which he entitled The
+Absurdity and Blasphemy of Depreciating Moral Virtue. It condemned reliance
+on Christ's merits without effort to live his life, and showed that it is
+the duty of the Christian to live righteously. Briant said that to hold any
+other view was hurtful and blasphemous. He claimed that "the great rule the
+Scriptures lay down for men to go by in passing judgment on their spiritual
+state is the sincere, upright, steady, and universal practice of virtue."
+"To preach up chiefly what Christ himself laid the stress upon (and whether
+this was not moral virtue let every one judge from his discourses) must
+certainly, in the opinion of all sober men, be called truly and properly,
+and in the best sense, preaching of Christ."
+
+A pamphlet of thirty pages appeared in 1757, written by Samuel Webster, the
+minister of Salisbury, with the title "A Winter Evening's Conversation upon
+the doctrine of Original Sin, wherein the notion of our having sinned in
+Adam, and being on that account only liable to eternal Damnation, is proved
+to be Unscriptural." It is in the form of a dialogue between a minister and
+three of his parishioners, and gives, as few other writings of the
+eighteenth century do, a clear and explicit statement of the author's
+opinions in a readable and interesting form. That all have sinned in Adam
+the minister pronounces "a very shocking doctrine." "What! make them first
+to open their eyes in torment, and all this for a sin which certainly they
+had no hand in,--a sin which, if it comes upon them at all, certainly is
+without any fault or blame on their parts, for they had no hand in
+receiving it!" That Adam is our federal head, and that we sinned because he
+sinned, he calls "a mere castle in the air." "Sin and guilt are personal
+things as much as knowledge. I can as easily conceive of one man's
+knowledge being imputed to another as of his sins being so. No imputation
+in either case can make the thing to be mine which is not mine any more
+than one person may be another person." He declares that this doctrine of
+imputation causes infidelity. "It naturally leads men into every
+dishonorable thought of God which gives a great and general blow to
+religion." It impeaches the holiness of God, "for it supposes him to make
+millions sinners by his decree of imputation, who would otherwise have been
+innocent." That it was his decree alone "that made all Adam's posterity
+sinners is the very essence of this doctrine." "And so Christians are
+guilty of holding what even heathen would blush at." That God "should
+pronounce a sentence by which myriads of infants, as blameless as helpless,
+were consigned over to blackness of darkness to be tormented with fire and
+brimstone forever, is not consistent with infinite goodness." "How
+dreadfully is God dishonored by such monstrous representations as these!"
+Such a being cannot be loved by us, for every heart rebels against it. "All
+descriptions of the Divine Being which represent him in an unamiable light
+do the greatest hurt to religion that can be, as they strike at love, which
+is the fulfilling of the law. I am persuaded that many of those who think
+they believe this doctrine do not really believe it, or else they do not
+consider how it represents their heavenly Father." The pamphlet concludes
+with the acceptance of this broader teaching by the parishioners, but it
+was the cause of controversy in pulpits and by means of pamphlets. Bellamy
+denied the teachings of Webster, and Chauncy defended them. So bold a
+pamphlet as this showed how men had come to reason without compromise about
+the old doctrines, and gave evidence that the growing spirit of humanity
+would no longer accept what was harsh and cruel.
+
+[Sidenote: Phases of Religious Progress.]
+
+The New England churches were thus not standing still as regards doctrines,
+moral conduct, the methods of worship, or the relations they held to the
+state; but step by step they were moving away from the methods and the
+ideas of the fathers. The "lining out" of hymns was slowly abandoned, and
+singing by note took its place. The agitation that followed this attempt at
+reform was great and wide-spread. The introduction of an organized and
+trained choir was also in the nature of a genuine reform. When the liberal
+Thomas Brattle offered an organ to the new church in Brattle Street, it was
+voted "that they do not think it proper to use the same in the public
+worship of God." The instrument was, however, accepted by King's Chapel;
+and an organist was secured from London. It was not until 1770 that the
+church in Providence procured an organ, the first used in a Congregational
+church in New England.
+
+When Dr. Jonathan Mayhew died, in 1766, Dr. Chauncy prayed at his funeral;
+and this was said to have been the first prayer ever made at a funeral in
+Boston, so strong was the Puritan dislike of the customs of the Catholic
+Church.[20] In this way, as well as in others, the new liberalism broke
+down the old customs, and introduced those with which we are familiar.
+Perhaps the most marked tendency of this kind was the introduction of the
+reading of the Bible into the services of the churches as a part of the
+order of worship. This innovation was distinctly due to the liberal men and
+the high esteem in which they held the Scriptures as a means of giving
+sobriety and reasonableness to their religion. The First Church in Boston,
+in May, 1730, voted that the reading of the Scriptures, instead of the old
+Puritan way of expounding them, be thereafter discretionary with the
+ministers of that church, but "that the mind of the church is that larger
+portions should be publicly read than has been used."[21] As we have seen,
+the Brattle Street Church had already led in this reform, having adopted
+this practice in 1699. This custom of reading the Bible as a part of the
+service of worship came slowly into general acceptance, for there was a
+strong feeling against it. When a Bible was presented to the parish in
+Mendon, in 1767, a serious commotion resulted because of the strong feeling
+against the Church of England then prevalent; and the donor gave it to the
+minister until such time as the church might wish to use it. It was as late
+as 1785 that a copy of the Bible was given to the First Church in Dedham,
+with the request that the reading of it should be made a part of the
+exercises of the Lord's day; and the parish instructed the minister to read
+such portions of it as he thought "most desirable" and of "such length as
+the several seasons of the year and other circumstances" might render
+proper. In the West Church of Medway it was not until 1806 that this
+practice was established, and two of the Salem churches began it the same
+year. The reading of the Bible at ordination services did not become
+customary until an even later date.[22]
+
+Such are some of the practical innovations which accompanied the doctrinal
+development that was taking place. Liberality in one direction brought
+toleration and progress in others. Some of these changes were due to the
+fact that the prejudices against the Catholic Church and the Church of
+England had, in a measure, disappeared, because there was nothing to keep
+them alive. Others were due to the intellectual influences that came into
+the colonies from England. Still others resulted from the shifting
+relations of church and state, and were the effect of attempts to adjust
+those relations more satisfactorily.
+
+[1] Narrative of Surprising Conversions, edition of 1808, 13.
+
+[2] Denial of original sin, from Pelagius, an ascetic preacher of the
+    fifth century.
+
+[3] Dwight, Life of Edwards, 307, 336, 410, 413.
+
+[4] Ibid., 649.
+
+[5] Ibid., 495.
+
+[6] Green, History of Springfield.
+
+[7] Ibid., 255.
+
+[8] E.H. Byington, The Puritan in England and New England, devotes a
+    chapter to the controversy over Breck's settlement; but he does not
+    treat of the theological problems involved.
+
+[9] Whitefield's Seventh Journal, 28.
+
+[10] History of Harvard University, 52.
+
+[11] History of Harvard University, 23, 26.
+
+[12] Whitefield's Journal, seventh part, 28.
+
+[13] Historical Magazine, new series, IX. 227, April, 1871.
+
+[14] W.B. Sprague, Annals of the Unitarian Pulpit, II.
+
+[15] Levi L. Paine, A Critical History of the Evolution of Trinitarianism,
+     99. "Samuel Clarke and others took the ground that God is unipersonal,
+     and hence that the Son is a distinct personal being, distinguishing
+     God the Father as the absolute Deity from the Son whom they regarded
+     as God in a relative or secondary sense, being derived from the
+     Father, and having his beginning from Him."
+
+[16] Seasonable Thoughts, 337.
+
+[17] Alden Bradford, in his Memoir of the Life and Writings of Rev.
+     Jonathan Mayhew, D.D., gives a list of "the clergymen who openly
+     opposed or did not teach and advocate the Calvinistic doctrines" at
+     the time of Mayhew's ordination, in 1747. These were: Dr. Appleton,
+     Cambridge; Dr. Gay, Hingham; Dr. Chauncy, Boston; William Rand,
+     Kingston; Nathaniel Eelles, Scituate; Edward Barnard, Haverhill;
+     Samuel Cooke, West Cambridge (now Arlington); Jeremiah Fogg,
+     Kensington, N.H.; Dr. A. Eliot, Boston; Dr. Samuel Webster, Salisbury;
+     Lemuel Briant, Braintree; Dr. Stevens, Kittery, Me.; Dr. Tucker,
+     Newbury; Timothy Harrington, Lancaster; Dr. Gad Hitchcock, Pembroke;
+     Josiah Smith, Pembroke; William Smith, Weymouth; Dr. Daniel Shute,
+     Hingham; Dr. Samuel Cooper, Boston; Dr. Mayhew, Boston; Abraham
+     Williams, Sandwich; Anthony Wibird, Braintree (now Quincy); Dr.
+     Cushing, Waltham; Professor Wigglesworth, Harvard College; Dr. Symmes,
+     Andover; Dr. John Willard, Connecticut; Amos Adams, Roxbury; Dr.
+     Barnes, Scituate; Charles Turner, Duxbury; Dr. Dana Wallingford,
+     Conn.; Ebenezer Thayer, Hampton, N.H.; Dr. Fiske, Brookfield; Dr.
+     Samuel West, Dartmouth (now New Bedford); Dr. Hemenway, Wells. Among
+     those who took part in the ordination of Jonathan Mayhew, and
+     therefore presumably of the same theological opinions, were Hancock,
+     Lexington; Cotton, Newton; Cooke, Sudbury; Prescott, Danvers (now
+     Salem). To these may be added, says Bradford, though of a somewhat
+     later date: Dr. Coffin, Buxton; Drs. Howard, West, Lathrop, and
+     Belknap, Boston; Dr. Henry Cummings, Billerica; Dr. Deane, Portland;
+     Thomas Cary, Newburyport; Dr. Fobes, Raynham; Timothy Hilliard,
+     Cambridge; Thomas Haven, Reading; Dr. Willard, Beverly. Dr. Ezra
+     Ripley added the names of Hedge, of Warwick, and Foster, of Stafford.
+     This makes fifty-two in all, but probably as many more could be added
+     by careful search.
+
+[18] Grace Defended, 43.
+
+[19] Ibid., 60.
+
+[20] Alice Morse Earle, Customs and Fashions in Old New England, 364, 367.
+     See H.M. Dexter, Congregationalism as seen in its Literature, 458.
+
+[21] A.B. Ellis, History of the First Church in Boston, 199.
+
+[22] New England Magazine, February, 1899. A.H. Coolidge on Scripture
+     Reading in the Worship of the New England Churches.
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+
+THE SILENT ADVANCE OF LIBERALISM.
+
+The progressive tendencies went silently on; and step by step the old
+beliefs were discarded, but always by individuals and churches, and not by
+associations or general official action. Even before the middle of the
+eighteenth century there was not only a questioning of the doctrine of
+divine decrees, the conception that God elects some to bliss and some to
+perdition in accordance with his own arbitrary will, but there was also
+developing a tendency to reject the tritheism[1] which in New England took
+the place of a philosophical conception of the Trinity, such as had been
+held by the great thinkers of the Christian ages. In part this doubt about
+the Trinity was the result of a more thoughtful study of the Bible, where
+the doctrine taught by the leading theologians of the old school in New
+England does not appear; and in part it was the result of the reading of
+the works of the English divines of the more liberal school. Something of
+this tendency was also due to the spirit of free inquiry, and the rational
+interpretation of religion, that were beginning to make themselves felt
+amongst those not wholly committed to the old ways of thinking.
+
+It was characteristic of those who questioned the doctrine of the Trinity,
+as then taught, that they insisted on stating their beliefs in the language
+of the New Testament, especially in that of Jesus himself. They found him
+teaching his own dependence on his Father, claiming for himself only an
+inferior and subordinate position. Believing in his pre-existence, his
+supernatural character and mission, they held that he was the creator of
+the world or that creation took place by means of the spirit that was in
+him, and that every honor should be paid him except that of worshipping him
+as the Supreme Being. As in the ancient family the son was always
+subordinate to his father, so the Son of God presented in the New Testament
+is less exalted than his Father. This conception of Christ is technically
+called Arianism, from the Alexandrian presbyter of the fourth century who
+first brought it into prominence.
+
+[Sidenote: Subordinate Nature of Christ.]
+
+The Arian heresy did not necessarily follow the Arminian, but much the same
+causes led to its appearance. Many of the leading men in England had become
+Arians, including Milton, Locke, Taylor, Clarke, Watts, and others; and the
+reading of their books in New England led to an inquiry into the
+truthfulness of the doctrine of the Trinity. As early as 1720 the preachers
+of convention and election sermons were insisting upon a recognition of
+Christ in the old way, showing that they were suspicious of heresy.[2]
+Most of the Arians retained the other doctrines in which they had been
+educated, even putting a stronger emphasis upon them than before. Rarely
+was the subordinate nature of Christ made in any way prominent in
+preaching. It was held so strictly subsidiary to the cardinal doctrines of
+incarnation and atonement that only the most intelligent and watchful could
+detect any difference between those who were Arians and those who were
+strict Trinitarians. Now and then a man of more pronounced convictions and
+utterance was shunned by his ministerial neighbors, but this rarely
+occurred and had little practical effect. So long as a preacher gave
+satisfaction to his own congregation, and had behind him the voters and the
+tax-list of his town, his heresies were passed by with only comment and
+gossip.
+
+We find here and there definite indications of the doctrinal changes that
+were taking place, as in the republication of Emlyn's Humble Inquiry into
+the Scripture Account of Jesus Christ, which appeared in Boston in 1756.
+Thomas Emlyn, the first English preacher who called himself a Unitarian,
+published his Humble Inquiry in 1702; and in 1705 he established a
+Unitarian congregation in London. This distinctively Unitarian book made an
+able defence of the doctrine of the subordinate nature of Christ. More
+significant than the republication of the book itself was the preface
+written for it by a Boston layman, addressed to the ministers of the town,
+in which he said that he found its teaching "to be the true, plain,
+unadulterated doctrine of the Gospel." He also intimated that "many of his
+brethren of the laity in the town and country were in sympathy with him and
+sincerely desirous of knowing the truth." "In New Hampshire Province,"
+wrote Dr. Joseph Bellamy, in 1760, "this party have actually, three years
+ago, got things so ripe that they have ventured to new model our Shorter
+Catechism, to alter or entirely leave out the doctrine of the Trinity, of
+the decrees, of our first parents being created holy, of original sin,
+Christ satisfying divine justice, effectual calling, justification,
+etc."[3]
+
+[Sidenote: Some of the Liberal Leaders.]
+
+The farther advance in the liberal movement may be most easily traced in
+the lives and teachings of three or four men. Rev Ebenezer Gay, who was
+settled in Hingham in 1717, was the first man in New England to arrive at a
+clear statement of opinions quite outside of and distinct from Calvinism.
+Writing of the years from 1750 to 1755, John Adams said that at that time
+Lemuel Briant, of Braintree, Jonathan Mayhew, of the West Church in Boston,
+Daniel Shute, of Hingham, John Brown, of Cohasset, and perhaps equal to
+all, if not above all, Ebenezer Gay, of Hingham, were Unitarians.[4] The
+rapid sale of Emlyn's book would prove the truthfulness of this statement.
+It was not by any sudden process that these men had come to what may be
+called Unitarianism, though, more properly, Arianism; and not as a mere
+result of a reaction from Calvinism. A new time had come, and with it new
+hopes and thoughts. The burdening sense of the spiritual world that
+belonged to the men of the seventeenth century did not belong to those of
+the eighteenth. Men had come to see that God must manifest himself in
+reason, common sense, nature, and the facts of life.
+
+In the life and teachings of such a man as Ebenezer Gay we catch a new
+insight into the spirit that was active in New England throughout the
+eighteenth century for the realization of a larger faith. He was a man of a
+strong, original, vigorous nature, a born leader of men, and one who
+impressed his own character upon those with whom he came into contact. He
+opposed the revival, and he made the men of his own association think with
+him in their opposition to it. Years before the revival, however, he was a
+liberal in theology, and had found his way into Arminianism. With the
+spirit of free inquiry he was in fullest sympathy. He was strongly opposed
+to creeds and to all written articles of faith. He condemned in the most
+forcible terms the young man who, on the occasion of his ordination,
+"engages to preach according to a rule of faith, creed, or confession which
+is merely of human prescription or imposition." In his convention sermon of
+1746 he denounced those who "insist upon the offensive peculiarities of the
+party they espoused rather than upon the more mighty things in which we are
+all agreed." It has been said of him that, after the middle of the century,
+"his discourses will be searched in vain for any discussions of
+controversial theology, any advocacy of the peculiar doctrines regarded as
+orthodox, or the expression of any opinions at variance with those of his
+successor, Dr. Ware."[5]
+
+The sermon on Natural Religion as distinguished from Revealed, which Dr.
+Gay delivered as the Dudleian lecture at Harvard, in 1759, showed the
+reasonable and progressive spirit of his preaching. He claimed that there
+is no antagonism between natural and revealed religion, and that, while
+revealed religion is an addition to the natural, it is not built on the
+ruins, but on the everlasting foundations of it. Revelation can teach
+nothing contrary to natural religion or to the dictates of reason. "No
+doctrine or scheme of religion," he said, "should be advanced or received
+as Scriptural and divine which is plainly and absolutely inconsistent with
+the perfections of God, and the possibility of things. Absurdities and
+contradictions, are not to be obtruded upon our faith. No pretence of
+revelation can be sufficient for the admission of them. The manifest
+absurdity of any doctrine is a stronger argument that it is not of God than
+any other evidence can be that it is."
+
+Jonathan Mayhew, the son of Experience Mayhew, of Martha's Vineyard, was
+settled over the West Church of Boston in 1747. He was even then known as a
+heretic, who had read the most liberal books of the English philosophers
+and theologians, and who had boldly accepted their opinions as his own. On
+the occasion of his ordination not one of the Boston ministers was present,
+although a number of them were well known for their liberal opinions. The
+ordination was postponed, and later several men of remoter parishes joined
+in inducting this young independent into his pulpit. No Boston minister
+would exchange pulpits with him, and he was not invited to join the
+ministerial association. He was shunned by the ministers, and he was
+dreaded by the orthodox; but he was gladly heard by a large congregation,
+which grew in numbers and intelligence as the years went on. He had among
+his hearers many of the leading men of the town, and to him gathered those
+who were most thoughtful and progressive. Boston has never had in any of
+its pulpits a man of nobler, broader, more humane qualities, or one with a
+mind more completely committed to seeking and knowing the truth, or with a
+more unflinching purpose to speak his own mind without fear or favor. His
+influence was soon powerfully felt in the town, and his name came to stand
+for liberty in politics as well as in religion. His sermons were rapidly
+printed and distributed widely. They were read in every part of New England
+with great eagerness; they were reprinted in England, and brought him a
+large correspondence from those who admired and approved of his teaching.
+Though he died in 1766, at the age of forty-six, his work and his influence
+did not die with him.
+
+The cardinal thought of Jonathan Mayhew with reference to religion was that
+of free inquiry. Diligent and free examination of all questions, he felt,
+was necessary to any acquisition of the truth. He believed in liberty and
+toleration everywhere, and this made him accept in the fullest sense the
+doctrine of the freedom of the will. In man he found a self-determining
+power, the source of his moral and intellectual freedom. He said that we
+are more certain of the fact that we are free than we are of the truth of
+Christianity. This belief led him to the rejection of the Calvinistic
+doctrine of inability, and to a strong faith in the moral and spiritual
+possibilities of human nature. He described Christianity as "a practical
+science, the art of living piously and virtuously."[6] He had quite freed
+his mind from bondage to creeds when he said that, "how much soever any man
+may be mistaken in opinion concerning the terms of salvation, yet if he is
+practically in the right there is no doubt but he will be accepted of
+God."[7] He held that no speculative error, however great, is sufficient
+to exclude a good and upright man from the kingdom of heaven, who lives
+according to the genuine spirit of the gospel. To him the principle of
+grace was always a principle of goodness and holiness; and he held that
+grace can never be operative as a saving power without obedience to that
+righteousness and love which Christ taught as essential.[8] He declared
+that "the doctrine that men may obtain salvation without ceasing to do evil
+and learning to do well, without yielding a sincere obedience to the laws
+of Christianity, is not so properly called a doctrine of grace as it is a
+doctrine of devils."[9] He said, again, that we cannot be justified by a
+faith that is without obedience; for it is obedience and good works that
+give to faith all its life, efficacy, and perfection.[10]
+
+[Sidenote: The First Unitarian.]
+
+Dr. Mayhew accepted without equivocation the right of private judgment in
+religion, and he practised it judicially and with wise insight. He
+unhesitatingly applied the rational method to all theological problems, and
+to him reason was the final court of appeal for everything connected with
+religion. His love of freedom was enthusiastic and persistent, and he was
+zealously committed to the principle of individuality. He believed in the
+essential goodness of human nature, and in the doctrine of the Divine
+Unity. He was the first outspoken Unitarian in New England, not merely
+because he rejected the doctrine of the Trinity, but because he accepted
+all the cardinal principles developed by that movement since his day. He
+was a rationalist, an individualist, a defender of personal freedom, and
+tested religious practices by the standard of common sense. His sermons
+were plain, direct, vigorous, and modern. A truly religious man, Mayhew
+taught a practical and humanitarian religion, genuinely ethical, and
+faithful in inculcating the motive of civic duty.
+
+Dr. Mayhew's words may be quoted in regard to some of the religious beliefs
+commonly accepted in his day. "The doctrine of a total ignorance and
+incapacity to judge of moral and religious truths brought upon mankind by
+the disobedience of our first parents," he wrote, "is without
+foundation."[11] "I hope it appears," he says, "that the love of God and of
+our neighbor, that sincere piety of heart, and a righteous, holy and
+charitable life, are the weightier matters of the gospel, as well as of the
+law."[12] "Although Christianity cannot," he asserts, "with any propriety
+or justice be said to be the same with natural religion, or merely a
+republication of the laws of nature, yet the principal, the most important
+and fundamental duties required by Christianity are, nevertheless, the same
+which were enjoined under the legal dispensation of Moses, and the same
+which are dictated by the light of nature."[13] His great love of
+intellectual and spiritual freedom finds utterance in such a statement as
+this: "Nor has any order or body of men authority to enjoin any particular
+article of faith, nor the use of any modes of worship not expressly pointed
+out in the Scriptures; nor has the enjoining of such articles a tendency to
+preserve the peace and harmony of the church, but directly the
+contrary."[14] Such sentences as the following are frequent on Mayhew's
+pages, and they show clearly the trend of his mind: "Free examination,
+weighing arguments for and against with care and impartiality, is the way
+to find truth." "True religion flourishes the more, the more people
+exercise their right of private judgment."[15] "There is nothing more
+foolish and superstitious than a veneration for ancient creeds and
+doctrines as such, and nothing is more unworthy a reasonable creature than
+to value principles by their age, as some men do their wines."[16]
+
+Mayhew insisted upon the strict unity of God, "who is without rival or
+competitor." "The dominion and sovereignty of the universe is necessarily
+one and in one, the only living and true God, who delegates such measures
+of power and authority to other beings as seemeth good in his sight." He
+declared that the not preserving of such unity and supremacy of God on the
+part of Christians "has long been just matter of reproach to them"; and he
+said the authority of Christ is always "exercised in subordination to God's
+will."[17] His position was that "the faith of Christians does not
+terminate in Christ as the ultimate object of it, but it is extended
+through him to the one God."[18] The very idea of a mediator implies
+subordination as essential to it.[19] His biographer says he did not accept
+the notion of vicarious suffering, and, that he was an Arian in his views
+of the nature of Christ. "He was the first clergyman in New England who
+expressly and openly opposed the scholastic doctrine of the Trinity.
+Several others declined pressing the Athanasian Creed, and believed
+strictly in the unity of God. They also probably found it difficult to
+explain their views on the subject, and the great danger of losing their
+good name served to prevent their speaking out. But Dr. Mayhew did not
+conceal or disguise his sentiments on this point any more than on others,
+such as the peculiar tenets of Calvinism. He explicitly and boldly declared
+the doctrine irrational, unscriptural, and directly contradictory."[20] He
+taught the strict unity of God as early as 1753, "in the most unequivocal
+and plain manner, in his sermons of that year."[21] What most excited
+comment and objection was that, in a foot-note to the volume of his sermons
+published in 1755, Mayhew said that a Catholic Council had elevated the
+Virgin Mary to the position of a fourth person in the Godhead, and added,
+by way of comment: "Neither Papists nor Protestants should imagine that
+they will be understood by others if they do not understand themselves. Nor
+should they think that nonsense and contradictions can ever be too sacred
+to be ridiculous." The ridicule here was not directed against the doctrine
+of the Trinity, as has been maintained, but the foolish defences of it made
+by men who accepted its "mysteries" as too wonderful for reason to deal
+with in a serious manner. This boldness of comment on the part of Mayhew
+was in harmony with his strong disapproval of creed-making in all its
+forms. He condemned creeds because they set up "human tests of orthodoxy
+instead of the infallible word of God, and make other terms of Christian
+communion than those explicitly pointed out by the Gospel."[22]
+
+Dr. Mayhew was succeeded in the West Church by Rev. Simeon Howard in 1767,
+who, though he was received in a more friendly spirit by the ministers of
+the town, was not less radical in his theology than his predecessor. Dr.
+Howard was both an Arminian and an Arian, and he was "a believer neither in
+the Trinity, nor in the divine predestination of total depravity, and
+necessary ruin to any human soul."[23] He was of a gentle and conciliatory
+temper, but his preaching was quite as thorough-going in its intellectual
+earnestness as was Dr. Mayhew's.
+
+[Sidenote: A Pronounced Universalist.]
+
+Another preacher on the liberal side was Dr. Charles Chauncy of the First
+Church in Boston, whose ministry lasted from 1727 to 1787. He was the most
+vigorous of the opponents of the great awakening, both in his pulpit and
+through the press. He wrote a book on certain French fanatics, with the
+purpose of showing what would be the natural results of the excesses of the
+revival; he preached a powerful sermon on enthusiasm, to indicate the
+dangers of religious excitement, when not controlled by common sense and
+reason; and he travelled throughout New England to gain all the information
+possible about the revival, its methods and results, and published his
+Seasonable Thoughts on the State of Religion in New England in 1743. He had
+been influenced by the reading of Taylor, Tillotson, Clarke, and the other
+latitudinarian and rationalistic writers of England; and he found the
+revival in its excesses repugnant to his every thought of what was true and
+devout in religion.
+
+Dr. Chauncy was not an eloquent preacher; but he was clear, earnest, and
+honest. Many of his sermons were published, and his books numbered nearly a
+dozen. As early as 1739 he preached a sermon in favor of religious
+toleration. At a later period he said, "It is with me past all doubt that
+the religion of Jesus will never be restored to its primitive purity,
+simplicity, and glory, until religious establishments are so brought down
+as to be no more."[24] It was this conviction which made him oppose in his
+pulpit and in two or three books the effort that was made just before the
+Revolution to establish the English Church as the state form of religion in
+the colonies. He said, in 1767, that the American people would hazard
+everything dear to them--their estates, their lives--rather than suffer
+their necks to be put under the yoke of bondage to any foreign power in
+state or church.[25]
+
+In his early life Dr. Chauncy was an Arminian, but slowly he grew to the
+acceptance of distinctly Unitarian and Universalist doctrines. Near the end
+of his life he Published four or five books in which he advanced very
+liberal opinions. One of these, published in Boston in 1784, was on The
+Benevolence of the Deity fairly and impartially Considered. This book
+followed the same method and purpose as Butler's Analogy, and aimed to show
+that God has manifested his goodness in creation and in the life of man. He
+said that our moral self-determination, or free will, is our one great gift
+from God. He discussed the moral problems of life in order to prove the
+benevolence of God, maintaining that the goodness we see in him is of the
+same nature with goodness in ourselves. The year following he published a
+book on the Scriptural account of the Fall and its Consequences, in which
+he rejected the doctrine of total depravity, and interpreted the new birth
+as a result of education rather than of supernatural change. Thus he
+brought to full statement the logical result of the half-way covenant and
+the teachings of Solomon Stoddard, as well as of the connection of church
+and state in New England. He saw that the method of education is the only
+one that can justly be followed in the preparation of the young for
+admission to a church that is sustained in any direct way by the state.
+
+Dr. Chauncy's great work as a preacher and author[26] was brought to its
+close by his books in favor of universal salvation. In 1783-84 he published
+in Boston two anonymous pamphlets advocating the salvation of all men, and
+these pamphlets made no little stir. In 1784 he published in London a work
+which he called The Mystery hid from Ages and Generations, made manifest by
+the Gospel Revelation; or, The Salvation of All Men the Grand Thing aimed
+at in the Scheme of God: By One who wishes well to the whole Human Race. In
+this book Dr. Chauncy made an elaborate study of the New Testament, in
+order to prove that salvation is to be universal. Christ died for all,
+therefore all will be saved; because all have sinned in Adam, therefore all
+will be made alive in Christ. He looked to a future probation, to a long
+period after death, when the opportunity of salvation will be open to all.
+He maintained that the misery threatened against the wicked in Scripture is
+that of this intermediate state between the earthly life and the time when
+God shall be all in all. He held that sin will be punished hereafter in
+proportion to depravity, and that none will be saved until they come into
+willing harmony with Christ, who will finally be able to win all men to
+himself, otherwise the power of God will be set at naught and his good will
+towards men frustrated of its purpose. In the future state of discipline,
+punishment will be inflicted with salutary effect, and thus the moral
+recovery of mankind will be accomplished.
+
+[Sidenote: Other Men of Mark.]
+
+Another leader was Dr. Samuel West, of Dartmouth, now New Bedford, where he
+was settled in 1760, and where he preached for more than forty years.[27]
+He rejected the doctrines of fore-ordination, election, total depravity,
+and the Trinity. In preaching the election sermon of 1776, he took the
+ground of an undisguised rationalism. "A revelation," he said, "pretending
+to be from God, that contradicts any part of natural laws ought immediately
+to be rejected as imposture; for the deity cannot make a law contrary to
+the law of nature without acting contrary to himself,--a thing in the
+strictest sense impossible, for that which implies contradiction is not an
+object of Divine Power." The cardinal idea of West's; position, as of that
+of most of the liberal men of his time, was stated by him in one sentence,
+when he said, "To preach Christ is to preach the whole system of divinity,
+as it consists of both natural and revealed religion."[28]
+
+In 1751 Rev. Thomas Barnard, of Newbury, was dismissed from his parish
+because he was regarded as unconverted by the revivalistic portion of his
+congregation; and in 1755 he was settled over the First Church in Salem. He
+was an Arminian, and at the same time an Arian of the school of Samuel
+Clarke. His son Thomas was settled over the North Church of Salem in 1773,
+which church was organized especially for him by his admirers in the First
+Church. He followed in the theological opinions of his father, but probably
+became somewhat more pronounced in his Arian views, so that, after his
+death, Dr. Channing called him a Unitarian. It is not surprising that the
+younger Barnard should have been liberal in his opinions and spirit, when
+we find his theological instructor, Rev. Samuel Williams, at his
+ordination, saying to him in the sermon preached on that occasion, "Be of
+no sect or party but that of good men, and to all such (whatever their
+differences among themselves) let your heart be opened." On another similar
+occasion Mr. Williams said that it had always been his advice to examine
+with caution and modesty, "but with the greatest freedom all religious
+matters."[29] It was said of the younger Barnard that he believed "the
+final salvation of no man depended upon the belief or disbelief of those
+speculative opinions about which men, equally learned and pious, differ."
+When it was said to him by one of his parishioners, "Dr. Barnard, I never
+heard you preach a sermon upon the Trinity," the reply was, "And you never
+will."[30]
+
+In 1779 Rev. John Prince was settled over the First Church in Salem, as the
+colleague of the elder Barnard. He was an Arian, but in no combative or
+dogmatic manner. He was a student, a lover of science, and an advanced
+thinker and investigator for his time. In 1787 he invited the Universalist,
+Rev. John Murray, into his pulpit, then an act of the greatest
+liberality.[31] Another lover of science, Rev. William Bentley, was settled
+over the East Church of Salem, as colleague to Rev. James Diman, in 1782.
+The senior pastor was a strict Calvinist, but the parish called as his
+colleague this young man of pronounced liberal views in theology. As early
+as 1784 Mr. Bentley was interested in the teachings of the English
+Unitarian, William Hazlitt,[32] who at that time visited New England. And
+in 1786 he was reading Joseph Priestley's book against the Trinity with
+approval. He soon after commended Dr. Priestley's short tracts as giving a
+good statement of the simple doctrines of Christianity.[33] He insisted
+upon free inquiry in religion from the beginning of his ministry, and not
+long after he began preaching he became substantially a Unitarian.[34] In
+1789 he maintained that "the full conviction of a future moral retribution"
+is "the great point of Christian faith."[35] It has been claimed that Mr.
+Bentley was the first minister in New England to take distinctly the
+Unitarian position, and there are good reasons for this understanding of
+his doctrinal attitude.[36] Dr. Bentley corresponded with scholars in
+Europe, as he also did with Arab chiefs in their own tongue. He knew of the
+religions of India, and he seems to have given them appreciative
+recognition. The shipmasters and foreign merchants of Salem, as they came
+in contact with the Oriental races and religions, discarded their dogmatic
+Christianity; and these men, almost without exception, were connected with
+the churches that became Unitarian. It may be accepted as a very
+interesting fact that "the two potent influences shaping the ancient
+Puritanism of Salem into Unitarianism were foreign commerce and contact
+with the Oriental religions."[37]
+
+The formation of a second parish in Worcester, in 1785, was a significant
+step in the progress of liberal opinion. This was the first time when a
+town, outside of Boston, was divided into two parishes of the
+Congregational order on doctrinal grounds. On the death of the minister of
+the first parish several candidates were heard, and among them Rev. Aaron
+Bancroft, who was a pronounced Arminian and Arian. The majority preferred a
+Calvinist; but the more intelligent minority insisted upon the settlement
+of Mr. Bancroft,--a result they finally accomplished by the organization of
+a new parish. It was a severe struggle by which this result was brought
+about, every effort being made to defeat it; and for many years Mr.
+Bancroft was almost completely isolated in his religious opinions.[38]
+
+[Sidenote: The Second Period of Revivals.]
+
+It must not be understood that there was any marked separation in the
+churches as yet on doctrinal grounds. Calvinism was mildly taught, and
+ministers of all shades of opinion exchanged pulpits freely with each
+other. They met in ministerial associations, and in various duties of
+ordinations, councils, and other ecclesiastical gatherings. The preaching
+was practical, not doctrinal; and controverted subjects were for the most
+part not touched upon in the pulpits. About 1780, however, began a revival
+of Calvinism on the part of Drs. Bellamy, Emmons, Hopkins, and others; and
+especially did it take a strenuous form in the works of Samuel Hopkins. The
+New Divinity, as it was sometimes called, taught that unconditional
+submission to God is the duty of every human being, that we should be
+willing to be damned for the glory of God, and that the attitude of God
+towards men is one of unbounded benevolence. This newer Calvinism was full
+of incentives to missionary enterprise, and was zealous for the making of
+converts. Under the impulse of its greater enthusiasm there began, about
+1790, a series of revivals which continued to the middle of the nineteenth
+century. This was the second great period of revivalism in New England. It
+was far better organized than the first one, while its methods were more
+systematic and under better guidance; and the results were great in the
+building of churches, in establishing missionary outposts, and in awakening
+an active religious life amongst the people. It aroused much opposition to
+the liberals, and it made the orthodox party more aggressive. Just as the
+great awakening developed opposition to the liberals of that day, and
+served to bring into view the two tendencies in the Congregational
+churches, so this new revival period accentuated the divergencies between
+those who believed in the deity of Christ and those who believed in his
+subordinate nature, and led to the first assuming of positions on both
+sides. There can be little doubt that it put a check upon the friendly
+spirit that had existed in the churches, and that it began a division which
+ultimately resulted in their separation into two denominations.[39]
+
+Such details of individual and local opinion as have here been given are
+all the more necessary because there was at this time no consensus of
+belief on the part of the more liberal men. Each man thought for himself,
+but he was very reluctant to depart from the old ways in ritual and
+doctrine; and if the ministers consulted with each other, and gave each
+other confidential assistance, there was certainly nothing in the way of
+public conference or of party assimilation and encouragement. A visitor to
+Boston in 1791 wrote of the ministers there that "they are so diverse in
+their sentiments that they cannot agree on any point in theology. Some are
+Calvinists, some Universalists, some Arminians, and one, at least, is a
+Socinian."[40] Another visitor, this time in 1801, found the range of
+opinions much wider. In all the ministers of Boston he found only one rigid
+Trinitarian; one was a follower of Edwards, several were Arminians, two
+were Socinians, one a Universalist, and one a Unitarian.[41] This writer
+says it was not difficult to find out what men did not believe, but there
+was as yet no public line of demarcation among the clergy. There being no
+outward pressure to bring men into uniformity, no institution or body of
+men with authority to require assent to a standard of orthodoxy, little
+attention was given to merely doctrinal interests. The position taken was
+that presented by Rev. John Tucker of Newbury, in the convention sermon of
+1768, when he said that no one has any right whatever to legislate in
+behalf of Christ, who alone has authority to fix the terms of the Gospel.
+He said that, as all believers and teachers of Christianity are "perfectly
+upon a level with one another, none of them can have any authority even to
+interpret the laws of this kingdom for others, so as to require their
+assent to such interpretation." He also declared that as "every Christian
+has and must have a right to judge for himself of the true sense and
+meaning of all gospel truths, no doctrines, therefore, no laws, no
+religious rites, no terms of acceptance with God or of admission to
+Christian privileges not found in the gospel, are to be looked upon by him
+as any part of this divine system, nor to be received and submitted to as
+the doctrines and laws of Christ."[42] Of Rev. John Prince, the minister
+of the First Church in Salem during the last years of the century, it was
+said that he never "preached distinctly upon any of the points of
+controversy which, in his day, agitated the New England churches."[43] The
+minister of Roxbury, Rev. Eliphalet Porter, said of the Calvinistic
+beliefs, that there was not one of them he considered "essential to the
+Christian faith or character."[44]
+
+[Sidenote: King's Chapel becomes Unitarian.]
+
+These quotations will indicate the liberty of spirit that existed in the
+New England churches of the later years of the eighteenth century,
+especially in the neighborhood of Boston, and along the seacoast; and also
+the diversity of opinion on doctrinal subjects among the ministers. It is
+impossible here to follow minutely the stages of doctrinal evolution, but a
+few dates and incidents will serve to indicate the several steps that were
+taken. The first of these was the settlement of Rev. James Freeman over
+King's Chapel in 1782, and his ordination by the congregation in 1787, the
+liturgy having been revised two years earlier to conform to the liberal
+opinions of the minister and people. These changes were brought about
+largely through the influence of Rev. William Hazlitt, the father of the
+essayist and critic of the same name, who had been settled over several of
+the smaller Unitarian churches in Great Britain. In the spring of 1783 he
+visited the United States, and spent several months in Philadelphia. He
+gave a course of lectures on the Evidences of Christianity in the college
+there, which were largely attended. He preached for several weeks in a
+country parish in Maryland, he had invitations to settle in Charleston and
+Pittsburg, and he had an opportunity to become the president of a college
+by subscribing to the doctrinal tests required, which he would not do; for
+"he would sooner die in a ditch than submit to human authority in matters
+of faith."[45] In June, 1784, he preached in the Brattle Street Church of
+Boston, and he anticipated becoming its minister; but his pronounced
+doctrinal position seems to have made that impossible. He also preached in
+Hingham, and some of the people there desired his settlement; but the aged
+Dr. Gay would not resign. It would appear that he preached for Dr. Chauncy,
+for Mr. Barnes in Salem, and also in several pulpits on Cape Cod. He gave
+in Boston his course of lectures on the Evidences of Christianity, and it
+was received with much favor by large audiences. The winter of 1784-85 was
+spent by Mr. Hazlitt in Hallowell, Me., in which place was a small group of
+wealthy English Unitarians, led by Samuel Vaughan, by whom Mr. Hazlitt had
+been entertained in Philadelphia. Mr. Hazlitt returned to Boston in the
+spring of 1785, and had some hope of settling in Roxbury. In the autumn,
+however, finding no definite promise of employment, he returned to England.
+He afterward corresponded with Dr. Howard, of the West Church in Boston,
+and with Dr. Lathrop, of West Springfield. The volumes of sermons he
+published in 1786 and 1790 were sold in this country, and one or two of
+them republished.
+
+It would appear that Mr. Hazlitt's positive Unitarianism made it impossible
+for him to settle over any church in Boston or its neighborhood. In 1784 he
+assisted Dr. Freeman in revising the Prayer Book, the form of prayer used
+by Dr. Lindsey[46] in the Essex Street Chapel in London being adapted to
+the new conditions at King's Chapel. He also republished in Philadelphia
+and Boston many of Dr. Priestley's Unitarian tracts, while writing much
+himself for publication.[47] In his correspondence with Theophilus
+Lindsey, Dr. Freeman wrote of Mr. Hazlitt as a pious, zealous, and
+intelligent minister, to whose instructions and conversation he was
+particularly indebted.[48] "Before Mr. Hazlitt came to Boston", Dr.
+Freeman wrote, "the Trinitarian doxology was almost universally used. That
+honest, good man prevailed upon several respectable ministers to omit it.
+Since his departure the number of those who repeat only Scriptural
+doxologies has greatly increased, so that there are now many churches in
+which the worship is strictly Unitarian."[49]
+
+Beginning with the year 1786, several of the liberal men in Boston were in
+correspondence with the leading Unitarian ministers in London, and their
+letters were afterward published by Thomas Belsham in his Life of
+Theophilus Lindsey. From this work we learn that Dr. Lindsey presented his
+own theological works and those of Dr. Priestley to Harvard College, and
+that they were read with great avidity by the students.[50] One of the
+Boston correspondents, writing in 1783, names James Bowdoin, governor of
+Massachusetts in 1785 and 1786, General Benjamin Lincoln, and General Henry
+Knox as among the liberal men. He said: "There are many others besides, in
+our legislature, of similar sentiments. While so many of our great men are
+thus on the side of truth and free inquiry, they will necessarily influence
+many of the common people."[51] He also said that people were less
+frightened at the Socinian name than formerly, and that this form of
+Christianity was beginning to have some public advocates. The only minister
+who preached in favor of it was Mr. Bentley, of Salem, who was described as
+"a young man of a bold, independent mind, of strong, natural powers, and of
+more skill in the learned languages than any person of his years in the
+state." Mr. Bentley's congregation was spoken of as uncommonly liberal, not
+alarmed at any improvements, and pleased with his introduction into the
+pulpit of various modern translations of the Scriptures, especially of the
+prophecies.[52]
+
+[Sidenote: Other Unitarian Movements.]
+
+In March, 1792, a Unitarian congregation was formed in Portland under the
+leadership of Thomas Oxnard, who had been an Episcopalian. Having been
+supplied with the works of Priestley and Lindsey through the generosity of
+Dr. Freeman, he became a Unitarian; and his personal intercourse with Dr.
+Freeman gave strength to his changed convictions. A number of persons of
+property and respectability of character joined him in accepting his new
+faith. In writing to his friend in November, 1788, Mr. Oxnard said: "I
+cannot express to you the avidity with which these Unitarian publications
+are sought after. Our friends here are clearly convinced that the Unitarian
+doctrine will soon become the prevailing opinion in this country. Three
+years ago I did not know a single Unitarian in this part of the country
+besides myself; and now, entirely from the various publications you have
+furnished, a decent society might be collected in this and the neighboring
+towns."[53] In 1792 an attempt was made to introduce a revised liturgy
+into the Episcopal church of Portland; and, when this was resisted, a
+majority of the congregation seceded and formed a Unitarian society, with
+Mr. Oxnard as the minister. This society was continued for a few years, and
+then ceased to exist. The members joined the first Congregational church,
+which in 1809, became Unitarian.[54] Also in 1792 was organized a
+Unitarian congregation in Saco, under the auspices of Hon. Samuel Thatcher,
+a member of Congress and a Massachusetts judge.[55] Mr. Thatcher had been
+an unbeliever, but through the reading of Priestley's works he became a
+sincere and rational Christian. He met with much opposition from his
+neighbors, and an effort was made to prevent his re-election to Congress;
+but it did not succeed. The Saco congregation was at first connected with
+that at Portland, and it seems to have ceased its existence at the same
+time.[56]
+
+In 1794 Dr. Freeman wrote that Unitarianism was making considerable
+progress in the southern counties of Massachusetts. In Barnstable he
+reported "a very large body of Unitarians."[57] Writing in May, 1796, he
+states that Unitarianism is on the increase in Maine, that it is making a
+considerable increase in the southern part of Massachusetts, and that a few
+seeds have been sown in Vermont. He thinks it may be losing ground in some
+places, but that it is growing in others. "I consider it," he writes, "as
+one of the most happy effects which have resulted from my feeble exertions
+in the Unitarian cause, that they have introduced me to the knowledge and
+friendship of some of the most valuable characters of the present age, men
+of enlightened heads and benevolent hearts. Though it is a standing article
+of most of our social libraries, that nothing of a controversial character
+should be purchased, yet any book which is presented is freely accepted. I
+have found means, therefore, of introducing into them some of the Unitarian
+Tracts with which you have kindly furnished me. There are few persons who
+have not read them with avidity; and when read they cannot fail to make an
+impression upon the minds of many. From these and other causes the
+Unitarian doctrine appears to be still upon the increase. I am acquainted
+with a number of ministers, particularly in the southern part of this
+state, who avow and publicly preach this sentiment. There are others more
+cautious, who content themselves with leading their hearers by a course of
+rational but prudent sermons gradually and insensibly to embrace it. Though
+this latter mode is not what I entirely approve, yet it produces good
+effects. For the people are thus kept out of the reach of false opinions,
+and are prepared for the impressions which will be made on them by more
+bold and ardent successors, who will probably be raised up when these timid
+characters are removed off the stage. The clergy are generally the first
+who begin to speculate; but the people soon follow, where they are so much
+accustomed to read and enquire."[58]
+
+In 1793 was published Jeremy Belknap's biography of Samuel Watts, who was
+an Arian, or, at least, held to the subordinate nature of Christ. This book
+had a very considerable influence in directing attention to the doctrine of
+the Trinity, and in inducing inquiring men to study the subject critically
+for themselves. In 1797 Dr. Belknap became the minister of the Federal
+Street Church in Boston, and his preaching was from that time distinctly
+Unitarian. Dr. Joseph Priestley removed to Philadelphia in 1794, and he was
+at first listened to by large congregations. His humanitarian
+theology--that is, his denial of divinity as well as deity to
+Christ--probably had the effect of limiting the interest in his teachings.
+However, a small congregation was established in Philadelphia in 1796,
+formed mostly of English Unitarians. A congregation was gathered at
+Northumberland in 1794, to which place Priestley removed in that year.
+
+In the year 1800 a division took place in the church at Plymouth, owing to
+the growth there of liberal sentiments. These began to manifest themselves
+as early as 1742, as a reaction from the intense revivalism of that
+Period.[59] Rev. Chandler Bobbins, who was strictly Calvinistic in his
+theology, was the minister from 1760 until his death in 1799. In 1794 a
+considerable number of persons in the parish discussed the desirability of
+organizing another church, in order to secure more liberal preaching. It
+was recognized that Mr. Robbins was an old man, that he was very much
+beloved, and that in a few years the opportunity desired would be presented
+without needless agitation; and the effort was therefore deferred. In
+November, 1799, at a meeting held for the election of a new pastor,
+twenty-three members of the church were in favor of Rev. James Kendall, the
+only candidate, while fifteen were in opposition. When the parish voted,
+two hundred and fifty-three favored Mr. Kendall, and fifteen were opposed.
+In September, 1800, the conservative minority, numbering eighteen males and
+thirty-five females, withdrew; and two years later they organized the
+society now called the Church of the Pilgrimage. The settlement of Mr.
+Kendall, a pronounced Arminian,[60] was an instance of the almost complete
+abandonment of Calvinism on the part of a congregation, in opposition to
+the preaching from the pulpit. In spite of the strict confession of faith
+which Dr. Robbins had persuaded the church to adopt, the parish outgrew the
+old teachings. Mr. Kendall, with the approval of his church, soon grew into
+a Unitarian; and it was fitting that the church of the Mayflower, the
+church of Robinson and Brewster, should lead the way in this advance.
+
+As yet there was no controversy, except in a quiet way. Occasionally sharp
+criticism was uttered, especially in convention and election sermons; but
+there was no thought of separation or exclusion. The liberal men showed a
+tendency to magnify the work of charity; and they were, in a limited
+degree, zealous in every kind of philanthropic effort. More distinctly,
+however, they showed their position in their enthusiasm for the Bible and
+in their summing up of Christianity in loyalty to Christ. Towards all
+creeds and dogmas they were indifferent and silent, except as they
+occasionally spoke plainly out to condemn them. They believed in and
+preached toleration, and their whole movement stood more distinctly for
+comprehensiveness and latitudinarianism than for aught else. They were not
+greatly concerned about theological problems; but they thoroughly believed
+in a broad, generous, sympathetic, and practical Christianity, that would
+exemplify the teachings of Christ, and that would lead men to a pure and
+noble moral life.
+
+[Sidenote: Growth of Toleration.]
+
+That toleration was not as yet fully accepted in Massachusetts is seen in
+the fact that the proposed Constitution of 1778 was defeated because it
+provided for freedom of worship on the part of all Protestant
+denominations. The dominant religious body was not yet ready to put itself
+on a level with the other sects. In the Constitutional Convention of 1779
+the more liberal men worked with the Baptists to secure a separation of
+state and church. Such men as Drs. Chauncy, Mayhew, West, and Shute were
+desirous of the broadest toleration; and they did what they could to secure
+it. As early as 1768, Dr. Chauncy spoke in plainest terms in opposition to
+the state support of religion. "We are in principle," he wrote, "against
+all civil establishments in religion. It does not appear to us that God has
+entrusted, the state with a right to make religious establishments. But let
+it be heedfully minded we claim no right to desire the interposition of the
+state to establish the mode of worship, government or discipline, we
+apprehend is most agreeable to the mind of Christ. We desire no other
+liberty than to be left unrestrained in the exercise of our principles, in
+so far as we are good members of society.... The plain truth is, by the
+gospel charter, all professed Christians are vested with precisely the same
+rights; nor has our denomination any more a right to the interposition of
+the civil magistrate in their favor than any other; and whenever this
+difference takes place, it is beside the rule of Scripture, and the genuine
+dictates, of uncorrupted reason."[61] All persons throughout the state, of
+whatever religious connection, who had become emancipated from the Puritan
+spirit, supported him in this opinion. They were in the minority as yet,
+and they were not organized. Therefore, their efforts were unsuccessful.
+
+Another testing of public sentiment on this subject was had in the
+Massachusetts convention which, in 1788, ratified the Constitution of the
+United States. The sixth article, which provides that "no religious tests
+shall ever be required as a qualification to any office," was the occasion
+of a prolonged debate and much opposition. Hon. Theophilus Parsons took the
+liberal side, and declared that "the only evidence we can have of the
+sincerity and excellency of a man's religion is a good life," precisely the
+position of the liberal men. By several members it was urged, however, that
+this article was a departure from the principles of our forefathers, who
+came here for the preservation of their religion, and that it would admit
+deists and atheists into the general government.
+
+In these efforts to secure religious toleration as a fundamental law of the
+state and nation the Baptist denomination took an active and a leading
+part. Not less faithful to this cause were the liberal men among the
+Congregationalists, while the opposition came almost wholly from the
+Calvinistic and orthodox churches. Such leaders on the liberal side as Dr.
+David Shute of the South Parish in Hingham, Rev. Thomas Thatcher of the
+West Parish in Dedham, and Dr. Samuel West of New Bedford, were loyally
+devoted in the convention to the support of the toleration act of the
+Constitution. In the membership of the convention there were seventeen
+ministers, and fourteen of them voted for the Constitution. The opinions of
+the fourteen were expressed by Rev. Phillips Payson, the minister of
+Chelsea, who held that a religious test would be a great blemish on the
+Constitution. He also said that God is the God of the conscience, and for
+human tribunals to encroach upon the consciences of men is impious.[62] As
+the Constitution was ratified by only a small majority of the convention,
+and as at the opening of its sessions the opposition seemed almost
+overwhelming, the position taken by the more liberal ministers was a sure
+indication of growing liberality. The great majority of the people,
+however, were still strongly in favor of the old religious tests and
+restrictions, as was fully indicated by subsequent events. The Revolution
+operated as a liberalizing influence, because of the breaking of old
+customs and the discussion of the principles of liberty attendant upon the
+adoption of the state and national constitutions. The growth of democratic
+sentiment made a strong opposition to the churches and their privileges,
+and it caused a diminution of reverence for the authority of the clergy.
+The twenty years following the Revolution showed a notable growth in
+liberal opinions.
+
+Universalism presented itself as a new form of Calvinism, its advocates
+claiming that God decreed that all should be saved, and that his will would
+be triumphant. In many parts of the country the doctrine of universal
+salvation began to be heard during the last two decades of the eighteenth
+century, and the growth of interest in it was rapid from the beginning of
+the nineteenth. This movement began in the Baptist churches, but it soon
+appeared in others. At first it was undefined, a protest against the harsh
+teaching of future punishment. It was a part of the humanitarian awakening
+of the time, the new faith in man, the recognition that love is diviner
+than wrath. Many persons found escape from creeds that were hateful to them
+into this new and more hopeful interpretation of religion. Persons of every
+shade of protest, and "infidelity," and free thinking, found their way into
+this new body; and great was the condemnation and hatred with which it was
+received on the part of the other sects. In time this movement clarified
+itself, and it has had a positive influence for piety and for nobler views
+of God and the future.
+
+Of much the same nature was the movement within the fellowship of the
+Friends led by Thomas Hicks. It was Unitarian and reformatory, influenced
+by the growing democracy and zeal for humanity the age was everywhere
+manifesting.
+
+In the border states between north and south began, during the last decade
+of the eighteenth century, a movement in favor of discarding all creeds and
+confessions. It favored a return to the Bible itself as the great
+Protestant book, and as the one revealed word of God. Without learning or
+culture, these persons sought to make their faith in Christ more real by an
+evangelical obedience to his teachings. Some of them called themselves
+Disciples, holding that to follow Christ is quite enough. Others said that
+no other name than Christian is required. They were Biblical in their
+theology, and unsectarian in their attitude towards the forms and rituals
+of the church. In time these scattered groups of earnest seekers for a
+better Christian way, from Maine to Georgia, came to know each other and to
+organize for the common good.
+
+With the rapid growth of Methodism the Arminian view of man was widely
+adopted. The Baptists received into their fellowship in all parts of New
+England, at least, many who were not deeply in sympathy with their strict
+rules, but who found with them a means of protesting against the harsher
+methods of the "standing order" of Congregationalists. Their demand for
+toleration and liberty of conscience began to receive recognition after the
+Revolution, and their influence was a powerful one in bringing about the
+separation of state and church. Those who were dissatisfied with a church
+that taxed all the people, and that was upheld by state authority, found
+with the Baptists a means of making their protest heard and felt.
+
+In all directions the democratic spirit was being manifested, and
+conditions which had been upheld by the restrictive authority of England
+had to give way. The people were now speaking, and not the ministers only.
+It was an age of individualism, and of the reassertion of the tendency that
+had characterized New England from the first, but that had been held in
+check by autocratic power. There was no outbreak, no rapid change, no
+iconoclastic overturning of old institutions and customs, but the people
+were coming to their own, thinking for themselves. In reality, the people
+were conservative, especially in New England; and they moved slowly, there
+was little infidelity, and steadily were the old ideals maintained. Yet the
+individualism would assert itself. Men held the old creeds in distinctly
+personal ways, and the churches grew into more and more of independency.
+
+The theological development of the eighteenth century took two directions:
+that of rationalism and a demand for free inquiry, as represented by
+Jonathan Mayhew and William Bentley; and that of a philanthropic protest
+against the harsh features of Calvinism, as represented by Charles Chauncy
+and the Universalists. The demand that all theological problems should be
+submitted to reason for vindication or readjustment was not widely urged;
+but a few men recognized the worth of this claim, and applied this method
+without hesitation. A larger number followed them with hesitating steps,
+but with a growing confidence in reason as God's method for man's finding
+and maintaining the truth. The other tendency grew out of a benevolent
+desire to justify the ways of God to man, and was the expression of a
+deepening faith that the Divine Being deals with his children in a fatherly
+manner. That God is generous and loving was the faith of Dr. Chauncy, as it
+was of the Universalists and of the more liberal party among the
+Calvinists. Their philanthropic feelings toward their fellow-men seemed to
+them representative of God's ways of dealing with his creatures.
+
+[1] Levi L. Paine, A Critical History of the Evolution of Trinitarianism,
+    105. "Nathaniel Emmons held tenaciously to three real persons. He said,
+    'It is as easy to conceive of God existing in three persons as in one
+    person.' This language shows that Emmons employed the term 'person' in
+    the strict literal sense. The three are absolutely equal, this
+    involving the metaphysical assumption that in the Trinity being and
+    person are not coincident. Emmons is the first theologian who asserts
+    that, though we cannot conceive that three persons should be one
+    person, we may conceive that three persons may be one Being, 'if we
+    only suppose that being may signify something different from person in
+    respect to Deity.'"
+
+[2] E.H. Gillett, History and Literature of the Unitarian Controversy.
+    Historical Magazine, April 1871; second series, IX. 222.
+
+[3] Letter to Scripturista by Paulinus, 18.
+
+[4] William S. Pattee, A History of Old Braintree and Quincy, 222. When a
+    copy of Dr. Jedediah Morse's little book on American Unitarianism was
+    sent to John Adams, he acknowledged its receipt in the following
+    letter:--
+
+      QUINCY, May 15, 1815.
+
+      _Dear Doctor_,--I thank you for your favor of the 10th, and the
+      pamphlet enclosed, entitled American Unitarianism. I have turned
+      over its leaves, and found nothing that was not familiarly known to
+      me. In the preface Unitarianism is represented as only thirty years
+      old in New England. I can testify as a witness to its old age.
+      Sixty-five years ago my own minister, the Rev. Lemuel Briant; Dr.
+      Jonathan Mayhew, of the West Church in Boston; the Rev. Mr. Shute,
+      of Hingham; the Rev. John Brown, of Cohasset; and perhaps equal to
+      all, if not above all, the, Rev. Mr. Gay, of Hingham, were
+      Unitarians. Among the laity how many could I name, lawyers,
+      physicians, tradesmen, farmers! But at present I will name only
+      one, Richard Cranch, a man who had studied divinity, and Jewish and
+      Christian antiquities, more than any clergyman now existing in New
+      England.
+
+      JOHN ADAMS.
+
+    Also see C.F. Adams, Three Episodes of Massachusetts History, 643; and
+    J.H. Allen, An Historical Sketch of the Unitarian Movement since the
+    Reformation, 175.
+
+[5] History of Hingham, I., Part II., 24, Memoir of Ebenezer Gay, by
+    Solomon Lincoln.
+
+[6] Sermons, 1755, 83.
+
+[7] Ibid., 103.
+
+[8] Ibid., 119.
+
+[9] Ibid., 125.
+
+[10] Ibid., 245.
+
+[11] Sermons, 1755, 50.
+
+[12] Ibid., 82.
+
+[13] Sermons, 1755, 83.
+
+[14] Ibid., 65.
+
+[15] Ibid., 62.
+
+[16] Ibid., 63.
+
+[17] Ibid, 268, 269.
+
+[18] Sermons, 1755, 275, 276.
+
+[19] A. Bradford, Memoir of the Life and Writings of Rev. Jonathan Mayhew,
+     D.D., 36.
+
+[20] Ibid., 464.
+
+[21] Letter from his daughter, quoted by Bartol, The West Church and its
+     Ministers, 129.
+
+[22] Sermons, 293
+
+[23] C.A. Bartol, The West Church and its Ministers.
+
+[24] Reply to Dr. Chandler, quoted in Sprague's Annals of the Unitarian
+     Pulpit, 9.
+
+[25] Remarks upon a Sermon of the Bishop of Landaff, quoted by Sprague.
+
+[26] Chauncy's many published sermons and volumes are carefully enumerated
+     by Paul Leicester Ford in his Bibliotheca Chaunciana, a List of the
+     Writings of Charles Chauncy. He gives the titles of sixty-one books
+     and pamphlets published by Chauncy, and of eighty-eight about him or
+     in reply to him.
+
+[27] Sprague's Annals, 49; W.J. Potter, History of the First Congregational
+     Society, New Bedford.
+
+[28] Sprague's Annals. 42.
+
+[29] George Batchelor, Social Equilibrium, 263, 264.
+
+[30] Ibid., 265.
+
+[31] Sprague's Annals, 131.
+
+[32] Father of the essayist of the same name.
+
+[33] Joseph Priestley, 1733-1804, was one of the ablest of English
+     Unitarians. Educated in non-conformist schools, in 1755 he became a
+     Presbyterian minister. In 1761 he became a tutor in a non-conformist
+     academy, and in 1767 he was settled over a congregation in Leeds. He
+     was the librarian of Lord Shelburne from 1774 until he was settled in
+     Birmingham as minister, in 1780. In 1791 a mob destroyed his house,
+     his manuscripts, and his scientific apparatus, because of his liberal
+     political views. After three years as a preacher in Hackney, he
+     removed to the United States in 1794, and settled at Northumberland
+     in Pennsylvania, where the remainder of his life was spent. He
+     published one hundred and thirty distinct works, of which those best
+     remembered are his Institutes of Natural and Revealed Religion, A
+     History of the Corruptions of Christianity, and A General History of
+     the Christian Church to the Fall of the Western Empire. He was the
+     discoverer of oxygen, and holds a high place in the history of
+     science. He was a materialist, but believed in immortality; and he
+     believed that Christ was a man in his nature.
+
+[34] C.S. Osgood and H.M. Batchelder, Historical Sketch of Salem, 86. "He
+     took strong Arminian grounds; and under his lead the church became
+     practically Unitarian in 1785, and was one of the first churches in
+     America to adopt that faith."
+
+[35] George Batchelor, Social Equilibrium, 270.
+
+[36] Ibid., 267.
+
+[37] Ibid., 283.
+
+[38] E. Smalley, The Worcester Pulpit, 226, 232.
+
+[39] See the Unitarian Advocate and Religious Miscellany, January, 1831,
+     new series, III. 27, for Aaron Bancroft's recollections of this
+     period. In the same volume was published Ezra Ripley's reminiscences,
+     contained in the March, April, and May numbers. They are both of much
+     importance for the history of this period. Also the third volume of
+     first series, June, 1829, gives an important letter from Francis
+     Parkman concerning Unitarianism in Boston in 1812.
+
+[40] Life of Ashbel Green, President of Princeton College, 236.
+
+[41] Life of Archibald Alexander, 252.
+
+[42] Convention Sermon, 12, 13.
+
+[43] Sprague, Annals of Unitarian Pulpit, 131.
+
+[44] Ibid., 159.
+
+[45] This is the statement of his daughter.
+
+[46] Theophilus Lindsey, 1723-1808, was a curate in London, then the tutor
+     of the Duke of Northumberland, and afterward a rector in Yorkshire
+     and Dorsetshire. In 1763 he was settled at Catterick, in Yorkshire,
+     where his study of the Bible led him to doubt the truth of the
+     doctrine of the Trinity. In 1771 he joined with others in a petition
+     to Parliament asking that clergymen might not be required to
+     subscribe to the thirty-nine articles. When it was rejected a second
+     time he resigned, went to London, and opened in a room in Essex
+     Street, April 1774, the first permanent Unitarian meeting in England.
+     A chapel was built for him in 1778, and he preached there until 1793.
+     He published, in 1783, An Historical View of the State of the
+     Unitarian Doctrine and Worship from the Reformation to our own Times,
+     two volumes of sermons, and other works. In 1774 he published a
+     revised Prayer Book according to the plan suggested by Dr. Samuel
+     Clarke, which was used in the Essex Street Chapel.
+
+[47] Four Generations of a Literary Family: The Hazlitts in England,
+     Ireland, and America, 23, 26, 30, 40, 43, 50; Lamb and Hazlitt:
+     Further Letters and Records, 11-15.
+
+[48] Monthly Repository, III., 305. Mr. Hazlitt "arrived at Boston May 15,
+     1784; and, having a letter to Mr. Eliot, who received him with great
+     kindness, he was introduced on that very day to the Boston
+     Association of Ministers. The venerable Chauncy, at whose house it
+     happened to be held, entered into a familiar conversation with him,
+     and showed him every possible respect as he learned that he had been
+     acquainted with Dr. Price. Without knowing at the time anything of
+     the occasion which led to it, ordination happened to be the general
+     subject of discussion. After the different gentlemen had severally
+     delivered their opinions, the stranger was requested to declare his
+     sentiments, who unhesitatingly replied that the people or the
+     congregation who chose any man to be their minister were his proper
+     ordainers. Mr. Freeman, upon hearing this, jumped from his seat in a
+     kind of transport, saying, 'I wish you could prove that, Sir,' The
+     gentleman answered that 'few things could admit of an easier proof.'
+     And from that moment a thorough intimacy commenced between him and
+     Mr. Freeman. Soon after, the Boston prints being under no
+     _imprimatur_, he published several letters in supporting the cause of
+     Mr. Freeman. At the solicitation of Mr. Freeman he also published a
+     Scriptural Confutation of the Thirty-nine Articles. Notice being
+     circulated that this publication would appear on a particular day, the
+     printer, apprised of this circumstance, threw off a hundred papers
+     beyond his usual number, and had not one paper remaining upon his
+     hands at noon. This publication in its consequences converted Mr.
+     Freeman's congregation into a Unitarian church, which, as Mr. Freeman
+     acknowledged, could never have been done without the labors of this
+     gentleman."
+
+[49] American Unitarianism, from Belsham's Life of Lindsey, 12,
+     _note_.
+
+[50] American Unitarianism, 16.
+
+[51] American Unitarianism, note.
+
+[52] Ibid., 20.
+
+[53] American Unitarianism, 17.
+
+[54] "Oxnard was a merchant, born in Boston in 1740, but settled in
+     Portland, where he married the daughter of General Preble, in 1787.
+     He was a loyalist, and fled from the country at the outbreak of the
+     war. He returned to Portland in 1787. A few years later, 1792, the
+     Episcopal church being destitute of a minister, he was engaged as lay
+     reader, with the intention of taking orders. His Unitarianism put a
+     sudden end to his Episcopacy, but not to his preaching. He gathered a
+     small congregation in the school-house, and preached sometimes
+     sermons of his own, but more often of other men. He died in 1799."
+     John C. Perkins, How the First Parish became Unitarian,--historical
+     sermon preached in Portland.
+
+[55] American Unitarianism, 18.
+
+[56] Ibid., 17, 20.
+
+[57] American Unitarianism, 24.
+
+[58] American Unitarianism, 22.
+
+[59] Church Records, in MS., II. 7.
+
+[60] Rev. Thomas Robbins, Diary for October 13, 1799, I. 97, heard Mr.
+     Kendall, and said: "He appears to be an Arminian in full. I fear be
+     will lead many souls astray." See John Cuckson, A Brief History of
+     the First Church in Plymouth, eighth chapter.
+
+[61] Chauncy against Chandler, 152.
+
+[62] These particulars are taken from the Debates and Proceedings in the
+     Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts held in the year
+     1788, and which finally ratified the Constitution of the United
+     States, Boston, 1856.
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+
+THE PERIOD OF CONTROVERSY.
+
+In the spring of 1805 Rev. Henry Ware, who had been for nearly twenty years
+pastor of the first church in the town of Hingham, was inaugurated as the
+Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard College. The place had been made
+vacant by the death of Professor David Tappan, who was a moderate
+Calvinist; that is, one who recognized the sovereignty of God, but allowed
+to man a limited opportunity for personal effort in the process of
+salvation. It was assumed by the conservative party that a Calvinist would
+be appointed, because the founder of this important professorship, it was
+claimed, was of that way of thinking, and so conditioned his gift as to
+require that no one but a Calvinist should hold the position. This was
+strenuously denied by the liberals, who maintained that Hollis was not only
+liberal and catholic in his own theology, but that he made no such
+restrictions as were claimed.[1] When the nomination of Mr. Ware was
+presented to the overseers, it was strongly opposed; but he was elected by
+a considerable majority. A pamphlet soon appeared in opposition to him, and
+this was the beginning of a controversy that lasted for a quarter of a
+century.[2]
+
+This war of pamphlets was made more furious by Rev. John Sherman's One God
+in One Person Only, and Rev. Hosea Ballou's Treatise on the Atonement, both
+of which appeared in 1805. Mr. Sherman's book was described in The Monthly
+Anthology as "one of the first acts of direct hostility against the
+orthodox committed on these western shores."[3] The little book by Hosea
+Ballou had small influence on the current of religious thinking outside the
+Universalist body, to which he belonged, and probably did not at all enter
+into the controversy between the orthodox and the liberal
+Congregationalists. It was, however, the first positive statement of the
+doctrine of the atonement in a rational form, not as expiatory, but as
+reconciling man to the loving authority of God. Within a decade it brought
+the leading Universalists to the Unitarian position.[4] These works were
+followed, in 1810, by Rev. Noah Worcester's Bible News of the Father, Son,
+and Holy Ghost, which presented clearly and forcibly an Arian view of the
+Trinity, or the subordination of Christ to God. These definitions of their
+position on the part of the liberals were met by the publication of The
+Panoplist, which was begun by Dr. Jedidiah Morse, of Charlestown, Mass., in
+1805. This magazine interpreted the orthodox positions, and devoted itself
+zealously to the defence of the old ideas, as understood by its editors. It
+was not vehemently aggressive, but was largely devoted to general religious
+interests, and to the promotion of a higher spirit of devotion. It was
+followed by The Spirit of the Pilgrims, which was more combative, and in
+some degree intolerant. In the year 1808 the Andover Theological School was
+founded, the result of a reconciliation between the Hopkinsians and the
+Calvinists of the old type, affording an opportunity for theological
+training on the part of those who could not accept the liberal attitude of
+Harvard.
+
+Most of the liberal men of this time refused to bring their beliefs to the
+test of exact definition. It was their opinion that no theological
+statement can have high value in relation to Christian attainments. Under
+these conditions were trained the men who became the leaders in the early
+Unitarian movement. William Ellery Channing, who was settled over the
+Federal Street Church in June, 1803, was distinctly evangelical, and of a
+profound and earnest piety. Slowly he grew to accept the liberal attitude,
+as the result of his love of freedom, his lofty spirituality of nature, and
+his tolerant and generous cast of mind. He gave spiritual and intellectual
+direction to the new movement, guided its philanthropic efforts, and
+brought to noble issue its spiritual philosophy. Early in the year 1804,
+Joseph Stevens Buckminster was settled over the Brattle Street Church; and,
+though he preached but a little over six years before a blighting disease
+took him away, yet he left behind a tradition of great pulpit gifts and a
+wonderfully attractive personality. Another to die in early manhood was
+Samuel Cooper Thacher, who was settled at the New South in 1811, and who
+was long remembered for his scholarship and his zeal in the work which he
+had undertaken. Charles Lowell went to the West Church in 1806, and he
+nobly sustained the traditions for liberality and spiritual freedom that
+had gathered about that place of worship. In 1814 appeared Edward Everett,
+at the age of twenty (which had been that of Buckminster when he entered
+the pulpit), as the minister of the Brattle Street Church, to charm with
+his eloquence, learning, grace, and power. Francis Parkman began his career
+at the New North in 1812,--"a man of various information, a kind spirit,
+singular benevolence, polished yet simple manners, fine literary
+taste."[5] A few years later John Gorham Palfrey became the minister of
+the Brattle Street Church, and James Walker was settled over the Harvard
+Church in Charlestown. Among the laymen in the churches to which these men
+preached were many persons of distinction. The liberal fellowship,
+therefore, was of the highest social and intellectual standing. The piety
+of the churches was serious, if not profound; and the religion presented
+was simple, sincere, intellectual, and earnestly spiritual.
+
+[Sidenote: The Monthly Anthology.]
+
+The practical and tolerant aims of the liberals were shown by the manner in
+which they began to give expression publicly to their position. In The
+Monthly Anthology they first found voice, although that publication was
+started without the slightest controversial purpose. Begun by a young man
+as a monthly literary journal in 1803, when he found it would not support
+him, he abandoned it;[6] and the publishers asked Rev. William Emerson,
+the minister of the First Church in Boston, to take charge of it. He
+consented to do so, and gathered about him a company of friends to aid him
+in its management. Their meetings finally grew into The Anthology Club,
+which continued the publication through ten volumes. Among the members were
+William Emerson, Samuel Cooper Thacher, Joseph S. Buckminster, and Joseph
+Tuckerman, pastors of churches in Boston and vicinity of the liberal
+school. There was also John S.J. Gardiner, the rector of Trinity Church,
+who was the president of the club throughout the whole period of its
+existence, and one of the most frequent contributors to the periodical. The
+members were not drawn together by any sectarian spirit, but by a common
+aim of doing something for literature, and for the advancement of culture.
+The Monthly Anthology was the first distinctly literary journal published
+in this country. It had an important influence in developing the
+intellectual tastes of New England, and of giving initiative to its
+literary capacities. The spirit of The Monthly Anthology was broad and
+catholic. Naturally, therefore, in its pages the liberals made their first
+protest against party aims and methods. In a few instances theological
+problems were discussed, the extreme Trinitarian doctrines were criticised,
+and the liberal attitude was defended.
+
+[Sidenote: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity.]
+
+In the year 1806 Rev. William Emerson began the publication of The
+Christian Monitor, in his capacity as the secretary of the Society for
+promoting Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity, a society then newly
+founded by residents of Boston and its vicinity for the purpose of
+publishing enlightened and practical tracts and books. This series of small
+books, each containing one hundred and fifty or two hundred pages, and
+issued quarterly, was begun for the purpose of publishing devotional works
+of a practical and liberal type. The first number contained prayers and
+devotional exercises for personal or family use, and there followed Bishop
+Newcombe's Life and Character of Christ, a condensed reproduction of Law's
+Serious Call, Bishop Hall's Contemplations, Erskine's Letters to the
+Bereaved, and two or three volumes of sermons on religious duties and the
+education of children.
+
+Besides The Christian Monitor this society issued a series of Religious
+Tracts which had a considerable circulation. Then it undertook the
+publication of books for children, and for family reading. In aiming to
+publish works of pure morality and practical piety, its methods were
+thoroughly catholic and liberal; for it was unsectarian, and yet earnestly
+Christian. The spirit and methods of this society were thoroughly
+characteristic of the time when it was organized, and of the men who gave
+it life and purpose. Not dogma, but piety, was what they desired. In the
+truest sense they were unsectarian Christians, zealous for good works and a
+devout life.[7]
+
+[Sidenote: General Repository.]
+
+The Monthly Anthology and The Christian Monitor represented the mild and
+undogmatic attitude of the liberals, their shrinking from all controversy,
+and their desire to devote their labors wholly to the promotion of a
+tolerant and catholic Christianity. The beginning of the controversial
+spirit on the liberal side found expression in The General Repository and
+Review, which was begun in Cambridge by Rev. Andrews Norton, in April,
+1812. In the first number of this quarterly review the editor said that the
+discussion of the doctrine of the Trinity "in our own country has hitherto
+been chiefly confined to private circles," and cited the books of John
+Sherman and Noah Worcester as the only exceptions. The review opened,
+however, with a defence of liberal Christianity which was aggressive and
+outspoken. In later issues an energetic statement was made of the liberal
+position, the controversial articles were able and explicit, and in a
+manner hitherto quite unknown on the part of what the editor called
+"catholic Christians." One of the numbers contained a long and interesting
+survey of the religious interests of the country, and summed up in an
+admirable manner the prospects for the liberal churches. After the
+publication of the sixth number, Mr. Norton withdrew from the work to
+become the librarian of Harvard College; and it was continued through two
+more issues by "a society of gentlemen." To this journal Mr. Norton was by
+far the largest contributor; but other writers were Edward Everett, and his
+brother, Alexander H. Everett, Joseph S. Buckminster, John T. Kirkland,
+Sidney Willard, George Ticknor, Washington Allston, John Lowell, Noah
+Worcester, and James Freeman, most of them connected with Harvard College
+or with the liberal churches in Boston. It is evident, however, that the
+liberal public was not yet ready for so aggressive and out-spoken a
+journal.
+
+[Sidenote: The Christian Disciple.]
+
+What was desired was something milder, less aggressive, of a distinctly
+religious and conciliatory character. To this end Drs. Channing, Charles
+Lowell, and Tuckerman, and Rev. S.C. Thatcher, with whom was afterwards
+associated Rev. Francis Parkman, planned a monthly magazine that should be
+liberal in its character, but not sectarian or dogmatic. They invited Rev.
+Noah Worcester, whose Bible News had cost him his pulpit, to remove from
+New Hampshire to Boston to become its editor. Although Mr. Worcester's
+beliefs affiliated him with the Hopkinsians in everything except his
+attitude in regard to the inferiority of Christ to God, yet he was
+compelled to withdraw from his old connections, and to find new fields of
+activity. He began The Christian Disciple as a religious and family
+magazine, the first number being issued in May, 1813. It was not designed
+for theological discussion or distinctly for the defence of the liberal
+position. Its tone was conciliatory and moderate, while it zealously
+defended religious liberty and charity. Its aim was practical and
+humanitarian, to help men live the Christian life, as individuals, and in
+their social relations. When it touched upon controverted questions, it was
+in an expository manner, with the purpose of instructing its readers, and
+of leading them to a higher appreciation of true religion. As his
+biographer well said of Noah Worcester, he made this work "distinguished
+for its unqualified devotedness to the individual rights of opinion, and
+the sacred duty of a liberal regard to them in other men."[8]
+
+Dr. Worcester was not so much a theologian as a philanthropist; and, if he
+was drawn into controversy, it was accidentally, and much to his surprise
+and disappointment. It was not for the sake of defending his own positions
+that he replied to his critics, but in the name of truth, and from an
+exacting sense of duty. His gentle, loving, and sympathetic nature unfitted
+him for intellectual contentions; and he much preferred to devote himself
+to philanthropies and reforms. In the briefest way The Christian Disciple
+reported the doings of the liberal churches and men, but it gave much space
+to all kinds of organizations of a humanitarian character. It advocated the
+temperance reform with earnestness, and this at a time when there were few
+other voices speaking in its behalf. It devoted many pages to the
+condemnation of slavery, and to the approval of all efforts to secure its
+mitigation or its abolition. It gave large attention to the evils of war, a
+subject which more and more absorbed the interest of the editor. It
+condemned duelling in the most emphatic terms, as it did all forms of
+aggressiveness and inhumanity. In spirit Dr. Worcester was as much a
+non-resistant as Tolstoď, and for much the same reasons. More extended
+reports of Bible societies were given than of any other kind of
+organization, and these societies especially enlisted the interest of Dr.
+Worcester and his associates.
+
+With the end of 1818 Dr. Worcester withdrew from the editorship of The
+Christian Disciple, to devote himself to the cause of peace, the interests
+of Christian amity and goodwill, and the exposition of his own theological
+convictions. The management of the magazine came into the hands of its
+original proprietors, who continued its publication.
+
+Under the new management the circulation of the magazine increased. At
+first the younger Henry Ware became the editor, and he carried the work
+through the six volumes published before it took a new name. It became more
+distinctly theological in its purpose, and it undertook the task of
+presenting and defending the views of the liberals. In 1824 The Christian
+Disciple passed into the hands of Rev. John Gorham Palfrey, and he changed
+its name to The Christian Examiner without changing its general character.
+At the end of two years Mr. Francis Jenks became the editor, but in 1831 it
+came under the control of Rev. James Walker and Rev. Francis W.P.
+Greenwood. Gradually it became the organ of the higher intellectual life of
+the Unitarians, and gave expression to their interest in literature,
+general culture, and the philanthropies, as well as theological knowledge.
+The sub-title of Theological Review, which it bore during the first five
+volumes, indicated its preference for subjects of speculative religious
+interest; but during the half-century of its best influence it was the
+General Review or the Religious Miscellany, showing that it was theological
+only in the broadest spirit.
+
+[Sidenote: Dr. Morse and American Unitarianism.]
+
+Reluctant as the liberal men were, to take a denominational position, and
+to commit themselves to the interests of a party in religion, or even to
+withdraw themselves in any way from the churches with which they had been
+connected, they were compelled to do so by the force of conditions they
+could not control. One of the first distinct lines of separation was caused
+by the refusal of the more conservative men to exchange pulpits with their
+liberal neighbors. This tendency first began to show itself about the year
+1810; and it received a decided impetus from the attitude taken by Rev.
+John Codman, who in 1808 became the minister of the Second Church in
+Dorchester. He refused to exchange with several of the liberal ministers of
+the Boston Association, although he was an intimate friend of Dr. Channing,
+who had directed his theological training, and also preached his ordination
+sermon. The more liberal members of his parish attempted to compel him to
+exchange with the Boston ministers without regard to theological beliefs;
+and a long contention followed, with the result that the more liberal part
+of his congregation withdrew in 1813, and formed the Third Religious
+Society in Dorchester.[9] The withdrawal of ministerial courtesies of
+this kind gradually increased, especially after the controversies that
+began in 1815, though it was not until many years later that exchanges
+between the two parties ceased.
+
+In 1815 Dr. Jedidiah Morse, the editor of The Panoplist, and the author of
+various school books in geography and history, published in a little book
+of about one hundred pages, which bore the title of American Unitarianism,
+a chapter from Thomas Belsham's[10] biography of Theophilus Lindsey, in
+which Dr. Lindsey's American correspondents, including prominent ministers
+in Boston and other parts of New England, had declared their Unitarianism.
+Morse also published an article in The Panoplist, setting forth that these
+ministers had not the courage of their convictions, that, while they were
+Unitarians, they had withheld their opinions from open utterance. His
+object was to force them to declare themselves, and either to retract their
+heresies or else to state them and to withdraw from the churches with which
+they had been connected. In a letter addressed to Rev. Samuel C. Thacher,
+Dr. Channing gave to the public a reply to these charges of insincerity and
+want of open-mindedness. He said that, while many of the ministers and
+members of their congregations were Unitarians, they did not accept Dr.
+Belsham's type of Unitarianism, which made Christ a man. He declared that
+no open declaration of Unitarianism had been made, because they were not in
+love with the sectarian spirit, and because they were quite unwilling to
+indulge in any form of proselyting. "Accustomed as we are," he wrote, "to
+see genuine piety in all classes of Christians, in Trinitarians and
+Unitarians, in Calvinists and Arminians, in Episcopalians, Methodists,
+Baptists, and Congregationalists, and delighting in this character wherever
+it appears, we are little anxious to bring men over to our peculiar
+opinions."[11]
+
+The publication of Dr. Morse's book, however, gave new emphasis to the
+spirit of separation which was soon to compel the formation of a new
+denomination. It was followed four years later by Dr. Channing's Baltimore
+sermon and by other positive declarations of theological opinion.[12] From
+that time the controversy raged fiercely, and any possibility of
+reconciliation was removed. Before this time those who were not orthodox
+had called themselves Catholic, Christians or Liberal Christians to
+designate their attitude of toleration and liberality. The orthodox had
+called them Unitarians; and especially was this attempted by Dr. Morse in
+the introduction to his American Unitarianism, in order to fasten upon them
+the objectionable name given to the English liberals. It was assumed that
+the American liberals must agree with the English in their materialism and
+in their conception of Christ as a man. Dr. Channing repudiated this
+assumption, and declared it unjust and untrue; but he accepted the word
+Unitarian and gave it a meaning of his own. Channing defined the word to
+mean only anti-Trinitarianism; and he accepted it because it seemed to him
+presumptuous to use the word liberal as applied to a party, whereas it may
+be applicable to men of all opinions.
+
+[Sidenote: Evangelical Missionary Society.]
+
+Of more interest than these contentions in behalf of theological opinions
+is the way in which the liberal party brought itself to the task of
+manifesting its own purposes. Its first organizations were tentative and
+inclusive, without theological purpose or bias. No distinct lines were
+drawn, and to them belonged orthodox and liberal alike. Their sole
+distinguishing attitude was a catholicity of temper that permitted the free
+activity of the liberals. One of the first organizations of this kind was
+the Evangelical Missionary Society, which was formed by several of the
+ministers resident in Worcester and Middlesex Counties. The first meeting
+was held in Lancaster, November 4, 1807, when a constitution was adopted
+and the society elected officers. "The great object of this Society," said
+the constitution, "is to furnish the means of Christian knowledge and moral
+improvement to those inhabitants of our own country who are destitute or
+poorly provided." The growth of the country, even in New England (for the
+operations of the society were confined to that region), developed many
+communities in which the population was scattered, and without adequate
+means of education and religion. To aid these communities in securing good
+teachers and ministers was the purpose of the society. It refused to send
+forth itinerants, but carefully selected such towns as gave promise of
+permanent growth, and sent to them ministers instructed to organize
+churches and to promote the building of meeting-houses. In this way it was
+the means of establishing a number of churches in Maine, New Hampshire, and
+Massachusetts. It also sent a number of teachers into new settlements in
+Maine, who were successful in training many of their pupils for teaching in
+the public schools. In several instances minister and teacher were combined
+in one person, but the work was none the less effective.
+
+In 1816 this society was incorporated, its membership was broadened to
+include the state, and active aid and financial support were given it by
+the churches in Boston and Salem. It was not sectarian, though, after its
+incorporation, its membership was more largely recruited from liberals. In
+time it became distinctly Unitarian in its character, and such it has
+remained to the present day. Very slowly, however, did it permit itself to
+lose any of its marks of catholicity and inclusiveness. In the end its
+membership was confined to Unitarians because no one else wished to share
+in its unsectarian purposes. At the present time this society does a quiet
+and helpful work in the way of aiding churches that have ceased to be
+self-supporting because of the shifting conditions of population, and in
+affording friendly assistance to ministers in times of distress or when old
+age has come upon them.
+
+[Sidenote: The Berry Street Conference.]
+
+The first meeting of the liberal ministers for organization was held in the
+vestry of the Federal Street Church[13] on the evening of May 30, 1820,
+which immediately preceded election day, the time when anniversary meetings
+were usually held. The ministers of the state then gathered in Boston to
+hear the election sermon, and for such counselling of each other as their
+congregational methods made desirable. At this meeting Dr. Channing gave an
+address stating the objects that had brought those present together, and
+the desirability of their drawing near each other as liberal men for mutual
+aid and support. "It was thought by some of us," he said, "that the
+ministers of this commonwealth who are known to agree in what are called
+liberal and catholic views of Christianity needed a bond of union, a means
+of intercourse, and an opportunity of conference not as yet enjoyed. It was
+thought that by meeting to join their prayers and counsels, to report the
+state and prospects of religion in different parts of the commonwealth, to
+communicate the methods of advancing it which have been found most
+successful, to give warning of dangers not generally apprehended, to seek
+advice in difficulties, and to take a broad survey of our ecclesiastical
+affairs and of the wants of our churches, much light, strength, comfort,
+animation, zeal, would be spread through our body. The individuals who
+originated this plan were agreed that, whilst the meeting should be
+confined to those who harmonize generally in opinion, it should be
+considered as having for its object, not simply the advancement of their
+peculiar views, but the general diffusion of practical religion and of the
+spirit of Christianity."
+
+As this address indicates in every word of it the liberal men were
+sensitively anxious to put no fetters on each other; and their reluctance
+to circumscribe their own personal freedom was extreme. This was the cause
+that had thus far prevented any effectual organization, and it now withheld
+the members from any but the most tentative methods. Having escaped from
+the bondage of sect, they were suspicious of everything that in any manner
+gave indication of denominational restrictions.
+
+[Sidenote: The Publishing Fund Society.]
+
+In May, 1821, a year later than the foundation of the Berry Street
+Conference, several gentlemen in Boston, "desirous of promoting the
+circulation of works adapted to improve the public mind in religion and
+morality," met and established a Publishing Fund. The publishing committee
+then appointed consisted of Dr. Joseph Tuckerman, Dr. John Gorham Palfrey,
+and Mr. George Ticknor. The Publishing Fund Society refused to print
+doctrinal tracts or those devoted in any way to sectarian interests. The
+members of the society made declaration that their publications had nothing
+to do with any of the isms in religion. Their great object was the increase
+of practical goodness, the improvement of men in all that truly exalts and
+ennobles them or that qualifies them for usefulness and happiness. Most of
+their tracts were in the form of stories of a didactic character, in which
+the writers assumed the broad principles of Christian theology and ethics
+which are common to all the followers of Christ, without meddling with
+sectarian prejudice or party views. In such statements as these the
+promoters of this work indicated their methods, their aim being to furnish
+good reading to youth, and to those in scattered communities who could not
+have access to books that were instructive. Besides the tracts of this kind
+the society also published a series for adults, which were of a more
+strictly devotional character, and yet did not omit to provide
+entertainment and instruction.[14] This society continued its work for
+many years, and it issued a considerable number of tracts and books that
+well served the purpose for which they were designed.
+
+[Sidenote: Harvard Divinity School.]
+
+One important result of the theological discussions of the time was the
+organization of the Divinity School in connection with Harvard College. The
+eighteenth-century method of preparation for the ministerial office was to
+study with some settled pastor, who directed the reading of the student,
+gave him practical acquaintance with the labors of a pastor, and initiated
+him into the profession by securing for him the "approbation" of the
+ministerial association with which he was connected. Another method was for
+the student to continue his residence in Cambridge, and follow his
+theological studies under the guidance of the president and the Hollis
+professor, making use of the library of the college. When Rev. Henry Ware
+was inducted into the Hollis professorship, it was seen that some more
+systematic method of theological study was desirable. He gradually enlarged
+the scope of his activities, and in 1811 he began a systematic courser of
+instruction for the resident students in theology. Ware "was one of those
+genuine lovers of reform and progress," as John Gorham Palfrey said, "who
+are always ready for any innovation for the better; who, in the pursuit of
+what is truly good and useful, are not only content to move on with the
+age, but desirous to move on before it."[15] This effort of his to improve
+the methods of theological study proved to be the germ of the existing
+Divinity School.
+
+The Hollis professorship of divinity was founded by Thomas Hollis, of
+London, in 1721. Samuel Dexter, of Boston, established a lectureship of
+Biblical criticism in 1811. Both the professorship and the lectureship were
+designed for the undergraduates, and not primarily for students in
+theology. In 1815, however, it became apparent to some of the liberals that
+a school wholly devoted to the preparation of young men for the ministry
+was needed.
+
+Those who subscribed to the $30,000 secured for this purpose were in 1816
+formed into the Society for the Promotion of Theological Education in
+Harvard University. This society rendered efficient aid to the school for
+several years. At a meeting held at the Boston Athenaeum, July 17, 1816,
+Rev. John T. Kirkland became its president, Rev. Francis Parkman, recording
+secretary, Rev. Charles Lowell, corresponding secretary, and Jonathan
+Phillips, treasurer. The society was supported by annual subscriptions,
+life subscriptions, and donations. The school began its work in 1816, with
+Rev. Andrews Norton as the Dexter lecturer on Biblical criticism, Rev. J.T.
+Kirkland as instructor in systematic theology, Rev. Edward Everett in the
+criticism of the Septaugint, Professor Sidney Willard in Hebrew, and
+Professor Levi Frisbie in ethics. In 1819 Mr. Norton was advanced to a
+professorship, and thereafter devoted his whole time to the school; and
+during that year the school was divided into three classes. In 1824 the
+Society for the Promotion of Theological Education took the general
+direction of the school, arranging the course of study and otherwise
+assuming a supervision, which continued until 1831, when the school
+received a place as one of the departments of the University. In 1826 a
+building was erected for the school by the society, which has borne the
+name of Divinity Hall. In 1828 a professorship of pulpit eloquence and
+pastoral care was established by the society, and in 1830 the younger Henry
+Ware entered upon its duties.[16] He was succeeded in 1842 by Rev. Convers
+Francis. In 1830 Rev. John Gorham Palfrey became the professor of Biblical
+literature, and soon after the instructor in Hebrew. Rev. George Rapall
+Noyes, in 1840, took the Hancock professorship of Hebrew and the Dexter
+lectureship in Biblical criticism.
+
+Though organized and conducted by the Unitarians, the Divinity School was
+from the first unsectarian in its purpose and methods; for the Society for
+the Promotion of Theological Education, on its organization, put into its
+constitution this fundamental law: "It being understood that every
+encouragement be given to the serious, impartial and unbiassed
+investigation of Christian truth, and that no assent to the peculiarities
+of any denomination, be required either of the students or professors or
+instructors."
+
+[Sidenote: The Unitarian Miscellany.]
+
+The first outspoken periodical on the liberal side that aimed at being
+distinctly denominational was published in Baltimore. Dr. Freeman preached
+in that city in 1816, with the result that during the following year a
+church was organized there. It was there in 1819, on the occasion of the
+ordination of Rev. Jared Sparks as the first minister of this church, that
+Dr. Channing gave utterance to the first great declaration of the Unitarian
+position, in a sermon that has never been surpassed in this country as an
+intellectual interpretation of the highest spiritual problems.
+
+In January, 1821, Rev. Jared Sparks began the publication in Baltimore of
+The Unitarian Miscellany and Christian Monitor; and for three years he was
+its editor. For another three years it was conducted by his successor in
+the Baltimore pulpit, Rev. Francis W.P. Greenwood, who continued it until
+he became the minister of King's Chapel, when it ceased to exist. During
+the six years of its publication this magazine was ably edited. It was
+controversial in a liberal spirit, it was positively denominational, and it
+had a large and widely extended circulation. It reported all prominent
+Unitarian events, and those of a liberal tendency in all religious bodies.
+Attacks on Unitarianism were repelled, and the Unitarian position was
+explained and vindicated. Mr. Sparks was as aggressive as Andrews Norton
+had been, and was by no means willing to keep to the quiet and reticent
+manner of the Unitarians of Boston. When he was attacked, he replied with
+energy and skill; and he carried the war into the enemies' camp. His
+magazine was far more positive than anything the liberals had hitherto put
+forth, and its methods were viewed with something of suspicion in the
+conservative circles of Massachusetts. He published a series of letters on
+the Episcopal Church in The Unitarian Miscellany, which he enlarged and put
+into a book.[17] Another series of letters was on the comparative moral
+tendencies of Trinitarian and Unitarian doctrines, and these grew into a
+volume.[18] Both were in reply to attacks made upon him, and both were
+regarded with suspicion and doubt by the men about Cambridge; but, in time,
+they came to see that his method was sincere, learned, and honest.
+
+In The Unitarian Miscellany, as in all their utterances of this time, the
+Unitarians manifested much anxiety to maintain their position as the true
+expounders of primitive Christianity. They did not covet a place outside
+the larger fellowship of the Christian faith. A favorite method of
+vindicating their right to Christian recognition was by the publication of
+the works of liberal orthodox writers of previous generations. Such an
+attempt was made by Jared Sparks in his Collection of Essays and Tracts in
+Theology, with Biographical and Critical Notices, issued in Boston from
+1823 to 1826. In the general preface to these six volumes, Mr. Sparks said
+that "the only undeviating rule of selection will be that every article
+chosen shall be marked with rational and liberal views of Christianity, and
+suited to inform the mind or improve the temper and practice," and that the
+series was "designed to promote the cause of sacred learning, of truth and
+charity, of religious freedom and rational piety." In the first volume were
+included Turretin's essay on the fundamentals of religious truth, a number
+of short essays by Firmin Abauzit, Francis Blackburne's discussion of the
+value of confessions of faith, and several essays by Bishop Hoadley. That
+these writings have now no significance, even to intelligent readers, does
+not detract from the value of their publication; for they had a living
+meaning and power. Other writers, drawn upon in the succeeding volumes were
+Isaac Newton, Jeremy Taylor, John Locke, Isaac Watts, William Penn, and
+Mrs. Barbauld. The catholicity of the editor was shown in the wide range of
+his authors, whose doctrinal connections covered the whole field of
+Christian theology.
+
+In the publication of The Unitarian Miscellany, Mr. Sparks had the business
+aid of the Baltimore Unitarian Book Society, formed November 19, 1820,
+which was organized to carry on this work, and to disseminate other liberal
+books and tracts. This society distributed Bibles, "and such other books as
+contain rational and consistent views of Christian doctrines, and are
+calculated to promote a correct faith, sincere piety, and a holy practice."
+In the year 1821 was formed the Unitarian Library and Tract Society of New
+York; and similar societies were started in Philadelphia and Charleston
+soon after, as well as in other cities. Some of these societies published
+books, tracts, and periodicals, all of them distributed Unitarian
+publications, and libraries were formed of liberal works. The most
+successful of these societies, which soon numbered a score or two, was that
+in Baltimore. This society extended its missionary operations with the
+printed page widely, sending tracts into every part of the country, the
+demand for them having become very large. Its periodical had an extended
+circulation, its cheapness, its popular character, and its outspoken
+attitude on doctrinal questions serving to make it the most successful of
+the liberal publications of the time.[19]
+
+[Sidenote: The Christian Register.]
+
+On April 20, 1821, was issued the first number of The Christian Register,
+the regular weekly publication of which began with August 24 of that year.
+Its four pages contained four columns each, but the third of these pages
+was given to secular news and advertisements. The first page was devoted to
+general religious subjects, the second discussed those topics which were of
+special interest to Unitarians, while the fourth was given to literary
+miscellanies. Almost nothing of church news was reported, and only in a
+limited way was the paper denominational. It was a general religious
+newspaper of a kind that was acceptable to the liberals, and it defended
+and interpreted their cause when occasion demanded. The paper was started
+wholly as an individual enterprise by its publisher, Rev. David Reed, who
+acted for about five years as its editor. He had the encouragement of the
+leading Unitarians of Boston and its vicinity; and, when such men as
+Channing, Ware, and Norton wished to speak for the Unitarians, its columns
+were open to them. Among the other early contributors were Kirkland, Story,
+Edward Everett, Walker, Dewey, Furness, Palfrey, Gannett, Noah Worcester,
+Greenwood, Bancroft, Sparks, Alexander Young, Freeman, Burnap, Pierpont,
+Noyes, Lowell, Frothingham, and Pierce.
+
+In his prospectus the publisher spoke of the growth of the spirit of free
+religious inquiry in the country; and he said that in all classes of the
+community there was an eagerness to understand theological questions, and
+to arrive at and practice the genuine principles of Christianity. His ideal
+was a periodical that should present the same doctrines and temper as The
+Christian Disciple, but that would be of a more popular character. "The
+great object of The Christian Register," he said to his readers, "will be
+to inculcate the principles of a rational faith, and to promote the
+practice of genuine piety. To accomplish this purpose it will aim to excite
+a spirit of free and independent religious inquiry, and to assist in
+ascertaining and bringing into use the true principles of interpreting the
+Scriptures."
+
+For a number of years The Christian Register conformed to "the mild and
+amiable spirit" in which it began its career, rarely being aroused to an
+aggressive attitude, and seldom undertaking to speak for Unitarianism as a
+distinct form of Christianity. When the liberals were fiercely attacked, it
+spoke out, as, for instance, at the time when the Unitarians were charged
+with stealing churches from the orthodox.[20] Otherwise it was mild and
+placid enough, given to expressing its friendly interest in every kind of
+reform, from the education of women to the emancipation of slaves,
+thoroughly humanitarian in its attitude, not doctrinal or controversial,
+but faithfully catholic and tolerant. It was a well-conducted periodical,
+represented a wide range of interests, and was admirably suited to
+interpret the temper and spirit of a rational religion. It is now the
+oldest weekly religious newspaper published in this country. As the leading
+Unitarian periodical, it is still conducted with notable enterprise and
+ability.
+
+Another periodical also deserves mention in this connection, and that is
+the North American Review, which was begun by William Tudor, one of the
+members of The Anthology Club, in May, 1815. While it was not religious in
+its character, it was from the first, and for more than sixty years, edited
+by Unitarians; and its contributors were very largely from that religious
+body. The same tendencies and conditions that led the liberals to establish
+The Monthly Anthology, The Christian Disciple, and The Christian Examiner,
+gave demand amongst them for a distinctly literary and critical journal.
+They had gained that form of liberated and catholic culture which made such
+works possible, and to a large extent they afforded the public necessary to
+their support. Mr. Tudor was succeeded as the editor of the review by
+Professor Edward T. Channing, and then followed in succession Edward
+Everett, Jared Sparks, Alexander H. Everett, John Gorham Palfrey, Francis
+Bowen, and Andrew P. Peabody, all Unitarians. Among the early Unitarian
+contributors were Nathan Hale, Joseph Story, Nathaniel Bowditch, W.H.
+Prescott, William Cullen Bryant, and Theophilus Parsons. For many years few
+of the regular contributors were from any other religious body, not because
+the editors put restrictions upon others, but because those who were
+interested in general literary, historical, and scientific subjects
+belonged almost exclusively to the churches of this faith.
+
+[Sidenote: Results of the Division in Congregationalism.]
+
+The controversy which began in 1805 continued for about twenty years. The
+pamphlets and books it brought forth are almost forgotten, and they would
+have little interest at the present time. They gradually widened the breach
+between the orthodox and the liberal Congregationalists. It would be
+difficult to name a decisive date for their actual separation. The
+organization of the societies, and the establishment of the periodicals
+already mentioned, were successive steps to that result. The most important
+event was undoubtedly the formation of the American Unitarian Association,
+in 1825; but even that important movement on the part of the Unitarians did
+not bring about a final separation. Individual churches and ministers
+continued to treat each other with the same courtesy and hospitality as
+before.
+
+That the breach was inevitable seems to be the verdict of history; and yet
+it is not difficult to see to-day how it might have been avoided. The
+Unitarians were dealt with in such a manner that they could not continue
+the old connection without great discomfort and loss of self-respect. They
+were forced to organize for self-protection, and yet they did so
+reluctantly and with much misgiving. They would have preferred to remain as
+members of the united Congregational body, but the theological temper of
+the time made this impossible. It would not be just to say that there was
+actual persecution, but there could not be unity where there was not
+community of thought and faith.
+
+When the division in the Congregational churches came, one hundred and
+twenty-five churches allied themselves with the Unitarians,--one hundred in
+Massachusetts, a score in other parts of New England, and a half-dozen west
+of the Hudson River. These churches numbered among them, however, many of
+the oldest and the strongest, including about twenty of the first
+twenty-five organized in Massachusetts, and among them Plymouth (organized
+in Scrooby), Salem, Dorchester, Boston, Watertown, Roxbury, Hingham,
+Concord, and Quincy. The ten Congregational churches in Boston, with the
+exception of the Old South, allied themselves with the Unitarians. Other
+first churches to take this action were those of Portsmouth, Kennebunk, and
+Portland.
+
+Outside New England a beginning was made almost as soon as the Unitarian
+name came into recognition. At Charleston, S.C., the Congregational church,
+which had been very liberal, was divided in 1816 as the result of the
+preaching of Rev. Anthony Forster. He was led to read the works of Dr.
+Priestley, and became a Unitarian in consequence. Owing to ill-health, he
+was soon obliged to resign; and Rev. Samuel Gilman was installed in 1819.
+Rev. Robert Little, an English Unitarian, took up his residence in
+Washington in 1819, and began to preach there; and a church was organized
+in 1821. While chaplain of the House of Representatives, in 1821-22, Jared
+Sparks preached to this society fortnightly, and in the House Chamber on
+the alternate Sunday. When he went to Charleston, in 1819, to assist in the
+installation of Mr. Gilman, he preached to a very large congregation in the
+state-house in Raleigh; and the next year he spoke to large congregations
+in Virginia.[21] More than a decade earlier there were individual
+Unitarians in Kentucky.[22] On his journey to the ordination of Jared
+Sparks, Dr. Channing preached in a New York parlor; and on his return he
+occupied the lecture-hall of the Medical School. The result was the First
+Congregational Church (All Souls'), organized in 1819, which was followed
+by the Church of the Messiah in 1825. In fact, many of the more intelligent
+and thoughtful persons everywhere were inclined to accept a liberal
+interpretation of Christianity.
+
+Although the Congregational body was divided into two distinct
+denominations, there were three organizations, formed prior to that event,
+which have remained intact to this day. In these societies Orthodox and
+Unitarian continue to unite as Congregationalists, and the sectarian lines
+are not recognized. The first of these organizations is the Massachusetts
+Congregational Charitable Society, which was formed early in the eighteenth
+century for the purpose of securing "support to the widows and children of
+deceased congregational ministers." The second is the Massachusetts
+Convention of Congregational Ministers, also formed early in the eighteenth
+century, although its records begin only with the year 1748. It was formed
+for consultation, advice, and counsel, to aid orphans and widows of
+ministers, and to secure the general promotion of the interests of
+religion. The convention sermon has been one of the recognized institutions
+of Massachusetts, and since the beginning of the Unitarian controversy it
+has been preached alternately by ministers of the two denominations. The
+Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians and Others in North
+America was formed in 1787. The members, officers, and missionaries of this
+society have been of both denominations; and the work accomplished has been
+carried on in a spirit of amity and good-will. These societies indicate
+that co-operation may be secured without theological unity, and it is
+possible that they may become the basis in the future of a closer sympathy
+and fellowship between the severed Congregational churches.
+
+[Sidenote: Final Separation of State and Church.]
+
+From the beginning the liberal movement had been more or less intimately
+associated with that for the promotion of religious freedom and the
+separation of state and church. Many of the states withdrew religion from
+state control on the adoption of the Federal Constitution. In New England
+this was done in the first years of the century. Connecticut came to this
+result after an exciting agitation in 1818. Massachusetts was more
+tenacious of the old ways; but in 1811 its legislative body passed a
+"religious freedom act," that secured individuals from taxation for the
+support of churches with which they were not connected. The constitutional
+convention of 1820 proposed a bill of rights that aimed to secure religious
+freedom, but it was defeated by large majorities. It was only when church
+property was given by the courts to the parish in preference to the church,
+and when the "standing order" churches had been repeatedly foiled in their
+efforts to retain the old prerogatives, that a majority could be secured
+for religious freedom. In November, 1833, the legislature submitted to the
+people a revision of the bill of rights, which provided for the separation
+of state and church, and the voluntary support of churches. A majority was
+secured for this amendment, and it became the law in 1834. Massachusetts
+was the last of all the states to arrive at this result, and a far greater
+effort was required to bring it about than elsewhere. The support of the
+churches was now purely voluntary, the state no longer lending its aid to
+tax person and property for their maintenance.
+
+Thus it came about that Massachusetts adopted the principle and method of
+Roger Williams after two centuries. For the first time she came to the full
+recognition of her own democratic ideals, and to the practical acceptance
+of the individualism for which she had contended from the beginning. She
+had fought stubbornly and zealously for the faith she prized above all
+other things, but by the logic of events and the greatness of the principle
+of liberty she was conquered. The minister and the meeting-house were by
+her so dearly loved that she could not endure the thought of having them
+shorn of any of their power and influence; but for the sake of their true
+life she at last found it wise and just to leave all the people free to
+worship God in their own way, without coercion and without restraint.
+
+Although the liberal ministers and churches led the way in securing
+religious freedom, yet they were socially and intellectually conservative.
+Radical changes they would not accept, and they moved away from the old
+beliefs with great caution. The charge that they were timid was undoubtedly
+true, though there is no evidence that they attempted to conceal their real
+beliefs. Evangelical enthusiasm was not congenial to them, and they
+rejected fanaticism in every form. They had a deep, serious, and spiritual
+faith, that was intellectual without being rationalistic, marked by strong
+common sense, and vigorous with moral integrity. They permitted a wide
+latitude of opinion, and yet they were thoroughly Christian in their
+convictions. Most of them saw in the miracles of the New Testament the only
+positive evidence of the truth of Christianity, which was to them an
+external and supernatural revelation. They were quite willing to follow
+Andrews Norton, however, who was the chief defender of the miraculous, in
+his free criticism of the Old Testament and the birth-stories in the
+Gospels.
+
+The liberal ministers fostered an intellectual and literary expression of
+religion, and yet their chief characteristic was their spirituality. They
+aimed at ethical insight and moral integrity in their influence upon men
+and women, and at cultivating purity of life and an inward probity. In
+large degree they developed the spirit of philanthropy and a fine regard
+for the rights and the welfare of others. They were not sectarian or
+zealous for bringing others to the acceptance of their own beliefs; but
+they were generous in behalf of all public interests, faithful to all civic
+duties, and known for their private generosity and faithful Christian
+living. Under the leadership of Dr. Channing the Catholic Christians, as
+they preferred to call themselves, cultivated a spirituality that was
+devout without being ritualistic, sincere without being fanatical. The
+churches around them, to a large degree, kept zealously to the externals of
+religion, and accepted physical evidences of the truthfulness of
+Christianity; but Channing sought for what is deeper and more permanent.
+His preference of rationality to the testimony of miracles, spiritual
+insight to external evidences, devoutness of life to the rites of the
+church, characterized him as a great religious leader, and developed for
+the Catholic Christians a new type of Christianity. Whatever Channing's
+limitations as a thinker and a reformer, he was a man of prophetic insight
+and lofty spiritual vision. In other ages he would have been canonized as a
+saint or called the beatific doctor; but in Boston he was a heretic and a
+reformer, who sought to lead men into a faith that is ethical, sincere, and
+humanitarian. He prized Christianity for what it is in itself, for its
+inwardness, its fidelity to human nature, and its ethical integrity. His
+mind was always open to truth, he was always young for liberty, and his
+soul dwelt in the serene atmosphere of a pure and lofty faith.
+
+[1] Josiah Quincy, History of Harvard University, I. 230, Chapter XII;
+    Christian Examiner, VII. 64; XXX. 70.
+
+[2] Jedidiah Morse, True Reasons on which the Election of a Hollis
+    Professor of Divinity in Harvard College were opposed at the Board of
+    Overseers.
+
+[3] III. 251, March, 1806.
+
+[4] Richard Eddy, Universalism in America, II. 87; Oscar F. Safford,
+    Hosea Ballou: A Marvellous Life Story, 71.
+
+[5] O.B. Frothingham, Boston Unitarianism, 161.
+
+[6] Josiah Quincy, History of the Boston Athenaeum, 1. "In the year 1803
+    Phineas Adams, a graduate of Harvard College, of the class of 1801,
+    commenced in Boston, under the name of _Sylvanus Per-se_, a periodical
+    work entitled The Monthly Anthology or Magazine of Polite Literature.
+    He conducted it for six months, but not finding its proceeds sufficient
+    for his support, he abandoned the undertaking. Mr. Adams, the son of a
+    farmer in Lexington, manifested in early boyhood a passion for elegant
+    learning. He adopted literature as a profession; but, after the failure
+    of his attempt as editor of The Anthology, he taught school in
+    different places, till, in 1811, he entered the Navy as chaplain and
+    teacher of mathematics. Here he became distinguished for mathematical
+    science in its relation to nautical affairs. In 1812 he accompanied
+    Commodore Porter in his eventful cruise in the Pacific, of which the
+    published journal bears honorable testimony to Mr. Adams's zeal for
+    promoting geographical and mathematical knowledge. He again joined
+    Porter in the expedition for the suppression of piracy in the West
+    Indies, and he died on that station in 1823, much respected in the
+    service."
+
+[7] In October, 1888, this society gave up its organization, and the sum
+    of $1,265.10 was given to the American Unitarian Association for the
+    establishment of a publishing fund.
+
+[8] Unitarian Biography, I. 40, Memoir by Henry Ware, Jr.
+
+[9] William Allen, Memoir of John Codman, 81.
+
+[10] Thomas Belsham, 1750-1829, was a dissenting English preacher and
+     teacher. In 1789 he became a Unitarian, and was settled in
+     Birmingham. From 1805 to his death he preached to the Essex Street
+     congregation in London. He wrote a popular work on the Evidences of
+     Christianity, and he translated the Epistles of St. Paul. He was a
+     vigorous and able writer.
+
+[11] Memoir of W.E. Channing, by W.H. Channing, I. 380.
+
+[12] Among the controversial works printed in Boston at this time was
+     Yates's Vindication of Unitarianism, an English book, which was
+     republished in 1816.
+
+[13] The entrance to the vestry of Federal Street Church was on Berry
+     Street, hence the name given the conference.
+
+[14] Christian Examiner, I. 248.
+
+[15] American Unitarian Biography, Life of Henry Ware, I. 241.
+
+[16] James Walker, Christian Examiner, X. 129; John G. Palfrey, Christian
+     Examiner, XI. 84; The Divinity School of Harvard University: Its
+     History, Courses of Study, Aims and Advantages.
+
+[17] Letters on the Ministry, Ritual, and Doctrines of the Protestant
+     Episcopal Church, addressed to Rev. William E. Wyatt, D.D., in Reply
+     to a Sermon, Baltimore, 1820.
+
+[18] Comparative Moral Tendency of Trinitarian and Unitarian Doctrines,
+     addressed to Rev. Samuel Miller, Boston, 1823.
+
+[19] H.B. Adams, Life and Writings of Jared Sparks, I. 175.
+
+[20] Dr. George E. Ellis, in Unitarianism: Its origin and History, 147.
+     The most prominent instance was that of the First Church in Dedham,
+     and this was decided by legal proceedings. "The question recognized
+     by the court was simply this: whether the claimants had been lawfully
+     appointed deacons of the First Church; that is, whether the body
+     which had appointed them was by law the First Church. The decision of
+     the court was as follows: 'When the majority of the members of a
+     Congregational church separate from the majority of the parish, the
+     members who remain, although a minority, constitute the church in
+     such parish, and retain the rights and property belonging thereto.'
+     This legal decision would have been regarded as a momentous one had
+     it applied only to the single case then in hearing. But it was the
+     establishment of a precedent which would dispose of all cases then to
+     be expected to present themselves in the troubles of the time between
+     parishes and the churches gathered within them. The full purport of
+     this decision was that the law did not recognize a church
+     independently of its connection with the parish in which it was
+     gathered, from which it might sever itself and carry property with
+     it." It was in accordance with the practice in New England for at
+     least a century preceding the decision in the Dedham case, and the
+     decision was rendered as the result of this practice.
+
+[21] H.B. Adams, Life and Writings of Jared Sparks, gives a most
+     interesting account in his earlier chapters of the origin of
+     Unitarianism, especially of its beginnings in Baltimore and other
+     places outside New England.
+
+[22] James Garrard, governor of Kentucky from 1796 to 1802, was a
+     Unitarian. Harry Toulmin, president of Transylvania Seminary and
+     secretary of the state of Kentucky, was also a Unitarian.
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+
+THE AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION.
+
+The time had come for the liberals to organize in a more distinctive form,
+in order that they might secure permanently the results they had already
+attained. The demand for organization, however, came almost wholly from the
+younger men, those who had grown up under the influence of the freer life
+of the liberal churches or who had been trained in the independent spirit
+of the Divinity School at Harvard. The older men, for the most part, were
+bound by the traditions of "the standing order":[1] they could not bring
+themselves to desire new conditions and new methods.
+
+The spirit of the older and leading laymen and ministers is admirably
+illustrated in Rev. O.B. Frothingham's account of his father in his book
+entitled Boston Unitarianism. They were interested in many, public-spirited
+enterprises, and the social circle in which they moved was cultivated and
+refined; but they were provincial, and little inclined to look beyond the
+limits of their own immediate interests. Dr. Nathaniel L. Frothingham,
+minister of the First Church in Boston, one of the earliest American
+students of German literature and philosophy, and a man of rational insight
+and progressive thinking, may be regarded as a representative of the best
+type of Boston minister in the first half of the nineteenth century. In a
+sermon preached in 1835, on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of
+his settlement, Dr. Frothingham said that he had never before used the word
+"Unitarian", in his pulpit, though his church had been for thirty years
+counted as Unitarian. "We have," he said, "made more account of the
+religious sentiment than of theological opinions." In this attitude he was
+in harmony with the leading men of his day.[2]
+
+Channing, for instance, was opposed to every phase of religious
+organization that put bonds upon men; and he would accept nothing in the
+form of a creed. He severely condemned "the guilt of a sectarian spirit,"
+and said that "to bestow our affections on those who are ranged under the
+same human leader, or who belong to the same church with ourselves, and to
+withhold it from others who possess equal if not superior virtue, because
+they bear a different name, is to prefer a party to the church of
+Christ."[3] In 1831 he described Unitarianism as being "characterized by
+nothing more than by the spirit of freedom and individuality. It has no
+established creed or symbol," he wrote. "Its friends think each for
+himself, and differ much from each other."[4] Later he wrote to a friend:
+"I distrust sectarian influence more and more. I am more detached from a
+denomination, and strive to feel more my connection with the Universal
+Church, with all good and holy men. I am little of a Unitarian, and stand
+aloof from all but those who strive and pray for clearer light, who look
+for a purer and more effectual manifestation of Christian truth."[5]
+
+Many of the Unitarians were in fullest sympathy with Channing as to the
+fundamental law of spiritual freedom and as to the evils of sectarianism. A
+considerable number of them were in agreement with him as to the course
+pursued by the Unitarian movement. Having escaped from one sect, they were
+not ready to commit themselves to the control of another. Therefore they
+withheld themselves from all definitely organized phases of Unitarianism,
+and would give no active support to those who sought to bring the liberals
+together for purposes of protection and forward movement. Under these
+circumstances it was difficult to secure concert of action or to make
+successful any definite missionary enterprise, however little of
+sectarianism it might manifest. Even to the present time Unitarianism has
+shown this independence on the part of local churches and this freedom on
+the part of individuals. Because of this attitude, unity of action has been
+difficult, and denominational loyalty never strong or assured.
+
+However, a different spirit animated the younger men, who persisted in
+their effort to secure an organization that would represent distinctively
+the Unitarian thought and sentiment. The movement towards organization had
+its origin and impulse in a group of young ministers who had been trained
+at the Harvard Divinity School under Professor Andrews Norton. While Norton
+was conservative in theology and opposed to sectarian measures, his
+teaching was radical, progressive, and stimulating. His students accepted
+his spirit of intellectual progress, and often advanced beyond his more
+conservative teachings. In the years between 1817 and 1824 James Walker,
+John G. Palfrey, Jared Sparks, Alexander Young, John Pierpont, Ezra S.
+Gannett, Samuel Barrett, Thomas R. Sullivan, Samuel J. May, Calvin Lincoln,
+and Edward B. Hall were students in the Divinity School; and all of these
+men were leaders in the movement to organize a Unitarian Association.
+Pierpont gave the name to the new organization, distinctly defining it as
+Unitarian. Gannett, Palfrey, and Hall served it as presidents; Gannett,
+Lincoln, and Young, as secretaries. Walker, Palfrey, and Barrett gave it
+faithful service as directors, and Lincoln as its active missionary agent.
+A number of young laymen in Boston and elsewhere, mostly graduates of
+Harvard College, were also interested in the formation of the new
+organization. Among them were Charles G. Loring, Robert Rantoul, Samuel A.
+Eliot, Leverett Salstonstall, George B. Emerson, and Alden Bradford. All
+these young men were afterwards prominent in the affairs of the city or
+state, and they were faithful to the interests of the Unitarian churches
+with which they were connected.
+
+[Sidenote: Initial Meetings.]
+
+The first proposition to form a Unitarian organization for missionary
+purposes was made in a meeting of the Anonymous Association, a club to
+which belonged thirty or forty of the leading men of Boston. They were all
+connected with Unitarian churches, and were actively interested in
+promoting the growth of a liberal form of Christianity. It appears from the
+journal of David Reed, for many years the editor and publisher of The
+Christian Register, that the members of this association were in the habit
+of meeting at each other's houses during the year 1824 for the purpose of
+discussing important subjects connected with religion, morals, and
+politics. At a meeting held at the house of Hon. Josiah Quincy in the
+autumn of that year, attention was called to certain articles that had been
+published in The Christian Register, and the importance was suggested of
+promoting the growth of liberal Christianity through the distribution of
+the printed word. A resolution was submitted, inquiring if measures could
+not be taken for uniting the efforts of liberal-minded persons to give
+greater efficiency to the attempt to extend a knowledge of Unitarian
+principles by means of the public press; and a committee was appointed to
+consider and report on the expediency of forming an organization for this
+purpose. This committee consisted of Rev. Henry Ware, the younger, Alden
+Bradford, and Richard Sullivan. Henry Ware was the beloved and devoted
+minister of the Second Church in Boston. His colleagues were older men,
+both graduates of Harvard College and prominent in the social and business
+life of Boston. The purpose which these men had in mind was well defined by
+Dr. Gannett, writing twenty years after the event: "We found ourselves," he
+said, "under the painful necessity of contributing our assistance to the
+propagation of tenets which we accounted false or of forming an association
+through which we might address the great truths of religion to our
+fellow-men without the adulteration of erroneous dogmas. To take one of
+these courses, or to do nothing in the way of Christian beneficence, was
+the only alternative permitted to us. The name which we adopted has a
+sectarian sound; but it was chosen to avoid equivocation on the one hand
+and misapprehension on the other."[6] The committee, under date of
+December 29, 1824, sent out a circular inviting a meeting of all
+interested, "in order to confer together on the expediency of appointing an
+annual meeting for the purpose of union, sympathy, and co-operation in the
+cause of Christian truth and Christian charity." In this circular will be
+found the origin of the clause in the present constitution of the Unitarian
+Association defining its purposes.
+
+In response to this call a meeting was held in the vestry of the Federal
+Street Church on January 27, 1825. Dr. Channing opened the meeting with
+prayer. Richard Sullivan was chosen moderator, and James Walker secretary.
+There were present all those who have been hitherto named in connection
+with this movement, together with many others of the leading laymen and
+ministers of the liberal churches in New England.[7] The record of the
+meeting made by Rev. James Walker is preserved in the first volume of the
+correspondence of the Unitarian Association; and it enables us, in
+connection with the more confidential reminiscences of David Reed, to give
+a fairly complete record of, what was said and done. Henry Ware, the
+younger, in behalf of the committee, presented a statement of the objects
+proposed by those desirous of organizing a national Unitarian society; and
+he offered a resolution declaring it "desirable and expedient that
+provision should be made for future meetings of Unitarians and liberal
+Christians generally." The adoption of this resolution was moved by Stephen
+Higginson; and the discussion was opened by Dr. Aaron Bancroft, the learned
+and honored minister of the Second Church in Worcester. He was fearful that
+sufficient care might not be taken as to the manner of instituting the
+proposed organization, and he doubted its expediency. He was of the opinion
+that Unitarianism was to be propagated slowly and silently, for it had
+succeeded in his own parish because it had not been openly advocated. He
+did not wish to oppose the design generally, but he was convinced that it
+would do more harm than good.
+
+Dr. Bancroft was followed by Professor Andrews Norton, the greatly
+respected teacher of most of the younger ministers, who defended the
+proposed organization, and said that its purpose was not to make
+proselytes. Then Dr. Charming arose, and gave to the proposition of the
+committee a guarded approval. He thought the object of the convention, as
+he wished to call it, should be to "spread our views of religion, not our
+mere opinions, for our religion is essentially practical." The friendly
+attitude of Channing gave added emphasis to the disapproval of the
+prominent laymen who spoke after him. Judge Charles Jackson, an eminent
+justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, thought there was danger in
+the proposed plan, that it was not becoming to liberal Christians, that it,
+was inconsistent with their principles, and that it would not be beneficial
+to the community. He was ready to give his aid, to any specific work, but
+he thought that everything could be accomplished that was necessary,
+without a general-association of any kind. The same opinion was expressed
+by George Bond, a leading merchant of Boston, who was afraid that
+Unitarianism would become popular, and that, when it had gamed a majority
+of the people of the country to its side, it would become as intolerant as
+the other sects. For this reason he believed the measure inexpedient, and
+moved an adjournment of the meeting.
+
+Three of the most widely known and respected of the older ministers also
+spoke in opposition to the proposition to form an association of liberal
+Christians. These men were typical pastors and preachers, whose parishes
+were limited only by the town in which they lived, and who preached the
+gospel without sectarian prejudice or doctrinal qualifications. Dr. John
+Pierce, of Brookline, thought the measure of the committee "very
+dangerous," and likely to do much harm in many of the parishes by arousing
+the sectarian spirit. He spoke three times in the course of the meeting,
+opposing with his accustomed vehemence all attempt at organization. Dr.
+Abiel Abbot, of Beverly, thought that presenting a distinct object for
+opposition would arrest the progress of Unitarianism, for in his
+neighborhood liberal Christianity owed everything to slow and silent
+progress. Dr. John Allyn, of Duxbury, one of the most original and learned
+ministers of his time in New England, was opposed to the use of any
+sectarian name, especially that of Unitarian or Liberal. He was willing to
+join in a general convention, and he desired to have a meeting of delegates
+from all sects. He expressed the opinion of several leading men who were
+present at this meeting, who favored an unsectarian organization, that
+should include all men of liberal opinions, of whatever name or
+denominational connection.
+
+Those who were in favor of a Unitarian Association did not remain silent,
+and they spoke with clearness and vigor in approval of the proposition of
+the committee. Alden Bradford, who became the Secretary of State in
+Massachusetts, and wrote several valuable biographical and historical
+works, thought that Unitarians were too timid and did not wisely defend
+their position. He was followed by Andrews Norton in a vigorous declaration
+of the importance of the association, in the course of which he pointed out
+how inadequately Unitarians had protected and fostered the institutions
+under their care, and declared that closer union was necessary. Jared
+Sparks also earnestly favored the project, and said that what was proposed
+was not a plan of proselyting. It was his opinion that Unitarians ought to
+come forward in support of their views of truth, and that an association
+was necessary in order to promote sympathy among them throughout the
+country. Colonel Joseph May, who had been for thirty years a warden of
+King's Chapel, and a man held in high esteem in Boston, referred to the
+work already accomplished by the zeal and effort of the few Unitarians who
+had worked together to promote liberal interests. The most incisive word
+spoken, however, came from John Pierpont, who was just coming into his fame
+as an orator and a leader in reforms. "We have," he declared, "and we must
+have, the name Unitarian. It is not for us to shrink from it. Organization
+is necessary in order to maintain it, and organization there must be. The
+general interests of Unitarians will be promoted by using the name, and
+organizing in harmony with it."
+
+In the long discussion at this meeting it appears that, of the ministers,
+Channing, Norton, Bancroft, Ware, Pierpont, Sparks, Edes, Nichols, Parker,
+Thayer, Willard, and Harding were in favor of organization; Pierce, Allyn,
+Abbot, Freeman, and Bigelow, against it. Of the laymen, Charles Jackson and
+George Bond were vigorously in opposition; and Judge Story, Judge White,
+Judge Howe, of Northampton, Alden Bradford, Leverett Salstonstall, Stephen
+Higginson, and Joseph May spoke in favor. The result of the meeting was the
+appointment of a committee, consisting of Sullivan, Bradford, Ware,
+Channing, Palfrey, Walker, Pierpont, and Higginson, which was empowered to
+call together a larger meeting at some time during the session of the
+General Court. But this committee seems never to have acted. At the end of
+his report of this preliminary meeting James Walker wrote: "The meeting
+proposed was never called. As there appeared to be so much difference of
+opinion as to the expediency and nature of the measure proposed, it was
+thought best to let it subside in silence."
+
+The zeal of those favorable to organization, however, did not abate; and
+the discussion went on throughout the winter. On May 25, 1825, at the
+meeting of the Berry Street Conference of Ministers, Henry Ware, the
+younger, who had been chairman of the first committee, renewed the effort,
+and presented the following statement as a declaration of the purposes of
+the proposed organization:--
+
+  It is proposed to form a new association, to be called The American
+  Unitarian Society. The chief and ultimate object will be the promotion
+  of pure and undefiled religion by disseminating the knowledge of it
+  where adequate means of religious instruction are not enjoyed. A
+  secondary good which will follow from it is the union of all Unitarian
+  Christians in this country, so that they would become mutually
+  acquainted, and the concentration of their efforts would increase their
+  efficiency. The society will embrace all Unitarian Christians in the
+  United States. Its operations would extend themselves through the whole
+  country. These operations would chiefly consist in the publication and
+  distribution of tracts, and the support of missionaries.
+
+It was announced that in the afternoon a meeting would be held for the
+further consideration of the subject. This meeting was held at four
+o'clock, and Dr. Henry Ware acted as moderator. The opponents of
+organization probably absented themselves, for action was promptly taken,
+and it was "_Voted_, that it is expedient to form a new society to be
+called the American Unitarian Association." All who were present expressed
+themselves as in favor of this action. Rev. James Walker, Mr. Lewis Tappan,
+and Rev. Ezra S. Gannett were appointed a committee to draft a form of
+organization. On the next morning, Thursday, May 26, 1825, this committee
+reported to a meeting, of which Dr. Nathaniel Thayer, of Lancaster, was
+moderator; and, with one or two amendments, the constitution prepared by
+the committee was adopted. This constitution, with slight modifications, is
+still in force. The object of the Association was declared to be "to
+diffuse the knowledge and promote the interests of pure Christianity." A
+committee to nominate officers selected Dr. Channing for president; Joseph
+Story, of Salem, Joseph Lyman, of Northampton, Stephen Longfellow, of
+Portland, Charles H. Atherton, of Amherst, N.H., Henry Wheaton, of New
+York, James Taylor, of Philadelphia, Henry Payson, of Baltimore, William
+Cranch, of Alexandria, Martin L. Hurlbut, of Charleston, as
+vice-presidents; Ezra S. Gannett, of Boston, for secretary; Lewis Tappan,
+of Boston, for treasurer; and Andrews Norton, Jared Sparks, and James
+Walker, for executive committee.
+
+When Mr. Gannett wrote to his colleague, Dr. Channing, to notify him of his
+election as president, there came a letter declining the proffered office.
+"I was a little disappointed," Channing wrote, "at learning that the
+Unitarian Association is to commence operations immediately. I conversed
+with Mr. Norton on the subject before leaving Boston, and found him so
+indisposed to engage in it that I imagined that it would be let alone for
+the present. The office which in your kindness you have assigned to me I
+must beg to decline. As you have made a beginning, I truly rejoice in your
+success." Norton and Sparks also declined to serve as directors, ill-health
+and previous engagements being assigned by them for their inability to act
+with the other officers elected. The executive committee proceeded to fill
+these vacancies by the election of Dr. Aaron Bancroft, of Worcester, as
+president, and of the younger Henry Ware and Samuel Barrett to the
+executive committee; and the board of directors thus constituted
+administered the Association during its first year.
+
+In the selection of Dr. Bancroft as the head of the new association a wise
+choice was made, for he had the executive and organizing ability that was
+eminently desirable at this juncture. He was an able preacher, and one of
+the strongest thinkers in the Unitarian body. His biography of Washington
+had made him widely known; and his volume of controversial sermons,
+published in 1822, had received the enthusiastic praise of John Adams and
+Thomas Jefferson. When he was settled, he was almost an outcast in
+Worcester County because of his liberalism; but such were the strength of
+his character and the power of his thought that gradually he secured a wide
+hearing, and became the most popular preacher in Central Massachusetts.
+After fifty years of his ministry he could count twenty-one vigorous
+Unitarian societies about him, all of which had profited by his
+influence.[8] Although he was seventy years of age at the time he
+accepted the presidency of the Unitarian Association, he was in the full
+enjoyment of his powers; and he filled the office for ten years, giving it
+and the cause which the Association represented the impetus and weight of
+his sound judgment and deserved reputation.
+
+The executive work of the Association fell to the charge of the secretary,
+Ezra S. Gannett, who had been one of the most enthusiastic advocates of the
+new organization. Gannett was but twenty-four years old, and had been but
+one year in the active ministry, as the colleague of Dr. Channing. He had
+youth, zeal, and executive force. Writing of him after his death, Dr.
+Bellows said: "He had rare administrative qualities and a statesmanlike
+mind. He would have been a leader anywhere. He had the ambition, the
+faculties, and the impulsive temperament of an actor in affairs. He had the
+fervor, the concentration of will, the passionate enthusiasm of conviction,
+the love of martyrdom, which make men great in action."[9] Throughout his
+life Gannett labored assiduously for the Association, serving it in every
+capacity refusing no drudgery, travelling over the country in its
+interests, and giving himself, heart and soul, to the cause it represented.
+The Unitarian cause never had a more devoted friend or one who made greater
+sacrifices in its behalf. To him more than to any other man it owes its
+organized life and its missionary serviceableness.
+
+Lewis Tappan, the treasurer, was a successful young business man. His term
+of service was brief; for two years after the organization of the
+Association he removed to New York, where he had an honorable career as one
+of the founders of the Journal of Commerce, and as the head of the first
+mercantile agency established in the country. He was later one of the
+anti-slavery leaders in New York, and an active and earnest member of
+Plymouth Church in Brooklyn.[10]
+
+The executive committee was composed of the three devoted young ministers
+who had been foremost in organizing the Association. Barrett was thirty,
+Ware and Walker were thirty-one years of age; and all three had been in
+Harvard College and the Divinity School together. Samuel Barrett had just
+been chosen minister of the newly formed Twelfth Congregational Church of
+Boston, which he served throughout his life. He was identified with all
+good causes in Eastern Massachusetts, a founder of the Benevolent
+Fraternity, and an overseer of Harvard College. Henry Ware, the younger,
+was, at the time of his election, the minister of the Second Church in
+Boston. Five years later he became professor in the Harvard Divinity
+School, and his memory is still cherished as the teacher and exemplar of a
+generation of Unitarian ministers. James Walker was, in 1825, the minister
+of the Harvard Church in Charlestown, and already gave evidence of the
+sanity and catholicity of mind, the practical organizing power, the wide
+philosophic culture, and the dignity of character which afterward
+distinguished him as professor in Harvard College, and as its president.
+
+Thus the organization started on its way, as the result of the determined
+purpose of a small company of the younger ministers and laymen. It took a
+name that separated it from all other religious organizations in this
+country, so far as its members then knew. The Unitarian name had been first
+definitely used in this country in 1815, to describe the liberal or
+Catholic Christians. They at first scornfully rejected it, but many of them
+had finally come to rejoice in its declaration of the simple unity of God.
+As a matter of history, it may be said that the word "Unitarian" was used
+in this doctrinal sense only; and it had none of the implications since
+given it by philosophy and science. Those who used it meant thereby to say
+that they accepted the doctrine of the absolute unity of God, and that the
+position of Christ was a subordinate though a very exalted one. No one can
+read their statements with historic apprehension, and arrive at any other
+conclusion. Yet these persons had no wish to cut themselves off from
+historic Christianity; rather was it their intent to restore it to its
+primitive purity.
+
+[Sidenote: Work of the First Year.]
+
+If others were disinclined to action, the executive committee of the
+Unitarian Association was determined that something should be done. At
+their first, meeting, held in the secretary's study four days after their
+election, there were present Norton, Walker, Tappan, and Gannett. They
+commissioned Rev. Warren Burton to act as their agent in visiting
+neighboring towns to solicit funds, and a week later they voted to employ
+him as a general agent. The committee held six meetings during June; and at
+one of these an address was adopted, defining the purposes and methods of
+the Association. "They wish it to be understood," was their statement,
+"that its efforts will be directed to the promotion of true religion
+throughout our country; intending by this, not exclusively those views
+which distinguish the friends of this Association from other disciples of
+Christ; but those views in connection with the great doctrines and
+principles in which all Christians coincide, and which constitute the
+substance of our religion. We wish to diffuse the knowledge and influence
+of the gospel of our Lord and Saviour. Great good is anticipated from the
+co-operation of persons entertaining similar views, who are now strangers
+to each other's religious sentiments. Interest will be awakened, confidence
+inspired, efficiency produced by the concentration of labors. The spirit of
+inquiry will be fostered, and individuals at a distance will know where to
+apply for information and encouragement. Respectability and strength will
+be given to the class among us whom our fellow Christians have excluded
+from the control of their religious charities, and whom, by their exclusive
+treatment, they have compelled in some measure to act as a party." The
+objects of the Association were stated to be the collection of information
+about Unitarianism in various parts of the country; the securing of union,
+sympathy, and co-operation among liberal Christians; the publishing and
+distribution of books inculcating correct views of religion; the employment
+of missionaries, and the adoption of other measures that might promote the
+general purposes held in view.
+
+At the end of the year the Association held its first anniversary meeting
+in Pantheon Hall, on the evening of June 30, 1826, when addresses were made
+by Hon. Joseph Story, Hon. Leverett Salstonstall, Rev. Ichabod Nichols, and
+Rev. Henry Coleman. The executive committee presented its report, which
+gave a detailed account of the operations during the year. They gave
+special attention to their discovery of "a body of Christians in the
+Western states who have for years been Unitarians, have encountered
+persecution on account of their faith, and have lived in ignorance of
+others east of the mountains who maintained many similar views of Christian
+doctrine." With this group of churches, which would consent to no other
+name than that of Christian, a correspondence had been opened; and, to
+secure a larger acquaintance with them, Rev. Moses G. Thomas[11] had
+visited several of the Western states. His tour carried him through
+Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and as far as St. Louis.
+His account of his journey was published in connection with the second
+report of the Association, and is full of interest. He did not preach, but
+he carefully investigated the religious prospects of the states he
+journeyed through; and he sought the acquaintance of the Christian churches
+and ministers. He gave an enthusiastic account of his travels, and reported
+that the west was a promising field for the planting of Unitarian churches.
+He recommended Northumberland, Harrisburg, Pittsburg, Steubenville,
+Marietta, Paris, Lexington, Louisville, St. Louis, St. Charles,
+Indianapolis, and Cincinnati as promising places for the labors of
+Unitarian missionaries,--places "which will properly appreciate their
+talents and render them doubly useful in their day and generation."
+
+During the first year of its existence the Unitarian Association endeavored
+to unite with itself, or to secure the co-operation of, the Society for the
+Promotion of Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity, the Evangelical
+Missionary Society, and the Publishing Fund Society; but these
+organizations were unwilling to come into close affiliation with it. The
+Evangelical Missionary Society has continued its separate existence to the
+present time, but the others were absorbed by the Unitarian Association
+after many years. This is one indication of how difficult it was to secure
+an active co-operation among Unitarians, and to bring them all into one
+vigorous working body. In concluding their first report, the officers of
+the Association alluded to the difficulties with which they had met the
+reluctance of the liberal churches to come into close affiliation with each
+other. "They have strenuously opposed the opinion," they said of the
+leaders of the Association, "that the object of the founders was to build
+up a party, to organize an opposition, to perpetuate pride and bigotry. Had
+they believed that such was its purpose or such would be its effect, they
+would have withdrawn themselves from any connection with so hateful a
+thing. They thought otherwise, and experience has proved they did not judge
+wrongly."
+
+[Sidenote: Work of the First Quarter of a Century.]
+
+Having thus organized itself and begun its work, the Association went
+quietly on its way. At no time during the first quarter of a century of its
+existence did it secure annual contributions from one-half the churches
+calling themselves Unitarian, and it did well when even one-third of them
+contributed to its treasury during any one year. The churches of Boston,
+for the most part, held aloof from it, and gave it only a feeble support,
+if any at all. They had so long accepted the spirit of congregational
+exclusiveness, had so great a dread of interference on the part of
+ecclesiastical organizations, and so keenly suspected every attempt at
+co-operation on the part of the churches as likely to lead to restrictions
+upon congregational independence, that it was nearly impossible to secure
+their aid for any kind of common work. Very slowly the contributions
+increased to the sum of $5,000 a year, and only once in the first quarter
+of a century did the total receipts of a year reach $15,000. With so small
+a treasury no great work could be undertaken; but the money given was
+husbanded to the utmost, and the salaries paid to clerks and the general
+secretary were kept to the lowest possible limit.
+
+Dr. Bancroft was succeeded in the presidency of the Association, in 1836,
+by Dr. Channing, who nominally held the position for one year; but at the
+next annual meeting he declined to have his name presented as a
+candidate.[12] The office was then filled by Dr. Ichabod Nichols, of
+Portland, who served from 1837 to 1844. He was the minister of the First
+Church in Portland from 1809 to 1855, and then retired to Cambridge, where
+he wrote his Natural Theology and his Hours with the Evangelists. Joseph
+Story, the great jurist, who had been vice-president of the Association
+from 1826 to 1836, was elected president in 1844, and served for one year.
+He was followed by Dr. Orville Dewey, who was president from 1845 to 1847.
+He had been settled in New Bedford, and over the Church of the Messiah in
+New York; and subsequently he had short pastorates in Albany, in
+Washington, and over the New South Church in Boston. His lectures and his
+sermons have made him widely known. In intellectual and emotional power he
+was one of the greatest preachers the country has produced. Dr. Gannett
+served as the president from 1847 to 1851, being succeeded by Dr. Samuel K.
+Lothop, who continued to hold the office until 1856. Dr. Lothrop was first
+settled in Dover, N.H., but became the minister of the Brattle Street
+Church, Boston, in 1834, retaining that position until 1876.
+
+The office of secretary was held by Rev. Ezra S, Gannett until 1831. He was
+succeeded in that year by Rev. Alexander Young, who held the position for
+two years. Dr. Young was the minister of the New South Church from 1825
+until his death, in 1854. His Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers, and other
+works, have given him a reputation as a historian. In 1829 the office of
+foreign secretary was created; and it was held by the younger Henry Ware
+from 1830 to 1834, when it ceased to exist. Rev. Samuel Barnett was
+secretary in 1833 and 1834, and recording secretary until 1837. In 1834 the
+office of general secretary was established, in order to secure the
+services of an active missionary. Rev. Jason Whitman, who held this
+position for one year, had been the minister in Saco; and he was afterward
+settled in Portland and Lexington. Rev. Charles Briggs became the general
+secretary in 1835, and continued in office until the end of 1847. He had
+been settled in Lexington, but did not hold a pastorate subsequent to his
+connection with the Association. In the mean time Rev. Samuel K. Lothrop
+was the assistant or recording secretary from 1837 to 1847. In 1847 Rev.
+William G. Eliot was elected the general secretary; but he did not serve,
+owing to the claims of his parish in St. Louis. Rev. Frederick West
+Holland, who had been settled in Rochester, was made the general secretary
+in January, 1848; and he held the position until the annual meeting of
+1860. Subsequently he was settled in East Cambridge, Neponset, North
+Cambridge, Rochester, and Newburg.
+
+It was Charles Briggs who first gave definite purpose to the missionary
+work of the Association. The annual report of 1850 said of him that he "had
+led the institution forward to high ground as a missionary body, by
+unfailing patience prevailed over every discouragement, by inexhaustible
+hope surmounted serious obstacles, by the most persuasive gentleness
+conciliated opposition, and done perhaps as much as could be asked of sound
+judgment, knowledge of mankind, and devotion to the cause, with the
+drawback of a slender and failing frame." In 1845 Rev. George G. Channing
+entered upon a service as the travelling agent of the Association, which he
+continued for two years. His duties required him to take an active interest
+in missionary enterprises, revive drooping churches, secure information as
+to the founding of new churches, and to add to the income of the
+Association. He was a brother of Dr. Channing, held one or two pastorates,
+and was the founder and editor of The Christian World, which he published
+in Boston as a weekly Unitarian paper from January, 1843, to the end of
+1848.
+
+At a meeting of the Unitarian Association held on June 3, 1847, the final
+steps were taken that secured its incorporation under the laws of
+Massachusetts. In the revised constitution the fifteen vice-presidents were
+reduced to two, and the president and vice-presidents were made members of
+the executive committee, and so brought into intimate connection with the
+work of the Association. The directors and other officers were made an
+executive committee, by which all affairs of moment must be considered; and
+it was required to hold stated monthly meetings. These changes were
+conducive to an enlarged interest in the work of the Association, and also
+to the more thorough consideration of its activities on the part of a
+considerable body of judicious and experienced officers. They were made in
+recognition of the increasing missionary labors of the Association, and
+enabled it thenceforth to hold and to manage legally the moneys that came
+under its control.
+
+[Sidenote: Publication of Tracts and Books.]
+
+One of the first subjects to which the Association gave attention was the
+publication of tracts, six of which were issued during the first year. In
+connection with their publication a series of depositaries was established
+for their sale. David Reed of The Christian Register became the general
+agent, while there were ten county depositaries in Massachusetts, four in
+New Hampshire, three in Maine, and one each in Connecticut, New York City,
+Philadelphia, Charleston, and Washington.[13] For a number of years the
+tracts were devoted to doctrinal subjects. Several of Channing's ablest
+sermons and addresses were first printed in this form. Among the other
+contributors to the first series were the three Wares, Orville Dewey,
+Joseph Tuckerman, James Walker, George Ripley, Samuel J. May, John G.
+Palfrey, Ezra S. Gannett, Samuel Gilman, George R. Noyes, William G. Eliot,
+Andrew P. Peabody, F.A. Farley, James Freeman Clarke, S.G. Bulfinch, George
+Putnam, Joseph Allen, Frederic H. Hedge, Edward B. Hall, George E. Ellis,
+Thomas B. Fox, Charles T. Brooks, J.H. Morison, Henry W. Bellows, William
+H. Furness, John Cordner, Chandler Robbins, Augustus Woodbury, and William
+R. Alger. Ten or twelve tracts were issued yearly, those of the year having
+a consecutive page numbering, so that, in fact, they appeared in the form
+of a monthly periodical, each tract bearing the date of its publication,
+and being sent regularly to all subscribers to the Association. In all,
+three hundred tracts appeared in this form in the first series, making
+twenty-six volumes.
+
+For nearly half a century none of the tracts of the Association were
+published for free distribution. They were issued at prices ranging from
+two to ten cents each, according to the size, some of them having not more
+than ten or twelve pages, while others had more than a hundred. So long as
+there was an eagerness for theological reading, and an earnest intellectual
+interest in the questions which divided the several religious bodies of the
+country from each other, it was not difficult to sell editions of from
+3,000 to 10,000 copies of all the tracts published by the Association. From
+the first, however, there were many calls for tracts for free distribution.
+To meet this demand, there was formed in Boston, by a number of young men
+during the year 1827, The Unitarian Book and Pamphlet Society, for "the
+gratuitous distribution of Unitarian publications of an approved
+character." It undertook especially to distribute "such publications as
+shall be issued by the American Unitarian Association or recommended by
+it." This society also circulated tracts printed by The Christian Register
+and The Christian World, the call for such publications having led the
+publishers of these periodicals to give their aid in meeting the demand for
+pamphlets on theological problems and on practical religious duties. The
+society also distributed Bibles to the poor of the city and in more distant
+country places, furnishing them to missionaries and others who would
+undertake work of this kind. In the same manner they gave away large
+numbers of books, their list for 1836 including Scougal's Life of God in
+the Soul of Man, Ware's Formation of the Christian Character, and works by
+Worcester, Channing Whitman, and Greenwood. The call for aid was
+considerable from the western and southern states; and books were sent to
+Havana, New Brunswick, and the Sandwich Islands. In the winter of 1840-41
+this society was reorganized, an urgent appeal was made to the churches for
+an increase of funds, and during the next few years its work was large and
+important.
+
+In the year 1848 was begun a special effort for the circulation of
+Unitarian books, on the part of The Book and Pamphlet Society, The Society
+for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity, as well as by the
+Unitarian Association. In that year the second of these organizations sent
+out circulars to 263 colleges and theological schools, offering to give
+Unitarian books, to those desiring to receive them; and to 59 of these
+institutions assortments of books worth from two dollars to one hundred
+dollars were forwarded. The first request came from the Catholic College at
+Worcester, and the last from the Wisconsin University at Madison. At the
+same time the Association was pressing the sale and free distribution of
+the Works and the Memoir of Dr. Charming, as well as various books by
+Peabody, Livermore, Bartol, and others.
+
+The Association began to make use of colporters about the year 1847. The
+next year it had two young ministers engaged in this work, and by 1850 this
+kind of missionary labor had increased to considerable proportions.
+Especially in the West was much use made of the colporter, and in this way
+in many of the states the works of Channing were sold in large numbers. By
+these agents, tracts were given away with a free hand, and books were given
+to ministers and those who especially needed them. The Western ministers,
+almost without exception, served as colporters, selling books and
+distributing them as important helps to their missionary labors. In many
+communities zealous laymen took part in this kind of service, and the
+several depositaries of books and tracts were used as centres from which
+colporters and others could draw their supplies. As early as 1835 a general
+depositary had been established in Cincinnati, and in 1849 one was opened
+in Chicago.
+
+The Association could not have undertaken any work that would have brought
+in a larger or more immediate return in the way of religious education and
+spiritual growth than this of the publication of tracts and books. Previous
+to 1850 a doctrinal sermon was rarely preached in a Unitarian church, and
+the tracts were the most important means of giving to the members of
+established churches a knowledge of Unitarian theology. By the same means
+many other persons were made acquainted with the Unitarian beliefs, and the
+result was to be seen in the formation of churches where tracts and books
+had been largely distributed.[14]
+
+[Sidenote: Domestic Missions.]
+
+The work of domestic missions from the first largely claimed the attention
+of the Association, and it was one the chief objects in its formation.
+During the summer of 1826 the members of the Harvard Divinity School were
+sent throughout New England to gather information, and to preach where
+opportunity offered. The special object was to make ministers and
+congregations acquainted with the purposes of the Association. It was found
+that there was much opposition to it, and that in many parishes there
+existed no desire to have its mission extended.
+
+Persons of all shades of belief were connected with many of the liberal
+parishes, some of the churches not having as yet ceased their relations
+with the towns in which they were located; and the ministers were not
+willing to have theological questions brought to the attention of their
+congregations. "The great objection everywhere seems to be," reported one
+of the young men, who had travelled through many of the towns of central
+Massachusetts, "that the clergymen do not like to awaken party spirit.
+People will go on quietly performing all external duties of religion
+without asking themselves if they are listening to the doctrine of the
+Trinity or not; but the moment you wish to act, they call up all their old
+prejudices, and take a very firm stand. This necessarily creates division
+and dissension, and renders the situation of the minister very
+uncomfortable."[15] The ministers did not preach on theological subjects;
+and, while they were liberal themselves, they had not instructed their
+parishioners in such a manner that they followed in the same path of
+thinking which their leaders had travelled.
+
+It was evident, therefore, that there was work enough in New England for
+the Association to accomplish, and such as would fully tax its
+resources.[16] It had turned its eyes toward the West and South, however;
+and it was not willing to leave these fields unoccupied. In 1836 the
+general secretary, Charles Briggs, spent eight months in these regions; and
+he found everywhere large opportunities for the spread of Unitarianism.
+Promising openings were found at Erie, Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit,
+Marietta, Tremont, Jacksonville, Memphis, and Nashville, in which villages
+or cities churches were soon after formed. It was reported at this time
+that there was hardly a town in the West where there were not Unitarians,
+or in which it was not possible by the right kind of effort to establish a
+Unitarian church.
+
+As a result of the interest awakened by the tour of the general secretary,
+fourteen missionaries were put into the field in 1837. In 1838 twenty-three
+missionaries visited eleven states, including New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
+Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky Alabama, and Georgia.[17] They were
+men of experience in parish labors, but they did not go out to the new
+country to remain there permanently. They attracted large congregations,
+however, formed several societies which promised to be permanent,
+administered the ordinances, established Sunday-schools, and did much to
+strengthen the churches. In 1839 seven preachers were sent into the west,
+and at the next anniversary there was an urgent call made by the
+Association for funds with which to establish a permanent missionary agent
+in the field. Something more was needed than a few Massachusetts ministers
+preaching from town to town with no purpose of locating with any of the
+churches they helped to organize. Ministers for the new churches were
+urgently demanded, but few men from New England were willing to remove to
+the west; and, though recruits came from the orthodox churches, this source
+of supply was not sufficient.
+
+The repeated calls made for larger resources with which to carry on the
+work of domestic missions resulted in meetings held in Boston during the
+year 1841, at which pledges were made to a fund of $10,000 yearly for five
+years, to be used for missionary purposes. This sum was secured in 1843 and
+the next four years, so that larger aid was given to missionary activities
+and to the building of churches. At the annual meeting of 1849 special
+attention was given to the subject of domestic missions, and plans were
+devised for largely extending all the activities in this direction. Much
+interest was taken in the western work during the following years, and
+slowly new churches came into existence. In 1849 Rev. Edward P. Bond was
+sent to San Francisco, where a number of New England people had held lay
+services and formed a church, and in a few years a strong society had grown
+up in that city. Mr. Bond also went to the Sandwich Islands; but he was not
+able to open a mission there, owing to ill-health. In the South the work
+languished, largely owing to the growth of anti-slavery sentiment in the
+North, with which Unitarians were generally in sympathy.
+
+From 1830 to 1850 the Unitarians were confronted by the greatest
+opportunity which has ever opened to them for missionary activities. The
+vast region of the middle west was in a formative state, the people were
+everywhere receptive to liberal influences, other churches had not been
+firmly established, and there was urgent demand for leadership of a
+progressive and rational kind. Here has come to be the controlling centre
+of American life,--in politics, education, and social power. A few of the
+leaders saw the opportunity, but the churches were not ready to respond to
+their appeals.
+
+The work accomplished by the Association during the first twenty-five or
+thirty years of its existence, the period reviewed in this chapter, was
+small, compared with the opportunity and with the wishes of those who most
+had at heart the interests for the promotion of which it was established.
+Yet there was wanting in no year encouragement for its friends or something
+accomplished that cheered them to larger efforts. In 1850, at the
+twenty-fifth anniversary, historical addresses were delivered by Samuel
+Osgood, John G. Palfrey, Henry W. Bellows, Edward E. Hale, and Lant
+Carpenter; and a hopeful review of the labors of the Association was
+presented by the executive committee. First of all its efforts had been
+directed to securing religious liberty. Then came its philanthropic
+enterprises, and finally its missionary labors. During the quarter of a
+century one hundred churches that were weak and struggling, owing to their
+situation in towns of decreasing population or in cities not congenial to
+their teachings, had been aided. More than fifty vigorous churches had been
+planted in the west and south, nearly all of them helped in some way by the
+Association. There was a renewed call for strong men to enter the
+missionary field, and it was uttered more urgently at this time than ever
+before. Special pride was expressed in the high quality of the religious
+writings produced by Unitarians, and in the nobleness the men and women who
+had been connected with denominational activities.[18]
+
+[1] An eighteenth-century term for the Congregational churches, which
+     were the legally established churches throughout New England, an
+     supported by the towns.
+
+[2] Boston Unitarianism, 67.
+
+[3] Memoir of Dr. Channing, one-volume edition, 215.
+
+[4] Ibid., 432.
+
+[5] Ibid., 427.
+
+[6] Memoir of Ezra Stiles Gannett, by W.C. Gannett, 103.
+
+[7] The records give the following names: Drs. Freeman, Channing, Lowell,
+     Tuckerman, Bancroft, Pierce, and Allyn; Rev. Messrs. Henry Ware,
+     Francis Parkman, J.G. Palfrey, Jared Sparks, Samuel Ripley, A.
+     Bigelow, A. Abbot, C. Francis, L. Capen, J. Pierpont, James Walker,
+     Mr. Harding, and Mr. Edes; and the following laymen,--Richard
+     Sullivan, Stephen Higginson, B. Gould, H.J. Oliver, S. Dorr, Colonel
+     Joseph May, C.G. Loring, George Bond, Samuel A. Eliot, G.B. Emerson,
+     C.P. Phelps, Lewis Tappan, David Reed, Mr. Storer, J. Rucker, N.
+     Mitchell, Robert Rantoul, Alden Bradford, Mr. Dwight, Mr. Mackintosh,
+     General Walker, Mr. Strong, Dr. John Ware, and Professor Andrews
+     Norton.
+
+[8] John Brazer, The Christian Examiner, xx. 240; Alonzo Hill, American
+     Unitarian Biography, i. 171.
+
+[9] The Liberal Christian, March 3, 1875.
+
+[10] Although Lewis Tappan took a zealous interest in the formation of the
+     Unitarian Association, as he did in all Unitarian activities of the
+     time, in the autumn of 1827 he withdrew from the Unitarian
+     fellowship, and joined the orthodox Congregationalist. In a letter
+     addressed to a Unitarian minister he explained his reasons for so
+     doing. This letter circulated for some time in manuscript, and in
+     1828 was printed in a pamphlet with the title, Letter from a
+     Gentleman in Boston to a Unitarian Clergyman of that City. Want of
+     Piety among Unitarians, failure to sustain missionary enterprises,
+     and the absence of a rigid business integrity he assigned as reasons
+     for his withdrawal. This pamphlet excited much discussion, pro and
+     con; and it was answered in a caustic review by J.P. Blanchard.
+
+[11] Moses George Thomas was a graduate of Brown and of the Harvard
+     Divinity School, was settled in Dover, N.H., from 1829 to 1845,
+     Broadway Church in South Boston from 1845 to 1848, New Bedford 1848
+     to 1854, and was subsequently minister at large in the same city.
+
+[12] In writing to Charles Briggs from Newport, under date of July 30
+     1836, Dr. Channing wrote, "In the pressure of subjects, when I saw
+     you, I forgot to say to you, that I cannot accept the office with
+     which the Unitarian Association honored me." That is the whole of
+     what he wrote on the subject. No one else was elected to the office
+     for year. It is evident, therefore, that his name should occupy the
+     place of president.
+
+[13] The depositaries in Massachusetts were at Salem, Concord, Hingham,
+     Plymouth, Yarmouth, Cambridge, Worcester, Northampton, Springfield,
+     and Greenfield; in New Hampshire, at Concord, Portsmouth, Keene, and
+     Amherst; in Maine, at Hallowell, Brunswick, and Eastport; and, in
+     Connecticut, at Brooklyn. In 1828 the number had increased to
+     twenty-five in Massachusetts, six in Maine, seven in New Hampshire,
+     one in Rhode Island, four in New York, two in Pennsylvania, and two
+     in Maryland. At the first annual meeting of the Unitarian Association
+     a system of auxiliaries was recommended, which was inaugurated the
+     next year. It was proposed to organize an auxiliary to the
+     Association in every parish, and also in each county. These societies
+     came rapidly into existence, were of much help to the Association in
+     raising money and in distributing its tracts, and energetic efforts
+     were made on the part of the officers of the Association to extend
+     their number and influence. They continued in existence for about
+     twenty years, and gradually disappeared. They numbered about one
+     hundred and fifty when most prosperous.
+
+[14] During the first twenty-five years of the Association, 272 tracts of
+     the first series were issued, and also 29 miscellaneous tracts and 37
+     reports. The number of copies published was estimated as 1,764,000,
+     making an average of 70,000 each year. Of these tracts, 103 were
+     practical, and 93 doctrinal; and, of the doctrinal, one-half were on
+     the Divine Unity, one-sixth on the Atonement, ten on Regeneration,
+     five on the Ordinances, four on Human Nature, three on Retribution,
+     and two on the Holy Spirit. In the Monthly Journal, May, 1860, Vol.
+     I. pp. 230-240, were given the titles and authors.
+
+[15] From a letter of Samuel K. Lothrop, afterward minister of the Brattle
+     Street Church.
+
+[16] The following letter is of interest, not only because of the name of
+     the writer, but because it gives a very good idea of the work done by
+     the first missionaries of the Association. It is dated at
+     Northampton, Mass., October 9, 1827. "My dear Sir,--I designed when I
+     left you to send some earlier notice of my doings than this; but as
+     it has not been in my power to say much, I have said nothing. Mr.
+     Hall is preparing an account of his own missions, but thinks it not
+     worth while to send it to you till it is completed. The first Sabbath
+     after my arrival I preached here. The second, for the convenience of
+     the Greenfield people, an exchange was made, and I went to Deerfield,
+     and Dr. Willard went to Colrain. There were some unfavorable
+     circumstances which operated to diminish the audience, but they were
+     glad to see and hear him. The fourth Sabbath (which followed the
+     meeting of the Franklin Association) I preached at Greenfield, and
+     Mr. Bailey went to Colrain. I enclose his journal. The fifth Sabbath
+     at Deerfield, and Dr. Willard at Adams in Berkshire. I have not seen
+     him since his return. I have told the Franklin Association I would
+     remain here till November, and in consequence have been thus put to
+     and fro, but expect to preach the three coming Sundays in
+     Northampton. I have offered my services to preach lectures in the
+     week, but circumstances have made it inexpedient in towns where it
+     was proposed. The clergymen are very glad to see me, having feared
+     that the mission was indefinitely postponed. They find the better
+     sort of people in most of the towns inquisitive and favorably
+     disposed to views of liberal Christianity. It is a singular fact, of
+     which I hear frequent mention made, that in elections Unitarians are
+     almost universally preferred when the suffrage is by ballot, and
+     rejected when given by hand ballot. In Franklin county it is thought
+     there is a majority of Unitarians. I have been much disappointed in
+     being obliged to lead a vagrant life, as you know I came hither with
+     different expectations, and hoped for leisure and retirement for
+     study, which I needed much. But it would not do for a missionary to
+     be stiff necked, and so I have been a shuttle. I have promised to go
+     to New Bedford the first three Sundays of November. With great
+     regard, your servant, R. Waldo Emerson." From this letter it will be
+     seen that Emerson supplied the pulpits at Northampton and Greenfield
+     in order that the ministers in those towns might preach elsewhere.
+
+[17] Fourteenth Annual Report, 14. "They were the following: Rev. George
+     Ripley, Boston; Rev. A.B. Muzzey, Cambridgeport; Rev. Samuel Barrett,
+     Boston; Rev. Mr. Green, East Cambridge; Rev. Calvin Lincoln,
+     Fitchburg; Rev. E.B. Willson, Westford; Dr. James Kendall, Plymouth;
+     Rev. George W. Hosmer, Buffalo; Rev. Warren Burton, Dr. Thompson,
+     Salem; Rev. J.P.B. Storer, Syracuse; Rev. Charles Babbidge,
+     Pepperell; Rev. John M. Myrick, Walpole; Rev. J.D. Swett, Boston;
+     Rev. A.D. Jones, Brighton; Rev. Henry Emmons, Meadville; Rev. J.F.
+     Clarke, Louisville; Rev. F.D. Huntington, Rev. B.F. Barrett, Rev.
+     G.F. Simmons, Rev. C. Nightingale, Mr. Wilson, of the Divinity
+     School; and Mr. C.P. Cranch. Among the places where they preached
+     are Houlton Me.; Syracuse, Lockport, Lewiston, Pekin, and Vernon,
+     N.Y.; Philadelphia and Erie, Pa.; Marietta, Zanesville, Cleveland,
+     and Toledo, Ohio; Detroit, Mich.; Owensburg, Ky.; Chicago, Peoria,
+     Tremont, Jacksonville, Hillsboro, and several other places in
+     Illinois."
+
+[18] For a most interesting account of the growth of the denomination, see
+     The Christian Examiner for May, 1854, lvi. 397, article by John
+     Parkman.
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+
+THE PERIOD OF RADICALISM.
+
+Before the controversy with the Orthodox had come to its end, a somewhat
+similar conflict of opinions arose within the Unitarian ranks. The same
+influences that had led the Unitarians away from the Orthodox were now
+causing the more radical Unitarians to advance beyond their more
+conservative neighbors. English philosophy had given direction to the
+Unitarian movement in America; and now German philosophy was helping to
+develop what has been designated as transcendentalism, which largely found
+expression within the Unitarian body. Beginning with 1835, the more liberal
+Unitarians were increasingly active. Hedge's[1] Club held its meetings,
+The Dial was published, Brook Farm lived its brief day of a reformed
+humanity, Parker began his preaching in Boston, Emerson was lecturing and
+publishing, and the more radical younger Unitarian preachers were bravely
+speaking for a religion natural to man and authenticated by the inner
+witness of the truth.
+
+The agitation thus started went on its way with many varying
+manifestations, and with a growing incisiveness of statement and
+earnestness of feeling. The new teachings gained the interest and the faith
+of the young in increasing numbers. In pulpits and on the platform, in
+newspapers and magazines, in essays and addresses, this new teaching was
+uttered for the world's hearing. The breeze thus created seems to have
+grown into a gale, but The Christian Register and The Christian Examiner
+gave almost no indication that it had blown their way. In the official
+actions and in the publications of the Unitarian Association there was no
+word indicating that the discussion had come to its knowledge. All at once,
+however, in 1853, it came into the greatest prominence, as the result of
+action taken by the Unitarian Association; and, thenceforth, for a quarter
+of a century it was never absent as a disturbing element in the
+intellectual and religious life of the Unitarian body.
+
+The early Unitarians were believers in the supernatural and in the miracles
+of the New Testament. They accepted without question the ideas on this
+subject that had been entertained by all Protestants from the days of
+Luther and Calvin. When Theodore Parker and the transcendentalists began to
+question the miraculous foundations of Christianity, many Unitarians were
+quite unprepared to accept their theories. They believed that the miracles
+of the New Testament afford the only evidence for the truthfulness of
+Christianity. This issue was distinctly stated in the twenty-eighth annual
+report of the Unitarian Association for 1853, wherein an attempt was made
+to defend the Unitarian body against the charge of infidelity and
+rationalism made by the Orthodox. The teachings of the transcendentalists
+and radicals had been attributed to all Unitarians, and the leaders of the
+Association felt that it was time to define explicitly the position they
+occupied. Therefore they said, in the report of that year:--"We desire, in
+a denominational capacity, to assert our profound belief in the Divine
+origin, the Divine authority, the Divine sanctions, of the religion of
+Jesus Christ. This is the basis of our associated action. We desire openly
+to declare our belief as a denomination, so far as it can be officially
+represented by the American Unitarian Association, that God, moved by his
+own love, did raise up Jesus to aid in our redemption from sin, did by him
+pour a fresh flood of purifying life through the withered veins of humanity
+and along the corrupted channels of the world, and is, by his religion,
+forever sweeping the nations with regenerating gales from heaven, and
+visiting the hearts of men with celestial solicitations. We receive the
+teachings of Christ, separated from all foreign admixtures and later
+accretions, as infallible truth from God."[2] At the same meeting a
+resolution was adopted, "without a dissenting voice," which declared that
+"the Divine authority of the Gospel, as founded on a special and miraculous
+interposition of God, is the basis of the action of the Association."[3]
+
+As these statements indicate, the majority of Unitarians were very
+conservative at this time in their theological position and methods. They
+were nearly as hesitating and reticent in their beliefs as Unitarians as
+they had been while connected with the older Congregational body. The
+reason for this was the same in the later as in the earlier period, that a
+predominant social conservatism held them aloof from all that was
+intellectually aggressive and theologically rationalistic. They had
+outgrown Tritheism, as it had been taught for generations in New England;
+they had refused to accept the fatalism that had been taught in the name of
+Calvin, and they had rejected the ecclesiastical tyrannies that had been
+imposed on men by the New England theology. But they had advanced only a
+little way in accepting modern thought as a basis of faith, and in seeking
+a rational interpretation of the relations of God and man. Their belief in
+a superhuman Christ was theoretically weaker, but practically stronger,
+than that of the churches from which they had withdrawn; while the grounds
+of that belief were in the one instance the same as in the other.
+
+[Sidenote: Depression in Denominational Activities.]
+
+The activities of the Unitarian Association were largely interfered with by
+these differences of opinion. The more conservative churches were unwilling
+to contribute to its treasury because it did not exclude the radicals from
+all connection with it. The radicals, on, the other hand, withheld their
+gifts because, while they were not excommunicated, they were regarded with
+suspicion by many of the churches, and did not have the fullest recognition
+from the Association.
+
+This controversy was emphasized by that arising from the reform movements
+of the day, especially the agitation against slavery. Almost without
+exception the radicals belonged to the anti-slavery party, while the
+conservative churches were generally opposed to this agitation. As a
+result, anti-slavery efforts became a serious cause of discord in the
+Unitarian churches, and helped to cripple the resources of the Association.
+When, as the climax of all, the civil war came on, the Association was
+brought to a condition of almost desperate poverty. Not more than twoscore
+churches contributed to its treasury, and it was obliged, to curtail its
+expenses in every direction.[4]
+
+Up to the year 1865 the Unitarians had not been efficiently organized; and
+they had developed very imperfectly what has been called denominational
+consciousness, or the capacity for co-operative efforts. The Unitarian
+Association was not a representative body, and it depended wholly upon
+individuals for its membership. Not more than one-fourth or, at the
+largest, one-third of the Unitarian churches were represented in its
+support and in its activities. There were: Unitarian churches, and there
+was a Unitarian movement; but such a thing as a Unitarian denomination, in
+any clearly defined meaning of the words, did not exist. This fact was
+explained by James Freeman Clarke in 1863, when he said that "the
+traditions of the Unitarian body are conservative and timid."[5] How this
+attitude affected the Unitarian Association was pointedly stated by Mr.
+Clarke, after several years of experience as its secretary. "The Unitarian
+churches in Boston," he wrote, "see no reason for diffusing their faith.
+They treat it as a luxury to be kept for themselves, as they keep Boston
+Common. The Boston churches, with the exception of a few noble and generous
+examples, have not done a great deal for Unitarian missions. I have heard,
+it said that they do not wish to make Unitarianism too common. The church
+in Brattle street contains wealthy and generous persons who have given
+largely to humane objects and to all public purposes; but we believe that,
+even while their pastor was president of the Unitarian Association, they
+never gave a dollar to that Association for its missionary objects. The
+society in King's Chapel was the first in the United States which professed
+Unitarianism. It is so wealthy that it might give ten or twenty thousand
+dollars a year to missionary objects without feeling it. It has always been
+very liberal to its ministers, to all philanthropic and benevolent objects,
+and its members have probably given away millions of dollars for public and
+social uses; but it never gives anything to diffuse Unitarianism."[6]
+
+Dr. Samuel K. Lothrop continued as the president of the Unitarian
+Association until the annual meeting of 1858, when Dr. Edward Brooks Hall
+was elected to that position for one year. After short pastorates in
+Northampton and Cincinnati, Dr. Hall had been settled over the First Church
+in Providence in 1832, which position he held until his death in 1866. At
+the annual meeting of 1859 Dr. Frederic H. Hedge was elected president, and
+he was twice re-elected. His interest in the Association was active, and he
+often spoke at the public meetings. One of the ablest thinkers and
+theologians that has appeared among Unitarians in this country, he always
+rightly estimated the practical activities of organized religious
+movements. He was succeeded in 1862 by Dr. Rufus P. Stebbins, who held the
+office for three years. After a settlement in Leominster, Dr. Stebbins was
+the first president of the Meadville Theological School from 1844 to 1856.
+Then followed a pastorate in Woburn, after which he went to Ithaca and
+opened a mission for the students of Cornell University, which grew into
+the Unitarian church in that town. From 1877 he was pastor at Newton Centre
+until his death in 1885.
+
+The secretary of the Association from 1850 to 1853 was Rev. Calvin Lincoln,
+who had been settled in Fitchburg for thirty-one years, and who was the
+minister of the First Church in Hingham from 1855 until his death in 1881.
+He was succeeded in 1853 by Rev. Henry A. Miles, who continued in office
+until 1859. Dr. Miles was settled in Hallowell and Lowell before serving
+the Association, and in Longwood and Hingham (Third Parish) afterward. His
+little book on The Birth of Jesus has gained him recognition as a
+theologian of ability and a critic of independent judgment. For three years
+Rev. James Freeman Clarke was the secretary; and in 1861 he was succeeded
+by George W. Fox, who served in that capacity until the annual meeting of
+1865. Mr. Fox wrote the annual reports from 1862 to 1864, and efficiently
+performed all the duties of the secretary which could devolve upon a
+layman, with the exception of editing The Monthly Journal, a task which was
+continued by James Freeman Clarke.[7]
+
+[Sidenote: Publications.]
+
+In spite of its restricted income during this troubled period, the
+Association was able, owing to its invested funds,[8] to increase its
+publishing operations to a considerable extent. The number of tracts
+published, however, was much smaller; and their monthly issue was
+discontinued in order to publish The Quarterly Journal of the American
+Unitarian Association, the first number of which appeared in October, 1853.
+During the first year each number contained ninety-six pages, which were
+increased to one hundred and ninety-two in 1854, but reduced to one hundred
+and thirty the following year. In 1860 this publication became The Monthly
+Journal; and it was continued until December, 1869, each number containing
+forty-eight pages. The Journal was sent to all subscribers to the funds of
+the Association, to life members, to all churches contributing to its
+funds, as well as to regular subscribers. Its circulation in 1855 was
+7,000, and it increased to 15,000 before it was discontinued. It was used
+largely, however, for free distribution as a missionary document.
+
+The Journal served an important purpose during the seventeen years of its
+publication, as a means of bringing the Association into touch with its
+constituency and of making the people acquainted with its work. It
+published the records of the meetings of the executive committee as well as
+of the annual meeting, it gave numerous extracts from the correspondence of
+the secretary, it contained the news of the churches, and all the
+denominational activities were kept constantly before its readers. In its
+pages were frequently published biographies of prominent Unitarians,
+notable addresses were printed, sermons appeared frequently, and able
+theological articles. During the editorship of James Freeman Clarke it
+contained the successive chapters of his Orthodoxy: Its Truths and Errors.
+It also printed one or more chapters of Alger's History of the Doctrine of
+the Future Life. The secretary of the Association was its editor, and he
+made it at once a theological tract and a denominational newspaper.
+
+The increase in demand for Unitarian tracts and books had been so large
+that early in 1854 the executive committee of the Association decided that
+a special effort should be made to meet it. They called a meeting in
+Freeman Place Chapel on the afternoon of February 1, which was largely
+attended. An address was given by Dr. Lothrop, the president, who said that
+Channing's works had reached a sale of 100,000 copies, and Ware's Formation
+of Christian Character 12,000, that there was an urgent call for liberal
+works that would meet the spiritual needs of the age. A large number of
+prominent ministers and laymen addressed the meeting, and expressed
+themselves as thoroughly sympathy with its objects. A committee was
+appointed to consider the proposition made by Dr. George E. Ellis, that a
+fund of $50,000 be raised for the publication of books. This committee
+reported a month later through its chairman, George B. Emerson, in favor of
+the project; and it was voted that the money should be raised. It was
+easier to pass this vote, however, than to secure the money from the
+churches; for in 1859, after five years of effort, the sum collected was
+only $28,163.33.
+
+The money secured, however, was immediately utilized in the publication of
+a number of books. Three series of works were undertaken, the first of
+these being The Theological Library, in which were published Selections
+from the Works of Dr. Channing; Wilson's Unitarian Principles Confirmed by
+Trinitarian Testimonies; a one-volume edition of Norton's Statement of
+Reasons for not Believing the Doctrines of Trinitarians concerning the
+Nature of God and the Person of Christ, with a memoir of the author by Dr.
+William Newell; a volume of Theological Essays selected from the writings
+of Jowett, Tholuck, Guizot, Roland Williams, and others, and edited by
+George R. Noyes; and Martineau's Studies of Christianity, a series of
+miscellaneous papers, edited by William R. Alger. The Devotional Library,
+the second of the three series, included The Altar at Home, a series of
+prayers, collects, and litanies for family devotions, written by a large
+number of the leading Unitarian ministers, and edited by Dr. Miles, the
+secretary of the Association; Clarke's Christian Doctrine of Prayer; Thomas
+T. Stone's The Rod and the Staff, a transcendentalist presentation of
+Christianity as a spiritual life; The Harp and the Cross, a selection of
+religious poetry, edited by Stephen G. Bulfinch; Sears's Athanasia, or
+Foregleams of Immortality; and Seven Stormy Sundays, a volume of original
+sermons by well-known ministers, with devotional services, edited by Miss
+Lucretia P. Hale. A Biblical Library was also planned, to include a popular
+commentary on the New Testament, a Bible Dictionary, and other works of a
+like character; but John H. Morison's Disquisitions and Notes on the Gospel
+of Matthew was the only volume published.
+
+[Sidenote: A Firm of Publishers.]
+
+In May, 1859, a young business man of Boston, James P. Walker, established
+the firm of Walker, Wise & Co., for the publication of Unitarian books. In
+1863 Horace B. Fuller joined the firm, and it became Walker, Fuller & Co.
+This firm took charge of all the publishing interests of the Association,
+and the head of the house was ambitious of bringing out all the liberal
+books issued in this country. Among the works published were: The New
+Discussion of the Trinity, a series of articles and sermons by Hedge,
+Clarke, Sears, Dewey, and Starr King; Lamson's Church of the First Three
+Centuries; Farley's Unitarianism Defined; Recent Inquiries in Theology,
+essays by Jowett, Mark Pattison, Baden Powell, and other English Broad
+Churchmen, edited by Dr. F.H. Hedge; Alien's Hebrew Men and Times; Dall's
+Woman's Right to Labor; Muzzey's Christ in the Will, the Heart, and the
+Life; Ichabod Nichols's Sermons; Martineau's Common Prayer for Christian
+Worship; Cobbe's Religious Demands of the Age; Ware's Silent Pastor;
+Frothingham's Stories from the Patriarchs; Clarke's Hour which Cometh and
+Now Is; Parker's Prayers; a second series The Altar at Home; Hedge's Reason
+in Religion; Life of Horace Mann by his wife, as well as certain novels,
+historical works, and books for the young. The demand for liberal books was
+not large enough, however, even with the aid of the Association, to make
+such a business successful; and in the autumn of 1866 the publishing firm
+of Walker, Fuller & Co. failed. In part the business was carried on for a
+time by Horace B. Fuller.
+
+[Sidenote: The Brooks Fund.]
+
+An important work in the distribution of books was inaugurated in 1859 in
+connection with the Meadville Theological School, by means of the Fund for
+Liberal Christianity established at that time by Joshua Brooks of New York.
+He appointed as trustee of the fund Professor Frederick Huidekoper, who
+gave his services gratuitously to its care, and to the direction of the
+distribution of books for which it provided. The sum given to this purpose
+was $20,000, which was increased by favorable investments to $23,000. The
+original purpose was to aid in any way that seemed desirable the cause of
+liberal Christianity, and a part of the income was devoted to helping
+struggling societies. In time the whole income, with the approval of the
+donor, was centred upon the distribution of books to settled ministers,
+irrespective of denomination. In 1877 the whole number of books that had
+been distributed was 40,000. At the present time about $1,000 yearly are
+devoted to this work, the recipients being graduates of the Meadville
+Theological School, and the ministers of any denomination who may ask for
+them, provided they are settled west of the Hudson River. The demands upon
+the funds have increased so rapidly that it has become necessary to reduce
+the amount of each gift.
+
+[Sidenote: Missionary Efforts.]
+
+The missionary activities of the Association did not actually cease even in
+these dark days. In May, 1855, Rev. Ephraim Nute was sent to Kansas, which
+was then the battle-ground between the pro-slavery and the anti-slavery
+forces of the nation. He established himself at Lawrence, and was the first
+settled pastor in the state. With the aid of the Association a church was
+built at Lawrence in 1859, which was the first in the state to receive
+dedication and to be used as a permanent house of worship. Mr. Nute went
+through all the trying scenes preceding the opening of the civil war, and
+did his part in maintaining the cause of liberty. He was succeeded by Rev.
+John S. Brown in 1859, who labored in this difficult field for several
+years.
+
+A church was organized in San Francisco in 1849, without the aid of a
+minister; and there was gathered a large and prosperous congregation. In
+1850 Rev. Charles A. Farley took up the work; and he was succeeded by Rev.
+Joseph Harrington, Rev. Frederick T. Gray, and Rev. Rufus P. Cutler. Thomas
+Starr King preached his first sermon in the church April 28, 1860; and he
+spoke to crowded congregations until his death, March 4, 1864. On January
+10, 1864, a new church was dedicated, in the morning to the worship of God,
+and in the afternoon to the service of man.
+
+Among those who carried forward the Unitarian cause in the middle west was
+Rev. Nahor A. Staples, a brilliant preacher and a zealous worker, who was
+settled in Milwaukee at the end of 1856, and who made his influence widely
+felt around him. In 1859 Rev. Robert Collyer began his work in Chicago as a
+city Missionary; and the next year Unity Church was organized, with him as
+the pastor. In 1859 Rev. Charles G. Ames began his connection with the
+Unitarians at Minneapolis, and he subsequently labored at Bloomington.
+After a short pastorate in Albany he began general missionary labors on the
+Pacific coast. A characteristic type of the western Unitarian was Rev.
+Ichabod Codding, who preached at Bloomington, Keokuk, and Baraboo, but who
+had no formal settlement. He was a breezy, radical, and ardent preacher,
+bold in statement and picturesque in style, a zealous advocate of freedom
+for the slave, and warmly devoted to other reforms. He was fitted admirably
+for the pioneer preaching to which he largely devoted himself; and his
+strong, vigorous, and aggressive ideas were acceptable to those who heard
+him.
+
+[Sidenote: The Western Unitarian Conference.]
+
+There was organized in the church at Cincinnati, May 7, 1852, the Annual
+Conference of Western Unitarian Churches. At this meeting delegates were
+present from the churches in Buffalo, Meadville, Pittsburg, Wheeling,
+Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, Cannelton, Quincy, Geneva, Chicago, and
+Detroit. Much enthusiasm was expressed in anticipation of this meeting,
+many letters were written, approving of the proposed organization, and
+large expectations were manifested as to its promised work. In harmony with
+these large and generous anticipations of the influence of the conference
+was its statement of purposes, as presented in its constitution. It was
+organized for "the promotion of the Christian spirit in the several
+churches which compose it, and the increase of vital, practical religion;
+the diffusion of Gospel truth and the accomplishment of such works of
+Christian benevolence as may be agreed upon; the support of domestic or
+home missionaries, the publication of tracts, the distribution of religious
+books, the promotion of theological education, and extending aid to such
+societies as may need it."
+
+When the conference organized, Rev. William G. Eliot was elected the
+president, Mr. Charles Harlow and Rev. A.A. Livermore the recording and
+corresponding secretaries. During the year $994.22 were raised for
+missionary purposes, and three missionaries--Boyer, Conant, and
+Bradley--were kept in the field, mainly in Illinois and Michigan. The
+reports of these men, given at the second meeting of the conference, held
+in St. Louis, were full of enthusiasm and courage. At this meeting the
+constituency numbered nineteen churches, located in eleven states. Several
+struggling societies had been aided, assistance given to young men
+preparing for the ministry, and many tracts and books had been distributed.
+A book depositary was opened in Cincinnati, and it was proposed to
+establish one in every large city in the west. The call was for a much
+larger number of preachers, it being rightly maintained that only the
+living man can reach the people in such a region. "The Unitarian minister
+is _per se_ a bookseller and colporter also, and he can thus preach to
+multitudes who never hear his voice."
+
+The early anticipations of a rapid advance of Unitarianism in the west were
+not realized, partly owing to the want of ministers of energy and the
+necessary staying qualities, and partly to the fact that tradition is
+always far more powerful with the masses of men and women than reason.
+Before the organization of the conference new churches appeared at
+infrequent intervals, though, if those that have ceased to exist were
+counted, they would not be so remote from each other in time.[9] From the
+first there was in the west a distinctive attitude of freedom, which was
+the result in large, measure of its fluctuating conditions, and the absence
+of fixed habits and traditions. In 1853 the missionaries of the conference
+were instructed that "in spirit and in aim the Conference would be
+Christian, not sectarian, and it does not, therefore, require of them
+subscription to any human creed, the wearing of any distinctive name, or
+the doing of any merely sectarian work. All that it requires is, that they
+should be Christians and do Christian work, that they should believe on the
+Lord Jesus Christ as one who spake with authority and whose religion is the
+divinely appointed means for the regeneration of man individually and
+collectively, and that they should labor earnestly, intelligently,
+affectionately, and perseveringly to enthrone this religion in the hearts
+and make it, effective over the lives of men." Such a statement as this,
+indeed, was quite as conservative as anything put forth by Unitarians in
+New England; but behind it was an attitude of free inquiry that gave to
+western Unitarianism distinctive characteristics.
+
+In 1854 a committee reported on the doctrinal basis of the conference, in
+the form of a little book of sixty-five pages, bearing the title of
+Unitarian Views of Christ.[10] It was widely circulated, and served an
+excellent missionary purpose. When the conference accepted the report, in
+which it was declared that Jesus is the Son of God and the miracles of the
+New Testament facts on which the gospel is based, a resolution was
+unanimously passed, asserting that "we have no right to adopt any statement
+of belief as authoritative or as a declaration of the Unitarian faith,
+other than the New Testament." In 1858 it was the opinion of the conference
+that "all who wish to take upon themselves the Christian name should be so
+recognized." The next year the conservatives and radicals came face to
+face, the one party asking for the old faith according to Channing, while
+one or more of the other party asserted their disbelief in the miracles and
+in the resurrection of Christ. In 1860 the conference declared itself
+willing to "welcome as fellow laborers all who are seeking to learn and to
+do the will of the Father and work righteousness, and recommend that in all
+places, with or without preaching, they organize for religious worship and
+culture--the work of faith and the labor of love."
+
+The meeting at Quincy in 1860 was one of great interest and enthusiasm. The
+missionary spirit rose high; and it was proposed to put into the field an
+aggressive worker, and to give him the necessary financial support. To this
+end a missionary association was organized, with Rev. Robert Collyer as the
+president, and Artemas Carter, a successful business man of Chicago, as the
+treasurer. Before the result desired could be realized, the war gave a very
+different direction to all the interests of the western churches. Of the
+twenty-nine ministers in the west at this time, sixteen went into the
+army,--twelve as chaplains, two as officers, and two as privates,--while
+several others devoted themselves to hospital work for longer or shorter
+periods. Rev. Augustus H. Conant, Rev. Leonard Whitney, Rev. Frederick R.
+Newell, and Rev. L.B. Mason answered with their lives to their country's
+call.
+
+The period immediately following the close of the civil war was one of
+generous giving and of great activity on the part of the western churches.
+From 1864 to 1866 the field was occupied by twenty-one new laborers,
+several new societies were organized, four old ones were resuscitated,
+seven new churches were built, and fifteen missionary stations were opened.
+The churches during these two years contributed $5,000 to missionary
+purposes and $13,000 to Antioch College. The degree of success met with in
+the efforts of the Western Conference depended in large degree upon the
+interest and activity of the western churches themselves. When they devoted
+themselves earnestly to missionary work, they contributed to it with a fair
+degree of liberality, and that work prospered. When the conference was
+asked to withdraw from the direction of that work by Rev. Charles Lowe, in
+order to secure greater unity of missionary effort by bringing all work of
+this kind under the direction of the Association, the contributions of the
+churches diminished, and the missionary activities in the west languished.
+However valuable the aid of the Unitarian Association,--and there can be no
+question that it was of the greatest importance,--local interest and
+co-operation were also essential to permanent success. Local activity and
+general oversight were alike necessary.
+
+[Sidenote: The Autumnal Conventions.]
+
+For more than twenty years Autumnal Conventions, as they were called, were
+held in the larger cities, beginning at Worcester in 1842. These meetings
+originated in the Worcester Association of Ministers at a meeting held July
+11, 1842, when the association considered the "desirableness of a meeting
+of Unitarians in the autumn for the purpose of awakening mutual sympathy
+and considering the wants of the Unitarian body."[11]
+
+At the invitation thereafter issued by the Worcester Association of
+ministers a convention was held in the church of the Second Congregational
+Parish in Worcester, October 18-20, 1842. On the first evening a sermon was
+preached by Dr. Ezra S. Gannett, and a committee of business was
+subsequently chosen. The next morning the convention organized, with Dr.
+Francis Parkman as president and Rev. Cazneau Palfrey as secretary. A
+series of resolutions were discussed,[12] and on the second evening a
+sermon was preached by Dr. A.P. Peabody. No essays were read, and nothing
+but the sermons were prepared beforehand. The Christian Register closed its
+report by saying that it could "give but a faint impression of the feeling
+which pervaded the meeting. The discussions were characterized by great
+earnestness and seriousness, and were conducted, at the same time, with
+entire freedom and with candor and liberality toward the differences of
+opinion which, amidst a general unanimity upon great principles, were
+occasionally elicited respecting details and methods. The expectations of
+those who called the convention were abundantly realized."
+
+The second of the Autumnal Conventions was held in Providence, October 2-4,
+1843. On the first evening the theme of the sermon preached by Dr. Dewey
+was the spiritual ministry of Dr. Channing, and it produced a great and
+deep impression. The resolutions discussed related to the duty, on the part
+of Unitarians, of making an explicit statement of their convictions, and an
+earnest application of them to life, and the need on the part of the
+denomination for a more united and vigorous action as a religious body. At
+the third meeting held in Albany, a statement was made by Dr. Dewey that
+exactly defined these gatherings, in their methods and purposes, when he
+said: "This and other conventions like it that are held in our body, I am
+inclined to think, have never been held before in the world. There is
+nothing like them to be found in the records of ecclesiastical history. We
+meet as distinct churches, on the pure democratic basis, which we believe
+to be the true basis of the church of Christ. We meet, without any
+formalities--to institute, or correct no canons--without the slightest
+system whatever. We come to meditate, to assist each other in experience,
+by unfolding our own experience, by declaring our convictions."
+
+The subjects introduced at these meetings were practical, such as commanded
+the interest of both ministers and laymen of the churches. The method
+adopted allowed a free interchange of opinions, and the participation of
+all in the discussions. So great was the interest awakened that these
+meetings were largely attended, and they were to a considerable degree
+helpful in bringing the churches into vital relations with each other.[13]
+
+At the session held in Brooklyn in 1862, great interest was manifested in
+the vespers, then a novelty, that were arranged by Samuel Longfellow. This
+meeting was marked by its glowing patriotism, that rose to a white heat. A
+sermon of great power was preached by Dr. Bellows, interpreting the duty of
+the hour and the destiny of America. The resolutions and the discussions
+were almost wholly along the lines of patriotic duty and devotion suggested
+by the sermon. At the last of the Autumnal Conventions, held in
+Springfield, Mass., October 13-15, 1863, the sermons were preached by Rev.
+Edward Everett Hale and Rev. Octavius B. Frothingham, while the essays were
+by Professor Charles Eliot Norton and Rev. James Freeman Clarke.
+
+The Autumnal Conventions came to an end, probably in part because the civil
+war was more and more absorbing the energies of the people both in and out
+of the churches, and partly because the desire for a more efficient
+organization had begun to make itself felt. In the spring of 1865 was held
+the meeting in New York that resulted in the organization of the National
+Conference, the legitimate successor to the Autumnal Conventions.
+
+[Sidenote: Influence of the Civil War.]
+
+During the period of the civil war, Unitarian activities were largely
+turned in new directions. Unitarians bore their full share in the councils
+of the nation, in the halls of legislation, on the fields of battle, in the
+care of the sick and wounded, and in the final efforts that brought about
+emancipation and peace. At least fifty Unitarian ministers entered the army
+as chaplains, privates, officers, and members of the Sanitary
+Commission.[14]
+
+The Unitarian Association also directed its attention to such work as it
+could accomplish in behalf of the soldiers in the field and in hospitals.
+Books were distributed, tracts published, and hymn-books prepared to meet
+their needs. Rev. John F.W. Ware developed a special gift for writing army
+tracts, of which he wrote about a dozen, which were published by the
+Association. As the war went on, the Association largely increased its
+activities in the army; and, when the end came, it had as many as seventy
+workers in the field, distributing its publications, aiding the Sanitary
+Commission, or acting as nurses and voluntary chaplains in the hospitals.
+The end of the war served rather to increase than to contract its labors,
+aid being largely needed for several months in returning the soldiers to
+their homes and in caring for those who were left in hospitals.
+
+Early in the summer of 1863 Rev. William G. Scandlin was sent to the Army
+of the Potomac as the agent of the Association. Taken prisoner in July, he
+spent several months in Libby prison, where he was kindly treated and
+exercised a beneficent influence. He was followed in this work by Rev.
+William M. Mellen, who established a library of 3,000 volumes at the
+convalescent camp, Alexandria, and also distributed a large amount of
+reading matter in the army. Rev. Charles Lowe served for several months as
+chaplain in the camp of drafted men on Long Island, his salary being paid
+by the Association. In November, 1864, he made a tour of inspection, as the
+agent of the Association, to the hospitals of Philadelphia, Baltimore
+Annapolis, Washington, Alexandria, Fortress Monroe, City Point, and the
+Army of the Potomac, in order to arrange for the proper distribution of
+reading matter and for such other hospital service as could be rendered.
+More than 3,000 volumes of the publications of the Association were
+distributed to the soldiers and in the hospitals, largely by Rev. J.G.
+Forman, of St. Louis, and Rev. John H. Heywood, of Louisville. Among those
+who acted as agents of the Association in furnishing reading to the army
+and hospitals were Rev. Calvin Stebbins, Rev. Frederick W. Holland, Rev.
+Benjamin H. Bailey, Rev. Artemas B. Muzzey, Rev. Newton M. Mann, and Mr.
+Henry G. Denny. Rev. Samuel Abbot Smith worked zealously at Norfolk at the
+hospitals and in preaching to the soldiers, until disease and death brought
+his labors to a close. What this kind of work was, and what it
+accomplished, was described by Louisa Alcott in her Hospital Sketches, and
+by William Howell Reed in his Hospital Life in the Army of the Potomac.
+
+[Sidenote: The Sanitary Commission.]
+
+The Sanitary Commission has been described by its historian as "one of the
+most shining monuments of our civilization," and as an expression of
+organized sympathy that "must always and everywhere call forth the homage
+and admiration of mankind." The organizer and leader of this great
+philanthropic movement for relieving human suffering was Dr. Henry W.
+Bellows, the minister of All Souls' Church in New York, the first Unitarian
+church organized in that city. The Commission was first suggested by Dr.
+Bellows, and he was its efficient leader from the first to the last. He was
+unanimously selected as its president, when the government had been
+persuaded, largely through his influence, to establish it as an addition to
+its medical and hospital service. The historian of the Commission has
+justly said that he "possessed many remarkable qualifications for so
+responsible, a position. Perhaps no man in the country exerted a wider or
+more powerful influence over those who were earnestly seeking the best
+means of defending our threatened nationality, and certainly never was a
+moral power of this kind founded upon juster and truer grounds. This
+influence was not confined to his home, the city of New York, although
+there it was incontestably very great, but it extended over many other
+portions of the country, and particularly throughout New England, where
+circumstances had made his name and his reputation for zeal and ability
+familiar to those most likely to aid in the furtherance of the new scheme.
+This power was due, partly of course to the very eminent position which he
+occupied as a clergyman, partly to the persistent efforts and enlightened
+zeal with which he advocated all wise measures of social reform, perhaps to
+his widely extended reputation as an orator, but primarily, and above all,
+to the rare combination of wide comprehensive views of great questions of
+public policy with extraordinary practical sagacity, which enabled him so
+to organize popular intelligence and sympathy that the best practical
+results were attained while the life-giving principle was preserved. He had
+the credit of not being what so many of his profession are, an idéologue;
+he had the clearest perception of what could and what could not be done,
+and he never hesitated to regard actual experience as the best practical
+test of the value of his plans and theories. These qualities, so precious
+and so exceptional in their nature, appeared conspicuously in the efforts
+made by him to secure the appointment of the Commission by the Government,
+and it will be found that every page of its history bears the strong
+impress of his peculiar and characteristic views."[15]
+
+These words of Charles J. Stillé, a member of the Sanitary Commission and
+its authorized historian, afterward the provost of the University of
+Pennsylvania, indicate the remarkable qualities of leadership possessed by
+Dr. Bellows. These were undoubtedly added to and made more impressive by
+his oratorical genius, that was of a very high order. Dr. Hedge spoke of
+the miraculous power of speech possessed by Dr. Bellows, when he was at his
+best, as being "incomparably better than anything he could have possibly
+compassed by careful preparation or conscious effort," and of "those
+exalted moments when he was fully possessed by his demon."[16] He was
+inexhaustible in his efforts for the success of the Commission, in
+directing the work of committees and branches, in appealing to the
+indifferent, and in giving enthusiasm to all the forces under his
+direction.
+
+Of the nine original members of the Sanitary Commission, four were
+Unitarians,--Dr. Bellows, Dr. Samuel G. Howe, Dr. Jeffries Wyman, and
+Professor Wolcott Gibbs. In the number of those added later was Rev. John
+H. Heywood, for many years the minister of the Unitarian church in
+Louisville, who rendered efficient service in the western department. In
+the convalescents' camp at Alexandria "a wonderful woman," Miss Amy
+Bradley, had charge of the efficient labors of the Commission, "where for
+two and a half years she and her assistants rendered incalculable service,
+in distributing clothing among the needy, procuring dainties for the sick,
+accompanying discharged soldiers to Washington and assisting them in
+procuring their papers and pay, furnishing paper and postage, and writing
+letters for the sick, forwarding money home by drafts that cost nothing to
+the soldier, answering letters of inquiry to hospital directors, securing
+certificates of arrears of pay and getting erroneous charges of desertion
+removed (the Commission saved several innocent soldiers from being shot as
+condemned deserters), distributing reading matter, telegraphing the friends
+of very ill soldiers, furnishing meals for feeble soldiers in barracks who
+could not eat the regulation food. Miss Bradley assisted 2,000 men to
+secure arrears of pay amounting to $200,000. Prisoners of war, while in
+prison and when released by general exchange, were largely and promptly
+relieved and comforted by this department."[17] Another effective worker
+was Frederick N. Knapp, who had been for several years a Unitarian
+minister, and who was the leading spirit in the special relief service of
+the Commission, "and organized and controlled it with masterly zeal,
+humanity, and success."[18] The work of Mr. Knapp was of great importance;
+for he was the confidential secretary of Dr. Bellows, and gave his whole
+time to the service of the Commission. He was a methodical worker, an
+efficient organizer, and supplied those qualities of persistent industry
+and grasp of details in which Dr. Bellows was deficient. Without his
+untiring energy and skilful directing power the Commission would have been
+less effective than it was in fact. Dr. Bellows also described William G.
+Scandlin as "one of the most earnest and effective of the Sanitary
+Commission agents."
+
+In the autumn of 1862 the Commission was greatly crippled in its work
+because it could not obtain the money with which to carry on its extensive
+operations, and it was saved from failure by the generosity of California,
+and the other Pacific states and territories. The remoteness of these
+states at that time made it impossible for them to contribute their
+proportion of men, "and they indulged their patriotism and gave relief to
+their pent-up sympathies with the national cause by pouring out their money
+like water."[19] The first contribution was received by the Sanitary
+Commission on September 19, 1862, and was $100,000: a fortnight later the
+same sum was again sent; and similar contributions followed at short
+intervals. These sums enabled the Commission to accomplish its splendid
+work, and to meet the urgent needs of those trying days. How the Pacific
+coast was able to contribute so largely to this work may be explained in
+the words of Dr. Bellows, who fully understood the situation, and the vast
+importance of the help afforded: "The most gifted and inspiring of the
+patriots who rallied California and the Pacific coast to the flag of the
+Union was undoubtedly Thomas Starr King, minister of the first Unitarian
+church in San Francisco. Born in New York, but reared in Massachusetts, he
+had earned an almost national reputation for eloquence and wit, humanity
+and nobleness of soul, in the lecture-rooms and pulpits of the north and
+west, when at the age of thirty-five, he yielded to the religious claims of
+the Pacific coast and transferred himself to California. There in four
+years he had built up as public speaker from the pulpit and platform a
+prodigious popularity. His temperament sympathetic, mercurial, and
+electric; his disposition hearty, genial, and sweet; his mind versatile,
+quick, and sparkling; his tact exquisite, and infallible; with a voice as
+clear as a bell and loud and cheering as a trumpet, his nature and
+accomplishments perfectly adapted to the people, and place, and the time.
+His religious profession disarmed many of his political enemies, his
+political orthodoxy quieted many of his religious opponents. Generous,
+charitable, disinterested, his full heart and open hand captivated the
+California people, while his sparkling wit, melodious cadences, and
+rhetorical abundance perfectly satisfied their taste for intensity and
+novelty and a touch of extravagance. It has been said by high authority
+that Mr. King saved California to the Union. California was too loyal at
+heart to make the boast reasonable; but it is not too much to say that Mr.
+King did more than any man, by his prompt, outspoken, uncalculating
+loyalty, to make California know what her own feelings really were. He did
+all that any man could have done to lead public sentiment that was
+unconsciously ready to follow where earnest loyalty and patriotism should
+guide the way."[20]
+
+Not less important in its own degree was the work done in St. Louis by Dr.
+William G. Eliot, minister since 1834 of the Unitarian church in that city.
+He became the leader in all efforts for aiding the soldiers, and was most
+active in forming and directing the Western Sanitary Commission, that
+worked harmoniously with the national organization, but independently. A
+large hospital was established and maintained, a home for refugees was
+secured, and a large camp for "contraband" negroes was established, chiefly
+under the direction of Dr. Eliot, and largely maintained by his church. He
+was a potent force in keeping St. Louis and the northern portions of
+Missouri loyal to the Union. The secretary of the Western Sanitary
+Commission, J.G. Forman, a Unitarian minister for many years, was most
+faithful and efficient in this work; and he subsequently became its
+historian. In the Freedman's Hospital at St. Louis labored with zeal and
+success Rev. Frederick R. Newall; and he was also superintendent of the
+Freedman's Bureau in that city, his life being sacrificed to these devoted
+labors.
+
+[Sidenote: Results of Fifteen Years.]
+
+The work done by the Unitarian Association during the civil war and under
+the conditions it produced was not a large one, but it absorbed a
+considerable part of its energies for about five years. In all it printed
+over 3,000 copies of three books for the soldiers,[21] distributed 750,000
+tracts which it had prepared for them,[22] sent to the soldiers 5,000
+copies weekly of The Christian Register and The Christian Inquirer, 1,500
+copies of the Monthly Journal, 1,000 of The Monthly Religious Magazine, and
+1,000 of the Sunday-school Gazette. During the last year or two of the war
+its tracts went out at the rate of 50,000 monthly. The tracts and the
+periodicals therefore numbered a monthly distribution of about 75,000
+copies. The seventy volunteer agents who brought these publications to the
+hands of the soldiers, together with the army chaplains, agents of the
+Sanitary Commission, and the many nurses in the hospitals, made a
+considerable force of Unitarian missionaries developed by the exigencies of
+the war, and the attempts to meliorate its hard conditions.
+
+The period of fifteen years, from 1850 to 1865, which has been under
+consideration in this chapter, was one of the greatest trial and
+discouragement to the Association. Its funds reached their lowest ebb, a
+missionary secretary could not be maintained, a layman performed the
+necessary office duties, and no considerable aggressive work along
+missionary lines was undertaken. Writing in a most hopeful spirit of the
+situation, in November, 1863, the editor of The Christian Register showed
+that in 1848 the number of Unitarian churches was 201, while in 1863 it was
+205, an increase of four only in fifteen years. During this period fifty
+parishes had gained pastors, but fifty had lost them. Several strong
+parishes, he said, had come into existence, and two in large places had
+died. Most of those that had been closed were in small country towns.
+Nevertheless, with truth it could be said of these fifteen years of
+discouragement and failure that every one of them was a seed-time for the
+harvest that was soon to be reaped.
+
+[1] Usually known as the Transcendental Club, sometimes as The Symposium.
+    It was started in 1836 by Emerson, Ripley, and Hedge, and met at the
+    houses of the members to discuss philosophical and literary subjects.
+    It was called Hedge's Club because it met when Rev. F.H. Hedge came
+    to Boston from Bangor, where he was settled in 1835. It also included
+    Clarke, Francis, Alcott, Dwight, W.H. Channing, Bartol, Very,
+    Margaret Fuller, and Elizabeth P. Peabody.
+
+[2] Twenty-eighth Report of the American Unitarian Association, 22.
+
+[3] Ibid., 30. For other statements made at this time see pp. 22 and 26
+    of this report; Quarterly Journal, L 44, 228, 243, 275, 333; and O.B.
+    Frothingham's Transcendentalism in New England, 123. John Gorham
+    Palfrey said (Twenty-eighth Report, 31) that "the evidence of
+    Christianity is identical with the evidence of the miraculous
+    character of Jesus," and that "his miraculous powers were the highest
+    evidence that he came from God." Parker replied to this report of the
+    Association in his Friendly Letter to the Executive Committee. Of
+    this report John W. Chadwick has said that it is "the most curious,
+    not to say amusing, document in our denominational archives." See The
+    Organization of our Liberty, Christian Register, July 19, 1900.
+
+[4] In 1854 the receipts from all sources for the year preceding, except
+    from sales of books and interest on investments, was $4,267.32. For
+    the next two years there was a rapid gain, the sum reported in 1856
+    being $11,615.90; but there was a slight decrease the next year, and
+    the financial panic of 1857 brought the donations down to $4,602.38,
+    the amount reported at the annual meeting of 1858. Then there was a
+    steady gain until the civil war began, after which the contributions
+    were small, the general donations being only $3,056.03 in 1863, which
+    sum was brought up to $5,547.73 by contributions for special
+    purposes, more than one-third of the whole being for the Army Fund.
+
+[5] The Christian Register, October 17, 1863.
+
+[6] The Monthly Journal, I. 350.
+
+[7] Mr. Fox entered the employ of the Association in 1855 as a clerk, and
+    then he became the assistant of the secretary by the appointment of
+    the directors. From 1864 to the present time he has served as the
+    assistant secretary. His services have been invaluable to the
+    Association in many ways, because of his diligence, fidelity,
+    unfailing devotion to its interests, and loyalty to the Unitarian
+    cause.
+
+[8] The beginning of a general fund seems to have been made in 1835, and
+    was secured by special subscriptions for the purpose of paying the
+    salary of a general secretary or missionary agent. The treasurer
+    reported in 1836 that during the previous year $2,408.37 had been
+    collected for this purpose.
+
+[9] Of the churches now in existence the first in Chicago was organized
+    in 1836, that at Quincy in 1840, Milwaukee and Geneva in 1842,
+    Detroit in 1850. After the conference began its work, they appear
+    more frequently, Keokuk coming into existence in 1853, Marietta in
+    1855, Lawrence in 1856, Unity of Chicago, Kalamazoo, and Buda in
+    1858, Bloomington in 1859. Then comes a blank during the war period,
+    and a more rapid growth after it, especially when the National
+    Conference had given impetus to missionary activities. Janesville was
+    organized in 1864; Ann Arbor, Kenosha, and Baraboo, in 1865; Tremont,
+    in 1866; Cleveland and Mattoon, in 1867; Unity of St. Louis, Kansas
+    City, St. Joseph, Shelbyville, Davenport, Geneseo, Third of Chicago,
+    and Sheffield, in 1868; Omaha, in 1869.
+
+[10] Written by William G. Eliot, of St. Louis.
+
+[11] Joseph Allen, The Worcester Association and its Antecedents, 268.
+
+[12] Through the business committee the following resolutions were
+     submitted for the consideration of the convention, and they were
+     taken up in order:--
+
+       _Resolved_, That we acknowledge with profound gratitude the success
+       which has attended our labors in the cause of religious freedom,
+       virtue, and piety, and are encouraged to persevere with renewed zeal
+       and energy.
+
+       _Resolved_, That in the character and life of Rev. William E.
+       Channing, just removed from us, we acknowledge one of the richest
+       gifts of God, in intellectual endowments, pure aspiration, moral
+       courage, and disinterested devotion to the cause of truth, freedom,
+       and humanity, and that in view of this, we feel out increased
+       obligation to Christian fidelity and heavenward progress.
+
+       _Resolved_, That viewing with anxiety prevailing fanaticism and
+       growing disregard of public trusts and private relations, we should
+       earnestly labor for a higher religious principle, and especially
+       urge the paramount claims of moral duty.
+
+[13] The places and dates of the Autumnal Conventions were as follows:
+     Worcester, 1842; Provence, 1843; Albany, 1844; New York, 1845;
+     Philadelphia, 1846; Salem, 1847; New Bedford, 1848; Portland, 1849;
+     Springfield, 1850; Portsmouth, 1851; Baltimore, 1852; Worcester,
+     1853; Montreal, 1854; Providence, 1855; Bangor, 1856; Syracuse, 1857;
+     Salem, 1858; Lowell, 1859; New Bedford, 1860; Boston, 1861; Brooklyn,
+     1862; Springfield, 1863.
+
+[14] The first regiments from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Kansas, had
+     as their chaplains Warren H. Cudworth, Augustus Woodbury, and Ephraim
+     Nute. Charles Babbidge was the chaplain of the sixth Massachusetts
+     regiment, that which was fired upon in Baltimore. The first artillery
+     company from Massachusetts had as its chaplain Stephen Barker. Others
+     who served as army chaplains were John Pierpont, Edmund B. Willson,
+     Francis C. Williams, Arthur B. Fuller, Sylvan S. Hunting, Charles T.
+     Canfield, Edward H. Hall, George H. Hepworth, Joseph F. Lovering,
+     Edwin M. Wheelock, George W. Bartlett, John C. Kimball, Augustus M.
+     Haskell, Charles A. Humphreys, Milton J. Miller, George A. Ball,
+     William G. Scandlin, E.B. Fairchild, Samuel W. McDaniel, Frederick R.
+     Newell, George W. Woodward, Stephen H. Camp, William D. Haley,
+     Leonard Whitney, Gilbert Cummings, Nahor A. Staples, Carlton A.
+     Staples, Martin M. Willis, John F. Moors, L.B. Mason, Robert Hassall,
+     Liberty Billings, Daniel Foster, J.G. Forman, and Augustus H. Conant.
+     Robert Collyer was chaplain-at-large in the Army of the Potomac.
+     Charles J. Bowen, William J. Potter, Charles Noyes, James Richardson,
+     and William H. Channing served as hospital chaplains.
+
+     Among the ministers who served as officers were: Hasbrouck Davis, who
+     became a general; William B. Greene, colonel; Gerald Fitzgerald, who
+     enlisted as a private, rose to the rank of first lieutenant, and was
+     elected chaplain of his regiment; Edward I. Galvin, lieutenant, also
+     elected chaplain; James K. Hosmer, who served through the war, at
+     first as a private and then as a corporal, writing his experiences
+     into The Color Guard and The Thinking Bayonet; George W. Shaw and
+     Alvin Allen, privates. Thomas D. Howard and James H. Fowler were
+     chaplains in colored regiments. After service as a chaplain of a Hew
+     Hampshire regiment, Edwin M. Wheelock became a lieutenant in a
+     colored regiment, as did Charles B. Webster. Thomas W. Higginson was
+     colonel of a colored regiment, and in another Henry Stone was
+     lieutenant colonel. It is doubtful if this list is complete, though
+     an effort has been made to have it as nearly so as possible. Those
+     who served in the army, and became ministers after leaving it, have
+     not been included. So far as known, only ordained ministers are
+     named.
+
+[15] History of the United States Sanitary Commission, being the General
+     Report of its Work during the War of the Rebellion.
+
+[16] J.H. Allen, Our Liberal Movement in Theology, 210.
+
+[17] Henry W. Bellows, article on the Sanitary Commission, in Johnson's
+     Cyclopedia, revised edition.
+
+[18] Ibid.
+
+[19] Henry W. Bellows, article on the Sanitary Commission, in Johnson's
+     Cyclopedia, revised edition.
+
+[20] History of the Sanitary Commission.
+
+[21] Thoughts selected from Channing's Works, Ware's The Silent Pastor,
+     and Eliot's Discipline of Sorrow. The Association also issued one
+     number of the Monthly Journal as an Army Companion, which contained
+     fifty hymns of a patriotic and religions character, with appropriate
+     tunes, selections from the Bible, directions for preserving health in
+     the army, and selections from addresses on the injustice of the
+     rebellion and the spirit in which it should be put down.
+
+[22] Twenty tracts were published. The first was written by Dr. George
+     Putnam; and was on The Man and the Soldier. The second was The
+     Soldier of the Good Cause, by Prof. C.E. Norton. Others were A Letter
+     to a Sick Soldier, by Rev. Robert Collyer; An Enemy within the Lines,
+     by Rev. S.H. Winkley. Rev. John F.W. Ware wrote fourteen of these
+     tracts, the following being some of the subjects: The Home to the
+     Camp, The Home to the Hospital, Wounded and in the Hands of the
+     Enemy, Traitors in Camp, A Change of Base, On Picket, The Rebel, The
+     Recruit, A Few Words with the Convalescent, Mustered Out, A Few Words
+     with the Rank and File at Parting.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+
+THE DENOMINATIONAL AWAKENING.
+
+The war had an inspiring influence upon Unitarians, awakening them to a
+consciousness of their strength, and drawing them together to work for
+common purposes as nothing else had ever done. From the beginning they saw
+in the effort to save the Union, and in the spirit of liberty that animated
+the nation, an expression of their own principles. Whatever its effect upon
+other religious bodies, the war gave to Unitarians new faith, courage, and
+enthusiasm. For the first time they became conscious of their opportunity,
+and united in a determined purpose to meet its demands with fidelity to
+their convictions and loyalty to the call of humanity.[1]
+
+No Autumnal Convention having been held in 1864, owing to the failure of
+the committee appointed for that purpose to make the necessary
+arrangements, a special meeting of the Unitarian Association was held in
+the Hollis Street Church, Boston, December 6-7, at the call of the
+executive committee, "to awaken interest in the work of the Association by
+laying before the churches the condition of our funds and the demand for
+our labor." The attendance was large, and the tone of the meeting was
+hopeful and enthusiastic. After Dr. Stebbins, the president, had stated the
+purpose of the meeting, Dr. Bellows urged the importance of a more
+effective organization of the Unitarian body. His success with the Sanitary
+Commission had evidently prepared his mind for a like work on the part of
+Unitarians, and for a strong faith in the value of organized effort in
+behalf of liberal religion. His capacity as leader during the war had
+prepared men to accept it in other fields of effort, and Unitarians were
+ready to use it in their behalf. The hopefulness that existed, in view of
+the success of the Union cause, and the enthusiastic interest in the
+methods of moral and spiritual reform that was manifested because of the
+triumph of the spirit of freedom in the nation, led many to think that like
+efforts in behalf of liberal Christianity would result in like successes.
+
+On the afternoon of the second day (a meeting in the evening of the first
+day only having been held) James P. Walker, the publisher, gave a résumé of
+the activities of the Association during the forty years of its existence,
+and said that its receipts had been on the average only $8,038.88 yearly.
+He showed that much had been done with this small sum, and that the results
+were much larger than the amount of money invested would indicate. He
+pointed out the fact that the demands upon the Association were rapidly
+increasing, and far more rapidly than the contributions. There was an
+urgent need for larger giving, he said, and for a more loyal support of the
+missionary arm of the denomination. He offered a series of resolutions
+calling for the raising of $25,000 during the year. Rev. Edward Everett
+Hale said that $100,000 ought to be given to the proposed object, and urged
+that more missionaries should be sent into the field. Thereupon Mr. Henry
+P. Kidder arose, and said: "It is often easier to do a great thing than a
+small one. I move that this meeting undertake to raise $100,000 for the
+service of the next year." Dr. Bellows then called the attention of the
+conference to the importance of considering the manner of securing this
+large sum and of devising methods to insure success. He proposed "that a
+committee of ten persons, three ministers and seven laymen, should be
+appointed to call a convention, to consist of the pastor and two delegates
+from each church or parish in the Unitarian denomination, to meet in the
+city of New York, to consider the interests of our cause and to institute
+measures for its good." The two resolutions were unanimously adopted,
+pledging the denomination to raise $100,000, and to the holding of a
+delegate convention in New York. The president appointed, as members of the
+committee of arrangements for the convention, Rev. Henry W. Bellows,
+Messrs. A.A. Low, U.A. Murdock, Henry P. Kidder, Atherton Blight, Enoch
+Pratt, and Artemas Carter, Rev. Edward E. Hale, and Rev. Charles H.
+Brigham.
+
+The convention in New York was not waited for in order to make an effort to
+secure the $100,000 it was proposed to raise; and early in January the
+president of the Association, Dr. Rufus P. Stebbins, was authorized to
+devote his whole time to securing that sum. A circular was sent to the
+churches saying that such a sum "was needed, and should and could be
+raised." "The hour has come," said the executive committee in their appeal
+to the churches, "which the fathers longed to see, but were denied the
+sight,--of taking our true position among other branches of the church of
+our Lord Jesus Christ in the spread and establishment of the Gospel."
+
+The response to this call was prompt and enthusiastic beyond any precedent.
+The war had made money plentiful, and it came easily to those who were
+successful. Great fortunes had been rapidly gathered; and the country had
+never known an equal prosperity, even though the burden of the war had not
+yet been removed. In February the president of the Association was able to
+announce that $28,871.47 had been subscribed by twelve churches. By the end
+of March the pledges had reached $63,862.63; and when the convention met in
+New York, April 5, 1865, the contributions then pledged were only a few
+thousand dollars short of the sum desired. By the end of May the sum
+reported was $111,676.74, which was increased by several hundred dollars
+more.
+
+[Sidenote: The New York Convention of 1865.]
+
+It was when this success was certain that the convention met in New York.
+The victory of the Union cause was then assured, and the utmost enthusiasm
+prevailed. Some of the final and most important scenes of the great
+national struggle were enacted while the convention was in session. Courage
+and hope ran high under these circumstances; and the convention was not
+only enthusiastically loyal to the nation, but equally so to its own
+denominational interests. For the first time in the history of the
+Unitarian body in this country the churches were directly represented at a
+general gathering. The number of churches represented was two hundred and
+two, and they sent three hundred and eighty-five delegates. Many other
+persons attended, however; and throughout all the sittings of the
+convention the audience was a large one. Many women were present, though
+not as delegates, the men only having official recognition in this
+gathering. It is evident from the records, the newspaper reports, and the
+memories of those present, that the interest in this meeting was very
+large, and that the attendance was quite beyond what was anticipated by any
+one concerned in planning it. The call to all the churches, and the giving
+them an equality of representation in the convention, was doubtless one of
+the causes of its success. As a result, an able body of laymen appeared in
+the convention, who were accustomed to business methods and familiar with
+legislative procedure, and who carried through the work of the convention
+with deliberation and skill.
+
+On the first evening of the convention a sermon was preached by Dr. James
+Freeman Clarke that was a noble and generous introduction to its
+deliberations. He called for the exercise of the spirit of inclusiveness, a
+broad and tolerant catholicity, and union on the basis of the work to be
+done. On the morning of April 5, 1865, at eleven o'clock, the convention
+met for the transaction of business in All Souls' Church, of which Henry
+Whitney Bellows was the minister. Hon. John A. Andrew, then the governor of
+Massachusetts, was elected to preside over the convention; and among the
+vice-presidents were William Cullen Bryant, Rev. John Gorham Palfrey, Hon.
+Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, Rev. Orville Dewey, and Rev. Ezra Stiles Gannett,
+while Rev. Edward Everett Hale was made the secretary. In Governor Andrew
+the convention had as its presiding officer a man of a broad and generous
+spirit, who was insistent that the main purpose of the meeting should be
+kept always steadily in view, and yet that all the members and all the
+varying opinions should have just recognition. In a large degree the
+success of the convention was due to his catholicity and to his skill in
+reconciling opposing interests.
+
+The time of the convention was devoted almost wholly to legislating for the
+denomination and to planning for its future work. On the morning of the
+second day the subject of organization came up for consideration, and the
+committee selected for that purpose presented a constitution providing for
+a National Conference that should meet annually, and that should be
+constituted of the minister and two lay delegates from each church,
+together with three delegates each from the American Unitarian Association,
+the Western Conference, and such other bodies as might be invited to
+participate in its deliberations. This Conference was to be only
+recommendatory in its character, adopting "the existing organizations of
+the Unitarian body as the instruments of its power." The name of the new
+organization was the subject of some discussion, James Freeman Clarke
+wishing to make the Conference one of Independent and Unitarian churches,
+while another delegate desired to substitute "free Christian" for
+Unitarian. The desire strongly manifested by a considerable number to make
+the Conference include in its membership all liberal churches of whatever
+name not acceptable to the majority of the delegates, voted with a decided
+emphasis to organize strictly on the Unitarian basis.
+
+As soon as the convention was organized, expression was given to the demand
+for a doctrinal basis for its deliberations. Though several attempts were
+made to bring about the acceptance of a creed, these met with complete
+failure. In the preamble to the constitution, however, it was asserted that
+the delegates were "disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ," while the first
+article declared that the conference was organized to promote "the cause of
+Christian faith and work." It was quite evident that a large majority of
+the delegates regarded the convention as Christian in its purposes and
+distinctly Unitarian in its denominational mission. A minority desired a
+platform that should have no theological implications, and that should
+permit the co-operation of every kind of liberal church. The use of the
+phrase Lord Jesus Christ was strongly opposed by the more radical section
+of the convention, but the members of it were not organized or ready to
+give utterance to their protest in an effective manner.
+
+The convention gave its approval to the efforts of the Unitarian
+Association to secure the sum of $100,000, and urged the churches, that had
+not already done so, to contribute. It also advised the securing of a like
+sum as an endowment for Antioch College, and commended to men of wealth the
+needs of the Harvard and Meadville Theological Schools. The council of the
+Conference was asked to give its attention to the necessity and duty of
+creating an organ for the denomination, to be called The Liberal Christian.
+A resolution looking to union with the Universalist body was presented, and
+one was passed declaring "that there should be recognition, fellowship, and
+co-operation between all those various elements in our population that are
+prepared to meet on the basis of Christianity." James Freeman Clarke,
+Samuel J. May, and Robert Collyer were constituted a committee of
+correspondence, to promote acquaintance, fraternity, and unity between
+Unitarians and all of like liberal faith.[2]
+
+A resolution offered by William Cullen Bryant expressive of thanksgiving
+because of the near approach of peace, and for the opening made by the
+extinction of slavery for the diffusion of Christianity in its true spirit
+as a religion of love, mercy, and universal liberty, was unanimously
+adopted by a rising vote.
+
+The convention was a remarkable success in the number who attended its
+sessions, the character of the men who participated in its deliberations,
+and the skill with which the unsectarian sect had been organized for
+effective co-operation and work. Its influence was immediately felt
+throughout the denomination and upon all its activities. The change in
+attitude was very great, and the depressed and discouraged tone of many
+Unitarian utterances for a number of years preceding and following 1860
+gave way to one of enthusiasm and courage.[3]
+
+[Sidenote: New Life in the Unitarian Association.]
+
+The annual meeting of the Unitarian Association, that soon followed, felt
+the new stir of life, and the awakening to a larger consciousness of power.
+The chief attention was directed to meeting the new opportunities that had
+been presented, and to preparing for the larger work required. Dr. Rufus P.
+Stebbins, who had been for three years the president, and who had been
+actively instrumental in securing the large accession to the contributions
+of the year, was elected secretary, with the intent that he should devote
+himself to pushing forward the missionary enterprises of the Association.
+He refused to serve, and accepted the position only until his successor
+could be secured. In a few weeks, the executive committee elected Rev.
+Charles Lowe to this office, and he immediately entered upon its duties. He
+proved to be eminently fitted for the place by his enthusiastic interest in
+the work to be accomplished, and by his skill as an organizer. His
+catholicity of mind enabled him to conciliate, as far as this was possible,
+the conservative and radical elements in the denomination, and to unite
+them into an effective working body. Educated at Harvard College and
+Divinity School, Lowe spent two years as a tutor in the college, and then
+was settled successively over parishes in New Bedford, Salem, and
+Somerville. His experience and skill as an army agent of the Association
+suggested his fitness for the larger sphere of labor into which he was now
+inducted. For six most difficult and trying years he successfully conducted
+the affairs of the Association.
+
+For the first time in the history of the Association its income was such as
+to enable it to plan its work on a large scale, and in some degree
+commensurate with its opportunities. During the year and a half preceding
+the first of June, 1866, there was contributed to the Association about
+$175,000, to Antioch College $103,000, to the Boston Fraternity of Churches
+$22,920, to the Children's Mission $42,000, to the Freedman's Aid Societies
+$30,000, to the Sunday School Society $2,500, to The Christian Register
+$15,000, and to the Western Conference $6,000, making a total of about
+$400,000 given by the denomination to these religious, educational, and
+philanthropic purposes; and this financial success was truly indicative of
+the new interest in its work that had come to the Unitarian body.
+
+[Sidenote: The New Theological Position.]
+
+Although the New York convention voted that $100,000 ought to be raised in
+1866, because the needs of the denomination demanded it, yet only $60,000
+were secured. The reaction that followed the close of the war had set in,
+the financial prosperity of the country had begun to lessen, and the
+enthusiasm that had made the first great effort of the denomination so
+eminently successful did not continue. A chief cause for the waning
+interest in the denomination itself was the agitation, in regard to the
+theological position of the Unitarian body that began almost immediately
+after the New York convention.
+
+The older Unitarians held to the Bible and the teachings of Jesus as the
+great sources of spiritual truth as strongly as did the orthodox, and they
+differed from them only as to the purport of the message conveyed. This may
+be seen in a creed offered to the New York convention, by a prominent
+layman,[4] almost immediately after it was opened on the first morning.
+In this proposed creed it was asserted that Unitarians believe "in one
+Lord, Jesus Christ; the Son of God and his specially appointed messenger,
+and representative to our race; gifted with supernatural power, approved of
+God by miracles and signs and wonders which God did by him, and thus by
+divine authority commanding the devout and reverential faith of all who
+claim the Christian name." Although this creed was not adopted by the
+convention, it expressed the belief of a majority of Unitarians. To the
+same purport was the word spoken by Dr. Bellows, when he said: "Unitarians
+of the school to which I belong accept Jesus Christ with all their hearts
+as the Sent of God, the divinely inspired Son of the Father, who by his
+miraculously proven office and his sinless life and character was fitted to
+be, and was made revealer of the universal and permanent religion of the
+human race."[5] These quotations indicate that the more conservative
+Unitarians had not changed their position since 1853, when they made
+official statement of their acceptance of Christianity as authenticated by
+miracles and the supernatural. In fact, they held essentially to the
+attitude taken when they left the older Congregational body.
+
+On the other hand, the transcendentalists and the radical Unitarians
+proposed a new theory of the nature of religious truth, and insisted that
+the spiritual message of Christianity is inward, and not outward, directly
+to the soul of man, and not through the mediation of a person or a book.
+Almost from the first Channing had been moving towards this newer
+conception of the nature and method of religion. He did not wholly abandon
+the miraculous, but it grew to have less significance for him with each
+year. The Unitarian conception of religion as natural to man, which was
+maintained strenuously from the time of Jonathan Mayhew, made it probable,
+if not certain, that a merely external system of religion would be
+ultimately outgrown. In his lecture on self-denial Channing stated this
+position in the clearest terms. "If," he said, "after a deliberate and
+impartial use of our best faculties, a professed revelation seems to us
+plainly to disagree with itself or to clash with great principles which we
+cannot question, we ought not to hesitate to withhold from it our belief. I
+am surer that my rational nature is from God, than that any book is an
+expression of his will. This light in my own breast is his primary
+revelation, and all subsequent ones must accord with it, and are in fact
+intended to blend with and brighten it."[6]
+
+Channing was not alone in accepting Christianity as a spiritual principle
+that is natural and universal. As early as 1826 Alvan Lamson had defended
+the proposition that miracles are merely local in their nature, and that
+attention should be chiefly given to the tendency, spirit, and object of
+Christianity. He claimed that it bore on the face of it the marks of its
+heavenly origin, and that, when these are fully accepted, no other form of
+evidence is required.[7] In 1834 James Walker, in writing on The
+Philosophy of Man's Spiritual Nature in regard to the Foundations of Faith,
+had taken what was essentially the transcendentalist view of the origin and
+nature of religion. He contended for the "religion in the soul" that is
+authenticated "by the revelations of consciousness."[8] In 1836 Convers
+Francis, in, describing the religion of Christ as a purely internal
+principle, maintained the "quiet, spirit-searching character of
+Christianity," as "a kingdom wholly within the soul of man."[9]
+
+When Convers Francis became a professor in the Harvard Divinity School, in
+1842, the spiritual philosophy had recognition there; and he had a
+considerable influence upon the young men who came under his guidance.
+Though of the older way of thinking, George R. Noyes, who became a
+professor in the school in 1840, was always on the side of liberty of
+interpretation and expression. For the next two decades the Divinity School
+sent out a succession of such men as John Weiss, Octavius B. Frothingham,
+Samuel Longfellow, William J. Potter, and Francis E. Abbot, who were joined
+by William Henry Channing, Samuel Johnson, David A. Wasson, and others, who
+did not study there. These men gave a new meaning to Unitarianism, took it
+away from miracles to nature, discarded its evidences to rely on intuition,
+rejected its supernatural deity for an immanent God who speaks through all
+life his divine word.
+
+During the interval between the New York convention and the first session
+of the National Conference, which was held in Syracuse, October 10-11,
+1866, the questions which separated the conservatives and radicals were
+freely debated in the periodicals of the denomination, and also in sermons
+and pamphlets. The radicals organized for securing a revision of the
+constitution; and on the morning of the first day Francis E. Abbot, then
+the minister at Dover, N.H., offered a new preamble and first article as
+substitutes for those adopted in New York, in which he stated that "the
+object of Christianity is the universal diffusion of love, righteousness,
+and truth," that "perfect freedom of thought, which is at once the right
+and duty of every human being, always leads to diversity of opinion, and is
+therefore hindered by common creeds or statements of faith," and that
+therefore the churches assembled in the conference, "disregarding all
+sectarian or theological differences, and offering a cordial fellowship to
+all who will join them in Christian work, unite themselves in a common
+body, to be known as The National Conference of Unitarian and Independent
+Churches."
+
+At the afternoon session Mr. Abbot's amendment was rejected; but on the
+motion of James Freeman Clarke the name was changed to The National
+Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches. A resolution stating
+that the expression "Other Christian Churches was not meant to exclude
+religious societies which have no distinctive church organization, and are
+not nominally Christian, if they desire to co-operate with the Conference
+in what it regards as Christian work," was laid on the table.
+
+[Sidenote: Organization of the Free Religious Association.]
+
+The result of the refusal at Syracuse to revise the constitution of the
+National Conference was that the radical men on the railroad train
+returning to Boston held a consultation, and resolved to organize an
+association that would secure them the liberty they desired. After
+correspondence and much planning a meeting was held in Boston, at the house
+of Rev. Cyrus A. Bartol, on February 5, 1867, to consider what should be
+done. After a thorough discussion of the subject the Free Religious
+Association was planned; and the organization was perfected at a meeting
+held in Horticultural Hall, Boston, May 30, 1867. Some of those who took
+part in this movement thought that all religion had been outgrown, but the
+majority believed that it is essential and eternal. What they sought was to
+remove its local and national elements, and to get rid of its merely
+sectarian and traditional features.
+
+At the first meeting the speakers were O.B. Frothingham, Henry Blanchard,
+Lucretia Mott, Robert Dale Owen, John Weiss, Oliver Johnson, Francis E.
+Abbot, David A. Wasson, T.W. Higginson, and R.W. Emerson; and discussion
+was participated in by A.B. Alcott, E.C. Towne, Frank B. Sanborn, Hannah E.
+Stevenson, Ednah D. Cheney, Charles C. Burleigh, and Caroline H. Dall. Of
+these persons, one-half had been Unitarian ministers, and about one-third
+of them were still settled over Unitarian parishes. Mr. Frothingham was
+elected president of the new organization, and Rev. William J. Potter
+secretary. The purposes of the Association were "to promote the interests
+of pure religion, to encourage the scientific study of theology and to
+increase fellowship in the spirit." In 1872 the constitution was revised by
+changing the subject of study from theology to man's religious nature and
+history, and by the addition of the statement that "nothing in the name or
+constitution of the Association shall ever be construed as limiting
+membership by any test of speculative opinion or belief,--or as defining
+the position of the Association, collectively considered, with reference to
+any such opinion or belief,--or as interfering in any other way with that
+absolute freedom of thought and expression which is the natural right of
+every rational being."
+
+The original purpose of the Free Religious Association, as defined in its
+constitution and in the addresses delivered before it, was the recognition
+of the universality of religion, and the representation of all phases of
+religious opinion in its membership and on its platform. The circumstances
+of its organization, however, in some measure took it away from this
+broader position, and made it the organ of the radical Unitarian opinion.
+Those Unitarians who did not find in the American Unitarian Association and
+the National Conference such fellowship as they desired became active in
+the Free Religious organization.
+
+The cause of Free Religion was ably presented in the pages of The Radical,
+a monthly journal edited by Sidney H. Morse, and published in Boston, and
+The Index, edited by Francis E. Abbot, at first in Toledo and then in
+Boston. It also found expression at the Sunday afternoon meetings held in
+Horticultural Hall, Boston, for several winters, beginning in 1868-69; in
+the conventions held in several of the leading cities of the northern
+states; at the gatherings of the Chestnut Street Club; and in the annual
+meetings of the Free Religious Association held in Boston during
+anniversary week. Little effort was made to organize churches, and only two
+or three came into existence distinctly on the basis of Free Religion. In
+connection with The Index, Francis E. Abbot organized the Liberal League to
+promote the interests of Free Religion, with about four hundred local
+branches; but this organization proved ineffective, and soon ceased its
+existence.
+
+The withdrawal of the radicals into the Free Religious Association did not
+quiet the agitation in the Unitarian ranks, partly because some of the most
+active workers in that Association continued to occupy Unitarian pulpits,
+and partly because a considerable radical element did not withdraw in any
+manner. The conferences had an unfailing subject for exciting discussion,
+and the Unitarian body was at this time in a chronic condition of
+agitation. As in the days of the controversy about the Trinity, the more
+conservative ministers would not exchange pulpits with the more radical.
+
+[Sidenote: Unsuccessful Attempts at Reconciliation.]
+
+At the second session of the National Conference, held in New York City,
+October 7-9, 1868, another attempt was made to bring about a reconciliation
+between the two wings of the denomination. In an attitude of generous good
+will and with a noble desire for inclusiveness and peace, James Freeman
+Clarke proposed an addition to the constitution of the Conference, in which
+it was declared "that we heartily welcome to that fellowship all who desire
+to work with us in advancing the kingdom of God." Such a broad invitation
+was not acceptable to the majority; and, after an extended debate, this
+amendment was withdrawn, and the following, offered by Edward Everett Hale,
+and essentially the same as that presented by Mr. Clarke, with the
+exception of the phrase just quoted, was adopted:--
+
+  To secure the largest unity of the spirit and the widest practical
+  co-operation, it is hereby understood that all the declarations of this
+  conference, including the preamble and constitution, are expressions
+  only of its majority, and dependent wholly for their effect upon the
+  consent they command on their own merits from the churches here
+  represented or belonging within the circle of our fellowship.
+
+The annual meeting of the Unitarian Association in 1870 was largely
+occupied with the vexing problem of the basis of fellowship; and the
+secretary, Charles Lowe, read a conciliatory and explanatory address. He
+said that the wide differences of theological opinion existing in the
+denomination were "an inevitable consequence of the great principle on
+which Unitarianism rests. That principle is that Christian faith and
+Christian union can coexist with individual liberty."[10] Rev. George H.
+Hepworth, then the minister of the Church of the Messiah in New York, asked
+for an authoritative statement of the Unitarian position, urging this
+demand with great insistence; and he presented a resolution calling for a
+committee of five to prepare "a statement of faith, which shall, as nearly
+as may be, represent the religious opinions of the Unitarian denomination."
+
+While Dr. Bellows had been the leader in securing the adoption of the
+Christian basis for the National Conference, and the insertion into the
+preamble of its constitution of the expression of faith in the Lordship of
+Jesus Christ, he was strongly opposed to any attempt to impose a creed upon
+the denomination, however attenuated it might be. He has been often charged
+with inconsistency, and it is difficult to reconcile his position in 1870
+with that held in 1865. What he attempted to secure, however, was the
+utmost of liberty possible within the limits of Christianity; and, when he
+had committed the Unitarian body to the Christian position, he desired
+nothing more, believing that a creed would be inconsistent with the liberty
+enjoyed by all Unitarians. Without doubt his address at this meeting, in
+opposition to Mr. Hepworth's proposal, made it impossible to secure a vote
+in favor of a creed. "We want to represent a body," he said, "that presents
+itself to the forming hand of the Almighty Spirit of God in a fluid,
+plastic form. We cannot keep our denomination in that state, and yet give
+it the character of being cast into a positive mould. You must either
+abandon that great work you have done, as the only body in Christendom that
+occupies the position of absolute and perfect liberty, with some measure of
+Christian faith, or you must continue to occupy that position and thank God
+for it without hankering after some immediate victories that are so strong
+a temptation to many in our denomination." When the resolution in favor of
+a creed was brought to a vote, it was "defeated by a very large majority."
+By this act the Unitarian body again asserted its Christian position, but
+refused to define or to limit its Christianity.
+
+Notwithstanding the refusal of the Unitarian Association to adopt a creed,
+the attempt to secure one was renewed in the National Conference with as
+much energy as if this were not already a lost cause. At the session held
+in New York, October, 1870, the subject came up for extended consideration,
+several amendments to the constitution were proposed, and, after a
+prolonged discussion, that offered by George H. Hepworth was adopted:--
+
+  Reaffirming our allegiance to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and desiring
+  to secure the largest unity of the spirit and the widest practical
+  co-operation, we invite to our fellowship all who wish to be followers
+  of Christ.
+
+[Sidenote: The Year Book Controversy.]
+
+One result of this controversy was that in 1873 it having come to the
+attention of Rev. O.B. Frothingham, the president of the Free Religious
+Association, that his name was in the list of Unitarian ministers published
+in the Year Book of the Unitarian Association, he expressed surprise that
+it should have been continued there, and asked for its removal. The same
+action was taken by Francis E. Abbot, the editor of The Index, and others
+of the radicals. This action was in part the result of the attitude taken
+by Rev. Thomas J. Mumford, editor of The Christian Register, who in 1872
+insisted that the word "Religious" had no proper place in the name of the
+Free Religious Association, and who invited those Unitarians "who have
+ceased to accept Jesus as pre-eminently their spiritual leader and teacher"
+to withdraw from the Unitarian body.
+
+In November, 1873, Mr. George W. Fox, the assistant secretary of the
+Unitarian Association and the editor of its Year Book, wrote to several of
+the radicals, calling their attention to the action of Mr. Frothingham in
+requesting the removal of his name, and asked if their names remained in
+that publication "with their knowledge and consent." In a subsequent letter
+to William J. Potter, the minister of the Unitarian church in New Bedford
+and the secretary of the Free Religious Association, he explained that "the
+Year Book lists of societies and ministers are simply a directory, prepared
+by the Association for the accommodation of the denomination, and that the
+Association does not undertake to decide the question as to what are or are
+not Unitarian societies or ministers, but merely puts into print facts, in
+the making of which it assumes no responsibility and has no agency."
+
+Mr. Potter expressed his purpose not to ask for the removal of his name,
+but wrote that he did not call himself a Unitarian Christian or by any
+denominational name. The officers of the Association thereupon instructed
+the editor of the Year Book to remove Mr. Potter's name from the list of
+Unitarian ministers published therein. The reason for this action was
+stated in a letter from the editor to Mr. Potter, announcing that his name
+had been removed. The letter said, "While there might be no desire to
+define Christianity in the case of those who claim that they are in any
+sense of the term entitled to be called Christians, for those persons who,
+like yourself, disavow the name, there seems to be no need of raising any
+question as to how broad a range of opinion the name may properly be
+stretched to cover."[11]
+
+There followed a vigorous discussion of the action of the Association in
+dropping Mr. Potter's name, it being recognized that no more thoroughly
+religious man was to be found in the denomination, and that none more truly
+exemplified the Christian spirit, whatever might be his wish as to the use
+of the Christian name. At the sixth session of the National Conference,
+held at Saratoga in September, 1874, the Essex Conference protested against
+the erasure of the name of a church in long and regular fellowship with the
+Unitarian Association from its Year Book; and a resolution offered by Dr.
+Bellows, indorsing the action of the officers of the National Conference in
+inviting the New Bedford church to send delegates, was passed without
+dissent. At the session of the Western Conference held in Chicago during
+1875, resolutions were passed protesting against the removing of the name
+of any person from the accredited list of Unitarian ministers until he
+requested it, had left the denomination, joined some other sect, or been
+adjudged guilty of immorality. As a result of this discussion and of the
+broad sympathies and inclusive spirit of the conference, the following
+platform, in the shape of a resolution, was adopted:--
+
+  That the Western Unitarian Conference conditions its fellowship on no
+  dogmatic tests, but welcomes all thereto who desire to work with it in
+  advancing the kingdom of God.
+
+The attitude of the Unitarian Association and the National Conference--that
+is, of a large majority of Unitarians at this time--may be accurately
+defined in the words of Charles Lowe, who said: "I admit that we make a
+belief in Christianity a test of fellowship. No stretch of liberality will
+make me wish to deny that a belief in Jesus Christ is the absolutely
+essential qualification. But I will oppose, as a test, any definition of
+Christianity, any words about Christ, for Christ himself, as the principles
+of our fellowship and union."[12] These words exactly define what was
+sought for, which was liberty within the limits of Christianity. The
+primary insistence was upon discipleship to Jesus Christ, but it was
+maintained that loyalty to Christ is compatible with the largest degree of
+personal liberty.
+
+Fundamentally, this controversy was a continuation of that which had
+agitated New England from the beginning, that had divided those opposed to
+"the great awakening" of the middle of the eighteenth century from those
+who favored it, that led the Unitarians away from the Orthodox, and that
+now divided radical and conservative Unitarians. The advance was always
+towards a more pronounced assertion of individualism, and a more positive
+rejection of tradition, organization, and external authority. Indeed, it
+was towards this end that Unitarianism had directed its energies from the
+beginning; and the force of this tendency could not be overcome because
+some called for a creed, and more had come to see the need of an efficient
+organization for practical purposes.
+
+What the radicals desired was freedom, and the broadest assertion of
+individuality. It was maintained by Francis E. Abbot that "the spiritual
+ideal of Free Religion is to develop the individuality of the soul in the
+highest, fullest, and most independent manner possible."[13] The other
+distinctive principle of the radicals was that religion is universal, that
+all religions are essentially, the same, and that Christianity is simply
+one of the phases of universal religion. David A. Wasson defined religion
+as "the consciousness of universal relation,"[14] and as "the sense of
+unity with the infinite whole," adding that "morals, reason, freedom, are
+bound up with it."[15] This means, in simple statement, that religion is
+natural to man, and that it needs no authentication by miracle or
+supernatural manifestation. It means that all religions are essentially the
+same in their origin, and that none can claim the special favor of God in
+their manner of presentation to the world. According to this conception of
+religion, as was stated by. William J. Potter, Christianity is
+"provisional, preparatory, educational, containing, alongside of the most
+valuable truth, much that is only human error and bigotry and superstitious
+imagination."[16] "The spiritual ideal of Christianity," said Francis E.
+Abbot, "is the suppression of self and perfect imitation of Jesus the
+Christ. The spiritual ideal of Free Religion is the development of self,
+and the harmonious education of all its powers to the highest possible
+degree."[17]
+
+Through all this controversy what was sought for was a method of
+reconciling fellowship with individuality of opinion, of establishing a
+church in which freedom of faith for the individual shall have full
+recognition. In a word, the Unitarian body had a conviction that tradition
+is compatible with intuition, institutions with personal freedom, and
+co-operation with individual initiative. The problems involved were too
+large for an immediate solution; and what Unitarians accepted was an ideal,
+and not a fact fully realized in their denominational life. The doctrinal
+phases of the controversy have always been subsidiary to this larger
+search, this desire to give to the individual all the liberty that is
+compatible with his co-operation with others. The result of it has been to
+teach the Unitarian body, in the words of Francis E. Abbot at Syracuse, in
+1866, that "the only reconciliation of the duties of collective Christian
+activity and individual freedom of thought lies in an efficient
+organization for practical Christian work, based rather on unity of spirit
+than on uniformity of belief."[18]
+
+[Sidenote: Missionary Activities.]
+
+During this period of controversy, from 1865 to 1880, the Unitarian
+Association had at its head several able men, who were actively interested
+in its work. The president for 1865-66 was Rev. John G. Palfrey; and he was
+succeeded, in 1867, by Hon. Thomas D. Eliot, of New Bedford, who was in
+both houses of the Massachusetts legislature, and then for a number of
+years in the lower house of Congress. From 1870 to 1872 the president was
+Mr. Henry Chapin, of Worcester, an able lawyer and judge, loyally devoted
+to the Sunday-school work of his city and county. He was succeeded by Hon.
+John Wells, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, who was
+deeply interested in the church with which he was connected. In 1876 Mr.
+Henry P. Kidder was elected to this office,--a position he held for ten
+years. He was prominent in the banking interests of Boston, gave much
+attention to the charities of the city, and was an efficient worker in the
+South Congregational Church.
+
+Rev. Charles Lowe, the secretary from 1865 to 1871, wisely directed the
+activities of the Association through the early period of the great
+awakening of the denomination, and kept it from going to pieces on the
+Scylla and Charybdis of creed and radicalism. He was followed at a most
+critical and difficult time by Rev. Rush R. Shippen, who continued to hold
+the office until 1881. The reaction succeeding the great prosperity that
+followed the close of the civil war brought great burdens of debt to many
+individuals, and to cities, states, and the nation. These troubles
+distracted attention from spiritual interests, and joined with various
+other calamities in making this a trying time for churches and religious
+organizations.
+
+The discussions as to the theological position of the denomination
+naturally resulted in more or less of disorganization, and made it
+impossible to secure the unity of effort which is essential to any positive
+missionary growth. In spite of these drawbacks, however, denominational
+interests slowly advanced. During this period the Unitarian Association
+began to receive a considerable increase of its funds from legacies,--a
+result of its enlarged activities, and of the new interest awakened by the
+formation of the National Conference.
+
+A few facts may be mentioned to illustrate the never-failing generosity of
+Unitarian givers when specific needs are presented. In October, 1871,
+occurred the great fire in Chicago and the burning of Unity Church in that
+city, which was aided with $60,000 in rebuilding; while the Third Church
+and All Souls' were helped liberally in passing through this crisis. The
+following year the Boston fire crippled sadly the resources of the
+Association, and instead of the $150,000 asked for only $42,000 were
+received. Yet in 1876 the church in Washington was built, and $30,000 were
+contributed to that purpose by the denomination. In 1879; the denomination
+gave $56,000 to free the Church of the Messiah in New York from debt.
+During this period $100,000 were contributed to the Young Men's Christian
+Union in Boston, $90,000 to the Harvard Divinity School, $20,000 to the
+Prospect Hill School at Greenfield, and $30,000 towards the Channing
+Memorial Church in Newport.
+
+During these trying times the administration of Unitarian affairs in the
+west was in judicious hands, In 1865 Rev. Charles G. Ames began those
+missionary efforts on the Pacific coast that have led on to the
+establishment of a considerable number of churches in that section of the
+country. In central Illinois the devoted labors of Jasper L. Douthit from
+1868 to the present time have produced wide-reaching results in behalf of a
+genuine religion, temperance, good government, and education. In 1868 Rev.
+Carlton A. Staples was made the missionary agent of the Association in the
+west, with headquarters in Chicago, where a book-room was established. He
+was succeeded in 1872 by Rev. Sylvan S. Hunting, who was a tireless worker
+in the western field for many years. In 1874 Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones became
+the missionary of the Wisconsin Conference, and the next year of the
+Western Conference. For ten years Mr. Jones labored in this position with
+enthusiasm for the Unitarian cause in the west.
+
+[Sidenote: College Town Missions.]
+
+In the spring of 1865 the attention of the Unitarian Association was
+directed to the growing University of Michigan; and Rev. Charles H.
+Brigham, then the minister of the church in Taunton, was invited to proceed
+to Ann Arbor, and see what might be accomplished there. Meetings were held
+in the court-house, but in 1866 an old Methodist church was purchased by
+the Association and adapted to the uses of the new society. The
+congregation numbered at first about eighty persons, but gradually
+increased, especially from the attendance of university students. Mr.
+Brigham was asked by the students who listened to him to form a Bible class
+for their instruction, and this increased in numbers until it included from
+two hundred to three hundred persons. On Sunday evenings he delivered
+lectures wherein his wide and varied learning was made subservient to high
+ideals and to a noble interpretation of Christianity. He led many young men
+and women into the liberal faith, and he exercised through them a wide
+influence throughout the west. His gifts as a lecturer were also made
+available at the Meadville Theological School, with which institution he
+was connected for ten years.[19]
+
+The success of Mr. Brigham led to the founding of other college town
+churches, that at Ithaca, the seat of Cornell University, being established
+in 1866. In 1878 such a mission was begun at Madison for the students of
+the University of Wisconsin, and another at Iowa City for the University of
+Iowa. In more recent years college missions have been started at Lawrence,
+Kan.; Lincoln, Neb.; Minneapolis, Minn.; Berkeley, Cal.; Colorado Springs;
+and Amherst, Mass. This has proved to be one of the most effective ways of
+extending Unitarianism as a modern interpretation of Christianity.
+
+[Sidenote: Theatre Preaching.]
+
+Another interest developed by the awakening of 1865 was the popularization
+of Unitarianism by the use of theatres. In January, 1866, was begun in the
+Cooper Institute, New York, a Sunday evening course of lectures by Clarke,
+Bellows, Osgood, Frothingham, Putnam, Chadwick, and Joseph May, which was
+largely attended. Some of the most important doctrinal subjects were
+discussed. A few weeks later a similar course was undertaken in Washington
+with like success. In March, 1867, the Suffolk Conference undertook such a
+series of lectures in the Boston Theatre, which was crowded to its utmost
+capacity. Then followed courses of sermons or lectures in Lawrence, New
+Bedford, Salem, Springfield, Providence, Chicago, and San Francisco, as
+well as in other places. The council of the National Conference, in 1868,
+commended this as an important work that should be encouraged. Rev. Adams
+Ayer was made an agent of the Association to organize such meetings, and
+their success was remarkable for several years. In 1869 Rev. Charles Lowe
+spoke of "that wonderful feature of our recent experience," and urged that
+these meetings should be so organized as to lead to definite results.
+
+An earnest effort was made to organize the theatre congregations into
+unsectarian societies. It was proposed to form Christian unions that should
+work for Christian improvement and usefulness. The first result of this
+effort was the reorganization of the Boston Young Men's Christian Union in
+the spring of 1868. A similar institution was formed in Providence, to
+promote worship, education, hospitality and benevolence. Unions were also
+formed in, Salem, Lowell, Cambridge, New Bedford, New York, and elsewhere.
+
+[Sidenote: Organization of Local Conferences.]
+
+In the autumn of 1865, in order to facilitate the collection of money for
+the Unitarian Association, a number of local conferences were held in
+Massachusetts. The first of these met at Somerville, November 14, and was
+primarily a meeting of the Cambridge Association of Ministers, including
+all the lay delegates to the New York convention from the churches which
+that association represented. The result of this meeting was an increase of
+contributions to the Unitarian Association, and the determination to
+organize permanently to facilitate that work. Dr. E.E. Hale has stated that
+the initial suggestion of these meetings came from a conversation between
+Dr. Bellows and Dr. E.H. Sears, in which the latter said "that a very
+important element in any effort which should reveal the Unitarian church to
+itself would be some plan by which neighboring churches would be brought
+together more familiarly."[20]
+
+The local conferences had distinct antecedents, however, by which their
+character was doubtless in some degree determined. The early county and
+other local auxiliaries to the Unitarian Association begun in 1826 and
+continued for at least twenty years, which were general throughout New
+England, afforded a precedent; but a more immediate initiative had been
+taken in New Hampshire, where the New Hampshire Unitarian Association had
+been organized at Manchester, February 25, 1863. It does not appear that
+this organization was in any way a revival of the former society of the
+same name in that state, which was organized at Concord in 1832, and which
+was very active for a brief period. A Unitarian Church Association of Maine
+was organized at Portland, September 21, 1852, largely under the influence
+of Rev. Sylvester Judd, of Augusta; but it had only a brief existence. The
+Maine Conference of Unitarian Churches was organized at Farmington, July 8,
+1863.[21] These organizations antedated the movement for the formation of
+local conferences on the part of the National Conference; and they
+doubtless gave motive and impetus to that effort.
+
+On November 30, 1865, a meeting similar to that at Somerville was held by
+the Franklin Evangelical Association[22] at Springfield, and with similar
+results. Other meetings were held at Lowell, Dedham, Quincy, Salem,
+Taunton, Worcester, and Boston. The attendance at all these meetings was
+large, they developed an enthusiastic interest, and pledges were promptly
+made looking to larger contributions to the Unitarian Association.
+
+At the Syracuse meeting of the National Conference, in 1866, Dr. Bellows
+reported for the council in favor of local organizations, auxiliary to the
+national body. "No great national convention of any kind succeeds," it was
+declared, "which is not the concurrence of many local conventions, each of
+which has duties of detail and special spheres of influence upon whose
+co-operation the final and grand success of the whole depends." A series of
+resolutions, calling for the formation of local conferences, "to meet at
+fixed periods, at convenient points, for the organization of missionary
+work," was presented by Dr. E.E. Hale. In order to carry into effect the
+intent of these resolutions, Charles Lowe devised a plan of organization,
+which declared that the object of the local conference "shall be to promote
+the religious life and mutual sympathy of the churches which unite in it,
+and to enable them to co-operate in missionary work, and in raising funds
+for various Christian purposes." The work of organizing such local
+missionary bodies was taken up at once, and proceeded rapidly. The first
+one was organized at Sheboygan, Wis., October 24, 1866; and nearly all the
+churches were brought within the limits of such conferences during the next
+two years.[23]
+
+In the local conferences, as in the National Conference, two purposes
+contended for expression that were not compatible with each other as
+practical incentives to action. The one looked to the uniting of all
+liberal individuals and denominations in a general organization, and the
+other aimed at the promotion of distinctly Unitarian interests. In the
+National Conference the denominational purpose controlled in shaping its
+permanent policy; but the other intent found expression in the addition of
+"Other Christian Churches" to the name, though in only the most limited way
+did such churches connect themselves with the Conference.[24] The local
+conferences made like provision for those not wishing to call themselves
+distinctly Unitarian. Such desire for co-operation, however, was in a large
+degree ineffective because of the fact that the primary aim in the calling
+into existence of such conferences was an increase in the funds of the
+Unitarian Association.
+
+[Sidenote: Fellowship and Fraternity.]
+
+Under the leadership of the National Conference the Unitarian body
+underwent material changes in its internal organization and in its
+relations to other denominations. Not only did it bring the churches to act
+together in the local conferences and in its own sessions, but it taught
+then to co-operate for the protection of their pulpits against adventurers
+and immoral men. Before it was organized, the excessive spirit of
+independency in the churches would permit of no exercise of control as to
+their selection of ministers to fill their pulpits. At the fourth session
+of the National Conference, held in New York in October, 1870, the council,
+through Dr. Bellows, suggested that the local conferences refuse to
+acknowledge as ministers men of proven vices and immoralities. To carry out
+the spirit of this suggestion, Dr. Hale presented a resolution, which was
+adopted, asking the local conferences to appoint committees of fellowship
+to examine and to act upon candidates for the ministry. In October, 1870,
+the New York and Hudson River Conference created such a committee "to
+examine the testimonials of such as desire to become members of the
+conference and enter the Unitarian ministry."
+
+The seventh session of the National Conference, held at Saratoga in 1876,
+provided for the appointment of a committee of fellowship, and the list of
+names of those appointed to its membership appears in the printed report;
+but there is no record that the committee ever organized. In 1878 the
+council reported at considerable length on the desirableness of
+establishing such a committee; and, again, a committee of fellowship was
+appointed "to take into immediate consideration the subject of the
+introduction into the Unitarian ministry of those persons who seek an
+entrance into that ministry from other churches." This committee consisted
+of twelve persons, three each for the eastern, middle, western, and Pacific
+states.
+
+At the session of 1880 the council of the Conference stated that it had
+created a substitute for the old ecclesiastical council, that was called
+together from the neighboring ministers and churches whenever a minister
+was to be inducted into office. That method was costly and had dropped into
+desuetude; but the new method of a committee of fellowship saved true
+Congregational methods and freed the churches from unworthy men. At this
+session the committee reported that it had adopted a uniform plan of
+action; but a resolution was passed recommending that each local conference
+establish its own committee of fellowship. Having once been instituted,
+however, the committee of the National Conference came slowly to be
+recognized as the fit means of introducing ministers into the Unitarian
+fellowship. Its authority has proven beneficent, and in no sense
+autocratic. It has shown that churches may co-operate in this way without
+intruding upon each others' rights, and that such a safeguarding of the
+pulpits of the denomination is essential to their dignity and morality. In
+1896 the Minnesota Conference went one step further, and provided for a
+committee of fellowship with power to exclude for "conduct unbecoming a
+minister."
+
+[Sidenote: Results of the Denominational Awakening.]
+
+The most marked feature in the history of Unitarianism in this country
+during the period from 1865 to 1880 was the organization of the National
+Conference as the legislative body of the denomination, and the adjustment
+to it of the American Unitarian Association as its executive instrument.
+Attendant upon this organizing movement was the termination of the
+theological discussion that had begun twenty years earlier between the
+conservatives and radicals, the supernaturalists and the idealists, or
+transcendentalists. In 1865 the large majority of Unitarians were
+conservatives and supernaturalists, but in 1880 a marked change in belief
+had come about, that had apparently given the victory to the more moderate
+of the radicals. The majority of Unitarians would no longer assert that
+miracles are necessary to faith in Christ and the acceptance of his
+teachings as worthy of credence.
+
+The change that came about during these years was largely due to the
+leadership of Henry W. Bellows. What he did was to keep actively alive in
+the Unitarian body its recognition of its Christian heritage, while at the
+same time he boldly refused assent to its being committed to any definite
+creed. He insisted upon the right of Unitarians to the Christian name, and
+to all that Christianity means as a vital spiritual force; but at the same
+time he refused to accept any limits for the Christian tradition and
+heritage, and left them free for growth. Sometimes apparently reactionary
+and conservative, he was at other times boldly radical and progressive. The
+cause of this seeming inconsistency was to be found in those gifts of
+imagination and emotion that made him a great preacher; but the
+inconsistency was more apparent than real, for in his leadership he
+manifested a wisdom and a capacity for directing the efforts of others that
+has never been surpassed in the history of religion and philanthropy in
+this country. He was both conservative and radical, supernaturalist and
+transcendentalist, a believer in miracles with a confident trust in the
+functions of reason. He saw both before and after, knew the worth of the
+past, and recognized that all the roots of our religious life are found
+therein, and yet courageously faced the future and its power to transform
+our faith by the aid of philosophy and science. Consequently, his
+sympathies were large, generous, and inclusive. Sometimes autocratic in
+word and action, his motives were catholic, and his intentions broad and
+appreciative. He gave direction to the newer Unitarianism in its efforts to
+organize and perpetuate itself. Had it been more flexible to his organizing
+skill, it would have grown more rapidly; but, with all its individualism
+and dislike of proselyting, it has more than doubled in strength since
+1865. He showed the Unitarian body that freedom is consistent with
+organized effort, and that personal liberty is no more essential than
+co-ordinated action. He may be justly described as the real organizer of
+the Unitarian body in this country.
+
+[1] Henry W. Bellows, in Monthly Journal, iv. 336: "These two years of
+    war have witnessed a more rapid progress in liberal opinions than the
+    whole previous century. The public mind has opened itself as it has
+    never been open before." In vi. 3, he said: "There are great and
+    striking changes going on. Men are breaking away from old opinions,
+    and there is a great work for us to do." This was said in December,
+    1864. William G. Eliot, Monthly Journal, iv. 349: "The war has proved
+    that our Unitarian faith works well in time of trial. No other church
+    has been so uniformly and thoroughly loyal, and no other church has
+    done more for the sick and dying." Many other similar words could be
+    quoted.
+
+[2] James Freeman Clarke reported for this committee at the Syracuse
+    session of 1866, and stated that its members had conferred with
+    Christians, Universalists, Methodists, Congregationalists, and
+    others. The committee made several suggestions as to what could be
+    done to promote general fellowship, and recommended that the title of
+    the National Conference be so changed as to permit persons of other
+    religions bodies to find a place within it, if they so desired. The
+    committee was reappointed; and at the third session of the Conference
+    it reported that it had visited the annual gatherings of the
+    Universalists, Methodists, and Free Religionists, and had been
+    cordially welcomed. They were received into the pulpits of different
+    denominations, they found everywhere a cordial spirit of fellowship
+    and a breaking down of sectarian barriers. At this session the
+    Conference expressed its desire "to cultivate the most friendly
+    relations with, and to encourage fraternal intercourse between, the
+    various liberal Christian bodies in this country." A committee of
+    three was appointed "to represent our fraternal sentiments and to
+    consider all questions which relate to mutual intercourse and
+    co-operation."
+
+    This committee reported through Edward E. Hale that it had been well
+    received at two Methodist conferences and at several state
+    conventions of the Universalists. Especially had it been welcomed by
+    the African Methodist Church, which was the beginning of cordial
+    relations between the two bodies for several years. The committee
+    reported, however, that "there are but few regularly organized bodies
+    in this country which, in their formal action, express much desire
+    for intercourse or co-operation with us as an organized branch of the
+    church." A resolution offered by the committee, expressing the desire
+    of the National Conference "to cultivate the most friendly relations
+    with all Christian churches and to encourage fraternal intercourse
+    between them," was adopted. The members of the committee appointed in
+    1870 attended the session of the American Board of Foreign Missions
+    in 1871; and they were received with courtesy, Athanase Coquerel
+    addressing the board as their representative. The committee reported
+    that "in every direction, from clergymen and laymen of different
+    Protestant churches, we have received informal expressions of what we
+    believe to be a very general desire that there might be a more formal
+    and public expression of the fellowship which undoubtedly really
+    exists between the different Protestant communions."
+
+    At the session of the National Conference held in 1874 the council
+    suggested the propriety of preparing a register of the free or
+    liberal churches of the world, and it enumerated the various bodies
+    that might be properly included; but no action was taken on this
+    recommendation. At this session an amendment to the by-laws, offered
+    by Dr. Hale, was adopted, providing for a fellowship committee with
+    other churches. This committee was not appointed, and the amendment
+    was not printed in its proper place in the report. Apparently, the
+    interest in efforts of this kind had exhausted itself, partly because
+    any active co-operation with the more conservative churches was
+    impossible, and partly because the growth of denominational feeling
+    directed the energies of the National Conference into other channels.
+
+[3] The sessions of the National Conference have been held as follows: 1,
+    New York, April 5-6, 1865; 2, Syracuse, October 10-11, 1866; 3, New
+    York, October 7-9, 1868; 4, New York, October 19-21, 1870; 5. Boston,
+    October 22-25, 1872; 6, Saratoga, September 15-18, 1874; 7, Saratoga,
+    September 12-15, 1876; 8, Saratoga, September 17-20, 1878; 9,
+    Saratoga, September 21-24, 1880; 10, Saratoga, September 18-22, 1882;
+    11, Saratoga, September 22-26, 1884; 12, Saratoga, September 20-24,
+    1886; 13, Philadelphia, October 28-31, 1889; 14, Saratoga, September
+    21-25, 1891; 15, Saratoga, September 24-27, 1894; 16, Washington,
+    October 21-24, 1895; 17, Saratoga, September 20-23, 1897; 18,
+    Washington, October 16-19 1899; 19, Saratoga, September 23, 1901. A
+    meeting was held in Chicago, in 1893, in connection with the
+    Parliament of Religions. The presidents of the National Conference
+    have been Hon. John A. Andrew, who served in 1866; Hon. Thomas D.
+    Eliot, whose term of service lasted to 1869; Judge Ebenezer R. Hoar,
+    from 1869 to 1878, and again from 1882 to 1884; Hon. John D. Long,
+    from 1878 to 1882; Judge Samuel F. Miller, 1884 to 1891; Mr. George
+    William Curtis, 1891 to 1894; and Hon. George F. Hoar, 1894 to 1901.
+    Hon. Carroll D. Wright was elected to the office in 1901. The
+    secretaries have been Rev. Edward Everett Hale, Rev. George
+    Batchelor, Rev. Russell N. Bellows, Rev. William H. Lyon, and Rev.
+    Daniel W. Morehouse. The first chairman of the council was Rev. Henry
+    W. Bellows, D.D., who served to 1872, and again from 1876 to 1878;
+    Professor Charles Carroll Everett, D.D., from 1874 to 1876; Rev.
+    Edward Everett Hale, D.D., from 1880 to 1882, and from 1891 to 1894;
+    Rev. James De Normandie, D.D., from 1884 to 1889; Rev. Brooke
+    Herford, D.D., from 1889 to 1891; Rev. George Batchelor, from 1894 to
+    1895; Rev. Minot J. Savage, D.D., from 1895 to 1899; and Rev. Howard
+    N. Brown, from the later year to 1901, when Rev. Thomas R. Slicer was
+    elected.
+
+[4] A.A. Low, a member of the first Unitarian congregation in Brooklyn,
+    N.Y.
+
+[5] Lecture delivered in Cooper Institute, New York, on Unitarian Views
+    of Christ, published in The Christian Examiner, November, 1866, xxxi,
+    310.
+
+[6] Works, iv. 110.
+
+[7] The Christian Examiner, March-April, 1826, iii. 136.
+
+[8] First Series of Tracts of A.U.A. No. 87.
+
+[9] First Series of A.U.A. Tracts, No. 105, April, 1836.
+
+[10] Forty-fifth Annual Report of the American Unitarian Association, 11,
+     14.
+
+[11] This correspondence was published in full in The Christian Register
+     for December 13 and 20, 1873, Mr. Potter's letter protesting against
+     the action of the Association being printed on the later date.
+
+[12] Memoir of Charles Lowe, 454, 458.
+
+[13] Freedom and Fellowship in Religion, 261.
+
+[14] Freedom and Fellowship in Religion, 24.
+
+[15] Ibid., 42.
+
+[16] Ibid., 216.
+
+[17] Fifty Affirmations, 47.
+
+[18] Report of the Second Meeting of the National Conference, 20.
+
+[19] Memoir of Charles H. Brigham, with Sermons and Lectures.
+
+[20] Christian Register. March 15, 1900, lxxxix. 300; Twenty-fifth
+     Anniversary of the Worcester Conference, 7, address by Dr. Hale. See
+     Memoir of Charles Lowe, 372.
+
+[21] Church Exchange, May, 1899, vi. 59.
+
+[22] This association of ministers was organized August 17, 1819, and was
+     orthodox, but found itself Unitarian when the denominational change
+     took place.
+
+[23] See Appendix for a complete list of the local conferences and the
+     dates of their organization.
+
+[24] In a small number of instances such churches did join the Conference,
+     but the number was too small to be in any degree significant.
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+
+GROWTH OF DENOMINATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS.
+
+The period from 1880 to the present time is marked by a growing
+denominational unity. Gradually Unitarians have come to the acceptance of
+their fellowship as a religious body, and to a recognition of their
+distinct mission. The controversy between the conservatives and the
+radicals was transferred to the west in 1886, and continued to have at its
+basis the problem of the relation of the individual to religious
+institutions and traditions. The conservative party maintained that
+Unitarians are Christians, and gave recognition to that continuity of human
+development by which every generation is connected with and draws its life
+from those which precede it, and is consciously dependent upon them. On the
+other hand, the radical party was not willing to accept traditions and
+institutions as having a binding authority over individuals. Some of them
+were reluctant to call themselves Christians, not because they rejected the
+more important of the Christian beliefs, but because they were not willing
+to bind any individual by the action of his fellows. It was their claim
+that religion best serves its own ends when it is free to act upon the
+individual without compulsion of any kind from others, and that its
+attractions should be without any bias of external authority.
+
+[Sidenote: "The Western Issue."]
+
+At the meeting of the Western Conference held in Cleveland in 1882,
+arrangements were made looking to its incorporation, and its object was
+defined to be "the transaction of business pertaining to the general
+interests of the societies connected with the Conference, and the promotion
+of rational religion." It was voted that the motto on the conference seal
+should be "Freedom, Fellowship, and Character in Religion," which was the
+same as that of the Free Religious Association, with the addition of the
+word "character." These results were reached after much discussion, and by
+the way of compromise. The issues thus raised were brought forward again at
+St. Louis, in 1885, when Rev. J.T. Sunderland, the secretary and missionary
+of the conference, deplored the growing spirit of agnosticism and
+scepticism in the Unitarian churches of the west. His report caused a
+division of opinion in the conference; and in the controversy that ensued
+the conservatives were represented by The Unitarian, edited by Rev. Brooke
+Herford and Rev. J.T. Sunderland, and the radicals by Unity, edited by Rev.
+J.Ll. Jones and Rev. W.C. Gannett.
+
+At the Western Conference meeting of 1886, held in Cincinnati, the
+controversy found full expression. The session was preceded a few days
+before by the publication of a pamphlet on The Western Issue from the pen
+of Mr. Sunderland, in which he contended for the theistic and Christian
+character of the conference. A resolution offered by Rev. Oscar Clute,
+"that the primary object of this Conference is to diffuse the knowledge and
+promote the interests of pure Christianity," was rejected by a considerable
+majority. Another, offered by Mr. Sunderland--"that, while rejecting all
+creeds and creed limitations, the Conference hereby expresses its purpose
+as a body to be the promotion of a religion of love to God and love to
+man"--was also rejected. That presented by William C. Gannett was carried
+by a majority of thirty-four to ten, and declared that
+
+  the Western Unitarian Conference conditions its fellowship on no
+  dogmatic tests, but welcomes all who wish to join it to establish
+  truth, righteousness, and love in the world.
+
+The result was a pronounced division between the two parties within the
+conference; and a considerable number of churches, including some of the
+oldest and strongest, withdrew from co-operation in the work of the
+Conference. At the session of 1887, held in All Souls' Church, Chicago, an
+effort was made to bring about a reconciliation; but this was not
+completely secured.[1] A resolution was carried, however, by a majority
+of fifty-nine to three, reaffirming Mr. Gannett's, declaration adopted at
+Cincinnati, but also accepting a statement in regard to fellowship and
+doctrines, which was called The Things Most Commonly Believed To-day among
+Us, and read as follows:--
+
+  In all matters of church government we are strict Congregationalists.
+  We have no creed in the usual sense; that is, articles of doctrinal
+  belief which bind our churches and fix the conditions of our
+  fellowship. Character has always been to us the supreme matter. We have
+  doctrinal beliefs, and for the most part hold such beliefs in common;
+  but above all doctrines we emphasize the principles of freedom,
+  fellowship, and character in religion. These principles make our
+  all-sufficient test of fellowship. All names that divide religion are
+  to us of little consequence compared with religion itself. Whoever
+  loves truth and loves the good is, in a broad sense, of our religious
+  fellowship; whoever loves the one or lives the other better than
+  ourselves is our teacher, whatever church or age he may belong to. So
+  our church is wide, our teachers many, and our holy writings large.
+
+  With a few exceptions we may be called Christian Theists: Theists as
+  worshipping the One-in-All, and naming that One, God our Father;
+  Christian, because revering Jesus as the highest of the historic
+  prophets of religion; these names, as names, receiving more stress in
+  our older than in our younger churches. The general faith is hinted
+  well in words which several of our churches have adopted for their
+  covenant: "In the freedom of the truth, and in the spirit of Jesus
+  Christ, we unite for the worship of God and the service of man." It is
+  hinted in such words as these: "Unitarianism is a religion of love to
+  God and love to man." "It is that free and progressive development of
+  historic Christianity which aspires to be synonymous with universal
+  ethics and universal religion." But because we have no creed which we
+  impose as test of fellowship, specific statements of belief abound
+  among us, always somewhat differing, always largely agreeing. One such
+  we offer here:--
+
+    We believe that to love the Good and live the Good is the supreme
+    thing in religion. We hold reason and conscience to be final
+    authorities in matters of religious belief. We honor the Bible and
+    all inspiring scriptures, old and new. We revere Jesus and all holy
+    souls that have taught men truth and righteousness and love, as
+    prophets of religion. We believe in the growing nobility of man. We
+    trust the unfolding universe as beautiful, beneficent, unchanging
+    Order; to know this order is truth; to obey it is right and liberty
+    and stronger life. We believe that good and evil inevitably carry
+    their own recompense, no good things being failure, and no evil
+    things success; that heaven and hell are states of being; that no
+    evil can befall the good man in either life or death; that all
+    things work together for the victory of Good. We believe that we
+    ought to join hands and work to make the good things better and the
+    worst good, counting nothing good for self that is not good for
+    all. We believe that this self-forgetting, loyal life awakes in man
+    the sense of union, here and now, with things eternal--the sense of
+    deathlessness; and this is to us an earnest of the life to come. We
+    worship One-in-All,--that Life whence suns and stars derive their
+    orbits and the soul of man its Ought,--that Light which lighteth
+    every man that cometh into the world, giving us power to become the
+    sons of God,--that Love with whom our souls commune. This One we
+    name the Eternal God, our Father.
+
+This action not satisfying the remonstrants, the controversy went on with
+considerable vigor for three or four years. Both parties to it were
+characteristically Unitarian in their attitude and in their demands. Both
+sought the truth with an attempt at unbiassed judgment; and neither wished
+to disfellowship the other, or to put any restrictions upon its expression
+of its opinions. Much heat was engendered by the controversy, but light was
+desire by both parties with sincere purpose. The conflict was finally
+brought to an end by the action of the National Conference at its session
+of 1894, held at Saratoga, though this result had been practically reached
+in 1892. A committee on the revision of the constitution had been appointed
+by the council of the session of 1891; and this committee reported the
+following preamble, which was unanimously adopted as a substitute for the
+preamble of 1865 and 1868:--
+
+  The Conference of Unitarian and other Christian Churches was formed in
+  the year 1865, with the purpose of strengthening the churches and
+  societies which should unite in it for more and better work for the
+  kingdom of God. These churches accept the religion of Jesus, holding,
+  in accordance with his teaching, that practical religion is summed up
+  in love to God and love to man. The Conference recognizes the fact that
+  its constituency is Congregational in tradition and polity. Therefore,
+  it declares that nothing in this constitution is to be construed as an
+  authoritative test; and we cordially invite to our working fellowship
+  any who, while differing from us in belief, are in general sympathy
+  with our spirit and our practical aims.
+
+This preamble to the new constitution proved to be so far acceptable to
+both parties in the Western Conference, as well as to their sympathizers
+elsewhere, that harmony was restored throughout the denomination. While the
+Unitarian body thus retained its use of the Christian name and its
+insistence upon loyalty to the teachings of Jesus, yet it put aside every
+form of dogmatic test and of creedal statement. Its fellowship was made
+very broad in its character, and all were invited to join it who so
+desired.
+
+[Sidenote: Fellowship with Universalists.]
+
+At the annual meeting of the Unitarian Association in 1899 resolutions were
+passed looking to joint action between Unitarians and Universalists with
+reference to furthering their common interests. A committee was appointed
+to confer with a similar committee of the Universalist General Convention
+for the purpose of considering "plans of closer co-operation, devise ways
+and means for more efficient usefulness." In October this proposal was
+accepted by the General Convention, and a committee appointed. At the
+annual meeting of the Unitarian Association in 1900 the report of the
+joint committee was presented, in which it was declared that "closer
+co-operation is desirable and practicable"; but the committee expressed the
+wish to go on record "as not desiring nor expecting to disturb in any way
+the separate organic autonomy of the two denominations. We seek
+co-operation, not consolidation, unity, non union." The committee
+recommended that it be given authority to consider the cases in which the
+two denominations are jointly interested, such as opportunities of
+instituting churches or missions in new fields, the circulation of tracts
+and books, the holding of joint meetings of ministers and churches, or
+other efforts to promote intellectual agreements and deep faiths of the
+heart, and to recommend the appropriate action to the proper organizations.
+At the next sessions of the Unitarian Association and of the Universalist
+General Convention these recommendations were accepted, and permanent
+members of the joint committee were appointed. This committee has entered
+upon its duties, and important results may be anticipated in the promotion
+of harmony and co-operation.
+
+[Sidenote: Officers of the American Unitarian Association.]
+
+Mr. Henry P. Kidder continued as the president of the Unitarian Association
+until the annual meeting of 1886. He was then succeeded by Hon. George D.
+Robinson, who held the office for only one year. He had been in both houses
+of the Massachusetts legislature, in the national House from 1877 to 1883,
+and was governor of Massachusetts from 1884 to 1886. His successor was Hon.
+George S. Hale, from 1887 to 1895, who was a distinguished lawyer, and was
+greatly interested in charities and reforms. Hon. John D. Long was the
+president from 1895 to 1897. He had been in the lower house of the
+Massachusetts legislature, was lieutenant governor in 1879, governor in
+1880-82, in the national House from 1883 to 1889, and from 1897 to 1902 was
+Secretary of the Navy. Hon. Carroll D. Wright held the office from 1897 to
+1900. He was in the Massachusetts Senate in 1871 and 1872, was chief of the
+Massachusetts bureau of statistics from 1873 to 1888, superintendent of the
+United States census in 1880, has been commissioner of the national Bureau
+of Labor since 1885, and in 1902 became president of Clark College at
+Worcester. At the annual meeting of 1900 it was thought best to make a
+change in the nature of the presidency, in order that the head of the
+Association might become its chief executive officer. In that way it was
+sought to add dignity and efficiency to the position of the executive
+officer, as well as to meet the greatly increased work of the Association
+by this addition to its salaried force. The secretary, Rev. Samuel A.
+Eliot, was elected to the presidency.
+
+In 1881 Rev. Grindall Reynolds became the secretary of the Association. He
+had previously held pastorates in Jamaica Plain and Concord. He had rare
+executive abilities, was gifted with sound common sense and a judicial
+temper; and he had a most efficient business capacity. Under his leadership
+the growth of the Unitarian denomination was more rapid than it had been at
+any earlier period; and this was largely due to his zeal, energy, and
+wisdom.
+
+In December, 1894, Rev. George Batchelor became the secretary, and he
+continued in office until November, 1897, when he became the editor of The
+Christian Register. He had previously held pastorates in Salem, Chicago,
+and Lowell. He was succeeded, January 1, 1898, by Rev. Samuel A. Eliot, who
+had been settled over churches in Denver and Brooklyn, and who became the
+president of the Association in 1900. Rev. Charles E. St. John, who had
+been settled in Northampton and Pittsburg, became the secretary at the
+annual meeting of 1900.
+
+[Sidenote: The American Unitarian Association as a Representative Body.]
+
+In the report of the council of the National Conference at the session of
+1880, Dr. Bellows pointed out the fact that the American Unitarian
+Association was "not a union of churches, but an association of individuals
+belonging to Unitarian churches, who became members of it and entitled to
+vote by signing its constitution and the annual payment of one dollar. This
+Association never had, and has not now, any explicit relation to our
+churches as churches, but only to such individuals as choose to become
+voluntary subscribers to its funds, and members by signing its
+constitution, and to such churches as choose to employ its services."
+
+This statement led to the appointment of a committee "to consider how the
+National Conference and the American Unitarian Association can more
+effectually co-operate without sacrifice of the advantages belonging to
+either." The committee reported in 1882 in favor of so changing the charter
+of the Association that a church might become a member. At the annual
+meeting of the Association in 1884, after a prolonged discussion, its
+by-laws were so amended that, while the life membership was retained, the
+sum creating it was raised from $30 to $50; and churches were given
+representation on the condition of regular yearly contributions to its
+treasury, two of such contributions being necessary to establish a church
+in this right. Since that time the delegates from churches have
+considerably outnumbered the life members voting at the annual meetings.
+This has practically given the churches the controlling voice in the
+activities of the Association.
+
+The giving a representative character to the Association had the effect of
+increasing the contributions made to its support by the churches. Under the
+leadership of Dr. Bellows, at the National Conference in 1884, there began
+a movement looking to the establishment of a conference in every state and
+the employment of a missionary by every such conference. This plan has not
+yet been fully carried out; but in 1885 and the following years missionary
+superintendents were appointed by the Association for five general sections
+of the country, and, with some variations, this, system has continued in
+operation to the present time.[2]
+
+[Sidenote: The Church Building Loan Fund.]
+
+The work of building churches was greatly facilitated by the establishment,
+in 1884, of a Church Building Loan Fund. The proposition to create such a
+fund was first brought forward by the finance committee at a meeting of the
+directors of the Unitarian Association on February 11, 1884. At the March
+meeting a committee was appointed to mature plans; and at the meeting of
+the National Conference in September, held at Saratoga, a resolution was
+passed asking the Association to set apart $25,000 for this purpose, and
+pledging the Conference to add $20,000 to this sum. At the November meeting
+of the directors of the Association the organization of the fund was
+completed, a board of trustees was created, and the sum of $43,000 was
+reported as secured. The fund was steadily increased by contributions from
+the churches and by gifts and legacies until in 1900 it amounted to
+$142,820.92. Up to May, 1900, an aggregate sum of $294,310 had been
+disbursed, in one hundred loans to ninety societies, chiefly to aid in the
+erection of new church edifices.[3]
+
+[Sidenote: The Unitarian Building in Boston.]
+
+For several years after the organization of the American Unitarian
+Association the records give no indication of the place of meeting of the
+directors. During the latter part of 1825, and in 1826, David Reed was the
+general agent of the Association; and his place of business was at 81
+Washington Street. It is probable that the directors met at the study of
+the secretary or at the place of business of the agent. In December, 1826,
+the firm of Bowles & Dearborn, booksellers, became the agents, their store
+being first at 72 and then at 50 Washington Street. Here all Unitarian
+publications were kept on sale, the name of "general repositary" being
+given to their stock of books, tracts, periodicals, and other publications
+of a liberal character. In 1829 the agent was Leonard C. Bowles, evidently
+a continuation of Bowles & Dearborn.
+
+In 1830 the depositary was removed to 135 Washington Street, and was under
+the management of the firm of Gray & Bowen, who were paid $144.44 for their
+services. In 1831 the place of business of this firm was 141 Washington
+Street; and the sum it received from the Association was $200, which was
+the next year increased to $300. Leonard C. Bowles, located at 147
+Washington Street, again became the agent in 1836. In 1837 James Munroe &
+Co. appear as the publishers of the annual report, but they are not
+mentioned as agents or as having charge of the repositary. The sum of $150
+was paid in that year for the rent of a room for the general secretary,
+Rev. Charles Briggs; and the location of the room is probably indicated by
+the record that in 1838 Munroe & Co. were paid $133.34 for rent of room and
+clerk hire, their store being at 134 Washington Street. Here the
+headquarters of the Association were at last established, for they
+continued in this place until 1846. In 1839 the rental paid was $300, and
+for the six succeeding years it was $200. Surely, these were the days of
+small things; but here the Association carried on such activities as it had
+in hand, and the Unitarian ministers met for conversation and consultation.
+
+In 1846 Crosby, Nichols & Co. became the agents of the Association, first
+at 118 and then at 111 Washington Street. This firm brought out several
+Unitarian books, and issued The Christian Examiner and other Unitarian
+periodicals. For a number of years they were intimately associated with
+Unitarian interests, and the theological and literary traditions of the
+time connect them with many of the leading men and movements of Boston. In
+the rear of their store the Association had its office, its meeting-place
+for the directors and other officers, as well as for the Monday gatherings
+of ministers.
+
+After these many wanderings from the rear of one bookstore to another the
+Association at last secured an abode of its own. On March 9, 1854, rooms
+for the use of the Association were opened at 21 Bromfield Street. On this
+occasion a small company came together, and listened to an address by Dr.
+Samuel K. Lothrop, the president of the Association. Another change was
+made in October, 1859, when Walker, Wise & Co. undertook the book-selling,
+and publishing work of the Association at 21 Bromfield Street.
+
+In the year 1865 there came to the Association an opportunity for securing
+a building of its own. The sum of $16,000 was paid for a house at 26
+Chauncy Street, which was occupied in the spring of 1866. The enlarged
+activities of the Association at this time here found the housing they
+needed. Affiliated organizations also found a home in this building,
+especially the Sunday School Society, the Christian Register Association,
+and The Monthly Religious Magazine.
+
+The theatre meetings, begun in Boston in 1866, having suggested the need of
+a larger denominational building, The Monthly Journal of November, 1867,
+proposed the erection of a building with a spacious hall for these great
+popular meetings, smaller rooms for social gatherings, offices for the
+Association and other affiliated societies, and an attractive bookstore.
+"In short, we would have it comprise all that might properly belong to a
+denominational headquarters or home. We would have it in a convenient and
+conspicuous situation, and every way worthy of our position." This dream of
+Mr. Lowe's he brought forward again in his annual report of 1870, when he
+said: "The building now occupied by the Association has become wholly
+inadequate to its uses; and steps were taken more than a year ago by its
+friends in Boston towards providing more suitable accommodations, and at
+the same time providing in connection with it for such other uses as might
+make the building to be erected worthy to be the headquarters of the
+denomination in the city which gave it birth." Mr. Shippen called attention
+to the needs of the Association in his report of 1872, saying that the
+project of a large hall had been abandoned, but that there was urgent
+demand for a building suited to the business and social needs of the
+denomination in Boston.
+
+The great fire of November, 1872, brought this project to a sudden
+termination. The Chauncy Street building was for many hours in danger of
+being burned, out it was finally saved. Its market value was much increased
+by the fire, however; and in February, 1873, it was sold for $37,000.
+Purchase was soon made, at a cost of $30,000, of the estate at 7 Tremont
+Place, belonging to Hon. Albert Fearing, who had been active in the work of
+the Association and prominent in the Unitarian circles of Boston. This
+building, entered by the Association in May, 1873, was somewhat larger than
+its predecessor and in some respects better suited to the needs of the
+Association; yet the secretary, at the annual meeting held in the same
+month, called for the more convenient building, which should serve "as a
+worthy centre in this city for the various charitable and missionary
+activities of our faith."[4]
+
+In his report of 1880 Mr. Shippen again presented his demand for a suitable
+home for the Association and its kindred organizations. This appeal was
+renewed in the following year by Mr. Reynolds, who urged "the need of a
+denominational house in Boston, which should be commodious, accessible,
+easily found, and where all our charities and all our works should find a
+home." "Very fitting it is," he added, "that such a house should be named
+after him who, by his personal influence in life and by the power of his
+written word after his death, has been the mightiest single force for the
+diffusion of rational Christianity."
+
+In January, 1882, the Unitarian Club of Boston was organized; and it soon
+after took up the task of erecting the desired building. The initiative was
+taken at a meeting of the club held December 13, 1882, when Mr. Henry P.
+Kidder offered to head a subscription for this purpose with the sum of
+$10,000. The proposal was received with much enthusiasm, and a committee
+was appointed, consisting of Henry P. Kidder, Charles Faulkner, Charles W.
+Eliot, William Endicott, Jr., Francis H. Brown, M.D., Dr. John Cordner,
+Arthur T. Lyman, Henry Grew, Thomas Gaffield, and Rev. Grindall Reynolds,
+to whom authority was given to raise funds, purchase a lot, and erect a
+building. It was arranged by this committee that the Association should
+contribute $50,000 from the sale of its Tremont Place building, and that
+the club should raise $150,000. Subscriptions were opened February 9, 1883;
+and in November over $154,000 had been secured. A suitable lot was
+purchased at the corner of Beacon and Bowdoin Streets, and the erection of
+the building was begun in 1884. A prolonged labor strike delayed the
+completion of the building, so that the service of its dedication, which
+had been arranged for the evening of May 25, 1886, was held in Tremont
+Temple. The presiding officer on that occasion was George William Curtis;
+and addresses were made by Drs. Frederic H. Hedge, Andrew P. Peabody, and
+Horatio Stebbins. In July the building was occupied by the Association.
+"The denominational house is but brick and stone," said Mr. Reynolds in his
+report of 1886; "but it is brick and stone which testify to the new hope,
+vigor, life, which have been coming in these later years into our body, and
+without which it could not have been reared. It is brick and stone which
+are the pledges of a noble future, which stimulate to good work, and
+furnish the means of doing it."[5]
+
+[Sidenote: Growth of the Devotional Spirit.]
+
+The last twenty years of the nineteenth century saw an increased use of the
+simpler Christian rites in Unitarian churches. In that time a distinct
+advance was made in the acceptableness of the communion service, and
+probably in the number of those willing to join in its observance. The
+abandonment of its mystical features and its interpretation as a simple
+memorial service, that would help to cherish loved ones gone hence, and the
+saintly and heroic of all ages, as well as the one great leader of the
+Christian body, has given it for Unitarians a new spiritual effectiveness.
+The same causes have led to the adoption of the rite of confirmation in a
+considerable number of churches. Gradually the idea has grown that what
+Rev. Sylvester Judd called "the birthright church" is the true one, and
+that it is desirable that all children should be religiously trained, and
+admitted to the church at the age of adolescence. Mr. Judd gave noble
+utterance to this conception of a church in a series of sermons published
+after his death,[6] as well as in a sermon prepared for the Thursday
+lecture in Boston.[7] The same idea was elaborated by Rev. Cyrus A.
+Bartol in his Church and Congregation: A Plea for their Unity,[8] wherein
+he contended for the union of church and parish, the opening of the
+communion to all as a rite accepted by the whole congregation, and not by a
+few church members, and the education of children as constituent members of
+the church from birth.
+
+It was not until much later, however, that the rite of confirmation came
+into use,[9] largely because of the interpretations of the purposes and
+methods of Christian nurture presented by Bushnell, Bartol, and Judd. This
+rite could have meaning only as the expression of social responsibility on
+the part of parents and church alike, that true religion is not merely a
+question of individual opinion, but that there is high worth in those
+spiritual forces that are carried forward from generation to generation,
+and must descend from parent to child if they have effective power. In a
+word, the use of the confirmation rite is an abandonment of extreme
+individualism, and is an acceptance of the socialistic conception of
+spiritual development.[10] This is distinctly a return to the conception
+of a church maintained by Solomon Stoddard at the beginning of the
+eighteenth century, and to that broader Congregationalism he desired to see
+established throughout New England. It was also theoretically that of the
+Puritan founders of New England, who maintained that all children Of church
+members were also members of the church, but who inconsistently insisted
+upon a supernatural conversion in order to full membership. It is even more
+positively an acceptance of the theory of Christian nurture held by the
+Catholic and the Episcopal churches. That theory is based on the social
+conception of the church, that it is an organic body, and that every child
+is born into it and is to be trained as a member by nature and by right.
+
+There has also been a marked change in the forms of Sunday worship,
+especially in the general adoption of responsive readings or more elaborate
+rituals. The tendency has been away from the bare and unattractive service
+of the Puritan churches, which was the acme of individualism in worship,
+towards the more social conception that brings the whole congregation to
+join in the act and in the spirit of devotion. This social conception of
+worship had its first distinct expression in a Unitarian church when James
+Freeman Clarke organized the Church of the Disciples, in 1843.[11] His
+example was a potent force in introducing into many churches a richer and
+more expressive form of worship. Another influence was that of Samuel
+Longfellow, who became the minister of the Second Unitarian Church in
+Brooklyn, in 1853. He soon after introduced vesper services in place of the
+second sermon in the afternoon, making them largely devotional in their
+character. "His own taste and deep feeling were largely a condition of the
+full success of the vespers," says his biographer, "which were seldom
+elsewhere so impressive or seemed so genuine as a devotional act. They
+needed, for their perfect effect, the influence of a leader with whom
+worship was an habitual mental attitude, and who, combined with the
+instinct of religion the art of a poet and of a musician."[12] The form of
+service thus initiated was adopted in many other churches, and slowly had
+its influence in giving greater beauty and spiritual expressiveness to
+worship in Unitarian churches.
+
+About 1885 the tendency to adopt a more social and a more aesthetic form of
+worship came to assert itself more distinctly. To its furtherance Rev.
+Howard N. Brown gave, perhaps, greater emphasis than any other person; but
+there were others who took an active part in the movement. The old
+Congregational demand for simplicity, however, was very great; and there
+was strong feeling against anything like ritualism. The use of some kind of
+liturgy became quite general in the face of this objection, and a
+considerable number of books of a semi-ritual character were published. The
+most elaborate work of this nature was compiled by a committee appointed by
+the Unitarian Association, and published by it in 1891. What is to be
+recognized in this tendency is not the more general use of liturgies,
+however simple or however elaborate, but the growth in Unitarian churches
+of the worshipping spirit. With the development of a rational theology
+there has been a corresponding evolution of a simple but earnest attitude
+of devotion.
+
+The devotional spirit of Unitarians, however, has found its most emphatic
+and beautiful expression in religious hymns and poems. The older Unitarian
+piety found voice in the hymns of the younger Henry Ware, Norton, Pierpont,
+Frothingham, Peabody, Lunt, Bryant, and many others. It was rational and
+yet Christian, simple in sentiment and yet it found in the New Testament
+traditions its themes and its symbolisms. Then followed the older
+transcendentalists, who sought in the inward life and the soul's oneness
+with God the chief motives to spiritual expression. The hymns and the
+religious poems of Furness, Hedge, Longfellow, Johnson, Clarke, Very,
+Brooks, and Miss Scudder,[13] have an interior and spiritual quality
+seldom found in devotional poetry. They are not the mere utterances of
+conventional sentiments or the repetition of ecclesiastical symbolisms, but
+the voicing of deep inward experiences that reveal and interpret the true
+life of the soul. Of the same character are the hymns and religious poems
+of Gannett, Hosmer, and Chadwick, who have but accentuated the tendencies
+of their predecessors. It is the more radical theology that has voiced
+itself in the religious songs of these men, but with a mystical or
+spiritual insight that fits them to the needs of all devout, worshippers.
+It is these genuinely poetical interpretations of the spiritual life that
+most often claim utterance in song on the part of Unitarian congregations.
+A body of worshippers that can produce such a hymnology must possess a
+large measure of genuine piety and devotion.
+
+[Sidenote: The Seventy-fifth Anniversary.]
+
+Many of the tendencies of the Unitarian movement found utterance on the
+occasion of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the American Unitarian
+Association. The meetings were held in Tremont Temple, May 22, 1900; and
+the attendance was large and enthusiastic, many persons coming from distant
+parts of the country. This meeting brought into full expression the
+denominational consciousness, and showed the harmony that had been secured
+as the result of the controversies of many years. As never before, it was
+realized that the Unitarian body has a distinct mission, that it has
+organic and vital power, and that its individual members are united by a
+common faith for the promotion of the interests of a rational and
+humanitarian religion.
+
+This was also a notable occasion because it brought together
+representatives from nearly all the countries in which Unitarianism exists
+in an organized form, thus clearly indicating that it is a cosmopolitan
+movement, and not one of merely local significance. At the morning session
+addresses were made by the representatives from Hungary, Great Britain,
+Germany, Belgium, India, and Japan. In the afternoon addresses were
+delivered by the missionaries of the Association. Other meetings of much
+interest were held during the week, that were of value as interpretations
+of the past of Unitarianism in this country.
+
+During this anniversary week, on May 26, 1900, upon the suggestion of Rev.
+S.A. Eliot, there was organized The International Council of Unitarian and
+Other Liberal Religious Thinkers and Workers, its object being "to open
+communication with those in all lands who are striving to unite pure
+religion and perfect liberty, and to increase fellowship and co-operation
+among them." Professor J. Estlin Carpenter, of Oxford, England, was
+selected as the president, and Rev. Charles W. Wendte, who shortly after
+became the minister of the Parker Memorial in Boston, was made the
+secretary. The executive committee included representatives from the United
+States, Great Britain, Japan, Hungary, Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, and
+Switzerland. The first annual meeting was held in London, May 30 and 31,
+1901, with delegates present from the above-named countries, as well as
+from Holland, Norway, India, Denmark, Australia, and Canada.[14]
+
+The anniversary exercises, as well as the organization of the International
+Council, gave concrete emphasis to the growing interest in Unitarian ideas
+and principles in many parts of the world. They gave the sense of a large
+fellowship, and kindled new enthusiasm. As interpreted by these meetings,
+the Unitarian name has largely ceased to be one of merely theological
+signification, and has come to mean "an endeavor to unite for common and
+unselfish endeavors all believers in pure religion and perfect
+liberty."[15]
+
+[1] The Unitarian, June, 1887, II. 156. For historical accounts of this
+    controversy see Mrs. S.C.Ll. Jones's Western Unitarian Conference:
+    Its Work and its Mission, Unity Mission Tract, No. 38; W.C. Gannett's
+    The Flowering of Christianity, Lesson XII., Part IV.; and The
+    Unitarian, II. and III. A Western Unitarian Association was organized
+    in Chicago, June 21, 1886. Some of the older and leading churches
+    were connected with it, including those at Meadville, Ann Arbor,
+    Louisville, Shelbyville, Church of the Messiah and Unity in Chicago,
+    Church of the Messiah in St. Louis, Keokuk, and others. Hon. George
+    W. McCrary was elected the president, and Mrs. Jonathan Slade the
+    recording secretary. In October, 1887, Rev. George Batchelor became
+    the Western agent of the American Unitarian Association. He was
+    succeeded the next year by Rev. George W. Cutter. In September, 1890,
+    Rev. T.B. Forbush was made the Western superintendent of the American
+    Unitarian Association, with headquarters in Chicago; and he held this
+    position until 1896. During the period covered by these dates Rev.
+    J.R. Effinger was the general missionary of the Western Unitarian
+    Conference, and he was succeeded by Rev. F.L. Hosmer and Rev. A.W.
+    Gould. In 1896 the Western churches were reunited in the Western
+    Conference, and its secretary has been the superintendent of the
+    American Unitarian Association. As defining the position of the
+    American Unitarian Association during this period of controversy, it
+    may be recalled that in June, 1886, the directors adopted a
+    resolution, in which they said they "would regard it as a subversion
+    of the purpose for which its funds have been contributed, as well as
+    of the principles cherished by its officers, to give assistance to
+    any church or organization which does not rest emphatically on the
+    Christian basis."
+
+[2] New England, Middle States and Canada, Western States, Southern
+    States, and Pacific Coast.
+
+[3] These loans are made without interest under established conditions,
+    one of which is that they must be repaid in ten annual instalments.
+
+[4] Annual Report of 1873, 7.
+
+[5] The building seemed to be ample, when it was first occupied, for any
+    growth that was likely to be made for many years to come. At the
+    present time, only sixteen years later, it is crowded; and an
+    extension is urgently demanded. It does not now afford room for the
+    work required, and much of that work is done at a considerable
+    disadvantage because of the want of room. The promise for the
+    immediate future is that much more room will be required in order to
+    facilitate the growing work of the Association.
+
+[6] The Church: in a Series of Sermons, Boston, 1857.
+
+[7] The Birthright Church: A Discourse, printed for the Association of
+    the Unitarian Church of Maine, Augusta, 1854. Mr. Judd's conception
+    of the church as a social organism was shown in the name given to the
+    organization formed under his leadership in 1852, called The
+    Association of the Unitarian Church in Maine. In the preamble to the
+    constitution he wrote: "We, the Unitarian Christians of Maine,
+    ourselves, and our posterity are a Church.... We are a church, not of
+    creeds, but of the Bible; not of sect, but of humanity; seeking not
+    uniformity of dogma, but communion in the religious life. We embrace
+    in our fellowship all who will be in fellowship with us." In defining
+    a local church, he says: "These Christians, with their families,
+    uniting for religious worship, instruction, growth, and culture,
+    having the ordinances and a pastor, constitute a parochial church."
+
+[8] Boston, 1858.
+
+[9] Probably Dr. William G. Eliot, of St. Louis, was the first Unitarian
+    minister to make a systematic use of this rite. He prepared a brief
+    manual for use in his church, the preface to which bears date of
+    December 6, 1868. Seth C. Beach, while minister in Dedham, printed a
+    paper on the subject in the Unitarian Review, January, 1886. He held
+    a confirmation service in the Dedham church, April 25, 1886. At a
+    meeting of the Western Sunday School Society, held in Cincinnati, May
+    12, 1889, Rev. John C. Learned, read a paper on The Sacrament of
+    Confirmation.
+
+[10] The views of Bartol and Judd are appropriate to a state church,
+     wherein they first found expression; and their motive is always
+     distinctly social.
+
+[11] Life of J.F. Clarke, by E.E. Hale, 145
+
+[12] Memoir of Samuel Longfellow, by Joseph May, 193.
+
+[13] Miss Scudder's best hymns were all written while she was a Unitarian.
+     Unitarian hymnology has been nobly treated by Dr. Alfred P. Putnam,
+     in his Singers and Songs of the Liberal Faith, Boston, 1875. It is
+     understood that he is preparing a second volume. The tendency to a
+     deeper recognition of the spirit of worship has found fitting
+     expression in The Spiritual Life: Studies of Devotion and Worship,
+     George H. Ellis, 1898.
+
+[14] The addresses and papers of this meeting were published under the
+     title of Liberal Religious Thought at the Beginning of the Twentieth
+     Century, London, 1901. They give the most complete account yet
+     published of the various liberal movements in many parts of the
+     world, and the book is one of great interest and value.
+
+[15] From the first circular of the International Council.
+
+
+
+
+X.
+
+
+THE MINISTRY AT LARGE.
+
+One of the most important of the philanthropies undertaken by the early
+Unitarians was the ministry to the poor and unchurched in Boston, usually
+known as the ministry at large. It began in 1822, came under the direction
+of the American Unitarian Association and the shaping hand of Dr. Joseph
+Tuckerman in 1826, and was taken in charge by the Benevolent Fraternity of
+Churches in 1834. It was not begun by Tuckerman, though its origin is
+usually attributed to him. Even before 1822 attempts had been made to
+establish missions amongst the poor by the evangelical denominations; but
+their work was not thoroughly organized, and it had reached no efficient
+results when Tuckerman entered upon his labors. The work of Tuckerman was
+to take up what had been tentatively begun by others, give it a definite
+purpose and method, and so to inform it with his own genius for charity
+that it became a great philanthropy in its intent and in its methods.
+
+[Sidenote: Association of Young Men.]
+
+When the Hancock Grammar School-house in the north end of Boston was being
+erected, a young man, in passing it on a September evening, said to a
+companion, "Why cannot we have a Sunday-school here?" The proposition was
+received with favor, and the two discussed plans while they continued their
+walk. They met frequently to mature their methods of procedure, and they
+invited others to join them in the undertaking. On the evening of October
+2, 1822, these two young men--Frederick T. Gray and Benjamin H. Greene--met
+with Moses Grant, William P. Rice, and others, to give more careful
+consideration to their purpose of forming a society for mutual religious
+improvement.[1]
+
+These young men met with little encouragement, and for some time there was
+small prospect of their succeeding in their undertaking. They continued to
+meet weekly, however; and on November 27 they formed The Association of
+Young Men for their own Mutual Improvement and for the Religious
+Instruction of the Poor. In 1824 the name was changed to The Association
+for Religious Improvement. The members met at each other's houses weekly,
+for the purpose of considering topics which related to their own personal
+improvement or to the wants of the community, always keeping in view the
+fact that their own religious growth must lie at the foundation of any
+great good which could be done by them for society. By degrees their number
+increased; and during the six years following, as appears from the records,
+the subjects to which their meetings were successively devoted were the
+desirableness of employing a missionary and building a mission-house, the
+condition and wants of vagrant children, the diffusion of Christianity in
+India, the importance of issuing tracts and other religions publications,
+the means and best method of improving our state prisons, the utility of
+forming a Unitarian Association, the best means to be adopted to abolish
+intemperance, the character of theatrical entertainments, the want of
+infant schools, and the best methods which could be taken to aid in the
+promotion of peace. All of these subjects were then comparatively new, and
+they were but just beginning to attract attention. Their importance was by
+no means generally understood, and least of all was the place which they
+were soon to occupy in public estimation anticipated.[2] The Association
+was discontinued in December, 1835.
+
+[Sidenote: Preaching to the Poor.]
+
+One of the first enterprises entered upon by this society was the securing
+of preaching for the poor and those connected with no religious
+organization. In this effort they had the co-operation of the younger Henry
+Ware, then the minister of the Second Church, and of John G. Palfrey, then
+the minister of the Brattle Street Church. In November, 1822, Henry Ware
+began these meetings; and four series of them were held throughout the
+winter, in Charter Street, in Hatters' or Creek Square, in Pitts Court, and
+in Spring Street. The Charter Street meetings were at first held in a room
+of a primary school, and then in a small chapel that had been built by a
+benevolent man for teaching and preaching purposes. In this place Mr. Ware
+was assisted by Dr. Jenks of the Christian denomination, and the chapel was
+afterwards occupied by the latter as a minister at large. The meetings in
+Pitts Court were also held in a school-room. Those in Hatters' Square
+occupied a room in a large tenement house and "here the accommodations, and
+probably the audience, were of a humbler character than elsewhere."[3]
+
+[Sidenote: Tuckerman as Minister to the Poor.]
+
+Early in the year 1826 Dr. Joseph Tuckerman expressed his willingness to
+devote himself to this ministry; and the American Unitarian Association was
+appealed to, that the necessary financial support might be secured. Dr.
+Tuckerman had been for twenty-five years the parish minister in Chelsea,
+but his health was such that he had been obliged to relinquish that
+position. On September 4 the sum of $600 was appropriated to the support of
+Dr. Tuckerman for one year as a missionary among the poor in Boston; and
+Ware, Barrett, and Gannett were made a committee to ascertain what amount
+of money could be raised for this purpose. It was thought wise not to use
+the regular funds of the Association for so special and local an object.
+The women of the Boston churches were therefore appealed to in behalf of
+this cause; and during the first year contributions were received from
+those connected with the congregations of the Brattle Street, Federal
+Street, West, New South, New North, Twelfth, and Chauncey Place Churches,
+amounting to $712. These contributions by the women of the churches were
+continued until the Benevolent Fraternity was organized.
+
+Tuckerman entered upon his work November 5, 1826. On the evening of that
+day he met with the Association for, Religious Improvement, and discussed
+with its members the work to be undertaken. He began at once the visiting
+of the poor and the study of their condition in the several parts of the
+city, though confining himself largely to the north end. In making his
+first quarterly report to the Unitarian Association, February 5, 1827, he
+said that he had taken fifty families into his pastoral charge. He had
+given special attention to the children, had arranged that those should be
+sent to school who had not previously attended, and provided them with
+shoes and clothes where these were necessary. He had also aided the sick,
+provided necessaries for those who were helpless and deserving, secured
+work for those out of employment, and given religious consolation and
+correction where these were required.
+
+After Dr. Tuckerman had entered upon his work of visiting the poor, the
+Young Men's Association arranged to have him resume the discontinued
+evening meetings. They accordingly secured the use of a room up two flights
+of stairs, in what was known as the "Circular Building," at the corner of
+Merrimac and Portland Streets. In this rude place, that had been used as a
+paint-shop, services were begun on Sunday evening, December 3, 1826.
+Tuckerman recorded in his diary that he had "a large and very attentive
+audience";[4] and on the same evening he met at the house of Dr. Channing
+"a large circle of ladies and gentlemen, who formed a society to help him
+visit."[5] As soon as services were begun in the Circular Building, it
+was proposed to form a Sunday-school; and on a very cold December day seven
+teachers and three children met to inaugurate it. They hovered about the
+little stove, by means of which the room was warmed, and began their work.
+The school grew rapidly, soon filled the room, and was given the name of
+the Howard School. Very soon, also, this room became too small to
+accommodate the attendants at the preaching services. In recognition of
+this need the Friend Street Free Chapel was erected, and opened for use on
+November 1, 1828.
+
+[Sidenote: Tuckerman's Methods.]
+
+During the first year of his ministry Dr. Tuckerman reported quarterly to
+the American Unitarian Association, and then semi-annually. In all there
+were printed four of the quarterly reports and fifteen of the others. It
+was not his custom in these reports to confine himself to an account of his
+work, which usually received only a brief statement at the end; but he
+discussed important topics relating to the condition of the poor and their
+needs. His third quarterly report was devoted to a consideration of the
+remedies to be used for confirmed intemperance. Others of the topics upon
+which he reported were the condition of the poor in cities, the duties of a
+minister at large (a title invented by him, which he preferred to that of
+city or domestic missionary), the effects of poverty on the moral life of
+the poor, the means of relieving pauperism, the causes of poverty and the
+social remedies, the several classes amongst the poor and the best means of
+reaching each of them, the means to be employed for the recovery of those
+sunk in pauperism, poor laws and outdoor relief. Among the subjects he
+discussed incidentally, and sometimes at considerable length, were the duty
+of providing seats for the poor in the churches at a small rental, the
+employment of children, education as a means of saving children from
+growing up to a life of vagrancy and pauperism, the wages of the poor and
+how they can be increased.[6] He was especially interested in the
+rescuing of children from ignorance and vice, and he strongly advocated the
+establishment of schools for the instruction of dull children and those
+whose education had been neglected. Through his efforts the Broad Street
+Infant School was established, in order to reach the younger children of
+the poor. In 1829 he made a careful study of the religious condition of the
+poor; and he found that out of a population of 55,000, which the city then
+contained, there were 4,200 families, or about 18,000 persons, who were not
+connected with any of the churches or who did not attend them with any
+degree of regularity. This gave him an opportunity to urge upon the public
+more strongly than before the importance of procuring free chapels, and a
+sufficient number of ministers to care for this large unchurched
+population. One or two ministers had labored amongst the poor before he
+began his work, and three or four had entered upon the same line of effort
+since he had done so; but these workers were too few in number to meet the
+large demands made upon them.
+
+In carrying on his work, Dr. Tuckerman sought out all who were in need of
+his services, without distinction of nationality, color, creed, social
+position, or moral condition. If he gave the preference to any, it was
+those who were the most wretched and debased. "It is the first object of
+the ministry at large, never to be lost sight of," he wrote, "and to which
+no other is to be preferred, as far as shall be possible to extend its
+offices to the poor and the poorest, to the low and the lowest, to the most
+friendless and most uncared for, the most miserable."[7] He recognized
+the individuality of the poorest and the most vicious: he sought to foster
+it, and to make it the basis of moral reform and social recovery.
+
+[Sidenote: Organization of Charities.]
+
+The influence of Tuckerman's work was soon felt outside the city in which
+it was carried on. The people of the state came to take an interest in it,
+and to feel that its principles should be applied throughout the
+commonwealth. Therefore, a commission was appointed by the lower house of
+the state legislature, February 29, 1832, to inquire into the condition of
+the poor in all parts of the state, and to make such report as might be the
+basis of needed legislation. Dr. Tuckerman was made a member of this
+commission. The work of investigation largely fell upon him, as well as the
+writing of the report. His suggestions were accepted, and the results were
+beneficent. In the mean time the work of visiting the poor was carried on
+by a young man, Charles F. Barnard, then a student in the Divinity School,
+who entered upon his duties in April. In October he was joined by Frederick
+T. Gray, the founder of the Association for Religious Improvement and of
+the first Sunday-schools for the poor. These workers were ordained in the
+Federal Street Church on the evening of November 5, 1834, after having
+thoroughly tested their capacities for the task they had assumed.
+
+Dr. Tuckerman set forth all the principles which have since been described
+under the name of "scientific charity," and he put them all into practice.
+In the spring of 1832 he organized a company of visitors to the poor, the
+members of which were to act as friends and advisers of those who were
+needy. In October, 1833, he brought about a union of the ministers at large
+of all denominations for purposes of consultation and mutual helpfulness.
+This union resulted in a meeting held in February, 1834, at which those
+interested in the proper care of the poor took counsel together as to the
+best methods to be followed. At a later meeting in March, it was decided to
+secure the aid of all the charitable societies in the city with a view to
+their co-operation and the prevention of the duplication of relief. There
+was accordingly organized the Association of Delegates from the Benevolent
+Societies of Boston, the objects of which were "to adopt measures for the
+most effectual prevention of fraud and deception in the applicants for
+charity; to obtain accurate and thorough information with regard to the
+situation, character, and wants of the poor; and generally to interchange
+knowledge, experience, and advice upon all the important subjects connected
+with the duties and responsibilities of Benevolent Societies." The
+principle upon which this organization acted was that "the public good
+requires that the character and circumstances of the poor should be
+thoroughly investigated and known by those who administer our public
+charities, in order that all the relief which a pure and enlarged
+benevolence dictates may be freely bestowed, and that almsgiving may not
+encourage extravagance or vice, nor injuriously affect the claims of
+society at large upon the personal exertions and moral character of its
+members." The first annual report of this Association, which appeared in
+October, 1835, was written by Dr. Tuckerman, and was one of the best he
+produced. He laid down certain rules he had accepted as the results of his
+experience: that beggary was to be broken up; that all misapplications of
+charity should be reported to the board of visitors; that those asking for
+alms should be relieved only at their homes and after investigation; that
+industry, forethought, economy, and self-denial were to be fostered in
+order to prevent pauperism, and that no help should be given where it led
+to dependence and reliance upon charity. Registration, investigation,
+prevention of duplication of alms, and the fostering of self-help were the
+methods brought to bear by Dr. Tuckerman in the organization of this
+Association.[8]
+
+[Sidenote: Benevolent Fraternity of Churches.]
+
+In the spring of 1834 the part of the ministry at large in Boston supported
+by Unitarians consisted of Dr. Tuckerman's work in visiting and ministering
+to the poor in their own homes, two chapels, in which Barnard and Gray
+preached and conducted their Sunday-schools, and the office of the Visitors
+to the Poor. In order more effectually to organize the support of this
+work, the Benevolent Fraternity of Churches was then suggested. The Second,
+Brattle Street, New South, New North, King's Chapel, Federal Street, Hollis
+Street, Twelfth, and Purchase Street Churches entered upon the work; and
+there was organized in each a society for the purpose of aiding the
+ministry at large. Each of these societies was privileged to send five
+delegates to a central body that should undertake the support and direction
+of that ministry. At a meeting held April 27, 1834, an organization of such
+delegates was effected. It was distinctly stated that "it was not the wish
+to add another to the eleemosynary institutions of the city to which the
+poor might resort either for the supply of the comforts or for the relief
+of necessities which belong to their bodily condition"; but the object of
+the Fraternity was described as being "the improvement of the moral state
+of the poor and irreligious of this city by the support of the ministry at
+large, and by other means."[9]
+
+[Sidenote: Other Ministers at Large.]
+
+Dr. Tuckerman continued his work of visiting the poor, so far as his health
+permitted, until his death, which occurred April 20, 1840. His assistants
+and successors continued the work of visitation outside of their own
+congregations. In August, 1844, Rev. Warren Burton was assigned to this
+special form of ministry, and to that of a systematic investigation of the
+condition of the poor. He gave much attention to the needs of children, and
+made inquiry as to intemperance, licentiousness, and other forms of social
+degeneration. He was a diligent and successful worker until his ministry
+came to an end in October, 1848. For about a year, in 1847, Rev. William
+Ware also devoted himself to the house-to-house ministry; but failing
+health compelled his withdrawal. In April, 1845, Rev. Andrew Bigelow took
+charge of the Pitts Street Chapel for a few months; and then for thirty-two
+years, until his death, in April, 1877, he continued to visit the poor.
+With the assistance of his wife, he went about to the homes of the people,
+administering to their physical needs, acting as their friend and adviser,
+and giving them such moral instruction and spiritual consolation as was
+possible.
+
+For about one year, beginning in March, 1856, Rev. A. Rumpff visited German
+families in behalf of the Fraternity. He was succeeded in 1857 by Rev. A.
+Übelacker, who continued the work for two or three years. From 1860 to 1864
+Professor J.B. Torricelli carried on a ministry amongst the Italians,
+Spaniards, Greeks, and other natives of southern Europe resident in Boston.
+After the death of Dr. Bigelow this personal ministry was discontinued,
+owing to the increase in the number of other agencies for doing this kind
+of work.
+
+[Sidenote: Ministry at Large in Other Cities.]
+
+The work of the ministry at large was not confined to Boston. The original
+vote of the Unitarian Association establishing it was that it should be
+aided in New York as well. In December, 1836, Rev. William Henry Channing
+entered on such a ministry in New York; and it was continued there for some
+years. It was also established in Charlestown, Roxbury, Cambridge, Salem,
+Portsmouth, Portland, Lowell, New Bedford, Providence, Worcester, and
+elsewhere in New England. With the aid of the Unitarian Association it was
+undertaken in Baltimore, Cincinnati, Louisville, and St. Louis. In 1845
+Rev. Lemuel Capen was carrying on the ministry in Baltimore, Rev. W.H.
+Farmer in Louisville, and Rev. Mordecai de Lange in St. Louis. The ministry
+at large was begun in Cincinnati in 1830, and was in charge for a short
+time of Christopher P. Cranch, who was succeeded by Rev. James H. Perkins,
+a most efficient worker, who soon became the popular minister of the
+Unitarian church in that city. It was established in St. Louis in 1840, and
+a day school for colored children was opened in 1841. A mission-house was
+built, and Rev. Charles H.A. Dall was put in charge. In 1841 the Mission
+Free School was founded, and now has a matron, nursery, kindergarten,
+Sunday-school, with lectures and entertainments. Dall was succeeded by
+Mordecai de Lange, Corlis B. Ward, Carlton A. Staples, and Thomas L. Eliot.
+The City Mission, as it was called, grew so large that in 1860 no one
+denomination could carry it on; and it became the St. Louis Provident
+Association, which has done an extensive and important work.[10]
+
+In July, 1850, was formed the Association of Ministers at Large in New
+England, of which Rev. Charles F. Barnard was for many years the president,
+and Rev. Horatio Wood, of Lowell, the secretary. It met quarterly, or
+oftener, essays were read on subjects connected with the work of
+ministering to the poor, and the special phases of that work were
+discussed. In the spring of 1841 Rev. Charles F. Barnard began the
+publication of the Journal of the Ministry at Large as a sixteen-page
+octavo monthly, which was continued until 1860, part of the time as The
+Record; but during the later years it was issued irregularly.
+
+In 1838 Dr. Tuckerman published The Principles and Results of the Ministry
+at Large in Boston, which embodied an account of his work for twelve years,
+and the conclusions at which he had arrived. It did much to give direction
+and purpose to the ministry, and to extend its influence. It can be read
+with interest and profit at the present time; for it contains all the
+principles since put into practice in many forms of charitable activity.
+Dr. Andrew P. Peabody truly said of Tuckerman's enterprise in behalf of the
+poor that it "was the earliest organized effort in that direction. Its
+success and its permanent establishment as an institution were due to its
+founder's strenuous perseverance, his self-sacrifice, his apostolic fervor
+of spirit, and the power of his influence."[11] Joseph Story spoke of the
+ministry at large as being one of "extraordinary success." "I deem it," he
+wrote, "one of the most glorious triumphs of Christian charity over the
+cold and reluctant doubts of popular opinion." The labors of Dr. Tuckerman
+"initiated a new sphere of Protestant charity," as his nephew well
+said.[12] "This has been the most characteristic, the best organized, and
+by far the most successful co-operative work that the Unitarian body has
+ever attempted by way of church action," was the testimony of Dr. Joseph
+Henry Allen.[13]
+
+[1] The record of the first meeting states the objects for which the
+    young men met, as follows: "Feeling impressed with the importance of
+    giving religious instruction to the youths of that class of our poor
+    who are destitute of any regard for their future well-being, and who,
+    from being under the care of vicious parents, have no attention paid
+    to their moral conduct; and also wishing to become acquainted with
+    those persons of the different religious societies who profess to be
+    followers of the same Master, they agreed to associate themselves.
+    Having great reason to believe that God will bless their humble
+    efforts for the spread of pure religion and virtue, and looking to
+    Him for guidance, the meeting was organized."
+
+[2] Ephraim Peabody, Christian Examiner, January, 1853, LIV. 93.
+
+[3] John Ware, Life of Henry Ware, Jr., 132-135.
+
+[4] The secretary of the Association for Religious Improvement made this
+    record of the meeting: "December 3, 1826. The Lectures under the
+    conduct of the Association commenced this evening at 6-1/2 o'clock at
+    Smith's circular building, corner of Merrimack and Portland Streets,
+    which was very fully attended by those for whom it was intended. The
+    services were of the first order. Rev. Dr. Tuckerman officiated."
+
+[5] Eber R. Butler, Lend a Hand, V. 693, October, 1890.
+
+[6] The substance of these reports has been reproduced in a book edited
+    by E.E. Hale in 1874, Joseph Tuckerman on the Elevation of the Poor.
+
+[7] The Principles and Results of the Ministry at Large in Boston, 61.
+
+[8] Ministry at Large in Boston, 124.
+
+[9] The following is a list of the churches now maintained by the
+    Benevolent Fraternity of Churches, with the date when each was
+    formed, or when it came under Unitarian management: Bulfinch Place
+    Church, successor to Wend Street Chapel (1828); Pitts Street Chapel
+    (1836), 1870. North End Union (begun in 1837); Hanover Street Chapel
+    (1854); Parmenter Street Chapel (1884), 1892. Morgan Chapel, 1884.
+    Channing Church, Dorchester, successor to Washington Village Chapel,
+    1854. The Suffolk Street Chapel (1837), succeeded by the New South
+    Free Church (1867), continues its life in the Parker Memorial, 1889.
+    The Warren Street Chapel (1832), now known as the Barnard Memorial
+    Church, continues its work, but is not under the direction of the
+    Benevolent Fraternity. In 1901 the churches constituting the
+    Benevolent Fraternity were the First Church, Second Church, Arlington
+    Street Church, South Congregational Church, King's Chapel, Church of
+    the Disciples; First Parish, Dorchester; First Parish, Brighton;
+    Hawes Church South Boston; First Parish, West Roxbury; First
+    Congregational Society, Jamaica Plain.
+
+[10] In 1830 the British and Foreign Unitarian Association began to
+     consider the value of this ministry, and in 1832 the first mission
+     was opened in London. In 1835 was formed the London Domestic Mission
+     Society for the purpose of carrying on the work in that city. In 1833
+     a similar movement was made in Manchester, and in 1835 was organized
+     the Liverpool Domestic Mission Society. The visit of Dr. Tuckerman to
+     England in 1834 gave large interest to this movement. He then met
+     Mary Carpenter, and she was led by him to begin her great work of
+     charity. It was during the next year that she entered upon the work
+     in Bristol that made her name widely known. In 1847 there were two
+     ministers at large in London, two in Birmingham, and one each in
+     Liverpool, Bristol, Leeds, Manchester, Halifax, and Leicester. The
+     writings of Dr. Tuckerman were translated into French by the Baron de
+     Gerando, a leading philanthropist and statesman of that day, who
+     praised them highly, and introduced their methods into Paris and
+     elsewhere. Of Tuckerman's book on the ministry at large M. de Gerando
+     said that it throws "invaluable light upon the condition and wants of
+     the indigent and the influence which an enlightened charity can
+     exert." He also said of Tuckerman that "he knew the difference
+     between pauperism and poverty," thus recognizing one of those
+     cardinal distinctions made by the philanthropist in his efforts to
+     aid the poor to self-help and independence.
+
+[11] Memorial History of Boston, III. 477.
+
+[12] Sprague's Annals of the Unitarian Pulpit, 345, the words quoted being
+     from the pen of Henry T. Tuckerman, the well-known essayist.
+
+[13] Our Liberal Movement in Theology, 59.
+
+
+
+
+XI.
+
+
+ORGANIZED SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK.
+
+The first Sunday-schools organized in this country distinctly for purposes
+of religious training were by persons connected with Unitarian churches.
+Several schools had been opened previously, but they were not continued or
+were organized in the interests of secular instruction. In the summer of
+1809 Miss Hannah Hill, then twenty-five years of age, and Miss Joanna B.
+Prince, then twenty, both teachers of private schools for small children,
+and connected with the First Parish in Beverly, Mass., of which Dr. Abiel
+Abbot was the pastor, opened a school in one room of a dwelling-house for
+the religious training of the children who did not receive such teaching at
+home. In the spring of 1810 the same young women reopened their school in a
+larger room, using the Bible as their only book of instruction. Sessions
+were held in the morning before church, and in the afternoon following the
+close of the services.[1]
+
+The first season about thirty children attended, but the interest grew; and
+in 1813 the school occupied the Dane Street chapel, and became a union or
+town school. Jealousies resulted, and a school was soon established by each
+church in the town. In 1822 the First Parish received the original school
+under its sole care, and it was removed to the meeting-house.
+
+A Sunday-school was begun in Concord in the summer of 1810, under the
+leadership of Miss Sarah Ripley, daughter of Dr. Ezra Ripley, the minister
+of the town. On Sunday afternoons she taught a number of children in her
+father's house, since known as the "Old Manse." About five years later a
+school was opened at the centre of the town, near the church, by three
+young women. In 1818 a Sunday-school was begun in connection with the
+church itself, which absorbed the others, or of which they formed the
+nucleus.[2]
+
+A teacher of a charity school supported by the West Church in Boston was
+the first person to open a Sunday-school in that city. In October, 1812,
+the teacher of this school, Miss Lydia K. Adams, then a member of the West
+Parish, according to the statement of Dr. Charles Lowell, minister of the
+church at the time, "having learned on a visit to Beverly that some young
+ladies of the town were in the practice of giving religious instruction to
+poor children on the Sabbath, consulted her minister as to the expediency
+of giving like instruction to the children of her school, and to those who
+had been members of it, on the same day. The project was decidedly
+approved, and immediately carried into effect." In December of the same
+year, Miss Adams was compelled by ill-health to leave her school; and
+ladies of the West Church took charge of it, and in turn instructed the
+children, both on the week-days and the Sabbath, till a suitable permanent
+teacher could be obtained. On this event they relinquished the immediate
+care of the week-day school, but continued the instruction of the
+Sunday-school, till it was transferred to the church, and was enlarged by
+the addition of "children of a different description," in 1822.[3]
+Sunday-schools were also begun in Cambridgeport, in 1814; Wilton, N.H., in
+1816; and Portsmouth, in 1818. The latter school had the enthusiastic
+support of Nathaniel A. Haven, a young lawyer and rising politician, who
+devoted himself with great zeal and success to such instruction of the
+young.[4]
+
+The Association of Young Men for Mutual Improvement and for the Religious
+Instruction of the Poor began the work of forming Sunday-schools for the
+children of the poor in Boston during the year 1823. A school was begun in
+the Hancock School-house, then recently built for grammar-school
+purposes.[5] Soon after they opened a school in Merrimac Street, called
+the Howard Sunday-school, in connection with the work of Dr. Tuckerman; and
+in 1826 the Franklin Sunday-school was begun by the same persons and for
+the same purposes. In connection with these schools was formed the Sunday
+School Benevolent Society, composed of charitable women, who provided such
+children as were needy with suitable clothing.
+
+In 1825 a parish Sunday-school was organized in connection with the Twelfth
+Congregational Church, of which Rev. Samuel Barrett was the minister. It
+was reorganized in 1827, with the object of giving "a religious education
+apart from all sectarian views, as systematically as it is given to the
+same children in other branches of learning."[6] In July, 1828, The
+Christian Register spoke of "the rapid and extensive establishment of
+Sunday-schools by individuals attached to Unitarian societies," and said
+that in the course of two or three years "large and respectable
+Sunday-schools have been established by Unitarians in various parts of the
+city. Several of these are parish schools, under the immediate guidance of
+the pastors. Others are more general in their plan, receiving children from
+all quarters."
+
+[Sidenote: Boston Sunday School Society.]
+
+At a meeting of the teachers of the Franklin Sunday-school held December
+16, 1826, it was proposed that there be organized an association of all the
+teachers connected with Unitarian parishes in Boston and the vicinity. On
+February 27, 1827, a meeting was held in the Berry Street vestry for this
+purpose; and on April 18 a constitution was adopted for the Boston Sunday
+School Society. The schools joining in this organization were the Hancock,
+Franklin, and Howard, and those connected with the West, Federal Street,
+Hollis Street, and Twelfth Congregational Churches. Dr. Joseph Tuckerman
+was elected president; Moses Grant, vice-president; Dr. J.F. Flagg,
+corresponding secretary; and Rev. Frederick T. Gray, recording secretary.
+The first annual meeting was held November 28, 1827; and the above-named
+officers were re-elected. On December 12 a public meeting was held in the
+Federal Street Church, which was well filled. Reports of the work of the
+schools, including that at Cambridgeport, were read; and addresses were
+made.
+
+The objects of the Sunday School Society were the helping of teachers, the
+extending of the interests of the schools, and the publishing of books. It
+was difficult to procure suitable books for use in Sunday-schools and for
+their libraries, and the prices were very high. In the autumn of 1828
+arrangements were made for the publishing of books, the American Unitarian
+Association co-operating therein by providing a capital of $300 for this
+purpose, the profits going to the Sunday School Society, and the money
+borrowed being returned without interest. This connection was abandoned in
+1831 because it was found that the Unitarian name on the title-page of the
+books hindered their sale. In April, 1828, was issued the first number of
+the Christian Teacher's Manual, a small monthly, of which Mrs. Eliza Lee
+Follen was the editor, intended for the use of families and Sunday-schools.
+According to the preface the subjects chiefly considered were the best
+methods of addressing the minds of children, suggestions to teachers,
+explanations of Scripture, religious instruction from natural objects,
+histories taken from real life, stories and hymns adapted to children, and
+accounts of Sunday-schools.
+
+The Manual was continued for two years; and it was followed by The
+Scriptural Interpreter, edited by Rev. Ezra S. Gannett. The editor of the
+Interpreter preferred to publish it under his own name, because he did "not
+wish it to be considered the organ or the representative of a denomination
+of Christians." "It will have one object," he said, "to furnish the means
+of acquaintance with the true sense and value of Scripture, and
+particularly of the New Testament; but whatever will promote this object
+will come within the scope the publication." It was issued bi-monthly, and
+was continued for five years. It was wholly devoted to the exposition of
+the Bible, a systematic series of translations and interpretations of the
+Gospels forming a distinct feature of its pages. A considerable part of it
+was prepared by the editor, who drew freely upon expository works. Among
+the contributors were William H. Furness, Orville Dewey, Alexander Young,
+Edward B. Hall, James Walker, Henry Ware, Jr., and J.P. Dabney. In 1836,
+Dr. Gannett's health having failed, the magazine was edited by Theodore
+Parker, George E. Ellis, and William Silsbee, then students in the Harvard
+Divinity School.
+
+One important feature of the work of the Sunday School Society was the
+extension of the cause it represented. In December, 1829, reports were
+presented at the annual meeting from nearly fifty schools; and it was
+thought desirable that they should be brought into closer relations with
+the society. Accordingly, Frederick T. Gray, the secretary, visited many of
+these schools. The next year, as a result, a considerable number of those
+outside the city connected themselves with the society; and the lists of
+vice-presidents and directors were enlarged to include them in its
+operations. Afterwards this work was carried on by a committee of the
+society, the members of which visited the schools, giving addresses, and in
+other ways helping to give strength and purpose to the work in which they
+were engaged. Schools were visited in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts,
+Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and other states. To give
+better opportunity for the attendance of delegates from schools outside the
+city, the yearly meeting was changed from December to anniversary week in
+May.
+
+The society published a considerable number of tracts, which were
+distributed gratuitously by the agents and in other ways. It also issued
+lesson-books, as well as books for the juvenile libraries which were
+forming at this time in all the churches. To meet this demand, the younger
+Henry Ware began editing, in 1833, the Sunday-school Library for Young
+Persons, in which were included his own Life of the Saviour, Mrs. John
+Farrar's Life of Howard, Rev. Stephen G. Bulfinch's Holy Land, and Rev.
+Thomas B. Fox's Sketch of the Reformation. The next year Mr. Ware began a
+series of books which he called Scenes and Characters illustrating
+Christian Truth. Another method used by the society was the giving of
+expository lectures.
+
+The society at first held quarterly meetings; but the interest grew, and
+the meetings became monthly. Great enthusiasm was felt at this time in
+regard to the work of these schools, and many persons of prominence praised
+them and took part in their management. "The institution of Sunday-schools
+constitutes one of the most remarkable features of the present age," wrote
+Dr. Joseph Allen, in 1830. "It has already done much to supply the
+deficiencies of domestic education, and, if wisely conducted, is destined,
+we trust, to become at no distant day one of the most efficient instruments
+in forming the characters of the young."[7] Writing in 1838, the younger
+Henry Ware said that "the Sunday-school has become one of the established
+institutions of religion in connection with the church, and the character
+of religion is henceforth to depend, in no small degree, on the wisdom with
+which it shall be administered."[8]
+
+In 1834 was organized the Worcester Sunday School Society. It had its
+origin as far back as November 17, 1817, when a committee of the Worcester
+Association of Ministers was appointed to report on the subject of
+Sunday-schools. A meeting was held in Lancaster, October 9, 1834, when an
+organization was perfected. The succeeding meetings were largely attended,
+and much interest was awakened.[9] In 1842 a similar society was
+organized in Middlesex County; and at about the same time one came into
+existence in Cheshire County, New Hampshire. Soon after societies were
+organized in the counties of Norfolk, Plymouth (North), Middlesex (West),
+Worcester, and in Portland and its neighborhood.
+
+In April, 1831, the directors of the Boston Sunday School Society discussed
+the feasibility of starting a weekly paper for the use of the schools. In
+July, 1836, Rev. Bernard Whitman began the publication of The Sunday School
+Teacher and Children's Friend. In January, 1837, The Young Christian was
+begun, and was published weekly at the office of The Christian Register, by
+David Reed. These papers were continued only for a few years. From 1845 to
+1857 Mrs. Eliza Lee Follen edited a monthly magazine for children, called
+The Children's Friend. The first number of the Sunday School Gazette was
+published in Worcester, August 7, 1849, under the direction of the
+Worcester Sunday School Society. It was established at the suggestion of
+Rev. Edward Everett Hale, then a minister in that city, in connection with
+Rev. Edmund B. Willson, then settled in Grafton. The editor was Rev.
+Francis Le Baron, the minister at large in Worcester, though Mr. Hale was a
+frequent contributor. When the National Sunday School Society was
+organized, the Sunday School Gazette was transferred to, its charge; but
+the publication of this paper was continued in Worcester until 1860.[10]
+
+[Sidenote: Unitarian Sunday School Society.]
+
+As time went on, and the work of the Sunday-schools enlarged, it was felt
+that it was necessary there should be one general organization which should
+bring together all Unitarian schools into a compact working force. To meet
+this growing need, a convention of the county societies and of local
+schools was held in Worcester, October 4, 1854, at which time the Sunday
+School Society was organized as a general denominational body. Hon. Albert
+Fearing, of Boston, was made the president, and Rev. Frederick T. Gray the
+secretary. The society provided itself with a desk in the rooms of the
+Unitarian Association, and provision was made for the collection and sale
+of all the helps demanded by the schools.
+
+From 1855 until 1865 the society was sadly crippled by the lack of funds.
+The hard times preceding the Civil War, and the absorption of public
+interest in that great national event, made it difficult for the society to
+continue its work with any degree of success. For some years little was
+done but to hold the annual meeting in the autumn and that in anniversary
+week, and to continue the publication of the Sunday School Gazette. For a
+number of years, however, Teachers' Institutes were held; and these were
+continued at irregular intervals until about 1875. The Sunday School
+Teachers' Institute was organized in 1852, and continued in existence for
+ten years.
+
+After the death of Rev. Frederick T. Gray in 1855, he was succeeded in the
+position of secretary of the Sunday School Society by Rev. Stephen G.
+Bulfinch. In 1856 Rev. Warren H. Cudworth became the secretary, and the
+editor of the Gazette; and he held these positions until May, 1861, when he
+became the chaplain of the first Massachusetts regiment taking part in the
+Civil War. In the October following, Mr. Joseph H. Allen, a Boston
+merchant, afterwards the editor of The Schoolmate, became the secretary and
+editor. He continued to edit the Gazette until November, 1865; but Mr. M.T.
+Rice was made secretary in 1863. At the end of 1865, when the society was
+in a condition of almost complete collapse, Rev. Thomas J. Mumford became
+the secretary, and the editor of the Gazette for one year. He restored
+confidence in the society, and made the paper a success. During the war the
+paper was published monthly for the sake of economy; but with the first of
+January, 1866, it was restored to its former semi-monthly issue.
+
+The new life that came to the denomination in 1865 had its influence upon
+the Sunday School Society. In the autumn of 1866, when the Unitarian
+Association had secured a large increase of funds, it was proposed that the
+Sunday School Society should unite with it, and that the larger
+organization should have the direction of all denominational activities,
+especially those of publishing. The more zealous friends of the society did
+not approve of such consolidation, and succeeded in reanimating its work by
+appointing as its secretary Mr. James P. Walker, who had been the head of
+the publishing firm of Walker, Wise & Co., a young man of earnest purpose,
+a successful Sunday-school teacher and superintendent, and an enthusiastic
+believer in the mission of Unitarianism. Mr. Walker devoted his whole time
+to the interests of the society, and an energetic effort was made to revive
+and extend its work. He proved to be the man for the position, largely
+increasing the bookselling and publishing activities, visiting schools and
+conferences, and awakening much enthusiasm in regard to the interests of
+Sunday-schools. He wore himself out in this work, however, and died in
+March, 1868, greatly lamented throughout the denomination.[11]
+
+After the death of Mr. Walker, consolidation with the Association was again
+urged; but Rev. Leonard J. Livermore was in June elected the secretary. At
+the annual meeting it was resolved to raise $5,000 for the work of the
+society, and the next year it was proposed to make the annual contribution
+$10,000. The name was changed to the Unitarian Sunday School Society at the
+annual meeting of 1868, held in Worcester. In 1871 Mr. John Kneeland became
+the secretary; and with the beginning of 1872 the Gazette was changed to
+The Dayspring, which was issued monthly. In the autumn of that year the
+society began the publication of monthly lessons, and there was issued with
+them a Teachers' Guide for the lessons of the year. With the beginning of
+1877 the Guide was discontinued, and the lesson papers enlarged. In
+November, 1875, Rev. George F. Piper became the secretary,--a position he
+held until May 1, 1883. During his administration about three hundred
+lessons were prepared by him, and these had a circulation of about nine
+thousand copies. The transition condition of the denomination made it
+difficult to carry on the work of the society at this time, for it was
+impossible to please both conservatives and radicals with any lessons that
+might be prepared. One superintendent warned his school against the
+heretical tendencies of lessons which, from the other point of view, a
+minister condemned as being fit for orthodox schools, but not for
+Unitarians. In the same mail came a letter from a minister saying the
+lessons were too elementary, and from another saying they were much too
+advanced. In the latter part of Mr. Piper's term service was begun an
+important work of preparing manuals thoroughly modern in their spirit and
+methods.[12]
+
+In May, 1883, Rev. Henry G. Spaulding became the secretary; and the work of
+publishing modern manuals was largely extended.[13] At the suggestion and
+with the co-operation of the secretary there was organized, November 12,
+1883, the Unitarian Sunday School Union of Boston, having for its object
+"to develop the best methods of Sunday-school work." At about the same time
+a lending library of reference books was established in connection with the
+work of the society. In the autumn of 1883 the society began to hold in
+Channing Hall weekly lectures for teachers. In 1885 The Dayspring was
+enlarged and became Every Other Sunday, being much improved in its literary
+contents as well as in its illustrations. The same year the society was
+incorporated, and the number of directors was increased to include
+representatives from all sections of the country; while all Sunday-schools
+contributing to the society's treasury were given a delegate representation
+in its membership. Mr. Spaulding continued his connection with the society
+until January 1, 1892.
+
+Rev. Edward A. Horton, who had for several years taken an active part in
+the work of the society, assumed charge February 1, 1892. Mr. Horton was
+made the president, it being deemed wise to have the head of the society
+its executive officer. During his administration there has been a steady
+growth in Sunday-school interest, which has demanded a rapid increase in
+the number and variety of publications. The book department has been taxed
+to the utmost to meet the demand. A new book of Song and Service, compiled
+by Mr. Horton, has reached a sale of nearly 25,000 copies. A simple
+statement of "Our Faith" has had a circulation of 40,000 copies, and in a
+form suitable for the walls of Sunday-school rooms it has been in
+considerable demand.[14] A series of lessons, covering a period of seven
+years, upon the three-grade, one-topic plan, has been largely used in the
+schools. Besides the twenty manuals published in this course of lessons,
+forty other text-books have been published, making a total of sixty in all,
+from 1892 to 1902.[15] There have also been many additions to
+Sunday-school helps by way of special services for festival days, free
+tracts, and statements of belief. The Channing Hall talks to Sunday-school
+teachers have been made to bear upon these courses of lessons. Every Other
+Sunday has been improved, and its circulation extended. The number of
+donating churches and schools has been steadily increased, the number in
+1901 being 255, the largest by far yet reached. At the annual meeting of
+the society and at local conferences representative speakers have presented
+the newest methods of Sunday-school work. Sunday-school unions have been
+formed in various parts of the country, and churches are awakened to a new
+interest in the work of religious instruction. "Home and School
+Conferences" have been held with a view to bringing parents and teachers
+into closer sympathy and co-operation.
+
+[Sidenote: Western Unitarian Sunday School Society.]
+
+In the west the first movement towards Sunday-school activities began in
+1871 with the publication of a four-page lesson-sheet at Janesville, Wis.,
+by Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones. This was continued for two or three years.
+Through the interest of Mr. Jones in Sunday-school work a meeting for
+organization was called in the fourth church, Chicago, October 14, 1873,
+when the Western Unitarian Sunday School Society was organized, with Rev.
+Milton J. Miller as president and Mr. Jones as secretary. At the meeting
+the next year in St. Louis a committee was appointed to prepare a song-book
+for the schools, which resulted in the production of The Sunny Side, edited
+by Rev. Charles W. Wendte. The next step was to establish headquarters in
+Chicago, where all kinds of material could be furnished to the schools,
+with the necessary advice and encouragement. Through successive years the
+effort of the society was to systematize the work of Unitarian
+Sunday-schools, to put into them the best literature, the best song and
+service books, the best lesson papers, and other tools,--in short, to
+secure better and more definite teaching, such as is in accord with the
+best scholarship and thought of the age.[16]
+
+In 1882 the society became incorporated, and its work from this time
+enlarged in all directions. To develop these results more fully, an
+Institute was held in the Third Church, Chicago, in November, 1887, at
+which five sessions were given to Sunday-school work, and two to Unity Club
+interests. In the course of several years of encouraging success, the
+Institute developed into a Summer Assembly of two or more weeks'
+continuance at Hillside, Helena Valley, Wis., which still continues its
+yearly sessions. In May, 1902, The Western Sunday School Society was
+consolidated with the national organization; and the plates and stock which
+it possessed were handed over to the Unitarian Sunday School Society. A
+western headquarters is maintained in Chicago, where all the publications
+of the two societies are kept on sale.
+
+[Sidenote: Unity Clubs.]
+
+As adjuncts to the Sunday-school, and to continue its work for adults and
+in other spheres of ethical training, the Unity Club came into existence
+about the year 1873, beginning with the work of Rev. Jenkin Ll. Jones at
+Janesville. In the course of the next ten years nearly every Unitarian
+church in the west organized such a club, and the movement to some degree
+extended to other parts of the country. In 1887 there was organized in
+Boston the National Bureau of Unity Clubs. These clubs devoted themselves
+to literary, sociological, and religious courses of study; and they
+furnished centres for the social activities of the churches. About the year
+1878 began a movement to organize societies of young people for the
+cultivation of the spirit of worship and religious development. This
+resulted in 1889 in the organization of the National Guild Alliance; and in
+1890 this organization joined with the Bureau of Unity Clubs and the
+Unitarian Temperance Society in supporting an agency in the Unitarian
+Building, Boston, with the aid of the Unitarian Association. The Young
+People's Religious Union was organized in Boston, May 28, 1896; and in
+large degree, it took the place of the Bureau and the Alliance, uniting the
+two in a more efficient effort to interest the young people of the
+churches.[17]
+
+[Sidenote: The Ladies' Commission on Sunday-school Books.]
+
+In the autumn of 1865, Rev. Charles Lowe, then the secretary of the
+Unitarian Association, invited a number of women to meet him for the
+purpose of conference on the subject of Sunday-school libraries. At his
+suggestion they organized themselves on October 12 as The Ladies'
+Commission on Sunday-school Books, with the object of preparing a catalogue
+of books read and approved by competent persons. At the first meeting ten
+persons were present, but the number was soon enlarged to thirty; and it
+was still farther increased by the addition of corresponding members in
+cities too remote for personal attendance. Among those taking part in the
+work of the commission at first were Miss Lucretia P. Hale, Miss Anna C.
+Lowell, Mrs. Edwin P. Whipple, Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney, Mrs. A.D.T. Whitney,
+Mrs. S. Bennett, Mrs. Caroline H. Dall, Mrs. E.E. Hale, Mrs. E.P. Tileston,
+and Miss Hannah E. Stevenson.
+
+The commission not only aimed to select books for Sunday-school libraries,
+but also those for the home reading of young persons and for the use of
+teachers. It undertook also the procuring of the publication of suitable
+juvenile books. The first catalogue was issued in October, 1866, and
+contained a list of two hundred books, selected from twelve hundred
+examined. In the spring of 1867 a catalogue of five hundred and
+seventy-three books was printed, as the result of the reading of nineteen
+hundred volumes.
+
+In the beginning of its work the commission did not confine its activities
+to the selecting of juvenile books; for the Sunday School Hymn and Tune
+Book, published in 1869, was largely due to its efforts. Under the
+administration of Mr. James P. Walker the Sunday School Society undertook
+to procure the publication of a number of books of fiction suitable for
+Sunday-school libraries, and offered prizes to this end. The commission
+gave its encouragement to this effort, read the manuscripts, and aided in
+determining to whom the prizes should be given. The result was the
+publication of a half-dozen volumes by the Sunday School Society and the
+Unitarian Association. The society also aided to some extent in meeting the
+expenses of the commission, though these were usually met by the
+Association.
+
+For many years the books approved by the commission were grouped under
+three heads: books especially recommended for Unitarian Sunday-school
+libraries; those highly recommended for their religious tone, but somewhat
+impaired for this purpose by the use of phrases and the adoption of a
+spirit not in accord with the Unitarian faith; and those profitable and
+valuable, but not adapted to the purposes of a Sunday-school library. Every
+book recommended was read and approved by at least five persons, discussed
+in committee of the whole, and accepted by a two-thirds vote of all the
+members. Books about which there was much diversity of opinion were read by
+a larger number of persons. This classification proved rather cumbersome,
+and it was often found difficult to decide into which list a book should be
+placed; and the result was that about 1890 the simpler plan was adopted of
+putting all titles in their alphabetical order, with explanatory notes for
+each book. In 1882 the list of books for teachers was discontinued as being
+no longer necessary.
+
+Annual lists of books have been published by the commission since 1866;
+and, in addition, several catalogues have been issued, containing all the
+books approved during a period of five years. In the early days of the
+commission, supplementary lists for children and young persons were issued,
+containing books of a more secular character than were thought suitable for
+Sunday-school libraries. Gradually, it has extended its work to include the
+needs of all juvenile libraries; and these books are now incorporated into
+the one annual catalogue. In thirty-four years the commission has examined
+10,957 books, and has approved 3,076, or about one-third.[18]
+
+[1] Sunday School Times, September 15, 1860.
+
+[2] Asa Bullard, Fifty Years with the Sabbath Schools, 37.
+
+[3] C.A. Bartol, The West Church and its Ministers, Appendix.
+
+[4] See the Remains of Nathaniel Appleton Haven, with a Memoir of his
+    life, by George Ticknor.
+
+[5] The Hancock Sunday-school assembled at eight in the morning and at
+    one in the afternoon, Moses Grant being the first superintendent.
+
+[6] At the school of the Twelfth Congregational Society, Carpenter's
+    Catechism was used for the small children. This was followed by the
+    Worcester Catechism, compiled in 1822 by the ministers of the
+    Worcester Association of Ministers, Dr. Joseph Allen being the real
+    author. The Geneva Catechism in its three successive parts, followed
+    in order. In the Bible class, use was made of Hannah Adams's Letters
+    on the Gospels, under the immediate charge of the Pastor. A hymn-book
+    issued by the Publishing Fund Society was in use by the whole school.
+
+[7] Christian Examiner, March, 1830, VIII. 49.
+
+[8] Ibid., May, 1838, XXIV. 182.
+
+[9] Joseph Allen, History of the Worcester Association, 261-264.
+
+[10] In 1852 was published a graded series of eight manuals of Christian
+     instruction for Sunday-schools and families,--a result of the
+     activities of the Sunday School Society. The titles and authors of
+     these books were Early Religious Lessons; Palestine and the Hebrew
+     People, Stephen G. Bulfinch; Lessons on the Old Testament, Rev.
+     Ephraim Peabody; The Life of Christ, Rev. John H. Morison; The Books
+     and Characters of the New Testament, Rev. Rufus Ellis; Lessons upon
+     Religious Duties and Christian Morals, Rev. George W. Briggs;
+     Doctrines of Scripture, Rev. Frederic D. Huntington; Scenes from
+     Christian History, Rev. Edward E. Hale. Two other books connected
+     with the early history of Unitarian Sunday-schools properly demand
+     notice here. In 1847 was published The History of Sunday Schools and
+     of Religious Education from the Earliest Times, by Lewis G. Pray, who
+     was treasurer of the Boston Sunday School Society from 1834 to 1853,
+     and chairman of its board of agents from 1841 to 1848. He was one of
+     the first workers in the establishing of Sunday-schools in Boston,
+     and he zealously interested himself in this cause so long as he
+     lived. He compiled the first book of hymns used in Unitarian schools,
+     and also the first book of devotional exercises. For twenty years he
+     was superintendent of the school connected with the Twelfth
+     Congregational Society, holding that place from its organization in
+     1827. In one of the concluding chapters of his book Mr. Pray gave an
+     account of the early history of Unitarian Sunday-schools in Boston
+     and its neighborhood. In 1852 was published a series of addresses
+     which had been given by Rev. Frederick T. Gray at Sunday-school
+     anniversaries and on other similar occasions. The volume contains
+     most interesting information in regard to the origin of
+     Sunday-schools in Boston, and the beginnings of the Sunday School
+     Society, as well as the work of Dr. Tuckerman and his assistants in
+     the ministry, at large.
+
+[11] Memoir of James P. Walker, with Selections from his Writings, by
+     Thomas B. Fox. American Unitarian Association, 1869.
+
+[12] The first of these was Rev. Edward H. Hall's First Lessons on the
+     Bible, which appeared in 1882; and it was soon followed by Professor
+     C.H. Toy's History of the Religion of Israel.
+
+[13] Among these were Religions before Christianity, by Professor Charles
+     Carroll Everett, D.D., 1883; Manual of Unitarian Belief, by Rev.
+     James Freeman Clarke, D.D., 1884; Lessons on the Life of St. Paul, by
+     Rev. Edward H. Hall, 1885; Early Hebrew Stories, by Rev. Charles F.
+     Dole, 1886; Hebrew Prophets and Kings, by Rev. Henry G. Spaulding,
+     1887; The Later Heroes of Israel, by Mr. Spaulding, 1888; Lessons on
+     the Gospel of Luke, by Mr. Spaulding and Rev. W.W. Fenn, 1889; A
+     Story of the Sects, by Rev. William H. Lyon, in 1891. In 1890
+     appeared the Unitarian Catechism of Rev. Minot J. Savage, though not
+     published by the Sunday School Society. These books attracted wide
+     attention, were largely used in Unitarian schools, and were adopted
+     into those of other sects to some extent. In 1886 the president of
+     the American Social Science Association publicly urged the use of the
+     ethical manuals of the society by all Sunday-schools. Several of
+     these books were republished in London, and Dr. Toy's manual was
+     translated into Dutch. The society also published a new Service Book
+     and Hymnal, which went into immediate use in a large number of
+     schools, and did much for the enrichment of the devotional exercises
+     and the promotion of an advanced standard of both words and music in
+     the hymns.
+
+[14] The Fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood of Man, the leadership of
+     Jesus, salvation by character, the progress of mankind onward and
+     upward forever.
+
+[15] Among the publications under Mr. Horton's administration, which may
+     justly be called significant, are: Beacon Lights of Christian
+     History, in three grades; Noble Lives and Noble Deeds, Dole's
+     Catechism of Liberal Faith, Mott's History of Unitarianism,
+     Pulsford's various manuals on the Bible, Mrs. Jaynes's Illustrated
+     Primary Leaflets, Miss Mulliken's Kindergarten Lessons, Story of
+     Israel and Great Thoughts of Israel, in three grades, Fenn's Acts of
+     the Apostles, Chadwick's Questions on the Old Testament Books in
+     their Right Order, Mrs. Kate Gannett Wells's forty Illustrated
+     Primary Lessons, and Walkley's Helps for Teachers. Mr. Horton, during
+     this ten years, has written fourteen manuals on various subjects.
+     Co-extensive with the large increase of text-books has been the
+     enrichment of lessons by pictorial aids. Excellent half-tone pictures
+     have been prepared from the best subjects.
+
+[16] Among the publications of the Western Unitarian Sunday School Society
+     have been Unity Services and Songs, edited by Rev. James Vila Blake,
+     and published in 1878; a service book called The Way of Life, by Rev.
+     Frederick L. Hosmer, issued in 1877; and Unity Festivals, services
+     for special holidays, 1884. Of the lesson-books published by the
+     society, those that have been most successful have been Corner-stones
+     of Character, by Mrs. Kate Gannett Wells; A Chosen Nation, or the
+     Growth of the Hebrew Religion, by Rev. William C. Gannett; and The
+     More Wonderful Genesis, by Rev. Henry M. Simmons. In 1890 the society
+     entered upon the publication of a six-year course of studies, which
+     included Beginnings according to Legend and according to the Truer
+     Story, by Rev. Allen W. Gould; The Flowering of the Hebrew Religion,
+     by Rev. W.W. Fenn; In the Home, by Rev. W.C. Gannett; Mother Nature's
+     Children, by Rev. A.W. Gould; and The Flowering of Christianity, the
+     Liberal Christian Movement toward Universal Religion, by Rev. W.C.
+     Gannett.
+
+[17] The objects of The Young People's Religious Union are: (a) to foster
+     the religious life; (b) to bring the young into closer relations with
+     one another; and (c) to spread rational views of religion, and to put
+     into practice such principles of life and duty as tend to uplift
+     mankind. The cardinal principles of the Union are truth, worship, and
+     service. Any young people's society may become a member of the Union
+     by affirming in writing its sympathy with the general objects of the
+     Union, adopting its cardinal principles, making a contribution to its
+     treasury, and sending the secretary a list of its officers. The
+     annual meeting is held in May at such day and place as the executive
+     board may appoint. Special union meetings are held as often as
+     several societies may arrange. The Union has its headquarters at Room
+     11, in the Unitarian Building, Boston, in charge of the secretary,
+     whose office hours are from 9 A.M. to 1 P.M. daily. Organization
+     hints, hymnals, leaflets, helps for the national topics, and other
+     suggestive materials are supplied. The national officers furnish
+     speakers for initial meetings, visit unions, and help in other ways.
+     The Union maintains a department in The Christian Register, under the
+     charge of the secretary, for notes, notices, helps on the topics, and
+     all matters of interest to the unions, and also publishes a monthly
+     bulletin in connection with the National Alliance of Unitarian Women.
+
+[18] In the thirty-five years which comprise the life of the commission a
+     gradual but marked change has been in operation. Sunday-school
+     libraries are being used less and less, and town libraries have
+     become much more numerous and better patronized by both old and
+     young. In the spring of 1896 the question arose in the commission
+     whether, with the decline of the Sunday-school library, the need
+     which called it into being had not ceased to exist; and, in order to
+     secure information as to the advisability of continuing its work,
+     cards were sent to 305 ministers of the denomination and to 507
+     public libraries, mostly in New England, asking if the lists of the
+     commission were found useful, and whether it was desired that the
+     sending of them should be continued. From Unitarian ministers 209
+     replies were received, one-half using the lists frequently and the
+     other half occasionally or for the selection of special books. From
+     the town libraries cordial replies were received in 220 instances,
+     most of them warmly approving of the lists, which had been found very
+     useful. The result of this investigation was to bring the commission
+     more directly into touch with the various libraries, and to give it a
+     better understanding of their needs.
+
+
+
+
+XII.
+
+
+THE WOMEN'S ALLIANCE AND ITS PREDECESSORS.
+
+The Unitarian body has been remarkable for the women of intellectual power
+and philanthropic achievement who have adorned its fellowship. In
+proportion to their numbers, they have done much for the improvement and
+uplifting of society. In the early Unitarian period, however, the special
+work of women was for the most part confined to the Sunday-school and the
+sewing circle. Whatever the name by which it was known, whether as the
+Dorcas Society, the Benevolent Society, or the Ladies' Aid, the sewing
+circle did a work that was in harmony with the needs of the time, and did
+it well. It helped the church with which it was connected in many quiet
+ways, and gave much aid to the poor and suffering members of the community.
+Nor did it limit its activities to purely local interests; for many a
+church was helped by it and the early missionary societies received its
+contributions gladly.
+
+Before the organization of the Benevolent Fraternity of Churches, the women
+of Boston raised the money necessary for the support of the ministry at
+large in that city. One of the earliest societies organized for general
+service, was the Tuckerman Sewing Circle, formed in 1827. Its purpose was
+to assist Dr. Tuckerman in his work for the poor of the city by providing
+clothing and otherwise aiding the needy. The work of this circle is still
+going on in connection, with the Bulfinch Place Church; and every year it
+raises a large sum of money for the charitable work of the ministry at
+large.
+
+The civil war helped women to recognize the need of organization and
+co-operation, on their part. In working for the soldiers, not only in their
+homes and churches, but in connection with the Sanitary Commission, and
+later in seeking to aid the freedmen, they learned their own power and the
+value of combination with others. In Massachusetts the work of the Sanitary
+Commission was largely carried on by Unitarians. In describing this work,
+Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney has indicated what was done by Unitarian women.
+"During the late war," she wrote, "a woman's branch of the Sanitary
+Commission was organized in New England. Mary Dwight (Parkman) was its
+first president; but Abby Williams May soon took her place, which she held
+till the close of the war. With unwearied zeal Miss May presided over its
+councils, organized its action, and encouraged others to work. She went
+down to the hospitals and camps, to judge of their needs with her own eyes,
+and travelled from town to town in New England, arousing the women to new
+effort. These might be seen, young and old, rich and poor, bearing bundles
+of blue flannel through the streets, and unaccustomed fingers knitting the
+coarse yarn, while the heart throbbed with anxiety for the dear ones gone
+to the war. A noble band of nurses volunteered their services, and the
+strife was as to which should go soonest and do the hardest work. Hannah E.
+Stevenson, Helen Stetson, and many another name became as dear to the
+soldiers as that of mother or sister. A committee was formed to supply the
+colored soldiers with such help as other soldiers received from their
+relations; and, when one of the noblest of Boston's sons passed through her
+streets at their head, his mother 'thanked God for the privilege of seeing
+that day.' The same spirit went into the work of educating the freedmen.
+Young men and women, the noblest and best, went forth together to that work
+of danger and toil."[1]
+
+[Sidenote: Women's Western Unitarian Conference.]
+
+It was such experiences as these that encouraged Unitarian women to enter
+upon other philanthropic and educational labors when the civil war had come
+to an end. Leaders had been trained during this period who were capable of
+guiding such movements to a successful issue. The example of the women of
+the evangelical churches in organizing their home and foreign missionary
+associations also undoubtedly influenced, to a greater or lesser degree,
+the women of the liberal churches. After the organization of the National
+Conference, Unitarian women began to realize, as never before, the need of
+co-operation in behalf of the cause they had at heart.[2] It was in the
+central west, however, that the first effort was made to organize women in
+the interest of denominational activities. In 1877, at the meeting of the
+Western Unitarian Conference held in Toledo, it was voted that the women
+connected with that body be requested to organize immediately for the
+purpose of co-operating in the general work of the conference. At this
+meeting two women, Mrs. E.P. Allis of Milwaukee and Mrs. Mary P. Wells
+Smith of Cincinnati, were placed on the board of directors.
+
+At the next annual meeting of the Western Conference, held in Chicago, the
+committee on organization, consisting of thirteen women, reported the
+readiness of the women to give their aid to the conference work, saying in
+their report "that we signify not only our willingness, but our earnest
+desire to share henceforth with our brothers in the labors and
+responsibilities of this Association, and that we pledge ourselves to an
+active and hearty support of those cherished convictions which constitute
+our liberal faith." In response to their request, the conference selected
+an assistant secretary to have charge of everything relating to the work of
+women. They also recommended that the women of the several churches
+connected with the conference should organize for "the study and
+dissemination of the principles of free thought and liberal religious
+culture, and the practical assistance of all worthy schemes and enterprises
+intended for the spread and upholding of these principles." In 1881, at St.
+Louis, there was organized the Women's Western Unitarian Conference, with
+Mrs. Eliza Sunderland as president and Miss F.L. Roberts as secretary.
+During the seventeen years of its existence this conference raised much
+money for denominational work, developed many earnest workers, and
+accomplished much in behalf of the principles for which it stood. It aided
+in the support of several missionaries, organized the Post-office Mission
+and made it effective, and encouraged a number of women to enter the
+ministry.
+
+[Sidenote: Women's Auxiliary Conference.]
+
+At the National Conference session of 1878, held at Saratoga, where much
+enthusiasm had been awakened, it was suggested that the women, who had been
+hitherto listeners only, should take an active part in, denominational
+work. At a gathering in the parlor of the United States Hotel, called by
+Mrs. Charles G. Ames, Mrs. Fielder Israel, Mrs. J.P. Lesley, and one or two
+others, a plan of action was adopted that led, in 1880, to the formation of
+the Women's Auxiliary Conference. The aim of this organization was to
+quicken the religious life of the churches, to stimulate local charitable
+and missionary undertakings, and to raise money for missionary enterprises;
+but its work was to be done in connection with the National Conference, and
+not as an independent organization. The purpose was stated in a circular
+sent to the churches immediately after the organization was effected.
+"Hitherto," it was said, "women have not been specially represented upon
+the board of the National Conference, and have not fully recognized how
+helpful they might be in its various undertakings or how much they
+themselves might gain from a closer relation with it. But the time has now
+come when our service is called for in the broad field, and also when we
+feel the need of being at work there; for our faith in the great truths of
+religion is no less vital than that of our brethren; and since the service
+we can render, being different from theirs, is needed to supplement it, and
+because it is peculiarly women's service, we must do it, or it will be left
+undone. It is one of the glories of such a work as ours that there is need
+and room in it for the best effort of every individual; indeed, without the
+faithful service of all it must be incomplete."
+
+In 1890, after ten years of active existence, the conference had about
+eighty branches, with a membership of between 3,000 and 4,000 women. Much
+of the success of the conference was due to its president, Abby W. May.
+Miss May was well known as a philanthropist and educator, and had occupied
+many prominent positions before she assumed the presidency of the
+auxiliary; but this was her first active work in connection with the
+denomination.
+
+[Sidenote: The National Alliance.]
+
+Admirable as were the aims, and excellent as was the work of this
+organization, it was auxiliary to the National Conference, and had no
+independent life. After the first enthusiasm was past, it failed to gain
+ground rapidly, the membership remaining nearly stationary during the last
+few years of its existence. As time went on, therefore, it became evident
+that a more complete organization was needed in order to arouse enthusiasm
+and to secure the loyalty of the women of all parts of the country. The New
+York League of Unitarian Women, including those of New York, Brooklyn, and
+New Jersey, organized in 1887, showed the advantages of a closer union and
+a more definite purpose; and the desire to bring into one body all the
+various local organizations hastened the change. It was seen that, in the
+multiplication of organizations, there was danger of wasting the energies
+used, and that one efficient body was greatly to be desired.
+
+In May, 1888, a committee was formed for the purpose of drafting a
+constitution for a new association, "to which all existing organizations
+might subscribe." The constitution provided by this committee was adopted
+October 24, 1890, and the new organization took the name of the National
+Alliance of Unitarian and Other Liberal Christian Women. The object
+proposed was "to quicken the life of our Unitarian churches, and to bring
+the women of the denomination into closer acquaintance, co-operation, and
+fellowship." In 1891 there were ninety branches, with about 5,000 members.
+While the membership, doubled under the impulse of the new organization,
+the increase in the amount of money raised was fivefold.
+
+The admirable results secured by the Women's Alliance, which has finally
+drawn all the sectional organizations into co-operation with itself, are in
+no small measure due to the energy and the organizing skill of the women
+who have been at the head of its activities. Mrs. Judith W. Andrews, of
+Boston, was the president during the first year of its existence. From 1891
+to 1901 the president was Mrs. B. Ward Dix, of Brooklyn, who was succeeded
+by Miss Emma C. Low, of the same city. Mrs. Emily A. Fifield, of Boston,
+has been the recording secretary; Mrs. Mary B. Davis, of New York, the
+corresponding secretary; and Miss Flora L. Close, of Boston, the treasurer
+from the first.
+
+[Sidenote: Cheerful Letter and Post-office Missions.]
+
+In 1891 the executive board appointed a committee to organize a Cheerful
+Letter Exchange, of which Miss Lilian Freeman Clarke was made the chairman.
+One of its chief purposes is to cheer the lonely and discouraged, invalids
+and others, by interchange of letters and by gifts of books and
+periodicals. To young persons in remote places it affords facilities for
+securing a better education, with the aid of correspondence classes. By
+means of a little monthly magazine, The Cheerful Letter, religious teaching
+is brought to many persons, who in this find a substitute for church
+attendance where that is not possible. Through the same channel, as well as
+by correspondence, these workers help young mothers in the right training
+of their children. Libraries have been started in communities destitute of
+books, and struggling libraries have been aided with gifts. Forty
+travelling libraries are kept in circulation.
+
+Although much had been done to circulate Unitarian tracts and the other
+publications of the American Unitarian Association, by means of
+colporteurs, by the aid of the post-office, as well as by direct gift of
+friend to friend, it remained for Miss Sallie Ellis, of Cincinnati, in
+1881, to systematize this kind of missionary effort, and to make it one of
+the most valuable of all agents for the dissemination of liberal religious
+ideas. Miss Ellis was aided by the Cincinnati branch of the Women's
+Auxiliary, but she was from the first the heart and soul of this mission.
+"If there had been no Miss Ellis," says one who knew her work intimately,
+"there would have been no Post-office Mission. Many helped about it in
+various ways, but she was the mission."
+
+Miss Ellis was a frail little woman, hopelessly deaf and suffering from an
+incurable disease. Notwithstanding her physical limitations, she longed to
+be of service to the faith she cherished; and the missionary spirit burned
+strong within her. "I want," she said often, "to do something for
+Unitarianism before I die"; but the usual avenues of opportunity seemed
+firmly closed to her. At last, in the winter of 1877-78, Rev. Charles W.
+Wendte, then her pastor, anxious to find something for her to do, proposed
+that she should send the Association's tracts and copies of the Pamphlet
+Mission to persons in the west who were interested in the liberal faith.
+She took up this work gladly, and during that winter distributed 1,846
+tracts and 211 copies of the Pamphlet Mission in twenty-six States.
+
+A tract table in the vestibule of the church was started by Miss Ellis; and
+she not only distributed sermons freely in this way, but she also sold
+Unitarian books. It was in 1881 that she was made the secretary of the
+newly organized Women's Auxiliary in Cincinnati, and that her work really
+began systematically. At the suggestion of Mrs. Mary P. Wells Smith,
+advertisements were inserted in the daily papers, and offers made to send
+Unitarian publications, when requested. Many doubted the advisability of
+such an enterprise, but the letters received soon indicated that an
+important method of mission work had been discovered. Rev. William C.
+Gannett christened this work the Post-office Mission, and that name it has
+since retained.
+
+Only four and one-half years were permitted to Miss Ellis in which to
+accomplish her work,--a work dear to her heart, and one for which her many
+losses and sufferings had prepared her. During this period she wrote 2,500
+letters, sent out 22,000 tracts and papers, sold 286 books, and loaned 258.
+The real value of such work cannot be rightly estimated in figures. Through
+her influence, several young men entered the ministry who are to-day doing
+effective work. She saved several persons from doubt and despair, gave
+strength to the weak, and comfort to those who mourned. At her death, in
+1885, the letters received from many of her correspondents showed how
+strong and deep had been her influence.[3]
+
+The movement initiated by Miss Ellis grew rapidly, and has become one of
+the most valuable of all agents for the dissemination of liberal religious
+ideas. In the year 1900 the number of correspondents was about 5,000, and
+the number of tracts, sermons, periodicals, and books distributed was about
+200,000. The extent of this mission is also seen in the fact that in that
+year about 8,000 letters were written by the workers, and about 6,000 were
+received.
+
+By means of the Post-office Mission the literature of the denomination, the
+tracts of the Unitarian Association, copies of The Christian Register, and
+other periodicals have been scattered all over the world. Thousands of
+sermons are distributed also from tables in church vestibules. Several
+branches publish and exchange sermons, and a loan library has been
+established to supplement this work.[4]
+
+From the distribution of tracts and sermons has grown the formation of
+"Sunday Circles" and "Groups" of Unitarians, carefully planned circuit
+preaching, the employment of missionaries, and the building of chapels or
+small churches. Two of these are already built; and the Alliance has
+insured the support of their ministers for five years, and two others are
+in the process of erection.
+
+[Sidenote: Associate Alliances.]
+
+The women on the Pacific coast have been compelled in a large measure to
+organize their own work and to adopt their own methods, the distance being
+too great for immediate co-operation with the other organizations. In this
+work they have not only displayed energy and perseverance, but, says one
+who knows intimately of their efforts, "they have shown executive ability
+and power as organizers that have furnished an example to many
+non-sectarian organizations of women, and have made the Unitarian women
+conspicuous in all charitable and social activities."
+
+The oldest society of Unitarian women on the Pacific coast was connected
+with the First Church in San Francisco. In 1873 it was reorganized as the
+Society for Christian Work. Its work has been mainly social and
+philanthropic, contributing reading matter to penal institutions, money for
+the care of the poor of the city, and aiding every new Unitarian church in
+the State. The Channing Auxiliary combines the activities of the churches
+in the vicinity of San Francisco with those in the city. Its objects are
+"moral and religious culture, practical literary work, and co-operation
+with the denominational and missionary agencies of the Unitarian faith."
+From 1890 to 1899 this society spent over $6,000 in aid of denominational
+enterprises, and it appropriates annually a large sum for Post-office
+Mission work. While these two organizations represent San Francisco and its
+neighborhood, the women up and down the coast have also been earnest
+workers. In 1890 they felt the need of a closer bond of union, and
+organized the Women's Unitarian Conference of the Pacific Coast. In 1894
+this conference became a branch of the National Alliance, and has
+co-operated cordially with it since that time.
+
+The New York League of Unitarian Women has been active in forming Alliance
+branches and new churches, as well as in affording aid to Meadville
+students. The Chicago Associate Alliance, the Southern Associate Alliance,
+and the Connecticut Valley Associate Alliance were organized in 1890. The
+Worcester League of Unitarian Women began its existence in 1889, and was
+reorganized in connection with the National Alliance in 1892.
+
+[Sidenote: Alliance Methods.]
+
+In thus coming into closer relations with each other and forming a national
+organization, each local branch continues free in its own action, chooses
+its own methods of carrying on its work, but keeps close knowledge of what
+the Alliance as a whole is doing, that all interference with others and
+overlapping of assistance may be avoided, and the greatest mutual benefit
+may be secured. This method gives the utmost independence to the branches,
+while preserving the element of personal interest in all financial
+disbursements, and creates a strong bond of sympathy between those who give
+and those who receive.
+
+The first duty of each branch is to strengthen the church to which its
+members belong; and the value of such an organized group of women, meeting
+to exchange ideas and experiences on the most vital topics of human
+interest, has been everywhere recognized. Each branch is expected to engage
+in some form of religious study, not only for the improvement of the
+members themselves, but to enable them to gain, and to give others, a
+comprehensive knowledge of Unitarian beliefs. A study class committee
+provides programmes for the use of the branches, arranges for the lending
+and exchange of papers, and assists those who do not have access to books
+of reference or are remote from the centres of Unitarian thought and
+activity.
+
+With this preparation the Alliance undertakes the higher service of joining
+in the missionary activities of the denomination, supplementing as far as
+possible the work of the American Unitarian Association. This includes
+sending missionaries into new fields, aiding small and struggling churches,
+helping to found new ones, supporting ministers at important points, and
+and distributing religious literature among those who need light on
+religious problems.
+
+[1] Memorial History of Boston, IV. 353.
+
+[2] See later chapters for account of admission of women to National
+    Conference, Unitarian Association, the ministry, Boston school board,
+    and various other lines of activity.
+
+[3] Mary P.W. Smith, Miss Ellis's Mission.
+
+[4] This library is in the Unitarian Building, 25 Beacon Street, Boston.
+
+
+
+
+XIII.
+
+
+MISSIONS TO INDIA AND JAPAN.
+
+Foreign missions have never commanded a general interest on the part of
+Unitarians. Their dislike of the proselyting spirit, their intense love of
+liberty for others as well as for themselves, and the absence of sectarian
+feeling have combined to make them, as a body, indifferent to the
+propagation of their faith in other countries. They have done something,
+however, to express their sympathy with those of kindred faith in foreign
+lands.
+
+In 1829 the younger Henry Ware visited England and Ireland as the foreign
+secretary of the Unitarian Association; and at the annual meeting of 1831
+he reported the results of his inquiries.[1] This was the beginning of
+many interchanges of good fellowship with the Unitarians of Great Britain,
+and also with those of Hungary, Transylvania, France, Germany, and other
+European countries. During the first decade or two of the existence of the
+Unitarian Association much interest was taken in the liberal movements in
+Geneva; and the third annual report gave account of what was being done in
+that city and in Calcutta, as well as in Transylvania and Great Britain.
+Some years later, aid was promised to the Unitarians of Hungary in a time
+of persecution; but they were dispossessed of their schools before help
+reached them. In 1868 the Association founded Channing and Priestley
+professorships in the theological school at Kolozsvár, and Mrs. Anna
+Richmond furnished money for a permanent professorship in the same
+institution. Soon after the renewed activity of 1865 an unsuccessful
+attempt was made to establish an American Unitarian church in Paris; and
+aid was given to the founding of an English liberal church in that city.
+These are indications of the many interchanges of fellowship and
+helpfulness between the Unitarians of this country and those of Europe.
+
+[Sidenote: Society respecting the State of Religion in India.]
+
+As early as 1824 began a movement to aid the native Unitarians of India,
+partly the result of a lively interest in Rammohun Roy and the
+republication in this country of his writings. On June 7, 1822, The
+Christian Register gave an account of the adoption of Unitarianism by that
+remarkable Hindoo leader; and it often recurred to the subject in later
+years. In February of the next year it described the formation of a
+Unitarian society in Calcutta, and the conversion to Unitarianism of a
+Baptist missionary, Rev. William Adam, as a result of his attempt to
+convert Rammohun Roy. There followed frequent reports of this movement, and
+after a few months a letter from Mr. Adam was published. Even before this
+there had appeared accounts of William Roberts, of Madras, a native Tamil,
+who had been educated in England, and had there become a Unitarian. On his
+return to his own country he had established small congregations in the
+suburbs of Madras.
+
+In 1823 a letter from Rev. William Adam was received in Boston, addressed
+to Dr. Channing. It was put into the hands of the younger Henry Ware, who
+wrote to Mr. Adam and Rammohun Roy, propounding to them a number of
+questions in regard to the religious situation in India. In 1824 were
+published in a volume the letter of Ware and the series of questions sent
+by him to India, together with the replies of Rammohun Roy and William
+Adam.[2] This book was one of much interest, and furnished the first
+systematic account that had been given to the public of the reformatory
+religious interest awakened at that time in India. In February, 1825, was
+organized the Society for obtaining Information respecting the State of
+Religion in India, "with a view to obtain and diffuse information and to
+devise and recommend means for the promotion of Christianity in that part
+of the world." The younger Henry Ware was made the president, and Dr.
+Tuckerman the secretary. Already a fund had been collected to aid the
+British Indian Unitarian Association of Calcutta in its missionary efforts,
+especially in building a church and maintaining a minister.
+
+During the year 1825 there was published at the office of The Christian
+Register a pamphlet of sixty-three pages, written by a member of the
+Information Society, being An Appeal to Liberal Christians for the Cause of
+Christianity in India. In 1826 Dr. Tuckerman addressed A Letter on the
+Principles of the Missionary Enterprise to the executive committee of the
+Unitarian Association, in which he gave a noble exposition of the work of
+foreign missions, especially with reference to the Indian field. This
+letter and other writings of Tuckerman served to arouse much interest. The
+Appeal urged what many Unitarians had large faith in,--the promulgation of
+"just and rational views of our religion" "upon enlarged and liberal
+principles, from which we may hope for the speedy establishment and the
+wider extension there of the uncorrupted truth as it is in Jesus."
+
+In 1826 the sum of $7,000 was secured for this work; and in the spring of
+1827 a pledge was made to send yearly to Calcutta the sum of $600 for ten
+years. These pledges were in connection with like efforts made by the
+British and Foreign Unitarian Association. In 1839 Mr. Adam visited the
+United States, and spoke at the annual meeting of the Unitarian
+Association. Following this, he was for a few years professor of Oriental
+literature in Harvard University.
+
+[Sidenote: Dall's Work in India.]
+
+In 1853 Rev. Charles T. Brooks, who was for many years the minister of the
+church in Newport, visited India in search of health; and he was
+commissioned by the Unitarian Association to make inquiries as to the
+prospects for missionary labors in that country. In Madras he met William
+Roberts, the younger son of the former Unitarian preacher there and visited
+the several missions carried on by him. In Calcutta he found Unitarians,
+but the work of Mr. Adam had left almost no results. The report of Mr.
+Brooks was such that an effort was at once made to secure a missionary for
+India.[3] In 1855 Rev. Charles H.A. Dall undertook this mission. He had
+been a minister at large in St. Louis, Baltimore, and Portsmouth, and
+settled over parishes in Needham and Toronto. Mr. Ball was given the widest
+liberty of action in conducting his mission, as his instructions indicate:
+"There you are to enter upon the work of a missionary; and whether by
+preaching, in English or through an interpreter, or by school-teaching or
+by writing for the press, or by visiting from house to house, or by
+translating tracts, or by circulation of books, you are instructed, what we
+know your heart will prompt you to do, to give yourself to a life of
+usefulness as a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ."
+
+On his arrival at Calcutta, Mr. Ball was in a prostrate condition, and had
+to be carried ashore. After a time he rallied and began his work. He
+gathered a small congregation about him, then began teaching; and his work
+grew until he had four large and flourishing schools under his charge. In
+these he gave special attention, to moral and religious training, and to
+the industrial arts. In his school work he had the efficient aid of Miss
+Chamberlain, and after her death of Mrs. Helen Tompkins. One of the native
+teachers, Dwarkanath Singha, was of great service in securing the interest
+of the natives, being at the head, for many years, of all the schools under
+Mr. Dall's control. Mr. Dall founded the Calcutta School of Industrial Art,
+the Useful Arts' School, Hindoo Girls' School, as well as a school for the
+waifs of the streets. In these schools were 8,000 pupils, mostly Hindoos,
+who were taught a practical religion,--the simple principles of the gospel.
+In education Mr. Dall accomplished large results, not only by his schools,
+but by talking and lecturing on the subject. His influence was especially
+felt in the education of girls and in industrial training, in both of which
+directions he was a pioneer. Only one of his schools is now in existence,
+simply because the government took up the work he began, and gave it a
+larger support than was possible on the part of any individual or any
+society.
+
+Mr. Dall wrote extensively for the leading journals of India, and in that
+way he reached a larger number of persons throughout the country. This
+brought him a large correspondence, and he frequently journeyed far to
+visit individuals and congregations thus brought to his knowledge. For many
+years he was one of the leading men of Calcutta. Few great public meetings
+of any reformatory or educational kind were held without his having a
+prominent part in them. He published great numbers of tracts and
+lectures,[4] and translated the works of the leading Unitarians of
+America and Great Britain into Hindostanee, Bengali, Tamil, Sanscrit, and
+other native languages. His zeal in circulating liberal writings was great,
+and met with a large reward. He distributed hundreds of copies of the
+complete Works of Dr. Channing, and these brought many persons to the
+acceptance of Unitarianism. When Rev. Jabez T. Sunderland was in India, in
+1895-96, he found many traces of these volumes, even in remote parts of the
+country. When he was in Madras, a very intelligent Hindoo walked one
+hundred and fifty miles to procure of him a copy of Channing's biography to
+replace a copy received from Mr. Dall, which, had been reread and loaned
+until it was almost worn out.
+
+A considerable part of Mr. Ball's influence was in connection with the
+Brahmo-Somaj, in directing its religious, educational, and reformatory
+work. He did not make many nominal Unitarians; but he had a very large
+influence in shaping the life of India by his personal influence and by the
+weight of his religious character. Everywhere he was greatly beloved. He
+earned considerable sums as a reporter and author in aid of his mission,
+and he lived in a most abstemious manner in order to devote as much money
+as possible to his work.[5] In this devoted service he continued until
+his death, which took place July 18, 1886.
+
+[Sidenote: Recent Work in India.]
+
+Since the death of Mr. Dall the aid given to India by American Unitarians
+has been through the natives themselves. The work of Pundita, Ramabai has
+received considerable assistance, as has also that of Mozoomdar. Early in
+the year 1888, Rev. Brooke Herford, then minister of the Arlington Street
+Church in Boston, received from India a letter addressed "To the chief
+pastor of the Unitarian congregation at Boston." It proved to be from a
+young lawyer or pleader in Banda, North-west Provinces, named Akbar Masih.
+His father was an educated Mohammedan, who in early life had been converted
+to Calvinistic Christianity, and had become a missionary. At the Calcutta
+University the son had outgrown the faith he had been taught; and a volume
+of Channing's Works, put in circulation by Mr. Dall, had given him the
+mental and spiritual teaching he desired. Tracts and books were sent him,
+and a correspondence followed. He read with great delight what he received,
+and in a year or two he desired to become a missionary. Mr. Herford sent
+him money, and he was employed to spend one-third of his time in the
+missionary service of Unitarianism. When Mr. Herford removed to London, the
+support of Akbar Masih was arranged for in England; and he has done a large
+work in preaching, lecturing, holding conferences, and publishing tracts
+and books.
+
+Nearly in the same week in which Mr. Herford received his first letter from
+Akbar Masih, Mr. Sunderland, in Ann Arbor, received one from Hajam Kissor
+Singh, Jowai, Khasi Hills, Assam. He was a young man employed by the
+government as a surveyor, was well educated, but belonged to one of the
+primitive tribes that retain their aboriginal religion and customs to a
+large extent. He had been taught orthodox Christianity, however; but it was
+not satisfactory to him. A Brahmo friend loaned him a copy of Channing, and
+furnished him with Mr. Dall's address. In the bundle of tracts sent him by
+Mr. Dall was a copy of The Unitarian, which led him to write to its editor,
+Mr. Sunderland. A correspondence followed, and the sending of many tracts
+and books. Mr. Singh began to talk of his new views to others, who gathered
+in his room on Sunday afternoons for religious inquiry and worship. Soon
+there was a call for similar meetings in another village, and Mr. Singh
+began to serve as a lay-preacher. A church was organized in Jowai, and then
+a day school was opened. Tracts and books being necessary in order to carry
+on the work successfully, Mr. Sunderland raised the necessary money,
+printed them in Khasi at Ann Arbor, and forwarded them to Assam, thus
+greatly facilitating the labors of Mr. Singh and his assistants. Also,
+through the help of American Unitarians, Mr. Singh was able to secure the
+aid of two paid helpers. When Mr. Sunderland visited the Khasi Hills, in
+1895, as the agent of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association, he
+helped to ordain a regular pastor; and he found church buildings in five
+villages, day-schools in four, and religious circles meeting in eight or
+nine others. This mission is now being supported by the English Unitarians.
+
+[Sidenote: The Beginnings in Japan.]
+
+After the death of Mr. Dall it was not found desirable to continue his
+educational work, and the missionary activities in India naturally came
+under the jurisdiction of the British Unitarian Association. At the same
+time, Japan offered an inviting field for missionary effort, and one not
+hitherto occupied by Unitarians. In 1884 a movement began in that country,
+looking to the introduction of a rational Christianity, the leader being
+Yukichi Fukuzawa, a prominent statesman, head of the Keiogijiku University
+and editor of the leading newspaper. In 1886 Fumio Yano, after a visit to
+England, took up the same mission, and urged the adoption of Christianity
+as a moral force in the life of the nation. The latter interpreted
+Unitarianism as being the form of Christianity needed in Japan, and
+strongly urged its acceptance. Other prominent men joined with these two in
+commending a rational Christianity to their countrymen. Not long afterwards
+the American Unitarian Association was asked to establish a mission in that
+country. In 1887 Rev. Arthur M. Knapp was sent to Japan to investigate the
+situation, and in the spring of 1889 he returned to report the results of
+his inquiries. He had; been welcomed; by the leading men, such as the
+Marquis Tokujawa and Kentaro Kaneko, who opened to him many avenues of
+influence. He had written for the most important newspapers, had come into
+personal contact with the leading men of all parties, had lectured; on many
+occasions to highly educated audiences, and had opened a wide-reaching
+correspondence.
+
+On his return to Japan, in 1889, Mr. Knapp was prepared to begin systematic
+work in behalf of rational Christianity. It was not his purpose, however,
+to seek to establish Unitarianism there as the basis of a new Japanese
+sect, but to diffuse it as a leaven for the moral and spiritual elevation
+of the people of Japan. "The errand of Unitarianism in Japan," said Mr.
+Knapp to the Japanese, "is based upon the familiar idea of the sympathy of
+religions. With the conviction that we are the messengers of distinctive
+and valuable truths which have not yet been emphasized, and that, in
+return, there is much in your faith and life which to our harm we have not
+emphasized, receive us not as theological propagandists, but as messengers
+of the new gospel of human brotherhood in the religion of man."
+
+With Mr. Knapp were associated Rev. Clay MacCauley as colleague, and also
+Garrett Droppers, John H. Wigmore, and William Shields Liscomb, who were to
+become, professors in the Keiogijiku, a leading university, situated in
+Tokio, and to give such aid as they could to the Unitarian mission. With
+these men was soon associated Rev. H.W. Hawkes, a young English minister,
+who gave his services to this important work. There also accompanied the
+American party Mr. Saichiro Kanda, who had become a Unitarian while
+residing in San Francisco, and had attended the Meadville Theological
+School. In the winter of 1890-91, Mr. Knapp returned to the United States,
+and a little later Mr. Hawkes went back to England. In 1891 Rev. William I.
+Lawrance joined the mission force; and he continued with it until 1894,
+when a severe illness compelled his resignation. Professor Wigmore returned
+to America in 1892 to accept a chair in the North-western University;
+Professor Liscomb came home in 1893, dying soon after his return; while
+Professor Droppers remained until the winter of 1898, when he became the
+president of the University of South Dakota. In the beginning of 1900, Mr.
+MacCauley, after having had direction of the mission for nine years,
+returned to America; and it was left in control of the Japanese Unitarian
+Association, the American Association continuing to give it generous
+financial aid and counsel.
+
+As already indicated, the purpose of the mission has not been Unitarian
+propagandism as such. It has been that of religious enlightenment, the
+bringing to the Japanese, in a catholic and humanitarian spirit, of the
+body of religious truths and convictions known as Unitarianism, and then
+permitting them to organize themselves after the manner of their own
+national life. No churches were organized by the representatives of the
+American Unitarian Association. Those that have come into existence have
+been wholly at the initiative of the natives. Early in 1894 was erected, in
+Tokio, Yuiitsukwan, or Unity Hall, with money furnished largely from the
+United States. This building serves as the headquarters for Unitarian work,
+including lectures and social and religious meetings. In 1896 was organized
+the Japanese Unitarian Association for the work of diffusing Unitarian
+principles throughout the country. The mission is organized into the three
+departments of church extension, publication, and education. Of this
+Association, Jitsunen Saji, formerly a prominent Buddhist lecturer and a
+member at present of the city council of Tokyo, is the superintendent. The
+secretary has been Saichiro Kanda, who has faithfully given his time to
+this work since he returned to Japan with the mission party, in 1889. The
+broad purposes of the Japanese Unitarian Association have been clearly
+defined in its constitution: "We desire to act in accordance with God's
+will, which we perceive by our inborn reason. We strive to follow the
+guidance of noble religion, exact science and philosophy, and to discover
+their truth. We believe it to be a natural law of the human mind to
+investigate freely all phenomena of the universe. We aim to maintain the
+peace of the world, and to promote the happiness of mankind. We endeavor to
+assert our rights, and to fulfil our duties as Japanese citizens; and to
+increase the prosperity of the country by all honorable means."
+
+Early in 1891 was begun the publication in Japanese of a magazine called at
+first The Unitarian, but afterwards Religion. The paid circulation was
+about 1,000 copies, but it was largely used as a tract for free
+distribution. In 1897 this magazine was merged into a popular religious
+monthly called Rikugo-Zasshi or Cosmos, which has a large circulation. It
+is published at the headquarters of the Japanese Unitarian Association, and
+is the organ of the liberalizing work carried on by that institution. The
+Association has translated thirty or forty American and English
+tracts,--some have been added by native writers; and these were distributed
+to the number of 100,000 in 1900. A number of important liberal books,
+including Bixby's Crisis in Morals, Clarke's Steps in Belief, and Fiske's
+Idea of God, have been translated into Japanese, and obtain a ready sale.
+An extensive work of education, is carried on through the press, nearly all
+the leading journals having been freely open to the Unitarians since the
+beginning of the mission.
+
+The direct work of education has been the most important of all the phases
+of the mission's activities. A library of several thousand volumes,
+representing all phases of modern thought, has been collected in Unity
+Hall; and it is of great value to the teaching carried on there. Lectures
+are given every Sunday in Unity Hall, and listened to by large audiences.
+Much has been done in various parts of Tokyo, as well as elsewhere, to
+reach the student class, and educated persons in all classes of society;
+and many persons have thus been brought to an acceptance of Unitarianism.
+In 1890 were begun systematic courses of lectures, with a view to giving
+educated Japanese inquirers a thorough knowledge of modern religious ideas;
+and these grew into the Senshin Gakuin, or School of Advanced Learning, a
+theological school with seven professors, and an annual attendance of
+thirty or forty students, nearly all of whom have been graduates of
+colleges and universities. Unhappily, the failure of financial support
+compelled the abandonment of this school in 1898. The chief educational
+work, however, has been done in the colleges and universities, through the
+general diffusion of liberal religious principles, and by the free spirit
+of inquiry characteristic of all educated Japanese.
+
+The success of the Japanese mission is chiefly due to Rev. Clay MacCauley,
+who gave it the wise direction and the organizing skill necessary to its
+permanent growth. It is a noble monument to his devotion, and to his
+untiring efforts for its advancement. His little book on Christianity in
+History is very popular, both in its English and Japanese versions; and
+thousands of copies are annually distributed.
+
+The results of the Japanese mission are especially evident in a general
+liberalizing of religious thought throughout the country in both the
+Buddhist and Christian communions, and in the wide-spread approval shown
+towards its methods and principles among the upper and student classes. Its
+chief gain, however, consists of the scholarly and influential men who have
+accepted the Unitarian faith, and given it their zealous support. Among
+these men are the late Hajime Onishi, president of the College of
+Literature in the new Imperial University at Kyoto; Nobuta Kishimoto,
+professor of ethics in the Imperial Normal School; Tomoyoshi Murai,
+professor of English in the Foreign Languages School of Japan; Iso Abe,
+professor in the Doshisha University; Kinza Hirai, professor in the
+Imperial Normal School; Yoshiwo Ogasawara, who is leading an extensive work
+of social and moral reform in Wakayama; Saburo Shimada, proprietor of the
+Mainichi, one of the largest daily newspapers of the empire; and Zennosuki
+Toyosaki, professor in the Kokumin Eigakukwai, and associate editor of the
+Rikugo Zasshi.[6] These men are educating the Japanese people to know
+Christianity in its rational forms; and their influence is being rapidly
+extended throughout the country. In their hands the future of liberal
+religion in Japan is safe; and what they do for their own people is more
+certain of permanent results than anything that can be accomplished by
+foreigners. The real significance of the Japanese Unitarian mission is that
+it has inaugurated a new era in religious propagandism; that it has been
+for the followers of the religions traditional to Japan, as well as for
+those of the Christian missions, eminently a means for presenting them with
+the world's most advanced thought in religion, and that it has been a
+stimulus to a purer faith and a larger fellowship.
+
+[1] First Report of the Executive Committee of the American Unitarian
+    Association, 16. "The thoughts of the committee have been turned to
+    their brethren in other lands. A correspondence has been opened with
+    Unitarians in England, and the coincidence is worthy of notice, that
+    the British and Foreign Unitarian Association, and the American
+    Unitarian Association were organized on the same day, for the same
+    objects, and without the least previous concert. Our good wishes have
+    been reciprocated by the directors of the British Society. Letters
+    received from gentlemen who have recently visited England speak of
+    the interest which our brethren in that country feel for us, and of
+    their desire to strengthen the bonds of union. A constant
+    communication will be preserved between the two Associations and your
+    committee believe it will have a beneficial effect, by making us
+    better acquainted with one another, by introducing the publications
+    of each country into the other, by the influence which we shall
+    mutually exert, and by the strength which will be given to our
+    separate, or it may be, to our united efforts for the spread of the
+    glorious gospel of our Lord and Saviour."
+
+[2] Correspondence relative to the Prospects of Christianity and the
+    Means of Promoting its Reception in India. Cambridge: Billiard &
+    Metcalfe. 1824. 138 pp.
+
+[3] Christian Examiner, LXIII 36, India's Appeal to Christian Unitarians,
+    by Rev. C.T. Brooks.
+
+[4] Some Gospel Principles, in Ten Lectures, by C.H.A. Dall, Calcutta,
+    1856. Also see The Mission to India instituted by the American
+    Unitarian Association. Boston: Office of the Quarterly Journal.
+    1857.
+
+[5] See Out Indian Mission and Our First Missionary, by Rev. John H.
+    Heywood, Boston, 1887.
+
+[6] The Unitarian Movement in Japan: Sketches of the Lives and Religious
+    Work of Ten Representative Japanese. Tokyo, 1900.
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+
+THE MEADVILLE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL.
+
+In a few years after the movement began for the organization of churches
+west of the Hudson River, the needs of theological instruction for
+residents of that region were being discussed. In 1827 the younger Henry
+Ware was interested in a plan of uniting Unitarians and "the Christian
+connection" in the establishment of a theological school, to be located in
+the eastern part of the state of New York. In July of that year he wrote to
+a friend: "We have had; no little talk here within a few days respecting a
+new theological school. Many of us think favorably of the plan, and are
+disposed to patronize it, if feasible, but are a little fearful that it is
+not. Others start strong objections to it _in toto_. Something must be done
+to gain us an increase of ministers."[1] This proposition came from the
+Christians, and their plan was to locate the school on the Hudson.
+
+Although this project came to nothing for the time being, it was revived a
+decade later. When the Unitarian Association had entered upon its active
+missionary efforts west of the Alleghanies, the new impulse to
+denominational life manifested itself in a wide-spread desire for an
+increase in the number of workers available for the western field. The
+establishment of a liberal theological school in that region was felt to be
+almost a necessity, if the opportunities everywhere opening there for the
+dissemination of a purer faith were not to be neglected. Plans were
+therefore formed about 1836 for the founding of a theological school at
+Buffalo under the direction of Rev. George W. Hosmer, then the minister in
+that city; but, business becoming greatly depressed the following year, the
+project was abandoned. In 1840 the importance of such a school was again
+causing the western workers to plan for its establishment, this time in
+Cincinnati or Louisville; but this expectation also failed of realization.
+Then Rev. William G. Eliot, of St. Louis, undertook to provide a
+theological education for such young men as might apply to him. But the
+response to his offer was so slight as to indicate that there was little
+demand for such instruction.
+
+[Sidenote: The Beginnings in Meadville.]
+
+The demand for a school had steadily grown since the year 1827, and the fit
+occasion only was awaited for its establishment. It was found at Meadville,
+Penn., in the autumn of 1844. In order to understand why it should have
+been founded in this country village instead of one of the growing and
+prosperous cities of the west, it is necessary to give a brief account of
+the origin and growth of the Meadville church. The first Unitarian church
+organized west of the Alleghanies was that in Meadville, and it had its
+origin in the religious experiences of one man. The founder of this church,
+Harm Jan Huidekoper, was born in the district of Drenthe, Holland, at the
+village of Hogeveen, in 1776. At the age of twenty he came to the United
+States; and in 1804 he became the agent of the Holland Land Company in the
+north-western counties of Pennsylvania, and established himself at
+Meadville, then a small village. He was successful in his land operations,
+and was largely influential in the development of that part of the state.
+When his children were of an age to need religious instruction, he began to
+study the Bible with a view to deciding what he could conscientiously teach
+them. He had become a member of the Reformed Church in his native land, and
+he had attended the Presbyterian church in Meadville; but he now desired to
+form convictions based on his own inquiries. "When I had become a father,"
+he wrote, "and saw the time approaching when I should have to give
+religious instruction to my children, I felt it to be my duty to give this
+subject a thorough examination. I accordingly commenced studying the
+Scriptures, as being the only safe rule of the Christian's faith; and the
+result was, that I soon acquired clear, and definite views as to the
+leading doctrines of the Christian religion. But the good I derived from
+these studies has not been confined to giving me clear ideas as to the
+Christian doctrines. They created in me a strong and constantly increasing
+interest in religion itself, not as mere theory, but as a practical rule of
+life."[2] As the result of this study, he arrived at the conclusion that
+the Bible does not teach the doctrines of the Trinity, the total depravity
+of man, and the vicarious atonement of Christ. Solely from the careful
+reading of the Bible with reference to each of the leading doctrines he had
+been taught, he became a Unitarian.
+
+With the zeal of a new convert Mr. Huidekoper began to talk about his new
+faith, and he brought it to the attention of others with the enthusiasm of
+a propagandist. In conversation, by means of the distribution of tracts,
+and with the aid of the press he extended the liberal faith. He could not
+send his children to the church he had attended, and he therefore secured
+tutors for them from Harvard College who were preparing for the ministry;
+and in October, 1825, one of these tutors began holding Unitarian services
+in Meadville.[3] In May, 1829, a church was organized, and a goodly
+number of thoughtful men and women connected themselves with it. But this
+movement met with persistent opposition, and a vigorous controversy was
+carried on in the local papers and by means of pamphlets. This was
+increased when, in 1830, Ephraim Peabody, afterwards settled in Cincinnati,
+New Bedford, and at King's Chapel in Boston, became the minister, and
+entered upon an active effort for the extension of Unitarianism. With the
+first of January, 1831, he began the publication of the Unitarian Essayist,
+a small monthly pamphlet, in which the leading theological questions were
+discussed. In a few months Mr. Peabody went to Cincinnati; and the Essayist
+was continued by Mr. Huidekoper, who wrote with vigor and directness on the
+subjects he had carefully studied.
+
+In 1831 the church for the first time secured an ordained minister, and
+three years later one who gave his whole time to its service.[4] A church
+building was erected in 1836, and the prosperity of the congregation was
+thereby much increased. In 1843 a minister of the Christian connection,
+Rev. E.G. Holland, became the pastor for a brief period. At this time
+Frederic Huidekoper, a son of the founder of the Unitarian church in
+Meadville, had returned from his studies in the Harvard Divinity School and
+in Europe, and was ordained in Meadville, October 12, 1843. It was his
+purpose to become a Unitarian evangelist in the region about Meadville, but
+his attention was soon directed by Rev. George W. Hosmer to the importance
+of furnishing theological instruction to young men preparing for the
+Unitarian ministry. He was encouraged in this undertaking by Mr. Holland,
+who pointed out to him the large patronage that might be expected from the
+Christian body. It was at first intended that Mr. Huidekoper should give
+the principal instruction, and that he should be assisted by the pastor of
+the Independent Congregational Church (Unitarian) and by Mr. Hosmer, who
+was to come from Buffalo for a few weeks each year, exchanging pulpits with
+the Meadville minister. When the opening of the school was fixed for the
+autumn of 1844, the prospective number of applicants was so large as to
+necessitate a modification of the proposed plan; and it was deemed wise to
+secure a competent person to preside over the school and to become the
+minister of the church. Through the active co-operation of the American
+Unitarian Association, Rev. Rufus P. Stebbins, then settled at Leominster,
+Mass., was secured for this double service.
+
+The students present at the opening of the school on the first day of
+October, 1844, were but five; but this number was increased to nine during
+the year. The next year the number was twenty-three, nine of them from New
+England. For several years the Christian connection furnished a
+considerable proportion of the students, and took a lively interest in the
+establishment and growth of the school, although contributing little or
+nothing to its pecuniary support. It was also represented on the board of
+instruction by a non-resident lecturer. At this time the Christian body had
+no theological school of its own, and many of its members even looked with
+disfavor upon all ministerial education. What brought them into some degree
+of sympathy with Unitarians of that day was their rejection of binding
+creeds and their acceptance of Christian character as the only test of
+Christian fellowship, together with their recognition of the Bible,
+interpreted by every man for himself, as the authoritative standard of
+religious truth. The churches of this denomination in the northern states
+were also pronounced in their rejection of the doctrines of the Trinity and
+predestination. Unitarians themselves have not been more strenuous in the
+defence of the principle of religious liberty than were the leaders among
+the Christians of the last generation. The two bodies also joined in the
+management of Antioch College, in southern Ohio; and when Horace Mann
+became its president in 1852, he was made a minister of the Christian
+connection, in order that he might work more effectually in the promotion
+of its interests.
+
+The Meadville school began its work in a simple way, with few instructors
+and a limited course of study. Mr. Stebbins taught the Old Testament,
+Hebrew, Biblical antiquities, natural and revealed religion, mental and
+moral philosophy, systematic theology, and pulpit eloquence. Mr. Huidekoper
+gave instruction in the New Testament, hermeneutics, ecclesiastical
+history, Latin, Greek, and German. Mr. Hosmer lectured on pastoral care for
+a brief period during each year. A building for the school was provided by
+the generosity of the elder Huidekoper; and the expenses of board,
+instruction, rent, fuel, etc., were reduced to $30 per annum. Many of the
+students had received little education, and they needed a preliminary
+training in the most primary studies. Nevertheless, the school at once
+justified its establishment, and sent out many capable men, even from among
+those who came to it with the least preparation.
+
+Dr. Stebbins was president of the school for ten years. During his term of
+service the school was incorporated by the legislature of Pennsylvania in
+the spring of 1846. The charter was carefully drawn with a view to securing
+freedom in its administration. No denominational name appeared in the act
+of incorporation, and the original board of trustees included Christians as
+well as Unitarians. Dr. Stebbins was an admirable man to whom to intrust
+the organization of the school, for he was a born teacher and a masterful
+administrator. He was prompt, decisive, a great worker, a powerful
+preacher, an inspirer of others, and his students warmly admired and
+praised him.
+
+[Sidenote: The Growth of the School.]
+
+The next president of the school was Oliver Stearns, who held the office
+from 1856 to 1863. He was a student, a true and just thinker, of great
+moral earnestness, fine discrimination, and with a gift for academic
+organization. He was a man of a strong and deep personality, and his
+spiritual influence was profound. He had been settled at Northampton and
+over the third parish in Hingham before entering upon his work at
+Meadville. In 1863 he went to the Harvard Divinity School as the professor
+of pulpit eloquence and pastoral care until 1869, when he became the
+professor of theology; and from 1870 to 1878 he was the dean of the school.
+He was a preacher who "held and deserved a reputation among the foremost,"
+for his preaching was "pre-eminently spiritual." "In his relations to the
+divinity schools that enjoyed his services, it is impossible to
+over-estimate the extent, accuracy, and thoroughness of his scholarship,
+and his unwearying devotion to his work."[5]
+
+During Dr. Stearns' administration the small building originally occupied
+by the school was outgrown; and Divinity Hall was built on land east of the
+town, donated by Professor Frederic Huidekoper, and first occupied in 1861.
+In 1857 began a movement to elevate, the standard of admission to the
+school, in order that its work might be of a more advanced character. To
+meet the needs of those not able to accept this higher standard, a
+preparatory department was established in 1858, which was continued until
+1867.
+
+Rev. Abiel A. Livermore became the president of the school in 1863, and he
+remained in that position until 1890. He had been settled in Keene,
+Cincinnati, and Yonkers before going to Meadville. He was a Christian of
+the finest type, a true gentleman, and a noble friend. Under his direction
+the school grew in all directions, the course of study being largely
+enriched by the addition of new departments. In 1863 church polity and
+administration, including a study of the sects of Christendom, was made a
+special department. In 1868 the school opened its doors to women, and it
+has received about thirty women for a longer or shorter term of study. In
+1872 the academic degree of Bachelor of Divinity was offered for the first
+time to those completing the full course. In 1879 the philosophy of
+religion, and also the comparative study of religions, received the
+recognition they deserve. The same year ecclesiastical jurisprudence became
+a special department. In 1882 Rev. E.E. Hale lectured on charities, and
+from that time this subject has been systematically treated in connection
+with philanthropies. A movement was begun in 1889 to endow a professorship
+in memory of Dr. James Freeman Clarke, which was successful. These
+successive steps indicate the progress made under the faithful
+administration of Dr. Livermore. He became widely known to Unitarians by
+his commentaries on the books of the New Testament, as well as by his other
+writings, including volumes of sermons and lectures.
+
+In 1890 George L. Cary, who had been for many years the professor of New
+Testament literature, became the president of the school, a position he
+held for ten years. Under his leadership the school has largely advanced
+its standard of scholarship, outgrown studies have been discarded, while
+new ones have been added. New professorships and lectureships have been
+established, and the endowment of the school has been greatly increased.
+Huidekoper Hall, for the use of the library, was erected in 1890, and other
+important improvements have been added to the equipment of the school. In
+1892 the Adin Ballou lectureship of practical Christian sociology was
+established, and in 1895 the Hackley professorship of sociology and ethics.
+
+From the time of its establishment the Huidekoper family have been devoted
+friends and benefactors of the Theological School.[6] Frederic Huidekoper
+occupied the chair of New Testament literature from 1844 to 1855, and from
+1863 to 1877 that of ecclesiastical history. His services were given wholly
+without remuneration, and his benefactions to the school were numerous. He
+also added largely to the Brookes Fund for the distribution of Unitarian
+books. His historical writings made him widely known to scholars, and added
+to the reputation of the school. His Belief of the First Three Centuries
+concerning Christ's Mission to the Underworld appeared in 1853; Judaism at
+Rome, 1876; and Indirect Testimony of History to the Genuineness of the
+Gospels, 1879. He also republished at his own expense many valuable works
+that were out of print.
+
+Among the other professors have been Rev. Nathanial S. Folsom, who was in
+charge of the department of Biblical literature from 1848 to 1861. Of the
+regular lecturers have been Rev. Charles H. Brigham, Rev. Amory D. Mayo,
+and Dr. Thomas Hill. There has been an intimate relation between the
+Meadville church and the Theological School, and several of the pastors
+have been instructors and lecturers in the Theological School, including
+Rev. J.C. Zachos, Rev. James T. Bixby, and Rev. James M. Whiton. The
+Christian denomination has been represented among the lecturers by Rev.
+David Millard and Rev. Austin Craig.
+
+The whole number of graduates of the Meadville Theological School up to
+April, 1902, has been 267; and eighty other students have entered the
+ministry. At the present time 156 of its students are on the roll of
+Unitarian ministers. Thirty-two of its students served in the civil war,
+twenty per cent of its graduates previous to the close of the war being
+engaged in it as privates, chaplains, or in some other capacity. The
+endowment of the school has steadily increased until it now is somewhat
+more than $600,000.
+
+[1] Memoir of Henry Ware, Jr. 202.
+
+[2] J.F. Clarke, Christian Examiner, September, 1854, LVII. 310. "Mr.
+    Huidekoper had the satisfaction, in the later years of his life, of
+    seeing a respectable society worshipping in the tasteful building
+    which he loved and of witnessing the prosperity of the theological
+    school in which he was so much interested. We have never known any
+    one who seemed to live so habitually in the presence of God. The form
+    which his piety mostly took was that of gratitude and reliance. His
+    trust in the Divine goodness was like that of a child in its mother.
+    His cheerful views, of this life and of the other, his simple tastes,
+    his enjoyment of nature, his happiness in society, his love for
+    children, his pleasure in doing good, his tender affection for those
+    nearest to him,--these threw a warm light around his last days and
+    gave his home the aspect of a perpetual Sabbath. A well-balanced
+    activity of faculties contributed still more to his usefulness and
+    happiness. He was always a student, occupying every vacant hour with
+    a book, and so had attained a surprising knowledge of biography and
+    history." Mr. Huidekoper died in Meadville, May 22, 1854.
+
+[3] John M. Merrick, afterwards settled in Hardwick and Walpole, Mass.,
+    who was in Mr. Huidekoper's family from October, 1825, to October,
+    1827. He was succeeded by Andrew P. Peabody, who did not preach. In
+    1828-30 Washington Gilbert, who had settlements in Harvard, Lincoln,
+    and West Newton, was the tutor and preacher.
+
+[4] Rev. George Nichols, July, 1831, to July, 1832; Rev. Alanson Brigham,
+    who died in Meadville, August 24, 1833; Rev. John Quincy Day,
+    October, 1834, to September, 1837.
+
+[5] A.P. Peabody, Harvard Reminiscences, 165, 166
+
+[6] The first treasurer of the school was Edgar Huidekoper, who was
+    succeeded by Professor F. Huidekoper, and he in turn by Edgar
+    Huidekoper, the son of the first treasurer. Among the other generous
+    friends and benefactors of the school have been Alfred Huidekoper,
+    Miss Elizabeth Huidekoper, and Mrs. Henry P. Kidder.
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+
+
+UNITARIAN PHILANTHROPIES.
+
+The liberal movement in religion was characterized in its early period by
+its humanitarianism. As theology grew less important for it, there was an
+increase in its philanthropy. With the waning of the sectarian spirit there
+was a growth in desire for practical reforms. The awakened interest in man
+and enlarged faith in his spiritual capacities showed itself in efforts to
+improve his social condition. No one expressed this tendency more perfectly
+than Dr. Channing, though he was a spiritual teacher rather than a reformer
+or philanthropist.
+
+Any statement concerning the charities in connection with which Channing
+was active will give the most inadequate idea of his actual influence in
+this direction. He was greatly interested in promoting the circulation of
+the Bible, in aiding the cause of temperance, and in bringing freedom to
+the slave. His biographer says that his thoughts were continually becoming
+concentrated more and more upon the terrible problem of pauperism, "and he
+saw more clearly each year that what the times demanded was that the axe
+should be laid at the very root of ignorance, temptation and strife by
+substituting for the present unjust and unequal distribution of the
+privileges of life some system of cordial, respectful brotherly
+co-operation."[1] His interest in education was most comprehensive, and
+he sought its advancement in all directions with the confident faith that
+it would help to uplift all classes and make them more truly human.[2]
+
+[Sidenote: Unitarian Charities.]
+
+The liberals of New England, in the early years of the nineteenth century,
+were not mere theorizers in regard to human helpfulness and the application
+of Christianity to life; for they endeavored to realize the spirit of
+charity and service. Largely under their leadership the Massachusetts Bible
+Society was organized in 1809. A more distinctly charitable undertaking was
+the Fragment Society, organized in 1812 to help the poor by the
+distribution of garments, the lending of bedding to the sick and clothes to
+children in charity schools, as well as the providing of such children with
+shoes. This society also undertook to provide Bibles for the poor who had
+none. Under the leadership of Rev. Joseph Tuckerman, then settled in
+Chelsea, there was organized, May 11, 1812, the Boston Society for the
+Religious and Moral Improvement of Seamen, "to distribute tracts of a
+religious and moral kind for the use of seamen, and to establish a regular
+divine service on board of our merchant vessels." In 1813 the Massachusetts
+Society for the Suppression of Intemperance, in 1815 the Massachusetts
+Peace Society, and at about the same time the Society for the Employment of
+the Poor came into existence.
+
+Of the early Unitarians Rev. Octavius B. Frothingham justly said: "They all
+had a genuine desire to render the earthly lot of mankind tolerable. It is
+not too much to say that they started every one of our best secular
+charities. The town of Boston had a poor-house, and nothing more until the
+Unitarians initiated humane institutions for the helpless, the blind, the
+insane. The Massachusetts General Hospital (1811), the McLean Asylum for
+the Insane (1818), the Perkins Blind Asylum (1832), the Female Orphan
+Asylum (1800), were of their devising."[3] What this work meant was well
+stated by Dr. Andrew P. Peabody, when he said there was "probably no city
+in the world where there had been more ample provision for the poor than in
+Boston, whether by private alms-giving, benevolent organizations, or public
+institutions."[4] Nor was this altruistic spirit manifested alone in
+Boston, for Mr. Frothingham quotes the saying of a lady to Dr. E.E. Hale:
+"A Unitarian church to you merely means one more name on your calendar. To
+the people in this town it means better books, better music, better
+sewerage, better health, better life, less drunkenness, more purity, and
+better government."[5] The Unitarian conception of the relations of
+altruism and religion was pertinently stated by Dr. J.T. Kirkland,
+president of Harvard College during the early years of the nineteenth
+century, when he said that "we have as much piety as charity, and no
+more."[6] One who knew intimately of the work of the ministry at large
+has truly said of the labors of Dr. Tuckerman: "From the beginning he had
+the moral and pecuniary support of the leaders of life in Boston; her first
+merchants and her statesmen were watching these experiments with a curious
+interest, and although he was often so radical as to startle the most
+conservative notions of men engaged in trade, or learned in the
+old-fashioned science of government, there was that in the persistence of
+his life and the accuracy of his method which engaged their support."[7]
+
+Another instance of Unitarian philanthropy is to be found in the support
+given to Rev. Edward T. Taylor, usually known as "Father Taylor," in his
+work for sailors. When he went to Boston in 1829 to begin his mission, the
+first person he visited was Dr. Channing, and the second Ralph Waldo
+Emerson, then a settled pastor in the city. Both of these men made generous
+contributions to his mission, and aided him in securing the attention of
+wealthy contributors.[8] In fact, his Bethel was almost wholly supported
+by Unitarians. For thirty years Mr. Albert Fearing was the president of the
+Boston Port Society, organized for the support of Taylor's Seamen's Bethel.
+The corresponding secretary was Mr. Henry Parker. Among other Unitarian
+supporters of this work was Hon. John A. Andrew.[9]
+
+We have no right to assume that the Unitarians alone were philanthropic,
+but they had the wealth and the social position to make their efforts in
+this direction thoroughly effective.[10] That the results were beneficent
+may be understood from the testimony of Mrs. Horace Mann. "The liberal
+sects of Boston," she wrote to a friend, "quite carried the day at that
+time in works of benevolence and Christian charity. They took care of the
+needy without regard to sectarianism. Such women as Helen Loring and
+Elizabeth Howard, (Mrs. Cyrus A. Bartol), Dorothea Dix, Mary Pritchard
+(Mrs. Henry Ware), and many others less known to the world, but equally
+devoted to the work, with many youthful coadjutors, took care of the poor
+wonderfully."[11] After spending several weeks in Boston in 1842, and
+giving careful attention to the charities and philanthropies of the city,
+Charles Dickens wrote: "I sincerely believe that the public institutions
+and charities of this capital of Massachusetts are as nearly perfect as the
+most considerate wisdom, benevolence, humanity, can make them. I never in
+my life was more affected by the contemplation of happiness, under
+circumstances of privation and bereavement, than in my visits to these
+establishments."[12]
+
+[Sidenote: Education of the Blind.]
+
+The pioneer in the work of educating the blind and the deaf was Dr. Samuel
+G. Howe, who had been one of those who in 1824 went to Greece to aid in the
+establishment of Greek independence. On his return, in 1832, he became
+acquainted with European methods of teaching the blind; and in that year he
+opened the Massachusetts School and Asylum for the Blind, "the pioneer of
+such establishments in America, and the most illustrious of its class in
+the world."[13] In his father's house in Pleasant Street, Dr. Howe began
+his school with a few pupils, prepared books for them, and then set about
+raising money to secure larger facilities. Colonel Thomas H. Perkins, of
+Boston, gave his house in Pearl Street, valued at $50,000, on condition
+that a like sum should be contributed for the maintenance of the school. In
+six weeks the desired sum was secured, and the school was, afterwards known
+as the Perkins Institution for the Blind. Dr. Howe addressed seventeen
+state legislatures on the education of the blind, with the result of
+establishing schools similar to his own. His arduous task, however, was
+that of providing the blind with books; and he used his great inventive
+skill in perfecting the necessary methods. He succeeded in making it
+comparatively easy to print books for the blind, and therefore made it
+possible to have a library of such works.
+
+In the autumn of 1837 Dr. Howe discovered Laura Bridgman, who had only the
+one sense of touch remaining in a normal condition; and his remarkable
+success, in her education made him famous. In connection with her and other
+pupils he began the process of teaching the deaf to use articulate speech,
+and all who have followed him in this work have but extended and perfected
+his methods. While teaching the blind and deaf, Dr. Howe found those who
+were idiotic; and he began to study this class of persons about 1840, and
+to devise methods for their education. As a member of the Massachusetts
+legislature in 1846, he secured the appointment of a commission to
+investigate the condition of the idiotic; and for this commission he wrote
+the report. In 1847, the state having made an appropriation for the
+teaching of idiotic, children, ten of them were taught at the Blind Asylum,
+under the care of Dr. Howe. In 1851 a separate school was provided for such
+children.
+
+Dr. Howe was called "the Massachusetts philanthropist," but his
+philanthropy was universal in its humanitarian aims. He gave large and
+faithful attention, in 1845 and later, to prisons and prisoners; he was a
+zealous friend of the slave and the freedman; and in 1864 he devoted
+arduous service to the reform of the state charities of Massachusetts. His
+biographer justly says of his spirit of universal philanthropy: "He joined
+in the movement in Boston which abolished imprisonment for debt; he was an
+early and active member of the Boston Prison Discipline Society, which once
+did much service; and for years, when interest in prison reform was at a
+low ebb in Massachusetts, the one forlorn relict of that once powerful
+organization, a Prisoner's Aid Society, used to hold its meetings in Dr.
+Howe's spacious chamber in Bromfield Street. He took an early interest in
+the care of the insane, with which his friends Horace Mann, Dr. Edward
+Jarvis, and Dorothea Dix were greatly occupied; and in later years he
+introduced some most useful methods of caring for the insane in
+Massachusetts. He favored the temperance reform, and wrote much as a
+physician on the harm done to individuals and to the human stock by the use
+of alcoholic liquors. He stood with Father Taylor of the Seamen's Bethel in
+Boston for the salvation of the sailors and their protection from cruel
+punishments, and he was one of those who almost abolished the flogging of
+children in schools. During his whole career as a reformer of public
+schools in New England, Horace Mann had no friend more intimate or helpful
+than Dr. Howe, nor one whose support was more indispensable to Mann
+himself."[14]
+
+Dr. Howe was an attendant upon the preaching of Theodore Parker, and was
+his intimate friend. In after years he was a member of the congregation of
+James Freeman Clarke at the Church of the Disciples. "After our return to
+America," says Mrs. Howe of the year 1844, "my husband went often to the
+Melodeon, where Parker preached until he took possession of the Music Hall.
+The interest which my husband showed in these services led me in time to
+attend them, and I remember as among the great opportunities of my life the
+years in which I listened to Theodore Parker."[15]
+
+[Sidenote: Care of the Insane.]
+
+Another among the many persons who came under the influence of Dr. Channing
+was Dorothea Dix, who, as a teacher of his children, lived for many months
+in his family and enjoyed his intimate friendship. Her biographer says:
+"She had drunk in with passionate faith Dr. Channing's fervid insistence on
+the presence in human nature, even under its most degraded types, of germs,
+at least, of endless spiritual development. But it was the characteristic
+of her own mind that it tended not to protracted speculation, but to
+immediate, embodied action."[16] Her work for the insane was the
+expression of the deep faith in humanity she had been taught by Channing.
+
+When she entered upon her humanitarian efforts, but few hospitals for the
+insane existed in the country. A notable exception was the McLean Asylum at
+Somerville, which had been built as the result of that same philanthropic
+spirit that had led the Unitarians to establish the many charities already
+mentioned in these pages. In March, 1841, Miss Dix visited the House of
+Correction in East Cambridge; and for the wretched condition of the
+inmates, she at once set to work to provide remedies. Then she visited the
+jails and alms-houses in many parts of the state, and presented a memorial
+to the legislature recounting what she had found and asking for reforms.
+She was met by bitter opposition; but such persons as Samuel G. Howe, Dr.
+Channing, Horace Mann, and John G. Palfrey came to her aid. The bill
+providing for relief to the insane came into the hands of a committee of
+which Dr. Howe was the chairman, and he energetically pushed it forward to
+enactment. Thus Miss Dix began her crusade against an enormous evil.
+
+In 1845 Miss Dix reported that in three years she had travelled ten
+thousand miles, visited eighteen state penitentiaries, three hundred jails
+and houses of correction, and five hundred almshouses and other
+institutions, secured the establishment or enlargement of six hospitals for
+the insane, several county poorhouses, and several jails on a reformed
+plan. She visited every state east of the Rocky Mountains, and also the
+British Provinces, to secure legislation in behalf of the insane. She
+secured the erection of hospitals or other reformatory action in Rhode
+Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee,
+Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina, Nova Scotia, and
+Newfoundland. Her labors also secured the establishment of a hospital for
+the insane of the army and navy, near Washington. All this was the work of
+nine years.
+
+In 1853 Miss Dix gave her attention to providing an adequate life-saving
+equipment for Sable Island, one of we most dangerous places to seamen on
+the Atlantic coast; and this became the means of saving many lives. In 1854
+she went to England for needed rest; but almost at once she took up her
+humanitarian work, this time in Scotland, where she secured a commission of
+inquiry, which in 1857 resulted in reformatory legislation on the part of
+Parliament. In 1855 she visited the island of Jersey, and secured great
+improvements in the care of the insane. Later in that year she visited
+Switzerland for rest, but in a few weeks was studying the charities of
+Paris and then those of Italy. In Rome she had two interviews with the
+pope, and the erection of a new hospital for the insane on modern
+principles resulted. Speaking only English, and without letters of
+introduction, she visited the insane hospitals and the prisons of Greece,
+Turkey, Austria, Sclavonia, Russia, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark,
+Holland, and Belgium. "Day by day she patiently explored the asylums,
+prisons, and poor-houses of every place in which she set her foot, glad to
+her heart's core when she found anything to commend and learn a lesson
+from, and patiently striving, where she struck the traces of ignorance,
+neglect, or wrong, to right the evil by direct appeal to the highest
+authorities."
+
+On her return home, in September, 1856, she was met by many urgent appeals
+for help in enlarging hospitals and erecting new ones; and she devoted her
+time until the outbreak of the civil war in work for the insane in the
+southern and middle north-western states. As soon as the troops were
+ordered to Washington, she went there and offered her services as a nurse,
+and was at once appointed superintendent of women nurses for the whole
+army. She carried through the tasks of this office with energy and
+devotion. In 1866 she secured the erection of a monument to the fallen
+soldiers in the National Cemetery, at Hampton.
+
+Then she returned at once to her work in asylums, poorhouses, and prisons,
+continuing this task until past her seventy-fifth year. "Her frequent
+visits to our institutions of the insane now, and her searching
+criticisms," wrote a leading alienist, "constitute of themselves a better
+lunacy commission than would be likely to be appointed in many of our
+states."[17] The last five years of her life were spent as a guest in the
+New Jersey State Asylum at Trenton, it being fit that one of the thirty-two
+hospitals she had been the means of erecting should afford her a home for
+her declining years.
+
+Miss Dix was called by many "our Lady," "our Patron Saint"; and well she
+deserved these expressions of reverence. President Fillmore said in a
+letter to her, "Wealth and power never reared such monuments to selfish
+pride as you have reared to the love of mankind." She had the unreserved
+consecration to the needs of the poor and suffering that caused her to
+write: "If I am cold, they are cold; if I am weary, they are distressed; if
+I am alone, they are abandoned."[18] Her biographer justly compares her
+with the greatest of the saints, and says, "Precisely the same
+characteristics marked her, the same absolute religious consecration, the
+same heroic readiness to trample under foot the pains of illness,
+loneliness, and opposition, the same intellectual grasp of what a great
+reformatory work demanded."[19] Truly was it said of her that she was "the
+most useful and distinguished woman America has produced."[20]
+
+[Sidenote: Child-saving Missions.]
+
+As was justly said by Professor Francis G. Peabody, "the Boston Children's
+Mission was the direct fruit of the ministry of Dr. Tuckerman, and
+antedates all other conspicuous undertakings of the same nature. The first
+president of the Children's Mission, John E. Williams, a Unitarian layman,
+moved later to New York, and became the first treasurer of the newly
+created Children's Aid Society of that city, formed in 1853. Thus the work
+of the Children's Mission and the kindred service of the Warren Street
+Chapel, under the leadership of Charles Barnard, must be reckoned as the
+most immediate, if not the only American antecedent, of the great modern
+works of child-saving charity."[21]
+
+The Children's Mission to the Children of the Destitute grew out of the
+work of the Howard Sunday-school, then connected with the Pitts Street
+Chapel. When several men connected with that school were discussing the
+fact that a great number of vagrant children were dealt with by the police,
+Fanny S. Merrill said to her father, Mr. George Merrill, "Father, can't we
+children do something to help those poor little ones?" This question
+suggested a new field of work; and a meeting was held on April 27, 1849,
+under the auspices of Rev. Robert C. Waterston, to consider this
+proposition. On May 9 the society was organized "to create a special
+mission to the poor, ignorant, neglected children of this city; to gather
+them into day and Sunday schools; to procure places and employment for
+them; and generally to adopt and pursue such measures as would be most
+likely to save or rescue them from vice, ignorance and degradation." In the
+beginning this mission was supported by the Unitarian Sunday-schools in
+Boston, but gradually the number of schools contributing to its maintenance
+was enlarged until it included nearly all of those connected with Unitarian
+churches in New England.
+
+As soon as the mission was organized, Rev. Joseph E. Barry was made the
+missionary; and he opened a Sunday-school in Utica Street. Beginning in
+1853, one or more women were employed to aid him in his work. In May, 1857,
+Rev. Edmund Squire began work as a missionary in Washington Village; but
+this mission was soon given into the hands of the Benevolent Fraternity. In
+June, 1858, Mr. B.H. Greene was engaged to visit the jail and lockup in aid
+of the young persons found there. In 1859 work was undertaken in East
+Boston, and also in South Boston. From this time onward from three to five
+persons were constantly employed as missionaries, in visiting throughout
+the city, persuading children to attend day-schools, sewing-schools, and
+Sunday-schools, securing employment for those old enough to labor, and in
+placing children in country homes. In April, 1857, Mr. Barry took a party
+of forty-eight children to Illinois; and five other parties followed to
+that state and to Michigan and Ohio. Since 1860 homes have been found in
+New England for all children sent outside the city.
+
+In November, 1858, a hall in Eliot Street was secured for the religious
+services of the mission, which included boys' classes, Sunday-school, and
+various organizations of a moral and intellectual character. In 1859 a
+house was rented in Camden Street especially for the care of the boys who
+came under the charge of the mission. In March, 1867, was completed the
+house on Tremont Street in which the work of the mission has, since been
+carried on. An additional building for very young children was provided in
+October, 1890. For years Mr. Barry continued his work as the missionary of
+this noble ministry to the children of the poor. Since 1877 Mr. William
+Crosby has been the efficient superintendent, having served for eighteen
+years previously as the treasurer. The mission has cared for more than five
+thousand children.
+
+[Sidenote: Care of the Poor.]
+
+It has been indicated already that much attention was given to the care of
+the poor and to the prevention of pauperism. It is safe to assume that
+every Unitarian minister was a worker in this direction. It is well to
+notice the efforts of one man, because his work led to the scientific
+methods of charitable relief which are employed in Boston at the present
+time. When Rev. Ephraim Peabody became the minister of King's Chapel, in
+1846, he turned his attention to the education of the poor and to the
+prevention of pauperism. In connection with Rev. Frederick T. Gray he
+opened a school for those adults whose education had been neglected.
+Especial attention was given to the elementary instruction of emigrant
+women. Many children and adults accepted the opportunity thus afforded, and
+a large school was maintained for several years.
+
+With the aid of Mr. Francis E. Parker another important work was undertaken
+by Mr. Peabody. Although Dr. Tuckerman had labored to prevent duplication
+of charitable gifts and to organize the philanthropies of Boston in an
+effective manner, with the increase of population the evils he strove to
+prevent had grown into large proportions. In order to prevent overlapping,
+imposition, and failure to provide for many who were really needy, but not
+eager to push their own claims, Mr. Peabody organized the Boston Provident
+Association in 1851. This society divided the city into small districts,
+and put each under the supervision of a person who was to examine every
+case that came before the society within the territory assigned him. The
+first president of this society was Hon. Samuel A. Eliot, who was a mayor
+of the city, a representative in the lower house of Congress, and an
+organizer of many philanthropies. This society was eminently successful in
+its operations, and did a great amount of good. Its friendly visits to the
+poor and its judicious methods of procuring the co-operation of many
+charity workers prepared the way for the introduction, in 1879, of the
+Associated Charities of Boston, which extended and effectively organized
+the work begun by Mr. Peabody.[22] Numerous other organizations might be
+mentioned that have been initiated by Unitarians or largely supported by
+them.[23]
+
+[Sidenote: Humane Treatment of Animals.]
+
+The work for the humane treatment of animals was begun, and has been
+largely carried on, by Unitarians. The founder of the American Society for
+the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was Henry Bergh, who was a member of
+All Souls' Church in New York, under the ministry of Dr. Bellows. In 1865
+he began his work in behalf of kindness to animals in New York City, and
+the society he organized was incorporated April 10, 1866. It was soon
+engaged in an extensive work. In 1873 Mr. Bergh proceeded to organize
+branch humane societies; and, as the result of his work, most of the states
+have legislated for the humane care of animals.
+
+A similar work of a Unitarian is that of Mr. George T. Angell in Boston,
+who in 1868 founded, and has since been the president of, the Massachusetts
+Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. In 1889 he became the
+president of the American Humane Education Society, a position he continues
+to hold. He is the editor of Our Dumb Animals, and has in many ways been
+active in the work of the great charity with which he has been connected.
+
+[Sidenote: Young Men's Christian Unions.]
+
+The initiative in the establishment of Christian unions for young men in
+cities, on a wholly unsectarian basis, was taken by a Unitarian. Mr. Caleb
+Davis Bradlee, a Harvard undergraduate, who was afterward a Boston pastor
+for many years, gathered together in the parlor of his father's house a
+company of young men, and proposed to them the formation of a society for
+mutual improvement. This was on September 17, 1851; and the organization
+then formed was called the Biblical Literature Society. Those who belonged
+to the society during the winter of 1851-52 were so much benefited by it
+that they decided to enlarge their plans and to extend their influence to a
+greater number. At the suggestion of Rev. Charles Brooks, minister of the
+Unitarian church in South Hingham, the name was changed to the Boston Young
+Men's Christian Union, the first meeting under the new form of organization
+being held March 15, 1852. On October 11 of the same year the society was
+incorporated, many of the leading men of the city having already given it
+their encouragement and support.[24]
+
+[Sidenote: Educational Work in the South.]
+
+After the close of the civil war there was a large demand for help in the
+South, especially amongst the negroes. Most of the aid given by Unitarians
+was through other than denominational channels; but something was done by
+the Unitarian Association as well as by other Unitarian organizations. Miss
+Amy Bradley, who had been a very successful worker for the Sanitary
+Commission, opened a school for the whites in Wilmington, N.C. Her work
+extended to all the schools of the city, and was eminently successful. She
+became the city and then the county superintendent of schools. She was
+supported by the Unitarian Association and the Soldiers' Memorial Society.
+Among the Unitarians who at that time engaged in the work of educating the
+negroes were Rev. Henry F. Edes in Georgia, Rev. James Thurston in North
+Carolina, Miss M. Louisa Shaw in Florida, Miss Bottume on Ladies' Island,
+and Miss Sally Holley and Miss Caroline F. Putnam in Virginia.
+
+In 1868 the Unitarian Association entered upon a systematic effort to aid
+the negroes through co-operation with the African Methodist Episcopal
+Church. The sum of $4,000 was in that year devoted to this work; and it was
+largely spent in educational efforts, especially in aid of college and
+theological students. Wilberforce University had the benefit of lectures
+from Dr. George W. Hosmer, president of Antioch College, and of Edward
+Orton, James K. Hosmer, and other professors in that institution. Libraries
+of about fifty volumes of carefully selected books, including elementary
+works of science, history, biography, and a few theological works, were
+given to ministers of that church who applied for them. This connection
+continued for several years, and was of much importance in the advancement
+of the South.
+
+With the first of January, 1886, the Unitarian Association established a
+bureau of information in regard to southern education, of which General
+J.B.F. Marshall, who had been for many years the treasurer of the Hampton
+Institute, was made the superintendent. This bureau, during its existence
+of three years, investigated the claims of various schools, and recommended
+those most deserving of aid.
+
+In 1891 Miss Mabel W. Dillingham and Miss Charlotte R. Thorn, who had been
+teachers for several years in the Hampton Institute, opened a school for
+negroes in Calhoun, Ala. Miss Dillingham died in 1894; and she was
+succeeded by her brother, Rev. Pitt Dillingham, as the principal of the
+school. The Calhoun School has been supported mostly by Unitarians, and it
+has been successful in doing a practical and important work.
+
+During the first eight years of the Tuskegee Institute it received $5,000
+annually from Unitarians, and in more recent years $10,000 annually. This
+has been given by individuals, churches, and other organizations, but in no
+sense as a denominational work. Concerning the aid given to the Hampton
+Institute this statement has been made by the principal: "The Unitarian
+denomination has had a very important part in the work of Hampton. Our
+first treasurer was General J.F.B. Marshall, a Unitarian who made it
+possible for General Armstrong first to gain access to Boston and secure
+friends there, many of whom have been lifelong contributors to this work.
+General Marshall came to Hampton in 1872, and for some twelve years took a
+most important part in building up this institution. He trained young men
+for the treasurer's office, who still hold important positions in the
+school, and others who have been sent to various institutions. The home of
+General and Mrs. Marshall here was of incalculable help in many ways,
+brightening and cheering the lives of our teachers and students. Unitarians
+have always had a prominent part in the support of Hampton. Mrs. Mary
+Hemenway was the largest donor to the Institute during her lifetime. She
+gave $10,000 for the purchase of our Hemenway Farm, and helped General
+Armstrong in many ways."[25]
+
+[Sidenote: Educational Work for the Indians.]
+
+At three different periods the Unitarian Association has undertaken
+educational work amongst the Indians. The first of these proved abortive,
+but is of much interest. James Tanner,[26] a half-breed Chippeway or
+Ojibway from Minnesota, appeared before the board of the Association,
+February 12, 1855, in behalf of his people. He had been a Baptist
+missionary to the Ojibways, but had found that he could accomplish little
+while the Indians continued their roving life and their wars with the
+Sioux. He therefore wished to have his people adopt a settled agricultural
+life. The Baptist Home Missionary Society, with which he was laboring,
+would not accede to his plans in this respect, and desired that he should
+confine himself to the preaching of the gospel. Unable to do this on
+account of his liberal views, he went to Boston with the hope that he might
+secure aid from the Baptists there. He was soon told that he was a
+Unitarian, and he sought a knowledge of those of that faith. He was thus
+led to apply to the Unitarian Association for help, which was granted. He
+secured an outfit of agricultural and other implements, and returned to his
+people in the spring of 1855. In December of that year Mr. Tanner attended
+a meeting of the board of the Association, accompanied by six Ojibway
+chiefs. On this unique occasion the calumet was smoked by all present, and
+addresses were made by the Indians. In April, 1856, the board reluctantly
+abandoned this enterprise, because the money for the yearly expenditure of
+$4,000, which it required, could not be secured.[27]
+
+In 1871 President Grant inaugurated the policy of educating the Indians
+under the direction of the several religious denominations of the country.
+To the Unitarians were assigned the Utes of Colorado. The reservation at
+White River was placed in charge of Mr. J.S. Littlefield, and that at Los
+Pinos of Rev. J. Nelson Trask. Several other persons took up this work,
+including Rev. Henry F. Bond and his wife. In 1885 the Utes were removed to
+a reservation in Utah. In the spring of 1886 Mr. Bond returned to them for
+the purpose of establishing a boarding-school amongst them; but, not
+getting sufficient encouragement, he went to Montana, where in the autumn
+he opened the Montana Industrial School, with eighteen pupils from the
+Crows in attendance. Buildings were erected, farm work begun, carpenter and
+blacksmith shops put in operation, all at a cost of $20,000. The school was
+located on the Big Horn River, thirty miles from Fort Custer.
+
+It was the object of the Montana Industrial School to remove the Indian
+children from their nomadic conditions and to give them a practical
+education, with so much of instruction in books as would be of real help to
+them. The boys were taught farm work and the use of tools, while the girls
+were trained in sewing, cooking, and other useful employments. At the same
+time there was constant training in cleanliness, good manners, and right
+living. The school was fairly successful; and the results would doubtless
+have been important, could the experiment have gone on for a longer period.
+In 1891 Mr. Bond withdrew from the school on account of his age, and it was
+placed in charge of Rev. A.A. Spencer. With the 1st of July, 1895, however,
+the care of the school was assumed by the national government.
+
+Extended as this chapter has become, it has failed to give anything like an
+exhaustive statement of the philanthropies of Unitarians. Their charitable
+activities have been constant and in many directions. This may be seen in
+the wide-reaching philanthropic interests of Dr. Edward Everett Hale, whose
+Lend-a-hand Clubs, King's Daughters societies, and kindred movements
+admirably illustrate the practical side of Unitarianism, its broad
+humanitarian spirit, its philanthropic and reformatory purpose, and its
+high ideal of Christian fidelity and service.
+
+[1] Memoir, III. 17; one-volume edition, 465.
+
+[2] Memoir, III. 61, 62; one-volume edition, 487, 488.
+
+[3] Boston Unitarianism, 127.
+
+[4] Harvard Graduates, 155.
+
+[5] Boston Unitarianism, 253.
+
+[6] Elizabeth P. Peabody, Reminiscences of Dr. W.E. Channing, 290.
+
+[7] Eber R. Butler, Lend a Hand, October, 1890, V. 681.
+
+[8] Elizabeth P. Peabody, Reminiscences of W.E. Channing, 273.
+
+[9] Gilbert Haven, Anecdotes of Rev. Edward T. Taylor, 114.
+
+[10] Ibid., 119.
+
+[11] Gilbert Haven, Anecdotes of Rev. Edward T. Taylor, 330.
+
+[12] American Notes, chap. iii.
+
+[13] Frank B. Sanborn, Biography of Dr. S.G. Howe, Philanthropist, 110.
+
+[14] Frank B. Sanborn, Biography of Dr. S.G. Howe, Philanthropist, 170.
+
+[15] Reminiscences, 161.
+
+[16] Francis Tiffany, Life of Dorothea Lynde Dix, 58.
+
+[17] Francis Tiffany, Life of Dorothea Lynde Dix, 355.
+
+[18] Ibid., 327.
+
+[19] Ibid., 290.
+
+[20] Ibid., 375.
+
+[21] Report of the National Conference, 1895, 205.
+
+[22] Sermons of Ephraim Peabody, introductory Memoir, xxv; Memorial
+     History of Boston, IV. 662, George S. Hale on the Charities of
+     Boston; A.P. Peabody, Harvard Graduates, 155.
+
+[23] Besides the Fragment Society, the Children's Mission, and the Boston
+     Provident Society, already mentioned and still vigorously at work,
+     several other societies are wholly supported by Unitarians. Of these
+     may be named the Howard Benevolent Society in the City of Boston,
+     organized in 1812, incorporated in 1818; Young Men's Benevolent
+     Society, organized in 1827, incorporated in 1852; Industrial Aid
+     Society for the Prevention of Pauperism, organized in 1835,
+     incorporated in 1884.
+
+[24] Alfred Manchester, Life of Caleb Davis Bradlee, 8; First Anniversary,
+     address before the Boston Young Men's Christian Union by Rev. F.D.
+     Huntington, Appendix.
+
+[25] Personal letter from Mr. H.B. Frissell.
+
+[26] Edwin James, A Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John
+     Tanner during Thirty Tears' Residence among the Indians of North
+     America. (John Tanner was the father of James.)
+
+[27] Quarterly Journal, II. 326, 344; III. 64, 257, 449, 625.
+
+
+
+
+XVI.
+
+
+UNITARIANS AND REFORMS.
+
+The belief of Unitarians in the innate goodness of man and in his progress
+towards a higher moral life, together with their desire to make religion
+practical in its character and to have it deal with the actual facts of
+human life, has made it obligatory that they should give the encouragement
+of their support to whatever promised to further the cause of justice,
+liberty, and purity. Their attitude towards reforms, however, has been
+qualified by their love of individual freedom. They have had a dread of
+ecclesiastical restriction and of any attempt to coerce opinions or to
+establish a despotism over individual convictions. And yet, with all this
+insistence upon personal liberty, no body of men and women has ever been
+more devoted to the furthering of practical reforms than those connected
+with Unitarian churches. No one, for instance, was ever more zealous for
+individual freedom than Theodore Parker; but he was essentially a reformer.
+He was a persistent advocate of peace, temperance, education, the rights of
+women, the rights of the slave, the abolition of capital punishment, reform
+in prison discipline, and the application of humanitarian principles to the
+conduct of life.
+
+[Sidenote: Peace Movement.]
+
+"It may be doubted whether any man who ever lived contributed more to
+spread just sentiments on the subject of war and to hasten the era of
+universal peace," said Dr. Channing of Noah Worcester, who has been often
+called "the Apostle of Peace." It was the second contest with Great Britain
+that led Dr. Worcester to consider the nature and effects of war. In
+August, 1812, on the day appointed for a national fast, he preached a
+sermon in which he maintained that the war then beginning was without
+sufficient justification, and that war is always an evil. In 1814 he
+further studied the subject, with the result that he wrote a little book
+which he called A Solemn Review of the Custom of War.[1]
+
+The Solemn Review was widely circulated, it was translated into many
+languages, it made a deep and lasting impression, and it had a world-wide
+influence in preparing the minds of men for the acceptance of peace
+principles. The remedy for war it proposed was an international court of
+arbitration.[2] Through the efforts of Dr. Worcester the Massachusetts
+Peace Society was organized December 28, 1815, one of the first societies
+of the kind in the world.[3] William Phillips was made the president, and
+Dr. Noah Worcester the corresponding secretary, with Dr. Henry Ware, Dr.
+Channing, and Rev. Francis Parkman among his councillors. On the executive
+committee with Dr. Worcester in 1819 were Rev. Ezra Ripley and Rev. John
+Pierce. Other Unitarian members and workers were James Freeman, Nathaniel
+L. Frothingham, Charles Lowell, Samuel C. Thacher, J.T. Kirkland, and
+Joseph Tuckerman; and, of laymen, Moses Grant, Josiah Quincy, and Colonel
+Joseph May. In 1819 Dr. Worcester began the publication of The Friends of
+Peace, a small quarterly magazine, a large part of the contents of which he
+wrote himself. After the first number, having obtained the assistance of
+several wealthy Friends, he relinquished the copyright; and the numbers
+were republished in several parts of the country, thus obtaining a wide
+circulation. He devoted himself almost wholly to this publication and the
+advocacy of the cause of peace until 1829, when he relinquished its
+editorship. "This must be looked upon as a very remarkable work," wrote
+Henry Ware, the younger. "To his wakeful mind everything that occurred and
+everything that he read offered him materials; he appeared to see nothing
+which had not a bearing on this one topic; and his book becomes a boundless
+repository of curious, entertaining, striking extracts from writers of all
+sorts and the history of all times, displaying the criminality and folly of
+war, and the beauty and efficacy of the principles of peace."[4]
+
+In his efforts hi behalf of peace, Dr. Worcester had the support of Dr.
+Channing's "respectful sympathy and active co-operation."[5] According to
+Dr. John Pierce, Channing was the life and soul of the Massachusetts Peace
+Society. "For years," says his biographer, "he devoted himself to the work
+of extending its influence with unwavering zeal, as many of his papers of
+that period attest."[6] From his pulpit Dr. Channing frequently expressed
+his faith in the principles of peace, and he strongly advocated those
+Christian convictions and that spirit of good will which would make war
+impossible if they were applied to the conduct of nations.
+
+Not less devoted to the cause of peace was Dr. Ezra S. Gannett, of whom his
+son says: "He thought that reason, religion, the whole spirit as well as
+the letter of the gospel, united in forbidding war. Probably, he was
+non-resistant up to, rather than in, the absolutely last extremity;
+although he writes that an English book which Dr. Channing lent him as the
+best he knew upon the subject, 'has made me a thorough peace man!'"[7]
+"Let the fact of brotherhood be fairly grasped," wrote Dr. Frederic H.
+Hedge, "and war becomes impossible."[8] "The tremendous extent and
+pertinacity of the habit of human slaughter in battle," wrote Dr. William
+R. Alger, "its shocking criminality, and its incredible foolishness, when
+regarded from an advanced religious position, are three facts calculated to
+appall every thoughtful man and startle him into amazement." "It is vain,"
+he said, "to undertake to impart a competent conception of the crimes and
+miseries belonging to war. Their appalling character and magnitude stun the
+imagination and pass off like the burden of a frightful dream."[9]
+
+Worcester's Solemn Review convinced Rev. Samuel J. May "that the precepts,
+spirit, and example of Jesus gave no warrant to the violent, bloody
+resistance of evil; that wrong could be effectually overcome by right,
+hatred by love, violence by gentleness, evil of any kind by its opposite
+good. I preached this," he said, "as one of the cardinal doctrines of the
+gospel, and endeavored especially to show the wickedness and folly of the
+custom of war."[10] In 1826 he organized a county peace society, the first
+in the country; and his first publication was in advocacy of this
+reform.[11]
+
+Of the men connected with political life, Charles Sumner was the most
+devoted and influential friend of the peace cause. As early as March, 1839,
+he wrote to a friend, "I hold all wars, as unjust and, unchristian." His
+address on The True Grandeur of Nations, given before the mayor and other
+officials of Boston, July 4, 1845, was one of the noblest and most
+effective utterances on the subject. Though a considerable part of the
+audience was in military array, Sumner showed the evils of war in
+uncompromising terms, denouncing it as cruel and unnecessary, while with
+true eloquence, great learning, and deep conviction he made his plea for
+peace. "The effect was immediate and striking," wrote George W. Curtis.
+"There were great indignation and warm protest on the one hand, and upon
+the other sincere congratulation and high compliment. Sumner's view of the
+absolute wrong and iniquity of war was somewhat modified subsequently; but
+the great purpose of a peaceful solution of international disputes he never
+relinquished."[12] He said in this oration that "in our age there can be
+no peace that is not honorable; there can be no war that is not
+dishonorable." This statement was severely criticised, but it indicates his
+uncompromising acceptance of peace principles.[13] He added these
+pertinent sentences: "The true honor of a nation is to be found only in
+deeds of justice and in the happiness of its people, all of which are
+inconsistent with war. In the clear eye of Christian judgment vain are its
+victories, infamous are its spoils."[14] He further declared that "war is
+utterly and irreconcilably inconsistent with true greatness."[15] These
+views he continued to hold throughout his life, though in a more
+conciliatory spirit; and on several occasions he presented them before the
+Peace Society and elsewhere. When in the Senate he was a leader of the
+cause of arbitration, and exerted his large influence in securing its
+adoption by the United States as a means of preventing war with foreign
+countries. As late as July, 1873, he wrote to one of his friends: "I long
+to witness the harmony of nations, which I am sure is near. When an evil so
+great is recognized and discussed, the remedy must be near at hand."[16]
+
+The work done by Julia Ward Howe for the cause of peace is eminently worthy
+of recognition. One chapter of her Reminiscences is devoted to her "Peace
+Crusade" of 1870. The cruel and unnecessary character of the
+Franco-Prussian war led her to write an appeal to mothers to use their
+influence in behalf of peace. "The august dignity of motherhood and its
+terrible responsibilities now appeared to me in a new aspect," she writes,
+"and I could think of no better way of expressing my sense of these than of
+sending forth an appeal to womanhood throughout the world, which I then and
+there composed."[17] She printed and distributed her appeal, had it
+translated into French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Swedish, and then
+spent many months in corresponding with leading women in various countries.
+She invited these women to a Women's Peace Congress to be held in London.
+After holding two successful meetings in New York, she began her crusade in
+England, holding meetings in many places, and also attending a Peace
+Congress in Paris. She hired a hall in London, and held Sunday meetings to
+promote the reform she had deeply at heart. The Women's Congress was a
+success, and after two years of earnest effort Mrs. Howe had the
+satisfaction of knowing that she had done something to promote peace on
+earth and good will among men.
+
+[Sidenote: Temperance Reform.]
+
+Unitarians have been active in the cause of temperance, but again as
+individuals rather than as a denomination. The emphasis they have put on
+the importance of individual opinion and personal liberty has made them
+often reluctant to join societies that sought to promote this reform by
+restrictive and coercive measures. As a body, therefore, they have shown a
+greater inclination to the use of moral suasion than legislative power.
+
+From Dr. Channing this reform had the most earnest approval. "The
+temperance reform which is going on among us," he wrote, "deserves all
+praise, and I see not what is to hinder its complete success. I believe the
+movements now made will succeed, because they are in harmony with and are
+seconded by the general spirit and progress of the age. Every advance in
+knowledge, in refined manners, in domestic enjoyments, in habits of
+foresight and economy, in regular industry, in the comforts of life, in
+civilization, good morals and religion, is an aid to the cause of
+temperance; and believing as we do that these are making progress, may we
+not hope that drunkenness will be driven from society?"[18] He regarded
+the subject from a broader point of view than many, and urged that a sound
+physical education for all youth, as well as larger opportunities for
+intellectual improvement on the part of workingmen, would do much to
+prevent intemperance.[19] He maintained that to give men "strength within
+to withstand the temptations of intemperance" is incalculably more
+important than to remove merely outward temptations. Better education,
+innocent amusements, a wider spirit of sympathy and brotherhood,
+discouragement of the use and sale of ardent spirits, were among the means
+he recommended for suppressing this evil.[20]
+
+The Massachusetts Society for the Suppression of Intemperance was organized
+at the State House in Boston on February 5, 1813, "to discountenance and
+suppress the too free use of ardent spirits, and to encourage and promote
+temperance and general morality." This was one of the first temperance
+societies organized in the country, and its chief promoters were
+Unitarians. Dr. John C. Collins, who published the records of the society,
+said of the year 1827, when he became a member, that "Channing, Gannett,
+and others were the most active men at that time in the temperance
+cause."[21] Dr. Abiel Abbot was the first corresponding secretary of the
+society, and on the council were Drs. Kirkland, Lothrop, Worcester, and
+Pierce. Among the other Unitarian ministers who were active in the society
+were Charles Lowell, the younger Henry Ware, John Pierpont, and John G.
+Palfrey. Among the laymen were Moses Grant, Nathan Dane, Dr. John Ware,
+Stephen Fairbanks, Dr. J.F. Flagg, William Sullivan, Amos Lawrence, Samuel
+Dexter, and Isaac Parker.[22] Auxiliary societies were organized in Salem,
+Beverly, and other towns; and these gave to the temperance cause the
+activities of such Unitarians as Theophilus Parsons, Robert Rantoul, and
+Samuel Hoar.[23]
+
+Of the more recent interest of Unitarians in questions of temperance reform
+there may be mentioned the thorough study made by the United States
+Commissioner of Labor, and printed in 1898 under the title of Economic
+Aspects of the Liquor Problem.[24] This investigation was ordered by
+Congress as the result of a petition sent to that body by the Unitarian
+Temperance Society. Probably few petitions have ever been sent to Congress
+that contained so many prominent names of leading statesmen, presidents of
+colleges and universities, bishops, clergymen, well-known literary men, and
+other persons of influence. The Unitarian Temperance Society was organized
+September 23, 1886, in connection with the meeting of the National
+Conference at Saratoga. Its purpose is "to work for the cause of temperance
+in whatever ways may seem to it wise and right; to study the social
+problems of poverty, crime, and disease, in their relation to the use of
+intoxicating drinks, and to diffuse whatever knowledge may be gained; to
+discuss methods of temperance reform; to devise and, so far as possible, to
+execute plans for practical reform; to exert by its meetings and by its
+membership such influence for good as by the grace of God it may possess."
+It has held annual meetings in Boston, and other meetings in connection
+with the National Conference; it has published a number of important
+tracts, temperance text-books, and temperance services for Sunday-schools;
+and it has exerted a considerable influence on the denomination in shaping
+public opinion in regard to this reform. The presidents of the society have
+been Rev. Christopher R. Eliot, Rev. George H. Hosmer, and Rev. Charles F.
+Dole.
+
+The subject of temperance reform has been before the National Conference on
+several occasions and in various forms. At the session of 1882 a resolution
+offered by Miss Mary Grew was adopted:--
+
+  That the unutterable evils continually wrought by intemperance, the
+  easy descent from moderate to immoderate drinking, and the moral wrecks
+  strewn along that downward path, call upon Christians and patriots to
+  practise and advocate abstinence from the use of all intoxicating
+  liquors as a beverage.
+
+In 1891 a series of resolutions recommended by the Unitarian Temperance
+Society were adopted as expressing the convictions of the Conference:--
+
+  First, that the liquor saloon, as it exists to-day in the United
+  States, is the nation's chief school of crime, chief college of
+  corruption in politics, chief source of poverty and ruined homes, chief
+  menace to our country's future, is the standing enemy of society, and,
+  as such, deserves the condemnation of all good men.
+
+  Second, that, whatever be the best mode of dealing with the saloon by
+  law, law can avail little until those who condemn the saloon consent to
+  totally abstain themselves from the use of alcoholic drink for
+  pleasure.
+
+  Third, that we affectionately and urgently call on every minister and
+  all laymen and women in our denomination--our old, our young, our rich,
+  our poor, our leaders, and our humblest--to take this stand of total
+  abstinence, remembering those that are in bonds as bound with them, and
+  throw the solid influence of our church against the influence of the
+  saloon.
+
+[Sidenote: Anti-slavery.]
+
+In proportion to its numbers no religious body in the country did so much
+to promote the anti-slavery reform as the Unitarian. No Unitarian defended
+slavery from the pulpit or by means of the press, and no one was its
+apologist.[25] Many, however, did not approve of the methods of the
+abolitionists, and some strongly opposed the extreme measures of a part of
+that body of reformers. The desire of Unitarians to be just, rational, and
+open-minded, exposed many of them to the criticism of being neither for nor
+against slavery. But it is certain that they were not indifferent to its
+evils nor recreant to their humanitarian principles.
+
+The period of the anti-slavery agitation was truly one that tried the souls
+of men; and those who were equally conscientious, desirous of serving the
+cause of justice and humanity, and solicitous for the welfare of the slave,
+widely differed from one another as to what was the wise method of action.
+Among those severely condemned by the anti-slavery party were several
+Unitarian ministers of great force of character and of a genuinely
+humanitarian spirit. Three of them may be selected as representative.
+
+Dr. Orville Dewey had seen something of slavery, and was strongly opposed
+to it. He thought the system hateful in itself and productive of nearly
+unmingled evil, and yet he was not in favor of immediate emancipation. His
+frequent indictments of slavery in his sermons and lectures were severe in
+the extreme; but his demand for wise and patient counsel, and for a
+rational method of gradual emancipation, subjected him to severe
+condemnation. "And nothing else brings out the nobleness of Dr. Dewey into
+such bold relief as the fact," says Rev. John W. Chadwick, "that the
+immeasurable torrent of abuse that greeted his expressed opinion did not in
+any least degree avail to make him one of the pro-slavery faction. He
+differed from the most earnest of the anti-slavery men only as to the best
+method of getting rid of the curse of human bondage."[26]
+
+As early as 1830 Dr. E.S. Gannett said that "the greatest evil under which
+our nation labors is the existence of slavery. It is the only vicious part
+of our body politic, but this is a deep and disgusting sore. It must be
+treated with the utmost judgment and skill." The violence of the
+abolitionists he did not approve, however; for his respect for law and
+constituted authority was so great that he was not ready for radical
+measures. He abhorred slavery, but he was not willing to condemn the
+slaveholder. He was therefore regarded by the abolitionists as more hostile
+to them than any other Unitarian minister. His attitude as a peace man, his
+strong regard for justice and fair dealing, as well as his earnest faith in
+the gentle influence of the gospel, forbade his accepting the strenuous
+methods of the abolitionists. He would not, however, permit anti-slavery
+ministers to be silenced in Unitarian meetings. When he saw something of
+slavery, in 1833, he expressed his convictions in regard to it in these
+forcible words: "It is the attempt to degrade a human being into something
+less than a man,--not the confinement, unjust as this is, nor the blows,
+cruel as these are,--but the denial of his equal share in the rights,
+prerogatives, and responsibilities of a human being, which brands the
+institution of slavery with its peculiar and ineffaceable odiousness."[27]
+
+Another minister who came under the condemnation of the abolitionists was
+Rev. John H. Morison, and yet he preached sermons against slavery that met
+with the vigorous disapproval of his congregation. "We all agree," he wrote
+in 1844, "in the sad conviction that slavery in its political influence,
+more than all other subjects, threatens to upturn the foundation of our
+government; that in its moral and religious bearings it is a grievous wrong
+to master and slave; and that, as it is in violation of the fundamental
+principles of Christian duty, it must, if continued beyond the absolute
+necessity of the case, be attended with consequences the most disastrous."
+Again, when Daniel Webster made his 7th of March speech in 1850, Dr.
+Morison, then the editor of The Christian Register, took the earliest
+possible opportunity to express himself as strongly as he could against it.
+"We at the North," he wrote, "believe that slavery is morally wrong." He
+said that the government, in its attempt to defend slavery as against the
+moral convictions of a large number of the people, was doing the country a
+great harm.[28]
+
+The position of these men and of others who thought and acted with them can
+best be understood by recognizing the fact that they were opposed to
+sectarian methods in promoting reforms as in advancing the interests of
+religion. It is probable that in these heated times neither party did full
+justice to the spirit and purposes of the other. Even so gentle and
+charitable a man as Rev. Samuel J. May speaks of the "discreditable
+pro-slavery conduct of the Unitarian denomination." "The Unitarians as a
+body," he says again, "dealt with the question of slavery in anything but
+an impartial, courageous, and Christian way. Continually in their public
+meetings the question was staved off and driven out because of technical,
+formal, verbal difficulties which were of no real importance, and ought not
+to have caused a moment's hesitation. Avowing among their distinctive
+doctrines the fatherly character of God and the brotherhood of man, we had
+a right to expect from the Unitarians a steadfast and unqualified protest
+against so unjust, tyrannical, and cruel a system as that of American
+slavery. And considering their position as a body, not entangled with any
+pro-slavery alliances, not hampered with any ecclesiastical organization,
+it does seem to me that they were pre-eminently guilty in reference to the
+enslavement of the millions in our land with its attendant wrongs,
+cruelties, horrors. They refused to speak as a body, and censured,
+condemned, execrated their members who did speak faithfully for the
+down-trodden, and who co-operated with him whom a merciful Providence sent
+as the prophet of the reform."[29]
+
+The testimony of Rev. O.B. Frothingham is fully as condemnatory of
+Unitarian timidity and conservatism, even of the moral cowardice betrayed
+by many of the leaders. He says the Unitarians, as such, "were indifferent
+or lukewarm; the leading classes were opposed to the agitation. Dr.
+Channing was almost alone in lending countenance to the reform, though his
+hesitation between the dictates of natural feeling and Christian charity
+towards the masters hampered his action, and rendered him obnoxious to both
+parties,--the radicals finding fault with him for not going further, the
+conservatives blaming him because he went so far."[30] Mr. Frothingham
+finds, however, that the transcendentalists were quite "universally
+abolitionists, their faith in the natural powers of man making them zealous
+promoters of the cause of the slave." He insists that as a class "the
+Unitarians were not ardent disciples of any moral cause, and took pride in
+being reasoners, believers in education and in general social influence, in
+the progress of knowledge and the uplifting of humanity by means of ideas,"
+but that they permitted these qualities to cool their ardor for reform and
+to mitigate their love of humanity.[31]
+
+The biographers of William Lloyd Garrison are never tired of condemning Dr.
+Channing for what they call his timidity, his shunning any personal contact
+with the great abolitionist, his failure to grapple boldly with the evils
+of slavery, and his half-hearted espousal of the cause of abolition. The
+Unitarians generally are by these writers regarded in the same manner.[32]
+
+Most of the accounts mentioned were written by those who took part in the
+agitation against slavery, in condemnation of those who had not kept step
+with their abolition pace or in apology for those whose words and conduct
+were thought to need defence. The time has come, perhaps, when it is
+possible to consider, the attitude of individuals and the denomination
+without a partisan wish to condemn or to defend. In this spirit the
+statement of Samuel J. May is to be accepted as true and just, when he
+says: "We Unitarians have given to the anti-slavery cause more preachers,
+writers, lecturers, agents, poets, than any other denomination in
+proportion to our numbers, if not without any comparison."[33]
+
+Among those who listened to William Lloyd Garrison when in October, 1830,
+he first presented in Boston his views in favor of immediate emancipation,
+were Samuel J. May, Samuel E. Sewall, and A.B. Alcott; and these men at
+once became his disciples and friends.[34] When Garrison organized the New
+England Anti-slavery Society in December, 1832, he was actively supported
+by Samuel E. Sewall, David Lee Child, and Ellis Gray Loring. It was to the
+financial support of Sewall and Loring, though they did not at first accept
+his doctrine of immediate emancipation, that Garrison owed his ability to
+begin The Liberator, and to sustain it in its earliest years.[35] For many
+years, Edmund Quincy was connected with The Liberator, serving as its
+editor when Garrison was ill, absent on lecturing tours, or journeying in
+Europe. The Massachusetts Anti-slavery Society, which in 1835 succeeded the
+New England Society, had during many years Francis Jackson as its
+president, Edmund Quincy as its corresponding secretary, and Robert F.
+Walcutt as its recording secretary, all Unitarians.
+
+In 1834 was formed the Cambridge Anti-slavery Society, under the leadership
+of the younger Henry Ware; and the membership was largely Unitarian,
+including the names of Dr. Henry Ware, Sidney Willard, Charles Follen,
+William H. Charming, Artemus B. Muzzey, Barzillai Frost, Charles T. Brooks,
+and Frederic H. Hedge. The purposes of the society were stated in its
+constitution:--
+
+  We believe that the emancipation of all who are in bondage is the
+  requisition, not less of sound policy, than of justice and humanity;
+  and that it is the duty of those with whom the power lies at once to
+  remove the sanction of the law from the principle that man can be the
+  property of man,--a principle inconsistent with our free institutions,
+  subversive of the purposes for which man was made, and utterly at
+  variance with the plainest dictates of reason and Christianity.
+
+In 1843 Samuel May visited England, and at Unitarian meetings described the
+obstacles in the way of the abolition of slavery, and spoke of the apathy
+of American Unitarians. He advised the sending a letter of fraternal
+counsel to the Unitarian ministers of the United States "in behalf of the
+unhappy slave." Such a letter was prepared, and signed by eighty-five
+ministers. It was published in the Unitarian papers in this country, a
+meeting was held to consider it, and a reply sent to England signed by one
+hundred and thirty ministers. Mr. May was severely condemned for his part
+in causing such a letter to be sent, and the reply was rather in the nature
+of a protest than a friendly acceptance of the advice given.
+
+A year later, however, this letter was again the subject of earnest
+discussion. In anniversary week, 1845, a meeting of Unitarian ministers was
+held to "discuss their duties in relation to American slavery." The call
+for this meeting was signed by James Thompson, Joseph Allen, Caleb Stetson,
+Samuel Ripley, Converse Francis, William Ware, Samuel J. May, Artemus B.
+Muzzey, Oliver Stearns, James W. Thompson, Alonzo Hill, Andrew P. Peabody,
+Henry A. Miles, Frederic H. Hedge, James F. Clarke, George W. Briggs,
+Samuel May, Barzillai Frost, Nathaniel Hall, David Fosdick, and John Weiss.
+At the third session, by a vote of forty-seven to seven, it was declared
+"that we consider slavery to be utterly opposed to the principles and
+spirit of Christianity, and that, as ministers of the gospel, we feel it
+our duty to protest against it, in the name of Christ, and to do all we may
+to create a public opinion to secure the overthrow of the institution." It
+was also decided to appoint a committee to draw up, secure signatures to,
+and publish "a protest against the institution of American slavery, as
+unchristian and inhuman." Though some of those who spoke at these meetings
+condemned the abolitionists, yet all of them expressed in the strongest
+terms their opposition to slavery.
+
+The committee selected to prepare this protest consisted of Caleb Stetson,
+James F. Clarke, John Parkman, Stephen G. Bulfinch, A.P. Peabody, John
+Pierpont, Samuel J. May, Oliver Stearns, George W. Briggs, William P.
+Tilden, and William H. Channing. The protest was written by James Freeman
+Clarke and was accepted essentially as it came from his hands. It was
+signed by one hundred and seventy-three ministers,[36] the whole number of
+Unitarian ministers at that time being two hundred and sixty-seven. Some of
+the most prominent ministers were conspicuous by the absence of their names
+from this protest. It must be understood, however, that those who did not
+sign it were as much opposed to slavery as those who did. "This protest,"
+said the editor of The Christian Register, in presenting it to the
+public,[37] "is written with great clearness of expression and moderation
+of spirit. It exhibits unequivocally and distinctly the sentiments of the
+numerous and most enlightened body of clergy whose names are attached to
+it, as well as many other ministers of the denomination who may be
+disinclined to act conjointly, or do not feel called upon to act at all in
+any prescribed way, on the subject." It was not a desire to defend slavery
+that kept these ministers from signing the protest, but their excessive
+individualism, and their unwillingness to commit the denomination to
+opinions all might not accept. A few paragraphs from the protest will
+indicate its spirit and purpose:--
+
+"Especially do we feel that the denomination which takes for its motto
+Liberty, Holiness and Love should be foremost in opposing this system. More
+than others we have contended for three great principles,--individual
+liberty, perfect righteousness, and human brotherhood. All of these are
+grossly violated by the system of slavery. We contend for mental freedom;
+shall we not denounce the system which fetters both mind and body? We have
+declared righteousness to be the essence of Christianity; shall we not
+oppose the system which is the sum of all wrong? We claim for all men the
+right of brotherhood before a universal Father; ought we not to testify
+against that which tramples so many of our brethren under foot?"
+
+"We, therefore, ministers of the gospel of truth and love, in the name of
+God the universal Father, in the name of Christ the Redeemer, in the name
+of humanity and human brotherhood, do solemnly protest against the system
+of slavery as unchristian, and inhuman," "because it is a violation of
+right, being the sum of all unrighteousness which man can do to man,"
+"violates the law of love," "degrades man, the image of God, into a thing,"
+"necessarily tends to pollute the soul of the slave," "to defile the soul
+of the master," "restricts education, keeps the Bible from the slave, makes
+life insecure, deprives female innocence of protection, sanctions adultery,
+tears children from parents and husbands from wives, violates the divine
+institutions of families, and by hard and hopeless toil makes existence a
+burden," "eats out the heart of nations and tends every year more and more
+to sear the popular conscience and impair the virtue of the people."
+
+"We implore all Christians and Christian preachers to unite in unceasing
+prayer to God for aid against this system, to leave no opportunity of
+speaking the truth and spreading the light on this subject, in faith that
+the truth is strong enough to break every yoke." "And we do hereby pledge
+ourselves, before God and our brethren, never to be weary of laboring in
+the cause of human rights and freedom until slavery be abolished and every
+slave made free."
+
+Although many ministers and laymen took the position that the question of
+slavery was not one that should receive attention in the meetings of the
+Unitarian Association or other religious organizations, that these should
+be kept strictly to their own special purposes, it was not possible to
+exclude the one great exciting topic of the age. How persistently it
+intruded itself is clearly indicated in words used by Dr. Bellows at the
+annual meeting of the Association, in 1856. "Year after year this horrid
+image of slavery come in here," he said, "and obtruded itself upon our
+concerns. It has prevented our giving attention to any other subject; we
+could not keep it out of our minds; and why is that awful crime against
+humanity still known in the world, still supported and active in this age
+of Christendom, but because it is in alliance with certain views of
+theology with which we are at war?"[38] At the same meeting strong
+resolutions of sympathy with the free settlers of Kansas, and with Charles
+Sumner because "the barbarity of the slave power had attempted to silence
+him by brutal outrage," were unanimously adopted.[39]
+
+In 1857 the subject of slavery came before the Western Conference in its
+session at Alton. The most uncompromising anti-slavery resolutions were
+presented at the opening of the meeting, and everything else was put aside
+for their consideration, a day and a half being devoted to them. The
+opinion of the majority was, in the words of one of the speakers, that
+slavery is a crime that "denies millions marital and parental rights,
+requires ignorance as a condition, encourages licentiousness and cruelty,
+scars a country all over with incidents that appall and outrage the human
+world." Dr. W.G. Eliot, of St. Louis, and others, thought it not expedient
+to press the subject to an issue, though he regarded slavery in much the
+same way as did the other members of the conference. When the conference
+finally took issue with slavery, he and his delegates withdrew from its
+membership. His assistant, Rev. Carlton A. Staples, and Rev. John H.
+Heywood, of Louisville, went with the majority. A committee appointed to
+formulate a statement the conference could accept said that it had no right
+to interfere with the freedom of action of individual churches; but it
+recommended them to do all they could in opposition to slavery, and said
+that the conference was of one mind in the conviction "that slavery is an
+evil doomed by God to pass away." This report was accepted by the
+conference with only one opposing vote.[40] When the year 1860 had
+arrived, Unitarians were practically unanimous in their condemnation of
+slavery.
+
+When the names of individual Unitarians who took an active part in the
+anti-slavery movement are given, it is at once seen how important was the
+influence of the denomination. Early in the century Rev. Noah Worcester
+uttered his word of protest against slavery. Rev. Charles Follen joined the
+Massachusetts Anti-slavery Society in the second year of its existence, and
+no nobler champion of liberty ever lived. If Dr. Channing was slow in
+applying his Christian ideal of liberty to slavery, there can be no
+question that his influence was powerful on the right side, and all the
+more so because of his gentle and ethical interpretation of individual and
+national duty. His various publications on the subject, his identification
+of himself with the abolitionists by joining their ranks in the
+Massachusetts State House in 1836, his speech in Faneuil Hall in protest
+against the killing of Lovejoy in Alton during the same year, exerted a
+great influence in behalf of abolition throughout the North. It is only
+necessary to mention John Pierpont, Theodore Parker, William H. Furness,
+William H. Channing, William Goodell, Theodore D. Weld, Ichabod Codding,
+Caleb Stetson, and M.D. Conway in order to recognize their uncompromising
+fidelity to the cause of freedom. Only less devoted were such men as
+Charles Lowell, Nahor A. Staples, Sylvester Judd, Nathaniel Hall, Thomas T.
+Stone, O.B. Frothingham, Abiel A. Livermore, Samuel Johnson, Samuel
+Longfellow, Thomas J. Mumford, and many others.
+
+Samuel J. May and his cousin, Samuel May, were both employed by the
+Massachusetts Anti-slavery Society. From 1847 until 1865 the latter was the
+general agent of that organization; and his assistant was another Unitarian
+minister, Robert F. Walcutt. James Freeman Clarke, though settled at
+Louisville from 1833 to 1840, was opposed to slavery; and in the pages of
+The Western Messenger, of which he was publisher and editor, he took every
+occasion to press home the claims of emancipation. John G. Palfrey
+emancipated the slaves that came into his possession from his father's
+estate, insisting on receiving them for that purpose, though the
+opportunity was given him to accept other property in their stead. In
+accordance with this action was his attitude toward slavery in the pulpit
+and on the platform, as well as when he was a member of the lower house of
+Congress.
+
+Of Unitarian laymen who were loyal to the ideal of freedom, the list may
+properly open with the name of Josiah Quincy, afterwards mayor of Boston
+and president of Harvard College, who began as early as 1804 his opposition
+to slavery, and carried it faithfully into his work as a member of the
+national House of Representatives soon after. The fidelity of John Quincy
+Adams to freedom during many years is known to every one, and his service
+in the national House has given him a foremost place in the company of the
+anti-slavery leaders. Not less loyal was the service of Charles Sumner,
+Horace Mann, John P. Hale, George W. Julian, John A. Andrew, Samuel G.
+Howe, Henry I. Bowditch, William I. Bowditch, Thomas W. Higginson, George
+F. Hoar, Ebenezer R. Hoar, George S. Boutwell, and Henry B. Anthony. Of the
+poets the anti-slavery reform had the support of Longfellow, Lowell,
+Bryant, and Emerson. The Unitarian women were also zealous for freedom. The
+loyalty of Lydia Maria Child is well known, as are the sacrifices she made
+in publishing her early anti-slavery books. Lucretia Mott, of the Unitarian
+branch of the Friends, was a devoted supporter of the anti-slavery cause.
+Mrs. Maria W. Chapman was one of the most faithful supporters of Garrison,
+doing more than any one else to give financial aid to the anti-slavery
+reform movement in its earlier years. With these women deserve to be
+mentioned Eliza Lee Follen, Angelina Grimké Weld, Lucy Stone, and many
+more.
+
+A considerable group of persons who had been trained in evangelical
+churches became essentially Unitarians as a result of the anti-slavery
+agitation. Of these may be mentioned William Lloyd Garrison, Gerrit Smith,
+Beriah Green, Joshua R. Giddings, Myron Holley, Theodore D. Weld, and
+Francis W. Bird. Of the first four of these men, George W. Julian has said:
+"They were theologically reconstructed through their unselfish devotion to
+humanity and the recreancy of the churches to which they had been attached.
+They were less orthodox, but more Christian. Their faith in the fatherhood
+of God and the brotherhood of man became a living principle, and compelled
+to reject all dogmas which stood in its way."[41]
+
+[Sidenote: The Enfranchisement of Women.]
+
+It is not surprising that the first great advocate of "the rights of women"
+in this country should have been the Unitarian, Margaret Fuller. She did no
+more than apply what she had been taught in religion to problems of
+personal duty, professional activity, and political obligations. With her
+freedom of faith and liberty of thought meant also freedom to devote her
+life to such tasks as she could best perform for the good of others. It was
+inevitable that other Unitarian women should follow her example, and that
+many women, trained in other faiths, having come to accept the doctrine of
+universal political rights, should seek in Unitarianism the religion
+consonant with their individuality of purpose and their sense of human
+freedom.
+
+Among the leaders of the movement for the enfranchisement of women have
+been such Unitarians as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy
+Stone, Julia Ward Howe, Mary A. Livermore, Maria Weston Chapman, Caroline
+H. Dall, and Louisa M. Alcott. The first pronounced woman suffrage paper in
+the country was The Una, begun at Providence in 1853, with Mrs. Caroline H.
+Dall as the assistant editor. Among other Unitarian contributors were
+William H. Charming, Elizabeth P. Peabody, Thomas W. Higginson, Ednah D.
+Cheney, Amory D. Mayo, Elizabeth Oakes Smith, Lucy Stone, and Mrs. E.C.
+Stanton. The next important paper was The Revolution, begun at New York in
+1868, with Susan B. Anthony as publisher and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and
+Parker Pillsbury as editors. Then came The Woman's Journal, begun at Boston
+in 1870, with Mary A. Livermore, Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, T.W.
+Higginson, and Henry B. Blackwell, all Unitarians, as the editors.
+
+The first national woman's suffrage meeting was held in Worcester, October
+28 and 24, 1850; and among those who took part in it by letter or personal
+presence were Emerson, Alcott, Higginson, Pillsbury, Samuel J. May, William
+H. Channing, William H. Burleigh, Elizabeth C. Stanton, Catherine M.
+Sedgwick, Caroline Kirkland, and Lucy Stone. In April, 1853, when the
+Constitution of Massachusetts was to receive revision, a petition was
+presented, asking that suffrage should be granted to women. Of twenty-seven
+persons signing it, more than half were Unitarians, including Abby May
+Alcott, Lucy Stone, T.W. Higginson, Anna Q.T. Parsons, Theodore Parker,
+William I. Bowditch, Samuel E. Sewall, Ellis Gray Loring, Charles K.
+Whipple, and Thomas T. Stone. Among other Unitarians who have taken an
+active part in promoting this cause have been Lucretia Mott, Mary Grew,
+Caroline M. Severance, Celia C. Burleigh, Angelina Grimké Weld, and Maria
+Giddings Julian. Of men there have been Dr. William F. Channing, James F.
+Clarke, George F. Hoar, George W. Curtis, John S. Dwight, John T. Sargent,
+Samuel Johnson, Samuel Longfellow, Octavius B. Frothingham, Adin Ballou,
+George W. Julian, Frank B. Sanborn, and James T. Fields.
+
+Unitarians have been amongst the first to recognize women in education,
+literature, the professions, and in the management of church and
+denominational interests. At the convention held in New York in 1865, which
+organized the National Conference, no women appeared as delegates; and the
+same was true at the second session, held at Syracuse in 1866. At that
+session Rev. Thomas J. Mumford moved "that our churches shall be left to
+their own wishes and discretion with reference to the sex of the delegates
+chosen to represent them in the conference"; and this resolution was
+adopted. At the third meeting, held at New York in 1868, thirty-seven women
+appeared as delegates, including Julia Ward Howe and Caroline H. Dall. The
+lay delegates to the session held at Washington in 1899 numbered four
+hundred and two; and, of these, two hundred and twenty seven were women.
+
+At the annual meeting of the Unitarian Association in 1870, Rev. John T.
+Sargent brought forward the subject of the representation of women on its
+board of directors. Dr. James F. Clarke made a motion looking to that
+result, which was largely discussed, much opposition being manifested. It
+was urged by many that women were unfit to serve in a position demanding so
+much business capacity, that they would displace capable men, and that it
+was improper for them to assume so public a duty. Charles Lowe, James F.
+Clarke, John T. Sargent, and others strongly championed the proposition,
+with the result that Miss Lucretia Crocker was elected a member of the
+board.[42]
+
+The first woman ordained to the Unitarian ministry was Mrs. Celia C.
+Burleigh, who was settled over the parish in Brooklyn, Conn., October 5,
+1871. The sermon was preached by Rev. John W. Chadwick, and the address to
+the people was given by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe. A letter was read from Henry
+Ward Beecher, in which he said to Mrs. Burleigh: "I do cordially believe
+that you ought to preach. I think you had a _call_ in your very nature."
+Mrs. Burleigh continued at Brooklyn for less than three years, ill-health
+compelling her to resign.
+
+The second woman to enter the Unitarian ministry was Miss Mary H. Graves,
+who was ordained at Mansfield, Mass., December 14, 1871. She was subjected
+to a thorough examination; and the committee reported "that her words have
+commanded our thorough respect by their freedom and clearness, and won our
+full sympathy and approval by their earnest, discreet, and beautiful
+spirit." Mrs. Eliza Tupper Wilkes was ordained by the Universalists at
+Rochester, Minn., May 2, 1871, though she had preached for two or three
+years previously; and she subsequently identified herself with the
+Unitarians. Mrs. Antoinette Brown Blackwell was ordained in Central New
+York, in 1853, by the Orthodox Congregationalists; but somewhat later she
+became a Unitarian.
+
+The first woman to receive ordination who has continued without
+interruption her ministerial duties was Miss Mary A. Safford, ordained in
+1880. She has held every official position in connection with the Iowa
+Unitarian Association, and she has also been an officer of the Western
+Conference and a director of the American Unitarian Association.
+
+Several women have also frequently appeared in Unitarian pulpits who have
+not received ordination or devoted themselves to the ministry as a
+profession. Among these are Mrs. Caroline H. Dall, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe,
+and Mrs. Mary A. Livermore. In 1875 Mrs. Howe was active in organizing the
+Women's Ministerial Conference, which met in the Church of the Disciples,
+and brought together women ministers of several denominations. Of this
+conference Mrs. Howe was for many years the president.
+
+In most Unitarian churches there is no longer any question as to the right
+of women to take any place they are individually fitted to occupy. On
+denominational committees and boards, women sit with entire success, their
+fitness for the duties required being called in question by no one. In
+those conferences where women have for a number of years been actively
+engaged in the work of the ministry they are received on a basis of perfect
+equality with men, and the sex question no longer presents itself in regard
+to official positions or any other ministerial duty.
+
+[Sidenote: Civil Service Reform.]
+
+The first advocate of the reform of the civil service was Charles Sumner,
+who as early as December, 1847, anticipated its methods in a series of
+articles contributed to a newspaper.[43] He was the first to bring this
+reform before Congress, which he did April 30, 1864, when he introduced a
+bill to provide a system of competitive examinations for admission to and
+promotion in the civil service, which made merit and fitness the conditions
+of employment by the government, and provided against removal without
+cause. This bill was drawn by Sumner without consultation with any other
+person, but the time had not yet arrived when it could be successfully
+advocated.
+
+The next person to advocate the reform of the civil service in Congress was
+Thomas A. Jenckes, of Rhode Island, who in 1867 brought the merit system
+forward in the form of a report from the joint committee on retrenchment,
+which reported on the condition of the civil service, and accompanied its
+report with a bill "to regulate the civil service and to promote its
+efficiency." The next year Mr. Jenckes made a second report, but it was not
+until 1871 that action on the subject was secured.[44] George W. Curtis
+says that at first he "pressed it upon an utterly listless Congress, and
+his proposition was regarded as the harmless hobby of an amiable man, from
+which a little knowledge of practical politics would soon dismount
+him."[45] Most members of Congress thought the reform a mere vagary, and
+that it was brought forward at a most inopportune time.[46] Mr. Jenckes
+was the pioneer of the reform, according to Curtis, who says that he
+"powerfully and vigorously and alone opened the debate in Congress."[47]
+He drew the amendment to the appropriation bill in 1871 that became the
+law, and under which the first civil service commission was appointed. "By
+his experience, thorough knowledge, fertility of resource and suggestion
+and great legal ability, he continued to serve with as much efficiency as
+modesty the cause to which he was devoted."[48]
+
+One of the first persons to give attention to this subject was Dorman B.
+Eaton, an active member of All Souls' Church in New York, who was for
+several years chairman of the committee on political reform of the Union
+League Club of New York. In 1866, and again in 1870 and 1875, he travelled
+in Europe to secure information in regard to methods of civil service. The
+results of these investigations were presented in his work on Civil Service
+in Great Britain, a report made at the request of President Hayes. In 1873
+he was appointed a member of the Civil Service Commission by President
+Grant; in 1883 he was the chairman of the committee appointed by President
+Arthur; and in 1885 he was reappointed by President Cleveland. The bill of
+January, 1883, which firmly established civil service by act of Congress,
+was drawn by him. He was a devoted worker for good government in all its
+phases; and the results of his studies of the subject may be found in his
+books on The Independent Movement in New York and The Government of
+Municipalities. He was described by George William Curtis as "one of the
+most conspicuous, intelligent, and earnest friends of reform."[49]
+
+The most conspicuous advocate of the merit system was Mr. George William
+Curtis, another New York Unitarian, who was the chairman of the Civil
+Service Commission of 1871. In 1880 he became the president of the New York
+Civil Service Reform Association, a position he held until his death. The
+National Civil Service Reform League was organized at Newport in August,
+1881; and he was the president from that time as long as he lived. His
+annual addresses before the league show his devoted interest in its aims,
+as well as his eloquence, intellectual power, and political integrity.[50]
+In an address before the Unitarian National Conference, in 1878, Mr. Curtis
+gave a noble exposition and vindication of the reform which he labored
+zealously for twelve years to advance.[51]
+
+It has been justly said of Mr. Curtis that "far above the pleasures of life
+he placed its duties; and no man could have set himself more sternly to the
+serious work of citizenship. The national struggle over slavery, and the
+re-establishment of the Union on permanent foundations enlisted his whole
+nature. In the same spirit, he devoted his later years to the overthrow of
+the spoils system. He did this under no delusion as to the magnitude of the
+undertaking. Probably no one else comprehended it so well. He had studied
+the problem profoundly, and had solved every difficulty, and could answer
+every cavil to his own satisfaction." There can be no question that "his
+name imparted a strength to the movement no other would have given." Nor
+can there be much question that "among public men there was none who so won
+the confidence of sincere and earnest men and women by his own personality.
+The powers of such a character, with all his gifts and accomplishments, was
+what Mr. Curtis brought to the civil service reform."[52]
+
+[1] American Unitarian Biography, edited by William Ware; Memoir of
+    Worcester, by Henry Ware, Jr., I. 45, 46.
+
+[2] Solemn Review, edition of 1836 by American Peace Society, 7.
+
+[3] It had been preceded by societies in Ohio and New York, results of
+    the influence of the Solemn Review.
+
+[4] Unitarian Biography, I. 49.
+
+[5] Memoir, II. 284; one-volume edition, 111.
+
+[6] Ibid., III. 111; one-volume edition, 284.
+
+[7] Memoir, 139.
+
+[8] Christian Examiner, May, 1850, XLVIII. 378.
+
+[9] Ibid., November, 1861, LXXI. 313.
+
+[10] Life, 83.
+
+[11] Ibid., 115.
+
+[12] Cyclopedia of American Biography, V. 746.
+
+[13] Memoir, II. 348.
+
+[14] Memoir.
+
+[15] Ibid., 351.
+
+[16] Ibid., IV. 572.
+
+[17] Reminiscences, 328.
+
+[18] Memoir, III. 36; one-volume edition, 477.
+
+[19] Memoir, III. 31; one-volume edition, 474, 475.
+
+[20] Works, II. 301.
+
+[21] When will the Day come? and other tracts of the Massachusetts
+     Temperance Society, 135.
+
+[22] Of the twenty-seven annual addresses given before this society from
+     1814 to 1840, at least sixteen were by Unitarians; and among these
+     were John T. Kirkland, Abiel Abbot, William E. Channing, Edward
+     Everett, the younger Henry Ware, Gamaliel Bradford, Charles Sprague,
+     James Walker, Alexander H. Everett, William Sullivan, and Samuel K.
+     Lothrop. The first four presidents of this society--Samuel Dexter,
+     Nathan Dane, Isaac Parker, and Stephen Fairbanks--were Unitarians. Of
+     the same faith were also a large proportion of the vice-presidents
+     and other officers. Many of the tracts published by the society were
+     written by Unitarians.
+
+[23] Unitarians of every calling have been the advocates of temperance.
+     Among those who have been loyal to it in word and action may be named
+     John Adams, Jeremy Belknap, Jonathan Phillips, Charles Lowell, Ezra
+     S. Gannett, John Pierpont, Samuel J. May, Amos Lawrence, Horace Mann,
+     William H. and George S. Burleigh, Governor Pitman, William G. Eliot,
+     Rufus P. Stebbins, and William B. Spooner. "Many of the leading men
+     and women who were eminent as lawyers, judges, legislators, scholars,
+     also prominent in the business walks of life, and in social position,
+     gave this cause the force of their example, and the inspiration of
+     their minds. By their contributions of money, by their personal
+     efforts, by their public speeches and writings, and by their practice
+     of total abstinence, they rendered very valuable service."
+
+[24] Twelfth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, 1897.
+
+[25] Theodore Clapp, of New Orleans, may be an exception, though he is
+     claimed by the Universalists. See S.J. May's Recollections of the
+     Anti-slavery Conflict, 335.
+
+[26] Autobiography and Letters, 117, 127, 129. The criticism of Dr. Dewey
+     may be found in S.J. May's Recollections, 367.
+
+[27] Memoir, 139, 284, 296. See S.J. May, Recollections, 341, 367, for an
+     anti-slavery indictment of Dr. Gannett.
+
+[28] Memoir, chapter on Slavery.
+
+[29] Recollections of the Anti-slavery Conflict, chapter on the
+     Unitarians, 335.
+
+[30] See Lydia Maria Child's account of conversations with Channing on
+     this subject, in her Letters from New York.
+
+[31] Recollections and Impressions, 47, 183.
+
+[32] The Story of his Life as Told by his Children.
+
+[33] Recollections, 335.
+
+[34] S.J. May, Recollections, 19; Life of A.B. Alcott, 220; Life of
+     Garrison, I. 212.
+
+[35] Life of Garrison, I. 223.
+
+[36] The more prominent names are herewith given as they were printed in
+     The Christian Register: Joseph Allen, J.H. Allen, S.G. Bulfinch, C.F.
+     Barnard, Charles Briggs, W.G. Babcock, C.T. Brooks, Warren Burton,
+     C.H. Brigham, Edgar Buckingham, William H. Channing, James F. Clarke,
+     S.B. Cruft, A.H. Conant, C.H.A. Dall, R. Ellis, Converse Francis,
+     James Flint, William H. Furness, N.S. Folsom, Frederick A. Farley,
+     Frederick T. Gray, Henry Giles, F.D. Huntington, E.B. Hall, N. Hall,
+     F.H. Hedge, F. Hinckley, G.W. Hosmer, F.W. Holland, Thomas Hill,
+     Sylvester Judd, James Kendall, William H. Knapp, A.A. Livermore, S.J.
+     May, Samuel May, M.I. Mott, A.B. Muzzey, J.F. Moors, Henry A. Miles,
+     William Newell, J. Osgood, S. Osgood, Andrew P. Peabody, John
+     Parkman, John Pierpont, Theodore Parker, Cyrus Pierce, J.H. Perkins,
+     Cazneau Palfey, O.W.B. Peabody, Samuel Ripley, Chandler Robbins,
+     Caleb Stetson, Oliver Stearns, Rufus P. Stebbins, Edmund Q. Sewall,
+     Charles Sewall, John T. Sargent, George F. Simmons, William Silsbee,
+     William P. Tilden, J.W. Thompson, John Weiss, Robert T. Waterston,
+     William Ware, J.F.W. Ware, E.B. Willson, Frederick A. Whitney, Jason
+     Whitman.
+
+[37] Printed in The Christian Register, October 4, 1845.
+
+[38] Quarterly Journal, III. 567.
+
+[39] Ibid., 572.
+
+[40] Unity, Sept. 4, 1886, Mrs. S.C.Ll. Jones, Historic Unitarianism in
+     the West.
+
+[41] Life of Joshua R. Giddings, 399.
+
+[42] Memoir of Charles Lowe, 486. In 1901 four of the eighteen directors
+     of the American Unitarian Association were women.
+
+[43] Life, III. 149.
+
+[44] Life of Charles Sumner, IV. 191; Works, VII. 452.
+
+[45] G.W. Curtis, Orations and Addresses, II. 30.
+
+[46] Ibid., 173.
+
+[47] Ibid., 180.
+
+[48] Ibid., 223.
+
+[49] G.W. Curtis, Orations and Addresses, II. 458.
+
+[50] See Curtis's Orations and Addresses, II.; also, his Reports as civil
+     service commissioner, and various addresses before the Social Science
+     Association.
+
+[51] Edward Cary, Life of Curtis, American Men of Letters, 294.
+
+[52] George William Curtis and Civil Service Reform, by Sherman S. Rogers,
+     in Atlantic Monthly, January, 1893, LXXI. 15.
+
+
+
+
+XVII.
+
+
+UNITARIAN MEN AND WOMEN.
+
+Many of the most influential Americans have been in practical accord with
+Unitarianism, while not actually connected with Unitarian churches. They
+have accepted its principles of individual freedom, the rational
+interpretation of religion, and the necessity of bringing religious beliefs
+into harmony with modern science and philosophy. Among these may be
+properly included such men as Benjamin Franklin, John Marshall, Gerrit
+Smith, John G. Whittier, William Lloyd Garrison, Andrew D. White, and
+Abraham Lincoln. Whittier was a Friend, and White an Episcopalian; but the
+religion of both is acceptable to all Unitarians. Marshall was undoubtedly
+a Unitarian in his intellectual convictions, and he sometimes attended the
+Unitarian church in Washington; but his church affiliations were with the
+Episcopalians. John C. Calhoun was all his life a member of an Episcopal
+church and a communicant in it; but he frequently attended the Unitarian
+church in Washington, and intellectually he discarded the doctrines taught
+in the creeds of his church.
+
+Lincoln belonged to no church, and had no interest in the forms and
+disputes that constitute so large a part of outward religion; but he was
+one of those men whose great deeds rest on a basis of simple but
+profoundest religious conviction. The most explicit statement he ever made
+of his faith was in these words: "I have never united myself to any church,
+because I have found difficulty in giving my assent, without mental
+reservation, to the long, complicated statements of Christian doctrine
+which characterize their articles of belief and confessions of faith. When
+any church will inscribe over its altar, as its sole qualification of
+membership, the Saviour's condensed statement of both law and gospel, 'Thou
+shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and
+with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself,' that church will I join
+with all my heart and all my soul."[1] This declaration brings Lincoln
+into fullest harmony with the position of the Unitarian churches.
+
+[Sidenote: Eminent Statesmen.]
+
+The intellectual tendencies of the eighteenth century led many of the
+leading Americans to discard the Puritan habit of mind and the religious
+beliefs it had cherished. An intellectual revolt caused the rejection of
+many of the Protestant doctrines, and a political revolt in the direction
+of democracy led to the acceptance of religious principles not in harmony
+with those of the past. Many Americans shared in these protests who did not
+openly break with the older faiths. Washington was of this class; for,
+while he remained outwardly a churchman, he had little intellectual or
+practical sympathy with the stricter beliefs. Franklin was thoroughly of
+the Deistic faith of the thinkers of England and France in his time. These
+tendencies had their effect upon such men as John Adams, Timothy Pickering,
+Joseph Story, and Theophilus Parsons, as well as upon Thomas Jefferson and
+William Cranch. They showed themselves with especial prominence in the case
+of Jefferson, who always remained outwardly faithful to the state religion
+of Virginia, in which he had been educated, attended the Episcopal church
+in the neighborhood of his home, sometimes joining in its communion, but
+who was, nevertheless, intellectually a pronounced Unitarian.
+
+With Jefferson his Unitarianism was a part of his democracy, for he was
+consistent enough to make his religion and his politics agree with each
+other. As he would have kings no longer rule over men, but give political
+power into the hands of the people, so in religion he would put aside all
+theologians and priests, and permit the people to worship in their own way.
+It was for this reason that he rejoiced in the emancipating work of
+Channing, of which he wrote in 1822, "I rejoice that in this blessed
+country of free inquiry and belief, which has surrendered its creeds and
+conscience neither to kings nor priests, the genuine doctrine of only one
+God is reviving; and I trust there is not a young man now living who will
+not die a Unitarian."[2] Jefferson's revolt against authority was tersely
+expressed in his declaration: "Had there never been a commentator, there
+never would have been an infidel."[3] This was in harmony with his
+saying, that "the doctrines of Jesus are simple and tend all to the
+happiness of man."[4] It also fully agrees with the claims of the early
+Unitarians with regard to the teachings of Jesus. "No one sees with greater
+pleasure than myself," he wrote, "the progress of reason in its advance
+toward rational Christianity. When we shall have done away with the
+incomprehensible jargon of the Trinitarian arithmetic, that three are one,
+and one are three; when we shall have knocked down the artificial
+scaffolding reared to mask from view the simple structure of Jesus; when,
+in short, we shall have unlearned everything taught since his day, and got
+back to the pure and simple doctrines he inculcated--we shall then be truly
+and worthily his disciples; and my opinion is that, if nothing had ever
+been added to what flowed purely from his lips, the whole world would at
+this day have been Christian."[5]
+
+However mistaken Jefferson may have been in the historical opinions thus
+expressed, we cannot question the sincerity of his beliefs or fail to
+recognize that he had the keenest interest in whatever gave indication of
+the growth of a rational spirit in religion. These opinions he shared with
+many of the leading men of his time; but he was more outspoken in their
+utterance, as he was more consistent in holding them. That Washington,
+though remaining an Episcopalian, was in fullest accord with Jefferson in
+his principles of toleration and religious freedom, is apparent from one of
+his letters. "I am not less ardent in my wish," he wrote, "that you may
+succeed in your toleration in religious matters. Being no bigot myself to
+any mode of worship, I am disposed to indulge the professors of
+Christianity in the church with that road to heaven which to them shall
+seem the most direct, easiest, and least liable to exception."[6]
+Intellectually, Franklin was a Deist of essentially the same beliefs with
+Jefferson, as may be seen in his statement of faith: "I believe in one God,
+the creator of the universe; that he governs it by his providence; that he
+ought to be worshipped; that the most acceptable service we render to him
+is doing good to his other children; that the soul of man is immortal, and
+will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in
+this. These I take to be the fundamental points in all sound religion. As
+to Jesus of Nazareth, I think his system of morals and his religion, as he
+left them to us, the best the world ever saw, or is likely to see; but I
+apprehend it has received various corrupting changes, and I have some
+doubts of his divinity; though it is a question I do not dogmatize upon,
+having never studied it."[7] Franklin was a member of a Unitarian church
+in London.
+
+[Sidenote: Some Representative Unitarians.]
+
+The church in Washington, not having been popular or of fine appointments,
+has been a test of the Unitarian faith of those frequenting the capital
+city. It has included in its congregation, from time to time, such men as
+John Adams, John Quincy Adams,[8] John Marshall, Joseph Story, Samuel F.
+Miller, Millard Fillmore, William Cranch, George Bancroft, Nathan K. Hall,
+James Moore Wayne, and Senators Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, William S.
+Archer, Henry B. Anthony, William B. Allison, Timothy O. Howe, Edward
+Everett, Justin S. Morrill, Charles Sumner, William E. Chandler, George F.
+Hoar, and John P. Hale. William Winston Seaton and Joseph Gales, once
+prominent in Washington as editors and publishers of The National
+Intelligencer, were both Unitarians.
+
+In New York the Unitarian churches have had among their attendants and
+members such persons as William Cullen Bryant, Catherine M. Sedgwick, Henry
+D. Sedgwick, Henry Wheaton, Peter Cooper, George William Curtis, George
+Ticknor Curtis, Moses H. Grinnell, Dorman B. Eaton, and Joseph H. Choate.
+The churches in Salem have had connected with them such men as John Prince,
+Nathaniel Bowditch, Benjamin Peirce, Timothy Pickering, John Pickering,
+Leverett Saltonstall, Joseph Story,[9] Jones Very, William H. Prescott,
+and Nathaniel Hawthorne.[10]
+
+[Sidenote: Judges and Legislators.]
+
+During the early Unitarian period "the judges on the bench" included such
+men as Theophilus Parsons, Isaac Parker, and Lemuel Shaw, all of whom held
+the office of chief justice in Massachusetts. Other lawyers, jurists, and
+statesmen were Fisher Ames, political orator and statesman; Nathan Dane,
+who drew the ordinance for the north-western territory; Samuel Dexter,
+senator, and secretary of the treasury under John Adams; Christopher Gore,
+senator, and governor of Massachusetts; and Benjamin R. Curtis, of the
+United States Supreme Court. Other chief justices of the Supreme Court of
+Massachusetts have been George T. Bigelow, John Wells, Pliny Myrick,
+Walbridge A. Field, Charles Allen; and of associates in that court have
+been Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, Benjamin F. Thomas, Seth Ames, Samuel S.
+Wilde, Levi Lincoln, and John Lowell. Among the governors of Massachusetts
+have been Levi Lincoln, Edward Everett, John Davis, John H. Clifford, John
+A. Andrew, George S. Boutwell, John D. Long, Thomas Talbot, George D.
+Robinson, J.Q.A. Brackett, Oliver Ames, Frederic T. Greenhalge, and Roger
+Wolcott. The first mayors of Boston, John Phillips, Josiah Quincy,[11] and
+Harrison Gray Otis, were Unitarians. Then, after an interval of one year,
+followed Samuel A. Eliot and Jonathan Chapman.
+
+It has often been assumed that Unitarianism attracts only intellectual
+persons; but it also appeals to practical business men, legislators, and
+the leaders of political life. In Maine have been Vice-President Hannibal
+Hamlin, Governor Edward Kent, and Chief Justice John Appleton. In New
+Hampshire it has appealed to such men as Chief Justices Cushing, Henry A.
+Bellows, Jeremiah Smith, and, Charles Doe, as well as to Governors Onslow
+Stearns, Charles H. Bell, Benjamin F. Prescott, and Ichabod Goodwin; in
+Rhode Island, Governors Lippitt and Seth Paddelford, Chief Justices Samuel
+Ames and Samuel Eddy, General Ambrose E. Burnside, and William B. Weeden,
+historian and economist. Alphonso Taft and George Hoadly, both governors of
+Ohio, were Unitarians, as were Austin Blair, John T. Bagley, Charles S.
+May, and Henry H. Crapo, governors of Michigan. Among the prominent
+Unitarians of Iowa have been Senator William B. Allison and General George
+W. McCrary. In California may be named Leland Stanford, Horace Davis, Chief
+Justice W.H. Beatty, and Oscar L. Shafter of the Supreme Court.
+
+[Sidenote: Boston Unitarianism.]
+
+What Unitarianism has been in the lives of its men and women may be most
+conspicuously seen in Boston and the region about it, for there throughout
+the first half of the nineteenth century Unitarianism was the dominant form
+of Christianity. Of the period from 1826 to 1832, when Dr. Lyman Beecher
+was settled in Boston, Mrs. Stowe has given this testimony: "All the
+literary men of Massachusetts were Unitarians. All the trustees and
+professors of Harvard College were Unitarians. All the élite of wealth and
+fashion crowded Unitarian churches. The judges on the bench were Unitarian,
+giving decisions by which the peculiar features of church organization, so
+carefully ordained by the Pilgrim fathers, had been nullified."[12] Of the
+same period Dr. Beecher wrote, "All offices were in the hands of
+Unitarians."[13]
+
+These statements were literally true, except in so far as they implied that
+Unitarians used high positions in order to overthrow the old institutions
+of Massachusetts and substitute those of their own devising. The calmer
+judgment of the present day would not accept this conclusion, and it has no
+historic foundation. The religious development of Boston brought its
+churches into the acceptance of a tolerant, rational, and practical form of
+Christianity, that was not dogmatic or sectarian. It took the Unitarian
+name, but only in the sense of rejecting the harsher interpretations of the
+doctrine of the Trinity and of election. The members of the Unitarian
+churches during this period were devout in an unostentatious manner, pious
+after a simple fashion, loyal Christians without excess of zeal, lovers of
+liberty, but in a conservative spirit. This simple form of piety enabled
+the men who accepted it to govern the state in a most faithful manner. They
+managed its affairs justly, wisely, and in the true intent of economy.
+Sometimes it was complained that they held a much larger number of offices
+than was their proportion according to population; but to this John G.
+Palfrey replied that the people of the state had confidence in them, and
+elected them because nobody else governed so well.
+
+With the aid of the biography of James Sullivan, judge, legislator,
+attorney-general, and diplomatist,[14] we may study the constituency of a
+single church in Boston, the Brattle Street Church. We find there James
+Bowdoin and John Hancock, rival candidates for the position of governor of
+the state in 1785. The same rivalry occurred twenty years later between
+James Sullivan and Caleb Strong, both of the number of its communicants. On
+the parish committee of this church at one time were Hancock, Bowdoin, and
+Sullivan, who became governors of the state, and Judges Wendell and John
+Lowell.[15] Some years later there were included in the congregation such
+men as Daniel Webster, Harrison Gray Otis, Abbott Lawrence, and Amos
+Lawrence, who was one of the deacons for many years.
+
+Of the distinguished business men of Boston may be named John Amory Lowell,
+John C. Amory, Jonathan Phillips (the confidential friend and supporter of
+Dr. Channing), Thomas Wigglesworth, J. Huntington Wolcott, Augustus
+Hemenway, Stephen C. Phillips, and Thomas Tileston. Francis Cabot Lowell
+was largely concerned in building up the manufacturing interests of
+Massachusetts, especially the cotton industry; and the city of Lowell took
+his name in recognition of the importance of his leadership in this
+direction. For similar reasons the city of Lawrence was named after Abbott
+Lawrence, minister of the United States to Great Britain, who was one of
+the leading merchants of Boston in the China trade, and was also largely
+concerned in the development of cotton manufacturing. With these business
+and manufacturing interests Amos Lawrence was also connected. Nathan
+Appleton[16] was associated with Francis C. Lowell in the establishment of
+the great manufacturing interests that have been a large source of the
+wealth of Massachusetts. Thomas H. Perkins, from whom was named the Perkins
+Institute for the Blind, was also concerned in the China trade and in the
+first development of railroads. Robert Gould Shaw was another leading
+merchant, who left a large sum of money for the benefit of the children of
+mariners. John Murray Forbes was a builder of railroads, notably active in
+the financial support of the national government during the civil war, and
+a generous friend of noble men and interests.[17] Nathaniel Thayer was a
+manager of railroads, erected Thayer Hall at Harvard College, and bore the
+expenses of Agassiz's expedition to South America.
+
+A Boston man by birth and training, who knew the defects as well as the
+merits of the class of men and women who have been named, has given
+generous testimony to the high qualities of mind and heart possessed by
+these Unitarians. In writing of his maternal grandfather, Octavius Brooks
+Frothingham has said: "Peter C. Brooks was an admirable example of the
+Unitarian laymen of that period, industrious, honest, faithful in all
+relations of life, charitable, public-spirited, intelligent, sagacious,
+mingling the prudence of the man of affairs with the faith of the
+Christian.... As one recalls the leading persons in Brattle Street, Federal
+Street, Chauncy Place, King's Chapel, the New North, the New South,--men
+like Adams, Eliot, Perkins, Bumstead, Lawrence, Sullivan, Jackson, Judge
+Shaw, Daniel Webster, Jacob Bigelow, T.B. Wales, Dr. Bowditch,--forms of
+dignity and of worth rise before the mind. Better men there are not. More
+honorable men, according to the standard of the time, there are not likely
+to be.... He joined the church and was a consistent church member. He was
+not effusive, demonstrative, or loud-voiced. His name did not stand high on
+church lists or among the patrons of the faith. His was the calm, rational,
+sober belief of the thoughtful, educated, honorable men of his day,--men
+like Lemuel Shaw, Joseph Story, Daniel A. White,--intellectual, noble
+people, with worthy aims, a lofty sense of duty, a strong conviction of the
+essential truths of revealed Christianity; sincere believers in the gospel,
+of enduring principle, of pure, consistent, blameless life and conduct.
+Speculative theology he cared little or nothing about. He was no disputant,
+no doubter, no casuist; of the heights of mysticism, of the depths of
+infidelity, he knew nothing. He was conservative, of course, from
+temperament rather than from inquiry. He took the literal, prose view of
+Calvinism, and rejected doctrines which did not commend themselves to his
+common sense. In a word, he was a Unitarian of the old school.... The
+Unitarian laity in general, both men and women, had a genuine desire to
+render the earthly lot of mankind more tolerable. It is not too much to say
+that they started every one of our best secular charities. They were
+exceedingly liberal in their gifts to Harvard College, and to other
+colleges as well--for they were not at all sectarian, as their large
+subscriptions to the Roman Catholic cathedral proved. Whatever tended to
+exalt humanity, in their view, was encouraged. They were as noble a set of
+men and women as ever lived."[18]
+
+This estimate of the Unitarians of Boston during the first half of the
+nineteenth century is eminently just and accurate. To a large extent these
+men and their associates in the Unitarian churches gave to the city its
+worth and its character; and they built up the industries, the commerce,
+the educational and philanthropic interests, and the progressive
+legislation of Massachusetts. They were men of integrity and sincerity, who
+were generous, faithful, and just. They accepted the religion of the
+spirit, and they gave it expression in daily conduct and character.
+
+[1] F.B. Carpenter, Six Months in the White House, 190.
+
+[2] James Parton, Life of Thomas Jefferson, 711.
+
+[3] Charles W. Upham, Life of Timothy Pickering, IV. 327.
+
+[4] P.L. Ford's edition Jefferson's Works, X.220.
+
+[5] Life of Pickering, IV. 326.
+
+[6] P.L. Ford, The True George Washington, 81.
+
+[7] P.L. Ford, The Many-sided Franklin, 174. See Diary of Ezra Stiles,
+    III. 387.
+
+[8] John Quincy Adams, in reply to a question about the church in
+    Washington, said: "I go there to church, although I am not decided in
+    my mind as to all the controverted doctrines of religion." Years
+    later he said to a preacher in the Unitarian church at Quincy: "I
+    agree entirely with the ground you took in your discourse. You did
+    not speak of any particular class of doctrines that were everlasting,
+    but of the great, fundamental principles in which all Christians
+    agree; and these, I think, are what will be permanent." See A.B.
+    Muzzey, Reminiscences and Memorials of the Men of the Revolution and
+    their Families, 53.
+
+[9] William W. Story, Life and Letters of Joseph Story, 57, 93. Joseph
+    Story grew away from Calvinism in early manhood, and accepted a
+    humanitarian view of the nature of Christ. "No man was ever more free
+    from a spirit of bigotry and proselytism," says his biographer. "He
+    gladly allowed every one freedom of belief and claimed only that it
+    should be a genuine conviction and not a mere theologic opinion,
+    considering the true faith of every man to be the necessary exponent
+    of his nature, and honoring a religious life more than a formal
+    creed. He admitted within the pale of salvation Mohammedan and
+    Christian, Catholic and infidel. He believed that whatever is sincere
+    and honest is recognized by God--that as the views of any sect are
+    but human opinion, susceptible of error on every side, it behooves
+    all men to be on their guard against arrogance of belief--and that in
+    the sight of God it is not the truth or falsehood of our views, but
+    the spirit in which we believe which alone is of vital consequence.
+    His moral sense was not satisfied with a theory of religion founded
+    upon the depravity of man and recognizing an austere and vengeful
+    God, nor could he give his metaphysical assent to the doctrine of the
+    Trinity. In the doctrines of liberal Christianity he found the
+    resolution of his doubts, and from the moment he embraced the
+    Unitarian faith he became a warm and unhesitating believer."
+
+[10] For an interesting picture of New England Unitarianism see
+     Recollections of my Mother (Mrs. Anne Jean Lyman), by Mrs. J.P.
+     Lesley. Mrs. Lyman's home was in Northampton, Mass. The Reminiscences
+     of Caroline C. Briggs describe life in the same town and under
+     similar conditions. Also Memoir of Mary L. Ware, Memorial of Joseph
+     and Lucy Clark Allen by their Children, and Life of Dr. Samuel
+     Willard.
+
+[11] Edmund Quincy, Life of Josiah Quincy, 532. In a speech to the
+     overseers of Harvard University in 1845, Josiah Quincy said: "I never
+     did and never will call myself a Unitarian; because the name has the
+     aspect, and is loaded by the world with the imputation of
+     sectarianism." His biographer says: "He regarded differences as of
+     slight importance, especially as to matters beyond the grasp of the
+     human intellect. His catholicity of spirit fraternized with all who
+     profess to call themselves Christians, and who prove their title to
+     the name by their lives." It was precisely this catholicity of spirit
+     that was the most characteristic feature of early American
+     Unitarianism, and not the rejection of the doctrine of the Trinity.
+     However, Josiah Quincy was undoubtedly a Unitarian, both in what he
+     rejected and in what he affirmed, as may be seen from these words
+     recorded in his diary in 1854: "From the doctrines with which
+     metaphysical divines have chosen to obscure the word of God,--such as
+     predestination, election, reprobation, etc.,--I turn with loathing to
+     the refreshing assurance which, to my mind, contains the substance of
+     revealed religion,--in every nation he who feareth God, and worketh
+     righteousness, is accepted of him."
+
+[12] Autobiography, Correspondence, etc., of Lyman Beecher, II. 109.
+
+[13] Ibid., 144.
+
+[14] Thomas C. Amory. Life of James Sullivan.
+
+[15] John Lowell, a son of Judge John Lowell, and a brother of Dr. Charles
+     Lowell of the West Church, was the author of an effective
+     controversial pamphlet entitled Are you a Christian or a Calvinist?
+     Or do you prefer the Authority of Christ to that of the Genevan
+     Reformer? Both the Form and Spirit of these Questions being suggested
+     by the Late Review of American Unitarianism in The Panoplist, and by
+     the Rev. Mr. Worcester's Letter to Mr. Channing. By a Layman. Boston,
+     1815.
+
+[16] Nathan Appleton's interest in theology may be seen in his book
+     entitled The Doctrine of Original Sin and the Trinity, discussed in a
+     Correspondence between a Clergyman of the Episcopal Church, in
+     England, and a Layman of Boston, United States, published in Boston
+     in 1859. "I was brought up," he said in one of these letters, "in the
+     strictest form of Calvinistic Congregationalism; but since arriving
+     at an age capable of examining the subject, and after a careful study
+     of it, I have renounced what appear to me unworthy views of the
+     Deity, for a system which appears to me more worthy of him, and less
+     abhorrent to human reason." "I can say," he wrote in another letter,
+     "that the Unitarian party embraces the most intelligent and
+     high-minded portion of the community. It is my opinion that the views
+     of the Unitarians are the best and only security against the spirit
+     of infidelity which is prevailing so extensively amongst the most
+     highly educated and intelligent men in Europe." See Memoir of Nathan
+     Appleton, by Robert C. Winthrop.
+
+[17] John Murray Forbes: Letters and Recollections, edited by his
+     daughter, Sarah Forbes Hughes.
+
+[18] Boston Unitarianism, 93, 94, 101, 127.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII.
+
+
+UNITARIANS AND EDUCATION.
+
+The interest of Unitarians in education has always been very great, but it
+has not been in the direction of building and fostering sectarian
+institutions. As a body, Unitarians have not only been opposed to
+denominational colleges, but they have been leaders in promoting
+unsectarian education. Freedom of academic teaching and the scientific
+study of theology may be found where Unitarianism has no existence, and yet
+it is significant that in this country such mental liberty should have
+first found expression under Unitarian auspices. From the first, American
+Unitarianism has been unsectarian and liberty-loving, taking an attitude of
+toleration, free investigation, and loyalty to truth. That it has always
+been faithful to its ideal cannot be maintained, and yet its history shows
+that the open-mindedness and the spirit of freedom have never been wholly
+ignored.
+
+[Sidenote: Pioneers of the Higher Criticism.]
+
+The attitude of the early Unitarians towards the Bible, their trust in it
+as the revealed word of God and the source of divine authority in all
+matters of faith, and their confidence that a return to its simple
+principles would liberate men from superstition and bigotry, naturally made
+them the first to welcome the higher criticism of the Bible in this
+country. Such men as Noah Worcester and his successors brought to the Bible
+new and common-sense interpretations, and began the work of pointing out
+the defects in the common version. The Unitarians were not hampered by the
+theory of the verbal infallibility of the Bible; and they were therefore
+prepared to advance the critical work of the scholars, as it came to them
+from England and Germany, as was no other religious body in this country.
+
+Joseph, S. Buckminster was an enthusiastic student of the Bible, securing
+when in Europe all the apparatus of the more advanced criticism that could
+then be procured; and after his return to Boston he gave his attention to
+bringing out the New Testament in the most scholarly form that was then
+possible. In 1808, in connection with William Wells, and under the
+patronage of Harvard College, he republished Griesbach's Greek Testament,
+with a selection of the most important various readings. He also formed a
+plan of publishing in this country all the best modern English versions of
+the Hebrew prophets, with introductions and notes; but he did not find the
+necessary support for this project. In The Monthly Anthology and in The
+General Repository he "first discussed subjects of Biblical criticism in a
+spirit of philosophical and painstaking learning, and took the critical
+study of the Scriptures from the old basis on which it had rested during
+the Arminian discussions and placed it on the solid foundation of the text
+of the New Testament as settled by Wetstein and Griesbach, and elucidated
+by the labors of Michaelis, Marsh, Rosenmüller, and by the safe and wise
+learning of Grotius, Le Clerc, and Simon." "It has," wrote George Ticknor,
+"in our opinion, hardly been permitted to any other man to render so
+considerable a service as this to Christianity in the western world."[1]
+In 1811 Mr. Buckminster was made the first lecturer in Biblical criticism
+at Harvard, on, the foundation established by the gift of Samuel Dexter;
+and he entered with great interest and enthusiasm upon the work of
+preparing for the duties of this office. We are assured that "this
+appointment was universally thought to be an honor most justly due to his
+pre-eminent attainments in this science";[2] but his death the next year
+brought these plans to an untimely end.
+
+To some extent the critical work of Buckminster was continued by Edward
+Everett, his successor in the Brattle Street Church. Mr. Everett's
+successor in that pulpit, Rev. John G. Palfrey, became the professor of
+sacred literature in the Harvard Divinity School in 1831, and was the dean
+of that institution. In his lectures on the Jewish Scriptures and
+Antiquities, published in four volumes, from 1833 to 1852, he gave the most
+advanced criticism of the time. A more important work was done by Professor
+Andrews Norton, who was as radical in his labors as a Biblical critic as he
+was conservative in his theology. For the time when they were published,
+his Statement of Reasons, the first edition of which appeared in 1819,
+Historical Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels, 1837-44,
+Translation of the Gospels, with Notes, 1855, Internal Evidences of the
+Genuineness of the Gospels, 1855, have not been surpassed by any other work
+done in this country. As a scholar, he was careful, thorough, honest, and
+uncompromising in his search for the truth. In an extended note added to
+the second volume of his work on the Genuineness of the Gospels he
+investigated the origin of the Pentateuch and the validity of its
+historical statements. He showed that the work could not have bee its man
+written by Moses, that it was a compilation from prior accounts, and that
+its marvels were not to be accepted as authentic history.[3] In dealing
+with the New Testament, Professor Norton discarded the first two chapters
+of Matthew, regarding them as later additions. Frothingham speaks of Norton
+as "an accomplished and elegant scholar," and says that his interpretations
+of the Bible were by Unitarians "tacitly received as final." "He was the
+great authority, as bold, fearless, truthful, as he was exact and
+careful."[4] Although these words of praise intimate that Unitarians were
+too ready to accept the conclusions of Professor Norton as needing no
+emendation, yet his work was searching in its character and thoroughly
+sincere in its methods. Considering the general attitude of scholarship in
+his day, it was bold and uncompromising, as well as accurate and just.
+
+Another scholar was George Rapall Noyes, who was a country pastor in
+Brookfield and Petersham from 1827 to 1840, and devoted his leisure to
+Biblical studies. He became the professor of Hebrew and, lecturer on
+Biblical Literature in the Harvard Divinity School in 1840. His
+translations, with notes, of the poetical books of the Old Testament,
+beginning with Job in 1827, were of great importance as aids, to the
+interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures. His translation of the New
+Testament, which appeared after his death, in 1868, gave the best results
+of critical studies in homely prose, and with painstaking fidelity to the
+original. That Noyes was in advance of the criticism of his time may be
+indicated by the fact that, when he published his conclusions in regard to
+the Messianic prophecies in 1834,[5] he was threatened with an indictment
+for blasphemy by the attorney-general of Massachusetts. Better judgment
+prevailed against this attempt to coerce opinion, but that such an
+indictment was seriously considered shows how little genuine criticism
+there was then in existence. What are now the commonplaces of scholarship
+were then regarded as destructive and blasphemous. Noyes said that the
+truth of the Christian religion does not in any sense depend upon the
+literal fulfilment of any predictions in the Old Testament by Jesus as a
+person.[6] He said that the apostles partook of the errors and prejudices
+of their age,[7] that the commonly received doctrine of the inspiration
+of the whole Bible is a millstone about the neck of Christianity,[8] and
+that the Bible contains much that cannot be regarded as revelation.[9]
+Even as early as 1835 these opinions were generally accepted by Unitarians;
+and they were not thought to impair the true worth of the spiritual
+revelation contained in the Bible, and especially not the divine nature of
+the teachings of Christ. It was very important, as Dr. Joseph Henry Allen
+has said, in speaking of Norton and Noyes, that "these decisive first steps
+were taken by deliberate, conscientious, conservative scholars,--the best
+and soberest scholars we had to show."[10]
+
+The work of Ezra Abbot especially deserves notice here, because of "the
+variety and extent of his learning, the retentiveness and accuracy of his
+memory, the penetration and fairness of his judgment."[11] For fourteen
+years previous to his death, in 1884, he was the professor of New Testament
+criticism and interpretation in the Harvard Divinity School. He also
+rendered important service as a member of the American committee on the
+revision of the New Testament. His essay on The Authorship of the Fourth
+Gospel was one of the ablest statements of the conservative view of the
+origin of that writing. The volume of his Critical Essays, collected after
+his death, shows the ripe fruits of his "punctilious and vigilant
+scholarship." He was a zealous Unitarian, and did much to show that the New
+Testament is in harmony with that faith. In 1843 Rev. Theodore Parker
+published his translation of De Wette's Introduction to the New Testament,
+with learned notes. The extreme views of Baur and Zeller were interpreted
+by Rev. O.B. Frothingham in his The Cradle of the Christ, 1872.
+
+Various attempts were also made by those who were not professional scholars
+to bring the Bible into harmony with modern religious ideas. One of the
+most notable of these was that of Dr. William Henry Furness, pastor of the
+church in Philadelphia from 1825 to 1875. His Remarks on the Four Gospels
+appeared in 1835, and was followed by Jesus and his Biographers, 1838,
+Thoughts on the Life and Character of Jesus of Nazareth, 1859, and The Veil
+Partly Lifted and Jesus Becoming Visible, 1864, as well as several other
+works. His attempt was to give a rational interpretation of the life of
+Jesus that should largely eliminate the miraculous and yet preserve the
+spiritual. These works have little critical value, and yet they have much
+of charm and suggestiveness as religious expositions of the Gospels. Of
+somewhat the same nature was Dr. Edmund H. Sears's The Fourth Gospel: The
+Heart of Christ, 1872, a work of deep spiritual insight.
+
+[Sidenote: The Catholic Influence of Harvard University.]
+
+The catholic and inclusive spirit manifested by the Unitarians in their
+Biblical studies is worthy of notice, however, much more than any definite
+results of scholarship produced by them. In the cultivation of the broader
+academic fields which their control of Harvard University brought within
+their reach this attitude is especially conspicuous. At no time since it
+came under their administration has it been used for sectarian purposes, to
+make proselytes or to compel acceptance of their theology. During the first
+half of the nineteenth century, Harvard was in some degree distinctly
+Unitarian; but since 1870 it has been wholly non-sectarian. When the
+Divinity School was organized, it was provided in its constitution that no
+denominational requirements should be exacted of professors or students;
+yet the school was essentially Unitarian until 1878. In that year the
+president, Charles W. Eliot, asked of Unitarians the sum of $130,000 as an
+endowment for the school; but he insisted that it should be henceforth
+wholly unsectarian, and this demand was received with approval and
+enthusiasm by Unitarians themselves.
+
+In 1879 President Eliot said at a meeting held in the First Church in
+Boston for the purpose of appealing to Unitarians in behalf of the school:
+"The Harvard Divinity School is not distinctly Unitarian either by its
+constitution or by the intention of its founders. The doctrines of the
+unsectarian sect, called in this century Unitarians, are indeed entitled to
+respectful consideration in the school so long as it exists, simply because
+the school was founded, and for two generations, at least, has been
+supported, by Unitarians. But the government of the University cannot
+undertake to appoint none but Unitarian teachers, or to grant any peculiar
+favors to Unitarian students. They cannot, because the founders of the
+school, themselves Unitarians, imposed upon the University the following
+fundamental rule for its administration: that every encouragement shall be
+given to the serious, impartial, and unbiassed investigation of Christian
+truth, and that no assent to the peculiarities of any denomination of
+Christians shall be required either of the instructors or students."[12]
+Dr. Charles Carroll Everett, dean of the school from 1878 to 1900, has said
+that "in some respects it differs from every other theological seminary in
+the country." "No pains are taken to learn the denominational relations of
+students even when they are applicants for aid." "No oversight is exercised
+over the instruction of any teacher. No teacher is responsible for any
+other or to any other."[13]
+
+In 1886 compulsory attendance upon prayers was abolished at Harvard
+University. Religious services are regularly held every week-day morning,
+on Thursday afternoons, and on Sunday evenings, being conducted by the
+Plummer professor of Christian morals, with the co-operation of five other
+preachers, who, as well as the Plummer professor, are selected irrespective
+of denominational affiliations. In this and other ways the university has
+made itself thoroughly unsectarian. Its attitude is that of scientific
+investigation, open-mindedness towards all phases of truth, and freedom of
+teaching. Theology is thus placed on the same basis with other branches of
+knowledge, and religion is made independent of merely dogmatic
+considerations.
+
+This undenominational temper at Harvard University has been developed
+largely under Unitarian auspices. Its presidents for nearly a century have
+been Unitarians, namely: John T. Kirkland, 1810-28; Josiah Quincy, 1829-45;
+Edward Everett, 1846-49; Jared Sparks, 1849-53; James Walker, 1853-60;
+Cornelius C. Felton, 1860-62; Thomas Hill, 1862-68; and Charles W. Eliot
+since 1869. Kirkland, Everett, Sparks, Walker, and Hill were Unitarian
+ministers; but under their administration the university was as little
+sectarian as at any other time.
+
+When the new era of university growth began in 1865, with the founding of
+Cornell University, the influence of Harvard was widely felt in the
+development of great unsectarian educational institutions. Although Ezra
+Cornell was educated as a Friend, he was expelled from that body, and
+connected himself with no other religious sect. He was essentially a
+Unitarian, often attending the preaching of Dr. Rufus P. Stebbins. The
+university which took his name was inspired with the Harvard ideal, and,
+while recognizing religion as one of the great essential phases of human
+thought and life, gave and continues to give equal opportunity to all
+sects.
+
+Another instance of the same spirit is Washington University, which began
+under Unitarian auspices, but soon developed into an entirely
+undenominational institution. Members of the Unitarian church in St. Louis
+secured a charter for a seminary, which in 1853 was organized as the
+Washington Institute. In 1857 it was reorganized as Washington University,
+and the charter declared, "No instruction, either sectarian in religion or
+party in politics, shall be allowed in any department of said university,
+and no sectarian or party test shall be allowed in the selection of
+professors, teachers, or other officers of said university or in the
+admission of scholars thereof, or for any purpose whatever." Sectarian
+prejudice, however, regarded the university as essentially Unitarian; and
+for the first twenty years of its existence three-fourths of the gifts and
+endowments came from persons of that religious body.
+
+Although Dr. William G. Eliot knew nothing of the original movement for
+forming a seminary under liberal auspices, he gave the institution his
+unstinted support and encouragement. He was the president of the board of
+management from the first, and in 1871 he became the chancellor. At his
+death, in 1887, the university included Smith Academy, Mary Institute, and
+a manual training school, these being large preparatory schools; the
+college proper, school of engineering, Henry Shaw school of botany, St.
+Louis school of fine arts, law school, medical school, and dental college.
+It then had sixteen hundred students and one hundred and sixty instructors.
+The endowments have since been largely increased, the number of students
+has increased to two thousand, and important new buildings have been added.
+Dr. Eliot gave the university its direction and its unsectarian methods,
+and it has attained its present position because of his devoted labors. The
+Leland Stanford Jr. University in California, and Clark University in
+Massachusetts, both founded by Unitarians, further illustrate the Harvard
+spirit in education.
+
+[Sidenote: The Work of Horace Mann.]
+
+Horace Mann was an earnest and devoted Unitarian, the intimate friend of
+Channing and Parker, to both of whom he was largely indebted for his
+intellectual and spiritual ideals. He was inspired by their ideas of reform
+and progress, and to their personal sympathy he owed much. It is now
+universally conceded that to him we are indebted for the diffusion of the
+common-school idea throughout the country, that he developed and brought to
+full expression the conception of universal education. In full sympathy
+with him in this work were such men as Dr. Channing, Edward Everett,
+Theodore Parker, Josiah Quincy, Samuel J. May, and the younger Robert
+Rantoul; but he made the common school popular, and put it forward as a
+national institution. When Mann became the secretary of the Massachusetts
+Board of Education on its creation, in 1837, the theory that all children
+should be educated by the state, if not otherwise provided for, was by no
+means generally accepted; nor was it an accepted theory that such education
+should be strictly unsectarian.[14] Mann fought the battle for these two
+ideas, and virtually established them for the whole nation. On the first
+board one-half the members were Unitarians,--Horace Mann, the younger
+Robert Rantoul, Jared Sparks, and Edmund Dwight. Some of the staunchest and
+most devoted and most liberal friends of Mann were of other denominations;
+but the work for common schools was thoroughly in harmony with Unitarian
+principles. Edmund Dwight was largely instrumental in securing the
+establishment of a Board of Education in Massachusetts, and he brought
+about the election of Horace Mann to fill the position of its secretary. He
+was a leading merchant in Boston, and his house was a centre for meetings
+and consultations relating to educational interests. He contributed freely
+for the purpose of enlarging and improving the state system of common
+schools, his donations amounting to not less than $35,000.[15]
+
+The first person to clearly advocate the establishment of schools for the
+training of teachers was Rev. Charles Brooks, minister of the Second
+Unitarian Church in Hingham from 1821 to 1839, afterwards professor of
+natural history in the University of the City of New York, and a reformer
+and author of some reputation in his day. In 1834 he began to write and
+lecture in behalf of common schools, and especially in the interest of
+normal schools.[16] He spoke throughout the state in behalf of training
+schools, with which he had become acquainted in Prussia; he went before the
+legislature on this subject; and he carried his labors into other
+states.[17]
+
+Horace Mann took up the idea of professional schools for teachers and made
+it effective. Edmund Dwight gave $10,000 to the state for this purpose, and
+schools were established in 1838. When the first of these normal schools
+opened in Lexington, July 3, 1839, its principal was Rev. Cyrus Peirce, who
+had been the minister of the Unitarian church in North Reading from 1819 to
+1829, and then had been a teacher in North Andover and Nantucket. "Had it
+not been for Cyrus Peirce," wrote Henry Barnard, "I consider the cause of
+Normal Schools would have failed or have been postponed for an indefinite
+period."[18] Dr. William T. Harris has said that "all Normal School work
+in this country follows substantially one tradition, and this traces back
+to the course laid down by Cyrus Peirce."[19] In the Lexington school
+Peirce was succeeded by Samuel J. May, who had been settled over Unitarian
+churches in Brooklyn and Scituate.[20]
+
+The work done by Horace Mann for education includes his labors as president
+of Antioch College from 1852 to 1859. He maintained that the chief end of
+education is the development of character; and he sought to make the
+college an altruistic community, in which teachers and students should
+labor together for the best good of all. He put into practice the
+nonsectarian principle, made the college coeducational, and developed the
+spirit of individual freedom as one of cardinal importance in education.
+"The ideas for which he stood," has written one who has carefully studied
+his work in all its phases, "spread abroad among the people of the Ohio
+valley, and showed themselves in various state institutions, normal
+schools, and high schools that were planted in the central west.
+Altogether, apart from Mr. Mann's visible work in Antioch College may be
+found agencies which he set at work, whose influence only eternity can
+measure. It was a great thing to the new west that a high standard of
+scholarship should be placed before her sons and daughters, and that a few
+hundred of them should be sent out into every corner of the state, and
+ultimately to the farthest boundaries of the nation, with a sound
+scholarship and a love for truth there and then wholly new. His reputation
+for scholarship and zeal gave his opinions greater weight than those of
+almost any other man in the country. As a result the most radical
+educational ideas were received from him with respect; and he carried
+forward the work of giving a practical embodiment to co-education,
+non-sectarianism, and the requirements of practical and efficient moral
+character, as perhaps no other educator could have done. His influence
+among people, and the aspirations which he kindled in thousands of minds by
+public addresses and personal contact, did for the people of the Ohio
+valley a work, the extent and value of which can never be measured."[21]
+
+[Sidenote: Elizabeth Peabody and the Kindergarten.]
+
+Horace Mann was largely influenced by Dr. Channing throughout his career as
+an educational reformer,[22] as was his wife and her sister, Elizabeth P.
+Peabody. It was to Channing that Miss Peabody owed her interest in the work
+of education; and his teachings brought her naturally into association with
+Bronson Alcott, and made her the leader in introducing the kindergarten
+into this country. She was influenced by the kindergarten method, at an
+early date, and she gave years of devoted labor to its extension. In
+connection with her sister, Mrs. Horace Mann, she wrote Culture in Infancy,
+1863, Guide to the Kindergarten, 1877, and Letters to Kindergartners, 1886.
+As a result of her enthusiastic efforts, kindergartens were opened in
+Boston in 1864; and it was in 1871 that she organized the American Froebel
+Union, which became the kindergarten department of the National Educational
+Association in 1885. The Kindergarten Messenger was begun by her in 1873,
+and was continued under her editorship until 1877, when it was merged in
+The New Education.
+
+Miss Peabody's Kindergarten Guide has been described as one of the most
+important original contributions made to the literature of the subject in
+this country. Her name is most intimately associated with the educational
+progress of the country because of her enthusiasm for the right training of
+children and her spiritual insight as a teacher.
+
+[Sidenote: Work of Unitarian Women for Education.]
+
+Much has been done by Unitarian women to advance the cause of education.
+The conversations of Margaret Fuller, held in Boston from 1839 to 1844,
+were an important influence in awakening women to larger intellectual
+interests; and many of those who attended them were afterwards active in
+promoting the educational enterprises of the city. In 1873 Miss Abby
+Williams May, Mrs. Ann Adeline Badger, Miss Lucretia Crocker, and Miss
+Lucia M. Peabody were elected members of the school committee of Boston,
+but did not serve, as their right to act in that capacity was questioned.
+Thereupon the legislature took action, making women eligible to the office.
+The next year Misses May, Crocker, and Peabody, with Mrs. Kate Gannett
+Wells, Mrs. Mary Safford Blake, and Miss Lucretia Hale, were elected, and
+served. In 1875 Misses Crocker, Hale, May, and Peabody were re-elected; and
+in 1876 Miss Crocker was elected one of the supervisors of the public
+schools of Boston. It is significant that the first women to hold these
+positions were Unitarians. It is also worthy of note that Miss Sarah
+Freeman Clarke, sister of James Freeman Clarke, was the first landscape
+painter of her sex in the country; and that Mrs. Cornelia W. Walter was the
+first woman to edit a large daily newspaper, she having become the editor
+and manager of the Boston Transcript at an early date.
+
+In 1873 was organized by Miss Anna E. Ticknor, daughter of Professor George
+Ticknor, the historian, the Society to encourage Studies at Home. During
+the twenty-four years of its existence it conducted by correspondence the
+reading and studies of over 7,000 women in all parts of the country, and
+did an important work in enlarging the sphere of women, preparing them for
+the work of teachers and for social and intellectual service in many
+directions. The society was discontinued in 1897, because, largely through
+its influence, many other agencies had come in to do the same work; but the
+large lending library, which had been an important feature of the
+activities of the society, was continued under the management of the Anna
+Ticknor Library Association until 1902. The memorial volume, published in
+1897, shows how important had been the work of the Society to encourage
+Studies at Home, and how many women, who were otherwise deprived of
+intellectual opportunities, were encouraged, helped, and inspired by it. It
+was said of Miss Ticknor, by Samuel Eliot, the president of the society
+throughout the whole period of its existence: "While appreciative of the
+restrictions which she wished to remove, she was desirous to gratify, if
+possible, the aspirations of the large number of women throughout the
+country who would fain obtain an education, and who had little, if any,
+hope of obtaining it. She was very highly educated herself, and thought
+more and more of her responsibility to share her advantages with others not
+possessing them. In addition to these moral and intellectual
+qualifications, she possessed an executive ability brought into constant
+prominence by her work as secretary of the society. She was a teacher, an
+inspirer, a comforter, and, in the best sense, a friend of many and many a
+lonely and baffled life."[23]
+
+The service of Mrs. Mary Hemenway to education also deserves recognition.
+Possessed of large wealth, she devoted it to advancing important
+educational and intellectual interests. She established the Normal School
+of Swedish Gymnastics in Boston, and provided for its maintenance until it
+was adopted by the city as a part of its educational system. With her
+financial support the Hemenway South-western Archaeological Expedition was
+carried on by Frank H. Cushing and J.W. Fewkes. It was largely because of
+her efforts that the Montana Industrial School was established, and
+maintained for about ten years. Her chief work, however, was in the
+promotion of the study of American history on the part of young persons.
+When the Old South Meeting-house was threatened with destruction, she
+contributed $100,000 towards its preservation; and by her energy and
+perseverance it was devoted to the interests of historical study. The Old
+South Lectures for Young People were organized in 1883, soon after was
+begun the publication of the Old South Leaflets, a series of historical
+prizes was provided for, the Old South Historical Society was organized,
+and historical pilgrimages were established. All this work was placed in
+charge of Mr. Edwin D. Mead; and the New England Magazine, of which he was
+the editor, gave interpretation to these various educational efforts.
+
+Mrs. Hemenway devoted her life to such works as these. It is impossible to
+enumerate here all her noble undertakings; but they were many. "Mrs.
+Hemenway was a woman whose interests and sympathies were as broad as the
+world," says Edwin D. Mead, "but she was a great patriot; and she was
+pre-eminently that. She had a reverent pride in our position of leadership
+in the history and movement of modern democracy; and she had a consuming
+zeal to keep the nation strong and worthy of its best traditions, and to
+kindle this zeal among the young people of the nation. With all her great
+enthusiasms, she was an amazingly practical and definite woman. She wasted
+no time nor strength in vague generalities, either of speech or action.
+Others might long for the time when the kingdom of God should cover the
+earth as the waters cover the sea, and she longed for it; but, while others
+longed, she devoted herself to doing what she could to bring that corner of
+God's world in which she was set into conformity with the laws of God,--and
+this by every means in her power, by teaching poor girls how to make better
+clothes and cook better dinners and make better homes, by teaching people
+to value health and respect and train their bodies and love better music
+and better pictures and be interested in more important things. Others
+might long for the parliament of man and the federation of the world, and
+so did she; but while others longed, she devoted herself to doing what she
+could to make this nation, for which she was particularly responsible,
+fitter for the federation when it comes. The good state for which she
+worked was a good Massachusetts; and her chief interest, while others
+talked municipal reform, was to make a better Boston."[24]
+
+[Sidenote: Popular Education and Public Libraries.]
+
+The interest of Unitarians in popular education and the general diffusion
+of knowledge may be further indicated by a few illustrations. One of these
+is the Lowell Institute in Boston, founded by John Lowell, son of Francis
+Cabot Lowell, and cousin of James Russell Lowell. He was a Boston merchant,
+became an extensive traveller, and died in Bombay, in 1836, at the age of
+thirty-four. In his will he left one-half his fortune for the promotion of
+popular education through lectures, and in other ways. John Amory Lowell
+became the trustee of this fund, nearly $250,000; and in December, 1839,
+the Lowell Institute began its work with a lecture by Edward Everett, which
+gave a biographical account of John Lowell, and a statement of the purposes
+of the Institute. Since that time the Lowell Institute has given to the
+people of Boston, free of charge, from fifty to one hundred lectures each
+winter. The topics treated have taken a wide range, and the lecturers have
+included many of the ablest men in this and other countries. The work of
+the Lowell Institute has also included free lectures for advanced students
+given in connection with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, science
+lectures to the teachers of Boston, and a free drawing school.
+
+In 1846 Louis Agassiz came to this country to lecture before the Lowell
+Institute. The result was that he became permanently connected with Harvard
+University, and transferred his scientific work to this country. This was
+accomplished by means of the gift of Abbott Lawrence, who founded the
+Lawrence Scientific School in 1847. Although the Lowell Institute was
+founded by a Unitarian, and although it has always been largely managed by
+Unitarians, it has been wholly unsectarian in its work. Many of its
+lecturers have been of that body, but only because they were men of science
+or of literary attainments.
+
+In 1854 Peter Cooper founded the Cooper Union in New York for the
+Advancement of Science and Art, to promote "instruction in branches of
+knowledge by which men and women earn their daily bread; in laws of health
+and improvement of the sanitary conditions of families as well as
+individuals; in social and political science, whereby communities and
+nations advance in virtue, wealth, and power; and finally in matters which
+affect the eye, the ear, and the imagination, and furnish a basis for
+recreation to the working classes." He erected a large building, and
+established therein the Cooper Institute, with its reading-room, library,
+lectures, schools, and other facilities for bringing the means of education
+within reach of those who could not otherwise obtain them.
+
+Peter Cooper was an earnest Unitarian in his opinions, attending the church
+of Dr. Bellows; but he was wholly without sectarian bias. In a letter
+addressed to the delegates to the Evangelical Alliance, at its session held
+in New York in 1873, he expressed the catholicity and the humanitarian
+spirit of his religion. "I look to see the day," he wrote, "when the
+teachers of Christianity will rise above all the cramping power and
+influence of conflicting creeds and systems of human device, when they will
+beseech mankind by all the mercies of God to be reconciled to the
+government of love, the only government that can ever bring the kingdom of
+heaven into the hearts of mankind either here or hereafter."
+
+About 1825 there was opened in Dublin, N.H., under the auspices of Rev.
+Levi W. Leonard, minister of the Unitarian church in that village, the
+first library in the country that was free to all the inhabitants of a town
+or city. In the adjoining town of Peterboro, in 1833, under the leadership
+of Rev. Abiel Abbot, also the Unitarian minister, a library was established
+by vote of the town. This library was maintained by the town itself, being
+the first in the country supported from the tax rates of a municipality. In
+the work of these Unitarian ministers may be found the beginnings of the
+present interest in the establishment and growth of free public libraries.
+
+In the founding and endowment of libraries, Unitarians have taken an active
+part. What they have done in this direction may be illustrated by the gift
+of Enoch Pratt of one and a quarter million dollars to the public library
+in Baltimore. Concerning the time when Jared Sparks was the minister of the
+Unitarian church in Baltimore, Professor Herbert B. Adams has said: "Some
+of the most generous and public-spirited people of Baltimore were connected
+with the first independent church. Afterwards, men who were to be most
+helpful in the upbuilding of Baltimore's greatest institutions--the Peabody
+Institute, the Pratt Library, and the Johns Hopkins University--were
+associated with the Unitarian society."[25]
+
+Professor Barrett Wendell speaks of George Ticknor as "the chief founder of
+the chief public library in the United States."[26] Ticknor undoubtedly
+did more than anybody else to make the Boston Public Library the great
+institution it has become, not only in giving it his own collection of
+books, but also in its inception and in its organization. The best working
+library in the country, that of the Boston Athenaeum, also owes a very
+large debt to the early Unitarians, with whom it originated, and by whom it
+was largely maintained in its early days.
+
+[Sidenote: Mayo's Southern Ministry of Education.]
+
+One of the most important contributions to the work of education has been
+that of Rev. Amory D. Mayo, known as the "Ministry of Education in the
+South." After settlements over churches in Gloucester, Cleveland, Albany,
+Cincinnati, and Springfield, Mr. Mayo began his southern work in 1880. He
+had an extensive preparation for his southern labors, having served on the
+school boards of Cincinnati and Springfield for fifteen years, lectured
+extensively on educational subjects, and been a frequent contributor to
+educational periodicals. He has written a History of Common Schools, which
+is published by the national Bureau of Education, prepared several of the
+Circulars of Information of that bureau, and printed a great number of
+educational pamphlets and addresses.
+
+"One of the most helpful agencies in the work of free and universal
+education in the South, for the last twenty years," says Dr. J.L.M. Curry
+in a personal letter, "has been the ministry of A.D. Mayo. His intelligent
+zeal, his instructive addresses, his tireless energy, have made him a
+potent factor in this great work; and any history of what the Unitarian
+denomination has done would be very imperfect which did not make proper and
+grateful recognition of his valuable services."
+
+[1] Christian Examiner, XLVII. 186; Mrs. E.B. Lee, Memoirs of the
+    Buckminsters, 325.
+
+[2] Memoir of Buckminster, introductory to his Sermons, published in
+    1814, xxxii.
+
+[3] The Pentateuch and its Relation to the Jewish and Christian
+    Dispensation. By Andrews Norton. Edited by John James Tayler, London,
+    1863. This was the Note, with introduction.
+
+[4] Boston Unitarianism, 244.
+
+[5] Hengstenberg's Christology, Christian Examiner, July, 1834, XVI. 321.
+
+[6] Ibid., 327.
+
+[7] Ibid., 356.
+
+[8] Ibid., 357.
+
+[9] Ibid., 358.
+
+[10] Our Liberal Movement in Theology, 68.
+
+[11] The Authorship of the Fourth Gospel and Other Critical Essays
+     selected from the published papers of Ezra Abbot, edited, with
+     preface, by Professor J.H. Thayer.
+
+[12] The Divinity School of Harvard University: Its History, Courses of
+     Study, Aims, and Advantages, published by the University, 9.
+
+[13] The Divinity School as it is, Harvard Graduates' Magazine, June,
+     1897.
+
+[14] B.A. Hinsdale, Horace Mann and the Common School Revival in the
+     United States, 127.
+
+[15] B.A. Hinsdale, Horace Mann and the Common School Revival in the
+     United States, 148.
+
+[16] Henry Barnard, Normal Schools, 125.
+
+[17] B.A. Hinsdale, Horace Mann, 147.
+
+[18] Quoted by J.P. Gordy, Rise and Growth of the Normal School Idea in
+     the United States, Circular of Information of the Bureau of
+     Education, 1891, 49.
+
+[19] Ibid., 43.
+
+[20] S.J. May, Memoir of Cyrus Peirce, Barnard's American Journal of
+     Education, December, 1857.
+
+[21] G.A. Hubbell, Horace Mann in Ohio: A Study of the Application of his
+     Public School Ideals to College Administration, No. IV. of Vol. VII.,
+     Columbia University Contributions to Philosophy, Psychology, and
+     Education, 50.
+
+[22] Mary Mann, Life of Horace Mann, 44; Henry Barnard, Normal Schools,
+     93.
+
+[23] Memorial Volume, 2.
+
+[24] Edwin D. Mead, The Old South Work, 1900; also Memorial Sermon, by
+     Charles G. Ames, 17.
+
+[25] Life and Writings of Jared Sparks, I. 141.
+
+[26] A Literary History of America, 266.
+
+
+
+
+XIX.
+
+
+UNITARIANISM AND LITERATURE.
+
+The history of American literature is intimately connected with the history
+of Unitarianism in this country. The influences that caused the growth of
+Unitarianism were those, to a large extent, that produced American
+literature. It was not merely Harvard College that had this effect, as has
+been often asserted; for the other colleges did not become the centres of
+literary activity. It was more distinctly the freedom, the breadth of
+intellectual interest, and the sympathy with what was human and natural
+developed by the Unitarian movement that were favorable to the growth of
+literature. Yet from the beginning of the eighteenth century Harvard
+fostered the spirit of inquiry, and helped to set the mind free from the
+theological and classical predispositions that had checked its natural
+growth. A taste for literature was encouraged, theology took on a broad and
+humanitarian character, and there was a growing appreciation of art and
+poetry. Harvard College helped to bring men into contact with European
+thought, and thus opened to them fresh and stimulating sources of
+intellectual interest.
+
+During the last quarter of the eighteenth century and the first half of the
+nineteenth New England was largely devoted to commercial enterprises.
+Every coast town of any size from Newport to Belfast was concerned with
+ship-building and with trade to foreign ports. Such towns as Boston and
+Salem traded with China, India, and many other parts of the world. Not only
+was wealth largely increased by this commercial activity, but the influence
+upon life and thought was very great. The mind was emancipated, and
+religion grew more liberal and humane, as the result of this contact with
+foreign lands. Along the whole coast, within the limits named, there was an
+abandonment of Puritanism and a growth into a genial and humanitarian
+interpretation of Christianity. In New York City somewhat the same results
+were produced, at least on social and intellectual life, though with less
+immediate effect upon religion. It was in these regions, in which
+commercial contact with the great outside world set the mind free and
+awakened the imagination, that American literature was born.
+
+[Sidenote: Influence of Unitarian Environment.]
+
+The influence of Unitarian culture and literary tastes is shown by the
+considerable number of literary men who were the sons of Unitarian
+ministers. Ralph Waldo Emerson was the son of William Emerson, the minister
+of the First Church in Boston at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
+George Bancroft was the son of Aaron Bancroft, the first Unitarian minister
+in Worcester, and the first president of the American Unitarian
+Association. To Charles Lowell, of the West Church in Boston, were born
+James Russell Lowell and Robert T.S. Lowell. The father of Francis Parkman
+was of the same name, and was for many years the minister of the New North
+Church in Boston. Richard Hildreth was the son of Hosea Hildreth, Unitarian
+minister in Gloucester. Octavius Brooks Frothingham was the son of
+Nathaniel L. Frothingham, minister of the First Church in Boston. Joseph
+Allen, father of Joseph Henry Allen and William Francis Allen, was the
+minister in Northboro for many years. Of literary workers now living
+William Everett is the son of Edward Everett, Charles Eliot Norton of
+Andrews Norton, and William Wells Newell of William Newell, minister of the
+First Church in Cambridge for many years.
+
+This influence is shown in the large number of literary men who studied at
+the Harvard Divinity School and began their career as Unitarian ministers.
+It may be partly accounted for by the fact that at the beginning of the
+nineteenth century literature offered but a precarious opportunity to men
+of talent and genius. The respect then accorded to ministers, the wide
+influence they were able to exert, and the many intellectual opportunities
+offered by the profession, naturally attracted many young men. During the
+first part of the nineteenth century no other profession was so attractive,
+and enthusiasm for it was large amongst the students of Harvard College. As
+literary openings began to present themselves, many of these men found
+other occupations, partly because their tastes were intellectual rather
+than theological, and partly because the radical ferment made the pulpit no
+longer acceptable. Such a man as Edward Everett would never have entered
+the pulpit, had it not been socially and intellectually most attractive at
+the time when he began his career. In the instance of Samuel A. Eliot, who
+took the full course in the Divinity School, but did not preach, being
+afterward mayor of Boston and member of Congress the influences at work
+were probably much the same.
+
+George Bancroft is another instance of a graduate of the Divinity School
+who did not enter the pulpit, but, beginning his career as a teacher,
+devoted his life to literature and diplomacy. With such men as Christopher
+P. Cranch, artist and poet; George P. Bradford, teacher, thinker, and
+friend of literary men; H.G.O. Blake, editor of Thoreau's Journals; J.L.
+Sibley, librarian; John Albee, poet and essayist; and William Cushing,
+bibliographer, the cause operating was probably the same,--the discovery
+that the chosen profession was not acceptable or that some other was
+preferable. Another group of men, including John G. Palfrey, Jared Sparks,
+William Ware, Horatio Alger, James K. Hosmer, Edward Rowland Sill and
+William Wells Newell, who occupied Unitarian pulpits for brief periods,
+were drawn into literary occupations as more congenial to their tastes. The
+same influence doubtless served to withdraw Emerson, George Ripley, John S.
+Dwight, Thomas W. Higginson, Moncure D. Conway, and Francis E. Abbot, from
+the pulpit; but with these men there was also a break with traditional
+Christianity.
+
+[Sidenote: Literary Tendencies.]
+
+The early Unitarian movement in New England was literary and religious
+rather than theological. The men who have been most influential in
+determining the course of Unitarian development, such as Charming, Dewey,
+Parker, and Hedge, not to include Emerson, who has been a greater
+affirmative leader than either of the others, were first of all preachers,
+and their published works were originally given to the world from the
+pulpit. They made no effort to produce a Unitarian system of theology; and
+it would have been quite in opposition to the genius of the movement, had
+they entered upon such a task.
+
+With the advent of the Unitarian movement, for the first time in the
+history of the American pulpit did the sermon become a literary product.
+Channing and his coworkers, especially Buckminster and Everett, departed
+widely from the pulpit traditions of New England, ceased to quote texts,
+abandoned theological exposition, refrained from the exhortatory method,
+and addressed men and women in literary language about the actual interests
+of daily life. Their preaching was not metaphysical, and it was not
+declamatory. The illustrations used were human rather than Biblical, a
+preference was given to what was intellectual rather than to what was
+emotional, and the effect was instruction rather than conversion. It
+resulted in faithful living, good citizenship, fidelity to duty, love of
+the neighbor, and an earnest helpfulness toward the poor and unfortunate.
+
+[Sidenote: Literary Tastes of Unitarian Ministers.]
+
+In studying any considerable list of Unitarian ministers, and taking note
+of their personal tastes and their avocations, it will be seen that a large
+number of them were lovers of literature, and ardently devoted much of
+their time to literary pursuits. Not only was there a decidedly literary
+flavor about their preaching, but they were frequent contributors to The
+Christian Examiner and The North American Review; and they wrote poems,
+novels, books of travel, essays, and histories. They were conspicuous in
+historical and scientific societies, in promoting scientific
+investigations, in advancing archaeological researches, in every kind of
+learned inquiry. Their intellectual interests were so catholic and so
+vigorous that they were not contented with parish and pulpit, and in some
+cases it would seem that the avocation was as important as the vocation
+itself.
+
+Dr. Channing would be named as the man who has done most to give direction
+to the currents of Unitarian thought on theological problems, but he was
+also conspicuously a philanthropist and reformer. He was less a theologian,
+in the technical sense, than one who taught men to live in the spirit. His
+spiritual insight, humanitarian sympathies, and imaginative fellowship with
+all forms of human experience gave his writings a literary charm and power
+of a high order. He was a great religious teacher and inspirer, a preacher
+of unsurpassed gifts of spiritual interpretation, and a prophet of the
+truer religious life.
+
+The Unitarian leaders who were influenced by the transcendental movement,
+of which the most prominent were Parker, Hedge, Clarke, and C.C. Everett,
+interpreted theology in the broadest spirit. Parker was essentially a
+preacher and reformer. It was the one conspicuous aim of his life to
+liberate religion from the intellectual thraldom of the past, and to bring
+it into the open air of the world, where it might be informed of daily
+experience and gain for itself a rightful opportunity. He was therefore
+literary, imaginative, ethical, practical. He wrote for The Dial, and
+established The Massachusetts Review, he was one of the most widely heard
+of popular lecturers, and he was a leader in the most radical of the
+reforms prominent in his day. Parker made all wisdom subservient to his
+religion, treated a wide range of subjects in his pulpit, and brought
+religion into immediate contact with human life.
+
+Frederic H. Hedge did more than any other man to give Unitarianism a
+consistent philosophy and theology. His Reason in Religion and Ways of the
+Spirit have had a profound influence in shaping the thought of the
+denomination, and have led all American Unitarians to accept his view of
+the universality of incarnation and the consubstantiality of man and God.
+He was wise as an interpreter, and by no means wanting in originality, a
+brilliant essayist, a philosophical historian, and a student of high
+themes. His Prose Writers of Germany, Hours with the German Classics,
+Primeval World of Hebrew Tradition, and Atheism in Philosophy show the
+range of his interests and his ability as a thinker.
+
+James Freeman Clarke may be selected as a typical Unitarian minister, who
+wrote poetry, was more than once an editor, often appeared on the lecture
+platform, was a frequent contributor to the leading periodicals, wrote
+several works of biography and history, gave himself zealously to the
+advocacy of the noblest reforms, and produced many volumes of sermons that
+have in an unusual degree the merit of directness, literary grace,
+suggestiveness, and spiritual warmth and insight. His theological writings
+have been widely read by Unitarians and those not of that fellowship. His
+Self-culture has been largely circulated as a manual of practical ethics.
+His Ten Great Religions and its companion volume opened the way in this
+country for the recognition of the comparative study of religious
+developments. Not content with so wide a range of studies, he wrote Thomas
+Didymus, an historical romance concerned with New Testament characters, How
+to find the Stars, and Exotics, a volume of poetical translation. He was a
+maker of many books, and all of them were well made. His theology was all
+the more humane, and his preaching was all the more effective, because he
+was interested in many subjects and had a real mastery of them.
+
+Charles Carroll Everett was a philosophical thinker and theologian, and the
+younger generation of Unitarian ministers has been largely influenced by
+him. His theological work was done in the lecture-room, but it was of
+first-rate importance. He was a profound thinker, a vigorous writer, and an
+inspiring teacher. He was an able theologian, philosophical in thought, but
+deeply spiritual in insight. His work on The Science of Thought shows the
+depth and vigor of his thinking; but his volumes on The Gospel of Paul,
+Religions before Christianity, Poetry, Comedy, and Duty, suggest the
+breadth of his inquiries and the richness of his philosophical
+investigations. In his position as the dean of the Harvard Divinity School
+he accomplished his best work, and there his great ability as theologian
+and philosophical thinker made itself amply manifest.
+
+Another group of men largely influenced by the transcendental movement
+included David A. Wasson, John Weiss, Samuel Johnson, Samuel Longfellow,
+Cyrus A. Bartol, Octavius K Frothingham, and William J. Potter. Here we see
+the literary tendency showing itself distinctly and to much advantage. The
+first four of these men wrote exquisite hymns and spiritual lyrics, and all
+of them were contributors to periodical literature or writers of books.
+Weiss was a literary critic of no mean merit in his lectures on Greek and
+Shakespearean subjects; and his volumes on American Religion and Immortal
+Life were purely literary in their method. However deficient were Johnson's
+books on the religions of India, China, and Persia, from the point, of view
+of the science of religion, they have not yet been surpassed as
+interpretations of the inner spirit of Oriental religions. Bartol was a
+master of an incisive literary method in the pulpit, that gives to his
+Radical Problems, The Rising Faith, and Principles and Portraits a
+scintillating power all their own, with epigram and flash of wit on every
+page. Frothingham published many a volume of sermons; but his biographies
+of Parker, Gerrit Smith, Wasson, Johnson, Ripley, Channing, and his volume
+on the History of Transcendentalism in New England, as well as his Boston
+Unitarianism, and Recollections and Impressions, indicate that his literary
+interests were quite as active as his theological.
+
+The literary tastes of Unitarian ministers are indicated by the large
+number of them who have written poetry that passes beyond the limits of
+mediocrity. The names of John Pierpont, Andrews Norton, Samuel Gilman,
+Nathaniel L. Frothingham, the younger Henry Ware, W.B.O. Peabody, William
+Henry Furness, William Newell, William Parsons Lunt, Frederic H. Hedge,
+James F. Clarke, Theodore Parker, Chandler Robbins, Edmund H. Sears,
+Charles T. Brooks, Robert C. Waterston, Thomas Hill, and others, have been
+lovingly commemorated in Alfred P. Putnam's Singers and Songs of the
+Liberal Faith. Hymns of nearly all these men are in common use in many
+congregations, and some of their work has found a place in every hymnal.
+
+No one can read the sermons of Thomas Starr King without feeling their
+literary grace and finish of style, as well as their intellectual vigor.
+His lectures marked his literary interest, which shows itself in his
+Christianity and Humanity and his Substance and Show. Especially does it
+appear in his delightful book on The White Hills, their Legends, Landscape,
+and Poetry. In his day, Henry Giles was widely known as a lecturer; and his
+numerous volumes of literary interpretation and criticism, especially his
+Human Life in Shakespeare, were read with appreciation. In his District
+School as it was, and My Religious Experience at my Native Home, Warren
+Burton described in simple but effective prose a kind of life that has long
+since passed away. His educational lectures and books helped on the cause
+of public school education, a subject in which he was greatly interested.
+
+Unitarian ministers have also made many contributions to local and general
+history. The history of King's Chapel by Francis W.P. Greenwood may be
+mentioned as a specimen of the former kind of work; but Greenwood also
+published several volumes of sermons, as well as biographical and literary
+volumes. A History of the Second Church in Boston, with Lives of Increase
+and Cotton Mather, was published by Chandler Robbins. The theological
+history of Unitarianism was ably discussed by George E. Ellis in A
+Half-century of the Unitarian Controversy. He devoted much attention to the
+history of New England, gave many lectures and addresses on subjects
+connected therewith, published biographies of Anne Hutchinson, William
+Penn, Count Rumford, Jared Sparks, and Charles W. Upham. His volumes on The
+Red Man and the White Man in North America, The Puritan Theocracy, and
+others, show his historical ability and his large grasp of his subjects.
+Joseph Henry Allen published an Historical Sketch of the Unitarian Movement
+since the Reformation, in the American Church History series. In Our
+Liberal Movement in Theology, and its Sequel, he critically and
+appreciatively treated of the history of Unitarianism in New England, and
+of the men who were most important in its development. His taste for
+historical studies appeared in his Christian History in its Three Great
+Periods, a work of admirable critical judgment, sobriety of statement, and
+concise presentation of the essential facts.
+
+Alvan Lamson produced a book of critical value in The Church of the First
+Three Centuries, which treats of the origin of the Trinitarian beliefs
+during that period. A work of a similar character was done by Frederic
+Huidekoper, in whose books were included the results of many years of
+minute research, and of critical investigation into the origins of
+Christianity.
+
+Books of a widely different nature were written by Artemas B. Muzzey in his
+Personal Recollection of the Men in the Battle of Lexington, and
+Reminiscences of Men of the Revolution and their Families. He published
+several volumes of sermons, as well as a number of educational works.
+Somewhat of a theologian and an ardent student and expounder of philosophy,
+William R. Alger has made himself widely known by his books on The Genius
+of Solitude, Friendships of Women, and The School of Life. His fine
+literary judgments, his artistic appreciations, and his richness of
+sentiment and imagination show themselves in these attractive volumes. He
+has also published a Life of Edwin Forrest, with a Critical History of the
+Dramatic Art. His Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life is a
+work of ripe scholarship and great literary merit, and is everywhere
+recognized as an authority.
+
+[Sidenote: Unitarians as Historians.]
+
+In the chapter on historians, in his American Literature, Professor Charles
+F. Richardson enumerates seventeen writers, twelve of whom were Unitarians.
+It was in Cambridge and Boston, amongst the graduates of Harvard College,
+that American historical writing began, and that it attained its greatest
+successes. The same causes that had given the Unitarians pre-eminence in
+other directions made them especially so in this, where wide learning and
+sound criticism were of importance. Wealth, leisure, intellectual
+emancipation, sympathetic interest in all that is human, combined with
+scholarship and plodding industry, gave the historians an unusual equipment
+for their tasks.
+
+It may be justly said that historical writing in this country began with
+Jeremy Belknap, the predecessor of Dr. Channing in the Federal Street
+Church. When settled in Dover, he wrote his History of New Hampshire; and
+after his removal to Boston he produced a biography of Watts and two
+volumes of American Biographies. He first voiced the historical interest
+that was awakened by the establishment of national independence, and the
+desire to know of the past of the American people. His chief service to
+historical studies, however, was in the formation of the Massachusetts
+Historical Society.
+
+Hannah Adams was not only a Unitarian, but the first woman in this country
+to enter upon a literary career. Her View of Religious Opinions, first
+issued in 1784, afterwards changed to a Dictionary of Religions, was the
+earliest work attempting to give an account of all the religions of the
+world. It was followed by her History of New England, and by her History of
+the Jews. She also took part in the religious controversies of the day, her
+contest with Dr. Jedediah Morse being one of the minor phases of the
+struggle between the Unitarians and the Orthodox Congregationalists; and
+her Evidences of Christianity, as well as her letters on the Gospels, were
+written from the Unitarian point of view. Her books had no literary value,
+but in their time they helped to foster the growing interest in American
+subjects.
+
+Alexander Young, minister of the New South Church in Boston, rendered
+valuable service to historical investigations by his Chronicles of the
+Pilgrim Fathers of the Colony of Plymouth and his Chronicles of the First
+Planters of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, works that were scholarly,
+accurate, and judicious. Perhaps his most important service was the editing
+of the Library of Old English Prose Writers, in nine volumes, which
+appeared from 1831 to 1834, and included such works as Sidney's Defence of
+Poesie and Sir Thomas Browne's Urn Burial. Of his historical works, O.B.
+Frothingham has justly said that "they showed extensive and accurate
+knowledge, extraordinary zeal in research, singular impartiality of
+judgment, great activity of mind, a strong inclination towards ethical as
+distinguished from speculative subjects, a passionate love of books and
+elegant letters."[1]
+
+Of the greater historians, Bancroft, Prescott, Motley, Hildreth, Sparks,
+Palfrey, Ticknor, Parkman, Higginson, Parton, and Fiske were Unitarians.
+Three of these men were sons of Unitarian ministers, and four of them
+prepared for that profession or entered upon its duties. It is not
+desirable that any attempt should be made here to estimate their historical
+labors, for their position and their achievements are well known.
+
+It would be interesting to give an account of the Unitarian connections and
+sympathies of these writers, but the materials are not at hand in the case
+of most of them. One or two illustrations will suffice for them all,
+indicating their religious tastes and preferences. In 1829 Prescott made a
+careful examination of the evidences for belief in Christianity, and his
+biographer says that "the conclusions at which he arrived were, that the
+narratives of the Gospels were authentic; and that, even if Christianity
+were not a divine revelation, no system of morals was so likely to fit him
+for happiness here and hereafter. But he did not find in the Gospels or in
+any part of the New Testament the doctrines commonly accounted orthodox,
+and he deliberately recorded his rejection of them." At a later time he
+stated his creed in these words: "To do well and act justly, to fear and to
+love God, and to love our neighbor as ourselves--in these is the essence of
+religion. To do this is the safest, our only safe course. For what we can
+believe we are not responsible, supposing we examine candidly and
+patiently. For what we do we shall indeed be accountable. The doctrines of
+the Saviour unfold the whole code of morals by which our conduct should be
+regulated."[2] Prescott was a regular attendant at the First Church in
+Boston.
+
+In his biography of George Ticknor, George S. Hilliard says that "the
+strong religious impressions which Mr. Ticknor received in early years
+deepened as his character matured into personal convictions, the confirmed
+and ruling principles of his life. He had been brought up in the doctrines
+of Calvinistic orthodoxy, but later serious reflection led him to reject
+those doctrines; and soon after his return from Europe he joined Dr.
+Channing's church, of which he continued through life a faithful member. He
+was a sincere Liberal Christian, and his convictions were firm, but they
+were held without bigotry, and he never allowed them to interfere with
+kindliness and courtesy." It may be added that Ticknor was an active member
+of the church with which he was connected, that in 1822 he took charge of a
+class of boys in the Sunday-school, which he kept for eight years. In 1839
+and the next year he gave a course of instruction in the history and
+contents of the Bible to a class of young girls, for which he prepared
+himself carefully.[3]
+
+The influence exerted by the historians in teaching love of country and a
+true patriotism may be accounted as very large. That men thoroughly
+grounded in principles of religious liberty, in high ideals of justice and
+humanity, in the broadest spirit of toleration and freedom of opinion,
+should have written our histories, is of no small importance in the
+formation of American character. That they have made many Unitarians we
+cannot suppose, but that their influence has been large in the development
+of a true spirit of nationality we have a right to think. They have
+indicated concretely the effects of bigotry and intolerance, and they have
+not failed to point out the defects in the practices of the Puritans. In so
+far as they have had to deal with religious subjects, they have taught the
+true Unitarian idea of liberty of conscience and freedom of opinion. They
+have wisely helped to make it possible for many religions to live kindly
+side by side, and to give every creed the right of utterance. These ideals
+had been developed before our historians began to write, but these men have
+helped to make them the inheritance of the whole nation. All the more
+effective has been their teaching that it has grown out of the events of
+our history, and has not been the voice of a merely personal opinion. But
+we owe much to them that they have seen the true meaning of our history,
+and that they have uttered it with clearness of interpretation and with
+vigorous moral emphasis.
+
+[Sidenote: Scientific Unitarians.]
+
+A considerable number of the leading men of science have been Unitarians.
+Notable among the mathematicians were Nathaniel Bowditch, Benjamin Peirce,
+and Thomas Hill, who was president of Antioch College and of Harvard
+University. Among the astronomers have been Benjamin Gould, Maria Mitchell,
+Asaph Hall, and Edward C. Picketing. Of Maria Mitchell it was said that she
+"was entirely ignorant of the peculiar phrases and customs of rigid
+sectarians." Her biographer says she "never joined any church, but for
+years before she left Nantucket she attended the Unitarian church, and her
+sympathies, as long as she lived, were with that denomination, especially
+with the more liberally inclined portion."[4] James Jackson, the first
+physician of the Massachusetts General Hospital, should be named in this
+connection. Joseph Lovering, the physicist, and Jeffries Wyman, the
+comparative anatomist, are also to be included. And here belongs Louis
+Agassiz, who has had more influence than any other man in developing an
+interest in science among the people generally. He gave to scientific
+investigations the largest importance for scientific men themselves. At the
+same time he was a religious man and a theist. "In religion," says his
+biographer, "Agassiz very liberal and tolerant, and respected the views and
+convictions of every one. In his youth and early manhood, Agassiz was
+undoubtedly a materialist, or, more exactly, a sceptic; but in time, and
+little by little, his studies led him to belief in a divine Creative Power.
+He was more in sympathy with Unitarianism than with any other Christian
+denomination."[5]
+
+[Sidenote: Unitarian Essayists.]
+
+A considerable number of essayists, lecturers, and general writers have
+been Unitarians. Among these have been Edwin P. Whipple, George Ripley,
+Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney, John S. Dwight, Professor Charles Eliot Norton, Henry
+T. Tuckerman, James T. Fields, and Professor Francis J. Child. These
+writers represent several phases of Unitarian opinion, but they belong to
+this fellowship by birthright or intellectual sympathies. In the same
+company may be placed Henry D. Thoreau and John Burroughs, not because they
+had any direct connection with Unitarianism, but because the religious
+convictions they expressed are such as most Unitarians accept.
+
+To the Unitarian fellowship belong Margaret Fuller, Lydia Maria Child,
+Caroline M. Kirkland, Grace Greenwood (Mrs. Lippincott), and Julia Ward
+Howe. All the early associations of Margaret Fuller were with Unitarians;
+and her brother, Arthur Fuller, became a Unitarian minister. In her maturer
+life she was with the transcendentalists, finding in Rev. W.H. Channing and
+Emerson her spiritual teachers. Writing of her debt to Emerson, she said,
+"His influence has been more beneficial to me than that of any American;
+and from him I first learned what is meant by an inward life."[6] She was
+a pronounced individualist, an intense lover of spiritual liberty, a friend
+of those who live in the spirit. This may be seen in what she called her
+credo, a sentence or two from which will indicate her type of thought. "I
+will not loathe sects, persuasions, systems," she writes, "though I cannot
+abide in them one moment; for I see that by most men they are still
+needed." "Ages may not produce one worthy to loose the shoes of the Prophet
+of Nazareth; yet there will surely be another manifestation of this word
+which was in the beginning. The very greatness of this manifestation
+demands a greater. We have had a Messiah to teach and reconcile. Let us now
+have a man to live out all the symbolical forms of human life, with the
+calm beauty of a Greek god, with the deep consciousness of Moses, with the
+holy love and purity of Jesus."[7]
+
+[Sidenote: Unitarian Novelists.]
+
+Among the novelists have been several who were Unitarian ministers,
+including Sylvester Judd, William Ware, Thomas W. Higginson, and Edward
+Everett Hale. Judd's Margaret was of the very essence of transcendentalism,
+besides being an excellent interpretation of some of the phases of New
+England character. Ware's historical novels were popular in their day, and
+are now worth going back to by modern readers, and especially by those who
+do not insist upon having their romances hot from the press. Catherine M.
+Sedgwick is another novelist worth returning to by modern readers, and
+especially by those who would know of New England life in the early part of
+the nineteenth century. She became an ardent Unitarian, and her biography
+gives interesting glimpses of the early struggles of that faith in York
+City. Other Unitarian women novelists were Lydia Maria Child, Grace
+Greenwood, Helen Hunt Jackson, Louisa M. Alcott, and Harriet Prescott
+Spofford.
+
+In naming John T. Trowbridge, Bayard Taylor, Bret Harte, William D.
+Howells, and Nathaniel Hawthorne as Unitarians, no merely sectarian aim is
+in view. In the common use of the word, Hawthorne was not a religious man;
+for he rarely attended church, and he had no interest in ecclesiastical
+formalities. No man who has written in this country, however, was more
+deeply influenced than he by those spiritual ideas and traditions which may
+be properly called Unitarian. The same may be said of Howells, who is not a
+Unitarian in any denominational sense; but his religious interests and
+convictions bring him into sympathy with the movement represented by
+Unitarianism.
+
+It may be said of the most popular novels of Edward Everett Hale, such as
+Ten Times One Is Ten, In His Name, His Level Best, that they are the best
+possible interpretations of the Unitarian spirit; for it is not merely a
+certain conception of God that characterizes Unitarianism, nor yet a
+particular theological attitude. It is the wish to make religion real,
+practical, altruistic.
+
+[Sidenote: Unitarian Artists and Poets.]
+
+Unitarianism has been as friendly to poetry and the other arts as it has
+been to philosophy and science. In its early days it fostered the artistic
+careers of Washington Allston, the painter, and Charles Bulfinch, the
+architect. It has also nurtured the sculptors, William Wetmore Story, who
+was also poet and essayist; Harriet Hosmer, whose career shows what a woman
+can accomplish in opening new opportunities for her sex; Larkin G. Mead and
+Daniel C. French. To these must be added the actors Fanny Kemble and
+Charlotte Cushman.
+
+It is as one of the earliest of our poets that Charles Sprague is to be
+mentioned, and one or two of his poems are deservedly remembered. Jones
+Very was one of the best of the transcendental poets, and a few of his
+religious poems have not been surpassed. The younger William Ellery
+Channing and Edward R. Sill belong to the same school, and deservedly keep
+their places with those who admire what is choice in thought and individual
+in artistic workmanship. As a biographer of O.B. Frothingham and as a
+member of his congregation, it may be proper to add here the name of Edmund
+C. Stedman.
+
+Among our greater poets, Bryant, Longfellow, Emerson, Holmes, Lowell,
+Stoddard, and Bayard Taylor were Unitarians. As being essentially of the
+same way of thinking and believing, Whittier and Whitman might also be so
+classed. Though Whittier was a Friend by education and by conviction, he
+was of the liberal school that places religion above sect and interprets
+dogmas in the light of human needs and affections. If he had been born and
+bred a Unitarian, he could not have more sympathetically interpreted the
+Unitarian faith than he has in his poems. Whitman had in him the heart of
+transcendentalism, and he was informed of its inmost spirit. To the more
+radical Unitarians his pleas for liberty, his intense individualism, and
+his idealistic conceptions of nature and man would be acceptable, and, it
+may be, enthusiastically approved.
+
+William Cullen Bryant early became a Unitarian; and he listened to the
+preaching of Follen, Dewey, Osgood, and Bellows. "A devoted lover of
+religious liberty," Bellows said of him, "he was an equal lover of religion
+itself--not in any precise, dogmatic form, but in its righteousness,
+reverence, and charity. He was not a dogmatist, but preferred practical
+piety and working virtue to all modes of faith."[8] It would be difficult
+to give a better definition of Unitarianism itself; and it was the large
+humanity of it, and its generous outlook upon the lives of individuals and
+nations, that made of Bryant a faithful Unitarian.
+
+Henry W. Longfellow was educated as a Unitarian, his father having been one
+of the first vice-presidents of the Unitarian Association,--a position he
+held for many years. Stephen Longfellow was an intimate friend of Dr.
+Channing in his college years, and he followed the advance of his classmate
+in the growth of his liberal faith. "It was in the doctrine and the spirit
+of the early Unitarianism that Henry Longfellow was nurtured at church and
+at home," says his brother. "And there is no reason to suppose that he ever
+found these insufficient, or that he ever essentially departed from them.
+Of his genuine religious feeling his writings, give ample testimony. His
+nature was at heart devout; his ideas of life, of death, and of what lies
+beyond, were essentially cheerful, hopeful, optimistic. He did not care to
+talk much on theological points; but he believed in the supremacy of good
+in the world and in the universe."[9]
+
+Although Oliver Wendell Holmes was educated in the older forms of religious
+beliefs, he became one of the most devoted of Unitarians. His rejection of
+Calvinism is marked by his intense aversion to it, shown upon many a page
+of his prose and poetry. No other prominent Unitarian was so aggressive
+against the doctrines of the older time. He was a regular attendant at
+King's Chapel upon the preaching of Dr. F.W.P. Greenwood, Dr. Ephraim
+Peabody, and Rev. H.W. Foote; but, when he was in Pittsfield, for a number
+of years he went to the Episcopal church, and at Beverly Farms in his later
+years, during the summer, he attended a Baptist church. He was, therefore,
+a conservative Unitarian, but with a generous recognition of the good in
+other religious bodies. At the Unitarian Festival of 1859 Dr. Holmes was
+the presiding officer, and in his address he gave a statement of the
+Unitarian faith that clearly defines his own religious position:--
+
+  We believe in vital religion, or the religion of life, as contrasted
+  with that of trust in hierarchies, establishments, and traditional
+  formulae, settled by the votes of wavering majorities in old councils
+  and convocations. We believe in evangelical religion, or the religion
+  of glad tidings, in distinction from the schemes that make our planet
+  the ante-chamber of the mansions of eternal woe to the vast majority of
+  all the men, women, and children that have lived and suffered upon its
+  surface. We believe that every age must judge the Scriptures by its own
+  light; and we mean, by God's grace, to exercise that privilege, without
+  asking permission of pope or bishop, or any other human tribunal. We
+  believe that sin is the much-abused step-daughter of ignorance, and
+  this not only from our own observation, but on the authority of him
+  whose last prayer on earth was that the perpetrators of the greatest
+  crime on record might be forgiven, for they knew not what they were
+  doing. We believe, beyond all other beliefs, in the fatherly relation
+  of the Deity to all his creatures; and, wherever there is a conflict of
+  Scriptural or theological doctrines, we hold this to be the article of
+  faith that stands supreme above all others. And, lastly, we know that,
+  whether we agree precisely in these or any other articles of belief, we
+  can meet in Christian charity and fellowship, in that we all agree in
+  the love of our race, and the worship of a common Father, as taught us
+  by the Master whom we profess to follow.[10]
+
+Educated as a Unitarian, James Russell Lowell felt none of the animosity
+toward Calvinism that was characteristic of Holmes; but his poetry
+everywhere indicates the liberality and nobleness of his religious
+convictions. That he was not sectarian, that he felt no active interest in
+dogmatic theology as such, is only saying that he was a genuine Unitarian.
+Writing in 1838, Lowell said, "I am an infidel to the Christianity of
+to-day."[11] In a letter to Longfellow written in 1845, he made a more
+explicit statement of his attitude: "Christ has declared war against the
+Christianity of the world, and it must down. There is no help for it. The
+church, that great bulwark of our practical paganism, must be reformed from
+foundation to weathercock."[12] These passages indicate his
+dissatisfaction with an external religion and with dogmatic theology. On
+the other hand, his letters and his poems prove that he was strongly
+grounded in the faith of the spirit. In that faith he lived and died; and,
+if in later years he gave recognition to some of the higher claims of the
+older types of Christianity, it was a generous concession to their rational
+qualities and their practical results, and in no degree an acceptance of
+their teachings. The definite form of Lowell's faith he expressed when he
+wrote, "I will never enter a church from which a prayer goes up for the
+prosperous only, or for the unfortunate among the oppressors, and not for
+the oppressed and fallen; as if God had ordained our pride of caste and our
+distinctions of color, and as if Christ had forgotten those that are in
+bonds."[13]
+
+Emerson left the pulpit, and he withdrew from outward conformity to the
+church; but that there came a time when he no longer felt an interest in
+religion or that he even ceased to be a Christian, after his own manner of
+interpretation, there is no reason to assume. His radicalism was in the
+direction of a deeper and truer religion, a religion of the spirit. He
+rejected the faith that is founded on the letter, on historical evidences,
+that is a body without a soul. He was not the less a Unitarian because he
+ceased to be one outwardly, for he carried forward the Unitarian principles
+to their legitimate conclusion. The newer Unitarianism owes to him more
+than to any other man, and of him more than of any other man the older
+Unitarianism can boast that he was its product.
+
+Such a survey as this indicates how great has been the influence of
+Unitarianism upon American literature. There can be no question that it has
+been one of the greatest formative forces in its development. "Almost
+everybody," says Professor Barrett Wendell, "who attained literary
+distinction in New England during the nineteenth century was either a
+Unitarian or closely associated with Unitarian influences,"[14] More even
+than that may be said, for it is the Unitarian writers who have most truly
+interpreted American institutions and American ideals.
+
+[1] Boston Unitarianism, 168.
+
+[2] George Ticknor, Life of William Hickling Prescott, 91, 164.
+
+[3] George S. Hillard, Life, Letters, and Journals of George Ticknor,
+    327.
+
+[4] Phoebe Mitchell Kendall, Life, Letters, and Journals of Maria
+    Mitchell, 239.
+
+[5] Jules Marcou, Life of Agassiz, II. 220.
+
+[6] Memoirs, I. 194.
+
+[7] Memoirs, II. 91.
+
+[8] John Bigelow, Life of Bryant, 274, 285.
+
+[9] Samuel Longfellow, Life of H.W. Longfellow, I. 14
+
+[10] Quarterly Journal, VI. 359, July, 1859.
+
+[11] Biography of James Russell Lowell, by H.E. Scudder, I. 63.
+
+[12] Ibid., 169.
+
+[13] Biography of James Russell Lowell, by H.E. Scudder, I. 144, quoted
+     from Conversations on Some of the Old Poets.
+
+[14] A Literary History of America, 289.
+
+
+
+
+XX.
+
+
+THE FUTURE OF UNITARIANISM.
+
+The early Unitarians in this country did not desire to form a new sect.
+They wished to remain Congregationalists, and to continue unbroken the
+fellowship that had existed from the beginning of New England. When they
+were compelled to separate from the older churches, they refrained from
+organizing a strictly defined religious body, and have called theirs a
+"movement." The words "denomination" and "sect" have been repellent to
+them; and they have attempted, not only to avoid their use, but to escape
+from that which they represent. They have wished to establish a broad, free
+fellowship, that would draw together all liberal thinkers and movements
+into one wide and inclusive religious body.
+
+The Unitarian body accepted in theory from the first the principles of
+liberty, reason, and free inquiry. These were fully established, however,
+only as the result of discussion, agitation, and much friction. Theodore
+Parker was subjected to severe criticism, Emerson was regarded with
+distrust, and the Free Religious Association was organized as a protest and
+for the sake of a freer fellowship. In fact, however, Parker was never
+disfellowshipped; and from the first many Unitarians regarded Emerson as
+the teacher of a higher type of spiritual religion. Through this period of
+controversy, when there was much of bitter feeling engendered, no one was
+expelled from the Unitarian body for opinion's sake. All stayed in who did
+not choose to go out, there being no trials for, heresy. The result of this
+method has been that the Unitarian body is now one of the most united and
+harmonious in Christendom. The free spirit has abundantly justified itself.
+When it was found that every one could think for himself, express freely
+his own beliefs, and live in accordance with his own convictions,
+controversy came to an end. When heresy was no longer sought for, heresy
+ceased to have an existence. The result has not been discord and distrust,
+but peace, harmony, and a more perfect fellowship.
+
+In the Unitarian body from the first there has been a free spirit of
+inquiry. Criticism has had a free course. The Bible has been subjected to
+the most searching investigation, as have all the foundations of religion.
+As a result, no religious body shows, a more rational interest in the Bible
+or a more confident trust in its great spiritual teachings.
+
+The early Unitarians anticipated that Unitarianism would soon become the
+popular form of religion accepted in this country. Thomas Jefferson thought
+that all young men of his time would die Unitarians. Others were afraid
+that Unitarianism would become sectarian in its methods as soon as it
+became popular, which they anticipated would occur in a brief period.[1]
+The cause of the slow growth of Unitarianism is to be found in the fact
+that it has been too modern in its spirit, too removed from the currents of
+popular belief, to find ready acceptance on the part of those who are
+largely influenced by traditional beliefs. The religion of the great
+majority of persons is determined by tradition or social heredity, by what
+they are taught in childhood or hear commonly repeated around them. Only
+persons who are naturally independent and self-reliant can overcome the
+difficulties in the way of embracing a form of religion which carries them
+outside of the established tradition. For these reasons it is not
+surprising that as yet there has not been a rapid growth of organized
+Unitarianism. In fact, Unitarianism has made little progress outside of New
+England, and those regions to which New England traditions have been
+carried by those who migrated westward.
+
+The early promise for the growth of Unitarianism in the south, from 1825 to
+1840, failed because there was no background of tradition for its
+encouragement and support. Individuals could think their way into the
+Unitarian faith, but their influence proved ineffective when all around
+them the old tradition prevailed as stubborn conviction. Even the influence
+of a literature pervaded with Unitarianism proved ineffective in securing
+any rapid spread of the new faith, except as it has found its way into the
+common Christian tradition by a process of spiritual infiltration. The
+result has been that Unitarianism has grown slowly, because it has been
+obliged to create new traditions, to form a new habit of thought, and to
+make free inquiry a common motive and purpose.
+
+In a word, Unitarianism has been a heresy; and therefore there has been no
+open door for it. Most heretical sects have been narrow in spirit, bigoted
+in temper, and intensely sectarian in method. Their isolation from the
+great currents of the world's life acts on them intellectually and
+spiritually as the process of in-and-in breeding does upon animals: it
+intensifies their peculiarities and defects. A process of atrophy or
+degeneration takes place; and they grow from generation to generation more
+isolated, sectarian, and peculiar. Unitarianism has escaped this tendency
+because it has accepted the modern spirit and because to a large degree its
+adherents have been educated and progressive persons. Its principles of
+liberty, reason, and free inquiry, have brought its followers into touch
+with those forces that are making most rapidly for the development of
+mankind. Unitarians have been conspicuously capable of individual
+initiative; and yet their culture has been large enough to give them a
+conservative loyalty to the past and to the profounder and more spiritual
+phases of the Christian tradition. While strongly individualistic and
+heretical they have been sturdily faithful to Christianity, seeking to
+revive its earlier and more simple life.
+
+A chief value of Unitarianism in the past has been that it has pioneered
+the way for the development of the modern spirit within the limits of
+Christianity. The churches from which it came out have followed it far on
+the way it has travelled. Its most liberal advocates of the first
+generation were more conservative than many of the leaders are to-day in
+the older churches. Its period of criticism, controversy, and agitation is
+being reproduced in many another religious body of the present time. The
+debates about miracles, the theory of the supernatural, the authenticity of
+Scripture, the nature of Christ, and other problems that are now agitating
+most of the progressive Protestant denominations, are almost precisely
+those that exercised Unitarians years ago. The only final solution of these
+problems, that will give peace and harmony, is that of free inquiry and
+rational interpretation, which Unitarians have finally accepted. If other
+religious bodies would profit by this experience and by the Unitarian
+method for the solution of these problems, it would be greatly to their
+advantage.
+
+The Unitarian churches have been few in number, and they have suffered from
+isolation and provincialism. These defects of the earlier period have now
+in part passed away, new traditions have been created, a cosmopolitan
+spirit has been developed, and Unitarianism has become a world movement.
+This was conspicuously indicated at the seventy-fifth anniversary of the
+organization of the American Unitarian Association, and in the formation of
+The International Council of Unitarian and Other Liberal Religious Thinkers
+and Workers. It was then shown that Unitarianism has found expression in
+many parts of the world, that it answers to an intellectual and spiritual
+need of the time, and that it is capable of interpreting the religious
+convictions of persons belonging to many phases of human development and
+culture. A broader, more philosophical, and humaner tradition is being
+formed, that will in time become a wide-reaching influence for the
+development of a religious life that will be at once more scientific and
+more spiritual in its nature than anything the past has produced.
+
+The promise of Unitarianism for the future does not consist in its becoming
+a sect and in its striving for the development of merely denominational
+interests, but in its cultivation of the deeper spiritual life and in its
+cosmopolitan sympathy with all phases of religious growth. Its mission is
+one with philanthropy, charity, and altruism. Its attitude should be that
+of free inquiry, loyalty to the spirit of philosophy and science, and
+fidelity to the largest results of human progress. It should always
+represent justice, righteousness, and personal integrity. That promise is
+not to be found in the rapid multiplication of its churches or in its
+devotion to propagandist aims, but in its loyalty to the free spirit and in
+its exemplification of the worth and beauty of the religion of humanity. As
+a sect, it will fail; but as a movement towards a larger faith, a purer
+life, and a more inclusive fellowship, the future is on its side.
+
+While recognizing the Unitarian as a great pioneer movement in religion, it
+should be seen that its strong individualism has been a cause of its slow
+growth. Until recently the Unitarian body has been less an organic phase of
+the religious life of the time than a group of isolated churches held
+together only by the spontaneous bonds of fellowship and good will. Such a
+body can have little effective force in any effort at missionary
+propagandism or in making its spirit dominant in the religious life of the
+country. As heredity and variation are but two phases of organic growth, so
+are tradition and individual initiative but two phases of social progress.
+In both processes--organic growth and social progress--the primary force is
+the conservative one, that maintains what the past has secured. If
+individualism is necessary to healthy growth, associative action is
+essential to any growth whatever of the social body. In so far as
+individual perfection can be attained, it cannot be by seeking it as an end
+in itself: it can be reached only by means of that which conduces to
+general social progress.
+
+It may be questioned whether there is any large future for Unitarianism
+unless all excessive individualism is modified and controlled. Such
+individualism is in opposition to the altruistic and associative spirit of
+the present time. Liberty is not an end in itself, but its value is to be
+found in the opportunity it gives for a natural and fitting association of
+individuals with each other. Freedom of religious inquiry is but an
+instrument for securing spiritual growth, not merely for the individual,
+but for all mankind. So long as liberty of thought and spiritual freedom
+remain the means of individual gratification, they are ineffective as
+spiritual forces. They must be given a wider heritage in the life of
+mankind before they can accomplish their legitimate results in securing for
+men freedom from the external bonds of traditionalism. Even reason is but
+an instrument for securing truth, and not truth itself.
+
+Rightly understood, authority in the church is but the principle of social
+action, respect for what mankind has gained of spiritual power through its
+centuries of development. Authority is therefore as necessary as freedom,
+and the two must be reconciled in order that progress may take place. When
+so understood and so limited, authority becomes essential to all growth in
+freedom and individuality. What above all else is needed in religion is
+social action on the part of freedom-loving men and women, who, in the
+strength of their individuality, co-operate for the attainment, not of
+their own personal good, but the advancement of mankind. This is what
+Unitarianism has striven for, and what it has gained in some measure. It
+has sought to make philanthropy the test of piety, and to make liberty a
+means of social fidelity.
+
+Free inquiry cannot mean liberty to think as one pleases, but only to think
+the truth, and to recognize with submissive spirit the absolute conditions
+and the limitations of the truth. Though religion is life and not a creed,
+it none the less compels the individual to loyalty of social action; and
+that means nothing more and nothing less than faithfulness to what will
+make for the common good, and not primarily what will minister to one's own
+personal development, intellectually and spiritually.
+
+The future of Unitarianism will depend on its ability further to reconcile,
+individualism with associative action, the spirit of free inquiry with the
+larger human tradition. Its advantage cannot be found in the abandonment of
+Christianity, which has been the source and sustaining power of its life,
+but in the development of the Christian tradition by the processes of
+modern thought. The real promise of Unitarianism is in identifying itself
+with the altruistic spirit of the age, and in becoming the spiritual
+interpreter of the social aspirations of mankind. In order to this result
+it must not only withdraw from its extreme individualism, but bring its
+liberty into organic relations with its spirit of social fidelity. It will
+then welcome the fact that freedom and authority are identical in their
+deeper meanings. It will discover that service is more important than
+culture, and that culture is of value to the end that service may become
+more effective. Then it will cheerfully recognize the truth that the social
+obligation is as important as the individual right, and that the two make
+the rounded whole of human action.
+
+[1] See pp. 131, 328.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+
+
+
+A. FORMATION OF THE LOCAL CONFERENCES.
+
+
+The local conferences came into existence in the following order: Wisconsin
+and Minnesota Quarterly Conference, organized at Sheboygan, Wis., October
+24, 1866; New York Central Conference of Liberal Christians, Rochester,
+November 21, 1866; Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches of
+the Middle and Southern States, Wilmington, Del., November 22, 1866;
+Norfolk Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches, Dedham,
+Mass., November 28, 1866; New York and Hudson River Local Conference, New
+York, December 6, 1866; Essex Conference of Liberal Christian Churches,
+Salem, Mass., December 11, 1866; Lake Erie Conference of Unitarian and
+Other Christian Societies, Meadville, Penn., December 11, 1866; Worcester
+County Conference of Congregational (Unitarian) and Other Christian
+Societies, Worcester, Mass., December 12, 1866; South Middlesex Conference
+of Congregational Unitarian and Other Christian Societies, Cambridgeport,
+Mass., December 12, 1866; Suffolk Conference of Unitarian and Other
+Christian Churches, Boston, December 17, 1866; North Middlesex Conference
+of Unitarian Congregational and Other Christian Churches, Littleton, Mass.,
+December 18, 1866.
+
+The Champlain Liberal Christian Conference, Montpelier, Vt., January 9,
+1867; the Connecticut Valley Conference of Congregational Unitarian and
+Other Christian Churches, Greenfield, Mass., January 16, 1867; the Plymouth
+and Bay Conference, Hingham, Mass., February 5, 1867; the Ohio Valley
+Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches, Louisville, Ky.,
+February 22, 1867; the Channing Conference, Providence, R.I., April 17,
+1867; Liberal Christian Conference of Western Maine, Brunswick, Me.,
+October 22, 1867.
+
+The Local Conference of Liberal Christians of the Missouri Valley, Weston,
+Mo., March 18, 1868; the Chicago Conference of Unitarian Churches, Chicago,
+December 2, 1868; Western Illinois and Iowa Conference of Unitarian and
+Other Christian Churches, Sheffield, Ill., January 28, 1869; Cape Cod
+Conference of Unitarian Congregational and Other Liberal Christian
+Churches, Barnstable, Mass., November 30, 1870; Conference of Liberal
+Christians of the Missouri Valley, Kansas City, Mo., May 3, 1871; Michigan
+Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches, Jackson, October 21,
+1875; the Fraternity of Illinois Liberal Christian Societies, Bloomington,
+November 11, 1875; Iowa Association of Unitarian and Other Independent
+Churches, Burlington, June 1, 1877; Indiana Conference of Unitarian and
+Independent Religious Societies, Hobart, October 1, 1878; Ohio State
+Conference of Unitarian and Other Liberal Societies, Cincinnati, May, 1879.
+
+Kansas Unitarian Conference, December 2, 1880; Nebraska Unitarian
+Association, Omaha, November 9, 1882; the Southern Conference of Unitarian
+and Other Christian Churches, Atlanta, Ga., April 24, 1884; the New York
+Conference of Unitarian Churches superseded the New York and Hudson River
+Conference at a session held in New York, April 29, 1885; Pacific Unitarian
+Conference, San Francisco, November 2, 1885; the Illinois Conference of
+Unitarian and Other Independent Societies superseded the Illinois
+Fraternity in 1885; Minnesota Unitarian Conference, St. Paul, November 17,
+1887; Hancock Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches, Bar
+Harbor, Me., August 8, 1889; Missouri Valley Unitarian Conference
+superseded the Kansas Unitarian Conference, December 2, 1889.
+
+Rocky Mountain Conference of Unitarian and Other Liberal Christian
+Churches, Denver, Col., May 17, 1890; the Unitarian Conference of the
+Middle States and Canada, Brooklyn, N.Y., November 19, 1890, superseded New
+York State Conference; Central States Conference of Unitarian Churches,
+Cincinnati, December 9, 1891, superseded the Ohio State Conference; Pacific
+Northwest Conference of Unitarian, Liberal Christian, and Independent
+Churches, Puyallup, Wash., August 1, 1892; Southern California Conference
+of Unitarian and Other Liberal Christian Churches, Santa Ana, October 1892.
+
+Four of the early conferences, the New York Central, Champlain, Western
+Maine, and Missouri Valley, were not distinctly Unitarian. These were union
+organizations, in which Universalists, and perhaps other denominations,
+were associated with Unitarians. The New York Central Conference refused to
+send delegates to the National Conference on account of its union
+character. In other conferences, such as the Connecticut Valley and the
+Norfolk, Universalists took part in their organization, and were for a
+number of years connected with them.
+
+Most of the conferences organized from 1875 to 1885 were within state
+limits; but those organized subsequently to 1885 were more distinctly
+district conferences, and included several states. Several of the
+conferences have been reorganized in order to bring them into harmony with
+the prevailing theory of state or district limits at the time when such
+action took place. A few of the conferences had only a name to live, and
+they soon passed out of existence.
+
+In the local, as in the National Conference, two purposes contended for
+expression, the one looking to the uniting of all liberal denominations in
+one general organization, and the other to the promotion of distinctly
+Unitarian interests. In the National Conference the denominational purpose
+controlled the aims kept most clearly in view; but the other purpose found
+expression in the addition of "Other Christian Churches" to the name,
+though only in the most limited way did such churches connect themselves
+with the conference. The local conferences made like provision for those
+not wishing to call themselves distinctly Unitarian. Such desire for
+co-operation, however, was in a large degree rendered ineffective by the
+fact that the primary aim had in view in the creation of the local
+conferences was the increase of the funds of the American Unitarian
+Association.
+
+
+
+
+B. UNITARIAN NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES.
+
+
+There was a very considerable activity from 1825 to 1850 in the publication
+of Unitarian periodicals, and probably the energies of the denomination
+found a larger expression in that direction than in any other.
+
+In January, 1827, was begun in Boston The Liberal Preacher, a monthly
+publication of sermons by living ministers, conducted by the Cheshire
+Association of Ministers, with Rev. Thomas R. Sullivan, of Keene, N.H., as
+the editor. It was continued for eight or ten years, and with considerable
+success.
+
+With November, 1827, Rev. William Ware began the publication in New York
+City of The Unitarian, a quarterly magazine, of which the last number
+appeared February 15, 1828.
+
+The Unitarian Monitor was begun at Dover, N.H., October 1, 1831, and was
+continued until October 10, 1833. It was a fortnightly of four three-column
+pages, and was well conducted. It was under the editorial management of
+Rev. Samuel K. Lothrop, then the minister in Dover.
+
+The Unitarian Christian, edited by Rev. Stephen G. Bulfinch, was published
+quarterly in Augusta, Ga., for a year or two.
+
+In 1823 Rev. Samuel J. May published The Liberal Christian at Brooklyn,
+Conn., as a fortnightly county paper of eight small quarto pages. He
+followed it by The Christian Monitor and Common People's Adviser, which was
+begun in April, 1832, its object being "to promote the free discussion of
+all subjects connected with happiness and holiness."
+
+The Unitarian, conducted by Rev. Bernard Whitman, then settled in Waltham,
+Mass., was published in Cambridge and Boston during the year 1834, and came
+to its end because of the death of Whitman in the last month of the year.
+It was a monthly magazine of a distinctly missionary character.
+
+Of a more permanent character was The Unitarian Advocate, the first number
+of which was issued in Boston, January, 1828. It was a small 12mo of sixty
+pages, monthly, the editor being Rev. Edmund Q. Sewall. He continued in
+that capacity to the end of 1829, when it was "conducted by an association
+of gentlemen." The purpose was to make a popular magazine at a moderate
+price. It came to an end in December, 1832.
+
+With January 1, 1835, was issued in Boston the first number of The Boston
+Observer and Religious Intelligencer, a weekly of eight three-column pages,
+edited by Rev. George Ripley. It was continued for only six months, when it
+was joined to The Christian Register, which took its name as a sub-title
+for a time. Its motto, "Liberty, Holiness, Love," was also borrowed by that
+paper.
+
+The Western Messenger was begun in Cincinnati, June, 1835, with Rev.
+Ephraim Peabody as the editor. It was a monthly of ninety-six pages, and
+was ably edited. Owing to the illness of Mr. Peabody, it was removed to
+Louisville after the ninth number; and Rev. James Freeman Clarke became the
+editor, with Rev. W.H. Channing and Rev. J.H. Perkins as assistants for a
+time. It was published by the Western Unitarian Association, and was
+discontinued with the number for May, 1841. Among the contributors were
+Emerson, Margaret Fuller, William Henry Channing, Christopher P. Cranch,
+William G. Eliot, who aided in giving it a high literary character. For a
+number of years the American Unitarian Association made an annual
+appropriation to aid in its publication.
+
+The Monthly Miscellany of Religion and Letters was begun in Boston with
+April, 1839. It was a 12mo of forty-eight pages, monthly. The editor was
+Rev. Ezra S. Gannett, by whom it was "designed to furnish religious reading
+for the people, treat Unitarian opinions in their practical bearings, and
+show their power to produce holiness of life; and by weight of contents to
+come between The Christian Register and The Christian Examiner." It was
+continued until the end of 1843, when it was absorbed by the latter
+periodical.
+
+With the first of January, 1844, was begun The Monthly Religious Magazine,
+to meet the needs of those who found The Christian Examiner too scholarly.
+The first editor, was Rev. Frederic D. Huntington, who was succeeded by
+Rev. Edmund H. Sears, Rev. James W. Thompson, Rev. Rufus Ellis, and Rev.
+John H. Morison. The last issue was that of February, 1874.
+
+A large weekly was begun in Boston, January 7, 1843, called The Christian
+World, of which Rev. George G. Channing was the publisher and managing
+editor. He was assisted by Rev. James Freeman Clarke and Hon. John A.
+Andrew, afterward Governor of Massachusetts, as editors or editorial
+contributors. The special aims of the paper were "to awaken a deeper
+religious interest in all the great philanthropic and benevolent
+enterprises of the day." It was continued until December 30, 1848. George
+G. Channing was a brother of Dr. Channing, and was settled over two or
+three parishes. The paper was ably conducted, and while Unitarian was not
+distinctly denominational.
+
+The Christian Inquirer was started in New York, October 17, 1846, and was a
+weekly of four six-column pages. It was managed by the New York Unitarian
+Association; and it was largely under the control of Rev. Henry W. Bellows,
+who in 1850 was assisted by Rev. Samuel Osgood, Rev. James F. Clarke, and
+Rev. Frederic H. Hedge.
+
+In 1846 was begun the publication of the Unitarian Annual Register in
+Boston by Crosby & Nichols, with Rev. Abiel A. Livermore, then settled in
+Keene, N.H., as the editor. In 1851 the work came under the control of the
+American Unitarian Association, and as the Year Book of the denomination it
+was edited by the secretary or his assistant. From 1860 to 1869 the Year
+Book was issued as a part of the December number of The Monthly Journal of
+the American Unitarian Association.
+
+The Bible Christian was begun in 1847 at Toronto by Rev. John Cordner, the
+minister there, and was continued as a semi-monthly for a brief period.
+
+The Unitarian and Foreign Religious Miscellany was published in Boston
+during 1847, with Rev. George E. Ellis as the editor. It was a monthly
+magazine devoted to the explanation and defence of Unitarian Christianity;
+and its contents were mostly selected from the English Unitarian
+periodicals, especially The Prospective Review, The Monthly Reformer, Bible
+Christian, The Unitarian, and The Inquirer.
+
+During this period The Christian Examiner had its largest influence upon
+the denomination, and came to an end. Its scholarship and its liberality
+made it of interest to only a limited constituency, and the publisher was
+compelled to discontinue it at the end of 1869 from lack of adequate
+support. It was edited from the beginning by the ablest men. Rev. James
+Walker and Rev. Francis W.P. Greenwood became the editors in 1831, Rev.
+William Ware taking the place of Dr. Walker in 1837. From 1844 to 1849 Rev.
+Ezra S. Gannett and Rev. Alvan Lamson were the editors, and they were
+succeeded by Rev. George Putnam and Rev. George E. Ellis. In July, 1857,
+Rev. Frederic H. Hedge and Rev. Edward E. Hale became the editors, and
+continued until 1861. Then the editorship was assumed by Rev. Thomas B.
+Fox, who was for several years its owner and publisher; and he was assisted
+as editor by Rev. Joseph H. Allen. The magazine was purchased by Mr. James
+Miller in 1865, who removed it to New York. Dr. Henry W. Bellows became the
+editor, and Mr. Allen continued as assistant, until it was discontinued
+with the December number, 1869.
+
+One of the purposes which found expression after the awakening of 1865 was
+the establishment of a large popular weekly religious journal that should
+reach all classes of liberals throughout the country. The Christian
+Inquirer was changed into The Liberal Christian with the number for
+December 22, 1866; and under this name it appeared in a larger and more
+vigorous form. Dr. Bellows was the editor, and contributors were sought
+from all classes of Liberal Christians. The effort made to establish an able
+undenominational journal, of a broad and progressive but distinctly liberal
+type, was energetic; but the time was not ready for it. With December 2,
+1876, the paper became The Inquirer, which was continued to the close of
+1877.
+
+There was also planned in 1865 a monthly journal that should be everywhere
+acceptable in the homes of liberals of every kind. In January, 1870,
+appeared the Old and New, a large monthly magazine, combining popular and
+scholarly features. The editors were Dr. Edward E. Hale and Mr. Frederic B.
+Perkins. In its pages were first published Dr. Hale's Ten Times Ten, and
+also many of the chapters of Dr. James Martineau's Seat of Authority in
+Religion. It was discontinued with the number for December, 1875.
+
+The Monthly Religious Magazine was discontinued with the February issue of
+1874; and the next month appeared The Unitarian Review and Religious
+Magazine, edited by Rev. Charles Lowe. When Lowe died, in June, 1874, he
+was succeeded by Rev. Henry H. Barber and Rev. James De Normandie. In 1880
+Dr. J.H. Allen became the editor,--a position he held until the magazine
+was discontinued, in December, 1891.
+
+In March, 1878, was begun in Chicago the publication of The Pamphlet
+Mission, a semi-monthly issue of sermons for missionary circulation, with a
+dozen pages of news added in a supplement. In September the name was
+changed to Unity; and this publication grew into a small fortnightly
+journal, representing the interests of the Western Unitarian Conference. A
+few years later it became a weekly; and it has continued as the
+representative of the more radical Unitarian opinions, though in 1894 it
+became the special organ of The Liberal Congress. The chief editorial
+management has been in the hands of Rev. Jenkin Ll. Jones.
+
+The Unitarian was begun in Chicago by Rev. Brooke Herford and Rev. Jabez T.
+Sunderland with January, 1886, as the organ of the more conservative
+members of the Western Conference. In June, 1887, this monthly magazine was
+removed to Ann Arbor, Mr. Sunderland becoming the managing editor; and in
+1890 the office of publication was removed to Boston, and Rev. Frederic B.
+Mott became the assistant editor. In 1897 the magazine was merged into The
+Christian Register.
+
+In 1880 The Rising Faith was published at Manchester, N.H., as a monthly,
+and continued for two or three years.
+
+In August, 1891, The Guidon appeared in San Francisco; and in November,
+1893, it became The Pacific Unitarian, a monthly representing the interests
+of the Unitarian churches on the Pacific coast. Mr. Charles A. Murdock has
+been the editor.
+
+The Southern Unitarian was begun at Atlanta, Ga., January, 1893; and it was
+published for five years as a monthly by the Southern Conference.
+
+In December, 1891, was begun at Davenport, Ia., with Rev. Arthur M. Judy as
+editor, a monthly parish paper, called Old and New. Other parishes joined
+in its publication, and in 1895 it became the organ of the Iowa Unitarian
+Association. In 1896 it was published in Chicago, with Rev. A.W. Gould as
+the editor, in behalf of the interests of the Western Conference. In
+September, 1898, its publication was resumed in Davenport by Mr. Judy; and
+a year later it became again the organ of the Iowa Association.
+
+The New World, a Quarterly Review of Religion, Ethics, and Theology, was
+begun in Boston, March, 1892, and was discontinued with the December number
+for 1900. Its editors were Dr. C.C. Everett, Dr. C.H. Toy, Dr. Orello Cone,
+with Rev. N.P. Gilman as managing editor.
+
+The Church Exchange began in June, 1893, and was published as a monthly at
+Portland, in the interest of the Maine Conference of Unitarian Churches,
+with Rev. John C. Perkins as editor. In 1896-97 it was published at
+Farmington, and in 1897-99 Mr. H.P. White was the editor. Since 1899 it has
+been published in Portland, with Mr. Perkins as editor.
+
+The above list of periodicals is not complete. More detailed information is
+desirable, and that the list may be made, full and accurate to date.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+_The foot-notes and appendix have been included in the index with
+the text._
+
+Abbot, Abiel (Beverly), 131, 133, 262, 350, 351.
+Abbot, Abiel (Peterboro), 409.
+Abbot, Ezra, 393, 394.
+Abbot, Francis Ellingwood, 200-204, 207, 210, 211, 213, 415.
+Abolitionists, 353.
+Adam, 51, 63.
+Adam, William, 296-298.
+Adams, Hannah, 265, 423.
+Adams, Herbert W., 114, 409.
+Adams, John, 58, 136, 351. 377, 380, 382.
+Adams, John Quincy, 366, 380.
+Adams, Phineas, 95.
+African Methodist Episcopal Church, 338, 339.
+Agassiz, Louis, 408, 427, 428.
+Albee, John, 415.
+Alcott, Amos Bronson, 155, 202, 358, 369.
+Alcott, Louisa M., 178, 368, 430.
+Alger, William Rounseville, 146, 163, 164, 346, 422.
+Allen, Joseph, 146, 264, 268, 360, 361, 414.
+Allen, Joseph Henry, 165, 261, 361, 393, 414, 421, 450, 451.
+Allison, William B., 380, 383.
+Allston, Washington, 98, 430.
+Allyn, John, 131, 133.
+American literature, 412, 413, 415, 416, 435.
+"American Unitarianism," 79, 82, 101-104.
+Ames, Charles Gordon, 168, 214.
+Ames, Fisher, 382.
+Ames, Oliver, 382.
+Amory, John C., 385.
+Andover Theological School, 93.
+Andrew, John Albion, 191, 192, 196, 324, 367, 382, 449.
+Angell, George T., 336.
+Animals, humane treatment of, 335, 336.
+Anonymous Association, 127.
+Anthology Club, 96.
+Anthology, Monthly, 93, 95, 390.
+Anthony, Henry B., 367, 380.
+Anthony, Susan B., 368.
+Antinomianism, 16.
+Antioch College, 172, 193, 197, 401, 402.
+Anti-slavery, 100, 159, 343, 353-367.
+Appleton, Nathan, 386.
+Arianism, 42, 43, 44, 56, 59, 65, 66, 70, 83.
+Arminianism, 8, 9, 11, 28, 37-39, 42, 44, 48, 50, 59, 66, 67, 70, 75,
+      84, 89.
+Arminius, 8.
+Artists, 430.
+Association of Benevolent Societies, 255.
+Association of Young Men, 248-251, 264.
+Autumnal Conventions, 173-176, 187.
+Auxiliaries of American Unitarian Association, 146.
+Ayer, Adams, 216.
+
+Ballou, Hosea, 93.
+Baltimore, 111-113.
+Bancroft, Aaron, 73, 74, 114, 130, 132, 135, 136, 142, 413.
+Bancroft, George, 380, 413, 414, 424.
+Baptists, 6, 7, 21, 87, 88.
+Barnard, Charles F., 254, 256, 260, 332, 337, 361.
+Barnard, Thomas, 70.
+Barrett, Samuel, 127, 135, 137, 144, 264.
+Barry, Joseph, 333.
+Bartol, Cyrus Augustus, 148, 155, 202, 240, 241, 419.
+Batchelor, George, 196, 226, 232.
+Beecher, Henry Ward, 370.
+Beecher, Lyman, 384.
+Belknap, Jeremy, 83, 351, 423.
+Bellamy, Joseph, 44, 52, 57, 73.
+Bellows, Henry Whitney, 136, 146, 154, 175, 178-182, 187-189, 191, 196,
+      198, 205, 206, 215, 217, 218, 220, 222, 223, 232, 233, 335, 363, 409,
+      431, 449, 450.
+Belsham, Thomas, 79, 102, 103.
+Benevolent Fraternity of Churches, 197, 256, 257, 282.
+Bentley, William, 71, 80, 90.
+Bergh, Henry, 335.
+Berry Street Conference, 106, 107, 133.
+Bible, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 14, 20, 25, 27, 32, 40, 45, 48, 50, 53, 55, 60, 64,
+      85, 86, 122, 156, 157, 171, 198, 199, 321, 389, 395, 437.
+Bible Societies, 100, 147, 322.
+Bigelow, Andrew, 258.
+Birthright church, 240, 241.
+Bixby, James T., 307, 320.
+Blackwell, Antoinette Brown, 371.
+Blackwell, Henry B., 368.
+Blake, H.G.O., 415.
+Bond, Edward P., 153.
+Bond, George, 131, 133.
+Bond, Henry F., 341, 342.
+Book distribution, 148, 163, 166, 169, 338.
+Boston, 16, 20, 61, 75, 77, 118, 141, 160, 213, 383-388, 413.
+Boston Observer, The, 448.
+Boston Provident Association, 334, 335.
+Boutwell, George S., 367, 382.
+Bowditch, Henry I., 367.
+Bowditch, Nathaniel, 117, 381, 427.
+Bowditch, William I., 367.
+Bowdoin, James, 80, 385.
+Bowles & Dearborn, 235.
+Bowles, Leonard C., 235.
+Brackett, J.Q.A., 382.
+Bradford, Alden, 47, 65, 127, 128, 132, 133.
+Bradford, George P., 415.
+Bradlee, Caleb D., 336.
+Bradley, Amy, 181, 338.
+Brattle Street Church, 29, 35, 40, 52, 53, 77, 94, 143, 160, 385, 387.
+Breck, Robert, 40.
+Briant, Lemuel, 50, 58.
+Bridgman, Laura, 326.
+Briggs, Charles, 144, 151, 235, 361.
+Briggs, George W., 270, 360, 361.
+Brigham, Charles H., 189, 214, 215, 319, 361.
+British and Foreign Unitarian Association, 295, 298, 303.
+Brooks, Charles, 336, 400.
+Brooks, Charles T., 146, 244, 298, 359, 420.
+Brooks Fund, 166.
+Brown, Howard N., 196, 243.
+Bryant, William Cullen, 117, 191, 195, 243, 381, 431, 432.
+Buckminster, J.S., 94, 98, 390, 391, 416.
+Bulfinch, Charles, 430.
+Bulfinch, Stephen G., 146, 165, 268, 270, 271, 361, 447.
+Burleigh, Celia C., 369, 370.
+Burleigh, William H., 369.
+Burnap, George W., 114.
+Burnside, Ambrose E., 383.
+Burroughs, John, 428.
+Burton, Warren, 139, 257, 361, 421.
+Bushnell, Horace, 241.
+
+Calcutta, 296, 297, 299, 300.
+Calhoun, John C., 376, 380.
+Calvinism, 9, 26, 28, 34, 37, 39, 44, 45, 46, 48, 62, 73, 75, 76, 84,
+      87, 92.
+Carpenter, Lant, 154.
+Carpenter, Mary, 259.
+Cary, George L., 318.
+"Catholic Christians," 104, 106, 123.
+Catholicism, 3, 5, 18, 53.
+Chadwick, John White, 157, 216, 244, 275, 354, 370.
+Chaney, George L., 337.
+Channing, George G., 144, 449.
+Channing, William Ellery, 70, 94, 99, 102, 103, 106, 114, 119, 123, 125,
+      129, 130, 135, 142, 146, 148, 163, 164, 173, 174, 184, 199, 321, 324,
+      328, 343-345, 349, 350, 365, 399, 402, 415, 432.
+Channing, William Ellery, poet, 431.
+Channing, William Henry, 155, 176, 200, 258, 359, 361, 365, 368, 369, 420,
+      428, 448.
+Chapin, Henry, 212.
+Chapman, Maria W., 367, 368.
+Charity work, 35, 252, 254-256, 322-325, 328.
+Charleston, S.C., 118.
+Chauncy, Charles, second president Harvard College, 24.
+Chauncy, Charles, minister First Church in Boston, 45, 46, 48, 52, 53,
+      66-69, 77, 85, 90.
+Cheerful Letter Exchange, 288.
+Cheney, Ednah D., 202, 279, 283, 368, 428.
+Chicago, 167, 213.
+Child, David Lee, 359.
+Child, Lydia Maria, 367, 428, 430.
+Children's Mission, 197, 331-334.
+Chillingworth, William, 5, 10, 12, 14, 31, 45.
+Choate, Joseph H., 381.
+Christ, 6, 11, 14, 15, 24, 27, 40, 49, 50, 56, 62, 64, 67, 69, 70, 74, 75,
+      83, 85, 86, 99, 138, 139, 157, 170, 171, 193, 198, 200, 206, 207,
+      209, 210, 227, 378, 393, 429, 434.
+Christian connection, 89, 140, 194, 314, 315, 316.
+Christian Examiner, The, 101, 156, 236, 416, 449, 450.
+Christian Inquirer, The, 449, 450.
+Christian Monitor, The, 96.
+Christian Register, The, 114-116, 127, 145, 147, 156, 173, 185, 207, 232,
+      264, 296, 356, 448.
+Christian Union, Boston, Young Men's, 214, 216, 336, 337.
+Christian Unions, 216, 337.
+Christian World, The, 145, 147, 449.
+Christianity, 11-13, 45, 62, 63, 75, 85, 86, 123, 138, 156, 200, 201, 206,
+      209-211, 222, 227, 241, 362.
+Christians, 6, 9, 14, 51, 64, 170, 206, 209, 222, 224, 227.
+Church, 5, 7, 10, 12, 14, 17, 20, 52, 106, 115.
+Church and state, 7, 17, 20, 21, 23, 27-29, 52, 68, 85-87, 120-123.
+Church Building Loan Fund, 234.
+Church membership, 18-20, 27, 241, 242.
+Church of the Disciples, 242, 327.
+Civil service reform, 372-375.
+Civil war, 171, 175-184, 187, 283.
+Clark University, 399.
+Clarke, James Freeman, 146, 155, 160, 161, 163, 164, 165, 175, 191, 192,
+      194, 201, 204, 215, 242, 244, 273, 307, 312, 318, 327, 360, 361, 366,
+      369, 370, 417, 418, 420, 448, 449.
+Clarke, Samuel, 13, 44-46, 56, 67, 70.
+Clarke, Sarah Freeman, 404.
+Clifford, John H., 382.
+Codding, Ichabod, 168, 365.
+Codman, John, 102.
+College town missions, 214, 215.
+Collyer, Robert, 167, 171, 185, 194.
+Colporters, 148, 169.
+Commerce, 72.
+Committee on fellowship, 220, 221.
+Conant, Augustus H., 169, 172, 176, 361.
+Conference, Berry Street, 106, 107, 133.
+Confirmation, 241, 242.
+Congregational independence, 34, 126.
+Congregationalism, 74, 87, 89, 93, 117, 119, 194, 199, 241, 436.
+Contributions to American Unitarian Association, 142, 153, 159, 162, 164,
+      188, 190, 193, 197, 213, 234.
+Convention, Autumnal, 173-176, 187.
+Conversion, 18, 20, 21, 24, 27.
+Conway, Moncure D., 365, 415.
+Cooper Institute, 215, 408.
+Cooper, Peter, 381, 408, 409.
+Cordner, John, 146, 238.
+Cornell University, 215.
+Corporate idea of church, 5, 7, 17-19, 20.
+Country Week, 337.
+Covenants, Church, 26.
+Cranch, Christopher, P., 415, 448.
+Cranch, William, 377, 380.
+Creeds, 26, 49, 62, 64, 66, 85, 206.
+Crocker, Lucretia, 370, 403, 404.
+Crosby, Nichols & Co., 236.
+Crosby, William, 334.
+Cudworth, Warren H., 271.
+Curtis, Benjamin R., 382.
+Curtis, George Ticknor, 381.
+Curtis, George William, 196, 239, 347, 369, 373-375, 381.
+Cutter, George W., 226.
+
+Dall, Caroline Healey, 165, 202, 279, 368, 370, 371.
+Dall, Charles, H.A., 259, 299-302, 361.
+Dane, Nathan, 350, 351, 382.
+Davis, John, 382.
+Dedham, 29, 54, 87, 115, 218.
+Deism, 42.
+Democratic tendencies, 8, 33, 34, 37, 90, 121, 174.
+Depositaries, 146, 149, 169.
+Depravity of man, 51, 63, 66, 68, 69.
+Devotional library, 164.
+Dewey, Orville, 114, 143, 146, 165, 174, 191, 267, 354, 415, 431.
+Dexter, Henry M., 22.
+Dexter, Samuel, 351, 382.
+Dickens, Charles, 324.
+Dillingham, Pitt, 339.
+Disciple, The Christian, 99-101.
+Dix, Dorothea, 324, 327, 328-331.
+Dole, Charles F., 274, 352.
+Douthit, Jasper L., 214.
+Doyle, J.A., 22.
+Dunster, Henry, 24.
+Dwight, Edmund, 399, 400.
+Dwight, John S., 155, 369, 415, 428.
+
+Eaton, Dorman B., 373, 381.
+Education, 253, 323, 325, 337-342, 343, 384, 389, 395-408, 410, 411.
+Education in south, 338-340, 410, 411.
+Education of Indians, 340-342.
+Edwards, Jonathan, 38-41, 44.
+Effinger, J.R., 226.
+Eliot, Charles W., 238, 305, 395, 397.
+Eliot, Rev. Samuel A., 232, 245.
+Eliot, Samuel A., 127, 335, 383, 414.
+Eliot, Thomas D., 196, 212.
+Eliot, William G., 144, 146, 169, 184, 311, 351, 364, 398, 448.
+Ellis, George E., 146, 164, 267, 421, 450.
+Ellis, Rufus, 270, 361, 448.
+Ellis, Sallie, 289, 290.
+Emerson, George B., 127, 164.
+Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 151, 155, 202, 324, 369, 413, 415, 416, 428, 431,
+      435, 436, 448.
+Emerson, William, 95, 96, 413.
+Emlyn, Thomas, 57, 58.
+Emmons, Nathaniel, 55.
+Equality, 33, 38.
+Evangelical Missionary Society, 104, 105, 141.
+Everett, Charles Carroll, 196, 275, 396, 417-419, 452.
+Everett, Edward, 94, 98, 109, 114, 351, 380, 382, 391, 397, 399, 407,
+      414, 416.
+Everett, William, 414.
+Exchange of pulpits, 101.
+
+Farley, Frederic A., 146, 165, 361.
+Fearing, Albert, 238, 324.
+Federal (now Arlington) Street Church, 83, 94, 106, 129, 250, 256,
+      257, 301.
+Fellowship, Unitarian, 205, 209, 211, 219-221, 436, 437.
+Fellowship with other religious bodies, 192-195, 296.
+Felton, Cornelius C., 397.
+Fields, James T., 369, 428.
+Fillmore, Millard, 331, 380.
+First Church of Boston, 53, 66.
+Fiske, John, 22, 307, 424.
+Flagg, J.F., 265, 350.
+Flower Mission, 337.
+Follen, Charles, 359, 431.
+Follen, Eliza Lee, 266, 367.
+Folsom, Nathaniel, 319, 361.
+Forbes, John Murray, 386.
+Forbush, T.B., 226.
+Forman, J.G., 176, 178, 184.
+Forster, Anthony, 118.
+Fox, George W., 161, 162, 207-209.
+Fox, Thomas B., 146, 268, 450.
+Francis, Convers, 110, 155, 200, 360, 361.
+Francke, Kuno, 17.
+Franklin, Benjamin, 376, 377, 379.
+Fraternity of Churches, Benevolent, 197, 256, 257, 282.
+Freedman's Bureau, 184, 197.
+Freedom of Thought, 1, 3, 5, 8, 32, 37, 59, 61-64, 70, 71, 80, 115, 125,
+      205, 210, 212, 389.
+Freeman, James, 76, 78, 80, 82, 98, 111, 114, 344.
+Free Religion, 203, 210, 211.
+Free Religious Association, 194, 202-204, 207, 225, 436.
+French, Daniel C., 430.
+Friend of Peace, 345.
+Friends, 88.
+Frothingham, Nathaniel L., 114, 124, 344, 413, 420.
+Frothingham, Octavius B., 124, 165, 175, 200, 202, 207, 216, 322, 323, 366,
+      369, 387, 392, 394, 413, 420, 424, 431.
+Fuller, Margaret, 155, 368, 428, 429, 448.
+Furness, William Henry, 114, 146, 244, 267, 361, 365, 394, 420.
+
+Galvin, Edward I., 176, 337.
+Gannett, Ezra Stiles, 114, 127, 128, 134-137, 139, 143, 146, 172, 191, 266,
+      346, 350-351, 354, 355, 450.
+Gannett, William C., 225-227, 241, 277, 290.
+Garrison, William Lloyd, 353, 359, 367, 377.
+Gay, Ebenezer, 58-60, 77.
+General Repositary, The, 97, 390.
+Giddings, Joshua R., 367.
+Gierke, Otto, 4.
+Giles, Henry, 361, 420.
+Gilman, Samuel, 119, 146, 420.
+God, 2, 4, 7, 9, 11, 13, 38, 41, 51, 53, 59, 60, 64, 68, 70, 73, 90, 157,
+      198, 227, 228.
+Goodell, William, 365.
+Gore, Christopher, 382.
+Gould, Allen W., 226, 277, 452.
+Gould, Benjamin, 427.
+Grant, Moses, 248, 264, 265, 344, 350.
+Graves, Mary H., 371.
+Gray, Frederic T., 167, 248, 254, 256, 265, 267, 270, 271, 334, 361.
+Great Awakening, 46, 66, 210.
+Greene, Benjamin H., 248, 333.
+Greenhalge, Frederic T., 382.
+Greenwood, Francis W.P., 101, 111, 114, 148, 421, 433, 450.
+Greenwood, Grace (Mrs. Lippincott), 428, 430.
+
+Hale, Edward Everett, 154, 175, 189, 191, 194, 195, 196, 205, 217, 218,
+      269, 270, 318, 323, 342, 429, 430, 450.
+Hale, George S., 231.
+Hale, John P., 367, 380.
+Hale, Lucretia P., 165, 279, 404.
+Half-way Covenant, 22, 27, 28, 68.
+Hall, Asaph, 427.
+Hall, Edward Brooks, 127, 146, 160, 267, 361.
+Hall, Nathaniel, 361, 366.
+Hall, Nathaniel, the younger, 387.
+Hamlin, Hannibal, 383.
+Hampton Institute, 339, 340.
+Hancock, John, 385.
+Hancock Sunday-school, 247, 264, 265.
+Harte, Bret, 430.
+Harvard College, 35, 41, 44, 47, 92, 98, 384, 388, 390, 395-397, 412.
+Harvard Divinity School, 108-110, 124, 193, 214, 391, 392, 394, 395, 396,
+      414, 415.
+Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 381, 430.
+Haynes, George H., 29.
+Hazlitt, Rev. William, 71, 77-79.
+Hedge, Frederic H., 146, 155, 161, 165, 180, 239, 244, 346, 359, 360, 361,
+      415, 417, 420, 449, 450.
+Hemenway, Augustus, 385.
+Hemenway, Mary, 405-407.
+Hepworth, George H., 176, 205.
+Herford, Brooke, 196, 225, 452.
+Heywood, John H., 178, 180, 364.
+Higginson, Stephen, 130, 133.
+Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 177, 202, 367, 368, 369, 415, 424, 429.
+Higher criticism, 389-395.
+Hildreth, Richard, 413, 424.
+Hill, Thomas, 320, 361, 397, 420, 427.
+Historians, 422-427.
+Hoar, Ebenezer Rockwood, 191, 196, 367, 382.
+Hoar, George Frisbie, 196, 367, 369, 380.
+Holland, Frederick West, 144, 178, 361.
+Hollis Professorship, 92, 108, 109.
+Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 431-433.
+Hooker, Thomas, 16, 25.
+Hopkins, Samuel, 73.
+Horton, Edward A., 275.
+Hosmer, Frederick L., 226, 244, 277.
+Hosmer, George W., 311, 314, 316, 338, 361.
+Hosmer, Harriet, 430.
+Hosmer, James Kendall, 176, 338, 415.
+Howard, Simeon, 66, 78.
+Howard Sunday-school, 252, 265, 332.
+Howe, Julia Ward, 328, 348, 349, 368, 370, 371, 428.
+Howe, Samuel G., 180, 325-329, 367.
+Howells, William D., 430.
+Huidekoper, Frederic, 317, 319, 422.
+Huidekoper, Harm Jan, 311-314.
+Hunt, John, 11, 13.
+Hunting, Sylvan S., 176, 214.
+Huntington, Frederic D., 270, 361, 448.
+Hymns of Unitarians, 244, 420.
+
+Idealism, 45.
+Independents, 7.
+Index, The, 203, 207.
+India, 72, 248, 296, 303.
+Individualism, 1-4, 8, 17, 18, 27, 63, 90, 125, 205, 210, 211, 224, 343,
+      349, 428, 441-443.
+Insane, care of, 328-331.
+International Council, 245, 440.
+Intuition, 2, 4, 12.
+
+Jackson, Charles, 130, 387.
+Jackson, Helen Hunt, 430.
+Jackson, James, 427.
+Japan, 303-309.
+Japanese Unitarian Association, 306-309.
+Jefferson, Thomas, 136, 378-380, 437.
+Jenckes, Thomas A., 372.
+Johnson, Samuel, 201, 244, 366, 369, 419, 420.
+Jones, Jenkin Lloyd, 214, 225, 276, 278, 451.
+Judd, Sylvester, 217, 240, 241, 361, 366, 429.
+Julian, George W., 367, 369.
+
+Kanda, Saichiro, 305, 306.
+Kendall, James, 84.
+Kentucky, 119.
+Khasi Hills, 302, 303.
+Kidder, Henry P., 189, 212, 231, 238.
+Kindergarten, 492, 493.
+King's Chapel, 52, 76, 160, 313, 387, 421.
+King, Starr, 165, 167, 182, 183, 420.
+Kirkland, Caroline, 369, 428.
+Kirkland, John T., 98, 109, 114, 323, 344, 350, 351, 397.
+Knapp, Arthur M., 304.
+Knapp, Frederick N., 181.
+Kneeland, John, 273.
+
+Ladies' Commission on Sunday-school Books, 279-281.
+Lafargue, Paul, 2.
+Lamson, Alvan, 165, 200, 422, 450.
+Latitudinarianism, 9, 10.
+Lawrence, Abbott, 385, 386.
+Lawrence, Amos, 351, 385, 386.
+Leland Stanford, Jr., University, 399.
+Leonard, Levi W., 409.
+Liberal Christian, The, 193.
+Liberal Preacher, The, 447.
+Liberalism, 24, 26, 29, 32, 34, 37, 46, 49-52, 54, 57, 59, 61, 70, 72, 75,
+      85, 87, 88, 94, 104, 106, 111, 122.
+Liberator, The, 359.
+Liberty, 206, 342, 343, 349.
+Libraries, 289, 409, 410.
+Lincoln, Abraham, 376, 377.
+Lincoln, Calvin, 127, 161.
+Lincoln, Levi, 382.
+Lindsey, Theophilus, 78, 102.
+Little, Robert, 119.
+Liturgy, 242, 343.
+Livermore, Abiel Abbot, 148, 169, 317, 318, 361, 366.
+Livermore, Leonard J., 272.
+Livermore, Mary A., 368, 371.
+Local Conferences, 216-219, 445, 446.
+Locke, John, 5, 6, 12, 43, 56.
+Long, John D., 231, 382.
+Longfellow, Henry W., 431, 432.
+Longfellow, Samuel, 175, 200, 242, 244, 366, 369, 419.
+Longfellow, Stephen, 134, 432.
+Lord's Supper, 27, 240.
+Loring, Charles G., 127.
+Loring, Ellis Gray, 359, 369.
+Lothrop, Samuel K., 143, 144, 160, 163, 236, 350, 447.
+Lovering, Joseph, 427.
+Low, A.A., 189.
+Lowe, Charles, 172, 177, 196, 197, 205, 209, 212, 216, 218, 237, 279,
+      370, 451.
+Lowell, Charles, 94, 99, 109, 114, 263, 344, 350, 351, 366, 413.
+Lowell, Francis Cabot, 385, 386.
+Lowell Institute, 407, 408.
+Lowell, James Russell, 413, 431, 434, 435.
+Lowell, John, 382, 385.
+Lowell, John Amory, 385, 407.
+Lunt, William Parsons, 420.
+
+MacCauley, Clay, 304, 305.
+McCrary, George W., 326, 383.
+Maine Conference of Unitarian Churches, 218.
+Mann, Horace. 166, 327, 329, 351, 399-402.
+Mann, Mrs. Horace, 324, 403.
+Marshall, John, 376, 380.
+Marshall, J.B.F., 339, 340.
+Martineau, James, 165, 450..
+Mason, L.B., 112, 176.
+Massachusetts Congregational Charitable Society, 119.
+Massachusetts Convention of Congregational Ministers, 120.
+May, Abby Williams, 283, 403, 404.
+May, Col. Joseph, 132, 133, 344.
+May, Rev. Joseph, 216.
+May, Samuel, 359-361, 366.
+May, Samuel J., 127, 146, 194, 346, 351, 356, 358, 360, 361, 366, 369, 399,
+      401, 447.
+Mayhew, Experience, 49, 60.
+Mayhew, Jonathan, 45, 47, 48, 53, 58, 60-66, 85, 90, 199.
+Mayo, Amory D., 320, 368, 410, 411.
+Mead, Edwin D., 406.
+Mead, Larkin G., 430.
+Meadville Theological School, 161, 193, 215, 310-320.
+Methodism, 89, 194.
+Miles, Henry A., 161, 164, 360, 361.
+Miller, Samuel F., 196, 380.
+Milton, John, 5, 6, 10, 12, 31, 45, 56.
+Ministry at Large, 247-261.
+Miracles, 156, 157, 198, 200, 211.
+Missions, domestic, 104, 140, 144, 149-153, 167, 171, 172, 212-214, 218.
+Mitchell, Maria, 427.
+Montana Industrial School, 341, 342, 405.
+Monthly Journal of American Unitarian Association, 162, 184, 237.
+Monthly Miscellany, The, 448.
+Monthly Religious Magazine, 448.
+Morehouse, Daniel W., 196.
+Morison, John H., 165, 270, 355, 356, 448.
+Morrill, Justin S., 380.
+Morse, Jedediah, 93, 102, 423.
+Motley, John Lothrop, 424.
+Mott, Lucretia, 202, 369.
+Mumford, Thomas J., 207, 271, 366, 369.
+Munroe, James, & Co., 235.
+Muzzey, Artemas M., 165, 178, 359, 360, 361, 422.
+
+National Conference: origin, 190-195;
+  Syracuse session, 201;
+  change in constitution, 204;
+  Hepworth's amendment, 207;
+  protests against dropping names from Year Book, 209;
+  formation of local conferences, 218-221;
+  revision of constitution, in 1892, 229;
+  adjustment of Conference and Association, 233;
+  temperance resolutions, 352;
+  women represented, 369;
+  organ proposed, 446.
+New Divinity, 73.
+New Hampshire Unitarian Association, 217.
+New York, 119, 213, 381, 429.
+New York Convention, 190-195.
+Newell, Frederick R., 172, 176, 184.
+Newell, William, 361, 414, 420.
+Newell, William Wells, 414, 415.
+Nichols, Ichabod, 140, 142, 165.
+Nitti, F.S., 3.
+North American Review, 116, 416.
+Northampton, 27, 38, 41, 381.
+Norton, Andrews, 98, 109-111, 114, 122, 126, 130, 132, 135, 139, 164, 243,
+      391, 392, 414, 420.
+Norton, Charles, Eliot, 175, 185, 414, 428.
+Novelists, 429, 430.
+Noyes, George Rapall, 110, 114, 146, 164, 200, 392, 393.
+Nute, Ephraim, 167, 176.
+
+Old and New, 450.
+Old South historical work, 405-407.
+Oriental religions, 72.
+Orton, Edward, 338.
+Osgood, Samuel, 154, 215, 361, 431, 449.
+"Other Christian Churches," 201, 219, 446.
+Otis, Harrison Gray, 382, 385.
+Oxnard, Thomas, 80.
+
+Palfrey, Cazneau, 173, 361.
+Palfrey, John G., 95, 101, 109, 110, 114, 117, 126, 127, 146, 154, 157,
+      191, 212, 249, 329, 350, 366, 385, 391, 415, 424.
+Panoplist, The, 93, 102.
+Parish, 29, 115.
+Parker, Isaac, 351, 382.
+Parker, Theodore, 155-157, 165, 267, 327, 328, 343, 361, 365, 369, 394,
+      399, 415, 417, 420, 436.
+Parkman, Francis, historian, 413.
+Parkman, John, 154, 361.
+Parkman, Rev. Francis, 74, 95, 99, 109, 173, 344, 413, 424.
+Parsons, Theophilus, 86, 117, 351, 377, 382.
+Parton, James, 424.
+Peabody, Andrew P., 117, 146, 148, 173, 239, 260, 313, 323, 360, 361.
+Peabody, Elizabeth P., 155, 368, 402, 403.
+Peabody, Ephraim, 270, 313, 334, 335, 433, 448.
+Peabody, Francis G., 331.
+Peabody, W.B.O., 361, 420.
+Peace movement, 343-349.
+Peace societies, 322, 344.
+Peirce, Benjamin, 427.
+Perkins Institute for the Blind, 323, 325, 326.
+Perkins, Thomas H., 325, 386, 387.
+Phillips, Jonathan, 109, 351, 385.
+Phillips, Stephen C., 385.
+Pickering, Edward C., 427.
+Pickering, John, 381.
+Pickering, Timothy, 377, 381.
+Pierce, Cyrus, 361, 400, 401.
+Pierce, John, 114, 131, 133, 344, 350.
+Pierpont, John, 114, 127, 132, 176, 243, 350, 351, 361, 365, 420.
+Pillsbury, Parker, 368, 369.
+Piper, George F., 273.
+Pitts Street Chapel, 257, 258, 332.
+Plymouth, 16, 83, 118.
+Poets, 431-435.
+Poor, care of, 250, 255, 321, 322, 334, 335.
+Porter, Eliphalet, 76.
+Portland, 80, 118.
+Post-office Mission, 289, 290.
+Potter, William J., 170, 200, 203, 208, 209, 211.
+Pratt, Enoch, 189, 409, 410.
+Pray, Lewis G., 270.
+Prescott, William Hickling, 117, 381, 424, 425.
+Priestley, Joseph, 71, 78, 80, 81, 83, 118.
+Primitive Christianity, 48, 67, 112, 122.
+Prince, John, 71, 76, 381.
+Prison reform, 327, 328, 329, 343.
+Protestantism, 1, 3, 4, 7, 14, 17, 18, 156.
+Publishing Fund Society, 107, 108, 141.
+Publishing interests, 113, 128, 145, 162, 164, 165, 184.
+Puritanism, 10, 19, 20, 21, 37, 53.
+Puritans, 19, 22.
+Putnam, Alfred P., 216, 420.
+Putnam, George, 146, 185, 450.
+Pynchon, William, 23, 24.
+
+Quarterly Journal of American Unitarian Association, 162.
+Quincy, Edmund, 359.
+Quincy, Josiah, 35, 42, 128, 344, 366, 382, 397, 399.
+
+Radical, The, 203.
+Radicalism, 155, 156, 158, 199, 203, 204, 210, 222.
+Rammohun Roy, 296.
+Rantoul, Robert, 127, 351, 399.
+Rationalism, 5, 6, 12, 31, 44, 45, 55, 62, 69, 90, 156.
+Reason, 2, 3, 9-11, 13, 31, 37, 90.
+Reed, David, 114, 127, 129, 145, 234, 269.
+Reforms, 343, 356.
+Revelation, 12, 13, 20, 46, 66, 69, 73, 88.
+Reynolds, Grindall, 232, 238, 239.
+Ripley, Ezra, 74, 263, 344.
+Ripley, George, 146, 415, 420, 428, 448.
+Ripley, Samuel. 360, 361.
+Robbins, Chandler, 83, 361, 420.
+Roberts, William, 297, 298.
+Robinson, George D., 382.
+Robinson, John, 25, 84.
+Roman Catholic Church, 2, 3, 17.
+
+Saco, 81.
+Safford, Mary A., 371.
+St. Louis, 141, 184, 225, 259, 398.
+Salem, 16, 29, 54, 70, 76, 80, 118, 218, 381, 413.
+Saltonstall, Leverett, 127, 133, 140, 381.
+Saltonstall, Sir Richard, 16, 23.
+San Francisco, 153, 167, 182.
+Sanborn, Frank B., 202, 369.
+Sanitary Commission, 176, 178-184, 188, 338.
+Sargent, John T., 361, 369, 370.
+Savage, Minot J., 196, 274.
+Scandlin, William G., 176, 177, 182.
+Scientists, 427, 428.
+Scudder, Eliza, 244.
+Sears, Edmund H., 165, 217, 395, 420, 448.
+Sectarianism, 125, 131, 149, 150, 201, 266, 356, 436.
+Sedgwick, Catherine M., 369, 381, 429.
+Sewall, Edmund Q., 361.
+Sewall, Samuel E., 358, 359, 369.
+Shaw, Lemuel, 382, 387.
+Shaw, Robert Gould, 386.
+Sherman, John, 92, 98.
+Shippen, Rush R., 213, 237, 238.
+Shute, Daniel, 58, 85, 87.
+Sill, Edward Rowland, 415, 431.
+Sin, original, 50.
+Singh, Hajom Kissor, 302, 303.
+Sloan, W.M., 2.
+Smith, Gerrit, 367, 376, 420.
+Smith, Mary P. Wells, 285, 290.
+Socialism in the church, 3, 4, 17, 20, 27, 33.
+Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity, 96,
+      141, 148.
+Society for Promoting Theological Education, 109, 110.
+Society for Propagating the Gospel, 120.
+Society to Encourage Home Studies, 404, 405.
+Socinianism, 42, 75, 80.
+Solemn Review of Custom of War, 344, 346.
+Sparks, Jared, 111, 114, 117, 119, 126, 132, 135, 397, 399, 415, 421, 424.
+Spaulding, Henry G., 274.
+Spirit of the Pilgrims, The, 93.
+Spofford Harriet Prescott, 430.
+Sprague, Charles, 351, 431.
+Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 368.
+Staples, Carlton A., 176, 214, 259, 364.
+Staples, Nahor A., 167, 176, 366.
+Stearns, Oliver, 317, 360, 361.
+Stebbins, Horatio, 239.
+Stebbins, Rufus, P., 161, 188, 189, 196, 315, 316, 351, 361, 397.
+Stedman, Edmund C., 431.
+Stetson, Caleb, 360, 361, 365.
+Stevenson, Hannah E., 202, 279.
+Stoddard, Richard Henry, 431.
+Stoddard, Solomon, 27, 39, 44, 68, 241.
+Stone, Lucy, 367-369.
+Stone, Thomas T., 164, 366, 369.
+Story, Joseph, 114, 117, 133, 134, 140, 143, 260, 377, 380, 381, 387.
+Story, William Wetmore, 430.
+Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 384.
+Strong, Caleb, 385.
+Sullivan, James, 385.
+Sullivan, Richard, 128, 129.
+Sullivan, Thomas E., 127, 447.
+Sumner, Charles, 347, 348, 364, 367, 372, 380.
+Sunday-school papers, 266, 269-271, 273, 274.
+Sunday-schools, 247, 254, 262-281;
+  origin of, 262;
+  Boston society, 265;
+  growth of, 267;
+  first publications, 268;
+  local societies, 269;
+  paper, 269;
+  national society, 270;
+  awakening interest, 272;
+  George F. Piper as secretary, 273;
+  Henry G. Spaulding, 274;
+  Edward A. Horton, 275;
+  western society, 276;
+  unity clubs, 278;
+  Religious Union, 278;
+  Ladies' Commission, 279, 332.
+Sunderland, Jabez T., 225, 301-303, 451.
+
+Talbot, Thomas, 382.
+Tappan, Lewis, 134, 137, 139.
+Taylor, Bayard, 430, 431.
+Taylor, Edward T., "Father Taylor," 324, 327.
+Taylor, Jeremy, 5, 12, 14, 31, 66.
+Taylor, John, of Norwich, 39.
+Temperance reform, 100, 322, 327, 349-353.
+Thacher, Samuel C., 94, 96, 99, 103, 344.
+Thayer, Nathaniel, 134.
+Theatre preaching, 215, 216.
+Theological library, 164.
+Thomas, Moses G., 140.
+Thompson, James W., 360, 361, 448.
+Thoreau, Henry D., 415, 428.
+Ticknor, Anna E., 404, 405.
+Ticknor, George, 98, 390, 410, 424, 525, 526.
+Tilden, William P., 361.
+Tileston, Thomas, 385.
+Tillotson, John, 11, 44, 45, 67.
+Toleration, 6, 7, 9, 11, 13, 21, 37, 43, 61, 67, 85, 89, 103, 107, 121.
+Toy, Crawford H., 274, 452.
+Tracts, 145-147, 163, 248, 300, 307.
+Tracts, distribution of, 147, 163, 184, 290.
+Transcendentalism, 155, 199, 200, 222, 417, 431.
+Trinity, 13, 14, 42, 45, 55, 58, 63, 65, 66, 69, 71, 79, 83.
+Trowbridge, John T., 430.
+Tucker, John, 75.
+Tuckerman, Henry T., 261, 428.
+Tuckerman, Joseph, 96, 99, 146, 247, 250-257, 260, 264, 265, 270, 282, 297,
+      298, 322, 323, 331, 334, 344.
+Tudor, William, 116.
+Tullock, John, 5.
+Tuskegee Institute, 339.
+
+Unitarian Advocate, 447.
+Unitarian Association, American, 117;
+  discussion in anonymous association, 129;
+  meeting at house of Josiah Quincy, 128;
+  Gannett's statement of purpose, 128;
+  printed report of committee, 128;
+  meeting in Federal Street Church, 129;
+  discussion as to advisability of organizing, 129;
+  announcement at Berry Street Conference, 133;
+  organization, 134;
+  officers, 135;
+  name selected, 138;
+  work of first year, 139;
+  first annual meeting, 140;
+  missionary tour of Moses G. Thomas, 140;
+  effort to absorb other societies, 141;
+  report of directors, 141;
+  attitude of churches, 142;
+  receipts, 142;
+  presidents, 142;
+  secretaries, 143;
+  missionary agents, 144;
+  incorporation, 145;
+  tracts, 145;
+  depositaries, 146;
+  Book and Pamphlet Society, 147;
+  distribution of books, 148;
+  colporters, 148;
+  missionary work in New England, 149;
+  work in South and West, 151;
+  tour of secretary, 152;
+  contributions for domestic missions, 153;
+  work of first quarter-century, 154;
+  influence of radicalism, 155;
+  indifference of churches, 160;
+  officers, 160;
+  Quarterly and Monthly Journal, 162;
+  tracts and books, 163;
+  theological library, 164;
+  devotional library, 164;
+  publishing firm, 165;
+  missionary activities, 167;
+  Association and Western Conference, 172;
+  work during civil war, 177;
+  results of fifteen years, 184;
+  meeting to consider interests of Association, 187;
+  vote to raise $100,000, 189;
+  success, 190;
+  convention in New; York, 190;
+  organization of National Conference, 192;
+  work planned, 193;
+  new life in Association, 196;
+  contributions, 197;
+  new theological position, 197;
+  organization of Free Religious Association, 202;
+  attempts at reconciliation, 204;
+  demand for creed, 205;
+  Year Book controversy, 207;
+  attitude of Unitarians, 209;
+  missionary work, 212;
+  Charles Lowe as secretary, 212;
+  fires in Chicago and Boston, 213;
+  work in west, 214;
+  college town missions, 214;
+  theatre preaching, 215;
+  organization of local conferences, 217;
+  fellowship and fraternity, 219;
+  results of denominational awakening, 221;
+  western issue, 225;
+  constitution of 1892, 229;
+  fellowship with Universalists, 230;
+  officers, 231;
+  adoption of representation, 232;
+  co-operation of Association and National Conference, 233;
+  building loan fund, 234;
+  Unitarian building, 237;
+  seventy-fifth anniversary, 244;
+  ministry at large, 247;
+  aid to Sunday School Society, 266;
+  fellowship with foreign Unitarians, 295;
+  relations with British Association, 295;
+  Dall in India, 299;
+  work in Japan, 303;
+  educational work in South, 338, 410;
+  educational work for Indians, 340;
+  attitude towards slavery, 363;
+  formation of International Council, 440.
+Unitarian Association, British and Foreign, 295, 298, 303.
+Unitarian beliefs, 157, 158, 168, 170, 171, 193, 201, 203, 205-207, 209,
+      211, 212, 225-227, 229, 362, 376, 378, 381, 382, 409, 425, 429, 431,
+      433, 434.
+Unitarian Book and Pamphlet Society, 147, 148.
+Unitarian Church Association of Maine, 217, 240.
+Unitarian hymnology, 244, 420.
+Unitarian Miscellany, The, 111-114.
+Unitarian Monitor, The, 447.
+Unitarian name, 103, 104, 123, 125, 138, 192, 266.
+Unitarian Review, 451.
+Unitarian Temperance Society, 278, 351, 352.
+Unitarian, The (1834), 447.
+Unitarian, The (1886), 225, 451.
+Unitarianism, American, 9, 14, 16, 36, 57-59, 63, 67, 72, 78, 79, 82, 102,
+      104, 111, 115, 118, 122, 124-126, 128, 132, 138, 149, 169, 185,
+      222-224, 378, 379, 384, 387, 389, 436-443.
+Unity, 225, 451.
+Unity clubs, 277-278.
+Unity of God, 63, 65.
+Universalism, 67-69, 71, 75, 88, 90, 93, 193, 194, 230.
+Universality of religion, 203, 210.
+
+Vane, Sir Henry, 16, 24.
+Very, Jones, 155, 244, 381, 431.
+
+Walcutt, Robert F., 359, 366.
+Walker, James, 95 101, 114, 126, 127, 129, 133-135, 138, 139, 146, 200,
+      267, 351, 397, 450.
+Walker, James P., 165, 188, 236, 272, 280.
+Walker, Williston, 18, 22.
+Walter, Cornelia W., 404.
+War, 343, 346-348.
+Ware, Dr. Henry, 60, 92, 108, 135, 146.
+Ware, Henry, the younger, 100, 110, 114, 128, 129, 132, 133, 135, 138, 143,
+      145, 148, 163, 184, 243, 249, 267, 268, 295, 297, 310, 344, 345, 350,
+      351, 359, 420.
+Ware, Dr. John, 350.
+Ware, John F. W, 177, 185, 361.
+Ware, William, 287, 360, 361, 415, 429, 447, 450.
+Warren Street Chapel, 257, 332, 337.
+Washington, 119, 213, 376, 380.
+Washington, George, 377, 379.
+Washington University, 397, 398.
+Wasson, David A., 201, 202, 211, 419, 420.
+Waterston, Robert C., 332, 361.
+Webster, Daniel, 356, 380, 385, 387.
+Webster, Samuel, 50.
+Weeden, William B., 383.
+Weiss, John, 200, 202, 360, 361, 419.
+Weld, Angelina Grimké, 367, 369.
+Weld, Theodore D., 365, 367.
+Wells, John, 212, 382.
+Wendell, Barrett, 410, 435.
+Wendte, Charles W., 246, 276, 289, 337.
+West, Samuel, 69, 85, 87.
+West, Unitarianism in the, 151-153, 224.
+Western Conference, 168-172, 197, 209, 214, 224-229, 284, 285, 364.
+"Western issue," 225-228.
+Western Messenger, The, 366, 448.
+Western ministers, 149, 152.
+Western Unitarian Association, 226.
+Wheaton, Henry, 134, 381.
+Whipple, Edwin P., 428.
+White, Andrew D., 376.
+Whitefield, George, 41, 44, 46.
+Whitman, Bernard, 269, 447.
+Whitman, Jason, 144, 148, 361.
+Whitman, Walter, 431.
+Whitney, Leonard, 172, 176.
+Whittier, John G., 376, 431.
+Wigglesworth, Dr., 44.
+Wigglesworth, Thomas, 385.
+Wilkes, Eliza Tupper, 371.
+Willard, Samuel, 26, 35.
+Williams, John E., 332.
+Williams, Roger, 16, 24, 121.
+Willson, Edmund B., 176, 269, 361.
+Winkley, Samuel H., 185.
+Wise, John, 30-34.
+Wolcott, J.H., 385.
+Wolcott, Roger, 382.
+Women, 30, 191, 250, 282-294, 343, 348, 349, 368-372, 402-407, 428, 429.
+Women's Alliance, 287-294.
+Women's Auxiliary, 286.
+Women's Western Unitarian Conference, 284, 285.
+Woodbury, Augustus, 146.
+Worcester, 73, 173, 218.
+Worcester Association of Ministers, 173, 269.
+Worcester, Noah, 93, 98-100, 114, 148, 344, 345, 350, 365, 389.
+Wright, Carroll D., 196, 231.
+Wyman, Jeffries, 180, 427.
+
+Yale College, 43.
+Year Book of American Unitarian Association, 207, 449.
+Young, Alexander, 114, 127, 143, 267, 424.
+Young People's Religious Union, 278.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Unitarianism in America, by George Willis Cooke
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNITARIANISM IN AMERICA ***
+
+This file should be named 8unit10.txt or 8unit10.zip
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8unit11.txt
+VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8unit10a.txt
+
+Produced by David Starner, Christopher Lund, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we usually do not
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance
+of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
+Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections,
+even years after the official publication date.
+
+Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.
+
+Most people start at our Web sites at:
+http://gutenberg.net or
+http://promo.net/pg
+
+These Web sites include award-winning information about Project
+Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new
+eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!).
+
+
+Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement
+can get to them as follows, and just download by date.  This is
+also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the
+indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an
+announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.
+
+http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or
+ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03
+
+Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90
+
+Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,
+as it appears in our Newsletters.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
+to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.   Our
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If the value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text
+files per month:  1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+
+We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002
+If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total
+will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks!
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.
+
+Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated):
+
+eBooks Year Month
+
+    1  1971 July
+   10  1991 January
+  100  1994 January
+ 1000  1997 August
+ 1500  1998 October
+ 2000  1999 December
+ 2500  2000 December
+ 3000  2001 November
+ 4000  2001 October/November
+ 6000  2002 December*
+ 9000  2003 November*
+10000  2004 January*
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created
+to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people
+and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut,
+Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois,
+Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts,
+Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New
+Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
+Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South
+Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West
+Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
+
+We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones
+that have responded.
+
+As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list
+will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states.
+Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state.
+
+In answer to various questions we have received on this:
+
+We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally
+request donations in all 50 states.  If your state is not listed and
+you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have,
+just ask.
+
+While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are
+not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting
+donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to
+donate.
+
+International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about
+how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made
+deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are
+ways.
+
+Donations by check or money order may be sent to:
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+PMB 113
+1739 University Ave.
+Oxford, MS 38655-4109
+
+Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment
+method other than by check or money order.
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by
+the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN
+[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154.  Donations are
+tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law.  As fund-raising
+requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be
+made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+You can get up to date donation information online at:
+
+http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html
+
+
+***
+
+If you can't reach Project Gutenberg,
+you can always email directly to:
+
+Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
+
+Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.
+
+We would prefer to send you information by email.
+
+
+**The Legal Small Print**
+
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how
+you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks,
+is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart
+through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project").
+Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook
+under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market
+any commercial products without permission.
+
+To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may
+receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims
+all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from. If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy. If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation,
+and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated
+with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
+texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including
+legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the
+following that you do or cause:  [1] distribution of this eBook,
+[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook,
+or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     eBook or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word
+     processing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the eBook (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the
+     gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation"
+     the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
+     legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
+     periodic) tax return.  Please contact us beforehand to
+     let us know your plans and to work out the details.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of
+public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
+in machine readable form.
+
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time,
+public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses.
+Money should be paid to the:
+"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or
+software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:
+hart@pobox.com
+
+[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only
+when distributed free of all fees.  Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by
+Michael S. Hart.  Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be
+used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be
+they hardware or software or any other related product without
+express permission.]
+
+*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END*
+
diff --git a/old/8unit10.zip b/old/8unit10.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ec6479d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/8unit10.zip
diff --git a/old/8unit10h.htm b/old/8unit10h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6706194
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/8unit10h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,15183 @@
+<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
+<html>
+<head>
+  <title>Unitarianism In America</title>
+  <style type="text/css">
+    hr { background : black; height : 3px }
+    h1, h2, h4 { text-align : center }
+    h3 { font-size : 110% }
+  </style>
+  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
+</head>
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's Unitarianism in America, by George Willis Cooke
+#2 in our series by George Willis Cooke
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
+this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
+
+This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
+Gutenberg file.  Please do not remove it.  Do not change or edit the
+header without written permission.
+
+Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
+eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file.  Included is
+important information about your specific rights and restrictions in
+how the file may be used.  You can also find out about how to make a
+donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: Unitarianism in America
+
+Author: George Willis Cooke
+
+Release Date: August, 2005 [EBook #8605]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on July 28, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNITARIANISM IN AMERICA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Starner, Christopher Lund, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<h1>UNITARIANISM IN AMERICA</h1>
+<h2>A History of its Origin and Development</h2>
+
+
+<h4>BY</h4>
+
+
+<h2>GEORGE WILLIS COOKE</h2>
+
+<h4>MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, AMERICAN ASSOCIATION
+FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, AMERICAN ACADEMY OF
+POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCE, ETC.</h4>
+
+
+<hr width="50%" size="3" />
+
+<h2>PREFACE.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The aim I have had in view in writing this book has been to give a history
+of the origin of Unitarianism in the United States, how it has organized
+itself, and what it has accomplished. It seemed desirable to deal more
+fully than has been done hitherto with the obscure beginnings of the
+Unitarian movement in New England; but limits of space have made it
+impossible to treat this phase of the subject in other than a cursory
+manner. It deserves an exhaustive treatment, which will amply repay the
+necessary labor to this end. The theological controversies that led to the
+separation of the Unitarians from the older Congregational body have been
+only briefly alluded to, the design of my work not requiring an ampler
+treatment. It was not thought best to cover the ground so ably traversed by
+Rev. George E. Ellis, in his Half-century of the Unitarian Controversy;
+Rev. Joseph Henry Allen, in his Our Liberal Movement in Theology; Rev.
+William Channing Gannett, in his Memoir of Dr. Ezra Stiles Gannett; and by
+Rev. John White Chadwick, in his Old and New Unitarian Beliefs. The attempt
+here made has been to supplement these works, and to treat of the practical
+side of Unitarianism,--its organizations, charities, philanthropies, and
+reforms.</p>
+
+<p>With the theological problems involved in the history of Unitarianism this
+volume deals only so far as they have affected its general development. I
+have endeavored to treat of them fairly and without prejudice, to state the
+position of each side to the various controversies in the words of those
+who have accepted its point of view, and to judge of them as phases of a
+larger religious growth. I have not thought it wise to attempt anything
+approaching an exhaustive treatment of the controversies produced by the
+transcendental movement and by "the Western issue." If they are to be dealt
+with in the true spirit of the historical method, it must be at a period
+more remote from these discussions than that of one who participated in
+them, however slightly. I have endeavored to treat of all phases of
+Unitarianism without reference to local interests and without sectional
+preferences. If my book does not indicate such regard to what is national
+rather than to what is provincial, as some of my readers may desire, it is
+due to inability to secure information that would have given a broader
+character to my treatment of the subject.</p>
+
+<p>The present work may appear to some of its readers to have been written in
+a sectarian spirit, with a purpose to magnify the excellences of
+Unitarianism, and to ignore its limitations. Such has not been the purpose
+I have kept before me; but, rather, my aim has been to present the facts
+candidly and justly, and to treat of them from the standpoint of a student
+of the religious evolution of mankind. Unitarianism in this country
+presents an attempt to bring religion into harmony with philosophy and
+science, and to reconcile Christianity with the modern spirit. Its effort
+in this direction is one that deserves careful consideration, especially in
+view of the unity and harmony it has developed in the body of believers who
+accept its teachings. The Unitarian body is a small one, but it has a
+history of great significance with reference to the future development of
+Christianity.</p>
+
+<p>The names of those who accept Unitarianism have not been given in this book
+in any boastful spirit. A faith that is often spoken against may justify
+itself by what it has accomplished, and its best fruits are the men and
+women who have lived in the spirit of its teachings. In presenting the
+names of those who are not in any way identified with Unitarian churches,
+the purpose has been to suggest the wide and inclusive character of the
+Unitarian movement, and to indicate that it is not represented merely by a
+body of churches, but that it is an individual way of looking at the facts
+of life and its problems.</p>
+
+<p>In writing the following pages, I have had constantly in mind those who
+have not been educated as Unitarians, and who have come into this
+inheritance through struggle and search. Not having been to the manner born
+myself, I have sought to provide such persons with the kind of information
+that would have been helpful to me in my endeavors to know the Unitarian
+life and temper. Something of what appears in these pages is due to this
+desire to help those who wish to know concretely what Unitarianism is, and
+what it has said and done to justify its existence. This will account for
+the manner of treatment and for some of the topics selected.</p>
+
+<p>When this work was begun, the design was that it should form a part of the
+exhibit of Unitarianism in this country presented at the seventy-fifth
+anniversary of the formation of the American Unitarian Association. The
+time required for a careful verification of facts made it impossible to
+have the book ready at that date. The delay in its publication has not
+freed the work from all errors and defects, but it has given the
+opportunity for a more adequate treatment of many phases of the subject.
+Much of the work required in its preparation does not show itself in the
+following pages; but it has involved an extended examination of manuscript
+journals and records, as well as printed reports of societies, newspapers,
+magazines, pamphlets, and books. Many of the subjects dealt with, not
+having been touched upon in any previous historical work, have demanded a
+first-hand study of records, often difficult to find access to, and even
+more difficult to summarize in an interesting and adequate manner.</p>
+
+<p>I wish here to warmly thank all those persons, many in number and too
+numerous to give all their names, who have generously aided me with their
+letters and manuscripts, and by the loan of books, magazines, pamphlets,
+and newspapers. Without their aid the book would have been much less
+adequate in its treatment of many subjects than it is at present. Though I
+am responsible for the book as it presents itself to the reader, much of
+its value is due to those who have thus labored with me in its preparation.
+In manuscript and in proof-sheet it has been read by several persons, who
+have kindly aided in securing accuracy to names, dates, and historic facts.</p>
+
+<p>G.W.C.</p>
+
+<p>BOSTON, October 1, 1902.</p>
+
+
+<hr width="50%" size="3" />
+
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+
+<p><b>I. <a href="#ch1">INTRODUCTION.--ENGLISH SOURCES OF AMERICAN UNITARIANISM</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn1">Renaissance</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn2">Reformation</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn3">Toleration</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn4">Arminianism</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn5">English Rationalists</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>II. <a href="#ch2">THE LIBERAL SIDE OF PURITANISM</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn6">The Church of Authority and the Church of Freedom</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn7">Seventeenth-century Liberals</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn8">Growth of Liberty in Church Methods</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn9">A Puritan Rationalist</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn10">Harvard College</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>III. <a href="#ch3">THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY IN THE CHURCHES</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn11">Arminianism</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn12">The Growth of Arminianism</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn13">Robert Breck</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn14">Books Read by Liberal Men</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn15">The Great Awakening</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn16">Cardinal Beliefs of the Liberals</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn17">Publications defining the Liberal Beliefs</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn18">Phases of Religious Progress</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>IV. <a href="#ch4">THE SILENT ADVANCE OF LIBERALISM</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn19">Subordinate Nature of Christ</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn20">Some of the Liberal Leaders</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn21">The First Unitarian</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn22">A Pronounced Universalist</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn23">Other Men of Mark</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn24">The Second Period of Revivals</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn25">King's Chapel becomes Unitarian</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn26">Other Unitarian Movements</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn27">Growth of Toleration</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>V. <a href="#ch5">THE PERIOD OF CONTROVERSY</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn28">The Monthly Anthology</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn29">Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn30">General Repository</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn31">The Christian Disciple</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn32">Dr. Morse and American Unitarianism</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn33">Evangelical Missionary Society</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn34">The Berry Street Conference</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn35">The Publishing Fund Society</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn36">Harvard Divinity School</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn37">The Unitarian Miscellany</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn38">The Christian Register</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn39">Results of the Division in Congregationalism</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn40">Final Separation of State and Church</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>VI. <a href="#ch6">THE AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn41">Initial Meetings</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn42">Work of the First Year</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn43">Work of the First Quarter of a Century</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn44">Publication of Tracts and Books</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn45">Domestic Missions</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>VII. <a href="#ch7">THE PERIOD OF RADICALISM</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn46">Depression in Denominational Activities</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn47">Publications</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn48">A Firm of Publishers</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn49">The Brooks Fund</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn50">Missionary Efforts</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn51">The Western Unitarian Conference</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn52">The Autumnal Conventions</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn53">Influence of the Civil War</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn54">The Sanitary Commission</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn55">Results of Fifteen years</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>VIII. <a href="#ch8">THE DENOMINATIONAL AWAKENING</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn56">The New York Convention of 1865</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn57">New Life in the Unitarian Association</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn58">The New Theological Position</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn59">Organization of the Free Religious Association</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn60">Unsuccessful Attempts at Reconciliation</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn61">The Year Book Controversy</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn62">Missionary Activities</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn63">College Town Missions</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn64">Theatre Preaching</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn65">Organization of Local Conferences</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn66">Fellowship and Fraternity</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn67">Results of the Denominational Awakening</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>IX. <a href="#ch9">GROWTH OF DENOMINATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn68">"The Western Issue"</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn69">Fellowship with Universalists</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn70">Officers of the American Unitarian Association</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn71">The American Unitarian Association as a Representative Boy</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn72">The Church Building Loan Fund</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn73">The Unitarian Building in Boston</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn74">Growth of the Devotional Spirit</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn75">The Seventy-fifth Anniversary</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>X. <a href="#ch10">THE MINISTRY AT LARGE</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn76">Association of Young Men</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn77">Preaching to the Poor</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn78">Tuckerman as Minister to the Poor</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn79">Tuckerman's Methods</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn80">Organization of Charities</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn81">Benevolent Fraternity of Churches</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn82">Other Ministers at Large</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn83">Ministry at Large in Other Cities</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>XI. <a href="#ch11">ORGANIZED SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn84">Boston Sunday School Society</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn85">Unitarian Sunday School Society</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn86">Western Unitarian Sunday School Society</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn87">Unity Clubs</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn88">The Ladies' Commission on Sunday-school Books</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>XII. <a href="#ch12">THE WOMEN'S ALLIANCE AND ITS PREDECESSORS</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn89">Women's Western Unitarian Conference</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn90">Women's Auxiliary Conference</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn91">The National Alliance</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn92">Cheerful Letter and Post-office Missions</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn93">Associate Alliances</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn94">Alliance Methods</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>XIII. <a href="#ch13">MISSIONS TO INDIA AND JAPAN</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn95">Society respecting the State of Religion in India</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn96">Dall's Work in India</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn97">Recent Work in India</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn98">The Beginnings in Japan</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>XIV. <a href="#ch14">THE MEADVILLE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn99">The Beginnings in Meadville</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn100">The Growth of the School</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>XV. <a href="#ch15">UNITARIAN PHILANTHROPIES</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn101">Unitarian Charities</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn102">Education of the Blind</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn103">Care of the Insane</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn104">Child-saving Missions</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn105">Care of the Poor</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn106">Humane Treatment of Animals</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn107">Young Men's Christian Unions</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn108">Educational Work in the South</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn109">Educational Work for the Indians</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>XVI. <a href="#ch16">UNITARIANS AND REFORMS</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn110">Peace Movement</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn111">Temperance Reform</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn112">Anti-slavery</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn113">The Enfranchisement of Women</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn114">Civil Service Reform</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>XVII. <a href="#ch17">UNITARIAN MEN AND WOMEN</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn115">Eminent Statesmen</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn116">Some Representative Unitarians</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn117">Judges and Legislators</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn118">Boston Unitarianism</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>XVIII. <a href="#ch18">UNITARIANS AND EDUCATION</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn119">Pioneers of the Higher Criticism</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn120">The Catholic Influence of Harvard University</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn121">The Work of Horace Mann</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn122">Elizabeth Peabody and the Kindergarten</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn123">Work of Unitarian Women for Education</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn124">Popular Education and Public Libraries</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn125">Mayo's Southern Ministry of Education</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>XIX. <a href="#ch19">UNITARIANISM AND LITERATURE</a></b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  <a href="#sn126">Influence of Unitarian Environment</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn127">Literary Tendencies</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn128">Literary Tastes of Unitarian Ministers</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn129">Unitarians as Historians</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn130">Scientific Unitarians</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn131">Unitarian Essayists</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn132">Unitarian Novelists</a><br />
+  <a href="#sn133">Unitarian Artists and Poets</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><b>XX. <a href="#ch20">THE FUTURE OF UNITARIANISM</a></b></p>
+
+<p><b>APPENDIX.</b></p>
+<blockquote><p>
+  A. <a href="#chaa">Formation of the Local Conferences</a><br />
+  B. <a href="#chab">Unitarian Newspapers and Magazines</a>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<hr width="50%" size="3" />
+
+
+<a name="pg1"></a>
+<h2>UNITARIANISM IN AMERICA.<br />
+
+A HISTORY OF ITS ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT.</h2>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><br /><a name="ch1"></a>I.<br />
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.--ENGLISH SOURCES OF AMERICAN UNITARIANISM.</h2>
+
+<p>The sources of American Unitarianism are to be found in the spirit of
+individualism developed by the Renaissance, the tendency to free inquiry
+that manifested itself in the Protestant Reformation, and the general
+movement of the English churches of the seventeenth century toward
+toleration and rationalism. The individualism of modern thought and life
+first found distinct expression in the Renaissance; and it was essentially
+a new creation, and not a revival. Hitherto the tribe, the city, the
+nation, the guild, or the church, had been the source of authority, the
+centre of power, and the giver of life. Although Greece showed a desire for
+freedom of thought, and a tendency to recognize the worth of the individual
+and his capacity as a discoverer and transmitter of truth, it did not set
+the individual mind free from bondage to the social and political power of
+the city. Socrates and Plato saw somewhat of the real worth of the
+individual, but the great mass of the people were never emancipated from
+<a name="pg2"></a>
+the old tribal authority as inherited by the city-state; and not one of the
+great dramatists had conceived of the significance of a genuine
+individualism.[<a href="#fn_1_1">1</a><a name="fr_1_1"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn1"></a>Renaissance.</h3>
+
+<p>The Renaissance advanced to a new conception of the worth and the capacity
+of the individual mind, and for the first time in history recognized the
+full social meaning of personality in man. It sanctioned and authenticated
+the right of the individual to think for himself, and it developed clearly
+the idea that he may become the transmitter of valid revelations of
+spiritual truth. That God may speak through individual intuition and
+reason, and that this inward revelation may be of the highest authority and
+worth, was a conception first brought to distinct acceptance by the
+Renaissance.</p>
+
+<p>A marked tendency of the Reformation which it received from the Renaissance
+was its acceptance of the free spirit of individualism. The Roman Church
+had taught that all valid religious truth comes to mankind through its own
+corporate existence, but the Reformers insisted that truth is the result of
+individual insight and investigation. The Reformation magnified the worth
+<a name="pg3"></a>
+of personality, and made it the central force in all human effort.[<a href="#fn_1_2">2</a><a name="fr_1_2"></a>] To
+gain a positive personal life, one of free initiative power, that may in
+itself become creative, and capable of bringing truth and life to larger
+issues, was the chief motive of the Protestant leaders in their work of
+reformation. The result was that, wherever genuine Protestantism appeared,
+it manifested itself by its attitude of free inquiry, its tendency to
+emphasize individual life and thought, and its break with the traditions of
+the past, whether in literature or in religion. The Reformation did not,
+however, bring the principle of individuality to full maturity; and it
+retained many of the old institutional methods, as well as a large degree
+of their social motive. The Reformed churches were often as autocratic as
+the Catholic Church had been, and as little inclined to approve of
+individual departures from their creeds and disciplines; but the motive of
+individualism they had adopted in theory, and could not wholly depart from
+in practice. Their merit was that they had recognized and made a place for
+the principle of individuality; and it proved to be a developing social
+power, however much they might ignore or try to suppress it.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn2"></a>Reformation.</h3>
+
+<p>In its earliest phases Protestantism magnified the importance of reason in
+religious investigations, although it used an imperfect method in so doing.
+<a name="pg4"></a>
+All doctrines were subjected more or less faithfully to this test, every
+rite was criticised and reinterpreted, and the Bible itself was handled in
+the freest manner. The individualism of the movement showed itself in
+Luther's doctrine of justification by faith, and his confidence in the
+validity of personal insight into spiritual realities. Most of all this
+tendency manifested itself in the assertion of the right of every believer
+to read the Bible for himself, and to interpret it according to his own
+needs. The vigorous assertion of the right to the free interpretation of
+the Word of God, and to personal insight into spiritual truth, led their
+followers much farther than the first reformers had anticipated.
+Individualism showed itself in an endless diversity of personal opinions,
+and in the creation of many little groups of believers, who were drawn
+together by an interest in individual leaders or by a common acceptance of
+hair-splitting interpretations of religious truths.[<a href="#fn_1_3">3</a><a name="fr_1_3"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The Protestant Church inculcated the law of individual fidelity to God, and
+declared that the highest obligation is that of personal faith and purity.
+What separated the Catholic and the Protestant was not merely a question of
+socialism as against individualism,[<a href="#fn_1_4">4</a><a name="fr_1_4"></a>] but it was also a problem of outward
+<a name="pg5"></a>
+or inward law, of environment or intuition as the source of wholesome
+teaching, of ritualism or belief as the higher form of religious
+expression. The Protestants held that belief is better than ritual, faith
+than sacraments, inward authority than external force. They insisted that
+the individual has a right to think his own thoughts and to pray his own
+prayer, and that the revelation of the Supreme Good Will is to all who
+inwardly bear God's image and to every one whose will is a centre of new
+creative force in the world of conduct. They affirmed that the individual
+is of more worth than the social organism, the soul than the church, the
+motive than the conduct, the search for truth than the truth attained.</p>
+
+<p>These tendencies of Protestantism found expression in the rationalism that
+appeared in England at the time of the Commonwealth, and especially at the
+Restoration. All the men of broader temper proclaimed the use of reason in
+the discussion of theological problems. In their opinion the Bible was to
+be interpreted as other books are, while with regard to doctrines there
+must be compromise and latitude. We find such a theologian as Chillingworth
+recognizing "the free right of the individual reason to interpret the
+Bible."[<a href="#fn_1_5">5</a><a name="fr_1_5"></a>] To such men as Milton, Jeremy Taylor, and Locke the free spirit
+was essential, even though they had not become rationalists in the modern
+<a name="pg6"></a>
+philosophical sense. They were slow to discard tradition, and they desired
+to establish the validity of the Bible; but they would not accept any
+authority until it had borne the test of as thorough an investigation as
+they could give it. The methods of rationalism were not yet understood, but
+the rational spirit had been accepted with a clear apprehension of its
+significance.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn3"></a>Toleration.</h3>
+
+<p>Toleration had two classes of advocates in the seventeenth century,--on the
+one hand, the minor and persecuted sects, and, on the other, such of the
+great leaders of religious opinion as Milton and Locke. The first clear
+assertion of the modern idea of toleration was made by the Anabaptists of
+Holland, who in 1611 put into their Confession of Faith this declaration of
+the freedom of religion from all state regulation: "The magistrate is not
+to meddle with religion, or matters of conscience, nor compel men to this
+or that form of religion, because Christ is King, and Lawgiver of the
+church and conscience." When the Baptists appeared in England, they
+advocated this principle as the one which ought to control in the relations
+of church and state. In 1614 there was published in London a little tract,
+written by one Leonard Busher, a poor laborer, and a member of the Baptist
+church that had recently been organized there. The writer addressed the
+King and Parliament with a statement of his conviction "that by fire and
+sword to constrain princes and peoples to receive that one true religion of
+the Gospel is wholly against the mind and merciful law of Christ."[<a href="#fn_1_6">6</a><a name="fr_1_6"></a>] He
+went on to say that no king or bishop is able to command faith, that it is
+monstrous for Christians to vex and destroy each other on account of
+<a name="pg7"></a>
+religious differences. The leading Protestant bodies, especially the
+established churches, still held to the corporate idea of the nature of
+religious institutions; and, although they had rejected the domination of
+the Roman Church, they accepted the control of the state as essential to
+the purity of the church. This half-way retention of the corporate spirit
+made it impossible for any of the leading churches to give recognition to
+the full meaning of the Protestant idea of the worth of the individual
+soul, and its right to communicate directly with God. It remained for the
+persecuted Baptists and Independents, too feeble and despised to aspire to
+state influence, to work out the Protestant principle to its full
+expression in the spirit of toleration, to declare for liberty of
+conscience, the voluntary maintenance of worship, and the separation of
+church and state.</p>
+
+<p>After the Restoration, and again after the enthronement of William and
+Mary, it became a serious practical problem to establish satisfactory
+relations between the various sects. All who were not sectarian fanatics
+saw that some kind of compromise was desirable, and the more liberal wished
+to include all but the most extreme phases of belief within the national
+church. When that national church was finally established on the lines
+which it has since retained, and numerous bodies of dissenters found
+themselves compelled to remain outside, toleration became more and more
+essential, in order that the nation might live at peace with itself. From
+generation to generation the dissenters were able to secure for themselves
+a larger recognition, disabilities were removed as men of all sects saw
+that restrictions were useless, and toleration became the established law
+in the relations of the various religious bodies to each other.</p>
+
+<a name="pg8"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn4"></a>Arminianism.</h3>
+
+<p>The conditions which led to toleration also developed a liberal
+interpretation of the relations of the church to the people, a broader
+explanation of doctrines, and a rational insight into the problems of the
+religious life. One phase of this more comprehensive religious spirit was
+shown in Arminianism, which was nothing more than an assertion of
+individualism in the sphere of man's relations to God. Calvinism maintained
+that man cannot act freely for himself, that he is strictly under the
+sovereignty of the Divine Will. The democratic tendency in Holland, where
+Arminianism had its origin, expressed itself in the declaration that every
+man is free to accept or to reject religious truth, that the will is
+individual and self-assertive, and that the conscience is not bound.
+Arminius and his coworkers accepted what the early Protestant movement had
+regarded as essential, that religion should be always obedient to the
+rational spirit, that nature should be the test in regard to all which
+affects human conduct, and that the critical spirit ought to be applied to
+dogma and Bible. Arminius reasserted this freedom of the human spirit, and
+vindicated the right of the individual mind to seek God and his truth
+wherever they may be found.</p>
+
+<p>As Protestantism became firmly established in England, and the nation
+accepted its mental and moral attitude without reserve, what is known as
+Arminianism came to be more and more prevalent. This was not a body of
+doctrines, and it was in no sense a sectarian movement: it was rather a
+mental temper of openness and freedom. In a word, Arminianism became a
+method of religious inquiry that appealed to reason, nature, and the needs
+<a name="pg9"></a>
+of man. It put new emphasis on the intellectual side of religion, and it
+developed as a moral protest against the harsher features of Calvinism. It
+gave to human feelings the right to express themselves as elements in the
+problem of man's relations to God, and vindicated for God the right to be
+deemed as sympathetic and loving as the men who worship him.</p>
+
+<p>While the Arminians accepted the Bible as an authoritative standard as
+fully as did the Calvinists, they were more critical in its study: they
+applied literary and historical standards in its interpretation, and they
+submitted it to the vindication of reason. They sought to escape from the
+tyranny of the Bible, and yet to make it a living force in the world of
+conduct and character. They not only declared anew the right of private
+judgment, but they wished to make the Bible the source of inward spiritual
+illumination,--not a standard and a test, but an awakener of the divine
+life in the soul. They sought for what is really essential in religious
+truth, limited the number of dogmas that may be regarded as requisite to
+the Christian life, and took the position that only what is of prime
+importance is to be required of the believer. The result was that
+Arminianism became a positive aid to the growth of toleration in England;
+for it became what was called latitudinarian,--that is, broad in temper,
+inclusive in spirit, and desirous of bringing all the nation within the
+limits of one harmonizing and noble-minded church.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn5"></a>English Rationalists.</h3>
+
+<p>It was in such tendencies as these, as they were developed in Holland and
+England, that American Unitarianism had its origin. To show how true this
+is, it may be desirable to speak of a few of the men whose books were most
+<a name="pg10"></a>
+frequently read in New England during the eighteenth century. The prose
+writings of Milton exerted great influence in favor of toleration and in
+vindication of reason. Without doubt he became in his later years a
+believer in free will and the subordinate nature of Christ, and he was true
+to the Protestant ideal of an open Bible and a free spirit in man. Known as
+a Puritan, his pleas for toleration must have been read with confidence by
+his coreligionists of New England; while his rational temper could not have
+failed to have its effect.</p>
+
+<p>His vindication of the Bible as the religion of Protestants must have
+commended Chillingworth to the liberal minds in New England; and there is
+evidence that he was read with acceptance, although he was of the
+established church. Chillingworth was of the noblest type of the
+latitudinarians in the Church of England during the first half of the
+seventeenth century; for he was generously tolerant, his mind was broad and
+liberal, and he knew the true value of a really comprehensive and inclusive
+church, which he earnestly desired should be established in England. He
+wished to have the creed reduced to the most limited proportions by giving
+emphasis to what is fundamental, and by the extrusion of all else. It was
+his desire to maintain what is essential that caused him to say: "I am
+fully assured that God does not, and therefore that man ought not, to
+require any more of any man than this--to believe the Scripture to be God's
+word, to endeavor to find the true sense of it, and to live according to
+it."[<a href="#fn_1_7">7</a><a name="fr_1_7"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>He would therefore leave every man free to interpret the Bible for himself,
+and he would make no dogmatic test to deprive any man of this right. The
+<a name="pg11"></a>
+chief fact in the Bible being Christ, he insisted that Christianity is
+loyalty to his spirit. "To believe only in Christ" is his definition of
+Christianity, and he would add nothing to this standard. He would put no
+church or creed or council between the individual soul and God; and he
+would direct every believer to the Bible as the free and open way of the
+soul's access to divine truth. He found that the religion of Protestants
+consisted in the rational use of that book, and not in the teachings of the
+Reformers or in the confessions they devised. It is the great merit of
+Chillingworth that he vindicated the spirit of toleration in a broad and
+noble manner, that he was without sectarian prejudice or narrowness in his
+desire for an inclusive church, and that he spoke and wrote in a truly
+rational temper. He applied reason to all religious problems, and he
+regarded it as the final judge and arbiter. Religious freedom received from
+him the fullest recognition, and no one has more clearly indicated the
+scope and purpose of toleration.</p>
+
+<p>Another English religious leader, much read in New England, was Archbishop
+Tillotson. It has been said of him that "for the first time since the
+Reformation the voice of reason was now clearly heard in the high places of
+the church."[<a href="#fn_1_8">8</a><a name="fr_1_8"></a>] He was an Arminian in his sympathies, and held that the way
+of salvation is open to all who choose to accept its opportunities. He
+expressed himself as being as certain that the doctrine of eternal decrees
+is not of God as he was sure that God is good and just. His ground for this
+opinion was that it is repugnant to the convictions of justice and goodness
+<a name="pg12"></a>
+natural to men. He maintained that we shall be justified before God by
+means of the reformation that is wrought in our own lives. We have an
+intuition of what is right, and a natural capacity for living justly and
+righteously. Experience and reason he made concomitant spiritual forces
+with the Bible, and he held that revelation is but a republication of the
+truths of natural religion. Tillotson was truly a broad churchman, who was
+desirous of making the national church as comprehensive as possible; and he
+was one who practised as well as preached toleration.</p>
+
+<p>Not less liberal was Jeremy Taylor, who was numbered among the dissenters.
+In the introduction to his Liberty of Prophesying he said, "So long as men
+have such variety of principles, such several constitutions, educations,
+tempers, and distempers, hopes, interests, and weaknesses, degrees of light
+and degrees of understanding, it was impossible all should be of one mind."
+Taylor justly said that in heaven there is room for all faiths. His Liberty
+of Prophesying, Chillingworth's Religion of Protestants, and Milton's
+Liberty of Unlicensed Printing are the great expressions of the spirit of
+toleration in the seventeenth century. Each was broad, comprehensive, and
+noble in its plea for religious freedom. It has been said of Taylor that
+"he sets a higher value on a good life than on an orthodox creed. He
+estimates every doctrine by its capacity to do men good."[<a href="#fn_1_9">9</a><a name="fr_1_9"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Another advocate of toleration was John Locke, whose chief influence was as
+a rationalist in philosophy and religion. While accepting Christianity with
+simple confidence, he subjected it to the careful scrutiny of reason. His
+<a name="pg13"></a>
+philosophy awakened the rationalistic spirit in all who accepted it, so
+that many of his disciples went much farther than he did himself. While
+accepting revelation, he maintained that natural knowledge is more certain
+in its character. He taught that the conclusions of reason are more
+important than anything given men in the name of revelation. He did not
+himself widely depart from the orthodoxy of his day, though he did not
+accept the doctrine of the Trinity in the most approved form.</p>
+
+<p>One of the rationalistic followers of Locke was Samuel Clarke, who
+attempted to apply the scientific methods of Newton to the interpretation
+of Christianity. He tried to establish faith in God on a purely scientific
+basis. He declared that goodness does not exist because God commands it,
+but that he commands it because it is good. He interpreted the doctrine of
+the Trinity in a rationalistic manner, holding to its form, but rejecting
+its substance.</p>
+
+<p>These men were widely read in New England during the eighteenth century. In
+England they were accounted orthodox, and they held high positions either
+in the national church or in the leading dissenting bodies. They were not
+sectarian or bigoted, they wished to give religion a basis in common sense
+and ethical integrity, and they approved of a Christianity that is
+practical and leads to noble living.</p>
+
+<p>When we consider what were the relations of the colonies to England during
+the first half of the eighteenth century, and that the New England churches
+were constantly influenced by the religious attitude of the
+mother-country,[<a href="#fn_1_10">10</a><a name="fr_1_10"></a>] it is plain enough that toleration and rationalism were
+<a name="pg14"></a>
+in large measure received from England. In the same school was learned the
+lesson of a return to the simplicity of Christ, of making him and his life
+the standard of Christian fellowship. The great leaders in England taught
+positively that loyalty to Christ is the only essential test of Christian
+duty; and it is not in the least surprising the same idea should have found
+noble advocacy in New England. That a good life and character are the true
+indications of the possession of a saving faith was a thought too often
+uttered in England not to find advocacy in the colonies.</p>
+
+<p>In this way Unitarianism had its origin, in the teachings of men who were
+counted orthodox in England, but who favored submitting all theological
+problems to the test of reason. It was not a sectarian movement in its
+origin or at any time during the eighteenth century; but it was an effort
+to make religion practical, to give it a basis in reality, and to establish
+it as acceptable to the sound judgment and common sense of all men. It was
+an application to the interpretation of theological problems of that
+individualistic spirit which was at the very source of Protestantism. If
+the individual ought to interpret the Bible for himself, so ought he to
+accept his own explanation of the dogmas of the church. In so doing, he
+necessarily becomes a rationalist, which may lead him far from the
+traditions of the past. If he thinks for himself, there is an end to
+uniformity of faith--a conclusion which such men as Chillingworth and
+Jeremy Taylor were willing to accept; and, therefore, they desired an
+all-inclusive church, in order that freedom and unity of faith might be
+both maintained.</p>
+
+<p>In its beginning the liberal movement in New England was not concerned with
+the Trinity. It was a demand for simplicity, rationality, and toleration.
+<a name="pg15"></a>
+When it had proceeded far on its way, it was led to a consideration of the
+problem of the Trinity, because it did not find that doctrine distinctly
+taught in the New Testament. Accepting implicitly the words of Christ, it
+found him declaring positively his own subordination to the Father, and
+preferred his teaching to that of the creeds. To the early liberals this
+was simply a question of the nature of Christ, and did not lessen for them
+their implicit faith in his revelation or their recognition of the beauty
+and glory of his divine character.</p>
+
+<p><br />[<a href="#fr_1_1">1</a><a name="fn_1_1"></a>] Paul Lafargue, The Evolution of Property from Savagery to
+    Civilization, 18, 19. "If the savage is incapable of conceiving the
+    idea of individual possession of objects not incorporated with his
+    person, it is because he has no conception of his individuality as
+    distinct from the consanguine group in which he lives.... Savages, even
+    though individually completer beings, seeing that they are
+    self-sufficing, than are civilized persons, are so thoroughly
+    identified with their hordes and clans that their individuality does
+    not make itself felt either in the family or in property. The clan was
+    all in all: the clan was the family; it was the clan that was the owner
+    of property." Also W.M. Sloan, The French Revolution and Religious
+    Reform, 38. "In the Greek and Roman world the individual, body, mind,
+    and soul, had no place in reference to the state. It was only as a
+    member of family, gens, curia, phratry, or deme, and tribe, that the
+    ancient city-state knew the men and women which composed it. The same
+    was true of knowledge: every sensation, perception, and judgment fell
+    into the category of some abstraction, and, instead of concrete things,
+    men knew nothing but generalized ideals."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_1_2">2</a><a name="fn_1_2"></a>] Francesco S. Nitti, Catholic Socialism, 74, 85, 86. "If we consider
+    the teachings of the Gospel, the communistic origins of the church, the
+    socialistic tendencies of the early fathers, the traditions of the
+    Canon Law, we cannot wonder that at the present day Socialism should
+    count no small number of its adherents among Catholic writers.... The
+    Reformation was the triumph of Individualism. Catholicism, instead, is
+    communistic by its origin and traditions.... The Catholic Church, with
+    her powerful organization, dating back over many centuries, has
+    accustomed Catholic peoples to passive obedience, to a passive
+    renunciation of the greater part of individualistic tendencies."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_1_3">3</a><a name="fn_1_3"></a>] See David Masson, Life of John Milton, III. 136; John Tulloch, Rational
+<a name="pg16"></a>
+    Theology and Christian Philosophy in England, II. 9; John Hunt,
+    Religious Thought in England, I. 234.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_1_4">4</a><a name="fn_1_4"></a>] The word socialism is not used here with any understanding that the
+    Catholic Church accepts the social theories implied by that name. It is
+    used to indicate that the Roman Church maintains that revelation is to
+    the church itself, and that it is now the visible representative of
+    Christ. The Protestant maintains that revelation is made through an
+    individual, and not to a church. See Otto Gierke, Political Theories of
+    the Middle Age, translated by F.W. Maitland, 10, 22. "In all centuries
+    of the Middle Age Christendom is set before us a single, universal
+    community, founded and governed by God himself. Mankind is one mystical
+    body; it is one single and internally connected people or fold; it is
+    an all-embracing corporation, which constitutes that Universal Realm,
+    spiritual, and temporal, which may be called the Universal Church, or,
+    with equal propriety, the Commonwealth of the Human Race.... Mediaeval
+    thought proceeded from the idea of a single whole. Therefore an organic
+    construction of human society was as familiar to it as a mechanical and
+    atomistic construction was originally alien. Under the influence of
+    biblical allegories and the models set by Greek and Roman writers, the
+    comparison of mankind at large and every smaller group to an animate
+    body was universally adopted and pressed. Mankind in its totality was
+    conceived as an Organism."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_1_5">5</a><a name="fn_1_5"></a>] Tulloch, Rational Theology in England, I. 339.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_1_6">6</a><a name="fn_1_6"></a>] David Masson, Life of Milton, III. 102.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_1_7">7</a><a name="fn_1_7"></a>] The Religion of Protestants, II. 411.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_1_8">8</a><a name="fn_1_8"></a>] John Hunt, Religious Thought in England, II. 99.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_1_9">9</a><a name="fn_1_9"></a>] John Hunt, Religious Thought in England, I. 340.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_1_10">10</a><a name="fn_1_10"></a>] John Hunt, Religious Thought in England, I. 340.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><br /><a name="ch2">II.</a><br />
+
+
+THE LIBERAL SIDE OF PURITANISM.</h2>
+
+<p>Unitarianism was brought to America with the Pilgrims and the Puritans. Its
+origins are not to be found in the religious indifference and torpidity of
+the eighteenth century, but in the individualism and the rational temper of
+the men who settled Plymouth, Salem, and Boston. Its development is
+coextensive with the origin and growth of Congregationalism, even with that
+of Protestantism itself. So long as New England has been in existence, so
+long, at least, Unitarianism, in its motives and in its spirit, has been at
+work in the name of toleration, liberty, and free inquiry.</p>
+
+<p>The many and wide divergences of opinion which were an essential result of
+the spirit and methods of Protestantism were shown from the first by the
+Pilgrims and Puritans. In Massachusetts, stringent laws were adopted in
+order to secure uniformity of belief and practice; but it was never
+achieved, except in name. Antinomianism early presented itself in Boston,
+and it was quickly followed by the incursions of the Baptists and Friends.
+Hooker did not find himself in sympathy with the Massachusetts leaders, and
+led a considerable company to Connecticut from Cambridge, Watertown, and
+Dorchester. Sir Henry Vane could not always agree with those who guided the
+religion and the politics of Boston; Roger Williams had another ideal of
+church and state than that which had come to the Puritans; and Sir Richard
+<a name="pg17"></a>
+Saltonstall would not submit himself to the aristocratic methods of the
+Boston preachers.</p>
+
+<p>These are but a few of the many indications of the individualistic spirit
+that marked the first years of the Puritan colonies. It was a part of the
+Protestant inheritance, and was inherent in the very nature of
+Protestantism itself. Although the Puritans had only in part, and with
+faltering steps, come to the acceptance of the individualistic and rational
+spirit in religion, yet they were on the way to it, however long they might
+be hindered by an autocratic temper. In fact, the Puritans throughout the
+seventeenth century in New England were trying at one and the same time to
+use reason and yet to cling to authority, to accept the Protestant ideal
+and yet to employ the Catholic methods in state and church. In being
+Protestants, they were committed to the central motive of individualism;
+but they never consistently turned away from that conception of the church
+which is autocratic and authoritative.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn6"></a>The Church of Authority and the Church of Freedom.</h3>
+
+<p>Looked at from the modern sociological point of view, there are two types
+of church, the one socialistic or institutional and the other
+individualistic, the one making the corporate power of the church the
+source of spiritual life, the other making the personal insight of the
+individual man the fountain of religious truth. Such a church as that of
+Rome may be properly called socialistic because of its corporate nature,
+because it maintains that revelation is to, and by means of, an
+institution, an organic religious body.[<a href="#fn_2_1">1</a><a name="fr_2_1"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg18"></a>
+<p>Catholicism, whether of Rome, Greece, or England, makes the church as a
+great religious corporation the organ of religious expression. Such a
+corporation is the source of authority, the test of truth, the creator of
+spiritual ideals. On the other hand, such a church as the Protestant may be
+called individualistic because it makes the individual the channel of
+revelation. It emphasizes personality as of supreme worth, and it makes
+religious institutions of little value in comparison.</p>
+
+<p>Practically, the difference between the socialistic and the individualistic
+church is as wide as it is theoretically. In all Catholic churches the
+child is born into the church, with the right to full acceptance into it by
+methods of tuition and ritual, whatever his individual qualities or
+capacities. In all distinctly Protestant churches, membership must be
+sought by individual preference or supernatural process.[<a href="#fn_2_2">2</a><a name="fr_2_2"></a>] The way to it
+<a name="pg19"></a>
+is through individual profession of its creed or inward miraculous
+transformation of character by the profoundest of personal experiences. In
+all socialistic or Catholic churches--whether heathen, ethnic, or
+Christian--young people are admitted to membership after a definite period
+of training and an initiation by means of an impressive ritual. In all
+Protestant churches, initiation takes place as the result of personal
+experiences and mature convictions, and is therefore usually deferred until
+adult life has been reached.</p>
+
+<p>When we bring out thus distinctly the ideals and methods of the two
+churches, we are able to understand that the Puritans were theoretically
+Protestants, but that they practically used the methods of the Catholics.
+This will be seen more clearly when we take the individualistic tendencies
+of the Puritans into distinct recognition, and place them in contrast with
+their socialistic practices. The Puritan churches were thoroughly
+individualistic in their admission of members, none being accepted into
+full membership but those who had been converted by means of a personal
+experience. In theory every male church member was a priest and king,
+authorized to interpret spiritual truth and to exercise political
+authority. Therefore, in 1631 the General Court of Massachusetts (being the
+legislative body) established the rule that only church members should
+exercise the right of suffrage. This law was continued on the statute books
+until 1664, and was accepted in practice until 1691.</p>
+
+<a name="pg20"></a>
+<p>Because the individual Christian was accounted a priest, however humble in
+learning or social position, he had the right to join with others in
+ordaining and setting apart to the ministry of God the man who was to lead
+the church as its teacher or pastor, though this practice was abandoned as
+the state-church idea developed, as it did in New England by a process of
+reaction. Every man could read the Bible for himself, and give it such
+meaning as his own conscience and reason dictated. By virtue of his
+Christian experience he had the personal right to find in it his own creed
+and the law of his own conduct. It was not only his right to do this, but
+it was also his duty. Revivalism was therefore the distinct outgrowth of
+Puritanism, the expression of its individualistic spirit. It was the human
+means of bringing the individual soul within reach of the supernatural
+power of God, and of facilitating that choice of the Holy Spirit by which
+one was selected for this change rather than another. The means were
+social, it is true; but the end reached was absolutely individual, as an
+experience and as a result attained. What confirmation was to the Catholic,
+that was conversion to the Puritan.</p>
+
+<p>The Puritans in New England, however, inherited the older socialism to so
+large an extent that they proceeded to establish what was a state church in
+method, if not in theory. Though they began with the idea that the churches
+were to be supported by voluntary contributions (and always continued that
+method in Boston), yet in a few years they resorted to taxation for their
+maintenance, and enacted stringent laws compelling attendance upon them by
+every resident of a town, whatever his beliefs or his personal interests.
+<a name="pg21"></a>
+They forbade the utterance of opinions not approved by the authorities, and
+made use of fines, imprisonment, and death in support of arbitrary laws
+enacted for this purpose. These methods were the same as those used by the
+older socialistic and state churches to compel acceptance of their
+teachings and practices. They were based on the idea of the corporate
+nature of the church, and its right to control the individual in the name
+of the social whole.</p>
+
+<p>The harshness of the Puritan methods was the result of this attempt to
+maintain a new idea in harmony with an old practice. The Baptists were
+consistently individualists in rejecting infant baptism, accepting
+conversion as essential to church membership, maintaining freedom of
+conscience, and practising toleration as a fundamental social law. The
+Puritans inconsistently combined conversion and infant baptism,--the
+Protestant right of private judgment with the Catholic methods of the state
+church,--a democratic theory of popular suffrage with a most aristocratic
+limitation of that suffrage to church members. As late as 1674 only 2,527
+men in all had been admitted to the exercise of the franchise in
+Massachusetts. One-sixth or one-eighth of the men were voters, the rest
+were disfranchised. The church and the state were controlled by this small
+minority in a community that was theoretically democratic, both in religion
+and politics.</p>
+
+<p>It is not surprising that there began to be mutterings against such
+restrictions. It shows the strength of character in the Puritan communities
+of Massachusetts and New Haven that a large majority of the men submitted
+as long as they did to conditions thoroughly undemocratic. As a political
+measure, when the grumblings became so loud as to be no longer ignored,
+<a name="pg22"></a>
+what is called the half-way covenant was adopted, by means of which a
+semi-membership in the churches could be secured, that gave the right of
+suffrage, but permitted no action within the church itself.[<a href="#fn_2_3">3</a><a name="fr_2_3"></a>] Many
+writers on this period fail to understand the significance of the half-way
+covenant; for they attribute to that legislation the disintegrating results
+that followed. They forget that these half-members were not admitted to any
+part in church affairs; and they refuse to see that the methods employed by
+the Puritans were, because of their exclusiveness, of necessity
+demoralizing. In fact, the half-way covenant was a result of the
+disintegration that had already taken place as the issue of an attempted
+compromise between the institutional and the individualistic theories of
+church government.</p>
+
+<a name="pg23"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn7"></a>Seventeenth-century Liberals.</h3>
+
+<p>By arbitrary methods the Puritans succeeded in controlling church and state
+until 1688, when the interference of the English authorities compelled them
+to practise toleration and to widen the suffrage. The words of Sir Richard
+Saltonstall to John Cotton and John Wilson show clearly that these methods
+were not accepted by all, and even Saltonstall returned to England to
+escape the restrictions he condemned. "It doth not a little grieve my
+spirit to hear what sad things are daily reported of your tyranny and
+persecutions in New England," he wrote, "as that you fine, whip, and
+imprison men for their consciences. First you compel such to come into your
+assemblies as you know will not join with you in your worship, and when
+they show their dislike thereof or witness against it, then you stir up
+your magistrates to punish them for such (as you conceive) their public
+affronts. Truly, friends, this your practice of compelling any in matters
+of worship to do that whereof they are not persuaded is to make them sin,
+and many are made hypocrites thereby, conforming in their outward man for
+fear of punishment. We pray for you and wish you prosperity in every way,
+hoped that the Lord would have given you so much light and love there, that
+you might have been eyes to God's people here, and not to practise those
+courses in wilderness which you went so far to prevent. These rigid ways
+have laid you very low in the hearts of the saints."[<a href="#fn_2_4">4</a><a name="fr_2_4"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Another man who withdrew to England from the narrow spirit of the Puritans
+<a name="pg24"></a>
+was William Pynchon, of Springfield, one of the best trained and ablest of
+the early settlers of Massachusetts. In 1650 he published a book on the
+Meritorious Price of our Redemption, in which he denied that Christ was
+subject to the wrath of God or suffered torments in hell for the redemption
+of men or paid the penalty for all human sins; but such teachings were too
+liberal and modern for the leaders in church and state.[<a href="#fn_2_5">5</a><a name="fr_2_5"></a>] What is now
+orthodox, that Christ's sacrifice was voluntary, was then heretical and
+forbidden.</p>
+
+<p>If during the first half-century of New England no liberalism found
+definite utterance, it was because of its repression. It was in the air,
+even then, and it would have found expression, had there been opportunity
+or invitation. There were other men than Williams, Saltonstall, Pynchon,
+and Henry Vane, who believed in toleration, liberty of conscience, and a
+rational interpretation of religion. In a limited way such men were Henry
+Dunster and Charles Chauncy, the first two presidents of Harvard College,
+who both rejected infant baptism because it was not consistent with a
+converted church membership. It was a small thing to protest against, and
+to suffer for as Dunster suffered; but the principle was great for which he
+contended, the principle of individual conviction in religion.</p>
+
+<p>The better spirit of the Puritans appears in such a saying as that of Sir
+Henry Vane, the second governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, that "all
+magistrates are to fear or forbear intermeddling with giving rule or
+<a name="pg25"></a>
+imposing their own beliefs in religious matters."[<a href="#fn_2_6">6</a><a name="fr_2_6"></a>] To a similar purport
+was the saying of Thomas Hooker, the founder of Connecticut, that "the
+foundation of authority is laid in the free consent of the people."[<a href="#fn_2_7">7</a><a name="fr_2_7"></a>] In
+the writings of John Robinson, the Pilgrim leader, a like greatness of
+purpose and thought appears, as where he says that "the meanest man's
+reason, specially in matter of faith and obedience to God, is to be
+preferred before all authority of all men."[<a href="#fn_2_8">8</a><a name="fr_2_8"></a>] Robinson was a very strict
+Calvinist in doctrine; but he was tolerant in large degree, and thoroughly
+convinced of the worth of liberty of conscience. His liberality comes out
+in such words as these: "The custom of the church is but the custom of men;
+the sentence of the fathers but the opinions of men; the determinations of
+councils but the judgments of men."[<a href="#fn_2_9">9</a><a name="fr_2_9"></a>] How strong a believer in individual
+reason he was appears in this statement: "God, who hath made two great
+lights for the bodily eye, hath also made two lights for the eye of the
+mind; the one the Scriptures for her supernatural light, and the other
+reason for her natural light. And, indeed, only these two are a man's own,
+and so is not the authority of other men. The Scriptures are as well mine
+as any other man's, and so is reason as far as I can attain to it."[<a href="#fn_2_10">10</a><a name="fr_2_10"></a>]
+When he says that "the credit commending a testimony to others cannot be
+greater than is the authority in itself of him that gives it nor his
+authority greater than his person,"[<a href="#fn_2_11">11</a><a name="fr_2_11"></a>] he puts an end to all arbitrary
+authority of priest and church.</p>
+
+<a name="pg26"></a>
+<p>It will be seen from these quotations that the spirit of liberality existed
+even in the very beginnings of New England, and in the convictions of the
+men who were its chief prophets and leaders. It was hidden away for a time,
+it may be, though it never ceased to find utterance in some form. The
+breadth of the underlying spirit finds expression in the compacts by which
+local churches united their members. The liberality was incipient, a
+promise of the future rather than a realization in the present.</p>
+
+<p>The earliest churches of New England were not organized with a creed, but
+with a covenant. Occasionally there was a confession of faith or a creedal
+statement; but it was regarded as quite unnecessary because it was implied
+in the general acceptance of the Calvinistic doctrines, and the use of the
+Cambridge platform or other similar document. The covenant of a church
+could not be a statement of beliefs, because it was a vow between Christ
+and his church, and a pledge of the individual members of the church with
+relation to each other. The creed was implied, but it was not expressed;
+and, although all the churches were Calvinist at first, the nature of the
+covenant was such that, when men grew liberal, there was no written creedal
+test by which they could be held to the old beliefs. When Calvinism was
+outgrown, it could be slowly and silently discarded, both by individual
+members of a church and by the church itself, because it was not explicitly
+contained in the covenant. The creed was rejected, but the covenant was
+retained.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as authority was withdrawn from the Puritan leaders by the English
+crown, the spirit of liberty began to show itself in many directions. In a
+<a name="pg27"></a>
+sermon preached in 1691, Samuel Willard, the minister of the Old South
+Church in Boston, and afterwards president of Harvard College, gave
+utterance to what was stirring in many minds at that time. He said that God
+"hath nowhere by any general indulgence given away this liberty of his to
+any other authority in the world to have dominion over the consciences of
+men or to give rules of worship, but hath, on the other hand, strongly
+prohibited it and severely threatened any that shall presume to do it." He
+earnestly asserted that no authority is to be accepted but that of the
+Bible, and that is to be free for each person's individual interpretation.
+"Hath there not," Willard questions, "been too much of a pinning our faith
+on the credit or practice of others, attended on with a woful neglect to
+know what is the mind of Christ?" Here was a spirit that not many years
+later was showing itself in the liberal movement that grew into
+Unitarianism. The effort to free the consciences of men, and to bring all
+appeals to the Bible and to Christ, was what gave significance to the
+liberal movement of the next century.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn8"></a>Growth of Liberty in Church Methods.</h3>
+
+<p>There also began a movement to bring church and state into harmonious
+relations with each other, and to overcome the inconsistency of being
+individualist and socialist at the same moment. The theory of conversion
+being retained, it was proposed to make the ordinances of religion free to
+all, in order that they might bring about the supernatural change that was
+desired. This is the real significance of the position taken by Solomon
+Stoddard, of Northampton, who taught that the Lord's Supper is a converting
+ordinance, and who in practice did not ask for a supernatural regeneration
+<a name="pg28"></a>
+as preparatory to a limited church membership, though he regarded this as
+essential to full admission. The half-way covenant had been adopted before
+Mr. Stoddard became the pastor of the church; but soon after his settlement
+this limited form of admission was more clearly defined, and he admitted
+persons into what he described as a "state of education."[<a href="#fn_2_12">12</a><a name="fr_2_12"></a>] This "large
+congregationalism," as it was called, was in time accepted as meaning that
+those who have faith enough to justify the baptism of their children have
+enough to admit them to full communion in the church. Mr. Stoddard appealed
+to the English practice in his defence of the broader principle which he
+adopted. He also vindicated his position by reference to the practices of
+the leading Protestant countries in Europe. His methods, as outlined and
+interpreted in his Appeal to the Learned,[<a href="#fn_2_13">13</a><a name="fr_2_13"></a>] were based more or less
+explicitly on the corporate idea of the church.</p>
+
+<p>Although Stoddard was a strict Calvinist, there can be no doubt that his
+method of open communion slowly led to theological modifications. Not only
+did it have a tendency to bring the state and church into closer relations
+with each other, by making the membership in the two more nearly the same,
+but it led the way to the acceptance of the doctrine of moral ability, and
+therefore to a modification of Calvinism. If it was a practical rather than
+a theological reason that caused Stoddard to adopt open communion, it
+almost inevitably led to Arminianism, because it implied, as he presented
+<a name="pg29"></a>
+its conditions, that man is able of his own free will to accept the terms
+of salvation which Calvinism had confined to the operation of the
+sovereignty of God alone.</p>
+
+<p>Another way in which the spirit of the time was showing itself may be seen
+in the fact that the parish, towards the end of the seventeenth century, on
+more than one occasion refused to the church the selection of the minister;
+and church and parish met together for that purpose. This was the case in
+the first church of Salem in 1672, and at Dedham in 1685. So long as church
+members only were given the right of suffrage, the selection of the
+minister was wholly in their hands. As soon as the suffrage was extended,
+there was a movement to include all tax-payers amongst those who could
+exercise this choice. In 1666 such a proposition was discussed in
+Connecticut, and not long after it became the law. In 1692 the
+Massachusetts laws gave the church the right to select the minister, but
+permitted the parish to concur in or to reject such choice. During the next
+century there was a growing tendency to enlarge the privileges of the
+parish, and to make that the controlling factor in calling the minister and
+in all that pertained to the outward life of the church and congregation.
+The result will be seen more and more in the influence of the parish in the
+selection of liberal men for the pulpit.</p>
+
+<p>A notable instance of the more liberal tendencies is seen in the formation
+of the Brattle Street Church of Boston in 1699. Although this church
+accepted the Westminster Confession of Faith and adopted the practices
+common to the New England churches at this period, it insisted upon the
+reading of the Bible without comment as a part of the church service. The
+<a name="pg30"></a>
+relation of religious experiences as preparatory to admission to the church
+was discarded, all were admitted to communion who were approved by the
+pastor, and women were permitted to take part in voting on all church
+questions. These and other innovations occasioned much discussion; and a
+controversy ensued between the pastor Benjamin Colman and Increase
+Mather.[<a href="#fn_2_14">14</a><a name="fr_2_14"></a>] The Salem pastors, Rev. John Higginson and Rev. Nicholas Noyes,
+addressed a letter to the Brattle Street congregation, in which they
+criticised the church because it did not consult with other churches in its
+formation, because it did not make a public profession of repentance on
+behalf of its members, because baptism was administered on less stringent
+terms than was customary and too lax admission was given to the sacraments,
+and because the admission of females to full church activity had a direct
+tendency "to subvert the order and liberty of the churches." Though the
+Brattle Street Church was for a time severely criticised, it soon came into
+intimate relations with the other churches of Boston, and it ceased to
+appear as in any way peculiar. That it was organized on a broader basis of
+membership indicates very clearly that the old methods were not
+satisfactory to all the people.[<a href="#fn_2_15">15</a><a name="fr_2_15"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn9"></a>A Puritan Rationalist.</h3>
+
+<p>The influence of similar ideas is seen in the books of John Wise, of
+Ipswich, whose Churches' Quarrel Espoused was published in 1710, and his
+Vindication of the Government of the New England Churches in 1717. His
+<a name="pg31"></a>
+first book was in answer to the proposition of a number of the ministers of
+Boston to bring the churches under the control of associations. By this
+remonstrance the plan was defeated, and the independence of the local
+church fully established. In republishing his book, he added the
+Vindication, in order to give his ideas a more systematic expression. The
+Vindication is the most thoroughly modern book published in America during
+the eighteenth century. It has a literary directness and power remarkable
+for the time. Wise gives no quotations indicating that he had read the
+great liberal writers of England, but he was familiar with Plato and
+Cicero.</p>
+
+<p>In his first book he speaks of "the natural freedom of human beings,"[<a href="#fn_2_16">16</a><a name="fr_2_16"></a>]
+and says that "right reason is a ray of divine wisdom enstamped upon human
+nature."[<a href="#fn_2_17">17</a><a name="fr_2_17"></a>] Again, he says that "right reason, that great oracle in human
+affairs, is the soul of man so formed and endowed by creation with a
+certain sagacity or acumen whereby man's intellect is enabled to take up
+the true idea or perception of things agreeable with and according to their
+natures."[<a href="#fn_2_18">18</a><a name="fr_2_18"></a>] In such utterances as these Wise was putting himself into the
+company of the most liberal minds of England in his day, though he may not
+have read one of them. The considerations that were influencing Milton,
+Chillingworth, and Jeremy Taylor, in favor of toleration and a broad
+inclusiveness of spirit, evidently were having their effect upon this New
+England pastor.</p>
+
+<p>It is not to be assumed that John Wise was a rationalist in the modern
+sense; but he gave to the use of reason a significance that is surprising
+<a name="pg32"></a>
+and refreshing, coming from the time and circumstances of his writing. In
+his Vindication we find him accepting reason and revelation as of equal
+validity. He appeals to the "dictates of right reason"[<a href="#fn_2_19">19</a><a name="fr_2_19"></a>] and the "common
+reason of mankind"[<a href="#fn_2_20">20</a><a name="fr_2_20"></a>] with quite as much confidence as to the Bible. He
+says that all questions of government, religious as well as political, are
+to be brought to "the assizes of man's own intellectual powers, reason, and
+conscience."[<a href="#fn_2_21">21</a><a name="fr_2_21"></a>] He assumes that God has created man capable of obeying his
+will and living in conformity with his law; for he says that, "if God did
+not highly estimate man as a creature exalted by his reason, liberty, and
+nobleness of nature, he would not caress him as he does in order to his
+submission."[<a href="#fn_2_22">22</a><a name="fr_2_22"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Wise says that the characteristic of man which is of greatest importance is
+that he is "most properly the subject of the law of nature."[<a href="#fn_2_23">23</a><a name="fr_2_23"></a>] He uses
+this expression frequently and in a thoroughly modern sense.</p>
+
+<p>The second great characteristic of man, according to Wise, "is an original
+liberty enstamped upon his rational nature."[<a href="#fn_2_24">24</a><a name="fr_2_24"></a>] He indicates that he is
+not inclined to discuss the merely theological problem of man's relations
+to God, but, considered physically, man is at the head of creation, "and as
+such is a creature of a very noble character."[<a href="#fn_2_24">24</a>] All the lower world is
+subject to his command, "and his liberty under the conduct of right reason
+is equal with his trust."[<a href="#fn_2_24">24</a>] "He that intrudes upon this liberty violates
+the law of nature."[<a href="#fn_2_24">24</a>] The effect of such liberty is not to lead man into
+<a name="pg33"></a>
+license, but to make him the rational master of his own conduct. Every man
+is therefore at liberty "to judge for himself what shall be most for his
+behoof, happiness, and well-being."[<a href="#fn_2_25">25</a><a name="fr_2_25"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The third great characteristic of man is found in "an equality amongst
+men,"[<a href="#fn_2_25">25</a>]} which is to be respected and vindicated by governments that are
+just and humane. "By a natural right," he says, "all men are born free;
+and, nature having set all men upon a level and made them equals, no
+servitude or subjection can be conceived without inequality."[<a href="#fn_2_26">26</a><a name="fr_2_26"></a>] Again he
+says that it is "a fundamental principle relating to government that, under
+God, all power is originally in the people."[<a href="#fn_2_27">27</a><a name="fr_2_27"></a>] This is true of the church
+as well as of the state, and Wise says the Reformation was a cheat and a
+schism and a notorious rebellion if the people are not the source of power
+in the church.</p>
+
+<p>Two other ideas presented by this leader show his modernness and his
+originality. He says that "the happiness of the people is the object of all
+government,"[<a href="#fn_2_28">28</a><a name="fr_2_28"></a>] and that the state should seek to promote "the peculiar
+good and benefit of the whole, and every particular member, fairly and
+sincerely."[<a href="#fn_2_29">29</a><a name="fr_2_29"></a>] "The end of all good government," he assures his readers,
+"is to cultivate humanity, and promote the happiness of all, and the good
+of every man in all his rights, his life, liberty, estate, and honor,
+without injury or abuse done to any."[<a href="#fn_2_29">29</a>] That government will seek the
+good of all is likely to be the case, because man has it as a fundamental
+law of his nature that he "maintain a sociableness with others."[<a href="#fn_2_30">30</a><a name="fr_2_30"></a>] "From
+the principles of sociableness it follows as a fundamental law of nature
+<a name="pg34"></a>
+that man is not so wedded to his own interest but that he can make the
+common good the mark of his aim, and hence he becomes capacitated to enter
+into a civil state by the law of nature."[<a href="#fn_2_31">31</a><a name="fr_2_31"></a>] This attraction of man to his
+kind enables him to yield so much of his freedom as is necessary to make
+the state an efficient social power, "in which covenant is included that
+submission and union of wills by which a state may be conceived to be but
+one person."[<a href="#fn_2_32">32</a><a name="fr_2_32"></a>] This thoroughly modern idea of the social body, as being
+analogous in its nature to the individual man, is nobly expressed by Wise,
+who says that "a civil state is a compound moral person, whose will is the
+will of all, to the end it may use and apply the strength and riches of
+private persons toward maintaining the common peace, security, and
+well-being of all, which may be conceived as though the whole state was now
+become but one man."[<a href="#fn_2_33">33</a><a name="fr_2_33"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>It is not surprising that the writings of John Wise had no immediate effect
+upon the theological thinking of the time, but they must have had their
+influence. Just before the opening of the Revolution they were republished
+because of their vindication of the spirit of human liberty and democracy.
+What Wise wrote to promote was congregational independence, and this may
+have been the reason why his theological attitude was never called in
+question. It is true enough that he questioned none of the Calvinistic
+doctrines in his books; but his political views were certain to disturb the
+old beliefs, and to give incentives to free discussion in religion.</p>
+
+<a name="pg35"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn10"></a>Harvard College.</h3>
+
+<p>The centre of the liberalizing tendencies of the last years of the
+seventeenth century was Harvard College. That institution was organized on
+a basis as broad as that of the early church covenants, with no creed or
+doctrinal requirements. The original seal bore the motto Veritas; but, as
+the state-church idea grew, this motto was succeeded by In Christi gloriam,
+and then by Christo et Ecclesiae, though neither of these later mottoes was
+authoritatively adopted. The early charters were thoroughly liberal in
+spirit and intent, so much so as to be fully in harmony with the present
+attitude of the university.[<a href="#fn_2_34">34</a><a name="fr_2_34"></a>] Under the Puritanic development, however,
+this liberality was discarded, only to be restored in 1691, when William
+and Mary gave to Massachusetts a new and broader charter. From that time a
+new life entered into the college, that put it uncompromisingly on the
+liberal side a century later. Even under the rule of Increase Mather,
+seconded by the influence of his son Cotton, a broader spirit declared
+itself in the culture imparted and in the method of free inquiry.[<a href="#fn_2_35">35</a><a name="fr_2_35"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Samuel Willard, the successor to Increase Mather in the presidency, was of
+the liberal party in his breadth of mind and in his sound judgment. He was
+followed in 1708 by John Leverett, one of the founders of the Brattle
+Street Church, a man in whom the liberal spirit became a controlling motive
+in his management of the college.[<a href="#fn_2_36">36</a><a name="fr_2_36"></a>] It is not strange that the men who
+<a name="pg36"></a>
+had been shut out from the suffrage and from active participation in the
+management of the churches, should now come forward to claim their rights,
+and to make their influence felt in college, church, and state. It was the
+distinct beginning of the liberal movement in New England, the time from
+which Unitarianism really took its origin.</p>
+
+<p><br />[<a href="#fr_2_1">1</a><a name="fn_2_1"></a>] Kuno Francke, Social Forces in German Literature, 105. "No mediaeval
+    man ever thought of himself as a perfectly independent being founded
+    only on himself, or without a most direct and definite relation to
+    some larger organism, be it empire, church, city, or guild. No
+    mediaeval man ever doubted that the institutions within which he lived
+    were divinely established ordinances, far superior and quite
+    inaccessible to his own individual reason and judgment. No mediaeval
+    man would ever have admitted that he conceived nature to be other than
+    the creation of an extramundane God, destined to glorify its creator
+    and to please the eye of man. It was reserved for the eighteenth
+    century to draw the last consequences of individualism; to see in man,
+    in each individual man, an independent and complete entity; to derive
+    the origin of state, church, and society from the spontaneous action
+    of these independent individuals; and to consider nature as a system
+    of forces sufficient unto themselves. When we speak of individualism
+    in the declining centuries of the Middle Ages, we mean by it that
+    these centuries initiated the movement which the eighteenth century
+    brought to a climax."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_2">2</a><a name="fn_2_2"></a>] Williston Walker, the Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism, 246.
+    "From the first the fathers of New England insisted that the children
+    of church members were themselves members, and as such were justly
+    entitled to those church privileges which were adapted to their state
+    of Christian development, of which the chief were baptism and the
+    watchful discipline of the church. They did not enter the church by
+    baptism; they were entitled to baptism because they were already
+    members of the church. Here then was an inconsistency in the
+    application of the Congregational theory of the constitution of a
+    church. While affirming that a proper church consisted only of those
+    possessed of personal Christian character, the fathers admitted to
+    membership, in some degree at least, those who had no claim but
+    Christian parentage." That is, in theory they were Protestants, but in
+    practice they were Catholics.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_3">3</a><a name="fn_2_3"></a>] The ecclesiastical historians say that the half-way covenant had no
+    effect on suffrage. Dexter, Congregationalism as Seen in its
+    Literature, 468, says: "I am aware of no proof that half-way covenant
+    members of the church by that relation did acquire any further
+    privileges in the state." Williston Walker, New Englander, cclxiii.,
+    93, February, 1892, takes ground that "added political privilege was
+    no consequence of the dispute." On the other hand, the secular
+    historians as strongly assert that the suffrage was widened. John
+    Fiske, Beginnings of New England, 250, says the half-way covenant
+    "entitled to the exercise of political rights those who were
+    unqualified for participation in the Lord's Supper." Alexander
+    Johnston, Connecticut, 227, says "it really gave every baptized person
+    voice in church government." J.A. Doyle, The Puritan Colonies, II.,
+    98, asserts that "it broke down the hard barrier which fenced in
+    political privileges." The true explanation is given by George H.
+    Haynes, Representation and Suffrage in Massachusetts, 1620-1691, 54,
+    published in Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and
+<a name="pg37"></a>
+    Political Science, Vol. XII., Nos. VIII. and IX. Haynes says that the
+    half-way covenant, as first formulated in 1657, "virtually recognized
+    a partial church-membership in persons who had made no formal
+    profession and subscribed to no creed. In 1662 the same opinion was
+    reaffirmed by the clergy, and the General Court ordered the result of
+    the Synod to be printed and 'commended the same unto the consideration
+    of all the churches and people of this jurisdiction.' Here ended
+    legislative action on the matter. This was no statutory change of the
+    basis of the franchise; but, as individual churches gradually adopted
+    more liberal conditions of admission and were therein sanctioned by
+    the General Court, it resulted that the operation of the religious
+    test became less odious and the suffrage was not a little broadened."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_4">4</a><a name="fn_2_4"></a>] Henry Bond, Early Settlers of Watertown, II. 916; Convers Francis,
+    Historical Sketch of Watertown, 135.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_5">5</a><a name="fn_2_5"></a>] Mason A. Green, History of Springfield, 113; E.H. Byington, The
+    Puritan in England and New England, 185.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_6">6</a><a name="fn_2_6"></a>] A Healing Question.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_7">7</a><a name="fn_2_7"></a>] Alexander Johnston, Connecticut: A Study of a Commonwealth-Democracy,
+    72, Hooker's sermon preparatory to forming a government.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_8">8</a><a name="fn_2_8"></a>] The Works of John Robinson, American edition of 1851, I., 53.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_9">9</a><a name="fn_2_9"></a>] Ibid., 47.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_10">10</a><a name="fn_2_10"></a>] Ibid., 54.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_11">11</a><a name="fn_2_11"></a>] Ibid., 56.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_12">12</a><a name="fn_2_12"></a>] J.R. Trumbull, History of Northampton, I. 213.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_13">13</a><a name="fn_2_13"></a>] An Appeal to the Learned, being a vindication of the right of visible
+     saints to the Lord's Supper, though they be destitute of a saving work
+     of God's Spirit in their hearts, Boston, 1709. See also his Doctrine
+     of Instituted Churches, Boston, 1700.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_14">14</a><a name="fn_2_14"></a>] Dwight, Life of Edwards, 300.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_15">15</a><a name="fn_2_15"></a>] S.K. Lothrop, History of Brattle Street Church, 7-40; E. Turrell, Life
+    of Benjamin Colman, D.D., 96, 125, 178, 180.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_16">16</a><a name="fn_2_16"></a>] The Churches' Quarrel Espoused, edition of 1860, 140.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_17">17</a><a name="fn_2_17"></a>] Ibid., 143.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_18">18</a><a name="fn_2_18"></a>] Ibid., 145</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_19">19</a><a name="fn_2_19"></a>] The Churches' Quarrel Espoused, edition of 1860, 32.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_20">20</a><a name="fn_2_20"></a>] Ibid., 58.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_21">21</a><a name="fn_2_21"></a>] Ibid., 72.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_22">22</a><a name="fn_2_22"></a>] Ibid., 65.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_23">23</a><a name="fn_2_23"></a>] Ibid., 30.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_24">24</a><a name="fn_2_24"></a>] Ibid., 33.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_25">25</a><a name="fn_2_25"></a>] The Churches' Quarrel Espoused, edition of 1860, 34.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_26">26</a><a name="fn_2_26"></a>] Ibid., 37.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_27">27</a><a name="fn_2_27"></a>] Ibid., 64.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_28">28</a><a name="fn_2_28"></a>] Ibid., 54.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_29">29</a><a name="fn_2_29"></a>] Ibid., 55.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_30">30</a><a name="fn_2_30"></a>] Ibid., 32.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_31">31</a><a name="fn_2_31"></a>] The Churches' Quarrel Espoused, edition of 1860, 32.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_32">32</a><a name="fn_2_32"></a>] Ibid., 39.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_33">33</a><a name="fn_2_33"></a>] Ibid., 40.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_34">34</a><a name="fn_2_34"></a>] Josiah Quincy, History of Harvard University, i. 44-54.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_35">35</a><a name="fn_2_35"></a>] Ibid., 65, 200.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_2_36">36</a><a name="fn_2_36"></a>] Josiah Quincy, in the seventh chapter of his History, gives a detailed
+     account of this movement. It is also dealt with by Brooks Adams in his
+     chapter on the founding of the Brattle Street Church, in his
+     Emancipation of Massachusetts, though he gives it a somewhat
+     exaggerated and biassed importance. Most of the facts appear in
+     Lothrop's History of the Brattle Street Church.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><br /><a name="ch3"></a>III.<br />
+
+
+THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY IN THE CHURCHES.</h2>
+
+<p>From the moment when the Puritan control of the church and state in New
+England was so far weakened as to permit of free intellectual and religious
+activity the democratic spirit began to manifest itself. The old régime had
+so fixed itself upon the people that the progress was slow, but none the
+less it was steady and sure. So far as the new spirit influenced doctrines,
+it was called Arminianism, the technical theological name for democracy in
+religion at this time.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn11"></a>Arminianism.</h3>
+
+<p>Arminianism is a dead issue at the present day, for the Calvinists have
+accepted all that it taught when the name first came into vogue. Every kind
+of reaction from Calvinism in the New England of the first half of the
+eighteenth century took this designation, however; and to the Calvinists it
+was a word of disapproval and contempt. Toleration, free inquiry, the use
+of reason, democratic methods in church and state, were all named by this
+condemning word. Vices, social depravities, love of freedom and the world,
+assertion of personal independence, had the same designation. It is now
+difficult to understand how bitter was the feeling thus produced, how keen
+the hurt that was given the men who tried to defend themselves and their
+beliefs from this odium.</p>
+
+<p>What the word "Arminian" legitimately meant, then, is what we now mean by
+<a name="pg38"></a>
+liberalism. Primarily theological and doctrinal, it meant much more than
+the rejection of the doctrine of decrees and the autocratic sovereignty of
+God or the acceptance of the freedom of the will and the spiritual capacity
+of man. First of all, it was faith in man; and then it was the assertion of
+human liberty and equality. In a theological sense it did not have so wide
+a purport, but in a practical and popular sense it grew into these
+meanings.</p>
+
+<p>In order fully to comprehend what Arminianism was in the eighteenth
+century, the student must remember that it was the theological expression
+of the democratic spirit, as Calvinism was of the autocratic. The doctrine
+of the sovereignty of God is but the intellectual reflection of kingship
+and the belief that the king can do no evil. The doctrine of decrees, as
+taught by the Calvinist, was the spiritual side of the assertion of the
+divine right of kings. On the other hand, when the people claim the right
+to rule, they modify their theology into Arminianism. From an age of the
+absolute rule of the king comes the doctrine of human depravity; and with
+the establishment of democracy appears the doctrine of man's moral
+capacity.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn12"></a>The Growth of Arminianism.</h3>
+
+<p>As early as 1730 Arminianism had come to have an influence sufficient to
+secure its condemnation and to awaken the fears of the stricter Calvinists.
+Jonathan Edwards said of the year 1734 that "about this time began the
+great noise that was in this part of the country about Arminianism."[<a href="#fn_3_1">1</a><a name="fr_3_1"></a>] At
+Northampton the leader of the opposition to Jonathan Edwards was an open
+Arminian, a grandson of Solomon Stoddard, and a cousin of Edwards. He was a
+<a name="pg39"></a>
+young man of talent and education, and well read in theology. In a letter
+written in 1750, Edwards said, "There seems to be the utmost danger that
+the younger generation will be carried away with Arminianism as with a
+flood." In another letter of the same year he said that "Arminianism and
+Pelagianism[<a href="#fn_3_2">2</a><a name="fr_3_2"></a>] have made a strange progress within a few years."[3] In
+his farewell sermon, Edwards spoke of the prevalence of Arminianism when he
+settled in Northampton, and of its rapid increase in the succeeding years.
+He said that Arminian views were creeping into almost all parts of the
+land, and that they were making a progress unknown before.[<a href="#fn_3_4">4</a><a name="fr_3_4"></a>] In a letter
+of 1752 Edwards said that the principles of John Taylor, of Norwich, one of
+the early English Unitarians, were gaining many converts in the colonies.
+Taylor's works were made use of by Solomon Williams in his reply to Edwards
+on the qualifications necessary to communion.[<a href="#fn_3_5">5</a><a name="fr_3_5"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>It was owing to the rapid growth of Arminianism that Edwards undertook his
+work on free will. In the preface to that work he said that "the term
+Calvinistic is, in these days, among most, a term of greater reproach than
+the term Arminian." That Edwards exaggerated the extent of this defection
+from Calvinism is probable, and yet it is very plain that it was this more
+liberal attitude of the Northampton church which caused his dismissal. What
+Stoddard had taught and practised was as yet powerful there, and Edwards's
+opposition to his grandfather's teachings undoubtedly led to the failure of
+his local work.</p>
+
+<a name="pg40"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn13"></a>Robert Breck.</h3>
+
+<p>The council which dismissed Edwards from Northampton decided against him by
+a majority of one; and that one vote may have been cast by Robert Breck, of
+Springfield. If this were the case, there was something of poetic justice
+in it; for only a few years earlier Edwards had used his influence against
+the settlement of Breck because the latter was an Arminian. In 1734 a
+fierce church quarrel took place in Springfield, that involved many of the
+ministers of Massachusetts and Connecticut, invoked the aid of the county
+court, and was finally settled by the legislature of Massachusetts, when
+Mr. Breck was ordained.[<a href="#fn_3_6">6</a><a name="fr_3_6"></a>] He was charged with denying the authenticity of
+parts of the Bible, with discarding the necessity of Christ's satisfaction
+to divine justice for sin, with maintaining that the heathen who live up to
+the light of nature would be saved, and that the contrary doctrine was
+harsh. Breck refused to admit that he held these opinions, as thus stated;
+but he was regarded by many as an Arminian and a heretic. It was said of him
+that he would read any book, orthodox or otherwise, that would clear up a
+subject. That he departed to any considerable extent from the generally
+accepted faith of the time there is no evidence, but he was probably what
+was often called "a moderate Calvinist." He did not favor the methods of
+Whitefield, and he thoroughly distrusted the revival introduced by him.
+Soon after Breck's settlement the Springfield church followed the Brattle
+Street Church of Boston in discarding the relation of religious experiences
+as preliminary to admission to the church. It voted that it "did not look
+upon the making a relation to be a necessary term of communion."[<a href="#fn_3_7">7</a><a name="fr_3_7"></a>] At the
+<a name="pg41"></a>
+very time that Edwards was preaching of the awful fate of sinners in the
+hands of an angry God, Breck was teaching that God is good and loving, and
+that his salvation is freely open to all who may wish for it. It has been
+truly said of these two men that "one had the heart and the other the
+intellect of theology." With all his logic and power of thought and
+marvellous spiritual insight, Edwards failed at Northampton because of
+conditions beyond the control of his strenuous will. Robert Breck gained
+year by year in his personal influence in Springfield, his cheerful and
+progressive teaching made a deep impression on the community, and before he
+died he saw a great change for the better in the people for whom he
+diligently labored. Perhaps we could not have a plainer indication of the
+change that was going on than is found in the experiences of these two
+men.[<a href="#fn_3_8">8</a><a name="fr_3_8"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>When Whitefield visited Harvard College in 1740, he was received in a most
+friendly manner; yet he afterwards criticised the teaching there on the
+ground that it was not sufficiently devout and earnest, and that the pupils
+were not examined as to their religious experiences.[<a href="#fn_3_9">9</a><a name="fr_3_9"></a>] These charges were
+denied by the president and tutors, and he was not again welcomed to the
+college.</p>
+
+<p>That there was a substantial basis for some of Whitefield's criticisms of
+Harvard there can be no doubt. In 1737, when Edward Holyoke was proposed as
+<a name="pg42"></a>
+a candidate for the presidency, he met with a strong opposition from the
+strict Calvinists. After the opposition had spent itself, he was elected
+unanimously; and this act was received with marked approval by the General
+Court, from which body his maintenance was obtained. President Quincy says
+of President Holyoke that his religious principles coincided with the
+mildness and catholicity which characterized the government of the college.
+This evidently refers to the growing liberality of the college, and its
+unwillingness to lend its aid to extreme theological opinions. That
+moderateness of temper and that attitude of toleration which characterized
+the leading men in England had shown themselves at Cambridge, and with a
+strength that could not be overcome. "In Boston and its vicinity and along
+the seaboard of Massachusetts, clergymen of great talent and religious
+zeal," says President Quincy, "openly avowed doctrines which were variously
+denounced by the Calvinistic party as Arminianism, Arianism, Pelagianism,
+Socinianism, and Deism. The most eminent of these clergymen were alumni of
+Harvard, active friends and advocates of the institution, and in habits of
+intimacy and professional intercourse with its government. Their religious
+views, indeed, received no public countenance from the college; but
+circumstances gave color for reports, which were assiduously circulated
+throughout New England, that the influences of the institution were not
+unfavorable to the extension of such doctrines."[<a href="#fn_3_10">10</a><a name="fr_3_10"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>At the commencement of 1737 candidates for degrees proposed to prove that
+the doctrine of the Trinity was not contained in the Old Testament, that
+<a name="pg43"></a>
+creation did not exist from eternity, and that religion is not mysterious
+in its nature. Much alarm was caused to the conservative party by the
+negative form given these questions, which, it was said, "had the plain
+face of Arianism." This criticism the faculty tried to quiet, but their
+sympathies were evidently on the side of the graduates.[<a href="#fn_3_11">11</a><a name="fr_3_11"></a>] In 1738, when a
+professor of mathematics was chosen, it was proposed to examine him as to
+"his principles of religion"; but, after a long debate, this proposition
+was rejected. After these and other efforts to control the religious
+position of the college the strict Calvinists for the time withdrew their
+efforts and concentrated them upon Yale College, in which institution the
+faculty were now required for the first time to accept the Assembly's
+Catechism and Confession of Faith.</p>
+
+<p>When the legislature of Connecticut, during the great awakening, passed a
+law prohibiting ministers from preaching as itinerants, several of the
+members of the Senior Class subscribed the money necessary for the
+publication of an edition of Locke's essay On Toleration. When this was
+known to the faculty, they forbade the publication; and all the students
+apologized but one, who learned a few days before commencement that his
+name was to be dropped from the roll of graduates. He went to the faculty
+with the statement that he was of age, that he possessed ample means, and
+that he would carry his case to a hearing before the crown in England. In a
+few days he was quietly informed that he would be permitted to graduate.
+This is but a straw, and yet it shows clearly enough the direction of the
+current at this time. A demand for toleration was made because it was felt
+that there was a need for it.</p>
+
+<a name="pg44"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn14"></a>Books Read by Liberal Men.</h3>
+
+<p>The names of no less than thirty-three ministers have been given who,
+during the period from 1730 to 1750, did not teach the Calvinistic
+doctrines in their fulness, and who had adopted more or less distinctly
+some form of Arminianism or Arianism. These men were among the best known,
+most successful, and most scholarly men in Eastern Massachusetts, though
+they were not wholly confined to that neighborhood. We find here and there
+some hint of the books these men read; and in that way we not only
+ascertain the cause of their departure from Calvinism, but we also obtain
+some clew to the nature of their opinions. Among the charges brought by
+Whitefield against Harvard in 1740 was that "Tillotson and Clarke are read
+instead of Shepard and Stoddard, and such like evangelical writers."[<a href="#fn_3_12">12</a><a name="fr_3_12"></a>]
+Dr. Wigglesworth, the divinity professor at Harvard, said that Tillotson
+had not been taken out of the college library in nine years, and Clarke not
+in two; and he gave a long list of evangelical writers who were frequently
+read. In spite of this disclaimer, however, it is evident that the methods
+of the rationalistic writers were coming into vogue at Harvard, and that
+even Dr. Wigglesworth did not teach theology in the manner of the author of
+the Day of Doom.</p>
+
+<p>Writing in 1759, Dr. Joseph Bellamy, one of the chief followers and
+expositors of the teachings of Jonathan Edwards, said that the teachings of
+the liberal men in England had crossed the Atlantic; "and too many in our
+churches, and even among our ministers, have fallen in with them. Books
+containing them have been imported; and the demand for them has been so
+<a name="pg45"></a>
+great as to encourage new impressions of some of them. Others have been
+written on the same principles in this country, and even the doctrine of
+the Trinity has been publicly treated in such a manner as all who believe
+that doctrine must judge not only heretical, but highly blasphemous."[<a href="#fn_3_13">13</a><a name="fr_3_13"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>It is said of Charles Chauncy, of the First Church in Boston, that his
+favorite authors were Tillotson and Baxter.[<a href="#fn_3_14">14</a><a name="fr_3_14"></a>] Far more suggestive is the
+account we have of the books read by Jonathan Mayhew of the West Church in
+Boston, the first open antagonist of Calvinism in New England. Soon after
+1740 he was reading the works of the great Protestant theologians of the
+seventeenth century, including Milton, Chillingworth, and Tillotson; and
+the eighteenth-century works of Locke, Samuel Clarke, Taylor, Wollaston,
+and Whiston. He also probably read Cudworth, Butler, Hutcheson, Leland, and
+other authors of a like character, some of them deists. Not one of these
+writers was a Calvinist for they found the basis of religion either in
+idealism or in rationalism.</p>
+
+<p>The biographer of Mayhew says it "is evident from some of his discourses
+that he was a great admirer of Samuel Clarke, whose voluminous works were
+in his day much read by the liberal clergy." Clarke's Boyle lectures,
+delivered in 1704-5, showed that natural and revealed religion were
+essentially one, that moral action in man is free, and that Christianity is
+the religion of reason and nature. At a later period he defended the two
+propositions, that "no article of Christian faith delivered in the holy
+<a name="pg46"></a>
+Scriptures is disagreeable to right reason," and that "without liberty of
+human actions there can be no real religion or morality." Even if one such
+man as Jonathan Mayhew read Clarke's work in the Harvard Library, it
+justified the alarm felt by Whitefield lest the students should be led away
+from their Calvinist faith.[<a href="#fn_3_15">15</a><a name="fr_3_15"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn15"></a>The Great Awakening.</h3>
+
+<p>It was "the great awakening" that showed how marked had been the growth of
+liberal opinions throughout New England in the forty years preceding.
+Silently, a great change had gone on, with little open expression of
+dissent from Calvinism, and without a knowledge on the part of most of the
+liberal men that they had in any way departed from the faith of the
+fathers. It was only with the coming of Whitefield and the revival that
+this change came to have recognition, and that even the slightest
+separation into parties took place.</p>
+
+<p>The revival was an attempt to reintroduce the stricter Calvinism of the
+earlier time, with its doctrines of justification by faith alone,
+supernatural regeneration, and predestination made known to the believer by
+the Holy Ghost. The liberal party objected to the revival because it was
+opposed to the good old customs of the Congregational churches of New
+England. The itinerant methods of the revivalists, the shriekings,
+faintings, and appeals to fear and terror, were condemned as not in harmony
+with the established methods of the churches. In his book against the
+revivalists, Dr. Chauncy said that "now is the time when we are
+particularly called to stand for the good old way, and bear testimony
+<a name="pg47"></a>
+against everything that may tend to cast a blemish on true primitive
+Christianity."[<a href="#fn_3_16">16</a><a name="fr_3_16"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>When the great awakening came to an end, the liberal party was far stronger
+than before, partly because the members of it had come to know each other
+and to feel their own power, partly because men had been led to declare
+themselves who had never before perceived their own position, and partly
+because the agitation had set men to thinking, and to making such scrutiny
+of their beliefs as they had never made before. The testimonies of Harvard
+College and various associations of ministers against the methods of the
+revivalists were signed by sixty-three men, while those in favor of the
+revival were signed by one hundred and ten. These numbers represent the
+comparative strength of the two parties. It must be said, however, that the
+leading men in nearly every part of New England were among those opposing
+the revival methods, while in Eastern Massachusetts at least two-thirds of
+the ministers were of the liberal party.[<a href="#fn_3_17">17</a><a name="fr_3_17"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg48"></a>
+<p>The strong feeling caused by the revival soon subsided, and no division
+between the Calvinist and the Arminian parties took place. The progressive
+tendencies went quietly on, step by step the old beliefs were discarded;
+but it was by individuals, and not in any form as a sectarian movement. The
+relations of the church to the state at this time would have made such a
+result impossible.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn16"></a>Cardinal Beliefs of the Liberals.</h3>
+
+<p>Looking over the whole field of the theological advance from 1725 to 1760,
+we find that three conclusions had been arrived at by the men of the
+liberal movement. The first of these was that what they stood for as a body
+was a recovery and restoration of primitive Christianity in its simplicity
+and power. It was said of Dr. Mayhew by his biographer that he "was a great
+advocate of primitive Christianity, and zealously contended for the faith
+once delivered to the saints."</p>
+
+<p>The second opinion, to which they gave frequent utterance, was that the
+Bible is a divine revelation, the true source of all religious teaching,
+and the one sufficient creed for all men. In his sermon against the
+enthusiasm of the revivalists, Chauncy said that a true test of all
+religious excitement, and of every kind of new teachings, was to be found
+<a name="pg49"></a>
+in their "regard to the Bible, and its acknowledgment that the things
+therein contained are the commandments of God." "Keep close to the
+Scripture," was his admonition to his congregation, "and admit of nothing
+for an impression of the spirit but what agrees with that unerring rule.
+Fix it in your minds as a truth you will invariably abide by, that the
+Bible is the grand test by which everything in religion is to be tried."</p>
+
+<p>The third position of the men of the liberal movement was that Christ is
+the only means of salvation, and they yielded to him unquestioning loyalty
+and faith. Turning away from the creeds of men, as they did in so far as
+they could see their way, they concentrated their convictions upon Christ,
+and found in him the spiritual and vital centre of all faith that lives
+with true power to help men. Mayhew held that God could not have forgiven
+men their sins without the atonement of Christ, for his life and his gospel
+are the means of the great reconciliation by which man and God are brought
+into harmony with each other.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn17"></a>Publications defining the Liberal Beliefs.</h3>
+
+<p>In three publications may be seen what the Arminians had to teach that was
+opposed to Calvinism. In 1744 appeared in Boston a book of two hundred and
+eight pages by Rev. Experience Mayhew, one of a devoted family of
+missionaries to the Indians of Martha's Vineyard. He called his book "Grace
+Defended, in a Modest Plea for an important Truth: namely, that the offer
+of Salvation made to sinners comprises in it an offer of the Grace given in
+Regeneration." Mr. Mayhew claimed that he was a Calvinist, yet he rejected
+the teaching that every act of the unregenerate person is equal in the
+<a name="pg50"></a>
+sight of God to the worst sin, and claimed that even the sinner can live so
+well and so justly as to favor his being accepted of God. Mayhew maintained
+that Christ died for all men, not for the elect only.[<a href="#fn_3_18">18</a><a name="fr_3_18"></a>] He claimed that
+"God cannot be truly said to offer salvation to sinners without offering to
+them whatsoever is necessary on his part, in order to their salvation."[<a href="#fn_3_19">19</a><a name="fr_3_19"></a>]
+Mayhew was usually credited with being an Arminian; for he positively
+rejected the doctrine of election, and he defended the principle of human
+freedom in the most affirmative manner.</p>
+
+<p>In 1749 Lemuel Briant (or Bryant), the minister in that part of Braintree
+which became the town of Quincy, published a sermon which he entitled The
+Absurdity and Blasphemy of Depreciating Moral Virtue. It condemned reliance
+on Christ's merits without effort to live his life, and showed that it is
+the duty of the Christian to live righteously. Briant said that to hold any
+other view was hurtful and blasphemous. He claimed that "the great rule the
+Scriptures lay down for men to go by in passing judgment on their spiritual
+state is the sincere, upright, steady, and universal practice of virtue."
+"To preach up chiefly what Christ himself laid the stress upon (and whether
+this was not moral virtue let every one judge from his discourses) must
+certainly, in the opinion of all sober men, be called truly and properly,
+and in the best sense, preaching of Christ."</p>
+
+<p>A pamphlet of thirty pages appeared in 1757, written by Samuel Webster, the
+minister of Salisbury, with the title "A Winter Evening's Conversation upon
+the doctrine of Original Sin, wherein the notion of our having sinned in
+Adam, and being on that account only liable to eternal Damnation, is proved
+<a name="pg51"></a>
+to be Unscriptural." It is in the form of a dialogue between a minister and
+three of his parishioners, and gives, as few other writings of the
+eighteenth century do, a clear and explicit statement of the author's
+opinions in a readable and interesting form. That all have sinned in Adam
+the minister pronounces "a very shocking doctrine." "What! make them first
+to open their eyes in torment, and all this for a sin which certainly they
+had no hand in,--a sin which, if it comes upon them at all, certainly is
+without any fault or blame on their parts, for they had no hand in
+receiving it!" That Adam is our federal head, and that we sinned because he
+sinned, he calls "a mere castle in the air." "Sin and guilt are personal
+things as much as knowledge. I can as easily conceive of one man's
+knowledge being imputed to another as of his sins being so. No imputation
+in either case can make the thing to be mine which is not mine any more
+than one person may be another person." He declares that this doctrine of
+imputation causes infidelity. "It naturally leads men into every
+dishonorable thought of God which gives a great and general blow to
+religion." It impeaches the holiness of God, "for it supposes him to make
+millions sinners by his decree of imputation, who would otherwise have been
+innocent." That it was his decree alone "that made all Adam's posterity
+sinners is the very essence of this doctrine." "And so Christians are
+guilty of holding what even heathen would blush at." That God "should
+pronounce a sentence by which myriads of infants, as blameless as helpless,
+were consigned over to blackness of darkness to be tormented with fire and
+brimstone forever, is not consistent with infinite goodness." "How
+<a name="pg52"></a>
+dreadfully is God dishonored by such monstrous representations as these!"
+Such a being cannot be loved by us, for every heart rebels against it. "All
+descriptions of the Divine Being which represent him in an unamiable light
+do the greatest hurt to religion that can be, as they strike at love, which
+is the fulfilling of the law. I am persuaded that many of those who think
+they believe this doctrine do not really believe it, or else they do not
+consider how it represents their heavenly Father." The pamphlet concludes
+with the acceptance of this broader teaching by the parishioners, but it
+was the cause of controversy in pulpits and by means of pamphlets. Bellamy
+denied the teachings of Webster, and Chauncy defended them. So bold a
+pamphlet as this showed how men had come to reason without compromise about
+the old doctrines, and gave evidence that the growing spirit of humanity
+would no longer accept what was harsh and cruel.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn18"></a>Phases of Religious Progress.</h3>
+
+<p>The New England churches were thus not standing still as regards doctrines,
+moral conduct, the methods of worship, or the relations they held to the
+state; but step by step they were moving away from the methods and the
+ideas of the fathers. The "lining out" of hymns was slowly abandoned, and
+singing by note took its place. The agitation that followed this attempt at
+reform was great and wide-spread. The introduction of an organized and
+trained choir was also in the nature of a genuine reform. When the liberal
+Thomas Brattle offered an organ to the new church in Brattle Street, it was
+voted "that they do not think it proper to use the same in the public
+worship of God." The instrument was, however, accepted by King's Chapel;
+and an organist was secured from London. It was not until 1770 that the
+<a name="pg53"></a>
+church in Providence procured an organ, the first used in a Congregational
+church in New England.</p>
+
+<p>When Dr. Jonathan Mayhew died, in 1766, Dr. Chauncy prayed at his funeral;
+and this was said to have been the first prayer ever made at a funeral in
+Boston, so strong was the Puritan dislike of the customs of the Catholic
+Church.[<a href="#fn_3_20">20</a><a name="fr_3_20"></a>] In this way, as well as in others, the new liberalism broke
+down the old customs, and introduced those with which we are familiar.
+Perhaps the most marked tendency of this kind was the introduction of the
+reading of the Bible into the services of the churches as a part of the
+order of worship. This innovation was distinctly due to the liberal men and
+the high esteem in which they held the Scriptures as a means of giving
+sobriety and reasonableness to their religion. The First Church in Boston,
+in May, 1730, voted that the reading of the Scriptures, instead of the old
+Puritan way of expounding them, be thereafter discretionary with the
+ministers of that church, but "that the mind of the church is that larger
+portions should be publicly read than has been used."[<a href="#fn_3_21">21</a><a name="fr_3_21"></a>] As we have seen,
+the Brattle Street Church had already led in this reform, having adopted
+this practice in 1699. This custom of reading the Bible as a part of the
+service of worship came slowly into general acceptance, for there was a
+strong feeling against it. When a Bible was presented to the parish in
+Mendon, in 1767, a serious commotion resulted because of the strong feeling
+against the Church of England then prevalent; and the donor gave it to the
+<a name="pg54"></a>
+minister until such time as the church might wish to use it. It was as late
+as 1785 that a copy of the Bible was given to the First Church in Dedham,
+with the request that the reading of it should be made a part of the
+exercises of the Lord's day; and the parish instructed the minister to read
+such portions of it as he thought "most desirable" and of "such length as
+the several seasons of the year and other circumstances" might render
+proper. In the West Church of Medway it was not until 1806 that this
+practice was established, and two of the Salem churches began it the same
+year. The reading of the Bible at ordination services did not become
+customary until an even later date.[<a href="#fn_3_22">22</a><a name="fr_3_22"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Such are some of the practical innovations which accompanied the doctrinal
+development that was taking place. Liberality in one direction brought
+toleration and progress in others. Some of these changes were due to the
+fact that the prejudices against the Catholic Church and the Church of
+England had, in a measure, disappeared, because there was nothing to keep
+them alive. Others were due to the intellectual influences that came into
+the colonies from England. Still others resulted from the shifting
+relations of church and state, and were the effect of attempts to adjust
+those relations more satisfactorily.</p>
+
+<p><br />[<a href="#fr_3_1">1</a><a name="fn_3_1"></a>] Narrative of Surprising Conversions, edition of 1808, 13.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_2">2</a><a name="fn_3_2"></a>] Denial of original sin, from Pelagius, an ascetic preacher of the
+    fifth century.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_3">3</a><a name="fn_3_3"></a>] Dwight, Life of Edwards, 307, 336, 410, 413.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_4">4</a><a name="fn_3_4"></a>] Ibid., 649.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_5">5</a><a name="fn_3_5"></a>] Ibid., 495.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_6">6</a><a name="fn_3_6"></a>] Green, History of Springfield.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_7">7</a><a name="fn_3_7"></a>] Ibid., 255.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_8">8</a><a name="fn_3_8"></a>] E.H. Byington, The Puritan in England and New England, devotes a
+    chapter to the controversy over Breck's settlement; but he does not
+    treat of the theological problems involved.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_9">9</a><a name="fn_3_9"></a>] Whitefield's Seventh Journal, 28.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_10">10</a><a name="fn_3_10"></a>] History of Harvard University, 52.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_11">11</a><a name="fn_3_11"></a>] History of Harvard University, 23, 26.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_12">12</a><a name="fn_3_12"></a>] Whitefield's Journal, seventh part, 28.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_13">13</a><a name="fn_3_13"></a>] Historical Magazine, new series, IX. 227, April, 1871.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_14">14</a><a name="fn_3_14"></a>] W.B. Sprague, Annals of the Unitarian Pulpit, II.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_15">15</a><a name="fn_3_15"></a>] Levi L. Paine, A Critical History of the Evolution of Trinitarianism,
+     99. "Samuel Clarke and others took the ground that God is unipersonal,
+     and hence that the Son is a distinct personal being, distinguishing
+     God the Father as the absolute Deity from the Son whom they regarded
+     as God in a relative or secondary sense, being derived from the
+     Father, and having his beginning from Him."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_16">16</a><a name="fn_3_16"></a>] Seasonable Thoughts, 337.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_17">17</a><a name="fn_3_17"></a>] Alden Bradford, in his Memoir of the Life and Writings of Rev.
+     Jonathan Mayhew, D.D., gives a list of "the clergymen who openly
+     opposed or did not teach and advocate the Calvinistic doctrines" at
+     the time of Mayhew's ordination, in 1747. These were: Dr. Appleton,
+     Cambridge; Dr. Gay, Hingham; Dr. Chauncy, Boston; William Rand,
+     Kingston; Nathaniel Eelles, Scituate; Edward Barnard, Haverhill;
+     Samuel Cooke, West Cambridge (now Arlington); Jeremiah Fogg,
+     Kensington, N.H.; Dr. A. Eliot, Boston; Dr. Samuel Webster, Salisbury;
+     Lemuel Briant, Braintree; Dr. Stevens, Kittery, Me.; Dr. Tucker,
+     Newbury; Timothy Harrington, Lancaster; Dr. Gad Hitchcock, Pembroke;
+     Josiah Smith, Pembroke; William Smith, Weymouth; Dr. Daniel Shute,
+     Hingham; Dr. Samuel Cooper, Boston; Dr. Mayhew, Boston; Abraham
+     Williams, Sandwich; Anthony Wibird, Braintree (now Quincy); Dr.
+     Cushing, Waltham; Professor Wigglesworth, Harvard College; Dr. Symmes,
+     Andover; Dr. John Willard, Connecticut; Amos Adams, Roxbury; Dr.
+     Barnes, Scituate; Charles Turner, Duxbury; Dr. Dana Wallingford,
+     Conn.; Ebenezer Thayer, Hampton, N.H.; Dr. Fiske, Brookfield; Dr.
+     Samuel West, Dartmouth (now New Bedford); Dr. Hemenway, Wells. Among
+     those who took part in the ordination of Jonathan Mayhew, and
+     therefore presumably of the same theological opinions, were Hancock,
+     Lexington; Cotton, Newton; Cooke, Sudbury; Prescott, Danvers (now
+     Salem). To these may be added, says Bradford, though of a somewhat
+     later date: Dr. Coffin, Buxton; Drs. Howard, West, Lathrop, and
+     Belknap, Boston; Dr. Henry Cummings, Billerica; Dr. Deane, Portland;
+     Thomas Cary, Newburyport; Dr. Fobes, Raynham; Timothy Hilliard,
+     Cambridge; Thomas Haven, Reading; Dr. Willard, Beverly. Dr. Ezra
+     Ripley added the names of Hedge, of Warwick, and Foster, of Stafford.
+     This makes fifty-two in all, but probably as many more could be added
+     by careful search.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_18">18</a><a name="fn_3_18"></a>] Grace Defended, 43.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_19">19</a><a name="fn_3_19"></a>] Ibid., 60.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_20">20</a><a name="fn_3_20"></a>] Alice Morse Earle, Customs and Fashions in Old New England, 364, 367.
+     See H.M. Dexter, Congregationalism as seen in its Literature, 458.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_21">21</a><a name="fn_3_21"></a>] A.B. Ellis, History of the First Church in Boston, 199.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_3_22">22</a><a name="fn_3_22"></a>] New England Magazine, February, 1899. A.H. Coolidge on Scripture
+     Reading in the Worship of the New England Churches.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<a name="pg55"></a>
+<h2><br /><a name="ch4"></a>IV.<br />
+
+
+THE SILENT ADVANCE OF LIBERALISM.</h2>
+
+<p>The progressive tendencies went silently on; and step by step the old
+beliefs were discarded, but always by individuals and churches, and not by
+associations or general official action. Even before the middle of the
+eighteenth century there was not only a questioning of the doctrine of
+divine decrees, the conception that God elects some to bliss and some to
+perdition in accordance with his own arbitrary will, but there was also
+developing a tendency to reject the tritheism[<a href="#fn_4_1">1</a><a name="fr_4_1"></a>] which in New England took
+the place of a philosophical conception of the Trinity, such as had been
+held by the great thinkers of the Christian ages. In part this doubt about
+the Trinity was the result of a more thoughtful study of the Bible, where
+the doctrine taught by the leading theologians of the old school in New
+England does not appear; and in part it was the result of the reading of
+the works of the English divines of the more liberal school. Something of
+this tendency was also due to the spirit of free inquiry, and the rational
+<a name="pg56"></a>
+interpretation of religion, that were beginning to make themselves felt
+amongst those not wholly committed to the old ways of thinking.</p>
+
+<p>It was characteristic of those who questioned the doctrine of the Trinity,
+as then taught, that they insisted on stating their beliefs in the language
+of the New Testament, especially in that of Jesus himself. They found him
+teaching his own dependence on his Father, claiming for himself only an
+inferior and subordinate position. Believing in his pre-existence, his
+supernatural character and mission, they held that he was the creator of
+the world or that creation took place by means of the spirit that was in
+him, and that every honor should be paid him except that of worshipping him
+as the Supreme Being. As in the ancient family the son was always
+subordinate to his father, so the Son of God presented in the New Testament
+is less exalted than his Father. This conception of Christ is technically
+called Arianism, from the Alexandrian presbyter of the fourth century who
+first brought it into prominence.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn19"></a>Subordinate Nature of Christ.</h3>
+
+<p>The Arian heresy did not necessarily follow the Arminian, but much the same
+causes led to its appearance. Many of the leading men in England had become
+Arians, including Milton, Locke, Taylor, Clarke, Watts, and others; and the
+reading of their books in New England led to an inquiry into the
+truthfulness of the doctrine of the Trinity. As early as 1720 the preachers
+of convention and election sermons were insisting upon a recognition of
+Christ in the old way, showing that they were suspicious of heresy.[<a href="#fn_4_2">2</a><a name="fr_4_2"></a>]
+Most of the Arians retained the other doctrines in which they had been
+<a name="pg57"></a>
+educated, even putting a stronger emphasis upon them than before. Rarely
+was the subordinate nature of Christ made in any way prominent in
+preaching. It was held so strictly subsidiary to the cardinal doctrines of
+incarnation and atonement that only the most intelligent and watchful could
+detect any difference between those who were Arians and those who were
+strict Trinitarians. Now and then a man of more pronounced convictions and
+utterance was shunned by his ministerial neighbors, but this rarely
+occurred and had little practical effect. So long as a preacher gave
+satisfaction to his own congregation, and had behind him the voters and the
+tax-list of his town, his heresies were passed by with only comment and
+gossip.</p>
+
+<p>We find here and there definite indications of the doctrinal changes that
+were taking place, as in the republication of Emlyn's Humble Inquiry into
+the Scripture Account of Jesus Christ, which appeared in Boston in 1756.
+Thomas Emlyn, the first English preacher who called himself a Unitarian,
+published his Humble Inquiry in 1702; and in 1705 he established a
+Unitarian congregation in London. This distinctively Unitarian book made an
+able defence of the doctrine of the subordinate nature of Christ. More
+significant than the republication of the book itself was the preface
+written for it by a Boston layman, addressed to the ministers of the town,
+in which he said that he found its teaching "to be the true, plain,
+unadulterated doctrine of the Gospel." He also intimated that "many of his
+brethren of the laity in the town and country were in sympathy with him and
+sincerely desirous of knowing the truth." "In New Hampshire Province,"
+wrote Dr. Joseph Bellamy, in 1760, "this party have actually, three years
+<a name="pg58"></a>
+ago, got things so ripe that they have ventured to new model our Shorter
+Catechism, to alter or entirely leave out the doctrine of the Trinity, of
+the decrees, of our first parents being created holy, of original sin,
+Christ satisfying divine justice, effectual calling, justification,
+etc."[<a href="#fn_4_3">3</a><a name="fr_4_3"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn20"></a>Some of the Liberal Leaders.</h3>
+
+<p>The farther advance in the liberal movement may be most easily traced in
+the lives and teachings of three or four men. Rev Ebenezer Gay, who was
+settled in Hingham in 1717, was the first man in New England to arrive at a
+clear statement of opinions quite outside of and distinct from Calvinism.
+Writing of the years from 1750 to 1755, John Adams said that at that time
+Lemuel Briant, of Braintree, Jonathan Mayhew, of the West Church in Boston,
+Daniel Shute, of Hingham, John Brown, of Cohasset, and perhaps equal to
+all, if not above all, Ebenezer Gay, of Hingham, were Unitarians.[<a href="#fn_4_4">4</a><a name="fr_4_4"></a>] The
+rapid sale of Emlyn's book would prove the truthfulness of this statement.
+<a name="pg59"></a>
+It was not by any sudden process that these men had come to what may be
+called Unitarianism, though, more properly, Arianism; and not as a mere
+result of a reaction from Calvinism. A new time had come, and with it new
+hopes and thoughts. The burdening sense of the spiritual world that
+belonged to the men of the seventeenth century did not belong to those of
+the eighteenth. Men had come to see that God must manifest himself in
+reason, common sense, nature, and the facts of life.</p>
+
+<p>In the life and teachings of such a man as Ebenezer Gay we catch a new
+insight into the spirit that was active in New England throughout the
+eighteenth century for the realization of a larger faith. He was a man of a
+strong, original, vigorous nature, a born leader of men, and one who
+impressed his own character upon those with whom he came into contact. He
+opposed the revival, and he made the men of his own association think with
+him in their opposition to it. Years before the revival, however, he was a
+liberal in theology, and had found his way into Arminianism. With the
+spirit of free inquiry he was in fullest sympathy. He was strongly opposed
+to creeds and to all written articles of faith. He condemned in the most
+forcible terms the young man who, on the occasion of his ordination,
+"engages to preach according to a rule of faith, creed, or confession which
+is merely of human prescription or imposition." In his convention sermon of
+1746 he denounced those who "insist upon the offensive peculiarities of the
+party they espoused rather than upon the more mighty things in which we are
+all agreed." It has been said of him that, after the middle of the century,
+"his discourses will be searched in vain for any discussions of
+<a name="pg60"></a>
+controversial theology, any advocacy of the peculiar doctrines regarded as
+orthodox, or the expression of any opinions at variance with those of his
+successor, Dr. Ware."[<a href="#fn_4_5">5</a><a name="fr_4_5"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The sermon on Natural Religion as distinguished from Revealed, which Dr.
+Gay delivered as the Dudleian lecture at Harvard, in 1759, showed the
+reasonable and progressive spirit of his preaching. He claimed that there
+is no antagonism between natural and revealed religion, and that, while
+revealed religion is an addition to the natural, it is not built on the
+ruins, but on the everlasting foundations of it. Revelation can teach
+nothing contrary to natural religion or to the dictates of reason. "No
+doctrine or scheme of religion," he said, "should be advanced or received
+as Scriptural and divine which is plainly and absolutely inconsistent with
+the perfections of God, and the possibility of things. Absurdities and
+contradictions, are not to be obtruded upon our faith. No pretence of
+revelation can be sufficient for the admission of them. The manifest
+absurdity of any doctrine is a stronger argument that it is not of God than
+any other evidence can be that it is."</p>
+
+<p>Jonathan Mayhew, the son of Experience Mayhew, of Martha's Vineyard, was
+settled over the West Church of Boston in 1747. He was even then known as a
+heretic, who had read the most liberal books of the English philosophers
+and theologians, and who had boldly accepted their opinions as his own. On
+the occasion of his ordination not one of the Boston ministers was present,
+although a number of them were well known for their liberal opinions. The
+<a name="pg61"></a>
+ordination was postponed, and later several men of remoter parishes joined
+in inducting this young independent into his pulpit. No Boston minister
+would exchange pulpits with him, and he was not invited to join the
+ministerial association. He was shunned by the ministers, and he was
+dreaded by the orthodox; but he was gladly heard by a large congregation,
+which grew in numbers and intelligence as the years went on. He had among
+his hearers many of the leading men of the town, and to him gathered those
+who were most thoughtful and progressive. Boston has never had in any of
+its pulpits a man of nobler, broader, more humane qualities, or one with a
+mind more completely committed to seeking and knowing the truth, or with a
+more unflinching purpose to speak his own mind without fear or favor. His
+influence was soon powerfully felt in the town, and his name came to stand
+for liberty in politics as well as in religion. His sermons were rapidly
+printed and distributed widely. They were read in every part of New England
+with great eagerness; they were reprinted in England, and brought him a
+large correspondence from those who admired and approved of his teaching.
+Though he died in 1766, at the age of forty-six, his work and his influence
+did not die with him.</p>
+
+<p>The cardinal thought of Jonathan Mayhew with reference to religion was that
+of free inquiry. Diligent and free examination of all questions, he felt,
+was necessary to any acquisition of the truth. He believed in liberty and
+toleration everywhere, and this made him accept in the fullest sense the
+doctrine of the freedom of the will. In man he found a self-determining
+<a name="pg62"></a>
+power, the source of his moral and intellectual freedom. He said that we
+are more certain of the fact that we are free than we are of the truth of
+Christianity. This belief led him to the rejection of the Calvinistic
+doctrine of inability, and to a strong faith in the moral and spiritual
+possibilities of human nature. He described Christianity as "a practical
+science, the art of living piously and virtuously."[<a href="#fn_4_6">6</a><a name="fr_4_6"></a>] He had quite freed
+his mind from bondage to creeds when he said that, "how much soever any man
+may be mistaken in opinion concerning the terms of salvation, yet if he is
+practically in the right there is no doubt but he will be accepted of
+God."[<a href="#fn_4_7">7</a><a name="fr_4_7"></a>] He held that no speculative error, however great, is sufficient
+to exclude a good and upright man from the kingdom of heaven, who lives
+according to the genuine spirit of the gospel. To him the principle of
+grace was always a principle of goodness and holiness; and he held that
+grace can never be operative as a saving power without obedience to that
+righteousness and love which Christ taught as essential.[<a href="#fn_4_8">8</a><a name="fr_4_8"></a>] He declared
+that "the doctrine that men may obtain salvation without ceasing to do evil
+and learning to do well, without yielding a sincere obedience to the laws
+of Christianity, is not so properly called a doctrine of grace as it is a
+doctrine of devils."[<a href="#fn_4_9">9</a><a name="fr_4_9"></a>] He said, again, that we cannot be justified by a
+faith that is without obedience; for it is obedience and good works that
+give to faith all its life, efficacy, and perfection.[<a href="#fn_4_10">10</a><a name="fr_4_10"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn21"></a>The First Unitarian.</h3>
+
+<p>Dr. Mayhew accepted without equivocation the right of private judgment in
+religion, and he practised it judicially and with wise insight. He
+<a name="pg63"></a>
+unhesitatingly applied the rational method to all theological problems, and
+to him reason was the final court of appeal for everything connected with
+religion. His love of freedom was enthusiastic and persistent, and he was
+zealously committed to the principle of individuality. He believed in the
+essential goodness of human nature, and in the doctrine of the Divine
+Unity. He was the first outspoken Unitarian in New England, not merely
+because he rejected the doctrine of the Trinity, but because he accepted
+all the cardinal principles developed by that movement since his day. He
+was a rationalist, an individualist, a defender of personal freedom, and
+tested religious practices by the standard of common sense. His sermons
+were plain, direct, vigorous, and modern. A truly religious man, Mayhew
+taught a practical and humanitarian religion, genuinely ethical, and
+faithful in inculcating the motive of civic duty.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Mayhew's words may be quoted in regard to some of the religious beliefs
+commonly accepted in his day. "The doctrine of a total ignorance and
+incapacity to judge of moral and religious truths brought upon mankind by
+the disobedience of our first parents," he wrote, "is without
+foundation."[<a href="#fn_4_11">11</a><a name="fr_4_11"></a>] "I hope it appears," he says, "that the love of God and of
+our neighbor, that sincere piety of heart, and a righteous, holy and
+charitable life, are the weightier matters of the gospel, as well as of the
+law."[<a href="#fn_4_12">12</a><a name="fr_4_12"></a>] "Although Christianity cannot," he asserts, "with any propriety
+or justice be said to be the same with natural religion, or merely a
+republication of the laws of nature, yet the principal, the most important
+and fundamental duties required by Christianity are, nevertheless, the same
+<a name="pg64"></a>
+which were enjoined under the legal dispensation of Moses, and the same
+which are dictated by the light of nature."[<a href="#fn_4_13">13</a><a name="fr_4_13"></a>] His great love of
+intellectual and spiritual freedom finds utterance in such a statement as
+this: "Nor has any order or body of men authority to enjoin any particular
+article of faith, nor the use of any modes of worship not expressly pointed
+out in the Scriptures; nor has the enjoining of such articles a tendency to
+preserve the peace and harmony of the church, but directly the
+contrary."[<a href="#fn_4_14">14</a><a name="fr_4_14"></a>] Such sentences as the following are frequent on Mayhew's
+pages, and they show clearly the trend of his mind: "Free examination,
+weighing arguments for and against with care and impartiality, is the way
+to find truth." "True religion flourishes the more, the more people
+exercise their right of private judgment."[<a href="#fn_4_15">15</a><a name="fr_4_15"></a>] "There is nothing more
+foolish and superstitious than a veneration for ancient creeds and
+doctrines as such, and nothing is more unworthy a reasonable creature than
+to value principles by their age, as some men do their wines."[<a href="#fn_4_16">16</a><a name="fr_4_16"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Mayhew insisted upon the strict unity of God, "who is without rival or
+competitor." "The dominion and sovereignty of the universe is necessarily
+one and in one, the only living and true God, who delegates such measures
+of power and authority to other beings as seemeth good in his sight." He
+declared that the not preserving of such unity and supremacy of God on the
+part of Christians "has long been just matter of reproach to them"; and he
+said the authority of Christ is always "exercised in subordination to God's
+will."[<a href="#fn_4_17">17</a><a name="fr_4_17"></a>] His position was that "the faith of Christians does not
+<a name="pg65"></a>
+terminate in Christ as the ultimate object of it, but it is extended
+through him to the one God."[<a href="#fn_4_18">18</a><a name="fr_4_18"></a>] The very idea of a mediator implies
+subordination as essential to it.[<a href="#fn_4_19">19</a><a name="fr_4_19"></a>] His biographer says he did not accept
+the notion of vicarious suffering, and, that he was an Arian in his views
+of the nature of Christ. "He was the first clergyman in New England who
+expressly and openly opposed the scholastic doctrine of the Trinity.
+Several others declined pressing the Athanasian Creed, and believed
+strictly in the unity of God. They also probably found it difficult to
+explain their views on the subject, and the great danger of losing their
+good name served to prevent their speaking out. But Dr. Mayhew did not
+conceal or disguise his sentiments on this point any more than on others,
+such as the peculiar tenets of Calvinism. He explicitly and boldly declared
+the doctrine irrational, unscriptural, and directly contradictory."[<a href="#fn_4_20">20</a><a name="fr_4_20"></a>] He
+taught the strict unity of God as early as 1753, "in the most unequivocal
+and plain manner, in his sermons of that year."[<a href="#fn_4_21">21</a><a name="fr_4_21"></a>] What most excited
+comment and objection was that, in a foot-note to the volume of his sermons
+published in 1755, Mayhew said that a Catholic Council had elevated the
+Virgin Mary to the position of a fourth person in the Godhead, and added,
+by way of comment: "Neither Papists nor Protestants should imagine that
+they will be understood by others if they do not understand themselves. Nor
+should they think that nonsense and contradictions can ever be too sacred
+<a name="pg66"></a>
+to be ridiculous." The ridicule here was not directed against the doctrine
+of the Trinity, as has been maintained, but the foolish defences of it made
+by men who accepted its "mysteries" as too wonderful for reason to deal
+with in a serious manner. This boldness of comment on the part of Mayhew
+was in harmony with his strong disapproval of creed-making in all its
+forms. He condemned creeds because they set up "human tests of orthodoxy
+instead of the infallible word of God, and make other terms of Christian
+communion than those explicitly pointed out by the Gospel."[<a href="#fn_4_22">22</a><a name="fr_4_22"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Mayhew was succeeded in the West Church by Rev. Simeon Howard in 1767,
+who, though he was received in a more friendly spirit by the ministers of
+the town, was not less radical in his theology than his predecessor. Dr.
+Howard was both an Arminian and an Arian, and he was "a believer neither in
+the Trinity, nor in the divine predestination of total depravity, and
+necessary ruin to any human soul."[<a href="#fn_4_23">23</a><a name="fr_4_23"></a>] He was of a gentle and conciliatory
+temper, but his preaching was quite as thorough-going in its intellectual
+earnestness as was Dr. Mayhew's.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn22"></a>A Pronounced Universalist.</h3>
+
+<p>Another preacher on the liberal side was Dr. Charles Chauncy of the First
+Church in Boston, whose ministry lasted from 1727 to 1787. He was the most
+vigorous of the opponents of the great awakening, both in his pulpit and
+through the press. He wrote a book on certain French fanatics, with the
+purpose of showing what would be the natural results of the excesses of the
+revival; he preached a powerful sermon on enthusiasm, to indicate the
+<a name="pg67"></a>
+dangers of religious excitement, when not controlled by common sense and
+reason; and he travelled throughout New England to gain all the information
+possible about the revival, its methods and results, and published his
+Seasonable Thoughts on the State of Religion in New England in 1743. He had
+been influenced by the reading of Taylor, Tillotson, Clarke, and the other
+latitudinarian and rationalistic writers of England; and he found the
+revival in its excesses repugnant to his every thought of what was true and
+devout in religion.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Chauncy was not an eloquent preacher; but he was clear, earnest, and
+honest. Many of his sermons were published, and his books numbered nearly a
+dozen. As early as 1739 he preached a sermon in favor of religious
+toleration. At a later period he said, "It is with me past all doubt that
+the religion of Jesus will never be restored to its primitive purity,
+simplicity, and glory, until religious establishments are so brought down
+as to be no more."[<a href="#fn_4_24">24</a><a name="fr_4_24"></a>] It was this conviction which made him oppose in his
+pulpit and in two or three books the effort that was made just before the
+Revolution to establish the English Church as the state form of religion in
+the colonies. He said, in 1767, that the American people would hazard
+everything dear to them--their estates, their lives--rather than suffer
+their necks to be put under the yoke of bondage to any foreign power in
+state or church.[<a href="#fn_4_25">25</a><a name="fr_4_25"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>In his early life Dr. Chauncy was an Arminian, but slowly he grew to the
+acceptance of distinctly Unitarian and Universalist doctrines. Near the end
+of his life he Published four or five books in which he advanced very
+<a name="pg68"></a>
+liberal opinions. One of these, published in Boston in 1784, was on The
+Benevolence of the Deity fairly and impartially Considered. This book
+followed the same method and purpose as Butler's Analogy, and aimed to show
+that God has manifested his goodness in creation and in the life of man. He
+said that our moral self-determination, or free will, is our one great gift
+from God. He discussed the moral problems of life in order to prove the
+benevolence of God, maintaining that the goodness we see in him is of the
+same nature with goodness in ourselves. The year following he published a
+book on the Scriptural account of the Fall and its Consequences, in which
+he rejected the doctrine of total depravity, and interpreted the new birth
+as a result of education rather than of supernatural change. Thus he
+brought to full statement the logical result of the half-way covenant and
+the teachings of Solomon Stoddard, as well as of the connection of church
+and state in New England. He saw that the method of education is the only
+one that can justly be followed in the preparation of the young for
+admission to a church that is sustained in any direct way by the state.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Chauncy's great work as a preacher and author[<a href="#fn_4_26">26</a><a name="fr_4_26"></a>] was brought to its
+close by his books in favor of universal salvation. In 1783-84 he published
+in Boston two anonymous pamphlets advocating the salvation of all men, and
+these pamphlets made no little stir. In 1784 he published in London a work
+<a name="pg69"></a>
+which he called The Mystery hid from Ages and Generations, made manifest by
+the Gospel Revelation; or, The Salvation of All Men the Grand Thing aimed
+at in the Scheme of God: By One who wishes well to the whole Human Race. In
+this book Dr. Chauncy made an elaborate study of the New Testament, in
+order to prove that salvation is to be universal. Christ died for all,
+therefore all will be saved; because all have sinned in Adam, therefore all
+will be made alive in Christ. He looked to a future probation, to a long
+period after death, when the opportunity of salvation will be open to all.
+He maintained that the misery threatened against the wicked in Scripture is
+that of this intermediate state between the earthly life and the time when
+God shall be all in all. He held that sin will be punished hereafter in
+proportion to depravity, and that none will be saved until they come into
+willing harmony with Christ, who will finally be able to win all men to
+himself, otherwise the power of God will be set at naught and his good will
+towards men frustrated of its purpose. In the future state of discipline,
+punishment will be inflicted with salutary effect, and thus the moral
+recovery of mankind will be accomplished.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn23"></a>Other Men of Mark.</h3>
+
+<p>Another leader was Dr. Samuel West, of Dartmouth, now New Bedford, where he
+was settled in 1760, and where he preached for more than forty years.[<a href="#fn_4_27">27</a><a name="fr_4_27"></a>]
+He rejected the doctrines of fore-ordination, election, total depravity,
+and the Trinity. In preaching the election sermon of 1776, he took the
+ground of an undisguised rationalism. "A revelation," he said, "pretending
+to be from God, that contradicts any part of natural laws ought immediately
+<a name="pg70"></a>
+to be rejected as imposture; for the deity cannot make a law contrary to
+the law of nature without acting contrary to himself,--a thing in the
+strictest sense impossible, for that which implies contradiction is not an
+object of Divine Power." The cardinal idea of West's; position, as of that
+of most of the liberal men of his time, was stated by him in one sentence,
+when he said, "To preach Christ is to preach the whole system of divinity,
+as it consists of both natural and revealed religion."[<a href="#fn_4_28">28</a><a name="fr_4_28"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>In 1751 Rev. Thomas Barnard, of Newbury, was dismissed from his parish
+because he was regarded as unconverted by the revivalistic portion of his
+congregation; and in 1755 he was settled over the First Church in Salem. He
+was an Arminian, and at the same time an Arian of the school of Samuel
+Clarke. His son Thomas was settled over the North Church of Salem in 1773,
+which church was organized especially for him by his admirers in the First
+Church. He followed in the theological opinions of his father, but probably
+became somewhat more pronounced in his Arian views, so that, after his
+death, Dr. Channing called him a Unitarian. It is not surprising that the
+younger Barnard should have been liberal in his opinions and spirit, when
+we find his theological instructor, Rev. Samuel Williams, at his
+ordination, saying to him in the sermon preached on that occasion, "Be of
+no sect or party but that of good men, and to all such (whatever their
+differences among themselves) let your heart be opened." On another similar
+occasion Mr. Williams said that it had always been his advice to examine
+<a name="pg71"></a>
+with caution and modesty, "but with the greatest freedom all religious
+matters."[<a href="#fn_4_29">29</a><a name="fr_4_29"></a>] It was said of the younger Barnard that he believed "the
+final salvation of no man depended upon the belief or disbelief of those
+speculative opinions about which men, equally learned and pious, differ."
+When it was said to him by one of his parishioners, "Dr. Barnard, I never
+heard you preach a sermon upon the Trinity," the reply was, "And you never
+will."[<a href="#fn_4_30">30</a><a name="fr_4_30"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>In 1779 Rev. John Prince was settled over the First Church in Salem, as the
+colleague of the elder Barnard. He was an Arian, but in no combative or
+dogmatic manner. He was a student, a lover of science, and an advanced
+thinker and investigator for his time. In 1787 he invited the Universalist,
+Rev. John Murray, into his pulpit, then an act of the greatest
+liberality.[<a href="#fn_4_31">31</a><a name="fr_4_31"></a>] Another lover of science, Rev. William Bentley, was settled
+over the East Church of Salem, as colleague to Rev. James Diman, in 1782.
+The senior pastor was a strict Calvinist, but the parish called as his
+colleague this young man of pronounced liberal views in theology. As early
+as 1784 Mr. Bentley was interested in the teachings of the English
+Unitarian, William Hazlitt,[<a href="#fn_4_32">32</a><a name="fr_4_32"></a>] who at that time visited New England. And
+in 1786 he was reading Joseph Priestley's book against the Trinity with
+approval. He soon after commended Dr. Priestley's short tracts as giving a
+good statement of the simple doctrines of Christianity.[<a href="#fn_4_33">33</a><a name="fr_4_33"></a>] He insisted
+<a name="pg72"></a>
+upon free inquiry in religion from the beginning of his ministry, and not
+long after he began preaching he became substantially a Unitarian.[<a href="#fn_4_34">34</a><a name="fr_4_34"></a>] In
+1789 he maintained that "the full conviction of a future moral retribution"
+is "the great point of Christian faith."[<a href="#fn_4_35">35</a><a name="fr_4_35"></a>] It has been claimed that Mr.
+Bentley was the first minister in New England to take distinctly the
+Unitarian position, and there are good reasons for this understanding of
+his doctrinal attitude.[<a href="#fn_4_36">36</a><a name="fr_4_36"></a>] Dr. Bentley corresponded with scholars in
+Europe, as he also did with Arab chiefs in their own tongue. He knew of the
+religions of India, and he seems to have given them appreciative
+recognition. The shipmasters and foreign merchants of Salem, as they came
+in contact with the Oriental races and religions, discarded their dogmatic
+Christianity; and these men, almost without exception, were connected with
+the churches that became Unitarian. It may be accepted as a very
+interesting fact that "the two potent influences shaping the ancient
+Puritanism of Salem into Unitarianism were foreign commerce and contact
+with the Oriental religions."[<a href="#fn_4_37">37</a><a name="fr_4_37"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg73"></a>
+<p>The formation of a second parish in Worcester, in 1785, was a significant
+step in the progress of liberal opinion. This was the first time when a
+town, outside of Boston, was divided into two parishes of the
+Congregational order on doctrinal grounds. On the death of the minister of
+the first parish several candidates were heard, and among them Rev. Aaron
+Bancroft, who was a pronounced Arminian and Arian. The majority preferred a
+Calvinist; but the more intelligent minority insisted upon the settlement
+of Mr. Bancroft,--a result they finally accomplished by the organization of
+a new parish. It was a severe struggle by which this result was brought
+about, every effort being made to defeat it; and for many years Mr.
+Bancroft was almost completely isolated in his religious opinions.[<a href="#fn_4_38">38</a><a name="fr_4_38"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn24"></a>The Second Period of Revivals.</h3>
+
+<p>It must not be understood that there was any marked separation in the
+churches as yet on doctrinal grounds. Calvinism was mildly taught, and
+ministers of all shades of opinion exchanged pulpits freely with each
+other. They met in ministerial associations, and in various duties of
+ordinations, councils, and other ecclesiastical gatherings. The preaching
+was practical, not doctrinal; and controverted subjects were for the most
+part not touched upon in the pulpits. About 1780, however, began a revival
+of Calvinism on the part of Drs. Bellamy, Emmons, Hopkins, and others; and
+especially did it take a strenuous form in the works of Samuel Hopkins. The
+New Divinity, as it was sometimes called, taught that unconditional
+submission to God is the duty of every human being, that we should be
+<a name="pg74"></a>
+willing to be damned for the glory of God, and that the attitude of God
+towards men is one of unbounded benevolence. This newer Calvinism was full
+of incentives to missionary enterprise, and was zealous for the making of
+converts. Under the impulse of its greater enthusiasm there began, about
+1790, a series of revivals which continued to the middle of the nineteenth
+century. This was the second great period of revivalism in New England. It
+was far better organized than the first one, while its methods were more
+systematic and under better guidance; and the results were great in the
+building of churches, in establishing missionary outposts, and in awakening
+an active religious life amongst the people. It aroused much opposition to
+the liberals, and it made the orthodox party more aggressive. Just as the
+great awakening developed opposition to the liberals of that day, and
+served to bring into view the two tendencies in the Congregational
+churches, so this new revival period accentuated the divergencies between
+those who believed in the deity of Christ and those who believed in his
+subordinate nature, and led to the first assuming of positions on both
+sides. There can be little doubt that it put a check upon the friendly
+spirit that had existed in the churches, and that it began a division which
+ultimately resulted in their separation into two denominations.[<a href="#fn_4_39">39</a><a name="fr_4_39"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Such details of individual and local opinion as have here been given are
+all the more necessary because there was at this time no consensus of
+<a name="pg75"></a>
+belief on the part of the more liberal men. Each man thought for himself,
+but he was very reluctant to depart from the old ways in ritual and
+doctrine; and if the ministers consulted with each other, and gave each
+other confidential assistance, there was certainly nothing in the way of
+public conference or of party assimilation and encouragement. A visitor to
+Boston in 1791 wrote of the ministers there that "they are so diverse in
+their sentiments that they cannot agree on any point in theology. Some are
+Calvinists, some Universalists, some Arminians, and one, at least, is a
+Socinian."[<a href="#fn_4_40">40</a><a name="fr_4_40"></a>] Another visitor, this time in 1801, found the range of
+opinions much wider. In all the ministers of Boston he found only one rigid
+Trinitarian; one was a follower of Edwards, several were Arminians, two
+were Socinians, one a Universalist, and one a Unitarian.[<a href="#fn_4_41">41</a><a name="fr_4_41"></a>] This writer
+says it was not difficult to find out what men did not believe, but there
+was as yet no public line of demarcation among the clergy. There being no
+outward pressure to bring men into uniformity, no institution or body of
+men with authority to require assent to a standard of orthodoxy, little
+attention was given to merely doctrinal interests. The position taken was
+that presented by Rev. John Tucker of Newbury, in the convention sermon of
+1768, when he said that no one has any right whatever to legislate in
+behalf of Christ, who alone has authority to fix the terms of the Gospel.
+He said that, as all believers and teachers of Christianity are "perfectly
+upon a level with one another, none of them can have any authority even to
+interpret the laws of this kingdom for others, so as to require their
+<a name="pg76"></a>
+assent to such interpretation." He also declared that as "every Christian
+has and must have a right to judge for himself of the true sense and
+meaning of all gospel truths, no doctrines, therefore, no laws, no
+religious rites, no terms of acceptance with God or of admission to
+Christian privileges not found in the gospel, are to be looked upon by him
+as any part of this divine system, nor to be received and submitted to as
+the doctrines and laws of Christ."[<a href="#fn_4_42">42</a><a name="fr_4_42"></a>] Of Rev. John Prince, the minister
+of the First Church in Salem during the last years of the century, it was
+said that he never "preached distinctly upon any of the points of
+controversy which, in his day, agitated the New England churches."[<a href="#fn_4_43">43</a><a name="fr_4_43"></a>] The
+minister of Roxbury, Rev. Eliphalet Porter, said of the Calvinistic
+beliefs, that there was not one of them he considered "essential to the
+Christian faith or character."[<a href="#fn_4_44">44</a><a name="fr_4_44"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn25"></a>King's Chapel becomes Unitarian.</h3>
+
+<p>These quotations will indicate the liberty of spirit that existed in the
+New England churches of the later years of the eighteenth century,
+especially in the neighborhood of Boston, and along the seacoast; and also
+the diversity of opinion on doctrinal subjects among the ministers. It is
+impossible here to follow minutely the stages of doctrinal evolution, but a
+few dates and incidents will serve to indicate the several steps that were
+taken. The first of these was the settlement of Rev. James Freeman over
+King's Chapel in 1782, and his ordination by the congregation in 1787, the
+liturgy having been revised two years earlier to conform to the liberal
+opinions of the minister and people. These changes were brought about
+<a name="pg77"></a>
+largely through the influence of Rev. William Hazlitt, the father of the
+essayist and critic of the same name, who had been settled over several of
+the smaller Unitarian churches in Great Britain. In the spring of 1783 he
+visited the United States, and spent several months in Philadelphia. He
+gave a course of lectures on the Evidences of Christianity in the college
+there, which were largely attended. He preached for several weeks in a
+country parish in Maryland, he had invitations to settle in Charleston and
+Pittsburg, and he had an opportunity to become the president of a college
+by subscribing to the doctrinal tests required, which he would not do; for
+"he would sooner die in a ditch than submit to human authority in matters
+of faith."[<a href="#fn_4_45">45</a><a name="fr_4_45"></a>] In June, 1784, he preached in the Brattle Street Church of
+Boston, and he anticipated becoming its minister; but his pronounced
+doctrinal position seems to have made that impossible. He also preached in
+Hingham, and some of the people there desired his settlement; but the aged
+Dr. Gay would not resign. It would appear that he preached for Dr. Chauncy,
+for Mr. Barnes in Salem, and also in several pulpits on Cape Cod. He gave in
+Boston his course of lectures on the Evidences of Christianity, and it was
+received with much favor by large audiences. The winter of 1784-85 was
+spent by Mr. Hazlitt in Hallowell, Me., in which place was a small group of
+wealthy English Unitarians, led by Samuel Vaughan, by whom Mr. Hazlitt had
+been entertained in Philadelphia. Mr. Hazlitt returned to Boston in the
+spring of 1785, and had some hope of settling in Roxbury. In the autumn,
+however, finding no definite promise of employment, he returned to England.
+<a name="pg78"></a>
+He afterward corresponded with Dr. Howard, of the West Church in Boston,
+and with Dr. Lathrop, of West Springfield. The volumes of sermons he
+published in 1786 and 1790 were sold in this country, and one or two of
+them republished.</p>
+
+<p>It would appear that Mr. Hazlitt's positive Unitarianism made it impossible
+for him to settle over any church in Boston or its neighborhood. In 1784 he
+assisted Dr. Freeman in revising the Prayer Book, the form of prayer used
+by Dr. Lindsey[<a href="#fn_4_46">46</a><a name="fr_4_46"></a>] in the Essex Street Chapel in London being adapted to
+the new conditions at King's Chapel. He also republished in Philadelphia
+and Boston many of Dr. Priestley's Unitarian tracts, while writing much
+himself for publication.[<a href="#fn_4_47">47</a><a name="fr_4_47"></a>] In his correspondence with Theophilus
+Lindsey, Dr. Freeman wrote of Mr. Hazlitt as a pious, zealous, and
+intelligent minister, to whose instructions and conversation he was
+<a name="pg79"></a>
+particularly indebted.[<a href="#fn_4_48">48</a><a name="fr_4_48"></a>] "Before Mr. Hazlitt came to Boston", Dr.
+Freeman wrote, "the Trinitarian doxology was almost universally used. That
+honest, good man prevailed upon several respectable ministers to omit it.
+Since his departure the number of those who repeat only Scriptural
+doxologies has greatly increased, so that there are now many churches in
+which the worship is strictly Unitarian."[<a href="#fn_4_49">49</a><a name="fr_4_49"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Beginning with the year 1786, several of the liberal men in Boston were in
+correspondence with the leading Unitarian ministers in London, and their
+letters were afterward published by Thomas Belsham in his Life of
+Theophilus Lindsey. From this work we learn that Dr. Lindsey presented his
+own theological works and those of Dr. Priestley to Harvard College, and
+that they were read with great avidity by the students.[<a href="#fn_4_50">50</a><a name="fr_4_50"></a>] One of the
+<a name="pg80"></a>
+Boston correspondents, writing in 1783, names James Bowdoin, governor of
+Massachusetts in 1785 and 1786, General Benjamin Lincoln, and General Henry
+Knox as among the liberal men. He said: "There are many others besides, in
+our legislature, of similar sentiments. While so many of our great men are
+thus on the side of truth and free inquiry, they will necessarily influence
+many of the common people."[<a href="#fn_4_51">51</a><a name="fr_4_51"></a>] He also said that people were less
+frightened at the Socinian name than formerly, and that this form of
+Christianity was beginning to have some public advocates. The only minister
+who preached in favor of it was Mr. Bentley, of Salem, who was described as
+"a young man of a bold, independent mind, of strong, natural powers, and of
+more skill in the learned languages than any person of his years in the
+state." Mr. Bentley's congregation was spoken of as uncommonly liberal, not
+alarmed at any improvements, and pleased with his introduction into the
+pulpit of various modern translations of the Scriptures, especially of the
+prophecies.[<a href="#fn_4_52">52</a><a name="fr_4_52"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn26"></a>Other Unitarian Movements.</h3>
+
+<p>In March, 1792, a Unitarian congregation was formed in Portland under the
+leadership of Thomas Oxnard, who had been an Episcopalian. Having been
+supplied with the works of Priestley and Lindsey through the generosity of
+Dr. Freeman, he became a Unitarian; and his personal intercourse with Dr.
+Freeman gave strength to his changed convictions. A number of persons of
+property and respectability of character joined him in accepting his new
+faith. In writing to his friend in November, 1788, Mr. Oxnard said: "I
+<a name="pg81"></a>
+cannot express to you the avidity with which these Unitarian publications
+are sought after. Our friends here are clearly convinced that the Unitarian
+doctrine will soon become the prevailing opinion in this country. Three
+years ago I did not know a single Unitarian in this part of the country
+besides myself; and now, entirely from the various publications you have
+furnished, a decent society might be collected in this and the neighboring
+towns."[<a href="#fn_4_53">53</a><a name="fr_4_53"></a>] In 1792 an attempt was made to introduce a revised liturgy
+into the Episcopal church of Portland; and, when this was resisted, a
+majority of the congregation seceded and formed a Unitarian society, with
+Mr. Oxnard as the minister. This society was continued for a few years, and
+then ceased to exist. The members joined the first Congregational church,
+which in 1809, became Unitarian.[<a href="#fn_4_54">54</a><a name="fr_4_54"></a>] Also in 1792 was organized a
+Unitarian congregation in Saco, under the auspices of Hon. Samuel Thatcher,
+a member of Congress and a Massachusetts judge.[<a href="#fn_4_55">55</a><a name="fr_4_55"></a>] Mr. Thatcher had been
+an unbeliever, but through the reading of Priestley's works he became a
+sincere and rational Christian. He met with much opposition from his
+neighbors, and an effort was made to prevent his re-election to Congress;
+but it did not succeed. The Saco congregation was at first connected with
+that at Portland, and it seems to have ceased its existence at the same
+time.[<a href="#fn_4_56">56</a><a name="fr_4_56"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg82"></a>
+<p>In 1794 Dr. Freeman wrote that Unitarianism was making considerable
+progress in the southern counties of Massachusetts. In Barnstable he
+reported "a very large body of Unitarians."[<a href="#fn_4_57">57</a><a name="fr_4_57"></a>] Writing in May, 1796, he
+states that Unitarianism is on the increase in Maine, that it is making a
+considerable increase in the southern part of Massachusetts, and that a few
+seeds have been sown in Vermont. He thinks it may be losing ground in some
+places, but that it is growing in others. "I consider it," he writes, "as
+one of the most happy effects which have resulted from my feeble exertions
+in the Unitarian cause, that they have introduced me to the knowledge and
+friendship of some of the most valuable characters of the present age, men
+of enlightened heads and benevolent hearts. Though it is a standing article
+of most of our social libraries, that nothing of a controversial character
+should be purchased, yet any book which is presented is freely accepted. I
+have found means, therefore, of introducing into them some of the Unitarian
+Tracts with which you have kindly furnished me. There are few persons who
+have not read them with avidity; and when read they cannot fail to make an
+impression upon the minds of many. From these and other causes the
+Unitarian doctrine appears to be still upon the increase. I am acquainted
+with a number of ministers, particularly in the southern part of this
+state, who avow and publicly preach this sentiment. There are others more
+cautious, who content themselves with leading their hearers by a course of
+rational but prudent sermons gradually and insensibly to embrace it. Though
+this latter mode is not what I entirely approve, yet it produces good
+<a name="pg83"></a>
+effects. For the people are thus kept out of the reach of false opinions,
+and are prepared for the impressions which will be made on them by more
+bold and ardent successors, who will probably be raised up when these timid
+characters are removed off the stage. The clergy are generally the first
+who begin to speculate; but the people soon follow, where they are so much
+accustomed to read and enquire."[<a href="#fn_4_58">58</a><a name="fr_4_58"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>In 1793 was published Jeremy Belknap's biography of Samuel Watts, who was
+an Arian, or, at least, held to the subordinate nature of Christ. This book
+had a very considerable influence in directing attention to the doctrine of
+the Trinity, and in inducing inquiring men to study the subject critically
+for themselves. In 1797 Dr. Belknap became the minister of the Federal
+Street Church in Boston, and his preaching was from that time distinctly
+Unitarian. Dr. Joseph Priestley removed to Philadelphia in 1794, and he was
+at first listened to by large congregations. His humanitarian
+theology--that is, his denial of divinity as well as deity to
+Christ--probably had the effect of limiting the interest in his teachings.
+However, a small congregation was established in Philadelphia in 1796,
+formed mostly of English Unitarians. A congregation was gathered at
+Northumberland in 1794, to which place Priestley removed in that year.</p>
+
+<p>In the year 1800 a division took place in the church at Plymouth, owing to
+the growth there of liberal sentiments. These began to manifest themselves
+as early as 1742, as a reaction from the intense revivalism of that
+<a name="pg84"></a>
+Period.[<a href="#fn_4_59">59</a><a name="fr_4_59"></a>] Rev. Chandler Bobbins, who was strictly Calvinistic in his
+theology, was the minister from 1760 until his death in 1799. In 1794 a
+considerable number of persons in the parish discussed the desirability of
+organizing another church, in order to secure more liberal preaching. It
+was recognized that Mr. Robbins was an old man, that he was very much
+beloved, and that in a few years the opportunity desired would be presented
+without needless agitation; and the effort was therefore deferred. In
+November, 1799, at a meeting held for the election of a new pastor,
+twenty-three members of the church were in favor of Rev. James Kendall, the
+only candidate, while fifteen were in opposition. When the parish voted,
+two hundred and fifty-three favored Mr. Kendall, and fifteen were opposed.
+In September, 1800, the conservative minority, numbering eighteen males and
+thirty-five females, withdrew; and two years later they organized the
+society now called the Church of the Pilgrimage. The settlement of Mr.
+Kendall, a pronounced Arminian,[<a href="#fn_4_60">60</a><a name="fr_4_60"></a>] was an instance of the almost complete
+abandonment of Calvinism on the part of a congregation, in opposition to
+the preaching from the pulpit. In spite of the strict confession of faith
+which Dr. Robbins had persuaded the church to adopt, the parish outgrew the
+old teachings. Mr. Kendall, with the approval of his church, soon grew into
+a Unitarian; and it was fitting that the church of the Mayflower, the
+church of Robinson and Brewster, should lead the way in this advance.</p>
+
+<p>As yet there was no controversy, except in a quiet way. Occasionally sharp
+<a name="pg85"></a>
+criticism was uttered, especially in convention and election sermons; but
+there was no thought of separation or exclusion. The liberal men showed a
+tendency to magnify the work of charity; and they were, in a limited
+degree, zealous in every kind of philanthropic effort. More distinctly,
+however, they showed their position in their enthusiasm for the Bible and
+in their summing up of Christianity in loyalty to Christ. Towards all
+creeds and dogmas they were indifferent and silent, except as they
+occasionally spoke plainly out to condemn them. They believed in and
+preached toleration, and their whole movement stood more distinctly for
+comprehensiveness and latitudinarianism than for aught else. They were not
+greatly concerned about theological problems; but they thoroughly believed
+in a broad, generous, sympathetic, and practical Christianity, that would
+exemplify the teachings of Christ, and that would lead men to a pure and
+noble moral life.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn27"></a>Growth of Toleration.</h3>
+
+<p>That toleration was not as yet fully accepted in Massachusetts is seen in
+the fact that the proposed Constitution of 1778 was defeated because it
+provided for freedom of worship on the part of all Protestant
+denominations. The dominant religious body was not yet ready to put itself
+on a level with the other sects. In the Constitutional Convention of 1779
+the more liberal men worked with the Baptists to secure a separation of
+state and church. Such men as Drs. Chauncy, Mayhew, West, and Shute were
+desirous of the broadest toleration; and they did what they could to secure
+it. As early as 1768, Dr. Chauncy spoke in plainest terms in opposition to
+the state support of religion. "We are in principle," he wrote, "against
+<a name="pg86"></a>
+all civil establishments in religion. It does not appear to us that God has
+entrusted, the state with a right to make religious establishments. But let
+it be heedfully minded we claim no right to desire the interposition of the
+state to establish the mode of worship, government or discipline, we
+apprehend is most agreeable to the mind of Christ. We desire no other
+liberty than to be left unrestrained in the exercise of our principles, in
+so far as we are good members of society.... The plain truth is, by the
+gospel charter, all professed Christians are vested with precisely the same
+rights; nor has our denomination any more a right to the interposition of
+the civil magistrate in their favor than any other; and whenever this
+difference takes place, it is beside the rule of Scripture, and the genuine
+dictates, of uncorrupted reason."[<a href="#fn_4_61">61</a><a name="fr_4_61"></a>] All persons throughout the state, of
+whatever religious connection, who had become emancipated from the Puritan
+spirit, supported him in this opinion. They were in the minority as yet,
+and they were not organized. Therefore, their efforts were unsuccessful.</p>
+
+<p>Another testing of public sentiment on this subject was had in the
+Massachusetts convention which, in 1788, ratified the Constitution of the
+United States. The sixth article, which provides that "no religious tests
+shall ever be required as a qualification to any office," was the occasion
+of a prolonged debate and much opposition. Hon. Theophilus Parsons took the
+liberal side, and declared that "the only evidence we can have of the
+sincerity and excellency of a man's religion is a good life," precisely the
+position of the liberal men. By several members it was urged, however, that
+<a name="pg87"></a>
+this article was a departure from the principles of our forefathers, who
+came here for the preservation of their religion, and that it would admit
+deists and atheists into the general government.</p>
+
+<p>In these efforts to secure religious toleration as a fundamental law of the
+state and nation the Baptist denomination took an active and a leading
+part. Not less faithful to this cause were the liberal men among the
+Congregationalists, while the opposition came almost wholly from the
+Calvinistic and orthodox churches. Such leaders on the liberal side as Dr.
+David Shute of the South Parish in Hingham, Rev. Thomas Thatcher of the
+West Parish in Dedham, and Dr. Samuel West of New Bedford, were loyally
+devoted in the convention to the support of the toleration act of the
+Constitution. In the membership of the convention there were seventeen
+ministers, and fourteen of them voted for the Constitution. The opinions of
+the fourteen were expressed by Rev. Phillips Payson, the minister of
+Chelsea, who held that a religious test would be a great blemish on the
+Constitution. He also said that God is the God of the conscience, and for
+human tribunals to encroach upon the consciences of men is impious.[<a href="#fn_4_62">62</a><a name="fr_4_62"></a>] As
+the Constitution was ratified by only a small majority of the convention,
+and as at the opening of its sessions the opposition seemed almost
+overwhelming, the position taken by the more liberal ministers was a sure
+indication of growing liberality. The great majority of the people,
+however, were still strongly in favor of the old religious tests and
+<a name="pg88"></a>
+restrictions, as was fully indicated by subsequent events. The Revolution
+operated as a liberalizing influence, because of the breaking of old
+customs and the discussion of the principles of liberty attendant upon the
+adoption of the state and national constitutions. The growth of democratic
+sentiment made a strong opposition to the churches and their privileges,
+and it caused a diminution of reverence for the authority of the clergy.
+The twenty years following the Revolution showed a notable growth in
+liberal opinions.</p>
+
+<p>Universalism presented itself as a new form of Calvinism, its advocates
+claiming that God decreed that all should be saved, and that his will would
+be triumphant. In many parts of the country the doctrine of universal
+salvation began to be heard during the last two decades of the eighteenth
+century, and the growth of interest in it was rapid from the beginning of
+the nineteenth. This movement began in the Baptist churches, but it soon
+appeared in others. At first it was undefined, a protest against the harsh
+teaching of future punishment. It was a part of the humanitarian awakening
+of the time, the new faith in man, the recognition that love is diviner
+than wrath. Many persons found escape from creeds that were hateful to them
+into this new and more hopeful interpretation of religion. Persons of every
+shade of protest, and "infidelity," and free thinking, found their way into
+this new body; and great was the condemnation and hatred with which it was
+received on the part of the other sects. In time this movement clarified
+itself, and it has had a positive influence for piety and for nobler views
+of God and the future.</p>
+
+<p>Of much the same nature was the movement within the fellowship of the
+<a name="pg89"></a>
+Friends led by Thomas Hicks. It was Unitarian and reformatory, influenced
+by the growing democracy and zeal for humanity the age was everywhere
+manifesting.</p>
+
+<p>In the border states between north and south began, during the last decade
+of the eighteenth century, a movement in favor of discarding all creeds and
+confessions. It favored a return to the Bible itself as the great
+Protestant book, and as the one revealed word of God. Without learning or
+culture, these persons sought to make their faith in Christ more real by an
+evangelical obedience to his teachings. Some of them called themselves
+Disciples, holding that to follow Christ is quite enough. Others said that
+no other name than Christian is required. They were Biblical in their
+theology, and unsectarian in their attitude towards the forms and rituals
+of the church. In time these scattered groups of earnest seekers for a
+better Christian way, from Maine to Georgia, came to know each other and to
+organize for the common good.</p>
+
+<p>With the rapid growth of Methodism the Arminian view of man was widely
+adopted. The Baptists received into their fellowship in all parts of New
+England, at least, many who were not deeply in sympathy with their strict
+rules, but who found with them a means of protesting against the harsher
+methods of the "standing order" of Congregationalists. Their demand for
+toleration and liberty of conscience began to receive recognition after the
+Revolution, and their influence was a powerful one in bringing about the
+separation of state and church. Those who were dissatisfied with a church
+that taxed all the people, and that was upheld by state authority, found
+with the Baptists a means of making their protest heard and felt.</p>
+
+<a name="pg90"></a>
+<p>In all directions the democratic spirit was being manifested, and
+conditions which had been upheld by the restrictive authority of England
+had to give way. The people were now speaking, and not the ministers only.
+It was an age of individualism, and of the reassertion of the tendency that
+had characterized New England from the first, but that had been held in
+check by autocratic power. There was no outbreak, no rapid change, no
+iconoclastic overturning of old institutions and customs, but the people
+were coming to their own, thinking for themselves. In reality, the people
+were conservative, especially in New England; and they moved slowly, there
+was little infidelity, and steadily were the old ideals maintained. Yet the
+individualism would assert itself. Men held the old creeds in distinctly
+personal ways, and the churches grew into more and more of independency.</p>
+
+<p>The theological development of the eighteenth century took two directions:
+that of rationalism and a demand for free inquiry, as represented by
+Jonathan Mayhew and William Bentley; and that of a philanthropic protest
+against the harsh features of Calvinism, as represented by Charles Chauncy
+and the Universalists. The demand that all theological problems should be
+submitted to reason for vindication or readjustment was not widely urged;
+but a few men recognized the worth of this claim, and applied this method
+without hesitation. A larger number followed them with hesitating steps,
+but with a growing confidence in reason as God's method for man's finding
+and maintaining the truth. The other tendency grew out of a benevolent
+desire to justify the ways of God to man, and was the expression of a
+<a name="pg91"></a>
+deepening faith that the Divine Being deals with his children in a fatherly
+manner. That God is generous and loving was the faith of Dr. Chauncy, as it
+was of the Universalists and of the more liberal party among the
+Calvinists. Their philanthropic feelings toward their fellow-men seemed to
+them representative of God's ways of dealing with his creatures.</p>
+
+<p><br />[<a href="#fr_4_1">1</a><a name="fn_4_1"></a>] Levi L. Paine, A Critical History of the Evolution of Trinitarianism,
+    105. "Nathaniel Emmons held tenaciously to three real persons. He said,
+    'It is as easy to conceive of God existing in three persons as in one
+    person.' This language shows that Emmons employed the term 'person' in
+    the strict literal sense. The three are absolutely equal, this
+    involving the metaphysical assumption that in the Trinity being and
+    person are not coincident. Emmons is the first theologian who asserts
+    that, though we cannot conceive that three persons should be one
+    person, we may conceive that three persons may be one Being, 'if we
+    only suppose that being may signify something different from person in
+    respect to Deity.'"</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_2">2</a><a name="fn_4_2"></a>] E.H. Gillett, History and Literature of the Unitarian Controversy.
+    Historical Magazine, April 1871; second series, IX. 222.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_3">3</a><a name="fn_4_3"></a>] Letter to Scripturista by Paulinus, 18.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_4">4</a><a name="fn_4_4"></a>] William S. Pattee, A History of Old Braintree and Quincy, 222. When a
+    copy of Dr. Jedediah Morse's little book on American Unitarianism was
+    sent to John Adams, he acknowledged its receipt in the following
+    letter:--</p>
+
+<p>      QUINCY, May 15, 1815.</p>
+
+<p>      <i>Dear Doctor</i>,--I thank you for your favor of the 10th, and the
+      pamphlet enclosed, entitled American Unitarianism. I have turned
+      over its leaves, and found nothing that was not familiarly known to
+      me. In the preface Unitarianism is represented as only thirty years
+      old in New England. I can testify as a witness to its old age.
+      Sixty-five years ago my own minister, the Rev. Lemuel Briant; Dr.
+      Jonathan Mayhew, of the West Church in Boston; the Rev. Mr. Shute,
+      of Hingham; the Rev. John Brown, of Cohasset; and perhaps equal to
+      all, if not above all, the, Rev. Mr. Gay, of Hingham, were
+      Unitarians. Among the laity how many could I name, lawyers,
+      physicians, tradesmen, farmers! But at present I will name only
+      one, Richard Cranch, a man who had studied divinity, and Jewish and
+      Christian antiquities, more than any clergyman now existing in New
+      England.</p>
+
+<p>      JOHN ADAMS.</p>
+
+<p>    Also see C.F. Adams, Three Episodes of Massachusetts History, 643; and
+    J.H. Allen, An Historical Sketch of the Unitarian Movement since the
+    Reformation, 175.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_5">5</a><a name="fn_4_5"></a>] History of Hingham, I., Part II., 24, Memoir of Ebenezer Gay, by
+    Solomon Lincoln.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_6">6</a><a name="fn_4_6"></a>] Sermons, 1755, 83.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_7">7</a><a name="fn_4_7"></a>] Ibid., 103.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_8">8</a><a name="fn_4_8"></a>] Ibid., 119.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_9">9</a><a name="fn_4_9"></a>] Ibid., 125.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_10">10</a><a name="fn_4_10"></a>] Ibid., 245.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_11">11</a><a name="fn_4_11"></a>] Sermons, 1755, 50.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_12">12</a><a name="fn_4_12"></a>] Ibid., 82.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_13">13</a><a name="fn_4_13"></a>] Sermons, 1755, 83.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_14">14</a><a name="fn_4_14"></a>] Ibid., 65.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_15">15</a><a name="fn_4_15"></a>] Ibid., 62.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_16">16</a><a name="fn_4_16"></a>] Ibid., 63.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_17">17</a><a name="fn_4_17"></a>] Ibid, 268, 269.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_18">18</a><a name="fn_4_18"></a>] Sermons, 1755, 275, 276.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_19">19</a><a name="fn_4_19"></a>] A. Bradford, Memoir of the Life and Writings of Rev. Jonathan Mayhew,
+     D.D., 36.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_20">20</a><a name="fn_4_20"></a>] Ibid., 464.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_21">21</a><a name="fn_4_21"></a>] Letter from his daughter, quoted by Bartol, The West Church and its
+     Ministers, 129.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_22">22</a><a name="fn_4_22"></a>] Sermons, 293</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_23">23</a><a name="fn_4_23"></a>] C.A. Bartol, The West Church and its Ministers.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_24">24</a><a name="fn_4_24"></a>] Reply to Dr. Chandler, quoted in Sprague's Annals of the Unitarian
+     Pulpit, 9.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_25">25</a><a name="fn_4_25"></a>] Remarks upon a Sermon of the Bishop of Landaff, quoted by Sprague.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_26">26</a><a name="fn_4_26"></a>] Chauncy's many published sermons and volumes are carefully enumerated
+     by Paul Leicester Ford in his Bibliotheca Chaunciana, a List of the
+     Writings of Charles Chauncy. He gives the titles of sixty-one books
+     and pamphlets published by Chauncy, and of eighty-eight about him or
+     in reply to him.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_27">27</a><a name="fn_4_27"></a>] Sprague's Annals, 49; W.J. Potter, History of the First Congregational
+     Society, New Bedford.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_28">28</a><a name="fn_4_28"></a>] Sprague's Annals. 42.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_29">29</a><a name="fn_4_29"></a>] George Batchelor, Social Equilibrium, 263, 264.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_30">30</a><a name="fn_4_30"></a>] Ibid., 265.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_31">31</a><a name="fn_4_31"></a>] Sprague's Annals, 131.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_32">32</a><a name="fn_4_32"></a>] Father of the essayist of the same name.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_33">33</a><a name="fn_4_33"></a>] Joseph Priestley, 1733-1804, was one of the ablest of English
+     Unitarians. Educated in non-conformist schools, in 1755 he became a
+     Presbyterian minister. In 1761 he became a tutor in a non-conformist
+     academy, and in 1767 he was settled over a congregation in Leeds. He
+     was the librarian of Lord Shelburne from 1774 until he was settled in
+     Birmingham as minister, in 1780. In 1791 a mob destroyed his house,
+     his manuscripts, and his scientific apparatus, because of his liberal
+     political views. After three years as a preacher in Hackney, he
+     removed to the United States in 1794, and settled at Northumberland
+     in Pennsylvania, where the remainder of his life was spent. He
+     published one hundred and thirty distinct works, of which those best
+     remembered are his Institutes of Natural and Revealed Religion, A
+     History of the Corruptions of Christianity, and A General History of
+     the Christian Church to the Fall of the Western Empire. He was the
+     discoverer of oxygen, and holds a high place in the history of
+     science. He was a materialist, but believed in immortality; and he
+     believed that Christ was a man in his nature.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_34">34</a><a name="fn_4_34"></a>] C.S. Osgood and H.M. Batchelder, Historical Sketch of Salem, 86. "He
+     took strong Arminian grounds; and under his lead the church became
+     practically Unitarian in 1785, and was one of the first churches in
+     America to adopt that faith."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_35">35</a><a name="fn_4_35"></a>] George Batchelor, Social Equilibrium, 270.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_36">36</a><a name="fn_4_36"></a>] Ibid., 267.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_37">37</a><a name="fn_4_37"></a>] Ibid., 283.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_38">38</a><a name="fn_4_38"></a>] E. Smalley, The Worcester Pulpit, 226, 232.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_39">39</a><a name="fn_4_39"></a>] See the Unitarian Advocate and Religious Miscellany, January, 1831,
+     new series, III. 27, for Aaron Bancroft's recollections of this
+     period. In the same volume was published Ezra Ripley's reminiscences,
+     contained in the March, April, and May numbers. They are both of much
+     importance for the history of this period. Also the third volume of
+     first series, June, 1829, gives an important letter from Francis
+     Parkman concerning Unitarianism in Boston in 1812.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_40">40</a><a name="fn_4_40"></a>] Life of Ashbel Green, President of Princeton College, 236.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_41">41</a><a name="fn_4_41"></a>] Life of Archibald Alexander, 252.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_42">42</a><a name="fn_4_42"></a>] Convention Sermon, 12, 13.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_43">43</a><a name="fn_4_43"></a>] Sprague, Annals of Unitarian Pulpit, 131.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_44">44</a><a name="fn_4_44"></a>] Ibid., 159.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_45">45</a><a name="fn_4_45"></a>] This is the statement of his daughter.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_46">46</a><a name="fn_4_46"></a>] Theophilus Lindsey, 1723-1808, was a curate in London, then the tutor
+     of the Duke of Northumberland, and afterward a rector in Yorkshire
+     and Dorsetshire. In 1763 he was settled at Catterick, in Yorkshire,
+     where his study of the Bible led him to doubt the truth of the
+     doctrine of the Trinity. In 1771 he joined with others in a petition
+     to Parliament asking that clergymen might not be required to
+     subscribe to the thirty-nine articles. When it was rejected a second
+     time he resigned, went to London, and opened in a room in Essex
+     Street, April 1774, the first permanent Unitarian meeting in England.
+     A chapel was built for him in 1778, and he preached there until 1793.
+<a name="pg92"></a>
+     He published, in 1783, An Historical View of the State of the
+     Unitarian Doctrine and Worship from the Reformation to our own Times,
+     two volumes of sermons, and other works. In 1774 he published a
+     revised Prayer Book according to the plan suggested by Dr. Samuel
+     Clarke, which was used in the Essex Street Chapel.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_47">47</a><a name="fn_4_47"></a>] Four Generations of a Literary Family: The Hazlitts in England,
+     Ireland, and America, 23, 26, 30, 40, 43, 50; Lamb and Hazlitt:
+     Further Letters and Records, 11-15.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_48">48</a><a name="fn_4_48"></a>] Monthly Repository, III., 305. Mr. Hazlitt "arrived at Boston May 15,
+     1784; and, having a letter to Mr. Eliot, who received him with great
+     kindness, he was introduced on that very day to the Boston
+     Association of Ministers. The venerable Chauncy, at whose house it
+     happened to be held, entered into a familiar conversation with him,
+     and showed him every possible respect as he learned that he had been
+     acquainted with Dr. Price. Without knowing at the time anything of
+     the occasion which led to it, ordination happened to be the general
+     subject of discussion. After the different gentlemen had severally
+     delivered their opinions, the stranger was requested to declare his
+     sentiments, who unhesitatingly replied that the people or the
+     congregation who chose any man to be their minister were his proper
+     ordainers. Mr. Freeman, upon hearing this, jumped from his seat in a
+     kind of transport, saying, 'I wish you could prove that, Sir,' The
+     gentleman answered that 'few things could admit of an easier proof.'
+     And from that moment a thorough intimacy commenced between him and
+     Mr. Freeman. Soon after, the Boston prints being under no
+     <i>imprimatur</i>, he published several letters in supporting the cause of
+     Mr. Freeman. At the solicitation of Mr. Freeman he also published a
+     Scriptural Confutation of the Thirty-nine Articles. Notice being
+     circulated that this publication would appear on a particular day, the
+     printer, apprised of this circumstance, threw off a hundred papers
+     beyond his usual number, and had not one paper remaining upon his
+     hands at noon. This publication in its consequences converted Mr.
+     Freeman's congregation into a Unitarian church, which, as Mr. Freeman
+     acknowledged, could never have been done without the labors of this
+     gentleman."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_49">49</a><a name="fn_4_49"></a>] American Unitarianism, from Belsham's Life of Lindsey, 12,
+     <i>note</i>.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_50">50</a><a name="fn_4_50"></a>] American Unitarianism, 16.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_51">51</a><a name="fn_4_51"></a>] American Unitarianism, note.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_52">52</a><a name="fn_4_52"></a>] Ibid., 20.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_53">53</a><a name="fn_4_53"></a>] American Unitarianism, 17.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_54">54</a><a name="fn_4_54"></a>] "Oxnard was a merchant, born in Boston in 1740, but settled in
+     Portland, where he married the daughter of General Preble, in 1787.
+     He was a loyalist, and fled from the country at the outbreak of the
+     war. He returned to Portland in 1787. A few years later, 1792, the
+     Episcopal church being destitute of a minister, he was engaged as lay
+     reader, with the intention of taking orders. His Unitarianism put a
+     sudden end to his Episcopacy, but not to his preaching. He gathered a
+     small congregation in the school-house, and preached sometimes
+     sermons of his own, but more often of other men. He died in 1799."
+     John C. Perkins, How the First Parish became Unitarian,--historical
+     sermon preached in Portland.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_55">55</a><a name="fn_4_55"></a>] American Unitarianism, 18.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_56">56</a><a name="fn_4_56"></a>] Ibid., 17, 20.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_57">57</a><a name="fn_4_57"></a>] American Unitarianism, 24.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_58">58</a><a name="fn_4_58"></a>] American Unitarianism, 22.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_59">59</a><a name="fn_4_59"></a>] Church Records, in MS., II. 7.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_60">60</a><a name="fn_4_60"></a>] Rev. Thomas Robbins, Diary for October 13, 1799, I. 97, heard Mr.
+     Kendall, and said: "He appears to be an Arminian in full. I fear be
+     will lead many souls astray." See John Cuckson, A Brief History of
+     the First Church in Plymouth, eighth chapter.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_61">61</a><a name="fn_4_61"></a>] Chauncy against Chandler, 152.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_4_62">62</a><a name="fn_4_62"></a>] These particulars are taken from the Debates and Proceedings in the
+     Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts held in the year
+     1788, and which finally ratified the Constitution of the United
+     States, Boston, 1856.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><br /><a name="ch5"></a>V.<br />
+
+
+THE PERIOD OF CONTROVERSY.</h2>
+
+<p>In the spring of 1805 Rev. Henry Ware, who had been for nearly twenty years
+pastor of the first church in the town of Hingham, was inaugurated as the
+Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard College. The place had been made
+vacant by the death of Professor David Tappan, who was a moderate
+Calvinist; that is, one who recognized the sovereignty of God, but allowed
+to man a limited opportunity for personal effort in the process of
+salvation. It was assumed by the conservative party that a Calvinist would
+be appointed, because the founder of this important professorship, it was
+claimed, was of that way of thinking, and so conditioned his gift as to
+require that no one but a Calvinist should hold the position. This was
+strenuously denied by the liberals, who maintained that Hollis was not only
+liberal and catholic in his own theology, but that he made no such
+restrictions as were claimed.[<a href="#fn_5_1">1</a><a name="fr_5_1"></a>] When the nomination of Mr. Ware was
+presented to the overseers, it was strongly opposed; but he was elected by
+a considerable majority. A pamphlet soon appeared in opposition to him, and
+this was the beginning of a controversy that lasted for a quarter of a
+century.[<a href="#fn_5_2">2</a><a name="fr_5_2"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>This war of pamphlets was made more furious by Rev. John Sherman's One God
+<a name="pg93"></a>
+in One Person Only, and Rev. Hosea Ballou's Treatise on the Atonement, both
+of which appeared in 1805. Mr. Sherman's book was described in The Monthly
+Anthology as "one of the first acts of direct hostility against the
+orthodox committed on these western shores."[<a href="#fn_5_3">3</a><a name="fr_5_3"></a>] The little book by Hosea
+Ballou had small influence on the current of religious thinking outside the
+Universalist body, to which he belonged, and probably did not at all enter
+into the controversy between the orthodox and the liberal
+Congregationalists. It was, however, the first positive statement of the
+doctrine of the atonement in a rational form, not as expiatory, but as
+reconciling man to the loving authority of God. Within a decade it brought
+the leading Universalists to the Unitarian position.[<a href="#fn_5_4">4</a><a name="fr_5_4"></a>] These works were
+followed, in 1810, by Rev. Noah Worcester's Bible News of the Father, Son,
+and Holy Ghost, which presented clearly and forcibly an Arian view of the
+Trinity, or the subordination of Christ to God. These definitions of their
+position on the part of the liberals were met by the publication of The
+Panoplist, which was begun by Dr. Jedidiah Morse, of Charlestown, Mass., in
+1805. This magazine interpreted the orthodox positions, and devoted itself
+zealously to the defence of the old ideas, as understood by its editors. It
+was not vehemently aggressive, but was largely devoted to general religious
+interests, and to the promotion of a higher spirit of devotion. It was
+followed by The Spirit of the Pilgrims, which was more combative, and in
+some degree intolerant. In the year 1808 the Andover Theological School was
+<a name="pg94"></a>
+founded, the result of a reconciliation between the Hopkinsians and the
+Calvinists of the old type, affording an opportunity for theological
+training on the part of those who could not accept the liberal attitude of
+Harvard.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the liberal men of this time refused to bring their beliefs to the
+test of exact definition. It was their opinion that no theological
+statement can have high value in relation to Christian attainments. Under
+these conditions were trained the men who became the leaders in the early
+Unitarian movement. William Ellery Channing, who was settled over the
+Federal Street Church in June, 1803, was distinctly evangelical, and of a
+profound and earnest piety. Slowly he grew to accept the liberal attitude,
+as the result of his love of freedom, his lofty spirituality of nature, and
+his tolerant and generous cast of mind. He gave spiritual and intellectual
+direction to the new movement, guided its philanthropic efforts, and
+brought to noble issue its spiritual philosophy. Early in the year 1804,
+Joseph Stevens Buckminster was settled over the Brattle Street Church; and,
+though he preached but a little over six years before a blighting disease
+took him away, yet he left behind a tradition of great pulpit gifts and a
+wonderfully attractive personality. Another to die in early manhood was
+Samuel Cooper Thacher, who was settled at the New South in 1811, and who
+was long remembered for his scholarship and his zeal in the work which he
+had undertaken. Charles Lowell went to the West Church in 1806, and he
+nobly sustained the traditions for liberality and spiritual freedom that
+had gathered about that place of worship. In 1814 appeared Edward Everett,
+at the age of twenty (which had been that of Buckminster when he entered
+the pulpit), as the minister of the Brattle Street Church, to charm with
+<a name="pg95"></a>
+his eloquence, learning, grace, and power. Francis Parkman began his career
+at the New North in 1812,--"a man of various information, a kind spirit,
+singular benevolence, polished yet simple manners, fine literary
+taste."[<a href="#fn_5_5">5</a><a name="fr_5_5"></a>] A few years later John Gorham Palfrey became the minister of
+the Brattle Street Church, and James Walker was settled over the Harvard
+Church in Charlestown. Among the laymen in the churches to which these men
+preached were many persons of distinction. The liberal fellowship,
+therefore, was of the highest social and intellectual standing. The piety
+of the churches was serious, if not profound; and the religion presented
+was simple, sincere, intellectual, and earnestly spiritual.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn28"></a>The Monthly Anthology.</h3>
+
+<p>The practical and tolerant aims of the liberals were shown by the manner in
+which they began to give expression publicly to their position. In The
+Monthly Anthology they first found voice, although that publication was
+started without the slightest controversial purpose. Begun by a young man
+as a monthly literary journal in 1803, when he found it would not support
+him, he abandoned it;[<a href="#fn_5_6">6</a><a name="fr_5_6"></a>] and the publishers asked Rev. William Emerson,
+<a name="pg96"></a>
+the minister of the First Church in Boston, to take charge of it. He
+consented to do so, and gathered about him a company of friends to aid him
+in its management. Their meetings finally grew into The Anthology Club,
+which continued the publication through ten volumes. Among the members were
+William Emerson, Samuel Cooper Thacher, Joseph S. Buckminster, and Joseph
+Tuckerman, pastors of churches in Boston and vicinity of the liberal
+school. There was also John S.J. Gardiner, the rector of Trinity Church,
+who was the president of the club throughout the whole period of its
+existence, and one of the most frequent contributors to the periodical. The
+members were not drawn together by any sectarian spirit, but by a common
+aim of doing something for literature, and for the advancement of culture.
+The Monthly Anthology was the first distinctly literary journal published
+in this country. It had an important influence in developing the
+intellectual tastes of New England, and of giving initiative to its
+literary capacities. The spirit of The Monthly Anthology was broad and
+catholic. Naturally, therefore, in its pages the liberals made their first
+protest against party aims and methods. In a few instances theological
+problems were discussed, the extreme Trinitarian doctrines were criticised,
+and the liberal attitude was defended.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn29"></a>Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity.</h3>
+
+<p>In the year 1806 Rev. William Emerson began the publication of The
+Christian Monitor, in his capacity as the secretary of the Society for
+promoting Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity, a society then newly
+<a name="pg97"></a>
+founded by residents of Boston and its vicinity for the purpose of
+publishing enlightened and practical tracts and books. This series of small
+books, each containing one hundred and fifty or two hundred pages, and
+issued quarterly, was begun for the purpose of publishing devotional works
+of a practical and liberal type. The first number contained prayers and
+devotional exercises for personal or family use, and there followed Bishop
+Newcombe's Life and Character of Christ, a condensed reproduction of Law's
+Serious Call, Bishop Hall's Contemplations, Erskine's Letters to the
+Bereaved, and two or three volumes of sermons on religious duties and the
+education of children.</p>
+
+<p>Besides The Christian Monitor this society issued a series of Religious
+Tracts which had a considerable circulation. Then it undertook the
+publication of books for children, and for family reading. In aiming to
+publish works of pure morality and practical piety, its methods were
+thoroughly catholic and liberal; for it was unsectarian, and yet earnestly
+Christian. The spirit and methods of this society were thoroughly
+characteristic of the time when it was organized, and of the men who gave
+it life and purpose. Not dogma, but piety, was what they desired. In the
+truest sense they were unsectarian Christians, zealous for good works and a
+devout life.[<a href="#fn_5_7">7</a><a name="fr_5_7"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn30"></a>General Repository.</h3>
+
+<p>The Monthly Anthology and The Christian Monitor represented the mild and
+undogmatic attitude of the liberals, their shrinking from all controversy,
+and their desire to devote their labors wholly to the promotion of a
+<a name="pg98"></a>
+tolerant and catholic Christianity. The beginning of the controversial
+spirit on the liberal side found expression in The General Repository and
+Review, which was begun in Cambridge by Rev. Andrews Norton, in April,
+1812. In the first number of this quarterly review the editor said that the
+discussion of the doctrine of the Trinity "in our own country has hitherto
+been chiefly confined to private circles," and cited the books of John
+Sherman and Noah Worcester as the only exceptions. The review opened,
+however, with a defence of liberal Christianity which was aggressive and
+outspoken. In later issues an energetic statement was made of the liberal
+position, the controversial articles were able and explicit, and in a
+manner hitherto quite unknown on the part of what the editor called
+"catholic Christians." One of the numbers contained a long and interesting
+survey of the religious interests of the country, and summed up in an
+admirable manner the prospects for the liberal churches. After the
+publication of the sixth number, Mr. Norton withdrew from the work to
+become the librarian of Harvard College; and it was continued through two
+more issues by "a society of gentlemen." To this journal Mr. Norton was by
+far the largest contributor; but other writers were Edward Everett, and his
+brother, Alexander H. Everett, Joseph S. Buckminster, John T. Kirkland,
+Sidney Willard, George Ticknor, Washington Allston, John Lowell, Noah
+Worcester, and James Freeman, most of them connected with Harvard College
+or with the liberal churches in Boston. It is evident, however, that the
+liberal public was not yet ready for so aggressive and out-spoken a
+journal.</p>
+
+<a name="pg99"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn31"></a>The Christian Disciple.</h3>
+
+<p>What was desired was something milder, less aggressive, of a distinctly
+religious and conciliatory character. To this end Drs. Channing, Charles
+Lowell, and Tuckerman, and Rev. S.C. Thatcher, with whom was afterwards
+associated Rev. Francis Parkman, planned a monthly magazine that should be
+liberal in its character, but not sectarian or dogmatic. They invited Rev.
+Noah Worcester, whose Bible News had cost him his pulpit, to remove from
+New Hampshire to Boston to become its editor. Although Mr. Worcester's
+beliefs affiliated him with the Hopkinsians in everything except his
+attitude in regard to the inferiority of Christ to God, yet he was
+compelled to withdraw from his old connections, and to find new fields of
+activity. He began The Christian Disciple as a religious and family
+magazine, the first number being issued in May, 1813. It was not designed
+for theological discussion or distinctly for the defence of the liberal
+position. Its tone was conciliatory and moderate, while it zealously
+defended religious liberty and charity. Its aim was practical and
+humanitarian, to help men live the Christian life, as individuals, and in
+their social relations. When it touched upon controverted questions, it was
+in an expository manner, with the purpose of instructing its readers, and
+of leading them to a higher appreciation of true religion. As his
+biographer well said of Noah Worcester, he made this work "distinguished
+for its unqualified devotedness to the individual rights of opinion, and
+the sacred duty of a liberal regard to them in other men."[<a href="#fn_5_8">8</a><a name="fr_5_8"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Worcester was not so much a theologian as a philanthropist; and, if he
+<a name="pg100"></a>
+was drawn into controversy, it was accidentally, and much to his surprise
+and disappointment. It was not for the sake of defending his own positions
+that he replied to his critics, but in the name of truth, and from an
+exacting sense of duty. His gentle, loving, and sympathetic nature unfitted
+him for intellectual contentions; and he much preferred to devote himself
+to philanthropies and reforms. In the briefest way The Christian Disciple
+reported the doings of the liberal churches and men, but it gave much space
+to all kinds of organizations of a humanitarian character. It advocated the
+temperance reform with earnestness, and this at a time when there were few
+other voices speaking in its behalf. It devoted many pages to the
+condemnation of slavery, and to the approval of all efforts to secure its
+mitigation or its abolition. It gave large attention to the evils of war, a
+subject which more and more absorbed the interest of the editor. It
+condemned duelling in the most emphatic terms, as it did all forms of
+aggressiveness and inhumanity. In spirit Dr. Worcester was as much a
+non-resistant as Tolstoď, and for much the same reasons. More extended
+reports of Bible societies were given than of any other kind of
+organization, and these societies especially enlisted the interest of Dr.
+Worcester and his associates.</p>
+
+<p>With the end of 1818 Dr. Worcester withdrew from the editorship of The
+Christian Disciple, to devote himself to the cause of peace, the interests
+of Christian amity and goodwill, and the exposition of his own theological
+convictions. The management of the magazine came into the hands of its
+original proprietors, who continued its publication.</p>
+
+<p>Under the new management the circulation of the magazine increased. At
+<a name="pg101"></a>
+first the younger Henry Ware became the editor, and he carried the work
+through the six volumes published before it took a new name. It became more
+distinctly theological in its purpose, and it undertook the task of
+presenting and defending the views of the liberals. In 1824 The Christian
+Disciple passed into the hands of Rev. John Gorham Palfrey, and he changed
+its name to The Christian Examiner without changing its general character.
+At the end of two years Mr. Francis Jenks became the editor, but in 1831 it
+came under the control of Rev. James Walker and Rev. Francis W.P.
+Greenwood. Gradually it became the organ of the higher intellectual life of
+the Unitarians, and gave expression to their interest in literature,
+general culture, and the philanthropies, as well as theological knowledge.
+The sub-title of Theological Review, which it bore during the first five
+volumes, indicated its preference for subjects of speculative religious
+interest; but during the half-century of its best influence it was the
+General Review or the Religious Miscellany, showing that it was theological
+only in the broadest spirit.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn32"></a>Dr. Morse and American Unitarianism.</h3>
+
+<p>Reluctant as the liberal men were, to take a denominational position, and
+to commit themselves to the interests of a party in religion, or even to
+withdraw themselves in any way from the churches with which they had been
+connected, they were compelled to do so by the force of conditions they
+could not control. One of the first distinct lines of separation was caused
+by the refusal of the more conservative men to exchange pulpits with their
+liberal neighbors. This tendency first began to show itself about the year
+<a name="pg102"></a>
+1810; and it received a decided impetus from the attitude taken by Rev.
+John Codman, who in 1808 became the minister of the Second Church in
+Dorchester. He refused to exchange with several of the liberal ministers of
+the Boston Association, although he was an intimate friend of Dr. Channing,
+who had directed his theological training, and also preached his ordination
+sermon. The more liberal members of his parish attempted to compel him to
+exchange with the Boston ministers without regard to theological beliefs;
+and a long contention followed, with the result that the more liberal part
+of his congregation withdrew in 1813, and formed the Third Religious
+Society in Dorchester.[<a href="#fn_5_9">9</a><a name="fr_5_9"></a>] The withdrawal of ministerial courtesies of
+this kind gradually increased, especially after the controversies that
+began in 1815, though it was not until many years later that exchanges
+between the two parties ceased.</p>
+
+<p>In 1815 Dr. Jedidiah Morse, the editor of The Panoplist, and the author of
+various school books in geography and history, published in a little book
+of about one hundred pages, which bore the title of American Unitarianism,
+a chapter from Thomas Belsham's[<a href="#fn_5_10">10</a><a name="fr_5_10"></a>] biography of Theophilus Lindsey, in
+which Dr. Lindsey's American correspondents, including prominent ministers
+in Boston and other parts of New England, had declared their Unitarianism.
+Morse also published an article in The Panoplist, setting forth that these
+ministers had not the courage of their convictions, that, while they were
+<a name="pg103"></a>
+Unitarians, they had withheld their opinions from open utterance. His
+object was to force them to declare themselves, and either to retract their
+heresies or else to state them and to withdraw from the churches with which
+they had been connected. In a letter addressed to Rev. Samuel C. Thacher,
+Dr. Channing gave to the public a reply to these charges of insincerity and
+want of open-mindedness. He said that, while many of the ministers and
+members of their congregations were Unitarians, they did not accept Dr.
+Belsham's type of Unitarianism, which made Christ a man. He declared that
+no open declaration of Unitarianism had been made, because they were not in
+love with the sectarian spirit, and because they were quite unwilling to
+indulge in any form of proselyting. "Accustomed as we are," he wrote, "to
+see genuine piety in all classes of Christians, in Trinitarians and
+Unitarians, in Calvinists and Arminians, in Episcopalians, Methodists,
+Baptists, and Congregationalists, and delighting in this character wherever
+it appears, we are little anxious to bring men over to our peculiar
+opinions."[<a href="#fn_5_11">11</a><a name="fr_5_11"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The publication of Dr. Morse's book, however, gave new emphasis to the
+spirit of separation which was soon to compel the formation of a new
+denomination. It was followed four years later by Dr. Channing's Baltimore
+sermon and by other positive declarations of theological opinion.[<a href="#fn_5_12">12</a><a name="fr_5_12"></a>] From
+that time the controversy raged fiercely, and any possibility of
+reconciliation was removed. Before this time those who were not orthodox
+<a name="pg104"></a>
+had called themselves Catholic, Christians or Liberal Christians to
+designate their attitude of toleration and liberality. The orthodox had
+called them Unitarians; and especially was this attempted by Dr. Morse in
+the introduction to his American Unitarianism, in order to fasten upon them
+the objectionable name given to the English liberals. It was assumed that
+the American liberals must agree with the English in their materialism and
+in their conception of Christ as a man. Dr. Channing repudiated this
+assumption, and declared it unjust and untrue; but he accepted the word
+Unitarian and gave it a meaning of his own. Channing defined the word to
+mean only anti-Trinitarianism; and he accepted it because it seemed to him
+presumptuous to use the word liberal as applied to a party, whereas it may
+be applicable to men of all opinions.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn33"></a>Evangelical Missionary Society.</h3>
+
+<p>Of more interest than these contentions in behalf of theological opinions
+is the way in which the liberal party brought itself to the task of
+manifesting its own purposes. Its first organizations were tentative and
+inclusive, without theological purpose or bias. No distinct lines were
+drawn, and to them belonged orthodox and liberal alike. Their sole
+distinguishing attitude was a catholicity of temper that permitted the free
+activity of the liberals. One of the first organizations of this kind was
+the Evangelical Missionary Society, which was formed by several of the
+ministers resident in Worcester and Middlesex Counties. The first meeting
+was held in Lancaster, November 4, 1807, when a constitution was adopted
+and the society elected officers. "The great object of this Society," said
+the constitution, "is to furnish the means of Christian knowledge and moral
+<a name="pg105"></a>
+improvement to those inhabitants of our own country who are destitute or
+poorly provided." The growth of the country, even in New England (for the
+operations of the society were confined to that region), developed many
+communities in which the population was scattered, and without adequate
+means of education and religion. To aid these communities in securing good
+teachers and ministers was the purpose of the society. It refused to send
+forth itinerants, but carefully selected such towns as gave promise of
+permanent growth, and sent to them ministers instructed to organize
+churches and to promote the building of meeting-houses. In this way it was
+the means of establishing a number of churches in Maine, New Hampshire, and
+Massachusetts. It also sent a number of teachers into new settlements in
+Maine, who were successful in training many of their pupils for teaching in
+the public schools. In several instances minister and teacher were combined
+in one person, but the work was none the less effective.</p>
+
+<p>In 1816 this society was incorporated, its membership was broadened to
+include the state, and active aid and financial support were given it by
+the churches in Boston and Salem. It was not sectarian, though, after its
+incorporation, its membership was more largely recruited from liberals. In
+time it became distinctly Unitarian in its character, and such it has
+remained to the present day. Very slowly, however, did it permit itself to
+lose any of its marks of catholicity and inclusiveness. In the end its
+membership was confined to Unitarians because no one else wished to share
+in its unsectarian purposes. At the present time this society does a quiet
+and helpful work in the way of aiding churches that have ceased to be
+<a name="pg106"></a>
+self-supporting because of the shifting conditions of population, and in
+affording friendly assistance to ministers in times of distress or when old
+age has come upon them.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn34"></a>The Berry Street Conference.</h3>
+
+<p>The first meeting of the liberal ministers for organization was held in the
+vestry of the Federal Street Church[<a href="#fn_5_13">13</a><a name="fr_5_13"></a>] on the evening of May 30, 1820,
+which immediately preceded election day, the time when anniversary meetings
+were usually held. The ministers of the state then gathered in Boston to
+hear the election sermon, and for such counselling of each other as their
+congregational methods made desirable. At this meeting Dr. Channing gave an
+address stating the objects that had brought those present together, and
+the desirability of their drawing near each other as liberal men for mutual
+aid and support. "It was thought by some of us," he said, "that the
+ministers of this commonwealth who are known to agree in what are called
+liberal and catholic views of Christianity needed a bond of union, a means
+of intercourse, and an opportunity of conference not as yet enjoyed. It was
+thought that by meeting to join their prayers and counsels, to report the
+state and prospects of religion in different parts of the commonwealth, to
+communicate the methods of advancing it which have been found most
+successful, to give warning of dangers not generally apprehended, to seek
+advice in difficulties, and to take a broad survey of our ecclesiastical
+affairs and of the wants of our churches, much light, strength, comfort,
+animation, zeal, would be spread through our body. The individuals who
+<a name="pg107"></a>
+originated this plan were agreed that, whilst the meeting should be
+confined to those who harmonize generally in opinion, it should be
+considered as having for its object, not simply the advancement of their
+peculiar views, but the general diffusion of practical religion and of the
+spirit of Christianity."</p>
+
+<p>As this address indicates in every word of it the liberal men were
+sensitively anxious to put no fetters on each other; and their reluctance
+to circumscribe their own personal freedom was extreme. This was the cause
+that had thus far prevented any effectual organization, and it now withheld
+the members from any but the most tentative methods. Having escaped from
+the bondage of sect, they were suspicious of everything that in any manner
+gave indication of denominational restrictions.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn35"></a>The Publishing Fund Society.</h3>
+
+<p>In May, 1821, a year later than the foundation of the Berry Street
+Conference, several gentlemen in Boston, "desirous of promoting the
+circulation of works adapted to improve the public mind in religion and
+morality," met and established a Publishing Fund. The publishing committee
+then appointed consisted of Dr. Joseph Tuckerman, Dr. John Gorham Palfrey,
+and Mr. George Ticknor. The Publishing Fund Society refused to print
+doctrinal tracts or those devoted in any way to sectarian interests. The
+members of the society made declaration that their publications had nothing
+to do with any of the isms in religion. Their great object was the increase
+of practical goodness, the improvement of men in all that truly exalts and
+ennobles them or that qualifies them for usefulness and happiness. Most of
+their tracts were in the form of stories of a didactic character, in which
+<a name="pg108"></a>
+the writers assumed the broad principles of Christian theology and ethics
+which are common to all the followers of Christ, without meddling with
+sectarian prejudice or party views. In such statements as these the
+promoters of this work indicated their methods, their aim being to furnish
+good reading to youth, and to those in scattered communities who could not
+have access to books that were instructive. Besides the tracts of this kind
+the society also published a series for adults, which were of a more
+strictly devotional character, and yet did not omit to provide
+entertainment and instruction.[<a href="#fn_5_14">14</a><a name="fr_5_14"></a>] This society continued its work for
+many years, and it issued a considerable number of tracts and books that
+well served the purpose for which they were designed.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn36"></a>Harvard Divinity School.</h3>
+
+<p>One important result of the theological discussions of the time was the
+organization of the Divinity School in connection with Harvard College. The
+eighteenth-century method of preparation for the ministerial office was to
+study with some settled pastor, who directed the reading of the student,
+gave him practical acquaintance with the labors of a pastor, and initiated
+him into the profession by securing for him the "approbation" of the
+ministerial association with which he was connected. Another method was for
+the student to continue his residence in Cambridge, and follow his
+theological studies under the guidance of the president and the Hollis
+professor, making use of the library of the college. When Rev. Henry Ware
+was inducted into the Hollis professorship, it was seen that some more
+systematic method of theological study was desirable. He gradually enlarged
+the scope of his activities, and in 1811 he began a systematic courser of
+<a name="pg109"></a>
+instruction for the resident students in theology. Ware "was one of those
+genuine lovers of reform and progress," as John Gorham Palfrey said, "who
+are always ready for any innovation for the better; who, in the pursuit of
+what is truly good and useful, are not only content to move on with the
+age, but desirous to move on before it."[<a href="#fn_5_15">15</a><a name="fr_5_15"></a>] This effort of his to improve
+the methods of theological study proved to be the germ of the existing
+Divinity School.</p>
+
+<p>The Hollis professorship of divinity was founded by Thomas Hollis, of
+London, in 1721. Samuel Dexter, of Boston, established a lectureship of
+Biblical criticism in 1811. Both the professorship and the lectureship were
+designed for the undergraduates, and not primarily for students in
+theology. In 1815, however, it became apparent to some of the liberals that
+a school wholly devoted to the preparation of young men for the ministry
+was needed.</p>
+
+<p>Those who subscribed to the $30,000 secured for this purpose were in 1816
+formed into the Society for the Promotion of Theological Education in
+Harvard University. This society rendered efficient aid to the school for
+several years. At a meeting held at the Boston Athenaeum, July 17, 1816,
+Rev. John T. Kirkland became its president, Rev. Francis Parkman, recording
+secretary, Rev. Charles Lowell, corresponding secretary, and Jonathan
+Phillips, treasurer. The society was supported by annual subscriptions,
+life subscriptions, and donations. The school began its work in 1816, with
+Rev. Andrews Norton as the Dexter lecturer on Biblical criticism, Rev. J.T.
+Kirkland as instructor in systematic theology, Rev. Edward Everett in the
+<a name="pg110"></a>
+criticism of the Septaugint, Professor Sidney Willard in Hebrew, and
+Professor Levi Frisbie in ethics. In 1819 Mr. Norton was advanced to a
+professorship, and thereafter devoted his whole time to the school; and
+during that year the school was divided into three classes. In 1824 the
+Society for the Promotion of Theological Education took the general
+direction of the school, arranging the course of study and otherwise
+assuming a supervision, which continued until 1831, when the school
+received a place as one of the departments of the University. In 1826 a
+building was erected for the school by the society, which has borne the
+name of Divinity Hall. In 1828 a professorship of pulpit eloquence and
+pastoral care was established by the society, and in 1830 the younger Henry
+Ware entered upon its duties.[<a href="#fn_5_16">16</a><a name="fr_5_16"></a>] He was succeeded in 1842 by Rev. Convers
+Francis. In 1830 Rev. John Gorham Palfrey became the professor of Biblical
+literature, and soon after the instructor in Hebrew. Rev. George Rapall
+Noyes, in 1840, took the Hancock professorship of Hebrew and the Dexter
+lectureship in Biblical criticism.</p>
+
+<p>Though organized and conducted by the Unitarians, the Divinity School was
+from the first unsectarian in its purpose and methods; for the Society for
+the Promotion of Theological Education, on its organization, put into its
+constitution this fundamental law: "It being understood that every
+encouragement be given to the serious, impartial and unbiassed
+investigation of Christian truth, and that no assent to the peculiarities
+of any denomination, be required either of the students or professors or
+instructors."</p>
+
+<a name="pg111"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn37"></a>The Unitarian Miscellany.</h3>
+
+<p>The first outspoken periodical on the liberal side that aimed at being
+distinctly denominational was published in Baltimore. Dr. Freeman preached
+in that city in 1816, with the result that during the following year a
+church was organized there. It was there in 1819, on the occasion of the
+ordination of Rev. Jared Sparks as the first minister of this church, that
+Dr. Channing gave utterance to the first great declaration of the Unitarian
+position, in a sermon that has never been surpassed in this country as an
+intellectual interpretation of the highest spiritual problems.</p>
+
+<p>In January, 1821, Rev. Jared Sparks began the publication in Baltimore of
+The Unitarian Miscellany and Christian Monitor; and for three years he was
+its editor. For another three years it was conducted by his successor in
+the Baltimore pulpit, Rev. Francis W.P. Greenwood, who continued it until
+he became the minister of King's Chapel, when it ceased to exist. During
+the six years of its publication this magazine was ably edited. It was
+controversial in a liberal spirit, it was positively denominational, and it
+had a large and widely extended circulation. It reported all prominent
+Unitarian events, and those of a liberal tendency in all religious bodies.
+Attacks on Unitarianism were repelled, and the Unitarian position was
+explained and vindicated. Mr. Sparks was as aggressive as Andrews Norton
+had been, and was by no means willing to keep to the quiet and reticent
+manner of the Unitarians of Boston. When he was attacked, he replied with
+energy and skill; and he carried the war into the enemies' camp. His
+magazine was far more positive than anything the liberals had hitherto put
+<a name="pg112"></a>
+forth, and its methods were viewed with something of suspicion in the
+conservative circles of Massachusetts. He published a series of letters on
+the Episcopal Church in The Unitarian Miscellany, which he enlarged and put
+into a book.[<a href="#fn_5_17">17</a><a name="fr_5_17"></a>] Another series of letters was on the comparative moral
+tendencies of Trinitarian and Unitarian doctrines, and these grew into a
+volume.[<a href="#fn_5_18">18</a><a name="fr_5_18"></a>] Both were in reply to attacks made upon him, and both were
+regarded with suspicion and doubt by the men about Cambridge; but, in time,
+they came to see that his method was sincere, learned, and honest.</p>
+
+<p>In The Unitarian Miscellany, as in all their utterances of this time, the
+Unitarians manifested much anxiety to maintain their position as the true
+expounders of primitive Christianity. They did not covet a place outside
+the larger fellowship of the Christian faith. A favorite method of
+vindicating their right to Christian recognition was by the publication of
+the works of liberal orthodox writers of previous generations. Such an
+attempt was made by Jared Sparks in his Collection of Essays and Tracts in
+Theology, with Biographical and Critical Notices, issued in Boston from
+1823 to 1826. In the general preface to these six volumes, Mr. Sparks said
+that "the only undeviating rule of selection will be that every article
+chosen shall be marked with rational and liberal views of Christianity, and
+suited to inform the mind or improve the temper and practice," and that the
+<a name="pg113"></a>
+series was "designed to promote the cause of sacred learning, of truth and
+charity, of religious freedom and rational piety." In the first volume were
+included Turretin's essay on the fundamentals of religious truth, a number
+of short essays by Firmin Abauzit, Francis Blackburne's discussion of the
+value of confessions of faith, and several essays by Bishop Hoadley. That
+these writings have now no significance, even to intelligent readers, does
+not detract from the value of their publication; for they had a living
+meaning and power. Other writers, drawn upon in the succeeding volumes were
+Isaac Newton, Jeremy Taylor, John Locke, Isaac Watts, William Penn, and
+Mrs. Barbauld. The catholicity of the editor was shown in the wide range of
+his authors, whose doctrinal connections covered the whole field of
+Christian theology.</p>
+
+<p>In the publication of The Unitarian Miscellany, Mr. Sparks had the business
+aid of the Baltimore Unitarian Book Society, formed November 19, 1820,
+which was organized to carry on this work, and to disseminate other liberal
+books and tracts. This society distributed Bibles, "and such other books as
+contain rational and consistent views of Christian doctrines, and are
+calculated to promote a correct faith, sincere piety, and a holy practice."
+In the year 1821 was formed the Unitarian Library and Tract Society of New
+York; and similar societies were started in Philadelphia and Charleston
+soon after, as well as in other cities. Some of these societies published
+books, tracts, and periodicals, all of them distributed Unitarian
+publications, and libraries were formed of liberal works. The most
+successful of these societies, which soon numbered a score or two, was that
+in Baltimore. This society extended its missionary operations with the
+<a name="pg114"></a>
+printed page widely, sending tracts into every part of the country, the
+demand for them having become very large. Its periodical had an extended
+circulation, its cheapness, its popular character, and its outspoken
+attitude on doctrinal questions serving to make it the most successful of
+the liberal publications of the time.[<a href="#fn_5_19">19</a><a name="fr_5_19"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn38"></a>The Christian Register.</h3>
+
+<p>On April 20, 1821, was issued the first number of The Christian Register,
+the regular weekly publication of which began with August 24 of that year.
+Its four pages contained four columns each, but the third of these pages
+was given to secular news and advertisements. The first page was devoted to
+general religious subjects, the second discussed those topics which were of
+special interest to Unitarians, while the fourth was given to literary
+miscellanies. Almost nothing of church news was reported, and only in a
+limited way was the paper denominational. It was a general religious
+newspaper of a kind that was acceptable to the liberals, and it defended
+and interpreted their cause when occasion demanded. The paper was started
+wholly as an individual enterprise by its publisher, Rev. David Reed, who
+acted for about five years as its editor. He had the encouragement of the
+leading Unitarians of Boston and its vicinity; and, when such men as
+Channing, Ware, and Norton wished to speak for the Unitarians, its columns
+were open to them. Among the other early contributors were Kirkland, Story,
+Edward Everett, Walker, Dewey, Furness, Palfrey, Gannett, Noah Worcester,
+Greenwood, Bancroft, Sparks, Alexander Young, Freeman, Burnap, Pierpont,
+Noyes, Lowell, Frothingham, and Pierce.</p>
+
+<a name="pg115"></a>
+<p>In his prospectus the publisher spoke of the growth of the spirit of free
+religious inquiry in the country; and he said that in all classes of the
+community there was an eagerness to understand theological questions, and
+to arrive at and practice the genuine principles of Christianity. His ideal
+was a periodical that should present the same doctrines and temper as The
+Christian Disciple, but that would be of a more popular character. "The
+great object of The Christian Register," he said to his readers, "will be
+to inculcate the principles of a rational faith, and to promote the
+practice of genuine piety. To accomplish this purpose it will aim to excite
+a spirit of free and independent religious inquiry, and to assist in
+ascertaining and bringing into use the true principles of interpreting the
+Scriptures."</p>
+
+<p>For a number of years The Christian Register conformed to "the mild and
+amiable spirit" in which it began its career, rarely being aroused to an
+aggressive attitude, and seldom undertaking to speak for Unitarianism as a
+distinct form of Christianity. When the liberals were fiercely attacked, it
+spoke out, as, for instance, at the time when the Unitarians were charged
+<a name="pg116"></a>
+with stealing churches from the orthodox.[<a href="#fn_5_20">20</a><a name="fr_5_20"></a>] Otherwise it was mild and
+placid enough, given to expressing its friendly interest in every kind of
+reform, from the education of women to the emancipation of slaves,
+thoroughly humanitarian in its attitude, not doctrinal or controversial,
+but faithfully catholic and tolerant. It was a well-conducted periodical,
+represented a wide range of interests, and was admirably suited to
+interpret the temper and spirit of a rational religion. It is now the
+oldest weekly religious newspaper published in this country. As the leading
+Unitarian periodical, it is still conducted with notable enterprise and
+ability.</p>
+
+<p>Another periodical also deserves mention in this connection, and that is
+the North American Review, which was begun by William Tudor, one of the
+members of The Anthology Club, in May, 1815. While it was not religious in
+its character, it was from the first, and for more than sixty years, edited
+by Unitarians; and its contributors were very largely from that religious
+body. The same tendencies and conditions that led the liberals to establish
+The Monthly Anthology, The Christian Disciple, and The Christian Examiner,
+gave demand amongst them for a distinctly literary and critical journal.
+They had gained that form of liberated and catholic culture which made such
+works possible, and to a large extent they afforded the public necessary to
+their support. Mr. Tudor was succeeded as the editor of the review by
+<a name="pg117"></a>
+Professor Edward T. Channing, and then followed in succession Edward
+Everett, Jared Sparks, Alexander H. Everett, John Gorham Palfrey, Francis
+Bowen, and Andrew P. Peabody, all Unitarians. Among the early Unitarian
+contributors were Nathan Hale, Joseph Story, Nathaniel Bowditch, W.H.
+Prescott, William Cullen Bryant, and Theophilus Parsons. For many years few
+of the regular contributors were from any other religious body, not because
+the editors put restrictions upon others, but because those who were
+interested in general literary, historical, and scientific subjects
+belonged almost exclusively to the churches of this faith.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn39"></a>Results of the Division in Congregationalism.</h3>
+
+<p>The controversy which began in 1805 continued for about twenty years. The
+pamphlets and books it brought forth are almost forgotten, and they would
+have little interest at the present time. They gradually widened the breach
+between the orthodox and the liberal Congregationalists. It would be
+difficult to name a decisive date for their actual separation. The
+organization of the societies, and the establishment of the periodicals
+already mentioned, were successive steps to that result. The most important
+event was undoubtedly the formation of the American Unitarian Association,
+in 1825; but even that important movement on the part of the Unitarians did
+not bring about a final separation. Individual churches and ministers
+continued to treat each other with the same courtesy and hospitality as
+before.</p>
+
+<p>That the breach was inevitable seems to be the verdict of history; and yet
+it is not difficult to see to-day how it might have been avoided. The
+<a name="pg118"></a>
+Unitarians were dealt with in such a manner that they could not continue
+the old connection without great discomfort and loss of self-respect. They
+were forced to organize for self-protection, and yet they did so
+reluctantly and with much misgiving. They would have preferred to remain as
+members of the united Congregational body, but the theological temper of
+the time made this impossible. It would not be just to say that there was
+actual persecution, but there could not be unity where there was not
+community of thought and faith.</p>
+
+<p>When the division in the Congregational churches came, one hundred and
+twenty-five churches allied themselves with the Unitarians,--one hundred in
+Massachusetts, a score in other parts of New England, and a half-dozen west
+of the Hudson River. These churches numbered among them, however, many of
+the oldest and the strongest, including about twenty of the first
+twenty-five organized in Massachusetts, and among them Plymouth (organized
+in Scrooby), Salem, Dorchester, Boston, Watertown, Roxbury, Hingham,
+Concord, and Quincy. The ten Congregational churches in Boston, with the
+exception of the Old South, allied themselves with the Unitarians. Other
+first churches to take this action were those of Portsmouth, Kennebunk, and
+Portland.</p>
+
+<p>Outside New England a beginning was made almost as soon as the Unitarian
+name came into recognition. At Charleston, S.C., the Congregational church,
+which had been very liberal, was divided in 1816 as the result of the
+preaching of Rev. Anthony Forster. He was led to read the works of Dr.
+Priestley, and became a Unitarian in consequence. Owing to ill-health, he
+<a name="pg119"></a>
+was soon obliged to resign; and Rev. Samuel Gilman was installed in 1819.
+Rev. Robert Little, an English Unitarian, took up his residence in
+Washington in 1819, and began to preach there; and a church was organized
+in 1821. While chaplain of the House of Representatives, in 1821-22, Jared
+Sparks preached to this society fortnightly, and in the House Chamber on
+the alternate Sunday. When he went to Charleston, in 1819, to assist in the
+installation of Mr. Gilman, he preached to a very large congregation in the
+state-house in Raleigh; and the next year he spoke to large congregations
+in Virginia.[<a href="#fn_5_21">21</a><a name="fr_5_21"></a>] More than a decade earlier there were individual
+Unitarians in Kentucky.[<a href="#fn_5_22">22</a><a name="fr_5_22"></a>] On his journey to the ordination of Jared
+Sparks, Dr. Channing preached in a New York parlor; and on his return he
+occupied the lecture-hall of the Medical School. The result was the First
+Congregational Church (All Souls'), organized in 1819, which was followed
+by the Church of the Messiah in 1825. In fact, many of the more intelligent
+and thoughtful persons everywhere were inclined to accept a liberal
+interpretation of Christianity.</p>
+
+<p>Although the Congregational body was divided into two distinct
+denominations, there were three organizations, formed prior to that event,
+which have remained intact to this day. In these societies Orthodox and
+Unitarian continue to unite as Congregationalists, and the sectarian lines
+are not recognized. The first of these organizations is the Massachusetts
+<a name="pg120"></a>
+Congregational Charitable Society, which was formed early in the eighteenth
+century for the purpose of securing "support to the widows and children of
+deceased congregational ministers." The second is the Massachusetts
+Convention of Congregational Ministers, also formed early in the eighteenth
+century, although its records begin only with the year 1748. It was formed
+for consultation, advice, and counsel, to aid orphans and widows of
+ministers, and to secure the general promotion of the interests of
+religion. The convention sermon has been one of the recognized institutions
+of Massachusetts, and since the beginning of the Unitarian controversy it
+has been preached alternately by ministers of the two denominations. The
+Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians and Others in North
+America was formed in 1787. The members, officers, and missionaries of this
+society have been of both denominations; and the work accomplished has been
+carried on in a spirit of amity and good-will. These societies indicate
+that co-operation may be secured without theological unity, and it is
+possible that they may become the basis in the future of a closer sympathy
+and fellowship between the severed Congregational churches.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn40"></a>Final Separation of State and Church.</h3>
+
+<p>From the beginning the liberal movement had been more or less intimately
+associated with that for the promotion of religious freedom and the
+separation of state and church. Many of the states withdrew religion from
+state control on the adoption of the Federal Constitution. In New England
+this was done in the first years of the century. Connecticut came to this
+<a name="pg121"></a>
+result after an exciting agitation in 1818. Massachusetts was more
+tenacious of the old ways; but in 1811 its legislative body passed a
+"religious freedom act," that secured individuals from taxation for the
+support of churches with which they were not connected. The constitutional
+convention of 1820 proposed a bill of rights that aimed to secure religious
+freedom, but it was defeated by large majorities. It was only when church
+property was given by the courts to the parish in preference to the church,
+and when the "standing order" churches had been repeatedly foiled in their
+efforts to retain the old prerogatives, that a majority could be secured
+for religious freedom. In November, 1833, the legislature submitted to the
+people a revision of the bill of rights, which provided for the separation
+of state and church, and the voluntary support of churches. A majority was
+secured for this amendment, and it became the law in 1834. Massachusetts
+was the last of all the states to arrive at this result, and a far greater
+effort was required to bring it about than elsewhere. The support of the
+churches was now purely voluntary, the state no longer lending its aid to
+tax person and property for their maintenance.</p>
+
+<p>Thus it came about that Massachusetts adopted the principle and method of
+Roger Williams after two centuries. For the first time she came to the full
+recognition of her own democratic ideals, and to the practical acceptance
+of the individualism for which she had contended from the beginning. She
+had fought stubbornly and zealously for the faith she prized above all
+other things, but by the logic of events and the greatness of the principle
+of liberty she was conquered. The minister and the meeting-house were by
+<a name="pg122"></a>
+her so dearly loved that she could not endure the thought of having them
+shorn of any of their power and influence; but for the sake of their true
+life she at last found it wise and just to leave all the people free to
+worship God in their own way, without coercion and without restraint.</p>
+
+<p>Although the liberal ministers and churches led the way in securing
+religious freedom, yet they were socially and intellectually conservative.
+Radical changes they would not accept, and they moved away from the old
+beliefs with great caution. The charge that they were timid was undoubtedly
+true, though there is no evidence that they attempted to conceal their real
+beliefs. Evangelical enthusiasm was not congenial to them, and they
+rejected fanaticism in every form. They had a deep, serious, and spiritual
+faith, that was intellectual without being rationalistic, marked by strong
+common sense, and vigorous with moral integrity. They permitted a wide
+latitude of opinion, and yet they were thoroughly Christian in their
+convictions. Most of them saw in the miracles of the New Testament the only
+positive evidence of the truth of Christianity, which was to them an
+external and supernatural revelation. They were quite willing to follow
+Andrews Norton, however, who was the chief defender of the miraculous, in
+his free criticism of the Old Testament and the birth-stories in the
+Gospels.</p>
+
+<p>The liberal ministers fostered an intellectual and literary expression of
+religion, and yet their chief characteristic was their spirituality. They
+aimed at ethical insight and moral integrity in their influence upon men
+and women, and at cultivating purity of life and an inward probity. In
+large degree they developed the spirit of philanthropy and a fine regard
+<a name="pg123"></a>
+for the rights and the welfare of others. They were not sectarian or
+zealous for bringing others to the acceptance of their own beliefs; but
+they were generous in behalf of all public interests, faithful to all civic
+duties, and known for their private generosity and faithful Christian
+living. Under the leadership of Dr. Channing the Catholic Christians, as
+they preferred to call themselves, cultivated a spirituality that was
+devout without being ritualistic, sincere without being fanatical. The
+churches around them, to a large degree, kept zealously to the externals of
+religion, and accepted physical evidences of the truthfulness of
+Christianity; but Channing sought for what is deeper and more permanent.
+His preference of rationality to the testimony of miracles, spiritual
+insight to external evidences, devoutness of life to the rites of the
+church, characterized him as a great religious leader, and developed for
+the Catholic Christians a new type of Christianity. Whatever Channing's
+limitations as a thinker and a reformer, he was a man of prophetic insight
+and lofty spiritual vision. In other ages he would have been canonized as a
+saint or called the beatific doctor; but in Boston he was a heretic and a
+reformer, who sought to lead men into a faith that is ethical, sincere, and
+humanitarian. He prized Christianity for what it is in itself, for its
+inwardness, its fidelity to human nature, and its ethical integrity. His
+mind was always open to truth, he was always young for liberty, and his
+soul dwelt in the serene atmosphere of a pure and lofty faith.</p>
+
+<p><br />[<a href="#fr_5_1">1</a><a name="fn_5_1"></a>] Josiah Quincy, History of Harvard University, I. 230, Chapter XII;
+<a name="pg124"></a>
+    Christian Examiner, VII. 64; XXX. 70.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_2">2</a><a name="fn_5_2"></a>] Jedidiah Morse, True Reasons on which the Election of a Hollis
+    Professor of Divinity in Harvard College were opposed at the Board of
+    Overseers.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_3">3</a><a name="fn_5_3"></a>] III. 251, March, 1806.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_4">4</a><a name="fn_5_4"></a>] Richard Eddy, Universalism in America, II. 87; Oscar F. Safford,
+    Hosea Ballou: A Marvellous Life Story, 71.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_5">5</a><a name="fn_5_5"></a>] O.B. Frothingham, Boston Unitarianism, 161.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_6">6</a><a name="fn_5_6"></a>] Josiah Quincy, History of the Boston Athenaeum, 1. "In the year 1803
+    Phineas Adams, a graduate of Harvard College, of the class of 1801,
+    commenced in Boston, under the name of <i>Sylvanus Per-se</i>, a periodical
+    work entitled The Monthly Anthology or Magazine of Polite Literature.
+    He conducted it for six months, but not finding its proceeds sufficient
+    for his support, he abandoned the undertaking. Mr. Adams, the son of a
+    farmer in Lexington, manifested in early boyhood a passion for elegant
+    learning. He adopted literature as a profession; but, after the failure
+    of his attempt as editor of The Anthology, he taught school in
+    different places, till, in 1811, he entered the Navy as chaplain and
+    teacher of mathematics. Here he became distinguished for mathematical
+    science in its relation to nautical affairs. In 1812 he accompanied
+    Commodore Porter in his eventful cruise in the Pacific, of which the
+    published journal bears honorable testimony to Mr. Adams's zeal for
+    promoting geographical and mathematical knowledge. He again joined
+    Porter in the expedition for the suppression of piracy in the West
+    Indies, and he died on that station in 1823, much respected in the
+    service."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_7">7</a><a name="fn_5_7"></a>] In October, 1888, this society gave up its organization, and the sum
+    of $1,265.10 was given to the American Unitarian Association for the
+    establishment of a publishing fund.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_8">8</a><a name="fn_5_8"></a>] Unitarian Biography, I. 40, Memoir by Henry Ware, Jr.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_9">9</a><a name="fn_5_9"></a>] William Allen, Memoir of John Codman, 81.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_10">10</a><a name="fn_5_10"></a>] Thomas Belsham, 1750-1829, was a dissenting English preacher and
+     teacher. In 1789 he became a Unitarian, and was settled in
+     Birmingham. From 1805 to his death he preached to the Essex Street
+     congregation in London. He wrote a popular work on the Evidences of
+     Christianity, and he translated the Epistles of St. Paul. He was a
+     vigorous and able writer.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_11">11</a><a name="fn_5_11"></a>] Memoir of W.E. Channing, by W.H. Channing, I. 380.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_12">12</a><a name="fn_5_12"></a>] Among the controversial works printed in Boston at this time was
+     Yates's Vindication of Unitarianism, an English book, which was
+     republished in 1816.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_13">13</a><a name="fn_5_13"></a>] The entrance to the vestry of Federal Street Church was on Berry
+     Street, hence the name given the conference.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_14">14</a><a name="fn_5_14"></a>] Christian Examiner, I. 248.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_15">15</a><a name="fn_5_15"></a>] American Unitarian Biography, Life of Henry Ware, I. 241.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_16">16</a><a name="fn_5_16"></a>] James Walker, Christian Examiner, X. 129; John G. Palfrey, Christian
+     Examiner, XI. 84; The Divinity School of Harvard University: Its
+     History, Courses of Study, Aims and Advantages.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_17">17</a><a name="fn_5_17"></a>] Letters on the Ministry, Ritual, and Doctrines of the Protestant
+     Episcopal Church, addressed to Rev. William E. Wyatt, D.D., in Reply
+     to a Sermon, Baltimore, 1820.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_18">18</a><a name="fn_5_18"></a>] Comparative Moral Tendency of Trinitarian and Unitarian Doctrines,
+     addressed to Rev. Samuel Miller, Boston, 1823.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_19">19</a><a name="fn_5_19"></a>] H.B. Adams, Life and Writings of Jared Sparks, I. 175.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_20">20</a><a name="fn_5_20"></a>] Dr. George E. Ellis, in Unitarianism: Its origin and History, 147.
+     The most prominent instance was that of the First Church in Dedham,
+     and this was decided by legal proceedings. "The question recognized
+     by the court was simply this: whether the claimants had been lawfully
+     appointed deacons of the First Church; that is, whether the body
+     which had appointed them was by law the First Church. The decision of
+     the court was as follows: 'When the majority of the members of a
+     Congregational church separate from the majority of the parish, the
+     members who remain, although a minority, constitute the church in
+     such parish, and retain the rights and property belonging thereto.'
+     This legal decision would have been regarded as a momentous one had
+     it applied only to the single case then in hearing. But it was the
+     establishment of a precedent which would dispose of all cases then to
+     be expected to present themselves in the troubles of the time between
+     parishes and the churches gathered within them. The full purport of
+     this decision was that the law did not recognize a church
+     independently of its connection with the parish in which it was
+     gathered, from which it might sever itself and carry property with
+     it." It was in accordance with the practice in New England for at
+     least a century preceding the decision in the Dedham case, and the
+     decision was rendered as the result of this practice.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_21">21</a><a name="fn_5_21"></a>] H.B. Adams, Life and Writings of Jared Sparks, gives a most
+     interesting account in his earlier chapters of the origin of
+     Unitarianism, especially of its beginnings in Baltimore and other
+     places outside New England.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_5_22">22</a><a name="fn_5_22"></a>] James Garrard, governor of Kentucky from 1796 to 1802, was a
+     Unitarian. Harry Toulmin, president of Transylvania Seminary and
+     secretary of the state of Kentucky, was also a Unitarian.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><br /><a name="ch6"></a>VI.<br />
+
+
+THE AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION.</h2>
+
+<p>The time had come for the liberals to organize in a more distinctive form,
+in order that they might secure permanently the results they had already
+attained. The demand for organization, however, came almost wholly from the
+younger men, those who had grown up under the influence of the freer life
+of the liberal churches or who had been trained in the independent spirit
+of the Divinity School at Harvard. The older men, for the most part, were
+bound by the traditions of "the standing order":[<a href="#fn_6_1">1</a><a name="fr_6_1"></a>] they could not bring
+themselves to desire new conditions and new methods.</p>
+
+<p>The spirit of the older and leading laymen and ministers is admirably
+illustrated in Rev. O.B. Frothingham's account of his father in his book
+entitled Boston Unitarianism. They were interested in many, public-spirited
+enterprises, and the social circle in which they moved was cultivated and
+refined; but they were provincial, and little inclined to look beyond the
+limits of their own immediate interests. Dr. Nathaniel L. Frothingham,
+minister of the First Church in Boston, one of the earliest American
+students of German literature and philosophy, and a man of rational insight
+and progressive thinking, may be regarded as a representative of the best
+<a name="pg125"></a>
+type of Boston minister in the first half of the nineteenth century. In a
+sermon preached in 1835, on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of
+his settlement, Dr. Frothingham said that he had never before used the word
+"Unitarian", in his pulpit, though his church had been for thirty years
+counted as Unitarian. "We have," he said, "made more account of the
+religious sentiment than of theological opinions." In this attitude he was
+in harmony with the leading men of his day.[<a href="#fn_6_2">2</a><a name="fr_6_2"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Channing, for instance, was opposed to every phase of religious
+organization that put bonds upon men; and he would accept nothing in the
+form of a creed. He severely condemned "the guilt of a sectarian spirit,"
+and said that "to bestow our affections on those who are ranged under the
+same human leader, or who belong to the same church with ourselves, and to
+withhold it from others who possess equal if not superior virtue, because
+they bear a different name, is to prefer a party to the church of
+Christ."[<a href="#fn_6_3">3</a><a name="fr_6_3"></a>] In 1831 he described Unitarianism as being "characterized by
+nothing more than by the spirit of freedom and individuality. It has no
+established creed or symbol," he wrote. "Its friends think each for
+himself, and differ much from each other."[<a href="#fn_6_4">4</a><a name="fr_6_4"></a>] Later he wrote to a friend:
+"I distrust sectarian influence more and more. I am more detached from a
+denomination, and strive to feel more my connection with the Universal
+Church, with all good and holy men. I am little of a Unitarian, and stand
+aloof from all but those who strive and pray for clearer light, who look
+for a purer and more effectual manifestation of Christian truth."[<a href="#fn_6_5">5</a><a name="fr_6_5"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg126"></a>
+<p>Many of the Unitarians were in fullest sympathy with Channing as to the
+fundamental law of spiritual freedom and as to the evils of sectarianism. A
+considerable number of them were in agreement with him as to the course
+pursued by the Unitarian movement. Having escaped from one sect, they were
+not ready to commit themselves to the control of another. Therefore they
+withheld themselves from all definitely organized phases of Unitarianism,
+and would give no active support to those who sought to bring the liberals
+together for purposes of protection and forward movement. Under these
+circumstances it was difficult to secure concert of action or to make
+successful any definite missionary enterprise, however little of
+sectarianism it might manifest. Even to the present time Unitarianism has
+shown this independence on the part of local churches and this freedom on
+the part of individuals. Because of this attitude, unity of action has been
+difficult, and denominational loyalty never strong or assured.</p>
+
+<p>However, a different spirit animated the younger men, who persisted in
+their effort to secure an organization that would represent distinctively
+the Unitarian thought and sentiment. The movement towards organization had
+its origin and impulse in a group of young ministers who had been trained
+at the Harvard Divinity School under Professor Andrews Norton. While Norton
+was conservative in theology and opposed to sectarian measures, his
+teaching was radical, progressive, and stimulating. His students accepted
+his spirit of intellectual progress, and often advanced beyond his more
+conservative teachings. In the years between 1817 and 1824 James Walker,
+<a name="pg127"></a>
+John G. Palfrey, Jared Sparks, Alexander Young, John Pierpont, Ezra S.
+Gannett, Samuel Barrett, Thomas R. Sullivan, Samuel J. May, Calvin Lincoln,
+and Edward B. Hall were students in the Divinity School; and all of these
+men were leaders in the movement to organize a Unitarian Association.
+Pierpont gave the name to the new organization, distinctly defining it as
+Unitarian. Gannett, Palfrey, and Hall served it as presidents; Gannett,
+Lincoln, and Young, as secretaries. Walker, Palfrey, and Barrett gave it
+faithful service as directors, and Lincoln as its active missionary agent.
+A number of young laymen in Boston and elsewhere, mostly graduates of
+Harvard College, were also interested in the formation of the new
+organization. Among them were Charles G. Loring, Robert Rantoul, Samuel A.
+Eliot, Leverett Salstonstall, George B. Emerson, and Alden Bradford. All
+these young men were afterwards prominent in the affairs of the city or
+state, and they were faithful to the interests of the Unitarian churches
+with which they were connected.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn41"></a>Initial Meetings.</h3>
+
+<p>The first proposition to form a Unitarian organization for missionary
+purposes was made in a meeting of the Anonymous Association, a club to
+which belonged thirty or forty of the leading men of Boston. They were all
+connected with Unitarian churches, and were actively interested in
+promoting the growth of a liberal form of Christianity. It appears from the
+journal of David Reed, for many years the editor and publisher of The
+Christian Register, that the members of this association were in the habit
+of meeting at each other's houses during the year 1824 for the purpose of
+discussing important subjects connected with religion, morals, and
+<a name="pg128"></a>
+politics. At a meeting held at the house of Hon. Josiah Quincy in the
+autumn of that year, attention was called to certain articles that had been
+published in The Christian Register, and the importance was suggested of
+promoting the growth of liberal Christianity through the distribution of
+the printed word. A resolution was submitted, inquiring if measures could
+not be taken for uniting the efforts of liberal-minded persons to give
+greater efficiency to the attempt to extend a knowledge of Unitarian
+principles by means of the public press; and a committee was appointed to
+consider and report on the expediency of forming an organization for this
+purpose. This committee consisted of Rev. Henry Ware, the younger, Alden
+Bradford, and Richard Sullivan. Henry Ware was the beloved and devoted
+minister of the Second Church in Boston. His colleagues were older men,
+both graduates of Harvard College and prominent in the social and business
+life of Boston. The purpose which these men had in mind was well defined by
+Dr. Gannett, writing twenty years after the event: "We found ourselves," he
+said, "under the painful necessity of contributing our assistance to the
+propagation of tenets which we accounted false or of forming an association
+through which we might address the great truths of religion to our
+fellow-men without the adulteration of erroneous dogmas. To take one of
+these courses, or to do nothing in the way of Christian beneficence, was
+the only alternative permitted to us. The name which we adopted has a
+sectarian sound; but it was chosen to avoid equivocation on the one hand
+and misapprehension on the other."[<a href="#fn_6_6">6</a><a name="fr_6_6"></a>] The committee, under date of
+December 29, 1824, sent out a circular inviting a meeting of all
+<a name="pg129"></a>
+interested, "in order to confer together on the expediency of appointing an
+annual meeting for the purpose of union, sympathy, and co-operation in the
+cause of Christian truth and Christian charity." In this circular will be
+found the origin of the clause in the present constitution of the Unitarian
+Association defining its purposes.</p>
+
+<p>In response to this call a meeting was held in the vestry of the Federal
+Street Church on January 27, 1825. Dr. Channing opened the meeting with
+prayer. Richard Sullivan was chosen moderator, and James Walker secretary.
+There were present all those who have been hitherto named in connection
+with this movement, together with many others of the leading laymen and
+ministers of the liberal churches in New England.[<a href="#fn_6_7">7</a><a name="fr_6_7"></a>] The record of the
+meeting made by Rev. James Walker is preserved in the first volume of the
+correspondence of the Unitarian Association; and it enables us, in
+connection with the more confidential reminiscences of David Reed, to give
+a fairly complete record of, what was said and done. Henry Ware, the
+younger, in behalf of the committee, presented a statement of the objects
+proposed by those desirous of organizing a national Unitarian society; and
+he offered a resolution declaring it "desirable and expedient that
+<a name="pg130"></a>
+provision should be made for future meetings of Unitarians and liberal
+Christians generally." The adoption of this resolution was moved by Stephen
+Higginson; and the discussion was opened by Dr. Aaron Bancroft, the learned
+and honored minister of the Second Church in Worcester. He was fearful that
+sufficient care might not be taken as to the manner of instituting the
+proposed organization, and he doubted its expediency. He was of the opinion
+that Unitarianism was to be propagated slowly and silently, for it had
+succeeded in his own parish because it had not been openly advocated. He
+did not wish to oppose the design generally, but he was convinced that it
+would do more harm than good.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Bancroft was followed by Professor Andrews Norton, the greatly
+respected teacher of most of the younger ministers, who defended the
+proposed organization, and said that its purpose was not to make
+proselytes. Then Dr. Charming arose, and gave to the proposition of the
+committee a guarded approval. He thought the object of the convention, as
+he wished to call it, should be to "spread our views of religion, not our
+mere opinions, for our religion is essentially practical." The friendly
+attitude of Channing gave added emphasis to the disapproval of the
+prominent laymen who spoke after him. Judge Charles Jackson, an eminent
+justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, thought there was danger in
+the proposed plan, that it was not becoming to liberal Christians, that it,
+was inconsistent with their principles, and that it would not be beneficial
+to the community. He was ready to give his aid, to any specific work, but
+he thought that everything could be accomplished that was necessary,
+<a name="pg131"></a>
+without a general-association of any kind. The same opinion was expressed
+by George Bond, a leading merchant of Boston, who was afraid that
+Unitarianism would become popular, and that, when it had gamed a majority
+of the people of the country to its side, it would become as intolerant as
+the other sects. For this reason he believed the measure inexpedient, and
+moved an adjournment of the meeting.</p>
+
+<p>Three of the most widely known and respected of the older ministers also
+spoke in opposition to the proposition to form an association of liberal
+Christians. These men were typical pastors and preachers, whose parishes
+were limited only by the town in which they lived, and who preached the
+gospel without sectarian prejudice or doctrinal qualifications. Dr. John
+Pierce, of Brookline, thought the measure of the committee "very
+dangerous," and likely to do much harm in many of the parishes by arousing
+the sectarian spirit. He spoke three times in the course of the meeting,
+opposing with his accustomed vehemence all attempt at organization. Dr.
+Abiel Abbot, of Beverly, thought that presenting a distinct object for
+opposition would arrest the progress of Unitarianism, for in his
+neighborhood liberal Christianity owed everything to slow and silent
+progress. Dr. John Allyn, of Duxbury, one of the most original and learned
+ministers of his time in New England, was opposed to the use of any
+sectarian name, especially that of Unitarian or Liberal. He was willing to
+join in a general convention, and he desired to have a meeting of delegates
+from all sects. He expressed the opinion of several leading men who were
+present at this meeting, who favored an unsectarian organization, that
+should include all men of liberal opinions, of whatever name or
+denominational connection.</p>
+
+<a name="pg132"></a>
+<p>Those who were in favor of a Unitarian Association did not remain silent,
+and they spoke with clearness and vigor in approval of the proposition of
+the committee. Alden Bradford, who became the Secretary of State in
+Massachusetts, and wrote several valuable biographical and historical
+works, thought that Unitarians were too timid and did not wisely defend
+their position. He was followed by Andrews Norton in a vigorous declaration
+of the importance of the association, in the course of which he pointed out
+how inadequately Unitarians had protected and fostered the institutions
+under their care, and declared that closer union was necessary. Jared
+Sparks also earnestly favored the project, and said that what was proposed
+was not a plan of proselyting. It was his opinion that Unitarians ought to
+come forward in support of their views of truth, and that an association
+was necessary in order to promote sympathy among them throughout the
+country. Colonel Joseph May, who had been for thirty years a warden of
+King's Chapel, and a man held in high esteem in Boston, referred to the
+work already accomplished by the zeal and effort of the few Unitarians who
+had worked together to promote liberal interests. The most incisive word
+spoken, however, came from John Pierpont, who was just coming into his fame
+as an orator and a leader in reforms. "We have," he declared, "and we must
+have, the name Unitarian. It is not for us to shrink from it. Organization
+is necessary in order to maintain it, and organization there must be. The
+general interests of Unitarians will be promoted by using the name, and
+organizing in harmony with it."</p>
+
+<p>In the long discussion at this meeting it appears that, of the ministers,
+<a name="pg133"></a>
+Channing, Norton, Bancroft, Ware, Pierpont, Sparks, Edes, Nichols, Parker,
+Thayer, Willard, and Harding were in favor of organization; Pierce, Allyn,
+Abbot, Freeman, and Bigelow, against it. Of the laymen, Charles Jackson and
+George Bond were vigorously in opposition; and Judge Story, Judge White,
+Judge Howe, of Northampton, Alden Bradford, Leverett Salstonstall, Stephen
+Higginson, and Joseph May spoke in favor. The result of the meeting was the
+appointment of a committee, consisting of Sullivan, Bradford, Ware,
+Channing, Palfrey, Walker, Pierpont, and Higginson, which was empowered to
+call together a larger meeting at some time during the session of the
+General Court. But this committee seems never to have acted. At the end of
+his report of this preliminary meeting James Walker wrote: "The meeting
+proposed was never called. As there appeared to be so much difference of
+opinion as to the expediency and nature of the measure proposed, it was
+thought best to let it subside in silence."</p>
+
+<p>The zeal of those favorable to organization, however, did not abate; and
+the discussion went on throughout the winter. On May 25, 1825, at the
+meeting of the Berry Street Conference of Ministers, Henry Ware, the
+younger, who had been chairman of the first committee, renewed the effort,
+and presented the following statement as a declaration of the purposes of
+the proposed organization:--</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>  It is proposed to form a new association, to be called The American
+  Unitarian Society. The chief and ultimate object will be the promotion
+  of pure and undefiled religion by disseminating the knowledge of it
+  where adequate means of religious instruction are not enjoyed. A
+  secondary good which will follow from it is the union of all Unitarian
+<a name="pg134"></a>
+  Christians in this country, so that they would become mutually
+  acquainted, and the concentration of their efforts would increase their
+  efficiency. The society will embrace all Unitarian Christians in the
+  United States. Its operations would extend themselves through the whole
+  country. These operations would chiefly consist in the publication and
+  distribution of tracts, and the support of missionaries.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>It was announced that in the afternoon a meeting would be held for the
+further consideration of the subject. This meeting was held at four
+o'clock, and Dr. Henry Ware acted as moderator. The opponents of
+organization probably absented themselves, for action was promptly taken,
+and it was "<i>Voted</i>, that it is expedient to form a new society to be
+called the American Unitarian Association." All who were present expressed
+themselves as in favor of this action. Rev. James Walker, Mr. Lewis Tappan,
+and Rev. Ezra S. Gannett were appointed a committee to draft a form of
+organization. On the next morning, Thursday, May 26, 1825, this committee
+reported to a meeting, of which Dr. Nathaniel Thayer, of Lancaster, was
+moderator; and, with one or two amendments, the constitution prepared by
+the committee was adopted. This constitution, with slight modifications, is
+still in force. The object of the Association was declared to be "to
+diffuse the knowledge and promote the interests of pure Christianity." A
+committee to nominate officers selected Dr. Channing for president; Joseph
+Story, of Salem, Joseph Lyman, of Northampton, Stephen Longfellow, of
+Portland, Charles H. Atherton, of Amherst, N.H., Henry Wheaton, of New
+York, James Taylor, of Philadelphia, Henry Payson, of Baltimore, William
+Cranch, of Alexandria, Martin L. Hurlbut, of Charleston, as
+<a name="pg135"></a>
+vice-presidents; Ezra S. Gannett, of Boston, for secretary; Lewis Tappan,
+of Boston, for treasurer; and Andrews Norton, Jared Sparks, and James
+Walker, for executive committee.</p>
+
+<p>When Mr. Gannett wrote to his colleague, Dr. Channing, to notify him of his
+election as president, there came a letter declining the proffered office.
+"I was a little disappointed," Channing wrote, "at learning that the
+Unitarian Association is to commence operations immediately. I conversed
+with Mr. Norton on the subject before leaving Boston, and found him so
+indisposed to engage in it that I imagined that it would be let alone for
+the present. The office which in your kindness you have assigned to me I
+must beg to decline. As you have made a beginning, I truly rejoice in your
+success." Norton and Sparks also declined to serve as directors, ill-health
+and previous engagements being assigned by them for their inability to act
+with the other officers elected. The executive committee proceeded to fill
+these vacancies by the election of Dr. Aaron Bancroft, of Worcester, as
+president, and of the younger Henry Ware and Samuel Barrett to the
+executive committee; and the board of directors thus constituted
+administered the Association during its first year.</p>
+
+<p>In the selection of Dr. Bancroft as the head of the new association a wise
+choice was made, for he had the executive and organizing ability that was
+eminently desirable at this juncture. He was an able preacher, and one of
+the strongest thinkers in the Unitarian body. His biography of Washington
+had made him widely known; and his volume of controversial sermons,
+<a name="pg136"></a>
+published in 1822, had received the enthusiastic praise of John Adams and
+Thomas Jefferson. When he was settled, he was almost an outcast in
+Worcester County because of his liberalism; but such were the strength of
+his character and the power of his thought that gradually he secured a wide
+hearing, and became the most popular preacher in Central Massachusetts.
+After fifty years of his ministry he could count twenty-one vigorous
+Unitarian societies about him, all of which had profited by his
+influence.[<a href="#fn_6_8">8</a><a name="fr_6_8"></a>] Although he was seventy years of age at the time he
+accepted the presidency of the Unitarian Association, he was in the full
+enjoyment of his powers; and he filled the office for ten years, giving it
+and the cause which the Association represented the impetus and weight of
+his sound judgment and deserved reputation.</p>
+
+<p>The executive work of the Association fell to the charge of the secretary,
+Ezra S. Gannett, who had been one of the most enthusiastic advocates of the
+new organization. Gannett was but twenty-four years old, and had been but
+one year in the active ministry, as the colleague of Dr. Channing. He had
+youth, zeal, and executive force. Writing of him after his death, Dr.
+Bellows said: "He had rare administrative qualities and a statesmanlike
+mind. He would have been a leader anywhere. He had the ambition, the
+faculties, and the impulsive temperament of an actor in affairs. He had the
+fervor, the concentration of will, the passionate enthusiasm of conviction,
+the love of martyrdom, which make men great in action."[<a href="#fn_6_9">9</a><a name="fr_6_9"></a>] Throughout his
+life Gannett labored assiduously for the Association, serving it in every
+<a name="pg137"></a>
+capacity refusing no drudgery, travelling over the country in its
+interests, and giving himself, heart and soul, to the cause it represented.
+The Unitarian cause never had a more devoted friend or one who made greater
+sacrifices in its behalf. To him more than to any other man it owes its
+organized life and its missionary serviceableness.</p>
+
+<p>Lewis Tappan, the treasurer, was a successful young business man. His term
+of service was brief; for two years after the organization of the
+Association he removed to New York, where he had an honorable career as one
+of the founders of the Journal of Commerce, and as the head of the first
+mercantile agency established in the country. He was later one of the
+anti-slavery leaders in New York, and an active and earnest member of
+Plymouth Church in Brooklyn.[<a href="#fn_6_10">10</a><a name="fr_6_10"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The executive committee was composed of the three devoted young ministers
+who had been foremost in organizing the Association. Barrett was thirty,
+Ware and Walker were thirty-one years of age; and all three had been in
+Harvard College and the Divinity School together. Samuel Barrett had just
+been chosen minister of the newly formed Twelfth Congregational Church of
+Boston, which he served throughout his life. He was identified with all
+good causes in Eastern Massachusetts, a founder of the Benevolent
+<a name="pg138"></a>
+Fraternity, and an overseer of Harvard College. Henry Ware, the younger,
+was, at the time of his election, the minister of the Second Church in
+Boston. Five years later he became professor in the Harvard Divinity
+School, and his memory is still cherished as the teacher and exemplar of a
+generation of Unitarian ministers. James Walker was, in 1825, the minister
+of the Harvard Church in Charlestown, and already gave evidence of the
+sanity and catholicity of mind, the practical organizing power, the wide
+philosophic culture, and the dignity of character which afterward
+distinguished him as professor in Harvard College, and as its president.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the organization started on its way, as the result of the determined
+purpose of a small company of the younger ministers and laymen. It took a
+name that separated it from all other religious organizations in this
+country, so far as its members then knew. The Unitarian name had been first
+definitely used in this country in 1815, to describe the liberal or
+Catholic Christians. They at first scornfully rejected it, but many of them
+had finally come to rejoice in its declaration of the simple unity of God.
+As a matter of history, it may be said that the word "Unitarian" was used
+in this doctrinal sense only; and it had none of the implications since
+given it by philosophy and science. Those who used it meant thereby to say
+that they accepted the doctrine of the absolute unity of God, and that the
+position of Christ was a subordinate though a very exalted one. No one can
+read their statements with historic apprehension, and arrive at any other
+conclusion. Yet these persons had no wish to cut themselves off from
+historic Christianity; rather was it their intent to restore it to its
+primitive purity.</p>
+
+<a name="pg139"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn42"></a>Work of the First Year.</h3>
+
+<p>If others were disinclined to action, the executive committee of the
+Unitarian Association was determined that something should be done. At
+their first, meeting, held in the secretary's study four days after their
+election, there were present Norton, Walker, Tappan, and Gannett. They
+commissioned Rev. Warren Burton to act as their agent in visiting
+neighboring towns to solicit funds, and a week later they voted to employ
+him as a general agent. The committee held six meetings during June; and at
+one of these an address was adopted, defining the purposes and methods of
+the Association. "They wish it to be understood," was their statement,
+"that its efforts will be directed to the promotion of true religion
+throughout our country; intending by this, not exclusively those views
+which distinguish the friends of this Association from other disciples of
+Christ; but those views in connection with the great doctrines and
+principles in which all Christians coincide, and which constitute the
+substance of our religion. We wish to diffuse the knowledge and influence
+of the gospel of our Lord and Saviour. Great good is anticipated from the
+co-operation of persons entertaining similar views, who are now strangers
+to each other's religious sentiments. Interest will be awakened, confidence
+inspired, efficiency produced by the concentration of labors. The spirit of
+inquiry will be fostered, and individuals at a distance will know where to
+apply for information and encouragement. Respectability and strength will
+be given to the class among us whom our fellow Christians have excluded
+from the control of their religious charities, and whom, by their exclusive
+<a name="pg140"></a>
+treatment, they have compelled in some measure to act as a party." The
+objects of the Association were stated to be the collection of information
+about Unitarianism in various parts of the country; the securing of union,
+sympathy, and co-operation among liberal Christians; the publishing and
+distribution of books inculcating correct views of religion; the employment
+of missionaries, and the adoption of other measures that might promote the
+general purposes held in view.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the year the Association held its first anniversary meeting
+in Pantheon Hall, on the evening of June 30, 1826, when addresses were made
+by Hon. Joseph Story, Hon. Leverett Salstonstall, Rev. Ichabod Nichols, and
+Rev. Henry Coleman. The executive committee presented its report, which
+gave a detailed account of the operations during the year. They gave
+special attention to their discovery of "a body of Christians in the
+Western states who have for years been Unitarians, have encountered
+persecution on account of their faith, and have lived in ignorance of
+others east of the mountains who maintained many similar views of Christian
+doctrine." With this group of churches, which would consent to no other
+name than that of Christian, a correspondence had been opened; and, to
+secure a larger acquaintance with them, Rev. Moses G. Thomas[<a href="#fn_6_11">11</a><a name="fr_6_11"></a>] had
+visited several of the Western states. His tour carried him through
+Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and as far as St. Louis.
+His account of his journey was published in connection with the second
+<a name="pg141"></a>
+report of the Association, and is full of interest. He did not preach, but
+he carefully investigated the religious prospects of the states he
+journeyed through; and he sought the acquaintance of the Christian churches
+and ministers. He gave an enthusiastic account of his travels, and reported
+that the west was a promising field for the planting of Unitarian churches.
+He recommended Northumberland, Harrisburg, Pittsburg, Steubenville,
+Marietta, Paris, Lexington, Louisville, St. Louis, St. Charles,
+Indianapolis, and Cincinnati as promising places for the labors of
+Unitarian missionaries,--places "which will properly appreciate their
+talents and render them doubly useful in their day and generation."</p>
+
+<p>During the first year of its existence the Unitarian Association endeavored
+to unite with itself, or to secure the co-operation of, the Society for the
+Promotion of Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity, the Evangelical
+Missionary Society, and the Publishing Fund Society; but these
+organizations were unwilling to come into close affiliation with it. The
+Evangelical Missionary Society has continued its separate existence to the
+present time, but the others were absorbed by the Unitarian Association
+after many years. This is one indication of how difficult it was to secure
+an active co-operation among Unitarians, and to bring them all into one
+vigorous working body. In concluding their first report, the officers of
+the Association alluded to the difficulties with which they had met the
+reluctance of the liberal churches to come into close affiliation with each
+other. "They have strenuously opposed the opinion," they said of the
+leaders of the Association, "that the object of the founders was to build
+up a party, to organize an opposition, to perpetuate pride and bigotry. Had
+<a name="pg142"></a>
+they believed that such was its purpose or such would be its effect, they
+would have withdrawn themselves from any connection with so hateful a
+thing. They thought otherwise, and experience has proved they did not judge
+wrongly."</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn43"></a>Work of the First Quarter of a Century.</h3>
+
+<p>Having thus organized itself and begun its work, the Association went
+quietly on its way. At no time during the first quarter of a century of its
+existence did it secure annual contributions from one-half the churches
+calling themselves Unitarian, and it did well when even one-third of them
+contributed to its treasury during any one year. The churches of Boston,
+for the most part, held aloof from it, and gave it only a feeble support,
+if any at all. They had so long accepted the spirit of congregational
+exclusiveness, had so great a dread of interference on the part of
+ecclesiastical organizations, and so keenly suspected every attempt at
+co-operation on the part of the churches as likely to lead to restrictions
+upon congregational independence, that it was nearly impossible to secure
+their aid for any kind of common work. Very slowly the contributions
+increased to the sum of $5,000 a year, and only once in the first quarter
+of a century did the total receipts of a year reach $15,000. With so small
+a treasury no great work could be undertaken; but the money given was
+husbanded to the utmost, and the salaries paid to clerks and the general
+secretary were kept to the lowest possible limit.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Bancroft was succeeded in the presidency of the Association, in 1836,
+by Dr. Channing, who nominally held the position for one year; but at the
+next annual meeting he declined to have his name presented as a
+<a name="pg143"></a>
+candidate.[<a href="#fn_6_12">12</a><a name="fr_6_12"></a>] The office was then filled by Dr. Ichabod Nichols, of
+Portland, who served from 1837 to 1844. He was the minister of the First
+Church in Portland from 1809 to 1855, and then retired to Cambridge, where
+he wrote his Natural Theology and his Hours with the Evangelists. Joseph
+Story, the great jurist, who had been vice-president of the Association
+from 1826 to 1836, was elected president in 1844, and served for one year.
+He was followed by Dr. Orville Dewey, who was president from 1845 to 1847.
+He had been settled in New Bedford, and over the Church of the Messiah in
+New York; and subsequently he had short pastorates in Albany, in
+Washington, and over the New South Church in Boston. His lectures and his
+sermons have made him widely known. In intellectual and emotional power he
+was one of the greatest preachers the country has produced. Dr. Gannett
+served as the president from 1847 to 1851, being succeeded by Dr. Samuel K.
+Lothop, who continued to hold the office until 1856. Dr. Lothrop was first
+settled in Dover, N.H., but became the minister of the Brattle Street
+Church, Boston, in 1834, retaining that position until 1876.</p>
+
+<p>The office of secretary was held by Rev. Ezra S, Gannett until 1831. He was
+succeeded in that year by Rev. Alexander Young, who held the position for
+two years. Dr. Young was the minister of the New South Church from 1825
+until his death, in 1854. His Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers, and other
+works, have given him a reputation as a historian. In 1829 the office of
+foreign secretary was created; and it was held by the younger Henry Ware
+<a name="pg144"></a>
+from 1830 to 1834, when it ceased to exist. Rev. Samuel Barnett was
+secretary in 1833 and 1834, and recording secretary until 1837. In 1834 the
+office of general secretary was established, in order to secure the
+services of an active missionary. Rev. Jason Whitman, who held this
+position for one year, had been the minister in Saco; and he was afterward
+settled in Portland and Lexington. Rev. Charles Briggs became the general
+secretary in 1835, and continued in office until the end of 1847. He had
+been settled in Lexington, but did not hold a pastorate subsequent to his
+connection with the Association. In the mean time Rev. Samuel K. Lothrop
+was the assistant or recording secretary from 1837 to 1847. In 1847 Rev.
+William G. Eliot was elected the general secretary; but he did not serve,
+owing to the claims of his parish in St. Louis. Rev. Frederick West
+Holland, who had been settled in Rochester, was made the general secretary
+in January, 1848; and he held the position until the annual meeting of
+1860. Subsequently he was settled in East Cambridge, Neponset, North
+Cambridge, Rochester, and Newburg.</p>
+
+<p>It was Charles Briggs who first gave definite purpose to the missionary
+work of the Association. The annual report of 1850 said of him that he "had
+led the institution forward to high ground as a missionary body, by
+unfailing patience prevailed over every discouragement, by inexhaustible
+hope surmounted serious obstacles, by the most persuasive gentleness
+conciliated opposition, and done perhaps as much as could be asked of sound
+judgment, knowledge of mankind, and devotion to the cause, with the
+drawback of a slender and failing frame." In 1845 Rev. George G. Channing
+<a name="pg145"></a>
+entered upon a service as the travelling agent of the Association, which he
+continued for two years. His duties required him to take an active interest
+in missionary enterprises, revive drooping churches, secure information as
+to the founding of new churches, and to add to the income of the
+Association. He was a brother of Dr. Channing, held one or two pastorates,
+and was the founder and editor of The Christian World, which he published
+in Boston as a weekly Unitarian paper from January, 1843, to the end of
+1848.</p>
+
+<p>At a meeting of the Unitarian Association held on June 3, 1847, the final
+steps were taken that secured its incorporation under the laws of
+Massachusetts. In the revised constitution the fifteen vice-presidents were
+reduced to two, and the president and vice-presidents were made members of
+the executive committee, and so brought into intimate connection with the
+work of the Association. The directors and other officers were made an
+executive committee, by which all affairs of moment must be considered; and
+it was required to hold stated monthly meetings. These changes were
+conducive to an enlarged interest in the work of the Association, and also
+to the more thorough consideration of its activities on the part of a
+considerable body of judicious and experienced officers. They were made in
+recognition of the increasing missionary labors of the Association, and
+enabled it thenceforth to hold and to manage legally the moneys that came
+under its control.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn44"></a>Publication of Tracts and Books.</h3>
+
+<p>One of the first subjects to which the Association gave attention was the
+publication of tracts, six of which were issued during the first year. In
+connection with their publication a series of depositaries was established
+<a name="pg146"></a>
+for their sale. David Reed of The Christian Register became the general
+agent, while there were ten county depositaries in Massachusetts, four in
+New Hampshire, three in Maine, and one each in Connecticut, New York City,
+Philadelphia, Charleston, and Washington.[<a href="#fn_6_13">13</a><a name="fr_6_13"></a>] For a number of years the
+tracts were devoted to doctrinal subjects. Several of Channing's ablest
+sermons and addresses were first printed in this form. Among the other
+contributors to the first series were the three Wares, Orville Dewey,
+Joseph Tuckerman, James Walker, George Ripley, Samuel J. May, John G.
+Palfrey, Ezra S. Gannett, Samuel Gilman, George R. Noyes, William G. Eliot,
+Andrew P. Peabody, F.A. Farley, James Freeman Clarke, S.G. Bulfinch, George
+Putnam, Joseph Allen, Frederic H. Hedge, Edward B. Hall, George E. Ellis,
+Thomas B. Fox, Charles T. Brooks, J.H. Morison, Henry W. Bellows, William
+H. Furness, John Cordner, Chandler Robbins, Augustus Woodbury, and William
+R. Alger. Ten or twelve tracts were issued yearly, those of the year having
+a consecutive page numbering, so that, in fact, they appeared in the form
+of a monthly periodical, each tract bearing the date of its publication,
+<a name="pg147"></a>
+and being sent regularly to all subscribers to the Association. In all,
+three hundred tracts appeared in this form in the first series, making
+twenty-six volumes.</p>
+
+<p>For nearly half a century none of the tracts of the Association were
+published for free distribution. They were issued at prices ranging from
+two to ten cents each, according to the size, some of them having not more
+than ten or twelve pages, while others had more than a hundred. So long as
+there was an eagerness for theological reading, and an earnest intellectual
+interest in the questions which divided the several religious bodies of the
+country from each other, it was not difficult to sell editions of from
+3,000 to 10,000 copies of all the tracts published by the Association. From
+the first, however, there were many calls for tracts for free distribution.
+To meet this demand, there was formed in Boston, by a number of young men
+during the year 1827, The Unitarian Book and Pamphlet Society, for "the
+gratuitous distribution of Unitarian publications of an approved
+character." It undertook especially to distribute "such publications as
+shall be issued by the American Unitarian Association or recommended by
+it." This society also circulated tracts printed by The Christian Register
+and The Christian World, the call for such publications having led the
+publishers of these periodicals to give their aid in meeting the demand for
+pamphlets on theological problems and on practical religious duties. The
+society also distributed Bibles to the poor of the city and in more distant
+country places, furnishing them to missionaries and others who would
+undertake work of this kind. In the same manner they gave away large
+<a name="pg148"></a>
+numbers of books, their list for 1836 including Scougal's Life of God in
+the Soul of Man, Ware's Formation of the Christian Character, and works by
+Worcester, Channing Whitman, and Greenwood. The call for aid was
+considerable from the western and southern states; and books were sent to
+Havana, New Brunswick, and the Sandwich Islands. In the winter of 1840-41
+this society was reorganized, an urgent appeal was made to the churches for
+an increase of funds, and during the next few years its work was large and
+important.</p>
+
+<p>In the year 1848 was begun a special effort for the circulation of
+Unitarian books, on the part of The Book and Pamphlet Society, The Society
+for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity, as well as by the
+Unitarian Association. In that year the second of these organizations sent
+out circulars to 263 colleges and theological schools, offering to give
+Unitarian books, to those desiring to receive them; and to 59 of these
+institutions assortments of books worth from two dollars to one hundred
+dollars were forwarded. The first request came from the Catholic College at
+Worcester, and the last from the Wisconsin University at Madison. At the
+same time the Association was pressing the sale and free distribution of
+the Works and the Memoir of Dr. Charming, as well as various books by
+Peabody, Livermore, Bartol, and others.</p>
+
+<p>The Association began to make use of colporters about the year 1847. The
+next year it had two young ministers engaged in this work, and by 1850 this
+kind of missionary labor had increased to considerable proportions.
+Especially in the West was much use made of the colporter, and in this way
+in many of the states the works of Channing were sold in large numbers. By
+<a name="pg149"></a>
+these agents, tracts were given away with a free hand, and books were given
+to ministers and those who especially needed them. The Western ministers,
+almost without exception, served as colporters, selling books and
+distributing them as important helps to their missionary labors. In many
+communities zealous laymen took part in this kind of service, and the
+several depositaries of books and tracts were used as centres from which
+colporters and others could draw their supplies. As early as 1835 a general
+depositary had been established in Cincinnati, and in 1849 one was opened
+in Chicago.</p>
+
+<p>The Association could not have undertaken any work that would have brought
+in a larger or more immediate return in the way of religious education and
+spiritual growth than this of the publication of tracts and books. Previous
+to 1850 a doctrinal sermon was rarely preached in a Unitarian church, and
+the tracts were the most important means of giving to the members of
+established churches a knowledge of Unitarian theology. By the same means
+many other persons were made acquainted with the Unitarian beliefs, and the
+result was to be seen in the formation of churches where tracts and books
+had been largely distributed.[<a href="#fn_6_14">14</a><a name="fr_6_14"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn45"></a>Domestic Missions.</h3>
+
+<p>The work of domestic missions from the first largely claimed the attention
+of the Association, and it was one the chief objects in its formation.
+During the summer of 1826 the members of the Harvard Divinity School were
+<a name="pg150"></a>
+sent throughout New England to gather information, and to preach where
+opportunity offered. The special object was to make ministers and
+congregations acquainted with the purposes of the Association. It was found
+that there was much opposition to it, and that in many parishes there
+existed no desire to have its mission extended.</p>
+
+<p>Persons of all shades of belief were connected with many of the liberal
+parishes, some of the churches not having as yet ceased their relations
+with the towns in which they were located; and the ministers were not
+willing to have theological questions brought to the attention of their
+congregations. "The great objection everywhere seems to be," reported one
+of the young men, who had travelled through many of the towns of central
+Massachusetts, "that the clergymen do not like to awaken party spirit.
+People will go on quietly performing all external duties of religion
+without asking themselves if they are listening to the doctrine of the
+Trinity or not; but the moment you wish to act, they call up all their old
+prejudices, and take a very firm stand. This necessarily creates division
+and dissension, and renders the situation of the minister very
+uncomfortable."[<a href="#fn_6_15">15</a><a name="fr_6_15"></a>] The ministers did not preach on theological subjects;
+and, while they were liberal themselves, they had not instructed their
+parishioners in such a manner that they followed in the same path of
+thinking which their leaders had travelled.</p>
+
+<p>It was evident, therefore, that there was work enough in New England for
+the Association to accomplish, and such as would fully tax its
+<a name="pg151"></a>
+resources.[<a href="#fn_6_16">16</a><a name="fr_6_16"></a>] It had turned its eyes toward the West and South, however;
+and it was not willing to leave these fields unoccupied. In 1836 the
+general secretary, Charles Briggs, spent eight months in these regions; and
+he found everywhere large opportunities for the spread of Unitarianism.
+Promising openings were found at Erie, Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit,
+Marietta, Tremont, Jacksonville, Memphis, and Nashville, in which villages
+or cities churches were soon after formed. It was reported at this time
+that there was hardly a town in the West where there were not Unitarians,
+<a name="pg152"></a>
+or in which it was not possible by the right kind of effort to establish a
+Unitarian church.</p>
+
+<p>As a result of the interest awakened by the tour of the general secretary,
+fourteen missionaries were put into the field in 1837. In 1838 twenty-three
+missionaries visited eleven states, including New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
+Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky Alabama, and Georgia.[<a href="#fn_6_17">17</a><a name="fr_6_17"></a>] They were
+men of experience in parish labors, but they did not go out to the new
+country to remain there permanently. They attracted large congregations,
+however, formed several societies which promised to be permanent,
+administered the ordinances, established Sunday-schools, and did much to
+strengthen the churches. In 1839 seven preachers were sent into the west,
+and at the next anniversary there was an urgent call made by the
+Association for funds with which to establish a permanent missionary agent
+in the field. Something more was needed than a few Massachusetts ministers
+preaching from town to town with no purpose of locating with any of the
+churches they helped to organize. Ministers for the new churches were
+urgently demanded, but few men from New England were willing to remove to
+<a name="pg153"></a>
+the west; and, though recruits came from the orthodox churches, this source
+of supply was not sufficient.</p>
+
+<p>The repeated calls made for larger resources with which to carry on the
+work of domestic missions resulted in meetings held in Boston during the
+year 1841, at which pledges were made to a fund of $10,000 yearly for five
+years, to be used for missionary purposes. This sum was secured in 1843 and
+the next four years, so that larger aid was given to missionary activities
+and to the building of churches. At the annual meeting of 1849 special
+attention was given to the subject of domestic missions, and plans were
+devised for largely extending all the activities in this direction. Much
+interest was taken in the western work during the following years, and
+slowly new churches came into existence. In 1849 Rev. Edward P. Bond was
+sent to San Francisco, where a number of New England people had held lay
+services and formed a church, and in a few years a strong society had grown
+up in that city. Mr. Bond also went to the Sandwich Islands; but he was not
+able to open a mission there, owing to ill-health. In the South the work
+languished, largely owing to the growth of anti-slavery sentiment in the
+North, with which Unitarians were generally in sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>From 1830 to 1850 the Unitarians were confronted by the greatest
+opportunity which has ever opened to them for missionary activities. The
+vast region of the middle west was in a formative state, the people were
+everywhere receptive to liberal influences, other churches had not been
+firmly established, and there was urgent demand for leadership of a
+progressive and rational kind. Here has come to be the controlling centre
+<a name="pg154"></a>
+of American life,--in politics, education, and social power. A few of the
+leaders saw the opportunity, but the churches were not ready to respond to
+their appeals.</p>
+
+<p>The work accomplished by the Association during the first twenty-five or
+thirty years of its existence, the period reviewed in this chapter, was
+small, compared with the opportunity and with the wishes of those who most
+had at heart the interests for the promotion of which it was established.
+Yet there was wanting in no year encouragement for its friends or something
+accomplished that cheered them to larger efforts. In 1850, at the
+twenty-fifth anniversary, historical addresses were delivered by Samuel
+Osgood, John G. Palfrey, Henry W. Bellows, Edward E. Hale, and Lant
+Carpenter; and a hopeful review of the labors of the Association was
+presented by the executive committee. First of all its efforts had been
+directed to securing religious liberty. Then came its philanthropic
+enterprises, and finally its missionary labors. During the quarter of a
+century one hundred churches that were weak and struggling, owing to their
+situation in towns of decreasing population or in cities not congenial to
+their teachings, had been aided. More than fifty vigorous churches had been
+planted in the west and south, nearly all of them helped in some way by the
+Association. There was a renewed call for strong men to enter the
+missionary field, and it was uttered more urgently at this time than ever
+before. Special pride was expressed in the high quality of the religious
+writings produced by Unitarians, and in the nobleness the men and women who
+had been connected with denominational activities.[<a href="#fn_6_18">18</a><a name="fr_6_18"></a>]</p>
+
+<p><br /><br />[<a href="#fr_6_1">1</a><a name="fn_6_1"></a>] An eighteenth-century term for the Congregational churches, which
+     were the legally established churches throughout New England, an
+     supported by the towns.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_6_2">2</a><a name="fn_6_2"></a>] Boston Unitarianism, 67.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_6_3">3</a><a name="fn_6_3"></a>] Memoir of Dr. Channing, one-volume edition, 215.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_6_4">4</a><a name="fn_6_4"></a>] Ibid., 432.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_6_5">5</a><a name="fn_6_5"></a>] Ibid., 427.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_6_6">6</a><a name="fn_6_6"></a>] Memoir of Ezra Stiles Gannett, by W.C. Gannett, 103.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_6_7">7</a><a name="fn_6_7"></a>] The records give the following names: Drs. Freeman, Channing, Lowell,
+     Tuckerman, Bancroft, Pierce, and Allyn; Rev. Messrs. Henry Ware,
+     Francis Parkman, J.G. Palfrey, Jared Sparks, Samuel Ripley, A.
+     Bigelow, A. Abbot, C. Francis, L. Capen, J. Pierpont, James Walker,
+     Mr. Harding, and Mr. Edes; and the following laymen,--Richard
+     Sullivan, Stephen Higginson, B. Gould, H.J. Oliver, S. Dorr, Colonel
+     Joseph May, C.G. Loring, George Bond, Samuel A. Eliot, G.B. Emerson,
+     C.P. Phelps, Lewis Tappan, David Reed, Mr. Storer, J. Rucker, N.
+     Mitchell, Robert Rantoul, Alden Bradford, Mr. Dwight, Mr. Mackintosh,
+     General Walker, Mr. Strong, Dr. John Ware, and Professor Andrews
+     Norton.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_6_8">8</a><a name="fn_6_8"></a>] John Brazer, The Christian Examiner, xx. 240; Alonzo Hill, American
+     Unitarian Biography, i. 171.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_6_9">9</a><a name="fn_6_9"></a>] The Liberal Christian, March 3, 1875.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_6_10">10</a><a name="fn_6_10"></a>] Although Lewis Tappan took a zealous interest in the formation of the
+     Unitarian Association, as he did in all Unitarian activities of the
+     time, in the autumn of 1827 he withdrew from the Unitarian
+     fellowship, and joined the orthodox Congregationalist. In a letter
+     addressed to a Unitarian minister he explained his reasons for so
+     doing. This letter circulated for some time in manuscript, and in
+     1828 was printed in a pamphlet with the title, Letter from a
+     Gentleman in Boston to a Unitarian Clergyman of that City. Want of
+     Piety among Unitarians, failure to sustain missionary enterprises,
+     and the absence of a rigid business integrity he assigned as reasons
+     for his withdrawal. This pamphlet excited much discussion, pro and
+     con; and it was answered in a caustic review by J.P. Blanchard.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_6_11">11</a><a name="fn_6_11"></a>] Moses George Thomas was a graduate of Brown and of the Harvard
+     Divinity School, was settled in Dover, N.H., from 1829 to 1845,
+     Broadway Church in South Boston from 1845 to 1848, New Bedford 1848
+     to 1854, and was subsequently minister at large in the same city.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_6_12">12</a><a name="fn_6_12"></a>] In writing to Charles Briggs from Newport, under date of July 30
+     1836, Dr. Channing wrote, "In the pressure of subjects, when I saw
+     you, I forgot to say to you, that I cannot accept the office with
+     which the Unitarian Association honored me." That is the whole of
+     what he wrote on the subject. No one else was elected to the office
+     for year. It is evident, therefore, that his name should occupy the
+     place of president.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_6_13">13</a><a name="fn_6_13"></a>] The depositaries in Massachusetts were at Salem, Concord, Hingham,
+     Plymouth, Yarmouth, Cambridge, Worcester, Northampton, Springfield,
+     and Greenfield; in New Hampshire, at Concord, Portsmouth, Keene, and
+     Amherst; in Maine, at Hallowell, Brunswick, and Eastport; and, in
+     Connecticut, at Brooklyn. In 1828 the number had increased to
+     twenty-five in Massachusetts, six in Maine, seven in New Hampshire,
+     one in Rhode Island, four in New York, two in Pennsylvania, and two
+     in Maryland. At the first annual meeting of the Unitarian Association
+     a system of auxiliaries was recommended, which was inaugurated the
+     next year. It was proposed to organize an auxiliary to the
+     Association in every parish, and also in each county. These societies
+     came rapidly into existence, were of much help to the Association in
+     raising money and in distributing its tracts, and energetic efforts
+     were made on the part of the officers of the Association to extend
+     their number and influence. They continued in existence for about
+     twenty years, and gradually disappeared. They numbered about one
+     hundred and fifty when most prosperous.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_6_14">14</a><a name="fn_6_14"></a>] During the first twenty-five years of the Association, 272 tracts of
+     the first series were issued, and also 29 miscellaneous tracts and 37
+     reports. The number of copies published was estimated as 1,764,000,
+     making an average of 70,000 each year. Of these tracts, 103 were
+     practical, and 93 doctrinal; and, of the doctrinal, one-half were on
+     the Divine Unity, one-sixth on the Atonement, ten on Regeneration,
+     five on the Ordinances, four on Human Nature, three on Retribution,
+     and two on the Holy Spirit. In the Monthly Journal, May, 1860, Vol.
+     I. pp. 230-240, were given the titles and authors.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_6_15">15</a><a name="fn_6_15"></a>] From a letter of Samuel K. Lothrop, afterward minister of the Brattle
+     Street Church.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_6_16">16</a><a name="fn_6_16"></a>] The following letter is of interest, not only because of the name of
+     the writer, but because it gives a very good idea of the work done by
+     the first missionaries of the Association. It is dated at
+     Northampton, Mass., October 9, 1827. "My dear Sir,--I designed when I
+     left you to send some earlier notice of my doings than this; but as
+     it has not been in my power to say much, I have said nothing. Mr.
+     Hall is preparing an account of his own missions, but thinks it not
+     worth while to send it to you till it is completed. The first Sabbath
+     after my arrival I preached here. The second, for the convenience of
+     the Greenfield people, an exchange was made, and I went to Deerfield,
+     and Dr. Willard went to Colrain. There were some unfavorable
+     circumstances which operated to diminish the audience, but they were
+     glad to see and hear him. The fourth Sabbath (which followed the
+     meeting of the Franklin Association) I preached at Greenfield, and
+     Mr. Bailey went to Colrain. I enclose his journal. The fifth Sabbath
+     at Deerfield, and Dr. Willard at Adams in Berkshire. I have not seen
+     him since his return. I have told the Franklin Association I would
+     remain here till November, and in consequence have been thus put to
+     and fro, but expect to preach the three coming Sundays in
+     Northampton. I have offered my services to preach lectures in the
+     week, but circumstances have made it inexpedient in towns where it
+     was proposed. The clergymen are very glad to see me, having feared
+     that the mission was indefinitely postponed. They find the better
+     sort of people in most of the towns inquisitive and favorably
+     disposed to views of liberal Christianity. It is a singular fact, of
+     which I hear frequent mention made, that in elections Unitarians are
+     almost universally preferred when the suffrage is by ballot, and
+     rejected when given by hand ballot. In Franklin county it is thought
+     there is a majority of Unitarians. I have been much disappointed in
+     being obliged to lead a vagrant life, as you know I came hither with
+     different expectations, and hoped for leisure and retirement for
+     study, which I needed much. But it would not do for a missionary to
+     be stiff necked, and so I have been a shuttle. I have promised to go
+     to New Bedford the first three Sundays of November. With great
+     regard, your servant, R. Waldo Emerson." From this letter it will be
+     seen that Emerson supplied the pulpits at Northampton and Greenfield
+     in order that the ministers in those towns might preach elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_6_17">17</a><a name="fn_6_17"></a>] Fourteenth Annual Report, 14. "They were the following: Rev. George
+     Ripley, Boston; Rev. A.B. Muzzey, Cambridgeport; Rev. Samuel Barrett,
+     Boston; Rev. Mr. Green, East Cambridge; Rev. Calvin Lincoln,
+     Fitchburg; Rev. E.B. Willson, Westford; Dr. James Kendall, Plymouth;
+     Rev. George W. Hosmer, Buffalo; Rev. Warren Burton, Dr. Thompson,
+     Salem; Rev. J.P.B. Storer, Syracuse; Rev. Charles Babbidge,
+     Pepperell; Rev. John M. Myrick, Walpole; Rev. J.D. Swett, Boston;
+     Rev. A.D. Jones, Brighton; Rev. Henry Emmons, Meadville; Rev. J.F.
+     Clarke, Louisville; Rev. F.D. Huntington, Rev. B.F. Barrett, Rev.
+     G.F. Simmons, Rev. C. Nightingale, Mr. Wilson, of the Divinity
+     School; and Mr. C.P. Cranch. Among the places where they preached
+     are Houlton Me.; Syracuse, Lockport, Lewiston, Pekin, and Vernon,
+     N.Y.; Philadelphia and Erie, Pa.; Marietta, Zanesville, Cleveland,
+     and Toledo, Ohio; Detroit, Mich.; Owensburg, Ky.; Chicago, Peoria,
+     Tremont, Jacksonville, Hillsboro, and several other places in
+     Illinois."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_6_18">18</a><a name="fn_6_18"></a>] For a most interesting account of the growth of the denomination, see
+     The Christian Examiner for May, 1854, lvi. 397, article by John
+     Parkman.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<a name="pg155"></a>
+<h2><br /><a name="ch7"></a>VII.<br />
+
+
+THE PERIOD OF RADICALISM.</h2>
+
+<p>Before the controversy with the Orthodox had come to its end, a somewhat
+similar conflict of opinions arose within the Unitarian ranks. The same
+influences that had led the Unitarians away from the Orthodox were now
+causing the more radical Unitarians to advance beyond their more
+conservative neighbors. English philosophy had given direction to the
+Unitarian movement in America; and now German philosophy was helping to
+develop what has been designated as transcendentalism, which largely found
+expression within the Unitarian body. Beginning with 1835, the more liberal
+Unitarians were increasingly active. Hedge's[<a href="#fn_7_1">1</a><a name="fr_7_1"></a>] Club held its meetings,
+The Dial was published, Brook Farm lived its brief day of a reformed
+humanity, Parker began his preaching in Boston, Emerson was lecturing and
+publishing, and the more radical younger Unitarian preachers were bravely
+speaking for a religion natural to man and authenticated by the inner
+witness of the truth.</p>
+
+<p>The agitation thus started went on its way with many varying
+<a name="pg156"></a>
+manifestations, and with a growing incisiveness of statement and
+earnestness of feeling. The new teachings gained the interest and the faith
+of the young in increasing numbers. In pulpits and on the platform, in
+newspapers and magazines, in essays and addresses, this new teaching was
+uttered for the world's hearing. The breeze thus created seems to have
+grown into a gale, but The Christian Register and The Christian Examiner
+gave almost no indication that it had blown their way. In the official
+actions and in the publications of the Unitarian Association there was no
+word indicating that the discussion had come to its knowledge. All at once,
+however, in 1853, it came into the greatest prominence, as the result of
+action taken by the Unitarian Association; and, thenceforth, for a quarter
+of a century it was never absent as a disturbing element in the
+intellectual and religious life of the Unitarian body.</p>
+
+<p>The early Unitarians were believers in the supernatural and in the miracles
+of the New Testament. They accepted without question the ideas on this
+subject that had been entertained by all Protestants from the days of
+Luther and Calvin. When Theodore Parker and the transcendentalists began to
+question the miraculous foundations of Christianity, many Unitarians were
+quite unprepared to accept their theories. They believed that the miracles
+of the New Testament afford the only evidence for the truthfulness of
+Christianity. This issue was distinctly stated in the twenty-eighth annual
+report of the Unitarian Association for 1853, wherein an attempt was made
+to defend the Unitarian body against the charge of infidelity and
+rationalism made by the Orthodox. The teachings of the transcendentalists
+<a name="pg157"></a>
+and radicals had been attributed to all Unitarians, and the leaders of the
+Association felt that it was time to define explicitly the position they
+occupied. Therefore they said, in the report of that year:--"We desire, in
+a denominational capacity, to assert our profound belief in the Divine
+origin, the Divine authority, the Divine sanctions, of the religion of
+Jesus Christ. This is the basis of our associated action. We desire openly
+to declare our belief as a denomination, so far as it can be officially
+represented by the American Unitarian Association, that God, moved by his
+own love, did raise up Jesus to aid in our redemption from sin, did by him
+pour a fresh flood of purifying life through the withered veins of humanity
+and along the corrupted channels of the world, and is, by his religion,
+forever sweeping the nations with regenerating gales from heaven, and
+visiting the hearts of men with celestial solicitations. We receive the
+teachings of Christ, separated from all foreign admixtures and later
+accretions, as infallible truth from God."[<a href="#fn_7_2">2</a><a name="fr_7_2"></a>] At the same meeting a
+resolution was adopted, "without a dissenting voice," which declared that
+"the Divine authority of the Gospel, as founded on a special and miraculous
+interposition of God, is the basis of the action of the Association."[<a href="#fn_7_3">3</a><a name="fr_7_3"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg158"></a>
+<p>As these statements indicate, the majority of Unitarians were very
+conservative at this time in their theological position and methods. They
+were nearly as hesitating and reticent in their beliefs as Unitarians as
+they had been while connected with the older Congregational body. The
+reason for this was the same in the later as in the earlier period, that a
+predominant social conservatism held them aloof from all that was
+intellectually aggressive and theologically rationalistic. They had
+outgrown Tritheism, as it had been taught for generations in New England;
+they had refused to accept the fatalism that had been taught in the name of
+Calvin, and they had rejected the ecclesiastical tyrannies that had been
+imposed on men by the New England theology. But they had advanced only a
+little way in accepting modern thought as a basis of faith, and in seeking
+a rational interpretation of the relations of God and man. Their belief in
+a superhuman Christ was theoretically weaker, but practically stronger,
+than that of the churches from which they had withdrawn; while the grounds
+of that belief were in the one instance the same as in the other.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn46"></a>Depression in Denominational Activities.</h3>
+
+<p>The activities of the Unitarian Association were largely interfered with by
+these differences of opinion. The more conservative churches were unwilling
+to contribute to its treasury because it did not exclude the radicals from
+all connection with it. The radicals, on, the other hand, withheld their
+gifts because, while they were not excommunicated, they were regarded with
+suspicion by many of the churches, and did not have the fullest recognition
+from the Association.</p>
+
+<a name="pg159"></a>
+<p>This controversy was emphasized by that arising from the reform movements
+of the day, especially the agitation against slavery. Almost without
+exception the radicals belonged to the anti-slavery party, while the
+conservative churches were generally opposed to this agitation. As a
+result, anti-slavery efforts became a serious cause of discord in the
+Unitarian churches, and helped to cripple the resources of the Association.
+When, as the climax of all, the civil war came on, the Association was
+brought to a condition of almost desperate poverty. Not more than twoscore
+churches contributed to its treasury, and it was obliged, to curtail its
+expenses in every direction.[<a href="#fn_7_4">4</a><a name="fr_7_4"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Up to the year 1865 the Unitarians had not been efficiently organized; and
+they had developed very imperfectly what has been called denominational
+consciousness, or the capacity for co-operative efforts. The Unitarian
+Association was not a representative body, and it depended wholly upon
+individuals for its membership. Not more than one-fourth or, at the
+largest, one-third of the Unitarian churches were represented in its
+support and in its activities. There were: Unitarian churches, and there
+was a Unitarian movement; but such a thing as a Unitarian denomination, in
+any clearly defined meaning of the words, did not exist. This fact was
+explained by James Freeman Clarke in 1863, when he said that "the
+<a name="pg160"></a>
+traditions of the Unitarian body are conservative and timid."[<a href="#fn_7_5">5</a><a name="fr_7_5"></a>] How this
+attitude affected the Unitarian Association was pointedly stated by Mr.
+Clarke, after several years of experience as its secretary. "The Unitarian
+churches in Boston," he wrote, "see no reason for diffusing their faith.
+They treat it as a luxury to be kept for themselves, as they keep Boston
+Common. The Boston churches, with the exception of a few noble and generous
+examples, have not done a great deal for Unitarian missions. I have heard,
+it said that they do not wish to make Unitarianism too common. The church
+in Brattle street contains wealthy and generous persons who have given
+largely to humane objects and to all public purposes; but we believe that,
+even while their pastor was president of the Unitarian Association, they
+never gave a dollar to that Association for its missionary objects. The
+society in King's Chapel was the first in the United States which professed
+Unitarianism. It is so wealthy that it might give ten or twenty thousand
+dollars a year to missionary objects without feeling it. It has always been
+very liberal to its ministers, to all philanthropic and benevolent objects,
+and its members have probably given away millions of dollars for public and
+social uses; but it never gives anything to diffuse Unitarianism."[<a href="#fn_7_6">6</a><a name="fr_7_6"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Samuel K. Lothrop continued as the president of the Unitarian
+Association until the annual meeting of 1858, when Dr. Edward Brooks Hall
+was elected to that position for one year. After short pastorates in
+Northampton and Cincinnati, Dr. Hall had been settled over the First Church
+<a name="pg161"></a>
+in Providence in 1832, which position he held until his death in 1866. At
+the annual meeting of 1859 Dr. Frederic H. Hedge was elected president, and
+he was twice re-elected. His interest in the Association was active, and he
+often spoke at the public meetings. One of the ablest thinkers and
+theologians that has appeared among Unitarians in this country, he always
+rightly estimated the practical activities of organized religious
+movements. He was succeeded in 1862 by Dr. Rufus P. Stebbins, who held the
+office for three years. After a settlement in Leominster, Dr. Stebbins was
+the first president of the Meadville Theological School from 1844 to 1856.
+Then followed a pastorate in Woburn, after which he went to Ithaca and
+opened a mission for the students of Cornell University, which grew into
+the Unitarian church in that town. From 1877 he was pastor at Newton Centre
+until his death in 1885.</p>
+
+<p>The secretary of the Association from 1850 to 1853 was Rev. Calvin Lincoln,
+who had been settled in Fitchburg for thirty-one years, and who was the
+minister of the First Church in Hingham from 1855 until his death in 1881.
+He was succeeded in 1853 by Rev. Henry A. Miles, who continued in office
+until 1859. Dr. Miles was settled in Hallowell and Lowell before serving
+the Association, and in Longwood and Hingham (Third Parish) afterward. His
+little book on The Birth of Jesus has gained him recognition as a
+theologian of ability and a critic of independent judgment. For three years
+Rev. James Freeman Clarke was the secretary; and in 1861 he was succeeded
+by George W. Fox, who served in that capacity until the annual meeting of
+1865. Mr. Fox wrote the annual reports from 1862 to 1864, and efficiently
+<a name="pg162"></a>
+performed all the duties of the secretary which could devolve upon a
+layman, with the exception of editing The Monthly Journal, a task which was
+continued by James Freeman Clarke.[<a href="#fn_7_7">7</a><a name="fr_7_7"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn47"></a>Publications.</h3>
+
+<p>In spite of its restricted income during this troubled period, the
+Association was able, owing to its invested funds,[<a href="#fn_7_8">8</a><a name="fr_7_8"></a>] to increase its
+publishing operations to a considerable extent. The number of tracts
+published, however, was much smaller; and their monthly issue was
+discontinued in order to publish The Quarterly Journal of the American
+Unitarian Association, the first number of which appeared in October, 1853.
+During the first year each number contained ninety-six pages, which were
+increased to one hundred and ninety-two in 1854, but reduced to one hundred
+and thirty the following year. In 1860 this publication became The Monthly
+Journal; and it was continued until December, 1869, each number containing
+forty-eight pages. The Journal was sent to all subscribers to the funds of
+the Association, to life members, to all churches contributing to its
+funds, as well as to regular subscribers. Its circulation in 1855 was
+7,000, and it increased to 15,000 before it was discontinued. It was used
+largely, however, for free distribution as a missionary document.</p>
+
+<a name="pg163"></a>
+<p>The Journal served an important purpose during the seventeen years of its
+publication, as a means of bringing the Association into touch with its
+constituency and of making the people acquainted with its work. It
+published the records of the meetings of the executive committee as well as
+of the annual meeting, it gave numerous extracts from the correspondence of
+the secretary, it contained the news of the churches, and all the
+denominational activities were kept constantly before its readers. In its
+pages were frequently published biographies of prominent Unitarians,
+notable addresses were printed, sermons appeared frequently, and able
+theological articles. During the editorship of James Freeman Clarke it
+contained the successive chapters of his Orthodoxy: Its Truths and Errors.
+It also printed one or more chapters of Alger's History of the Doctrine of
+the Future Life. The secretary of the Association was its editor, and he
+made it at once a theological tract and a denominational newspaper.</p>
+
+<p>The increase in demand for Unitarian tracts and books had been so large
+that early in 1854 the executive committee of the Association decided that
+a special effort should be made to meet it. They called a meeting in
+Freeman Place Chapel on the afternoon of February 1, which was largely
+attended. An address was given by Dr. Lothrop, the president, who said that
+Channing's works had reached a sale of 100,000 copies, and Ware's Formation
+of Christian Character 12,000, that there was an urgent call for liberal
+works that would meet the spiritual needs of the age. A large number of
+prominent ministers and laymen addressed the meeting, and expressed
+themselves as thoroughly sympathy with its objects. A committee was
+<a name="pg164"></a>
+appointed to consider the proposition made by Dr. George E. Ellis, that a
+fund of $50,000 be raised for the publication of books. This committee
+reported a month later through its chairman, George B. Emerson, in favor of
+the project; and it was voted that the money should be raised. It was
+easier to pass this vote, however, than to secure the money from the
+churches; for in 1859, after five years of effort, the sum collected was
+only $28,163.33.</p>
+
+<p>The money secured, however, was immediately utilized in the publication of
+a number of books. Three series of works were undertaken, the first of
+these being The Theological Library, in which were published Selections
+from the Works of Dr. Channing; Wilson's Unitarian Principles Confirmed by
+Trinitarian Testimonies; a one-volume edition of Norton's Statement of
+Reasons for not Believing the Doctrines of Trinitarians concerning the
+Nature of God and the Person of Christ, with a memoir of the author by Dr.
+William Newell; a volume of Theological Essays selected from the writings
+of Jowett, Tholuck, Guizot, Roland Williams, and others, and edited by
+George R. Noyes; and Martineau's Studies of Christianity, a series of
+miscellaneous papers, edited by William R. Alger. The Devotional Library,
+the second of the three series, included The Altar at Home, a series of
+prayers, collects, and litanies for family devotions, written by a large
+number of the leading Unitarian ministers, and edited by Dr. Miles, the
+secretary of the Association; Clarke's Christian Doctrine of Prayer; Thomas
+T. Stone's The Rod and the Staff, a transcendentalist presentation of
+Christianity as a spiritual life; The Harp and the Cross, a selection of
+<a name="pg165"></a>
+religious poetry, edited by Stephen G. Bulfinch; Sears's Athanasia, or
+Foregleams of Immortality; and Seven Stormy Sundays, a volume of original
+sermons by well-known ministers, with devotional services, edited by Miss
+Lucretia P. Hale. A Biblical Library was also planned, to include a popular
+commentary on the New Testament, a Bible Dictionary, and other works of a
+like character; but John H. Morison's Disquisitions and Notes on the Gospel
+of Matthew was the only volume published.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn48"></a>A Firm of Publishers.</h3>
+
+<p>In May, 1859, a young business man of Boston, James P. Walker, established
+the firm of Walker, Wise &amp; Co., for the publication of Unitarian books. In
+1863 Horace B. Fuller joined the firm, and it became Walker, Fuller &amp; Co.
+This firm took charge of all the publishing interests of the Association,
+and the head of the house was ambitious of bringing out all the liberal
+books issued in this country. Among the works published were: The New
+Discussion of the Trinity, a series of articles and sermons by Hedge,
+Clarke, Sears, Dewey, and Starr King; Lamson's Church of the First Three
+Centuries; Farley's Unitarianism Defined; Recent Inquiries in Theology,
+essays by Jowett, Mark Pattison, Baden Powell, and other English Broad
+Churchmen, edited by Dr. F.H. Hedge; Alien's Hebrew Men and Times; Dall's
+Woman's Right to Labor; Muzzey's Christ in the Will, the Heart, and the
+Life; Ichabod Nichols's Sermons; Martineau's Common Prayer for Christian
+Worship; Cobbe's Religious Demands of the Age; Ware's Silent Pastor;
+Frothingham's Stories from the Patriarchs; Clarke's Hour which Cometh and
+Now Is; Parker's Prayers; a second series The Altar at Home; Hedge's Reason
+<a name="pg166"></a>
+in Religion; Life of Horace Mann by his wife, as well as certain novels,
+historical works, and books for the young. The demand for liberal books was
+not large enough, however, even with the aid of the Association, to make
+such a business successful; and in the autumn of 1866 the publishing firm
+of Walker, Fuller &amp; Co. failed. In part the business was carried on for a
+time by Horace B. Fuller.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn49"></a>The Brooks Fund.</h3>
+
+<p>An important work in the distribution of books was inaugurated in 1859 in
+connection with the Meadville Theological School, by means of the Fund for
+Liberal Christianity established at that time by Joshua Brooks of New York.
+He appointed as trustee of the fund Professor Frederick Huidekoper, who
+gave his services gratuitously to its care, and to the direction of the
+distribution of books for which it provided. The sum given to this purpose
+was $20,000, which was increased by favorable investments to $23,000. The
+original purpose was to aid in any way that seemed desirable the cause of
+liberal Christianity, and a part of the income was devoted to helping
+struggling societies. In time the whole income, with the approval of the
+donor, was centred upon the distribution of books to settled ministers,
+irrespective of denomination. In 1877 the whole number of books that had
+been distributed was 40,000. At the present time about $1,000 yearly are
+devoted to this work, the recipients being graduates of the Meadville
+Theological School, and the ministers of any denomination who may ask for
+them, provided they are settled west of the Hudson River. The demands upon
+the funds have increased so rapidly that it has become necessary to reduce
+the amount of each gift.</p>
+
+<a name="pg167"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn50"></a>Missionary Efforts.</h3>
+
+<p>The missionary activities of the Association did not actually cease even in
+these dark days. In May, 1855, Rev. Ephraim Nute was sent to Kansas, which
+was then the battle-ground between the pro-slavery and the anti-slavery
+forces of the nation. He established himself at Lawrence, and was the first
+settled pastor in the state. With the aid of the Association a church was
+built at Lawrence in 1859, which was the first in the state to receive
+dedication and to be used as a permanent house of worship. Mr. Nute went
+through all the trying scenes preceding the opening of the civil war, and
+did his part in maintaining the cause of liberty. He was succeeded by Rev.
+John S. Brown in 1859, who labored in this difficult field for several
+years.</p>
+
+<p>A church was organized in San Francisco in 1849, without the aid of a
+minister; and there was gathered a large and prosperous congregation. In
+1850 Rev. Charles A. Farley took up the work; and he was succeeded by Rev.
+Joseph Harrington, Rev. Frederick T. Gray, and Rev. Rufus P. Cutler. Thomas
+Starr King preached his first sermon in the church April 28, 1860; and he
+spoke to crowded congregations until his death, March 4, 1864. On January
+10, 1864, a new church was dedicated, in the morning to the worship of God,
+and in the afternoon to the service of man.</p>
+
+<p>Among those who carried forward the Unitarian cause in the middle west was
+Rev. Nahor A. Staples, a brilliant preacher and a zealous worker, who was
+settled in Milwaukee at the end of 1856, and who made his influence widely
+felt around him. In 1859 Rev. Robert Collyer began his work in Chicago as a
+<a name="pg168"></a>
+city Missionary; and the next year Unity Church was organized, with him as
+the pastor. In 1859 Rev. Charles G. Ames began his connection with the
+Unitarians at Minneapolis, and he subsequently labored at Bloomington.
+After a short pastorate in Albany he began general missionary labors on the
+Pacific coast. A characteristic type of the western Unitarian was Rev.
+Ichabod Codding, who preached at Bloomington, Keokuk, and Baraboo, but who
+had no formal settlement. He was a breezy, radical, and ardent preacher,
+bold in statement and picturesque in style, a zealous advocate of freedom
+for the slave, and warmly devoted to other reforms. He was fitted admirably
+for the pioneer preaching to which he largely devoted himself; and his
+strong, vigorous, and aggressive ideas were acceptable to those who heard
+him.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn51"></a>The Western Unitarian Conference.</h3>
+
+<p>There was organized in the church at Cincinnati, May 7, 1852, the Annual
+Conference of Western Unitarian Churches. At this meeting delegates were
+present from the churches in Buffalo, Meadville, Pittsburg, Wheeling,
+Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, Cannelton, Quincy, Geneva, Chicago, and
+Detroit. Much enthusiasm was expressed in anticipation of this meeting,
+many letters were written, approving of the proposed organization, and
+large expectations were manifested as to its promised work. In harmony with
+these large and generous anticipations of the influence of the conference
+was its statement of purposes, as presented in its constitution. It was
+organized for "the promotion of the Christian spirit in the several
+churches which compose it, and the increase of vital, practical religion;
+the diffusion of Gospel truth and the accomplishment of such works of
+<a name="pg169"></a>
+Christian benevolence as may be agreed upon; the support of domestic or
+home missionaries, the publication of tracts, the distribution of religious
+books, the promotion of theological education, and extending aid to such
+societies as may need it."</p>
+
+<p>When the conference organized, Rev. William G. Eliot was elected the
+president, Mr. Charles Harlow and Rev. A.A. Livermore the recording and
+corresponding secretaries. During the year $994.22 were raised for
+missionary purposes, and three missionaries--Boyer, Conant, and
+Bradley--were kept in the field, mainly in Illinois and Michigan. The
+reports of these men, given at the second meeting of the conference, held
+in St. Louis, were full of enthusiasm and courage. At this meeting the
+constituency numbered nineteen churches, located in eleven states. Several
+struggling societies had been aided, assistance given to young men
+preparing for the ministry, and many tracts and books had been distributed.
+A book depositary was opened in Cincinnati, and it was proposed to
+establish one in every large city in the west. The call was for a much
+larger number of preachers, it being rightly maintained that only the
+living man can reach the people in such a region. "The Unitarian minister
+is <i>per se</i> a bookseller and colporter also, and he can thus preach to
+multitudes who never hear his voice."</p>
+
+<p>The early anticipations of a rapid advance of Unitarianism in the west were
+not realized, partly owing to the want of ministers of energy and the
+necessary staying qualities, and partly to the fact that tradition is
+always far more powerful with the masses of men and women than reason.
+Before the organization of the conference new churches appeared at
+infrequent intervals, though, if those that have ceased to exist were
+<a name="pg170"></a>
+counted, they would not be so remote from each other in time.[<a href="#fn_7_9">9</a><a name="fr_7_9"></a>] From the
+first there was in the west a distinctive attitude of freedom, which was
+the result in large, measure of its fluctuating conditions, and the absence
+of fixed habits and traditions. In 1853 the missionaries of the conference
+were instructed that "in spirit and in aim the Conference would be
+<a name="pg171"></a>
+Christian, not sectarian, and it does not, therefore, require of them
+subscription to any human creed, the wearing of any distinctive name, or
+the doing of any merely sectarian work. All that it requires is, that they
+should be Christians and do Christian work, that they should believe on the
+Lord Jesus Christ as one who spake with authority and whose religion is the
+divinely appointed means for the regeneration of man individually and
+collectively, and that they should labor earnestly, intelligently,
+affectionately, and perseveringly to enthrone this religion in the hearts
+and make it, effective over the lives of men." Such a statement as this,
+indeed, was quite as conservative as anything put forth by Unitarians in
+New England; but behind it was an attitude of free inquiry that gave to
+western Unitarianism distinctive characteristics.</p>
+
+<p>In 1854 a committee reported on the doctrinal basis of the conference, in
+the form of a little book of sixty-five pages, bearing the title of
+Unitarian Views of Christ.[<a href="#fn_7_10">10</a><a name="fr_7_10"></a>] It was widely circulated, and served an
+excellent missionary purpose. When the conference accepted the report, in
+which it was declared that Jesus is the Son of God and the miracles of the
+New Testament facts on which the gospel is based, a resolution was
+unanimously passed, asserting that "we have no right to adopt any statement
+of belief as authoritative or as a declaration of the Unitarian faith,
+other than the New Testament." In 1858 it was the opinion of the conference
+that "all who wish to take upon themselves the Christian name should be so
+recognized." The next year the conservatives and radicals came face to
+face, the one party asking for the old faith according to Channing, while
+one or more of the other party asserted their disbelief in the miracles and
+in the resurrection of Christ. In 1860 the conference declared itself
+willing to "welcome as fellow laborers all who are seeking to learn and to
+do the will of the Father and work righteousness, and recommend that in all
+places, with or without preaching, they organize for religious worship and
+culture--the work of faith and the labor of love."</p>
+
+<p>The meeting at Quincy in 1860 was one of great interest and enthusiasm. The
+missionary spirit rose high; and it was proposed to put into the field an
+aggressive worker, and to give him the necessary financial support. To this
+end a missionary association was organized, with Rev. Robert Collyer as the
+president, and Artemas Carter, a successful business man of Chicago, as the
+treasurer. Before the result desired could be realized, the war gave a very
+different direction to all the interests of the western churches. Of the
+<a name="pg172"></a>
+twenty-nine ministers in the west at this time, sixteen went into the
+army,--twelve as chaplains, two as officers, and two as privates,--while
+several others devoted themselves to hospital work for longer or shorter
+periods. Rev. Augustus H. Conant, Rev. Leonard Whitney, Rev. Frederick R.
+Newell, and Rev. L.B. Mason answered with their lives to their country's
+call.</p>
+
+<p>The period immediately following the close of the civil war was one of
+generous giving and of great activity on the part of the western churches.
+From 1864 to 1866 the field was occupied by twenty-one new laborers,
+several new societies were organized, four old ones were resuscitated,
+seven new churches were built, and fifteen missionary stations were opened.
+The churches during these two years contributed $5,000 to missionary
+purposes and $13,000 to Antioch College. The degree of success met with in
+the efforts of the Western Conference depended in large degree upon the
+interest and activity of the western churches themselves. When they devoted
+themselves earnestly to missionary work, they contributed to it with a fair
+degree of liberality, and that work prospered. When the conference was
+asked to withdraw from the direction of that work by Rev. Charles Lowe, in
+order to secure greater unity of missionary effort by bringing all work of
+this kind under the direction of the Association, the contributions of the
+churches diminished, and the missionary activities in the west languished.
+However valuable the aid of the Unitarian Association,--and there can be no
+question that it was of the greatest importance,--local interest and
+co-operation were also essential to permanent success. Local activity and
+general oversight were alike necessary.</p>
+
+<a name="pg173"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn52"></a>The Autumnal Conventions.</h3>
+
+<p>For more than twenty years Autumnal Conventions, as they were called, were
+held in the larger cities, beginning at Worcester in 1842. These meetings
+originated in the Worcester Association of Ministers at a meeting held July
+11, 1842, when the association considered the "desirableness of a meeting
+of Unitarians in the autumn for the purpose of awakening mutual sympathy
+and considering the wants of the Unitarian body."[<a href="#fn_7_11">11</a><a name="fr_7_11"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>At the invitation thereafter issued by the Worcester Association of
+ministers a convention was held in the church of the Second Congregational
+Parish in Worcester, October 18-20, 1842. On the first evening a sermon was
+preached by Dr. Ezra S. Gannett, and a committee of business was
+subsequently chosen. The next morning the convention organized, with Dr.
+Francis Parkman as president and Rev. Cazneau Palfrey as secretary. A
+series of resolutions were discussed,[<a href="#fn_7_12">12</a><a name="fr_7_12"></a>] and on the second evening a
+sermon was preached by Dr. A.P. Peabody. No essays were read, and nothing
+but the sermons were prepared beforehand. The Christian Register closed its
+<a name="pg174"></a>
+report by saying that it could "give but a faint impression of the feeling
+which pervaded the meeting. The discussions were characterized by great
+earnestness and seriousness, and were conducted, at the same time, with
+entire freedom and with candor and liberality toward the differences of
+opinion which, amidst a general unanimity upon great principles, were
+occasionally elicited respecting details and methods. The expectations of
+those who called the convention were abundantly realized."</p>
+
+<p>The second of the Autumnal Conventions was held in Providence, October 2-4,
+1843. On the first evening the theme of the sermon preached by Dr. Dewey
+was the spiritual ministry of Dr. Channing, and it produced a great and
+deep impression. The resolutions discussed related to the duty, on the part
+of Unitarians, of making an explicit statement of their convictions, and an
+earnest application of them to life, and the need on the part of the
+denomination for a more united and vigorous action as a religious body. At
+the third meeting held in Albany, a statement was made by Dr. Dewey that
+exactly defined these gatherings, in their methods and purposes, when he
+said: "This and other conventions like it that are held in our body, I am
+inclined to think, have never been held before in the world. There is
+nothing like them to be found in the records of ecclesiastical history. We
+meet as distinct churches, on the pure democratic basis, which we believe
+to be the true basis of the church of Christ. We meet, without any
+formalities--to institute, or correct no canons--without the slightest
+system whatever. We come to meditate, to assist each other in experience,
+by unfolding our own experience, by declaring our convictions."</p>
+
+<a name="pg175"></a>
+<p>The subjects introduced at these meetings were practical, such as commanded
+the interest of both ministers and laymen of the churches. The method
+adopted allowed a free interchange of opinions, and the participation of
+all in the discussions. So great was the interest awakened that these
+meetings were largely attended, and they were to a considerable degree
+helpful in bringing the churches into vital relations with each other.[<a href="#fn_7_13">13</a><a name="fr_7_13"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>At the session held in Brooklyn in 1862, great interest was manifested in
+the vespers, then a novelty, that were arranged by Samuel Longfellow. This
+meeting was marked by its glowing patriotism, that rose to a white heat. A
+sermon of great power was preached by Dr. Bellows, interpreting the duty of
+the hour and the destiny of America. The resolutions and the discussions
+were almost wholly along the lines of patriotic duty and devotion suggested
+by the sermon. At the last of the Autumnal Conventions, held in
+Springfield, Mass., October 13-15, 1863, the sermons were preached by Rev.
+Edward Everett Hale and Rev. Octavius B. Frothingham, while the essays were
+by Professor Charles Eliot Norton and Rev. James Freeman Clarke.</p>
+
+<p>The Autumnal Conventions came to an end, probably in part because the civil
+war was more and more absorbing the energies of the people both in and out
+<a name="pg176"></a>
+of the churches, and partly because the desire for a more efficient
+organization had begun to make itself felt. In the spring of 1865 was held
+the meeting in New York that resulted in the organization of the National
+Conference, the legitimate successor to the Autumnal Conventions.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn53"></a>Influence of the Civil War.</h3>
+
+<p>During the period of the civil war, Unitarian activities were largely
+turned in new directions. Unitarians bore their full share in the councils
+of the nation, in the halls of legislation, on the fields of battle, in the
+care of the sick and wounded, and in the final efforts that brought about
+emancipation and peace. At least fifty Unitarian ministers entered the army
+as chaplains, privates, officers, and members of the Sanitary
+Commission.[<a href="#fn_7_14">14</a><a name="fr_7_14"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg177"></a>
+<p>The Unitarian Association also directed its attention to such work as it
+could accomplish in behalf of the soldiers in the field and in hospitals.
+Books were distributed, tracts published, and hymn-books prepared to meet
+their needs. Rev. John F.W. Ware developed a special gift for writing army
+tracts, of which he wrote about a dozen, which were published by the
+Association. As the war went on, the Association largely increased its
+activities in the army; and, when the end came, it had as many as seventy
+workers in the field, distributing its publications, aiding the Sanitary
+Commission, or acting as nurses and voluntary chaplains in the hospitals.
+The end of the war served rather to increase than to contract its labors,
+aid being largely needed for several months in returning the soldiers to
+their homes and in caring for those who were left in hospitals.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the summer of 1863 Rev. William G. Scandlin was sent to the Army
+of the Potomac as the agent of the Association. Taken prisoner in July, he
+spent several months in Libby prison, where he was kindly treated and
+exercised a beneficent influence. He was followed in this work by Rev.
+William M. Mellen, who established a library of 3,000 volumes at the
+convalescent camp, Alexandria, and also distributed a large amount of
+reading matter in the army. Rev. Charles Lowe served for several months as
+<a name="pg178"></a>
+chaplain in the camp of drafted men on Long Island, his salary being paid
+by the Association. In November, 1864, he made a tour of inspection, as the
+agent of the Association, to the hospitals of Philadelphia, Baltimore
+Annapolis, Washington, Alexandria, Fortress Monroe, City Point, and the
+Army of the Potomac, in order to arrange for the proper distribution of
+reading matter and for such other hospital service as could be rendered.
+More than 3,000 volumes of the publications of the Association were
+distributed to the soldiers and in the hospitals, largely by Rev. J.G.
+Forman, of St. Louis, and Rev. John H. Heywood, of Louisville. Among those
+who acted as agents of the Association in furnishing reading to the army
+and hospitals were Rev. Calvin Stebbins, Rev. Frederick W. Holland, Rev.
+Benjamin H. Bailey, Rev. Artemas B. Muzzey, Rev. Newton M. Mann, and Mr.
+Henry G. Denny. Rev. Samuel Abbot Smith worked zealously at Norfolk at the
+hospitals and in preaching to the soldiers, until disease and death brought
+his labors to a close. What this kind of work was, and what it
+accomplished, was described by Louisa Alcott in her Hospital Sketches, and
+by William Howell Reed in his Hospital Life in the Army of the Potomac.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn54"></a>The Sanitary Commission.</h3>
+
+<p>The Sanitary Commission has been described by its historian as "one of the
+most shining monuments of our civilization," and as an expression of
+organized sympathy that "must always and everywhere call forth the homage
+and admiration of mankind." The organizer and leader of this great
+philanthropic movement for relieving human suffering was Dr. Henry W.
+Bellows, the minister of All Souls' Church in New York, the first Unitarian
+<a name="pg179"></a>
+church organized in that city. The Commission was first suggested by Dr.
+Bellows, and he was its efficient leader from the first to the last. He was
+unanimously selected as its president, when the government had been
+persuaded, largely through his influence, to establish it as an addition to
+its medical and hospital service. The historian of the Commission has
+justly said that he "possessed many remarkable qualifications for so
+responsible, a position. Perhaps no man in the country exerted a wider or
+more powerful influence over those who were earnestly seeking the best
+means of defending our threatened nationality, and certainly never was a
+moral power of this kind founded upon juster and truer grounds. This
+influence was not confined to his home, the city of New York, although
+there it was incontestably very great, but it extended over many other
+portions of the country, and particularly throughout New England, where
+circumstances had made his name and his reputation for zeal and ability
+familiar to those most likely to aid in the furtherance of the new scheme.
+This power was due, partly of course to the very eminent position which he
+occupied as a clergyman, partly to the persistent efforts and enlightened
+zeal with which he advocated all wise measures of social reform, perhaps to
+his widely extended reputation as an orator, but primarily, and above all,
+to the rare combination of wide comprehensive views of great questions of
+public policy with extraordinary practical sagacity, which enabled him so
+to organize popular intelligence and sympathy that the best practical
+results were attained while the life-giving principle was preserved. He had
+the credit of not being what so many of his profession are, an idéologue;
+<a name="pg180"></a>
+he had the clearest perception of what could and what could not be done,
+and he never hesitated to regard actual experience as the best practical
+test of the value of his plans and theories. These qualities, so precious
+and so exceptional in their nature, appeared conspicuously in the efforts
+made by him to secure the appointment of the Commission by the Government,
+and it will be found that every page of its history bears the strong
+impress of his peculiar and characteristic views."[<a href="#fn_7_15">15</a><a name="fr_7_15"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>These words of Charles J. Stillé, a member of the Sanitary Commission and
+its authorized historian, afterward the provost of the University of
+Pennsylvania, indicate the remarkable qualities of leadership possessed by
+Dr. Bellows. These were undoubtedly added to and made more impressive by
+his oratorical genius, that was of a very high order. Dr. Hedge spoke of
+the miraculous power of speech possessed by Dr. Bellows, when he was at his
+best, as being "incomparably better than anything he could have possibly
+compassed by careful preparation or conscious effort," and of "those
+exalted moments when he was fully possessed by his demon."[<a href="#fn_7_16">16</a><a name="fr_7_16"></a>] He was
+inexhaustible in his efforts for the success of the Commission, in
+directing the work of committees and branches, in appealing to the
+indifferent, and in giving enthusiasm to all the forces under his
+direction.</p>
+
+<p>Of the nine original members of the Sanitary Commission, four were
+Unitarians,--Dr. Bellows, Dr. Samuel G. Howe, Dr. Jeffries Wyman, and
+Professor Wolcott Gibbs. In the number of those added later was Rev. John
+H. Heywood, for many years the minister of the Unitarian church in
+<a name="pg181"></a>
+Louisville, who rendered efficient service in the western department. In
+the convalescents' camp at Alexandria "a wonderful woman," Miss Amy
+Bradley, had charge of the efficient labors of the Commission, "where for
+two and a half years she and her assistants rendered incalculable service,
+in distributing clothing among the needy, procuring dainties for the sick,
+accompanying discharged soldiers to Washington and assisting them in
+procuring their papers and pay, furnishing paper and postage, and writing
+letters for the sick, forwarding money home by drafts that cost nothing to
+the soldier, answering letters of inquiry to hospital directors, securing
+certificates of arrears of pay and getting erroneous charges of desertion
+removed (the Commission saved several innocent soldiers from being shot as
+condemned deserters), distributing reading matter, telegraphing the friends
+of very ill soldiers, furnishing meals for feeble soldiers in barracks who
+could not eat the regulation food. Miss Bradley assisted 2,000 men to
+secure arrears of pay amounting to $200,000. Prisoners of war, while in
+prison and when released by general exchange, were largely and promptly
+relieved and comforted by this department."[<a href="#fn_7_17">17</a><a name="fr_7_17"></a>] Another effective worker
+was Frederick N. Knapp, who had been for several years a Unitarian
+minister, and who was the leading spirit in the special relief service of
+the Commission, "and organized and controlled it with masterly zeal,
+humanity, and success."[<a href="#fn_7_18">18</a><a name="fr_7_18"></a>] The work of Mr. Knapp was of great importance;
+for he was the confidential secretary of Dr. Bellows, and gave his whole
+<a name="pg182"></a>
+time to the service of the Commission. He was a methodical worker, an
+efficient organizer, and supplied those qualities of persistent industry
+and grasp of details in which Dr. Bellows was deficient. Without his
+untiring energy and skilful directing power the Commission would have been
+less effective than it was in fact. Dr. Bellows also described William G.
+Scandlin as "one of the most earnest and effective of the Sanitary
+Commission agents."</p>
+
+<p>In the autumn of 1862 the Commission was greatly crippled in its work
+because it could not obtain the money with which to carry on its extensive
+operations, and it was saved from failure by the generosity of California,
+and the other Pacific states and territories. The remoteness of these
+states at that time made it impossible for them to contribute their
+proportion of men, "and they indulged their patriotism and gave relief to
+their pent-up sympathies with the national cause by pouring out their money
+like water."[<a href="#fn_7_19">19</a><a name="fr_7_19"></a>] The first contribution was received by the Sanitary
+Commission on September 19, 1862, and was $100,000: a fortnight later the
+same sum was again sent; and similar contributions followed at short
+intervals. These sums enabled the Commission to accomplish its splendid
+work, and to meet the urgent needs of those trying days. How the Pacific
+coast was able to contribute so largely to this work may be explained in
+the words of Dr. Bellows, who fully understood the situation, and the vast
+importance of the help afforded: "The most gifted and inspiring of the
+patriots who rallied California and the Pacific coast to the flag of the
+Union was undoubtedly Thomas Starr King, minister of the first Unitarian
+<a name="pg183"></a>
+church in San Francisco. Born in New York, but reared in Massachusetts, he
+had earned an almost national reputation for eloquence and wit, humanity
+and nobleness of soul, in the lecture-rooms and pulpits of the north and
+west, when at the age of thirty-five, he yielded to the religious claims of
+the Pacific coast and transferred himself to California. There in four
+years he had built up as public speaker from the pulpit and platform a
+prodigious popularity. His temperament sympathetic, mercurial, and
+electric; his disposition hearty, genial, and sweet; his mind versatile,
+quick, and sparkling; his tact exquisite, and infallible; with a voice as
+clear as a bell and loud and cheering as a trumpet, his nature and
+accomplishments perfectly adapted to the people, and place, and the time.
+His religious profession disarmed many of his political enemies, his
+political orthodoxy quieted many of his religious opponents. Generous,
+charitable, disinterested, his full heart and open hand captivated the
+California people, while his sparkling wit, melodious cadences, and
+rhetorical abundance perfectly satisfied their taste for intensity and
+novelty and a touch of extravagance. It has been said by high authority
+that Mr. King saved California to the Union. California was too loyal at
+heart to make the boast reasonable; but it is not too much to say that Mr.
+King did more than any man, by his prompt, outspoken, uncalculating
+loyalty, to make California know what her own feelings really were. He did
+all that any man could have done to lead public sentiment that was
+unconsciously ready to follow where earnest loyalty and patriotism should
+guide the way."[<a href="#fn_7_20">20</a><a name="fr_7_20"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg184"></a>
+<p>Not less important in its own degree was the work done in St. Louis by Dr.
+William G. Eliot, minister since 1834 of the Unitarian church in that city.
+He became the leader in all efforts for aiding the soldiers, and was most
+active in forming and directing the Western Sanitary Commission, that
+worked harmoniously with the national organization, but independently. A
+large hospital was established and maintained, a home for refugees was
+secured, and a large camp for "contraband" negroes was established, chiefly
+under the direction of Dr. Eliot, and largely maintained by his church. He
+was a potent force in keeping St. Louis and the northern portions of
+Missouri loyal to the Union. The secretary of the Western Sanitary
+Commission, J.G. Forman, a Unitarian minister for many years, was most
+faithful and efficient in this work; and he subsequently became its
+historian. In the Freedman's Hospital at St. Louis labored with zeal and
+success Rev. Frederick R. Newall; and he was also superintendent of the
+Freedman's Bureau in that city, his life being sacrificed to these devoted
+labors.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn55"></a>Results of Fifteen Years.</h3>
+
+<p>The work done by the Unitarian Association during the civil war and under
+the conditions it produced was not a large one, but it absorbed a
+considerable part of its energies for about five years. In all it printed
+over 3,000 copies of three books for the soldiers,[<a href="#fn_7_21">21</a><a name="fr_7_21"></a>] distributed 750,000
+<a name="pg185"></a>
+tracts which it had prepared for them,[<a href="#fn_7_22">22</a><a name="fr_7_22"></a>] sent to the soldiers 5,000
+copies weekly of The Christian Register and The Christian Inquirer, 1,500
+copies of the Monthly Journal, 1,000 of The Monthly Religious Magazine, and
+1,000 of the Sunday-school Gazette. During the last year or two of the war
+its tracts went out at the rate of 50,000 monthly. The tracts and the
+periodicals therefore numbered a monthly distribution of about 75,000
+copies. The seventy volunteer agents who brought these publications to the
+hands of the soldiers, together with the army chaplains, agents of the
+Sanitary Commission, and the many nurses in the hospitals, made a
+considerable force of Unitarian missionaries developed by the exigencies of
+the war, and the attempts to meliorate its hard conditions.</p>
+
+<p>The period of fifteen years, from 1850 to 1865, which has been under
+consideration in this chapter, was one of the greatest trial and
+discouragement to the Association. Its funds reached their lowest ebb, a
+missionary secretary could not be maintained, a layman performed the
+necessary office duties, and no considerable aggressive work along
+missionary lines was undertaken. Writing in a most hopeful spirit of the
+situation, in November, 1863, the editor of The Christian Register showed
+that in 1848 the number of Unitarian churches was 201, while in 1863 it was
+205, an increase of four only in fifteen years. During this period fifty
+<a name="pg186"></a>
+parishes had gained pastors, but fifty had lost them. Several strong
+parishes, he said, had come into existence, and two in large places had
+died. Most of those that had been closed were in small country towns.
+Nevertheless, with truth it could be said of these fifteen years of
+discouragement and failure that every one of them was a seed-time for the
+harvest that was soon to be reaped.</p>
+
+<p><br /><br />[<a href="#fr_7_1">1</a><a name="fn_7_1"></a>] Usually known as the Transcendental Club, sometimes as The Symposium.
+    It was started in 1836 by Emerson, Ripley, and Hedge, and met at the
+    houses of the members to discuss philosophical and literary subjects.
+    It was called Hedge's Club because it met when Rev. F.H. Hedge came
+    to Boston from Bangor, where he was settled in 1835. It also included
+    Clarke, Francis, Alcott, Dwight, W.H. Channing, Bartol, Very,
+    Margaret Fuller, and Elizabeth P. Peabody.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_2">2</a><a name="fn_7_2"></a>] Twenty-eighth Report of the American Unitarian Association, 22.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_3">3</a><a name="fn_7_3"></a>] Ibid., 30. For other statements made at this time see pp. 22 and 26
+    of this report; Quarterly Journal, L 44, 228, 243, 275, 333; and O.B.
+    Frothingham's Transcendentalism in New England, 123. John Gorham
+    Palfrey said (Twenty-eighth Report, 31) that "the evidence of
+    Christianity is identical with the evidence of the miraculous
+    character of Jesus," and that "his miraculous powers were the highest
+    evidence that he came from God." Parker replied to this report of the
+    Association in his Friendly Letter to the Executive Committee. Of
+    this report John W. Chadwick has said that it is "the most curious,
+    not to say amusing, document in our denominational archives." See The
+    Organization of our Liberty, Christian Register, July 19, 1900.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_4">4</a><a name="fn_7_4"></a>] In 1854 the receipts from all sources for the year preceding, except
+    from sales of books and interest on investments, was $4,267.32. For
+    the next two years there was a rapid gain, the sum reported in 1856
+    being $11,615.90; but there was a slight decrease the next year, and
+    the financial panic of 1857 brought the donations down to $4,602.38,
+    the amount reported at the annual meeting of 1858. Then there was a
+    steady gain until the civil war began, after which the contributions
+    were small, the general donations being only $3,056.03 in 1863, which
+    sum was brought up to $5,547.73 by contributions for special
+    purposes, more than one-third of the whole being for the Army Fund.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_5">5</a><a name="fn_7_5"></a>] The Christian Register, October 17, 1863.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_6">6</a><a name="fn_7_6"></a>] The Monthly Journal, I. 350.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_7">7</a><a name="fn_7_7"></a>] Mr. Fox entered the employ of the Association in 1855 as a clerk, and
+    then he became the assistant of the secretary by the appointment of
+    the directors. From 1864 to the present time he has served as the
+    assistant secretary. His services have been invaluable to the
+    Association in many ways, because of his diligence, fidelity,
+    unfailing devotion to its interests, and loyalty to the Unitarian
+    cause.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_8">8</a><a name="fn_7_8"></a>] The beginning of a general fund seems to have been made in 1835, and
+    was secured by special subscriptions for the purpose of paying the
+    salary of a general secretary or missionary agent. The treasurer
+    reported in 1836 that during the previous year $2,408.37 had been
+    collected for this purpose.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_9">9</a><a name="fn_7_9"></a>] Of the churches now in existence the first in Chicago was organized
+    in 1836, that at Quincy in 1840, Milwaukee and Geneva in 1842,
+    Detroit in 1850. After the conference began its work, they appear
+    more frequently, Keokuk coming into existence in 1853, Marietta in
+    1855, Lawrence in 1856, Unity of Chicago, Kalamazoo, and Buda in
+    1858, Bloomington in 1859. Then comes a blank during the war period,
+    and a more rapid growth after it, especially when the National
+    Conference had given impetus to missionary activities. Janesville was
+    organized in 1864; Ann Arbor, Kenosha, and Baraboo, in 1865; Tremont,
+    in 1866; Cleveland and Mattoon, in 1867; Unity of St. Louis, Kansas
+    City, St. Joseph, Shelbyville, Davenport, Geneseo, Third of Chicago,
+    and Sheffield, in 1868; Omaha, in 1869.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_10">10</a><a name="fn_7_10"></a>] Written by William G. Eliot, of St. Louis.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_11">11</a><a name="fn_7_11"></a>] Joseph Allen, The Worcester Association and its Antecedents, 268.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_12">12</a><a name="fn_7_12"></a>] Through the business committee the following resolutions were
+     submitted for the consideration of the convention, and they were
+     taken up in order:--</p>
+
+<p>       <i>Resolved</i>, That we acknowledge with profound gratitude the success
+       which has attended our labors in the cause of religious freedom,
+       virtue, and piety, and are encouraged to persevere with renewed zeal
+       and energy.</p>
+
+<p>       <i>Resolved</i>, That in the character and life of Rev. William E.
+       Channing, just removed from us, we acknowledge one of the richest
+       gifts of God, in intellectual endowments, pure aspiration, moral
+       courage, and disinterested devotion to the cause of truth, freedom,
+       and humanity, and that in view of this, we feel out increased
+       obligation to Christian fidelity and heavenward progress.</p>
+
+<p>       <i>Resolved</i>, That viewing with anxiety prevailing fanaticism and
+       growing disregard of public trusts and private relations, we should
+       earnestly labor for a higher religious principle, and especially
+       urge the paramount claims of moral duty.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_13">13</a><a name="fn_7_13"></a>] The places and dates of the Autumnal Conventions were as follows:
+     Worcester, 1842; Provence, 1843; Albany, 1844; New York, 1845;
+     Philadelphia, 1846; Salem, 1847; New Bedford, 1848; Portland, 1849;
+     Springfield, 1850; Portsmouth, 1851; Baltimore, 1852; Worcester,
+     1853; Montreal, 1854; Providence, 1855; Bangor, 1856; Syracuse, 1857;
+     Salem, 1858; Lowell, 1859; New Bedford, 1860; Boston, 1861; Brooklyn,
+     1862; Springfield, 1863.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_14">14</a><a name="fn_7_14"></a>] The first regiments from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Kansas, had
+     as their chaplains Warren H. Cudworth, Augustus Woodbury, and Ephraim
+     Nute. Charles Babbidge was the chaplain of the sixth Massachusetts
+     regiment, that which was fired upon in Baltimore. The first artillery
+     company from Massachusetts had as its chaplain Stephen Barker. Others
+     who served as army chaplains were John Pierpont, Edmund B. Willson,
+     Francis C. Williams, Arthur B. Fuller, Sylvan S. Hunting, Charles T.
+     Canfield, Edward H. Hall, George H. Hepworth, Joseph F. Lovering,
+     Edwin M. Wheelock, George W. Bartlett, John C. Kimball, Augustus M.
+     Haskell, Charles A. Humphreys, Milton J. Miller, George A. Ball,
+     William G. Scandlin, E.B. Fairchild, Samuel W. McDaniel, Frederick R.
+     Newell, George W. Woodward, Stephen H. Camp, William D. Haley,
+     Leonard Whitney, Gilbert Cummings, Nahor A. Staples, Carlton A.
+     Staples, Martin M. Willis, John F. Moors, L.B. Mason, Robert Hassall,
+     Liberty Billings, Daniel Foster, J.G. Forman, and Augustus H. Conant.
+     Robert Collyer was chaplain-at-large in the Army of the Potomac.
+     Charles J. Bowen, William J. Potter, Charles Noyes, James Richardson,
+     and William H. Channing served as hospital chaplains.</p>
+
+<p>     Among the ministers who served as officers were: Hasbrouck Davis, who
+     became a general; William B. Greene, colonel; Gerald Fitzgerald, who
+     enlisted as a private, rose to the rank of first lieutenant, and was
+     elected chaplain of his regiment; Edward I. Galvin, lieutenant, also
+     elected chaplain; James K. Hosmer, who served through the war, at
+     first as a private and then as a corporal, writing his experiences
+     into The Color Guard and The Thinking Bayonet; George W. Shaw and
+     Alvin Allen, privates. Thomas D. Howard and James H. Fowler were
+     chaplains in colored regiments. After service as a chaplain of a Hew
+     Hampshire regiment, Edwin M. Wheelock became a lieutenant in a
+     colored regiment, as did Charles B. Webster. Thomas W. Higginson was
+     colonel of a colored regiment, and in another Henry Stone was
+     lieutenant colonel. It is doubtful if this list is complete, though
+     an effort has been made to have it as nearly so as possible. Those
+     who served in the army, and became ministers after leaving it, have
+     not been included. So far as known, only ordained ministers are
+     named.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_15">15</a><a name="fn_7_15"></a>] History of the United States Sanitary Commission, being the General
+     Report of its Work during the War of the Rebellion.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_16">16</a><a name="fn_7_16"></a>] J.H. Allen, Our Liberal Movement in Theology, 210.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_17">17</a><a name="fn_7_17"></a>] Henry W. Bellows, article on the Sanitary Commission, in Johnson's
+     Cyclopedia, revised edition.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_18">18</a><a name="fn_7_18"></a>] Ibid.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_19">19</a><a name="fn_7_19"></a>] Henry W. Bellows, article on the Sanitary Commission, in Johnson's
+     Cyclopedia, revised edition.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_20">20</a><a name="fn_7_20"></a>] History of the Sanitary Commission.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_21">21</a><a name="fn_7_21"></a>] Thoughts selected from Channing's Works, Ware's The Silent Pastor,
+     and Eliot's Discipline of Sorrow. The Association also issued one
+     number of the Monthly Journal as an Army Companion, which contained
+     fifty hymns of a patriotic and religions character, with appropriate
+     tunes, selections from the Bible, directions for preserving health in
+     the army, and selections from addresses on the injustice of the
+     rebellion and the spirit in which it should be put down.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_7_22">22</a><a name="fn_7_22"></a>] Twenty tracts were published. The first was written by Dr. George
+     Putnam; and was on The Man and the Soldier. The second was The
+     Soldier of the Good Cause, by Prof. C.E. Norton. Others were A Letter
+     to a Sick Soldier, by Rev. Robert Collyer; An Enemy within the Lines,
+     by Rev. S.H. Winkley. Rev. John F.W. Ware wrote fourteen of these
+     tracts, the following being some of the subjects: The Home to the
+     Camp, The Home to the Hospital, Wounded and in the Hands of the
+     Enemy, Traitors in Camp, A Change of Base, On Picket, The Rebel, The
+     Recruit, A Few Words with the Convalescent, Mustered Out, A Few Words
+     with the Rank and File at Parting.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<a name="pg187"></a>
+<h2><br /><a name="ch8"></a>VIII.<br />
+
+
+THE DENOMINATIONAL AWAKENING.</h2>
+
+<p>The war had an inspiring influence upon Unitarians, awakening them to a
+consciousness of their strength, and drawing them together to work for
+common purposes as nothing else had ever done. From the beginning they saw
+in the effort to save the Union, and in the spirit of liberty that animated
+the nation, an expression of their own principles. Whatever its effect upon
+other religious bodies, the war gave to Unitarians new faith, courage, and
+enthusiasm. For the first time they became conscious of their opportunity,
+and united in a determined purpose to meet its demands with fidelity to
+their convictions and loyalty to the call of humanity.[<a href="#fn_8_1">1</a><a name="fr_8_1"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>No Autumnal Convention having been held in 1864, owing to the failure of
+the committee appointed for that purpose to make the necessary
+arrangements, a special meeting of the Unitarian Association was held in
+the Hollis Street Church, Boston, December 6-7, at the call of the
+executive committee, "to awaken interest in the work of the Association by
+<a name="pg188"></a>
+laying before the churches the condition of our funds and the demand for
+our labor." The attendance was large, and the tone of the meeting was
+hopeful and enthusiastic. After Dr. Stebbins, the president, had stated the
+purpose of the meeting, Dr. Bellows urged the importance of a more
+effective organization of the Unitarian body. His success with the Sanitary
+Commission had evidently prepared his mind for a like work on the part of
+Unitarians, and for a strong faith in the value of organized effort in
+behalf of liberal religion. His capacity as leader during the war had
+prepared men to accept it in other fields of effort, and Unitarians were
+ready to use it in their behalf. The hopefulness that existed, in view of
+the success of the Union cause, and the enthusiastic interest in the
+methods of moral and spiritual reform that was manifested because of the
+triumph of the spirit of freedom in the nation, led many to think that like
+efforts in behalf of liberal Christianity would result in like successes.</p>
+
+<p>On the afternoon of the second day (a meeting in the evening of the first
+day only having been held) James P. Walker, the publisher, gave a résumé of
+the activities of the Association during the forty years of its existence,
+and said that its receipts had been on the average only $8,038.88 yearly.
+He showed that much had been done with this small sum, and that the results
+were much larger than the amount of money invested would indicate. He
+pointed out the fact that the demands upon the Association were rapidly
+increasing, and far more rapidly than the contributions. There was an
+urgent need for larger giving, he said, and for a more loyal support of the
+missionary arm of the denomination. He offered a series of resolutions
+<a name="pg189"></a>
+calling for the raising of $25,000 during the year. Rev. Edward Everett
+Hale said that $100,000 ought to be given to the proposed object, and urged
+that more missionaries should be sent into the field. Thereupon Mr. Henry
+P. Kidder arose, and said: "It is often easier to do a great thing than a
+small one. I move that this meeting undertake to raise $100,000 for the
+service of the next year." Dr. Bellows then called the attention of the
+conference to the importance of considering the manner of securing this
+large sum and of devising methods to insure success. He proposed "that a
+committee of ten persons, three ministers and seven laymen, should be
+appointed to call a convention, to consist of the pastor and two delegates
+from each church or parish in the Unitarian denomination, to meet in the
+city of New York, to consider the interests of our cause and to institute
+measures for its good." The two resolutions were unanimously adopted,
+pledging the denomination to raise $100,000, and to the holding of a
+delegate convention in New York. The president appointed, as members of the
+committee of arrangements for the convention, Rev. Henry W. Bellows,
+Messrs. A.A. Low, U.A. Murdock, Henry P. Kidder, Atherton Blight, Enoch
+Pratt, and Artemas Carter, Rev. Edward E. Hale, and Rev. Charles H.
+Brigham.</p>
+
+<p>The convention in New York was not waited for in order to make an effort to
+secure the $100,000 it was proposed to raise; and early in January the
+president of the Association, Dr. Rufus P. Stebbins, was authorized to
+devote his whole time to securing that sum. A circular was sent to the
+churches saying that such a sum "was needed, and should and could be
+<a name="pg190"></a>
+raised." "The hour has come," said the executive committee in their appeal
+to the churches, "which the fathers longed to see, but were denied the
+sight,--of taking our true position among other branches of the church of
+our Lord Jesus Christ in the spread and establishment of the Gospel."</p>
+
+<p>The response to this call was prompt and enthusiastic beyond any precedent.
+The war had made money plentiful, and it came easily to those who were
+successful. Great fortunes had been rapidly gathered; and the country had
+never known an equal prosperity, even though the burden of the war had not
+yet been removed. In February the president of the Association was able to
+announce that $28,871.47 had been subscribed by twelve churches. By the end
+of March the pledges had reached $63,862.63; and when the convention met in
+New York, April 5, 1865, the contributions then pledged were only a few
+thousand dollars short of the sum desired. By the end of May the sum
+reported was $111,676.74, which was increased by several hundred dollars
+more.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn56"></a>The New York Convention of 1865.</h3>
+
+<p>It was when this success was certain that the convention met in New York.
+The victory of the Union cause was then assured, and the utmost enthusiasm
+prevailed. Some of the final and most important scenes of the great
+national struggle were enacted while the convention was in session. Courage
+and hope ran high under these circumstances; and the convention was not
+only enthusiastically loyal to the nation, but equally so to its own
+denominational interests. For the first time in the history of the
+Unitarian body in this country the churches were directly represented at a
+<a name="pg191"></a>
+general gathering. The number of churches represented was two hundred and
+two, and they sent three hundred and eighty-five delegates. Many other
+persons attended, however; and throughout all the sittings of the
+convention the audience was a large one. Many women were present, though
+not as delegates, the men only having official recognition in this
+gathering. It is evident from the records, the newspaper reports, and the
+memories of those present, that the interest in this meeting was very
+large, and that the attendance was quite beyond what was anticipated by any
+one concerned in planning it. The call to all the churches, and the giving
+them an equality of representation in the convention, was doubtless one of
+the causes of its success. As a result, an able body of laymen appeared in
+the convention, who were accustomed to business methods and familiar with
+legislative procedure, and who carried through the work of the convention
+with deliberation and skill.</p>
+
+<p>On the first evening of the convention a sermon was preached by Dr. James
+Freeman Clarke that was a noble and generous introduction to its
+deliberations. He called for the exercise of the spirit of inclusiveness, a
+broad and tolerant catholicity, and union on the basis of the work to be
+done. On the morning of April 5, 1865, at eleven o'clock, the convention
+met for the transaction of business in All Souls' Church, of which Henry
+Whitney Bellows was the minister. Hon. John A. Andrew, then the governor of
+Massachusetts, was elected to preside over the convention; and among the
+vice-presidents were William Cullen Bryant, Rev. John Gorham Palfrey, Hon.
+Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, Rev. Orville Dewey, and Rev. Ezra Stiles Gannett,
+<a name="pg192"></a>
+while Rev. Edward Everett Hale was made the secretary. In Governor Andrew
+the convention had as its presiding officer a man of a broad and generous
+spirit, who was insistent that the main purpose of the meeting should be
+kept always steadily in view, and yet that all the members and all the
+varying opinions should have just recognition. In a large degree the
+success of the convention was due to his catholicity and to his skill in
+reconciling opposing interests.</p>
+
+<p>The time of the convention was devoted almost wholly to legislating for the
+denomination and to planning for its future work. On the morning of the
+second day the subject of organization came up for consideration, and the
+committee selected for that purpose presented a constitution providing for
+a National Conference that should meet annually, and that should be
+constituted of the minister and two lay delegates from each church,
+together with three delegates each from the American Unitarian Association,
+the Western Conference, and such other bodies as might be invited to
+participate in its deliberations. This Conference was to be only
+recommendatory in its character, adopting "the existing organizations of
+the Unitarian body as the instruments of its power." The name of the new
+organization was the subject of some discussion, James Freeman Clarke
+wishing to make the Conference one of Independent and Unitarian churches,
+while another delegate desired to substitute "free Christian" for
+Unitarian. The desire strongly manifested by a considerable number to make
+the Conference include in its membership all liberal churches of whatever
+name not acceptable to the majority of the delegates, voted with a decided
+emphasis to organize strictly on the Unitarian basis.</p>
+
+<a name="pg193"></a>
+<p>As soon as the convention was organized, expression was given to the demand
+for a doctrinal basis for its deliberations. Though several attempts were
+made to bring about the acceptance of a creed, these met with complete
+failure. In the preamble to the constitution, however, it was asserted that
+the delegates were "disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ," while the first
+article declared that the conference was organized to promote "the cause of
+Christian faith and work." It was quite evident that a large majority of
+the delegates regarded the convention as Christian in its purposes and
+distinctly Unitarian in its denominational mission. A minority desired a
+platform that should have no theological implications, and that should
+permit the co-operation of every kind of liberal church. The use of the
+phrase Lord Jesus Christ was strongly opposed by the more radical section
+of the convention, but the members of it were not organized or ready to
+give utterance to their protest in an effective manner.</p>
+
+<p>The convention gave its approval to the efforts of the Unitarian
+Association to secure the sum of $100,000, and urged the churches, that had
+not already done so, to contribute. It also advised the securing of a like
+sum as an endowment for Antioch College, and commended to men of wealth the
+needs of the Harvard and Meadville Theological Schools. The council of the
+Conference was asked to give its attention to the necessity and duty of
+creating an organ for the denomination, to be called The Liberal Christian.
+A resolution looking to union with the Universalist body was presented, and
+one was passed declaring "that there should be recognition, fellowship, and
+<a name="pg194"></a>
+co-operation between all those various elements in our population that are
+prepared to meet on the basis of Christianity." James Freeman Clarke,
+Samuel J. May, and Robert Collyer were constituted a committee of
+correspondence, to promote acquaintance, fraternity, and unity between
+Unitarians and all of like liberal faith.[<a href="#fn_8_2">2</a><a name="fr_8_2"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg195"></a>
+<p>A resolution offered by William Cullen Bryant expressive of thanksgiving
+because of the near approach of peace, and for the opening made by the
+extinction of slavery for the diffusion of Christianity in its true spirit
+as a religion of love, mercy, and universal liberty, was unanimously
+adopted by a rising vote.</p>
+
+<p>The convention was a remarkable success in the number who attended its
+sessions, the character of the men who participated in its deliberations,
+and the skill with which the unsectarian sect had been organized for
+effective co-operation and work. Its influence was immediately felt
+throughout the denomination and upon all its activities. The change in
+attitude was very great, and the depressed and discouraged tone of many
+Unitarian utterances for a number of years preceding and following 1860
+gave way to one of enthusiasm and courage.[<a href="#fn_8_3">3</a><a name="fr_8_3"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg196"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn57"></a>New Life in the Unitarian Association.</h3>
+
+<p>The annual meeting of the Unitarian Association, that soon followed, felt
+the new stir of life, and the awakening to a larger consciousness of power.
+The chief attention was directed to meeting the new opportunities that had
+been presented, and to preparing for the larger work required. Dr. Rufus P.
+Stebbins, who had been for three years the president, and who had been
+actively instrumental in securing the large accession to the contributions
+of the year, was elected secretary, with the intent that he should devote
+himself to pushing forward the missionary enterprises of the Association.
+He refused to serve, and accepted the position only until his successor
+could be secured. In a few weeks, the executive committee elected Rev.
+Charles Lowe to this office, and he immediately entered upon its duties. He
+proved to be eminently fitted for the place by his enthusiastic interest in
+the work to be accomplished, and by his skill as an organizer. His
+catholicity of mind enabled him to conciliate, as far as this was possible,
+the conservative and radical elements in the denomination, and to unite
+<a name="pg197"></a>
+them into an effective working body. Educated at Harvard College and
+Divinity School, Lowe spent two years as a tutor in the college, and then
+was settled successively over parishes in New Bedford, Salem, and
+Somerville. His experience and skill as an army agent of the Association
+suggested his fitness for the larger sphere of labor into which he was now
+inducted. For six most difficult and trying years he successfully conducted
+the affairs of the Association.</p>
+
+<p>For the first time in the history of the Association its income was such as
+to enable it to plan its work on a large scale, and in some degree
+commensurate with its opportunities. During the year and a half preceding
+the first of June, 1866, there was contributed to the Association about
+$175,000, to Antioch College $103,000, to the Boston Fraternity of Churches
+$22,920, to the Children's Mission $42,000, to the Freedman's Aid Societies
+$30,000, to the Sunday School Society $2,500, to The Christian Register
+$15,000, and to the Western Conference $6,000, making a total of about
+$400,000 given by the denomination to these religious, educational, and
+philanthropic purposes; and this financial success was truly indicative of
+the new interest in its work that had come to the Unitarian body.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn58"></a>The New Theological Position.</h3>
+
+<p>Although the New York convention voted that $100,000 ought to be raised in
+1866, because the needs of the denomination demanded it, yet only $60,000
+were secured. The reaction that followed the close of the war had set in,
+the financial prosperity of the country had begun to lessen, and the
+enthusiasm that had made the first great effort of the denomination so
+eminently successful did not continue. A chief cause for the waning
+<a name="pg198"></a>
+interest in the denomination itself was the agitation, in regard to the
+theological position of the Unitarian body that began almost immediately
+after the New York convention.</p>
+
+<p>The older Unitarians held to the Bible and the teachings of Jesus as the
+great sources of spiritual truth as strongly as did the orthodox, and they
+differed from them only as to the purport of the message conveyed. This may
+be seen in a creed offered to the New York convention, by a prominent
+layman,[<a href="#fn_8_4">4</a><a name="fr_8_4"></a>] almost immediately after it was opened on the first morning.
+In this proposed creed it was asserted that Unitarians believe "in one
+Lord, Jesus Christ; the Son of God and his specially appointed messenger,
+and representative to our race; gifted with supernatural power, approved of
+God by miracles and signs and wonders which God did by him, and thus by
+divine authority commanding the devout and reverential faith of all who
+claim the Christian name." Although this creed was not adopted by the
+convention, it expressed the belief of a majority of Unitarians. To the
+same purport was the word spoken by Dr. Bellows, when he said: "Unitarians
+of the school to which I belong accept Jesus Christ with all their hearts
+as the Sent of God, the divinely inspired Son of the Father, who by his
+miraculously proven office and his sinless life and character was fitted to
+be, and was made revealer of the universal and permanent religion of the
+human race."[<a href="#fn_8_5">5</a><a name="fr_8_5"></a>] These quotations indicate that the more conservative
+<a name="pg199"></a>
+Unitarians had not changed their position since 1853, when they made
+official statement of their acceptance of Christianity as authenticated by
+miracles and the supernatural. In fact, they held essentially to the
+attitude taken when they left the older Congregational body.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, the transcendentalists and the radical Unitarians
+proposed a new theory of the nature of religious truth, and insisted that
+the spiritual message of Christianity is inward, and not outward, directly
+to the soul of man, and not through the mediation of a person or a book.
+Almost from the first Channing had been moving towards this newer
+conception of the nature and method of religion. He did not wholly abandon
+the miraculous, but it grew to have less significance for him with each
+year. The Unitarian conception of religion as natural to man, which was
+maintained strenuously from the time of Jonathan Mayhew, made it probable,
+if not certain, that a merely external system of religion would be
+ultimately outgrown. In his lecture on self-denial Channing stated this
+position in the clearest terms. "If," he said, "after a deliberate and
+impartial use of our best faculties, a professed revelation seems to us
+plainly to disagree with itself or to clash with great principles which we
+cannot question, we ought not to hesitate to withhold from it our belief. I
+am surer that my rational nature is from God, than that any book is an
+expression of his will. This light in my own breast is his primary
+revelation, and all subsequent ones must accord with it, and are in fact
+intended to blend with and brighten it."[<a href="#fn_8_6">6</a><a name="fr_8_6"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg200"></a>
+<p>Channing was not alone in accepting Christianity as a spiritual principle
+that is natural and universal. As early as 1826 Alvan Lamson had defended
+the proposition that miracles are merely local in their nature, and that
+attention should be chiefly given to the tendency, spirit, and object of
+Christianity. He claimed that it bore on the face of it the marks of its
+heavenly origin, and that, when these are fully accepted, no other form of
+evidence is required.[<a href="#fn_8_7">7</a><a name="fr_8_7"></a>] In 1834 James Walker, in writing on The
+Philosophy of Man's Spiritual Nature in regard to the Foundations of Faith,
+had taken what was essentially the transcendentalist view of the origin and
+nature of religion. He contended for the "religion in the soul" that is
+authenticated "by the revelations of consciousness."[<a href="#fn_8_8">8</a><a name="fr_8_8"></a>] In 1836 Convers
+Francis, in, describing the religion of Christ as a purely internal
+principle, maintained the "quiet, spirit-searching character of
+Christianity," as "a kingdom wholly within the soul of man."[<a href="#fn_8_9">9</a><a name="fr_8_9"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>When Convers Francis became a professor in the Harvard Divinity School, in
+1842, the spiritual philosophy had recognition there; and he had a
+considerable influence upon the young men who came under his guidance.
+Though of the older way of thinking, George R. Noyes, who became a
+professor in the school in 1840, was always on the side of liberty of
+interpretation and expression. For the next two decades the Divinity School
+sent out a succession of such men as John Weiss, Octavius B. Frothingham,
+Samuel Longfellow, William J. Potter, and Francis E. Abbot, who were joined
+<a name="pg201"></a>
+by William Henry Channing, Samuel Johnson, David A. Wasson, and others, who
+did not study there. These men gave a new meaning to Unitarianism, took it
+away from miracles to nature, discarded its evidences to rely on intuition,
+rejected its supernatural deity for an immanent God who speaks through all
+life his divine word.</p>
+
+<p>During the interval between the New York convention and the first session
+of the National Conference, which was held in Syracuse, October 10-11,
+1866, the questions which separated the conservatives and radicals were
+freely debated in the periodicals of the denomination, and also in sermons
+and pamphlets. The radicals organized for securing a revision of the
+constitution; and on the morning of the first day Francis E. Abbot, then
+the minister at Dover, N.H., offered a new preamble and first article as
+substitutes for those adopted in New York, in which he stated that "the
+object of Christianity is the universal diffusion of love, righteousness,
+and truth," that "perfect freedom of thought, which is at once the right
+and duty of every human being, always leads to diversity of opinion, and is
+therefore hindered by common creeds or statements of faith," and that
+therefore the churches assembled in the conference, "disregarding all
+sectarian or theological differences, and offering a cordial fellowship to
+all who will join them in Christian work, unite themselves in a common
+body, to be known as The National Conference of Unitarian and Independent
+Churches."</p>
+
+<p>At the afternoon session Mr. Abbot's amendment was rejected; but on the
+motion of James Freeman Clarke the name was changed to The National
+Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches. A resolution stating
+<a name="pg202"></a>
+that the expression "Other Christian Churches was not meant to exclude
+religious societies which have no distinctive church organization, and are
+not nominally Christian, if they desire to co-operate with the Conference
+in what it regards as Christian work," was laid on the table.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn59"></a>Organization of the Free Religious Association.</h3>
+
+<p>The result of the refusal at Syracuse to revise the constitution of the
+National Conference was that the radical men on the railroad train
+returning to Boston held a consultation, and resolved to organize an
+association that would secure them the liberty they desired. After
+correspondence and much planning a meeting was held in Boston, at the house
+of Rev. Cyrus A. Bartol, on February 5, 1867, to consider what should be
+done. After a thorough discussion of the subject the Free Religious
+Association was planned; and the organization was perfected at a meeting
+held in Horticultural Hall, Boston, May 30, 1867. Some of those who took
+part in this movement thought that all religion had been outgrown, but the
+majority believed that it is essential and eternal. What they sought was to
+remove its local and national elements, and to get rid of its merely
+sectarian and traditional features.</p>
+
+<p>At the first meeting the speakers were O.B. Frothingham, Henry Blanchard,
+Lucretia Mott, Robert Dale Owen, John Weiss, Oliver Johnson, Francis E.
+Abbot, David A. Wasson, T.W. Higginson, and R.W. Emerson; and discussion
+was participated in by A.B. Alcott, E.C. Towne, Frank B. Sanborn, Hannah E.
+Stevenson, Ednah D. Cheney, Charles C. Burleigh, and Caroline H. Dall. Of
+these persons, one-half had been Unitarian ministers, and about one-third
+of them were still settled over Unitarian parishes. Mr. Frothingham was
+<a name="pg203"></a>
+elected president of the new organization, and Rev. William J. Potter
+secretary. The purposes of the Association were "to promote the interests
+of pure religion, to encourage the scientific study of theology and to
+increase fellowship in the spirit." In 1872 the constitution was revised by
+changing the subject of study from theology to man's religious nature and
+history, and by the addition of the statement that "nothing in the name or
+constitution of the Association shall ever be construed as limiting
+membership by any test of speculative opinion or belief,--or as defining
+the position of the Association, collectively considered, with reference to
+any such opinion or belief,--or as interfering in any other way with that
+absolute freedom of thought and expression which is the natural right of
+every rational being."</p>
+
+<p>The original purpose of the Free Religious Association, as defined in its
+constitution and in the addresses delivered before it, was the recognition
+of the universality of religion, and the representation of all phases of
+religious opinion in its membership and on its platform. The circumstances
+of its organization, however, in some measure took it away from this
+broader position, and made it the organ of the radical Unitarian opinion.
+Those Unitarians who did not find in the American Unitarian Association and
+the National Conference such fellowship as they desired became active in
+the Free Religious organization.</p>
+
+<p>The cause of Free Religion was ably presented in the pages of The Radical,
+a monthly journal edited by Sidney H. Morse, and published in Boston, and
+The Index, edited by Francis E. Abbot, at first in Toledo and then in
+Boston. It also found expression at the Sunday afternoon meetings held in
+<a name="pg204"></a>
+Horticultural Hall, Boston, for several winters, beginning in 1868-69; in
+the conventions held in several of the leading cities of the northern
+states; at the gatherings of the Chestnut Street Club; and in the annual
+meetings of the Free Religious Association held in Boston during
+anniversary week. Little effort was made to organize churches, and only two
+or three came into existence distinctly on the basis of Free Religion. In
+connection with The Index, Francis E. Abbot organized the Liberal League to
+promote the interests of Free Religion, with about four hundred local
+branches; but this organization proved ineffective, and soon ceased its
+existence.</p>
+
+<p>The withdrawal of the radicals into the Free Religious Association did not
+quiet the agitation in the Unitarian ranks, partly because some of the most
+active workers in that Association continued to occupy Unitarian pulpits,
+and partly because a considerable radical element did not withdraw in any
+manner. The conferences had an unfailing subject for exciting discussion,
+and the Unitarian body was at this time in a chronic condition of
+agitation. As in the days of the controversy about the Trinity, the more
+conservative ministers would not exchange pulpits with the more radical.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn60"></a>Unsuccessful Attempts at Reconciliation.</h3>
+
+<p>At the second session of the National Conference, held in New York City,
+October 7-9, 1868, another attempt was made to bring about a reconciliation
+between the two wings of the denomination. In an attitude of generous good
+will and with a noble desire for inclusiveness and peace, James Freeman
+Clarke proposed an addition to the constitution of the Conference, in which
+it was declared "that we heartily welcome to that fellowship all who desire
+<a name="pg205"></a>
+to work with us in advancing the kingdom of God." Such a broad invitation
+was not acceptable to the majority; and, after an extended debate, this
+amendment was withdrawn, and the following, offered by Edward Everett Hale,
+and essentially the same as that presented by Mr. Clarke, with the
+exception of the phrase just quoted, was adopted:--</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>  To secure the largest unity of the spirit and the widest practical
+  co-operation, it is hereby understood that all the declarations of this
+  conference, including the preamble and constitution, are expressions
+  only of its majority, and dependent wholly for their effect upon the
+  consent they command on their own merits from the churches here
+  represented or belonging within the circle of our fellowship.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>The annual meeting of the Unitarian Association in 1870 was largely
+occupied with the vexing problem of the basis of fellowship; and the
+secretary, Charles Lowe, read a conciliatory and explanatory address. He
+said that the wide differences of theological opinion existing in the
+denomination were "an inevitable consequence of the great principle on
+which Unitarianism rests. That principle is that Christian faith and
+Christian union can coexist with individual liberty."[<a href="#fn_8_10">10</a><a name="fr_8_10"></a>] Rev. George H.
+Hepworth, then the minister of the Church of the Messiah in New York, asked
+for an authoritative statement of the Unitarian position, urging this
+demand with great insistence; and he presented a resolution calling for a
+committee of five to prepare "a statement of faith, which shall, as nearly
+as may be, represent the religious opinions of the Unitarian denomination."</p>
+
+<a name="pg206"></a>
+<p>While Dr. Bellows had been the leader in securing the adoption of the
+Christian basis for the National Conference, and the insertion into the
+preamble of its constitution of the expression of faith in the Lordship of
+Jesus Christ, he was strongly opposed to any attempt to impose a creed upon
+the denomination, however attenuated it might be. He has been often charged
+with inconsistency, and it is difficult to reconcile his position in 1870
+with that held in 1865. What he attempted to secure, however, was the
+utmost of liberty possible within the limits of Christianity; and, when he
+had committed the Unitarian body to the Christian position, he desired
+nothing more, believing that a creed would be inconsistent with the liberty
+enjoyed by all Unitarians. Without doubt his address at this meeting, in
+opposition to Mr. Hepworth's proposal, made it impossible to secure a vote
+in favor of a creed. "We want to represent a body," he said, "that presents
+itself to the forming hand of the Almighty Spirit of God in a fluid,
+plastic form. We cannot keep our denomination in that state, and yet give
+it the character of being cast into a positive mould. You must either
+abandon that great work you have done, as the only body in Christendom that
+occupies the position of absolute and perfect liberty, with some measure of
+Christian faith, or you must continue to occupy that position and thank God
+for it without hankering after some immediate victories that are so strong
+a temptation to many in our denomination." When the resolution in favor of
+a creed was brought to a vote, it was "defeated by a very large majority."
+By this act the Unitarian body again asserted its Christian position, but
+refused to define or to limit its Christianity.</p>
+
+<a name="pg207"></a>
+<p>Notwithstanding the refusal of the Unitarian Association to adopt a creed,
+the attempt to secure one was renewed in the National Conference with as
+much energy as if this were not already a lost cause. At the session held
+in New York, October, 1870, the subject came up for extended consideration,
+several amendments to the constitution were proposed, and, after a
+prolonged discussion, that offered by George H. Hepworth was adopted:--</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>  Reaffirming our allegiance to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and desiring
+  to secure the largest unity of the spirit and the widest practical
+  co-operation, we invite to our fellowship all who wish to be followers
+  of Christ.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<h3><a name="sn61"></a>The Year Book Controversy.</h3>
+
+<p>One result of this controversy was that in 1873 it having come to the
+attention of Rev. O.B. Frothingham, the president of the Free Religious
+Association, that his name was in the list of Unitarian ministers published
+in the Year Book of the Unitarian Association, he expressed surprise that
+it should have been continued there, and asked for its removal. The same
+action was taken by Francis E. Abbot, the editor of The Index, and others
+of the radicals. This action was in part the result of the attitude taken
+by Rev. Thomas J. Mumford, editor of The Christian Register, who in 1872
+insisted that the word "Religious" had no proper place in the name of the
+Free Religious Association, and who invited those Unitarians "who have
+ceased to accept Jesus as pre-eminently their spiritual leader and teacher"
+to withdraw from the Unitarian body.</p>
+
+<p>In November, 1873, Mr. George W. Fox, the assistant secretary of the
+Unitarian Association and the editor of its Year Book, wrote to several of
+<a name="pg208"></a>
+the radicals, calling their attention to the action of Mr. Frothingham in
+requesting the removal of his name, and asked if their names remained in
+that publication "with their knowledge and consent." In a subsequent letter
+to William J. Potter, the minister of the Unitarian church in New Bedford
+and the secretary of the Free Religious Association, he explained that "the
+Year Book lists of societies and ministers are simply a directory, prepared
+by the Association for the accommodation of the denomination, and that the
+Association does not undertake to decide the question as to what are or are
+not Unitarian societies or ministers, but merely puts into print facts, in
+the making of which it assumes no responsibility and has no agency."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Potter expressed his purpose not to ask for the removal of his name,
+but wrote that he did not call himself a Unitarian Christian or by any
+denominational name. The officers of the Association thereupon instructed
+the editor of the Year Book to remove Mr. Potter's name from the list of
+Unitarian ministers published therein. The reason for this action was
+stated in a letter from the editor to Mr. Potter, announcing that his name
+had been removed. The letter said, "While there might be no desire to
+define Christianity in the case of those who claim that they are in any
+sense of the term entitled to be called Christians, for those persons who,
+like yourself, disavow the name, there seems to be no need of raising any
+question as to how broad a range of opinion the name may properly be
+stretched to cover."[<a href="#fn_8_11">11</a><a name="fr_8_11"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg209"></a>
+<p>There followed a vigorous discussion of the action of the Association in
+dropping Mr. Potter's name, it being recognized that no more thoroughly
+religious man was to be found in the denomination, and that none more truly
+exemplified the Christian spirit, whatever might be his wish as to the use
+of the Christian name. At the sixth session of the National Conference,
+held at Saratoga in September, 1874, the Essex Conference protested against
+the erasure of the name of a church in long and regular fellowship with the
+Unitarian Association from its Year Book; and a resolution offered by Dr.
+Bellows, indorsing the action of the officers of the National Conference in
+inviting the New Bedford church to send delegates, was passed without
+dissent. At the session of the Western Conference held in Chicago during
+1875, resolutions were passed protesting against the removing of the name
+of any person from the accredited list of Unitarian ministers until he
+requested it, had left the denomination, joined some other sect, or been
+adjudged guilty of immorality. As a result of this discussion and of the
+broad sympathies and inclusive spirit of the conference, the following
+platform, in the shape of a resolution, was adopted:--</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>  That the Western Unitarian Conference conditions its fellowship on no
+  dogmatic tests, but welcomes all thereto who desire to work with it in
+  advancing the kingdom of God.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>The attitude of the Unitarian Association and the National Conference--that
+is, of a large majority of Unitarians at this time--may be accurately
+defined in the words of Charles Lowe, who said: "I admit that we make a
+belief in Christianity a test of fellowship. No stretch of liberality will
+make me wish to deny that a belief in Jesus Christ is the absolutely
+<a name="pg210"></a>
+essential qualification. But I will oppose, as a test, any definition of
+Christianity, any words about Christ, for Christ himself, as the principles
+of our fellowship and union."[<a href="#fn_8_12">12</a><a name="fr_8_12"></a>] These words exactly define what was
+sought for, which was liberty within the limits of Christianity. The
+primary insistence was upon discipleship to Jesus Christ, but it was
+maintained that loyalty to Christ is compatible with the largest degree of
+personal liberty.</p>
+
+<p>Fundamentally, this controversy was a continuation of that which had
+agitated New England from the beginning, that had divided those opposed to
+"the great awakening" of the middle of the eighteenth century from those
+who favored it, that led the Unitarians away from the Orthodox, and that
+now divided radical and conservative Unitarians. The advance was always
+towards a more pronounced assertion of individualism, and a more positive
+rejection of tradition, organization, and external authority. Indeed, it
+was towards this end that Unitarianism had directed its energies from the
+beginning; and the force of this tendency could not be overcome because
+some called for a creed, and more had come to see the need of an efficient
+organization for practical purposes.</p>
+
+<p>What the radicals desired was freedom, and the broadest assertion of
+individuality. It was maintained by Francis E. Abbot that "the spiritual
+ideal of Free Religion is to develop the individuality of the soul in the
+highest, fullest, and most independent manner possible."[<a href="#fn_8_13">13</a><a name="fr_8_13"></a>] The other
+distinctive principle of the radicals was that religion is universal, that
+all religions are essentially, the same, and that Christianity is simply
+<a name="pg211"></a>
+one of the phases of universal religion. David A. Wasson defined religion
+as "the consciousness of universal relation,"[<a href="#fn_8_14">14</a><a name="fr_8_14"></a>] and as "the sense of
+unity with the infinite whole," adding that "morals, reason, freedom, are
+bound up with it."[<a href="#fn_8_15">15</a><a name="fr_8_15"></a>] This means, in simple statement, that religion is
+natural to man, and that it needs no authentication by miracle or
+supernatural manifestation. It means that all religions are essentially the
+same in their origin, and that none can claim the special favor of God in
+their manner of presentation to the world. According to this conception of
+religion, as was stated by. William J. Potter, Christianity is
+"provisional, preparatory, educational, containing, alongside of the most
+valuable truth, much that is only human error and bigotry and superstitious
+imagination."[<a href="#fn_8_16">16</a><a name="fr_8_16"></a>] "The spiritual ideal of Christianity," said Francis E.
+Abbot, "is the suppression of self and perfect imitation of Jesus the
+Christ. The spiritual ideal of Free Religion is the development of self,
+and the harmonious education of all its powers to the highest possible
+degree."[<a href="#fn_8_17">17</a><a name="fr_8_17"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Through all this controversy what was sought for was a method of
+reconciling fellowship with individuality of opinion, of establishing a
+church in which freedom of faith for the individual shall have full
+recognition. In a word, the Unitarian body had a conviction that tradition
+is compatible with intuition, institutions with personal freedom, and
+co-operation with individual initiative. The problems involved were too
+large for an immediate solution; and what Unitarians accepted was an ideal,
+and not a fact fully realized in their denominational life. The doctrinal
+<a name="pg212"></a>
+phases of the controversy have always been subsidiary to this larger
+search, this desire to give to the individual all the liberty that is
+compatible with his co-operation with others. The result of it has been to
+teach the Unitarian body, in the words of Francis E. Abbot at Syracuse, in
+1866, that "the only reconciliation of the duties of collective Christian
+activity and individual freedom of thought lies in an efficient
+organization for practical Christian work, based rather on unity of spirit
+than on uniformity of belief."[<a href="#fn_8_18">18</a><a name="fr_8_18"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn62"></a>Missionary Activities.</h3>
+
+<p>During this period of controversy, from 1865 to 1880, the Unitarian
+Association had at its head several able men, who were actively interested
+in its work. The president for 1865-66 was Rev. John G. Palfrey; and he was
+succeeded, in 1867, by Hon. Thomas D. Eliot, of New Bedford, who was in
+both houses of the Massachusetts legislature, and then for a number of
+years in the lower house of Congress. From 1870 to 1872 the president was
+Mr. Henry Chapin, of Worcester, an able lawyer and judge, loyally devoted
+to the Sunday-school work of his city and county. He was succeeded by Hon.
+John Wells, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, who was
+deeply interested in the church with which he was connected. In 1876 Mr.
+Henry P. Kidder was elected to this office,--a position he held for ten
+years. He was prominent in the banking interests of Boston, gave much
+attention to the charities of the city, and was an efficient worker in the
+South Congregational Church.</p>
+
+<p>Rev. Charles Lowe, the secretary from 1865 to 1871, wisely directed the
+activities of the Association through the early period of the great
+<a name="pg213"></a>
+awakening of the denomination, and kept it from going to pieces on the
+Scylla and Charybdis of creed and radicalism. He was followed at a most
+critical and difficult time by Rev. Rush R. Shippen, who continued to hold
+the office until 1881. The reaction succeeding the great prosperity that
+followed the close of the civil war brought great burdens of debt to many
+individuals, and to cities, states, and the nation. These troubles
+distracted attention from spiritual interests, and joined with various
+other calamities in making this a trying time for churches and religious
+organizations.</p>
+
+<p>The discussions as to the theological position of the denomination
+naturally resulted in more or less of disorganization, and made it
+impossible to secure the unity of effort which is essential to any positive
+missionary growth. In spite of these drawbacks, however, denominational
+interests slowly advanced. During this period the Unitarian Association
+began to receive a considerable increase of its funds from legacies,--a
+result of its enlarged activities, and of the new interest awakened by the
+formation of the National Conference.</p>
+
+<p>A few facts may be mentioned to illustrate the never-failing generosity of
+Unitarian givers when specific needs are presented. In October, 1871,
+occurred the great fire in Chicago and the burning of Unity Church in that
+city, which was aided with $60,000 in rebuilding; while the Third Church
+and All Souls' were helped liberally in passing through this crisis. The
+following year the Boston fire crippled sadly the resources of the
+Association, and instead of the $150,000 asked for only $42,000 were
+received. Yet in 1876 the church in Washington was built, and $30,000 were
+<a name="pg214"></a>
+contributed to that purpose by the denomination. In 1879; the denomination
+gave $56,000 to free the Church of the Messiah in New York from debt.
+During this period $100,000 were contributed to the Young Men's Christian
+Union in Boston, $90,000 to the Harvard Divinity School, $20,000 to the
+Prospect Hill School at Greenfield, and $30,000 towards the Channing
+Memorial Church in Newport.</p>
+
+<p>During these trying times the administration of Unitarian affairs in the
+west was in judicious hands, In 1865 Rev. Charles G. Ames began those
+missionary efforts on the Pacific coast that have led on to the
+establishment of a considerable number of churches in that section of the
+country. In central Illinois the devoted labors of Jasper L. Douthit from
+1868 to the present time have produced wide-reaching results in behalf of a
+genuine religion, temperance, good government, and education. In 1868 Rev.
+Carlton A. Staples was made the missionary agent of the Association in the
+west, with headquarters in Chicago, where a book-room was established. He
+was succeeded in 1872 by Rev. Sylvan S. Hunting, who was a tireless worker
+in the western field for many years. In 1874 Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones became
+the missionary of the Wisconsin Conference, and the next year of the
+Western Conference. For ten years Mr. Jones labored in this position with
+enthusiasm for the Unitarian cause in the west.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn63"></a>College Town Missions.</h3>
+
+<p>In the spring of 1865 the attention of the Unitarian Association was
+directed to the growing University of Michigan; and Rev. Charles H.
+Brigham, then the minister of the church in Taunton, was invited to proceed
+to Ann Arbor, and see what might be accomplished there. Meetings were held
+<a name="pg215"></a>
+in the court-house, but in 1866 an old Methodist church was purchased by
+the Association and adapted to the uses of the new society. The
+congregation numbered at first about eighty persons, but gradually
+increased, especially from the attendance of university students. Mr.
+Brigham was asked by the students who listened to him to form a Bible class
+for their instruction, and this increased in numbers until it included from
+two hundred to three hundred persons. On Sunday evenings he delivered
+lectures wherein his wide and varied learning was made subservient to high
+ideals and to a noble interpretation of Christianity. He led many young men
+and women into the liberal faith, and he exercised through them a wide
+influence throughout the west. His gifts as a lecturer were also made
+available at the Meadville Theological School, with which institution he
+was connected for ten years.[<a href="#fn_8_19">19</a><a name="fr_8_19"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The success of Mr. Brigham led to the founding of other college town
+churches, that at Ithaca, the seat of Cornell University, being established
+in 1866. In 1878 such a mission was begun at Madison for the students of
+the University of Wisconsin, and another at Iowa City for the University of
+Iowa. In more recent years college missions have been started at Lawrence,
+Kan.; Lincoln, Neb.; Minneapolis, Minn.; Berkeley, Cal.; Colorado Springs;
+and Amherst, Mass. This has proved to be one of the most effective ways of
+extending Unitarianism as a modern interpretation of Christianity.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn64"></a>Theatre Preaching.</h3>
+
+<p>Another interest developed by the awakening of 1865 was the popularization
+of Unitarianism by the use of theatres. In January, 1866, was begun in the
+Cooper Institute, New York, a Sunday evening course of lectures by Clarke,
+<a name="pg216"></a>
+Bellows, Osgood, Frothingham, Putnam, Chadwick, and Joseph May, which was
+largely attended. Some of the most important doctrinal subjects were
+discussed. A few weeks later a similar course was undertaken in Washington
+with like success. In March, 1867, the Suffolk Conference undertook such a
+series of lectures in the Boston Theatre, which was crowded to its utmost
+capacity. Then followed courses of sermons or lectures in Lawrence, New
+Bedford, Salem, Springfield, Providence, Chicago, and San Francisco, as
+well as in other places. The council of the National Conference, in 1868,
+commended this as an important work that should be encouraged. Rev. Adams
+Ayer was made an agent of the Association to organize such meetings, and
+their success was remarkable for several years. In 1869 Rev. Charles Lowe
+spoke of "that wonderful feature of our recent experience," and urged that
+these meetings should be so organized as to lead to definite results.</p>
+
+<p>An earnest effort was made to organize the theatre congregations into
+unsectarian societies. It was proposed to form Christian unions that should
+work for Christian improvement and usefulness. The first result of this
+effort was the reorganization of the Boston Young Men's Christian Union in
+the spring of 1868. A similar institution was formed in Providence, to
+promote worship, education, hospitality and benevolence. Unions were also
+formed in, Salem, Lowell, Cambridge, New Bedford, New York, and elsewhere.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn65"></a>Organization of Local Conferences.</h3>
+
+<p>In the autumn of 1865, in order to facilitate the collection of money for
+the Unitarian Association, a number of local conferences were held in
+<a name="pg217"></a>
+Massachusetts. The first of these met at Somerville, November 14, and was
+primarily a meeting of the Cambridge Association of Ministers, including
+all the lay delegates to the New York convention from the churches which
+that association represented. The result of this meeting was an increase of
+contributions to the Unitarian Association, and the determination to
+organize permanently to facilitate that work. Dr. E.E. Hale has stated that
+the initial suggestion of these meetings came from a conversation between
+Dr. Bellows and Dr. E.H. Sears, in which the latter said "that a very
+important element in any effort which should reveal the Unitarian church to
+itself would be some plan by which neighboring churches would be brought
+together more familiarly."[<a href="#fn_8_20">20</a><a name="fr_8_20"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The local conferences had distinct antecedents, however, by which their
+character was doubtless in some degree determined. The early county and
+other local auxiliaries to the Unitarian Association begun in 1826 and
+continued for at least twenty years, which were general throughout New
+England, afforded a precedent; but a more immediate initiative had been
+taken in New Hampshire, where the New Hampshire Unitarian Association had
+been organized at Manchester, February 25, 1863. It does not appear that
+this organization was in any way a revival of the former society of the
+same name in that state, which was organized at Concord in 1832, and which
+was very active for a brief period. A Unitarian Church Association of Maine
+was organized at Portland, September 21, 1852, largely under the influence
+of Rev. Sylvester Judd, of Augusta; but it had only a brief existence. The
+<a name="pg218"></a>
+Maine Conference of Unitarian Churches was organized at Farmington, July 8,
+1863.[<a href="#fn_8_21">21</a><a name="fr_8_21"></a>] These organizations antedated the movement for the formation of
+local conferences on the part of the National Conference; and they
+doubtless gave motive and impetus to that effort.</p>
+
+<p>On November 30, 1865, a meeting similar to that at Somerville was held by
+the Franklin Evangelical Association[<a href="#fn_8_22">22</a><a name="fr_8_22"></a>] at Springfield, and with similar
+results. Other meetings were held at Lowell, Dedham, Quincy, Salem,
+Taunton, Worcester, and Boston. The attendance at all these meetings was
+large, they developed an enthusiastic interest, and pledges were promptly
+made looking to larger contributions to the Unitarian Association.</p>
+
+<p>At the Syracuse meeting of the National Conference, in 1866, Dr. Bellows
+reported for the council in favor of local organizations, auxiliary to the
+national body. "No great national convention of any kind succeeds," it was
+declared, "which is not the concurrence of many local conventions, each of
+which has duties of detail and special spheres of influence upon whose
+co-operation the final and grand success of the whole depends." A series of
+resolutions, calling for the formation of local conferences, "to meet at
+fixed periods, at convenient points, for the organization of missionary
+work," was presented by Dr. E.E. Hale. In order to carry into effect the
+intent of these resolutions, Charles Lowe devised a plan of organization,
+which declared that the object of the local conference "shall be to promote
+the religious life and mutual sympathy of the churches which unite in it,
+<a name="pg219"></a>
+and to enable them to co-operate in missionary work, and in raising funds
+for various Christian purposes." The work of organizing such local
+missionary bodies was taken up at once, and proceeded rapidly. The first
+one was organized at Sheboygan, Wis., October 24, 1866; and nearly all the
+churches were brought within the limits of such conferences during the next
+two years.[<a href="#fn_8_23">23</a><a name="fr_8_23"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>In the local conferences, as in the National Conference, two purposes
+contended for expression that were not compatible with each other as
+practical incentives to action. The one looked to the uniting of all
+liberal individuals and denominations in a general organization, and the
+other aimed at the promotion of distinctly Unitarian interests. In the
+National Conference the denominational purpose controlled in shaping its
+permanent policy; but the other intent found expression in the addition of
+"Other Christian Churches" to the name, though in only the most limited way
+did such churches connect themselves with the Conference.[<a href="#fn_8_24">24</a><a name="fr_8_24"></a>] The local
+conferences made like provision for those not wishing to call themselves
+distinctly Unitarian. Such desire for co-operation, however, was in a large
+degree ineffective because of the fact that the primary aim in the calling
+into existence of such conferences was an increase in the funds of the
+Unitarian Association.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn66"></a>Fellowship and Fraternity.</h3>
+
+<p>Under the leadership of the National Conference the Unitarian body
+underwent material changes in its internal organization and in its
+relations to other denominations. Not only did it bring the churches to act
+together in the local conferences and in its own sessions, but it taught
+<a name="pg220"></a>
+then to co-operate for the protection of their pulpits against adventurers
+and immoral men. Before it was organized, the excessive spirit of
+independency in the churches would permit of no exercise of control as to
+their selection of ministers to fill their pulpits. At the fourth session
+of the National Conference, held in New York in October, 1870, the council,
+through Dr. Bellows, suggested that the local conferences refuse to
+acknowledge as ministers men of proven vices and immoralities. To carry out
+the spirit of this suggestion, Dr. Hale presented a resolution, which was
+adopted, asking the local conferences to appoint committees of fellowship
+to examine and to act upon candidates for the ministry. In October, 1870,
+the New York and Hudson River Conference created such a committee "to
+examine the testimonials of such as desire to become members of the
+conference and enter the Unitarian ministry."</p>
+
+<p>The seventh session of the National Conference, held at Saratoga in 1876,
+provided for the appointment of a committee of fellowship, and the list of
+names of those appointed to its membership appears in the printed report;
+but there is no record that the committee ever organized. In 1878 the
+council reported at considerable length on the desirableness of
+establishing such a committee; and, again, a committee of fellowship was
+appointed "to take into immediate consideration the subject of the
+introduction into the Unitarian ministry of those persons who seek an
+entrance into that ministry from other churches." This committee consisted
+of twelve persons, three each for the eastern, middle, western, and Pacific
+states.</p>
+
+<a name="pg221"></a>
+<p>At the session of 1880 the council of the Conference stated that it had
+created a substitute for the old ecclesiastical council, that was called
+together from the neighboring ministers and churches whenever a minister
+was to be inducted into office. That method was costly and had dropped into
+desuetude; but the new method of a committee of fellowship saved true
+Congregational methods and freed the churches from unworthy men. At this
+session the committee reported that it had adopted a uniform plan of
+action; but a resolution was passed recommending that each local conference
+establish its own committee of fellowship. Having once been instituted,
+however, the committee of the National Conference came slowly to be
+recognized as the fit means of introducing ministers into the Unitarian
+fellowship. Its authority has proven beneficent, and in no sense
+autocratic. It has shown that churches may co-operate in this way without
+intruding upon each others' rights, and that such a safeguarding of the
+pulpits of the denomination is essential to their dignity and morality. In
+1896 the Minnesota Conference went one step further, and provided for a
+committee of fellowship with power to exclude for "conduct unbecoming a
+minister."</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn67"></a>Results of the Denominational Awakening.</h3>
+
+<p>The most marked feature in the history of Unitarianism in this country
+during the period from 1865 to 1880 was the organization of the National
+Conference as the legislative body of the denomination, and the adjustment
+to it of the American Unitarian Association as its executive instrument.
+Attendant upon this organizing movement was the termination of the
+theological discussion that had begun twenty years earlier between the
+<a name="pg222"></a>
+conservatives and radicals, the supernaturalists and the idealists, or
+transcendentalists. In 1865 the large majority of Unitarians were
+conservatives and supernaturalists, but in 1880 a marked change in belief
+had come about, that had apparently given the victory to the more moderate
+of the radicals. The majority of Unitarians would no longer assert that
+miracles are necessary to faith in Christ and the acceptance of his
+teachings as worthy of credence.</p>
+
+<p>The change that came about during these years was largely due to the
+leadership of Henry W. Bellows. What he did was to keep actively alive in
+the Unitarian body its recognition of its Christian heritage, while at the
+same time he boldly refused assent to its being committed to any definite
+creed. He insisted upon the right of Unitarians to the Christian name, and
+to all that Christianity means as a vital spiritual force; but at the same
+time he refused to accept any limits for the Christian tradition and
+heritage, and left them free for growth. Sometimes apparently reactionary
+and conservative, he was at other times boldly radical and progressive. The
+cause of this seeming inconsistency was to be found in those gifts of
+imagination and emotion that made him a great preacher; but the
+inconsistency was more apparent than real, for in his leadership he
+manifested a wisdom and a capacity for directing the efforts of others that
+has never been surpassed in the history of religion and philanthropy in
+this country. He was both conservative and radical, supernaturalist and
+transcendentalist, a believer in miracles with a confident trust in the
+functions of reason. He saw both before and after, knew the worth of the
+past, and recognized that all the roots of our religious life are found
+<a name="pg223"></a>
+therein, and yet courageously faced the future and its power to transform
+our faith by the aid of philosophy and science. Consequently, his
+sympathies were large, generous, and inclusive. Sometimes autocratic in
+word and action, his motives were catholic, and his intentions broad and
+appreciative. He gave direction to the newer Unitarianism in its efforts to
+organize and perpetuate itself. Had it been more flexible to his organizing
+skill, it would have grown more rapidly; but, with all its individualism
+and dislike of proselyting, it has more than doubled in strength since
+1865. He showed the Unitarian body that freedom is consistent with
+organized effort, and that personal liberty is no more essential than
+co-ordinated action. He may be justly described as the real organizer of
+the Unitarian body in this country.</p>
+
+<p><br /><br />[<a href="#fr_8_1">1</a><a name="fn_8_1"></a>] Henry W. Bellows, in Monthly Journal, iv. 336: "These two years of
+    war have witnessed a more rapid progress in liberal opinions than the
+    whole previous century. The public mind has opened itself as it has
+    never been open before." In vi. 3, he said: "There are great and
+    striking changes going on. Men are breaking away from old opinions,
+    and there is a great work for us to do." This was said in December,
+    1864. William G. Eliot, Monthly Journal, iv. 349: "The war has proved
+    that our Unitarian faith works well in time of trial. No other church
+    has been so uniformly and thoroughly loyal, and no other church has
+    done more for the sick and dying." Many other similar words could be
+    quoted.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_2">2</a><a name="fn_8_2"></a>] James Freeman Clarke reported for this committee at the Syracuse
+    session of 1866, and stated that its members had conferred with
+    Christians, Universalists, Methodists, Congregationalists, and
+    others. The committee made several suggestions as to what could be
+    done to promote general fellowship, and recommended that the title of
+    the National Conference be so changed as to permit persons of other
+    religions bodies to find a place within it, if they so desired. The
+    committee was reappointed; and at the third session of the Conference
+    it reported that it had visited the annual gatherings of the
+    Universalists, Methodists, and Free Religionists, and had been
+    cordially welcomed. They were received into the pulpits of different
+    denominations, they found everywhere a cordial spirit of fellowship
+    and a breaking down of sectarian barriers. At this session the
+    Conference expressed its desire "to cultivate the most friendly
+    relations with, and to encourage fraternal intercourse between, the
+    various liberal Christian bodies in this country." A committee of
+    three was appointed "to represent our fraternal sentiments and to
+    consider all questions which relate to mutual intercourse and
+    co-operation."</p>
+
+<p>    This committee reported through Edward E. Hale that it had been well
+    received at two Methodist conferences and at several state
+    conventions of the Universalists. Especially had it been welcomed by
+    the African Methodist Church, which was the beginning of cordial
+    relations between the two bodies for several years. The committee
+    reported, however, that "there are but few regularly organized bodies
+    in this country which, in their formal action, express much desire
+    for intercourse or co-operation with us as an organized branch of the
+    church." A resolution offered by the committee, expressing the desire
+    of the National Conference "to cultivate the most friendly relations
+    with all Christian churches and to encourage fraternal intercourse
+    between them," was adopted. The members of the committee appointed in
+    1870 attended the session of the American Board of Foreign Missions
+    in 1871; and they were received with courtesy, Athanase Coquerel
+    addressing the board as their representative. The committee reported
+    that "in every direction, from clergymen and laymen of different
+    Protestant churches, we have received informal expressions of what we
+    believe to be a very general desire that there might be a more formal
+    and public expression of the fellowship which undoubtedly really
+    exists between the different Protestant communions."</p>
+
+<p>    At the session of the National Conference held in 1874 the council
+    suggested the propriety of preparing a register of the free or
+    liberal churches of the world, and it enumerated the various bodies
+    that might be properly included; but no action was taken on this
+    recommendation. At this session an amendment to the by-laws, offered
+    by Dr. Hale, was adopted, providing for a fellowship committee with
+    other churches. This committee was not appointed, and the amendment
+    was not printed in its proper place in the report. Apparently, the
+    interest in efforts of this kind had exhausted itself, partly because
+    any active co-operation with the more conservative churches was
+    impossible, and partly because the growth of denominational feeling
+    directed the energies of the National Conference into other channels.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_3">3</a><a name="fn_8_3"></a>] The sessions of the National Conference have been held as follows: 1,
+    New York, April 5-6, 1865; 2, Syracuse, October 10-11, 1866; 3, New
+    York, October 7-9, 1868; 4, New York, October 19-21, 1870; 5. Boston,
+    October 22-25, 1872; 6, Saratoga, September 15-18, 1874; 7, Saratoga,
+    September 12-15, 1876; 8, Saratoga, September 17-20, 1878; 9,
+    Saratoga, September 21-24, 1880; 10, Saratoga, September 18-22, 1882;
+    11, Saratoga, September 22-26, 1884; 12, Saratoga, September 20-24,
+    1886; 13, Philadelphia, October 28-31, 1889; 14, Saratoga, September
+    21-25, 1891; 15, Saratoga, September 24-27, 1894; 16, Washington,
+    October 21-24, 1895; 17, Saratoga, September 20-23, 1897; 18,
+    Washington, October 16-19 1899; 19, Saratoga, September 23, 1901. A
+    meeting was held in Chicago, in 1893, in connection with the
+    Parliament of Religions. The presidents of the National Conference
+    have been Hon. John A. Andrew, who served in 1866; Hon. Thomas D.
+    Eliot, whose term of service lasted to 1869; Judge Ebenezer R. Hoar,
+    from 1869 to 1878, and again from 1882 to 1884; Hon. John D. Long,
+    from 1878 to 1882; Judge Samuel F. Miller, 1884 to 1891; Mr. George
+    William Curtis, 1891 to 1894; and Hon. George F. Hoar, 1894 to 1901.
+    Hon. Carroll D. Wright was elected to the office in 1901. The
+    secretaries have been Rev. Edward Everett Hale, Rev. George
+    Batchelor, Rev. Russell N. Bellows, Rev. William H. Lyon, and Rev.
+    Daniel W. Morehouse. The first chairman of the council was Rev. Henry
+    W. Bellows, D.D., who served to 1872, and again from 1876 to 1878;
+    Professor Charles Carroll Everett, D.D., from 1874 to 1876; Rev.
+    Edward Everett Hale, D.D., from 1880 to 1882, and from 1891 to 1894;
+    Rev. James De Normandie, D.D., from 1884 to 1889; Rev. Brooke
+    Herford, D.D., from 1889 to 1891; Rev. George Batchelor, from 1894 to
+    1895; Rev. Minot J. Savage, D.D., from 1895 to 1899; and Rev. Howard
+    N. Brown, from the later year to 1901, when Rev. Thomas R. Slicer was
+    elected.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_4">4</a><a name="fn_8_4"></a>] A.A. Low, a member of the first Unitarian congregation in Brooklyn,
+    N.Y.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_5">5</a><a name="fn_8_5"></a>] Lecture delivered in Cooper Institute, New York, on Unitarian Views
+    of Christ, published in The Christian Examiner, November, 1866, xxxi,
+    310.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_6">6</a><a name="fn_8_6"></a>] Works, iv. 110.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_7">7</a><a name="fn_8_7"></a>] The Christian Examiner, March-April, 1826, iii. 136.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_8">8</a><a name="fn_8_8"></a>] First Series of Tracts of A.U.A. No. 87.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_9">9</a><a name="fn_8_9"></a>] First Series of A.U.A. Tracts, No. 105, April, 1836.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_10">10</a><a name="fn_8_10"></a>] Forty-fifth Annual Report of the American Unitarian Association, 11,
+     14.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_11">11</a><a name="fn_8_11"></a>] This correspondence was published in full in The Christian Register
+     for December 13 and 20, 1873, Mr. Potter's letter protesting against
+     the action of the Association being printed on the later date.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_12">12</a><a name="fn_8_12"></a>] Memoir of Charles Lowe, 454, 458.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_13">13</a><a name="fn_8_13"></a>] Freedom and Fellowship in Religion, 261.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_14">14</a><a name="fn_8_14"></a>] Freedom and Fellowship in Religion, 24.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_15">15</a><a name="fn_8_15"></a>] Ibid., 42.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_16">16</a><a name="fn_8_16"></a>] Ibid., 216.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_17">17</a><a name="fn_8_17"></a>] Fifty Affirmations, 47.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_18">18</a><a name="fn_8_18"></a>] Report of the Second Meeting of the National Conference, 20.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_19">19</a><a name="fn_8_19"></a>] Memoir of Charles H. Brigham, with Sermons and Lectures.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_20">20</a><a name="fn_8_20"></a>] Christian Register. March 15, 1900, lxxxix. 300; Twenty-fifth
+     Anniversary of the Worcester Conference, 7, address by Dr. Hale. See
+     Memoir of Charles Lowe, 372.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_21">21</a><a name="fn_8_21"></a>] Church Exchange, May, 1899, vi. 59.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_22">22</a><a name="fn_8_22"></a>] This association of ministers was organized August 17, 1819, and was
+     orthodox, but found itself Unitarian when the denominational change
+     took place.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_23">23</a><a name="fn_8_23"></a>] See Appendix for a complete list of the local conferences and the
+     dates of their organization.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_8_24">24</a><a name="fn_8_24"></a>] In a small number of instances such churches did join the Conference,
+     but the number was too small to be in any degree significant.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<a name="pg224"></a>
+<h2><br /><a name="ch9"></a>IX.<br />
+
+
+GROWTH OF DENOMINATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS.</h2>
+
+<p>The period from 1880 to the present time is marked by a growing
+denominational unity. Gradually Unitarians have come to the acceptance of
+their fellowship as a religious body, and to a recognition of their
+distinct mission. The controversy between the conservatives and the
+radicals was transferred to the west in 1886, and continued to have at its
+basis the problem of the relation of the individual to religious
+institutions and traditions. The conservative party maintained that
+Unitarians are Christians, and gave recognition to that continuity of human
+development by which every generation is connected with and draws its life
+from those which precede it, and is consciously dependent upon them. On the
+other hand, the radical party was not willing to accept traditions and
+institutions as having a binding authority over individuals. Some of them
+were reluctant to call themselves Christians, not because they rejected the
+more important of the Christian beliefs, but because they were not willing
+to bind any individual by the action of his fellows. It was their claim
+that religion best serves its own ends when it is free to act upon the
+individual without compulsion of any kind from others, and that its
+attractions should be without any bias of external authority.</p>
+
+<a name="pg225"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn68"></a>"The Western Issue."</h3>
+
+<p>At the meeting of the Western Conference held in Cleveland in 1882,
+arrangements were made looking to its incorporation, and its object was
+defined to be "the transaction of business pertaining to the general
+interests of the societies connected with the Conference, and the promotion
+of rational religion." It was voted that the motto on the conference seal
+should be "Freedom, Fellowship, and Character in Religion," which was the
+same as that of the Free Religious Association, with the addition of the
+word "character." These results were reached after much discussion, and by
+the way of compromise. The issues thus raised were brought forward again at
+St. Louis, in 1885, when Rev. J.T. Sunderland, the secretary and missionary
+of the conference, deplored the growing spirit of agnosticism and
+scepticism in the Unitarian churches of the west. His report caused a
+division of opinion in the conference; and in the controversy that ensued
+the conservatives were represented by The Unitarian, edited by Rev. Brooke
+Herford and Rev. J.T. Sunderland, and the radicals by Unity, edited by Rev.
+J.Ll. Jones and Rev. W.C. Gannett.</p>
+
+<p>At the Western Conference meeting of 1886, held in Cincinnati, the
+controversy found full expression. The session was preceded a few days
+before by the publication of a pamphlet on The Western Issue from the pen
+of Mr. Sunderland, in which he contended for the theistic and Christian
+character of the conference. A resolution offered by Rev. Oscar Clute,
+"that the primary object of this Conference is to diffuse the knowledge and
+promote the interests of pure Christianity," was rejected by a considerable
+majority. Another, offered by Mr. Sunderland--"that, while rejecting all
+<a name="pg226"></a>
+creeds and creed limitations, the Conference hereby expresses its purpose
+as a body to be the promotion of a religion of love to God and love to
+man"--was also rejected. That presented by William C. Gannett was carried
+by a majority of thirty-four to ten, and declared that</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>  the Western Unitarian Conference conditions its fellowship on no
+  dogmatic tests, but welcomes all who wish to join it to establish
+  truth, righteousness, and love in the world.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>The result was a pronounced division between the two parties within the
+conference; and a considerable number of churches, including some of the
+oldest and strongest, withdrew from co-operation in the work of the
+Conference. At the session of 1887, held in All Souls' Church, Chicago, an
+effort was made to bring about a reconciliation; but this was not
+<a name="pg227"></a>
+completely secured.[<a href="#fn_9_1">1</a><a name="fr_9_1"></a>] A resolution was carried, however, by a majority
+of fifty-nine to three, reaffirming Mr. Gannett's, declaration adopted at
+Cincinnati, but also accepting a statement in regard to fellowship and
+doctrines, which was called The Things Most Commonly Believed To-day among
+Us, and read as follows:--</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>  In all matters of church government we are strict Congregationalists.
+  We have no creed in the usual sense; that is, articles of doctrinal
+  belief which bind our churches and fix the conditions of our
+  fellowship. Character has always been to us the supreme matter. We have
+  doctrinal beliefs, and for the most part hold such beliefs in common;
+  but above all doctrines we emphasize the principles of freedom,
+  fellowship, and character in religion. These principles make our
+  all-sufficient test of fellowship. All names that divide religion are
+  to us of little consequence compared with religion itself. Whoever
+  loves truth and loves the good is, in a broad sense, of our religious
+  fellowship; whoever loves the one or lives the other better than
+  ourselves is our teacher, whatever church or age he may belong to. So
+  our church is wide, our teachers many, and our holy writings large.</p>
+
+<p>  With a few exceptions we may be called Christian Theists: Theists as
+  worshipping the One-in-All, and naming that One, God our Father;
+  Christian, because revering Jesus as the highest of the historic
+  prophets of religion; these names, as names, receiving more stress in
+  our older than in our younger churches. The general faith is hinted
+  well in words which several of our churches have adopted for their
+  covenant: "In the freedom of the truth, and in the spirit of Jesus
+  Christ, we unite for the worship of God and the service of man." It is
+<a name="pg228"></a>
+  hinted in such words as these: "Unitarianism is a religion of love to
+  God and love to man." "It is that free and progressive development of
+  historic Christianity which aspires to be synonymous with universal
+  ethics and universal religion." But because we have no creed which we
+  impose as test of fellowship, specific statements of belief abound
+  among us, always somewhat differing, always largely agreeing. One such
+  we offer here:--</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>    We believe that to love the Good and live the Good is the supreme
+    thing in religion. We hold reason and conscience to be final
+    authorities in matters of religious belief. We honor the Bible and
+    all inspiring scriptures, old and new. We revere Jesus and all holy
+    souls that have taught men truth and righteousness and love, as
+    prophets of religion. We believe in the growing nobility of man. We
+    trust the unfolding universe as beautiful, beneficent, unchanging
+    Order; to know this order is truth; to obey it is right and liberty
+    and stronger life. We believe that good and evil inevitably carry
+    their own recompense, no good things being failure, and no evil
+    things success; that heaven and hell are states of being; that no
+    evil can befall the good man in either life or death; that all
+    things work together for the victory of Good. We believe that we
+    ought to join hands and work to make the good things better and the
+    worst good, counting nothing good for self that is not good for
+    all. We believe that this self-forgetting, loyal life awakes in man
+    the sense of union, here and now, with things eternal--the sense of
+    deathlessness; and this is to us an earnest of the life to come. We
+    worship One-in-All,--that Life whence suns and stars derive their
+    orbits and the soul of man its Ought,--that Light which lighteth
+    every man that cometh into the world, giving us power to become the
+    sons of God,--that Love with whom our souls commune. This One we
+    name the Eternal God, our Father.</p>
+</blockquote>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>This action not satisfying the remonstrants, the controversy went on with
+<a name="pg229"></a>
+considerable vigor for three or four years. Both parties to it were
+characteristically Unitarian in their attitude and in their demands. Both
+sought the truth with an attempt at unbiassed judgment; and neither wished
+to disfellowship the other, or to put any restrictions upon its expression
+of its opinions. Much heat was engendered by the controversy, but light was
+desire by both parties with sincere purpose. The conflict was finally
+brought to an end by the action of the National Conference at its session
+of 1894, held at Saratoga, though this result had been practically reached
+in 1892. A committee on the revision of the constitution had been appointed
+by the council of the session of 1891; and this committee reported the
+following preamble, which was unanimously adopted as a substitute for the
+preamble of 1865 and 1868:--</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>  The Conference of Unitarian and other Christian Churches was formed in
+  the year 1865, with the purpose of strengthening the churches and
+  societies which should unite in it for more and better work for the
+  kingdom of God. These churches accept the religion of Jesus, holding,
+  in accordance with his teaching, that practical religion is summed up
+  in love to God and love to man. The Conference recognizes the fact that
+  its constituency is Congregational in tradition and polity. Therefore,
+  it declares that nothing in this constitution is to be construed as an
+  authoritative test; and we cordially invite to our working fellowship
+  any who, while differing from us in belief, are in general sympathy
+  with our spirit and our practical aims.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>This preamble to the new constitution proved to be so far acceptable to
+both parties in the Western Conference, as well as to their sympathizers
+<a name="pg230"></a>
+elsewhere, that harmony was restored throughout the denomination. While the
+Unitarian body thus retained its use of the Christian name and its
+insistence upon loyalty to the teachings of Jesus, yet it put aside every
+form of dogmatic test and of creedal statement. Its fellowship was made
+very broad in its character, and all were invited to join it who so
+desired.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn69"></a>Fellowship with Universalists.</h3>
+
+<p>At the annual meeting of the Unitarian Association in 1899 resolutions were
+passed looking to joint action between Unitarians and Universalists with
+reference to furthering their common interests. A committee was appointed
+to confer with a similar committee of the Universalist General Convention
+for the purpose of considering "plans of closer co-operation, devise ways
+and means for more efficient usefulness." In October this proposal was
+accepted by the General Convention, and a committee appointed. At the
+annual meeting of the Unitarian Association in 1900 the report of the
+joint committee was presented, in which it was declared that "closer
+co-operation is desirable and practicable"; but the committee expressed the
+wish to go on record "as not desiring nor expecting to disturb in any way
+the separate organic autonomy of the two denominations. We seek
+co-operation, not consolidation, unity, non union." The committee
+recommended that it be given authority to consider the cases in which the
+two denominations are jointly interested, such as opportunities of
+instituting churches or missions in new fields, the circulation of tracts
+and books, the holding of joint meetings of ministers and churches, or
+other efforts to promote intellectual agreements and deep faiths of the
+heart, and to recommend the appropriate action to the proper organizations.
+<a name="pg231"></a>
+At the next sessions of the Unitarian Association and of the Universalist
+General Convention these recommendations were accepted, and permanent
+members of the joint committee were appointed. This committee has entered
+upon its duties, and important results may be anticipated in the promotion
+of harmony and co-operation.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn70"></a>Officers of the American Unitarian Association.</h3>
+
+<p>Mr. Henry P. Kidder continued as the president of the Unitarian Association
+until the annual meeting of 1886. He was then succeeded by Hon. George D.
+Robinson, who held the office for only one year. He had been in both houses
+of the Massachusetts legislature, in the national House from 1877 to 1883,
+and was governor of Massachusetts from 1884 to 1886. His successor was Hon.
+George S. Hale, from 1887 to 1895, who was a distinguished lawyer, and was
+greatly interested in charities and reforms. Hon. John D. Long was the
+president from 1895 to 1897. He had been in the lower house of the
+Massachusetts legislature, was lieutenant governor in 1879, governor in
+1880-82, in the national House from 1883 to 1889, and from 1897 to 1902 was
+Secretary of the Navy. Hon. Carroll D. Wright held the office from 1897 to
+1900. He was in the Massachusetts Senate in 1871 and 1872, was chief of the
+Massachusetts bureau of statistics from 1873 to 1888, superintendent of the
+United States census in 1880, has been commissioner of the national Bureau
+of Labor since 1885, and in 1902 became president of Clark College at
+Worcester. At the annual meeting of 1900 it was thought best to make a
+change in the nature of the presidency, in order that the head of the
+Association might become its chief executive officer. In that way it was
+<a name="pg232"></a>
+sought to add dignity and efficiency to the position of the executive
+officer, as well as to meet the greatly increased work of the Association
+by this addition to its salaried force. The secretary, Rev. Samuel A.
+Eliot, was elected to the presidency.</p>
+
+<p>In 1881 Rev. Grindall Reynolds became the secretary of the Association. He
+had previously held pastorates in Jamaica Plain and Concord. He had rare
+executive abilities, was gifted with sound common sense and a judicial
+temper; and he had a most efficient business capacity. Under his leadership
+the growth of the Unitarian denomination was more rapid than it had been at
+any earlier period; and this was largely due to his zeal, energy, and
+wisdom.</p>
+
+<p>In December, 1894, Rev. George Batchelor became the secretary, and he
+continued in office until November, 1897, when he became the editor of The
+Christian Register. He had previously held pastorates in Salem, Chicago,
+and Lowell. He was succeeded, January 1, 1898, by Rev. Samuel A. Eliot, who
+had been settled over churches in Denver and Brooklyn, and who became the
+president of the Association in 1900. Rev. Charles E. St. John, who had
+been settled in Northampton and Pittsburg, became the secretary at the
+annual meeting of 1900.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn71"></a>The American Unitarian Association as a Representative Body.</h3>
+
+<p>In the report of the council of the National Conference at the session of
+1880, Dr. Bellows pointed out the fact that the American Unitarian
+Association was "not a union of churches, but an association of individuals
+belonging to Unitarian churches, who became members of it and entitled to
+<a name="pg233"></a>
+vote by signing its constitution and the annual payment of one dollar. This
+Association never had, and has not now, any explicit relation to our
+churches as churches, but only to such individuals as choose to become
+voluntary subscribers to its funds, and members by signing its
+constitution, and to such churches as choose to employ its services."</p>
+
+<p>This statement led to the appointment of a committee "to consider how the
+National Conference and the American Unitarian Association can more
+effectually co-operate without sacrifice of the advantages belonging to
+either." The committee reported in 1882 in favor of so changing the charter
+of the Association that a church might become a member. At the annual
+meeting of the Association in 1884, after a prolonged discussion, its
+by-laws were so amended that, while the life membership was retained, the
+sum creating it was raised from $30 to $50; and churches were given
+representation on the condition of regular yearly contributions to its
+treasury, two of such contributions being necessary to establish a church
+in this right. Since that time the delegates from churches have
+considerably outnumbered the life members voting at the annual meetings.
+This has practically given the churches the controlling voice in the
+activities of the Association.</p>
+
+<p>The giving a representative character to the Association had the effect of
+increasing the contributions made to its support by the churches. Under the
+leadership of Dr. Bellows, at the National Conference in 1884, there began
+a movement looking to the establishment of a conference in every state and
+the employment of a missionary by every such conference. This plan has not
+yet been fully carried out; but in 1885 and the following years missionary
+<a name="pg234"></a>
+superintendents were appointed by the Association for five general sections
+of the country, and, with some variations, this, system has continued in
+operation to the present time.[<a href="#fn_9_2">2</a><a name="fr_9_2"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn72"></a>The Church Building Loan Fund.</h3>
+
+<p>The work of building churches was greatly facilitated by the establishment,
+in 1884, of a Church Building Loan Fund. The proposition to create such a
+fund was first brought forward by the finance committee at a meeting of the
+directors of the Unitarian Association on February 11, 1884. At the March
+meeting a committee was appointed to mature plans; and at the meeting of
+the National Conference in September, held at Saratoga, a resolution was
+passed asking the Association to set apart $25,000 for this purpose, and
+pledging the Conference to add $20,000 to this sum. At the November meeting
+of the directors of the Association the organization of the fund was
+completed, a board of trustees was created, and the sum of $43,000 was
+reported as secured. The fund was steadily increased by contributions from
+the churches and by gifts and legacies until in 1900 it amounted to
+$142,820.92. Up to May, 1900, an aggregate sum of $294,310 had been
+disbursed, in one hundred loans to ninety societies, chiefly to aid in the
+erection of new church edifices.[<a href="#fn_9_3">3</a><a name="fr_9_3"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn73"></a>The Unitarian Building in Boston.</h3>
+
+<p>For several years after the organization of the American Unitarian
+Association the records give no indication of the place of meeting of the
+directors. During the latter part of 1825, and in 1826, David Reed was the
+<a name="pg235"></a>
+general agent of the Association; and his place of business was at 81
+Washington Street. It is probable that the directors met at the study of
+the secretary or at the place of business of the agent. In December, 1826,
+the firm of Bowles &amp; Dearborn, booksellers, became the agents, their store
+being first at 72 and then at 50 Washington Street. Here all Unitarian
+publications were kept on sale, the name of "general repositary" being
+given to their stock of books, tracts, periodicals, and other publications
+of a liberal character. In 1829 the agent was Leonard C. Bowles, evidently
+a continuation of Bowles &amp; Dearborn.</p>
+
+<p>In 1830 the depositary was removed to 135 Washington Street, and was under
+the management of the firm of Gray &amp; Bowen, who were paid $144.44 for their
+services. In 1831 the place of business of this firm was 141 Washington
+Street; and the sum it received from the Association was $200, which was
+the next year increased to $300. Leonard C. Bowles, located at 147
+Washington Street, again became the agent in 1836. In 1837 James Munroe &amp;
+Co. appear as the publishers of the annual report, but they are not
+mentioned as agents or as having charge of the repositary. The sum of $150
+was paid in that year for the rent of a room for the general secretary,
+Rev. Charles Briggs; and the location of the room is probably indicated by
+the record that in 1838 Munroe &amp; Co. were paid $133.34 for rent of room and
+clerk hire, their store being at 134 Washington Street. Here the
+headquarters of the Association were at last established, for they
+continued in this place until 1846. In 1839 the rental paid was $300, and
+for the six succeeding years it was $200. Surely, these were the days of
+small things; but here the Association carried on such activities as it had
+<a name="pg236"></a>
+in hand, and the Unitarian ministers met for conversation and consultation.</p>
+
+<p>In 1846 Crosby, Nichols &amp; Co. became the agents of the Association, first
+at 118 and then at 111 Washington Street. This firm brought out several
+Unitarian books, and issued The Christian Examiner and other Unitarian
+periodicals. For a number of years they were intimately associated with
+Unitarian interests, and the theological and literary traditions of the
+time connect them with many of the leading men and movements of Boston. In
+the rear of their store the Association had its office, its meeting-place
+for the directors and other officers, as well as for the Monday gatherings
+of ministers.</p>
+
+<p>After these many wanderings from the rear of one bookstore to another the
+Association at last secured an abode of its own. On March 9, 1854, rooms
+for the use of the Association were opened at 21 Bromfield Street. On this
+occasion a small company came together, and listened to an address by Dr.
+Samuel K. Lothrop, the president of the Association. Another change was
+made in October, 1859, when Walker, Wise &amp; Co. undertook the book-selling,
+and publishing work of the Association at 21 Bromfield Street.</p>
+
+<p>In the year 1865 there came to the Association an opportunity for securing
+a building of its own. The sum of $16,000 was paid for a house at 26
+Chauncy Street, which was occupied in the spring of 1866. The enlarged
+activities of the Association at this time here found the housing they
+needed. Affiliated organizations also found a home in this building,
+especially the Sunday School Society, the Christian Register Association,
+and The Monthly Religious Magazine.</p>
+
+<a name="pg237"></a>
+<p>The theatre meetings, begun in Boston in 1866, having suggested the need of
+a larger denominational building, The Monthly Journal of November, 1867,
+proposed the erection of a building with a spacious hall for these great
+popular meetings, smaller rooms for social gatherings, offices for the
+Association and other affiliated societies, and an attractive bookstore.
+"In short, we would have it comprise all that might properly belong to a
+denominational headquarters or home. We would have it in a convenient and
+conspicuous situation, and every way worthy of our position." This dream of
+Mr. Lowe's he brought forward again in his annual report of 1870, when he
+said: "The building now occupied by the Association has become wholly
+inadequate to its uses; and steps were taken more than a year ago by its
+friends in Boston towards providing more suitable accommodations, and at
+the same time providing in connection with it for such other uses as might
+make the building to be erected worthy to be the headquarters of the
+denomination in the city which gave it birth." Mr. Shippen called attention
+to the needs of the Association in his report of 1872, saying that the
+project of a large hall had been abandoned, but that there was urgent
+demand for a building suited to the business and social needs of the
+denomination in Boston.</p>
+
+<p>The great fire of November, 1872, brought this project to a sudden
+termination. The Chauncy Street building was for many hours in danger of
+being burned, out it was finally saved. Its market value was much increased
+by the fire, however; and in February, 1873, it was sold for $37,000.
+Purchase was soon made, at a cost of $30,000, of the estate at 7 Tremont
+<a name="pg238"></a>
+Place, belonging to Hon. Albert Fearing, who had been active in the work of
+the Association and prominent in the Unitarian circles of Boston. This
+building, entered by the Association in May, 1873, was somewhat larger than
+its predecessor and in some respects better suited to the needs of the
+Association; yet the secretary, at the annual meeting held in the same
+month, called for the more convenient building, which should serve "as a
+worthy centre in this city for the various charitable and missionary
+activities of our faith."[<a href="#fn_9_4">4</a><a name="fr_9_4"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>In his report of 1880 Mr. Shippen again presented his demand for a suitable
+home for the Association and its kindred organizations. This appeal was
+renewed in the following year by Mr. Reynolds, who urged "the need of a
+denominational house in Boston, which should be commodious, accessible,
+easily found, and where all our charities and all our works should find a
+home." "Very fitting it is," he added, "that such a house should be named
+after him who, by his personal influence in life and by the power of his
+written word after his death, has been the mightiest single force for the
+diffusion of rational Christianity."</p>
+
+<p>In January, 1882, the Unitarian Club of Boston was organized; and it soon
+after took up the task of erecting the desired building. The initiative was
+taken at a meeting of the club held December 13, 1882, when Mr. Henry P.
+Kidder offered to head a subscription for this purpose with the sum of
+$10,000. The proposal was received with much enthusiasm, and a committee
+was appointed, consisting of Henry P. Kidder, Charles Faulkner, Charles W.
+Eliot, William Endicott, Jr., Francis H. Brown, M.D., Dr. John Cordner,
+<a name="pg239"></a>
+Arthur T. Lyman, Henry Grew, Thomas Gaffield, and Rev. Grindall Reynolds,
+to whom authority was given to raise funds, purchase a lot, and erect a
+building. It was arranged by this committee that the Association should
+contribute $50,000 from the sale of its Tremont Place building, and that
+the club should raise $150,000. Subscriptions were opened February 9, 1883;
+and in November over $154,000 had been secured. A suitable lot was
+purchased at the corner of Beacon and Bowdoin Streets, and the erection of
+the building was begun in 1884. A prolonged labor strike delayed the
+completion of the building, so that the service of its dedication, which
+had been arranged for the evening of May 25, 1886, was held in Tremont
+Temple. The presiding officer on that occasion was George William Curtis;
+and addresses were made by Drs. Frederic H. Hedge, Andrew P. Peabody, and
+Horatio Stebbins. In July the building was occupied by the Association.
+"The denominational house is but brick and stone," said Mr. Reynolds in his
+report of 1886; "but it is brick and stone which testify to the new hope,
+vigor, life, which have been coming in these later years into our body, and
+without which it could not have been reared. It is brick and stone which
+are the pledges of a noble future, which stimulate to good work, and
+furnish the means of doing it."[<a href="#fn_9_5">5</a><a name="fr_9_5"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg240"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn74"></a>Growth of the Devotional Spirit.</h3>
+
+<p>The last twenty years of the nineteenth century saw an increased use of the
+simpler Christian rites in Unitarian churches. In that time a distinct
+advance was made in the acceptableness of the communion service, and
+probably in the number of those willing to join in its observance. The
+abandonment of its mystical features and its interpretation as a simple
+memorial service, that would help to cherish loved ones gone hence, and the
+saintly and heroic of all ages, as well as the one great leader of the
+Christian body, has given it for Unitarians a new spiritual effectiveness.
+The same causes have led to the adoption of the rite of confirmation in a
+considerable number of churches. Gradually the idea has grown that what
+Rev. Sylvester Judd called "the birthright church" is the true one, and
+that it is desirable that all children should be religiously trained, and
+admitted to the church at the age of adolescence. Mr. Judd gave noble
+utterance to this conception of a church in a series of sermons published
+after his death,[<a href="#fn_9_6">6</a><a name="fr_9_6"></a>] as well as in a sermon prepared for the Thursday
+lecture in Boston.[<a href="#fn_9_7">7</a><a name="fr_9_7"></a>] The same idea was elaborated by Rev. Cyrus A.
+<a name="pg241"></a>
+Bartol in his Church and Congregation: A Plea for their Unity,[<a href="#fn_9_8">8</a><a name="fr_9_8"></a>] wherein
+he contended for the union of church and parish, the opening of the
+communion to all as a rite accepted by the whole congregation, and not by a
+few church members, and the education of children as constituent members of
+the church from birth.</p>
+
+<p>It was not until much later, however, that the rite of confirmation came
+into use,[<a href="#fn_9_9">9</a><a name="fr_9_9"></a>] largely because of the interpretations of the purposes and
+methods of Christian nurture presented by Bushnell, Bartol, and Judd. This
+rite could have meaning only as the expression of social responsibility on
+the part of parents and church alike, that true religion is not merely a
+question of individual opinion, but that there is high worth in those
+spiritual forces that are carried forward from generation to generation,
+and must descend from parent to child if they have effective power. In a
+word, the use of the confirmation rite is an abandonment of extreme
+individualism, and is an acceptance of the socialistic conception of
+spiritual development.[<a href="#fn_9_10">10</a><a name="fr_9_10"></a>] This is distinctly a return to the conception
+of a church maintained by Solomon Stoddard at the beginning of the
+eighteenth century, and to that broader Congregationalism he desired to see
+established throughout New England. It was also theoretically that of the
+<a name="pg242"></a>
+Puritan founders of New England, who maintained that all children Of church
+members were also members of the church, but who inconsistently insisted
+upon a supernatural conversion in order to full membership. It is even more
+positively an acceptance of the theory of Christian nurture held by the
+Catholic and the Episcopal churches. That theory is based on the social
+conception of the church, that it is an organic body, and that every child
+is born into it and is to be trained as a member by nature and by right.</p>
+
+<p>There has also been a marked change in the forms of Sunday worship,
+especially in the general adoption of responsive readings or more elaborate
+rituals. The tendency has been away from the bare and unattractive service
+of the Puritan churches, which was the acme of individualism in worship,
+towards the more social conception that brings the whole congregation to
+join in the act and in the spirit of devotion. This social conception of
+worship had its first distinct expression in a Unitarian church when James
+Freeman Clarke organized the Church of the Disciples, in 1843.[<a href="#fn_9_11">11</a><a name="fr_9_11"></a>] His
+example was a potent force in introducing into many churches a richer and
+more expressive form of worship. Another influence was that of Samuel
+Longfellow, who became the minister of the Second Unitarian Church in
+Brooklyn, in 1853. He soon after introduced vesper services in place of the
+second sermon in the afternoon, making them largely devotional in their
+character. "His own taste and deep feeling were largely a condition of the
+full success of the vespers," says his biographer, "which were seldom
+elsewhere so impressive or seemed so genuine as a devotional act. They
+<a name="pg243"></a>
+needed, for their perfect effect, the influence of a leader with whom
+worship was an habitual mental attitude, and who, combined with the
+instinct of religion the art of a poet and of a musician."[<a href="#fn_9_12">12</a><a name="fr_9_12"></a>] The form of
+service thus initiated was adopted in many other churches, and slowly had
+its influence in giving greater beauty and spiritual expressiveness to
+worship in Unitarian churches.</p>
+
+<p>About 1885 the tendency to adopt a more social and a more aesthetic form of
+worship came to assert itself more distinctly. To its furtherance Rev.
+Howard N. Brown gave, perhaps, greater emphasis than any other person; but
+there were others who took an active part in the movement. The old
+Congregational demand for simplicity, however, was very great; and there
+was strong feeling against anything like ritualism. The use of some kind of
+liturgy became quite general in the face of this objection, and a
+considerable number of books of a semi-ritual character were published. The
+most elaborate work of this nature was compiled by a committee appointed by
+the Unitarian Association, and published by it in 1891. What is to be
+recognized in this tendency is not the more general use of liturgies,
+however simple or however elaborate, but the growth in Unitarian churches
+of the worshipping spirit. With the development of a rational theology
+there has been a corresponding evolution of a simple but earnest attitude
+of devotion.</p>
+
+<p>The devotional spirit of Unitarians, however, has found its most emphatic
+and beautiful expression in religious hymns and poems. The older Unitarian
+piety found voice in the hymns of the younger Henry Ware, Norton, Pierpont,
+<a name="pg244"></a>
+Frothingham, Peabody, Lunt, Bryant, and many others. It was rational and
+yet Christian, simple in sentiment and yet it found in the New Testament
+traditions its themes and its symbolisms. Then followed the older
+transcendentalists, who sought in the inward life and the soul's oneness
+with God the chief motives to spiritual expression. The hymns and the
+religious poems of Furness, Hedge, Longfellow, Johnson, Clarke, Very,
+Brooks, and Miss Scudder,[<a href="#fn_9_13">13</a><a name="fr_9_13"></a>] have an interior and spiritual quality
+seldom found in devotional poetry. They are not the mere utterances of
+conventional sentiments or the repetition of ecclesiastical symbolisms, but
+the voicing of deep inward experiences that reveal and interpret the true
+life of the soul. Of the same character are the hymns and religious poems
+of Gannett, Hosmer, and Chadwick, who have but accentuated the tendencies
+of their predecessors. It is the more radical theology that has voiced
+itself in the religious songs of these men, but with a mystical or
+spiritual insight that fits them to the needs of all devout, worshippers.
+It is these genuinely poetical interpretations of the spiritual life that
+most often claim utterance in song on the part of Unitarian congregations.
+A body of worshippers that can produce such a hymnology must possess a
+large measure of genuine piety and devotion.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn75"></a>The Seventy-fifth Anniversary.</h3>
+
+<p>Many of the tendencies of the Unitarian movement found utterance on the
+occasion of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the American Unitarian
+Association. The meetings were held in Tremont Temple, May 22, 1900; and
+<a name="pg245"></a>
+the attendance was large and enthusiastic, many persons coming from distant
+parts of the country. This meeting brought into full expression the
+denominational consciousness, and showed the harmony that had been secured
+as the result of the controversies of many years. As never before, it was
+realized that the Unitarian body has a distinct mission, that it has
+organic and vital power, and that its individual members are united by a
+common faith for the promotion of the interests of a rational and
+humanitarian religion.</p>
+
+<p>This was also a notable occasion because it brought together
+representatives from nearly all the countries in which Unitarianism exists
+in an organized form, thus clearly indicating that it is a cosmopolitan
+movement, and not one of merely local significance. At the morning session
+addresses were made by the representatives from Hungary, Great Britain,
+Germany, Belgium, India, and Japan. In the afternoon addresses were
+delivered by the missionaries of the Association. Other meetings of much
+interest were held during the week, that were of value as interpretations
+of the past of Unitarianism in this country.</p>
+
+<p>During this anniversary week, on May 26, 1900, upon the suggestion of Rev.
+S.A. Eliot, there was organized The International Council of Unitarian and
+Other Liberal Religious Thinkers and Workers, its object being "to open
+communication with those in all lands who are striving to unite pure
+religion and perfect liberty, and to increase fellowship and co-operation
+among them." Professor J. Estlin Carpenter, of Oxford, England, was
+<a name="pg246"></a>
+selected as the president, and Rev. Charles W. Wendte, who shortly after
+became the minister of the Parker Memorial in Boston, was made the
+secretary. The executive committee included representatives from the United
+States, Great Britain, Japan, Hungary, Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, and
+Switzerland. The first annual meeting was held in London, May 30 and 31,
+1901, with delegates present from the above-named countries, as well as
+from Holland, Norway, India, Denmark, Australia, and Canada.[<a href="#fn_9_14">14</a><a name="fr_9_14"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The anniversary exercises, as well as the organization of the International
+Council, gave concrete emphasis to the growing interest in Unitarian ideas
+and principles in many parts of the world. They gave the sense of a large
+fellowship, and kindled new enthusiasm. As interpreted by these meetings,
+the Unitarian name has largely ceased to be one of merely theological
+signification, and has come to mean "an endeavor to unite for common and
+unselfish endeavors all believers in pure religion and perfect
+liberty."[<a href="#fn_9_15">15</a><a name="fr_9_15"></a>]</p>
+
+<p><br />[<a href="#fr_9_1">1</a><a name="fn_9_1"></a>] The Unitarian, June, 1887, II. 156. For historical accounts of this
+    controversy see Mrs. S.C.Ll. Jones's Western Unitarian Conference:
+    Its Work and its Mission, Unity Mission Tract, No. 38; W.C. Gannett's
+<a name="pg247"></a>
+    The Flowering of Christianity, Lesson XII., Part IV.; and The
+    Unitarian, II. and III. A Western Unitarian Association was organized
+    in Chicago, June 21, 1886. Some of the older and leading churches
+    were connected with it, including those at Meadville, Ann Arbor,
+    Louisville, Shelbyville, Church of the Messiah and Unity in Chicago,
+    Church of the Messiah in St. Louis, Keokuk, and others. Hon. George
+    W. McCrary was elected the president, and Mrs. Jonathan Slade the
+    recording secretary. In October, 1887, Rev. George Batchelor became
+    the Western agent of the American Unitarian Association. He was
+    succeeded the next year by Rev. George W. Cutter. In September, 1890,
+    Rev. T.B. Forbush was made the Western superintendent of the American
+    Unitarian Association, with headquarters in Chicago; and he held this
+    position until 1896. During the period covered by these dates Rev.
+    J.R. Effinger was the general missionary of the Western Unitarian
+    Conference, and he was succeeded by Rev. F.L. Hosmer and Rev. A.W.
+    Gould. In 1896 the Western churches were reunited in the Western
+    Conference, and its secretary has been the superintendent of the
+    American Unitarian Association. As defining the position of the
+    American Unitarian Association during this period of controversy, it
+    may be recalled that in June, 1886, the directors adopted a
+    resolution, in which they said they "would regard it as a subversion
+    of the purpose for which its funds have been contributed, as well as
+    of the principles cherished by its officers, to give assistance to
+    any church or organization which does not rest emphatically on the
+    Christian basis."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_9_2">2</a><a name="fn_9_2"></a>] New England, Middle States and Canada, Western States, Southern
+    States, and Pacific Coast.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_9_3">3</a><a name="fn_9_3"></a>] These loans are made without interest under established conditions,
+    one of which is that they must be repaid in ten annual instalments.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_9_4">4</a><a name="fn_9_4"></a>] Annual Report of 1873, 7.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_9_5">5</a><a name="fn_9_5"></a>] The building seemed to be ample, when it was first occupied, for any
+    growth that was likely to be made for many years to come. At the
+    present time, only sixteen years later, it is crowded; and an
+    extension is urgently demanded. It does not now afford room for the
+    work required, and much of that work is done at a considerable
+    disadvantage because of the want of room. The promise for the
+    immediate future is that much more room will be required in order to
+    facilitate the growing work of the Association.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_9_6">6</a><a name="fn_9_6"></a>] The Church: in a Series of Sermons, Boston, 1857.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_9_7">7</a><a name="fn_9_7"></a>] The Birthright Church: A Discourse, printed for the Association of
+    the Unitarian Church of Maine, Augusta, 1854. Mr. Judd's conception
+    of the church as a social organism was shown in the name given to the
+    organization formed under his leadership in 1852, called The
+    Association of the Unitarian Church in Maine. In the preamble to the
+    constitution he wrote: "We, the Unitarian Christians of Maine,
+    ourselves, and our posterity are a Church.... We are a church, not of
+    creeds, but of the Bible; not of sect, but of humanity; seeking not
+    uniformity of dogma, but communion in the religious life. We embrace
+    in our fellowship all who will be in fellowship with us." In defining
+    a local church, he says: "These Christians, with their families,
+    uniting for religious worship, instruction, growth, and culture,
+    having the ordinances and a pastor, constitute a parochial church."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_9_8">8</a><a name="fn_9_8"></a>] Boston, 1858.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_9_9">9</a><a name="fn_9_9"></a>] Probably Dr. William G. Eliot, of St. Louis, was the first Unitarian
+    minister to make a systematic use of this rite. He prepared a brief
+    manual for use in his church, the preface to which bears date of
+    December 6, 1868. Seth C. Beach, while minister in Dedham, printed a
+    paper on the subject in the Unitarian Review, January, 1886. He held
+    a confirmation service in the Dedham church, April 25, 1886. At a
+    meeting of the Western Sunday School Society, held in Cincinnati, May
+    12, 1889, Rev. John C. Learned, read a paper on The Sacrament of
+    Confirmation.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_9_10">10</a><a name="fn_9_10"></a>] The views of Bartol and Judd are appropriate to a state church,
+     wherein they first found expression; and their motive is always
+     distinctly social.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_9_11">11</a><a name="fn_9_11"></a>] Life of J.F. Clarke, by E.E. Hale, 145</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_9_12">12</a><a name="fn_9_12"></a>] Memoir of Samuel Longfellow, by Joseph May, 193.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_9_13">13</a><a name="fn_9_13"></a>] Miss Scudder's best hymns were all written while she was a Unitarian.
+     Unitarian hymnology has been nobly treated by Dr. Alfred P. Putnam,
+     in his Singers and Songs of the Liberal Faith, Boston, 1875. It is
+     understood that he is preparing a second volume. The tendency to a
+     deeper recognition of the spirit of worship has found fitting
+     expression in The Spiritual Life: Studies of Devotion and Worship,
+     George H. Ellis, 1898.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_9_14">14</a><a name="fn_9_14"></a>] The addresses and papers of this meeting were published under the
+     title of Liberal Religious Thought at the Beginning of the Twentieth
+     Century, London, 1901. They give the most complete account yet
+     published of the various liberal movements in many parts of the
+     world, and the book is one of great interest and value.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_9_15">15</a><a name="fn_9_15"></a>] From the first circular of the International Council.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><br /><a name="ch10"></a>X.<br />
+
+
+THE MINISTRY AT LARGE.</h2>
+
+<p>One of the most important of the philanthropies undertaken by the early
+Unitarians was the ministry to the poor and unchurched in Boston, usually
+known as the ministry at large. It began in 1822, came under the direction
+of the American Unitarian Association and the shaping hand of Dr. Joseph
+Tuckerman in 1826, and was taken in charge by the Benevolent Fraternity of
+Churches in 1834. It was not begun by Tuckerman, though its origin is
+usually attributed to him. Even before 1822 attempts had been made to
+establish missions amongst the poor by the evangelical denominations; but
+their work was not thoroughly organized, and it had reached no efficient
+results when Tuckerman entered upon his labors. The work of Tuckerman was
+to take up what had been tentatively begun by others, give it a definite
+purpose and method, and so to inform it with his own genius for charity
+that it became a great philanthropy in its intent and in its methods.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn76"></a>Association of Young Men.</h3>
+
+<p>When the Hancock Grammar School-house in the north end of Boston was being
+erected, a young man, in passing it on a September evening, said to a
+companion, "Why cannot we have a Sunday-school here?" The proposition was
+received with favor, and the two discussed plans while they continued their
+walk. They met frequently to mature their methods of procedure, and they
+<a name="pg248"></a>
+invited others to join them in the undertaking. On the evening of October
+2, 1822, these two young men--Frederick T. Gray and Benjamin H. Greene--met
+with Moses Grant, William P. Rice, and others, to give more careful
+consideration to their purpose of forming a society for mutual religious
+improvement.[<a href="#fn_10_1">1</a><a name="fr_10_1"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>These young men met with little encouragement, and for some time there was
+small prospect of their succeeding in their undertaking. They continued to
+meet weekly, however; and on November 27 they formed The Association of
+Young Men for their own Mutual Improvement and for the Religious
+Instruction of the Poor. In 1824 the name was changed to The Association
+for Religious Improvement. The members met at each other's houses weekly,
+for the purpose of considering topics which related to their own personal
+improvement or to the wants of the community, always keeping in view the
+fact that their own religious growth must lie at the foundation of any
+great good which could be done by them for society. By degrees their number
+increased; and during the six years following, as appears from the records,
+the subjects to which their meetings were successively devoted were the
+desirableness of employing a missionary and building a mission-house, the
+condition and wants of vagrant children, the diffusion of Christianity in
+<a name="pg249"></a>
+India, the importance of issuing tracts and other religions publications,
+the means and best method of improving our state prisons, the utility of
+forming a Unitarian Association, the best means to be adopted to abolish
+intemperance, the character of theatrical entertainments, the want of
+infant schools, and the best methods which could be taken to aid in the
+promotion of peace. All of these subjects were then comparatively new, and
+they were but just beginning to attract attention. Their importance was by
+no means generally understood, and least of all was the place which they
+were soon to occupy in public estimation anticipated.[<a href="#fn_10_2">2</a><a name="fr_10_2"></a>] The Association
+was discontinued in December, 1835.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn77"></a>Preaching to the Poor.</h3>
+
+<p>One of the first enterprises entered upon by this society was the securing
+of preaching for the poor and those connected with no religious
+organization. In this effort they had the co-operation of the younger Henry
+Ware, then the minister of the Second Church, and of John G. Palfrey, then
+the minister of the Brattle Street Church. In November, 1822, Henry Ware
+began these meetings; and four series of them were held throughout the
+winter, in Charter Street, in Hatters' or Creek Square, in Pitts Court, and
+in Spring Street. The Charter Street meetings were at first held in a room
+of a primary school, and then in a small chapel that had been built by a
+benevolent man for teaching and preaching purposes. In this place Mr. Ware
+was assisted by Dr. Jenks of the Christian denomination, and the chapel was
+afterwards occupied by the latter as a minister at large. The meetings in
+Pitts Court were also held in a school-room. Those in Hatters' Square
+occupied a room in a large tenement house and "here the accommodations, and
+<a name="pg250"></a>
+probably the audience, were of a humbler character than elsewhere."[<a href="#fn_10_3">3</a><a name="fr_10_3"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn78"></a>Tuckerman as Minister to the Poor.</h3>
+
+<p>Early in the year 1826 Dr. Joseph Tuckerman expressed his willingness to
+devote himself to this ministry; and the American Unitarian Association was
+appealed to, that the necessary financial support might be secured. Dr.
+Tuckerman had been for twenty-five years the parish minister in Chelsea,
+but his health was such that he had been obliged to relinquish that
+position. On September 4 the sum of $600 was appropriated to the support of
+Dr. Tuckerman for one year as a missionary among the poor in Boston; and
+Ware, Barrett, and Gannett were made a committee to ascertain what amount
+of money could be raised for this purpose. It was thought wise not to use
+the regular funds of the Association for so special and local an object.
+The women of the Boston churches were therefore appealed to in behalf of
+this cause; and during the first year contributions were received from
+those connected with the congregations of the Brattle Street, Federal
+Street, West, New South, New North, Twelfth, and Chauncey Place Churches,
+amounting to $712. These contributions by the women of the churches were
+continued until the Benevolent Fraternity was organized.</p>
+
+<p>Tuckerman entered upon his work November 5, 1826. On the evening of that
+day he met with the Association for, Religious Improvement, and discussed
+with its members the work to be undertaken. He began at once the visiting
+of the poor and the study of their condition in the several parts of the
+<a name="pg251"></a>
+city, though confining himself largely to the north end. In making his
+first quarterly report to the Unitarian Association, February 5, 1827, he
+said that he had taken fifty families into his pastoral charge. He had
+given special attention to the children, had arranged that those should be
+sent to school who had not previously attended, and provided them with
+shoes and clothes where these were necessary. He had also aided the sick,
+provided necessaries for those who were helpless and deserving, secured
+work for those out of employment, and given religious consolation and
+correction where these were required.</p>
+
+<p>After Dr. Tuckerman had entered upon his work of visiting the poor, the
+Young Men's Association arranged to have him resume the discontinued
+evening meetings. They accordingly secured the use of a room up two flights
+of stairs, in what was known as the "Circular Building," at the corner of
+Merrimac and Portland Streets. In this rude place, that had been used as a
+paint-shop, services were begun on Sunday evening, December 3, 1826.
+Tuckerman recorded in his diary that he had "a large and very attentive
+audience";[<a href="#fn_10_4">4</a><a name="fr_10_4"></a>] and on the same evening he met at the house of Dr. Channing
+"a large circle of ladies and gentlemen, who formed a society to help him
+visit."[<a href="#fn_10_5">5</a><a name="fr_10_5"></a>] As soon as services were begun in the Circular Building, it
+was proposed to form a Sunday-school; and on a very cold December day seven
+teachers and three children met to inaugurate it. They hovered about the
+<a name="pg252"></a>
+little stove, by means of which the room was warmed, and began their work.
+The school grew rapidly, soon filled the room, and was given the name of
+the Howard School. Very soon, also, this room became too small to
+accommodate the attendants at the preaching services. In recognition of
+this need the Friend Street Free Chapel was erected, and opened for use on
+November 1, 1828.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn79"></a>Tuckerman's Methods.</h3>
+
+<p>During the first year of his ministry Dr. Tuckerman reported quarterly to
+the American Unitarian Association, and then semi-annually. In all there
+were printed four of the quarterly reports and fifteen of the others. It
+was not his custom in these reports to confine himself to an account of his
+work, which usually received only a brief statement at the end; but he
+discussed important topics relating to the condition of the poor and their
+needs. His third quarterly report was devoted to a consideration of the
+remedies to be used for confirmed intemperance. Others of the topics upon
+which he reported were the condition of the poor in cities, the duties of a
+minister at large (a title invented by him, which he preferred to that of
+city or domestic missionary), the effects of poverty on the moral life of
+the poor, the means of relieving pauperism, the causes of poverty and the
+social remedies, the several classes amongst the poor and the best means of
+reaching each of them, the means to be employed for the recovery of those
+sunk in pauperism, poor laws and outdoor relief. Among the subjects he
+discussed incidentally, and sometimes at considerable length, were the duty
+of providing seats for the poor in the churches at a small rental, the
+employment of children, education as a means of saving children from
+<a name="pg253"></a>
+growing up to a life of vagrancy and pauperism, the wages of the poor and
+how they can be increased.[<a href="#fn_10_6">6</a><a name="fr_10_6"></a>] He was especially interested in the
+rescuing of children from ignorance and vice, and he strongly advocated the
+establishment of schools for the instruction of dull children and those
+whose education had been neglected. Through his efforts the Broad Street
+Infant School was established, in order to reach the younger children of
+the poor. In 1829 he made a careful study of the religious condition of the
+poor; and he found that out of a population of 55,000, which the city then
+contained, there were 4,200 families, or about 18,000 persons, who were not
+connected with any of the churches or who did not attend them with any
+degree of regularity. This gave him an opportunity to urge upon the public
+more strongly than before the importance of procuring free chapels, and a
+sufficient number of ministers to care for this large unchurched
+population. One or two ministers had labored amongst the poor before he
+began his work, and three or four had entered upon the same line of effort
+since he had done so; but these workers were too few in number to meet the
+large demands made upon them.</p>
+
+<p>In carrying on his work, Dr. Tuckerman sought out all who were in need of
+his services, without distinction of nationality, color, creed, social
+position, or moral condition. If he gave the preference to any, it was
+those who were the most wretched and debased. "It is the first object of
+the ministry at large, never to be lost sight of," he wrote, "and to which
+no other is to be preferred, as far as shall be possible to extend its
+<a name="pg254"></a>
+offices to the poor and the poorest, to the low and the lowest, to the most
+friendless and most uncared for, the most miserable."[<a href="#fn_10_7">7</a><a name="fr_10_7"></a>] He recognized
+the individuality of the poorest and the most vicious: he sought to foster
+it, and to make it the basis of moral reform and social recovery.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn80"></a>Organization of Charities.</h3>
+
+<p>The influence of Tuckerman's work was soon felt outside the city in which
+it was carried on. The people of the state came to take an interest in it,
+and to feel that its principles should be applied throughout the
+commonwealth. Therefore, a commission was appointed by the lower house of
+the state legislature, February 29, 1832, to inquire into the condition of
+the poor in all parts of the state, and to make such report as might be the
+basis of needed legislation. Dr. Tuckerman was made a member of this
+commission. The work of investigation largely fell upon him, as well as the
+writing of the report. His suggestions were accepted, and the results were
+beneficent. In the mean time the work of visiting the poor was carried on
+by a young man, Charles F. Barnard, then a student in the Divinity School,
+who entered upon his duties in April. In October he was joined by Frederick
+T. Gray, the founder of the Association for Religious Improvement and of
+the first Sunday-schools for the poor. These workers were ordained in the
+Federal Street Church on the evening of November 5, 1834, after having
+thoroughly tested their capacities for the task they had assumed.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Tuckerman set forth all the principles which have since been described
+under the name of "scientific charity," and he put them all into practice.
+<a name="pg255"></a>
+In the spring of 1832 he organized a company of visitors to the poor, the
+members of which were to act as friends and advisers of those who were
+needy. In October, 1833, he brought about a union of the ministers at large
+of all denominations for purposes of consultation and mutual helpfulness.
+This union resulted in a meeting held in February, 1834, at which those
+interested in the proper care of the poor took counsel together as to the
+best methods to be followed. At a later meeting in March, it was decided to
+secure the aid of all the charitable societies in the city with a view to
+their co-operation and the prevention of the duplication of relief. There
+was accordingly organized the Association of Delegates from the Benevolent
+Societies of Boston, the objects of which were "to adopt measures for the
+most effectual prevention of fraud and deception in the applicants for
+charity; to obtain accurate and thorough information with regard to the
+situation, character, and wants of the poor; and generally to interchange
+knowledge, experience, and advice upon all the important subjects connected
+with the duties and responsibilities of Benevolent Societies." The
+principle upon which this organization acted was that "the public good
+requires that the character and circumstances of the poor should be
+thoroughly investigated and known by those who administer our public
+charities, in order that all the relief which a pure and enlarged
+benevolence dictates may be freely bestowed, and that almsgiving may not
+encourage extravagance or vice, nor injuriously affect the claims of
+society at large upon the personal exertions and moral character of its
+members." The first annual report of this Association, which appeared in
+October, 1835, was written by Dr. Tuckerman, and was one of the best he
+<a name="pg256"></a>
+produced. He laid down certain rules he had accepted as the results of his
+experience: that beggary was to be broken up; that all misapplications of
+charity should be reported to the board of visitors; that those asking for
+alms should be relieved only at their homes and after investigation; that
+industry, forethought, economy, and self-denial were to be fostered in
+order to prevent pauperism, and that no help should be given where it led
+to dependence and reliance upon charity. Registration, investigation,
+prevention of duplication of alms, and the fostering of self-help were the
+methods brought to bear by Dr. Tuckerman in the organization of this
+Association.[<a href="#fn_10_8">8</a><a name="fr_10_8"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn81"></a>Benevolent Fraternity of Churches.</h3>
+
+<p>In the spring of 1834 the part of the ministry at large in Boston supported
+by Unitarians consisted of Dr. Tuckerman's work in visiting and ministering
+to the poor in their own homes, two chapels, in which Barnard and Gray
+preached and conducted their Sunday-schools, and the office of the Visitors
+to the Poor. In order more effectually to organize the support of this
+work, the Benevolent Fraternity of Churches was then suggested. The Second,
+Brattle Street, New South, New North, King's Chapel, Federal Street, Hollis
+Street, Twelfth, and Purchase Street Churches entered upon the work; and
+there was organized in each a society for the purpose of aiding the
+ministry at large. Each of these societies was privileged to send five
+delegates to a central body that should undertake the support and direction
+of that ministry. At a meeting held April 27, 1834, an organization of such
+delegates was effected. It was distinctly stated that "it was not the wish
+<a name="pg257"></a>
+to add another to the eleemosynary institutions of the city to which the
+poor might resort either for the supply of the comforts or for the relief
+of necessities which belong to their bodily condition"; but the object of
+the Fraternity was described as being "the improvement of the moral state
+of the poor and irreligious of this city by the support of the ministry at
+large, and by other means."[<a href="#fn_10_9">9</a><a name="fr_10_9"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn82"></a>Other Ministers at Large.</h3>
+
+<p>Dr. Tuckerman continued his work of visiting the poor, so far as his health
+permitted, until his death, which occurred April 20, 1840. His assistants
+and successors continued the work of visitation outside of their own
+congregations. In August, 1844, Rev. Warren Burton was assigned to this
+special form of ministry, and to that of a systematic investigation of the
+condition of the poor. He gave much attention to the needs of children, and
+made inquiry as to intemperance, licentiousness, and other forms of social
+degeneration. He was a diligent and successful worker until his ministry
+came to an end in October, 1848. For about a year, in 1847, Rev. William
+Ware also devoted himself to the house-to-house ministry; but failing
+<a name="pg258"></a>
+health compelled his withdrawal. In April, 1845, Rev. Andrew Bigelow took
+charge of the Pitts Street Chapel for a few months; and then for thirty-two
+years, until his death, in April, 1877, he continued to visit the poor.
+With the assistance of his wife, he went about to the homes of the people,
+administering to their physical needs, acting as their friend and adviser,
+and giving them such moral instruction and spiritual consolation as was
+possible.</p>
+
+<p>For about one year, beginning in March, 1856, Rev. A. Rumpff visited German
+families in behalf of the Fraternity. He was succeeded in 1857 by Rev. A.
+Übelacker, who continued the work for two or three years. From 1860 to 1864
+Professor J.B. Torricelli carried on a ministry amongst the Italians,
+Spaniards, Greeks, and other natives of southern Europe resident in Boston.
+After the death of Dr. Bigelow this personal ministry was discontinued,
+owing to the increase in the number of other agencies for doing this kind
+of work.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn83"></a>Ministry at Large in Other Cities.</h3>
+
+<p>The work of the ministry at large was not confined to Boston. The original
+vote of the Unitarian Association establishing it was that it should be
+aided in New York as well. In December, 1836, Rev. William Henry Channing
+entered on such a ministry in New York; and it was continued there for some
+years. It was also established in Charlestown, Roxbury, Cambridge, Salem,
+Portsmouth, Portland, Lowell, New Bedford, Providence, Worcester, and
+elsewhere in New England. With the aid of the Unitarian Association it was
+undertaken in Baltimore, Cincinnati, Louisville, and St. Louis. In 1845
+Rev. Lemuel Capen was carrying on the ministry in Baltimore, Rev. W.H.
+<a name="pg259"></a>
+Farmer in Louisville, and Rev. Mordecai de Lange in St. Louis. The ministry
+at large was begun in Cincinnati in 1830, and was in charge for a short
+time of Christopher P. Cranch, who was succeeded by Rev. James H. Perkins,
+a most efficient worker, who soon became the popular minister of the
+Unitarian church in that city. It was established in St. Louis in 1840, and
+a day school for colored children was opened in 1841. A mission-house was
+built, and Rev. Charles H.A. Dall was put in charge. In 1841 the Mission
+Free School was founded, and now has a matron, nursery, kindergarten,
+Sunday-school, with lectures and entertainments. Dall was succeeded by
+Mordecai de Lange, Corlis B. Ward, Carlton A. Staples, and Thomas L. Eliot.
+The City Mission, as it was called, grew so large that in 1860 no one
+denomination could carry it on; and it became the St. Louis Provident
+Association, which has done an extensive and important work.[<a href="#fn_10_10">10</a><a name="fr_10_10"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg260"></a>
+<p>In July, 1850, was formed the Association of Ministers at Large in New
+England, of which Rev. Charles F. Barnard was for many years the president,
+and Rev. Horatio Wood, of Lowell, the secretary. It met quarterly, or
+oftener, essays were read on subjects connected with the work of
+ministering to the poor, and the special phases of that work were
+discussed. In the spring of 1841 Rev. Charles F. Barnard began the
+publication of the Journal of the Ministry at Large as a sixteen-page
+octavo monthly, which was continued until 1860, part of the time as The
+Record; but during the later years it was issued irregularly.</p>
+
+<p>In 1838 Dr. Tuckerman published The Principles and Results of the Ministry
+at Large in Boston, which embodied an account of his work for twelve years,
+and the conclusions at which he had arrived. It did much to give direction
+and purpose to the ministry, and to extend its influence. It can be read
+with interest and profit at the present time; for it contains all the
+principles since put into practice in many forms of charitable activity.
+Dr. Andrew P. Peabody truly said of Tuckerman's enterprise in behalf of the
+poor that it "was the earliest organized effort in that direction. Its
+success and its permanent establishment as an institution were due to its
+founder's strenuous perseverance, his self-sacrifice, his apostolic fervor
+of spirit, and the power of his influence."[<a href="#fn_10_11">11</a><a name="fr_10_11"></a>] Joseph Story spoke of the
+ministry at large as being one of "extraordinary success." "I deem it," he
+wrote, "one of the most glorious triumphs of Christian charity over the
+cold and reluctant doubts of popular opinion." The labors of Dr. Tuckerman
+<a name="pg261"></a>
+"initiated a new sphere of Protestant charity," as his nephew well
+said.[<a href="#fn_10_12">12</a><a name="fr_10_12"></a>] "This has been the most characteristic, the best organized, and
+by far the most successful co-operative work that the Unitarian body has
+ever attempted by way of church action," was the testimony of Dr. Joseph
+Henry Allen.[<a href="#fn_10_13">13</a><a name="fr_10_13"></a>]</p>
+
+<p><br />[<a href="#fr_10_1">1</a><a name="fn_10_1"></a>] The record of the first meeting states the objects for which the
+    young men met, as follows: "Feeling impressed with the importance of
+    giving religious instruction to the youths of that class of our poor
+    who are destitute of any regard for their future well-being, and who,
+    from being under the care of vicious parents, have no attention paid
+    to their moral conduct; and also wishing to become acquainted with
+    those persons of the different religious societies who profess to be
+    followers of the same Master, they agreed to associate themselves.
+    Having great reason to believe that God will bless their humble
+    efforts for the spread of pure religion and virtue, and looking to
+    Him for guidance, the meeting was organized."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_10_2">2</a><a name="fn_10_2"></a>] Ephraim Peabody, Christian Examiner, January, 1853, LIV. 93.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_10_3">3</a><a name="fn_10_3"></a>] John Ware, Life of Henry Ware, Jr., 132-135.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_10_4">4</a><a name="fn_10_4"></a>] The secretary of the Association for Religious Improvement made this
+    record of the meeting: "December 3, 1826. The Lectures under the
+    conduct of the Association commenced this evening at 6-1/2 o'clock at
+    Smith's circular building, corner of Merrimack and Portland Streets,
+    which was very fully attended by those for whom it was intended. The
+    services were of the first order. Rev. Dr. Tuckerman officiated."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_10_5">5</a><a name="fn_10_5"></a>] Eber R. Butler, Lend a Hand, V. 693, October, 1890.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_10_6">6</a><a name="fn_10_6"></a>] The substance of these reports has been reproduced in a book edited
+    by E.E. Hale in 1874, Joseph Tuckerman on the Elevation of the Poor.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_10_7">7</a><a name="fn_10_7"></a>] The Principles and Results of the Ministry at Large in Boston, 61.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_10_8">8</a><a name="fn_10_8"></a>] Ministry at Large in Boston, 124.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_10_9">9</a><a name="fn_10_9"></a>] The following is a list of the churches now maintained by the
+    Benevolent Fraternity of Churches, with the date when each was
+    formed, or when it came under Unitarian management: Bulfinch Place
+    Church, successor to Wend Street Chapel (1828); Pitts Street Chapel
+    (1836), 1870. North End Union (begun in 1837); Hanover Street Chapel
+    (1854); Parmenter Street Chapel (1884), 1892. Morgan Chapel, 1884.
+    Channing Church, Dorchester, successor to Washington Village Chapel,
+    1854. The Suffolk Street Chapel (1837), succeeded by the New South
+    Free Church (1867), continues its life in the Parker Memorial, 1889.
+    The Warren Street Chapel (1832), now known as the Barnard Memorial
+    Church, continues its work, but is not under the direction of the
+    Benevolent Fraternity. In 1901 the churches constituting the
+    Benevolent Fraternity were the First Church, Second Church, Arlington
+    Street Church, South Congregational Church, King's Chapel, Church of
+    the Disciples; First Parish, Dorchester; First Parish, Brighton;
+    Hawes Church South Boston; First Parish, West Roxbury; First
+    Congregational Society, Jamaica Plain.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_10_10">10</a><a name="fn_10_10"></a>] In 1830 the British and Foreign Unitarian Association began to
+     consider the value of this ministry, and in 1832 the first mission
+     was opened in London. In 1835 was formed the London Domestic Mission
+     Society for the purpose of carrying on the work in that city. In 1833
+     a similar movement was made in Manchester, and in 1835 was organized
+     the Liverpool Domestic Mission Society. The visit of Dr. Tuckerman to
+     England in 1834 gave large interest to this movement. He then met
+     Mary Carpenter, and she was led by him to begin her great work of
+     charity. It was during the next year that she entered upon the work
+     in Bristol that made her name widely known. In 1847 there were two
+     ministers at large in London, two in Birmingham, and one each in
+     Liverpool, Bristol, Leeds, Manchester, Halifax, and Leicester. The
+     writings of Dr. Tuckerman were translated into French by the Baron de
+     Gerando, a leading philanthropist and statesman of that day, who
+     praised them highly, and introduced their methods into Paris and
+     elsewhere. Of Tuckerman's book on the ministry at large M. de Gerando
+     said that it throws "invaluable light upon the condition and wants of
+     the indigent and the influence which an enlightened charity can
+     exert." He also said of Tuckerman that "he knew the difference
+     between pauperism and poverty," thus recognizing one of those
+     cardinal distinctions made by the philanthropist in his efforts to
+     aid the poor to self-help and independence.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_10_11">11</a><a name="fn_10_11"></a>] Memorial History of Boston, III. 477.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_10_12">12</a><a name="fn_10_12"></a>] Sprague's Annals of the Unitarian Pulpit, 345, the words quoted being
+     from the pen of Henry T. Tuckerman, the well-known essayist.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_10_13">13</a><a name="fn_10_13"></a>] Our Liberal Movement in Theology, 59.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<a name="pg262"></a>
+<h2><br /><a name="ch11"></a>XI.<br />
+
+
+ORGANIZED SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK.</h2>
+
+<p>The first Sunday-schools organized in this country distinctly for purposes
+of religious training were by persons connected with Unitarian churches.
+Several schools had been opened previously, but they were not continued or
+were organized in the interests of secular instruction. In the summer of
+1809 Miss Hannah Hill, then twenty-five years of age, and Miss Joanna B.
+Prince, then twenty, both teachers of private schools for small children,
+and connected with the First Parish in Beverly, Mass., of which Dr. Abiel
+Abbot was the pastor, opened a school in one room of a dwelling-house for
+the religious training of the children who did not receive such teaching at
+home. In the spring of 1810 the same young women reopened their school in a
+larger room, using the Bible as their only book of instruction. Sessions
+were held in the morning before church, and in the afternoon following the
+close of the services.[<a href="#fn_11_1">1</a><a name="fr_11_1"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The first season about thirty children attended, but the interest grew; and
+in 1813 the school occupied the Dane Street chapel, and became a union or
+town school. Jealousies resulted, and a school was soon established by each
+church in the town. In 1822 the First Parish received the original school
+under its sole care, and it was removed to the meeting-house.</p>
+
+<p>A Sunday-school was begun in Concord in the summer of 1810, under the
+<a name="pg263"></a>
+leadership of Miss Sarah Ripley, daughter of Dr. Ezra Ripley, the minister
+of the town. On Sunday afternoons she taught a number of children in her
+father's house, since known as the "Old Manse." About five years later a
+school was opened at the centre of the town, near the church, by three
+young women. In 1818 a Sunday-school was begun in connection with the
+church itself, which absorbed the others, or of which they formed the
+nucleus.[<a href="#fn_11_2">2</a><a name="fr_11_2"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>A teacher of a charity school supported by the West Church in Boston was
+the first person to open a Sunday-school in that city. In October, 1812,
+the teacher of this school, Miss Lydia K. Adams, then a member of the West
+Parish, according to the statement of Dr. Charles Lowell, minister of the
+church at the time, "having learned on a visit to Beverly that some young
+ladies of the town were in the practice of giving religious instruction to
+poor children on the Sabbath, consulted her minister as to the expediency
+of giving like instruction to the children of her school, and to those who
+had been members of it, on the same day. The project was decidedly
+approved, and immediately carried into effect." In December of the same
+year, Miss Adams was compelled by ill-health to leave her school; and
+ladies of the West Church took charge of it, and in turn instructed the
+children, both on the week-days and the Sabbath, till a suitable permanent
+teacher could be obtained. On this event they relinquished the immediate
+care of the week-day school, but continued the instruction of the
+Sunday-school, till it was transferred to the church, and was enlarged by
+the addition of "children of a different description," in 1822.[<a href="#fn_11_3">3</a><a name="fr_11_3"></a>]
+<a name="pg264"></a>
+Sunday-schools were also begun in Cambridgeport, in 1814; Wilton, N.H., in
+1816; and Portsmouth, in 1818. The latter school had the enthusiastic
+support of Nathaniel A. Haven, a young lawyer and rising politician, who
+devoted himself with great zeal and success to such instruction of the
+young.[<a href="#fn_11_4">4</a><a name="fr_11_4"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The Association of Young Men for Mutual Improvement and for the Religious
+Instruction of the Poor began the work of forming Sunday-schools for the
+children of the poor in Boston during the year 1823. A school was begun in
+the Hancock School-house, then recently built for grammar-school
+purposes.[<a href="#fn_11_5">5</a><a name="fr_11_5"></a>] Soon after they opened a school in Merrimac Street, called
+the Howard Sunday-school, in connection with the work of Dr. Tuckerman; and
+in 1826 the Franklin Sunday-school was begun by the same persons and for
+the same purposes. In connection with these schools was formed the Sunday
+School Benevolent Society, composed of charitable women, who provided such
+children as were needy with suitable clothing.</p>
+
+<p>In 1825 a parish Sunday-school was organized in connection with the Twelfth
+Congregational Church, of which Rev. Samuel Barrett was the minister. It
+was reorganized in 1827, with the object of giving "a religious education
+apart from all sectarian views, as systematically as it is given to the
+same children in other branches of learning."[<a href="#fn_11_6">6</a><a name="fr_11_6"></a>] In July, 1828, The
+<a name="pg265"></a>
+Christian Register spoke of "the rapid and extensive establishment of
+Sunday-schools by individuals attached to Unitarian societies," and said
+that in the course of two or three years "large and respectable
+Sunday-schools have been established by Unitarians in various parts of the
+city. Several of these are parish schools, under the immediate guidance of
+the pastors. Others are more general in their plan, receiving children from
+all quarters."</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn84"></a>Boston Sunday School Society.</h3>
+
+<p>At a meeting of the teachers of the Franklin Sunday-school held December
+16, 1826, it was proposed that there be organized an association of all the
+teachers connected with Unitarian parishes in Boston and the vicinity. On
+February 27, 1827, a meeting was held in the Berry Street vestry for this
+purpose; and on April 18 a constitution was adopted for the Boston Sunday
+School Society. The schools joining in this organization were the Hancock,
+Franklin, and Howard, and those connected with the West, Federal Street,
+Hollis Street, and Twelfth Congregational Churches. Dr. Joseph Tuckerman
+was elected president; Moses Grant, vice-president; Dr. J.F. Flagg,
+corresponding secretary; and Rev. Frederick T. Gray, recording secretary.
+The first annual meeting was held November 28, 1827; and the above-named
+officers were re-elected. On December 12 a public meeting was held in the
+Federal Street Church, which was well filled. Reports of the work of the
+schools, including that at Cambridgeport, were read; and addresses were
+made.</p>
+
+<a name="pg266"></a>
+<p>The objects of the Sunday School Society were the helping of teachers, the
+extending of the interests of the schools, and the publishing of books. It
+was difficult to procure suitable books for use in Sunday-schools and for
+their libraries, and the prices were very high. In the autumn of 1828
+arrangements were made for the publishing of books, the American Unitarian
+Association co-operating therein by providing a capital of $300 for this
+purpose, the profits going to the Sunday School Society, and the money
+borrowed being returned without interest. This connection was abandoned in
+1831 because it was found that the Unitarian name on the title-page of the
+books hindered their sale. In April, 1828, was issued the first number of
+the Christian Teacher's Manual, a small monthly, of which Mrs. Eliza Lee
+Follen was the editor, intended for the use of families and Sunday-schools.
+According to the preface the subjects chiefly considered were the best
+methods of addressing the minds of children, suggestions to teachers,
+explanations of Scripture, religious instruction from natural objects,
+histories taken from real life, stories and hymns adapted to children, and
+accounts of Sunday-schools.</p>
+
+<p>The Manual was continued for two years; and it was followed by The
+Scriptural Interpreter, edited by Rev. Ezra S. Gannett. The editor of the
+Interpreter preferred to publish it under his own name, because he did "not
+wish it to be considered the organ or the representative of a denomination
+of Christians." "It will have one object," he said, "to furnish the means
+of acquaintance with the true sense and value of Scripture, and
+particularly of the New Testament; but whatever will promote this object
+will come within the scope the publication." It was issued bi-monthly, and
+<a name="pg267"></a>
+was continued for five years. It was wholly devoted to the exposition of
+the Bible, a systematic series of translations and interpretations of the
+Gospels forming a distinct feature of its pages. A considerable part of it
+was prepared by the editor, who drew freely upon expository works. Among
+the contributors were William H. Furness, Orville Dewey, Alexander Young,
+Edward B. Hall, James Walker, Henry Ware, Jr., and J.P. Dabney. In 1836,
+Dr. Gannett's health having failed, the magazine was edited by Theodore
+Parker, George E. Ellis, and William Silsbee, then students in the Harvard
+Divinity School.</p>
+
+<p>One important feature of the work of the Sunday School Society was the
+extension of the cause it represented. In December, 1829, reports were
+presented at the annual meeting from nearly fifty schools; and it was
+thought desirable that they should be brought into closer relations with
+the society. Accordingly, Frederick T. Gray, the secretary, visited many of
+these schools. The next year, as a result, a considerable number of those
+outside the city connected themselves with the society; and the lists of
+vice-presidents and directors were enlarged to include them in its
+operations. Afterwards this work was carried on by a committee of the
+society, the members of which visited the schools, giving addresses, and in
+other ways helping to give strength and purpose to the work in which they
+were engaged. Schools were visited in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts,
+Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and other states. To give
+better opportunity for the attendance of delegates from schools outside the
+city, the yearly meeting was changed from December to anniversary week in
+May.</p>
+
+<a name="pg268"></a>
+<p>The society published a considerable number of tracts, which were
+distributed gratuitously by the agents and in other ways. It also issued
+lesson-books, as well as books for the juvenile libraries which were
+forming at this time in all the churches. To meet this demand, the younger
+Henry Ware began editing, in 1833, the Sunday-school Library for Young
+Persons, in which were included his own Life of the Saviour, Mrs. John
+Farrar's Life of Howard, Rev. Stephen G. Bulfinch's Holy Land, and Rev.
+Thomas B. Fox's Sketch of the Reformation. The next year Mr. Ware began a
+series of books which he called Scenes and Characters illustrating
+Christian Truth. Another method used by the society was the giving of
+expository lectures.</p>
+
+<p>The society at first held quarterly meetings; but the interest grew, and
+the meetings became monthly. Great enthusiasm was felt at this time in
+regard to the work of these schools, and many persons of prominence praised
+them and took part in their management. "The institution of Sunday-schools
+constitutes one of the most remarkable features of the present age," wrote
+Dr. Joseph Allen, in 1830. "It has already done much to supply the
+deficiencies of domestic education, and, if wisely conducted, is destined,
+we trust, to become at no distant day one of the most efficient instruments
+in forming the characters of the young."[<a href="#fn_11_7">7</a><a name="fr_11_7"></a>] Writing in 1838, the younger
+Henry Ware said that "the Sunday-school has become one of the established
+institutions of religion in connection with the church, and the character
+of religion is henceforth to depend, in no small degree, on the wisdom with
+which it shall be administered."[<a href="#fn_11_8">8</a><a name="fr_11_8"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg269"></a>
+<p>In 1834 was organized the Worcester Sunday School Society. It had its
+origin as far back as November 17, 1817, when a committee of the Worcester
+Association of Ministers was appointed to report on the subject of
+Sunday-schools. A meeting was held in Lancaster, October 9, 1834, when an
+organization was perfected. The succeeding meetings were largely attended,
+and much interest was awakened.[<a href="#fn_11_9">9</a><a name="fr_11_9"></a>] In 1842 a similar society was
+organized in Middlesex County; and at about the same time one came into
+existence in Cheshire County, New Hampshire. Soon after societies were
+organized in the counties of Norfolk, Plymouth (North), Middlesex (West),
+Worcester, and in Portland and its neighborhood.</p>
+
+<p>In April, 1831, the directors of the Boston Sunday School Society discussed
+the feasibility of starting a weekly paper for the use of the schools. In
+July, 1836, Rev. Bernard Whitman began the publication of The Sunday School
+Teacher and Children's Friend. In January, 1837, The Young Christian was
+begun, and was published weekly at the office of The Christian Register, by
+David Reed. These papers were continued only for a few years. From 1845 to
+1857 Mrs. Eliza Lee Follen edited a monthly magazine for children, called
+The Children's Friend. The first number of the Sunday School Gazette was
+published in Worcester, August 7, 1849, under the direction of the
+Worcester Sunday School Society. It was established at the suggestion of
+Rev. Edward Everett Hale, then a minister in that city, in connection with
+Rev. Edmund B. Willson, then settled in Grafton. The editor was Rev.
+<a name="pg270"></a>
+Francis Le Baron, the minister at large in Worcester, though Mr. Hale was a
+frequent contributor. When the National Sunday School Society was
+organized, the Sunday School Gazette was transferred to, its charge; but
+the publication of this paper was continued in Worcester until 1860.[<a href="#fn_11_10">10</a><a name="fr_11_10"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn85"></a>Unitarian Sunday School Society.</h3>
+
+<p>As time went on, and the work of the Sunday-schools enlarged, it was felt
+that it was necessary there should be one general organization which should
+bring together all Unitarian schools into a compact working force. To meet
+this growing need, a convention of the county societies and of local
+schools was held in Worcester, October 4, 1854, at which time the Sunday
+<a name="pg271"></a>
+School Society was organized as a general denominational body. Hon. Albert
+Fearing, of Boston, was made the president, and Rev. Frederick T. Gray the
+secretary. The society provided itself with a desk in the rooms of the
+Unitarian Association, and provision was made for the collection and sale
+of all the helps demanded by the schools.</p>
+
+<p>From 1855 until 1865 the society was sadly crippled by the lack of funds.
+The hard times preceding the Civil War, and the absorption of public
+interest in that great national event, made it difficult for the society to
+continue its work with any degree of success. For some years little was
+done but to hold the annual meeting in the autumn and that in anniversary
+week, and to continue the publication of the Sunday School Gazette. For a
+number of years, however, Teachers' Institutes were held; and these were
+continued at irregular intervals until about 1875. The Sunday School
+Teachers' Institute was organized in 1852, and continued in existence for
+ten years.</p>
+
+<p>After the death of Rev. Frederick T. Gray in 1855, he was succeeded in the
+position of secretary of the Sunday School Society by Rev. Stephen G.
+Bulfinch. In 1856 Rev. Warren H. Cudworth became the secretary, and the
+editor of the Gazette; and he held these positions until May, 1861, when he
+became the chaplain of the first Massachusetts regiment taking part in the
+Civil War. In the October following, Mr. Joseph H. Allen, a Boston
+merchant, afterwards the editor of The Schoolmate, became the secretary and
+editor. He continued to edit the Gazette until November, 1865; but Mr. M.T.
+Rice was made secretary in 1863. At the end of 1865, when the society was
+in a condition of almost complete collapse, Rev. Thomas J. Mumford became
+<a name="pg272"></a>
+the secretary, and the editor of the Gazette for one year. He restored
+confidence in the society, and made the paper a success. During the war the
+paper was published monthly for the sake of economy; but with the first of
+January, 1866, it was restored to its former semi-monthly issue.</p>
+
+<p>The new life that came to the denomination in 1865 had its influence upon
+the Sunday School Society. In the autumn of 1866, when the Unitarian
+Association had secured a large increase of funds, it was proposed that the
+Sunday School Society should unite with it, and that the larger
+organization should have the direction of all denominational activities,
+especially those of publishing. The more zealous friends of the society did
+not approve of such consolidation, and succeeded in reanimating its work by
+appointing as its secretary Mr. James P. Walker, who had been the head of
+the publishing firm of Walker, Wise &amp; Co., a young man of earnest purpose,
+a successful Sunday-school teacher and superintendent, and an enthusiastic
+believer in the mission of Unitarianism. Mr. Walker devoted his whole time
+to the interests of the society, and an energetic effort was made to revive
+and extend its work. He proved to be the man for the position, largely
+increasing the bookselling and publishing activities, visiting schools and
+conferences, and awakening much enthusiasm in regard to the interests of
+Sunday-schools. He wore himself out in this work, however, and died in
+March, 1868, greatly lamented throughout the denomination.[<a href="#fn_11_11">11</a><a name="fr_11_11"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>After the death of Mr. Walker, consolidation with the Association was again
+urged; but Rev. Leonard J. Livermore was in June elected the secretary. At
+<a name="pg273"></a>
+the annual meeting it was resolved to raise $5,000 for the work of the
+society, and the next year it was proposed to make the annual contribution
+$10,000. The name was changed to the Unitarian Sunday School Society at the
+annual meeting of 1868, held in Worcester. In 1871 Mr. John Kneeland became
+the secretary; and with the beginning of 1872 the Gazette was changed to
+The Dayspring, which was issued monthly. In the autumn of that year the
+society began the publication of monthly lessons, and there was issued with
+them a Teachers' Guide for the lessons of the year. With the beginning of
+1877 the Guide was discontinued, and the lesson papers enlarged. In
+November, 1875, Rev. George F. Piper became the secretary,--a position he
+held until May 1, 1883. During his administration about three hundred
+lessons were prepared by him, and these had a circulation of about nine
+thousand copies. The transition condition of the denomination made it
+difficult to carry on the work of the society at this time, for it was
+impossible to please both conservatives and radicals with any lessons that
+might be prepared. One superintendent warned his school against the
+heretical tendencies of lessons which, from the other point of view, a
+minister condemned as being fit for orthodox schools, but not for
+Unitarians. In the same mail came a letter from a minister saying the
+lessons were too elementary, and from another saying they were much too
+advanced. In the latter part of Mr. Piper's term service was begun an
+important work of preparing manuals thoroughly modern in their spirit and
+methods.[<a href="#fn_11_12">12</a><a name="fr_11_12"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg274"></a>
+<p>In May, 1883, Rev. Henry G. Spaulding became the secretary; and the work of
+publishing modern manuals was largely extended.[<a href="#fn_11_13">13</a><a name="fr_11_13"></a>] At the suggestion and
+with the co-operation of the secretary there was organized, November 12,
+1883, the Unitarian Sunday School Union of Boston, having for its object
+"to develop the best methods of Sunday-school work." At about the same time
+a lending library of reference books was established in connection with the
+work of the society. In the autumn of 1883 the society began to hold in
+Channing Hall weekly lectures for teachers. In 1885 The Dayspring was
+enlarged and became Every Other Sunday, being much improved in its literary
+contents as well as in its illustrations. The same year the society was
+incorporated, and the number of directors was increased to include
+representatives from all sections of the country; while all Sunday-schools
+contributing to the society's treasury were given a delegate representation
+<a name="pg275"></a>
+in its membership. Mr. Spaulding continued his connection with the society
+until January 1, 1892.</p>
+
+<p>Rev. Edward A. Horton, who had for several years taken an active part in
+the work of the society, assumed charge February 1, 1892. Mr. Horton was
+made the president, it being deemed wise to have the head of the society
+its executive officer. During his administration there has been a steady
+growth in Sunday-school interest, which has demanded a rapid increase in
+the number and variety of publications. The book department has been taxed
+to the utmost to meet the demand. A new book of Song and Service, compiled
+by Mr. Horton, has reached a sale of nearly 25,000 copies. A simple
+statement of "Our Faith" has had a circulation of 40,000 copies, and in a
+form suitable for the walls of Sunday-school rooms it has been in
+considerable demand.[<a href="#fn_11_14">14</a><a name="fr_11_14"></a>] A series of lessons, covering a period of seven
+years, upon the three-grade, one-topic plan, has been largely used in the
+schools. Besides the twenty manuals published in this course of lessons,
+forty other text-books have been published, making a total of sixty in all,
+<a name="pg276"></a>
+from 1892 to 1902.[<a href="#fn_11_15">15</a><a name="fr_11_15"></a>] There have also been many additions to
+Sunday-school helps by way of special services for festival days, free
+tracts, and statements of belief. The Channing Hall talks to Sunday-school
+teachers have been made to bear upon these courses of lessons. Every Other
+Sunday has been improved, and its circulation extended. The number of
+donating churches and schools has been steadily increased, the number in
+1901 being 255, the largest by far yet reached. At the annual meeting of
+the society and at local conferences representative speakers have presented
+the newest methods of Sunday-school work. Sunday-school unions have been
+formed in various parts of the country, and churches are awakened to a new
+interest in the work of religious instruction. "Home and School
+Conferences" have been held with a view to bringing parents and teachers
+into closer sympathy and co-operation.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn86"></a>Western Unitarian Sunday School Society.</h3>
+
+<p>In the west the first movement towards Sunday-school activities began in
+1871 with the publication of a four-page lesson-sheet at Janesville, Wis.,
+by Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones. This was continued for two or three years.
+Through the interest of Mr. Jones in Sunday-school work a meeting for
+organization was called in the fourth church, Chicago, October 14, 1873,
+when the Western Unitarian Sunday School Society was organized, with Rev.
+Milton J. Miller as president and Mr. Jones as secretary. At the meeting
+the next year in St. Louis a committee was appointed to prepare a song-book
+for the schools, which resulted in the production of The Sunny Side, edited
+by Rev. Charles W. Wendte. The next step was to establish headquarters in
+Chicago, where all kinds of material could be furnished to the schools,
+<a name="pg277"></a>
+with the necessary advice and encouragement. Through successive years the
+effort of the society was to systematize the work of Unitarian
+Sunday-schools, to put into them the best literature, the best song and
+service books, the best lesson papers, and other tools,--in short, to
+secure better and more definite teaching, such as is in accord with the
+best scholarship and thought of the age.[<a href="#fn_11_16">16</a><a name="fr_11_16"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>In 1882 the society became incorporated, and its work from this time
+enlarged in all directions. To develop these results more fully, an
+Institute was held in the Third Church, Chicago, in November, 1887, at
+which five sessions were given to Sunday-school work, and two to Unity Club
+interests. In the course of several years of encouraging success, the
+Institute developed into a Summer Assembly of two or more weeks'
+continuance at Hillside, Helena Valley, Wis., which still continues its
+yearly sessions. In May, 1902, The Western Sunday School Society was
+consolidated with the national organization; and the plates and stock which
+it possessed were handed over to the Unitarian Sunday School Society. A
+<a name="pg278"></a>
+western headquarters is maintained in Chicago, where all the publications
+of the two societies are kept on sale.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn87"></a>Unity Clubs.</h3>
+
+<p>As adjuncts to the Sunday-school, and to continue its work for adults and
+in other spheres of ethical training, the Unity Club came into existence
+about the year 1873, beginning with the work of Rev. Jenkin Ll. Jones at
+Janesville. In the course of the next ten years nearly every Unitarian
+church in the west organized such a club, and the movement to some degree
+extended to other parts of the country. In 1887 there was organized in
+Boston the National Bureau of Unity Clubs. These clubs devoted themselves
+to literary, sociological, and religious courses of study; and they
+furnished centres for the social activities of the churches. About the year
+1878 began a movement to organize societies of young people for the
+cultivation of the spirit of worship and religious development. This
+resulted in 1889 in the organization of the National Guild Alliance; and in
+1890 this organization joined with the Bureau of Unity Clubs and the
+Unitarian Temperance Society in supporting an agency in the Unitarian
+Building, Boston, with the aid of the Unitarian Association. The Young
+People's Religious Union was organized in Boston, May 28, 1896; and in
+large degree, it took the place of the Bureau and the Alliance, uniting the
+two in a more efficient effort to interest the young people of the
+churches.[<a href="#fn_11_17">17</a><a name="fr_11_17"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg279"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn88"></a>The Ladies' Commission on Sunday-school Books.</h3>
+
+<p>In the autumn of 1865, Rev. Charles Lowe, then the secretary of the
+Unitarian Association, invited a number of women to meet him for the
+purpose of conference on the subject of Sunday-school libraries. At his
+suggestion they organized themselves on October 12 as The Ladies'
+Commission on Sunday-school Books, with the object of preparing a catalogue
+of books read and approved by competent persons. At the first meeting ten
+persons were present, but the number was soon enlarged to thirty; and it
+was still farther increased by the addition of corresponding members in
+cities too remote for personal attendance. Among those taking part in the
+work of the commission at first were Miss Lucretia P. Hale, Miss Anna C.
+Lowell, Mrs. Edwin P. Whipple, Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney, Mrs. A.D.T. Whitney,
+Mrs. S. Bennett, Mrs. Caroline H. Dall, Mrs. E.E. Hale, Mrs. E.P. Tileston,
+and Miss Hannah E. Stevenson.</p>
+
+<p>The commission not only aimed to select books for Sunday-school libraries,
+but also those for the home reading of young persons and for the use of
+teachers. It undertook also the procuring of the publication of suitable
+<a name="pg280"></a>
+juvenile books. The first catalogue was issued in October, 1866, and
+contained a list of two hundred books, selected from twelve hundred
+examined. In the spring of 1867 a catalogue of five hundred and
+seventy-three books was printed, as the result of the reading of nineteen
+hundred volumes.</p>
+
+<p>In the beginning of its work the commission did not confine its activities
+to the selecting of juvenile books; for the Sunday School Hymn and Tune
+Book, published in 1869, was largely due to its efforts. Under the
+administration of Mr. James P. Walker the Sunday School Society undertook
+to procure the publication of a number of books of fiction suitable for
+Sunday-school libraries, and offered prizes to this end. The commission
+gave its encouragement to this effort, read the manuscripts, and aided in
+determining to whom the prizes should be given. The result was the
+publication of a half-dozen volumes by the Sunday School Society and the
+Unitarian Association. The society also aided to some extent in meeting the
+expenses of the commission, though these were usually met by the
+Association.</p>
+
+<p>For many years the books approved by the commission were grouped under
+three heads: books especially recommended for Unitarian Sunday-school
+libraries; those highly recommended for their religious tone, but somewhat
+impaired for this purpose by the use of phrases and the adoption of a
+spirit not in accord with the Unitarian faith; and those profitable and
+valuable, but not adapted to the purposes of a Sunday-school library. Every
+book recommended was read and approved by at least five persons, discussed
+in committee of the whole, and accepted by a two-thirds vote of all the
+members. Books about which there was much diversity of opinion were read by
+<a name="pg281"></a>
+a larger number of persons. This classification proved rather cumbersome,
+and it was often found difficult to decide into which list a book should be
+placed; and the result was that about 1890 the simpler plan was adopted of
+putting all titles in their alphabetical order, with explanatory notes for
+each book. In 1882 the list of books for teachers was discontinued as being
+no longer necessary.</p>
+
+<p>Annual lists of books have been published by the commission since 1866;
+and, in addition, several catalogues have been issued, containing all the
+books approved during a period of five years. In the early days of the
+commission, supplementary lists for children and young persons were issued,
+containing books of a more secular character than were thought suitable for
+Sunday-school libraries. Gradually, it has extended its work to include the
+needs of all juvenile libraries; and these books are now incorporated into
+the one annual catalogue. In thirty-four years the commission has examined
+10,957 books, and has approved 3,076, or about one-third.[<a href="#fn_11_18">18</a><a name="fr_11_18"></a>]</p>
+
+<p><br />[<a href="#fr_11_1">1</a><a name="fn_11_1"></a>] Sunday School Times, September 15, 1860.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_11_2">2</a><a name="fn_11_2"></a>] Asa Bullard, Fifty Years with the Sabbath Schools, 37.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_11_3">3</a><a name="fn_11_3"></a>] C.A. Bartol, The West Church and its Ministers, Appendix.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_11_4">4</a><a name="fn_11_4"></a>] See the Remains of Nathaniel Appleton Haven, with a Memoir of his
+    life, by George Ticknor.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_11_5">5</a><a name="fn_11_5"></a>] The Hancock Sunday-school assembled at eight in the morning and at
+    one in the afternoon, Moses Grant being the first superintendent.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_11_6">6</a><a name="fn_11_6"></a>] At the school of the Twelfth Congregational Society, Carpenter's
+    Catechism was used for the small children. This was followed by the
+    Worcester Catechism, compiled in 1822 by the ministers of the
+    Worcester Association of Ministers, Dr. Joseph Allen being the real
+    author. The Geneva Catechism in its three successive parts, followed
+    in order. In the Bible class, use was made of Hannah Adams's Letters
+    on the Gospels, under the immediate charge of the Pastor. A hymn-book
+    issued by the Publishing Fund Society was in use by the whole school.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_11_7">7</a><a name="fn_11_7"></a>] Christian Examiner, March, 1830, VIII. 49.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_11_8">8</a><a name="fn_11_8"></a>] Ibid., May, 1838, XXIV. 182.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_11_9">9</a><a name="fn_11_9"></a>] Joseph Allen, History of the Worcester Association, 261-264.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_11_10">10</a><a name="fn_11_10"></a>] In 1852 was published a graded series of eight manuals of Christian
+     instruction for Sunday-schools and families,--a result of the
+     activities of the Sunday School Society. The titles and authors of
+     these books were Early Religious Lessons; Palestine and the Hebrew
+     People, Stephen G. Bulfinch; Lessons on the Old Testament, Rev.
+     Ephraim Peabody; The Life of Christ, Rev. John H. Morison; The Books
+     and Characters of the New Testament, Rev. Rufus Ellis; Lessons upon
+     Religious Duties and Christian Morals, Rev. George W. Briggs;
+     Doctrines of Scripture, Rev. Frederic D. Huntington; Scenes from
+     Christian History, Rev. Edward E. Hale. Two other books connected
+     with the early history of Unitarian Sunday-schools properly demand
+     notice here. In 1847 was published The History of Sunday Schools and
+     of Religious Education from the Earliest Times, by Lewis G. Pray, who
+     was treasurer of the Boston Sunday School Society from 1834 to 1853,
+     and chairman of its board of agents from 1841 to 1848. He was one of
+     the first workers in the establishing of Sunday-schools in Boston,
+     and he zealously interested himself in this cause so long as he
+     lived. He compiled the first book of hymns used in Unitarian schools,
+     and also the first book of devotional exercises. For twenty years he
+     was superintendent of the school connected with the Twelfth
+     Congregational Society, holding that place from its organization in
+     1827. In one of the concluding chapters of his book Mr. Pray gave an
+     account of the early history of Unitarian Sunday-schools in Boston
+     and its neighborhood. In 1852 was published a series of addresses
+     which had been given by Rev. Frederick T. Gray at Sunday-school
+     anniversaries and on other similar occasions. The volume contains
+     most interesting information in regard to the origin of
+     Sunday-schools in Boston, and the beginnings of the Sunday School
+     Society, as well as the work of Dr. Tuckerman and his assistants in
+     the ministry, at large.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_11_11">11</a><a name="fn_11_11"></a>] Memoir of James P. Walker, with Selections from his Writings, by
+     Thomas B. Fox. American Unitarian Association, 1869.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_11_12">12</a><a name="fn_11_12"></a>] The first of these was Rev. Edward H. Hall's First Lessons on the
+     Bible, which appeared in 1882; and it was soon followed by Professor
+     C.H. Toy's History of the Religion of Israel.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_11_13">13</a><a name="fn_11_13"></a>] Among these were Religions before Christianity, by Professor Charles
+     Carroll Everett, D.D., 1883; Manual of Unitarian Belief, by Rev.
+     James Freeman Clarke, D.D., 1884; Lessons on the Life of St. Paul, by
+     Rev. Edward H. Hall, 1885; Early Hebrew Stories, by Rev. Charles F.
+     Dole, 1886; Hebrew Prophets and Kings, by Rev. Henry G. Spaulding,
+     1887; The Later Heroes of Israel, by Mr. Spaulding, 1888; Lessons on
+     the Gospel of Luke, by Mr. Spaulding and Rev. W.W. Fenn, 1889; A
+     Story of the Sects, by Rev. William H. Lyon, in 1891. In 1890
+     appeared the Unitarian Catechism of Rev. Minot J. Savage, though not
+     published by the Sunday School Society. These books attracted wide
+     attention, were largely used in Unitarian schools, and were adopted
+     into those of other sects to some extent. In 1886 the president of
+     the American Social Science Association publicly urged the use of the
+     ethical manuals of the society by all Sunday-schools. Several of
+     these books were republished in London, and Dr. Toy's manual was
+     translated into Dutch. The society also published a new Service Book
+     and Hymnal, which went into immediate use in a large number of
+     schools, and did much for the enrichment of the devotional exercises
+     and the promotion of an advanced standard of both words and music in
+     the hymns.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_11_14">14</a><a name="fn_11_14"></a>] The Fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood of Man, the leadership of
+     Jesus, salvation by character, the progress of mankind onward and
+     upward forever.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_11_15">15</a><a name="fn_11_15"></a>] Among the publications under Mr. Horton's administration, which may
+     justly be called significant, are: Beacon Lights of Christian
+     History, in three grades; Noble Lives and Noble Deeds, Dole's
+     Catechism of Liberal Faith, Mott's History of Unitarianism,
+     Pulsford's various manuals on the Bible, Mrs. Jaynes's Illustrated
+     Primary Leaflets, Miss Mulliken's Kindergarten Lessons, Story of
+     Israel and Great Thoughts of Israel, in three grades, Fenn's Acts of
+     the Apostles, Chadwick's Questions on the Old Testament Books in
+     their Right Order, Mrs. Kate Gannett Wells's forty Illustrated
+     Primary Lessons, and Walkley's Helps for Teachers. Mr. Horton, during
+     this ten years, has written fourteen manuals on various subjects.
+     Co-extensive with the large increase of text-books has been the
+     enrichment of lessons by pictorial aids. Excellent half-tone pictures
+     have been prepared from the best subjects.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_11_16">16</a><a name="fn_11_16"></a>] Among the publications of the Western Unitarian Sunday School Society
+     have been Unity Services and Songs, edited by Rev. James Vila Blake,
+     and published in 1878; a service book called The Way of Life, by Rev.
+     Frederick L. Hosmer, issued in 1877; and Unity Festivals, services
+     for special holidays, 1884. Of the lesson-books published by the
+     society, those that have been most successful have been Corner-stones
+     of Character, by Mrs. Kate Gannett Wells; A Chosen Nation, or the
+     Growth of the Hebrew Religion, by Rev. William C. Gannett; and The
+     More Wonderful Genesis, by Rev. Henry M. Simmons. In 1890 the society
+     entered upon the publication of a six-year course of studies, which
+     included Beginnings according to Legend and according to the Truer
+     Story, by Rev. Allen W. Gould; The Flowering of the Hebrew Religion,
+     by Rev. W.W. Fenn; In the Home, by Rev. W.C. Gannett; Mother Nature's
+     Children, by Rev. A.W. Gould; and The Flowering of Christianity, the
+     Liberal Christian Movement toward Universal Religion, by Rev. W.C.
+     Gannett.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_11_17">17</a><a name="fn_11_17"></a>] The objects of The Young People's Religious Union are: (a) to foster
+     the religious life; (b) to bring the young into closer relations with
+     one another; and (c) to spread rational views of religion, and to put
+     into practice such principles of life and duty as tend to uplift
+     mankind. The cardinal principles of the Union are truth, worship, and
+     service. Any young people's society may become a member of the Union
+     by affirming in writing its sympathy with the general objects of the
+     Union, adopting its cardinal principles, making a contribution to its
+     treasury, and sending the secretary a list of its officers. The
+     annual meeting is held in May at such day and place as the executive
+     board may appoint. Special union meetings are held as often as
+     several societies may arrange. The Union has its headquarters at Room
+     11, in the Unitarian Building, Boston, in charge of the secretary,
+     whose office hours are from 9 A.M. to 1 P.M. daily. Organization
+     hints, hymnals, leaflets, helps for the national topics, and other
+     suggestive materials are supplied. The national officers furnish
+     speakers for initial meetings, visit unions, and help in other ways.
+     The Union maintains a department in The Christian Register, under the
+     charge of the secretary, for notes, notices, helps on the topics, and
+     all matters of interest to the unions, and also publishes a monthly
+     bulletin in connection with the National Alliance of Unitarian Women.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_11_18">18</a><a name="fn_11_18"></a>] In the thirty-five years which comprise the life of the commission a
+     gradual but marked change has been in operation. Sunday-school
+     libraries are being used less and less, and town libraries have
+     become much more numerous and better patronized by both old and
+     young. In the spring of 1896 the question arose in the commission
+     whether, with the decline of the Sunday-school library, the need
+     which called it into being had not ceased to exist; and, in order to
+     secure information as to the advisability of continuing its work,
+     cards were sent to 305 ministers of the denomination and to 507
+     public libraries, mostly in New England, asking if the lists of the
+     commission were found useful, and whether it was desired that the
+     sending of them should be continued. From Unitarian ministers 209
+     replies were received, one-half using the lists frequently and the
+     other half occasionally or for the selection of special books. From
+     the town libraries cordial replies were received in 220 instances,
+     most of them warmly approving of the lists, which had been found very
+     useful. The result of this investigation was to bring the commission
+     more directly into touch with the various libraries, and to give it a
+     better understanding of their needs.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<a name="pg282"></a>
+<h2><br /><a name="ch12"></a>XII.<br />
+
+
+THE WOMEN'S ALLIANCE AND ITS PREDECESSORS.</h2>
+
+<p>The Unitarian body has been remarkable for the women of intellectual power
+and philanthropic achievement who have adorned its fellowship. In
+proportion to their numbers, they have done much for the improvement and
+uplifting of society. In the early Unitarian period, however, the special
+work of women was for the most part confined to the Sunday-school and the
+sewing circle. Whatever the name by which it was known, whether as the
+Dorcas Society, the Benevolent Society, or the Ladies' Aid, the sewing
+circle did a work that was in harmony with the needs of the time, and did
+it well. It helped the church with which it was connected in many quiet
+ways, and gave much aid to the poor and suffering members of the community.
+Nor did it limit its activities to purely local interests; for many a
+church was helped by it and the early missionary societies received its
+contributions gladly.</p>
+
+<p>Before the organization of the Benevolent Fraternity of Churches, the women
+of Boston raised the money necessary for the support of the ministry at
+large in that city. One of the earliest societies organized for general
+service, was the Tuckerman Sewing Circle, formed in 1827. Its purpose was
+to assist Dr. Tuckerman in his work for the poor of the city by providing
+<a name="pg283"></a>
+clothing and otherwise aiding the needy. The work of this circle is still
+going on in connection, with the Bulfinch Place Church; and every year it
+raises a large sum of money for the charitable work of the ministry at
+large.</p>
+
+<p>The civil war helped women to recognize the need of organization and
+co-operation, on their part. In working for the soldiers, not only in their
+homes and churches, but in connection with the Sanitary Commission, and
+later in seeking to aid the freedmen, they learned their own power and the
+value of combination with others. In Massachusetts the work of the Sanitary
+Commission was largely carried on by Unitarians. In describing this work,
+Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney has indicated what was done by Unitarian women.
+"During the late war," she wrote, "a woman's branch of the Sanitary
+Commission was organized in New England. Mary Dwight (Parkman) was its
+first president; but Abby Williams May soon took her place, which she held
+till the close of the war. With unwearied zeal Miss May presided over its
+councils, organized its action, and encouraged others to work. She went
+down to the hospitals and camps, to judge of their needs with her own eyes,
+and travelled from town to town in New England, arousing the women to new
+effort. These might be seen, young and old, rich and poor, bearing bundles
+of blue flannel through the streets, and unaccustomed fingers knitting the
+coarse yarn, while the heart throbbed with anxiety for the dear ones gone
+to the war. A noble band of nurses volunteered their services, and the
+strife was as to which should go soonest and do the hardest work. Hannah E.
+<a name="pg284"></a>
+Stevenson, Helen Stetson, and many another name became as dear to the
+soldiers as that of mother or sister. A committee was formed to supply the
+colored soldiers with such help as other soldiers received from their
+relations; and, when one of the noblest of Boston's sons passed through her
+streets at their head, his mother 'thanked God for the privilege of seeing
+that day.' The same spirit went into the work of educating the freedmen.
+Young men and women, the noblest and best, went forth together to that work
+of danger and toil."[<a href="#fn_12_1">1</a><a name="fr_12_1"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn89"></a>Women's Western Unitarian Conference.</h3>
+
+<p>It was such experiences as these that encouraged Unitarian women to enter
+upon other philanthropic and educational labors when the civil war had come
+to an end. Leaders had been trained during this period who were capable of
+guiding such movements to a successful issue. The example of the women of
+the evangelical churches in organizing their home and foreign missionary
+associations also undoubtedly influenced, to a greater or lesser degree,
+the women of the liberal churches. After the organization of the National
+Conference, Unitarian women began to realize, as never before, the need of
+co-operation in behalf of the cause they had at heart.[<a href="#fn_12_2">2</a><a name="fr_12_2"></a>] It was in the
+central west, however, that the first effort was made to organize women in
+the interest of denominational activities. In 1877, at the meeting of the
+Western Unitarian Conference held in Toledo, it was voted that the women
+connected with that body be requested to organize immediately for the
+<a name="pg285"></a>
+purpose of co-operating in the general work of the conference. At this
+meeting two women, Mrs. E.P. Allis of Milwaukee and Mrs. Mary P. Wells
+Smith of Cincinnati, were placed on the board of directors.</p>
+
+<p>At the next annual meeting of the Western Conference, held in Chicago, the
+committee on organization, consisting of thirteen women, reported the
+readiness of the women to give their aid to the conference work, saying in
+their report "that we signify not only our willingness, but our earnest
+desire to share henceforth with our brothers in the labors and
+responsibilities of this Association, and that we pledge ourselves to an
+active and hearty support of those cherished convictions which constitute
+our liberal faith." In response to their request, the conference selected
+an assistant secretary to have charge of everything relating to the work of
+women. They also recommended that the women of the several churches
+connected with the conference should organize for "the study and
+dissemination of the principles of free thought and liberal religious
+culture, and the practical assistance of all worthy schemes and enterprises
+intended for the spread and upholding of these principles." In 1881, at St.
+Louis, there was organized the Women's Western Unitarian Conference, with
+Mrs. Eliza Sunderland as president and Miss F.L. Roberts as secretary.
+During the seventeen years of its existence this conference raised much
+money for denominational work, developed many earnest workers, and
+accomplished much in behalf of the principles for which it stood. It aided
+in the support of several missionaries, organized the Post-office Mission
+and made it effective, and encouraged a number of women to enter the
+ministry.</p>
+
+<a name="pg286"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn90"></a>Women's Auxiliary Conference.</h3>
+
+<p>At the National Conference session of 1878, held at Saratoga, where much
+enthusiasm had been awakened, it was suggested that the women, who had been
+hitherto listeners only, should take an active part in, denominational
+work. At a gathering in the parlor of the United States Hotel, called by
+Mrs. Charles G. Ames, Mrs. Fielder Israel, Mrs. J.P. Lesley, and one or two
+others, a plan of action was adopted that led, in 1880, to the formation of
+the Women's Auxiliary Conference. The aim of this organization was to
+quicken the religious life of the churches, to stimulate local charitable
+and missionary undertakings, and to raise money for missionary enterprises;
+but its work was to be done in connection with the National Conference, and
+not as an independent organization. The purpose was stated in a circular
+sent to the churches immediately after the organization was effected.
+"Hitherto," it was said, "women have not been specially represented upon
+the board of the National Conference, and have not fully recognized how
+helpful they might be in its various undertakings or how much they
+themselves might gain from a closer relation with it. But the time has now
+come when our service is called for in the broad field, and also when we
+feel the need of being at work there; for our faith in the great truths of
+religion is no less vital than that of our brethren; and since the service
+we can render, being different from theirs, is needed to supplement it, and
+because it is peculiarly women's service, we must do it, or it will be left
+undone. It is one of the glories of such a work as ours that there is need
+and room in it for the best effort of every individual; indeed, without the
+faithful service of all it must be incomplete."</p>
+
+<a name="pg287"></a>
+<p>In 1890, after ten years of active existence, the conference had about
+eighty branches, with a membership of between 3,000 and 4,000 women. Much
+of the success of the conference was due to its president, Abby W. May.
+Miss May was well known as a philanthropist and educator, and had occupied
+many prominent positions before she assumed the presidency of the
+auxiliary; but this was her first active work in connection with the
+denomination.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn91"></a>The National Alliance.</h3>
+
+<p>Admirable as were the aims, and excellent as was the work of this
+organization, it was auxiliary to the National Conference, and had no
+independent life. After the first enthusiasm was past, it failed to gain
+ground rapidly, the membership remaining nearly stationary during the last
+few years of its existence. As time went on, therefore, it became evident
+that a more complete organization was needed in order to arouse enthusiasm
+and to secure the loyalty of the women of all parts of the country. The New
+York League of Unitarian Women, including those of New York, Brooklyn, and
+New Jersey, organized in 1887, showed the advantages of a closer union and
+a more definite purpose; and the desire to bring into one body all the
+various local organizations hastened the change. It was seen that, in the
+multiplication of organizations, there was danger of wasting the energies
+used, and that one efficient body was greatly to be desired.</p>
+
+<p>In May, 1888, a committee was formed for the purpose of drafting a
+constitution for a new association, "to which all existing organizations
+might subscribe." The constitution provided by this committee was adopted
+<a name="pg288"></a>
+October 24, 1890, and the new organization took the name of the National
+Alliance of Unitarian and Other Liberal Christian Women. The object
+proposed was "to quicken the life of our Unitarian churches, and to bring
+the women of the denomination into closer acquaintance, co-operation, and
+fellowship." In 1891 there were ninety branches, with about 5,000 members.
+While the membership, doubled under the impulse of the new organization,
+the increase in the amount of money raised was fivefold.</p>
+
+<p>The admirable results secured by the Women's Alliance, which has finally
+drawn all the sectional organizations into co-operation with itself, are in
+no small measure due to the energy and the organizing skill of the women
+who have been at the head of its activities. Mrs. Judith W. Andrews, of
+Boston, was the president during the first year of its existence. From 1891
+to 1901 the president was Mrs. B. Ward Dix, of Brooklyn, who was succeeded
+by Miss Emma C. Low, of the same city. Mrs. Emily A. Fifield, of Boston,
+has been the recording secretary; Mrs. Mary B. Davis, of New York, the
+corresponding secretary; and Miss Flora L. Close, of Boston, the treasurer
+from the first.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn92"></a>Cheerful Letter and Post-office Missions.</h3>
+
+<p>In 1891 the executive board appointed a committee to organize a Cheerful
+Letter Exchange, of which Miss Lilian Freeman Clarke was made the chairman.
+One of its chief purposes is to cheer the lonely and discouraged, invalids
+and others, by interchange of letters and by gifts of books and
+periodicals. To young persons in remote places it affords facilities for
+securing a better education, with the aid of correspondence classes. By
+means of a little monthly magazine, The Cheerful Letter, religious teaching
+<a name="pg289"></a>
+is brought to many persons, who in this find a substitute for church
+attendance where that is not possible. Through the same channel, as well as
+by correspondence, these workers help young mothers in the right training
+of their children. Libraries have been started in communities destitute of
+books, and struggling libraries have been aided with gifts. Forty
+travelling libraries are kept in circulation.</p>
+
+<p>Although much had been done to circulate Unitarian tracts and the other
+publications of the American Unitarian Association, by means of
+colporteurs, by the aid of the post-office, as well as by direct gift of
+friend to friend, it remained for Miss Sallie Ellis, of Cincinnati, in
+1881, to systematize this kind of missionary effort, and to make it one of
+the most valuable of all agents for the dissemination of liberal religious
+ideas. Miss Ellis was aided by the Cincinnati branch of the Women's
+Auxiliary, but she was from the first the heart and soul of this mission.
+"If there had been no Miss Ellis," says one who knew her work intimately,
+"there would have been no Post-office Mission. Many helped about it in
+various ways, but she was the mission."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Ellis was a frail little woman, hopelessly deaf and suffering from an
+incurable disease. Notwithstanding her physical limitations, she longed to
+be of service to the faith she cherished; and the missionary spirit burned
+strong within her. "I want," she said often, "to do something for
+Unitarianism before I die"; but the usual avenues of opportunity seemed
+firmly closed to her. At last, in the winter of 1877-78, Rev. Charles W.
+Wendte, then her pastor, anxious to find something for her to do, proposed
+that she should send the Association's tracts and copies of the Pamphlet
+<a name="pg290"></a>
+Mission to persons in the west who were interested in the liberal faith.
+She took up this work gladly, and during that winter distributed 1,846
+tracts and 211 copies of the Pamphlet Mission in twenty-six States.</p>
+
+<p>A tract table in the vestibule of the church was started by Miss Ellis; and
+she not only distributed sermons freely in this way, but she also sold
+Unitarian books. It was in 1881 that she was made the secretary of the
+newly organized Women's Auxiliary in Cincinnati, and that her work really
+began systematically. At the suggestion of Mrs. Mary P. Wells Smith,
+advertisements were inserted in the daily papers, and offers made to send
+Unitarian publications, when requested. Many doubted the advisability of
+such an enterprise, but the letters received soon indicated that an
+important method of mission work had been discovered. Rev. William C.
+Gannett christened this work the Post-office Mission, and that name it has
+since retained.</p>
+
+<p>Only four and one-half years were permitted to Miss Ellis in which to
+accomplish her work,--a work dear to her heart, and one for which her many
+losses and sufferings had prepared her. During this period she wrote 2,500
+letters, sent out 22,000 tracts and papers, sold 286 books, and loaned 258.
+The real value of such work cannot be rightly estimated in figures. Through
+her influence, several young men entered the ministry who are to-day doing
+effective work. She saved several persons from doubt and despair, gave
+strength to the weak, and comfort to those who mourned. At her death, in
+1885, the letters received from many of her correspondents showed how
+strong and deep had been her influence.[<a href="#fn_12_3">3</a><a name="fr_12_3"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg291"></a>
+<p>The movement initiated by Miss Ellis grew rapidly, and has become one of
+the most valuable of all agents for the dissemination of liberal religious
+ideas. In the year 1900 the number of correspondents was about 5,000, and
+the number of tracts, sermons, periodicals, and books distributed was about
+200,000. The extent of this mission is also seen in the fact that in that
+year about 8,000 letters were written by the workers, and about 6,000 were
+received.</p>
+
+<p>By means of the Post-office Mission the literature of the denomination, the
+tracts of the Unitarian Association, copies of The Christian Register, and
+other periodicals have been scattered all over the world. Thousands of
+sermons are distributed also from tables in church vestibules. Several
+branches publish and exchange sermons, and a loan library has been
+established to supplement this work.[<a href="#fn_12_4">4</a><a name="fr_12_4"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>From the distribution of tracts and sermons has grown the formation of
+"Sunday Circles" and "Groups" of Unitarians, carefully planned circuit
+preaching, the employment of missionaries, and the building of chapels or
+small churches. Two of these are already built; and the Alliance has
+insured the support of their ministers for five years, and two others are
+in the process of erection.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn93"></a>Associate Alliances.</h3>
+
+<p>The women on the Pacific coast have been compelled in a large measure to
+organize their own work and to adopt their own methods, the distance being
+too great for immediate co-operation with the other organizations. In this
+work they have not only displayed energy and perseverance, but, says one
+<a name="pg292"></a>
+who knows intimately of their efforts, "they have shown executive ability
+and power as organizers that have furnished an example to many
+non-sectarian organizations of women, and have made the Unitarian women
+conspicuous in all charitable and social activities."</p>
+
+<p>The oldest society of Unitarian women on the Pacific coast was connected
+with the First Church in San Francisco. In 1873 it was reorganized as the
+Society for Christian Work. Its work has been mainly social and
+philanthropic, contributing reading matter to penal institutions, money for
+the care of the poor of the city, and aiding every new Unitarian church in
+the State. The Channing Auxiliary combines the activities of the churches
+in the vicinity of San Francisco with those in the city. Its objects are
+"moral and religious culture, practical literary work, and co-operation
+with the denominational and missionary agencies of the Unitarian faith."
+From 1890 to 1899 this society spent over $6,000 in aid of denominational
+enterprises, and it appropriates annually a large sum for Post-office
+Mission work. While these two organizations represent San Francisco and its
+neighborhood, the women up and down the coast have also been earnest
+workers. In 1890 they felt the need of a closer bond of union, and
+organized the Women's Unitarian Conference of the Pacific Coast. In 1894
+this conference became a branch of the National Alliance, and has
+co-operated cordially with it since that time.</p>
+
+<p>The New York League of Unitarian Women has been active in forming Alliance
+branches and new churches, as well as in affording aid to Meadville
+students. The Chicago Associate Alliance, the Southern Associate Alliance,
+<a name="pg293"></a>
+and the Connecticut Valley Associate Alliance were organized in 1890. The
+Worcester League of Unitarian Women began its existence in 1889, and was
+reorganized in connection with the National Alliance in 1892.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn94"></a>Alliance Methods.</h3>
+
+<p>In thus coming into closer relations with each other and forming a national
+organization, each local branch continues free in its own action, chooses
+its own methods of carrying on its work, but keeps close knowledge of what
+the Alliance as a whole is doing, that all interference with others and
+overlapping of assistance may be avoided, and the greatest mutual benefit
+may be secured. This method gives the utmost independence to the branches,
+while preserving the element of personal interest in all financial
+disbursements, and creates a strong bond of sympathy between those who give
+and those who receive.</p>
+
+<p>The first duty of each branch is to strengthen the church to which its
+members belong; and the value of such an organized group of women, meeting
+to exchange ideas and experiences on the most vital topics of human
+interest, has been everywhere recognized. Each branch is expected to engage
+in some form of religious study, not only for the improvement of the
+members themselves, but to enable them to gain, and to give others, a
+comprehensive knowledge of Unitarian beliefs. A study class committee
+provides programmes for the use of the branches, arranges for the lending
+and exchange of papers, and assists those who do not have access to books
+of reference or are remote from the centres of Unitarian thought and
+activity.</p>
+
+<p>With this preparation the Alliance undertakes the higher service of joining
+in the missionary activities of the denomination, supplementing as far as
+<a name="pg294"></a>
+possible the work of the American Unitarian Association. This includes
+sending missionaries into new fields, aiding small and struggling churches,
+helping to found new ones, supporting ministers at important points, and
+and distributing religious literature among those who need light on
+religious problems.</p>
+
+<p><br />[<a href="#fr_12_1">1</a><a name="fn_12_1"></a>] Memorial History of Boston, IV. 353.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_12_2">2</a><a name="fn_12_2"></a>] See later chapters for account of admission of women to National
+    Conference, Unitarian Association, the ministry, Boston school board,
+    and various other lines of activity.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_12_3">3</a><a name="fn_12_3"></a>] Mary P.W. Smith, Miss Ellis's Mission.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_12_4">4</a><a name="fn_12_4"></a>] This library is in the Unitarian Building, 25 Beacon Street, Boston.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<a name="pg295"></a>
+<h2><br /><a name="ch13"></a>XIII.<br />
+
+
+MISSIONS TO INDIA AND JAPAN.</h2>
+
+<p>Foreign missions have never commanded a general interest on the part of
+Unitarians. Their dislike of the proselyting spirit, their intense love of
+liberty for others as well as for themselves, and the absence of sectarian
+feeling have combined to make them, as a body, indifferent to the
+propagation of their faith in other countries. They have done something,
+however, to express their sympathy with those of kindred faith in foreign
+lands.</p>
+
+<p>In 1829 the younger Henry Ware visited England and Ireland as the foreign
+secretary of the Unitarian Association; and at the annual meeting of 1831
+he reported the results of his inquiries.[<a href="#fn_13_1">1</a><a name="fr_13_1"></a>] This was the beginning of
+<a name="pg296"></a>
+many interchanges of good fellowship with the Unitarians of Great Britain,
+and also with those of Hungary, Transylvania, France, Germany, and other
+European countries. During the first decade or two of the existence of the
+Unitarian Association much interest was taken in the liberal movements in
+Geneva; and the third annual report gave account of what was being done in
+that city and in Calcutta, as well as in Transylvania and Great Britain.
+Some years later, aid was promised to the Unitarians of Hungary in a time
+of persecution; but they were dispossessed of their schools before help
+reached them. In 1868 the Association founded Channing and Priestley
+professorships in the theological school at Kolozsvár, and Mrs. Anna
+Richmond furnished money for a permanent professorship in the same
+institution. Soon after the renewed activity of 1865 an unsuccessful
+attempt was made to establish an American Unitarian church in Paris; and
+aid was given to the founding of an English liberal church in that city.
+These are indications of the many interchanges of fellowship and
+helpfulness between the Unitarians of this country and those of Europe.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn95"></a>Society respecting the State of Religion in India.</h3>
+
+<p>As early as 1824 began a movement to aid the native Unitarians of India,
+partly the result of a lively interest in Rammohun Roy and the
+republication in this country of his writings. On June 7, 1822, The
+Christian Register gave an account of the adoption of Unitarianism by that
+remarkable Hindoo leader; and it often recurred to the subject in later
+years. In February of the next year it described the formation of a
+Unitarian society in Calcutta, and the conversion to Unitarianism of a
+Baptist missionary, Rev. William Adam, as a result of his attempt to
+<a name="pg297"></a>
+convert Rammohun Roy. There followed frequent reports of this movement, and
+after a few months a letter from Mr. Adam was published. Even before this
+there had appeared accounts of William Roberts, of Madras, a native Tamil,
+who had been educated in England, and had there become a Unitarian. On his
+return to his own country he had established small congregations in the
+suburbs of Madras.</p>
+
+<p>In 1823 a letter from Rev. William Adam was received in Boston, addressed
+to Dr. Channing. It was put into the hands of the younger Henry Ware, who
+wrote to Mr. Adam and Rammohun Roy, propounding to them a number of
+questions in regard to the religious situation in India. In 1824 were
+published in a volume the letter of Ware and the series of questions sent
+by him to India, together with the replies of Rammohun Roy and William
+Adam.[<a href="#fn_13_2">2</a><a name="fr_13_2"></a>] This book was one of much interest, and furnished the first
+systematic account that had been given to the public of the reformatory
+religious interest awakened at that time in India. In February, 1825, was
+organized the Society for obtaining Information respecting the State of
+Religion in India, "with a view to obtain and diffuse information and to
+devise and recommend means for the promotion of Christianity in that part
+of the world." The younger Henry Ware was made the president, and Dr.
+Tuckerman the secretary. Already a fund had been collected to aid the
+British Indian Unitarian Association of Calcutta in its missionary efforts,
+especially in building a church and maintaining a minister.</p>
+
+<a name="pg298"></a>
+<p>During the year 1825 there was published at the office of The Christian
+Register a pamphlet of sixty-three pages, written by a member of the
+Information Society, being An Appeal to Liberal Christians for the Cause of
+Christianity in India. In 1826 Dr. Tuckerman addressed A Letter on the
+Principles of the Missionary Enterprise to the executive committee of the
+Unitarian Association, in which he gave a noble exposition of the work of
+foreign missions, especially with reference to the Indian field. This
+letter and other writings of Tuckerman served to arouse much interest. The
+Appeal urged what many Unitarians had large faith in,--the promulgation of
+"just and rational views of our religion" "upon enlarged and liberal
+principles, from which we may hope for the speedy establishment and the
+wider extension there of the uncorrupted truth as it is in Jesus."</p>
+
+<p>In 1826 the sum of $7,000 was secured for this work; and in the spring of
+1827 a pledge was made to send yearly to Calcutta the sum of $600 for ten
+years. These pledges were in connection with like efforts made by the
+British and Foreign Unitarian Association. In 1839 Mr. Adam visited the
+United States, and spoke at the annual meeting of the Unitarian
+Association. Following this, he was for a few years professor of Oriental
+literature in Harvard University.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn96"></a>Dall's Work in India.</h3>
+
+<p>In 1853 Rev. Charles T. Brooks, who was for many years the minister of the
+church in Newport, visited India in search of health; and he was
+commissioned by the Unitarian Association to make inquiries as to the
+prospects for missionary labors in that country. In Madras he met William
+Roberts, the younger son of the former Unitarian preacher there and visited
+<a name="pg299"></a>
+the several missions carried on by him. In Calcutta he found Unitarians,
+but the work of Mr. Adam had left almost no results. The report of Mr.
+Brooks was such that an effort was at once made to secure a missionary for
+India.[<a href="#fn_13_3">3</a><a name="fr_13_3"></a>] In 1855 Rev. Charles H.A. Dall undertook this mission. He had
+been a minister at large in St. Louis, Baltimore, and Portsmouth, and
+settled over parishes in Needham and Toronto. Mr. Ball was given the widest
+liberty of action in conducting his mission, as his instructions indicate:
+"There you are to enter upon the work of a missionary; and whether by
+preaching, in English or through an interpreter, or by school-teaching or
+by writing for the press, or by visiting from house to house, or by
+translating tracts, or by circulation of books, you are instructed, what we
+know your heart will prompt you to do, to give yourself to a life of
+usefulness as a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ."</p>
+
+<p>On his arrival at Calcutta, Mr. Ball was in a prostrate condition, and had
+to be carried ashore. After a time he rallied and began his work. He
+gathered a small congregation about him, then began teaching; and his work
+grew until he had four large and flourishing schools under his charge. In
+these he gave special attention, to moral and religious training, and to
+the industrial arts. In his school work he had the efficient aid of Miss
+Chamberlain, and after her death of Mrs. Helen Tompkins. One of the native
+teachers, Dwarkanath Singha, was of great service in securing the interest
+of the natives, being at the head, for many years, of all the schools under
+Mr. Dall's control. Mr. Dall founded the Calcutta School of Industrial Art,
+<a name="pg300"></a>
+the Useful Arts' School, Hindoo Girls' School, as well as a school for the
+waifs of the streets. In these schools were 8,000 pupils, mostly Hindoos,
+who were taught a practical religion,--the simple principles of the gospel.
+In education Mr. Dall accomplished large results, not only by his schools,
+but by talking and lecturing on the subject. His influence was especially
+felt in the education of girls and in industrial training, in both of which
+directions he was a pioneer. Only one of his schools is now in existence,
+simply because the government took up the work he began, and gave it a
+larger support than was possible on the part of any individual or any
+society.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Dall wrote extensively for the leading journals of India, and in that
+way he reached a larger number of persons throughout the country. This
+brought him a large correspondence, and he frequently journeyed far to
+visit individuals and congregations thus brought to his knowledge. For many
+years he was one of the leading men of Calcutta. Few great public meetings
+of any reformatory or educational kind were held without his having a
+prominent part in them. He published great numbers of tracts and
+lectures,[<a href="#fn_13_4">4</a><a name="fr_13_4"></a>] and translated the works of the leading Unitarians of
+America and Great Britain into Hindostanee, Bengali, Tamil, Sanscrit, and
+other native languages. His zeal in circulating liberal writings was great,
+and met with a large reward. He distributed hundreds of copies of the
+complete Works of Dr. Channing, and these brought many persons to the
+<a name="pg301"></a>
+acceptance of Unitarianism. When Rev. Jabez T. Sunderland was in India, in
+1895-96, he found many traces of these volumes, even in remote parts of the
+country. When he was in Madras, a very intelligent Hindoo walked one
+hundred and fifty miles to procure of him a copy of Channing's biography to
+replace a copy received from Mr. Dall, which, had been reread and loaned
+until it was almost worn out.</p>
+
+<p>A considerable part of Mr. Ball's influence was in connection with the
+Brahmo-Somaj, in directing its religious, educational, and reformatory
+work. He did not make many nominal Unitarians; but he had a very large
+influence in shaping the life of India by his personal influence and by the
+weight of his religious character. Everywhere he was greatly beloved. He
+earned considerable sums as a reporter and author in aid of his mission,
+and he lived in a most abstemious manner in order to devote as much money
+as possible to his work.[<a href="#fn_13_5">5</a><a name="fr_13_5"></a>] In this devoted service he continued until
+his death, which took place July 18, 1886.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn97"></a>Recent Work in India.</h3>
+
+<p>Since the death of Mr. Dall the aid given to India by American Unitarians
+has been through the natives themselves. The work of Pundita, Ramabai has
+received considerable assistance, as has also that of Mozoomdar. Early in
+the year 1888, Rev. Brooke Herford, then minister of the Arlington Street
+Church in Boston, received from India a letter addressed "To the chief
+pastor of the Unitarian congregation at Boston." It proved to be from a
+young lawyer or pleader in Banda, North-west Provinces, named Akbar Masih.
+His father was an educated Mohammedan, who in early life had been converted
+<a name="pg302"></a>
+to Calvinistic Christianity, and had become a missionary. At the Calcutta
+University the son had outgrown the faith he had been taught; and a volume
+of Channing's Works, put in circulation by Mr. Dall, had given him the
+mental and spiritual teaching he desired. Tracts and books were sent him,
+and a correspondence followed. He read with great delight what he received,
+and in a year or two he desired to become a missionary. Mr. Herford sent
+him money, and he was employed to spend one-third of his time in the
+missionary service of Unitarianism. When Mr. Herford removed to London, the
+support of Akbar Masih was arranged for in England; and he has done a large
+work in preaching, lecturing, holding conferences, and publishing tracts
+and books.</p>
+
+<p>Nearly in the same week in which Mr. Herford received his first letter from
+Akbar Masih, Mr. Sunderland, in Ann Arbor, received one from Hajam Kissor
+Singh, Jowai, Khasi Hills, Assam. He was a young man employed by the
+government as a surveyor, was well educated, but belonged to one of the
+primitive tribes that retain their aboriginal religion and customs to a
+large extent. He had been taught orthodox Christianity, however; but it was
+not satisfactory to him. A Brahmo friend loaned him a copy of Channing, and
+furnished him with Mr. Dall's address. In the bundle of tracts sent him by
+Mr. Dall was a copy of The Unitarian, which led him to write to its editor,
+Mr. Sunderland. A correspondence followed, and the sending of many tracts
+and books. Mr. Singh began to talk of his new views to others, who gathered
+in his room on Sunday afternoons for religious inquiry and worship. Soon
+<a name="pg303"></a>
+there was a call for similar meetings in another village, and Mr. Singh
+began to serve as a lay-preacher. A church was organized in Jowai, and then
+a day school was opened. Tracts and books being necessary in order to carry
+on the work successfully, Mr. Sunderland raised the necessary money,
+printed them in Khasi at Ann Arbor, and forwarded them to Assam, thus
+greatly facilitating the labors of Mr. Singh and his assistants. Also,
+through the help of American Unitarians, Mr. Singh was able to secure the
+aid of two paid helpers. When Mr. Sunderland visited the Khasi Hills, in
+1895, as the agent of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association, he
+helped to ordain a regular pastor; and he found church buildings in five
+villages, day-schools in four, and religious circles meeting in eight or
+nine others. This mission is now being supported by the English Unitarians.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn98"></a>The Beginnings in Japan.</h3>
+
+<p>After the death of Mr. Dall it was not found desirable to continue his
+educational work, and the missionary activities in India naturally came
+under the jurisdiction of the British Unitarian Association. At the same
+time, Japan offered an inviting field for missionary effort, and one not
+hitherto occupied by Unitarians. In 1884 a movement began in that country,
+looking to the introduction of a rational Christianity, the leader being
+Yukichi Fukuzawa, a prominent statesman, head of the Keiogijiku University
+and editor of the leading newspaper. In 1886 Fumio Yano, after a visit to
+England, took up the same mission, and urged the adoption of Christianity
+as a moral force in the life of the nation. The latter interpreted
+Unitarianism as being the form of Christianity needed in Japan, and
+strongly urged its acceptance. Other prominent men joined with these two in
+<a name="pg304"></a>
+commending a rational Christianity to their countrymen. Not long afterwards
+the American Unitarian Association was asked to establish a mission in that
+country. In 1887 Rev. Arthur M. Knapp was sent to Japan to investigate the
+situation, and in the spring of 1889 he returned to report the results of
+his inquiries. He had; been welcomed; by the leading men, such as the
+Marquis Tokujawa and Kentaro Kaneko, who opened to him many avenues of
+influence. He had written for the most important newspapers, had come into
+personal contact with the leading men of all parties, had lectured; on many
+occasions to highly educated audiences, and had opened a wide-reaching
+correspondence.</p>
+
+<p>On his return to Japan, in 1889, Mr. Knapp was prepared to begin systematic
+work in behalf of rational Christianity. It was not his purpose, however,
+to seek to establish Unitarianism there as the basis of a new Japanese
+sect, but to diffuse it as a leaven for the moral and spiritual elevation
+of the people of Japan. "The errand of Unitarianism in Japan," said Mr.
+Knapp to the Japanese, "is based upon the familiar idea of the sympathy of
+religions. With the conviction that we are the messengers of distinctive
+and valuable truths which have not yet been emphasized, and that, in
+return, there is much in your faith and life which to our harm we have not
+emphasized, receive us not as theological propagandists, but as messengers
+of the new gospel of human brotherhood in the religion of man."</p>
+
+<p>With Mr. Knapp were associated Rev. Clay MacCauley as colleague, and also
+Garrett Droppers, John H. Wigmore, and William Shields Liscomb, who were to
+become, professors in the Keiogijiku, a leading university, situated in
+<a name="pg305"></a>
+Tokio, and to give such aid as they could to the Unitarian mission. With
+these men was soon associated Rev. H.W. Hawkes, a young English minister,
+who gave his services to this important work. There also accompanied the
+American party Mr. Saichiro Kanda, who had become a Unitarian while
+residing in San Francisco, and had attended the Meadville Theological
+School. In the winter of 1890-91, Mr. Knapp returned to the United States,
+and a little later Mr. Hawkes went back to England. In 1891 Rev. William I.
+Lawrance joined the mission force; and he continued with it until 1894,
+when a severe illness compelled his resignation. Professor Wigmore returned
+to America in 1892 to accept a chair in the North-western University;
+Professor Liscomb came home in 1893, dying soon after his return; while
+Professor Droppers remained until the winter of 1898, when he became the
+president of the University of South Dakota. In the beginning of 1900, Mr.
+MacCauley, after having had direction of the mission for nine years,
+returned to America; and it was left in control of the Japanese Unitarian
+Association, the American Association continuing to give it generous
+financial aid and counsel.</p>
+
+<p>As already indicated, the purpose of the mission has not been Unitarian
+propagandism as such. It has been that of religious enlightenment, the
+bringing to the Japanese, in a catholic and humanitarian spirit, of the
+body of religious truths and convictions known as Unitarianism, and then
+permitting them to organize themselves after the manner of their own
+national life. No churches were organized by the representatives of the
+American Unitarian Association. Those that have come into existence have
+been wholly at the initiative of the natives. Early in 1894 was erected, in
+<a name="pg306"></a>
+Tokio, Yuiitsukwan, or Unity Hall, with money furnished largely from the
+United States. This building serves as the headquarters for Unitarian work,
+including lectures and social and religious meetings. In 1896 was organized
+the Japanese Unitarian Association for the work of diffusing Unitarian
+principles throughout the country. The mission is organized into the three
+departments of church extension, publication, and education. Of this
+Association, Jitsunen Saji, formerly a prominent Buddhist lecturer and a
+member at present of the city council of Tokyo, is the superintendent. The
+secretary has been Saichiro Kanda, who has faithfully given his time to
+this work since he returned to Japan with the mission party, in 1889. The
+broad purposes of the Japanese Unitarian Association have been clearly
+defined in its constitution: "We desire to act in accordance with God's
+will, which we perceive by our inborn reason. We strive to follow the
+guidance of noble religion, exact science and philosophy, and to discover
+their truth. We believe it to be a natural law of the human mind to
+investigate freely all phenomena of the universe. We aim to maintain the
+peace of the world, and to promote the happiness of mankind. We endeavor to
+assert our rights, and to fulfil our duties as Japanese citizens; and to
+increase the prosperity of the country by all honorable means."</p>
+
+<p>Early in 1891 was begun the publication in Japanese of a magazine called at
+first The Unitarian, but afterwards Religion. The paid circulation was
+about 1,000 copies, but it was largely used as a tract for free
+distribution. In 1897 this magazine was merged into a popular religious
+monthly called Rikugo-Zasshi or Cosmos, which has a large circulation. It
+<a name="pg307"></a>
+is published at the headquarters of the Japanese Unitarian Association, and
+is the organ of the liberalizing work carried on by that institution. The
+Association has translated thirty or forty American and English
+tracts,--some have been added by native writers; and these were distributed
+to the number of 100,000 in 1900. A number of important liberal books,
+including Bixby's Crisis in Morals, Clarke's Steps in Belief, and Fiske's
+Idea of God, have been translated into Japanese, and obtain a ready sale.
+An extensive work of education, is carried on through the press, nearly all
+the leading journals having been freely open to the Unitarians since the
+beginning of the mission.</p>
+
+<p>The direct work of education has been the most important of all the phases
+of the mission's activities. A library of several thousand volumes,
+representing all phases of modern thought, has been collected in Unity
+Hall; and it is of great value to the teaching carried on there. Lectures
+are given every Sunday in Unity Hall, and listened to by large audiences.
+Much has been done in various parts of Tokyo, as well as elsewhere, to
+reach the student class, and educated persons in all classes of society;
+and many persons have thus been brought to an acceptance of Unitarianism.
+In 1890 were begun systematic courses of lectures, with a view to giving
+educated Japanese inquirers a thorough knowledge of modern religious ideas;
+and these grew into the Senshin Gakuin, or School of Advanced Learning, a
+theological school with seven professors, and an annual attendance of
+thirty or forty students, nearly all of whom have been graduates of
+colleges and universities. Unhappily, the failure of financial support
+compelled the abandonment of this school in 1898. The chief educational
+<a name="pg308"></a>
+work, however, has been done in the colleges and universities, through the
+general diffusion of liberal religious principles, and by the free spirit
+of inquiry characteristic of all educated Japanese.</p>
+
+<p>The success of the Japanese mission is chiefly due to Rev. Clay MacCauley,
+who gave it the wise direction and the organizing skill necessary to its
+permanent growth. It is a noble monument to his devotion, and to his
+untiring efforts for its advancement. His little book on Christianity in
+History is very popular, both in its English and Japanese versions; and
+thousands of copies are annually distributed.</p>
+
+<p>The results of the Japanese mission are especially evident in a general
+liberalizing of religious thought throughout the country in both the
+Buddhist and Christian communions, and in the wide-spread approval shown
+towards its methods and principles among the upper and student classes. Its
+chief gain, however, consists of the scholarly and influential men who have
+accepted the Unitarian faith, and given it their zealous support. Among
+these men are the late Hajime Onishi, president of the College of
+Literature in the new Imperial University at Kyoto; Nobuta Kishimoto,
+professor of ethics in the Imperial Normal School; Tomoyoshi Murai,
+professor of English in the Foreign Languages School of Japan; Iso Abe,
+professor in the Doshisha University; Kinza Hirai, professor in the
+Imperial Normal School; Yoshiwo Ogasawara, who is leading an extensive work
+of social and moral reform in Wakayama; Saburo Shimada, proprietor of the
+Mainichi, one of the largest daily newspapers of the empire; and Zennosuki
+Toyosaki, professor in the Kokumin Eigakukwai, and associate editor of the
+<a name="pg309"></a>
+Rikugo Zasshi.[<a href="#fn_13_6">6</a><a name="fr_13_6"></a>] These men are educating the Japanese people to know
+Christianity in its rational forms; and their influence is being rapidly
+extended throughout the country. In their hands the future of liberal
+religion in Japan is safe; and what they do for their own people is more
+certain of permanent results than anything that can be accomplished by
+foreigners. The real significance of the Japanese Unitarian mission is that
+it has inaugurated a new era in religious propagandism; that it has been
+for the followers of the religions traditional to Japan, as well as for
+those of the Christian missions, eminently a means for presenting them with
+the world's most advanced thought in religion, and that it has been a
+stimulus to a purer faith and a larger fellowship.</p>
+
+<p><br />[<a href="#fr_13_1">1</a><a name="fn_13_1"></a>] First Report of the Executive Committee of the American Unitarian
+    Association, 16. "The thoughts of the committee have been turned to
+    their brethren in other lands. A correspondence has been opened with
+    Unitarians in England, and the coincidence is worthy of notice, that
+    the British and Foreign Unitarian Association, and the American
+    Unitarian Association were organized on the same day, for the same
+    objects, and without the least previous concert. Our good wishes have
+    been reciprocated by the directors of the British Society. Letters
+    received from gentlemen who have recently visited England speak of
+    the interest which our brethren in that country feel for us, and of
+    their desire to strengthen the bonds of union. A constant
+    communication will be preserved between the two Associations and your
+    committee believe it will have a beneficial effect, by making us
+    better acquainted with one another, by introducing the publications
+    of each country into the other, by the influence which we shall
+    mutually exert, and by the strength which will be given to our
+    separate, or it may be, to our united efforts for the spread of the
+    glorious gospel of our Lord and Saviour."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_13_2">2</a><a name="fn_13_2"></a>] Correspondence relative to the Prospects of Christianity and the
+    Means of Promoting its Reception in India. Cambridge: Billiard &amp;
+    Metcalfe. 1824. 138 pp.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_13_3">3</a><a name="fn_13_3"></a>] Christian Examiner, LXIII 36, India's Appeal to Christian Unitarians,
+    by Rev. C.T. Brooks.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_13_4">4</a><a name="fn_13_4"></a>] Some Gospel Principles, in Ten Lectures, by C.H.A. Dall, Calcutta,
+    1856. Also see The Mission to India instituted by the American
+    Unitarian Association. Boston: Office of the Quarterly Journal.
+    1857.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_13_5">5</a><a name="fn_13_5"></a>] See Out Indian Mission and Our First Missionary, by Rev. John H.
+    Heywood, Boston, 1887.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_13_6">6</a><a name="fn_13_6"></a>] The Unitarian Movement in Japan: Sketches of the Lives and Religious
+    Work of Ten Representative Japanese. Tokyo, 1900.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<a name="pg310"></a>
+<h2><br /><a name="ch14"></a>XIV.<br />
+
+
+THE MEADVILLE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL.</h2>
+
+<p>In a few years after the movement began for the organization of churches
+west of the Hudson River, the needs of theological instruction for
+residents of that region were being discussed. In 1827 the younger Henry
+Ware was interested in a plan of uniting Unitarians and "the Christian
+connection" in the establishment of a theological school, to be located in
+the eastern part of the state of New York. In July of that year he wrote to
+a friend: "We have had; no little talk here within a few days respecting a
+new theological school. Many of us think favorably of the plan, and are
+disposed to patronize it, if feasible, but are a little fearful that it is
+not. Others start strong objections to it <i>in toto</i>. Something must be done
+to gain us an increase of ministers."[<a href="#fn_14_1">1</a><a name="fr_14_1"></a>] This proposition came from the
+Christians, and their plan was to locate the school on the Hudson.</p>
+
+<p>Although this project came to nothing for the time being, it was revived a
+decade later. When the Unitarian Association had entered upon its active
+missionary efforts west of the Alleghanies, the new impulse to
+denominational life manifested itself in a wide-spread desire for an
+increase in the number of workers available for the western field. The
+establishment of a liberal theological school in that region was felt to be
+<a name="pg311"></a>
+almost a necessity, if the opportunities everywhere opening there for the
+dissemination of a purer faith were not to be neglected. Plans were
+therefore formed about 1836 for the founding of a theological school at
+Buffalo under the direction of Rev. George W. Hosmer, then the minister in
+that city; but, business becoming greatly depressed the following year, the
+project was abandoned. In 1840 the importance of such a school was again
+causing the western workers to plan for its establishment, this time in
+Cincinnati or Louisville; but this expectation also failed of realization.
+Then Rev. William G. Eliot, of St. Louis, undertook to provide a
+theological education for such young men as might apply to him. But the
+response to his offer was so slight as to indicate that there was little
+demand for such instruction.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn99"></a>The Beginnings in Meadville.</h3>
+
+<p>The demand for a school had steadily grown since the year 1827, and the fit
+occasion only was awaited for its establishment. It was found at Meadville,
+Penn., in the autumn of 1844. In order to understand why it should have
+been founded in this country village instead of one of the growing and
+prosperous cities of the west, it is necessary to give a brief account of
+the origin and growth of the Meadville church. The first Unitarian church
+organized west of the Alleghanies was that in Meadville, and it had its
+origin in the religious experiences of one man. The founder of this church,
+Harm Jan Huidekoper, was born in the district of Drenthe, Holland, at the
+village of Hogeveen, in 1776. At the age of twenty he came to the United
+States; and in 1804 he became the agent of the Holland Land Company in the
+<a name="pg312"></a>
+north-western counties of Pennsylvania, and established himself at
+Meadville, then a small village. He was successful in his land operations,
+and was largely influential in the development of that part of the state.
+When his children were of an age to need religious instruction, he began to
+study the Bible with a view to deciding what he could conscientiously teach
+them. He had become a member of the Reformed Church in his native land, and
+he had attended the Presbyterian church in Meadville; but he now desired to
+form convictions based on his own inquiries. "When I had become a father,"
+he wrote, "and saw the time approaching when I should have to give
+religious instruction to my children, I felt it to be my duty to give this
+subject a thorough examination. I accordingly commenced studying the
+Scriptures, as being the only safe rule of the Christian's faith; and the
+result was, that I soon acquired clear, and definite views as to the
+leading doctrines of the Christian religion. But the good I derived from
+these studies has not been confined to giving me clear ideas as to the
+Christian doctrines. They created in me a strong and constantly increasing
+interest in religion itself, not as mere theory, but as a practical rule of
+<a name="pg313"></a>
+life."[<a href="#fn_14_2">2</a><a name="fr_14_2"></a>] As the result of this study, he arrived at the conclusion that
+the Bible does not teach the doctrines of the Trinity, the total depravity
+of man, and the vicarious atonement of Christ. Solely from the careful
+reading of the Bible with reference to each of the leading doctrines he had
+been taught, he became a Unitarian.</p>
+
+<p>With the zeal of a new convert Mr. Huidekoper began to talk about his new
+faith, and he brought it to the attention of others with the enthusiasm of
+a propagandist. In conversation, by means of the distribution of tracts,
+and with the aid of the press he extended the liberal faith. He could not
+send his children to the church he had attended, and he therefore secured
+tutors for them from Harvard College who were preparing for the ministry;
+and in October, 1825, one of these tutors began holding Unitarian services
+in Meadville.[<a href="#fn_14_3">3</a><a name="fr_14_3"></a>] In May, 1829, a church was organized, and a goodly
+number of thoughtful men and women connected themselves with it. But this
+movement met with persistent opposition, and a vigorous controversy was
+carried on in the local papers and by means of pamphlets. This was
+increased when, in 1830, Ephraim Peabody, afterwards settled in Cincinnati,
+New Bedford, and at King's Chapel in Boston, became the minister, and
+entered upon an active effort for the extension of Unitarianism. With the
+first of January, 1831, he began the publication of the Unitarian Essayist,
+<a name="pg314"></a>
+a small monthly pamphlet, in which the leading theological questions were
+discussed. In a few months Mr. Peabody went to Cincinnati; and the Essayist
+was continued by Mr. Huidekoper, who wrote with vigor and directness on the
+subjects he had carefully studied.</p>
+
+<p>In 1831 the church for the first time secured an ordained minister, and
+three years later one who gave his whole time to its service.[<a href="#fn_14_4">4</a><a name="fr_14_4"></a>] A church
+building was erected in 1836, and the prosperity of the congregation was
+thereby much increased. In 1843 a minister of the Christian connection,
+Rev. E.G. Holland, became the pastor for a brief period. At this time
+Frederic Huidekoper, a son of the founder of the Unitarian church in
+Meadville, had returned from his studies in the Harvard Divinity School and
+in Europe, and was ordained in Meadville, October 12, 1843. It was his
+purpose to become a Unitarian evangelist in the region about Meadville, but
+his attention was soon directed by Rev. George W. Hosmer to the importance
+of furnishing theological instruction to young men preparing for the
+Unitarian ministry. He was encouraged in this undertaking by Mr. Holland,
+who pointed out to him the large patronage that might be expected from the
+Christian body. It was at first intended that Mr. Huidekoper should give
+the principal instruction, and that he should be assisted by the pastor of
+the Independent Congregational Church (Unitarian) and by Mr. Hosmer, who
+was to come from Buffalo for a few weeks each year, exchanging pulpits with
+the Meadville minister. When the opening of the school was fixed for the
+autumn of 1844, the prospective number of applicants was so large as to
+<a name="pg315"></a>
+necessitate a modification of the proposed plan; and it was deemed wise to
+secure a competent person to preside over the school and to become the
+minister of the church. Through the active co-operation of the American
+Unitarian Association, Rev. Rufus P. Stebbins, then settled at Leominster,
+Mass., was secured for this double service.</p>
+
+<p>The students present at the opening of the school on the first day of
+October, 1844, were but five; but this number was increased to nine during
+the year. The next year the number was twenty-three, nine of them from New
+England. For several years the Christian connection furnished a
+considerable proportion of the students, and took a lively interest in the
+establishment and growth of the school, although contributing little or
+nothing to its pecuniary support. It was also represented on the board of
+instruction by a non-resident lecturer. At this time the Christian body had
+no theological school of its own, and many of its members even looked with
+disfavor upon all ministerial education. What brought them into some degree
+of sympathy with Unitarians of that day was their rejection of binding
+creeds and their acceptance of Christian character as the only test of
+Christian fellowship, together with their recognition of the Bible,
+interpreted by every man for himself, as the authoritative standard of
+religious truth. The churches of this denomination in the northern states
+were also pronounced in their rejection of the doctrines of the Trinity and
+predestination. Unitarians themselves have not been more strenuous in the
+defence of the principle of religious liberty than were the leaders among
+the Christians of the last generation. The two bodies also joined in the
+<a name="pg316"></a>
+management of Antioch College, in southern Ohio; and when Horace Mann
+became its president in 1852, he was made a minister of the Christian
+connection, in order that he might work more effectually in the promotion
+of its interests.</p>
+
+<p>The Meadville school began its work in a simple way, with few instructors
+and a limited course of study. Mr. Stebbins taught the Old Testament,
+Hebrew, Biblical antiquities, natural and revealed religion, mental and
+moral philosophy, systematic theology, and pulpit eloquence. Mr. Huidekoper
+gave instruction in the New Testament, hermeneutics, ecclesiastical
+history, Latin, Greek, and German. Mr. Hosmer lectured on pastoral care for
+a brief period during each year. A building for the school was provided by
+the generosity of the elder Huidekoper; and the expenses of board,
+instruction, rent, fuel, etc., were reduced to $30 per annum. Many of the
+students had received little education, and they needed a preliminary
+training in the most primary studies. Nevertheless, the school at once
+justified its establishment, and sent out many capable men, even from among
+those who came to it with the least preparation.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Stebbins was president of the school for ten years. During his term of
+service the school was incorporated by the legislature of Pennsylvania in
+the spring of 1846. The charter was carefully drawn with a view to securing
+freedom in its administration. No denominational name appeared in the act
+of incorporation, and the original board of trustees included Christians as
+well as Unitarians. Dr. Stebbins was an admirable man to whom to intrust
+the organization of the school, for he was a born teacher and a masterful
+administrator. He was prompt, decisive, a great worker, a powerful
+<a name="pg317"></a>
+preacher, an inspirer of others, and his students warmly admired and
+praised him.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn100"></a>The Growth of the School.</h3>
+
+<p>The next president of the school was Oliver Stearns, who held the office
+from 1856 to 1863. He was a student, a true and just thinker, of great
+moral earnestness, fine discrimination, and with a gift for academic
+organization. He was a man of a strong and deep personality, and his
+spiritual influence was profound. He had been settled at Northampton and
+over the third parish in Hingham before entering upon his work at
+Meadville. In 1863 he went to the Harvard Divinity School as the professor
+of pulpit eloquence and pastoral care until 1869, when he became the
+professor of theology; and from 1870 to 1878 he was the dean of the school.
+He was a preacher who "held and deserved a reputation among the foremost,"
+for his preaching was "pre-eminently spiritual." "In his relations to the
+divinity schools that enjoyed his services, it is impossible to
+over-estimate the extent, accuracy, and thoroughness of his scholarship,
+and his unwearying devotion to his work."[<a href="#fn_14_5">5</a><a name="fr_14_5"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>During Dr. Stearns' administration the small building originally occupied
+by the school was outgrown; and Divinity Hall was built on land east of the
+town, donated by Professor Frederic Huidekoper, and first occupied in 1861.
+In 1857 began a movement to elevate, the standard of admission to the
+school, in order that its work might be of a more advanced character. To
+meet the needs of those not able to accept this higher standard, a
+preparatory department was established in 1858, which was continued until
+1867.</p>
+
+<a name="pg318"></a>
+<p>Rev. Abiel A. Livermore became the president of the school in 1863, and he
+remained in that position until 1890. He had been settled in Keene,
+Cincinnati, and Yonkers before going to Meadville. He was a Christian of
+the finest type, a true gentleman, and a noble friend. Under his direction
+the school grew in all directions, the course of study being largely
+enriched by the addition of new departments. In 1863 church polity and
+administration, including a study of the sects of Christendom, was made a
+special department. In 1868 the school opened its doors to women, and it
+has received about thirty women for a longer or shorter term of study. In
+1872 the academic degree of Bachelor of Divinity was offered for the first
+time to those completing the full course. In 1879 the philosophy of
+religion, and also the comparative study of religions, received the
+recognition they deserve. The same year ecclesiastical jurisprudence became
+a special department. In 1882 Rev. E.E. Hale lectured on charities, and
+from that time this subject has been systematically treated in connection
+with philanthropies. A movement was begun in 1889 to endow a professorship
+in memory of Dr. James Freeman Clarke, which was successful. These
+successive steps indicate the progress made under the faithful
+administration of Dr. Livermore. He became widely known to Unitarians by
+his commentaries on the books of the New Testament, as well as by his other
+writings, including volumes of sermons and lectures.</p>
+
+<p>In 1890 George L. Cary, who had been for many years the professor of New
+Testament literature, became the president of the school, a position he
+held for ten years. Under his leadership the school has largely advanced
+its standard of scholarship, outgrown studies have been discarded, while
+<a name="pg319"></a>
+new ones have been added. New professorships and lectureships have been
+established, and the endowment of the school has been greatly increased.
+Huidekoper Hall, for the use of the library, was erected in 1890, and other
+important improvements have been added to the equipment of the school. In
+1892 the Adin Ballou lectureship of practical Christian sociology was
+established, and in 1895 the Hackley professorship of sociology and ethics.</p>
+
+<p>From the time of its establishment the Huidekoper family have been devoted
+friends and benefactors of the Theological School.[<a href="#fn_14_6">6</a><a name="fr_14_6"></a>] Frederic Huidekoper
+occupied the chair of New Testament literature from 1844 to 1855, and from
+1863 to 1877 that of ecclesiastical history. His services were given wholly
+without remuneration, and his benefactions to the school were numerous. He
+also added largely to the Brookes Fund for the distribution of Unitarian
+books. His historical writings made him widely known to scholars, and added
+to the reputation of the school. His Belief of the First Three Centuries
+concerning Christ's Mission to the Underworld appeared in 1853; Judaism at
+Rome, 1876; and Indirect Testimony of History to the Genuineness of the
+Gospels, 1879. He also republished at his own expense many valuable works
+that were out of print.</p>
+
+<p>Among the other professors have been Rev. Nathanial S. Folsom, who was in
+charge of the department of Biblical literature from 1848 to 1861. Of the
+<a name="pg320"></a>
+regular lecturers have been Rev. Charles H. Brigham, Rev. Amory D. Mayo,
+and Dr. Thomas Hill. There has been an intimate relation between the
+Meadville church and the Theological School, and several of the pastors
+have been instructors and lecturers in the Theological School, including
+Rev. J.C. Zachos, Rev. James T. Bixby, and Rev. James M. Whiton. The
+Christian denomination has been represented among the lecturers by Rev.
+David Millard and Rev. Austin Craig.</p>
+
+<p>The whole number of graduates of the Meadville Theological School up to
+April, 1902, has been 267; and eighty other students have entered the
+ministry. At the present time 156 of its students are on the roll of
+Unitarian ministers. Thirty-two of its students served in the civil war,
+twenty per cent of its graduates previous to the close of the war being
+engaged in it as privates, chaplains, or in some other capacity. The
+endowment of the school has steadily increased until it now is somewhat
+more than $600,000.</p>
+
+<p><br />[<a href="#fr_14_1">1</a><a name="fn_14_1"></a>] Memoir of Henry Ware, Jr. 202.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_14_2">2</a><a name="fn_14_2"></a>] J.F. Clarke, Christian Examiner, September, 1854, LVII. 310. "Mr.
+    Huidekoper had the satisfaction, in the later years of his life, of
+    seeing a respectable society worshipping in the tasteful building
+    which he loved and of witnessing the prosperity of the theological
+    school in which he was so much interested. We have never known any
+    one who seemed to live so habitually in the presence of God. The form
+    which his piety mostly took was that of gratitude and reliance. His
+    trust in the Divine goodness was like that of a child in its mother.
+    His cheerful views, of this life and of the other, his simple tastes,
+    his enjoyment of nature, his happiness in society, his love for
+    children, his pleasure in doing good, his tender affection for those
+    nearest to him,--these threw a warm light around his last days and
+    gave his home the aspect of a perpetual Sabbath. A well-balanced
+    activity of faculties contributed still more to his usefulness and
+    happiness. He was always a student, occupying every vacant hour with
+    a book, and so had attained a surprising knowledge of biography and
+    history." Mr. Huidekoper died in Meadville, May 22, 1854.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_14_3">3</a><a name="fn_14_3"></a>] John M. Merrick, afterwards settled in Hardwick and Walpole, Mass.,
+    who was in Mr. Huidekoper's family from October, 1825, to October,
+    1827. He was succeeded by Andrew P. Peabody, who did not preach. In
+    1828-30 Washington Gilbert, who had settlements in Harvard, Lincoln,
+    and West Newton, was the tutor and preacher.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_14_4">4</a><a name="fn_14_4"></a>] Rev. George Nichols, July, 1831, to July, 1832; Rev. Alanson Brigham,
+    who died in Meadville, August 24, 1833; Rev. John Quincy Day,
+    October, 1834, to September, 1837.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_14_5">5</a><a name="fn_14_5"></a>] A.P. Peabody, Harvard Reminiscences, 165, 166</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_14_6">6</a><a name="fn_14_6"></a>] The first treasurer of the school was Edgar Huidekoper, who was
+    succeeded by Professor F. Huidekoper, and he in turn by Edgar
+    Huidekoper, the son of the first treasurer. Among the other generous
+    friends and benefactors of the school have been Alfred Huidekoper,
+    Miss Elizabeth Huidekoper, and Mrs. Henry P. Kidder.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<a name="pg321"></a>
+<h2><br /><a name="ch15"></a>XV.<br />
+
+
+UNITARIAN PHILANTHROPIES.</h2>
+
+<p>The liberal movement in religion was characterized in its early period by
+its humanitarianism. As theology grew less important for it, there was an
+increase in its philanthropy. With the waning of the sectarian spirit there
+was a growth in desire for practical reforms. The awakened interest in man
+and enlarged faith in his spiritual capacities showed itself in efforts to
+improve his social condition. No one expressed this tendency more perfectly
+than Dr. Channing, though he was a spiritual teacher rather than a reformer
+or philanthropist.</p>
+
+<p>Any statement concerning the charities in connection with which Channing
+was active will give the most inadequate idea of his actual influence in
+this direction. He was greatly interested in promoting the circulation of
+the Bible, in aiding the cause of temperance, and in bringing freedom to
+the slave. His biographer says that his thoughts were continually becoming
+concentrated more and more upon the terrible problem of pauperism, "and he
+saw more clearly each year that what the times demanded was that the axe
+should be laid at the very root of ignorance, temptation and strife by
+substituting for the present unjust and unequal distribution of the
+privileges of life some system of cordial, respectful brotherly
+co-operation."[<a href="#fn_15_1">1</a><a name="fr_15_1"></a>] His interest in education was most comprehensive, and
+<a name="pg322"></a>
+he sought its advancement in all directions with the confident faith that
+it would help to uplift all classes and make them more truly human.[<a href="#fn_15_2">2</a><a name="fr_15_2"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn101"></a>Unitarian Charities.</h3>
+
+<p>The liberals of New England, in the early years of the nineteenth century,
+were not mere theorizers in regard to human helpfulness and the application
+of Christianity to life; for they endeavored to realize the spirit of
+charity and service. Largely under their leadership the Massachusetts Bible
+Society was organized in 1809. A more distinctly charitable undertaking was
+the Fragment Society, organized in 1812 to help the poor by the
+distribution of garments, the lending of bedding to the sick and clothes to
+children in charity schools, as well as the providing of such children with
+shoes. This society also undertook to provide Bibles for the poor who had
+none. Under the leadership of Rev. Joseph Tuckerman, then settled in
+Chelsea, there was organized, May 11, 1812, the Boston Society for the
+Religious and Moral Improvement of Seamen, "to distribute tracts of a
+religious and moral kind for the use of seamen, and to establish a regular
+divine service on board of our merchant vessels." In 1813 the Massachusetts
+Society for the Suppression of Intemperance, in 1815 the Massachusetts
+Peace Society, and at about the same time the Society for the Employment of
+the Poor came into existence.</p>
+
+<p>Of the early Unitarians Rev. Octavius B. Frothingham justly said: "They all
+had a genuine desire to render the earthly lot of mankind tolerable. It is
+not too much to say that they started every one of our best secular
+<a name="pg323"></a>
+charities. The town of Boston had a poor-house, and nothing more until the
+Unitarians initiated humane institutions for the helpless, the blind, the
+insane. The Massachusetts General Hospital (1811), the McLean Asylum for
+the Insane (1818), the Perkins Blind Asylum (1832), the Female Orphan
+Asylum (1800), were of their devising."[<a href="#fn_15_3">3</a><a name="fr_15_3"></a>] What this work meant was well
+stated by Dr. Andrew P. Peabody, when he said there was "probably no city
+in the world where there had been more ample provision for the poor than in
+Boston, whether by private alms-giving, benevolent organizations, or public
+institutions."[<a href="#fn_15_4">4</a><a name="fr_15_4"></a>] Nor was this altruistic spirit manifested alone in
+Boston, for Mr. Frothingham quotes the saying of a lady to Dr. E.E. Hale:
+"A Unitarian church to you merely means one more name on your calendar. To
+the people in this town it means better books, better music, better
+sewerage, better health, better life, less drunkenness, more purity, and
+better government."[<a href="#fn_15_5">5</a><a name="fr_15_5"></a>] The Unitarian conception of the relations of
+altruism and religion was pertinently stated by Dr. J.T. Kirkland,
+president of Harvard College during the early years of the nineteenth
+century, when he said that "we have as much piety as charity, and no
+more."[<a href="#fn_15_6">6</a><a name="fr_15_6"></a>] One who knew intimately of the work of the ministry at large
+has truly said of the labors of Dr. Tuckerman: "From the beginning he had
+the moral and pecuniary support of the leaders of life in Boston; her first
+merchants and her statesmen were watching these experiments with a curious
+interest, and although he was often so radical as to startle the most
+conservative notions of men engaged in trade, or learned in the
+<a name="pg324"></a>
+old-fashioned science of government, there was that in the persistence of
+his life and the accuracy of his method which engaged their support."[<a href="#fn_15_7">7</a><a name="fr_15_7"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Another instance of Unitarian philanthropy is to be found in the support
+given to Rev. Edward T. Taylor, usually known as "Father Taylor," in his
+work for sailors. When he went to Boston in 1829 to begin his mission, the
+first person he visited was Dr. Channing, and the second Ralph Waldo
+Emerson, then a settled pastor in the city. Both of these men made generous
+contributions to his mission, and aided him in securing the attention of
+wealthy contributors.[<a href="#fn_15_8">8</a><a name="fr_15_8"></a>] In fact, his Bethel was almost wholly supported
+by Unitarians. For thirty years Mr. Albert Fearing was the president of the
+Boston Port Society, organized for the support of Taylor's Seamen's Bethel.
+The corresponding secretary was Mr. Henry Parker. Among other Unitarian
+supporters of this work was Hon. John A. Andrew.[<a href="#fn_15_9">9</a><a name="fr_15_9"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>We have no right to assume that the Unitarians alone were philanthropic,
+but they had the wealth and the social position to make their efforts in
+this direction thoroughly effective.[<a href="#fn_15_10">10</a><a name="fr_15_10"></a>] That the results were beneficent
+may be understood from the testimony of Mrs. Horace Mann. "The liberal
+sects of Boston," she wrote to a friend, "quite carried the day at that
+time in works of benevolence and Christian charity. They took care of the
+needy without regard to sectarianism. Such women as Helen Loring and
+Elizabeth Howard, (Mrs. Cyrus A. Bartol), Dorothea Dix, Mary Pritchard
+<a name="pg325"></a>
+(Mrs. Henry Ware), and many others less known to the world, but equally
+devoted to the work, with many youthful coadjutors, took care of the poor
+wonderfully."[<a href="#fn_15_11">11</a><a name="fr_15_11"></a>] After spending several weeks in Boston in 1842, and
+giving careful attention to the charities and philanthropies of the city,
+Charles Dickens wrote: "I sincerely believe that the public institutions
+and charities of this capital of Massachusetts are as nearly perfect as the
+most considerate wisdom, benevolence, humanity, can make them. I never in
+my life was more affected by the contemplation of happiness, under
+circumstances of privation and bereavement, than in my visits to these
+establishments."[<a href="#fn_15_12">12</a><a name="fr_15_12"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn102"></a>Education of the Blind.</h3>
+
+<p>The pioneer in the work of educating the blind and the deaf was Dr. Samuel
+G. Howe, who had been one of those who in 1824 went to Greece to aid in the
+establishment of Greek independence. On his return, in 1832, he became
+acquainted with European methods of teaching the blind; and in that year he
+opened the Massachusetts School and Asylum for the Blind, "the pioneer of
+such establishments in America, and the most illustrious of its class in
+the world."[<a href="#fn_15_13">13</a><a name="fr_15_13"></a>] In his father's house in Pleasant Street, Dr. Howe began
+his school with a few pupils, prepared books for them, and then set about
+raising money to secure larger facilities. Colonel Thomas H. Perkins, of
+Boston, gave his house in Pearl Street, valued at $50,000, on condition
+that a like sum should be contributed for the maintenance of the school. In
+<a name="pg326"></a>
+six weeks the desired sum was secured, and the school was, afterwards known
+as the Perkins Institution for the Blind. Dr. Howe addressed seventeen
+state legislatures on the education of the blind, with the result of
+establishing schools similar to his own. His arduous task, however, was
+that of providing the blind with books; and he used his great inventive
+skill in perfecting the necessary methods. He succeeded in making it
+comparatively easy to print books for the blind, and therefore made it
+possible to have a library of such works.</p>
+
+<p>In the autumn of 1837 Dr. Howe discovered Laura Bridgman, who had only the
+one sense of touch remaining in a normal condition; and his remarkable
+success, in her education made him famous. In connection with her and other
+pupils he began the process of teaching the deaf to use articulate speech,
+and all who have followed him in this work have but extended and perfected
+his methods. While teaching the blind and deaf, Dr. Howe found those who
+were idiotic; and he began to study this class of persons about 1840, and
+to devise methods for their education. As a member of the Massachusetts
+legislature in 1846, he secured the appointment of a commission to
+investigate the condition of the idiotic; and for this commission he wrote
+the report. In 1847, the state having made an appropriation for the
+teaching of idiotic, children, ten of them were taught at the Blind Asylum,
+under the care of Dr. Howe. In 1851 a separate school was provided for such
+children.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Howe was called "the Massachusetts philanthropist," but his
+philanthropy was universal in its humanitarian aims. He gave large and
+<a name="pg327"></a>
+faithful attention, in 1845 and later, to prisons and prisoners; he was a
+zealous friend of the slave and the freedman; and in 1864 he devoted
+arduous service to the reform of the state charities of Massachusetts. His
+biographer justly says of his spirit of universal philanthropy: "He joined
+in the movement in Boston which abolished imprisonment for debt; he was an
+early and active member of the Boston Prison Discipline Society, which once
+did much service; and for years, when interest in prison reform was at a
+low ebb in Massachusetts, the one forlorn relict of that once powerful
+organization, a Prisoner's Aid Society, used to hold its meetings in Dr.
+Howe's spacious chamber in Bromfield Street. He took an early interest in
+the care of the insane, with which his friends Horace Mann, Dr. Edward
+Jarvis, and Dorothea Dix were greatly occupied; and in later years he
+introduced some most useful methods of caring for the insane in
+Massachusetts. He favored the temperance reform, and wrote much as a
+physician on the harm done to individuals and to the human stock by the use
+of alcoholic liquors. He stood with Father Taylor of the Seamen's Bethel in
+Boston for the salvation of the sailors and their protection from cruel
+punishments, and he was one of those who almost abolished the flogging of
+children in schools. During his whole career as a reformer of public
+schools in New England, Horace Mann had no friend more intimate or helpful
+than Dr. Howe, nor one whose support was more indispensable to Mann
+himself."[<a href="#fn_15_14">14</a><a name="fr_15_14"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Howe was an attendant upon the preaching of Theodore Parker, and was
+his intimate friend. In after years he was a member of the congregation of
+<a name="pg328"></a>
+James Freeman Clarke at the Church of the Disciples. "After our return to
+America," says Mrs. Howe of the year 1844, "my husband went often to the
+Melodeon, where Parker preached until he took possession of the Music Hall.
+The interest which my husband showed in these services led me in time to
+attend them, and I remember as among the great opportunities of my life the
+years in which I listened to Theodore Parker."[<a href="#fn_15_15">15</a><a name="fr_15_15"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn103"></a>Care of the Insane.</h3>
+
+<p>Another among the many persons who came under the influence of Dr. Channing
+was Dorothea Dix, who, as a teacher of his children, lived for many months
+in his family and enjoyed his intimate friendship. Her biographer says:
+"She had drunk in with passionate faith Dr. Channing's fervid insistence on
+the presence in human nature, even under its most degraded types, of germs,
+at least, of endless spiritual development. But it was the characteristic
+of her own mind that it tended not to protracted speculation, but to
+immediate, embodied action."[<a href="#fn_15_16">16</a><a name="fr_15_16"></a>] Her work for the insane was the
+expression of the deep faith in humanity she had been taught by Channing.</p>
+
+<p>When she entered upon her humanitarian efforts, but few hospitals for the
+insane existed in the country. A notable exception was the McLean Asylum at
+Somerville, which had been built as the result of that same philanthropic
+spirit that had led the Unitarians to establish the many charities already
+mentioned in these pages. In March, 1841, Miss Dix visited the House of
+Correction in East Cambridge; and for the wretched condition of the
+inmates, she at once set to work to provide remedies. Then she visited the
+<a name="pg329"></a>
+jails and alms-houses in many parts of the state, and presented a memorial
+to the legislature recounting what she had found and asking for reforms.
+She was met by bitter opposition; but such persons as Samuel G. Howe, Dr.
+Channing, Horace Mann, and John G. Palfrey came to her aid. The bill
+providing for relief to the insane came into the hands of a committee of
+which Dr. Howe was the chairman, and he energetically pushed it forward to
+enactment. Thus Miss Dix began her crusade against an enormous evil.</p>
+
+<p>In 1845 Miss Dix reported that in three years she had travelled ten
+thousand miles, visited eighteen state penitentiaries, three hundred jails
+and houses of correction, and five hundred almshouses and other
+institutions, secured the establishment or enlargement of six hospitals for
+the insane, several county poorhouses, and several jails on a reformed
+plan. She visited every state east of the Rocky Mountains, and also the
+British Provinces, to secure legislation in behalf of the insane. She
+secured the erection of hospitals or other reformatory action in Rhode
+Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee,
+Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina, Nova Scotia, and
+Newfoundland. Her labors also secured the establishment of a hospital for
+the insane of the army and navy, near Washington. All this was the work of
+nine years.</p>
+
+<p>In 1853 Miss Dix gave her attention to providing an adequate life-saving
+equipment for Sable Island, one of we most dangerous places to seamen on
+the Atlantic coast; and this became the means of saving many lives. In 1854
+she went to England for needed rest; but almost at once she took up her
+humanitarian work, this time in Scotland, where she secured a commission of
+<a name="pg330"></a>
+inquiry, which in 1857 resulted in reformatory legislation on the part of
+Parliament. In 1855 she visited the island of Jersey, and secured great
+improvements in the care of the insane. Later in that year she visited
+Switzerland for rest, but in a few weeks was studying the charities of
+Paris and then those of Italy. In Rome she had two interviews with the
+pope, and the erection of a new hospital for the insane on modern
+principles resulted. Speaking only English, and without letters of
+introduction, she visited the insane hospitals and the prisons of Greece,
+Turkey, Austria, Sclavonia, Russia, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark,
+Holland, and Belgium. "Day by day she patiently explored the asylums,
+prisons, and poor-houses of every place in which she set her foot, glad to
+her heart's core when she found anything to commend and learn a lesson
+from, and patiently striving, where she struck the traces of ignorance,
+neglect, or wrong, to right the evil by direct appeal to the highest
+authorities."</p>
+
+<p>On her return home, in September, 1856, she was met by many urgent appeals
+for help in enlarging hospitals and erecting new ones; and she devoted her
+time until the outbreak of the civil war in work for the insane in the
+southern and middle north-western states. As soon as the troops were
+ordered to Washington, she went there and offered her services as a nurse,
+and was at once appointed superintendent of women nurses for the whole
+army. She carried through the tasks of this office with energy and
+devotion. In 1866 she secured the erection of a monument to the fallen
+soldiers in the National Cemetery, at Hampton.</p>
+
+<p>Then she returned at once to her work in asylums, poorhouses, and prisons,
+<a name="pg331"></a>
+continuing this task until past her seventy-fifth year. "Her frequent
+visits to our institutions of the insane now, and her searching
+criticisms," wrote a leading alienist, "constitute of themselves a better
+lunacy commission than would be likely to be appointed in many of our
+states."[<a href="#fn_15_17">17</a><a name="fr_15_17"></a>] The last five years of her life were spent as a guest in the
+New Jersey State Asylum at Trenton, it being fit that one of the thirty-two
+hospitals she had been the means of erecting should afford her a home for
+her declining years.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Dix was called by many "our Lady," "our Patron Saint"; and well she
+deserved these expressions of reverence. President Fillmore said in a
+letter to her, "Wealth and power never reared such monuments to selfish
+pride as you have reared to the love of mankind." She had the unreserved
+consecration to the needs of the poor and suffering that caused her to
+write: "If I am cold, they are cold; if I am weary, they are distressed; if
+I am alone, they are abandoned."[<a href="#fn_15_18">18</a><a name="fr_15_18"></a>] Her biographer justly compares her
+with the greatest of the saints, and says, "Precisely the same
+characteristics marked her, the same absolute religious consecration, the
+same heroic readiness to trample under foot the pains of illness,
+loneliness, and opposition, the same intellectual grasp of what a great
+reformatory work demanded."[<a href="#fn_15_19">19</a><a name="fr_15_19"></a>] Truly was it said of her that she was "the
+most useful and distinguished woman America has produced."[<a href="#fn_15_20">20</a><a name="fr_15_20"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn104"></a>Child-saving Missions.</h3>
+
+<p>As was justly said by Professor Francis G. Peabody, "the Boston Children's
+Mission was the direct fruit of the ministry of Dr. Tuckerman, and
+antedates all other conspicuous undertakings of the same nature. The first
+<a name="pg332"></a>
+president of the Children's Mission, John E. Williams, a Unitarian layman,
+moved later to New York, and became the first treasurer of the newly
+created Children's Aid Society of that city, formed in 1853. Thus the work
+of the Children's Mission and the kindred service of the Warren Street
+Chapel, under the leadership of Charles Barnard, must be reckoned as the
+most immediate, if not the only American antecedent, of the great modern
+works of child-saving charity."[<a href="#fn_15_21">21</a><a name="fr_15_21"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The Children's Mission to the Children of the Destitute grew out of the
+work of the Howard Sunday-school, then connected with the Pitts Street
+Chapel. When several men connected with that school were discussing the
+fact that a great number of vagrant children were dealt with by the police,
+Fanny S. Merrill said to her father, Mr. George Merrill, "Father, can't we
+children do something to help those poor little ones?" This question
+suggested a new field of work; and a meeting was held on April 27, 1849,
+under the auspices of Rev. Robert C. Waterston, to consider this
+proposition. On May 9 the society was organized "to create a special
+mission to the poor, ignorant, neglected children of this city; to gather
+them into day and Sunday schools; to procure places and employment for
+them; and generally to adopt and pursue such measures as would be most
+likely to save or rescue them from vice, ignorance and degradation." In the
+beginning this mission was supported by the Unitarian Sunday-schools in
+Boston, but gradually the number of schools contributing to its maintenance
+was enlarged until it included nearly all of those connected with Unitarian
+churches in New England.</p>
+
+<a name="pg333"></a>
+<p>As soon as the mission was organized, Rev. Joseph E. Barry was made the
+missionary; and he opened a Sunday-school in Utica Street. Beginning in
+1853, one or more women were employed to aid him in his work. In May, 1857,
+Rev. Edmund Squire began work as a missionary in Washington Village; but
+this mission was soon given into the hands of the Benevolent Fraternity. In
+June, 1858, Mr. B.H. Greene was engaged to visit the jail and lockup in aid
+of the young persons found there. In 1859 work was undertaken in East
+Boston, and also in South Boston. From this time onward from three to five
+persons were constantly employed as missionaries, in visiting throughout
+the city, persuading children to attend day-schools, sewing-schools, and
+Sunday-schools, securing employment for those old enough to labor, and in
+placing children in country homes. In April, 1857, Mr. Barry took a party
+of forty-eight children to Illinois; and five other parties followed to
+that state and to Michigan and Ohio. Since 1860 homes have been found in
+New England for all children sent outside the city.</p>
+
+<p>In November, 1858, a hall in Eliot Street was secured for the religious
+services of the mission, which included boys' classes, Sunday-school, and
+various organizations of a moral and intellectual character. In 1859 a
+house was rented in Camden Street especially for the care of the boys who
+came under the charge of the mission. In March, 1867, was completed the
+house on Tremont Street in which the work of the mission has, since been
+carried on. An additional building for very young children was provided in
+October, 1890. For years Mr. Barry continued his work as the missionary of
+<a name="pg334"></a>
+this noble ministry to the children of the poor. Since 1877 Mr. William
+Crosby has been the efficient superintendent, having served for eighteen
+years previously as the treasurer. The mission has cared for more than five
+thousand children.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn105"></a>Care of the Poor.</h3>
+
+<p>It has been indicated already that much attention was given to the care of
+the poor and to the prevention of pauperism. It is safe to assume that
+every Unitarian minister was a worker in this direction. It is well to
+notice the efforts of one man, because his work led to the scientific
+methods of charitable relief which are employed in Boston at the present
+time. When Rev. Ephraim Peabody became the minister of King's Chapel, in
+1846, he turned his attention to the education of the poor and to the
+prevention of pauperism. In connection with Rev. Frederick T. Gray he
+opened a school for those adults whose education had been neglected.
+Especial attention was given to the elementary instruction of emigrant
+women. Many children and adults accepted the opportunity thus afforded, and
+a large school was maintained for several years.</p>
+
+<p>With the aid of Mr. Francis E. Parker another important work was undertaken
+by Mr. Peabody. Although Dr. Tuckerman had labored to prevent duplication
+of charitable gifts and to organize the philanthropies of Boston in an
+effective manner, with the increase of population the evils he strove to
+prevent had grown into large proportions. In order to prevent overlapping,
+imposition, and failure to provide for many who were really needy, but not
+eager to push their own claims, Mr. Peabody organized the Boston Provident
+Association in 1851. This society divided the city into small districts,
+and put each under the supervision of a person who was to examine every
+<a name="pg335"></a>
+case that came before the society within the territory assigned him. The
+first president of this society was Hon. Samuel A. Eliot, who was a mayor
+of the city, a representative in the lower house of Congress, and an
+organizer of many philanthropies. This society was eminently successful in
+its operations, and did a great amount of good. Its friendly visits to the
+poor and its judicious methods of procuring the co-operation of many
+charity workers prepared the way for the introduction, in 1879, of the
+Associated Charities of Boston, which extended and effectively organized
+the work begun by Mr. Peabody.[<a href="#fn_15_22">22</a><a name="fr_15_22"></a>] Numerous other organizations might be
+mentioned that have been initiated by Unitarians or largely supported by
+them.[<a href="#fn_15_23">23</a><a name="fr_15_23"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn106"></a>Humane Treatment of Animals.</h3>
+
+<p>The work for the humane treatment of animals was begun, and has been
+largely carried on, by Unitarians. The founder of the American Society for
+the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was Henry Bergh, who was a member of
+All Souls' Church in New York, under the ministry of Dr. Bellows. In 1865
+he began his work in behalf of kindness to animals in New York City, and
+the society he organized was incorporated April 10, 1866. It was soon
+engaged in an extensive work. In 1873 Mr. Bergh proceeded to organize
+branch humane societies; and, as the result of his work, most of the states
+have legislated for the humane care of animals.</p>
+
+<a name="pg336"></a>
+<p>A similar work of a Unitarian is that of Mr. George T. Angell in Boston,
+who in 1868 founded, and has since been the president of, the Massachusetts
+Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. In 1889 he became the
+president of the American Humane Education Society, a position he continues
+to hold. He is the editor of Our Dumb Animals, and has in many ways been
+active in the work of the great charity with which he has been connected.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn107"></a>Young Men's Christian Unions.</h3>
+
+<p>The initiative in the establishment of Christian unions for young men in
+cities, on a wholly unsectarian basis, was taken by a Unitarian. Mr. Caleb
+Davis Bradlee, a Harvard undergraduate, who was afterward a Boston pastor
+for many years, gathered together in the parlor of his father's house a
+company of young men, and proposed to them the formation of a society for
+mutual improvement. This was on September 17, 1851; and the organization
+then formed was called the Biblical Literature Society. Those who belonged
+to the society during the winter of 1851-52 were so much benefited by it
+that they decided to enlarge their plans and to extend their influence to a
+greater number. At the suggestion of Rev. Charles Brooks, minister of the
+Unitarian church in South Hingham, the name was changed to the Boston Young
+Men's Christian Union, the first meeting under the new form of organization
+being held March 15, 1852. On October 11 of the same year the society was
+incorporated, many of the leading men of the city having already given it
+their encouragement and support.[<a href="#fn_15_24">24</a><a name="fr_15_24"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg338"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn108"></a>Educational Work in the South.</h3>
+
+<p>After the close of the civil war there was a large demand for help in the
+South, especially amongst the negroes. Most of the aid given by Unitarians
+was through other than denominational channels; but something was done by
+the Unitarian Association as well as by other Unitarian organizations. Miss
+Amy Bradley, who had been a very successful worker for the Sanitary
+Commission, opened a school for the whites in Wilmington, N.C. Her work
+extended to all the schools of the city, and was eminently successful. She
+became the city and then the county superintendent of schools. She was
+supported by the Unitarian Association and the Soldiers' Memorial Society.
+Among the Unitarians who at that time engaged in the work of educating the
+negroes were Rev. Henry F. Edes in Georgia, Rev. James Thurston in North
+Carolina, Miss M. Louisa Shaw in Florida, Miss Bottume on Ladies' Island,
+and Miss Sally Holley and Miss Caroline F. Putnam in Virginia.</p>
+
+<p>In 1868 the Unitarian Association entered upon a systematic effort to aid
+the negroes through co-operation with the African Methodist Episcopal
+Church. The sum of $4,000 was in that year devoted to this work; and it was
+largely spent in educational efforts, especially in aid of college and
+theological students. Wilberforce University had the benefit of lectures
+from Dr. George W. Hosmer, president of Antioch College, and of Edward
+Orton, James K. Hosmer, and other professors in that institution. Libraries
+of about fifty volumes of carefully selected books, including elementary
+works of science, history, biography, and a few theological works, were
+<a name="pg339"></a>
+given to ministers of that church who applied for them. This connection
+continued for several years, and was of much importance in the advancement
+of the South.</p>
+
+<p>With the first of January, 1886, the Unitarian Association established a
+bureau of information in regard to southern education, of which General
+J.B.F. Marshall, who had been for many years the treasurer of the Hampton
+Institute, was made the superintendent. This bureau, during its existence
+of three years, investigated the claims of various schools, and recommended
+those most deserving of aid.</p>
+
+<p>In 1891 Miss Mabel W. Dillingham and Miss Charlotte R. Thorn, who had been
+teachers for several years in the Hampton Institute, opened a school for
+negroes in Calhoun, Ala. Miss Dillingham died in 1894; and she was
+succeeded by her brother, Rev. Pitt Dillingham, as the principal of the
+school. The Calhoun School has been supported mostly by Unitarians, and it
+has been successful in doing a practical and important work.</p>
+
+<p>During the first eight years of the Tuskegee Institute it received $5,000
+annually from Unitarians, and in more recent years $10,000 annually. This
+has been given by individuals, churches, and other organizations, but in no
+sense as a denominational work. Concerning the aid given to the Hampton
+Institute this statement has been made by the principal: "The Unitarian
+denomination has had a very important part in the work of Hampton. Our
+first treasurer was General J.F.B. Marshall, a Unitarian who made it
+possible for General Armstrong first to gain access to Boston and secure
+friends there, many of whom have been lifelong contributors to this work.
+<a name="pg340"></a>
+General Marshall came to Hampton in 1872, and for some twelve years took a
+most important part in building up this institution. He trained young men
+for the treasurer's office, who still hold important positions in the
+school, and others who have been sent to various institutions. The home of
+General and Mrs. Marshall here was of incalculable help in many ways,
+brightening and cheering the lives of our teachers and students. Unitarians
+have always had a prominent part in the support of Hampton. Mrs. Mary
+Hemenway was the largest donor to the Institute during her lifetime. She
+gave $10,000 for the purchase of our Hemenway Farm, and helped General
+Armstrong in many ways."[<a href="#fn_15_25">25</a><a name="fr_15_25"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn109"></a>Educational Work for the Indians.</h3>
+
+<p>At three different periods the Unitarian Association has undertaken
+educational work amongst the Indians. The first of these proved abortive,
+but is of much interest. James Tanner,[<a href="#fn_15_26">26</a><a name="fr_15_26"></a>] a half-breed Chippeway or
+Ojibway from Minnesota, appeared before the board of the Association,
+February 12, 1855, in behalf of his people. He had been a Baptist
+missionary to the Ojibways, but had found that he could accomplish little
+while the Indians continued their roving life and their wars with the
+Sioux. He therefore wished to have his people adopt a settled agricultural
+life. The Baptist Home Missionary Society, with which he was laboring,
+would not accede to his plans in this respect, and desired that he should
+confine himself to the preaching of the gospel. Unable to do this on
+account of his liberal views, he went to Boston with the hope that he might
+<a name="pg341"></a>
+secure aid from the Baptists there. He was soon told that he was a
+Unitarian, and he sought a knowledge of those of that faith. He was thus
+led to apply to the Unitarian Association for help, which was granted. He
+secured an outfit of agricultural and other implements, and returned to his
+people in the spring of 1855. In December of that year Mr. Tanner attended
+a meeting of the board of the Association, accompanied by six Ojibway
+chiefs. On this unique occasion the calumet was smoked by all present, and
+addresses were made by the Indians. In April, 1856, the board reluctantly
+abandoned this enterprise, because the money for the yearly expenditure of
+$4,000, which it required, could not be secured.[<a href="#fn_15_27">27</a><a name="fr_15_27"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>In 1871 President Grant inaugurated the policy of educating the Indians
+under the direction of the several religious denominations of the country.
+To the Unitarians were assigned the Utes of Colorado. The reservation at
+White River was placed in charge of Mr. J.S. Littlefield, and that at Los
+Pinos of Rev. J. Nelson Trask. Several other persons took up this work,
+including Rev. Henry F. Bond and his wife. In 1885 the Utes were removed to
+a reservation in Utah. In the spring of 1886 Mr. Bond returned to them for
+the purpose of establishing a boarding-school amongst them; but, not
+getting sufficient encouragement, he went to Montana, where in the autumn
+he opened the Montana Industrial School, with eighteen pupils from the
+Crows in attendance. Buildings were erected, farm work begun, carpenter and
+blacksmith shops put in operation, all at a cost of $20,000. The school was
+located on the Big Horn River, thirty miles from Fort Custer.</p>
+
+<a name="pg342"></a>
+<p>It was the object of the Montana Industrial School to remove the Indian
+children from their nomadic conditions and to give them a practical
+education, with so much of instruction in books as would be of real help to
+them. The boys were taught farm work and the use of tools, while the girls
+were trained in sewing, cooking, and other useful employments. At the same
+time there was constant training in cleanliness, good manners, and right
+living. The school was fairly successful; and the results would doubtless
+have been important, could the experiment have gone on for a longer period.
+In 1891 Mr. Bond withdrew from the school on account of his age, and it was
+placed in charge of Rev. A.A. Spencer. With the 1st of July, 1895, however,
+the care of the school was assumed by the national government.</p>
+
+<p>Extended as this chapter has become, it has failed to give anything like an
+exhaustive statement of the philanthropies of Unitarians. Their charitable
+activities have been constant and in many directions. This may be seen in
+the wide-reaching philanthropic interests of Dr. Edward Everett Hale, whose
+Lend-a-hand Clubs, King's Daughters societies, and kindred movements
+admirably illustrate the practical side of Unitarianism, its broad
+humanitarian spirit, its philanthropic and reformatory purpose, and its
+high ideal of Christian fidelity and service.</p>
+
+<p><br />[<a href="#fr_15_1">1</a><a name="fn_15_1"></a>] Memoir, III. 17; one-volume edition, 465.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_2">2</a><a name="fn_15_2"></a>] Memoir, III. 61, 62; one-volume edition, 487, 488.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_3">3</a><a name="fn_15_3"></a>] Boston Unitarianism, 127.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_4">4</a><a name="fn_15_4"></a>] Harvard Graduates, 155.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_5">5</a><a name="fn_15_5"></a>] Boston Unitarianism, 253.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_6">6</a><a name="fn_15_6"></a>] Elizabeth P. Peabody, Reminiscences of Dr. W.E. Channing, 290.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_7">7</a><a name="fn_15_7"></a>] Eber R. Butler, Lend a Hand, October, 1890, V. 681.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_8">8</a><a name="fn_15_8"></a>] Elizabeth P. Peabody, Reminiscences of W.E. Channing, 273.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_9">9</a><a name="fn_15_9"></a>] Gilbert Haven, Anecdotes of Rev. Edward T. Taylor, 114.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_10">10</a><a name="fn_15_10"></a>] Ibid., 119.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_11">11</a><a name="fn_15_11"></a>] Gilbert Haven, Anecdotes of Rev. Edward T. Taylor, 330.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_12">12</a><a name="fn_15_12"></a>] American Notes, chap. iii.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_13">13</a><a name="fn_15_13"></a>] Frank B. Sanborn, Biography of Dr. S.G. Howe, Philanthropist, 110.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_14">14</a><a name="fn_15_14"></a>] Frank B. Sanborn, Biography of Dr. S.G. Howe, Philanthropist, 170.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_15">15</a><a name="fn_15_15"></a>] Reminiscences, 161.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_16">16</a><a name="fn_15_16"></a>] Francis Tiffany, Life of Dorothea Lynde Dix, 58.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_17">17</a><a name="fn_15_17"></a>] Francis Tiffany, Life of Dorothea Lynde Dix, 355.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_18">18</a><a name="fn_15_18"></a>] Ibid., 327.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_19">19</a><a name="fn_15_19"></a>] Ibid., 290.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_20">20</a><a name="fn_15_20"></a>] Ibid., 375.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_21">21</a><a name="fn_15_21"></a>] Report of the National Conference, 1895, 205.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_22">22</a><a name="fn_15_22"></a>] Sermons of Ephraim Peabody, introductory Memoir, xxv; Memorial
+     History of Boston, IV. 662, George S. Hale on the Charities of
+     Boston; A.P. Peabody, Harvard Graduates, 155.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_23">23</a><a name="fn_15_23"></a>] Besides the Fragment Society, the Children's Mission, and the Boston
+     Provident Society, already mentioned and still vigorously at work,
+     several other societies are wholly supported by Unitarians. Of these
+     may be named the Howard Benevolent Society in the City of Boston,
+     organized in 1812, incorporated in 1818; Young Men's Benevolent
+     Society, organized in 1827, incorporated in 1852; Industrial Aid
+     Society for the Prevention of Pauperism, organized in 1835,
+     incorporated in 1884.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_24">24</a><a name="fn_15_24"></a>] Alfred Manchester, Life of Caleb Davis Bradlee, 8; First Anniversary,
+     address before the Boston Young Men's Christian Union by Rev. F.D.
+     Huntington, Appendix.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_25">25</a><a name="fn_15_25"></a>] Personal letter from Mr. H.B. Frissell.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_26">26</a><a name="fn_15_26"></a>] Edwin James, A Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John
+     Tanner during Thirty Tears' Residence among the Indians of North
+     America. (John Tanner was the father of James.)</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_15_27">27</a><a name="fn_15_27"></a>] Quarterly Journal, II. 326, 344; III. 64, 257, 449, 625.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<a name="pg343"></a>
+<h2><br /><a name="ch16"></a>XVI.<br />
+
+
+UNITARIANS AND REFORMS.</h2>
+
+<p>The belief of Unitarians in the innate goodness of man and in his progress
+towards a higher moral life, together with their desire to make religion
+practical in its character and to have it deal with the actual facts of
+human life, has made it obligatory that they should give the encouragement
+of their support to whatever promised to further the cause of justice,
+liberty, and purity. Their attitude towards reforms, however, has been
+qualified by their love of individual freedom. They have had a dread of
+ecclesiastical restriction and of any attempt to coerce opinions or to
+establish a despotism over individual convictions. And yet, with all this
+insistence upon personal liberty, no body of men and women has ever been
+more devoted to the furthering of practical reforms than those connected
+with Unitarian churches. No one, for instance, was ever more zealous for
+individual freedom than Theodore Parker; but he was essentially a reformer.
+He was a persistent advocate of peace, temperance, education, the rights of
+women, the rights of the slave, the abolition of capital punishment, reform
+in prison discipline, and the application of humanitarian principles to the
+conduct of life.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn110"></a>Peace Movement.</h3>
+
+<p>"It may be doubted whether any man who ever lived contributed more to
+spread just sentiments on the subject of war and to hasten the era of
+<a name="pg344"></a>
+universal peace," said Dr. Channing of Noah Worcester, who has been often
+called "the Apostle of Peace." It was the second contest with Great Britain
+that led Dr. Worcester to consider the nature and effects of war. In
+August, 1812, on the day appointed for a national fast, he preached a
+sermon in which he maintained that the war then beginning was without
+sufficient justification, and that war is always an evil. In 1814 he
+further studied the subject, with the result that he wrote a little book
+which he called A Solemn Review of the Custom of War.[<a href="#fn_16_1">1</a><a name="fr_16_1"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The Solemn Review was widely circulated, it was translated into many
+languages, it made a deep and lasting impression, and it had a world-wide
+influence in preparing the minds of men for the acceptance of peace
+principles. The remedy for war it proposed was an international court of
+arbitration.[<a href="#fn_16_2">2</a><a name="fr_16_2"></a>] Through the efforts of Dr. Worcester the Massachusetts
+Peace Society was organized December 28, 1815, one of the first societies
+of the kind in the world.[<a href="#fn_16_3">3</a><a name="fr_16_3"></a>] William Phillips was made the president, and
+Dr. Noah Worcester the corresponding secretary, with Dr. Henry Ware, Dr.
+Channing, and Rev. Francis Parkman among his councillors. On the executive
+committee with Dr. Worcester in 1819 were Rev. Ezra Ripley and Rev. John
+Pierce. Other Unitarian members and workers were James Freeman, Nathaniel
+L. Frothingham, Charles Lowell, Samuel C. Thacher, J.T. Kirkland, and
+Joseph Tuckerman; and, of laymen, Moses Grant, Josiah Quincy, and Colonel
+<a name="pg345"></a>
+Joseph May. In 1819 Dr. Worcester began the publication of The Friends of
+Peace, a small quarterly magazine, a large part of the contents of which he
+wrote himself. After the first number, having obtained the assistance of
+several wealthy Friends, he relinquished the copyright; and the numbers
+were republished in several parts of the country, thus obtaining a wide
+circulation. He devoted himself almost wholly to this publication and the
+advocacy of the cause of peace until 1829, when he relinquished its
+editorship. "This must be looked upon as a very remarkable work," wrote
+Henry Ware, the younger. "To his wakeful mind everything that occurred and
+everything that he read offered him materials; he appeared to see nothing
+which had not a bearing on this one topic; and his book becomes a boundless
+repository of curious, entertaining, striking extracts from writers of all
+sorts and the history of all times, displaying the criminality and folly of
+war, and the beauty and efficacy of the principles of peace."[<a href="#fn_16_4">4</a><a name="fr_16_4"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>In his efforts hi behalf of peace, Dr. Worcester had the support of Dr.
+Channing's "respectful sympathy and active co-operation."[<a href="#fn_16_5">5</a><a name="fr_16_5"></a>] According to
+Dr. John Pierce, Channing was the life and soul of the Massachusetts Peace
+Society. "For years," says his biographer, "he devoted himself to the work
+of extending its influence with unwavering zeal, as many of his papers of
+that period attest."[<a href="#fn_16_6">6</a><a name="fr_16_6"></a>] From his pulpit Dr. Channing frequently expressed
+his faith in the principles of peace, and he strongly advocated those
+<a name="pg346"></a>
+Christian convictions and that spirit of good will which would make war
+impossible if they were applied to the conduct of nations.</p>
+
+<p>Not less devoted to the cause of peace was Dr. Ezra S. Gannett, of whom his
+son says: "He thought that reason, religion, the whole spirit as well as
+the letter of the gospel, united in forbidding war. Probably, he was
+non-resistant up to, rather than in, the absolutely last extremity;
+although he writes that an English book which Dr. Channing lent him as the
+best he knew upon the subject, 'has made me a thorough peace man!'"[<a href="#fn_16_7">7</a><a name="fr_16_7"></a>]
+"Let the fact of brotherhood be fairly grasped," wrote Dr. Frederic H.
+Hedge, "and war becomes impossible."[<a href="#fn_16_8">8</a><a name="fr_16_8"></a>] "The tremendous extent and
+pertinacity of the habit of human slaughter in battle," wrote Dr. William
+R. Alger, "its shocking criminality, and its incredible foolishness, when
+regarded from an advanced religious position, are three facts calculated to
+appall every thoughtful man and startle him into amazement." "It is vain,"
+he said, "to undertake to impart a competent conception of the crimes and
+miseries belonging to war. Their appalling character and magnitude stun the
+imagination and pass off like the burden of a frightful dream."[<a href="#fn_16_9">9</a><a name="fr_16_9"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Worcester's Solemn Review convinced Rev. Samuel J. May "that the precepts,
+spirit, and example of Jesus gave no warrant to the violent, bloody
+resistance of evil; that wrong could be effectually overcome by right,
+hatred by love, violence by gentleness, evil of any kind by its opposite
+good. I preached this," he said, "as one of the cardinal doctrines of the
+gospel, and endeavored especially to show the wickedness and folly of the
+<a name="pg347"></a>
+custom of war."[<a href="#fn_16_10">10</a><a name="fr_16_10"></a>] In 1826 he organized a county peace society, the first
+in the country; and his first publication was in advocacy of this
+reform.[<a href="#fn_16_11">11</a><a name="fr_16_11"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Of the men connected with political life, Charles Sumner was the most
+devoted and influential friend of the peace cause. As early as March, 1839,
+he wrote to a friend, "I hold all wars, as unjust and, unchristian." His
+address on The True Grandeur of Nations, given before the mayor and other
+officials of Boston, July 4, 1845, was one of the noblest and most
+effective utterances on the subject. Though a considerable part of the
+audience was in military array, Sumner showed the evils of war in
+uncompromising terms, denouncing it as cruel and unnecessary, while with
+true eloquence, great learning, and deep conviction he made his plea for
+peace. "The effect was immediate and striking," wrote George W. Curtis.
+"There were great indignation and warm protest on the one hand, and upon
+the other sincere congratulation and high compliment. Sumner's view of the
+absolute wrong and iniquity of war was somewhat modified subsequently; but
+the great purpose of a peaceful solution of international disputes he never
+relinquished."[<a href="#fn_16_12">12</a><a name="fr_16_12"></a>] He said in this oration that "in our age there can be
+no peace that is not honorable; there can be no war that is not
+dishonorable." This statement was severely criticised, but it indicates his
+uncompromising acceptance of peace principles.[<a href="#fn_16_13">13</a><a name="fr_16_13"></a>] He added these
+pertinent sentences: "The true honor of a nation is to be found only in
+deeds of justice and in the happiness of its people, all of which are
+<a name="pg348"></a>
+inconsistent with war. In the clear eye of Christian judgment vain are its
+victories, infamous are its spoils."[<a href="#fn_16_14">14</a><a name="fr_16_14"></a>] He further declared that "war is
+utterly and irreconcilably inconsistent with true greatness."[<a href="#fn_16_15">15</a><a name="fr_16_15"></a>] These
+views he continued to hold throughout his life, though in a more
+conciliatory spirit; and on several occasions he presented them before the
+Peace Society and elsewhere. When in the Senate he was a leader of the
+cause of arbitration, and exerted his large influence in securing its
+adoption by the United States as a means of preventing war with foreign
+countries. As late as July, 1873, he wrote to one of his friends: "I long
+to witness the harmony of nations, which I am sure is near. When an evil so
+great is recognized and discussed, the remedy must be near at hand."[<a href="#fn_16_16">16</a><a name="fr_16_16"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The work done by Julia Ward Howe for the cause of peace is eminently worthy
+of recognition. One chapter of her Reminiscences is devoted to her "Peace
+Crusade" of 1870. The cruel and unnecessary character of the
+Franco-Prussian war led her to write an appeal to mothers to use their
+influence in behalf of peace. "The august dignity of motherhood and its
+terrible responsibilities now appeared to me in a new aspect," she writes,
+"and I could think of no better way of expressing my sense of these than of
+sending forth an appeal to womanhood throughout the world, which I then and
+there composed."[<a href="#fn_16_17">17</a><a name="fr_16_17"></a>] She printed and distributed her appeal, had it
+translated into French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Swedish, and then
+spent many months in corresponding with leading women in various countries.
+She invited these women to a Women's Peace Congress to be held in London.
+<a name="pg349"></a>
+After holding two successful meetings in New York, she began her crusade in
+England, holding meetings in many places, and also attending a Peace
+Congress in Paris. She hired a hall in London, and held Sunday meetings to
+promote the reform she had deeply at heart. The Women's Congress was a
+success, and after two years of earnest effort Mrs. Howe had the
+satisfaction of knowing that she had done something to promote peace on
+earth and good will among men.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn111"></a>Temperance Reform.</h3>
+
+<p>Unitarians have been active in the cause of temperance, but again as
+individuals rather than as a denomination. The emphasis they have put on
+the importance of individual opinion and personal liberty has made them
+often reluctant to join societies that sought to promote this reform by
+restrictive and coercive measures. As a body, therefore, they have shown a
+greater inclination to the use of moral suasion than legislative power.</p>
+
+<p>From Dr. Channing this reform had the most earnest approval. "The
+temperance reform which is going on among us," he wrote, "deserves all
+praise, and I see not what is to hinder its complete success. I believe the
+movements now made will succeed, because they are in harmony with and are
+seconded by the general spirit and progress of the age. Every advance in
+knowledge, in refined manners, in domestic enjoyments, in habits of
+foresight and economy, in regular industry, in the comforts of life, in
+civilization, good morals and religion, is an aid to the cause of
+temperance; and believing as we do that these are making progress, may we
+not hope that drunkenness will be driven from society?"[<a href="#fn_16_18">18</a><a name="fr_16_18"></a>] He regarded
+<a name="pg350"></a>
+the subject from a broader point of view than many, and urged that a sound
+physical education for all youth, as well as larger opportunities for
+intellectual improvement on the part of workingmen, would do much to
+prevent intemperance.[<a href="#fn_16_19">19</a><a name="fr_16_19"></a>] He maintained that to give men "strength within
+to withstand the temptations of intemperance" is incalculably more
+important than to remove merely outward temptations. Better education,
+innocent amusements, a wider spirit of sympathy and brotherhood,
+discouragement of the use and sale of ardent spirits, were among the means
+he recommended for suppressing this evil.[<a href="#fn_16_20">20</a><a name="fr_16_20"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The Massachusetts Society for the Suppression of Intemperance was organized
+at the State House in Boston on February 5, 1813, "to discountenance and
+suppress the too free use of ardent spirits, and to encourage and promote
+temperance and general morality." This was one of the first temperance
+societies organized in the country, and its chief promoters were
+Unitarians. Dr. John C. Collins, who published the records of the society,
+said of the year 1827, when he became a member, that "Channing, Gannett,
+and others were the most active men at that time in the temperance
+cause."[<a href="#fn_16_21">21</a><a name="fr_16_21"></a>] Dr. Abiel Abbot was the first corresponding secretary of the
+society, and on the council were Drs. Kirkland, Lothrop, Worcester, and
+Pierce. Among the other Unitarian ministers who were active in the society
+were Charles Lowell, the younger Henry Ware, John Pierpont, and John G.
+Palfrey. Among the laymen were Moses Grant, Nathan Dane, Dr. John Ware,
+<a name="pg351"></a>
+Stephen Fairbanks, Dr. J.F. Flagg, William Sullivan, Amos Lawrence, Samuel
+Dexter, and Isaac Parker.[<a href="#fn_16_22">22</a><a name="fr_16_22"></a>] Auxiliary societies were organized in Salem,
+Beverly, and other towns; and these gave to the temperance cause the
+activities of such Unitarians as Theophilus Parsons, Robert Rantoul, and
+Samuel Hoar.[<a href="#fn_16_23">23</a><a name="fr_16_23"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Of the more recent interest of Unitarians in questions of temperance reform
+there may be mentioned the thorough study made by the United States
+Commissioner of Labor, and printed in 1898 under the title of Economic
+Aspects of the Liquor Problem.[<a href="#fn_16_24">24</a><a name="fr_16_24"></a>] This investigation was ordered by
+Congress as the result of a petition sent to that body by the Unitarian
+Temperance Society. Probably few petitions have ever been sent to Congress
+that contained so many prominent names of leading statesmen, presidents of
+colleges and universities, bishops, clergymen, well-known literary men, and
+<a name="pg352"></a>
+other persons of influence. The Unitarian Temperance Society was organized
+September 23, 1886, in connection with the meeting of the National
+Conference at Saratoga. Its purpose is "to work for the cause of temperance
+in whatever ways may seem to it wise and right; to study the social
+problems of poverty, crime, and disease, in their relation to the use of
+intoxicating drinks, and to diffuse whatever knowledge may be gained; to
+discuss methods of temperance reform; to devise and, so far as possible, to
+execute plans for practical reform; to exert by its meetings and by its
+membership such influence for good as by the grace of God it may possess."
+It has held annual meetings in Boston, and other meetings in connection
+with the National Conference; it has published a number of important
+tracts, temperance text-books, and temperance services for Sunday-schools;
+and it has exerted a considerable influence on the denomination in shaping
+public opinion in regard to this reform. The presidents of the society have
+been Rev. Christopher R. Eliot, Rev. George H. Hosmer, and Rev. Charles F.
+Dole.</p>
+
+<p>The subject of temperance reform has been before the National Conference on
+several occasions and in various forms. At the session of 1882 a resolution
+offered by Miss Mary Grew was adopted:--</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>  That the unutterable evils continually wrought by intemperance, the
+  easy descent from moderate to immoderate drinking, and the moral wrecks
+  strewn along that downward path, call upon Christians and patriots to
+  practise and advocate abstinence from the use of all intoxicating
+  liquors as a beverage.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>In 1891 a series of resolutions recommended by the Unitarian Temperance
+Society were adopted as expressing the convictions of the Conference:--</p>
+
+<a name="pg353"></a>
+<blockquote>
+<p>  First, that the liquor saloon, as it exists to-day in the United
+  States, is the nation's chief school of crime, chief college of
+  corruption in politics, chief source of poverty and ruined homes, chief
+  menace to our country's future, is the standing enemy of society, and,
+  as such, deserves the condemnation of all good men.</p>
+
+<p>  Second, that, whatever be the best mode of dealing with the saloon by
+  law, law can avail little until those who condemn the saloon consent to
+  totally abstain themselves from the use of alcoholic drink for
+  pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>  Third, that we affectionately and urgently call on every minister and
+  all laymen and women in our denomination--our old, our young, our rich,
+  our poor, our leaders, and our humblest--to take this stand of total
+  abstinence, remembering those that are in bonds as bound with them, and
+  throw the solid influence of our church against the influence of the
+  saloon.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<h3><a name="sn112"></a>Anti-slavery.</h3>
+
+<p>In proportion to its numbers no religious body in the country did so much
+to promote the anti-slavery reform as the Unitarian. No Unitarian defended
+slavery from the pulpit or by means of the press, and no one was its
+apologist.[<a href="#fn_16_25">25</a><a name="fr_16_25"></a>] Many, however, did not approve of the methods of the
+abolitionists, and some strongly opposed the extreme measures of a part of
+that body of reformers. The desire of Unitarians to be just, rational, and
+open-minded, exposed many of them to the criticism of being neither for nor
+against slavery. But it is certain that they were not indifferent to its
+evils nor recreant to their humanitarian principles.</p>
+
+<p>The period of the anti-slavery agitation was truly one that tried the souls
+<a name="pg354"></a>
+of men; and those who were equally conscientious, desirous of serving the
+cause of justice and humanity, and solicitous for the welfare of the slave,
+widely differed from one another as to what was the wise method of action.
+Among those severely condemned by the anti-slavery party were several
+Unitarian ministers of great force of character and of a genuinely
+humanitarian spirit. Three of them may be selected as representative.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Orville Dewey had seen something of slavery, and was strongly opposed
+to it. He thought the system hateful in itself and productive of nearly
+unmingled evil, and yet he was not in favor of immediate emancipation. His
+frequent indictments of slavery in his sermons and lectures were severe in
+the extreme; but his demand for wise and patient counsel, and for a
+rational method of gradual emancipation, subjected him to severe
+condemnation. "And nothing else brings out the nobleness of Dr. Dewey into
+such bold relief as the fact," says Rev. John W. Chadwick, "that the
+immeasurable torrent of abuse that greeted his expressed opinion did not in
+any least degree avail to make him one of the pro-slavery faction. He
+differed from the most earnest of the anti-slavery men only as to the best
+method of getting rid of the curse of human bondage."[<a href="#fn_16_26">26</a><a name="fr_16_26"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>As early as 1830 Dr. E.S. Gannett said that "the greatest evil under which
+our nation labors is the existence of slavery. It is the only vicious part
+of our body politic, but this is a deep and disgusting sore. It must be
+treated with the utmost judgment and skill." The violence of the
+<a name="pg355"></a>
+abolitionists he did not approve, however; for his respect for law and
+constituted authority was so great that he was not ready for radical
+measures. He abhorred slavery, but he was not willing to condemn the
+slaveholder. He was therefore regarded by the abolitionists as more hostile
+to them than any other Unitarian minister. His attitude as a peace man, his
+strong regard for justice and fair dealing, as well as his earnest faith in
+the gentle influence of the gospel, forbade his accepting the strenuous
+methods of the abolitionists. He would not, however, permit anti-slavery
+ministers to be silenced in Unitarian meetings. When he saw something of
+slavery, in 1833, he expressed his convictions in regard to it in these
+forcible words: "It is the attempt to degrade a human being into something
+less than a man,--not the confinement, unjust as this is, nor the blows,
+cruel as these are,--but the denial of his equal share in the rights,
+prerogatives, and responsibilities of a human being, which brands the
+institution of slavery with its peculiar and ineffaceable odiousness."[<a href="#fn_16_27">27</a><a name="fr_16_27"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Another minister who came under the condemnation of the abolitionists was
+Rev. John H. Morison, and yet he preached sermons against slavery that met
+with the vigorous disapproval of his congregation. "We all agree," he wrote
+in 1844, "in the sad conviction that slavery in its political influence,
+more than all other subjects, threatens to upturn the foundation of our
+government; that in its moral and religious bearings it is a grievous wrong
+to master and slave; and that, as it is in violation of the fundamental
+<a name="pg356"></a>
+principles of Christian duty, it must, if continued beyond the absolute
+necessity of the case, be attended with consequences the most disastrous."
+Again, when Daniel Webster made his 7th of March speech in 1850, Dr.
+Morison, then the editor of The Christian Register, took the earliest
+possible opportunity to express himself as strongly as he could against it.
+"We at the North," he wrote, "believe that slavery is morally wrong." He
+said that the government, in its attempt to defend slavery as against the
+moral convictions of a large number of the people, was doing the country a
+great harm.[<a href="#fn_16_28">28</a><a name="fr_16_28"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The position of these men and of others who thought and acted with them can
+best be understood by recognizing the fact that they were opposed to
+sectarian methods in promoting reforms as in advancing the interests of
+religion. It is probable that in these heated times neither party did full
+justice to the spirit and purposes of the other. Even so gentle and
+charitable a man as Rev. Samuel J. May speaks of the "discreditable
+pro-slavery conduct of the Unitarian denomination." "The Unitarians as a
+body," he says again, "dealt with the question of slavery in anything but
+an impartial, courageous, and Christian way. Continually in their public
+meetings the question was staved off and driven out because of technical,
+formal, verbal difficulties which were of no real importance, and ought not
+to have caused a moment's hesitation. Avowing among their distinctive
+doctrines the fatherly character of God and the brotherhood of man, we had
+a right to expect from the Unitarians a steadfast and unqualified protest
+against so unjust, tyrannical, and cruel a system as that of American
+<a name="pg357"></a>
+slavery. And considering their position as a body, not entangled with any
+pro-slavery alliances, not hampered with any ecclesiastical organization,
+it does seem to me that they were pre-eminently guilty in reference to the
+enslavement of the millions in our land with its attendant wrongs,
+cruelties, horrors. They refused to speak as a body, and censured,
+condemned, execrated their members who did speak faithfully for the
+down-trodden, and who co-operated with him whom a merciful Providence sent
+as the prophet of the reform."[<a href="#fn_16_29">29</a><a name="fr_16_29"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The testimony of Rev. O.B. Frothingham is fully as condemnatory of
+Unitarian timidity and conservatism, even of the moral cowardice betrayed
+by many of the leaders. He says the Unitarians, as such, "were indifferent
+or lukewarm; the leading classes were opposed to the agitation. Dr.
+Channing was almost alone in lending countenance to the reform, though his
+hesitation between the dictates of natural feeling and Christian charity
+towards the masters hampered his action, and rendered him obnoxious to both
+parties,--the radicals finding fault with him for not going further, the
+conservatives blaming him because he went so far."[<a href="#fn_16_30">30</a><a name="fr_16_30"></a>] Mr. Frothingham
+finds, however, that the transcendentalists were quite "universally
+abolitionists, their faith in the natural powers of man making them zealous
+promoters of the cause of the slave." He insists that as a class "the
+Unitarians were not ardent disciples of any moral cause, and took pride in
+being reasoners, believers in education and in general social influence, in
+the progress of knowledge and the uplifting of humanity by means of ideas,"
+<a name="pg358"></a>
+but that they permitted these qualities to cool their ardor for reform and
+to mitigate their love of humanity.[<a href="#fn_16_31">31</a><a name="fr_16_31"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The biographers of William Lloyd Garrison are never tired of condemning Dr.
+Channing for what they call his timidity, his shunning any personal contact
+with the great abolitionist, his failure to grapple boldly with the evils
+of slavery, and his half-hearted espousal of the cause of abolition. The
+Unitarians generally are by these writers regarded in the same manner.[<a href="#fn_16_32">32</a><a name="fr_16_32"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Most of the accounts mentioned were written by those who took part in the
+agitation against slavery, in condemnation of those who had not kept step
+with their abolition pace or in apology for those whose words and conduct
+were thought to need defence. The time has come, perhaps, when it is
+possible to consider, the attitude of individuals and the denomination
+without a partisan wish to condemn or to defend. In this spirit the
+statement of Samuel J. May is to be accepted as true and just, when he
+says: "We Unitarians have given to the anti-slavery cause more preachers,
+writers, lecturers, agents, poets, than any other denomination in
+proportion to our numbers, if not without any comparison."[<a href="#fn_16_33">33</a><a name="fr_16_33"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Among those who listened to William Lloyd Garrison when in October, 1830,
+he first presented in Boston his views in favor of immediate emancipation,
+were Samuel J. May, Samuel E. Sewall, and A.B. Alcott; and these men at
+once became his disciples and friends.[<a href="#fn_16_34">34</a><a name="fr_16_34"></a>] When Garrison organized the New
+<a name="pg359"></a>
+England Anti-slavery Society in December, 1832, he was actively supported
+by Samuel E. Sewall, David Lee Child, and Ellis Gray Loring. It was to the
+financial support of Sewall and Loring, though they did not at first accept
+his doctrine of immediate emancipation, that Garrison owed his ability to
+begin The Liberator, and to sustain it in its earliest years.[<a href="#fn_16_35">35</a><a name="fr_16_35"></a>] For many
+years, Edmund Quincy was connected with The Liberator, serving as its
+editor when Garrison was ill, absent on lecturing tours, or journeying in
+Europe. The Massachusetts Anti-slavery Society, which in 1835 succeeded the
+New England Society, had during many years Francis Jackson as its
+president, Edmund Quincy as its corresponding secretary, and Robert F.
+Walcutt as its recording secretary, all Unitarians.</p>
+
+<p>In 1834 was formed the Cambridge Anti-slavery Society, under the leadership
+of the younger Henry Ware; and the membership was largely Unitarian,
+including the names of Dr. Henry Ware, Sidney Willard, Charles Follen,
+William H. Charming, Artemus B. Muzzey, Barzillai Frost, Charles T. Brooks,
+and Frederic H. Hedge. The purposes of the society were stated in its
+constitution:--</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>  We believe that the emancipation of all who are in bondage is the
+  requisition, not less of sound policy, than of justice and humanity;
+  and that it is the duty of those with whom the power lies at once to
+  remove the sanction of the law from the principle that man can be the
+  property of man,--a principle inconsistent with our free institutions,
+  subversive of the purposes for which man was made, and utterly at
+  variance with the plainest dictates of reason and Christianity.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<a name="pg360"></a>
+<p>In 1843 Samuel May visited England, and at Unitarian meetings described the
+obstacles in the way of the abolition of slavery, and spoke of the apathy
+of American Unitarians. He advised the sending a letter of fraternal
+counsel to the Unitarian ministers of the United States "in behalf of the
+unhappy slave." Such a letter was prepared, and signed by eighty-five
+ministers. It was published in the Unitarian papers in this country, a
+meeting was held to consider it, and a reply sent to England signed by one
+hundred and thirty ministers. Mr. May was severely condemned for his part
+in causing such a letter to be sent, and the reply was rather in the nature
+of a protest than a friendly acceptance of the advice given.</p>
+
+<p>A year later, however, this letter was again the subject of earnest
+discussion. In anniversary week, 1845, a meeting of Unitarian ministers was
+held to "discuss their duties in relation to American slavery." The call
+for this meeting was signed by James Thompson, Joseph Allen, Caleb Stetson,
+Samuel Ripley, Converse Francis, William Ware, Samuel J. May, Artemus B.
+Muzzey, Oliver Stearns, James W. Thompson, Alonzo Hill, Andrew P. Peabody,
+Henry A. Miles, Frederic H. Hedge, James F. Clarke, George W. Briggs,
+Samuel May, Barzillai Frost, Nathaniel Hall, David Fosdick, and John Weiss.
+At the third session, by a vote of forty-seven to seven, it was declared
+"that we consider slavery to be utterly opposed to the principles and
+spirit of Christianity, and that, as ministers of the gospel, we feel it
+our duty to protest against it, in the name of Christ, and to do all we may
+to create a public opinion to secure the overthrow of the institution." It
+was also decided to appoint a committee to draw up, secure signatures to,
+<a name="pg361"></a>
+and publish "a protest against the institution of American slavery, as
+unchristian and inhuman." Though some of those who spoke at these meetings
+condemned the abolitionists, yet all of them expressed in the strongest
+terms their opposition to slavery.</p>
+
+<p>The committee selected to prepare this protest consisted of Caleb Stetson,
+James F. Clarke, John Parkman, Stephen G. Bulfinch, A.P. Peabody, John
+Pierpont, Samuel J. May, Oliver Stearns, George W. Briggs, William P.
+Tilden, and William H. Channing. The protest was written by James Freeman
+Clarke and was accepted essentially as it came from his hands. It was
+signed by one hundred and seventy-three ministers,[<a href="#fn_16_36">36</a><a name="fr_16_36"></a>] the whole number of
+Unitarian ministers at that time being two hundred and sixty-seven. Some of
+the most prominent ministers were conspicuous by the absence of their names
+from this protest. It must be understood, however, that those who did not
+sign it were as much opposed to slavery as those who did. "This protest,"
+<a name="pg362"></a>
+said the editor of The Christian Register, in presenting it to the
+public,[<a href="#fn_16_37">37</a><a name="fr_16_37"></a>] "is written with great clearness of expression and moderation
+of spirit. It exhibits unequivocally and distinctly the sentiments of the
+numerous and most enlightened body of clergy whose names are attached to
+it, as well as many other ministers of the denomination who may be
+disinclined to act conjointly, or do not feel called upon to act at all in
+any prescribed way, on the subject." It was not a desire to defend slavery
+that kept these ministers from signing the protest, but their excessive
+individualism, and their unwillingness to commit the denomination to
+opinions all might not accept. A few paragraphs from the protest will
+indicate its spirit and purpose:--</p>
+
+<p>"Especially do we feel that the denomination which takes for its motto
+Liberty, Holiness and Love should be foremost in opposing this system. More
+than others we have contended for three great principles,--individual
+liberty, perfect righteousness, and human brotherhood. All of these are
+grossly violated by the system of slavery. We contend for mental freedom;
+shall we not denounce the system which fetters both mind and body? We have
+declared righteousness to be the essence of Christianity; shall we not
+oppose the system which is the sum of all wrong? We claim for all men the
+right of brotherhood before a universal Father; ought we not to testify
+against that which tramples so many of our brethren under foot?"</p>
+
+<p>"We, therefore, ministers of the gospel of truth and love, in the name of
+God the universal Father, in the name of Christ the Redeemer, in the name
+of humanity and human brotherhood, do solemnly protest against the system
+<a name="pg363"></a>
+of slavery as unchristian, and inhuman," "because it is a violation of
+right, being the sum of all unrighteousness which man can do to man,"
+"violates the law of love," "degrades man, the image of God, into a thing,"
+"necessarily tends to pollute the soul of the slave," "to defile the soul
+of the master," "restricts education, keeps the Bible from the slave, makes
+life insecure, deprives female innocence of protection, sanctions adultery,
+tears children from parents and husbands from wives, violates the divine
+institutions of families, and by hard and hopeless toil makes existence a
+burden," "eats out the heart of nations and tends every year more and more
+to sear the popular conscience and impair the virtue of the people."</p>
+
+<p>"We implore all Christians and Christian preachers to unite in unceasing
+prayer to God for aid against this system, to leave no opportunity of
+speaking the truth and spreading the light on this subject, in faith that
+the truth is strong enough to break every yoke." "And we do hereby pledge
+ourselves, before God and our brethren, never to be weary of laboring in
+the cause of human rights and freedom until slavery be abolished and every
+slave made free."</p>
+
+<p>Although many ministers and laymen took the position that the question of
+slavery was not one that should receive attention in the meetings of the
+Unitarian Association or other religious organizations, that these should
+be kept strictly to their own special purposes, it was not possible to
+exclude the one great exciting topic of the age. How persistently it
+intruded itself is clearly indicated in words used by Dr. Bellows at the
+annual meeting of the Association, in 1856. "Year after year this horrid
+image of slavery come in here," he said, "and obtruded itself upon our
+<a name="pg364"></a>
+concerns. It has prevented our giving attention to any other subject; we
+could not keep it out of our minds; and why is that awful crime against
+humanity still known in the world, still supported and active in this age
+of Christendom, but because it is in alliance with certain views of
+theology with which we are at war?"[<a href="#fn_16_38">38</a><a name="fr_16_38"></a>] At the same meeting strong
+resolutions of sympathy with the free settlers of Kansas, and with Charles
+Sumner because "the barbarity of the slave power had attempted to silence
+him by brutal outrage," were unanimously adopted.[<a href="#fn_16_39">39</a><a name="fr_16_39"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>In 1857 the subject of slavery came before the Western Conference in its
+session at Alton. The most uncompromising anti-slavery resolutions were
+presented at the opening of the meeting, and everything else was put aside
+for their consideration, a day and a half being devoted to them. The
+opinion of the majority was, in the words of one of the speakers, that
+slavery is a crime that "denies millions marital and parental rights,
+requires ignorance as a condition, encourages licentiousness and cruelty,
+scars a country all over with incidents that appall and outrage the human
+world." Dr. W.G. Eliot, of St. Louis, and others, thought it not expedient
+to press the subject to an issue, though he regarded slavery in much the
+same way as did the other members of the conference. When the conference
+finally took issue with slavery, he and his delegates withdrew from its
+membership. His assistant, Rev. Carlton A. Staples, and Rev. John H.
+Heywood, of Louisville, went with the majority. A committee appointed to
+formulate a statement the conference could accept said that it had no right
+to interfere with the freedom of action of individual churches; but it
+<a name="pg365"></a>
+recommended them to do all they could in opposition to slavery, and said
+that the conference was of one mind in the conviction "that slavery is an
+evil doomed by God to pass away." This report was accepted by the
+conference with only one opposing vote.[<a href="#fn_16_40">40</a><a name="fr_16_40"></a>] When the year 1860 had
+arrived, Unitarians were practically unanimous in their condemnation of
+slavery.</p>
+
+<p>When the names of individual Unitarians who took an active part in the
+anti-slavery movement are given, it is at once seen how important was the
+influence of the denomination. Early in the century Rev. Noah Worcester
+uttered his word of protest against slavery. Rev. Charles Follen joined the
+Massachusetts Anti-slavery Society in the second year of its existence, and
+no nobler champion of liberty ever lived. If Dr. Channing was slow in
+applying his Christian ideal of liberty to slavery, there can be no
+question that his influence was powerful on the right side, and all the
+more so because of his gentle and ethical interpretation of individual and
+national duty. His various publications on the subject, his identification
+of himself with the abolitionists by joining their ranks in the
+Massachusetts State House in 1836, his speech in Faneuil Hall in protest
+against the killing of Lovejoy in Alton during the same year, exerted a
+great influence in behalf of abolition throughout the North. It is only
+necessary to mention John Pierpont, Theodore Parker, William H. Furness,
+William H. Channing, William Goodell, Theodore D. Weld, Ichabod Codding,
+Caleb Stetson, and M.D. Conway in order to recognize their uncompromising
+<a name="pg366"></a>
+fidelity to the cause of freedom. Only less devoted were such men as
+Charles Lowell, Nahor A. Staples, Sylvester Judd, Nathaniel Hall, Thomas T.
+Stone, O.B. Frothingham, Abiel A. Livermore, Samuel Johnson, Samuel
+Longfellow, Thomas J. Mumford, and many others.</p>
+
+<p>Samuel J. May and his cousin, Samuel May, were both employed by the
+Massachusetts Anti-slavery Society. From 1847 until 1865 the latter was the
+general agent of that organization; and his assistant was another Unitarian
+minister, Robert F. Walcutt. James Freeman Clarke, though settled at
+Louisville from 1833 to 1840, was opposed to slavery; and in the pages of
+The Western Messenger, of which he was publisher and editor, he took every
+occasion to press home the claims of emancipation. John G. Palfrey
+emancipated the slaves that came into his possession from his father's
+estate, insisting on receiving them for that purpose, though the
+opportunity was given him to accept other property in their stead. In
+accordance with this action was his attitude toward slavery in the pulpit
+and on the platform, as well as when he was a member of the lower house of
+Congress.</p>
+
+<p>Of Unitarian laymen who were loyal to the ideal of freedom, the list may
+properly open with the name of Josiah Quincy, afterwards mayor of Boston
+and president of Harvard College, who began as early as 1804 his opposition
+to slavery, and carried it faithfully into his work as a member of the
+national House of Representatives soon after. The fidelity of John Quincy
+Adams to freedom during many years is known to every one, and his service
+in the national House has given him a foremost place in the company of the
+<a name="pg367"></a>
+anti-slavery leaders. Not less loyal was the service of Charles Sumner,
+Horace Mann, John P. Hale, George W. Julian, John A. Andrew, Samuel G.
+Howe, Henry I. Bowditch, William I. Bowditch, Thomas W. Higginson, George
+F. Hoar, Ebenezer R. Hoar, George S. Boutwell, and Henry B. Anthony. Of the
+poets the anti-slavery reform had the support of Longfellow, Lowell,
+Bryant, and Emerson. The Unitarian women were also zealous for freedom. The
+loyalty of Lydia Maria Child is well known, as are the sacrifices she made
+in publishing her early anti-slavery books. Lucretia Mott, of the Unitarian
+branch of the Friends, was a devoted supporter of the anti-slavery cause.
+Mrs. Maria W. Chapman was one of the most faithful supporters of Garrison,
+doing more than any one else to give financial aid to the anti-slavery
+reform movement in its earlier years. With these women deserve to be
+mentioned Eliza Lee Follen, Angelina Grimké Weld, Lucy Stone, and many
+more.</p>
+
+<p>A considerable group of persons who had been trained in evangelical
+churches became essentially Unitarians as a result of the anti-slavery
+agitation. Of these may be mentioned William Lloyd Garrison, Gerrit Smith,
+Beriah Green, Joshua R. Giddings, Myron Holley, Theodore D. Weld, and
+Francis W. Bird. Of the first four of these men, George W. Julian has said:
+"They were theologically reconstructed through their unselfish devotion to
+humanity and the recreancy of the churches to which they had been attached.
+They were less orthodox, but more Christian. Their faith in the fatherhood
+of God and the brotherhood of man became a living principle, and compelled
+to reject all dogmas which stood in its way."[<a href="#fn_16_41">41</a><a name="fr_16_41"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg368"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn113"></a>The Enfranchisement of Women.</h3>
+
+<p>It is not surprising that the first great advocate of "the rights of women"
+in this country should have been the Unitarian, Margaret Fuller. She did no
+more than apply what she had been taught in religion to problems of
+personal duty, professional activity, and political obligations. With her
+freedom of faith and liberty of thought meant also freedom to devote her
+life to such tasks as she could best perform for the good of others. It was
+inevitable that other Unitarian women should follow her example, and that
+many women, trained in other faiths, having come to accept the doctrine of
+universal political rights, should seek in Unitarianism the religion
+consonant with their individuality of purpose and their sense of human
+freedom.</p>
+
+<p>Among the leaders of the movement for the enfranchisement of women have
+been such Unitarians as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy
+Stone, Julia Ward Howe, Mary A. Livermore, Maria Weston Chapman, Caroline
+H. Dall, and Louisa M. Alcott. The first pronounced woman suffrage paper in
+the country was The Una, begun at Providence in 1853, with Mrs. Caroline H.
+Dall as the assistant editor. Among other Unitarian contributors were
+William H. Charming, Elizabeth P. Peabody, Thomas W. Higginson, Ednah D.
+Cheney, Amory D. Mayo, Elizabeth Oakes Smith, Lucy Stone, and Mrs. E.C.
+Stanton. The next important paper was The Revolution, begun at New York in
+1868, with Susan B. Anthony as publisher and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and
+Parker Pillsbury as editors. Then came The Woman's Journal, begun at Boston
+in 1870, with Mary A. Livermore, Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, T.W.
+Higginson, and Henry B. Blackwell, all Unitarians, as the editors.</p>
+
+<a name="pg369"></a>
+<p>The first national woman's suffrage meeting was held in Worcester, October
+28 and 24, 1850; and among those who took part in it by letter or personal
+presence were Emerson, Alcott, Higginson, Pillsbury, Samuel J. May, William
+H. Channing, William H. Burleigh, Elizabeth C. Stanton, Catherine M.
+Sedgwick, Caroline Kirkland, and Lucy Stone. In April, 1853, when the
+Constitution of Massachusetts was to receive revision, a petition was
+presented, asking that suffrage should be granted to women. Of twenty-seven
+persons signing it, more than half were Unitarians, including Abby May
+Alcott, Lucy Stone, T.W. Higginson, Anna Q.T. Parsons, Theodore Parker,
+William I. Bowditch, Samuel E. Sewall, Ellis Gray Loring, Charles K.
+Whipple, and Thomas T. Stone. Among other Unitarians who have taken an
+active part in promoting this cause have been Lucretia Mott, Mary Grew,
+Caroline M. Severance, Celia C. Burleigh, Angelina Grimké Weld, and Maria
+Giddings Julian. Of men there have been Dr. William F. Channing, James F.
+Clarke, George F. Hoar, George W. Curtis, John S. Dwight, John T. Sargent,
+Samuel Johnson, Samuel Longfellow, Octavius B. Frothingham, Adin Ballou,
+George W. Julian, Frank B. Sanborn, and James T. Fields.</p>
+
+<p>Unitarians have been amongst the first to recognize women in education,
+literature, the professions, and in the management of church and
+denominational interests. At the convention held in New York in 1865, which
+organized the National Conference, no women appeared as delegates; and the
+same was true at the second session, held at Syracuse in 1866. At that
+session Rev. Thomas J. Mumford moved "that our churches shall be left to
+<a name="pg370"></a>
+their own wishes and discretion with reference to the sex of the delegates
+chosen to represent them in the conference"; and this resolution was
+adopted. At the third meeting, held at New York in 1868, thirty-seven women
+appeared as delegates, including Julia Ward Howe and Caroline H. Dall. The
+lay delegates to the session held at Washington in 1899 numbered four
+hundred and two; and, of these, two hundred and twenty seven were women.</p>
+
+<p>At the annual meeting of the Unitarian Association in 1870, Rev. John T.
+Sargent brought forward the subject of the representation of women on its
+board of directors. Dr. James F. Clarke made a motion looking to that
+result, which was largely discussed, much opposition being manifested. It
+was urged by many that women were unfit to serve in a position demanding so
+much business capacity, that they would displace capable men, and that it
+was improper for them to assume so public a duty. Charles Lowe, James F.
+Clarke, John T. Sargent, and others strongly championed the proposition,
+with the result that Miss Lucretia Crocker was elected a member of the
+board.[<a href="#fn_16_42">42</a><a name="fr_16_42"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The first woman ordained to the Unitarian ministry was Mrs. Celia C.
+Burleigh, who was settled over the parish in Brooklyn, Conn., October 5,
+1871. The sermon was preached by Rev. John W. Chadwick, and the address to
+the people was given by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe. A letter was read from Henry
+Ward Beecher, in which he said to Mrs. Burleigh: "I do cordially believe
+that you ought to preach. I think you had a <i>call</i> in your very nature."
+Mrs. Burleigh continued at Brooklyn for less than three years, ill-health
+compelling her to resign.</p>
+
+<a name="pg371"></a>
+<p>The second woman to enter the Unitarian ministry was Miss Mary H. Graves,
+who was ordained at Mansfield, Mass., December 14, 1871. She was subjected
+to a thorough examination; and the committee reported "that her words have
+commanded our thorough respect by their freedom and clearness, and won our
+full sympathy and approval by their earnest, discreet, and beautiful
+spirit." Mrs. Eliza Tupper Wilkes was ordained by the Universalists at
+Rochester, Minn., May 2, 1871, though she had preached for two or three
+years previously; and she subsequently identified herself with the
+Unitarians. Mrs. Antoinette Brown Blackwell was ordained in Central New
+York, in 1853, by the Orthodox Congregationalists; but somewhat later she
+became a Unitarian.</p>
+
+<p>The first woman to receive ordination who has continued without
+interruption her ministerial duties was Miss Mary A. Safford, ordained in
+1880. She has held every official position in connection with the Iowa
+Unitarian Association, and she has also been an officer of the Western
+Conference and a director of the American Unitarian Association.</p>
+
+<p>Several women have also frequently appeared in Unitarian pulpits who have
+not received ordination or devoted themselves to the ministry as a
+profession. Among these are Mrs. Caroline H. Dall, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe,
+and Mrs. Mary A. Livermore. In 1875 Mrs. Howe was active in organizing the
+Women's Ministerial Conference, which met in the Church of the Disciples,
+and brought together women ministers of several denominations. Of this
+conference Mrs. Howe was for many years the president.</p>
+
+<a name="pg372"></a>
+<p>In most Unitarian churches there is no longer any question as to the right
+of women to take any place they are individually fitted to occupy. On
+denominational committees and boards, women sit with entire success, their
+fitness for the duties required being called in question by no one. In
+those conferences where women have for a number of years been actively
+engaged in the work of the ministry they are received on a basis of perfect
+equality with men, and the sex question no longer presents itself in regard
+to official positions or any other ministerial duty.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn114"></a>Civil Service Reform.</h3>
+
+<p>The first advocate of the reform of the civil service was Charles Sumner,
+who as early as December, 1847, anticipated its methods in a series of
+articles contributed to a newspaper.[<a href="#fn_16_43">43</a><a name="fr_16_43"></a>] He was the first to bring this
+reform before Congress, which he did April 30, 1864, when he introduced a
+bill to provide a system of competitive examinations for admission to and
+promotion in the civil service, which made merit and fitness the conditions
+of employment by the government, and provided against removal without
+cause. This bill was drawn by Sumner without consultation with any other
+person, but the time had not yet arrived when it could be successfully
+advocated.</p>
+
+<p>The next person to advocate the reform of the civil service in Congress was
+Thomas A. Jenckes, of Rhode Island, who in 1867 brought the merit system
+forward in the form of a report from the joint committee on retrenchment,
+which reported on the condition of the civil service, and accompanied its
+report with a bill "to regulate the civil service and to promote its
+<a name="pg373"></a>
+efficiency." The next year Mr. Jenckes made a second report, but it was not
+until 1871 that action on the subject was secured.[<a href="#fn_16_44">44</a><a name="fr_16_44"></a>] George W. Curtis
+says that at first he "pressed it upon an utterly listless Congress, and
+his proposition was regarded as the harmless hobby of an amiable man, from
+which a little knowledge of practical politics would soon dismount
+him."[<a href="#fn_16_45">45</a><a name="fr_16_45"></a>] Most members of Congress thought the reform a mere vagary, and
+that it was brought forward at a most inopportune time.[<a href="#fn_16_46">46</a><a name="fr_16_46"></a>] Mr. Jenckes
+was the pioneer of the reform, according to Curtis, who says that he
+"powerfully and vigorously and alone opened the debate in Congress."[<a href="#fn_16_47">47</a><a name="fr_16_47"></a>]
+He drew the amendment to the appropriation bill in 1871 that became the
+law, and under which the first civil service commission was appointed. "By
+his experience, thorough knowledge, fertility of resource and suggestion
+and great legal ability, he continued to serve with as much efficiency as
+modesty the cause to which he was devoted."[<a href="#fn_16_48">48</a><a name="fr_16_48"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>One of the first persons to give attention to this subject was Dorman B.
+Eaton, an active member of All Souls' Church in New York, who was for
+several years chairman of the committee on political reform of the Union
+League Club of New York. In 1866, and again in 1870 and 1875, he travelled
+in Europe to secure information in regard to methods of civil service. The
+results of these investigations were presented in his work on Civil Service
+in Great Britain, a report made at the request of President Hayes. In 1873
+he was appointed a member of the Civil Service Commission by President
+<a name="pg374"></a>
+Grant; in 1883 he was the chairman of the committee appointed by President
+Arthur; and in 1885 he was reappointed by President Cleveland. The bill of
+January, 1883, which firmly established civil service by act of Congress,
+was drawn by him. He was a devoted worker for good government in all its
+phases; and the results of his studies of the subject may be found in his
+books on The Independent Movement in New York and The Government of
+Municipalities. He was described by George William Curtis as "one of the
+most conspicuous, intelligent, and earnest friends of reform."[<a href="#fn_16_49">49</a><a name="fr_16_49"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The most conspicuous advocate of the merit system was Mr. George William
+Curtis, another New York Unitarian, who was the chairman of the Civil
+Service Commission of 1871. In 1880 he became the president of the New York
+Civil Service Reform Association, a position he held until his death. The
+National Civil Service Reform League was organized at Newport in August,
+1881; and he was the president from that time as long as he lived. His
+annual addresses before the league show his devoted interest in its aims,
+as well as his eloquence, intellectual power, and political integrity.[<a href="#fn_16_50">50</a><a name="fr_16_50"></a>]
+In an address before the Unitarian National Conference, in 1878, Mr. Curtis
+gave a noble exposition and vindication of the reform which he labored
+zealously for twelve years to advance.[<a href="#fn_16_51">51</a><a name="fr_16_51"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>It has been justly said of Mr. Curtis that "far above the pleasures of life
+he placed its duties; and no man could have set himself more sternly to the
+<a name="pg375"></a>
+serious work of citizenship. The national struggle over slavery, and the
+re-establishment of the Union on permanent foundations enlisted his whole
+nature. In the same spirit, he devoted his later years to the overthrow of
+the spoils system. He did this under no delusion as to the magnitude of the
+undertaking. Probably no one else comprehended it so well. He had studied
+the problem profoundly, and had solved every difficulty, and could answer
+every cavil to his own satisfaction." There can be no question that "his
+name imparted a strength to the movement no other would have given." Nor
+can there be much question that "among public men there was none who so won
+the confidence of sincere and earnest men and women by his own personality.
+The powers of such a character, with all his gifts and accomplishments, was
+what Mr. Curtis brought to the civil service reform."[<a href="#fn_16_52">52</a><a name="fr_16_52"></a>]</p>
+
+<p><br />[<a href="#fr_16_1">1</a><a name="fn_16_1"></a>] American Unitarian Biography, edited by William Ware; Memoir of
+    Worcester, by Henry Ware, Jr., I. 45, 46.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_2">2</a><a name="fn_16_2"></a>] Solemn Review, edition of 1836 by American Peace Society, 7.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_3">3</a><a name="fn_16_3"></a>] It had been preceded by societies in Ohio and New York, results of
+    the influence of the Solemn Review.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_4">4</a><a name="fn_16_4"></a>] Unitarian Biography, I. 49.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_5">5</a><a name="fn_16_5"></a>] Memoir, II. 284; one-volume edition, 111.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_6">6</a><a name="fn_16_6"></a>] Ibid., III. 111; one-volume edition, 284.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_7">7</a><a name="fn_16_7"></a>] Memoir, 139.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_8">8</a><a name="fn_16_8"></a>] Christian Examiner, May, 1850, XLVIII. 378.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_9">9</a><a name="fn_16_9"></a>] Ibid., November, 1861, LXXI. 313.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_10">10</a><a name="fn_16_10"></a>] Life, 83.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_11">11</a><a name="fn_16_11"></a>] Ibid., 115.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_12">12</a><a name="fn_16_12"></a>] Cyclopedia of American Biography, V. 746.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_13">13</a><a name="fn_16_13"></a>] Memoir, II. 348.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_14">14</a><a name="fn_16_14"></a>] Memoir.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_15">15</a><a name="fn_16_15"></a>] Ibid., 351.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_16">16</a><a name="fn_16_16"></a>] Ibid., IV. 572.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_17">17</a><a name="fn_16_17"></a>] Reminiscences, 328.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_18">18</a><a name="fn_16_18"></a>] Memoir, III. 36; one-volume edition, 477.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_19">19</a><a name="fn_16_19"></a>] Memoir, III. 31; one-volume edition, 474, 475.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_20">20</a><a name="fn_16_20"></a>] Works, II. 301.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_21">21</a><a name="fn_16_21"></a>] When will the Day come? and other tracts of the Massachusetts
+     Temperance Society, 135.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_22">22</a><a name="fn_16_22"></a>] Of the twenty-seven annual addresses given before this society from
+     1814 to 1840, at least sixteen were by Unitarians; and among these
+     were John T. Kirkland, Abiel Abbot, William E. Channing, Edward
+     Everett, the younger Henry Ware, Gamaliel Bradford, Charles Sprague,
+     James Walker, Alexander H. Everett, William Sullivan, and Samuel K.
+     Lothrop. The first four presidents of this society--Samuel Dexter,
+     Nathan Dane, Isaac Parker, and Stephen Fairbanks--were Unitarians. Of
+     the same faith were also a large proportion of the vice-presidents
+     and other officers. Many of the tracts published by the society were
+     written by Unitarians.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_23">23</a><a name="fn_16_23"></a>] Unitarians of every calling have been the advocates of temperance.
+     Among those who have been loyal to it in word and action may be named
+     John Adams, Jeremy Belknap, Jonathan Phillips, Charles Lowell, Ezra
+     S. Gannett, John Pierpont, Samuel J. May, Amos Lawrence, Horace Mann,
+     William H. and George S. Burleigh, Governor Pitman, William G. Eliot,
+     Rufus P. Stebbins, and William B. Spooner. "Many of the leading men
+     and women who were eminent as lawyers, judges, legislators, scholars,
+     also prominent in the business walks of life, and in social position,
+     gave this cause the force of their example, and the inspiration of
+     their minds. By their contributions of money, by their personal
+     efforts, by their public speeches and writings, and by their practice
+     of total abstinence, they rendered very valuable service."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_24">24</a><a name="fn_16_24"></a>] Twelfth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, 1897.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_25">25</a><a name="fn_16_25"></a>] Theodore Clapp, of New Orleans, may be an exception, though he is
+     claimed by the Universalists. See S.J. May's Recollections of the
+     Anti-slavery Conflict, 335.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_26">26</a><a name="fn_16_26"></a>] Autobiography and Letters, 117, 127, 129. The criticism of Dr. Dewey
+     may be found in S.J. May's Recollections, 367.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_27">27</a><a name="fn_16_27"></a>] Memoir, 139, 284, 296. See S.J. May, Recollections, 341, 367, for an
+     anti-slavery indictment of Dr. Gannett.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_28">28</a><a name="fn_16_28"></a>] Memoir, chapter on Slavery.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_29">29</a><a name="fn_16_29"></a>] Recollections of the Anti-slavery Conflict, chapter on the
+     Unitarians, 335.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_30">30</a><a name="fn_16_30"></a>] See Lydia Maria Child's account of conversations with Channing on
+     this subject, in her Letters from New York.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_31">31</a><a name="fn_16_31"></a>] Recollections and Impressions, 47, 183.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_32">32</a><a name="fn_16_32"></a>] The Story of his Life as Told by his Children.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_33">33</a><a name="fn_16_33"></a>] Recollections, 335.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_34">34</a><a name="fn_16_34"></a>] S.J. May, Recollections, 19; Life of A.B. Alcott, 220; Life of
+     Garrison, I. 212.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_35">35</a><a name="fn_16_35"></a>] Life of Garrison, I. 223.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_36">36</a><a name="fn_16_36"></a>] The more prominent names are herewith given as they were printed in
+     The Christian Register: Joseph Allen, J.H. Allen, S.G. Bulfinch, C.F.
+     Barnard, Charles Briggs, W.G. Babcock, C.T. Brooks, Warren Burton,
+     C.H. Brigham, Edgar Buckingham, William H. Channing, James F. Clarke,
+     S.B. Cruft, A.H. Conant, C.H.A. Dall, R. Ellis, Converse Francis,
+     James Flint, William H. Furness, N.S. Folsom, Frederick A. Farley,
+     Frederick T. Gray, Henry Giles, F.D. Huntington, E.B. Hall, N. Hall,
+     F.H. Hedge, F. Hinckley, G.W. Hosmer, F.W. Holland, Thomas Hill,
+     Sylvester Judd, James Kendall, William H. Knapp, A.A. Livermore, S.J.
+     May, Samuel May, M.I. Mott, A.B. Muzzey, J.F. Moors, Henry A. Miles,
+     William Newell, J. Osgood, S. Osgood, Andrew P. Peabody, John
+     Parkman, John Pierpont, Theodore Parker, Cyrus Pierce, J.H. Perkins,
+     Cazneau Palfey, O.W.B. Peabody, Samuel Ripley, Chandler Robbins,
+     Caleb Stetson, Oliver Stearns, Rufus P. Stebbins, Edmund Q. Sewall,
+     Charles Sewall, John T. Sargent, George F. Simmons, William Silsbee,
+     William P. Tilden, J.W. Thompson, John Weiss, Robert T. Waterston,
+     William Ware, J.F.W. Ware, E.B. Willson, Frederick A. Whitney, Jason
+     Whitman.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_37">37</a><a name="fn_16_37"></a>] Printed in The Christian Register, October 4, 1845.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_38">38</a><a name="fn_16_38"></a>] Quarterly Journal, III. 567.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_39">39</a><a name="fn_16_39"></a>] Ibid., 572.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_40">40</a><a name="fn_16_40"></a>] Unity, Sept. 4, 1886, Mrs. S.C.Ll. Jones, Historic Unitarianism in
+     the West.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_41">41</a><a name="fn_16_41"></a>] Life of Joshua R. Giddings, 399.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_42">42</a><a name="fn_16_42"></a>] Memoir of Charles Lowe, 486. In 1901 four of the eighteen directors
+     of the American Unitarian Association were women.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_43">43</a><a name="fn_16_43"></a>] Life, III. 149.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_44">44</a><a name="fn_16_44"></a>] Life of Charles Sumner, IV. 191; Works, VII. 452.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_45">45</a><a name="fn_16_45"></a>] G.W. Curtis, Orations and Addresses, II. 30.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_46">46</a><a name="fn_16_46"></a>] Ibid., 173.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_47">47</a><a name="fn_16_47"></a>] Ibid., 180.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_48">48</a><a name="fn_16_48"></a>] Ibid., 223.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_49">49</a><a name="fn_16_49"></a>] G.W. Curtis, Orations and Addresses, II. 458.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_50">50</a><a name="fn_16_50"></a>] See Curtis's Orations and Addresses, II.; also, his Reports as civil
+     service commissioner, and various addresses before the Social Science
+     Association.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_51">51</a><a name="fn_16_51"></a>] Edward Cary, Life of Curtis, American Men of Letters, 294.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_16_52">52</a><a name="fn_16_52"></a>] George William Curtis and Civil Service Reform, by Sherman S. Rogers,
+     in Atlantic Monthly, January, 1893, LXXI. 15.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<a name="pg376"></a>
+<h2><br /><a name="ch17"></a>XVII.<br />
+
+
+UNITARIAN MEN AND WOMEN.</h2>
+
+<p>Many of the most influential Americans have been in practical accord with
+Unitarianism, while not actually connected with Unitarian churches. They
+have accepted its principles of individual freedom, the rational
+interpretation of religion, and the necessity of bringing religious beliefs
+into harmony with modern science and philosophy. Among these may be
+properly included such men as Benjamin Franklin, John Marshall, Gerrit
+Smith, John G. Whittier, William Lloyd Garrison, Andrew D. White, and
+Abraham Lincoln. Whittier was a Friend, and White an Episcopalian; but the
+religion of both is acceptable to all Unitarians. Marshall was undoubtedly
+a Unitarian in his intellectual convictions, and he sometimes attended the
+Unitarian church in Washington; but his church affiliations were with the
+Episcopalians. John C. Calhoun was all his life a member of an Episcopal
+church and a communicant in it; but he frequently attended the Unitarian
+church in Washington, and intellectually he discarded the doctrines taught
+in the creeds of his church.</p>
+
+<p>Lincoln belonged to no church, and had no interest in the forms and
+disputes that constitute so large a part of outward religion; but he was
+one of those men whose great deeds rest on a basis of simple but
+profoundest religious conviction. The most explicit statement he ever made
+of his faith was in these words: "I have never united myself to any church,
+<a name="pg377"></a>
+because I have found difficulty in giving my assent, without mental
+reservation, to the long, complicated statements of Christian doctrine
+which characterize their articles of belief and confessions of faith. When
+any church will inscribe over its altar, as its sole qualification of
+membership, the Saviour's condensed statement of both law and gospel, 'Thou
+shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and
+with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself,' that church will I join
+with all my heart and all my soul."[<a href="#fn_17_1">1</a><a name="fr_17_1"></a>] This declaration brings Lincoln
+into fullest harmony with the position of the Unitarian churches.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn115"></a>Eminent Statesmen.</h3>
+
+<p>The intellectual tendencies of the eighteenth century led many of the
+leading Americans to discard the Puritan habit of mind and the religious
+beliefs it had cherished. An intellectual revolt caused the rejection of
+many of the Protestant doctrines, and a political revolt in the direction
+of democracy led to the acceptance of religious principles not in harmony
+with those of the past. Many Americans shared in these protests who did not
+openly break with the older faiths. Washington was of this class; for,
+while he remained outwardly a churchman, he had little intellectual or
+practical sympathy with the stricter beliefs. Franklin was thoroughly of
+the Deistic faith of the thinkers of England and France in his time. These
+tendencies had their effect upon such men as John Adams, Timothy Pickering,
+Joseph Story, and Theophilus Parsons, as well as upon Thomas Jefferson and
+William Cranch. They showed themselves with especial prominence in the case
+of Jefferson, who always remained outwardly faithful to the state religion
+<a name="pg378"></a>
+of Virginia, in which he had been educated, attended the Episcopal church
+in the neighborhood of his home, sometimes joining in its communion, but
+who was, nevertheless, intellectually a pronounced Unitarian.</p>
+
+<p>With Jefferson his Unitarianism was a part of his democracy, for he was
+consistent enough to make his religion and his politics agree with each
+other. As he would have kings no longer rule over men, but give political
+power into the hands of the people, so in religion he would put aside all
+theologians and priests, and permit the people to worship in their own way.
+It was for this reason that he rejoiced in the emancipating work of
+Channing, of which he wrote in 1822, "I rejoice that in this blessed
+country of free inquiry and belief, which has surrendered its creeds and
+conscience neither to kings nor priests, the genuine doctrine of only one
+God is reviving; and I trust there is not a young man now living who will
+not die a Unitarian."[<a href="#fn_17_2">2</a><a name="fr_17_2"></a>] Jefferson's revolt against authority was tersely
+expressed in his declaration: "Had there never been a commentator, there
+never would have been an infidel."[<a href="#fn_17_3">3</a><a name="fr_17_3"></a>] This was in harmony with his
+saying, that "the doctrines of Jesus are simple and tend all to the
+happiness of man."[<a href="#fn_17_4">4</a><a name="fr_17_4"></a>] It also fully agrees with the claims of the early
+Unitarians with regard to the teachings of Jesus. "No one sees with greater
+pleasure than myself," he wrote, "the progress of reason in its advance
+toward rational Christianity. When we shall have done away with the
+incomprehensible jargon of the Trinitarian arithmetic, that three are one,
+<a name="pg379"></a>
+and one are three; when we shall have knocked down the artificial
+scaffolding reared to mask from view the simple structure of Jesus; when,
+in short, we shall have unlearned everything taught since his day, and got
+back to the pure and simple doctrines he inculcated--we shall then be truly
+and worthily his disciples; and my opinion is that, if nothing had ever
+been added to what flowed purely from his lips, the whole world would at
+this day have been Christian."[<a href="#fn_17_5">5</a><a name="fr_17_5"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>However mistaken Jefferson may have been in the historical opinions thus
+expressed, we cannot question the sincerity of his beliefs or fail to
+recognize that he had the keenest interest in whatever gave indication of
+the growth of a rational spirit in religion. These opinions he shared with
+many of the leading men of his time; but he was more outspoken in their
+utterance, as he was more consistent in holding them. That Washington,
+though remaining an Episcopalian, was in fullest accord with Jefferson in
+his principles of toleration and religious freedom, is apparent from one of
+his letters. "I am not less ardent in my wish," he wrote, "that you may
+succeed in your toleration in religious matters. Being no bigot myself to
+any mode of worship, I am disposed to indulge the professors of
+Christianity in the church with that road to heaven which to them shall
+seem the most direct, easiest, and least liable to exception."[<a href="#fn_17_6">6</a><a name="fr_17_6"></a>]
+Intellectually, Franklin was a Deist of essentially the same beliefs with
+Jefferson, as may be seen in his statement of faith: "I believe in one God,
+the creator of the universe; that he governs it by his providence; that he
+ought to be worshipped; that the most acceptable service we render to him
+<a name="pg380"></a>
+is doing good to his other children; that the soul of man is immortal, and
+will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in
+this. These I take to be the fundamental points in all sound religion. As
+to Jesus of Nazareth, I think his system of morals and his religion, as he
+left them to us, the best the world ever saw, or is likely to see; but I
+apprehend it has received various corrupting changes, and I have some
+doubts of his divinity; though it is a question I do not dogmatize upon,
+having never studied it."[<a href="#fn_17_7">7</a><a name="fr_17_7"></a>] Franklin was a member of a Unitarian church
+in London.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn116"></a>Some Representative Unitarians.</h3>
+
+<p>The church in Washington, not having been popular or of fine appointments,
+has been a test of the Unitarian faith of those frequenting the capital
+city. It has included in its congregation, from time to time, such men as
+John Adams, John Quincy Adams,[<a href="#fn_17_8">8</a><a name="fr_17_8"></a>] John Marshall, Joseph Story, Samuel F.
+Miller, Millard Fillmore, William Cranch, George Bancroft, Nathan K. Hall,
+James Moore Wayne, and Senators Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, William S.
+Archer, Henry B. Anthony, William B. Allison, Timothy O. Howe, Edward
+Everett, Justin S. Morrill, Charles Sumner, William E. Chandler, George F.
+<a name="pg381"></a>
+Hoar, and John P. Hale. William Winston Seaton and Joseph Gales, once
+prominent in Washington as editors and publishers of The National
+Intelligencer, were both Unitarians.</p>
+
+<p>In New York the Unitarian churches have had among their attendants and
+members such persons as William Cullen Bryant, Catherine M. Sedgwick, Henry
+D. Sedgwick, Henry Wheaton, Peter Cooper, George William Curtis, George
+Ticknor Curtis, Moses H. Grinnell, Dorman B. Eaton, and Joseph H. Choate.
+The churches in Salem have had connected with them such men as John Prince,
+Nathaniel Bowditch, Benjamin Peirce, Timothy Pickering, John Pickering,
+Leverett Saltonstall, Joseph Story,[<a href="#fn_17_9">9</a><a name="fr_17_9"></a>] Jones Very, William H. Prescott,
+and Nathaniel Hawthorne.[<a href="#fn_17_10">10</a><a name="fr_17_10"></a>]</p>
+
+<a name="pg382"></a>
+<h3><a name="sn117"></a>Judges and Legislators.</h3>
+
+<p>During the early Unitarian period "the judges on the bench" included such
+men as Theophilus Parsons, Isaac Parker, and Lemuel Shaw, all of whom held
+the office of chief justice in Massachusetts. Other lawyers, jurists, and
+statesmen were Fisher Ames, political orator and statesman; Nathan Dane,
+who drew the ordinance for the north-western territory; Samuel Dexter,
+senator, and secretary of the treasury under John Adams; Christopher Gore,
+senator, and governor of Massachusetts; and Benjamin R. Curtis, of the
+United States Supreme Court. Other chief justices of the Supreme Court of
+Massachusetts have been George T. Bigelow, John Wells, Pliny Myrick,
+Walbridge A. Field, Charles Allen; and of associates in that court have
+been Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, Benjamin F. Thomas, Seth Ames, Samuel S.
+Wilde, Levi Lincoln, and John Lowell. Among the governors of Massachusetts
+have been Levi Lincoln, Edward Everett, John Davis, John H. Clifford, John
+A. Andrew, George S. Boutwell, John D. Long, Thomas Talbot, George D.
+Robinson, J.Q.A. Brackett, Oliver Ames, Frederic T. Greenhalge, and Roger
+Wolcott. The first mayors of Boston, John Phillips, Josiah Quincy,[<a href="#fn_17_11">11</a><a name="fr_17_11"></a>] and
+<a name="pg383"></a>
+Harrison Gray Otis, were Unitarians. Then, after an interval of one year,
+followed Samuel A. Eliot and Jonathan Chapman.</p>
+
+<p>It has often been assumed that Unitarianism attracts only intellectual
+persons; but it also appeals to practical business men, legislators, and
+the leaders of political life. In Maine have been Vice-President Hannibal
+Hamlin, Governor Edward Kent, and Chief Justice John Appleton. In New
+Hampshire it has appealed to such men as Chief Justices Cushing, Henry A.
+Bellows, Jeremiah Smith, and, Charles Doe, as well as to Governors Onslow
+Stearns, Charles H. Bell, Benjamin F. Prescott, and Ichabod Goodwin; in
+Rhode Island, Governors Lippitt and Seth Paddelford, Chief Justices Samuel
+Ames and Samuel Eddy, General Ambrose E. Burnside, and William B. Weeden,
+historian and economist. Alphonso Taft and George Hoadly, both governors of
+Ohio, were Unitarians, as were Austin Blair, John T. Bagley, Charles S.
+May, and Henry H. Crapo, governors of Michigan. Among the prominent
+Unitarians of Iowa have been Senator William B. Allison and General George
+W. McCrary. In California may be named Leland Stanford, Horace Davis, Chief
+Justice W.H. Beatty, and Oscar L. Shafter of the Supreme Court.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn118"></a>Boston Unitarianism.</h3>
+
+<p>What Unitarianism has been in the lives of its men and women may be most
+conspicuously seen in Boston and the region about it, for there throughout
+the first half of the nineteenth century Unitarianism was the dominant form
+<a name="pg384"></a>
+of Christianity. Of the period from 1826 to 1832, when Dr. Lyman Beecher
+was settled in Boston, Mrs. Stowe has given this testimony: "All the
+literary men of Massachusetts were Unitarians. All the trustees and
+professors of Harvard College were Unitarians. All the élite of wealth and
+fashion crowded Unitarian churches. The judges on the bench were Unitarian,
+giving decisions by which the peculiar features of church organization, so
+carefully ordained by the Pilgrim fathers, had been nullified."[<a href="#fn_17_12">12</a><a name="fr_17_12"></a>] Of the
+same period Dr. Beecher wrote, "All offices were in the hands of
+Unitarians."[<a href="#fn_17_13">13</a><a name="fr_17_13"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>These statements were literally true, except in so far as they implied that
+Unitarians used high positions in order to overthrow the old institutions
+of Massachusetts and substitute those of their own devising. The calmer
+judgment of the present day would not accept this conclusion, and it has no
+historic foundation. The religious development of Boston brought its
+churches into the acceptance of a tolerant, rational, and practical form of
+Christianity, that was not dogmatic or sectarian. It took the Unitarian
+name, but only in the sense of rejecting the harsher interpretations of the
+doctrine of the Trinity and of election. The members of the Unitarian
+churches during this period were devout in an unostentatious manner, pious
+after a simple fashion, loyal Christians without excess of zeal, lovers of
+liberty, but in a conservative spirit. This simple form of piety enabled
+the men who accepted it to govern the state in a most faithful manner. They
+managed its affairs justly, wisely, and in the true intent of economy.
+<a name="pg385"></a>
+Sometimes it was complained that they held a much larger number of offices
+than was their proportion according to population; but to this John G.
+Palfrey replied that the people of the state had confidence in them, and
+elected them because nobody else governed so well.</p>
+
+<p>With the aid of the biography of James Sullivan, judge, legislator,
+attorney-general, and diplomatist,[<a href="#fn_17_14">14</a><a name="fr_17_14"></a>] we may study the constituency of a
+single church in Boston, the Brattle Street Church. We find there James
+Bowdoin and John Hancock, rival candidates for the position of governor of
+the state in 1785. The same rivalry occurred twenty years later between
+James Sullivan and Caleb Strong, both of the number of its communicants. On
+the parish committee of this church at one time were Hancock, Bowdoin, and
+Sullivan, who became governors of the state, and Judges Wendell and John
+Lowell.[<a href="#fn_17_15">15</a><a name="fr_17_15"></a>] Some years later there were included in the congregation such
+men as Daniel Webster, Harrison Gray Otis, Abbott Lawrence, and Amos
+Lawrence, who was one of the deacons for many years.</p>
+
+<p>Of the distinguished business men of Boston may be named John Amory Lowell,
+John C. Amory, Jonathan Phillips (the confidential friend and supporter of
+Dr. Channing), Thomas Wigglesworth, J. Huntington Wolcott, Augustus
+Hemenway, Stephen C. Phillips, and Thomas Tileston. Francis Cabot Lowell
+was largely concerned in building up the manufacturing interests of
+<a name="pg386"></a>
+Massachusetts, especially the cotton industry; and the city of Lowell took
+his name in recognition of the importance of his leadership in this
+direction. For similar reasons the city of Lawrence was named after Abbott
+Lawrence, minister of the United States to Great Britain, who was one of
+the leading merchants of Boston in the China trade, and was also largely
+concerned in the development of cotton manufacturing. With these business
+and manufacturing interests Amos Lawrence was also connected. Nathan
+Appleton[<a href="#fn_17_16">16</a><a name="fr_17_16"></a>] was associated with Francis C. Lowell in the establishment of
+the great manufacturing interests that have been a large source of the
+wealth of Massachusetts. Thomas H. Perkins, from whom was named the Perkins
+Institute for the Blind, was also concerned in the China trade and in the
+first development of railroads. Robert Gould Shaw was another leading
+merchant, who left a large sum of money for the benefit of the children of
+mariners. John Murray Forbes was a builder of railroads, notably active in
+the financial support of the national government during the civil war, and
+<a name="pg387"></a>
+a generous friend of noble men and interests.[<a href="#fn_17_17">17</a><a name="fr_17_17"></a>] Nathaniel Thayer was a
+manager of railroads, erected Thayer Hall at Harvard College, and bore the
+expenses of Agassiz's expedition to South America.</p>
+
+<p>A Boston man by birth and training, who knew the defects as well as the
+merits of the class of men and women who have been named, has given
+generous testimony to the high qualities of mind and heart possessed by
+these Unitarians. In writing of his maternal grandfather, Octavius Brooks
+Frothingham has said: "Peter C. Brooks was an admirable example of the
+Unitarian laymen of that period, industrious, honest, faithful in all
+relations of life, charitable, public-spirited, intelligent, sagacious,
+mingling the prudence of the man of affairs with the faith of the
+Christian.... As one recalls the leading persons in Brattle Street, Federal
+Street, Chauncy Place, King's Chapel, the New North, the New South,--men
+like Adams, Eliot, Perkins, Bumstead, Lawrence, Sullivan, Jackson, Judge
+Shaw, Daniel Webster, Jacob Bigelow, T.B. Wales, Dr. Bowditch,--forms of
+dignity and of worth rise before the mind. Better men there are not. More
+honorable men, according to the standard of the time, there are not likely
+to be.... He joined the church and was a consistent church member. He was
+not effusive, demonstrative, or loud-voiced. His name did not stand high on
+church lists or among the patrons of the faith. His was the calm, rational,
+sober belief of the thoughtful, educated, honorable men of his day,--men
+like Lemuel Shaw, Joseph Story, Daniel A. White,--intellectual, noble
+people, with worthy aims, a lofty sense of duty, a strong conviction of the
+essential truths of revealed Christianity; sincere believers in the gospel,
+<a name="pg388"></a>
+of enduring principle, of pure, consistent, blameless life and conduct.
+Speculative theology he cared little or nothing about. He was no disputant,
+no doubter, no casuist; of the heights of mysticism, of the depths of
+infidelity, he knew nothing. He was conservative, of course, from
+temperament rather than from inquiry. He took the literal, prose view of
+Calvinism, and rejected doctrines which did not commend themselves to his
+common sense. In a word, he was a Unitarian of the old school.... The
+Unitarian laity in general, both men and women, had a genuine desire to
+render the earthly lot of mankind more tolerable. It is not too much to say
+that they started every one of our best secular charities. They were
+exceedingly liberal in their gifts to Harvard College, and to other
+colleges as well--for they were not at all sectarian, as their large
+subscriptions to the Roman Catholic cathedral proved. Whatever tended to
+exalt humanity, in their view, was encouraged. They were as noble a set of
+men and women as ever lived."[<a href="#fn_17_18">18</a><a name="fr_17_18"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>This estimate of the Unitarians of Boston during the first half of the
+nineteenth century is eminently just and accurate. To a large extent these
+men and their associates in the Unitarian churches gave to the city its
+worth and its character; and they built up the industries, the commerce,
+the educational and philanthropic interests, and the progressive
+legislation of Massachusetts. They were men of integrity and sincerity, who
+were generous, faithful, and just. They accepted the religion of the
+spirit, and they gave it expression in daily conduct and character.</p>
+
+<p><br />[<a href="#fr_17_1">1</a><a name="fn_17_1"></a>] F.B. Carpenter, Six Months in the White House, 190.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_17_2">2</a><a name="fn_17_2"></a>] James Parton, Life of Thomas Jefferson, 711.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_17_3">3</a><a name="fn_17_3"></a>] Charles W. Upham, Life of Timothy Pickering, IV. 327.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_17_4">4</a><a name="fn_17_4"></a>] P.L. Ford's edition Jefferson's Works, X.220.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_17_5">5</a><a name="fn_17_5"></a>] Life of Pickering, IV. 326.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_17_6">6</a><a name="fn_17_6"></a>] P.L. Ford, The True George Washington, 81.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_17_7">7</a><a name="fn_17_7"></a>] P.L. Ford, The Many-sided Franklin, 174. See Diary of Ezra Stiles,
+    III. 387.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_17_8">8</a><a name="fn_17_8"></a>] John Quincy Adams, in reply to a question about the church in
+    Washington, said: "I go there to church, although I am not decided in
+    my mind as to all the controverted doctrines of religion." Years
+    later he said to a preacher in the Unitarian church at Quincy: "I
+    agree entirely with the ground you took in your discourse. You did
+    not speak of any particular class of doctrines that were everlasting,
+    but of the great, fundamental principles in which all Christians
+    agree; and these, I think, are what will be permanent." See A.B.
+    Muzzey, Reminiscences and Memorials of the Men of the Revolution and
+    their Families, 53.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_17_9">9</a><a name="fn_17_9"></a>] William W. Story, Life and Letters of Joseph Story, 57, 93. Joseph
+    Story grew away from Calvinism in early manhood, and accepted a
+    humanitarian view of the nature of Christ. "No man was ever more free
+    from a spirit of bigotry and proselytism," says his biographer. "He
+    gladly allowed every one freedom of belief and claimed only that it
+    should be a genuine conviction and not a mere theologic opinion,
+    considering the true faith of every man to be the necessary exponent
+    of his nature, and honoring a religious life more than a formal
+    creed. He admitted within the pale of salvation Mohammedan and
+    Christian, Catholic and infidel. He believed that whatever is sincere
+    and honest is recognized by God--that as the views of any sect are
+    but human opinion, susceptible of error on every side, it behooves
+    all men to be on their guard against arrogance of belief--and that in
+    the sight of God it is not the truth or falsehood of our views, but
+    the spirit in which we believe which alone is of vital consequence.
+    His moral sense was not satisfied with a theory of religion founded
+    upon the depravity of man and recognizing an austere and vengeful
+    God, nor could he give his metaphysical assent to the doctrine of the
+    Trinity. In the doctrines of liberal Christianity he found the
+    resolution of his doubts, and from the moment he embraced the
+    Unitarian faith he became a warm and unhesitating believer."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_17_10">10</a><a name="fn_17_10"></a>] For an interesting picture of New England Unitarianism see
+     Recollections of my Mother (Mrs. Anne Jean Lyman), by Mrs. J.P.
+     Lesley. Mrs. Lyman's home was in Northampton, Mass. The Reminiscences
+     of Caroline C. Briggs describe life in the same town and under
+     similar conditions. Also Memoir of Mary L. Ware, Memorial of Joseph
+     and Lucy Clark Allen by their Children, and Life of Dr. Samuel
+     Willard.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_17_11">11</a><a name="fn_17_11"></a>] Edmund Quincy, Life of Josiah Quincy, 532. In a speech to the
+     overseers of Harvard University in 1845, Josiah Quincy said: "I never
+     did and never will call myself a Unitarian; because the name has the
+     aspect, and is loaded by the world with the imputation of
+     sectarianism." His biographer says: "He regarded differences as of
+     slight importance, especially as to matters beyond the grasp of the
+     human intellect. His catholicity of spirit fraternized with all who
+     profess to call themselves Christians, and who prove their title to
+     the name by their lives." It was precisely this catholicity of spirit
+     that was the most characteristic feature of early American
+     Unitarianism, and not the rejection of the doctrine of the Trinity.
+     However, Josiah Quincy was undoubtedly a Unitarian, both in what he
+     rejected and in what he affirmed, as may be seen from these words
+     recorded in his diary in 1854: "From the doctrines with which
+     metaphysical divines have chosen to obscure the word of God,--such as
+     predestination, election, reprobation, etc.,--I turn with loathing to
+     the refreshing assurance which, to my mind, contains the substance of
+     revealed religion,--in every nation he who feareth God, and worketh
+     righteousness, is accepted of him."</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_17_12">12</a><a name="fn_17_12"></a>] Autobiography, Correspondence, etc., of Lyman Beecher, II. 109.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_17_13">13</a><a name="fn_17_13"></a>] Ibid., 144.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_17_14">14</a><a name="fn_17_14"></a>] Thomas C. Amory. Life of James Sullivan.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_17_15">15</a><a name="fn_17_15"></a>] John Lowell, a son of Judge John Lowell, and a brother of Dr. Charles
+     Lowell of the West Church, was the author of an effective
+     controversial pamphlet entitled Are you a Christian or a Calvinist?
+     Or do you prefer the Authority of Christ to that of the Genevan
+     Reformer? Both the Form and Spirit of these Questions being suggested
+     by the Late Review of American Unitarianism in The Panoplist, and by
+     the Rev. Mr. Worcester's Letter to Mr. Channing. By a Layman. Boston,
+     1815.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_17_16">16</a><a name="fn_17_16"></a>] Nathan Appleton's interest in theology may be seen in his book
+     entitled The Doctrine of Original Sin and the Trinity, discussed in a
+     Correspondence between a Clergyman of the Episcopal Church, in
+     England, and a Layman of Boston, United States, published in Boston
+     in 1859. "I was brought up," he said in one of these letters, "in the
+     strictest form of Calvinistic Congregationalism; but since arriving
+     at an age capable of examining the subject, and after a careful study
+     of it, I have renounced what appear to me unworthy views of the
+     Deity, for a system which appears to me more worthy of him, and less
+     abhorrent to human reason." "I can say," he wrote in another letter,
+     "that the Unitarian party embraces the most intelligent and
+     high-minded portion of the community. It is my opinion that the views
+     of the Unitarians are the best and only security against the spirit
+     of infidelity which is prevailing so extensively amongst the most
+     highly educated and intelligent men in Europe." See Memoir of Nathan
+     Appleton, by Robert C. Winthrop.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_17_17">17</a><a name="fn_17_17"></a>] John Murray Forbes: Letters and Recollections, edited by his
+     daughter, Sarah Forbes Hughes.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_17_18">18</a><a name="fn_17_18"></a>] Boston Unitarianism, 93, 94, 101, 127.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<a name="pg389"></a>
+<h2><br /><a name="ch18"></a>XVIII.<br />
+
+
+UNITARIANS AND EDUCATION.</h2>
+
+<p>The interest of Unitarians in education has always been very great, but it
+has not been in the direction of building and fostering sectarian
+institutions. As a body, Unitarians have not only been opposed to
+denominational colleges, but they have been leaders in promoting
+unsectarian education. Freedom of academic teaching and the scientific
+study of theology may be found where Unitarianism has no existence, and yet
+it is significant that in this country such mental liberty should have
+first found expression under Unitarian auspices. From the first, American
+Unitarianism has been unsectarian and liberty-loving, taking an attitude of
+toleration, free investigation, and loyalty to truth. That it has always
+been faithful to its ideal cannot be maintained, and yet its history shows
+that the open-mindedness and the spirit of freedom have never been wholly
+ignored.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn119"></a>Pioneers of the Higher Criticism.</h3>
+
+<p>The attitude of the early Unitarians towards the Bible, their trust in it
+as the revealed word of God and the source of divine authority in all
+matters of faith, and their confidence that a return to its simple
+principles would liberate men from superstition and bigotry, naturally made
+them the first to welcome the higher criticism of the Bible in this
+country. Such men as Noah Worcester and his successors brought to the Bible
+<a name="pg390"></a>
+new and common-sense interpretations, and began the work of pointing out
+the defects in the common version. The Unitarians were not hampered by the
+theory of the verbal infallibility of the Bible; and they were therefore
+prepared to advance the critical work of the scholars, as it came to them
+from England and Germany, as was no other religious body in this country.</p>
+
+<p>Joseph, S. Buckminster was an enthusiastic student of the Bible, securing
+when in Europe all the apparatus of the more advanced criticism that could
+then be procured; and after his return to Boston he gave his attention to
+bringing out the New Testament in the most scholarly form that was then
+possible. In 1808, in connection with William Wells, and under the
+patronage of Harvard College, he republished Griesbach's Greek Testament,
+with a selection of the most important various readings. He also formed a
+plan of publishing in this country all the best modern English versions of
+the Hebrew prophets, with introductions and notes; but he did not find the
+necessary support for this project. In The Monthly Anthology and in The
+General Repository he "first discussed subjects of Biblical criticism in a
+spirit of philosophical and painstaking learning, and took the critical
+study of the Scriptures from the old basis on which it had rested during
+the Arminian discussions and placed it on the solid foundation of the text
+of the New Testament as settled by Wetstein and Griesbach, and elucidated
+by the labors of Michaelis, Marsh, Rosenmüller, and by the safe and wise
+learning of Grotius, Le Clerc, and Simon." "It has," wrote George Ticknor,
+"in our opinion, hardly been permitted to any other man to render so
+considerable a service as this to Christianity in the western world."[<a href="#fn_18_1">1</a><a name="fr_18_1"></a>]
+<a name="pg391"></a>
+In 1811 Mr. Buckminster was made the first lecturer in Biblical criticism
+at Harvard, on, the foundation established by the gift of Samuel Dexter;
+and he entered with great interest and enthusiasm upon the work of
+preparing for the duties of this office. We are assured that "this
+appointment was universally thought to be an honor most justly due to his
+pre-eminent attainments in this science";[<a href="#fn_18_2">2</a><a name="fr_18_2"></a>] but his death the next year
+brought these plans to an untimely end.</p>
+
+<p>To some extent the critical work of Buckminster was continued by Edward
+Everett, his successor in the Brattle Street Church. Mr. Everett's
+successor in that pulpit, Rev. John G. Palfrey, became the professor of
+sacred literature in the Harvard Divinity School in 1831, and was the dean
+of that institution. In his lectures on the Jewish Scriptures and
+Antiquities, published in four volumes, from 1833 to 1852, he gave the most
+advanced criticism of the time. A more important work was done by Professor
+Andrews Norton, who was as radical in his labors as a Biblical critic as he
+was conservative in his theology. For the time when they were published,
+his Statement of Reasons, the first edition of which appeared in 1819,
+Historical Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels, 1837-44,
+Translation of the Gospels, with Notes, 1855, Internal Evidences of the
+Genuineness of the Gospels, 1855, have not been surpassed by any other work
+done in this country. As a scholar, he was careful, thorough, honest, and
+uncompromising in his search for the truth. In an extended note added to
+the second volume of his work on the Genuineness of the Gospels he
+<a name="pg392"></a>
+investigated the origin of the Pentateuch and the validity of its
+historical statements. He showed that the work could not have bee its man
+written by Moses, that it was a compilation from prior accounts, and that
+its marvels were not to be accepted as authentic history.[<a href="#fn_18_3">3</a><a name="fr_18_3"></a>] In dealing
+with the New Testament, Professor Norton discarded the first two chapters
+of Matthew, regarding them as later additions. Frothingham speaks of Norton
+as "an accomplished and elegant scholar," and says that his interpretations
+of the Bible were by Unitarians "tacitly received as final." "He was the
+great authority, as bold, fearless, truthful, as he was exact and
+careful."[<a href="#fn_18_4">4</a><a name="fr_18_4"></a>] Although these words of praise intimate that Unitarians were
+too ready to accept the conclusions of Professor Norton as needing no
+emendation, yet his work was searching in its character and thoroughly
+sincere in its methods. Considering the general attitude of scholarship in
+his day, it was bold and uncompromising, as well as accurate and just.</p>
+
+<p>Another scholar was George Rapall Noyes, who was a country pastor in
+Brookfield and Petersham from 1827 to 1840, and devoted his leisure to
+Biblical studies. He became the professor of Hebrew and, lecturer on
+Biblical Literature in the Harvard Divinity School in 1840. His
+translations, with notes, of the poetical books of the Old Testament,
+beginning with Job in 1827, were of great importance as aids, to the
+interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures. His translation of the New
+Testament, which appeared after his death, in 1868, gave the best results
+of critical studies in homely prose, and with painstaking fidelity to the
+<a name="pg393"></a>
+original. That Noyes was in advance of the criticism of his time may be
+indicated by the fact that, when he published his conclusions in regard to
+the Messianic prophecies in 1834,[<a href="#fn_18_5">5</a><a name="fr_18_5"></a>] he was threatened with an indictment
+for blasphemy by the attorney-general of Massachusetts. Better judgment
+prevailed against this attempt to coerce opinion, but that such an
+indictment was seriously considered shows how little genuine criticism
+there was then in existence. What are now the commonplaces of scholarship
+were then regarded as destructive and blasphemous. Noyes said that the
+truth of the Christian religion does not in any sense depend upon the
+literal fulfilment of any predictions in the Old Testament by Jesus as a
+person.[<a href="#fn_18_6">6</a><a name="fr_18_6"></a>] He said that the apostles partook of the errors and prejudices
+of their age,[<a href="#fn_18_7">7</a><a name="fr_18_7"></a>] that the commonly received doctrine of the inspiration
+of the whole Bible is a millstone about the neck of Christianity,[<a href="#fn_18_8">8</a><a name="fr_18_8"></a>] and
+that the Bible contains much that cannot be regarded as revelation.[<a href="#fn_18_9">9</a><a name="fr_18_9"></a>]
+Even as early as 1835 these opinions were generally accepted by Unitarians;
+and they were not thought to impair the true worth of the spiritual
+revelation contained in the Bible, and especially not the divine nature of
+the teachings of Christ. It was very important, as Dr. Joseph Henry Allen
+has said, in speaking of Norton and Noyes, that "these decisive first steps
+were taken by deliberate, conscientious, conservative scholars,--the best
+and soberest scholars we had to show."[<a href="#fn_18_10">10</a><a name="fr_18_10"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The work of Ezra Abbot especially deserves notice here, because of "the
+variety and extent of his learning, the retentiveness and accuracy of his
+<a name="pg394"></a>
+memory, the penetration and fairness of his judgment."[<a href="#fn_18_11">11</a><a name="fr_18_11"></a>] For fourteen
+years previous to his death, in 1884, he was the professor of New Testament
+criticism and interpretation in the Harvard Divinity School. He also
+rendered important service as a member of the American committee on the
+revision of the New Testament. His essay on The Authorship of the Fourth
+Gospel was one of the ablest statements of the conservative view of the
+origin of that writing. The volume of his Critical Essays, collected after
+his death, shows the ripe fruits of his "punctilious and vigilant
+scholarship." He was a zealous Unitarian, and did much to show that the New
+Testament is in harmony with that faith. In 1843 Rev. Theodore Parker
+published his translation of De Wette's Introduction to the New Testament,
+with learned notes. The extreme views of Baur and Zeller were interpreted
+by Rev. O.B. Frothingham in his The Cradle of the Christ, 1872.</p>
+
+<p>Various attempts were also made by those who were not professional scholars
+to bring the Bible into harmony with modern religious ideas. One of the
+most notable of these was that of Dr. William Henry Furness, pastor of the
+church in Philadelphia from 1825 to 1875. His Remarks on the Four Gospels
+appeared in 1835, and was followed by Jesus and his Biographers, 1838,
+Thoughts on the Life and Character of Jesus of Nazareth, 1859, and The Veil
+Partly Lifted and Jesus Becoming Visible, 1864, as well as several other
+works. His attempt was to give a rational interpretation of the life of
+<a name="pg395"></a>
+Jesus that should largely eliminate the miraculous and yet preserve the
+spiritual. These works have little critical value, and yet they have much
+of charm and suggestiveness as religious expositions of the Gospels. Of
+somewhat the same nature was Dr. Edmund H. Sears's The Fourth Gospel: The
+Heart of Christ, 1872, a work of deep spiritual insight.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn120"></a>The Catholic Influence of Harvard University.</h3>
+
+<p>The catholic and inclusive spirit manifested by the Unitarians in their
+Biblical studies is worthy of notice, however, much more than any definite
+results of scholarship produced by them. In the cultivation of the broader
+academic fields which their control of Harvard University brought within
+their reach this attitude is especially conspicuous. At no time since it
+came under their administration has it been used for sectarian purposes, to
+make proselytes or to compel acceptance of their theology. During the first
+half of the nineteenth century, Harvard was in some degree distinctly
+Unitarian; but since 1870 it has been wholly non-sectarian. When the
+Divinity School was organized, it was provided in its constitution that no
+denominational requirements should be exacted of professors or students;
+yet the school was essentially Unitarian until 1878. In that year the
+president, Charles W. Eliot, asked of Unitarians the sum of $130,000 as an
+endowment for the school; but he insisted that it should be henceforth
+wholly unsectarian, and this demand was received with approval and
+enthusiasm by Unitarians themselves.</p>
+
+<p>In 1879 President Eliot said at a meeting held in the First Church in
+Boston for the purpose of appealing to Unitarians in behalf of the school:
+"The Harvard Divinity School is not distinctly Unitarian either by its
+<a name="pg396"></a>
+constitution or by the intention of its founders. The doctrines of the
+unsectarian sect, called in this century Unitarians, are indeed entitled to
+respectful consideration in the school so long as it exists, simply because
+the school was founded, and for two generations, at least, has been
+supported, by Unitarians. But the government of the University cannot
+undertake to appoint none but Unitarian teachers, or to grant any peculiar
+favors to Unitarian students. They cannot, because the founders of the
+school, themselves Unitarians, imposed upon the University the following
+fundamental rule for its administration: that every encouragement shall be
+given to the serious, impartial, and unbiassed investigation of Christian
+truth, and that no assent to the peculiarities of any denomination of
+Christians shall be required either of the instructors or students."[<a href="#fn_18_12">12</a><a name="fr_18_12"></a>]
+Dr. Charles Carroll Everett, dean of the school from 1878 to 1900, has said
+that "in some respects it differs from every other theological seminary in
+the country." "No pains are taken to learn the denominational relations of
+students even when they are applicants for aid." "No oversight is exercised
+over the instruction of any teacher. No teacher is responsible for any
+other or to any other."[<a href="#fn_18_13">13</a><a name="fr_18_13"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>In 1886 compulsory attendance upon prayers was abolished at Harvard
+University. Religious services are regularly held every week-day morning,
+on Thursday afternoons, and on Sunday evenings, being conducted by the
+Plummer professor of Christian morals, with the co-operation of five other
+preachers, who, as well as the Plummer professor, are selected irrespective
+<a name="pg397"></a>
+of denominational affiliations. In this and other ways the university has
+made itself thoroughly unsectarian. Its attitude is that of scientific
+investigation, open-mindedness towards all phases of truth, and freedom of
+teaching. Theology is thus placed on the same basis with other branches of
+knowledge, and religion is made independent of merely dogmatic
+considerations.</p>
+
+<p>This undenominational temper at Harvard University has been developed
+largely under Unitarian auspices. Its presidents for nearly a century have
+been Unitarians, namely: John T. Kirkland, 1810-28; Josiah Quincy, 1829-45;
+Edward Everett, 1846-49; Jared Sparks, 1849-53; James Walker, 1853-60;
+Cornelius C. Felton, 1860-62; Thomas Hill, 1862-68; and Charles W. Eliot
+since 1869. Kirkland, Everett, Sparks, Walker, and Hill were Unitarian
+ministers; but under their administration the university was as little
+sectarian as at any other time.</p>
+
+<p>When the new era of university growth began in 1865, with the founding of
+Cornell University, the influence of Harvard was widely felt in the
+development of great unsectarian educational institutions. Although Ezra
+Cornell was educated as a Friend, he was expelled from that body, and
+connected himself with no other religious sect. He was essentially a
+Unitarian, often attending the preaching of Dr. Rufus P. Stebbins. The
+university which took his name was inspired with the Harvard ideal, and,
+while recognizing religion as one of the great essential phases of human
+thought and life, gave and continues to give equal opportunity to all
+sects.</p>
+
+<p>Another instance of the same spirit is Washington University, which began
+<a name="pg398"></a>
+under Unitarian auspices, but soon developed into an entirely
+undenominational institution. Members of the Unitarian church in St. Louis
+secured a charter for a seminary, which in 1853 was organized as the
+Washington Institute. In 1857 it was reorganized as Washington University,
+and the charter declared, "No instruction, either sectarian in religion or
+party in politics, shall be allowed in any department of said university,
+and no sectarian or party test shall be allowed in the selection of
+professors, teachers, or other officers of said university or in the
+admission of scholars thereof, or for any purpose whatever." Sectarian
+prejudice, however, regarded the university as essentially Unitarian; and
+for the first twenty years of its existence three-fourths of the gifts and
+endowments came from persons of that religious body.</p>
+
+<p>Although Dr. William G. Eliot knew nothing of the original movement for
+forming a seminary under liberal auspices, he gave the institution his
+unstinted support and encouragement. He was the president of the board of
+management from the first, and in 1871 he became the chancellor. At his
+death, in 1887, the university included Smith Academy, Mary Institute, and
+a manual training school, these being large preparatory schools; the
+college proper, school of engineering, Henry Shaw school of botany, St.
+Louis school of fine arts, law school, medical school, and dental college.
+It then had sixteen hundred students and one hundred and sixty instructors.
+The endowments have since been largely increased, the number of students
+has increased to two thousand, and important new buildings have been added.
+Dr. Eliot gave the university its direction and its unsectarian methods,
+and it has attained its present position because of his devoted labors. The
+<a name="pg399"></a>
+Leland Stanford Jr. University in California, and Clark University in
+Massachusetts, both founded by Unitarians, further illustrate the Harvard
+spirit in education.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn121"></a>The Work of Horace Mann.</h3>
+
+<p>Horace Mann was an earnest and devoted Unitarian, the intimate friend of
+Channing and Parker, to both of whom he was largely indebted for his
+intellectual and spiritual ideals. He was inspired by their ideas of reform
+and progress, and to their personal sympathy he owed much. It is now
+universally conceded that to him we are indebted for the diffusion of the
+common-school idea throughout the country, that he developed and brought to
+full expression the conception of universal education. In full sympathy
+with him in this work were such men as Dr. Channing, Edward Everett,
+Theodore Parker, Josiah Quincy, Samuel J. May, and the younger Robert
+Rantoul; but he made the common school popular, and put it forward as a
+national institution. When Mann became the secretary of the Massachusetts
+Board of Education on its creation, in 1837, the theory that all children
+should be educated by the state, if not otherwise provided for, was by no
+means generally accepted; nor was it an accepted theory that such education
+should be strictly unsectarian.[<a href="#fn_18_14">14</a><a name="fr_18_14"></a>] Mann fought the battle for these two
+ideas, and virtually established them for the whole nation. On the first
+board one-half the members were Unitarians,--Horace Mann, the younger
+Robert Rantoul, Jared Sparks, and Edmund Dwight. Some of the staunchest and
+most devoted and most liberal friends of Mann were of other denominations;
+<a name="pg400"></a>
+but the work for common schools was thoroughly in harmony with Unitarian
+principles. Edmund Dwight was largely instrumental in securing the
+establishment of a Board of Education in Massachusetts, and he brought
+about the election of Horace Mann to fill the position of its secretary. He
+was a leading merchant in Boston, and his house was a centre for meetings
+and consultations relating to educational interests. He contributed freely
+for the purpose of enlarging and improving the state system of common
+schools, his donations amounting to not less than $35,000.[<a href="#fn_18_15">15</a><a name="fr_18_15"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The first person to clearly advocate the establishment of schools for the
+training of teachers was Rev. Charles Brooks, minister of the Second
+Unitarian Church in Hingham from 1821 to 1839, afterwards professor of
+natural history in the University of the City of New York, and a reformer
+and author of some reputation in his day. In 1834 he began to write and
+lecture in behalf of common schools, and especially in the interest of
+normal schools.[<a href="#fn_18_16">16</a><a name="fr_18_16"></a>] He spoke throughout the state in behalf of training
+schools, with which he had become acquainted in Prussia; he went before the
+legislature on this subject; and he carried his labors into other
+states.[<a href="#fn_18_17">17</a><a name="fr_18_17"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Horace Mann took up the idea of professional schools for teachers and made
+it effective. Edmund Dwight gave $10,000 to the state for this purpose, and
+schools were established in 1838. When the first of these normal schools
+opened in Lexington, July 3, 1839, its principal was Rev. Cyrus Peirce, who
+had been the minister of the Unitarian church in North Reading from 1819 to
+<a name="pg401"></a>
+1829, and then had been a teacher in North Andover and Nantucket. "Had it
+not been for Cyrus Peirce," wrote Henry Barnard, "I consider the cause of
+Normal Schools would have failed or have been postponed for an indefinite
+period."[<a href="#fn_18_18">18</a><a name="fr_18_18"></a>] Dr. William T. Harris has said that "all Normal School work
+in this country follows substantially one tradition, and this traces back
+to the course laid down by Cyrus Peirce."[<a href="#fn_18_19">19</a><a name="fr_18_19"></a>] In the Lexington school
+Peirce was succeeded by Samuel J. May, who had been settled over Unitarian
+churches in Brooklyn and Scituate.[<a href="#fn_18_20">20</a><a name="fr_18_20"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The work done by Horace Mann for education includes his labors as president
+of Antioch College from 1852 to 1859. He maintained that the chief end of
+education is the development of character; and he sought to make the
+college an altruistic community, in which teachers and students should
+labor together for the best good of all. He put into practice the
+nonsectarian principle, made the college coeducational, and developed the
+spirit of individual freedom as one of cardinal importance in education.
+"The ideas for which he stood," has written one who has carefully studied
+his work in all its phases, "spread abroad among the people of the Ohio
+valley, and showed themselves in various state institutions, normal
+schools, and high schools that were planted in the central west.
+Altogether, apart from Mr. Mann's visible work in Antioch College may be
+found agencies which he set at work, whose influence only eternity can
+<a name="pg402"></a>
+measure. It was a great thing to the new west that a high standard of
+scholarship should be placed before her sons and daughters, and that a few
+hundred of them should be sent out into every corner of the state, and
+ultimately to the farthest boundaries of the nation, with a sound
+scholarship and a love for truth there and then wholly new. His reputation
+for scholarship and zeal gave his opinions greater weight than those of
+almost any other man in the country. As a result the most radical
+educational ideas were received from him with respect; and he carried
+forward the work of giving a practical embodiment to co-education,
+non-sectarianism, and the requirements of practical and efficient moral
+character, as perhaps no other educator could have done. His influence
+among people, and the aspirations which he kindled in thousands of minds by
+public addresses and personal contact, did for the people of the Ohio
+valley a work, the extent and value of which can never be measured."[<a href="#fn_18_21">21</a><a name="fr_18_21"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn122"></a>Elizabeth Peabody and the Kindergarten.</h3>
+
+<p>Horace Mann was largely influenced by Dr. Channing throughout his career as
+an educational reformer,[<a href="#fn_18_22">22</a><a name="fr_18_22"></a>] as was his wife and her sister, Elizabeth P.
+Peabody. It was to Channing that Miss Peabody owed her interest in the work
+of education; and his teachings brought her naturally into association with
+Bronson Alcott, and made her the leader in introducing the kindergarten
+<a name="pg403"></a>
+into this country. She was influenced by the kindergarten method, at an
+early date, and she gave years of devoted labor to its extension. In
+connection with her sister, Mrs. Horace Mann, she wrote Culture in Infancy,
+1863, Guide to the Kindergarten, 1877, and Letters to Kindergartners, 1886.
+As a result of her enthusiastic efforts, kindergartens were opened in
+Boston in 1864; and it was in 1871 that she organized the American Froebel
+Union, which became the kindergarten department of the National Educational
+Association in 1885. The Kindergarten Messenger was begun by her in 1873,
+and was continued under her editorship until 1877, when it was merged in
+The New Education.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Peabody's Kindergarten Guide has been described as one of the most
+important original contributions made to the literature of the subject in
+this country. Her name is most intimately associated with the educational
+progress of the country because of her enthusiasm for the right training of
+children and her spiritual insight as a teacher.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn123"></a>Work of Unitarian Women for Education.</h3>
+
+<p>Much has been done by Unitarian women to advance the cause of education.
+The conversations of Margaret Fuller, held in Boston from 1839 to 1844,
+were an important influence in awakening women to larger intellectual
+interests; and many of those who attended them were afterwards active in
+promoting the educational enterprises of the city. In 1873 Miss Abby
+Williams May, Mrs. Ann Adeline Badger, Miss Lucretia Crocker, and Miss
+Lucia M. Peabody were elected members of the school committee of Boston,
+but did not serve, as their right to act in that capacity was questioned.
+<a name="pg404"></a>
+Thereupon the legislature took action, making women eligible to the office.
+The next year Misses May, Crocker, and Peabody, with Mrs. Kate Gannett
+Wells, Mrs. Mary Safford Blake, and Miss Lucretia Hale, were elected, and
+served. In 1875 Misses Crocker, Hale, May, and Peabody were re-elected; and
+in 1876 Miss Crocker was elected one of the supervisors of the public
+schools of Boston. It is significant that the first women to hold these
+positions were Unitarians. It is also worthy of note that Miss Sarah
+Freeman Clarke, sister of James Freeman Clarke, was the first landscape
+painter of her sex in the country; and that Mrs. Cornelia W. Walter was the
+first woman to edit a large daily newspaper, she having become the editor
+and manager of the Boston Transcript at an early date.</p>
+
+<p>In 1873 was organized by Miss Anna E. Ticknor, daughter of Professor George
+Ticknor, the historian, the Society to encourage Studies at Home. During
+the twenty-four years of its existence it conducted by correspondence the
+reading and studies of over 7,000 women in all parts of the country, and
+did an important work in enlarging the sphere of women, preparing them for
+the work of teachers and for social and intellectual service in many
+directions. The society was discontinued in 1897, because, largely through
+its influence, many other agencies had come in to do the same work; but the
+large lending library, which had been an important feature of the
+activities of the society, was continued under the management of the Anna
+Ticknor Library Association until 1902. The memorial volume, published in
+1897, shows how important had been the work of the Society to encourage
+<a name="pg405"></a>
+Studies at Home, and how many women, who were otherwise deprived of
+intellectual opportunities, were encouraged, helped, and inspired by it. It
+was said of Miss Ticknor, by Samuel Eliot, the president of the society
+throughout the whole period of its existence: "While appreciative of the
+restrictions which she wished to remove, she was desirous to gratify, if
+possible, the aspirations of the large number of women throughout the
+country who would fain obtain an education, and who had little, if any,
+hope of obtaining it. She was very highly educated herself, and thought
+more and more of her responsibility to share her advantages with others not
+possessing them. In addition to these moral and intellectual
+qualifications, she possessed an executive ability brought into constant
+prominence by her work as secretary of the society. She was a teacher, an
+inspirer, a comforter, and, in the best sense, a friend of many and many a
+lonely and baffled life."[<a href="#fn_18_23">23</a><a name="fr_18_23"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The service of Mrs. Mary Hemenway to education also deserves recognition.
+Possessed of large wealth, she devoted it to advancing important
+educational and intellectual interests. She established the Normal School
+of Swedish Gymnastics in Boston, and provided for its maintenance until it
+was adopted by the city as a part of its educational system. With her
+financial support the Hemenway South-western Archaeological Expedition was
+carried on by Frank H. Cushing and J.W. Fewkes. It was largely because of
+her efforts that the Montana Industrial School was established, and
+maintained for about ten years. Her chief work, however, was in the
+promotion of the study of American history on the part of young persons.
+When the Old South Meeting-house was threatened with destruction, she
+<a name="pg406"></a>
+contributed $100,000 towards its preservation; and by her energy and
+perseverance it was devoted to the interests of historical study. The Old
+South Lectures for Young People were organized in 1883, soon after was
+begun the publication of the Old South Leaflets, a series of historical
+prizes was provided for, the Old South Historical Society was organized,
+and historical pilgrimages were established. All this work was placed in
+charge of Mr. Edwin D. Mead; and the New England Magazine, of which he was
+the editor, gave interpretation to these various educational efforts.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hemenway devoted her life to such works as these. It is impossible to
+enumerate here all her noble undertakings; but they were many. "Mrs.
+Hemenway was a woman whose interests and sympathies were as broad as the
+world," says Edwin D. Mead, "but she was a great patriot; and she was
+pre-eminently that. She had a reverent pride in our position of leadership
+in the history and movement of modern democracy; and she had a consuming
+zeal to keep the nation strong and worthy of its best traditions, and to
+kindle this zeal among the young people of the nation. With all her great
+enthusiasms, she was an amazingly practical and definite woman. She wasted
+no time nor strength in vague generalities, either of speech or action.
+Others might long for the time when the kingdom of God should cover the
+earth as the waters cover the sea, and she longed for it; but, while others
+longed, she devoted herself to doing what she could to bring that corner of
+God's world in which she was set into conformity with the laws of God,--and
+this by every means in her power, by teaching poor girls how to make better
+<a name="pg407"></a>
+clothes and cook better dinners and make better homes, by teaching people
+to value health and respect and train their bodies and love better music
+and better pictures and be interested in more important things. Others
+might long for the parliament of man and the federation of the world, and
+so did she; but while others longed, she devoted herself to doing what she
+could to make this nation, for which she was particularly responsible,
+fitter for the federation when it comes. The good state for which she
+worked was a good Massachusetts; and her chief interest, while others
+talked municipal reform, was to make a better Boston."[<a href="#fn_18_24">24</a><a name="fr_18_24"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn124"></a>Popular Education and Public Libraries.</h3>
+
+<p>The interest of Unitarians in popular education and the general diffusion
+of knowledge may be further indicated by a few illustrations. One of these
+is the Lowell Institute in Boston, founded by John Lowell, son of Francis
+Cabot Lowell, and cousin of James Russell Lowell. He was a Boston merchant,
+became an extensive traveller, and died in Bombay, in 1836, at the age of
+thirty-four. In his will he left one-half his fortune for the promotion of
+popular education through lectures, and in other ways. John Amory Lowell
+became the trustee of this fund, nearly $250,000; and in December, 1839,
+the Lowell Institute began its work with a lecture by Edward Everett, which
+gave a biographical account of John Lowell, and a statement of the purposes
+of the Institute. Since that time the Lowell Institute has given to the
+people of Boston, free of charge, from fifty to one hundred lectures each
+winter. The topics treated have taken a wide range, and the lecturers have
+<a name="pg408"></a>
+included many of the ablest men in this and other countries. The work of
+the Lowell Institute has also included free lectures for advanced students
+given in connection with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, science
+lectures to the teachers of Boston, and a free drawing school.</p>
+
+<p>In 1846 Louis Agassiz came to this country to lecture before the Lowell
+Institute. The result was that he became permanently connected with Harvard
+University, and transferred his scientific work to this country. This was
+accomplished by means of the gift of Abbott Lawrence, who founded the
+Lawrence Scientific School in 1847. Although the Lowell Institute was
+founded by a Unitarian, and although it has always been largely managed by
+Unitarians, it has been wholly unsectarian in its work. Many of its
+lecturers have been of that body, but only because they were men of science
+or of literary attainments.</p>
+
+<p>In 1854 Peter Cooper founded the Cooper Union in New York for the
+Advancement of Science and Art, to promote "instruction in branches of
+knowledge by which men and women earn their daily bread; in laws of health
+and improvement of the sanitary conditions of families as well as
+individuals; in social and political science, whereby communities and
+nations advance in virtue, wealth, and power; and finally in matters which
+affect the eye, the ear, and the imagination, and furnish a basis for
+recreation to the working classes." He erected a large building, and
+established therein the Cooper Institute, with its reading-room, library,
+lectures, schools, and other facilities for bringing the means of education
+within reach of those who could not otherwise obtain them.</p>
+
+<a name="pg409"></a>
+<p>Peter Cooper was an earnest Unitarian in his opinions, attending the church
+of Dr. Bellows; but he was wholly without sectarian bias. In a letter
+addressed to the delegates to the Evangelical Alliance, at its session held
+in New York in 1873, he expressed the catholicity and the humanitarian
+spirit of his religion. "I look to see the day," he wrote, "when the
+teachers of Christianity will rise above all the cramping power and
+influence of conflicting creeds and systems of human device, when they will
+beseech mankind by all the mercies of God to be reconciled to the
+government of love, the only government that can ever bring the kingdom of
+heaven into the hearts of mankind either here or hereafter."</p>
+
+<p>About 1825 there was opened in Dublin, N.H., under the auspices of Rev.
+Levi W. Leonard, minister of the Unitarian church in that village, the
+first library in the country that was free to all the inhabitants of a town
+or city. In the adjoining town of Peterboro, in 1833, under the leadership
+of Rev. Abiel Abbot, also the Unitarian minister, a library was established
+by vote of the town. This library was maintained by the town itself, being
+the first in the country supported from the tax rates of a municipality. In
+the work of these Unitarian ministers may be found the beginnings of the
+present interest in the establishment and growth of free public libraries.</p>
+
+<p>In the founding and endowment of libraries, Unitarians have taken an active
+part. What they have done in this direction may be illustrated by the gift
+of Enoch Pratt of one and a quarter million dollars to the public library
+in Baltimore. Concerning the time when Jared Sparks was the minister of the
+Unitarian church in Baltimore, Professor Herbert B. Adams has said: "Some
+<a name="pg410"></a>
+of the most generous and public-spirited people of Baltimore were connected
+with the first independent church. Afterwards, men who were to be most
+helpful in the upbuilding of Baltimore's greatest institutions--the Peabody
+Institute, the Pratt Library, and the Johns Hopkins University--were
+associated with the Unitarian society."[<a href="#fn_18_25">25</a><a name="fr_18_25"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Professor Barrett Wendell speaks of George Ticknor as "the chief founder of
+the chief public library in the United States."[<a href="#fn_18_26">26</a><a name="fr_18_26"></a>] Ticknor undoubtedly
+did more than anybody else to make the Boston Public Library the great
+institution it has become, not only in giving it his own collection of
+books, but also in its inception and in its organization. The best working
+library in the country, that of the Boston Athenaeum, also owes a very
+large debt to the early Unitarians, with whom it originated, and by whom it
+was largely maintained in its early days.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn125"></a>Mayo's Southern Ministry of Education.</h3>
+
+<p>One of the most important contributions to the work of education has been
+that of Rev. Amory D. Mayo, known as the "Ministry of Education in the
+South." After settlements over churches in Gloucester, Cleveland, Albany,
+Cincinnati, and Springfield, Mr. Mayo began his southern work in 1880. He
+had an extensive preparation for his southern labors, having served on the
+school boards of Cincinnati and Springfield for fifteen years, lectured
+extensively on educational subjects, and been a frequent contributor to
+educational periodicals. He has written a History of Common Schools, which
+<a name="pg411"></a>
+is published by the national Bureau of Education, prepared several of the
+Circulars of Information of that bureau, and printed a great number of
+educational pamphlets and addresses.</p>
+
+<p>"One of the most helpful agencies in the work of free and universal
+education in the South, for the last twenty years," says Dr. J.L.M. Curry
+in a personal letter, "has been the ministry of A.D. Mayo. His intelligent
+zeal, his instructive addresses, his tireless energy, have made him a
+potent factor in this great work; and any history of what the Unitarian
+denomination has done would be very imperfect which did not make proper and
+grateful recognition of his valuable services."</p>
+
+<p><br />[<a href="#fr_18_1">1</a><a name="fn_18_1"></a>] Christian Examiner, XLVII. 186; Mrs. E.B. Lee, Memoirs of the
+    Buckminsters, 325.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_2">2</a><a name="fn_18_2"></a>] Memoir of Buckminster, introductory to his Sermons, published in
+    1814, xxxii.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_3">3</a><a name="fn_18_3"></a>] The Pentateuch and its Relation to the Jewish and Christian
+    Dispensation. By Andrews Norton. Edited by John James Tayler, London,
+    1863. This was the Note, with introduction.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_4">4</a><a name="fn_18_4"></a>] Boston Unitarianism, 244.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_5">5</a><a name="fn_18_5"></a>] Hengstenberg's Christology, Christian Examiner, July, 1834, XVI. 321.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_6">6</a><a name="fn_18_6"></a>] Ibid., 327.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_7">7</a><a name="fn_18_7"></a>] Ibid., 356.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_8">8</a><a name="fn_18_8"></a>] Ibid., 357.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_9">9</a><a name="fn_18_9"></a>] Ibid., 358.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_10">10</a><a name="fn_18_10"></a>] Our Liberal Movement in Theology, 68.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_11">11</a><a name="fn_18_11"></a>] The Authorship of the Fourth Gospel and Other Critical Essays
+     selected from the published papers of Ezra Abbot, edited, with
+     preface, by Professor J.H. Thayer.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_12">12</a><a name="fn_18_12"></a>] The Divinity School of Harvard University: Its History, Courses of
+     Study, Aims, and Advantages, published by the University, 9.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_13">13</a><a name="fn_18_13"></a>] The Divinity School as it is, Harvard Graduates' Magazine, June,
+     1897.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_14">14</a><a name="fn_18_14"></a>] B.A. Hinsdale, Horace Mann and the Common School Revival in the
+     United States, 127.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_15">15</a><a name="fn_18_15"></a>] B.A. Hinsdale, Horace Mann and the Common School Revival in the
+     United States, 148.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_16">16</a><a name="fn_18_16"></a>] Henry Barnard, Normal Schools, 125.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_17">17</a><a name="fn_18_17"></a>] B.A. Hinsdale, Horace Mann, 147.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_18">18</a><a name="fn_18_18"></a>] Quoted by J.P. Gordy, Rise and Growth of the Normal School Idea in
+     the United States, Circular of Information of the Bureau of
+     Education, 1891, 49.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_19">19</a><a name="fn_18_19"></a>] Ibid., 43.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_20">20</a><a name="fn_18_20"></a>] S.J. May, Memoir of Cyrus Peirce, Barnard's American Journal of
+     Education, December, 1857.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_21">21</a><a name="fn_18_21"></a>] G.A. Hubbell, Horace Mann in Ohio: A Study of the Application of his
+     Public School Ideals to College Administration, No. IV. of Vol. VII.,
+     Columbia University Contributions to Philosophy, Psychology, and
+     Education, 50.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_22">22</a><a name="fn_18_22"></a>] Mary Mann, Life of Horace Mann, 44; Henry Barnard, Normal Schools,
+     93.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_23">23</a><a name="fn_18_23"></a>] Memorial Volume, 2.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_24">24</a><a name="fn_18_24"></a>] Edwin D. Mead, The Old South Work, 1900; also Memorial Sermon, by
+     Charles G. Ames, 17.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_25">25</a><a name="fn_18_25"></a>] Life and Writings of Jared Sparks, I. 141.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_18_26">26</a><a name="fn_18_26"></a>] A Literary History of America, 266.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<a name="pg412"></a>
+<h2><br /><a name="ch19"></a>XIX.<br />
+
+
+UNITARIANISM AND LITERATURE.</h2>
+
+<p>The history of American literature is intimately connected with the history
+of Unitarianism in this country. The influences that caused the growth of
+Unitarianism were those, to a large extent, that produced American
+literature. It was not merely Harvard College that had this effect, as has
+been often asserted; for the other colleges did not become the centres of
+literary activity. It was more distinctly the freedom, the breadth of
+intellectual interest, and the sympathy with what was human and natural
+developed by the Unitarian movement that were favorable to the growth of
+literature. Yet from the beginning of the eighteenth century Harvard
+fostered the spirit of inquiry, and helped to set the mind free from the
+theological and classical predispositions that had checked its natural
+growth. A taste for literature was encouraged, theology took on a broad and
+humanitarian character, and there was a growing appreciation of art and
+poetry. Harvard College helped to bring men into contact with European
+thought, and thus opened to them fresh and stimulating sources of
+intellectual interest.</p>
+
+<p>During the last quarter of the eighteenth century and the first half of the
+nineteenth New England was largely devoted to commercial enterprises.
+Every coast town of any size from Newport to Belfast was concerned with
+<a name="pg413"></a>
+ship-building and with trade to foreign ports. Such towns as Boston and
+Salem traded with China, India, and many other parts of the world. Not only
+was wealth largely increased by this commercial activity, but the influence
+upon life and thought was very great. The mind was emancipated, and
+religion grew more liberal and humane, as the result of this contact with
+foreign lands. Along the whole coast, within the limits named, there was an
+abandonment of Puritanism and a growth into a genial and humanitarian
+interpretation of Christianity. In New York City somewhat the same results
+were produced, at least on social and intellectual life, though with less
+immediate effect upon religion. It was in these regions, in which
+commercial contact with the great outside world set the mind free and
+awakened the imagination, that American literature was born.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn126"></a>Influence of Unitarian Environment.</h3>
+
+<p>The influence of Unitarian culture and literary tastes is shown by the
+considerable number of literary men who were the sons of Unitarian
+ministers. Ralph Waldo Emerson was the son of William Emerson, the minister
+of the First Church in Boston at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
+George Bancroft was the son of Aaron Bancroft, the first Unitarian minister
+in Worcester, and the first president of the American Unitarian
+Association. To Charles Lowell, of the West Church in Boston, were born
+James Russell Lowell and Robert T.S. Lowell. The father of Francis Parkman
+was of the same name, and was for many years the minister of the New North
+Church in Boston. Richard Hildreth was the son of Hosea Hildreth, Unitarian
+minister in Gloucester. Octavius Brooks Frothingham was the son of
+<a name="pg414"></a>
+Nathaniel L. Frothingham, minister of the First Church in Boston. Joseph
+Allen, father of Joseph Henry Allen and William Francis Allen, was the
+minister in Northboro for many years. Of literary workers now living
+William Everett is the son of Edward Everett, Charles Eliot Norton of
+Andrews Norton, and William Wells Newell of William Newell, minister of the
+First Church in Cambridge for many years.</p>
+
+<p>This influence is shown in the large number of literary men who studied at
+the Harvard Divinity School and began their career as Unitarian ministers.
+It may be partly accounted for by the fact that at the beginning of the
+nineteenth century literature offered but a precarious opportunity to men
+of talent and genius. The respect then accorded to ministers, the wide
+influence they were able to exert, and the many intellectual opportunities
+offered by the profession, naturally attracted many young men. During the
+first part of the nineteenth century no other profession was so attractive,
+and enthusiasm for it was large amongst the students of Harvard College. As
+literary openings began to present themselves, many of these men found
+other occupations, partly because their tastes were intellectual rather
+than theological, and partly because the radical ferment made the pulpit no
+longer acceptable. Such a man as Edward Everett would never have entered
+the pulpit, had it not been socially and intellectually most attractive at
+the time when he began his career. In the instance of Samuel A. Eliot, who
+took the full course in the Divinity School, but did not preach, being
+afterward mayor of Boston and member of Congress the influences at work
+were probably much the same.</p>
+
+<p>George Bancroft is another instance of a graduate of the Divinity School
+<a name="pg415"></a>
+who did not enter the pulpit, but, beginning his career as a teacher,
+devoted his life to literature and diplomacy. With such men as Christopher
+P. Cranch, artist and poet; George P. Bradford, teacher, thinker, and
+friend of literary men; H.G.O. Blake, editor of Thoreau's Journals; J.L.
+Sibley, librarian; John Albee, poet and essayist; and William Cushing,
+bibliographer, the cause operating was probably the same,--the discovery
+that the chosen profession was not acceptable or that some other was
+preferable. Another group of men, including John G. Palfrey, Jared Sparks,
+William Ware, Horatio Alger, James K. Hosmer, Edward Rowland Sill and
+William Wells Newell, who occupied Unitarian pulpits for brief periods,
+were drawn into literary occupations as more congenial to their tastes. The
+same influence doubtless served to withdraw Emerson, George Ripley, John S.
+Dwight, Thomas W. Higginson, Moncure D. Conway, and Francis E. Abbot, from
+the pulpit; but with these men there was also a break with traditional
+Christianity.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn127"></a>Literary Tendencies.</h3>
+
+<p>The early Unitarian movement in New England was literary and religious
+rather than theological. The men who have been most influential in
+determining the course of Unitarian development, such as Charming, Dewey,
+Parker, and Hedge, not to include Emerson, who has been a greater
+affirmative leader than either of the others, were first of all preachers,
+and their published works were originally given to the world from the
+pulpit. They made no effort to produce a Unitarian system of theology; and
+it would have been quite in opposition to the genius of the movement, had
+they entered upon such a task.</p>
+
+<p>With the advent of the Unitarian movement, for the first time in the
+<a name="pg416"></a>
+history of the American pulpit did the sermon become a literary product.
+Channing and his coworkers, especially Buckminster and Everett, departed
+widely from the pulpit traditions of New England, ceased to quote texts,
+abandoned theological exposition, refrained from the exhortatory method,
+and addressed men and women in literary language about the actual interests
+of daily life. Their preaching was not metaphysical, and it was not
+declamatory. The illustrations used were human rather than Biblical, a
+preference was given to what was intellectual rather than to what was
+emotional, and the effect was instruction rather than conversion. It
+resulted in faithful living, good citizenship, fidelity to duty, love of
+the neighbor, and an earnest helpfulness toward the poor and unfortunate.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn128"></a>Literary Tastes of Unitarian Ministers.</h3>
+
+<p>In studying any considerable list of Unitarian ministers, and taking note
+of their personal tastes and their avocations, it will be seen that a large
+number of them were lovers of literature, and ardently devoted much of
+their time to literary pursuits. Not only was there a decidedly literary
+flavor about their preaching, but they were frequent contributors to The
+Christian Examiner and The North American Review; and they wrote poems,
+novels, books of travel, essays, and histories. They were conspicuous in
+historical and scientific societies, in promoting scientific
+investigations, in advancing archaeological researches, in every kind of
+learned inquiry. Their intellectual interests were so catholic and so
+vigorous that they were not contented with parish and pulpit, and in some
+cases it would seem that the avocation was as important as the vocation
+itself.</p>
+
+<a name="pg417"></a>
+<p>Dr. Channing would be named as the man who has done most to give direction
+to the currents of Unitarian thought on theological problems, but he was
+also conspicuously a philanthropist and reformer. He was less a theologian,
+in the technical sense, than one who taught men to live in the spirit. His
+spiritual insight, humanitarian sympathies, and imaginative fellowship with
+all forms of human experience gave his writings a literary charm and power
+of a high order. He was a great religious teacher and inspirer, a preacher
+of unsurpassed gifts of spiritual interpretation, and a prophet of the
+truer religious life.</p>
+
+<p>The Unitarian leaders who were influenced by the transcendental movement,
+of which the most prominent were Parker, Hedge, Clarke, and C.C. Everett,
+interpreted theology in the broadest spirit. Parker was essentially a
+preacher and reformer. It was the one conspicuous aim of his life to
+liberate religion from the intellectual thraldom of the past, and to bring
+it into the open air of the world, where it might be informed of daily
+experience and gain for itself a rightful opportunity. He was therefore
+literary, imaginative, ethical, practical. He wrote for The Dial, and
+established The Massachusetts Review, he was one of the most widely heard
+of popular lecturers, and he was a leader in the most radical of the
+reforms prominent in his day. Parker made all wisdom subservient to his
+religion, treated a wide range of subjects in his pulpit, and brought
+religion into immediate contact with human life.</p>
+
+<p>Frederic H. Hedge did more than any other man to give Unitarianism a
+consistent philosophy and theology. His Reason in Religion and Ways of the
+Spirit have had a profound influence in shaping the thought of the
+<a name="pg418"></a>
+denomination, and have led all American Unitarians to accept his view of
+the universality of incarnation and the consubstantiality of man and God.
+He was wise as an interpreter, and by no means wanting in originality, a
+brilliant essayist, a philosophical historian, and a student of high
+themes. His Prose Writers of Germany, Hours with the German Classics,
+Primeval World of Hebrew Tradition, and Atheism in Philosophy show the
+range of his interests and his ability as a thinker.</p>
+
+<p>James Freeman Clarke may be selected as a typical Unitarian minister, who
+wrote poetry, was more than once an editor, often appeared on the lecture
+platform, was a frequent contributor to the leading periodicals, wrote
+several works of biography and history, gave himself zealously to the
+advocacy of the noblest reforms, and produced many volumes of sermons that
+have in an unusual degree the merit of directness, literary grace,
+suggestiveness, and spiritual warmth and insight. His theological writings
+have been widely read by Unitarians and those not of that fellowship. His
+Self-culture has been largely circulated as a manual of practical ethics.
+His Ten Great Religions and its companion volume opened the way in this
+country for the recognition of the comparative study of religious
+developments. Not content with so wide a range of studies, he wrote Thomas
+Didymus, an historical romance concerned with New Testament characters, How
+to find the Stars, and Exotics, a volume of poetical translation. He was a
+maker of many books, and all of them were well made. His theology was all
+the more humane, and his preaching was all the more effective, because he
+was interested in many subjects and had a real mastery of them.</p>
+
+<a name="pg419"></a>
+<p>Charles Carroll Everett was a philosophical thinker and theologian, and the
+younger generation of Unitarian ministers has been largely influenced by
+him. His theological work was done in the lecture-room, but it was of
+first-rate importance. He was a profound thinker, a vigorous writer, and an
+inspiring teacher. He was an able theologian, philosophical in thought, but
+deeply spiritual in insight. His work on The Science of Thought shows the
+depth and vigor of his thinking; but his volumes on The Gospel of Paul,
+Religions before Christianity, Poetry, Comedy, and Duty, suggest the
+breadth of his inquiries and the richness of his philosophical
+investigations. In his position as the dean of the Harvard Divinity School
+he accomplished his best work, and there his great ability as theologian
+and philosophical thinker made itself amply manifest.</p>
+
+<p>Another group of men largely influenced by the transcendental movement
+included David A. Wasson, John Weiss, Samuel Johnson, Samuel Longfellow,
+Cyrus A. Bartol, Octavius K Frothingham, and William J. Potter. Here we see
+the literary tendency showing itself distinctly and to much advantage. The
+first four of these men wrote exquisite hymns and spiritual lyrics, and all
+of them were contributors to periodical literature or writers of books.
+Weiss was a literary critic of no mean merit in his lectures on Greek and
+Shakespearean subjects; and his volumes on American Religion and Immortal
+Life were purely literary in their method. However deficient were Johnson's
+books on the religions of India, China, and Persia, from the point, of view
+of the science of religion, they have not yet been surpassed as
+interpretations of the inner spirit of Oriental religions. Bartol was a
+master of an incisive literary method in the pulpit, that gives to his
+<a name="pg420"></a>
+Radical Problems, The Rising Faith, and Principles and Portraits a
+scintillating power all their own, with epigram and flash of wit on every
+page. Frothingham published many a volume of sermons; but his biographies
+of Parker, Gerrit Smith, Wasson, Johnson, Ripley, Channing, and his volume
+on the History of Transcendentalism in New England, as well as his Boston
+Unitarianism, and Recollections and Impressions, indicate that his literary
+interests were quite as active as his theological.</p>
+
+<p>The literary tastes of Unitarian ministers are indicated by the large
+number of them who have written poetry that passes beyond the limits of
+mediocrity. The names of John Pierpont, Andrews Norton, Samuel Gilman,
+Nathaniel L. Frothingham, the younger Henry Ware, W.B.O. Peabody, William
+Henry Furness, William Newell, William Parsons Lunt, Frederic H. Hedge,
+James F. Clarke, Theodore Parker, Chandler Robbins, Edmund H. Sears,
+Charles T. Brooks, Robert C. Waterston, Thomas Hill, and others, have been
+lovingly commemorated in Alfred P. Putnam's Singers and Songs of the
+Liberal Faith. Hymns of nearly all these men are in common use in many
+congregations, and some of their work has found a place in every hymnal.</p>
+
+<p>No one can read the sermons of Thomas Starr King without feeling their
+literary grace and finish of style, as well as their intellectual vigor.
+His lectures marked his literary interest, which shows itself in his
+Christianity and Humanity and his Substance and Show. Especially does it
+appear in his delightful book on The White Hills, their Legends, Landscape,
+and Poetry. In his day, Henry Giles was widely known as a lecturer; and his
+numerous volumes of literary interpretation and criticism, especially his
+<a name="pg421"></a>
+Human Life in Shakespeare, were read with appreciation. In his District
+School as it was, and My Religious Experience at my Native Home, Warren
+Burton described in simple but effective prose a kind of life that has long
+since passed away. His educational lectures and books helped on the cause
+of public school education, a subject in which he was greatly interested.</p>
+
+<p>Unitarian ministers have also made many contributions to local and general
+history. The history of King's Chapel by Francis W.P. Greenwood may be
+mentioned as a specimen of the former kind of work; but Greenwood also
+published several volumes of sermons, as well as biographical and literary
+volumes. A History of the Second Church in Boston, with Lives of Increase
+and Cotton Mather, was published by Chandler Robbins. The theological
+history of Unitarianism was ably discussed by George E. Ellis in A
+Half-century of the Unitarian Controversy. He devoted much attention to the
+history of New England, gave many lectures and addresses on subjects
+connected therewith, published biographies of Anne Hutchinson, William
+Penn, Count Rumford, Jared Sparks, and Charles W. Upham. His volumes on The
+Red Man and the White Man in North America, The Puritan Theocracy, and
+others, show his historical ability and his large grasp of his subjects.
+Joseph Henry Allen published an Historical Sketch of the Unitarian Movement
+since the Reformation, in the American Church History series. In Our
+Liberal Movement in Theology, and its Sequel, he critically and
+appreciatively treated of the history of Unitarianism in New England, and
+of the men who were most important in its development. His taste for
+historical studies appeared in his Christian History in its Three Great
+<a name="pg422"></a>
+Periods, a work of admirable critical judgment, sobriety of statement, and
+concise presentation of the essential facts.</p>
+
+<p>Alvan Lamson produced a book of critical value in The Church of the First
+Three Centuries, which treats of the origin of the Trinitarian beliefs
+during that period. A work of a similar character was done by Frederic
+Huidekoper, in whose books were included the results of many years of
+minute research, and of critical investigation into the origins of
+Christianity.</p>
+
+<p>Books of a widely different nature were written by Artemas B. Muzzey in his
+Personal Recollection of the Men in the Battle of Lexington, and
+Reminiscences of Men of the Revolution and their Families. He published
+several volumes of sermons, as well as a number of educational works.
+Somewhat of a theologian and an ardent student and expounder of philosophy,
+William R. Alger has made himself widely known by his books on The Genius
+of Solitude, Friendships of Women, and The School of Life. His fine
+literary judgments, his artistic appreciations, and his richness of
+sentiment and imagination show themselves in these attractive volumes. He
+has also published a Life of Edwin Forrest, with a Critical History of the
+Dramatic Art. His Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life is a
+work of ripe scholarship and great literary merit, and is everywhere
+recognized as an authority.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn129"></a>Unitarians as Historians.</h3>
+
+<p>In the chapter on historians, in his American Literature, Professor Charles
+F. Richardson enumerates seventeen writers, twelve of whom were Unitarians.
+It was in Cambridge and Boston, amongst the graduates of Harvard College,
+<a name="pg423"></a>
+that American historical writing began, and that it attained its greatest
+successes. The same causes that had given the Unitarians pre-eminence in
+other directions made them especially so in this, where wide learning and
+sound criticism were of importance. Wealth, leisure, intellectual
+emancipation, sympathetic interest in all that is human, combined with
+scholarship and plodding industry, gave the historians an unusual equipment
+for their tasks.</p>
+
+<p>It may be justly said that historical writing in this country began with
+Jeremy Belknap, the predecessor of Dr. Channing in the Federal Street
+Church. When settled in Dover, he wrote his History of New Hampshire; and
+after his removal to Boston he produced a biography of Watts and two
+volumes of American Biographies. He first voiced the historical interest
+that was awakened by the establishment of national independence, and the
+desire to know of the past of the American people. His chief service to
+historical studies, however, was in the formation of the Massachusetts
+Historical Society.</p>
+
+<p>Hannah Adams was not only a Unitarian, but the first woman in this country
+to enter upon a literary career. Her View of Religious Opinions, first
+issued in 1784, afterwards changed to a Dictionary of Religions, was the
+earliest work attempting to give an account of all the religions of the
+world. It was followed by her History of New England, and by her History of
+the Jews. She also took part in the religious controversies of the day, her
+contest with Dr. Jedediah Morse being one of the minor phases of the
+struggle between the Unitarians and the Orthodox Congregationalists; and
+her Evidences of Christianity, as well as her letters on the Gospels, were
+<a name="pg424"></a>
+written from the Unitarian point of view. Her books had no literary value,
+but in their time they helped to foster the growing interest in American
+subjects.</p>
+
+<p>Alexander Young, minister of the New South Church in Boston, rendered
+valuable service to historical investigations by his Chronicles of the
+Pilgrim Fathers of the Colony of Plymouth and his Chronicles of the First
+Planters of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, works that were scholarly,
+accurate, and judicious. Perhaps his most important service was the editing
+of the Library of Old English Prose Writers, in nine volumes, which
+appeared from 1831 to 1834, and included such works as Sidney's Defence of
+Poesie and Sir Thomas Browne's Urn Burial. Of his historical works, O.B.
+Frothingham has justly said that "they showed extensive and accurate
+knowledge, extraordinary zeal in research, singular impartiality of
+judgment, great activity of mind, a strong inclination towards ethical as
+distinguished from speculative subjects, a passionate love of books and
+elegant letters."[<a href="#fn_19_1">1</a><a name="fr_19_1"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Of the greater historians, Bancroft, Prescott, Motley, Hildreth, Sparks,
+Palfrey, Ticknor, Parkman, Higginson, Parton, and Fiske were Unitarians.
+Three of these men were sons of Unitarian ministers, and four of them
+prepared for that profession or entered upon its duties. It is not
+desirable that any attempt should be made here to estimate their historical
+labors, for their position and their achievements are well known.</p>
+
+<p>It would be interesting to give an account of the Unitarian connections and
+sympathies of these writers, but the materials are not at hand in the case
+<a name="pg425"></a>
+of most of them. One or two illustrations will suffice for them all,
+indicating their religious tastes and preferences. In 1829 Prescott made a
+careful examination of the evidences for belief in Christianity, and his
+biographer says that "the conclusions at which he arrived were, that the
+narratives of the Gospels were authentic; and that, even if Christianity
+were not a divine revelation, no system of morals was so likely to fit him
+for happiness here and hereafter. But he did not find in the Gospels or in
+any part of the New Testament the doctrines commonly accounted orthodox,
+and he deliberately recorded his rejection of them." At a later time he
+stated his creed in these words: "To do well and act justly, to fear and to
+love God, and to love our neighbor as ourselves--in these is the essence of
+religion. To do this is the safest, our only safe course. For what we can
+believe we are not responsible, supposing we examine candidly and
+patiently. For what we do we shall indeed be accountable. The doctrines of
+the Saviour unfold the whole code of morals by which our conduct should be
+regulated."[<a href="#fn_19_2">2</a><a name="fr_19_2"></a>] Prescott was a regular attendant at the First Church in
+Boston.</p>
+
+<p>In his biography of George Ticknor, George S. Hilliard says that "the
+strong religious impressions which Mr. Ticknor received in early years
+deepened as his character matured into personal convictions, the confirmed
+and ruling principles of his life. He had been brought up in the doctrines
+of Calvinistic orthodoxy, but later serious reflection led him to reject
+those doctrines; and soon after his return from Europe he joined Dr.
+Channing's church, of which he continued through life a faithful member. He
+<a name="pg426"></a>
+was a sincere Liberal Christian, and his convictions were firm, but they
+were held without bigotry, and he never allowed them to interfere with
+kindliness and courtesy." It may be added that Ticknor was an active member
+of the church with which he was connected, that in 1822 he took charge of a
+class of boys in the Sunday-school, which he kept for eight years. In 1839
+and the next year he gave a course of instruction in the history and
+contents of the Bible to a class of young girls, for which he prepared
+himself carefully.[<a href="#fn_19_3">3</a><a name="fr_19_3"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>The influence exerted by the historians in teaching love of country and a
+true patriotism may be accounted as very large. That men thoroughly
+grounded in principles of religious liberty, in high ideals of justice and
+humanity, in the broadest spirit of toleration and freedom of opinion,
+should have written our histories, is of no small importance in the
+formation of American character. That they have made many Unitarians we
+cannot suppose, but that their influence has been large in the development
+of a true spirit of nationality we have a right to think. They have
+indicated concretely the effects of bigotry and intolerance, and they have
+not failed to point out the defects in the practices of the Puritans. In so
+far as they have had to deal with religious subjects, they have taught the
+true Unitarian idea of liberty of conscience and freedom of opinion. They
+have wisely helped to make it possible for many religions to live kindly
+side by side, and to give every creed the right of utterance. These ideals
+had been developed before our historians began to write, but these men have
+helped to make them the inheritance of the whole nation. All the more
+<a name="pg427"></a>
+effective has been their teaching that it has grown out of the events of
+our history, and has not been the voice of a merely personal opinion. But
+we owe much to them that they have seen the true meaning of our history,
+and that they have uttered it with clearness of interpretation and with
+vigorous moral emphasis.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn130"></a>Scientific Unitarians.</h3>
+
+<p>A considerable number of the leading men of science have been Unitarians.
+Notable among the mathematicians were Nathaniel Bowditch, Benjamin Peirce,
+and Thomas Hill, who was president of Antioch College and of Harvard
+University. Among the astronomers have been Benjamin Gould, Maria Mitchell,
+Asaph Hall, and Edward C. Picketing. Of Maria Mitchell it was said that she
+"was entirely ignorant of the peculiar phrases and customs of rigid
+sectarians." Her biographer says she "never joined any church, but for
+years before she left Nantucket she attended the Unitarian church, and her
+sympathies, as long as she lived, were with that denomination, especially
+with the more liberally inclined portion."[<a href="#fn_19_4">4</a><a name="fr_19_4"></a>] James Jackson, the first
+physician of the Massachusetts General Hospital, should be named in this
+connection. Joseph Lovering, the physicist, and Jeffries Wyman, the
+comparative anatomist, are also to be included. And here belongs Louis
+Agassiz, who has had more influence than any other man in developing an
+interest in science among the people generally. He gave to scientific
+investigations the largest importance for scientific men themselves. At the
+same time he was a religious man and a theist. "In religion," says his
+<a name="pg428"></a>
+biographer, "Agassiz very liberal and tolerant, and respected the views and
+convictions of every one. In his youth and early manhood, Agassiz was
+undoubtedly a materialist, or, more exactly, a sceptic; but in time, and
+little by little, his studies led him to belief in a divine Creative Power.
+He was more in sympathy with Unitarianism than with any other Christian
+denomination."[<a href="#fn_19_5">5</a><a name="fr_19_5"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn131"></a>Unitarian Essayists.</h3>
+
+<p>A considerable number of essayists, lecturers, and general writers have
+been Unitarians. Among these have been Edwin P. Whipple, George Ripley,
+Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney, John S. Dwight, Professor Charles Eliot Norton, Henry
+T. Tuckerman, James T. Fields, and Professor Francis J. Child. These
+writers represent several phases of Unitarian opinion, but they belong to
+this fellowship by birthright or intellectual sympathies. In the same
+company may be placed Henry D. Thoreau and John Burroughs, not because they
+had any direct connection with Unitarianism, but because the religious
+convictions they expressed are such as most Unitarians accept.</p>
+
+<p>To the Unitarian fellowship belong Margaret Fuller, Lydia Maria Child,
+Caroline M. Kirkland, Grace Greenwood (Mrs. Lippincott), and Julia Ward
+Howe. All the early associations of Margaret Fuller were with Unitarians;
+and her brother, Arthur Fuller, became a Unitarian minister. In her maturer
+life she was with the transcendentalists, finding in Rev. W.H. Channing and
+Emerson her spiritual teachers. Writing of her debt to Emerson, she said,
+"His influence has been more beneficial to me than that of any American;
+and from him I first learned what is meant by an inward life."[<a href="#fn_19_6">6</a><a name="fr_19_6"></a>] She was
+<a name="pg429"></a>
+a pronounced individualist, an intense lover of spiritual liberty, a friend
+of those who live in the spirit. This may be seen in what she called her
+credo, a sentence or two from which will indicate her type of thought. "I
+will not loathe sects, persuasions, systems," she writes, "though I cannot
+abide in them one moment; for I see that by most men they are still
+needed." "Ages may not produce one worthy to loose the shoes of the Prophet
+of Nazareth; yet there will surely be another manifestation of this word
+which was in the beginning. The very greatness of this manifestation
+demands a greater. We have had a Messiah to teach and reconcile. Let us now
+have a man to live out all the symbolical forms of human life, with the
+calm beauty of a Greek god, with the deep consciousness of Moses, with the
+holy love and purity of Jesus."[<a href="#fn_19_7">7</a><a name="fr_19_7"></a>]</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn132"></a>Unitarian Novelists.</h3>
+
+<p>Among the novelists have been several who were Unitarian ministers,
+including Sylvester Judd, William Ware, Thomas W. Higginson, and Edward
+Everett Hale. Judd's Margaret was of the very essence of transcendentalism,
+besides being an excellent interpretation of some of the phases of New
+England character. Ware's historical novels were popular in their day, and
+are now worth going back to by modern readers, and especially by those who
+do not insist upon having their romances hot from the press. Catherine M.
+Sedgwick is another novelist worth returning to by modern readers, and
+especially by those who would know of New England life in the early part of
+the nineteenth century. She became an ardent Unitarian, and her biography
+gives interesting glimpses of the early struggles of that faith in York
+<a name="pg430"></a>
+City. Other Unitarian women novelists were Lydia Maria Child, Grace
+Greenwood, Helen Hunt Jackson, Louisa M. Alcott, and Harriet Prescott
+Spofford.</p>
+
+<p>In naming John T. Trowbridge, Bayard Taylor, Bret Harte, William D.
+Howells, and Nathaniel Hawthorne as Unitarians, no merely sectarian aim is
+in view. In the common use of the word, Hawthorne was not a religious man;
+for he rarely attended church, and he had no interest in ecclesiastical
+formalities. No man who has written in this country, however, was more
+deeply influenced than he by those spiritual ideas and traditions which may
+be properly called Unitarian. The same may be said of Howells, who is not a
+Unitarian in any denominational sense; but his religious interests and
+convictions bring him into sympathy with the movement represented by
+Unitarianism.</p>
+
+<p>It may be said of the most popular novels of Edward Everett Hale, such as
+Ten Times One Is Ten, In His Name, His Level Best, that they are the best
+possible interpretations of the Unitarian spirit; for it is not merely a
+certain conception of God that characterizes Unitarianism, nor yet a
+particular theological attitude. It is the wish to make religion real,
+practical, altruistic.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="sn133"></a>Unitarian Artists and Poets.</h3>
+
+<p>Unitarianism has been as friendly to poetry and the other arts as it has
+been to philosophy and science. In its early days it fostered the artistic
+careers of Washington Allston, the painter, and Charles Bulfinch, the
+architect. It has also nurtured the sculptors, William Wetmore Story, who
+was also poet and essayist; Harriet Hosmer, whose career shows what a woman
+can accomplish in opening new opportunities for her sex; Larkin G. Mead and
+Daniel C. French. To these must be added the actors Fanny Kemble and
+Charlotte Cushman.</p>
+
+<a name="pg431"></a>
+<p>It is as one of the earliest of our poets that Charles Sprague is to be
+mentioned, and one or two of his poems are deservedly remembered. Jones
+Very was one of the best of the transcendental poets, and a few of his
+religious poems have not been surpassed. The younger William Ellery
+Channing and Edward R. Sill belong to the same school, and deservedly keep
+their places with those who admire what is choice in thought and individual
+in artistic workmanship. As a biographer of O.B. Frothingham and as a
+member of his congregation, it may be proper to add here the name of Edmund
+C. Stedman.</p>
+
+<p>Among our greater poets, Bryant, Longfellow, Emerson, Holmes, Lowell,
+Stoddard, and Bayard Taylor were Unitarians. As being essentially of the
+same way of thinking and believing, Whittier and Whitman might also be so
+classed. Though Whittier was a Friend by education and by conviction, he
+was of the liberal school that places religion above sect and interprets
+dogmas in the light of human needs and affections. If he had been born and
+bred a Unitarian, he could not have more sympathetically interpreted the
+Unitarian faith than he has in his poems. Whitman had in him the heart of
+transcendentalism, and he was informed of its inmost spirit. To the more
+radical Unitarians his pleas for liberty, his intense individualism, and
+his idealistic conceptions of nature and man would be acceptable, and, it
+may be, enthusiastically approved.</p>
+
+<p>William Cullen Bryant early became a Unitarian; and he listened to the
+preaching of Follen, Dewey, Osgood, and Bellows. "A devoted lover of
+religious liberty," Bellows said of him, "he was an equal lover of religion
+<a name="pg432"></a>
+itself--not in any precise, dogmatic form, but in its righteousness,
+reverence, and charity. He was not a dogmatist, but preferred practical
+piety and working virtue to all modes of faith."[<a href="#fn_19_8">8</a><a name="fr_19_8"></a>] It would be difficult
+to give a better definition of Unitarianism itself; and it was the large
+humanity of it, and its generous outlook upon the lives of individuals and
+nations, that made of Bryant a faithful Unitarian.</p>
+
+<p>Henry W. Longfellow was educated as a Unitarian, his father having been one
+of the first vice-presidents of the Unitarian Association,--a position he
+held for many years. Stephen Longfellow was an intimate friend of Dr.
+Channing in his college years, and he followed the advance of his classmate
+in the growth of his liberal faith. "It was in the doctrine and the spirit
+of the early Unitarianism that Henry Longfellow was nurtured at church and
+at home," says his brother. "And there is no reason to suppose that he ever
+found these insufficient, or that he ever essentially departed from them.
+Of his genuine religious feeling his writings, give ample testimony. His
+nature was at heart devout; his ideas of life, of death, and of what lies
+beyond, were essentially cheerful, hopeful, optimistic. He did not care to
+talk much on theological points; but he believed in the supremacy of good
+in the world and in the universe."[<a href="#fn_19_9">9</a><a name="fr_19_9"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Although Oliver Wendell Holmes was educated in the older forms of religious
+beliefs, he became one of the most devoted of Unitarians. His rejection of
+Calvinism is marked by his intense aversion to it, shown upon many a page
+of his prose and poetry. No other prominent Unitarian was so aggressive
+against the doctrines of the older time. He was a regular attendant at
+<a name="pg433"></a>
+King's Chapel upon the preaching of Dr. F.W.P. Greenwood, Dr. Ephraim
+Peabody, and Rev. H.W. Foote; but, when he was in Pittsfield, for a number
+of years he went to the Episcopal church, and at Beverly Farms in his later
+years, during the summer, he attended a Baptist church. He was, therefore,
+a conservative Unitarian, but with a generous recognition of the good in
+other religious bodies. At the Unitarian Festival of 1859 Dr. Holmes was
+the presiding officer, and in his address he gave a statement of the
+Unitarian faith that clearly defines his own religious position:--</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>  We believe in vital religion, or the religion of life, as contrasted
+  with that of trust in hierarchies, establishments, and traditional
+  formulae, settled by the votes of wavering majorities in old councils
+  and convocations. We believe in evangelical religion, or the religion
+  of glad tidings, in distinction from the schemes that make our planet
+  the ante-chamber of the mansions of eternal woe to the vast majority of
+  all the men, women, and children that have lived and suffered upon its
+  surface. We believe that every age must judge the Scriptures by its own
+  light; and we mean, by God's grace, to exercise that privilege, without
+  asking permission of pope or bishop, or any other human tribunal. We
+  believe that sin is the much-abused step-daughter of ignorance, and
+  this not only from our own observation, but on the authority of him
+  whose last prayer on earth was that the perpetrators of the greatest
+  crime on record might be forgiven, for they knew not what they were
+  doing. We believe, beyond all other beliefs, in the fatherly relation
+  of the Deity to all his creatures; and, wherever there is a conflict of
+  Scriptural or theological doctrines, we hold this to be the article of
+  faith that stands supreme above all others. And, lastly, we know that,
+  whether we agree precisely in these or any other articles of belief, we
+<a name="pg434"></a>
+  can meet in Christian charity and fellowship, in that we all agree in
+  the love of our race, and the worship of a common Father, as taught us
+  by the Master whom we profess to follow.[<a href="#fn_19_10">10</a><a name="fr_19_10"></a>]</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>Educated as a Unitarian, James Russell Lowell felt none of the animosity
+toward Calvinism that was characteristic of Holmes; but his poetry
+everywhere indicates the liberality and nobleness of his religious
+convictions. That he was not sectarian, that he felt no active interest in
+dogmatic theology as such, is only saying that he was a genuine Unitarian.
+Writing in 1838, Lowell said, "I am an infidel to the Christianity of
+to-day."[<a href="#fn_19_11">11</a><a name="fr_19_11"></a>] In a letter to Longfellow written in 1845, he made a more
+explicit statement of his attitude: "Christ has declared war against the
+Christianity of the world, and it must down. There is no help for it. The
+church, that great bulwark of our practical paganism, must be reformed from
+foundation to weathercock."[<a href="#fn_19_12">12</a><a name="fr_19_12"></a>] These passages indicate his
+dissatisfaction with an external religion and with dogmatic theology. On
+the other hand, his letters and his poems prove that he was strongly
+grounded in the faith of the spirit. In that faith he lived and died; and,
+if in later years he gave recognition to some of the higher claims of the
+older types of Christianity, it was a generous concession to their rational
+qualities and their practical results, and in no degree an acceptance of
+their teachings. The definite form of Lowell's faith he expressed when he
+wrote, "I will never enter a church from which a prayer goes up for the
+prosperous only, or for the unfortunate among the oppressors, and not for
+<a name="pg435"></a>
+the oppressed and fallen; as if God had ordained our pride of caste and our
+distinctions of color, and as if Christ had forgotten those that are in
+bonds."[<a href="#fn_19_13">13</a><a name="fr_19_13"></a>]</p>
+
+<p>Emerson left the pulpit, and he withdrew from outward conformity to the
+church; but that there came a time when he no longer felt an interest in
+religion or that he even ceased to be a Christian, after his own manner of
+interpretation, there is no reason to assume. His radicalism was in the
+direction of a deeper and truer religion, a religion of the spirit. He
+rejected the faith that is founded on the letter, on historical evidences,
+that is a body without a soul. He was not the less a Unitarian because he
+ceased to be one outwardly, for he carried forward the Unitarian principles
+to their legitimate conclusion. The newer Unitarianism owes to him more
+than to any other man, and of him more than of any other man the older
+Unitarianism can boast that he was its product.</p>
+
+<p>Such a survey as this indicates how great has been the influence of
+Unitarianism upon American literature. There can be no question that it has
+been one of the greatest formative forces in its development. "Almost
+everybody," says Professor Barrett Wendell, "who attained literary
+distinction in New England during the nineteenth century was either a
+Unitarian or closely associated with Unitarian influences,"[<a href="#fn_19_14">14</a><a name="fr_19_14"></a>] More even
+than that may be said, for it is the Unitarian writers who have most truly
+interpreted American institutions and American ideals.</p>
+
+<p><br />[<a href="#fr_19_1">1</a><a name="fn_19_1"></a>] Boston Unitarianism, 168.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_19_2">2</a><a name="fn_19_2"></a>] George Ticknor, Life of William Hickling Prescott, 91, 164.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_19_3">3</a><a name="fn_19_3"></a>] George S. Hillard, Life, Letters, and Journals of George Ticknor,
+    327.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_19_4">4</a><a name="fn_19_4"></a>] Phoebe Mitchell Kendall, Life, Letters, and Journals of Maria
+    Mitchell, 239.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_19_5">5</a><a name="fn_19_5"></a>] Jules Marcou, Life of Agassiz, II. 220.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_19_6">6</a><a name="fn_19_6"></a>] Memoirs, I. 194.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_19_7">7</a><a name="fn_19_7"></a>] Memoirs, II. 91.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_19_8">8</a><a name="fn_19_8"></a>] John Bigelow, Life of Bryant, 274, 285.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_19_9">9</a><a name="fn_19_9"></a>] Samuel Longfellow, Life of H.W. Longfellow, I. 14</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_19_10">10</a><a name="fn_19_10"></a>] Quarterly Journal, VI. 359, July, 1859.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_19_11">11</a><a name="fn_19_11"></a>] Biography of James Russell Lowell, by H.E. Scudder, I. 63.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_19_12">12</a><a name="fn_19_12"></a>] Ibid., 169.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_19_13">13</a><a name="fn_19_13"></a>] Biography of James Russell Lowell, by H.E. Scudder, I. 144, quoted
+     from Conversations on Some of the Old Poets.</p>
+
+<p>[<a href="#fr_19_14">14</a><a name="fn_19_14"></a>] A Literary History of America, 289.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<a name="pg436"></a>
+<h2><br /><a name="ch20"></a>XX.<br />
+
+
+THE FUTURE OF UNITARIANISM.</h2>
+
+<p>The early Unitarians in this country did not desire to form a new sect.
+They wished to remain Congregationalists, and to continue unbroken the
+fellowship that had existed from the beginning of New England. When they
+were compelled to separate from the older churches, they refrained from
+organizing a strictly defined religious body, and have called theirs a
+"movement." The words "denomination" and "sect" have been repellent to
+them; and they have attempted, not only to avoid their use, but to escape
+from that which they represent. They have wished to establish a broad, free
+fellowship, that would draw together all liberal thinkers and movements
+into one wide and inclusive religious body.</p>
+
+<p>The Unitarian body accepted in theory from the first the principles of
+liberty, reason, and free inquiry. These were fully established, however,
+only as the result of discussion, agitation, and much friction. Theodore
+Parker was subjected to severe criticism, Emerson was regarded with
+distrust, and the Free Religious Association was organized as a protest and
+for the sake of a freer fellowship. In fact, however, Parker was never
+disfellowshipped; and from the first many Unitarians regarded Emerson as
+the teacher of a higher type of spiritual religion. Through this period of
+<a name="pg437"></a>
+controversy, when there was much of bitter feeling engendered, no one was
+expelled from the Unitarian body for opinion's sake. All stayed in who did
+not choose to go out, there being no trials for, heresy. The result of this
+method has been that the Unitarian body is now one of the most united and
+harmonious in Christendom. The free spirit has abundantly justified itself.
+When it was found that every one could think for himself, express freely
+his own beliefs, and live in accordance with his own convictions,
+controversy came to an end. When heresy was no longer sought for, heresy
+ceased to have an existence. The result has not been discord and distrust,
+but peace, harmony, and a more perfect fellowship.</p>
+
+<p>In the Unitarian body from the first there has been a free spirit of
+inquiry. Criticism has had a free course. The Bible has been subjected to
+the most searching investigation, as have all the foundations of religion.
+As a result, no religious body shows, a more rational interest in the Bible
+or a more confident trust in its great spiritual teachings.</p>
+
+<p>The early Unitarians anticipated that Unitarianism would soon become the
+popular form of religion accepted in this country. Thomas Jefferson thought
+that all young men of his time would die Unitarians. Others were afraid
+that Unitarianism would become sectarian in its methods as soon as it
+became popular, which they anticipated would occur in a brief period.[<a href="#fn_20_1">1</a><a name="fr_20_1"></a>]
+The cause of the slow growth of Unitarianism is to be found in the fact
+that it has been too modern in its spirit, too removed from the currents of
+popular belief, to find ready acceptance on the part of those who are
+<a name="pg438"></a>
+largely influenced by traditional beliefs. The religion of the great
+majority of persons is determined by tradition or social heredity, by what
+they are taught in childhood or hear commonly repeated around them. Only
+persons who are naturally independent and self-reliant can overcome the
+difficulties in the way of embracing a form of religion which carries them
+outside of the established tradition. For these reasons it is not
+surprising that as yet there has not been a rapid growth of organized
+Unitarianism. In fact, Unitarianism has made little progress outside of New
+England, and those regions to which New England traditions have been
+carried by those who migrated westward.</p>
+
+<p>The early promise for the growth of Unitarianism in the south, from 1825 to
+1840, failed because there was no background of tradition for its
+encouragement and support. Individuals could think their way into the
+Unitarian faith, but their influence proved ineffective when all around
+them the old tradition prevailed as stubborn conviction. Even the influence
+of a literature pervaded with Unitarianism proved ineffective in securing
+any rapid spread of the new faith, except as it has found its way into the
+common Christian tradition by a process of spiritual infiltration. The
+result has been that Unitarianism has grown slowly, because it has been
+obliged to create new traditions, to form a new habit of thought, and to
+make free inquiry a common motive and purpose.</p>
+
+<p>In a word, Unitarianism has been a heresy; and therefore there has been no
+open door for it. Most heretical sects have been narrow in spirit, bigoted
+in temper, and intensely sectarian in method. Their isolation from the
+great currents of the world's life acts on them intellectually and
+<a name="pg439"></a>
+spiritually as the process of in-and-in breeding does upon animals: it
+intensifies their peculiarities and defects. A process of atrophy or
+degeneration takes place; and they grow from generation to generation more
+isolated, sectarian, and peculiar. Unitarianism has escaped this tendency
+because it has accepted the modern spirit and because to a large degree its
+adherents have been educated and progressive persons. Its principles of
+liberty, reason, and free inquiry, have brought its followers into touch
+with those forces that are making most rapidly for the development of
+mankind. Unitarians have been conspicuously capable of individual
+initiative; and yet their culture has been large enough to give them a
+conservative loyalty to the past and to the profounder and more spiritual
+phases of the Christian tradition. While strongly individualistic and
+heretical they have been sturdily faithful to Christianity, seeking to
+revive its earlier and more simple life.</p>
+
+<p>A chief value of Unitarianism in the past has been that it has pioneered
+the way for the development of the modern spirit within the limits of
+Christianity. The churches from which it came out have followed it far on
+the way it has travelled. Its most liberal advocates of the first
+generation were more conservative than many of the leaders are to-day in
+the older churches. Its period of criticism, controversy, and agitation is
+being reproduced in many another religious body of the present time. The
+debates about miracles, the theory of the supernatural, the authenticity of
+Scripture, the nature of Christ, and other problems that are now agitating
+most of the progressive Protestant denominations, are almost precisely
+those that exercised Unitarians years ago. The only final solution of these
+<a name="pg440"></a>
+problems, that will give peace and harmony, is that of free inquiry and
+rational interpretation, which Unitarians have finally accepted. If other
+religious bodies would profit by this experience and by the Unitarian
+method for the solution of these problems, it would be greatly to their
+advantage.</p>
+
+<p>The Unitarian churches have been few in number, and they have suffered from
+isolation and provincialism. These defects of the earlier period have now
+in part passed away, new traditions have been created, a cosmopolitan
+spirit has been developed, and Unitarianism has become a world movement.
+This was conspicuously indicated at the seventy-fifth anniversary of the
+organization of the American Unitarian Association, and in the formation of
+The International Council of Unitarian and Other Liberal Religious Thinkers
+and Workers. It was then shown that Unitarianism has found expression in
+many parts of the world, that it answers to an intellectual and spiritual
+need of the time, and that it is capable of interpreting the religious
+convictions of persons belonging to many phases of human development and
+culture. A broader, more philosophical, and humaner tradition is being
+formed, that will in time become a wide-reaching influence for the
+development of a religious life that will be at once more scientific and
+more spiritual in its nature than anything the past has produced.</p>
+
+<p>The promise of Unitarianism for the future does not consist in its becoming
+a sect and in its striving for the development of merely denominational
+interests, but in its cultivation of the deeper spiritual life and in its
+cosmopolitan sympathy with all phases of religious growth. Its mission is
+one with philanthropy, charity, and altruism. Its attitude should be that
+<a name="pg441"></a>
+of free inquiry, loyalty to the spirit of philosophy and science, and
+fidelity to the largest results of human progress. It should always
+represent justice, righteousness, and personal integrity. That promise is
+not to be found in the rapid multiplication of its churches or in its
+devotion to propagandist aims, but in its loyalty to the free spirit and in
+its exemplification of the worth and beauty of the religion of humanity. As
+a sect, it will fail; but as a movement towards a larger faith, a purer
+life, and a more inclusive fellowship, the future is on its side.</p>
+
+<p>While recognizing the Unitarian as a great pioneer movement in religion, it
+should be seen that its strong individualism has been a cause of its slow
+growth. Until recently the Unitarian body has been less an organic phase of
+the religious life of the time than a group of isolated churches held
+together only by the spontaneous bonds of fellowship and good will. Such a
+body can have little effective force in any effort at missionary
+propagandism or in making its spirit dominant in the religious life of the
+country. As heredity and variation are but two phases of organic growth, so
+are tradition and individual initiative but two phases of social progress.
+In both processes--organic growth and social progress--the primary force is
+the conservative one, that maintains what the past has secured. If
+individualism is necessary to healthy growth, associative action is
+essential to any growth whatever of the social body. In so far as
+individual perfection can be attained, it cannot be by seeking it as an end
+in itself: it can be reached only by means of that which conduces to
+general social progress.</p>
+
+<a name="pg442"></a>
+<p>It may be questioned whether there is any large future for Unitarianism
+unless all excessive individualism is modified and controlled. Such
+individualism is in opposition to the altruistic and associative spirit of
+the present time. Liberty is not an end in itself, but its value is to be
+found in the opportunity it gives for a natural and fitting association of
+individuals with each other. Freedom of religious inquiry is but an
+instrument for securing spiritual growth, not merely for the individual,
+but for all mankind. So long as liberty of thought and spiritual freedom
+remain the means of individual gratification, they are ineffective as
+spiritual forces. They must be given a wider heritage in the life of
+mankind before they can accomplish their legitimate results in securing for
+men freedom from the external bonds of traditionalism. Even reason is but
+an instrument for securing truth, and not truth itself.</p>
+
+<p>Rightly understood, authority in the church is but the principle of social
+action, respect for what mankind has gained of spiritual power through its
+centuries of development. Authority is therefore as necessary as freedom,
+and the two must be reconciled in order that progress may take place. When
+so understood and so limited, authority becomes essential to all growth in
+freedom and individuality. What above all else is needed in religion is
+social action on the part of freedom-loving men and women, who, in the
+strength of their individuality, co-operate for the attainment, not of
+their own personal good, but the advancement of mankind. This is what
+Unitarianism has striven for, and what it has gained in some measure. It
+has sought to make philanthropy the test of piety, and to make liberty a
+means of social fidelity.</p>
+
+<a name="pg443"></a>
+<p>Free inquiry cannot mean liberty to think as one pleases, but only to think
+the truth, and to recognize with submissive spirit the absolute conditions
+and the limitations of the truth. Though religion is life and not a creed,
+it none the less compels the individual to loyalty of social action; and
+that means nothing more and nothing less than faithfulness to what will
+make for the common good, and not primarily what will minister to one's own
+personal development, intellectually and spiritually.</p>
+
+<p>The future of Unitarianism will depend on its ability further to reconcile,
+individualism with associative action, the spirit of free inquiry with the
+larger human tradition. Its advantage cannot be found in the abandonment of
+Christianity, which has been the source and sustaining power of its life,
+but in the development of the Christian tradition by the processes of
+modern thought. The real promise of Unitarianism is in identifying itself
+with the altruistic spirit of the age, and in becoming the spiritual
+interpreter of the social aspirations of mankind. In order to this result
+it must not only withdraw from its extreme individualism, but bring its
+liberty into organic relations with its spirit of social fidelity. It will
+then welcome the fact that freedom and authority are identical in their
+deeper meanings. It will discover that service is more important than
+culture, and that culture is of value to the end that service may become
+more effective. Then it will cheerfully recognize the truth that the social
+obligation is as important as the individual right, and that the two make
+the rounded whole of human action.</p>
+
+<p><br />[<a href="#fr_20_1">1</a><a name="fn_20_1"></a>] See pp. 131, 328.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<a name="pg444"></a>
+<h2><br />APPENDIX.</h2>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><br /><a name="chaa"></a>A. FORMATION OF THE LOCAL CONFERENCES.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The local conferences came into existence in the following order: Wisconsin
+and Minnesota Quarterly Conference, organized at Sheboygan, Wis., October
+24, 1866; New York Central Conference of Liberal Christians, Rochester,
+November 21, 1866; Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches of
+the Middle and Southern States, Wilmington, Del., November 22, 1866;
+Norfolk Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches, Dedham,
+Mass., November 28, 1866; New York and Hudson River Local Conference, New
+York, December 6, 1866; Essex Conference of Liberal Christian Churches,
+Salem, Mass., December 11, 1866; Lake Erie Conference of Unitarian and
+Other Christian Societies, Meadville, Penn., December 11, 1866; Worcester
+County Conference of Congregational (Unitarian) and Other Christian
+Societies, Worcester, Mass., December 12, 1866; South Middlesex Conference
+of Congregational Unitarian and Other Christian Societies, Cambridgeport,
+Mass., December 12, 1866; Suffolk Conference of Unitarian and Other
+Christian Churches, Boston, December 17, 1866; North Middlesex Conference
+of Unitarian Congregational and Other Christian Churches, Littleton, Mass.,
+December 18, 1866.</p>
+
+<p>The Champlain Liberal Christian Conference, Montpelier, Vt., January 9,
+1867; the Connecticut Valley Conference of Congregational Unitarian and
+Other Christian Churches, Greenfield, Mass., January 16, 1867; the Plymouth
+and Bay Conference, Hingham, Mass., February 5, 1867; the Ohio Valley
+Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches, Louisville, Ky.,
+February 22, 1867; the Channing Conference, Providence, R.I., April 17,
+1867; Liberal Christian Conference of Western Maine, Brunswick, Me.,
+October 22, 1867.</p>
+
+<a name="pg445"></a>
+<p>The Local Conference of Liberal Christians of the Missouri Valley, Weston,
+Mo., March 18, 1868; the Chicago Conference of Unitarian Churches, Chicago,
+December 2, 1868; Western Illinois and Iowa Conference of Unitarian and
+Other Christian Churches, Sheffield, Ill., January 28, 1869; Cape Cod
+Conference of Unitarian Congregational and Other Liberal Christian
+Churches, Barnstable, Mass., November 30, 1870; Conference of Liberal
+Christians of the Missouri Valley, Kansas City, Mo., May 3, 1871; Michigan
+Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches, Jackson, October 21,
+1875; the Fraternity of Illinois Liberal Christian Societies, Bloomington,
+November 11, 1875; Iowa Association of Unitarian and Other Independent
+Churches, Burlington, June 1, 1877; Indiana Conference of Unitarian and
+Independent Religious Societies, Hobart, October 1, 1878; Ohio State
+Conference of Unitarian and Other Liberal Societies, Cincinnati, May, 1879.</p>
+
+<p>Kansas Unitarian Conference, December 2, 1880; Nebraska Unitarian
+Association, Omaha, November 9, 1882; the Southern Conference of Unitarian
+and Other Christian Churches, Atlanta, Ga., April 24, 1884; the New York
+Conference of Unitarian Churches superseded the New York and Hudson River
+Conference at a session held in New York, April 29, 1885; Pacific Unitarian
+Conference, San Francisco, November 2, 1885; the Illinois Conference of
+Unitarian and Other Independent Societies superseded the Illinois
+Fraternity in 1885; Minnesota Unitarian Conference, St. Paul, November 17,
+1887; Hancock Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches, Bar
+Harbor, Me., August 8, 1889; Missouri Valley Unitarian Conference
+superseded the Kansas Unitarian Conference, December 2, 1889.</p>
+
+<p>Rocky Mountain Conference of Unitarian and Other Liberal Christian
+Churches, Denver, Col., May 17, 1890; the Unitarian Conference of the
+Middle States and Canada, Brooklyn, N.Y., November 19, 1890, superseded New
+York State Conference; Central States Conference of Unitarian Churches,
+Cincinnati, December 9, 1891, superseded the Ohio State Conference; Pacific
+Northwest Conference of Unitarian, Liberal Christian, and Independent
+Churches, Puyallup, Wash., August 1, 1892; Southern California Conference
+<a name="pg446"></a>
+of Unitarian and Other Liberal Christian Churches, Santa Ana, October 1892.</p>
+
+<p>Four of the early conferences, the New York Central, Champlain, Western
+Maine, and Missouri Valley, were not distinctly Unitarian. These were union
+organizations, in which Universalists, and perhaps other denominations,
+were associated with Unitarians. The New York Central Conference refused to
+send delegates to the National Conference on account of its union
+character. In other conferences, such as the Connecticut Valley and the
+Norfolk, Universalists took part in their organization, and were for a
+number of years connected with them.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the conferences organized from 1875 to 1885 were within state
+limits; but those organized subsequently to 1885 were more distinctly
+district conferences, and included several states. Several of the
+conferences have been reorganized in order to bring them into harmony with
+the prevailing theory of state or district limits at the time when such
+action took place. A few of the conferences had only a name to live, and
+they soon passed out of existence.</p>
+
+<p>In the local, as in the National Conference, two purposes contended for
+expression, the one looking to the uniting of all liberal denominations in
+one general organization, and the other to the promotion of distinctly
+Unitarian interests. In the National Conference the denominational purpose
+controlled the aims kept most clearly in view; but the other purpose found
+expression in the addition of "Other Christian Churches" to the name,
+though only in the most limited way did such churches connect themselves
+with the conference. The local conferences made like provision for those
+not wishing to call themselves distinctly Unitarian. Such desire for
+co-operation, however, was in a large degree rendered ineffective by the
+fact that the primary aim had in view in the creation of the local
+conferences was the increase of the funds of the American Unitarian
+Association.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<a name="pg447"></a>
+<h2><br /><a name="chab"></a>B. UNITARIAN NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES.</h2>
+
+
+<p>There was a very considerable activity from 1825 to 1850 in the publication
+of Unitarian periodicals, and probably the energies of the denomination
+found a larger expression in that direction than in any other.</p>
+
+<p>In January, 1827, was begun in Boston The Liberal Preacher, a monthly
+publication of sermons by living ministers, conducted by the Cheshire
+Association of Ministers, with Rev. Thomas R. Sullivan, of Keene, N.H., as
+the editor. It was continued for eight or ten years, and with considerable
+success.</p>
+
+<p>With November, 1827, Rev. William Ware began the publication in New York
+City of The Unitarian, a quarterly magazine, of which the last number
+appeared February 15, 1828.</p>
+
+<p>The Unitarian Monitor was begun at Dover, N.H., October 1, 1831, and was
+continued until October 10, 1833. It was a fortnightly of four three-column
+pages, and was well conducted. It was under the editorial management of
+Rev. Samuel K. Lothrop, then the minister in Dover.</p>
+
+<p>The Unitarian Christian, edited by Rev. Stephen G. Bulfinch, was published
+quarterly in Augusta, Ga., for a year or two.</p>
+
+<p>In 1823 Rev. Samuel J. May published The Liberal Christian at Brooklyn,
+Conn., as a fortnightly county paper of eight small quarto pages. He
+followed it by The Christian Monitor and Common People's Adviser, which was
+begun in April, 1832, its object being "to promote the free discussion of
+all subjects connected with happiness and holiness."</p>
+
+<p>The Unitarian, conducted by Rev. Bernard Whitman, then settled in Waltham,
+Mass., was published in Cambridge and Boston during the year 1834, and came
+to its end because of the death of Whitman in the last month of the year.
+It was a monthly magazine of a distinctly missionary character.</p>
+
+<p>Of a more permanent character was The Unitarian Advocate, the first number
+of which was issued in Boston, January, 1828. It was a small 12mo of sixty
+pages, monthly, the editor being Rev. Edmund Q. Sewall. He continued in
+that capacity to the end of 1829, when it was "conducted by an association
+<a name="pg448"></a>
+of gentlemen." The purpose was to make a popular magazine at a moderate
+price. It came to an end in December, 1832.</p>
+
+<p>With January 1, 1835, was issued in Boston the first number of The Boston
+Observer and Religious Intelligencer, a weekly of eight three-column pages,
+edited by Rev. George Ripley. It was continued for only six months, when it
+was joined to The Christian Register, which took its name as a sub-title
+for a time. Its motto, "Liberty, Holiness, Love," was also borrowed by that
+paper.</p>
+
+<p>The Western Messenger was begun in Cincinnati, June, 1835, with Rev.
+Ephraim Peabody as the editor. It was a monthly of ninety-six pages, and
+was ably edited. Owing to the illness of Mr. Peabody, it was removed to
+Louisville after the ninth number; and Rev. James Freeman Clarke became the
+editor, with Rev. W.H. Channing and Rev. J.H. Perkins as assistants for a
+time. It was published by the Western Unitarian Association, and was
+discontinued with the number for May, 1841. Among the contributors were
+Emerson, Margaret Fuller, William Henry Channing, Christopher P. Cranch,
+William G. Eliot, who aided in giving it a high literary character. For a
+number of years the American Unitarian Association made an annual
+appropriation to aid in its publication.</p>
+
+<p>The Monthly Miscellany of Religion and Letters was begun in Boston with
+April, 1839. It was a 12mo of forty-eight pages, monthly. The editor was
+Rev. Ezra S. Gannett, by whom it was "designed to furnish religious reading
+for the people, treat Unitarian opinions in their practical bearings, and
+show their power to produce holiness of life; and by weight of contents to
+come between The Christian Register and The Christian Examiner." It was
+continued until the end of 1843, when it was absorbed by the latter
+periodical.</p>
+
+<p>With the first of January, 1844, was begun The Monthly Religious Magazine,
+to meet the needs of those who found The Christian Examiner too scholarly.
+The first editor, was Rev. Frederic D. Huntington, who was succeeded by
+Rev. Edmund H. Sears, Rev. James W. Thompson, Rev. Rufus Ellis, and Rev.
+John H. Morison. The last issue was that of February, 1874.</p>
+
+<a name="pg449"></a>
+<p>A large weekly was begun in Boston, January 7, 1843, called The Christian
+World, of which Rev. George G. Channing was the publisher and managing
+editor. He was assisted by Rev. James Freeman Clarke and Hon. John A.
+Andrew, afterward Governor of Massachusetts, as editors or editorial
+contributors. The special aims of the paper were "to awaken a deeper
+religious interest in all the great philanthropic and benevolent
+enterprises of the day." It was continued until December 30, 1848. George
+G. Channing was a brother of Dr. Channing, and was settled over two or
+three parishes. The paper was ably conducted, and while Unitarian was not
+distinctly denominational.</p>
+
+<p>The Christian Inquirer was started in New York, October 17, 1846, and was a
+weekly of four six-column pages. It was managed by the New York Unitarian
+Association; and it was largely under the control of Rev. Henry W. Bellows,
+who in 1850 was assisted by Rev. Samuel Osgood, Rev. James F. Clarke, and
+Rev. Frederic H. Hedge.</p>
+
+<p>In 1846 was begun the publication of the Unitarian Annual Register in
+Boston by Crosby &amp; Nichols, with Rev. Abiel A. Livermore, then settled in
+Keene, N.H., as the editor. In 1851 the work came under the control of the
+American Unitarian Association, and as the Year Book of the denomination it
+was edited by the secretary or his assistant. From 1860 to 1869 the Year
+Book was issued as a part of the December number of The Monthly Journal of
+the American Unitarian Association.</p>
+
+<p>The Bible Christian was begun in 1847 at Toronto by Rev. John Cordner, the
+minister there, and was continued as a semi-monthly for a brief period.</p>
+
+<p>The Unitarian and Foreign Religious Miscellany was published in Boston
+during 1847, with Rev. George E. Ellis as the editor. It was a monthly
+magazine devoted to the explanation and defence of Unitarian Christianity;
+and its contents were mostly selected from the English Unitarian
+periodicals, especially The Prospective Review, The Monthly Reformer, Bible
+Christian, The Unitarian, and The Inquirer.</p>
+
+<p>During this period The Christian Examiner had its largest influence upon
+the denomination, and came to an end. Its scholarship and its liberality
+<a name="pg450"></a>
+made it of interest to only a limited constituency, and the publisher was
+compelled to discontinue it at the end of 1869 from lack of adequate
+support. It was edited from the beginning by the ablest men. Rev. James
+Walker and Rev. Francis W.P. Greenwood became the editors in 1831, Rev.
+William Ware taking the place of Dr. Walker in 1837. From 1844 to 1849 Rev.
+Ezra S. Gannett and Rev. Alvan Lamson were the editors, and they were
+succeeded by Rev. George Putnam and Rev. George E. Ellis. In July, 1857,
+Rev. Frederic H. Hedge and Rev. Edward E. Hale became the editors, and
+continued until 1861. Then the editorship was assumed by Rev. Thomas B.
+Fox, who was for several years its owner and publisher; and he was assisted
+as editor by Rev. Joseph H. Allen. The magazine was purchased by Mr. James
+Miller in 1865, who removed it to New York. Dr. Henry W. Bellows became the
+editor, and Mr. Allen continued as assistant, until it was discontinued
+with the December number, 1869.</p>
+
+<p>One of the purposes which found expression after the awakening of 1865 was
+the establishment of a large popular weekly religious journal that should
+reach all classes of liberals throughout the country. The Christian
+Inquirer was changed into The Liberal Christian with the number for
+December 22, 1866; and under this name it appeared in a larger and more
+vigorous form. Dr. Bellows was the editor, and contributors were sought
+from all classes of Liberal Christians. The effort made to establish an able
+undenominational journal, of a broad and progressive but distinctly liberal
+type, was energetic; but the time was not ready for it. With December 2,
+1876, the paper became The Inquirer, which was continued to the close of
+1877.</p>
+
+<p>There was also planned in 1865 a monthly journal that should be everywhere
+acceptable in the homes of liberals of every kind. In January, 1870,
+appeared the Old and New, a large monthly magazine, combining popular and
+scholarly features. The editors were Dr. Edward E. Hale and Mr. Frederic B.
+Perkins. In its pages were first published Dr. Hale's Ten Times Ten, and
+also many of the chapters of Dr. James Martineau's Seat of Authority in
+Religion. It was discontinued with the number for December, 1875.</p>
+
+<a name="pg451"></a>
+<p>The Monthly Religious Magazine was discontinued with the February issue of
+1874; and the next month appeared The Unitarian Review and Religious
+Magazine, edited by Rev. Charles Lowe. When Lowe died, in June, 1874, he
+was succeeded by Rev. Henry H. Barber and Rev. James De Normandie. In 1880
+Dr. J.H. Allen became the editor,--a position he held until the magazine
+was discontinued, in December, 1891.</p>
+
+<p>In March, 1878, was begun in Chicago the publication of The Pamphlet
+Mission, a semi-monthly issue of sermons for missionary circulation, with a
+dozen pages of news added in a supplement. In September the name was
+changed to Unity; and this publication grew into a small fortnightly
+journal, representing the interests of the Western Unitarian Conference. A
+few years later it became a weekly; and it has continued as the
+representative of the more radical Unitarian opinions, though in 1894 it
+became the special organ of The Liberal Congress. The chief editorial
+management has been in the hands of Rev. Jenkin Ll. Jones.</p>
+
+<p>The Unitarian was begun in Chicago by Rev. Brooke Herford and Rev. Jabez T.
+Sunderland with January, 1886, as the organ of the more conservative
+members of the Western Conference. In June, 1887, this monthly magazine was
+removed to Ann Arbor, Mr. Sunderland becoming the managing editor; and in
+1890 the office of publication was removed to Boston, and Rev. Frederic B.
+Mott became the assistant editor. In 1897 the magazine was merged into The
+Christian Register.</p>
+
+<p>In 1880 The Rising Faith was published at Manchester, N.H., as a monthly,
+and continued for two or three years.</p>
+
+<p>In August, 1891, The Guidon appeared in San Francisco; and in November,
+1893, it became The Pacific Unitarian, a monthly representing the interests
+of the Unitarian churches on the Pacific coast. Mr. Charles A. Murdock has
+been the editor.</p>
+
+<p>The Southern Unitarian was begun at Atlanta, Ga., January, 1893; and it was
+published for five years as a monthly by the Southern Conference.</p>
+
+<p>In December, 1891, was begun at Davenport, Ia., with Rev. Arthur M. Judy as
+<a name="pg452"></a>
+editor, a monthly parish paper, called Old and New. Other parishes joined
+in its publication, and in 1895 it became the organ of the Iowa Unitarian
+Association. In 1896 it was published in Chicago, with Rev. A.W. Gould as
+the editor, in behalf of the interests of the Western Conference. In
+September, 1898, its publication was resumed in Davenport by Mr. Judy; and
+a year later it became again the organ of the Iowa Association.</p>
+
+<p>The New World, a Quarterly Review of Religion, Ethics, and Theology, was
+begun in Boston, March, 1892, and was discontinued with the December number
+for 1900. Its editors were Dr. C.C. Everett, Dr. C.H. Toy, Dr. Orello Cone,
+with Rev. N.P. Gilman as managing editor.</p>
+
+<p>The Church Exchange began in June, 1893, and was published as a monthly at
+Portland, in the interest of the Maine Conference of Unitarian Churches,
+with Rev. John C. Perkins as editor. In 1896-97 it was published at
+Farmington, and in 1897-99 Mr. H.P. White was the editor. Since 1899 it has
+been published in Portland, with Mr. Perkins as editor.</p>
+
+<p>The above list of periodicals is not complete. More detailed information is
+desirable, and that the list may be made, full and accurate to date.</p>
+
+
+<hr width="50%" size="3" />
+
+<h2><br />INDEX.</h2>
+
+
+<p><i>The foot-notes and appendix have been included in the index with
+the text.</i></p>
+
+<p>
+Abbot, Abiel (Beverly), <a href="#pg131">131</a>, <a href="#pg133">133</a>, <a href="#pg262">262</a>, <a href="#pg350">350</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>.<br />
+Abbot, Abiel (Peterboro), <a href="#pg409">409</a>.<br />
+Abbot, Ezra, <a href="#pg393">393</a>, <a href="#pg394">394</a>.<br />
+Abbot, Francis Ellingwood, <a href="#pg200">200-204</a>, <a href="#pg207">207</a>, <a href="#pg210">210</a>, <a href="#pg211">211</a>, <a href="#pg213">213</a>, <a href="#pg415">415</a>.<br />
+Abolitionists, <a href="#pg353">353</a>.<br />
+Adam, <a href="#pg51">51</a>, <a href="#pg63">63</a>.<br />
+Adam, William, <a href="#pg296">296-298</a>.<br />
+Adams, Hannah, <a href="#pg265">265</a>, <a href="#pg423">423</a>.<br />
+Adams, Herbert W., <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg409">409</a>.<br />
+Adams, John, <a href="#pg58">58</a>, <a href="#pg136">136</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>. 377, <a href="#pg380">380</a>, <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br />
+Adams, John Quincy, <a href="#pg366">366</a>, <a href="#pg380">380</a>.<br />
+Adams, Phineas, <a href="#pg95">95</a>.<br />
+African Methodist Episcopal Church, <a href="#pg338">338</a>, <a href="#pg339">339</a>.<br />
+Agassiz, Louis, <a href="#pg408">408</a>, <a href="#pg427">427</a>, <a href="#pg428">428</a>.<br />
+Albee, John, <a href="#pg415">415</a>.<br />
+Alcott, Amos Bronson, <a href="#pg155">155</a>, <a href="#pg202">202</a>, <a href="#pg358">358</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>.<br />
+Alcott, Louisa M., <a href="#pg178">178</a>, <a href="#pg368">368</a>, <a href="#pg430">430</a>.<br />
+Alger, William Rounseville, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg163">163</a>, <a href="#pg164">164</a>, <a href="#pg346">346</a>, <a href="#pg422">422</a>.<br />
+Allen, Joseph, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg264">264</a>, <a href="#pg268">268</a>, <a href="#pg360">360</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg414">414</a>.<br />
+Allen, Joseph Henry, <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg261">261</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg393">393</a>, <a href="#pg414">414</a>, <a href="#pg421">421</a>, <a href="#pg450">450</a>, <a href="#pg451">451</a>.<br />
+Allison, William B., <a href="#pg380">380</a>, <a href="#pg383">383</a>.<br />
+Allston, Washington, <a href="#pg98">98</a>, <a href="#pg430">430</a>.<br />
+Allyn, John, <a href="#pg131">131</a>, <a href="#pg133">133</a>.<br />
+American literature, <a href="#pg412">412</a>, <a href="#pg413">413</a>, <a href="#pg415">415</a>, <a href="#pg416">416</a>, <a href="#pg435">435</a>.<br />
+"American Unitarianism," 79, <a href="#pg82">82</a>, <a href="#pg101">101-104</a>.<br />
+Ames, Charles Gordon, <a href="#pg168">168</a>, <a href="#pg214">214</a>.<br />
+Ames, Fisher, <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br />
+Ames, Oliver, <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br />
+Amory, John C., <a href="#pg385">385</a>.<br />
+Andover Theological School, <a href="#pg93">93</a>.<br />
+Andrew, John Albion, <a href="#pg191">191</a>, <a href="#pg192">192</a>, <a href="#pg196">196</a>, <a href="#pg324">324</a>, <a href="#pg367">367</a>, <a href="#pg382">382</a>, <a href="#pg449">449</a>.<br />
+Angell, George T., <a href="#pg336">336</a>.<br />
+Animals, humane treatment of, <a href="#pg335">335</a>, <a href="#pg336">336</a>.<br />
+Anonymous Association, <a href="#pg127">127</a>.<br />
+Anthology Club, <a href="#pg96">96</a>.<br />
+Anthology, Monthly, <a href="#pg93">93</a>, <a href="#pg95">95</a>, <a href="#pg390">390</a>.<br />
+Anthony, Henry B., <a href="#pg367">367</a>, <a href="#pg380">380</a>.<br />
+Anthony, Susan B., <a href="#pg368">368</a>.<br />
+Antinomianism, <a href="#pg16">16</a>.<br />
+Antioch College, <a href="#pg172">172</a>, <a href="#pg193">193</a>, <a href="#pg197">197</a>, <a href="#pg401">401</a>, <a href="#pg402">402</a>.<br />
+Anti-slavery, <a href="#pg100">100</a>, <a href="#pg159">159</a>, <a href="#pg343">343</a>, <a href="#pg353">353-367</a>.<br />
+Appleton, Nathan, <a href="#pg386">386</a>.<br />
+Arianism, <a href="#pg42">42</a>, <a href="#pg43">43</a>, <a href="#pg44">44</a>, <a href="#pg56">56</a>, <a href="#pg59">59</a>, <a href="#pg65">65</a>, <a href="#pg66">66</a>, <a href="#pg70">70</a>, <a href="#pg83">83</a>.<br />
+Arminianism, <a href="#pg8">8</a>, <a href="#pg9">9</a>, <a href="#pg11">11</a>, <a href="#pg28">28</a>, <a href="#pg37">37-39</a>, <a href="#pg42">42</a>, <a href="#pg44">44</a>, <a href="#pg48">48</a>, <a href="#pg50">50</a>, <a href="#pg59">59</a>, <a href="#pg66">66</a>, <a href="#pg67">67</a>, <a href="#pg70">70</a>, <a href="#pg75">75</a>, <a href="#pg84">84</a>, <a href="#pg89">89</a>.<br />
+Arminius, <a href="#pg8">8</a>.<br />
+Artists, <a href="#pg430">430</a>.<br />
+Association of Benevolent Societies, <a href="#pg255">255</a>.<br />
+Association of Young Men, <a href="#pg248">248-251</a>, <a href="#pg264">264</a>.<br />
+Autumnal Conventions, <a href="#pg173">173-176</a>, <a href="#pg187">187</a>.<br />
+Auxiliaries of American Unitarian Association, <a href="#pg146">146</a>.<br />
+Ayer, Adams, <a href="#pg216">216</a>.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ballou, Hosea, <a href="#pg93">93</a>.<br />
+Baltimore, <a href="#pg111">111-113</a>.<br />
+Bancroft, Aaron, <a href="#pg73">73</a>, <a href="#pg74">74</a>, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg130">130</a>, <a href="#pg132">132</a>, <a href="#pg135">135</a>, <a href="#pg136">136</a>, <a href="#pg142">142</a>, <a href="#pg413">413</a>.<br />
+Bancroft, George, <a href="#pg380">380</a>, <a href="#pg413">413</a>, <a href="#pg414">414</a>, <a href="#pg424">424</a>.<br />
+Baptists, <a href="#pg6">6</a>, <a href="#pg7">7</a>, <a href="#pg21">21</a>, <a href="#pg87">87</a>, <a href="#pg88">88</a>.<br />
+Barnard, Charles F., <a href="#pg254">254</a>, <a href="#pg256">256</a>, <a href="#pg260">260</a>, <a href="#pg332">332</a>, <a href="#pg337">337</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br />
+Barnard, Thomas, <a href="#pg70">70</a>.<br />
+Barrett, Samuel, <a href="#pg127">127</a>, <a href="#pg135">135</a>, <a href="#pg137">137</a>, <a href="#pg144">144</a>, <a href="#pg264">264</a>.<br />
+Barry, Joseph, <a href="#pg333">333</a>.<br />
+Bartol, Cyrus Augustus, <a href="#pg148">148</a>, <a href="#pg155">155</a>, <a href="#pg202">202</a>, <a href="#pg240">240</a>, <a href="#pg241">241</a>, <a href="#pg419">419</a>.<br />
+Batchelor, George, <a href="#pg196">196</a>, <a href="#pg226">226</a>, <a href="#pg232">232</a>.<br />
+Beecher, Henry Ward, <a href="#pg370">370</a>.<br />
+Beecher, Lyman, <a href="#pg384">384</a>.<br />
+Belknap, Jeremy, <a href="#pg83">83</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg423">423</a>.<br />
+Bellamy, Joseph, <a href="#pg44">44</a>, <a href="#pg52">52</a>, <a href="#pg57">57</a>, <a href="#pg73">73</a>.<br />
+Bellows, Henry Whitney, <a href="#pg136">136</a>, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg154">154</a>, <a href="#pg175">175</a>, <a href="#pg178">178-182</a>, <a href="#pg187">187-189</a>, <a href="#pg191">191</a>, <a href="#pg196">196</a>, <a href="#pg198">198</a>, <a href="#pg205">205</a>, <a href="#pg206">206</a>, <a href="#pg215">215</a>, <a href="#pg217">217</a>, <a href="#pg218">218</a>, <a href="#pg220">220</a>, <a href="#pg222">222</a>, <a href="#pg223">223</a>, <a href="#pg232">232</a>, <a href="#pg233">233</a>, <a href="#pg335">335</a>, <a href="#pg363">363</a>, <a href="#pg409">409</a>, <a href="#pg431">431</a>, <a href="#pg449">449</a>, <a href="#pg450">450</a>.<br />
+Belsham, Thomas, <a href="#pg79">79</a>, <a href="#pg102">102</a>, <a href="#pg103">103</a>.<br />
+Benevolent Fraternity of Churches, <a href="#pg197">197</a>, <a href="#pg256">256</a>, <a href="#pg257">257</a>, <a href="#pg282">282</a>.<br />
+Bentley, William, <a href="#pg71">71</a>, <a href="#pg80">80</a>, <a href="#pg90">90</a>.<br />
+Bergh, Henry, <a href="#pg335">335</a>.<br />
+Berry Street Conference, <a href="#pg106">106</a>, <a href="#pg107">107</a>, <a href="#pg133">133</a>.<br />
+Bible, <a href="#pg4">4</a>, <a href="#pg5">5</a>, <a href="#pg8">8</a>, <a href="#pg9">9</a>, <a href="#pg10">10</a>, <a href="#pg14">14</a>, <a href="#pg20">20</a>, <a href="#pg25">25</a>, <a href="#pg27">27</a>, <a href="#pg32">32</a>, <a href="#pg40">40</a>, <a href="#pg45">45</a>, <a href="#pg48">48</a>, <a href="#pg50">50</a>, <a href="#pg53">53</a>, <a href="#pg55">55</a>, <a href="#pg60">60</a>, <a href="#pg64">64</a>, <a href="#pg85">85</a>, <a href="#pg86">86</a>, <a href="#pg122">122</a>, <a href="#pg156">156</a>, <a href="#pg157">157</a>, <a href="#pg171">171</a>, <a href="#pg198">198</a>, <a href="#pg199">199</a>, <a href="#pg321">321</a>, <a href="#pg389">389</a>, <a href="#pg395">395</a>, <a href="#pg437">437</a>.<br />
+Bible Societies, <a href="#pg100">100</a>, <a href="#pg147">147</a>, <a href="#pg322">322</a>.<br />
+Bigelow, Andrew, <a href="#pg258">258</a>.<br />
+Birthright church, <a href="#pg240">240</a>, <a href="#pg241">241</a>.<br />
+Bixby, James T., <a href="#pg307">307</a>, <a href="#pg320">320</a>.<br />
+Blackwell, Antoinette Brown, <a href="#pg371">371</a>.<br />
+Blackwell, Henry B., <a href="#pg368">368</a>.<br />
+Blake, H.G.O., <a href="#pg415">415</a>.<br />
+Bond, Edward P., <a href="#pg153">153</a>.<br />
+Bond, George, <a href="#pg131">131</a>, <a href="#pg133">133</a>.<br />
+Bond, Henry F., <a href="#pg341">341</a>, <a href="#pg342">342</a>.<br />
+Book distribution, <a href="#pg148">148</a>, <a href="#pg163">163</a>, <a href="#pg166">166</a>, <a href="#pg169">169</a>, <a href="#pg338">338</a>.<br />
+Boston, <a href="#pg16">16</a>, <a href="#pg20">20</a>, <a href="#pg61">61</a>, <a href="#pg75">75</a>, <a href="#pg77">77</a>, <a href="#pg118">118</a>, <a href="#pg141">141</a>, <a href="#pg160">160</a>, <a href="#pg213">213</a>, <a href="#pg383">383-388</a>, <a href="#pg413">413</a>.<br />
+Boston Observer, The, <a href="#pg448">448</a>.<br />
+Boston Provident Association, <a href="#pg334">334</a>, <a href="#pg335">335</a>.<br />
+Boutwell, George S., <a href="#pg367">367</a>, <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br />
+Bowditch, Henry I., <a href="#pg367">367</a>.<br />
+Bowditch, Nathaniel, <a href="#pg117">117</a>, <a href="#pg381">381</a>, <a href="#pg427">427</a>.<br />
+Bowditch, William I., <a href="#pg367">367</a>.<br />
+Bowdoin, James, <a href="#pg80">80</a>, <a href="#pg385">385</a>.<br />
+Bowles &amp; Dearborn, <a href="#pg235">235</a>.<br />
+Bowles, Leonard C., <a href="#pg235">235</a>.<br />
+Brackett, J.Q.A., <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br />
+Bradford, Alden, <a href="#pg47">47</a>, <a href="#pg65">65</a>, <a href="#pg127">127</a>, <a href="#pg128">128</a>, <a href="#pg132">132</a>, <a href="#pg133">133</a>.<br />
+Bradford, George P., <a href="#pg415">415</a>.<br />
+Bradlee, Caleb D., <a href="#pg336">336</a>.<br />
+Bradley, Amy, <a href="#pg181">181</a>, <a href="#pg338">338</a>.<br />
+Brattle Street Church, <a href="#pg29">29</a>, <a href="#pg35">35</a>, <a href="#pg40">40</a>, <a href="#pg52">52</a>, <a href="#pg53">53</a>, <a href="#pg77">77</a>, <a href="#pg94">94</a>, <a href="#pg143">143</a>, <a href="#pg160">160</a>, <a href="#pg385">385</a>, <a href="#pg387">387</a>.<br />
+Breck, Robert, <a href="#pg40">40</a>.<br />
+Briant, Lemuel, <a href="#pg50">50</a>, <a href="#pg58">58</a>.<br />
+Bridgman, Laura, <a href="#pg326">326</a>.<br />
+Briggs, Charles, <a href="#pg144">144</a>, <a href="#pg151">151</a>, <a href="#pg235">235</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br />
+Briggs, George W., <a href="#pg270">270</a>, <a href="#pg360">360</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br />
+Brigham, Charles H., <a href="#pg189">189</a>, <a href="#pg214">214</a>, <a href="#pg215">215</a>, <a href="#pg319">319</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br />
+British and Foreign Unitarian Association, <a href="#pg295">295</a>, <a href="#pg298">298</a>, <a href="#pg303">303</a>.<br />
+Brooks, Charles, <a href="#pg336">336</a>, <a href="#pg400">400</a>.<br />
+Brooks, Charles T., <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg244">244</a>, <a href="#pg298">298</a>, <a href="#pg359">359</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br />
+Brooks Fund, <a href="#pg166">166</a>.<br />
+Brown, Howard N., <a href="#pg196">196</a>, <a href="#pg243">243</a>.<br />
+Bryant, William Cullen, <a href="#pg117">117</a>, <a href="#pg191">191</a>, <a href="#pg195">195</a>, <a href="#pg243">243</a>, <a href="#pg381">381</a>, <a href="#pg431">431</a>, <a href="#pg432">432</a>.<br />
+Buckminster, J.S., <a href="#pg94">94</a>, <a href="#pg98">98</a>, <a href="#pg390">390</a>, <a href="#pg391">391</a>, <a href="#pg416">416</a>.<br />
+Bulfinch, Charles, <a href="#pg430">430</a>.<br />
+Bulfinch, Stephen G., <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg268">268</a>, <a href="#pg270">270</a>, <a href="#pg271">271</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg447">447</a>.<br />
+Burleigh, Celia C., <a href="#pg369">369</a>, <a href="#pg370">370</a>.<br />
+Burleigh, William H., <a href="#pg369">369</a>.<br />
+Burnap, George W., <a href="#pg114">114</a>.<br />
+Burnside, Ambrose E., <a href="#pg383">383</a>.<br />
+Burroughs, John, <a href="#pg428">428</a>.<br />
+Burton, Warren, <a href="#pg139">139</a>, <a href="#pg257">257</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg421">421</a>.<br />
+Bushnell, Horace, <a href="#pg241">241</a>.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Calcutta, <a href="#pg296">296</a>, <a href="#pg297">297</a>, <a href="#pg299">299</a>, <a href="#pg300">300</a>.<br />
+Calhoun, John C., <a href="#pg376">376</a>, <a href="#pg380">380</a>.<br />
+Calvinism, <a href="#pg9">9</a>, <a href="#pg26">26</a>, <a href="#pg28">28</a>, <a href="#pg34">34</a>, <a href="#pg37">37</a>, <a href="#pg39">39</a>, <a href="#pg44">44</a>, <a href="#pg45">45</a>, <a href="#pg46">46</a>, <a href="#pg48">48</a>, <a href="#pg62">62</a>, <a href="#pg73">73</a>, <a href="#pg75">75</a>, <a href="#pg76">76</a>, <a href="#pg84">84</a>, <a href="#pg87">87</a>, <a href="#pg92">92</a>.<br />
+Carpenter, Lant, <a href="#pg154">154</a>.<br />
+Carpenter, Mary, <a href="#pg259">259</a>.<br />
+Cary, George L., <a href="#pg318">318</a>.<br />
+"Catholic Christians," 104, <a href="#pg106">106</a>, <a href="#pg123">123</a>.<br />
+Catholicism, <a href="#pg3">3</a>, <a href="#pg5">5</a>, <a href="#pg18">18</a>, <a href="#pg53">53</a>.<br />
+Chadwick, John White, <a href="#pg157">157</a>, <a href="#pg216">216</a>, <a href="#pg244">244</a>, <a href="#pg275">275</a>, <a href="#pg354">354</a>, <a href="#pg370">370</a>.<br />
+Chaney, George L., <a href="#pg337">337</a>.<br />
+Channing, George G., <a href="#pg144">144</a>, <a href="#pg449">449</a>.<br />
+Channing, William Ellery, <a href="#pg70">70</a>, <a href="#pg94">94</a>, <a href="#pg99">99</a>, <a href="#pg102">102</a>, <a href="#pg103">103</a>, <a href="#pg106">106</a>, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg119">119</a>, <a href="#pg123">123</a>, <a href="#pg125">125</a>, <a href="#pg129">129</a>, <a href="#pg130">130</a>, <a href="#pg135">135</a>, <a href="#pg142">142</a>, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg148">148</a>, <a href="#pg163">163</a>, <a href="#pg164">164</a>, <a href="#pg173">173</a>, <a href="#pg174">174</a>, <a href="#pg184">184</a>, <a href="#pg199">199</a>, <a href="#pg321">321</a>, <a href="#pg324">324</a>, <a href="#pg328">328</a>, <a href="#pg343">343-345</a>, <a href="#pg349">349</a>, <a href="#pg350">350</a>, <a href="#pg365">365</a>, <a href="#pg399">399</a>, <a href="#pg402">402</a>, <a href="#pg415">415</a>, <a href="#pg432">432</a>.<br />
+Channing, William Ellery, poet, <a href="#pg431">431</a>.<br />
+Channing, William Henry, <a href="#pg155">155</a>, <a href="#pg176">176</a>, <a href="#pg200">200</a>, <a href="#pg258">258</a>, <a href="#pg359">359</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg365">365</a>, <a href="#pg368">368</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>, <a href="#pg428">428</a>, <a href="#pg448">448</a>.<br />
+Chapin, Henry, <a href="#pg212">212</a>.<br />
+Chapman, Maria W., <a href="#pg367">367</a>, <a href="#pg368">368</a>.<br />
+Charity work, <a href="#pg35">35</a>, <a href="#pg252">252</a>, <a href="#pg254">254-256</a>, <a href="#pg322">322-325</a>, <a href="#pg328">328</a>.<br />
+Charleston, S.C., <a href="#pg118">118</a>.<br />
+Chauncy, Charles, second president Harvard College, <a href="#pg24">24</a>.<br />
+Chauncy, Charles, minister First Church in Boston, <a href="#pg45">45</a>, <a href="#pg46">46</a>, <a href="#pg48">48</a>, <a href="#pg52">52</a>, <a href="#pg53">53</a>, <a href="#pg66">66-69</a>, <a href="#pg77">77</a>, <a href="#pg85">85</a>, <a href="#pg90">90</a>.<br />
+Cheerful Letter Exchange, <a href="#pg288">288</a>.<br />
+Cheney, Ednah D., <a href="#pg202">202</a>, <a href="#pg279">279</a>, <a href="#pg283">283</a>, <a href="#pg368">368</a>, <a href="#pg428">428</a>.<br />
+Chicago, <a href="#pg167">167</a>, <a href="#pg213">213</a>.<br />
+Child, David Lee, <a href="#pg359">359</a>.<br />
+Child, Lydia Maria, <a href="#pg367">367</a>, <a href="#pg428">428</a>, <a href="#pg430">430</a>.<br />
+Children's Mission, <a href="#pg197">197</a>, <a href="#pg331">331-334</a>.<br />
+Chillingworth, William, <a href="#pg5">5</a>, <a href="#pg10">10</a>, <a href="#pg12">12</a>, <a href="#pg14">14</a>, <a href="#pg31">31</a>, <a href="#pg45">45</a>.<br />
+Choate, Joseph H., <a href="#pg381">381</a>.<br />
+Christ, <a href="#pg6">6</a>, <a href="#pg11">11</a>, <a href="#pg14">14</a>, <a href="#pg15">15</a>, <a href="#pg24">24</a>, <a href="#pg27">27</a>, <a href="#pg40">40</a>, <a href="#pg49">49</a>, <a href="#pg50">50</a>, <a href="#pg56">56</a>, <a href="#pg62">62</a>, <a href="#pg64">64</a>, <a href="#pg67">67</a>, <a href="#pg69">69</a>, <a href="#pg70">70</a>, <a href="#pg74">74</a>, <a href="#pg75">75</a>, <a href="#pg83">83</a>, <a href="#pg85">85</a>, <a href="#pg86">86</a>, <a href="#pg99">99</a>, <a href="#pg138">138</a>, <a href="#pg139">139</a>, <a href="#pg157">157</a>, <a href="#pg170">170</a>, <a href="#pg171">171</a>, <a href="#pg193">193</a>, <a href="#pg198">198</a>, <a href="#pg200">200</a>, <a href="#pg206">206</a>, <a href="#pg207">207</a>, <a href="#pg209">209</a>, <a href="#pg210">210</a>, <a href="#pg227">227</a>, <a href="#pg378">378</a>, <a href="#pg393">393</a>, <a href="#pg429">429</a>, <a href="#pg434">434</a>.<br />
+Christian connection, <a href="#pg89">89</a>, <a href="#pg140">140</a>, <a href="#pg194">194</a>, <a href="#pg314">314</a>, <a href="#pg315">315</a>, <a href="#pg316">316</a>.<br />
+Christian Examiner, The, <a href="#pg101">101</a>, <a href="#pg156">156</a>, <a href="#pg236">236</a>, <a href="#pg416">416</a>, <a href="#pg449">449</a>, <a href="#pg450">450</a>.<br />
+Christian Inquirer, The, <a href="#pg449">449</a>, <a href="#pg450">450</a>.<br />
+Christian Monitor, The, <a href="#pg96">96</a>.<br />
+Christian Register, The, <a href="#pg114">114-116</a>, <a href="#pg127">127</a>, <a href="#pg145">145</a>, <a href="#pg147">147</a>, <a href="#pg156">156</a>, <a href="#pg173">173</a>, <a href="#pg185">185</a>, <a href="#pg207">207</a>, <a href="#pg232">232</a>, <a href="#pg264">264</a>, <a href="#pg296">296</a>, <a href="#pg356">356</a>, <a href="#pg448">448</a>.<br />
+Christian Union, Boston, Young Men's, <a href="#pg214">214</a>, <a href="#pg216">216</a>, <a href="#pg336">336</a>, <a href="#pg337">337</a>.<br />
+Christian Unions, <a href="#pg216">216</a>, <a href="#pg337">337</a>.<br />
+Christian World, The, <a href="#pg145">145</a>, <a href="#pg147">147</a>, <a href="#pg449">449</a>.<br />
+Christianity, <a href="#pg11">11-13</a>, <a href="#pg45">45</a>, <a href="#pg62">62</a>, <a href="#pg63">63</a>, <a href="#pg75">75</a>, <a href="#pg85">85</a>, <a href="#pg86">86</a>, <a href="#pg123">123</a>, <a href="#pg138">138</a>, <a href="#pg156">156</a>, <a href="#pg200">200</a>, <a href="#pg201">201</a>, <a href="#pg206">206</a>, <a href="#pg209">209-211</a>, <a href="#pg222">222</a>, <a href="#pg227">227</a>, <a href="#pg241">241</a>, <a href="#pg362">362</a>.<br />
+Christians, <a href="#pg6">6</a>, <a href="#pg9">9</a>, <a href="#pg14">14</a>, <a href="#pg51">51</a>, <a href="#pg64">64</a>, <a href="#pg170">170</a>, <a href="#pg206">206</a>, <a href="#pg209">209</a>, <a href="#pg222">222</a>, <a href="#pg224">224</a>, <a href="#pg227">227</a>.<br />
+Church, <a href="#pg5">5</a>, <a href="#pg7">7</a>, <a href="#pg10">10</a>, <a href="#pg12">12</a>, <a href="#pg14">14</a>, <a href="#pg17">17</a>, <a href="#pg20">20</a>, <a href="#pg52">52</a>, <a href="#pg106">106</a>, <a href="#pg115">115</a>.<br />
+Church and state, <a href="#pg7">7</a>, <a href="#pg17">17</a>, <a href="#pg20">20</a>, <a href="#pg21">21</a>, <a href="#pg23">23</a>, <a href="#pg27">27-29</a>, <a href="#pg52">52</a>, <a href="#pg68">68</a>, <a href="#pg85">85-87</a>, <a href="#pg120">120-123</a>.<br />
+Church Building Loan Fund, <a href="#pg234">234</a>.<br />
+Church membership, <a href="#pg18">18-20</a>, <a href="#pg27">27</a>, <a href="#pg241">241</a>, <a href="#pg242">242</a>.<br />
+Church of the Disciples, <a href="#pg242">242</a>, <a href="#pg327">327</a>.<br />
+Civil service reform, <a href="#pg372">372-375</a>.<br />
+Civil war, <a href="#pg171">171</a>, <a href="#pg175">175-184</a>, <a href="#pg187">187</a>, <a href="#pg283">283</a>.<br />
+Clark University, <a href="#pg399">399</a>.<br />
+Clarke, James Freeman, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg155">155</a>, <a href="#pg160">160</a>, <a href="#pg161">161</a>, <a href="#pg163">163</a>, <a href="#pg164">164</a>, <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg175">175</a>, <a href="#pg191">191</a>, <a href="#pg192">192</a>, <a href="#pg194">194</a>, <a href="#pg201">201</a>, <a href="#pg204">204</a>, <a href="#pg215">215</a>, <a href="#pg242">242</a>, <a href="#pg244">244</a>, <a href="#pg273">273</a>, <a href="#pg307">307</a>, <a href="#pg312">312</a>, <a href="#pg318">318</a>, <a href="#pg327">327</a>, <a href="#pg360">360</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg366">366</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>, <a href="#pg370">370</a>, <a href="#pg417">417</a>, <a href="#pg418">418</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>, <a href="#pg448">448</a>, <a href="#pg449">449</a>.<br />
+Clarke, Samuel, <a href="#pg13">13</a>, <a href="#pg44">44-46</a>, <a href="#pg56">56</a>, <a href="#pg67">67</a>, <a href="#pg70">70</a>.<br />
+Clarke, Sarah Freeman, <a href="#pg404">404</a>.<br />
+Clifford, John H., <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br />
+Codding, Ichabod, <a href="#pg168">168</a>, <a href="#pg365">365</a>.<br />
+Codman, John, <a href="#pg102">102</a>.<br />
+College town missions, <a href="#pg214">214</a>, <a href="#pg215">215</a>.<br />
+Collyer, Robert, <a href="#pg167">167</a>, <a href="#pg171">171</a>, <a href="#pg185">185</a>, <a href="#pg194">194</a>.<br />
+Colporters, <a href="#pg148">148</a>, <a href="#pg169">169</a>.<br />
+Commerce, <a href="#pg72">72</a>.<br />
+Committee on fellowship, <a href="#pg220">220</a>, <a href="#pg221">221</a>.<br />
+Conant, Augustus H., <a href="#pg169">169</a>, <a href="#pg172">172</a>, <a href="#pg176">176</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br />
+Conference, Berry Street, <a href="#pg106">106</a>, <a href="#pg107">107</a>, <a href="#pg133">133</a>.<br />
+Confirmation, <a href="#pg241">241</a>, <a href="#pg242">242</a>.<br />
+Congregational independence, <a href="#pg34">34</a>, <a href="#pg126">126</a>.<br />
+Congregationalism, <a href="#pg74">74</a>, <a href="#pg87">87</a>, <a href="#pg89">89</a>, <a href="#pg93">93</a>, <a href="#pg117">117</a>, <a href="#pg119">119</a>, <a href="#pg194">194</a>, <a href="#pg199">199</a>, <a href="#pg241">241</a>, <a href="#pg436">436</a>.<br />
+Contributions to American Unitarian Association, <a href="#pg142">142</a>, <a href="#pg153">153</a>, <a href="#pg159">159</a>, <a href="#pg162">162</a>, <a href="#pg164">164</a>, <a href="#pg188">188</a>, <a href="#pg190">190</a>, <a href="#pg193">193</a>, <a href="#pg197">197</a>, <a href="#pg213">213</a>, <a href="#pg234">234</a>.<br />
+Convention, Autumnal, <a href="#pg173">173-176</a>, <a href="#pg187">187</a>.<br />
+Conversion, <a href="#pg18">18</a>, <a href="#pg20">20</a>, <a href="#pg21">21</a>, <a href="#pg24">24</a>, <a href="#pg27">27</a>.<br />
+Conway, Moncure D., <a href="#pg365">365</a>, <a href="#pg415">415</a>.<br />
+Cooper Institute, <a href="#pg215">215</a>, <a href="#pg408">408</a>.<br />
+Cooper, Peter, <a href="#pg381">381</a>, <a href="#pg408">408</a>, <a href="#pg409">409</a>.<br />
+Cordner, John, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg238">238</a>.<br />
+Cornell University, <a href="#pg215">215</a>.<br />
+Corporate idea of church, <a href="#pg5">5</a>, <a href="#pg7">7</a>, <a href="#pg17">17-19</a>, <a href="#pg20">20</a>.<br />
+Country Week, <a href="#pg337">337</a>.<br />
+Covenants, Church, <a href="#pg26">26</a>.<br />
+Cranch, Christopher, P., <a href="#pg415">415</a>, <a href="#pg448">448</a>.<br />
+Cranch, William, <a href="#pg377">377</a>, <a href="#pg380">380</a>.<br />
+Creeds, <a href="#pg26">26</a>, <a href="#pg49">49</a>, <a href="#pg62">62</a>, <a href="#pg64">64</a>, <a href="#pg66">66</a>, <a href="#pg85">85</a>, <a href="#pg206">206</a>.<br />
+Crocker, Lucretia, <a href="#pg370">370</a>, <a href="#pg403">403</a>, <a href="#pg404">404</a>.<br />
+Crosby, Nichols &amp; Co., <a href="#pg236">236</a>.<br />
+Crosby, William, <a href="#pg334">334</a>.<br />
+Cudworth, Warren H., <a href="#pg271">271</a>.<br />
+Curtis, Benjamin R., <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br />
+Curtis, George Ticknor, <a href="#pg381">381</a>.<br />
+Curtis, George William, <a href="#pg196">196</a>, <a href="#pg239">239</a>, <a href="#pg347">347</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>, <a href="#pg373">373-375</a>, <a href="#pg381">381</a>.<br />
+Cutter, George W., <a href="#pg226">226</a>.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Dall, Caroline Healey, <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg202">202</a>, <a href="#pg279">279</a>, <a href="#pg368">368</a>, <a href="#pg370">370</a>, <a href="#pg371">371</a>.<br />
+Dall, Charles, H.A., <a href="#pg259">259</a>, <a href="#pg299">299-302</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br />
+Dane, Nathan, <a href="#pg350">350</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br />
+Davis, John, <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br />
+Dedham, <a href="#pg29">29</a>, <a href="#pg54">54</a>, <a href="#pg87">87</a>, <a href="#pg115">115</a>, <a href="#pg218">218</a>.<br />
+Deism, <a href="#pg42">42</a>.<br />
+Democratic tendencies, <a href="#pg8">8</a>, <a href="#pg33">33</a>, <a href="#pg34">34</a>, <a href="#pg37">37</a>, <a href="#pg90">90</a>, <a href="#pg121">121</a>, <a href="#pg174">174</a>.<br />
+Depositaries, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg149">149</a>, <a href="#pg169">169</a>.<br />
+Depravity of man, <a href="#pg51">51</a>, <a href="#pg63">63</a>, <a href="#pg66">66</a>, <a href="#pg68">68</a>, <a href="#pg69">69</a>.<br />
+Devotional library, <a href="#pg164">164</a>.<br />
+Dewey, Orville, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg143">143</a>, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg174">174</a>, <a href="#pg191">191</a>, <a href="#pg267">267</a>, <a href="#pg354">354</a>, <a href="#pg415">415</a>, <a href="#pg431">431</a>.<br />
+Dexter, Henry M., <a href="#pg22">22</a>.<br />
+Dexter, Samuel, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br />
+Dickens, Charles, <a href="#pg324">324</a>.<br />
+Dillingham, Pitt, <a href="#pg339">339</a>.<br />
+Disciple, The Christian, <a href="#pg99">99-101</a>.<br />
+Dix, Dorothea, <a href="#pg324">324</a>, <a href="#pg327">327</a>, <a href="#pg328">328-331</a>.<br />
+Dole, Charles F., <a href="#pg274">274</a>, <a href="#pg352">352</a>.<br />
+Douthit, Jasper L., <a href="#pg214">214</a>.<br />
+Doyle, J.A., <a href="#pg22">22</a>.<br />
+Dunster, Henry, <a href="#pg24">24</a>.<br />
+Dwight, Edmund, <a href="#pg399">399</a>, <a href="#pg400">400</a>.<br />
+Dwight, John S., <a href="#pg155">155</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>, <a href="#pg415">415</a>, <a href="#pg428">428</a>.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Eaton, Dorman B., <a href="#pg373">373</a>, <a href="#pg381">381</a>.<br />
+Education, <a href="#pg253">253</a>, <a href="#pg323">323</a>, <a href="#pg325">325</a>, <a href="#pg337">337-342</a>, <a href="#pg343">343</a>, <a href="#pg384">384</a>, <a href="#pg389">389</a>, <a href="#pg395">395-408</a>, <a href="#pg410">410</a>, <a href="#pg411">411</a>.<br />
+Education in south, <a href="#pg338">338-340</a>, <a href="#pg410">410</a>, <a href="#pg411">411</a>.<br />
+Education of Indians, <a href="#pg340">340-342</a>.<br />
+Edwards, Jonathan, <a href="#pg38">38-41</a>, <a href="#pg44">44</a>.<br />
+Effinger, J.R., <a href="#pg226">226</a>.<br />
+Eliot, Charles W., <a href="#pg238">238</a>, <a href="#pg305">305</a>, <a href="#pg395">395</a>, <a href="#pg397">397</a>.<br />
+Eliot, Rev. Samuel A., <a href="#pg232">232</a>, <a href="#pg245">245</a>.<br />
+Eliot, Samuel A., <a href="#pg127">127</a>, <a href="#pg335">335</a>, <a href="#pg383">383</a>, <a href="#pg414">414</a>.<br />
+Eliot, Thomas D., <a href="#pg196">196</a>, <a href="#pg212">212</a>.<br />
+Eliot, William G., <a href="#pg144">144</a>, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg169">169</a>, <a href="#pg184">184</a>, <a href="#pg311">311</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg364">364</a>, <a href="#pg398">398</a>, <a href="#pg448">448</a>.<br />
+Ellis, George E., <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg164">164</a>, <a href="#pg267">267</a>, <a href="#pg421">421</a>, <a href="#pg450">450</a>.<br />
+Ellis, Rufus, <a href="#pg270">270</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg448">448</a>.<br />
+Ellis, Sallie, <a href="#pg289">289</a>, <a href="#pg290">290</a>.<br />
+Emerson, George B., <a href="#pg127">127</a>, <a href="#pg164">164</a>.<br />
+Emerson, Ralph Waldo, <a href="#pg151">151</a>, <a href="#pg155">155</a>, <a href="#pg202">202</a>, <a href="#pg324">324</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>, <a href="#pg413">413</a>, <a href="#pg415">415</a>, <a href="#pg416">416</a>, <a href="#pg428">428</a>, <a href="#pg431">431</a>, <a href="#pg435">435</a>, <a href="#pg436">436</a>, <a href="#pg448">448</a>.<br />
+Emerson, William, <a href="#pg95">95</a>, <a href="#pg96">96</a>, <a href="#pg413">413</a>.<br />
+Emlyn, Thomas, <a href="#pg57">57</a>, <a href="#pg58">58</a>.<br />
+Emmons, Nathaniel, <a href="#pg55">55</a>.<br />
+Equality, <a href="#pg33">33</a>, <a href="#pg38">38</a>.<br />
+Evangelical Missionary Society, <a href="#pg104">104</a>, <a href="#pg105">105</a>, <a href="#pg141">141</a>.<br />
+Everett, Charles Carroll, <a href="#pg196">196</a>, <a href="#pg275">275</a>, <a href="#pg396">396</a>, <a href="#pg417">417-419</a>, <a href="#pg452">452</a>.<br />
+Everett, Edward, <a href="#pg94">94</a>, <a href="#pg98">98</a>, <a href="#pg109">109</a>, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg380">380</a>, <a href="#pg382">382</a>, <a href="#pg391">391</a>, <a href="#pg397">397</a>, <a href="#pg399">399</a>, <a href="#pg407">407</a>, <a href="#pg414">414</a>, <a href="#pg416">416</a>.<br />
+Everett, William, <a href="#pg414">414</a>.<br />
+Exchange of pulpits, <a href="#pg101">101</a>.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Farley, Frederic A., <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br />
+Fearing, Albert, <a href="#pg238">238</a>, <a href="#pg324">324</a>.<br />
+Federal (now Arlington) Street Church, <a href="#pg83">83</a>, <a href="#pg94">94</a>, <a href="#pg106">106</a>, <a href="#pg129">129</a>, <a href="#pg250">250</a>, <a href="#pg256">256</a>, <a href="#pg257">257</a>, <a href="#pg301">301</a>.<br />
+Fellowship, Unitarian, <a href="#pg205">205</a>, <a href="#pg209">209</a>, <a href="#pg211">211</a>, <a href="#pg219">219-221</a>, <a href="#pg436">436</a>, <a href="#pg437">437</a>.<br />
+Fellowship with other religious bodies, <a href="#pg192">192-195</a>, <a href="#pg296">296</a>.<br />
+Felton, Cornelius C., <a href="#pg397">397</a>.<br />
+Fields, James T., <a href="#pg369">369</a>, <a href="#pg428">428</a>.<br />
+Fillmore, Millard, <a href="#pg331">331</a>, <a href="#pg380">380</a>.<br />
+First Church of Boston, <a href="#pg53">53</a>, <a href="#pg66">66</a>.<br />
+Fiske, John, <a href="#pg22">22</a>, <a href="#pg307">307</a>, <a href="#pg424">424</a>.<br />
+Flagg, J.F., <a href="#pg265">265</a>, <a href="#pg350">350</a>.<br />
+Flower Mission, <a href="#pg337">337</a>.<br />
+Follen, Charles, <a href="#pg359">359</a>, <a href="#pg431">431</a>.<br />
+Follen, Eliza Lee, <a href="#pg266">266</a>, <a href="#pg367">367</a>.<br />
+Folsom, Nathaniel, <a href="#pg319">319</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br />
+Forbes, John Murray, <a href="#pg386">386</a>.<br />
+Forbush, T.B., <a href="#pg226">226</a>.<br />
+Forman, J.G., <a href="#pg176">176</a>, <a href="#pg178">178</a>, <a href="#pg184">184</a>.<br />
+Forster, Anthony, <a href="#pg118">118</a>.<br />
+Fox, George W., <a href="#pg161">161</a>, <a href="#pg162">162</a>, <a href="#pg207">207-209</a>.<br />
+Fox, Thomas B., <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg268">268</a>, <a href="#pg450">450</a>.<br />
+Francis, Convers, <a href="#pg110">110</a>, <a href="#pg155">155</a>, <a href="#pg200">200</a>, <a href="#pg360">360</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br />
+Francke, Kuno, <a href="#pg17">17</a>.<br />
+Franklin, Benjamin, <a href="#pg376">376</a>, <a href="#pg377">377</a>, <a href="#pg379">379</a>.<br />
+Fraternity of Churches, Benevolent, <a href="#pg197">197</a>, <a href="#pg256">256</a>, <a href="#pg257">257</a>, <a href="#pg282">282</a>.<br />
+Freedman's Bureau, <a href="#pg184">184</a>, <a href="#pg197">197</a>.<br />
+Freedom of Thought, <a href="#pg1">1</a>, <a href="#pg3">3</a>, <a href="#pg5">5</a>, <a href="#pg8">8</a>, <a href="#pg32">32</a>, <a href="#pg37">37</a>, <a href="#pg59">59</a>, <a href="#pg61">61-64</a>, <a href="#pg70">70</a>, <a href="#pg71">71</a>, <a href="#pg80">80</a>, <a href="#pg115">115</a>, <a href="#pg125">125</a>, <a href="#pg205">205</a>, <a href="#pg210">210</a>, <a href="#pg212">212</a>, <a href="#pg389">389</a>.<br />
+Freeman, James, <a href="#pg76">76</a>, <a href="#pg78">78</a>, <a href="#pg80">80</a>, <a href="#pg82">82</a>, <a href="#pg98">98</a>, <a href="#pg111">111</a>, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg344">344</a>.<br />
+Free Religion, <a href="#pg203">203</a>, <a href="#pg210">210</a>, <a href="#pg211">211</a>.<br />
+Free Religious Association, <a href="#pg194">194</a>, <a href="#pg202">202-204</a>, <a href="#pg207">207</a>, <a href="#pg225">225</a>, <a href="#pg436">436</a>.<br />
+French, Daniel C., <a href="#pg430">430</a>.<br />
+Friend of Peace, <a href="#pg345">345</a>.<br />
+Friends, <a href="#pg88">88</a>.<br />
+Frothingham, Nathaniel L., <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg124">124</a>, <a href="#pg344">344</a>, <a href="#pg413">413</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br />
+Frothingham, Octavius B., <a href="#pg124">124</a>, <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg175">175</a>, <a href="#pg200">200</a>, <a href="#pg202">202</a>, <a href="#pg207">207</a>, <a href="#pg216">216</a>, <a href="#pg322">322</a>, <a href="#pg323">323</a>, <a href="#pg366">366</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>, <a href="#pg387">387</a>, <a href="#pg392">392</a>, <a href="#pg394">394</a>, <a href="#pg413">413</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>, <a href="#pg424">424</a>, <a href="#pg431">431</a>.<br />
+Fuller, Margaret, <a href="#pg155">155</a>, <a href="#pg368">368</a>, <a href="#pg428">428</a>, <a href="#pg429">429</a>, <a href="#pg448">448</a>.<br />
+Furness, William Henry, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg244">244</a>, <a href="#pg267">267</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg365">365</a>, <a href="#pg394">394</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Galvin, Edward I., <a href="#pg176">176</a>, <a href="#pg337">337</a>.<br />
+Gannett, Ezra Stiles, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg127">127</a>, <a href="#pg128">128</a>, <a href="#pg134">134-137</a>, <a href="#pg139">139</a>, <a href="#pg143">143</a>, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg172">172</a>, <a href="#pg191">191</a>, <a href="#pg266">266</a>, <a href="#pg346">346</a>, <a href="#pg350">350-351</a>, <a href="#pg354">354</a>, <a href="#pg355">355</a>, <a href="#pg450">450</a>.<br />
+Gannett, William C., <a href="#pg225">225-227</a>, <a href="#pg241">241</a>, <a href="#pg277">277</a>, <a href="#pg290">290</a>.<br />
+Garrison, William Lloyd, <a href="#pg353">353</a>, <a href="#pg359">359</a>, <a href="#pg367">367</a>, <a href="#pg377">377</a>.<br />
+Gay, Ebenezer, <a href="#pg58">58-60</a>, <a href="#pg77">77</a>.<br />
+General Repositary, The, <a href="#pg97">97</a>, <a href="#pg390">390</a>.<br />
+Giddings, Joshua R., <a href="#pg367">367</a>.<br />
+Gierke, Otto, <a href="#pg4">4</a>.<br />
+Giles, Henry, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br />
+Gilman, Samuel, <a href="#pg119">119</a>, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br />
+God, <a href="#pg2">2</a>, <a href="#pg4">4</a>, <a href="#pg7">7</a>, <a href="#pg9">9</a>, <a href="#pg11">11</a>, <a href="#pg13">13</a>, <a href="#pg38">38</a>, <a href="#pg41">41</a>, <a href="#pg51">51</a>, <a href="#pg53">53</a>, <a href="#pg59">59</a>, <a href="#pg60">60</a>, <a href="#pg64">64</a>, <a href="#pg68">68</a>, <a href="#pg70">70</a>, <a href="#pg73">73</a>, <a href="#pg90">90</a>, <a href="#pg157">157</a>, <a href="#pg198">198</a>, <a href="#pg227">227</a>, <a href="#pg228">228</a>.<br />
+Goodell, William, <a href="#pg365">365</a>.<br />
+Gore, Christopher, <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br />
+Gould, Allen W., <a href="#pg226">226</a>, <a href="#pg277">277</a>, <a href="#pg452">452</a>.<br />
+Gould, Benjamin, <a href="#pg427">427</a>.<br />
+Grant, Moses, <a href="#pg248">248</a>, <a href="#pg264">264</a>, <a href="#pg265">265</a>, <a href="#pg344">344</a>, <a href="#pg350">350</a>.<br />
+Graves, Mary H., <a href="#pg371">371</a>.<br />
+Gray, Frederic T., <a href="#pg167">167</a>, <a href="#pg248">248</a>, <a href="#pg254">254</a>, <a href="#pg256">256</a>, <a href="#pg265">265</a>, <a href="#pg267">267</a>, <a href="#pg270">270</a>, <a href="#pg271">271</a>, <a href="#pg334">334</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br />
+Great Awakening, <a href="#pg46">46</a>, <a href="#pg66">66</a>, <a href="#pg210">210</a>.<br />
+Greene, Benjamin H., <a href="#pg248">248</a>, <a href="#pg333">333</a>.<br />
+Greenhalge, Frederic T., <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br />
+Greenwood, Francis W.P., <a href="#pg101">101</a>, <a href="#pg111">111</a>, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg148">148</a>, <a href="#pg421">421</a>, <a href="#pg433">433</a>, <a href="#pg450">450</a>.<br />
+Greenwood, Grace (Mrs. Lippincott), <a href="#pg428">428</a>, <a href="#pg430">430</a>.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Hale, Edward Everett, <a href="#pg154">154</a>, <a href="#pg175">175</a>, <a href="#pg189">189</a>, <a href="#pg191">191</a>, <a href="#pg194">194</a>, <a href="#pg195">195</a>, <a href="#pg196">196</a>, <a href="#pg205">205</a>, <a href="#pg217">217</a>, <a href="#pg218">218</a>, <a href="#pg269">269</a>, <a href="#pg270">270</a>, <a href="#pg318">318</a>, <a href="#pg323">323</a>, <a href="#pg342">342</a>, <a href="#pg429">429</a>, <a href="#pg430">430</a>, <a href="#pg450">450</a>.<br />
+Hale, George S., <a href="#pg231">231</a>.<br />
+Hale, John P., <a href="#pg367">367</a>, <a href="#pg380">380</a>.<br />
+Hale, Lucretia P., <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg279">279</a>, <a href="#pg404">404</a>.<br />
+Half-way Covenant, <a href="#pg22">22</a>, <a href="#pg27">27</a>, <a href="#pg28">28</a>, <a href="#pg68">68</a>.<br />
+Hall, Asaph, <a href="#pg427">427</a>.<br />
+Hall, Edward Brooks, <a href="#pg127">127</a>, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg160">160</a>, <a href="#pg267">267</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br />
+Hall, Nathaniel, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg366">366</a>.<br />
+Hall, Nathaniel, the younger, <a href="#pg387">387</a>.<br />
+Hamlin, Hannibal, <a href="#pg383">383</a>.<br />
+Hampton Institute, <a href="#pg339">339</a>, <a href="#pg340">340</a>.<br />
+Hancock, John, <a href="#pg385">385</a>.<br />
+Hancock Sunday-school, <a href="#pg247">247</a>, <a href="#pg264">264</a>, <a href="#pg265">265</a>.<br />
+Harte, Bret, <a href="#pg430">430</a>.<br />
+Harvard College, <a href="#pg35">35</a>, <a href="#pg41">41</a>, <a href="#pg44">44</a>, <a href="#pg47">47</a>, <a href="#pg92">92</a>, <a href="#pg98">98</a>, <a href="#pg384">384</a>, <a href="#pg388">388</a>, <a href="#pg390">390</a>, <a href="#pg395">395-397</a>, <a href="#pg412">412</a>.<br />
+Harvard Divinity School, <a href="#pg108">108-110</a>, <a href="#pg124">124</a>, <a href="#pg193">193</a>, <a href="#pg214">214</a>, <a href="#pg391">391</a>, <a href="#pg392">392</a>, <a href="#pg394">394</a>, <a href="#pg395">395</a>, <a href="#pg396">396</a>, <a href="#pg414">414</a>, <a href="#pg415">415</a>.<br />
+Hawthorne, Nathaniel, <a href="#pg381">381</a>, <a href="#pg430">430</a>.<br />
+Haynes, George H., <a href="#pg29">29</a>.<br />
+Hazlitt, Rev. William, <a href="#pg71">71</a>, <a href="#pg77">77-79</a>.<br />
+Hedge, Frederic H., <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg155">155</a>, <a href="#pg161">161</a>, <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg180">180</a>, <a href="#pg239">239</a>, <a href="#pg244">244</a>, <a href="#pg346">346</a>, <a href="#pg359">359</a>, <a href="#pg360">360</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg415">415</a>, <a href="#pg417">417</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>, <a href="#pg449">449</a>, <a href="#pg450">450</a>.<br />
+Hemenway, Augustus, <a href="#pg385">385</a>.<br />
+Hemenway, Mary, <a href="#pg405">405-407</a>.<br />
+Hepworth, George H., <a href="#pg176">176</a>, <a href="#pg205">205</a>.<br />
+Herford, Brooke, <a href="#pg196">196</a>, <a href="#pg225">225</a>, <a href="#pg452">452</a>.<br />
+Heywood, John H., <a href="#pg178">178</a>, <a href="#pg180">180</a>, <a href="#pg364">364</a>.<br />
+Higginson, Stephen, <a href="#pg130">130</a>, <a href="#pg133">133</a>.<br />
+Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, <a href="#pg177">177</a>, <a href="#pg202">202</a>, <a href="#pg367">367</a>, <a href="#pg368">368</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>, <a href="#pg415">415</a>, <a href="#pg424">424</a>, <a href="#pg429">429</a>.<br />
+Higher criticism, <a href="#pg389">389-395</a>.<br />
+Hildreth, Richard, <a href="#pg413">413</a>, <a href="#pg424">424</a>.<br />
+Hill, Thomas, <a href="#pg320">320</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg397">397</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>, <a href="#pg427">427</a>.<br />
+Historians, <a href="#pg422">422-427</a>.<br />
+Hoar, Ebenezer Rockwood, <a href="#pg191">191</a>, <a href="#pg196">196</a>, <a href="#pg367">367</a>, <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br />
+Hoar, George Frisbie, <a href="#pg196">196</a>, <a href="#pg367">367</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>, <a href="#pg380">380</a>.<br />
+Holland, Frederick West, <a href="#pg144">144</a>, <a href="#pg178">178</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br />
+Hollis Professorship, <a href="#pg92">92</a>, <a href="#pg108">108</a>, <a href="#pg109">109</a>.<br />
+Holmes, Oliver Wendell, <a href="#pg431">431-433</a>.<br />
+Hooker, Thomas, <a href="#pg16">16</a>, <a href="#pg25">25</a>.<br />
+Hopkins, Samuel, <a href="#pg73">73</a>.<br />
+Horton, Edward A., <a href="#pg275">275</a>.<br />
+Hosmer, Frederick L., <a href="#pg226">226</a>, <a href="#pg244">244</a>, <a href="#pg277">277</a>.<br />
+Hosmer, George W., <a href="#pg311">311</a>, <a href="#pg314">314</a>, <a href="#pg316">316</a>, <a href="#pg338">338</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br />
+Hosmer, Harriet, <a href="#pg430">430</a>.<br />
+Hosmer, James Kendall, <a href="#pg176">176</a>, <a href="#pg338">338</a>, <a href="#pg415">415</a>.<br />
+Howard, Simeon, <a href="#pg66">66</a>, <a href="#pg78">78</a>.<br />
+Howard Sunday-school, <a href="#pg252">252</a>, <a href="#pg265">265</a>, <a href="#pg332">332</a>.<br />
+Howe, Julia Ward, <a href="#pg328">328</a>, <a href="#pg348">348</a>, <a href="#pg349">349</a>, <a href="#pg368">368</a>, <a href="#pg370">370</a>, <a href="#pg371">371</a>, <a href="#pg428">428</a>.<br />
+Howe, Samuel G., <a href="#pg180">180</a>, <a href="#pg325">325-329</a>, <a href="#pg367">367</a>.<br />
+Howells, William D., <a href="#pg430">430</a>.<br />
+Huidekoper, Frederic, <a href="#pg317">317</a>, <a href="#pg319">319</a>, <a href="#pg422">422</a>.<br />
+Huidekoper, Harm Jan, <a href="#pg311">311-314</a>.<br />
+Hunt, John, <a href="#pg11">11</a>, <a href="#pg13">13</a>.<br />
+Hunting, Sylvan S., <a href="#pg176">176</a>, <a href="#pg214">214</a>.<br />
+Huntington, Frederic D., <a href="#pg270">270</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg448">448</a>.<br />
+Hymns of Unitarians, <a href="#pg244">244</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Idealism, <a href="#pg45">45</a>.<br />
+Independents, <a href="#pg7">7</a>.<br />
+Index, The, <a href="#pg203">203</a>, <a href="#pg207">207</a>.<br />
+India, <a href="#pg72">72</a>, <a href="#pg248">248</a>, <a href="#pg296">296</a>, <a href="#pg303">303</a>.<br />
+Individualism, <a href="#pg1">1-4</a>, <a href="#pg8">8</a>, <a href="#pg17">17</a>, <a href="#pg18">18</a>, <a href="#pg27">27</a>, <a href="#pg63">63</a>, <a href="#pg90">90</a>, <a href="#pg125">125</a>, <a href="#pg205">205</a>, <a href="#pg210">210</a>, <a href="#pg211">211</a>, <a href="#pg224">224</a>, <a href="#pg343">343</a>, <a href="#pg349">349</a>, <a href="#pg428">428</a>, <a href="#pg441">441-443</a>.<br />
+Insane, care of, <a href="#pg328">328-331</a>.<br />
+International Council, <a href="#pg245">245</a>, <a href="#pg440">440</a>.<br />
+Intuition, <a href="#pg2">2</a>, <a href="#pg4">4</a>, <a href="#pg12">12</a>.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jackson, Charles, <a href="#pg130">130</a>, <a href="#pg387">387</a>.<br />
+Jackson, Helen Hunt, <a href="#pg430">430</a>.<br />
+Jackson, James, <a href="#pg427">427</a>.<br />
+Japan, <a href="#pg303">303-309</a>.<br />
+Japanese Unitarian Association, <a href="#pg306">306-309</a>.<br />
+Jefferson, Thomas, <a href="#pg136">136</a>, <a href="#pg378">378-380</a>, <a href="#pg437">437</a>.<br />
+Jenckes, Thomas A., <a href="#pg372">372</a>.<br />
+Johnson, Samuel, <a href="#pg201">201</a>, <a href="#pg244">244</a>, <a href="#pg366">366</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>, <a href="#pg419">419</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br />
+Jones, Jenkin Lloyd, <a href="#pg214">214</a>, <a href="#pg225">225</a>, <a href="#pg276">276</a>, <a href="#pg278">278</a>, <a href="#pg451">451</a>.<br />
+Judd, Sylvester, <a href="#pg217">217</a>, <a href="#pg240">240</a>, <a href="#pg241">241</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg366">366</a>, <a href="#pg429">429</a>.<br />
+Julian, George W., <a href="#pg367">367</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Kanda, Saichiro, <a href="#pg305">305</a>, <a href="#pg306">306</a>.<br />
+Kendall, James, <a href="#pg84">84</a>.<br />
+Kentucky, <a href="#pg119">119</a>.<br />
+Khasi Hills, <a href="#pg302">302</a>, <a href="#pg303">303</a>.<br />
+Kidder, Henry P., <a href="#pg189">189</a>, <a href="#pg212">212</a>, <a href="#pg231">231</a>, <a href="#pg238">238</a>.<br />
+Kindergarten, <a href="#pg492">492</a>, <a href="#pg493">493</a>.<br />
+King's Chapel, <a href="#pg52">52</a>, <a href="#pg76">76</a>, <a href="#pg160">160</a>, <a href="#pg313">313</a>, <a href="#pg387">387</a>, <a href="#pg421">421</a>.<br />
+King, Starr, <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg167">167</a>, <a href="#pg182">182</a>, <a href="#pg183">183</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br />
+Kirkland, Caroline, <a href="#pg369">369</a>, <a href="#pg428">428</a>.<br />
+Kirkland, John T., <a href="#pg98">98</a>, <a href="#pg109">109</a>, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg323">323</a>, <a href="#pg344">344</a>, <a href="#pg350">350</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg397">397</a>.<br />
+Knapp, Arthur M., <a href="#pg304">304</a>.<br />
+Knapp, Frederick N., <a href="#pg181">181</a>.<br />
+Kneeland, John, <a href="#pg273">273</a>.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ladies' Commission on Sunday-school Books, <a href="#pg279">279-281</a>.<br />
+Lafargue, Paul, <a href="#pg2">2</a>.<br />
+Lamson, Alvan, <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg200">200</a>, <a href="#pg422">422</a>, <a href="#pg450">450</a>.<br />
+Latitudinarianism, <a href="#pg9">9</a>, <a href="#pg10">10</a>.<br />
+Lawrence, Abbott, <a href="#pg385">385</a>, <a href="#pg386">386</a>.<br />
+Lawrence, Amos, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg385">385</a>, <a href="#pg386">386</a>.<br />
+Leland Stanford, Jr., University, <a href="#pg399">399</a>.<br />
+Leonard, Levi W., <a href="#pg409">409</a>.<br />
+Liberal Christian, The, <a href="#pg193">193</a>.<br />
+Liberal Preacher, The, <a href="#pg447">447</a>.<br />
+Liberalism, <a href="#pg24">24</a>, <a href="#pg26">26</a>, <a href="#pg29">29</a>, <a href="#pg32">32</a>, <a href="#pg34">34</a>, <a href="#pg37">37</a>, <a href="#pg46">46</a>, <a href="#pg49">49-52</a>, <a href="#pg54">54</a>, <a href="#pg57">57</a>, <a href="#pg59">59</a>, <a href="#pg61">61</a>, <a href="#pg70">70</a>, <a href="#pg72">72</a>, <a href="#pg75">75</a>, <a href="#pg85">85</a>, <a href="#pg87">87</a>, <a href="#pg88">88</a>, <a href="#pg94">94</a>, <a href="#pg104">104</a>, <a href="#pg106">106</a>, <a href="#pg111">111</a>, <a href="#pg122">122</a>.<br />
+Liberator, The, <a href="#pg359">359</a>.<br />
+Liberty, <a href="#pg206">206</a>, <a href="#pg342">342</a>, <a href="#pg343">343</a>, <a href="#pg349">349</a>.<br />
+Libraries, <a href="#pg289">289</a>, <a href="#pg409">409</a>, <a href="#pg410">410</a>.<br />
+Lincoln, Abraham, <a href="#pg376">376</a>, <a href="#pg377">377</a>.<br />
+Lincoln, Calvin, <a href="#pg127">127</a>, <a href="#pg161">161</a>.<br />
+Lincoln, Levi, <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br />
+Lindsey, Theophilus, <a href="#pg78">78</a>, <a href="#pg102">102</a>.<br />
+Little, Robert, <a href="#pg119">119</a>.<br />
+Liturgy, <a href="#pg242">242</a>, <a href="#pg343">343</a>.<br />
+Livermore, Abiel Abbot, <a href="#pg148">148</a>, <a href="#pg169">169</a>, <a href="#pg317">317</a>, <a href="#pg318">318</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg366">366</a>.<br />
+Livermore, Leonard J., <a href="#pg272">272</a>.<br />
+Livermore, Mary A., <a href="#pg368">368</a>, <a href="#pg371">371</a>.<br />
+Local Conferences, <a href="#pg216">216-219</a>, <a href="#pg445">445</a>, <a href="#pg446">446</a>.<br />
+Locke, John, <a href="#pg5">5</a>, <a href="#pg6">6</a>, <a href="#pg12">12</a>, <a href="#pg43">43</a>, <a href="#pg56">56</a>.<br />
+Long, John D., <a href="#pg231">231</a>, <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br />
+Longfellow, Henry W., <a href="#pg431">431</a>, <a href="#pg432">432</a>.<br />
+Longfellow, Samuel, <a href="#pg175">175</a>, <a href="#pg200">200</a>, <a href="#pg242">242</a>, <a href="#pg244">244</a>, <a href="#pg366">366</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>, <a href="#pg419">419</a>.<br />
+Longfellow, Stephen, <a href="#pg134">134</a>, <a href="#pg432">432</a>.<br />
+Lord's Supper, <a href="#pg27">27</a>, <a href="#pg240">240</a>.<br />
+Loring, Charles G., <a href="#pg127">127</a>.<br />
+Loring, Ellis Gray, <a href="#pg359">359</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>.<br />
+Lothrop, Samuel K., <a href="#pg143">143</a>, <a href="#pg144">144</a>, <a href="#pg160">160</a>, <a href="#pg163">163</a>, <a href="#pg236">236</a>, <a href="#pg350">350</a>, <a href="#pg447">447</a>.<br />
+Lovering, Joseph, <a href="#pg427">427</a>.<br />
+Low, A.A., <a href="#pg189">189</a>.<br />
+Lowe, Charles, <a href="#pg172">172</a>, <a href="#pg177">177</a>, <a href="#pg196">196</a>, <a href="#pg197">197</a>, <a href="#pg205">205</a>, <a href="#pg209">209</a>, <a href="#pg212">212</a>, <a href="#pg216">216</a>, <a href="#pg218">218</a>, <a href="#pg237">237</a>, <a href="#pg279">279</a>, <a href="#pg370">370</a>, <a href="#pg451">451</a>.<br />
+Lowell, Charles, <a href="#pg94">94</a>, <a href="#pg99">99</a>, <a href="#pg109">109</a>, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg263">263</a>, <a href="#pg344">344</a>, <a href="#pg350">350</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg366">366</a>, <a href="#pg413">413</a>.<br />
+Lowell, Francis Cabot, <a href="#pg385">385</a>, <a href="#pg386">386</a>.<br />
+Lowell Institute, <a href="#pg407">407</a>, <a href="#pg408">408</a>.<br />
+Lowell, James Russell, <a href="#pg413">413</a>, <a href="#pg431">431</a>, <a href="#pg434">434</a>, <a href="#pg435">435</a>.<br />
+Lowell, John, <a href="#pg382">382</a>, <a href="#pg385">385</a>.<br />
+Lowell, John Amory, <a href="#pg385">385</a>, <a href="#pg407">407</a>.<br />
+Lunt, William Parsons, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+MacCauley, Clay, <a href="#pg304">304</a>, <a href="#pg305">305</a>.<br />
+McCrary, George W., <a href="#pg326">326</a>, <a href="#pg383">383</a>.<br />
+Maine Conference of Unitarian Churches, <a href="#pg218">218</a>.<br />
+Mann, Horace. 166, <a href="#pg327">327</a>, <a href="#pg329">329</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg399">399-402</a>.<br />
+Mann, Mrs. Horace, <a href="#pg324">324</a>, <a href="#pg403">403</a>.<br />
+Marshall, John, <a href="#pg376">376</a>, <a href="#pg380">380</a>.<br />
+Marshall, J.B.F., <a href="#pg339">339</a>, <a href="#pg340">340</a>.<br />
+Martineau, James, <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg450">450</a>..<br />
+Mason, L.B., <a href="#pg112">112</a>, <a href="#pg176">176</a>.<br />
+Massachusetts Congregational Charitable Society, <a href="#pg119">119</a>.<br />
+Massachusetts Convention of Congregational Ministers, <a href="#pg120">120</a>.<br />
+May, Abby Williams, <a href="#pg283">283</a>, <a href="#pg403">403</a>, <a href="#pg404">404</a>.<br />
+May, Col. Joseph, <a href="#pg132">132</a>, <a href="#pg133">133</a>, <a href="#pg344">344</a>.<br />
+May, Rev. Joseph, <a href="#pg216">216</a>.<br />
+May, Samuel, <a href="#pg359">359-361</a>, <a href="#pg366">366</a>.<br />
+May, Samuel J., <a href="#pg127">127</a>, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg194">194</a>, <a href="#pg346">346</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg356">356</a>, <a href="#pg358">358</a>, <a href="#pg360">360</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg366">366</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>, <a href="#pg399">399</a>, <a href="#pg401">401</a>, <a href="#pg447">447</a>.<br />
+Mayhew, Experience, <a href="#pg49">49</a>, <a href="#pg60">60</a>.<br />
+Mayhew, Jonathan, <a href="#pg45">45</a>, <a href="#pg47">47</a>, <a href="#pg48">48</a>, <a href="#pg53">53</a>, <a href="#pg58">58</a>, <a href="#pg60">60-66</a>, <a href="#pg85">85</a>, <a href="#pg90">90</a>, <a href="#pg199">199</a>.<br />
+Mayo, Amory D., <a href="#pg320">320</a>, <a href="#pg368">368</a>, <a href="#pg410">410</a>, <a href="#pg411">411</a>.<br />
+Mead, Edwin D., <a href="#pg406">406</a>.<br />
+Mead, Larkin G., <a href="#pg430">430</a>.<br />
+Meadville Theological School, <a href="#pg161">161</a>, <a href="#pg193">193</a>, <a href="#pg215">215</a>, <a href="#pg310">310-320</a>.<br />
+Methodism, <a href="#pg89">89</a>, <a href="#pg194">194</a>.<br />
+Miles, Henry A., <a href="#pg161">161</a>, <a href="#pg164">164</a>, <a href="#pg360">360</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br />
+Miller, Samuel F., <a href="#pg196">196</a>, <a href="#pg380">380</a>.<br />
+Milton, John, <a href="#pg5">5</a>, <a href="#pg6">6</a>, <a href="#pg10">10</a>, <a href="#pg12">12</a>, <a href="#pg31">31</a>, <a href="#pg45">45</a>, <a href="#pg56">56</a>.<br />
+Ministry at Large, <a href="#pg247">247-261</a>.<br />
+Miracles, <a href="#pg156">156</a>, <a href="#pg157">157</a>, <a href="#pg198">198</a>, <a href="#pg200">200</a>, <a href="#pg211">211</a>.<br />
+Missions, domestic, <a href="#pg104">104</a>, <a href="#pg140">140</a>, <a href="#pg144">144</a>, <a href="#pg149">149-153</a>, <a href="#pg167">167</a>, <a href="#pg171">171</a>, <a href="#pg172">172</a>, <a href="#pg212">212-214</a>, <a href="#pg218">218</a>.<br />
+Mitchell, Maria, <a href="#pg427">427</a>.<br />
+Montana Industrial School, <a href="#pg341">341</a>, <a href="#pg342">342</a>, <a href="#pg405">405</a>.<br />
+Monthly Journal of American Unitarian Association, <a href="#pg162">162</a>, <a href="#pg184">184</a>, <a href="#pg237">237</a>.<br />
+Monthly Miscellany, The, <a href="#pg448">448</a>.<br />
+Monthly Religious Magazine, <a href="#pg448">448</a>.<br />
+Morehouse, Daniel W., <a href="#pg196">196</a>.<br />
+Morison, John H., <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg270">270</a>, <a href="#pg355">355</a>, <a href="#pg356">356</a>, <a href="#pg448">448</a>.<br />
+Morrill, Justin S., <a href="#pg380">380</a>.<br />
+Morse, Jedediah, <a href="#pg93">93</a>, <a href="#pg102">102</a>, <a href="#pg423">423</a>.<br />
+Motley, John Lothrop, <a href="#pg424">424</a>.<br />
+Mott, Lucretia, <a href="#pg202">202</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>.<br />
+Mumford, Thomas J., <a href="#pg207">207</a>, <a href="#pg271">271</a>, <a href="#pg366">366</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>.<br />
+Munroe, James, &amp; Co., <a href="#pg235">235</a>.<br />
+Muzzey, Artemas M., <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg178">178</a>, <a href="#pg359">359</a>, <a href="#pg360">360</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg422">422</a>.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+National Conference: origin, <a href="#pg190">190-195</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Syracuse session, <a href="#pg201">201</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;change in constitution, <a href="#pg204">204</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Hepworth's amendment, <a href="#pg207">207</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;protests against dropping names from Year Book, <a href="#pg209">209</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;formation of local conferences, <a href="#pg218">218-221</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;revision of constitution, in 1892, <a href="#pg229">229</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;adjustment of Conference and Association, <a href="#pg233">233</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;temperance resolutions, <a href="#pg352">352</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;women represented, <a href="#pg369">369</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;organ proposed, <a href="#pg446">446</a>.<br />
+New Divinity, <a href="#pg73">73</a>.<br />
+New Hampshire Unitarian Association, <a href="#pg217">217</a>.<br />
+New York, <a href="#pg119">119</a>, <a href="#pg213">213</a>, <a href="#pg381">381</a>, <a href="#pg429">429</a>.<br />
+New York Convention, <a href="#pg190">190-195</a>.<br />
+Newell, Frederick R., <a href="#pg172">172</a>, <a href="#pg176">176</a>, <a href="#pg184">184</a>.<br />
+Newell, William, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg414">414</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br />
+Newell, William Wells, <a href="#pg414">414</a>, <a href="#pg415">415</a>.<br />
+Nichols, Ichabod, <a href="#pg140">140</a>, <a href="#pg142">142</a>, <a href="#pg165">165</a>.<br />
+Nitti, F.S., <a href="#pg3">3</a>.<br />
+North American Review, <a href="#pg116">116</a>, <a href="#pg416">416</a>.<br />
+Northampton, <a href="#pg27">27</a>, <a href="#pg38">38</a>, <a href="#pg41">41</a>, <a href="#pg381">381</a>.<br />
+Norton, Andrews, <a href="#pg98">98</a>, <a href="#pg109">109-111</a>, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg122">122</a>, <a href="#pg126">126</a>, <a href="#pg130">130</a>, <a href="#pg132">132</a>, <a href="#pg135">135</a>, <a href="#pg139">139</a>, <a href="#pg164">164</a>, <a href="#pg243">243</a>, <a href="#pg391">391</a>, <a href="#pg392">392</a>, <a href="#pg414">414</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br />
+Norton, Charles, Eliot, <a href="#pg175">175</a>, <a href="#pg185">185</a>, <a href="#pg414">414</a>, <a href="#pg428">428</a>.<br />
+Novelists, <a href="#pg429">429</a>, <a href="#pg430">430</a>.<br />
+Noyes, George Rapall, <a href="#pg110">110</a>, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg164">164</a>, <a href="#pg200">200</a>, <a href="#pg392">392</a>, <a href="#pg393">393</a>.<br />
+Nute, Ephraim, <a href="#pg167">167</a>, <a href="#pg176">176</a>.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Old and New, <a href="#pg450">450</a>.<br />
+Old South historical work, <a href="#pg405">405-407</a>.<br />
+Oriental religions, <a href="#pg72">72</a>.<br />
+Orton, Edward, <a href="#pg338">338</a>.<br />
+Osgood, Samuel, <a href="#pg154">154</a>, <a href="#pg215">215</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg431">431</a>, <a href="#pg449">449</a>.<br />
+"Other Christian Churches," 201, <a href="#pg219">219</a>, <a href="#pg446">446</a>.<br />
+Otis, Harrison Gray, <a href="#pg382">382</a>, <a href="#pg385">385</a>.<br />
+Oxnard, Thomas, <a href="#pg80">80</a>.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Palfrey, Cazneau, <a href="#pg173">173</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br />
+Palfrey, John G., <a href="#pg95">95</a>, <a href="#pg101">101</a>, <a href="#pg109">109</a>, <a href="#pg110">110</a>, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg117">117</a>, <a href="#pg126">126</a>, <a href="#pg127">127</a>, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg154">154</a>, <a href="#pg157">157</a>, <a href="#pg191">191</a>, <a href="#pg212">212</a>, <a href="#pg249">249</a>, <a href="#pg329">329</a>, <a href="#pg350">350</a>, <a href="#pg366">366</a>, <a href="#pg385">385</a>, <a href="#pg391">391</a>, <a href="#pg415">415</a>, <a href="#pg424">424</a>.<br />
+Panoplist, The, <a href="#pg93">93</a>, <a href="#pg102">102</a>.<br />
+Parish, <a href="#pg29">29</a>, <a href="#pg115">115</a>.<br />
+Parker, Isaac, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br />
+Parker, Theodore, <a href="#pg155">155-157</a>, <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg267">267</a>, <a href="#pg327">327</a>, <a href="#pg328">328</a>, <a href="#pg343">343</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg365">365</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>, <a href="#pg394">394</a>, <a href="#pg399">399</a>, <a href="#pg415">415</a>, <a href="#pg417">417</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>, <a href="#pg436">436</a>.<br />
+Parkman, Francis, historian, <a href="#pg413">413</a>.<br />
+Parkman, John, <a href="#pg154">154</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br />
+Parkman, Rev. Francis, <a href="#pg74">74</a>, <a href="#pg95">95</a>, <a href="#pg99">99</a>, <a href="#pg109">109</a>, <a href="#pg173">173</a>, <a href="#pg344">344</a>, <a href="#pg413">413</a>, <a href="#pg424">424</a>.<br />
+Parsons, Theophilus, <a href="#pg86">86</a>, <a href="#pg117">117</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg377">377</a>, <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br />
+Parton, James, <a href="#pg424">424</a>.<br />
+Peabody, Andrew P., <a href="#pg117">117</a>, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg148">148</a>, <a href="#pg173">173</a>, <a href="#pg239">239</a>, <a href="#pg260">260</a>, <a href="#pg313">313</a>, <a href="#pg323">323</a>, <a href="#pg360">360</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br />
+Peabody, Elizabeth P., <a href="#pg155">155</a>, <a href="#pg368">368</a>, <a href="#pg402">402</a>, <a href="#pg403">403</a>.<br />
+Peabody, Ephraim, <a href="#pg270">270</a>, <a href="#pg313">313</a>, <a href="#pg334">334</a>, <a href="#pg335">335</a>, <a href="#pg433">433</a>, <a href="#pg448">448</a>.<br />
+Peabody, Francis G., <a href="#pg331">331</a>.<br />
+Peabody, W.B.O., <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br />
+Peace movement, <a href="#pg343">343-349</a>.<br />
+Peace societies, <a href="#pg322">322</a>, <a href="#pg344">344</a>.<br />
+Peirce, Benjamin, <a href="#pg427">427</a>.<br />
+Perkins Institute for the Blind, <a href="#pg323">323</a>, <a href="#pg325">325</a>, <a href="#pg326">326</a>.<br />
+Perkins, Thomas H., <a href="#pg325">325</a>, <a href="#pg386">386</a>, <a href="#pg387">387</a>.<br />
+Phillips, Jonathan, <a href="#pg109">109</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg385">385</a>.<br />
+Phillips, Stephen C., <a href="#pg385">385</a>.<br />
+Pickering, Edward C., <a href="#pg427">427</a>.<br />
+Pickering, John, <a href="#pg381">381</a>.<br />
+Pickering, Timothy, <a href="#pg377">377</a>, <a href="#pg381">381</a>.<br />
+Pierce, Cyrus, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg400">400</a>, <a href="#pg401">401</a>.<br />
+Pierce, John, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg131">131</a>, <a href="#pg133">133</a>, <a href="#pg344">344</a>, <a href="#pg350">350</a>.<br />
+Pierpont, John, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg127">127</a>, <a href="#pg132">132</a>, <a href="#pg176">176</a>, <a href="#pg243">243</a>, <a href="#pg350">350</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg365">365</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br />
+Pillsbury, Parker, <a href="#pg368">368</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>.<br />
+Piper, George F., <a href="#pg273">273</a>.<br />
+Pitts Street Chapel, <a href="#pg257">257</a>, <a href="#pg258">258</a>, <a href="#pg332">332</a>.<br />
+Plymouth, <a href="#pg16">16</a>, <a href="#pg83">83</a>, <a href="#pg118">118</a>.<br />
+Poets, <a href="#pg431">431-435</a>.<br />
+Poor, care of, <a href="#pg250">250</a>, <a href="#pg255">255</a>, <a href="#pg321">321</a>, <a href="#pg322">322</a>, <a href="#pg334">334</a>, <a href="#pg335">335</a>.<br />
+Porter, Eliphalet, <a href="#pg76">76</a>.<br />
+Portland, <a href="#pg80">80</a>, <a href="#pg118">118</a>.<br />
+Post-office Mission, <a href="#pg289">289</a>, <a href="#pg290">290</a>.<br />
+Potter, William J., <a href="#pg170">170</a>, <a href="#pg200">200</a>, <a href="#pg203">203</a>, <a href="#pg208">208</a>, <a href="#pg209">209</a>, <a href="#pg211">211</a>.<br />
+Pratt, Enoch, <a href="#pg189">189</a>, <a href="#pg409">409</a>, <a href="#pg410">410</a>.<br />
+Pray, Lewis G., <a href="#pg270">270</a>.<br />
+Prescott, William Hickling, <a href="#pg117">117</a>, <a href="#pg381">381</a>, <a href="#pg424">424</a>, <a href="#pg425">425</a>.<br />
+Priestley, Joseph, <a href="#pg71">71</a>, <a href="#pg78">78</a>, <a href="#pg80">80</a>, <a href="#pg81">81</a>, <a href="#pg83">83</a>, <a href="#pg118">118</a>.<br />
+Primitive Christianity, <a href="#pg48">48</a>, <a href="#pg67">67</a>, <a href="#pg112">112</a>, <a href="#pg122">122</a>.<br />
+Prince, John, <a href="#pg71">71</a>, <a href="#pg76">76</a>, <a href="#pg381">381</a>.<br />
+Prison reform, <a href="#pg327">327</a>, <a href="#pg328">328</a>, <a href="#pg329">329</a>, <a href="#pg343">343</a>.<br />
+Protestantism, <a href="#pg1">1</a>, <a href="#pg3">3</a>, <a href="#pg4">4</a>, <a href="#pg7">7</a>, <a href="#pg14">14</a>, <a href="#pg17">17</a>, <a href="#pg18">18</a>, <a href="#pg156">156</a>.<br />
+Publishing Fund Society, <a href="#pg107">107</a>, <a href="#pg108">108</a>, <a href="#pg141">141</a>.<br />
+Publishing interests, <a href="#pg113">113</a>, <a href="#pg128">128</a>, <a href="#pg145">145</a>, <a href="#pg162">162</a>, <a href="#pg164">164</a>, <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg184">184</a>.<br />
+Puritanism, <a href="#pg10">10</a>, <a href="#pg19">19</a>, <a href="#pg20">20</a>, <a href="#pg21">21</a>, <a href="#pg37">37</a>, <a href="#pg53">53</a>.<br />
+Puritans, <a href="#pg19">19</a>, <a href="#pg22">22</a>.<br />
+Putnam, Alfred P., <a href="#pg216">216</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br />
+Putnam, George, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg185">185</a>, <a href="#pg450">450</a>.<br />
+Pynchon, William, <a href="#pg23">23</a>, <a href="#pg24">24</a>.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Quarterly Journal of American Unitarian Association, <a href="#pg162">162</a>.<br />
+Quincy, Edmund, <a href="#pg359">359</a>.<br />
+Quincy, Josiah, <a href="#pg35">35</a>, <a href="#pg42">42</a>, <a href="#pg128">128</a>, <a href="#pg344">344</a>, <a href="#pg366">366</a>, <a href="#pg382">382</a>, <a href="#pg397">397</a>, <a href="#pg399">399</a>.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Radical, The, <a href="#pg203">203</a>.<br />
+Radicalism, <a href="#pg155">155</a>, <a href="#pg156">156</a>, <a href="#pg158">158</a>, <a href="#pg199">199</a>, <a href="#pg203">203</a>, <a href="#pg204">204</a>, <a href="#pg210">210</a>, <a href="#pg222">222</a>.<br />
+Rammohun Roy, <a href="#pg296">296</a>.<br />
+Rantoul, Robert, <a href="#pg127">127</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg399">399</a>.<br />
+Rationalism, <a href="#pg5">5</a>, <a href="#pg6">6</a>, <a href="#pg12">12</a>, <a href="#pg31">31</a>, <a href="#pg44">44</a>, <a href="#pg45">45</a>, <a href="#pg55">55</a>, <a href="#pg62">62</a>, <a href="#pg69">69</a>, <a href="#pg90">90</a>, <a href="#pg156">156</a>.<br />
+Reason, <a href="#pg2">2</a>, <a href="#pg3">3</a>, <a href="#pg9">9-11</a>, <a href="#pg13">13</a>, <a href="#pg31">31</a>, <a href="#pg37">37</a>, <a href="#pg90">90</a>.<br />
+Reed, David, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg127">127</a>, <a href="#pg129">129</a>, <a href="#pg145">145</a>, <a href="#pg234">234</a>, <a href="#pg269">269</a>.<br />
+Reforms, <a href="#pg343">343</a>, <a href="#pg356">356</a>.<br />
+Revelation, <a href="#pg12">12</a>, <a href="#pg13">13</a>, <a href="#pg20">20</a>, <a href="#pg46">46</a>, <a href="#pg66">66</a>, <a href="#pg69">69</a>, <a href="#pg73">73</a>, <a href="#pg88">88</a>.<br />
+Reynolds, Grindall, <a href="#pg232">232</a>, <a href="#pg238">238</a>, <a href="#pg239">239</a>.<br />
+Ripley, Ezra, <a href="#pg74">74</a>, <a href="#pg263">263</a>, <a href="#pg344">344</a>.<br />
+Ripley, George, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg415">415</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>, <a href="#pg428">428</a>, <a href="#pg448">448</a>.<br />
+Ripley, Samuel. 360, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br />
+Robbins, Chandler, <a href="#pg83">83</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br />
+Roberts, William, <a href="#pg297">297</a>, <a href="#pg298">298</a>.<br />
+Robinson, George D., <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br />
+Robinson, John, <a href="#pg25">25</a>, <a href="#pg84">84</a>.<br />
+Roman Catholic Church, <a href="#pg2">2</a>, <a href="#pg3">3</a>, <a href="#pg17">17</a>.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Saco, <a href="#pg81">81</a>.<br />
+Safford, Mary A., <a href="#pg371">371</a>.<br />
+St. Louis, <a href="#pg141">141</a>, <a href="#pg184">184</a>, <a href="#pg225">225</a>, <a href="#pg259">259</a>, <a href="#pg398">398</a>.<br />
+Salem, <a href="#pg16">16</a>, <a href="#pg29">29</a>, <a href="#pg54">54</a>, <a href="#pg70">70</a>, <a href="#pg76">76</a>, <a href="#pg80">80</a>, <a href="#pg118">118</a>, <a href="#pg218">218</a>, <a href="#pg381">381</a>, <a href="#pg413">413</a>.<br />
+Saltonstall, Leverett, <a href="#pg127">127</a>, <a href="#pg133">133</a>, <a href="#pg140">140</a>, <a href="#pg381">381</a>.<br />
+Saltonstall, Sir Richard, <a href="#pg16">16</a>, <a href="#pg23">23</a>.<br />
+San Francisco, <a href="#pg153">153</a>, <a href="#pg167">167</a>, <a href="#pg182">182</a>.<br />
+Sanborn, Frank B., <a href="#pg202">202</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>.<br />
+Sanitary Commission, <a href="#pg176">176</a>, <a href="#pg178">178-184</a>, <a href="#pg188">188</a>, <a href="#pg338">338</a>.<br />
+Sargent, John T., <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>, <a href="#pg370">370</a>.<br />
+Savage, Minot J., <a href="#pg196">196</a>, <a href="#pg274">274</a>.<br />
+Scandlin, William G., <a href="#pg176">176</a>, <a href="#pg177">177</a>, <a href="#pg182">182</a>.<br />
+Scientists, <a href="#pg427">427</a>, <a href="#pg428">428</a>.<br />
+Scudder, Eliza, <a href="#pg244">244</a>.<br />
+Sears, Edmund H., <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg217">217</a>, <a href="#pg395">395</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>, <a href="#pg448">448</a>.<br />
+Sectarianism, <a href="#pg125">125</a>, <a href="#pg131">131</a>, <a href="#pg149">149</a>, <a href="#pg150">150</a>, <a href="#pg201">201</a>, <a href="#pg266">266</a>, <a href="#pg356">356</a>, <a href="#pg436">436</a>.<br />
+Sedgwick, Catherine M., <a href="#pg369">369</a>, <a href="#pg381">381</a>, <a href="#pg429">429</a>.<br />
+Sewall, Edmund Q., <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br />
+Sewall, Samuel E., <a href="#pg358">358</a>, <a href="#pg359">359</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>.<br />
+Shaw, Lemuel, <a href="#pg382">382</a>, <a href="#pg387">387</a>.<br />
+Shaw, Robert Gould, <a href="#pg386">386</a>.<br />
+Sherman, John, <a href="#pg92">92</a>, <a href="#pg98">98</a>.<br />
+Shippen, Rush R., <a href="#pg213">213</a>, <a href="#pg237">237</a>, <a href="#pg238">238</a>.<br />
+Shute, Daniel, <a href="#pg58">58</a>, <a href="#pg85">85</a>, <a href="#pg87">87</a>.<br />
+Sill, Edward Rowland, <a href="#pg415">415</a>, <a href="#pg431">431</a>.<br />
+Sin, original, <a href="#pg50">50</a>.<br />
+Singh, Hajom Kissor, <a href="#pg302">302</a>, <a href="#pg303">303</a>.<br />
+Sloan, W.M., <a href="#pg2">2</a>.<br />
+Smith, Gerrit, <a href="#pg367">367</a>, <a href="#pg376">376</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br />
+Smith, Mary P. Wells, <a href="#pg285">285</a>, <a href="#pg290">290</a>.<br />
+Socialism in the church, <a href="#pg3">3</a>, <a href="#pg4">4</a>, <a href="#pg17">17</a>, <a href="#pg20">20</a>, <a href="#pg27">27</a>, <a href="#pg33">33</a>.<br />
+Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity, <a href="#pg96">96</a>, <a href="#pg141">141</a>, <a href="#pg148">148</a>.<br />
+Society for Promoting Theological Education, <a href="#pg109">109</a>, <a href="#pg110">110</a>.<br />
+Society for Propagating the Gospel, <a href="#pg120">120</a>.<br />
+Society to Encourage Home Studies, <a href="#pg404">404</a>, <a href="#pg405">405</a>.<br />
+Socinianism, <a href="#pg42">42</a>, <a href="#pg75">75</a>, <a href="#pg80">80</a>.<br />
+Solemn Review of Custom of War, <a href="#pg344">344</a>, <a href="#pg346">346</a>.<br />
+Sparks, Jared, <a href="#pg111">111</a>, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg117">117</a>, <a href="#pg119">119</a>, <a href="#pg126">126</a>, <a href="#pg132">132</a>, <a href="#pg135">135</a>, <a href="#pg397">397</a>, <a href="#pg399">399</a>, <a href="#pg415">415</a>, <a href="#pg421">421</a>, <a href="#pg424">424</a>.<br />
+Spaulding, Henry G., <a href="#pg274">274</a>.<br />
+Spirit of the Pilgrims, The, <a href="#pg93">93</a>.<br />
+Spofford Harriet Prescott, <a href="#pg430">430</a>.<br />
+Sprague, Charles, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg431">431</a>.<br />
+Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, <a href="#pg368">368</a>.<br />
+Staples, Carlton A., <a href="#pg176">176</a>, <a href="#pg214">214</a>, <a href="#pg259">259</a>, <a href="#pg364">364</a>.<br />
+Staples, Nahor A., <a href="#pg167">167</a>, <a href="#pg176">176</a>, <a href="#pg366">366</a>.<br />
+Stearns, Oliver, <a href="#pg317">317</a>, <a href="#pg360">360</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br />
+Stebbins, Horatio, <a href="#pg239">239</a>.<br />
+Stebbins, Rufus, P., <a href="#pg161">161</a>, <a href="#pg188">188</a>, <a href="#pg189">189</a>, <a href="#pg196">196</a>, <a href="#pg315">315</a>, <a href="#pg316">316</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg397">397</a>.<br />
+Stedman, Edmund C., <a href="#pg431">431</a>.<br />
+Stetson, Caleb, <a href="#pg360">360</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg365">365</a>.<br />
+Stevenson, Hannah E., <a href="#pg202">202</a>, <a href="#pg279">279</a>.<br />
+Stoddard, Richard Henry, <a href="#pg431">431</a>.<br />
+Stoddard, Solomon, <a href="#pg27">27</a>, <a href="#pg39">39</a>, <a href="#pg44">44</a>, <a href="#pg68">68</a>, <a href="#pg241">241</a>.<br />
+Stone, Lucy, <a href="#pg367">367-369</a>.<br />
+Stone, Thomas T., <a href="#pg164">164</a>, <a href="#pg366">366</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>.<br />
+Story, Joseph, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg117">117</a>, <a href="#pg133">133</a>, <a href="#pg134">134</a>, <a href="#pg140">140</a>, <a href="#pg143">143</a>, <a href="#pg260">260</a>, <a href="#pg377">377</a>, <a href="#pg380">380</a>, <a href="#pg381">381</a>, <a href="#pg387">387</a>.<br />
+Story, William Wetmore, <a href="#pg430">430</a>.<br />
+Stowe, Harriet Beecher, <a href="#pg384">384</a>.<br />
+Strong, Caleb, <a href="#pg385">385</a>.<br />
+Sullivan, James, <a href="#pg385">385</a>.<br />
+Sullivan, Richard, <a href="#pg128">128</a>, <a href="#pg129">129</a>.<br />
+Sullivan, Thomas E., <a href="#pg127">127</a>, <a href="#pg447">447</a>.<br />
+Sumner, Charles, <a href="#pg347">347</a>, <a href="#pg348">348</a>, <a href="#pg364">364</a>, <a href="#pg367">367</a>, <a href="#pg372">372</a>, <a href="#pg380">380</a>.<br />
+Sunday-school papers, <a href="#pg266">266</a>, <a href="#pg269">269-271</a>, <a href="#pg273">273</a>, <a href="#pg274">274</a>.<br />
+Sunday-schools, <a href="#pg247">247</a>, <a href="#pg254">254</a>, <a href="#pg262">262-281</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;origin of, <a href="#pg262">262</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Boston society, <a href="#pg265">265</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;growth of, <a href="#pg267">267</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;first publications, <a href="#pg268">268</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;local societies, <a href="#pg269">269</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;paper, <a href="#pg269">269</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;national society, <a href="#pg270">270</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;awakening interest, <a href="#pg272">272</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;George F. Piper as secretary, <a href="#pg273">273</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Henry G. Spaulding, <a href="#pg274">274</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Edward A. Horton, <a href="#pg275">275</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;western society, <a href="#pg276">276</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;unity clubs, <a href="#pg278">278</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Religious Union, <a href="#pg278">278</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Ladies' Commission, <a href="#pg279">279</a>, <a href="#pg332">332</a>.<br />
+Sunderland, Jabez T., <a href="#pg225">225</a>, <a href="#pg301">301-303</a>, <a href="#pg451">451</a>.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Talbot, Thomas, <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br />
+Tappan, Lewis, <a href="#pg134">134</a>, <a href="#pg137">137</a>, <a href="#pg139">139</a>.<br />
+Taylor, Bayard, <a href="#pg430">430</a>, <a href="#pg431">431</a>.<br />
+Taylor, Edward T., "Father Taylor," 324, <a href="#pg327">327</a>.<br />
+Taylor, Jeremy, <a href="#pg5">5</a>, <a href="#pg12">12</a>, <a href="#pg14">14</a>, <a href="#pg31">31</a>, <a href="#pg66">66</a>.<br />
+Taylor, John, of Norwich, <a href="#pg39">39</a>.<br />
+Temperance reform, <a href="#pg100">100</a>, <a href="#pg322">322</a>, <a href="#pg327">327</a>, <a href="#pg349">349-353</a>.<br />
+Thacher, Samuel C., <a href="#pg94">94</a>, <a href="#pg96">96</a>, <a href="#pg99">99</a>, <a href="#pg103">103</a>, <a href="#pg344">344</a>.<br />
+Thayer, Nathaniel, <a href="#pg134">134</a>.<br />
+Theatre preaching, <a href="#pg215">215</a>, <a href="#pg216">216</a>.<br />
+Theological library, <a href="#pg164">164</a>.<br />
+Thomas, Moses G., <a href="#pg140">140</a>.<br />
+Thompson, James W., <a href="#pg360">360</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg448">448</a>.<br />
+Thoreau, Henry D., <a href="#pg415">415</a>, <a href="#pg428">428</a>.<br />
+Ticknor, Anna E., <a href="#pg404">404</a>, <a href="#pg405">405</a>.<br />
+Ticknor, George, <a href="#pg98">98</a>, <a href="#pg390">390</a>, <a href="#pg410">410</a>, <a href="#pg424">424</a>, <a href="#pg525">525</a>, <a href="#pg526">526</a>.<br />
+Tilden, William P., <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br />
+Tileston, Thomas, <a href="#pg385">385</a>.<br />
+Tillotson, John, <a href="#pg11">11</a>, <a href="#pg44">44</a>, <a href="#pg45">45</a>, <a href="#pg67">67</a>.<br />
+Toleration, <a href="#pg6">6</a>, <a href="#pg7">7</a>, <a href="#pg9">9</a>, <a href="#pg11">11</a>, <a href="#pg13">13</a>, <a href="#pg21">21</a>, <a href="#pg37">37</a>, <a href="#pg43">43</a>, <a href="#pg61">61</a>, <a href="#pg67">67</a>, <a href="#pg85">85</a>, <a href="#pg89">89</a>, <a href="#pg103">103</a>, <a href="#pg107">107</a>, <a href="#pg121">121</a>.<br />
+Toy, Crawford H., <a href="#pg274">274</a>, <a href="#pg452">452</a>.<br />
+Tracts, <a href="#pg145">145-147</a>, <a href="#pg163">163</a>, <a href="#pg248">248</a>, <a href="#pg300">300</a>, <a href="#pg307">307</a>.<br />
+Tracts, distribution of, <a href="#pg147">147</a>, <a href="#pg163">163</a>, <a href="#pg184">184</a>, <a href="#pg290">290</a>.<br />
+Transcendentalism, <a href="#pg155">155</a>, <a href="#pg199">199</a>, <a href="#pg200">200</a>, <a href="#pg222">222</a>, <a href="#pg417">417</a>, <a href="#pg431">431</a>.<br />
+Trinity, <a href="#pg13">13</a>, <a href="#pg14">14</a>, <a href="#pg42">42</a>, <a href="#pg45">45</a>, <a href="#pg55">55</a>, <a href="#pg58">58</a>, <a href="#pg63">63</a>, <a href="#pg65">65</a>, <a href="#pg66">66</a>, <a href="#pg69">69</a>, <a href="#pg71">71</a>, <a href="#pg79">79</a>, <a href="#pg83">83</a>.<br />
+Trowbridge, John T., <a href="#pg430">430</a>.<br />
+Tucker, John, <a href="#pg75">75</a>.<br />
+Tuckerman, Henry T., <a href="#pg261">261</a>, <a href="#pg428">428</a>.<br />
+Tuckerman, Joseph, <a href="#pg96">96</a>, <a href="#pg99">99</a>, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg247">247</a>, <a href="#pg250">250-257</a>, <a href="#pg260">260</a>, <a href="#pg264">264</a>, <a href="#pg265">265</a>, <a href="#pg270">270</a>, <a href="#pg282">282</a>, <a href="#pg297">297</a>, <a href="#pg298">298</a>, <a href="#pg322">322</a>, <a href="#pg323">323</a>, <a href="#pg331">331</a>, <a href="#pg334">334</a>, <a href="#pg344">344</a>.<br />
+Tudor, William, <a href="#pg116">116</a>.<br />
+Tullock, John, <a href="#pg5">5</a>.<br />
+Tuskegee Institute, <a href="#pg339">339</a>.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Unitarian Advocate, <a href="#pg447">447</a>.<br />
+Unitarian Association, American, <a href="#pg117">117</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;discussion in anonymous association, <a href="#pg129">129</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;meeting at house of Josiah Quincy, <a href="#pg128">128</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Gannett's statement of purpose, <a href="#pg128">128</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;printed report of committee, <a href="#pg128">128</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;meeting in Federal Street Church, <a href="#pg129">129</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;discussion as to advisability of organizing, <a href="#pg129">129</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;announcement at Berry Street Conference, <a href="#pg133">133</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;organization, <a href="#pg134">134</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;officers, <a href="#pg135">135</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;name selected, <a href="#pg138">138</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;work of first year, <a href="#pg139">139</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;first annual meeting, <a href="#pg140">140</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;missionary tour of Moses G. Thomas, <a href="#pg140">140</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;effort to absorb other societies, <a href="#pg141">141</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;report of directors, <a href="#pg141">141</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;attitude of churches, <a href="#pg142">142</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;receipts, <a href="#pg142">142</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;presidents, <a href="#pg142">142</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;secretaries, <a href="#pg143">143</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;missionary agents, <a href="#pg144">144</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;incorporation, <a href="#pg145">145</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;tracts, <a href="#pg145">145</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;depositaries, <a href="#pg146">146</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Book and Pamphlet Society, <a href="#pg147">147</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;distribution of books, <a href="#pg148">148</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;colporters, <a href="#pg148">148</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;missionary work in New England, <a href="#pg149">149</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;work in South and West, <a href="#pg151">151</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;tour of secretary, <a href="#pg152">152</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;contributions for domestic missions, <a href="#pg153">153</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;work of first quarter-century, <a href="#pg154">154</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;influence of radicalism, <a href="#pg155">155</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;indifference of churches, <a href="#pg160">160</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;officers, <a href="#pg160">160</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Quarterly and Monthly Journal, <a href="#pg162">162</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;tracts and books, <a href="#pg163">163</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;theological library, <a href="#pg164">164</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;devotional library, <a href="#pg164">164</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;publishing firm, <a href="#pg165">165</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;missionary activities, <a href="#pg167">167</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Association and Western Conference, <a href="#pg172">172</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;work during civil war, <a href="#pg177">177</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;results of fifteen years, <a href="#pg184">184</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;meeting to consider interests of Association, <a href="#pg187">187</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;vote to raise $100,000, <a href="#pg189">189</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;success, <a href="#pg190">190</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;convention in New; York, <a href="#pg190">190</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;organization of National Conference, <a href="#pg192">192</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;work planned, <a href="#pg193">193</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;new life in Association, <a href="#pg196">196</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;contributions, <a href="#pg197">197</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;new theological position, <a href="#pg197">197</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;organization of Free Religious Association, <a href="#pg202">202</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;attempts at reconciliation, <a href="#pg204">204</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;demand for creed, <a href="#pg205">205</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Year Book controversy, <a href="#pg207">207</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;attitude of Unitarians, <a href="#pg209">209</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;missionary work, <a href="#pg212">212</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Charles Lowe as secretary, <a href="#pg212">212</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;fires in Chicago and Boston, <a href="#pg213">213</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;work in west, <a href="#pg214">214</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;college town missions, <a href="#pg214">214</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;theatre preaching, <a href="#pg215">215</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;organization of local conferences, <a href="#pg217">217</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;fellowship and fraternity, <a href="#pg219">219</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;results of denominational awakening, <a href="#pg221">221</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;western issue, <a href="#pg225">225</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;constitution of 1892, <a href="#pg229">229</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;fellowship with Universalists, <a href="#pg230">230</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;officers, <a href="#pg231">231</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;adoption of representation, <a href="#pg232">232</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;co-operation of Association and National Conference, <a href="#pg233">233</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;building loan fund, <a href="#pg234">234</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Unitarian building, <a href="#pg237">237</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;seventy-fifth anniversary, <a href="#pg244">244</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;ministry at large, <a href="#pg247">247</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;aid to Sunday School Society, <a href="#pg266">266</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;fellowship with foreign Unitarians, <a href="#pg295">295</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;relations with British Association, <a href="#pg295">295</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Dall in India, <a href="#pg299">299</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;work in Japan, <a href="#pg303">303</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;educational work in South, <a href="#pg338">338</a>, <a href="#pg410">410</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;educational work for Indians, <a href="#pg340">340</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;attitude towards slavery, <a href="#pg363">363</a>;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;formation of International Council, <a href="#pg440">440</a>.<br />
+Unitarian Association, British and Foreign, <a href="#pg295">295</a>, <a href="#pg298">298</a>, <a href="#pg303">303</a>.<br />
+Unitarian beliefs, <a href="#pg157">157</a>, <a href="#pg158">158</a>, <a href="#pg168">168</a>, <a href="#pg170">170</a>, <a href="#pg171">171</a>, <a href="#pg193">193</a>, <a href="#pg201">201</a>, <a href="#pg203">203</a>, <a href="#pg205">205-207</a>, <a href="#pg209">209</a>, <a href="#pg211">211</a>, <a href="#pg212">212</a>, <a href="#pg225">225-227</a>, <a href="#pg229">229</a>, <a href="#pg362">362</a>, <a href="#pg376">376</a>, <a href="#pg378">378</a>, <a href="#pg381">381</a>, <a href="#pg382">382</a>, <a href="#pg409">409</a>, <a href="#pg425">425</a>, <a href="#pg429">429</a>, <a href="#pg431">431</a>, <a href="#pg433">433</a>, <a href="#pg434">434</a>.<br />
+Unitarian Book and Pamphlet Society, <a href="#pg147">147</a>, <a href="#pg148">148</a>.<br />
+Unitarian Church Association of Maine, <a href="#pg217">217</a>, <a href="#pg240">240</a>.<br />
+Unitarian hymnology, <a href="#pg244">244</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br />
+Unitarian Miscellany, The, <a href="#pg111">111-114</a>.<br />
+Unitarian Monitor, The, <a href="#pg447">447</a>.<br />
+Unitarian name, <a href="#pg103">103</a>, <a href="#pg104">104</a>, <a href="#pg123">123</a>, <a href="#pg125">125</a>, <a href="#pg138">138</a>, <a href="#pg192">192</a>, <a href="#pg266">266</a>.<br />
+Unitarian Review, <a href="#pg451">451</a>.<br />
+Unitarian Temperance Society, <a href="#pg278">278</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg352">352</a>.<br />
+Unitarian, The (1834), <a href="#pg447">447</a>.<br />
+Unitarian, The (1886), <a href="#pg225">225</a>, <a href="#pg451">451</a>.<br />
+Unitarianism, American, <a href="#pg9">9</a>, <a href="#pg14">14</a>, <a href="#pg16">16</a>, <a href="#pg36">36</a>, <a href="#pg57">57-59</a>, <a href="#pg63">63</a>, <a href="#pg67">67</a>, <a href="#pg72">72</a>, <a href="#pg78">78</a>, <a href="#pg79">79</a>, <a href="#pg82">82</a>, <a href="#pg102">102</a>, <a href="#pg104">104</a>, <a href="#pg111">111</a>, <a href="#pg115">115</a>, <a href="#pg118">118</a>, <a href="#pg122">122</a>, <a href="#pg124">124-126</a>, <a href="#pg128">128</a>, <a href="#pg132">132</a>, <a href="#pg138">138</a>, <a href="#pg149">149</a>, <a href="#pg169">169</a>, <a href="#pg185">185</a>, <a href="#pg222">222-224</a>, <a href="#pg378">378</a>, <a href="#pg379">379</a>, <a href="#pg384">384</a>, <a href="#pg387">387</a>, <a href="#pg389">389</a>, <a href="#pg436">436-443</a>.<br />
+Unity, <a href="#pg225">225</a>, <a href="#pg451">451</a>.<br />
+Unity clubs, <a href="#pg277">277-278</a>.<br />
+Unity of God, <a href="#pg63">63</a>, <a href="#pg65">65</a>.<br />
+Universalism, <a href="#pg67">67-69</a>, <a href="#pg71">71</a>, <a href="#pg75">75</a>, <a href="#pg88">88</a>, <a href="#pg90">90</a>, <a href="#pg93">93</a>, <a href="#pg193">193</a>, <a href="#pg194">194</a>, <a href="#pg230">230</a>.<br />
+Universality of religion, <a href="#pg203">203</a>, <a href="#pg210">210</a>.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Vane, Sir Henry, <a href="#pg16">16</a>, <a href="#pg24">24</a>.<br />
+Very, Jones, <a href="#pg155">155</a>, <a href="#pg244">244</a>, <a href="#pg381">381</a>, <a href="#pg431">431</a>.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Walcutt, Robert F., <a href="#pg359">359</a>, <a href="#pg366">366</a>.<br />
+Walker, James, <a href="#pg95">95</a> 101, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg126">126</a>, <a href="#pg127">127</a>, <a href="#pg129">129</a>, <a href="#pg133">133-135</a>, <a href="#pg138">138</a>, <a href="#pg139">139</a>, <a href="#pg146">146</a>, <a href="#pg200">200</a>, <a href="#pg267">267</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg397">397</a>, <a href="#pg450">450</a>.<br />
+Walker, James P., <a href="#pg165">165</a>, <a href="#pg188">188</a>, <a href="#pg236">236</a>, <a href="#pg272">272</a>, <a href="#pg280">280</a>.<br />
+Walker, Williston, <a href="#pg18">18</a>, <a href="#pg22">22</a>.<br />
+Walter, Cornelia W., <a href="#pg404">404</a>.<br />
+War, <a href="#pg343">343</a>, <a href="#pg346">346-348</a>.<br />
+Ware, Dr. Henry, <a href="#pg60">60</a>, <a href="#pg92">92</a>, <a href="#pg108">108</a>, <a href="#pg135">135</a>, <a href="#pg146">146</a>.<br />
+Ware, Henry, the younger, <a href="#pg100">100</a>, <a href="#pg110">110</a>, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg128">128</a>, <a href="#pg129">129</a>, <a href="#pg132">132</a>, <a href="#pg133">133</a>, <a href="#pg135">135</a>, <a href="#pg138">138</a>, <a href="#pg143">143</a>, <a href="#pg145">145</a>, <a href="#pg148">148</a>, <a href="#pg163">163</a>, <a href="#pg184">184</a>, <a href="#pg243">243</a>, <a href="#pg249">249</a>, <a href="#pg267">267</a>, <a href="#pg268">268</a>, <a href="#pg295">295</a>, <a href="#pg297">297</a>, <a href="#pg310">310</a>, <a href="#pg344">344</a>, <a href="#pg345">345</a>, <a href="#pg350">350</a>, <a href="#pg351">351</a>, <a href="#pg359">359</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br />
+Ware, Dr. John, <a href="#pg350">350</a>.<br />
+Ware, John F. W, <a href="#pg177">177</a>, <a href="#pg185">185</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br />
+Ware, William, <a href="#pg287">287</a>, <a href="#pg360">360</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg415">415</a>, <a href="#pg429">429</a>, <a href="#pg447">447</a>, <a href="#pg450">450</a>.<br />
+Warren Street Chapel, <a href="#pg257">257</a>, <a href="#pg332">332</a>, <a href="#pg337">337</a>.<br />
+Washington, <a href="#pg119">119</a>, <a href="#pg213">213</a>, <a href="#pg376">376</a>, <a href="#pg380">380</a>.<br />
+Washington, George, <a href="#pg377">377</a>, <a href="#pg379">379</a>.<br />
+Washington University, <a href="#pg397">397</a>, <a href="#pg398">398</a>.<br />
+Wasson, David A., <a href="#pg201">201</a>, <a href="#pg202">202</a>, <a href="#pg211">211</a>, <a href="#pg419">419</a>, <a href="#pg420">420</a>.<br />
+Waterston, Robert C., <a href="#pg332">332</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br />
+Webster, Daniel, <a href="#pg356">356</a>, <a href="#pg380">380</a>, <a href="#pg385">385</a>, <a href="#pg387">387</a>.<br />
+Webster, Samuel, <a href="#pg50">50</a>.<br />
+Weeden, William B., <a href="#pg383">383</a>.<br />
+Weiss, John, <a href="#pg200">200</a>, <a href="#pg202">202</a>, <a href="#pg360">360</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>, <a href="#pg419">419</a>.<br />
+Weld, Angelina Grimké, <a href="#pg367">367</a>, <a href="#pg369">369</a>.<br />
+Weld, Theodore D., <a href="#pg365">365</a>, <a href="#pg367">367</a>.<br />
+Wells, John, <a href="#pg212">212</a>, <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br />
+Wendell, Barrett, <a href="#pg410">410</a>, <a href="#pg435">435</a>.<br />
+Wendte, Charles W., <a href="#pg246">246</a>, <a href="#pg276">276</a>, <a href="#pg289">289</a>, <a href="#pg337">337</a>.<br />
+West, Samuel, <a href="#pg69">69</a>, <a href="#pg85">85</a>, <a href="#pg87">87</a>.<br />
+West, Unitarianism in the, <a href="#pg151">151-153</a>, <a href="#pg224">224</a>.<br />
+Western Conference, <a href="#pg168">168-172</a>, <a href="#pg197">197</a>, <a href="#pg209">209</a>, <a href="#pg214">214</a>, <a href="#pg224">224-229</a>, <a href="#pg284">284</a>, <a href="#pg285">285</a>, <a href="#pg364">364</a>.<br />
+"Western issue," 225-228.<br />
+Western Messenger, The, <a href="#pg366">366</a>, <a href="#pg448">448</a>.<br />
+Western ministers, <a href="#pg149">149</a>, <a href="#pg152">152</a>.<br />
+Western Unitarian Association, <a href="#pg226">226</a>.<br />
+Wheaton, Henry, <a href="#pg134">134</a>, <a href="#pg381">381</a>.<br />
+Whipple, Edwin P., <a href="#pg428">428</a>.<br />
+White, Andrew D., <a href="#pg376">376</a>.<br />
+Whitefield, George, <a href="#pg41">41</a>, <a href="#pg44">44</a>, <a href="#pg46">46</a>.<br />
+Whitman, Bernard, <a href="#pg269">269</a>, <a href="#pg447">447</a>.<br />
+Whitman, Jason, <a href="#pg144">144</a>, <a href="#pg148">148</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br />
+Whitman, Walter, <a href="#pg431">431</a>.<br />
+Whitney, Leonard, <a href="#pg172">172</a>, <a href="#pg176">176</a>.<br />
+Whittier, John G., <a href="#pg376">376</a>, <a href="#pg431">431</a>.<br />
+Wigglesworth, Dr., <a href="#pg44">44</a>.<br />
+Wigglesworth, Thomas, <a href="#pg385">385</a>.<br />
+Wilkes, Eliza Tupper, <a href="#pg371">371</a>.<br />
+Willard, Samuel, <a href="#pg26">26</a>, <a href="#pg35">35</a>.<br />
+Williams, John E., <a href="#pg332">332</a>.<br />
+Williams, Roger, <a href="#pg16">16</a>, <a href="#pg24">24</a>, <a href="#pg121">121</a>.<br />
+Willson, Edmund B., <a href="#pg176">176</a>, <a href="#pg269">269</a>, <a href="#pg361">361</a>.<br />
+Winkley, Samuel H., <a href="#pg185">185</a>.<br />
+Wise, John, <a href="#pg30">30-34</a>.<br />
+Wolcott, J.H., <a href="#pg385">385</a>.<br />
+Wolcott, Roger, <a href="#pg382">382</a>.<br />
+Women, <a href="#pg30">30</a>, <a href="#pg191">191</a>, <a href="#pg250">250</a>, <a href="#pg282">282-294</a>, <a href="#pg343">343</a>, <a href="#pg348">348</a>, <a href="#pg349">349</a>, <a href="#pg368">368-372</a>, <a href="#pg402">402-407</a>, <a href="#pg428">428</a>, <a href="#pg429">429</a>.<br />
+Women's Alliance, <a href="#pg287">287-294</a>.<br />
+Women's Auxiliary, <a href="#pg286">286</a>.<br />
+Women's Western Unitarian Conference, <a href="#pg284">284</a>, <a href="#pg285">285</a>.<br />
+Woodbury, Augustus, <a href="#pg146">146</a>.<br />
+Worcester, <a href="#pg73">73</a>, <a href="#pg173">173</a>, <a href="#pg218">218</a>.<br />
+Worcester Association of Ministers, <a href="#pg173">173</a>, <a href="#pg269">269</a>.<br />
+Worcester, Noah, <a href="#pg93">93</a>, <a href="#pg98">98-100</a>, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg148">148</a>, <a href="#pg344">344</a>, <a href="#pg345">345</a>, <a href="#pg350">350</a>, <a href="#pg365">365</a>, <a href="#pg389">389</a>.<br />
+Wright, Carroll D., <a href="#pg196">196</a>, <a href="#pg231">231</a>.<br />
+Wyman, Jeffries, <a href="#pg180">180</a>, <a href="#pg427">427</a>.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Yale College, <a href="#pg43">43</a>.<br />
+Year Book of American Unitarian Association, <a href="#pg207">207</a>, <a href="#pg449">449</a>.<br />
+Young, Alexander, <a href="#pg114">114</a>, <a href="#pg127">127</a>, <a href="#pg143">143</a>, <a href="#pg267">267</a>, <a href="#pg424">424</a>.<br />
+Young People's Religious Union, <a href="#pg278">278</a>.
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Unitarianism in America, by George Willis Cooke
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNITARIANISM IN AMERICA ***
+
+This file should be named 8unit10h.htm or 8unit10h.zip
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8unit11h.htm
+VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8unit10ah.htm
+
+Produced by David Starner, Christopher Lund, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we usually do not
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance
+of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
+Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections,
+even years after the official publication date.
+
+Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.
+
+Most people start at our Web sites at:
+http://gutenberg.net or
+http://promo.net/pg
+
+These Web sites include award-winning information about Project
+Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new
+eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!).
+
+
+Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement
+can get to them as follows, and just download by date.  This is
+also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the
+indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an
+announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.
+
+http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or
+ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03
+
+Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90
+
+Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,
+as it appears in our Newsletters.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
+to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.   Our
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If the value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text
+files per month:  1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+
+We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002
+If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total
+will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks!
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.
+
+Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated):
+
+eBooks Year Month
+
+    1  1971 July
+   10  1991 January
+  100  1994 January
+ 1000  1997 August
+ 1500  1998 October
+ 2000  1999 December
+ 2500  2000 December
+ 3000  2001 November
+ 4000  2001 October/November
+ 6000  2002 December*
+ 9000  2003 November*
+10000  2004 January*
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created
+to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people
+and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut,
+Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois,
+Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts,
+Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New
+Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
+Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South
+Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West
+Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
+
+We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones
+that have responded.
+
+As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list
+will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states.
+Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state.
+
+In answer to various questions we have received on this:
+
+We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally
+request donations in all 50 states.  If your state is not listed and
+you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have,
+just ask.
+
+While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are
+not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting
+donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to
+donate.
+
+International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about
+how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made
+deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are
+ways.
+
+Donations by check or money order may be sent to:
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+PMB 113
+1739 University Ave.
+Oxford, MS 38655-4109
+
+Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment
+method other than by check or money order.
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by
+the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN
+[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154.  Donations are
+tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law.  As fund-raising
+requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be
+made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+You can get up to date donation information online at:
+
+http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html
+
+
+***
+
+If you can't reach Project Gutenberg,
+you can always email directly to:
+
+Michael S. Hart hart@pobox.com
+
+Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.
+
+We would prefer to send you information by email.
+
+
+**The Legal Small Print**
+
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how
+you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks,
+is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart
+through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project").
+Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook
+under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market
+any commercial products without permission.
+
+To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may
+receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims
+all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from. If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy. If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation,
+and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated
+with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
+texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including
+legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the
+following that you do or cause:  [1] distribution of this eBook,
+[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook,
+or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     eBook or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word
+     processing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the eBook (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the
+     gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation"
+     the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
+     legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
+     periodic) tax return.  Please contact us beforehand to
+     let us know your plans and to work out the details.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of
+public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
+in machine readable form.
+
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time,
+public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses.
+Money should be paid to the:
+"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or
+software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:
+hart@pobox.com
+
+[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only
+when distributed free of all fees.  Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by
+Michael S. Hart.  Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be
+used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be
+they hardware or software or any other related product without
+express permission.]
+
+*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END*
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/old/8unit10h.zip b/old/8unit10h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7c8f1ac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/8unit10h.zip